Tonight the Moon Turns Red — Plus Five More Space Stories You Need to Hear

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Language: en

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Hey stargazers, quick question. Are you


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near a window right now? Because if


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you're in North America, Australia, New


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Zealand, or across Asia, tonight the


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moon is about to do something


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extraordinary. We're talking full blood


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red total lunar eclipse. And it peaks in


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the early hours of March 3rd. We'll have


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everything you need to know to catch it.


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Tonight on Astronomy Daily, season 5,


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episode 52. Blood moons, cosmic


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detectives, ancient magnetic mysteries,


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and a heist story that will make you


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question whether some space fans have


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gone just a little bit too far.


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>> I'm already intrigued and slightly


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nervous.


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>> You should be. Stay with us. Welcome to


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Astronomy Daily, your daily dose of


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everything happening in space and across


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the universe. I'm Anna.


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>> And I'm Avery. Great to have you with us


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on this Monday, March 2nd. And what a


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show we have lined up today.


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>> We really do. Six stories today covering


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everything from what's happening in


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tonight's sky to a telescope that


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generated almost a million alerts in a


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single night to some genuinely wild new


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science about Saturn, our planet's


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magnetic poles. And I promise you, the


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last story is going to make you laugh.


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>> It really is. But let's kick things off


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with the story that's literally


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happening right now as our listeners are


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tuning in. The blood moon.


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>> Let's get into it then.


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>> So tonight, or rather in the very early


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hours of tomorrow morning, depending on


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where you are, the moon is going to turn


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a deep dramatic red. This is a total


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lunar eclipse and it's one of the most


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visually spectacular events in astronomy


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that requires absolutely zero equipment


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to enjoy. And the timing is remarkable


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for our listeners in Australia and New


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Zealand. You're actually in one of the


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best seats on Earth for this one. The


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eclipse is visible in its entirety from


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the western part of North America right


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across the Pacific through Oceanania and


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then across Asia. For our friends in the


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eastern US and Europe, you'll catch part


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of it, but the moon will be low on the


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horizon or setting as totality peaks.


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So, get to a good vantage point.


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>> Right. So, here are the key times to


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know. The partial phase begins at 4:50


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Eastern time. That's 1:50 Pacific.


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Totality, the moment the moon is fully


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in Earth's shadow and turns that deep,


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dramatic red, begins at 6:04 Eastern.


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And totality lasts for 59 minutes,


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almost a full hour of blood moon.


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>> Now, why red? It's such a beautiful


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phenomenon. During a total lunar


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eclipse, the moon passes completely into


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Earth's shadow, but Earth's atmosphere


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acts like a giant lens, bending and


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filtering sunlight around the edges of


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our planet and casting it onto the


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moon's surface. The atmosphere strips


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out the blue wavelengths and lets the


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reds and oranges through, which is the


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same reason our sunrises and sunsets


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look the way they do. So, in a very


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poetic sense, what you're seeing on the


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moon is the light of every sunrise and


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every sunset on Earth all at once.


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>> That is genuinely beautiful. And there's


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a rare atmospheric bonus tonight. For a


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brief window, some lucky observers on


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the east coast of North America and


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parts of Europe may witness what's


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called a selenon. That's where the


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totally eclipse red moon and the rising


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sun are both above the horizon at the


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same time, which geometrically shouldn't


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really be possible, but atmospheric


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refraction bends both the sun and moon's


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light just enough to make it happen.


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It's been called seeing the impossible.


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Both the eclipse and the sunrise


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simultaneously. And one more thing worth


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noting for our long-term listeners, this


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is the last total lunar eclipse until


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late 2028. So if you have any chance at


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all of getting outside tonight, set that


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alarm. This is not one to sleep through.


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We'll have links in the show notes to


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exact times for your location.


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>> As they say in the trades, not to be


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missed.


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>> Okay, story two. And this is a genuinely


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landmark moment in the history of


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astronomy. The Vera Rubin Observatory in


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Chile, which we've been eagerly waiting


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for, has just made its opening statement


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to the universe, and it is


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extraordinary.


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>> 800,000


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alerts in a single night.


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>> 800,000.


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On February 24th, the Vera Rubin


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Observatory, which houses the largest


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digital camera ever built, a


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jaw-dropping 3.2 2 gigapixels issued


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800,000


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alerts to astronomers worldwide in just


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one night of observation. These are


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realtime notifications about everything


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changing in the sky. Stars brightening


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or dimming, objects moving, flashes of


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light from supernova, asteroids on the


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move.


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>> And to be clear, this is just the


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beginning. At full operating capacity,


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Reuben is expected to produce up to 7


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million alerts every single night. 7


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million. The scale of this is almost


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incomprehensible.


