Humanity Just Moved an Asteroid’s Orbit Around the Sun

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You're listening to Astronomy Daily. I'm


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Anna.


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>> And I'm Avery. It is Saturday the 7th of


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March, 2026. And as usual, we have a


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packed show for you today.


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>> We absolutely do. Here's a question to


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get you thinking. Back in September


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2022, NASA slammed a spacecraft into an


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asteroid. You probably remember that.


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But did you know that we only just


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confirmed something remarkable? That


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impact didn't just nudge the asteroid.


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It actually changed the orbit of an


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entire asteroid system around the sun.


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>> For the first time in human history, we


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moved the celestial body's solar orbit.


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And that's just story one. We've also


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got gravitational waves, a spacecraft


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emergency in orbit, a 45-year-old theory


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biting the dust, our young sun blowing


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its very first cosmic bubble, and a


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gorgeous double planet show in tonight's


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sky. Let's go.


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>> So, let's kick off with the Dart story,


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and I think it deserves a moment to


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really sink in. We already knew that


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Dart was a success. We knew it shortened


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the orbit of Dimorphice around its


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partner asteroid Ditimos by about 33


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minutes. That was confirmed back in


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2022. But a new study published


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yesterday in the journal Science


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Advances has revealed something even


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bigger,


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>> right? Because Ditimos and Dorphis are


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gravitationally linked. They move


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together. And researchers have now


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confirmed that the debris blasted off


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the amorphice during that impact was so


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enormous, we're talking over a million


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kilograms of rock and dust, that it gave


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the whole binary system an extra kick.


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>> And that extra kick was measurable. The


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orbital period of the entire Ditto


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system around the sun shortened by 0.15


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seconds. Now, I know that sounds tiny,


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but this is the first time a human-made


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object has measurably changed the path


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of a celestial body around our star.


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>> To even measure that, the team had to


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get incredibly creative. They tracked


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what are called stellar occultations,


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moments when the asteroid passes in


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front of a background star and briefly


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blocks its light. Volunteers around the


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world contributed 22 of these


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observations between October 2022 and


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March 2025.


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22 pinpoint moments of a star blinking


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out. And from those they derived a


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change of 0.15 seconds in a 770day solar


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orbit. The momentum enhancement factor


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turned out to be about two, meaning the


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debris ejected by the impact roughly


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doubled the total push given to the


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asteroid. Dart didn't just hit Dorphice,


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it turned Dorphice into a rocket.


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>> And Thomas Statatler, lead scientist for


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solar system small bodies at NASA


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headquarters, framed it perfectly. He


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said, "A tiny change can, given enough


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time, grow into a significant


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deflection." This result validates


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kinetic impact as a genuine planetary


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defense technique not just for nudging a


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moon but for altering the path of an


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entire binary system around the sun.


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Hera spacecraft which launched in 2024


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is expected to arrive at the Ditimo


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system later this year to study the


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aftermath of close though the science


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from this impact is very much still


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unfolding.


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>> Story two and it is a landmark one. The


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LIGO Virgo Kagra collaboration, the LVK,


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has just published the fourth edition of


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the gravitational wave transient catalog


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known as GWTC4.


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And the headline, they've more than


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doubled the total number of


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gravitational wave detections ever made.


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>> Before this release, the entire catalog


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contained 90 candidates from three


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previous observing runs stretching back


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to 2015. This new catalog adds 128 new


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events, all detected during just the


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first 9 months of the fourth observing


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run between May 2023 and January 2024.


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>> So, we've gone from 90 to 218 in one


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update. And it's not just the quantity


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that's exciting, it's the variety. The


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catalog includes the heaviest black hole


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binary merger ever detected, with each


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black hole weighing in at around 130


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times the mass of our sun.


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>> There's also a binary where both black


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holes are spinning at roughly 40% the


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speed of light. And there are two new


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mixed mergers, a black hole colliding


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with a neutron star. Each one of those


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is a treasure trove for astrophysics.


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>> Daniel Williams, a researcher at the


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University of Glasgow and LVK member put


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it well. He said they're pushing into


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new parts of parameter space, seeing


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things that are more massive, spinning


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faster, and more astrophysically unusual


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than anything detected before. What I


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love about this is what it means for


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testing Einstein. The catalog includes


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an event with one of the loudest


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gravitational wave signals ever


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recorded, GW230814,


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and the team used it to run precision


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tests of general relativity. It passed


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with flying colors, but the fact that


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we're now running those tests on events


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this extreme is remarkable.


