July 3, 2026

Stellar Forensics: How Neutron Stars Forge Heavy Elements

Stellar Forensics: How Neutron Stars Forge Heavy Elements

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Season 29
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SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 79 How Neutron Stars make heavy elements Physicists have achieved a significant breakthrough in understanding how Neutron Stars forge heavy elements. Aleutian subduction zone older than thought A new study has found that the subduction zone between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates are older than previously thought. The wobbling peanut asteroid Astronomers studying the inner main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson have found that its rotation wobbles. July Skywatch Planet Earth at its greatest distance from the Sun, the constellations Regulus and Leo, and one of the biggest known stars in the universe Antares are among the highlights of July’s night skies on Skywatch. Our Guests This Week: Uk Space Agency Programme Manager Rosemary Young Principle Investigator MIXS Instrument Emma Bunce Leicester University Planetary Geoscientist David Rothery The open University And our regular guests: Alex Zaharov-Reutt from techadvice.life And Senior science writer and Sky and Telescope magazine contributor Jonathan Nally 🌏 If you’d like to support the podcast and gain access to bonus content by becoming a SpaceTime crew member, you can do just that through The Big Bang editions on Patreon, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Details on the Support page on our website https://www.bitesz.com/show/spacetime/support/ For more SpaceTime and show links: https://linktr.ee/biteszHQ If you love this podcast, please get someone else to listen to. Thank you…

The Astronomy, Space, Technology & Science News Podcast.

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This is Space Time Series twenty nine, episode seventy nine,

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for broadcast on the third of July twenty twenty six.

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Coming up on Space Time, how neutron stars make heavy elements,

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the illusions subduction zone looks like it's older than we thought,

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and the wobbling peanut asteroid. All that and more coming

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up on space Time.

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Welcome to Space Time with Stewart.

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Gary businesses have achieved a significant breakthrough in understanding how

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neutron stars forge heavy elements. The findings reported in the

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Astrophysical Journal show that a perceived roadblock preventing the formation

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of high mass elements is far weaker than previously thought.

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Stars shine by fusing a hydrogen into heal him in

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their core through a process called nuclear synthesis. When they

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run out of core hydrogen, they begin fusing helium into

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oxygen and carbon. Now, for low mass stars like our Sun,

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that's pretty well where the process ends, and the stellar

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remains then turn into a stellar corpse called a white dwarf,

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surrounded by an ever expanding planetary nebula. But for higher

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mass stars, this nuclear synthesis can continue producing increasingly heavier

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and heavier elements until ultimately iron is produced in the

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stellar core. Now, no matter how big a star is

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how much mass it has, no star is large enough

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to fuse iron into heavier elements, and so the process

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ends and gravity takes over, crashing the entire mass of

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the star down into its core, which then rebounds, exploding

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outwards in what's called a core collapse supernova. This blast

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produces many of the elements heavier than iron on the

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periodic table, and it leaves behind a stellar core called

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a neutron star. These are the densest objects in the

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universe other than bl holes. In fact, just a t

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spurt of neutron star material would weigh billions of tons,

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so an object with more than eight times the mass

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of the Sun can be crammed down into a ball

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just twelve or so kilometers wide. But the story doesn't

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end there. The heaviest elements in the universe are generated

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with two neutron stars in a binary system merge in

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what's called a killer Nerver explosion. This violent event triggers

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a rapid neutron capture process, which creates elements like gold, platinum, silver, uranium, thorium,

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and idene. But it doesn't have to be two neutron stars.

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In some binary systems, neutron stars pulled material off conventional stars,

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creating extreme temperatures and pressures which trigger powerful bursts of

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X rays. Recreating these sorts of processes in the lab

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would not explain many unanswered questions about the universe and

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how it works, The studies lead author just S. Prett

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Radoa from Mississippi State University says, by identifying how stellar

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explosions build heavier elements, scientists can gain a picture of

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how the elements that formed planets and support life are

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distributed through the cosmos. Redowa and colleagues wanted to know

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whether nature had a built in roadblock that stopped heavier

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elements from forming during X ray bursts on neutron star surfaces,

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but the authors showed that this roadblock is much weaker

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than expected, meaning the processes that build heavier elements can continue.

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Scientists long suspected that the processes forming heavier elements in

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these bursts could stall at the element copper fifty nine,

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a short lived isotope that decays in less than two minutes.

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Redowa says that brief window has made it difficult for

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its searchers to study the reaction in laboratory, and that's

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supposed a major challenge for direct measurements. In this new study,

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Radawa and colleagues produced the beam of copper fifty nine,

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accelerated it, and then directed it onto a frozen hydrogen

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target before it decayed. The experiment at Canada's National Laboratory

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for Nuclear Particle Physics was the first direct laboratory measurements

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for this key reaction, and it helps solidify I underst

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standing of how the universe works. This is space time

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still to come, the Illusions subduction zone found to be

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much older than previously thought, and the wobbling peanut asteroid

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done Johansson. All that and more still to come on

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space time. A new study has found that the subduction

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zone between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates is

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far older than previously thought. The findings reported in the

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General Nature Communications. Based on rock samples collected from key

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parts of the Allusion Arc island chain. The authors determine

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the age of the rocks using two independent dating methods

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uranium lead dating from zircon crystals and agon argon dating

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of volcanic rocks and minerals. They found the oldest traces

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of subduction are at least fifty six million years old,

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showing that the process began much earlier than many previous

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models had suggested. This earlier age is important because it

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places the birth of the Allusion subduction zone at the

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start of a major chan of tectonic events and a

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reorganization of plate motions right across the Pacific. During this interval,

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several seduction zones and volcanic arcs around the Pacific were formed,

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a spreading center, mid Ocean Ridge was subducted, and a

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large igneous province collided with the North American margin. The

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Illusion arc therefore appears to represent one piece of a

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much larger tectonic puzzle. This is space time still to come.

