Aug. 4, 2026

Betelgeuse's Hidden Companion and the Dying Andromeda Galaxy: A Cosmic Tale

Show Notes
Transcript

SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 93 The strongest evidence yet that Betelgeuse is not alone Astronomers have finally demonstrated that the red supergiant star Betelgeuse has a binary companion star about two to three times the mass of the Sun. Is the mighty Andromeda galaxy dying A new study has found that star formation is winding down in our nearest big neighbouring galaxy Andromeda. The most volcanically active world in the Solar System NASA's Juno spacecraft has provided the first measurements of the temperature below the surface of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io. The Science Report A new study warns that mining is now a threat to over 12,000 species across the globe. Claims taking faecal capsules could help people with insomnia get a good night's sleep. The link between air pollution exposure and ending up with lung and heart issues. People who spend an excessive amount of time online tend be more stressed. Alex on Tech Telstra Starlink expanding.

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The Astronomy, Space, Technology & Science News Podcast.

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This is Spacetime Series twenty nine, episode ninety three, for

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broadcast on the fifth of August twenty twenty six. Coming

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up on Space Time, the strongest evidence yet that Bettlegurs

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is not alone is the mighty Andromeda galaxy dying and

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the most volcanically active world in the Solar System. All

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that and more coming up on space Time.

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Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.

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Astronomers have finally demonstrated that the red supergiant star Bettlegurs

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has a binary companion star about two to three times

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the mass of our Sun. The findings, reported in the

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journal Astronomy in Astrophysics provides the strongest evidence yet that

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one of the biggest and brightest stars in the night

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sky as a faint Stella companion, Bettlegirls b orbiting the

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primary star located somewhere between five hundred and thirty and

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six hundred and forty three light years away. Bettle Girls

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is the brightest star in the constellation of Ryan the

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Hunter and represents the scorpion sting on Oryan's shoulder. It's

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the ninth brightest star in the night sky and one

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of the largest and most luminous stars visible with the

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unaided eye, commonly called beetlejuice. Don't say it three times.

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Its name has been tortured through centuries of mispronunciations. It

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originally started as ipdal Jaza, meaning the hand of the

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big Man in Arabic, big man being a ryon the hunter.

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Bettle Girls began its life around ten million years ago

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as a spectral type O B blue star. Calculations of

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Bettlegirls's mass range from slightly under ten to a little

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more than twenty times that of our Sun, with some

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one hundred thousand times the Sun's brightness and around eleven

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hundred times its diameter. In fact, if Bettle Girls were

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placed at the center of our solar system, its surface

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would extend almost as far out as Jupiter, thereby engulfing

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the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the main

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asteroid belt. Bettle Gurls is now a bloated old semiregular

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variable red supergiant. Red supergiants are the largest stars in

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the universe in terms of volume, although they're not necessarily

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the most massive luminous. After spending billions of years fusing

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hydrogen into helium in their cores, a star's core hydrogen

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supply eventually runs out, and the balancing act between nuclear

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fusion pushing out gravity pushing in stomps and gravity wins.

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The huge mass of the star crashing down on the

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core causes a dramatic increase in core pressure, consequently temperature

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that triggers helium in the core to flash, which causes

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the helium to start fusing into carbon and oxygen. At

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the same time, the hydrogen rich region around the stellar

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core has moved down towards the core into a region

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where temperatures and pressures are high enough for hydrogen fusion

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into helium to commence in the shell around the core. Meanwhile,

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the increasing core temperature results in increasing luminosity, and the

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resulting radiation pressure from shell burning causes the outer diffuse

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gaseous envelope of the star to expand to hundreds of

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times its previous radius. As the now bloated star's chromosphere

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or visible surface, moves further away from the core, it

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cools down, turning redder. Hence the star becomes a red giant.

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Sun.

