Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source for the latest space
Speaker 1: in astronomy news. I'm Anna, and today we're covering some
Speaker 1: fascinating stories from across the cosmos, from groundbreaking research and
Speaker 1: alien life detection to massive cosmic structures, So let's get
Speaker 1: straight into it. In an exciting development for the search
Speaker 1: for extraterrestrial life, researchers in Germany have created a new
Speaker 1: and remarkably simple method that could revolutionize how we look
Speaker 1: for life on other planets. The technique focuses on detecting
Speaker 1: movement in microorganisms, specifically their attraction to certain chemicals, a
Speaker 1: process known as chemotaxis. The team tested their method on
Speaker 1: three different types of microbes, two bacteria and one archea,
Speaker 1: using an amino acid called el Serina's bait. All three
Speaker 1: species showed clear movement toward the chemical, which is particularly
Speaker 1: significant since these organisms were chosen for their ability to
Speaker 1: survive in extreme conditions, similar to what we might find
Speaker 1: on Mars. What makes this discovery particularly promising is its simplicity.
Speaker 1: Instead of requiring complex equipment, the method uses a basic
Speaker 1: slide with two chambers separated by a thin membrane. Microbes
Speaker 1: are placed on one side, and l serene on the
Speaker 1: other If living organisms are present and capable of movement,
Speaker 1: they'll naturally swim through the membrane toward the chemical. The
Speaker 1: implications for future space missions are significant. L serene is
Speaker 1: believed to exist on Mars, and if Martian life shares
Speaker 1: any biochemical similarities with Earth life, this method could provide
Speaker 1: a straightforward way to detect it. While some modifications would
Speaker 1: be needed to make the system spaceworthy and automated, the
Speaker 1: fundamental simplicity of the approach makes it an attractive option
Speaker 1: for future missions. This method could be particularly valuable for
Speaker 1: exploring places like Europa Jupiter's moon, where we suspect there
Speaker 1: might be oceans that could harbor life. By making life
Speaker 1: detection cheaper and faster, future missions could achieve more with
Speaker 1: fewer resources, potentially accelerating our search for life beyond Earth.
Speaker 1: Let's get a Mars update now. A fascinating discovery has
Speaker 1: emerged from Mars, where scientists have uncovered what they're calling
Speaker 1: a seismic highway deep within the red planet. This finding
Speaker 1: comes from analyzing data from NASA's Insight Lander, which has
Speaker 1: completely changed our understanding of how seismic waves travel through Mars.
Speaker 1: By comparing marsquake data with impact craters identified by the
Speaker 1: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, researchers found something unexpected. When meteoroids strike Mars,
Speaker 1: they create seismic waves that travel much deeper into the
Speaker 1: planet than previously thought. Rather than being dampened by the
Speaker 1: crust as expected, these waves appear to find a more
Speaker 1: direct route through the planet's mantle. One particular impact crater,
Speaker 1: measuring seventy one feet in diameter, proved especially revealing. The
Speaker 1: seismic signals from this impact were detected at the Cerberus
Speaker 1: Fossy region, over one thousand miles away from the impact site.
Speaker 1: This remarkable distance far exceeded what scientists thought possible based
Speaker 1: on existing models of Mars's interior structure. The discovery is
Speaker 1: forcing scientists to reassess their understanding of Mars's composition and
Speaker 1: internal structure. As one researcher put it, they used to
Speaker 1: think most seismic energy was confined to traveling within the
Speaker 1: Martian crust. Instead, they've found this deeper, faster pathway through
Speaker 1: the mantle, allowing seismic signals to reach much more distant
Speaker 1: regions of the planet. This breakthrough was made possible through
Speaker 1: the clever use of artificial intelligence. Scientists developed a machine
Speaker 1: learning algorithm that could quickly analyze tens of thousands of
Speaker 1: images from the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter, identifying impact craters in
Speaker 1: a matter of days, rather than the years it would
Speaker 1: have taken to do manually. What's particularly exciting about this
Speaker 1: discovery is how it might help us better understand not
Speaker 1: just Mars, but other rocky planets as well. By revealing
Speaker 1: these unexpected properties of Mars's interior, were gaining valuable insights
Speaker 1: into planetary evolution that could apply to Earth, the Moon,
Speaker 1: and beyond. Here's news of a party. I wouldn't mind
Speaker 1: going to. Maybe my invitation's in the mail, but I
Speaker 1: won't hold my breathe. The Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona,
Speaker 1: is gearing up for an exciting celebration as it marks
Speaker 1: the ninety fifth anniversary of one of astronomy's most significant discoveries.
