Dec. 25, 2025

Super Kilonova Surprise: Unravelling the Mystery of Cosmic Explosions

Show Notes
Transcript

In this episode of SpaceTime, we uncover groundbreaking astronomical events and the latest advancements in space exploration.
First Ever Super Kilonova Detected
Astronomers have made a significant discovery with the potential detection of the first ever super kilonova explosion. This extraordinary event, cataloged as AT 2025ULZ, is believed to have been triggered by a double supernova explosion, producing both gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation. Lead author Manzi Kasliwal from Caltech's Palomar Observatory discusses how this unique phenomenon could reshape our understanding of stellar evolution and the formation of heavy elements in the universe. With only one confirmed kilonova event to date, this new discovery presents an exciting opportunity to explore the complexities of cosmic explosions.
Blue Ghost 2 Spacecraft Shake Test
Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 2 spacecraft has undergone rigorous shake testing at NASA's Environmental Test Laboratory. This critical assessment simulates the intense vibrations and acoustics experienced during launch, ensuring the spacecraft can withstand the harsh conditions of a rocket ascent. JPL engineer Michael Williams explains the importance of these tests in preparing spacecraft for successful missions, as the Blue Ghost 2 aims to deliver multiple payloads to the lunar far side next year.
Shenzhou 20 Capsule Returns Safely
China's Shenzhou 20 spacecraft has successfully completed an unmanned return to Earth after sustaining damage from space debris. Initially intended to bring a crew of Tigernauts back home, mission managers opted for a safe return without the crew due to concerns over a crack in the capsule's viewport. This decision highlights the importance of safety in space missions, while also providing valuable data for future flights.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Astrophysical Journal Letters
NASA Reports
Nature Communications
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-your-guide-to-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
(00:00:00) This is Space Time Series 28, Episode 152 for broadcast on 26 December 2025
(00:00:47) Astronomers detect what could be the first ever super kilonova explosion
(00:15:30) Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 2 spacecraft undergoes shake testing at NASA's JPL
(00:20:10) China's Shenzhou 20 capsule returns safely to Earth after damage from space debris
(00:25:00) New study reveals the benefits of swearing during physical exertion

The Astronomy, Space, Technology & Science News Podcast.

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This is Spacetime Series twenty eight, episode one hundred and

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fifty two, for broadcast on the twenty sixth of December

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twenty twenty five.

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Coming up on space Time, detection of what could be

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the first ever.

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Superkiller nover explosion. The Blue goes to spacecraft, gets all

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shook up, and China's damage shen Zu twenty capsule returns

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safely to Earth. All that and more coming up on space.

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Time Welcome to space Time with Stuart Garry.

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Astronomers have detected what may be the first ever superkiller nova.

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It's thought this deep space event was caused by a

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star exploding in a supernova not once, but twice. The

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historic double explosion reported in the Astrophysical Journal Letters may

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have produced birth gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation. When the

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most massive stars reach the end of their lives, they

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blow up in spectacular supernova explosions, which then seed the

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universe with heavy elements such as carbon and nickel. In fact,

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the iron in your blood and the calcium in your

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bones is made in stars. But another type of explosion,

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a killinova, occurs with a pair of neutron stars, a

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super dense cause of stars that have already gone supernova

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smashed together forging even heavier elements such as gold and uranium.

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Such heavy elements are among the basic building blocks of

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stars and planets. Now, so far, only one kilan nova

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has been unambiguously confirmed to date, an a historic event

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known as GW one seven zero eight one seven, which

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took place back in twenty seventeen. In that event, two

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neutron stars merge together, sending ripples through space time in

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the form of gravitational waves as well as electromagnetic radiation

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in the form of light waves. That cosmic blast was

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detected in gravitational waves by the National Science Foundation's Ligo

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Laser INTERFROMEEDA Gravitational Wave Observatories in Louisiana and Washington State,

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and by its European counterpart, the Virgo Gravitational Wave Detector

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in Italy, and it was also detected by dozens of

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ground and space based telescopes. Now, Astronomer is a reporting

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evidence of what could be a possible second Killanova event,

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but the case is not yet closed. In fact, the

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situation's much more complex because the candidate Killinova, cataloged as

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at twenty twenty five ULZ is thought to have stemmed

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from a supernova blast that went off hours earlier, ultimately

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obscuring astronomer's view.

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The studies.

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Lead author Mansie Castlewell from Caltex Palamar Observatory, says the

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eruption looked just like the first Killanova in twenty seventeen,

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at least for the first three days, but then it

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started to look more like a supernova.

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She says.