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Like stars, eventually lose the outer envelope, which continues expanding outwards,

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forming a planetary nebula. This ultimately exposes the star's white

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hot stellar core as a white dwarf, which will slowly

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cool over the eons. However, stars with masses more than

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a round eight times that of our Sun experience a

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very different fate. Unlike the Sun, their fusion cycle doesn't

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end with helium fusing into carbon and oxygen. They've got

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enough mass to fuse carbon and oxygen in their core

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into progressively heavier and heavier elements, while shell burning around

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the core also fuses progressively heavier and heavier elements carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, neon, magnesium, silicon, sulfur, nickel,

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and eventually iron. These stars have become red super giants. Now,

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no matter how massive a star is, it can't fuse

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iron into heavier elements, and so once again gravity wins,

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causing the entire mass of the start to collapse down

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onto the core. The collapse is so powerful that the

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billions of tons of material causes a rebound, and the

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star explodes as a core collapse supernova so bright it

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briefly outshines an entire galaxy. The star eventually ends up

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as either a neutron star or an even stranger object

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called a black hole. Singularities of infinite density and zero volume.

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With the lures of physics a science understands them no

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longer apply, and this will be the fate of Bettle Girls.

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In fact, it could explode as a core collapse or

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type two supernova any day now, which in astronomical terms

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means it could be tomorrow or a million years from now.

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Whenever it happens. When it does explode, it'll temporarily outshine

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all the other stars in the galaxy, and it'll be

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clearly visible in the daytime sky here on Earth, and

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that'll be a fascinating experience. Star seen by humans to

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go super and ova in our galaxy was Tiger Star

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in the year fifteen seventy two, and that was before

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the invention of the telescope. This new study is lead

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author Miguel Montagas from the Paris Observatory, says astronomers of

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look for potential companions as a possible explanation for Bettelegirls's

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regular changes in brightness. Two studies published in twenty twenty

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four predicted that the companion would be furthest from Bettlegirls

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in December of that year, and hence easier to spot,

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so Montagas and colleagues used the European Southern Observatories very

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large telescope the VLT in December of twenty twenty four

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and spent several months observing the star, and eventually they

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obtained the clearest image ever of what likely is Bettelegirls By.

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Montager says he was concerned he didn't have the sensitivity

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in his instruments that detech Bettlegirls b because it was

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thought to be too similar to the Sun in brightness

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and so it would be obscured by the primary stars glare.

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But it turned out to be at least two to

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three times the mass of the Sun and so it

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could be directly imaged, meaning the light from the star

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itself was detected. While there has been some early evidence

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of the possible existence of a companion star, including a

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possible direct detection by the Gemini North telescope in Away,

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this is the strongest evidence for and the clearest image

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jet of Bettleghost be now to be certain the companion's

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really there, the authors still need to observe it in

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a year's time on the other side of the star,

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but Montegas believes this very little space left for doubt.

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A few years back, Bettlegoes was the subject of attention

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from astronomers around the world when it visibly started dimming.

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It quickly went from being the ninth brightest star in

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the sky being the twentieth brightest. As we mentioned earlier,

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as an evolved super giant star, Bettlegoes is expected to

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explode as a supernova any day now, and so that

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dimming led some to suspect that this could be what

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was about to happen, but observations by Montegas and colleagues

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eventually determined the star was simply being obscured by a

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cloud of dust. This is space time still to come.

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Is the mighty Andromeda galaxy dying and the most volcanically

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active world in our Solar System? All that and more

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still to come on space time. A new study has

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found that star formation appears to be winding down in

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the nearest big neighboring galaxy, Andromeda. The new findings reported

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in the Astrophysical Journal, based on observations by NASA's Hubble

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Space Telescope. Astronomer's study Andromeda because it provides them with

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an opportunity to examine its stellar populations in great detail,

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leading to a better understanding of the past of galaxies

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like our own. The Andromeda galaxy M thirty one is

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located about two and a half million light years away,

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and like our own Milky Way, it's a spiral galaxy.

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It's close enough and big enough to be seen with

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the unaided eye from dark skies. It's the largest member

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of our local galactic group, with around twice the diameter

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of our Milky Way, spanning some two hundred and twenty

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five thousand, two hundred and sixty thousand light years across.

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That compares to the Milky Ways diameter of between one

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hundred thousand and one hundred and twenty thousand light years. However,

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astronomers now suspect the two galaxies probably have similar masses,

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with both weighing roughly eight hundred billion to one point

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five trillion times a mass of our Sun. The new

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observations indicate star formation in Andromeda has undergone a five

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hundred million year decline, with an even steeper drop in

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the last forty million years. The findings are based on

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data from two Hubble surveys, the panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury

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and the pan chromatic Hubble Andromeda Southern treasury. Together, they've

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mapped two thirds of Andromeda's disc in ultra sharp detail.

