Giant Planets, Cosmic Puzzles, and China’s Rocket Revolution

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Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily.


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I'm your host, Anna, and I'm really


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excited to bring you your daily dose of


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cosmic happenings. Today, we've got some


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really cool stuff to talk about. From a


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giant planet orbiting a tiny star to a


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weird star that might just solve one of


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astronomy's biggest mysteries. We will


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also cover China's reusable rocket and


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two galaxy clusters about to crash into


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each other again. So, buckle up, space


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fans. It's going to be an awesome ride.


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First up, we're diving into the


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headscratching discovery of a giant


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planet to


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6,894b orbiting a red dwarf star called


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Toy


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6,894. Now, this star is tiny. I mean,


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we're talking about 1/5 the size of our


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sun, which makes the discovery of this


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planet like a huge


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surprise. See, these small stars weren't


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thought to have enough material to even


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form giant planets. But there it is. TOI


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6,894b, a gas giant roughly the size of


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Saturn. It's kind of like finding a


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fully grown elephant living in a mouse


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hole. You know, this discovery kind of


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turns our understanding of planet


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formation on its head. The current


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theory suggests that the amount of


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material in the disc around a star,


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which eventually forms planets, is


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proportional to the stars mass. So, a


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tiny star shouldn't have enough stuff to


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make a giant planet. But apparently


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nature loves to throw curve balls. Now


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because TOI


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6894b has such deep transits, I mean


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when it passes in front of its star, it


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blocks a whopping 17% of the light. It's


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a perfect candidate for atmosphere


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study. A team of astronomers has already


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applied for time with the James Webb


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Space Telescope, JWST, to do just that.


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They are hoping to find a lot of methane


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in the exoplanet's atmosphere. That'll


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give us a better idea of how this planet


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formed and maybe help us refine our


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planet formation theories. Pretty cool,


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huh? Next up, let's talk about a really


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odd star, Lamos


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J0804 +


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5,740, residing in what's known as the


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Gaia Sausage. And no, it's not a


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galactic deli item. The Gaia Sausage is


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actually the remains of a dwarf galaxy


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that merged with our Milky Way billions


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of years ago. Now, this star, it may


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just help us solve one of astronomy's


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big mysteries. Where did the universe's


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heaviest elements come from? These


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elements like uranium and thorium are


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created through something called the R


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process. That's a rapid neutron capture


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process. Essentially, atomic nuclei


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rapidly grab neutrons in extreme


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environments like neutron star mergers


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or supernovas, creating heavier


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elements. But here's the thing. We


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haven't quite figured out all the


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sources of the R process. And that's


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where Lamost J0804 plus 5740 comes in.


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This star is what they call an actide


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boost star, meaning it has a high


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abundance of radioactive elements,


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actides. So the stars unusual


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composition provides new clues about the


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different types of R process events that


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can occur in the universe. By studying


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it, astronomers hope to better


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understand where these heavy elements


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come from and how they're created. It's


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like piecing together a cosmic puzzle,


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you


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know? Okay, so shifting gears a little,


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let's head over to China where a rocket


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startup called Space Epic, or SEPO if


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you like it short, recently showed off


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its reusable rocket booster, the Yang


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Singh Ji1. They had a test launch and


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get this, it did a soft landing right in


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the ocean. I mean, sadly, it sank


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afterwards. But hey, the launch and the


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test were still a success. Apparently,


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the whole point was to test things like


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the engine's thrust control, shutdown,


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and restart capabilities. Plus, they


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tested free descent, gliding, and


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hovering before splashdown. Pretty cool,


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right? Now, this Yangj booster is kind


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of interesting. It's made from


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lightweight, thinwalled aluminum,


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stainless steel, and runs on liquid


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oxygen and methane. It's about 4.2 m in


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diameter and almost 27 m tall. Now, I


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know what you're thinking. How does this


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stack up against SpaceX? Well, SpaceX's


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Falcon 9 booster is a bit narrower, but


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it's taller. And speaking of SpaceX,


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it's kind of wild how they've turned


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landing and reusing boosters into like a


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near daily thing. Meanwhile, China is


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catching up with a bunch of space


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startups popping up


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recently. And you know, with China


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working on its own mega satellite


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constellation and planning some


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seriously ambitious missions, including


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their own version of the Hubble


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telescope, it's clear they are becoming


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a major player in space


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exploration. Space Epoch is hoping to


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reach orbit later this year. So yeah,


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it's definitely going to be interesting


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to see what these China based startups


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do in the coming


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years. All right, next up in our cosmic


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headlines, NASA's Chandra X-ray


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Observatory has spotted something pretty


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wild. We're talking about two galaxy


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clusters known as


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PSZ2G181.06


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plus48.47 that have already collided


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once and are now heading back for a


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second smashup. Now, galaxy clusters,


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just so you know, are like the biggest


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structures in the universe held together


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by gravity. They're basically massive


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collections of galaxies, superheated


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gas, and dark matter. These two clusters


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are about 2.8 billion lightyears away.


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And after their first collision, they


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created these huge parentheseshaped


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shock fronts, kind of like sonic booms,


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but on a cosmic scale. These shock


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fronts are now separated by about 11


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million lightyear, which is apparently


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the largest separation astronomers have


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ever seen. But get this, Chandra and XMM


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Newton data show that these clusters are


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now slowing down and turning around for


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another collision. Astronomers have


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spotted three new shock fronts that seem


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to be early signs of this second crash.


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What's really interesting is that the


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total mass of this system is less than


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other colliding galaxy clusters, making


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it a pretty unusual case. This event is


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giving scientists a peak into the


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dynamics of these massive structures and


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how they evolve over


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time. So, that's your astronomy daily


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news summary for today. From a tiny star


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with a giant planet to colliding galaxy


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clusters, I've been your host, Anna, and


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I hope you enjoyed our little tour of


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the cosmos. For all the latest space and


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astronomy news, don't forget to visit


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our website at


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astronomydaily.io, where you can catch


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up on our constantly updating news feed.


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Until tomorrow, thanks for tuning in and


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keep looking


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up. The stories we told.


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[Music]