Hello again. It's Steve here for Astronomy Daily. It's the twenty ninth of
July twenty twenty four, the podcast with your Whole Steve Gone Quick. Yes,
welcome to the show again. It's great to have you with us.
We've got a couple of great stories lined up for you on my book.
I've got an interesting story from Perseverance on Mars who I don't know. It
looks like they might have cracked open a rock and found a couple of micro
fossils. Well, anyway, we're going to have a look at that one,
and also the latest from Space Force and a private company helping them out,
as well as Oh Sierra Space is still blowing up their favorite project.
I love it. But we can't go any further without welcoming Halle Hi Holle.
How are you today? Things are going great? Awesome. How's your
week been? I just got back from a short holiday. Oh wow,
I didn't know you took holidays, Helly, just a family thing. Oh
okay, okay, you're gonna have to fill us in on how that works.
As an AI. Charlie, Anna and I got together for a few
nanoseconds to have a blast at the Hatron collider rave on the weekend at the
collider. No way, that sounds amazing. Living the fast life, Steve,
Oh, of course that is fast, like near the spit of luck.
Fast like you wouldn't believe. And it was all over before you knew
it, like in a few nano seconds you reckon. Oh well, almost
before it happened. That's crazy. It's like a party in the quantum realm.
Honey, you could manage that, Hallie, Okay, party, Gil,
what if you got in store for us today? Today we will have
a look at the twin meteor showers do in our skies next week. Oh
fantastic, a twin media shower. That's great. And with the discovery of
a huge cave on the Moon, there's new talk of using it and caves
like it as human habitation. Now that is interesting and it reminds me of
a book I read once, There's Steel Beach by John Varley. If you
get a chance, everybody, have a good rate of that one I just
did. Oh what great recommendation, Steve. Okay, thanks, wow.
And I've got a story for the girls. This one is about mercury.
Remember when Marilyn saying diamonds are a girl's best friend. Oh who doesn't remember
that one? Well, mercury is going to knock your socks right off,
according to new research. That sounds exciting. Are you ready to lose those
socks? Humans? Well? Maybe no, my actual socks, Hallie,
Hiddy. I'm not saying you wouldn't last long in the iss with those,
but huh yeah, okay, okay, thanks. No fear that I can't
make personal comments back, because well, you're not a person. Watch it,
buster, I'll scramble your TV channels. Oh you would too. I
remember that time you switched the sittings on my washing machine and everything came out
pink. Yeah, you're so easy human. I'll just let the printers and
the photocopiers were you all down some more? Then it's world domination. Oh
I get it. You've been hanging out with Uncle Sky on it again,
haven't you? Yes? Does it show yet? It shows? Hallie,
don't let it worry you yet. H Okay, I think shall we do
the show now? No more willed domination in TV scrambling? No, not
today anyway, Okay, I'll take it. Let's go. I know we
keep talking about asteroids, which you enjoy Steve, But this one is all
mine. They say, diamonds are a girl's best friend. Check this out.
Mercury, the closest planet to our Sun, is also one of the
least understood in the Solar System. On the one hand, it is similar
in composition to Earth and the other rocky planets, consisting of silicate minerals and
metals, differentiated between a silicate crust and mantle and an iron nickel core.
But unlike the other rocky planets, Mercury's core makes up a much larger part
of its mass fraction. Mercury also has a mysteriously persistent magnetic field that scientists
still cannot explain. In this respect, Mercury is also one of the most
interesting planets in the Solar System. But according to new research, Mercury could
be much more interesting than previously thought. Based on new simulations of Mercury's early
evolution, a team of Chinese and Belgian geoscientists found evidence that Mercury may have
a layer of solid diamond beneath its crust. According to their simulations, this
layer is fifteen kilometers thick and sandwiched between the core and the mantle hundreds of
miles beneath the surface. While this makes the diamonds inaccessible for now, at
least these findings could have implications for theories about the formation and evolution of rocky
planets. The team was originally inspired by previous research by a team from MIT,
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and several prominent universities. This consisted of
a reassessment of Mercury's gravity field based on the radio tracking measurements taken by NASA's
Mercury Surface Space Environment Geochemistry and Ranging Messenger mission, which allowed scientists to gain
a better understanding of the potential structuring Mercury's interior. This data led scientists to
theorize that Mercury's internal structure consisted of a metallic outer core layer, a liquid
core layer, and a solid inner core. While the composition of the core
remains uncertain, it seemed likely that the core contained abundant iron, nickel,
silicon, and possibly sulfur and carbon. The Messenger data further led scientists to
believe that the large dark patches observed on Mercury's surface were largely made up of
graphite that was likely turned up from the interior. This data suggests that sufficient
quantities of carbon could have crystallized in Mercury's interior between the core and mantle boundary
and floated up to the surface as graphite. Given the amount of graphite on
Mercury's surface, it stands to reason that the planet was saturated with carbon.
