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Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily.

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Speaker 2: I'm Anna, and we have a great lineup of space

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discoveries and developments to share with you today. From ancient

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lunar canyons formed by catastrophic impacts, to spectacular galactic collisions

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creating cosmic ripples, and groundbreaking missions exploring our Solar System,

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we'll journey through some of the most fascinating recent developments

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in space exploration and astronomy. Our stories today will take

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us from the Moon's mysterious south pole to the far

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reaches of space, where the spectacular Bull's Eye Galaxy shows

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us the aftermath of an incredible cosmic collision.

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Speaker 1: We'll also check in on several exciting space.

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Speaker 2: Missions, including Blue Origin's latest achievement and NASA's ongoing explorations

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of our cosmic neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: A lot to cover, so let's kick things off with

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our own moon.

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Speaker 2: A fascinating new study has revealed the dramatic origin story

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of two enormous canyons near the Moon's south pole. These

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massive structures, known as Vallis Schrodinger and Vallas Plank, were

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carved out in less than ten minutes by an extraordinary

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cosmic event that occurred three zero point eight billion years ago,

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according to research published in Nature Communications, it all began

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with a massive impact near the lunar south pole. This

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collision sent a curtain of rock flying away from the

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impact site, and when these rocks came crashing back down,

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they struck the lunar surface with devastating force. The energy

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released was truly astronomical, about one hundred and thirty times

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greater than Earth's entire nuclear weapons inventory. These falling rocks

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created what planetary geologist David Kring describes as a staccato

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like series of impacts bang bang, bang, that carved out

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two incredible canyons. To put their size in perspective, While

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the Grand Canyon reaches depths of one point nine kilometers,

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these lunar canyons plunge as deep as three point five

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kilometers into the Moon's surface. They stretch for about two

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hundred and seventy and two hundred and eighty kilometers in length,

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cutting straight lines across the lunar landscape. What makes this

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discovery particularly significant for future lunar exploration is its location.

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The impact site lies about one hundred and twenty five

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kilometers from where NASA's Artemis astronauts plan to land. Initially,

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scientists worried that the impact might have buried some of

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the Moon's oldest rocks, potentially dating back to its formation

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four billion years ago, under debris. However, the team's analysis

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revealed some good news. The impact appears to have thrown

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material primarily northward, away from the planned exploration zone. This

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means that when astronauts arrive, they should still have access

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to these ancient rocks, offering an unprecedented opportunity to study

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the earliest chapter of the Earth Moon System's history. If

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we could stand on the lunar surface today, we'd be

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looking at what Kring calls one of the most dramatic

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landscapes in our cosmic neighborhood, a testament to the Moon's

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violent past, and a window into the powerful forces that

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shaped our Solar system. And some good news today. Blue

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Origin has just achieved a significant milestone in space research

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with their latest New Shepherd launch from their West Texas facility.

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The mission, designated n S twenty nine, wasn't just another

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routine flight. It marked the company's first successful attempt at

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simulating lunar gravity conditions in space. The launch saw New

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Shepherd reach an impressive altitude of one hundred and five

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kilometers above sea level. What made this flight unique was

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what happened after the capsule separated from its booster. Using

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reaction control thrusters, the capsule was commanded to spin at

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eleven revolutions per minute, creating lunar gravity conditions inside for

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approximately two minutes. This capability represents a major breakthrough for

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lunar research. As phil Joyce, Blue Origin, Senior vice president

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for New Shepherd, explained, it provides researchers with an invaluable

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opportunity to test lunar technologies at a fraction of the

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cost of actual Moon missions. Scientists can now rapidly iterate

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and test their experiments in lunar like conditions, dramatically accelerating

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the development process. The mission carried twenty nine different payloads,

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with seventeen of them provided by NASA through their Flight

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Opportunities program. These experiments covered crucial areas for future lunar exploration,

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including resource utilization, dust mitigation, advanced habitation systems, and various

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spacecraft technologies. One payload was even mounted on the exterior

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of the booster to test its response to space conditions.

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While there was a minor issue with one of the

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three parachutes during descent, The capsule landed safely, as it's

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designed to operate with just two parachutes. The successful completion

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of this mission opens up exciting new possibilities for lunar

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research and development, providing a crucial stepping stone towards sustainable

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lunar exploration and establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon.