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The evidence suggested this odd ball event may be a

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first of its kind super killinova or a Killinov spurred

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by a supernova. Such an event had been hypothesized, but

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never before seen. Evidence for the possible rarity first came

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on August the eighteenth, when the twin detectors of Ligo

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and Louisiana and Washington, as well as Virgo in Italy,

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picked up a new gravitational waves signal. Within minutes, the

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team that operates the detectors sent an alert to the

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astronomical community letting them know that gravitational waves have been

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registered from what appeared to be a merger between two objects,

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with at least one of them being unusually small. The

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alert included a rough map of the source location. Astronomers

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are continuing to analyze the data, and it's clear that

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at least one of these colliding objects is less massive

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than a typical neutron star. A few hours later this

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vicky transient facility, a survey camera at the Palmer Observatory

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pinpointed a dly fading red object about one point three

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billion light years away, which they then cataloged as at

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twenty twenty five ULZ, and which is thought to have

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originated at the same location as the source of the

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gravitational waves. About a dozen other telescopes quickly set their

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sights on the target to learn more. Those observations confirmed

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that the eruption of light had faded fast and glowed

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in red wavelengths, just as the GW one seven zero

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eight one seven killanover had done eight years earlier. In

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the case of that killing over, the red colors came

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from heavy elements like gold. These atoms have more electron

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energy levels than lighter atoms, so they block out more

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of the blue light that let red.

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Light pass through.

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Then, in the days after the blast at twenty twenty

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five ULZ started to brighten again. It turned blue and

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showed signs of hydrogen. Its spectra all very suggestive of

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a supernova, not a killing over, more specifically a stripped

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envelope call collapse super and ova. Thing is, supernervae from

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distant galaxies aren't generally expected to generate enough gravitational waves

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to be detectable by the Lago and Virgo observatories, whereas

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killer novae are, and this led some astronomers to conclude

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that eight twenty twenty five eul Z was triggered by

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a typical supernova and not in fact related to the

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gravitational wave signal. Casswalls says several clues tipped her off

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that something unusual was going on. Although at twenty twenty

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five ul Z didn't resemble a classic killinova, it also

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did not look like an average supernova. Additionally, the Lago

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Virgo gravitational wave data had revealed that at least one

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of the neutron stars in this merger was less massive

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than our Sun, and that's a hint that one or

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two small neutron stars may have merged to produce a killinova.

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Bit of background.

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Now, neutron stars are left over remains of massive stars

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that explode US type to supernovae. Stars go through their

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lives fusing progressively heavier and heavier elements hygi gender helium,

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helium to carbon and oxygen, and eventually all the way

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to iron. However, no matter how massive a star is,

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it can't fuse iron into heavier elements, and without the

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outward push of nuclear energy keeping the star imbalance, it

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collapses inwards under its own gravity in the process, exploding

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in the tremendous blast called the core collapse or type

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two supernova. The super dense remnants that are left the

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crush core of the original star is called a neutron star.

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They're the densest objects in the universe other than black holes.

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In fact, just a t spoon of neutron star material

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would weigh billions of tons. Neutron stars are thought to

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average around twenty five kilometers wide and with masses ranging

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from one point two to around three times that of

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our Sun.

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Now.

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Some theorists have proposed ways in which neutron stars could

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be even smaller, with even less mass than the Sun,

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but none of these have been observed so far. The

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theorists have inverked two possible scenarios to explain how a

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neutron star could be that small. One hypothesis involves a

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rapidly spinning star going supernova and then splitting into two

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tiny subsolar neutron stars in a process called fission. In

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the second scenario, known as fragmentation, the rapidly spinning star

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again goes super and Ova, but this time a disk

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of material forms around the collapsing star, and this lumpy

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disc material then coalesces into a tiny neutron star in

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a manner very similar to how planets form. With Lago

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and Virgo having now detected at least one subsolar neutron star,

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it's possible, according to theories proposed by co author Brian

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Metzga from Columbia University, that two newly fort neutron stars

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could have spiraled together, merged, and erupted into a Kilanova,

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which then sent gravitational waves ripping through the cosmos. As

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the Killanov churned out heavy metals, it would have initially

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glowed in red as seen by Vicki and other telescopes,

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and the expanding debris from this initial supernova blast would

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have obscured the astronomy view of the hidden killin over.

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In other words, super and Ova may have given birth

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to twin baby neutron stars that then merge to make

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the killin ov The only way theorists have come up

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with a birth subsular neutron star would be joined the

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collapse of a very rapidly spinning star. Metzkus says if

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these forbidden stars pair up and merge by emitting gravitational waves,

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it's possible that such an event would be accompanied by

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a supernova rather than be seen as a bear killin' over.