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The wabbling Peanut asteroid and planet Earth at its greatest

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distance from the Sun. The constellations Regulars and Leo, and

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one of the biggest known stars in the universe, Antaris,

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are among the harlots of July and night skies on SkyWatch. Okay,

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let's take a break from our show for a word

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Stay safe, Stay Private within Cogni. Astronomers studying the Inner

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meant astroid Donald Johansson have found that its rotation wobbles

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rather than rolling through space in a steady pattern, Donald

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Johansen turns on two separate axes, rotating end over end

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once every ten and a half earth days, well wappling

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around its horizontal access every twenty six and a half

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earth days the steadies. Lead author Smirn Marchi from the

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Southwest Research Institute says it's just one of the many

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surprising things learned by NASA's Lucy spacecraft as it flew

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by Donald jo Hansen back on April the twentieth, twenty

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twenty five. Marchie, whose deputy principal investigator on the Lucy

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mission says Lucy's images confirmed the asteroids elongated shape, which

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was initially suggested through Earth based telescope observations. The Lucy

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flyby revealed that this small kilometicized asteroid really does resemble

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a peanut, with a two lobe structure connected by a

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narrower neck. Lucy also detected rich iron clay minerals formed

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long ago the presence of liquid water now these fightings

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could indicate the asteroid form from fragments of a larger

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carbon and water rich asteroid, which would have broken apart

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some one hundred and fifty five million years ago following

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a collision with another object in the main asteroid built

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a region between Mars and Jupiter. Lucy's KATA with Don

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Jo Hansen was considered a test run for its primary

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mission to explore the Trojan asteroids to swarms of ancient

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objet that lead and trailed Jupiter as the Jovian Giant

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orbits around the Sun. Astronomers think these two populations of

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space rocks have been preserved since they formed in the

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early history of our Solar system. Marchy says, once we

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start learning more about the Trojans, a completely different population

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of space rocks are with very different histories sciences understanding

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of our Solar System's formation is likely to be changed

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forever by the way the asteroid Donald Johnson well. It's

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named after the palaeontologist Donald Johansson, who discovered the famous

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Lucy fossil, an earlier Australopithecus hominid found in Ethiopia back

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in nineteen seventy four. Lucy was one of the oldest

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human ancestors ever found and was the inspiration for the

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Lucy Mission's name.

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This space time.

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And time that had turn our eyes to the skies

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and check out the celestious fere for July on SkyWatch.

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July is the seventh month of the year in both

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the Julian Angagorian calendars, and he's named after the Roman

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emperor Julius Caesar, who was born during the month. Before

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being called July, the month was called Quintillus, which is

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Latin for fifth. The addition of the months January and

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February brought an end to that. On average, July is

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the coldest month in the year in the Southern Hemisphere,

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which is experiencing winter, and also marks the time when

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Earth is at a filion its furthest orbital position from

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the Sun. Of course, temperatures are more accurately. Seasons on

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Earth aren't dictated by the distance from the Sun, but

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rather the length of a day and hence the amount

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of sunlight a given part of the Earth receives, which

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is governed by the tilt of Earth's axis. Consequently, that's

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why July is on average the warmest month in the

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Northern Hemisphere, which is currently experiencing summer. Billion will happen

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at three thirty in the morning of July the seventh

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Australian Eastern Standard time. That's one thirty in the afternoon

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of July the sixth the US Eastern daylight time, and

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seventeen thirty in the afternoon Greenwich meantime. During this years

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a philion Earth will be one hundred and fifty two million,

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eighty seven thousand, seven hundred and seventy five kilometers away

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from the Sun. That's about five million kilometers further away

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than during perihelium back in January. Over cosmic time, these

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dates change. That's due to variations in Earth's orbits, such

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as eccentricity, as well as axial children procession, which all

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follow regular cyclic patterns known as Melankovitch cycles. Eccentricity involves

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changes in how elliptical Earth's orbit is around the Sun.

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None of the planets actually orbit the Sun in perfect circles,

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although then Aue and Neptune are the closest. Instead, they

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all have elongated orbits which vary over time. As well

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as that Earth spins on an axis which is currently

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tilted at twenty three point four degrees compared to the

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ecliptic Earth's orbital plane around the Sun. But this angle

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of tourt also changes over time, influenced by, among other things,

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the distribution of the Earth's mass, and just like a

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spinning top, the rotational axis of the Earth also changes

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its orientation through a process called precession, changing its position

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in relation to fixed background stars over a twenty six

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thousand year cycle. Now, all these effects impact the amount

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of solar radiation reaching the Earth and what time it

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reaches the Earth, and consequently the planet's seasonal and climatic patterns.

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Right now, the Southern Cross is at its highest point

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in the southern sky and is pointing directly towards the

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southern celestial pole. The Southern Cross falls within the constellation Centaurus.

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The centaur the half human half horse of Greek mythology,

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and the creature is holding a bow loaded with an arrow.

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The centaur's front legs are marked by the two pointer

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stars are from Beterson to Trus at four point three

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light years. Alpha Centauri is the second of the two

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pointer stars from the Southern Cross, and is also the

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nearest star system to the Sun. The centaur's back arches

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over the Southern Cross, and just above this is Amigasentaury,

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a spectacular globular cluster visible with the unaided eye from

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dark locations. Globular clusters are tightly packspees containing thousands to

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millions of stars. They're thought to have all originally been

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born at the same time from the same elecular gas

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and dust cloud, or the cause of small galaxies which

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have been consumed by bigger galaxies through galactic cannibalism. Amiga

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00:13:40.120 --> 00:13:44.519
Centauri is about sixteen thousand light years away. A light

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00:13:44.600 --> 00:13:47.960
year is about ten trillion kilometers. The distance of foton

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00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:50.679
can travel in a year at three hundred thousand kilometres

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00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:53.159
per second, the speed of light in a vacuum, and

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the ultimate speed limit of the universe. Amigasentaury is one

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of the largest and brightest of the one hundred fifty

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or so globular clusters known to orbit around our Milky

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Way galaxy. Centaurus was one of the forty eight constellations

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listed by the second century Astronomatolemy, and it remains one

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of the eighty eight modern day constellations.

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Turning to the right or.

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West and you'll see the constellation Leo the Lion, just

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00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:24.519
above the western horizon. Its brightest star is Regulus, or

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00:14:24.559 --> 00:14:29.159
the Little King, located about seventy nine light years away. Regulus,

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00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:33.480
designated Alpha Leonnes, is actually a five star system organized

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00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:38.720
into two pairs. Regulus A is a spectroscopic binary comprising

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a special type B blue white main sequence star some

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00:14:42.279 --> 00:14:44.440
four times the mass and two hundred and eighty eight

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00:14:44.480 --> 00:14:48.039
times the luminosity of the Sun, and a faint companion

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00:14:48.120 --> 00:14:51.159
star thought to be a white dwarf the stellar corpse

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00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:55.240
of a sun like star. Spectroscopic binaries are stars that

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can be resolved by optical telescopes into two separate objects,

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00:14:59.159 --> 00:15:01.960
and can only be set breaded by observing their individual

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00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:06.480
spectroscopic Doppler shifts as they orbit each other. Astronomers describe

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stars in terms of spectral types, a classification system based

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on temperature and characteristics. The hottest, most massive, and most

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00:15:14.600 --> 00:15:18.919
luminous stars are spectual type O blue stars. They are

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00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:22.440
followed by spectual type B blue white stars, then spectual

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00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:26.360
type A white stars, spiritual type A F whitish yellow stars,

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specual type G yellow stars. That's where our Sun fits

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00:15:30.200 --> 00:15:33.759
in spectual type K orange stars, and the coolest and

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00:15:33.879 --> 00:15:37.840
least massive known stars are special type M red dwarf stars.

