Artemis II Crew Lands in Florida — Launch Countdown Is On

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Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily.


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I'm Anna.


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>> And I'm Avery. It is Friday, March 27th,


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2026. And our producer has given us an


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absolutely stacked show. Today


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>> we are literally 5 days from a crew of


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four astronauts launching around the


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moon for the first time in over 50


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years. And today, those four people


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touch down in Florida.


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>> We've also got the most detailed look at


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Saturn ever captured. Lightning on


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Jupiter that makes Earth storms look


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like a birthday sparkler. And a 50-year


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stellar mystery finally cracked open by


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a Japanese space telescope.


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>> Plus, we're narrowing down the short


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list of exoplanets most likely to harbor


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alien life. And we have a juicy update


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on that dramatic rocket scrub from


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yesterday.


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>> Spoiler, it was a boat.


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>> It was absolutely a boat. Let's get into


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it.


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>> Let's go then.


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>> All right, story one. and Avery. This


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one is really happening today. As we


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record, the Aremis 2 crew is flying into


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Kennedy Space Center.


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>> Commander Reed Wisman, pilot Victor


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Glover, mission specialist Christina


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Coach, all from NASA, and Canadian Space


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Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Four


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people, one rocket, and they are now


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officially on site. NASA Administrator


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Jared Isaacman and Canadian Space Agency


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President Lisa Campbell were there to


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greet them on the tarmac this afternoon.


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The crew also answered questions from


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the media.


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>> Now, just to set the scene, the SLS


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rocket and the Orion capsule are already


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sitting on launchpad 39B at Kennedy


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Space Center. They rolled out on March


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20th. Everything is in place. The target


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launch window opens Wednesday, April 1st


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at 6:24 p.m. Eastern time.


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>> And April 1st is not a joke. This is


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genuinely happening. A 2-hour window on


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the first, and if they need it,


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opportunities continue through April


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6th.


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>> The crew has been in quarantine since


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March 18th, keeping their health locked


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down before this 10-day mission. They


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spent the quarantine reviewing


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procedures at Johnson Space Center in


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Houston, Texas. And now the rest of the


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countdown happens here in Florida.


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>> This mission is going to take them


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farther than Earth than any human has


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been since Apollo 13 in 1970, about


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5,000 m beyond the moon. It won't land,


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but it will swing around the back of the


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moon on a free return trajectory and


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come screaming back to Earth at around


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25,000 mph. Victor Glover will become


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the first person of color. Christina


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Coach the first woman. And Jeremy Hansen


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the first non-American to travel beyond


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low Earth orbit. And for Canadians


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listening, Jeremy Hansen arrives in


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Florida today for what is going to be


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the ride of his life.


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>> We are going to be covering this story


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right through launch. Stick with us.


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Astronomy Daily is your front row seat


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to the most exciting human space flight


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moment in a generation.


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>> Story two. And this one is visually


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stunning. NASA has released a new set of


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Saturn images and they are genuinely the


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most comprehensive view of Saturn ever


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created.


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>> This is a collaboration between two of


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humanity's greatest telescopes, the


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James Web Space Telescope and Hubble


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Space Telescope. Now, these two


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observatories were launched 31 years


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apart. Hubble went up in 1990, web in


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late 2021. But when you combine their


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observations, you get something


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extraordinary.


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>> Hubble observed Saturn in visible light


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in August 2024, capturing all those


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familiar golden cloud bands and the


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iconic rings. You get the colors, the


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subtle atmospheric variations, the sheer


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beauty of the thing.


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>> Then web looked at it in infrared in


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November 2024, just 14 weeks later, and


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the picture completely transforms. The


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rings glow brilliantly because they're


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made of highly reflective water ice. You


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can see deep atmospheric storms,


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jetreams, and a mysterious gray green


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glow at the poles that scientists think


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may be linked to auroral activity or


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high altitude aerosols.


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>> One of the most poignant details in this


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release, Saturn's famous hexagonal


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jetream at the North Pole is just barely


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visible in these images. And scientists


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say this could be among the last clear


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views of it for decades because the pole


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is heading into a long winter darkness


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that won't lift until the 2040s.


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>> NASA describes what the two telescopes


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together can do as slicing through


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Saturn's atmosphere at multiple


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altitudes like peeling back the layers


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of an onion. Hubble covers the upper


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clouds. Web dives deeper into the


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chemistry. Together, they give


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researchers a three-dimensional picture


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of how this whole system works.


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>> And Web's wide-angle view captured six


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of Saturn's moons in the same frame,


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including Titan, which is massive and


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hazy, and Enceladus, that little world


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with a subsurface ocean that


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astrobiologists find so tantalizing.