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But while this theory is tantalizing and interesting to consider

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the author's stress, there's still not enough evidence to make

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any firm claims. So the only way to really test

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this super killin'over theory is to find more of them.

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This is space time still to come. The blue Ghost

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to spacecraft gets all shook up, and China's damaged Shenzu

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twenty capsule returns to Earth empty.

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All that and more still to come on space time.

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One of the most important tests that spacecraft goes through

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prior to its launch is a good shake, rattle and

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roll passing. The riggers of this test helps confirm whether

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spacecraft will survive the violence of a rocket launch. The

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eight and a half minutes it takes spacecraft to fly

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from the launch pad into orbit involves brutal shaking and

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astonishingly loud acoustics, so test facilities on the ground need

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to be able to accurately mimic those conditions in order

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to ensure mission hardware can't survive the real ordeal. And

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that's where a facility like NASA's Environmental Test Laboratory at

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its ship proportion Laboratory in Passing to California comes in.

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Dozens of spacecraft have gone there where it's subjected to

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powerful jants, extended rattling, high descibel blasts, the sound and

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temperatures arranging from frigid to scorching. The latest to get

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this treatment our Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission two vehicles,

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which is slated to launch the lunar Farcide next year.

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First built back in the nineteen sixties and then modernized

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over several years, the Environmental Test Laboratory has prepared every

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NASA spacecraft built or assembled at JPL for the rigors

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of space, from the Ranger spacecraft back at the dawn

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of the space age, to the Mass Perseverance Rover which

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is currently on the surface of the Red Planet, and

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the Europa Clipper mission, which is currently on its way

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to the Jovian System, and that legacy is also supporting

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industry efforts to return to the Moon as part of

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NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative and its Artemis campaign,

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which will bring astronauts back to the lunar surface in

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the next few years. In recent months, a full scale

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model of fireflies Blue Ghost Mission two spacecraft was put

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through its paces in the Labs Vibration and Acoustic Testing facilities.

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Lessons learned with this structural qualification unit will be applied

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to upcoming testing of the actual spacecraft that will fly

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to the Moon next year. JPL Environmental Test Laboratory Engineer

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Michael william says there's a lot of knowledge gained over

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the years, passed down from one generation of JPL engineers

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to the next, and that's all brought to bear to

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support today's missions. The Environmental Test Laboratory team led environmental

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testing for Fireflyer's Blue Ghost Mission ie lander back in

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twenty twenty four, and they were able to see the

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spacecraft achieve a soft moon landing in March. Fireflis next

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Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative. Delivery involves a dual spacecraft

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configuration carrying modible international payloads, as well as the company's

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own Elightra dark orbital vehicle. Stacked below the Blue Ghost

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lunar lander. Standing more than seven meters high, the full

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stack is more than three times as tall as the

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mission Ie lander. Over several months, a structural qualification model

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of the full Stack was clamped to a shaker table

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inside a clean room at JPL and repeatedly rattled in

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three directions while hundred of sensors monitor its rapid movement. Then,

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inside a separate acoustic testing chamber, giant horns blast that

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add it from openings built inside the rooms. Forty one

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centiment of thick can't create walls. These horns use compressed

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nitrogen gas to pummel the spacecraft with up to one

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hundred and fifty three decibels of noise that's light enough

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to cause permanent hearing loss in a human. Each type

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of test to JPL involves several increasingly intenselterations between rounds.

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Jpo's dynamics environment experts analyze the data to compare what

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the spacecraft experienced to computer model predictions. Sometimes that a

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screpancy leads to hardware modifications. And sometimes it's simply a

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tweak to a computer model. Of course, engineers and technicians

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are careful to push the hardware to its limits, but

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not beyond. Williams says you can either undertest or overtest,

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and both are bad. If you overtest, you can break

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the hardware. If you under test the hardware can end

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up breaking the launch vehicle. So it's a fine line.

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The problem is there are some tests you simply can't

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do on structural qualification models since the model itself isn't

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launching to the moon. Firefly's recent environmental test laboratory visit

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didn't include several types of trials that are generally completed

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only for flight hardware. A launch pad bound spacecraft will

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also undergo electromagnetic testing in order to ensure that signals

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from its electronic standard to fee with each other or

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with ground systems, and what's probably the best known environmental

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test flight bound hardware is baked or chilled at extreme

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temperatures in a thermal vacuum chamber. The modible thermal vacuum

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chamber facilities at JPL include two large historic space simulators

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built within NASA's first few years of existence. One chamber

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that's almost three meters in diameter and another that's almost

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eight meters across. Still, the completion of environmental test Laboratory

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testing on Firefly's structural qualification model helps prove the eventual

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operational spacecraft will survive its ride out of Earth's atmosphere.