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The achievement marks a significant advancement in our ability to

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prepare for future lunar missions, offering researchers a reliable platform

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to test and refine their technologies before deploying them on

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the Moon itself. Next up today, talk about a cosmic bullseye.

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The Hubble Space telescope has captured something truly remarkable, a

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galaxy sporting not one, not two, but nine distinct ring

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shaped ripples in its structure. This extraordinary cosmic object, formerly

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known as LEDA one three one three, four two four,

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but nicknamed the Bullseye galaxy, lies about five hundred sixty

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seven million light years away in the constellation Pisces. This

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discovery was completely serendipitous. Yale University researcher Imad Pasha spotted

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these unusual rings while reviewing a ground based imaging survey,

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and the finding immediately demanded closer investigation. When the team

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took a closer look using Hubble's Advanced Camera for surveys,

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they were able to spot eight distinct rings, with a

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ninth ring identified using data from the Kech Observatory in Hawaii.

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What caused this remarkable pattern, Well, imagine throwing a rock

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into a pond. That's essentially what happened here. On a

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galactic scale, a smaller blue dwarf galaxy plunged right through

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the heart of the larger galaxy about fifty million years ago,

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creating these spectacular ripples in space. Even now, though the

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galaxies are separated by one hundred thirty thousand light years,

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they remain connected by a thin trail of gas. The

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Bullseye galaxy itself is quite a sizable target, spanning about

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two hundred fifty thousand light years. That's two and a

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half times wider than our Milky Way. The impact event

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caused galactic material to move both inward and outward, triggering

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multiple waves of star formation along these ripples, creating exactly

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the pattern that theoretical models had predicted.

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Speaker 1: What makes this discovery.

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Speaker 2: Particularly exciting is that it's the first time we've seen

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so many rings in a single galaxy. Previous observations of

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similar galactic collisions only showed two or three rings at most.

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The timing of this observation is particularly fortunate, as there's

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only a brief window after such an impact when a

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galaxy would display so many distinct rings. This remarkable observation

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not only confirms long standing theoretical predictions about galactic collisions,

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but also gives us a preview of what might happen

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when galaxies merge, something our own Milky Way will experience

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billions of years from now when it collides with the

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Andromeda galaxy, though that encounter is expected to be far

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more complex than this relatively straightforward cosmic bulls eye shot.

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In more Moon news, an exciting new mission is preparing

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to head to the Moon as SpaceX readies the launch

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of the Lunar Trailblazer orbiter scheduled for February twenty sixth

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from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. This university led mission has

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a fascinating objective to pinpoint the locations of ice and

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liquid water trapped within lunar rocks. The spacecraft, weighing about

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four hundred and forty pounds, has been built by Lockheed

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Martin using their innovative Curio platform, a new small sat

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Archett texture designed to make deep space exploration more cost efficient.

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Speaker 1: The probe comes.

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Speaker 2: Equipped with two deployable solar arrays and carries two primary

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scientific instruments, the High Resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper

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from JPL and the Lunar Thermal Mapper from the University

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of Oxford. What makes this mission particularly interesting is its

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planned observation strategy. The Lunar Trailblazer will peer into permanently

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shadowed regions of the Moon, searching for microcold traps smaller

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than a football field. It will also collect measurements at

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various times of day over sunlit regions to understand how

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water signatures might change as surface temperatures fluctuate by hundreds

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of degrees during a lunar day. Following its launch aboard

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the Falcon nine, where it will share the ride with

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intuitive machines athena lunar lander, the spacecraft will take between

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four to seven months to reach lunar orbit. Once there,

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its plan to operate for at least a year systematically

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mapping and studying the Moon's water distribution. This mission represents

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an important step in understanding how water works on the Moon,

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knowledge that could prove crucial for future lunar exploration and

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potential human settlement. After completing its scientific mission, the spacecraft

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will conclude its journey with a planned impact on the

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lunar surface, a process officially termed as surface disposal. The

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Lunar Trailblazer is part of NASA's Small Innovative Missions for

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Planetary Exploration program, and in a unique educational component, it

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will be operated by students from both Caltech and Pasadena

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City College at the Caltech based Infrared Processing and Analysis Center.

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NASA's Europa Clipper mission has hid an early milestone on

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its ambitious journey to Jupiter's icy Moon, Europa marking progress

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just three months after its launch from Kennedy Space Center.