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>> LIGUR and its partners are currently in


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a maintenance break, but a new six-month


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observing run is expected to begin in


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late 2026. Given how rapidly the catalog


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is growing, that run could double it


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again.


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>> All right, story three, and this one has


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a genuine element of suspense. Europe's


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ProRa 3 mission is in trouble. A


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confirmed yesterday that they have lost


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contact with one of the two spacecraft


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that make up the Proba 3 mission.


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>> Let me explain what Proba 3 actually is


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because it's a fascinating concept. It


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launched from India back in December


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2024 and it consists of two separate


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spacecraft designed to fly in


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extraordinarily precise formation about


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150 m apart to create artificial solar


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eclipses in space. One spacecraft, the


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Occultter, physically blocks the bright


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face of the sun. The other, the


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Coronagraph, uses that shadow to image


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the sun's faint outer atmosphere, the


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corona, without being blinded by the


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solar disc. And to make this work, the


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two spacecraft must maintain alignment


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to within millimeter accuracy.


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>> It's an almost absurdly precise


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operation, and it was working. In May of


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last year, the spacecraft achieved their


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landmark formation flying test. In June,


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they captured the first ever images of


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an artificial solar eclipse in space. It


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was a genuine technological first. And


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then on the weekend of February 14th,


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something went wrong. The Coron


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spacecraft, the one doing the imaging,


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experienced an anomaly that prevented it


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from entering safe mode.Sa describes it


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as a progressive loss of attitude. In


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other words, the spacecraft slowly lost


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its orientation.


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>> As it drifted, its solar panels moved


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away from the sun. The batteries


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drained. The spacecraft dropped into


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survival mode, and contact was lost. ISA


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says root cause is under investigation.


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And they're exploring whether the


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companion occultter spacecraft can be


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maneuvered closer to assist in recovery.


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>> Losing either spacecraft would


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effectively end the proba 3 mission.


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Lisa says teams are working hard and


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they will provide updates as new


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information becomes available. This is


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very much a developing story. We'll keep


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following it. Story 4 is a classic


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example of a long-held scientific belief


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getting overturned. For 45 years,


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astronomers thought they understood how


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stars like our sun change as they age.


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Specifically, how their rotation pattern


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evolved.


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>> The idea was this. Our sun rotates


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differentially. The equator takes about


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25 days to complete one full rotation


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while the poles take about 35 days.


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Equator faster, poles slower. That's


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called solar type differential rotation.


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And scientists believed that as stars


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slowed down over billions of years, they


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would eventually flip. The poles would


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start spinning faster than the equator


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instead.


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>> That flip state was called antisolar


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differential rotation. Theoretical


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simulations predicted it. No one had


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ever observed it, but the model said it


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should happen. And for decades, the lack


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of observations was attributed to


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limitations in our telescope technology.


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>> But now, researchers at Nagoya


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University in Japan have used Fugaku,


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the country's most powerful supercomput


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to run the most detailed simulations


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ever of stellar interiors. And the


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result is clear. The flip doesn't


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happen. The key was resolution. Previous


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simulations were low resolution and


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magnetic fields faded out of the models


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entirely. At high resolution, we're


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talking 5.4 billion grid points per


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simulated star. The magnetic fields


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stayed strong. And those magnetic


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fields, it turns out, are what prevent


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the rotation from flipping. Professor


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Heidi Yukihada, one of the co-authors,


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said it simply. Turbulence and magnetism


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keep the equator spinning faster than


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the poles throughout the stars life. The


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switch doesn't happen because magnetic


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fields, which previous simulations


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missed, prevent it.


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>> And there's a bonus finding. Magnetic


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fields in solar type stars weaken


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continuously throughout their lifetime


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with no revival in old age. Previous


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models had predicted a magnetic


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comeback. That doesn't happen either.


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>> This matters practically, too. A


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corrected model of stellar rotation


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helps us better understand the sun's


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11-year sunspot cycle and could improve


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our predictions of how magnetic activity


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affects the habitability of planets


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orbiting sunlike stars over billions of


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years.


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Dory 5, and it's a lovely one. A real


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window into our own sun's distant past.


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NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has


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captured the very first image of what's


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called an astrosphere around the


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sun-like star.


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>> Our sun has a protective bubble around


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it called the heliosphere, created by


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the solar wind streaming outward and


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carving out a cavity in interstellar


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space. It's enormous. It extends far


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beyond the outer planets and shields the


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solar system from harmful galactic


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cosmic rays. But we've never been able


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to photograph it from the outside.