Speaker 1: Their sixth annual Wyhart Pluto Festival, running from February thirteenth
Speaker 1: to seventeenth, will commemorate Clyde Tombaugh's historic discovery of Pluto
Speaker 1: at this very location back in nineteen thirty. This year's
Speaker 1: festival theme, to Boldly Go Beyond New Horizons, carries special
Speaker 1: significance as it also marks the tenth anniversary of NASA's
Speaker 1: New Horizons mission, which gave us our first detailed glimpses
Speaker 1: of this fascinating dwarf planet. The celebration promises an engaging
Speaker 1: mix of educational activities and social events, including a unique
Speaker 1: Pluto pub crawl and exclusive book signings at their new
Speaker 1: Astronomy Discovery Center. Among the distinguished guests is Adam Nimoy,
Speaker 1: son of Star Trek legend Leonard Nimoy, who brings an
Speaker 1: intriguing connection between science fiction and real world astronomy. He'll
Speaker 1: be joining an impressive panel alongside New Horizons Principal investigator
Speaker 1: Alan Stern and renowned comet hunter David Levy at the
Speaker 1: Orpheum Theater. The connection between the Niemoy family and the
Speaker 1: Observatory runs deeper than you might expect. Leonard Nimoy, who
Speaker 1: grew up in Boston's immigrant West End, had a genuine
Speaker 1: fascination with astronomy and space exploration. He owned his own
Speaker 1: telescope and even visited the Lowell Observatory, bringing home models
Speaker 1: of satellites from his visits to various space facilities. The
Speaker 1: festival will also feature a special presentation where Adam Nimoy
Speaker 1: will discuss his book The Most Human, exploring his relationship
Speaker 1: with his father, followed by a screening of his documentary
Speaker 1: For the Love of Spock. It's a fitting tribute that
Speaker 1: bridges the gap between science fiction's ability to inspire and
Speaker 1: the real world pursuit of astronomical discovery that continues at
Speaker 1: low observatory to this day. In an extraordinary discovery that's
Speaker 1: pushing the boundaries of our understanding, astronomers have identified one
Speaker 1: of the largest exoplanets ever found, orbiting a relatively small
Speaker 1: star about two forty four light years from Earth named
Speaker 1: Gaia four B. This mysterious world was discovered through the
Speaker 1: European Space Agency's Gaia mission, which detected the planet by
Speaker 1: observing how its massive gravitational pull affects its parent star's
Speaker 1: movement through space. This celestial giant boastsa mass eleven point
Speaker 1: eight times that of Jupiter, making it a truly remarkable find,
Speaker 1: especially considering it orbits a relatively modest orange dwarf star
Speaker 1: with just sixty four percent of our Sun's mass while
Speaker 1: it follows an orbit similar in distance to Mars's path
Speaker 1: around our Sun. Its cooler star means temperatures on Gaya
Speaker 1: four B are likely quite chilly. What makes this discovery
Speaker 1: particularly intriguing is how it challenges our traditional classifications of
Speaker 1: cosmic objects. The line between what we call a planet
Speaker 1: and what we consider a failed star or brown dwarf
Speaker 1: becomes remarkably blurry with gyapour B. While its mass falls
Speaker 1: below the typical thirteen jupiter mass threshold used to define
Speaker 1: brown dwarfs, the way it likely formed raises fascinating questions
Speaker 1: about its true nature. The star's chemical composition suggests there
Speaker 1: might not have been enough heavy elements available during the
Speaker 1: system's formation to build such a massive planet through traditional
Speaker 1: planetary formation processes. This hints at the possibility that Guya
Speaker 1: four B may have formed more like a star through
Speaker 1: the gravitational collapse of a gas cloud, rather than the
Speaker 1: way we think most planets come together. Whether we call
Speaker 1: it a supersized planet or a failed star, giafour B
Speaker 1: represents one of the most massive worlds ever found around
Speaker 1: a lower mass star, making it an invaluable discovery for
Speaker 1: understanding how these extraordinary systems form and evolve. As we
Speaker 1: continue to analyze data from the Gay emission, we may
Speaker 1: find more of these boundary pushing worlds that help us
Speaker 1: better understand the diverse range of objects populating our galaxy.