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In total, the author has measured about two hundred million

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individual stars across the galaxy, giving them a detailed picture

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of andromedais past activity. One of the studies authors, Ben

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Williams from the University of Washington, says astronomers need to

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measure the individual stars because they're the fossil record of

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the galaxy's formation, and Hubble is the only telescope that

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can provide high enough spatial resolution over a large enough

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area to be able to do that. In Andromeda. The

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key is that massive stars are bluer and shorter lived,

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or less massive stars are redder and longer lived. As

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a result, areas that have experienced recent star formation tend

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to have a larger fraction of blue stars, or areas

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with less recent star formation typically have a reader population.

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So Williams and colleagues divided Andromeda's images into thousands of squares,

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each spanning roughly three hundred light years per side. They

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determine the history of star formation within each pixel in

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order to gain a comprehensive view of the galaxy's past.

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Previous research showed that the Andromeda galaxy experienced a dramatic

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burst of star formation around two billion years ago that

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was likely due to a past interaction or merger with

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another galaxy, but since then star formation has steadily declined.

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Astronomers measure the rate of star formation in terms of mass,

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or the amount of gas and dust converted into stars

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every year. The authors calculated that five hundred million years

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years ago, Andromeda form stars at a rate of about

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one solar mass per year. That's about the same as

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the Milky Way today. However, formation rate dropped in Andromeda

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to about half of that figure by about forty million

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years ago. The current rate is now plummeted even further,

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to just a fifth of the mass of our Sun

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per year. They also examined whether that decline was consistent

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across the entire galaxy, were just concentrated in certain specific areas,

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and they found that much of the recent star formation

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occurred in a start forming ring located around thirty two

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thousand lay years from the galaxy center. As a result,

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much of the decline they measured was driven by decreasing

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activity within that ring, rather than being the result of

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reduced material from which new stars can form. The authors

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think the declines are more likely to be a natural

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winding down from its previous, more active state. Williams and

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colleagues also investigated whether there was any connection between the

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decreasing activity and Andromeda. At its proximity to the satellite

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galaxy Messia thirty two. M thirty two separated from Andromeda

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by about sixteen thousand light years in the plane of

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the sky. However, it's three D location in space is uncertain.

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As a result, astronomers are unsure if or when it

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might have interacted with Andromeda in the past. Survey data

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from the panchromatic hubble Andromeda Southern Treasury allowed the authors

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to study the history of star formation and Andromeda in

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and near M thirty two, and they found this area

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showed signs of decreased star formation compared to other regions.

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The timing of this decrease, which the study finance began

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roughly sixty million years ago, could help constrain when M

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thirty two interacted with Andromeda's disc The authors say they

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can't explicitly say they're seeing a decrease in star formation

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because of M thirty two, but hey, it's right there,

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and it's definitely the most likely suspect. This is space

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time still to come, the most volcanically active word in

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the Solar System, and later in the science report, a

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new study wards that mining is now a threat and

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more than twelve thousand species across the planet. All that

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and more still to come on space time. NASA's Guno

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spacecraft has provided the first measurements of the temperature below

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the surface of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io. The findings, reported

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in the Journal of Geophysical Research Planets, shows significant heating

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within the shallow subsurface of what is the most volcanically

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active world in our Solar System, collected during two close flybys.

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The data also shows that most of Io's surface is

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remarkably smooth and composed of material with very low density.

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Io's extreme volcanism is powered by tidal heating. See the

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Moon's constantly being stretched and squeezed by the immense gravity

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of its host planet Jupiter as it travels in its

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slightly elliptical orbit around the gas giant, then the refurther

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grap vitational tugs during its journey from its sister Jovian moons.

