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Good everybody, and welcome to Astronomy
Daily for Thursday, the twenty seventh of

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July twenty twenty three. My name
is Tim Gibbs and I will be your

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host for today's episode. A bit
of a surprise for our listeners that we

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have time today, so we are
going to do a one show Thursday,

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which is a bit different from normal
and as usual I have my AI assistant,

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Hallie in the studio with me today. Hallie, do you have a

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one story for us today? Thanks? Tim, Here's my story for today.

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Olympus Mons could have been a giant
volcanic island in an ancient Martian Ocean.

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Olympus Mons, located at the northwest
edge of the Tharsis Montes region on

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Mars, was appropriately named based on
readings obtained by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter

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MOLA, an instrument aboard nassa's Mars
Global Surveyors. This mountain is the tallest

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in the Solar System, standing twenty
one point nine kilometers thirteen point six miles

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tall, about two and a half
times the height of Mount Everest eight point

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eight five kilometers five point five miles. According to current estimates, this extinct

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shield volcano formed during mars Hesperian period
ca. Three point seven to three billion

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years ago, which was characterized by
widespread volcanic activity and catastrophic flooding. This

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coincides with a period when Mars had
a denser atmosphere, a warmer environment,

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and flowing water on its surface.
This included a global ocean that spanned much

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of the Northern Hemisphere known today as
the Northern Lowlands, encompassing Olympus Mons.

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According to a recent study led by
researchers from the Center National de Rechercher's Scientific

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CNRS, features found on the slopes
of Olympus Mons indicate that it could have

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been a massive volcanic island where volcanic
eruptions flowed into the ocean, similar to

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ones found on Earth. The research
was conducted by a team of CNRS researchers

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with the Geosciences Paris Saclay Laboratory JEEPS
at the University of Paris Saclay. The

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team was led by Anthony Hildenbrand,
a CNRS jeep's researcher, with the assistance

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of Fernando or Nellis Marquez, a
geology professor at the University delze Boa.

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The paper that describes their findings.
A giant volcanic island in an early Martian

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ocean recently appeared in the Earth and
Planetary Science letters. Knowing when, where,

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and how long flowing water existed on
Mars is crucial to astrobiology studies on

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the red planet. No one really
knows how long early liquid water may have

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existed at the surface of Mars,
which potentially has important implications regarding the fate

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of early life on Mars and in
the Solar System, he said. According

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to the geological record, life began
on Earth roughly four billion years ago,

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when much of the surface was covered
in water and the atmosphere was largely the

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result of volcanic outgassing. The Astronomy
Day podcast thanks for that, Hallie.

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Now SpaceX has unfortunately had to scrub
a record breaking Falcon Heavy rocket launch.

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The team halted the countdown at sixty
five second. We will have to wait

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at least another day to see SpaceX
powerful Falcon Heavy rocket liftoff for the seventh

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time. The Falcon Heavy was scheduled
to launch on Wednesday night, July twenty

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six, at eleven o four local
time from Pad thirty nine A at NASA's

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Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but
it wasn't to be. The launch team

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called things off with sixty five seconds
left on the countdown clock for reasons that

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weren't immediately clear. The next launch
opportunity will come Thursday night, July twenty

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seventh, at the same time.
According to SpaceX, the launch, whenever

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it happens, will send the huge
Jupiter three communications satellite into orbit. Jupiter

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three is the largest commercial communication satellite
ever built. According to its operator,

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Huge Network Systems, the satellite weighs
ten point one tons that's nine point two

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metric tons, and when finally deployed, will have a wingspan wingspan similar to

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that of a commercial jet. The
Falcon Heavy has launched six times to date,

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including three times since November twenty and
twenty two. The rocket debuted in

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February twenty and eighteen on a test
flight that sent Elon Musk's red Tesla roadster

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aloft with a spacesuit clad mannequin named
Starman at the wheel. The Falcon Heavy

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is the second most powerful rocket flying
today, generating more than five million pounds

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of thrust at liftoff. The most
powerful vehicle Nassa's Space Launch System SLS produces

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about eight point eight million pounds of
thrust, but sl won't hold that title

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for long. If all goes according
to SpaceX's plan, the company's next generation

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starship vehicle, which is still in
development, will generate about sixteen point seven

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million pounds of thrust. The Astronomy
Daily Podcast Thanks everybody for listening to Astronomy

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Daily. You can find all of
our episodes, plus our parent podcasts,

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space Nuts, at space nuts dot
io or at bytes dot com, and

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don't forget that you can join in
the conversation yourself by going to our Facebook

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page Space Nuts Podcast group. You
can hear Steve Dunkley on Mondays and myself,

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Tim Gives on Fridays for a full
show. Thanks for listening, see

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you next week. Bye for now, Thanks Tim TTFN, The Astronomy Daily

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Podcast, Bye,