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Each specual classification is also subdivided using a numeric digit

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to represent temperature, with zero being the hottest and nine

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00:15:45.799 --> 00:15:49.960
the coolest, and a Roman numeral to represent luminosity. So

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00:15:50.159 --> 00:15:52.840
put all that together, and our Sun is a spectual

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00:15:52.919 --> 00:15:56.559
type G two V or G two five yellow dwarf star.

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Also included in the stellar classification system are spectrotypes LT

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00:16:01.879 --> 00:16:04.840
and Y, which are assigned to failed stars known as

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00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:08.200
brown dwarves, some of which were actually born as special

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00:16:08.279 --> 00:16:11.679
type M red dwarf stars but became brown dwarfs after

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losing some of their mass. Brown dwarfs fit intel category

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00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:18.639
between the largest planets, which can be about thirteen times

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00:16:18.679 --> 00:16:21.480
the mass of Jupiter and the smallest special type m

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00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:24.559
red dwarf stars, which can be seventy five to eighty

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00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:27.559
times the mass of Jupiter or zero point zero eight

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00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:33.440
solar masses. Located further away a Regulus BCND, which it

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00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:36.480
did mean sequence stars. At the opposite end of the

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00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:40.759
constellation from Regulus is the star Beta Leernes or Dinnibola,

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00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:44.840
the Horse's tail. It's also a luminous blue white star,

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00:16:45.080 --> 00:16:47.799
about half as bright as regulars, and the third brightest

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00:16:47.799 --> 00:16:51.519
star in the constellation. Leo Beta Leernes has about one

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00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:54.840
point eight times the Sun's mass and about fifteen times

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00:16:54.879 --> 00:16:59.000
the Son's luminosity. It's suspected of being a dwarf Cepiot

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00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:03.399
or Daughter Scootie variable star, meaning its luminosity very slightly

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00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:06.960
over period of several hours due to pulsations on its surface.

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00:17:07.880 --> 00:17:11.319
Algebra or Gamma Lions is a binary system with a

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00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:15.240
visible third component. The two primary stars are located about

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00:17:15.240 --> 00:17:17.480
one hundred and twenty six light years away and can

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00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:22.359
be resolved in small backyard telescopes. Both are yellow giants,

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00:17:22.519 --> 00:17:26.319
orbiting each other every six hundred earth days. The unrelated

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00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:29.759
tertiary star named forty Lines is a yellow ting star

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00:17:29.839 --> 00:17:32.960
that can be seen through binoculars. The star traditional name

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00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:37.680
Algebra means forehead. Doughtnes or Zosma is a blue white

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00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:41.359
star fifty eight light years from Earth. Epsilon the Earths

284
00:17:41.359 --> 00:17:43.319
is a yellow giants some two hundred and fifty one

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00:17:43.400 --> 00:17:47.599
light years from Earth, and Zetalynes is an optical triple star.

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00:17:48.279 --> 00:17:51.000
The brightest component is a white giant about two hundred

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00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:53.680
and sixty light years from Earth, while the second brighter star,

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00:17:53.799 --> 00:17:56.920
thirty nine Lines, is widely spaced and located to the

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00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:00.519
south of the primary. The third and faintest star system

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00:18:00.680 --> 00:18:04.680
thirty five Lionuses to the north. Lotal Litis, is a

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00:18:04.680 --> 00:18:09.920
binary star system visible in medium sized backyard telescopes. Located

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00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:13.160
some seventy nine light years away. Lotal Leonis appears to

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00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:16.240
be a yellow tin star with two components orbiting each

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00:18:16.279 --> 00:18:19.599
other every one hundred and eighty three earth years. Finally,

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00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:23.119
in leo Let's look at Taoleonus, visible as a double

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00:18:23.160 --> 00:18:26.759
star through binoculars, It includes a yellow giant located some

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00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:29.599
six hundred and twenty one light years from Earth, and

298
00:18:29.920 --> 00:18:33.799
binary secondary star fifty four Lioners, which is actually a

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00:18:33.799 --> 00:18:37.079
pair of blue white stars. The visible in small telescopes

300
00:18:37.160 --> 00:18:40.039
and located some two hundred and eighty nine light years away.

301
00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:45.160
The constellation Leo also contains many galaxies, including the spiral

302
00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:48.839
galaxy Messia sixty six, as well as Messia sixty five

303
00:18:48.880 --> 00:18:51.880
and NGC thirty six twenty eight, which are known as

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00:18:51.920 --> 00:18:56.599
the Leo triplet. Located some thirty seven million light years away.

305
00:18:56.799 --> 00:18:59.640
The Leo triplet is a somewhat distorted shape due to

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00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:02.839
gravity potentionial interactions between Messia sixty six and the other

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00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:08.119
two galaxies, which are cannibalizing stars from Messia sixty six. Eventually,

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00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:11.599
the outermost stars may will form a dwarf galaxy orbiting

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00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:15.119
M sixty six. Both M sixty five and M sixty

310
00:19:15.160 --> 00:19:19.000
six are visible in large binoculars or small backyard telescopes,

311
00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:23.039
but they concentrated nuclei and elongation are only visible in

312
00:19:23.160 --> 00:19:27.240
larger instruments. Other bright, well known deep sky galaxies in

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00:19:27.319 --> 00:19:32.000
Leo include Messier ninety five, Messier ninety six, and Messia

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00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:36.039
one hundred and five. Messier ninety five and Messier ninety

315
00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:39.599
six are both spiral galaxies, each about twenty million light

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00:19:39.640 --> 00:19:43.960
years from Earth. Both look like fuzzy objects in small telescopes,

317
00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:48.759
but display their spectacular structures in larger instruments. M ninety

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00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:53.039
five is a barred spiral. Another bard spiral, NGC twenty

319
00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:55.599
nine oh three is thought to be similar in size

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00:19:55.599 --> 00:19:58.920
and structured to our own Milky Way galaxy. It was

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00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:03.359
discovered by William Herschel in seventeen eighty four. Close to

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00:20:03.480 --> 00:20:06.079
the M ninety five M ninety six pair is the

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00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:09.200
elliptical galaxy M one oh five, which is also about

324
00:20:09.240 --> 00:20:13.039
twenty million light years away. The constellation also contains the

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00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:17.240
Leo Ring, a cloud of hydrogen and helium gas orbiting

326
00:20:17.240 --> 00:20:21.160
two of the galaxies in the constellation. A gravitationally lensed

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00:20:21.160 --> 00:20:24.599
object known as the cosmic horseshoe is also found in Leo.