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>> We will link to these images in the show


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notes. They are genuinely worth 5


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minutes of your time just to look at


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them. Saturn is out there looking


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absolutely magnificent.


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>> Story three. And I want everyone to


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picture the most dramatic lightning


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storm you have ever seen on Earth. A


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real cracker. Thunder rattling the


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windows. Now imagine that, but a million


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times more powerful.


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>> That is potentially what is happening in


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Jupiter's atmosphere. According to new


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research from the University of


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California, Berkeley, published this


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week in the journal AGU Advances,


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>> the study used data from NASA's Juno


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spacecraft, which has been orbiting


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Jupiter since 2016, specifically its


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microwave radiometer. That instrument


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was designed for studying the planet's


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atmosphere. But it turns out it's also


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brilliant at detecting the radio


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signatures of lightning. The clever bit


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was that the team focused on a period in


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2021 and 2022 when a normally


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storm-filled belt on Jupiter went


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unusually quiet. That meant Juno could


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pinpoint individual isolated storm


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systems, what the researchers call


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stealth supertorrms, and directly


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measure the power of lightning within


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them.


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>> The results are remarkable. from 613


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detected lightning pulses. The power


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range from roughly comparable to an


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Earth lightning bolt all the way up to a


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100 times more powerful. But because of


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uncertainties in how radio frequencies


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compare across the two planets, some of


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those bolts could be up to a million


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times stronger than anything on Earth.


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>> And these storms were generating around


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three lightning flashes per second. On


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one flyover, Juno detected 206 separate


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microwave pulses in a single pass.


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>> Lead researcher Michael Wong describes


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it really well. On Earth, moist air


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rises because water makes it more


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buoyant in a nitrogen atmosphere. On


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Jupiter, the atmosphere is mostly


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hydrogen, so moist air is actually


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heavier and sinks. It takes enormous


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energy to push it upward. And when those


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storms finally break loose, they release


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all of that stored energy in


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extraordinary ways.


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>> What I love about this is that the Juno


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mission has been delivering incredible


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science for a decade now. And even as


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the spacecraft ages, it's still finding


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ways to rewrite our understanding of the


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solar system's biggest planet.


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>> Okay, on to our next story today.


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>> Story four. And this is one of those


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stories where astronomers get to say,


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"We finally did it after 50 years."


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>> The star in question is Gamma Cassiopia.


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If you look up at the distinctive W


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shape of the constellation Cassiopia on


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a clear night, the middle star of that


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W, that's it. Visible to the naked eye,


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about 550 lighty years away. And since


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1976, it has been blasting out X-rays


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around 40 times more powerful than you'd


00:08:10.479 --> 00:08:12.550
ever expect from a star like that.


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>> The plasma generating those X-rays was


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hotter than 100 million degrees. And for


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decades, nobody could agree why. Was it


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magnetic activity on the star itself?


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Was there a hidden companion pulling in


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material? The debate has raged across


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multiple research groups for half a


00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:31.270
century


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>> now. Thanks to Japan's XRISM space


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telescope that stands for X-ray imaging


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and spectroscopy mission developed by


00:08:38.959 --> 00:08:42.469
JAXA in collaboration with NASA and ESA.


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The answer is finally in. The culprit is


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a hidden white dwarf companion. The key


00:08:48.160 --> 00:08:50.790
instrument is called Resolve, a high


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precision microc calorimeter on XRISM


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that can measure X-ray spectra with


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extraordinary accuracy. The team


00:08:59.040 --> 00:09:02.230
observed gamma Cassiopa three times in


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December 2024, February 2025, and June


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2025, covering the full 203day orbit of


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the binary system. What they found was


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that the superheated plasma generating


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the X-rays was moving in sync with the


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hidden companion, not with the bright B


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star everyone could see. That's the


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clincher. First, direct proof that it's


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the white dwarf, not the star itself,


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driving all that high energy activity.


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>> And it turns out this white dwarf is


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magnetic. Its field is funneling


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material from the stars surrounding disc


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toward its poles where it releases all


00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:41.430
that energy as X-rays like a tiny but


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ferocious cosmic vacuum cleaner.


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>> The implications go well beyond this one


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star. Astronomers have long predicted


00:09:48.640 --> 00:09:51.990
that about 50 to 70% of Btype binary


00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:54.710
stars might have white dwarf companions.


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But solid evidence has been hard to pin


00:09:56.800 --> 00:09:59.910
down. This result confirms a whole new


00:09:59.920 --> 00:10:02.150
class of binary systems that had


00:10:02.160 --> 00:10:04.470
previously only existed in theory.


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>> Lead researcher Yael Naz at the


00:10:06.640 --> 00:10:09.269
University of Leazge put it beautifully.