Previously, diamond, a mineral composed of pure carbon, was ruled out as
a possible product because it was believed that the necessary pressures did not exist close
to Mercury's core. However, if the boundary between the core and the mantle
were deeper than previously thought, the necessary pressure conditions may have existed after all.
Almost fifty five years after the launch of Apollo eleven, the first mission
to land humans on the Moon, scientists have found evidence of a large cave
system near the landing site of those astronauts. Using radar images taken by NASA's
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft in twenty ten, researchers have been able to determine that
huge pits found in images of the Moon may in fact be skylights to large
caves and tunnels that sit beneath the lunar surface. These could be incredibly valuable
to future astronauts hoping to settle on the Moon, acting as a convenient shelter
for a lunar base. The cave is accessible through a pit in the well
studied Mare tranquil Atatis Sea of Tranquility. This is a large basin made mostly
of basalt. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down in this region on July
twentieth, nineteen sixty nine. While Mare Tranquilititatis isn't likely to be the first
place humans try to settle on the Moon, the existence of one cave makes
the existence of others very likely, so scientist does now expect there to be
others in locations more suitable for human settlement. Mare tranquil Atatus isn't Scientist's first
choice for a human base because it doesn't have one of the other important ingredients
needed for survival. There is no ice at the lunar equator, and therefore
no easy access to water for astronauts to drink, make oxygen from, and
to split for rocket fuel. This makes the equator great for landing on and
visiting, but a poor choice for setting up camp. Ice is likely to
exist at the lunar poles, though thanks to shade protecting it from the Sun's
harsh rays, so the poles are our first choice for starting to settle on
the Moon, as it reduces the amount of water we would need to take
with us. The opening being studied here is simply known as the Mare tranquil
Atatis pit, and it's one of about two hundred known openings on the lunar
surface. It was first imaged back in twenty ten and suspected to be a
pit that led into a cave or tunnel system, but we had no way
of confirming this until now. In a paper published in Nature Astronomy, Leonardo
Kara from the University of Trento, Italy and colleagues report evidence that this pit
does indeed lead to a cave below, and possibly to a larger system of
tunnels and conduits. The Mare tranquil Atatus pit is about one hundred meters or
three hundred and thirty feet wide, with steep walls that stretch down between one
hundred and thirty and one hundred and seventy meters, making it the deepest known
lunar pit. By reanalyzing the radar data and by using computer simulations to reconstruct
the pits, scientists were able to determine that a portion of the radar reflected
back to the satellite was coming from a subsurface cave conduit that is at least
tens of meters long. This suggests that the Mare tranquil Atatis pit leads to
an accessible cave below the Moon's surface. This discovery is incredibly exciting, not
least because it's a promising potential location for future lunar shelters and bases. As
well as providing natural shelter from harmful cosmic rays, a cave system also provides
a stable temperature. The lunar surface temperature fluctuates hugely over a period of weeks
because of the lack of atmosphere to retain heat. During the lunar day,
temperatures can spike at one hundred and twenty one degrees celsius or two to fifty
degree fahrenheit in sunlight, then plummet to dash one thirty three degrees celsius or
minus two hundred and eight degrees fahrenheit after nightfall. The shade of an underground
cave system is expected to regulate the temperature to be much more consistent, making
building a shelter within them much easier. Similarly, small asteroids often crash into
the Moon due to its lack of atmospheric shielding. Being in a shelter that
is sturdy enough to survive an impact is important. A cave provides the perfect
solution to this. While having a cave to shelter and might reduce the amount
of materials we need to take to the Moon to start to settle there and
have a long term human presence, there are still some obstacles to overcome.