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00:20:25.960 --> 00:20:29.880
Above Leo, you'll find the constellation Virgo, the Greek and

329
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:35.119
Roman goddess of wheat and agriculture. Virgo's brightest star, Spiker,

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00:20:35.400 --> 00:20:39.160
is visible above the western horizon. It's located some two

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00:20:39.240 --> 00:20:43.039
hundred and fifty light years away. Spiker is Latin for

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00:20:43.240 --> 00:20:47.200
era of wheat, which Virgo is holding in a hand. Spiker,

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00:20:47.359 --> 00:20:50.319
or Alpha vir Genus, is the sixteenth brightest star in

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00:20:50.359 --> 00:20:54.000
the night sky and is both a spectroscopic binary and

335
00:20:54.079 --> 00:20:58.319
a rotating epsiloidal variable, a close binary system who stars

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00:20:58.359 --> 00:21:01.960
are not eclipsing but caused a parent fluctuations in brightness

337
00:21:02.119 --> 00:21:04.640
because of changes in the amount of light emitting area

338
00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:08.799
visible to the observer. Spike is Two main stars orbit

339
00:21:08.839 --> 00:21:11.759
each other once every four Earth days and are so

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00:21:12.039 --> 00:21:15.160
close their egg shape rather than spherical, and can only

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00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:18.920
be separated by their spectra. The primary is the blue

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00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:24.079
giant variable Beta Cepheid star. It undergoes small rapid variations

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00:21:24.119 --> 00:21:28.400
in brightness. These are caused by pulsations of the star's surface,

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00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:31.359
thought to be caused by the unusual properties of iron

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00:21:31.400 --> 00:21:34.680
at temperatures of two hundred thousand degrees in the stellar interior.

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00:21:35.480 --> 00:21:38.680
It has about ten times the Sun's mass and about

347
00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:42.680
seven times its diameter. The secondary star and spiker, is

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00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:45.720
smaller than the primary, but it's still some seven times

349
00:21:45.759 --> 00:21:48.200
more massive than the Sun and has three point six

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00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:52.160
times the Sun's diameter. Turning to the north now and

351
00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:56.640
the constellation boites the herdsman or plowmen, they'll see the

352
00:21:56.680 --> 00:22:00.519
bright orange red star are Taurus or Alpha Boeti, just

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00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:04.559
above the northern horizon. It's a red giant located just

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00:22:04.640 --> 00:22:08.119
thirty six light years away, a bloated aging star some

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00:22:08.319 --> 00:22:11.359
seven point one billion years old, nearing the end of

356
00:22:11.400 --> 00:22:14.559
its life. Although not much more massive than the Sun,

357
00:22:14.759 --> 00:22:17.440
it's now expanded out to some twenty five times the

358
00:22:17.480 --> 00:22:20.960
Sun's diameter and will soon puff off its outer gases

359
00:22:21.079 --> 00:22:25.359
envelope as a planetary nebula, revealing its white hot stellar core,

360
00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:28.759
a white dwarf which will then slowly cool over the

361
00:22:28.759 --> 00:22:33.240
eons of time. Another bright, reddish looking star, this time

362
00:22:33.240 --> 00:22:36.359
in the east, is the red super giant and Taris,

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00:22:36.839 --> 00:22:40.039
meaning the rival of Mars because of its appearance and

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00:22:40.079 --> 00:22:42.759
location in the sky, which appears to be opposite of

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00:22:42.799 --> 00:22:45.759
Mars in the sky, and Taris is one of the

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00:22:45.799 --> 00:22:49.880
biggest known stars in the universe. It's enormous eighteen times

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00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:53.359
the Sun's mass, ten thousand times its luminosity, and eight

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00:22:53.480 --> 00:22:56.839
hundred and eighty three times the Sun's radius. As we

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00:22:56.920 --> 00:22:59.559
mentioned in last month's SkyWatch, were placed at the center

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00:22:59.559 --> 00:23:02.480
of our solar system, its surface would extend out close

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00:23:02.519 --> 00:23:05.920
to the orbit of Jupiter. Despite being some five hundred

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00:23:05.920 --> 00:23:08.599
and fifty light years away, and Tari's is still the

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00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:12.519
fifteenth brightest star in the night sky. Unlike the Sun

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00:23:12.640 --> 00:23:16.680
or Arcturus. The death of Antaris will be far more spectacular,

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00:23:17.359 --> 00:23:20.559
and Tari's is destined to explode as a core collapse

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00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:24.519
or type two supernova. When it does so sometime in

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00:23:24.559 --> 00:23:27.359
the next few hundred thousand years, it'll appear as bright

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00:23:27.400 --> 00:23:29.720
in the Earth's sky as the full moon and be

379
00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:34.160
quite visible even in daytime. And Taris has a companion star,

380
00:23:34.200 --> 00:23:37.640
and Tari's b a special type blue white main sequence

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00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:40.519
star more than seven times the Sun's mass and five

382
00:23:40.599 --> 00:23:44.160
times its diameter. And Tari's is the heart of the

383
00:23:44.200 --> 00:23:50.079
scorpion in the constellation Scorpius. Below Scorpius is the constellation Sagittarius,

384
00:23:50.119 --> 00:23:52.519
the archer, which points the way to the center of

385
00:23:52.559 --> 00:23:56.680
the Milky Way Galaxy. Sagittarius is commonly represented as a

386
00:23:56.680 --> 00:24:00.240
wing centaur. The center of the Milky Way Galaxy and

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00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:03.799
its super massive black hole, Sergetarius A star lie at

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00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:08.599
the westernmost part of Sagittarius. Sittarius a star is about

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00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:11.759
twenty seven thousand lie years away and has some four

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00:24:11.799 --> 00:24:15.799
point three million times the mass of our Sun. It

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00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:18.599
was in July back in twenty sixteen that the Solar

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00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:22.160
system's Barry center moved outside the Sun, where it will

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00:24:22.200 --> 00:24:25.519
remain until twenty twenty seven. A barry center is the

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00:24:25.519 --> 00:24:29.680
gravitational center of mass of a celestial system. For example,

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00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:32.279
in our Earth Moon system, the Earth and Moon actually

396
00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:35.359
orbit each other around a common center of gravity, a

397
00:24:35.400 --> 00:24:38.640
Barry center. Because the Earth is so much more massive

398
00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:41.480
than the Moon, the Barry center is always inside the

399
00:24:41.519 --> 00:24:45.440
Earth's radius. If it were outside the Earth's radius, the

400
00:24:45.480 --> 00:24:47.880
Earth and Moon would instead have been classified as a

401
00:24:47.920 --> 00:24:52.440
binary planetary system, like Pluto and Sharon. The Solar systems

402
00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:55.880
center of gravity or Barry center, is usually located inside

403
00:24:55.960 --> 00:24:59.079
the Sun's radius. After all, the Sun contains over ninety

404
00:24:59.160 --> 00:25:03.200
nine percent of all Solar System's mass, but actually the

405
00:25:03.240 --> 00:25:06.079
mass of the Solar System is orbiting around the Solar

406
00:25:06.119 --> 00:25:09.440
System's Barri center, which means the Sun also has a

407
00:25:09.599 --> 00:25:13.079
very slight, spiraling twelve year orbit around the Barri center.