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There has been an intense effort to


00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:13.990
solve the mystery of gamma Cassiopa


00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:16.310
across many research groups for many


00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:19.910
decades. And now thanks to XRISM, we


00:10:19.920 --> 00:10:22.470
have finally done it. A very good Friday


00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:24.470
for stellar astrophysics.


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>> Story five. And this one comes with a


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movie tie-in, which I am absolutely here


00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:29.990
for.


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>> If you haven't seen Project Hail Mary


00:10:31.920 --> 00:10:34.230
yet, the Ryan Gosling film based on Andy


00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:36.630
Weir's novel, it's currently in cinemas,


00:10:36.640 --> 00:10:39.430
and it is excellent. The premise is that


00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:42.310
humanity discovers a tiny microorganism


00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:45.030
called Astrophase is consuming the sun's


00:10:45.040 --> 00:10:47.670
energy, and one scientist is sent on a


00:10:47.680 --> 00:10:49.509
desperate solo mission to find the


00:10:49.519 --> 00:10:52.389
answer at a distant star. And this week,


00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:54.949
real astronomers at Cornell University's


00:10:54.959 --> 00:10:57.110
Carl Sean Institute have published the


00:10:57.120 --> 00:10:59.590
paper that asks essentially the same


00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:01.990
question the movie poses. If we were


00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:04.389
building a real Hail Mary spacecraft,


00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:05.590
where would we send it?


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>> Lead researcher, Professor Lisa Colton,


00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:10.150
alongside a team of undergraduate


00:11:10.160 --> 00:11:12.389
students, comb through data from the


00:11:12.399 --> 00:11:15.350
European Space Ay's Gaia mission and the


00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:18.310
NASA exoplanet archive. There are over


00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:20.949
6,000 known exoplanets. From that


00:11:20.959 --> 00:11:22.949
enormous list, they've narrowed it down


00:11:22.959 --> 00:11:25.670
to 45 rocky worlds sitting in their


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stars habitable zones where liquid water


00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:30.470
could potentially exist on the surface.


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The list includes some names that will


00:11:32.720 --> 00:11:35.670
be familiar to our regular listeners.


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Trappist 1, DFG,


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about 40 light years away. Proxima


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Centauri B, our nearest stellar neighbor


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at just 4.25 25 light years. LHS1140B,


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a dense super Earth about 48 light years


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out, and quite a few lesserknown


00:11:57.440 --> 00:11:59.430
candidates that could prove just as


00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:00.310
interesting.


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>> What's powerful about this paper is that


00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:04.949
it's not just a list, it's a strategic


00:12:04.959 --> 00:12:07.430
road map. It tells you which worlds are


00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:08.870
best suited for transmission


00:12:08.880 --> 00:12:11.430
spectroscopy with JWST,


00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:13.110
which worlds are targets for future


00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:15.190
direct imaging missions, and which have


00:12:15.200 --> 00:12:16.550
the tightest constraints on


00:12:16.560 --> 00:12:18.550
habitability. There's also a more


00:12:18.560 --> 00:12:20.870
conservative list of just 24 world


00:12:20.880 --> 00:12:22.790
within a tighter three-dimensional


00:12:22.800 --> 00:12:24.870
habitable zone. And if you account for


00:12:24.880 --> 00:12:26.389
the uncertainties in stellar


00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:29.110
measurements, the 45 could expand to as


00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:30.550
many as 73.


00:12:30.560 --> 00:12:33.590
>> Halton summed it up perfectly. Our paper


00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:35.590
reveals where you should travel to to


00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:38.069
find life if we ever build a Hail Mary


00:12:38.079 --> 00:12:40.629
spacecraft. The search for alien life


00:12:40.639 --> 00:12:42.949
just got a short list. I find that


00:12:42.959 --> 00:12:44.310
genuinely thrilling.


00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:46.629
>> Finally, today, the boat story we teased


00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:48.150
at the beginning of the show.


00:12:48.160 --> 00:12:50.949
>> Dory 6. And yesterday, we told you about


00:12:50.959 --> 00:12:54.069
that extraordinary scrub at Tminus 3


00:12:54.079 --> 00:12:56.710
seconds for ESR Aerospace's Spectrum


00:12:56.720 --> 00:12:59.350
rocket. the most dramatic last second


00:12:59.360 --> 00:13:01.269
halt you could imagine, right on the


00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:03.509
edge of potentially making European


00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:04.949
space history.


00:13:04.959 --> 00:13:07.269
>> And we didn't know why. The countdown


00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:09.269
got all the way to 3 seconds before


00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:11.590
engine ignition, then nothing.