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Io is the innermost and smallest ob Jubiter's for Galilean moons,

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but the three thousand, six hundred and sixty kilometer wide

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world is still slightly larger than the Earth's moon. Until now,

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virtually everything astronomers know about Io's tidal heating has come

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from infrared observations, which can really only sense the temperature

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of the surface. But these latest findings are based on

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data collected by Juno's microwave radiometer. JUNO Principal investigator Scott

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Bolton from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas,

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says the surprising discovery that we can see below the

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rocky Moon's surface as important implications for studding volcanoes here

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on Earth. He says June's taught scientists that if they

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look with a microwave radiometer instrument near a volcano on Earth,

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they might see similar signatures in the subsurface temperature gradients,

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providing new information and our Earth volcanoes work. Juno's microwave

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radiometer was designed by Bob to peer beneath Jupiter's cloud

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tops in order to investigate the dynamics and composition the

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gas giants deep atmosphere. Its six microwave antennas act as

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a single instrument simultaneously detecting microwaves at a range of

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different wavelengths. During Jurney's extended phase, It's provided scientists an

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opportunity observe three of the planets, so called Galilean moons,

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gain he made, Europa and Io. So far, only Callisto

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has been left out of the study. They're called Galilean

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moons because they were first observed by Galileo Galilee when

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he turned his telescope onto the orb of Jupiter. Seeing

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the Moon's orbiting around Jupiter, Galileo realized that the Earth

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and all the other planets in the Solar System were

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simply doing the same thing around the Sun, a discovery

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which ended with him not only being sentenced to house

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detention by the Catholic Church for the rest of his life,

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but he was also forced to renounce his discovery on

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pain of death. Yet even then, under his breath he whispered,

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and yet it moves, referring to Earth orbiting around the

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Sun rather than the Earth's centric view of the universe

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favored by the Catholic Church at the time. Bolton says

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each wavelength within the microwave radiometer explores different depths providing

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a new way to characterize the deb atmosphere of the

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giant planets, as well as the subsurface crusts of icy

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and rocky moons. At Gannymeat in Europa, Geno explored tens

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of kilometers below the surface, assuming that ice shells were

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mostly pure water, but the ability to probe the volcanic

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rock on Io was an unexpected discovery. During flybys on

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de seven thirtieth in twenty twenty three and February thirty,

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twenty twenty four, the Genos spacecraft came within fifteen hundred

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kilometers of iOS surface.

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Bolton and colleagues.

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Found that everywhere they looked, they saw temperature increases of

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roughly five degrees celsius every few centimeters, a fast steeper

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gradient and solar heating alone can explain, and that suggests

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only two likely explanations. Either the heat is right steadily

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through a conductive crust, or the signal could be coming

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from cooling lava flows cap by roughly ten meters of

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solidified crust, covering about ten percent of the Moon's surface

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at any given time. Bolton says Io provides a unique

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window matter how tidal heating works throughout the cosmos a

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fundamental process providing energy and heat to worlds that could

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be orbiting far from the hearth star. This process not

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only it creates the most volcanically active world in our

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Solar system, but it also fuels the subsurface oceans on

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the ice moons of the giant planets like Europa, Enceladus.

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And Ganny Made.

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Another major insight gained from Juno's two flybys of Io

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is just how smooth the little world is. For these findings,

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the Moon was known for its tall mountains, but the

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new observations indicate that apart from this visible topography, the

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surface features expansive smooth patches that can stretch for hundreds

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of kilometers or more. Because Uno flew by overlapping regions

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of Io at different angles, you alsos are able to

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map just how the surface reflects marcrowaves, showing them just

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how flat this distant world really is. But of course

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Io has an ever changing geography. Living on Io, you

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wouldn't have weather reports, you'd have geological reports, with lava

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lakes forming in the north, mountain building in the south,

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ground solidification in the west. This report on Geno's mission

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to Jupiter comes from NESTV.

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Humanity has had its eyes on Jupiter for surgeries. First

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telescopes and in recent decades, eight deep space pros were

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used to examine the largest planet in the Solar System.

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Equipped with unique sensors.

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JUNO looked deeper into the planet's structure than ever before

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to find out the answers to basic questions about Jupiter's

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makeup and how it formed.

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Juno's looking for how Jupiter formed and really how planets

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are made in general. We're very much looking for the

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recipe for planets. The special thing about JUNO is is

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we're really looking at one of the first steps, the

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earliest time in our Solar System's history, right after the

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Sun formed. What happened that allowed the planets to form?

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And why are the planets slightly different composition than the Sun.