408
00:25:13.759 --> 00:25:15.440
And every now and then, when.

409
00:25:15.240 --> 00:25:19.079
The planet's orbital positions are just right, especially when Jupiter

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00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:23.160
and Satura nearest each other, they combine gravitational interactions move

411
00:25:23.240 --> 00:25:26.960
the Solar System's Barri center ever so slightly outside the

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00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:30.880
Sun's radius. And because Jupiter and Satin reached this salime

413
00:25:30.920 --> 00:25:34.400
at every eleven years. Some scientists are speculated whether this

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00:25:34.440 --> 00:25:38.240
could trigger the Sun's eleven year solar cycle. And before

415
00:25:38.279 --> 00:25:41.559
you ask, the Barri center isn't named after some Guyana

416
00:25:41.599 --> 00:25:45.119
Bay Safari suit called Bari, but rather it's the ancient

417
00:25:45.200 --> 00:25:49.200
Greek word for heavy or center of mass. We also

418
00:25:49.240 --> 00:25:52.480
have two meteor showers, both of which peak in late July.

419
00:25:53.880 --> 00:25:56.839
There's the Southern Delta Acorids, which are visible from mid

420
00:25:56.960 --> 00:25:59.839
July to mid August each year, with peak activity on

421
00:26:00.119 --> 00:26:03.839
Lie the twenty eighth and twenty ninth. The shower originated

422
00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:06.440
either from the breakup of what are now the Marsden

423
00:26:06.519 --> 00:26:10.000
and crack sungrazing comets, or from the parent comet P.

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00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:14.319
Ninety six Malcoltz. The Delta Acrids get their name because

425
00:26:14.359 --> 00:26:17.599
the radiant appease the line and the constellation Aquarius he

426
00:26:17.759 --> 00:26:21.359
one of the constellation's brighter stars, Delta aquery. There are

427
00:26:21.359 --> 00:26:25.000
two branches to the Delta Acrods meteor shower, the Southern

428
00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.000
and Northern. The Southern Delta Acrids are considered a strong shower,

429
00:26:29.119 --> 00:26:31.920
with an average between fifteen and twenty meteors an hour

430
00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:35.799
between midnight and dawn. Listeners in the southern hemisphere usually

431
00:26:35.839 --> 00:26:38.240
get the better show because the radiant is higher in

432
00:26:38.279 --> 00:26:42.039
the southern sky. Since the radiant is above the southern horizon.

433
00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:45.039
For northern hemisphere listeners, meteors will be seen to fan

434
00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:48.119
out in all directions east, north, and west, with few

435
00:26:48.160 --> 00:26:51.799
meteors heading southwards unless they're really short near the radiant.

436
00:26:52.359 --> 00:26:54.279
The northern Dota Acrids.

437
00:26:53.799 --> 00:26:56.720
Are the weaker shower, peaking later in mid August, with

438
00:26:56.839 --> 00:27:01.400
an average peak great of about ten meteors per hour. Meanwhile,

439
00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:05.519
the nearby slow and bright Alpha cap Recorded's meteor shower

440
00:27:05.640 --> 00:27:08.680
will take place from as early as July the fifteenth

441
00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:13.000
and continue until around August tenth. The medial shower has

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00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:17.400
infrequent but relatively bright meteors and even some fireballs. It's

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00:27:17.480 --> 00:27:20.680
generated as the Earth passes through a debris trail left

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00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:23.559
by the comet one sixty nine p Neat, which was

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00:27:23.599 --> 00:27:28.720
originally identified as the asteroid two thousand and two EX twelve. However,

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00:27:28.759 --> 00:27:31.799
it was shown to be weekly active during perihelion and

447
00:27:31.880 --> 00:27:35.240
was then reclassified as a comet. The meteor shower was

448
00:27:35.279 --> 00:27:38.599
created about three thousand, five hundred to five thousand years ago,

449
00:27:38.839 --> 00:27:41.720
when about half of the parent body disintegrated and fell

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00:27:41.759 --> 00:27:45.839
into dust. The cloud eventually evolved into Earth's orbit, causing

451
00:27:45.839 --> 00:27:48.519
a shower with peak rates of about five metials an

452
00:27:48.519 --> 00:27:52.519
hour and some outbursts of bright flaring comets radiating out

453
00:27:52.519 --> 00:27:56.200
from the constellation Capricorn towards the south. The bulk of

454
00:27:56.240 --> 00:27:58.440
the comet's debris won't be an Earth's path until the

455
00:27:58.440 --> 00:28:01.519
twenty fourth century, by which time the Alpha Capricornas are

456
00:28:01.559 --> 00:28:05.039
expected to become a major annual meteor storm, stronger than

457
00:28:05.079 --> 00:28:08.880
any current annual shower. And joining us now for the

458
00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:10.960
rest of our tour of the July night skies. You're

459
00:28:10.960 --> 00:28:13.799
seeing your science writer and the Sky and Telescope magazine

460
00:28:13.799 --> 00:28:15.319
contributor Jonathan Nally.