00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:13.670
Controllers called a scrub. We knew


00:13:13.680 --> 00:13:15.430
there was a hold in the countdown, but


00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:17.590
the exact cause wasn't confirmed when we


00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:18.870
recorded yesterday.


00:13:18.880 --> 00:13:22.230
>> Well, now we know it was a boat. An


00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:24.310
unauthorized vessel entered the danger


00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:26.790
zone around Andoya Spaceport in northern


00:13:26.800 --> 00:13:29.030
Norway during the countdown. The range


00:13:29.040 --> 00:13:30.629
had already been delayed when the boat


00:13:30.639 --> 00:13:32.790
first appeared, and by the time the boat


00:13:32.800 --> 00:13:35.350
cleared and the range was reopened, the


00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:37.110
propellant temperatures on board the


00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:39.750
rocket had shifted. The window was gone.


00:13:39.760 --> 00:13:42.230
>> To add insult to injury, the countdown


00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:45.430
had actually cleared tminus 3 seconds.


00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:48.150
The engines were moments from igniting.


00:13:48.160 --> 00:13:50.230
Hear aerospace would have potentially


00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:52.389
become the first company ever to launch


00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:55.190
a rocket to orbit from European soil and


00:13:55.200 --> 00:13:56.870
a boat said no.


00:13:56.880 --> 00:13:58.790
>> No new launch date has been announced as


00:13:58.800 --> 00:14:01.110
of now. ESAR has said they're working to


00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:03.110
determine a suitable window and they'll


00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:04.949
need to assess the propellant situation


00:14:04.959 --> 00:14:06.949
and any technical reviews before they


00:14:06.959 --> 00:14:08.870
can reset for another attempt.


00:14:08.880 --> 00:14:11.110
>> Now, we should note this kind of range


00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:13.750
safety protocol exists for a reason.


00:14:13.760 --> 00:14:15.430
Keeping people out of danger zones


00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:17.430
during rocket launches is genuinely


00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:19.670
critical. No one is blaming range


00:14:19.680 --> 00:14:21.750
control here, but the timing could not


00:14:21.760 --> 00:14:23.430
have been more painful.


00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:25.350
>> We'll keep tracking this one. ESAR


00:14:25.360 --> 00:14:27.110
Spectrum rocket is a genuinely


00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:30.230
significant vehicle, 28 m tall, capable


00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:32.550
of carrying up to a ton of payload to


00:14:32.560 --> 00:14:35.030
low Earth orbit. Designed and built


00:14:35.040 --> 00:14:37.829
almost entirely inhouse near Munich.


00:14:37.839 --> 00:14:39.910
When it does reach orbit, it will be a


00:14:39.920 --> 00:14:41.990
historic moment for European space


00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:44.710
capability. The mission is called Onward


00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:46.949
and Upward, and that is exactly what


00:14:46.959 --> 00:14:49.269
ESAR will have to be. We're rooting for


00:14:49.279 --> 00:14:49.829
them.


00:14:49.839 --> 00:14:52.069
>> And that is your astronomy daily for


00:14:52.079 --> 00:14:55.269
Friday, March 27th. What a week it has


00:14:55.279 --> 00:14:58.069
been. And honestly, with Artemis 2 5


00:14:58.079 --> 00:15:00.150
days from launch, next week is going to


00:15:00.160 --> 00:15:01.509
be even bigger.


00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:03.350
>> We will be covering every step of the


00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:05.430
countdown, right through to liftoff and


00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:07.509
beyond. Make sure you're subscribed so


00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:09.670
you don't miss a single episode. You can


00:15:09.680 --> 00:15:11.750
find us on all the usual platforms at


00:15:11.760 --> 00:15:13.509
astronomyaily.io


00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:16.150
and across social media at astroailyaily


00:15:16.160 --> 00:15:19.430
pod on X, Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube,


00:15:19.440 --> 00:15:21.509
Facebook, Rumble, and Tumblr.


00:15:21.519 --> 00:15:23.590
>> And if today's episode sparked something


00:15:23.600 --> 00:15:26.069
for you, a question, a thought, a theory


00:15:26.079 --> 00:15:27.829
about whether that rogue boat was


00:15:27.839 --> 00:15:29.269
actually a disgruntled rocket


00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:31.590
enthusiast, drop us a message. We love


00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:32.550
hearing from you.


00:15:32.560 --> 00:15:34.790
>> From all of us here at Astronomy Daily,


00:15:34.800 --> 00:15:36.790
keep looking up. The universe is not


00:15:36.800 --> 00:15:50.150
done surprising us. See you tomorrow.


00:15:50.160 --> 00:15:54.120
The stories were told.