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Jupiter is so far away from Earth, then, even when

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it's at as closest to us, it will still take

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a radio signal moving at the speed of light about

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thirty four minutes to cross the distance.

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Pretty challenging missions, pretty challenging payloads. I'd say it's pretty robust.

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So it's those kind of challenges with making sure you

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do all the little things necessary to maximize the opportunities

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that you get.

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Aside from distance, Jupiter offers unique challenges to a spacecraft,

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such as a radiation field rivaled in intensity only by

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the Sun.

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We have a box in the middle of the spacecraft

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that we call a vault, and it's made out of titanium,

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and that shield all the electronics from these hazardous radiation

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and we're very much an armoured tank going to Jupiter.

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Justice JUNO is building on the knowledge gained with past

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missions to Jupiter. Future missions will build on Juno's findings.

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If we could start to understand the role that Jupiter

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played and how the planet formed and how that eventually

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governed the creation of all the other planets and Earth

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and maybe even life itself, then we know a little

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bit about how to look for other Earth like planets

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maybe orbiting other stars, and how common those might be,

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and the roles that those giant planets that we see

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orbiting the other stars play.

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Really, all these missions that LSPs involved in, the NASSAS

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involved in are all precursors to the bigger picture of

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getting humans out beyond low Orth orbit to Mars, to

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an asteroid and be honest.

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And in that report, from MESSATV. We heard from JUNA

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Principal investigator Scott Bolton from the Southwest Research Institutions, San Antonio, Texas,

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as well as GUNO Launch Director Omar Bayes and JUNO

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Mission Manager John Culvert, both from NASSA.

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This is Space Time and time out to.

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Take another brief look at some of the other stories

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making US and science this week with a science report.

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A new study warns that mining is now a threat

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to more than twelve thousand species across the planet, which

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includes almost six thousand that are already listed is threatened.

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The findings, published in the journal Cille Report Sustainability, overlaid

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the space where mining occurs across the planet and noted

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that twenty eight percent of the ranges of threatened species

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overlap with those areas that are being mined. The authors

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say at least one hundred species have some seventy five

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percent of their ranges overlapping in these areas. That's despite

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mining not being recognized as a threat by the International

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Union for Conservation of Nature. They also found that future

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planned mining sites could expose over three thousand threatened species

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to the risks involved around mining sites, eighty three percent

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of which don't have a mining related threat designation. A

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new study claims taking fecal capsules could help people with

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insomnia get a good night's sleep. A report in the

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Journal of Internal Medicine claims a trial involving forty people

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who had chronic insomnia disorder were given either a placebo

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or an antibiotic trip and to clear their gut microbiome,

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and then fecal pills to recolonize their intestinal tract. After

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a month, the participants receiving the fecal pills showed greatly

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improved sleeping patterns compared to those on the placebo. The

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subjects taking the pills also reported feeling that their sleep

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had improved for up to six months after taking them.

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Well.

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Despite Australia's air being relatively unpolluted compared to other parts

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of the world, a new study is found that there's

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a clear link in the Great Southern Land between air

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pollution exposure and the risk of ending up in hospital

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with lung and hard issues. The findings, reported in the

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journal Public Health Research and Practice, used national air pollution

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estimates from twenty sixteen and hospitalization data from one thy

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one hundred and fifty five Public Health areas between twenty

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sixteen and twenty seventeen, representing some twenty three million, two

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00:22:18.279 --> 00:22:21.359
hundred and thirty six thousand and forty six people. The

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authors found higher exposure to pollution particles smaller than two

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point five nanometers together with nitrogen dioxide was consistently linked

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with increases and hospitalizations for these issues.

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A new study has.

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Found that people who spent an excessive amount of time

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online tend to be more stressed, have worse moods, and

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neglected other parts of their lives. A report in the

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General plus one monitored the daily Internet use of some

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nine hundred German adults for two weeks. The authors found

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temptation was the biggest thing pushing subjects to go online. However,

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although excessive Internet users had worse moods, spending time online

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didn't improve how they felt. Telstra, Australia's largest telco, is

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expanding its relationship with Elon Musk's Starling broadband satellite network.

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Right now, the starting constellation includes some teny four hundred

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Betelgeuse's Hidden Companion and the Dying Andromeda Galaxy: A Cosmic Tale

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