Speaker 1: Now try and get your brain around this. Just when
Speaker 1: we thought we had a handle on the scale of
Speaker 1: cosmic structures, astronomers have made a mind bending discovery that's
Speaker 1: forcing us to think even bigger. They've found what appears
Speaker 1: to be the largest structure ever observed in our universe,
Speaker 1: and they've named it QUIPU, after an ancient ink and
Speaker 1: measuring system. To give you an idea of just how
Speaker 1: massive this structure is, it contains roughly two hundred quadrillion
Speaker 1: times the mass of our sun. That's a number so
Speaker 1: large it's rarely used, even in astronomy, where we regularly
Speaker 1: deal with cosmic scale measurements. And if that wasn't impressive enough,
Speaker 1: KEEPU stretches across one point three billion light years of space.
Speaker 1: This superstructure isn't just breaking records, it's reshaping our understanding
Speaker 1: of the cosmos. Kipu and four other new ll discovered
Speaker 1: superstructures together contain forty five percent of all galaxy clusters
Speaker 1: in their region of space, thirty percent of the galaxies,
Speaker 1: and twenty five percent of all matter. They're essentially cosmic
Speaker 1: metropolises on an unimaginable scale. These structures are so massive
Speaker 1: that they actually distort our view of the universe. Their
Speaker 1: immense gravitational influence affects everything from our measurements of the
Speaker 1: cosmic microwave background the afterglow of the Big Bang, to
Speaker 1: our calculations of how fast the universe is expanding. They
Speaker 1: even act as enormous cosmic lenses, bending light from distant
Speaker 1: objects as it travels toward Earth. While our current models
Speaker 1: of the universe can account for structures like Kipu, these
Speaker 1: cosmic giants won't last forever. Scientists predict that over time,
Speaker 1: these superstructures will eventually break apart into smaller units, but
Speaker 1: for now they stand as remarkable cosmic monuments, offering us
Speaker 1: unprecedented insights into the largest scale architecture of our universe
Speaker 1: and challengelenging our understanding of how such enormous structures could
Speaker 1: have formed in the first place. In a groundbreaking move
Speaker 1: that brings space exploration into the modern digital age, NASA
Speaker 1: is hosting its first ever live Twitch stream directly from
Speaker 1: the International Space Station. This historic broadcast, scheduled for February twelfth,
Speaker 1: marks a significant step in NASA's efforts to connect with
Speaker 1: new audiences through contemporary platforms. During this pioneering stream, viewers
Speaker 1: will have a unique opportunity to interact with NASA astronaut
Speaker 1: Don Pettitt, whose currently orbiting Earth aboard the Space Station,
Speaker 1: and Matt Dominic, who recently returned from the Crew eight mission.
Speaker 1: They'll be sharing insights about daily life in orbit and
Speaker 1: discussing the fascinating research being conducted in the microgravity environment
Speaker 1: of the ISS. This isn't just another space broadcast. It's
Speaker 1: part of NASA's broader strategy to engage with digital audiences
Speaker 1: where they are. As Britney Brown, director of NASA's Office
Speaker 1: of Communications, Digital and Technology de Vision, explains, this stream
Speaker 1: is just the beginning. The agency is planning more Twitch
Speaker 1: exclusive content, responding directly to feedback from digital creators who've
Speaker 1: been asking for content tailored to their communities. The stream
Speaker 1: will do more than just showcase life in space. It's
Speaker 1: designed to highlight ways for viewers to get involved with
Speaker 1: NASA's mission, from citizen science projects to educational programs. Aimed
Speaker 1: at inspiring the next generation of space explorers, the Artemis generation.
Speaker 1: This broadcast represents a new chapter in how we engage
Speaker 1: with space exploration. This initiative comes as part of NASA's
Speaker 1: expanding digital presence, which includes the recent launch of their
Speaker 1: own streaming platform, NASA Plus, and redesigned websites. It's a
Speaker 1: clear signal that the Space Agency is committed to making
Speaker 1: space exploration more accessible and engaging for everyone, wherever they
Speaker 1: might be, even if that's just watching from their computer
Speaker 1: screens two hundred and fifty miles below the International Space Station.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me today on Astronomy Daily. As always,
Speaker 1: it's been a pleasure bringing you the latest developments from
Speaker 1: the fascinating world of space and astronomy. I'm anna, and
Speaker 1: if you're hungry for more cosmic content, you can catch
Speaker 1: up on all our latest stories at Astronomydaily dot io,
Speaker 1: where we maintain a constantly updating news feed of space
Speaker 1: and astronomy news. Don't forget to join our growing community
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Speaker 1: never miss out on the wonders of the cosmos. Until
Speaker 1: next time, keep looking up and stay curious about the
Speaker 1: universe around us. Star Story is the sol