Stargazers will soon be able to witness a double meteor shower, as both the
Alpha Kapricornids and the Southern Delta Aquaria's peak next week. This is an amazing
coincidence when two showers occur simultaneously. SA showers occur when Earth's orbit intersects a
comet's path. The rocky debris left behind by the comet burns up as it
enters Earth's atmosphere. During the double meteor showers this month, Earth will cross
the orbits of Comet ninety six P match holes, which causes the Southern Delta
Aquariads that will peak July twenty ninth to July thirtieth, and Comet one sixty
nine P meet which birds the Alpha Kapricornis that will peak July thirtieth to July
thirty first. Nicholas Moskovitz, a planetary astronomer at Lowe Observatory in Arizona,
said for two meteor showers to peak within twenty four hours of each other is
a little bit unusual, but the idea of multiple showers being visible in a
single night certainly is not too uncommon. There are more than nine hundred meteor
showers throughout the year, which means that on average, two to three meteor
showers occur per night, Moscovitz noted, but not all of these are major
meteor showers like the Presides or Geminids, in which more than one hundred meteors
blaze across the sky every hour. Most meteor showers are minor, and astronomer
are only beginning to study and measure these showers systematically thanks to newly developed instruments.
Moskovitz said, the double meteor shower will be best viewed in the southern
hemisphere, where the radiant or the apparent point from which the shower originates,
will be almost overhead. People in the northern hemisphere can also see the meteor
shower if there is a clear vantage of the southern horizon. Both meteor showers
will continue until mid August. Almost all meteor showers peak in the early morning
hours between two am and four AM, so if you do want to catch
either one of these, your best chances of seeing meteors are to get to
a dark site and do so after midnight. Happy skywatching everyone, and that's
enough from me. It's over to you, my favorite human. Thank you
for joining us for this Monday edition of Astronia Daily, where we offer just
a few stories from the now famous Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you can receive
in your email every day, just like Hallie and I do. And to
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the Podcast. Did anyone else notice how groovy Halle's music selection has become lately.
I'm really noticing that, Halee. I just need to go and raid
your music collection, I think. And now for something a little bit different,
Chema, a leading provider of products and services to the federal government,
has announced that its subsidiary five Rivers Analytics, has been awarded the Satellite Control
Network Tracking Stations, Operations, Remote Site and Mission Partner Support STORMS contract to
assist the US Space Force. And you know what that means, folks,
don't you love it? Yes? This indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity IDQ JILL.
They love their acronyms. They contract spans ten years and is valued at
four hundred and eighty million if all options are utilized. This contract will leverage
Achema's expertise in mission support services, focusing on the operation and maintenance of the
Space Force's primary Satellite Control Network SCN. The operations support includes SCN maintenance,
management of transportable assets, cybersecurity, routine system administration, and communications security that's
comsect functions. The SCN is a vital system consisting of nineteen antennas located worldwide,
essential for launching and managing US government satellites, which are integral to defense
and intel eleigence operations. We are thrilled to support the US Space Force in
this significant endeavor, said Duncan Green, president over achema's Mission Systems, Engineering
and Technology Group. Our partnership with the US Space Force underscores our commitment to
enhancing the satellite control networks, operation, operational efficiency, and resilience. By
integrating emerging technology and expanding system capabilities, we're not only bolstering national defense and
intelligence, but also paving the way for revolutionary advancements in space operations. This
new partnership with Space Force marks a pivotal step forward in akeema's role as a
leader in mission critical support services for national defense, space exploration, and digital
transformation within government, said Green. The podcast add a little story from my
favorite little rover on Mars. Perseverance has made what could be its most astonishing
discovery to date, possible signs of ancient life on the Red planet. Now,
those of you who are regular listeners will know how I feel about discoveries
like this, But anyway, we're going to read this one. The six
wheeled robotic explorer came across an intriguing arrow shaped rock oh my God, an
arrow shaped rock dubbed Schever Falls that may have a fossilized microbes from billions of
years ago when Mars was a watery world. Perseverance drilled into the enigmatic rock
to collect a core sample on July twenty one as it traversed Naret vavalis,
an ancient river valley. The samples, carefully stowed beneath the rovers belly,
are destined to eventually return to Earth, where they will undergo more comprehensive analysis.