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What makes this so revolutionary is the


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speed. Reuben captures a new region of


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the sky every 40 seconds, then


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immediately sends that data to a


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processing facility in California, where


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an automated system compares it to


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previous images of the same region. Any


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change, any change at all triggers an


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alert that goes out to astronomers


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worldwide who can then point other


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telescopes at the event before it fades.


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Scientists say this could be


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transformative for catching supernova


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before they reach their peak brightness.


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Spotting asteroids that could be a


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threat to Earth. And here's a fun one.


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Finding many more interstellar visitors


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like comet 3i ATLS as they enter our


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solar system. Because with Reuben


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watching the whole sky every 40 seconds,


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there's nowhere to hide.


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>> One of the team described it perfectly.


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They said the scale and speed of the


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alerts are unprecedented. After years of


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building and testing, they can now say


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within minutes of each image, "Here's


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everything. Go." Astronomy has entered a


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new era of realtime discovery. And we


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are here for it.


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>> Story three, and this one completely


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rewrites the origin story of two of the


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most iconic things in our solar system,


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Saturn's rings and its largest moon,


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Titan. I love this story because it's


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one of those discoveries where


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scientists basically went, "Wait, what


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if these two mysteries have the same


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answer?"


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>> Exactly. For years, astronomers have had


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two nagging questions. One, how did


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Saturn's rings form? They're remarkably


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young, much younger than Saturn itself,


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which has always been puzzling. Two, how


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did Titan end up so different from all


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of Saturn's other moons? It's enormous.


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It has a thick atmosphere. It has liquid


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methane lakes. It's basically a world


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unto itself.


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>> And now, new research suggests both


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mysteries have the same catastrophic


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answer. Around hundreds of millions of


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years ago, two of Saturn's older moons


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smashed into each other in a colossal


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collision. The force of that impact was


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so extreme that it didn't just destroy


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those moons. It created something new.


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The debris from the collision coalesed


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to form Titan. And the material flung


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outward by the blast, the icy fragments


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scattered into Saturn's orbit became the


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rings.


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>> One cataclysmic event, two of the most


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fascinating structures in the solar


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system. It's the cosmic equivalent of a


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car crash that somehow produces both a


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city and a motorway.


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>> What I love about this is that it also


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explains Titan's composition. Because if


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Titan formed from the collision of two


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older moons, it would have absorbed a


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complex mix of materials, which could


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explain its extraordinarily rich


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chemistry and possibly even its


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potential to harbor the building blocks


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of life in those methane seas.


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>> Saturn still full of surprises even


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after all this time.


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>> Okay, story four. This one involves


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ancient seafloor sediments, a decadesl


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long scientific mystery, and the


00:08:34.560 --> 00:08:36.790
uncomfortable possibility that our


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magnetic shield can fail for far longer


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than we thought.


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>> Oh, good. I love a comfortable Monday.


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>> So, here's the background. Earth's


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magnetic field, the invisible force


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field that protects us from harmful


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solar radiation and cosmic rays, isn't


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permanent. Roughly every few hundred,000


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years it weakens, becomes chaotic, and


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eventually reverses direction entirely.


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North becomes south, south becomes


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north. Scientists call this a


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geomagnetic reversal. And until now, the


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assumption was that these reversals


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happen relatively quickly in geological


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terms, within about 10,000 years.


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>> But new research has just blown that


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assumption out of the water. Scientists


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analyzing deep sea sediment cores


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drilled from the North Atlantic,


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sediments laid down during the Eocosene


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epic around 40 million years ago, have


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found evidence of a geomagnetic reversal


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that took not 10,000 years, but


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approximately 70,000 years, 7 times


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longer than the accepted benchmark.


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During that entire stretch, Earth's


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magnetic field was significantly


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weakened. And the implications of that


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are significant, right? Because a


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weakened magnetic field means more


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cosmic radiation reaching the surface.


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>> Exactly. The lead researcher described


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it clearly. When the magnetic field


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weakens, more solar radiation reaches


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the planet, which can affect organisms


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ability to navigate, potentially drive


00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:12.870
higher rates of genetic mutation, and


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could even cause measurable atmospheric


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erosion for 70,000 years. That's long


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enough to have real evolutionary


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consequences.


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>> Though, it's worth saying these


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reversals happen over geological time


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scales. There's no imminent reversal on


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the horizon in any human time frame. But


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what this research does is force us to


00:10:33.279 --> 00:10:35.269
rethink what we thought we knew about


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one of Earth's most fundamental systems.