461
00:28:15.279 --> 00:28:18.039
Today, Stuart. Yeah, well, it's July and amateur astronomers actually

462
00:28:18.039 --> 00:28:20.240
love this time and you're for stargazing because those who

463
00:28:20.279 --> 00:28:22.000
live in the northern half of the planet have the

464
00:28:22.039 --> 00:28:24.240
advantage of it being summer at the moment, so the

465
00:28:24.279 --> 00:28:27.000
weather is usually pretty nice and warm and quite pleasant,

466
00:28:27.039 --> 00:28:29.000
although it does mean, of course, the summertime means you

467
00:28:29.039 --> 00:28:31.960
have fewer hours of darkness because of the daytime is longer,

468
00:28:31.960 --> 00:28:33.759
but you know, your nighttime weather is generally a bit

469
00:28:33.839 --> 00:28:36.279
nicer for going out in stargazing. That's pretty good. And

470
00:28:36.279 --> 00:28:37.960
those of us who live in the Southern hemisphere we

471
00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:40.160
love July as well, even though it's colder, but the

472
00:28:40.240 --> 00:28:43.079
nights are longer, and particularly down here, we have an

473
00:28:43.119 --> 00:28:45.720
advantage of the fact that the center of our milky

474
00:28:45.720 --> 00:28:48.640
way o looky ways our galaxy for the inside, and

475
00:28:48.680 --> 00:28:50.680
when we look in a particular direction, we're looking into

476
00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:53.079
the center, the core of our milky way, and that

477
00:28:53.160 --> 00:28:55.119
means there's lots of things to see there. And that

478
00:28:55.240 --> 00:28:59.000
region is the region in and around the Sagittarius constanational Sagittarius,

479
00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:01.839
and also the neighbor in constellational Scorpius. Scorpius is not

480
00:29:01.880 --> 00:29:03.519
directly in line of the center and de gality, but

481
00:29:03.559 --> 00:29:05.160
there's still a lot of great stuff to see there.

482
00:29:05.240 --> 00:29:08.359
This area in the stars full of amazing astronomical objects,

483
00:29:08.359 --> 00:29:10.559
all the usual things that amateur astronomers like to see.

484
00:29:10.559 --> 00:29:13.559
A star clusters of both kinds. You've got globular stark

485
00:29:13.599 --> 00:29:16.799
clusters and open star clusters, and there are nebulae, both

486
00:29:16.839 --> 00:29:19.119
bright ones and dark ones. There are lots and lots

487
00:29:19.160 --> 00:29:22.079
of interesting star patterns nebularly, for instance, Sagittarius has the

488
00:29:22.079 --> 00:29:25.160
famous lagoon Nebula, which is really really pretty, and there's

489
00:29:25.160 --> 00:29:27.960
the equally famous Trippet Nebula. People might have seen pictures

490
00:29:27.960 --> 00:29:30.160
of the Triffet Nebula. It's a reasonably hard under spot.

491
00:29:30.200 --> 00:29:32.240
The really hard under spot in the night sky is

492
00:29:32.519 --> 00:29:34.319
in a rye which can't be seen at the moment,

493
00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:36.160
and it's called the horsehead nebula. And when you look

494
00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:38.279
at pictures of it, you think it's really fabulous and

495
00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:40.640
looks really big and everything, but it's actually tiny in

496
00:29:40.680 --> 00:29:42.440
the sky and it's very very hard to spot. But

497
00:29:42.519 --> 00:29:44.920
the Trifet Nebula lagoon Nebula, up and sanitary, is really

498
00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:46.680
really good down in the southern part of the sky

499
00:29:46.720 --> 00:29:48.839
at list for us. Near in the southern hemisphere, we've

500
00:29:48.839 --> 00:29:51.119
got the Southern Cross. It's up nice and high standing

501
00:29:51.160 --> 00:29:53.880
almost upright with a pair of bright stars nearby. We

502
00:29:53.880 --> 00:29:55.599
talk about these a lot on the paragram. They're called

503
00:29:55.599 --> 00:29:57.480
the pointers because if you draw a line between the

504
00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:00.279
pointers and get the line going, it heads basically straight

505
00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:02.079
towards the Southern Cross, so it's an easy way to

506
00:30:02.079 --> 00:30:04.319
find the Southern Cross. One of those point of stars

507
00:30:04.559 --> 00:30:06.480
is the star system called Alpha cent Toy was a

508
00:30:06.519 --> 00:30:09.680
closer system Drowser, which has two bright stars that are

509
00:30:09.720 --> 00:30:12.160
quite like our Sun, and they're fairly close together, and

510
00:30:12.200 --> 00:30:14.880
there's a third, very very dim start that's further away.

511
00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:17.799
That one is actually the closest start of our solar system.

512
00:30:17.839 --> 00:30:19.279
It's very hard to see that one as you know

513
00:30:19.319 --> 00:30:21.240
exactly what you're looking for and you've got a big telescope.

514
00:30:21.359 --> 00:30:23.799
So to the unaided eye at Alpha sent Tauri, the

515
00:30:23.799 --> 00:30:26.039
opposite dry system looks like just a single star. But

516
00:30:26.079 --> 00:30:27.880
even a small telescope, you can't just give it a

517
00:30:27.880 --> 00:30:31.200
small refractor, a small telescope, cheap one. Let'll split those

518
00:30:31.200 --> 00:30:33.319
two main stars you see in the separate entities. So

519
00:30:33.319 --> 00:30:35.440
that's that's pretty neat. You look over, oh that's one star,

520
00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:37.079
and when you have a first take a closer look, it's

521
00:30:37.079 --> 00:30:39.119
two stars. And there are plenty of examples of those

522
00:30:39.200 --> 00:30:41.480
up in the night sky. So over to the right

523
00:30:41.480 --> 00:30:44.279
of the Southern Cross, also within Milky Way is a

524
00:30:44.319 --> 00:30:47.319
fantastic area to see. Right next to the Cross. For example,

525
00:30:47.440 --> 00:30:50.839
there's a large dark patch in the Milky Way. Now

526
00:30:50.880 --> 00:30:54.640
this is pretty hard to see under city sky because

527
00:30:54.880 --> 00:30:56.799
you've got not much hope of seeing the Milky Way

528
00:30:56.799 --> 00:30:58.839
at all up under shitty stars. But if you do

529
00:30:58.839 --> 00:31:01.640
give an opportunity to get out somewhere dark away from light,

530
00:31:01.960 --> 00:31:04.119
and you can if you literally eyes get dark adapted

531
00:31:04.119 --> 00:31:06.039
and you can see the looky way. We'll have a

532
00:31:06.039 --> 00:31:08.319
look just to the side of the Selling Cross and

533
00:31:08.359 --> 00:31:10.880
you'll see this dark patch and it's called a coal

534
00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:13.079
sack for obvious reasons. But it's black, and it's just

535
00:31:13.119 --> 00:31:15.759
a big cloud of interstellar gas and dust that is

536
00:31:15.880 --> 00:31:18.160
out there in our galaxy. It's interesting that you go

537
00:31:18.279 --> 00:31:20.559
back to you know, not too long ago really in

538
00:31:21.039 --> 00:31:22.960
terms of fifty you know, the one hundred and fifty

539
00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:25.119
years or so, or maybe a bit less. People really

540
00:31:25.119 --> 00:31:28.000
didn't know whether that was a big hole in our

541
00:31:28.039 --> 00:31:30.200
galaxy and where we're looking straight through out to the

542
00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:34.200
other side, or could it be a big dark cloud

543
00:31:34.240 --> 00:31:36.240
of something. And so it turns out to be a

544
00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:38.920
big dark cloud because even to the naked day you

545
00:31:38.960 --> 00:31:41.079
can see a few stars in there. So when you

546
00:31:41.119 --> 00:31:42.960
get tell us scouts under it, you consider are stars

547
00:31:43.039 --> 00:31:44.799
in front of it, them behind it and everything. So

548
00:31:44.799 --> 00:31:47.240
it's just a big cloud of dark gas and dust.