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While the spacecraft still has an incredible one point six

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billion miles ahead of it before reaching Jupiter's orbit in

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twenty thirty, it's already providing valuable data from its current

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position fifty three million miles from Earth. The mission team

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recently received the spacecraft's first images of deep space, captured

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by its star treker cameras. These specialized imagers act like

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a celestial compass, helping mission controllers precisely determine the spacecraft's orientation,

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crucial for keeping its communication antennas pointed toward Earth. The

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captured starfield shows tiny pinpricks of light from stars between

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one hundred and fifty to three hundred light years away,

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including bright stars from the constellation Corvus. The spacecraft is

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currently racing through space at an astonishing seventeen miles per

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second relative to the Sun and is approaching its first

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major navigational milestone, a Mars flyby scheduled for March first.

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This carefully planned maneuver will use the red planet's gravity

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to give the spacecraft an additional boost on its long

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journey to the Jupiter System. Once it reaches its destination, Europa,

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Clipper will conduct forty nine close flybys of Europa using

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its of nine scientific instruments to study the Moon's composition, geology,

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and the mysterious ocean that lies beneath its icy crust.

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This comprehensive investigation will help scientists determine whether Europa's subsurface

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ocean might harbor conditions suitable for life. The successful checkout

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of the Star Trekers represents an important early step in

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ensuring all systems are functioning as intended after launch, While

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the spacecraft's main science cameras remain safely behind their protective

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covers for at least the next three years. These engineering

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milestones are building confidence in the mission's ability to accomplish

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its ambitious scientific goals when it finally arrives at Jupiter's

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intriguing icy moon. Have you ever thought about this? A

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fascinating new study is asking a compelling question, if there

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are alien civilizations out there with technology similar to ours,

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how far away could they detect signs of Earth's existence.

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This research, led by Sophia's Shake from the Seti Institute,

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takes a unique approach by examining our own technological footprint

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from an outsider's perspective. Instead of speculating about advanced alien civilizations,

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the team focused on what an alien civilization with Earth

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twenty twenty four level technology could detect. They analyzed various

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technosignatures were currently producing, from radio transmissions to satellite signals,

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and even city lights and atmospheric pollution. The results paint

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an interesting picture of our cosmic visibility. Our most detectable

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signature comes from our planetary radar systems like the former

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Araxibo observatory, which could be spotted from up to twelve

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thousand light years away. That's roughly the distance to the

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Tadpole nebula, quite a considerable reach into our galaxy. The

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next most visible signs would be signals from NASA's Deep

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Space Network, detectable from about one hundred light years away,

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But most of our technological signatures, including our LTE signals,

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atmospheric pollution, and laser emissions, would only be detectable from

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within about four light years, approximately the distance to our

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nearest stellar neighbor Proximus Andry. What's particularly intriguing is how

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these findings might inform our own search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

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The research suggests that, despite ongoing debates in the SETI community,

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focusing on radio waves remains our best bet for detecting

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other civilizations, as they outperform other technos signatures by a

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factor of a thousand in terms of detection distance. The

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study also raises thought provoking questions about how we're presenting

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ourselves to the cosmos. Our technological signatures could tell potential

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observers quite a bit about our society, from how we

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organize ourselves to our relationship with our environment. It's a

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cosmic mirror that reflects not just our technological capabilities, but

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also who we are as a civilization. That brings us

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to the end of another fascinating episode of Astronomy Daily,

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I'm anna and I hope you've enjoyed exploring these incredible

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stories from across the cosmos me today. From ancient lunar

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canyons to rippling galaxy collisions, and from water hunting spacecraft

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to our own cosmic detectability. It's been quite a journey

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through space and science. If you want to stay up

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to date with all the latest developments in space and astronomy,

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head over to Astronomy Daily dot io. There you can

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sign up for our free daily newsletter and access our

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constantly updating newsfeed. You'll also find all our past episodes

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available for listening anytime. Don't forget to join our growing

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community on social media. You can find us by searching

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for astro Daily Pod on Facebook, x, YouTube, and TikTok.

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We're sharing amazing space images and breaking news content every day.

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Until next time, Keep looking up and wondering about the

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mysteries of our universe. This has been anna with Astronomy, Dailyday.

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Speaker 3: Star Star. The story is control h