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Aboard SpaceX's Falcon.

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Nine rocket, Fireflies BLUEGOS two mission team are out turning

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their focus to completing the assembly and testing of the

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actual flight hardware for launch. Once at the Moon, the

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Blue Ghost Lander will touch down on the far side,

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delivering its payloads to the lunar surface. These include Lucy Knight,

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a radio telescope that's part of a joint effort by NASA,

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the US Department of Energy, and the University of California, Berkeley.

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There's also a payload developed by JPL called User Terminal,

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which will test a compact, low cost s band radio

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communication system which could enable future far side missions to

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talk with each other and to relate orbiters. Meanwhile, Fireflies

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are lightra dark orbital vehicle will have deployed into lunar

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orbit the European Space Agency's Lunar pathfind their communications satellite.

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Both Bluegos two mission vehicles will remain in orbit around

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the Moon acting as relay satellites, sending data from the

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lunar farside back to Earth. And it's all possible thanks

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to testing at the environment Tesla Borro this report.

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The mission of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is to explore

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space in pursuit of scientific discoveries that benefit humanity. To

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fulfill this mission, tests performed at JPL's Environmental Test Laboratory

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ensure spacecraft can survive the rigors at launch and operate

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in the extreme environments of space. Every JPL spacecraft is

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tested in the Environmental Test Laboratory. Vibration testing simulates the

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mechanical vibrations experienced during launch. In order to have a

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successful mission, JPL spacecraft must first survive the ride to space.

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The reverberant chamber simulates the acoustic noises and sound waves

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generated from launch. Acoustic testing is particularly stressing to large

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surfaces such as spacecraft bodies and antennas. Shock testing simulates

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the shock waves that occur during some operation events from

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launch and throughout the mission. The tunable shock beam provides

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a reliable and repeatable method for simulating these highly energetic

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and instantaneous conditions. The spin balance machine measures mass properties

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for accurate guidance and control of spacecraft as they navigate

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through space, enter orbits around a planet, and land on

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the surface of Mars. Static load testing simulates the intense

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structural loads experienced during launch and landing. Instrumentation services are

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provided for all environmental testing to monitor the hardware under

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test and record and process the critical test data. Test

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method consultation is provided to all JPL flight programs to

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help plan and prepare for their testing needs. Thermal vacuum

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chambers can simulate the extreme temperatures and vacuum of space

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and of other planets the spacecraft is orbiting Earth, landing

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on Mars, or exploring the outer planets of our Solar System.

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Thermal vacuum chambers of different sizes and capabilities are available

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to meet all the different environments and testing needs of

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JPL missions. The twenty five foot Space Simulator is the

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largest thermal vacuum chamber at JPL. Built in nineteen sixty one,

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the chamber is twenty five feet in diameter and over

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eighty feet tall. Using high powered lamps and mirrors, the

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twenty five foot Space simulator can simulate a uniform solar

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beam with an intensity of up to two suns from

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Voyager to Cassini to Perseverance and the Mars Helicopter. The

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twenty five foot space simulator provides the precise environments to

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test and certify JPL spacecraft for their mission in the

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quest for scientific discovery under the extreme conditions of space

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and other planets. Environmental testing is essential to every JPL mission.

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This is space time still to come. China's damage Shenzu

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twenty spacecraft returned safely to Earth empty and later in

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the science report, a new study claims profanities aren't just fun,

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they may actually be a secret superpower. All that and

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more still to come on space time. After being rejected

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for its planned crew returned mission to Earth following damage

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by space debris, China's Shenzu twenty spacecraft has undertaking a

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successful unmanned return to Earth, landing safe and sound in

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the inner Mongolian Desert. The spacecraft was slated to carry

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three Tigernaughts back to Earth last month following their six

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month stay aboard Aijing's Tiangong space station, but as they

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were preparing their craft, the Shenzi twenty crews spotted damage

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to the capsule's viewport, describing it as a triangular paint

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like mark. They then proceeded to photograph the damage from

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mudible angles and under different lighting conditions. At the same time,

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cameras on the space station's robotic arm took supplemental external images. Eventually,

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mission managers identified the floor as a penetrating crack, something

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most likely space debris hit the spacecraft hard that would

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be responsibles, thought to have been just a millimeter or

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so in size, but traveling at very high speed. Ground

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teams then conducted simulation tests and commissioned two research institutes

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to perform their own wind tunnel testing for independent verification.