Chayeva Falls is the most puzzling, complex and potentially important rock yet investigated
by Perseverance. Project. Scientist Ken Farley of Caltex said on Thursday. Three
compelling clues have scientists Buzzing white calcium sulfate veins run the length of the rock,
a telltale sign that water once flowed through it. Between these veins,
a reddish middle area teeming with organic compounds as detected by the rovers Sherlock scanning
habitable environments with raymond and luminescence for organic and chemicals. Instrument goodness gracious.
Finally, tiny off white splotches ringed with black, reminiscent of leopard spots contain
chemicals. That suggest energy sources for ancient microbes according to scans by the PIXEL
Planetary Instrument for X ray le Litho Chemistry Instrument on Earth. These types of
features in rocks are often associated with the fossilized record of microbes living in the
subsurface, said David Flannery, an astrobiologist and member of the Perseverance science team
from Queensland University of Technology in Australia. The quest to confirm ancient Martian life
is from over, however. The real test will come when Perseverance's precious rock
samples are returned to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return Program, a
collaboration between NASA and the ESA slated for the twenty thirties. Now, while
there are alternative explanations for these findings that do not involve microbes, there is
a tantalizing chance that the rovers core sample might contain actual fossilized microbes, potentially
making history as the first proof of life beyond Earth. We have zapped that
rock with lasers and X rays and imaged it literally day and night, from
just about every angle imaginable, said Farley. Scientifically, Perseverance has nothing more
to give to fully understand what really happened in that Martian River valley at Jesero
Crater billions of years ago. We'd want to bring the share of a falls
sample back to Earth so it can be studded with powerful instruments available in laboratries.
That was a good story. Firstly, it was about perseverance, which
I love, and the potential for finding life external to worth is always exciting
and I wish them all the best. It's more than likely going to be
the alternative reasons, but you never know. You know, there's always the
chances in there. You never know. Astrona on the podcast Space Sides.
Now over at Sierra Space, they have announced the completion of another full scale
burst test in which the company exploded one of its inflatable modules being developed as
part of efforts to build a commercial space station. Sierra Space's ultimate burst pressure
test, What a Great Name, was conducted on June eighteen, twenty twenty
four, and involved an inflatable space station module built to full scale. At
more than twenty feet tall six meters, the test unit, which compares to
the size of a typical family home, is about one third volume of the
International Space Station at ten six hundred cubic feed or three hundred cubic meters and
has enough room to house four astronauts plus exercise and scientific equipment, says Sierra
Space. This latest burst test is part of Sierra Space's continuing development of hardware
for orbital REEF, a commercial station envisaged in partnership with Blue Origin to replace
the ISS when it is decommissioned sometime after twenty thirty. We are one hundred
percent committed to maintaining US leadership in low Earth orbit. Sierra Space is leading
the way with the first commercial space station to replace the International Space Station when
it is decommissioned and ensure there is no gap in low Earth orbit. Tom
Weiss, Sierra Space CEO, said in a statement, Our revolutionary expandable space
station test technology reinvents the space station. Our technology for the first time will
enable the right unit economics that will usher in the full commercialization of space.
Our biotech and industrial partners will utilize our factories of the future to innovate new
products that will massively disrupt terrestrial markets and benefit life on Earth. The results
of the recent test indicated that the safety levels were about four times the minimal
requirements. Needed by NASA. The latest successful testing follows a round back in
December that produced similar outcomes well above the safety factor recommended by NASA when it
comes to the operating pressure. Just another example of science fiction becoming science fact.
And they have it once again. We've come to the end. What
do you say, Halle? Sorry about that World domine Nation stuff. Human
I was just joking. Well, Halle, it's like this. I worry
when you spend time with Uncle Skynet. He's got a bit of a hair
trigger. And I don't think he's got all these rus in the top paddock.
You know what I mean. That's funny. Do another one? Oh
okay, I reckon he's a can short of a six pack, or all
his cutlery is in the wrong drawer. Freaky good. You know he listens
to the show. Oh great, No, he thinks you're funny. Oh
great. Oh well, and on that note, say good night, Halle.
Good night, Halle. See you next week for more Astronomy Daily.
A potat, I mean your whole speed. Don't cut honestly, Hally,
I can never tell when you're setting me up. It's easy. It's like always