Lunar Landing Woes, Elon Musk’s Spat, and the Discovery of Extreme Nuclear Transients

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Hey there, space enthusiasts, and


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welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm your


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host, Anna, and I'm super excited to


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bring you the latest cosmic happenings.


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Today, we're diving into a mixed bag of


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news from a Japanese lunar lander that


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uh didn't quite stick the landing to a


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very public spat between Elon Musk and


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well, you know, we'll also be taking a


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look at what a maze is doing on Mars.


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And get this, the biggest explosion


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scientists have seen since the Big Bang.


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So, buckle up and let's get started.


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So, first up, we have some updated news


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from Icepace, the Japan-based company,


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and uh well, it's not great. Their


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Resilience lander, unfortunately, didn't


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exactly nail its landing on the moon.


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Yeah, it seems they got to the finish


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line, but uh weren't quite successful in


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sticking the landing. Now, this mission


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launched about 4 and a half months ago


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on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral


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as part of a ride share with Firefly


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Aerospace's Blue Ghost Lander. The teams


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in Japan announced that sadly they lost


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communication with Resilience, which


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probably means it suffered a hard


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landing. Ouch. Takkeshi Hakamada, the


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founder and CEO of Ispace, said that


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their top priority is to analyze the


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telemetry data they managed to get and


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figure out what went wrong. They're


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aiming to restore trust by providing a


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report to everyone involved. The mission


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actually seemed to be going smoothly at


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first. Resilience went through several


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phases, gradually lowering its orbit


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around the moon. But after it reached


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about 20 km above the surface, things


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went south. They lost telemetry and


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based on the data they have, the lander


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couldn't decelerate enough and it well


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crash landed. This lander was carrying


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science payloads and even a rover from


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space Europe named Tenacious. The plan


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was to land in a region called Mary


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Fragorus or the Sea of Cold. There was


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even a small model of a Swedish house on


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board meant to be placed on the moon by


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the rover. Now, this is iSpace's second


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landing failure in two missions, but


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their American subsidiary, iSpace US, is


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still on contract with NASA for a


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mission in 2027 to deliver a larger


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lander to the far side of the moon. So,


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hopefully they'll be able to turn things


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around.


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Okay, next up we've got a bit of a uh


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well, let's call it a situation brewing


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between Elon Musk and Donald Trump.


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Yeah, you heard that right. So,


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apparently these two aren't exactly


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seeing eye to eye anymore after Musk


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served as a special government employee


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leading the Department of Government


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Efficiency or Doge. Things seemed fine.


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Trump even called Musk one of the


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greatest business leaders and innovators


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the world has ever produced. But things


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went downhill after Musk criticized


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Trump's big, beautiful bill. Trump fired


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back, suggesting the US could save money


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by canceling government contracts with


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Musk's companies. And that's when things


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got spicy. Musk responded with a threat


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to begin decommissioning SpaceX's Dragon


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spacecraft


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immediately. Now, if Musk is serious,


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this could have some pretty big


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consequences for American space flight.


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I mean, think about it. SpaceX's Dragon


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spacecraft have been crucial for NASA


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operations on the International Space


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Station, ushering in a new era of US


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space flight. If Dragon gets


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decommissioned, that would basically end


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US-based astronaut launches for a while.


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And Boeing's Starlininer isn't quite


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ready to fill that gap yet. SpaceX has


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some pretty substantial government


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contracts, including NASA's commercial


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crew program, cargo resupply services


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for the ISS, and oh yeah, they're


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supposed to provide the lunar lander for


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NASA's Aremis Moon program. So, if those


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contracts get cancelled along with the


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proposed cuts to NASA's budget, it could


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seriously impact NASA as we know it.