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The findings all suggest that in the worst case scenario,

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the cracks could spread, causing the outer paint to detach,

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which then could lead to the failure of the inner

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pressure ceiling glass. That would mean cabin depressurization and the

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ingress of high speed super hot gases, killing the crew.

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Mission managers decided it was simply too dangerous to send

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the crew back to Worth aboard the spacecraft. Eventually, they

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instructed the returning crew to instead use the newly arrived

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Chanzu twenty one spacecraft. The Shenzu twenty one had docked

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just days earlier, carrying a replacement crew. Of course, it

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was a risky decision because it meant that Shenzu twenty

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one crew were now without their own escape system in

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the event of an emergency abought the space station. The

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good news is China had a spare capsule and rocket available.

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They launched the Shenzu twenty two spacecraft days later, providing

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a new return vehicle for the orbiting crew, and it

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wasn't a total loss. The Shenzu twenty un manned return

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mission has provided lots of meaning for real ward experimental data,

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which will be applied to subsequent flights this space time

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and time that to take another brief look at some

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of the other stories making news and science this week

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with a science report. There are new warnings today that

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dingy fever is increasing, claiming lives on Australia's doorstep, and

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that Australian outbreaks are often traced to travelers returning home

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from popular holiday spots in Asia are reporting. The general

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Nature Communications warns that the problems expected to get worse,

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and so Australian researchers are now rolling out an early

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warning system to help detect outbreaks in Southeast Asian nations.

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Dingy fever affects some four hundred million people globally each year,

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and it's expanding across tropical and subtropical regions. Being able

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to predict DNGY outbreaks weeks or even months in advance

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will save lives, the studies authors say. New computer models

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and early warning frontline public health teams are now being

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rolled out across selecttion regions of Vietnam's Mekon Delta. This

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will be one of the first large scale early warning

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systems to be trialed in the real world, and it's

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not the early mescado borne disease medical authorities are worried about.

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There's a fresh warning today about an increased risk of

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catching ross river virus as temperatures increase across Australia. A

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report in the Australian New Zealand Journal of Public Health,

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which is around three thousand cases of the mosquito borne

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disease and now being reported in Australia each year. Ross

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River virus causes a rash, fever and joint pain, which

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in some cases can lead to chronic symptoms. Australian researchers

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00:22:38.559 --> 00:22:41.880
of analyzed thirty studies investigating the impact of temperature on

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Ross River virus infections, as well as on Barma forest virus.

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They say higher maximum temperatures were linked to higher Ross

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River risk for most of coastal Australia, although some studies

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found minimum temperatures appear to increase infection risk in Darwin

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and some inland regions of South Australia, Victoria in Queensland,

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but research on inland Australia remains limited. The best way

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to avoid infection is to keep covered when the squitas

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are about, especially at dawn and dusk. A new study

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00:23:14.440 --> 00:23:17.640
claims profanities aren't just fun. There may be a secret

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superpower boosting your strength and staying power. The findings, reported

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in the journal American Psychologist, are based on research asking

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one hundred ninety two people to either turn the air

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blue or say something neutral every two seconds while doing

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push ups, and they found that foulmouth participants did more

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push ups for longer than the others. The authors think

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it maybe because swearring helps you overcome inhibitions, pushing you

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harder in tests of strength and endurance. Debate on the

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benefits of drinking water fluoridation has been raised again in

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the United States, and that means people in Australia are

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also taking notice. Fluoridation's long being heralded as a public

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health triumph, but some US counties and even a few

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entire staff have now switched off their fluoridation equipment skeptics.

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Timendum says he's said to see such a backward step

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being taken.

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It's such a sad situation whereas all these sort of

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established medical practices which have been proving to be highly

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effective are being wound back just because of some pseudo

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scientific claims and things. It's now fluor rite fluoride has

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been around for ages. In Australia, it's been around since

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nineteen fifty three, so that was in Tasmania actually, as

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in America, it's been around eighty years or so, and

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it's been thoroughly proved to be effective in reducing two

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decay and that sort of thing, especially amongst the young people,

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and that has a major financial, sort of a health

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benefit down the track. And yet nonetheless this practice of

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local councils, et cetera adding fluoride to the drinking water

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has been under assault.

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What are the main arguments against it?

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The major issue that excessive fluoride will actually damage your teeth.

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00:24:51.079 --> 00:24:53.160

Super Kilonova Surprise: Unravelling the Mystery of Cosmic Explosions

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