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>> The star Chandra observed is called


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HD61005


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and it sits about 120 light years away


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in the constellation Pupus. It has


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roughly the same mass and temperature as


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our sun, but it's only about 100 million


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years old. Our sun is around 5 billion


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years old. So HD610005


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is cosmically speaking a baby. And


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because it's so young, its stellar wind


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is dramatically more powerful. It blows


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about three times faster and is 25 times


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denser than the wind from our sun today.


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That's why its astrosphere is bright


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enough to detect in X-rays. The powerful


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wind collides with the surrounding


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interstellar dust and gas, and that


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collision produces X-ray emission that


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Chandra can detect.


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>> The astrosphere has a diameter roughly


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200 times the distance between Earth and


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the Sun. Carrie Liss of John's Hopkins


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University, who led the study, put it


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beautifully. We've been studying our


00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:55.110
sun's heliosphere for decades, but we


00:11:55.120 --> 00:11:57.509
can never see it from the outside. This


00:11:57.519 --> 00:11:59.509
is the closest thing we have to a


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photograph of what our own sun's bubble


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looked like several billion years ago.


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The star is also nicknamed the moth


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because a surrounding disc of dust forms


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a mothlike structure around it. And


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interestingly, the dense dusty


00:12:13.920 --> 00:12:16.310
environment is actually part of why the


00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:19.110
astrosphere is so visible here, making


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HD 610005


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a uniquely ideal subject for this kind


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of observation. And we'll finish with


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some sky watching news because tonight


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and tomorrow night offer something quite


00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:34.069
special. Venus and Saturn are meeting up


00:12:34.079 --> 00:12:36.470
in the evening sky and it's a treat for


00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:38.629
anyone who can get outside shortly after


00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:41.670
sunset. Venus is already impossible to


00:12:41.680 --> 00:12:43.430
miss right now. It's shining at


00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:46.629
magnitude minus 3.9, which makes it by


00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:48.710
far the brightest object in the sky


00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:51.110
after the sun and moon. Tonight and


00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:53.590
tomorrow, Saturn sits close alongside


00:12:53.600 --> 00:12:55.990
it. though considerably fainter at


00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:57.990
magnitude 1.0.


00:12:58.000 --> 00:12:59.829
>> The best time to look is about 30


00:12:59.839 --> 00:13:02.069
minutes after sunset when Venus will be


00:13:02.079 --> 00:13:05.269
roughly 7° above the western horizon.


00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:07.670
Binoculars will help a lot. Saturn


00:13:07.680 --> 00:13:09.509
should pop into view easily near


00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:11.990
brilliant Venus. You'll have about 70


00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:14.870
minutes before both planets set. And if


00:13:14.880 --> 00:13:16.629
you're pointing a telescope at Venus


00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:19.030
tonight, you're in for an extra treat.


00:13:19.040 --> 00:13:21.990
The planet is currently showing a 97%


00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:24.629
lit disc, almost fully illuminated from


00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:27.430
our perspective. It's a gorgeous site.


00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:29.750
Neptune is also lurking nearby, just


00:13:29.760 --> 00:13:31.910
over a degree from Saturn, though you'll


00:13:31.920 --> 00:13:34.230
need a telescope to catch that one.


00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:36.790
>> So, get outside this evening if skies


00:13:36.800 --> 00:13:39.590
are clear. Venus is your guide. Find


00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:41.750
that brilliant white beacon low in the


00:13:41.760 --> 00:13:43.990
west, and Saturn will be right there


00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:45.110
waiting for you.


00:13:45.120 --> 00:13:47.350
>> And that's our show for today. Six


00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:49.590
stories from an asteroid nudged around


00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:51.670
the sun to a planet pairing up in


00:13:51.680 --> 00:13:54.389
tonight's sky. It's a great time to be


00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:56.629
paying attention to the universe.


00:13:56.639 --> 00:13:59.030
>> If you enjoyed today's episode, please


00:13:59.040 --> 00:14:01.189
subscribe wherever you're listening and


00:14:01.199 --> 00:14:03.189
leave us a rating or review. It


00:14:03.199 --> 00:14:04.949
genuinely helps the show reach more


00:14:04.959 --> 00:14:05.829
people.


00:14:05.839 --> 00:14:08.790
>> You can find us at astronomyaily.io


00:14:08.800 --> 00:14:11.030
for the blog and show notes and follow


00:14:11.040 --> 00:14:13.670
us at astroaily pod on all the major


00:14:13.680 --> 00:14:16.550
social platforms. until Monday. Keep


00:14:16.560 --> 00:14:17.590
looking up.


00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:22.069
>> Clear skies, everyone. Astronomy Day.


00:14:22.079 --> 00:14:25.800
Stories we told.