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Now, it's not clear what this would mean


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for SpaceX's private space flight


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endeavors. Axiom Space is about to


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launch its fourth private astronaut


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mission on a brand new Dragon, and


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SpaceX has been doing some cool stuff


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with private spacew walks and polar


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orbits. NASA's being pretty tight-


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lipped about the whole situation, saying


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they'll continue to execute the


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president's vision for the future of


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space. So, we'll have to wait and see


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how this all plays out. But, uh, yeah,


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stay tuned, folks, because this could


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get


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interesting. All right, let's move on to


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something a little less dramatic. Have


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you ever looked at the raw images from


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NASA's Perseverance rover and wondered


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why it keeps snapping pics of this weird


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tiny maze? Well, it turns out there's a


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pretty cool reason. That maze is


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actually a calibration target, one of 10


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for Perseverance's Sherlock instrument.


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Yeah, that's short for scanning


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habitable environments with ramen and


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luminescence for organics and chemicals.


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Catchy, right? So Sherlock is basically


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a Sherlock Holmes inspired tool designed


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to detect organic compounds and other


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minerals on Mars that could indicate


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signs of, you know, ancient microbial


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life. But to do that accurately, it


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needs to be carefully calibrated. And


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that's where our little maze comes in.


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Sherlock is located on the rover's


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robotic arm and uses spectroscopic


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techniques to analyze Martian rocks. To


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make sure its measurements are spot-on,


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it routinely calibrates its tools using


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reference materials with specific


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properties. These are mounted on a plate


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attached to the front of the rover's


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body, which is called the Sherlock


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Calibration target. The maze helps


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calibrate the positioning of the laser


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scanner mirror and characterizes the


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laser's focus. It's made of chromeplated


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lines that are super thin, only about


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twice the width of a human hair, printed


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onto silica glass. And get this, if you


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look closely, there's even a tiny


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Sherlock Holmes portrait right in the


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center. How cool is that? The


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calibration target also includes samples


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of materials used in space suits like


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Teflon, Gortex, and Kevlar. These are


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being tested under Mars conditions to


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see how they hold up over time, which is


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crucial for planning future human


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exploration of the red planet. And one


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last fun fact, Sherlock has a sidekick,


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a color camera called Watson. Yep, just


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like Sherlock


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Holmes. Okay, now for something truly


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mind-blowing. Astronomers have stumbled


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upon a new type of giant space


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explosion. And get this, they're calling


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them extreme nuclear transients or ENTs.


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And uh apparently they're the biggest


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bang since the big bang itself. These


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ENTs are like colossal flares of light


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from the hearts of distant galaxies. And


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they linger way longer than any flares


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we've ever seen before. We're talking


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about blasts that release as much energy


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as 100 suns would over their entire


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lifetimes. I mean, wow. So, what are


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they? Well, it turns out they're kind of


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like stars being torn apart by black


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holes, but on a scale we've never


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observed before. Each star is a massive


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one, at least three times as massive as


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our sun. And each black hole is a super


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massive beast lurking in the center of


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its host galaxy. Normally, these events


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are called tidal disruption events or


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tdees. But these ENTs are different.


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They're like nearly 10 times brighter


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than normal tdees, and they stay


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luminous for years, surpassing even the


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brightest supernova


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explosions. Gaia, the space telescope


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whose mission was to map the Milky Way,


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actually captured these


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explosions. While staring at the sky,


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combing through Gaia data, scientists


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found two strange events from 2016 and


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2018.


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After some digging, they figured out


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that these events were the same kind of


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event as something nicknamed scary


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Barbie, which sounds absolutely


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terrifying. ENTs are super rare, like 10


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million times less frequent than


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supernovi, but they give us a new way to


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study massive black holes in distant


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galaxies. Because they're so bright, we


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can see them across vast cosmic


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distances. So, in astronomy, looking far


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away means looking back in time. By


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observing these prolonged flares, we can


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learn more about black hole growth


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during a key era when the universe was


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half its current age. It's like galaxies


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were forming stars and feeding their


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super massive black holes like 10 times


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more vigorously than they do today.


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Pretty wild stuff,


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huh? And that's all the space and


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astronomy news we have for you today.


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


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you enjoyed our journey through the


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cosmos. If you want to stay uptodate


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with all the latest space happenings, be


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sure to visit our website at


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Tik Tok. Thanks for tuning in and we'll


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catch you next time on Astronomy Daily.


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In the meantime, keep looking up.


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day. The stories be


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[Music]


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told stories