549
00:31:47.400 --> 00:31:49.319
Now in the northern half of the sky. For this

550
00:31:49.400 --> 00:31:50.920
time of year, at least for where I am. Where

551
00:31:50.920 --> 00:31:52.920
I am when I'm looking for the north, it's pretty bare.

552
00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:54.599
But there are a couple of bright stars. We've got

553
00:31:54.599 --> 00:31:56.559
one called Spiker, which is the brighter star in the

554
00:31:56.559 --> 00:31:59.160
constellation of the Ergo. And there's another one called ar Kurus,

555
00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:01.519
which is the bright star in the constellation the Burgons,

556
00:32:01.559 --> 00:32:03.960
And that's not a constellation most people are familiar with.

557
00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:07.559
It's spelled bat e s and it means the herdsman

558
00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:11.000
or the plowman tourists. Is actually the fourth brightest star

559
00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:14.559
in the night sky, and Spiker is the sixteenth brighter star.

560
00:32:14.680 --> 00:32:17.440
So they're pretty brighter the stars and spanning all across

561
00:32:17.440 --> 00:32:19.200
the all that half of the sky as seen from

562
00:32:19.200 --> 00:32:21.440
down here in the south. We've got the zodiac regions,

563
00:32:21.480 --> 00:32:23.400
a dar called Veg and so Virgo is one of those,

564
00:32:23.440 --> 00:32:25.720
a guy called constellation. It's a very large star pap

565
00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:28.440
in Virgo, and it seems quite bare to the naked eye,

566
00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:30.839
but to amateur astronomers they love it because once you

567
00:32:30.880 --> 00:32:33.200
get a telescope in there and start looking around that region,

568
00:32:33.240 --> 00:32:35.839
there are stacks of stacks of stacks are galaxies, including

569
00:32:35.839 --> 00:32:37.799
that big one, and maybe seven, and that's the one

570
00:32:37.799 --> 00:32:39.480
that they as a big black hole in the middle

571
00:32:39.480 --> 00:32:41.000
of it. And they've made that famous picture a few

572
00:32:41.079 --> 00:32:42.279
years ago of the black hole.

573
00:32:42.599 --> 00:32:44.920
First the direct observation of the black hole.

574
00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:47.240
I think it was called the event horizon telescope has

575
00:32:47.240 --> 00:32:50.799
a combination of telescopes. Yeah, and they made a people

576
00:32:51.079 --> 00:32:52.680
people will say, we'll happen to see the black hole

577
00:32:52.680 --> 00:32:54.240
if no life is getting out of it, we're really

578
00:32:54.279 --> 00:32:56.880
you're seeing what's around the black hole and there's a

579
00:32:56.920 --> 00:32:58.559
gap in the middle. So that was that was the

580
00:32:58.559 --> 00:33:00.680
black hole, So that was pretty amazing. There's another really

581
00:33:00.680 --> 00:33:04.000
fantastic galaxy in Virgo too. Now this one also is

582
00:33:04.079 --> 00:33:06.160
really small. You see pictures of it, you think, well,

583
00:33:06.200 --> 00:33:07.759
it's of galaxy, it's got to be big, but when

584
00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:10.039
you go hunting for the telescope, it's really small. It's

585
00:33:10.039 --> 00:33:13.960
called the Sombrero galaxy because it's this almost side on

586
00:33:14.279 --> 00:33:15.319
spiral galaxy with.

587
00:33:15.400 --> 00:33:18.000
A dust plan, beautiful looking galaxy.

588
00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:20.400
Oh, it's a wonderful galaxy. It's really superb and it

589
00:33:20.400 --> 00:33:22.640
looks like a sombrea looks like I have slightly tilted

590
00:33:22.640 --> 00:33:23.079
towards us.

591
00:33:23.160 --> 00:33:26.640
You can see the planes and areas of yeah, Earth,

592
00:33:26.720 --> 00:33:27.640
it is stunning.

593
00:33:27.759 --> 00:33:30.039
It's a fantastic thing. But as I say, the pictures

594
00:33:30.119 --> 00:33:33.400
taken with big telescopes look really impressive, but through a

595
00:33:33.480 --> 00:33:36.440
backyard telescope it's actually quite small, very small in fact,

596
00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:38.319
and you need to take a good long look to

597
00:33:38.319 --> 00:33:40.839
get in in detail at all, because these things are

598
00:33:40.880 --> 00:33:43.279
small and be they're dim, and our eyes are not

599
00:33:43.400 --> 00:33:46.119
good at night time compared the daytimes, which is why

600
00:33:46.240 --> 00:33:48.279
things look so much better in pictures when you're taking

601
00:33:48.400 --> 00:33:50.400
pictures of the night start, because cameras can do a

602
00:33:50.440 --> 00:33:52.720
lot better than our eyes do. Anyhow, that's what's happening

603
00:33:52.759 --> 00:33:55.440
all the constellations of things of the planets now. So

604
00:33:56.000 --> 00:33:58.880
there's quite a bit going on about the northwestern horizon

605
00:33:58.920 --> 00:34:01.640
at the moment it's July. Things. They've got Mercury, Jupiter,

606
00:34:01.720 --> 00:34:04.880
and Venus in that order going upwards from the horizon,

607
00:34:04.920 --> 00:34:07.440
and they can all be seen quite easily. Mercury is

608
00:34:07.559 --> 00:34:10.360
very low, have to say, and looking at it looks

609
00:34:10.400 --> 00:34:13.639
a bit like a small intense dot of light. Jupiter

610
00:34:13.679 --> 00:34:16.880
and Venus above it are much bigger and much brighter. Mercury, though,

611
00:34:17.079 --> 00:34:20.239
is soon to disappear by about the eighth or ninth

612
00:34:20.280 --> 00:34:22.599
of the month, it will have dropped below the horizon.

613
00:34:22.599 --> 00:34:24.679
It's getting lower each night, and so it's going to

614
00:34:24.719 --> 00:34:27.519
fade into the sunset below and then be below the horizon.