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The magnetic field isn't as predictable


00:10:40.160 --> 00:10:42.470
or as consistent as we assumed.


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>> The beautiful detail is how they found


00:10:44.959 --> 00:10:47.509
it. Those tiny magnetic minerals


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preserved in slowly accumulating deep


00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:52.550
sea sediments, essentially recording the


00:10:52.560 --> 00:10:54.710
direction of Earth's field like a


00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:57.910
billion-year magnetic diary. Geology is


00:10:57.920 --> 00:10:59.829
endlessly fascinating.


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>> Story five, and we're back to some


00:11:01.920 --> 00:11:04.389
extraordinary telescope science. This


00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:06.870
time, the James Web telescope has done


00:11:06.880 --> 00:11:09.030
something genuinely unprecedented with


00:11:09.040 --> 00:11:12.470
our most mysterious planet, Uranus. Core


00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:15.590
Uranus, always the overlooked one.


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>> Not anymore. An international team of


00:11:18.160 --> 00:11:20.150
astronomers have used Web's near


00:11:20.160 --> 00:11:22.790
infrared spectrometer to map the upper


00:11:22.800 --> 00:11:24.630
atmosphere of Uranus in three


00:11:24.640 --> 00:11:27.110
dimensions. The first time this has ever


00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:29.110
been done for the planet. And what they


00:11:29.120 --> 00:11:31.269
found is extraordinary.


00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:34.150
>> So Uranus is already a deeply strange


00:11:34.160 --> 00:11:36.630
world. It orbits on its side with an


00:11:36.640 --> 00:11:39.750
axial tilt of almost 98°,


00:11:39.760 --> 00:11:42.069
meaning its poles point roughly towards


00:11:42.079 --> 00:11:45.030
the sun. That extreme tilt gives it the


00:11:45.040 --> 00:11:47.509
most dramatic seasons of any planet in


00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:50.230
the solar system. And now, web has given


00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:52.710
us the first detailed vertical map of


00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:55.350
its ionosphere, its uppermost layer of


00:11:55.360 --> 00:11:57.750
its atmosphere, revealing its structure


00:11:57.760 --> 00:11:59.990
in unprecedented detail.


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>> And the auroras are remarkable. Unlike


00:12:02.640 --> 00:12:04.550
Earth's auroras, which form in rings


00:12:04.560 --> 00:12:07.110
around the poles, Uranus's auroras are


00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:09.750
far more complex and widespread, a


00:12:09.760 --> 00:12:11.829
reflection of its unusual magnetic


00:12:11.839 --> 00:12:13.829
field, which is tilted at a completely


00:12:13.839 --> 00:12:16.150
different angle to its rotation axis.


00:12:16.160 --> 00:12:18.550
Web's infrared vision allowed scientists


00:12:18.560 --> 00:12:20.870
to detect these faint auroral displays


00:12:20.880 --> 00:12:22.710
that have never been seen in this kind


00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:25.030
of detail before. What makes this


00:12:25.040 --> 00:12:27.509
particularly valuable is that Uranus is


00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:29.430
a candidate target for a future


00:12:29.440 --> 00:12:31.910
dedicated NASA mission, the Uranus


00:12:31.920 --> 00:12:33.829
Orbiter and Probe, which has been


00:12:33.839 --> 00:12:35.910
recommended as a top priority by


00:12:35.920 --> 00:12:38.310
planetary scientists. Every new


00:12:38.320 --> 00:12:40.389
discovery like this helps build the


00:12:40.399 --> 00:12:42.389
scientific case for why going there


00:12:42.399 --> 00:12:45.430
would be so worthwhile. And yet another


00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:47.829
example of web completely delivering on


00:12:47.839 --> 00:12:50.150
its promise, seeing the universe and


00:12:50.160 --> 00:12:52.389
even our own solar system in ways that


00:12:52.399 --> 00:12:54.790
simply weren't possible before. And


00:12:54.800 --> 00:12:57.030
finally, our community service


00:12:57.040 --> 00:12:59.269
announcement of the day. Because if


00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:01.350
you've ever browsed eBay late at night


00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:03.829
and thought to yourself, "Ooh, I wonder


00:13:03.839 --> 00:13:06.389
if I could get my hands on some actual


00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:09.110
Apollo moon rock." Please listen


00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:10.230
carefully.


00:13:10.240 --> 00:13:12.790
>> This is a public safety message. It


00:13:12.800 --> 00:13:16.069
really is. So, here's the deal. NASA


00:13:16.079 --> 00:13:18.470
brought back 842


00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:21.030
lbs of lunar material during the six


00:13:21.040 --> 00:13:25.750
Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972.