615
00:34:27.639 --> 00:34:30.000
Jupiter too is doing the same thing. It's getting lower

616
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:32.199
and lower down on horizon as each night goes past

617
00:34:32.400 --> 00:34:34.000
this month, and by about the middle of the month

618
00:34:34.039 --> 00:34:37.440
sixteenth seventeenth or so, it'll be down below the horizon. Venus,

619
00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:39.960
on the other hand, is climbing higher and higher each

620
00:34:40.039 --> 00:34:42.679
day during July, so you have plenty of opportunities to

621
00:34:42.679 --> 00:34:45.280
see it. You can't miss it. Big and bright, the biggest,

622
00:34:45.280 --> 00:34:47.199
the brightest thing around in that part of the sky,

623
00:34:47.239 --> 00:34:50.199
apart from when the moon is nearby. So if you

624
00:34:50.199 --> 00:34:51.719
want to have a look at Venus, get out and

625
00:34:51.760 --> 00:34:53.159
out this month and do it. It's a really good

626
00:34:53.159 --> 00:34:54.599
time because it's going to be up nice at high

627
00:34:55.159 --> 00:34:58.000
miround for several hours after sunset, so that's a pretty

628
00:34:58.000 --> 00:34:59.800
well time to see it. Get the two bright planet

629
00:35:00.119 --> 00:35:03.239
that we can normally see a Saturn and Mars. These

630
00:35:03.239 --> 00:35:05.239
are a bit later in the night. Saturn will pop

631
00:35:05.280 --> 00:35:07.880
its head over the eastern horizon just after midnight at

632
00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:10.280
the beginning of the month, but earlier by the end

633
00:35:10.280 --> 00:35:13.480
of July about ten thirty pm, so it's fitting higher

634
00:35:13.480 --> 00:35:15.960
and higher. That means as the days are passed, and

635
00:35:16.039 --> 00:35:19.039
about four hours behind Saturn, only probably an hour and

636
00:35:19.079 --> 00:35:21.800
a half two hours before dawn. I suppose we've got Mars.

637
00:35:21.960 --> 00:35:24.119
I will follow up over the east of horizon as well,

638
00:35:24.400 --> 00:35:27.840
more to the northeast. Saturn's pretty much directly east. Mars

639
00:35:27.840 --> 00:35:29.840
be a bit more to the northeast, and it's much

640
00:35:29.880 --> 00:35:32.719
smaller in dinner than Saturn. Chattern looks big and bright

641
00:35:32.800 --> 00:35:36.360
and maybe with a slightly yellowish orangeish sort of kinge

642
00:35:36.480 --> 00:35:39.480
or yellowish kinge. Mars is smaller and as a definite

643
00:35:39.559 --> 00:35:43.159
orange red sort of color. That's one of the ways

644
00:35:43.159 --> 00:35:45.360
you can often tell Mars, because there are that many

645
00:35:45.480 --> 00:35:47.800
bright stars up there that are that kind of color.

646
00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:50.039
So Mars is pretty easy the spot. And if you

647
00:35:50.079 --> 00:35:52.039
are up early to take a look at Mars at

648
00:35:52.079 --> 00:35:53.719
the beginning of the month, like in the first few

649
00:35:53.800 --> 00:35:55.480
days of the month, you're in for an added treat

650
00:35:55.559 --> 00:35:58.199
in fact, because only about five degrees away will be

651
00:35:58.239 --> 00:36:00.440
the same as star cluster known as the Plea. He's

652
00:36:00.440 --> 00:36:03.239
on the seven Sisters. This is a fantastic little clutch

653
00:36:03.280 --> 00:36:06.719
of stars. Most people can see six, maybe maybe seven,

654
00:36:06.760 --> 00:36:09.079
but easily six of these little stars. There are hundreds

655
00:36:09.079 --> 00:36:11.199
and hundreds and hundreds of stars in this plaster. Two

656
00:36:11.239 --> 00:36:13.559
d into the Anid guy. So yeah, Mars will be

657
00:36:13.599 --> 00:36:16.599
about five degrees away. Five degrees is about ten wedths

658
00:36:16.760 --> 00:36:19.440
of the moons about half a degree wide, so that's

659
00:36:19.440 --> 00:36:21.639
pretty close. You certainly should get a good view of that.

660
00:36:21.840 --> 00:36:23.400
But as I say, you've got to be up pretty early,

661
00:36:23.440 --> 00:36:25.800
a couple of hours before dawn, or if you're a

662
00:36:26.119 --> 00:36:28.639
night out you know, anyone like that Stewart who stays

663
00:36:28.679 --> 00:36:33.400
up all night and yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, well, we

664
00:36:33.480 --> 00:36:35.239
want to report next next month, we want to report

665
00:36:35.239 --> 00:36:37.880
on how Mars looked. That the plead is right. Next Look, I'm.

666
00:36:37.719 --> 00:36:41.400
Still getting over the last month's spectacular conjunction between Jupiter

667
00:36:41.440 --> 00:36:41.960
and Venus.

668
00:36:42.039 --> 00:36:43.440
I was going to ask you about that. How did

669
00:36:43.440 --> 00:36:43.639
you go?

670
00:36:43.960 --> 00:36:46.760
That was beautiful, absolutely stunning. And speaking of the play

671
00:36:46.760 --> 00:36:48.559
it Is, which you were a moment ago, the latest

672
00:36:48.559 --> 00:36:51.320
speculation is that super and Ova in the play it

673
00:36:51.440 --> 00:36:53.679
Is may have been what caused the birth of owen Son,

674
00:36:53.760 --> 00:36:55.320
at least that's the latest speculation.

675
00:36:56.039 --> 00:36:59.480
By compressing gas and getting a chain reaction going to.

676
00:37:00.760 --> 00:37:03.960
Guest very young stars and the play is I wish I.

677
00:37:03.920 --> 00:37:06.519
Was a young star against but now I'm collecting. And

678
00:37:06.519 --> 00:37:07.519
that's Stuart is.

679
00:37:09.199 --> 00:37:11.880
That senior science writer and skyte tell Us Get Magazine

680
00:37:11.920 --> 00:37:15.280
contributed Jonathan Elli, and this is Spacetime.

681
00:37:30.239 --> 00:37:31.639
And that's the show for now.

682
00:37:32.360 --> 00:37:35.639
Space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through

683
00:37:35.679 --> 00:37:40.800
at bites dot com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast download provider,

684
00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:44.599
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685
00:37:44.679 --> 00:37:47.639
Time is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on

686
00:37:47.760 --> 00:37:51.880
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687
00:37:52.440 --> 00:37:54.800
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688
00:37:54.800 --> 00:37:58.480
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access to triple episode commercial free versions of the show,

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as well as lots of burnus audio content which doesn't

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go to weir, access to our exclusive Facebook group, and

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other rewards. Just go to space Time with Stewart Gary

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dot com for full details.

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You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary.

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This has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot

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com