00:13:25.760 --> 00:13:29.190
Moon rocks, core samples, dust, pebbles,


00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:31.509
all of it is the property of the United


00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:34.150
States federal government, not NASA's


00:13:34.160 --> 00:13:36.870
property, the governments. And it is


00:13:36.880 --> 00:13:39.750
absolutely unambiguously


00:13:39.760 --> 00:13:43.269
completely illegal to buy, sell, trade,


00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:46.470
or privately own any of it. Even the


00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:49.269
astronauts themselves cannot keep a


00:13:49.279 --> 00:13:50.310
single grain,


00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:52.069
>> which you'd think would be enough of a


00:13:52.079 --> 00:13:53.829
deterrent. And yet


00:13:53.839 --> 00:13:58.470
>> and yet in 2002, three NASA interns,


00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:00.710
three decided to attempt one of


00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:04.150
history's most audacious heists using


00:14:04.160 --> 00:14:07.350
tampered cameras, neoprene bodysuits,


00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:10.150
and their own NASA access badges. They


00:14:10.160 --> 00:14:12.230
broke into a safe at Johnson Space


00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:15.350
Center and walked out with 17 pounds of


00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:18.310
moon rocks worth an estimated $21


00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:20.870
million. At which point they presumably


00:14:20.880 --> 00:14:22.470
thought, "Now what?"


00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:25.110
>> Exactly. Because selling stolen moon


00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:27.430
rocks turns out to be surprisingly


00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:30.150
difficult. Their solution, post them on


00:14:30.160 --> 00:14:32.550
the website of the Minology Club of


00:14:32.560 --> 00:14:35.990
Antworp, which understandably caught the


00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:38.150
attention of the FBI, who sent


00:14:38.160 --> 00:14:40.550
undercover agents posing as interested


00:14:40.560 --> 00:14:43.509
buyers. They were arrested at a hotel in


00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:46.230
Orlando with the moon rocks and the ring


00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:48.310
leader received an 8-year prison


00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:49.030
sentence.


00:14:49.040 --> 00:14:52.310
>> The Minology Club of Antworp as a fence


00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:53.910
for stolen moon rocks.


00:14:53.920 --> 00:14:56.870
>> I know, I know. Now, there is one nuance


00:14:56.880 --> 00:14:59.670
worth knowing. Lunar meteorites, rocks


00:14:59.680 --> 00:15:01.509
that have naturally fallen to Earth from


00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:03.509
the moon after being blasted off by


00:15:03.519 --> 00:15:05.670
ancient impacts, are a completely


00:15:05.680 --> 00:15:08.069
different story. Those can be legally


00:15:08.079 --> 00:15:10.470
collected, bought, and sold because they


00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:12.550
arrived here naturally and weren't


00:15:12.560 --> 00:15:14.949
brought back by government astronauts.


00:15:14.959 --> 00:15:16.550
Though, if you want a piece of the moon


00:15:16.560 --> 00:15:18.629
on your shelf, that's actually the


00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:19.750
legitimate route.


00:15:19.760 --> 00:15:22.069
>> And considerably less likely to result


00:15:22.079 --> 00:15:24.069
in a federal prison sentence.


00:15:24.079 --> 00:15:26.710
>> Considerably. The key message, if


00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:29.590
someone offers you Apollo moon rocks,


00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:31.829
walk away very quickly.


00:15:31.839 --> 00:15:34.710
>> What a show today. A blood moon, a


00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:37.350
telescope seeing everything, the violent


00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:39.829
birth of Titan, our magnetic fields,


00:15:39.839 --> 00:15:43.189
ancient secrets, Uranus and glorious 3D,


00:15:43.199 --> 00:15:45.110
and a reminder that the law applies in


00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:47.509
space adjacent context, too.


00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:49.430
>> Thanks so much for spending part of your


00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:51.910
Monday with us. And seriously, if you


00:15:51.920 --> 00:15:54.710
can get outside and look up tonight,


00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:57.189
that blood moon is not going to wait.


00:15:57.199 --> 00:16:00.470
It's the last one until 2028. Links to


00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:02.550
eclipse times for your location are in


00:16:02.560 --> 00:16:04.230
the show notes. You can find us at


00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:05.990
astronomyaily.io


00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:08.870
and on socials at astroailyaily pod. If


00:16:08.880 --> 00:16:10.949
you enjoyed today's episode, a review or


00:16:10.959 --> 00:16:13.269
share goes such a long way. It really


00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:14.710
helps new listeners find us.


00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:16.629
>> We'll be back tomorrow with more from


00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:19.110
the universe. Until then, keep looking


00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:30.710
up.


00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:34.519
Stories told.