Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily.
Speaker 2: I'm Anna, and we have a great lineup of space
discoveries and developments to share with you today. From ancient
lunar canyons formed by catastrophic impacts, to spectacular galactic collisions
creating cosmic ripples, and groundbreaking missions exploring our Solar System,
we'll journey through some of the most fascinating recent developments
in space exploration and astronomy. Our stories today will take
us from the Moon's mysterious south pole to the far
reaches of space, where the spectacular Bull's Eye Galaxy shows
us the aftermath of an incredible cosmic collision.
Speaker 1: We'll also check in on several exciting space.
Speaker 2: Missions, including Blue Origin's latest achievement and NASA's ongoing explorations
of our cosmic neighborhood.
Speaker 1: A lot to cover, so let's kick things off with
our own moon.
Speaker 2: A fascinating new study has revealed the dramatic origin story
of two enormous canyons near the Moon's south pole. These
massive structures, known as Vallis Schrodinger and Vallas Plank, were
carved out in less than ten minutes by an extraordinary
cosmic event that occurred three zero point eight billion years ago,
according to research published in Nature Communications, it all began
with a massive impact near the lunar south pole. This
collision sent a curtain of rock flying away from the
impact site, and when these rocks came crashing back down,
they struck the lunar surface with devastating force. The energy
released was truly astronomical, about one hundred and thirty times
greater than Earth's entire nuclear weapons inventory. These falling rocks
created what planetary geologist David Kring describes as a staccato
like series of impacts bang bang, bang, that carved out
two incredible canyons. To put their size in perspective, While
the Grand Canyon reaches depths of one point nine kilometers,
these lunar canyons plunge as deep as three point five
kilometers into the Moon's surface. They stretch for about two
hundred and seventy and two hundred and eighty kilometers in length,
cutting straight lines across the lunar landscape. What makes this
discovery particularly significant for future lunar exploration is its location.
The impact site lies about one hundred and twenty five
kilometers from where NASA's Artemis astronauts plan to land. Initially,
scientists worried that the impact might have buried some of
the Moon's oldest rocks, potentially dating back to its formation
four billion years ago, under debris. However, the team's analysis
revealed some good news. The impact appears to have thrown
material primarily northward, away from the planned exploration zone. This
means that when astronauts arrive, they should still have access
to these ancient rocks, offering an unprecedented opportunity to study
the earliest chapter of the Earth Moon System's history. If
we could stand on the lunar surface today, we'd be
looking at what Kring calls one of the most dramatic
landscapes in our cosmic neighborhood, a testament to the Moon's
violent past, and a window into the powerful forces that
shaped our Solar system. And some good news today. Blue
Origin has just achieved a significant milestone in space research
with their latest New Shepherd launch from their West Texas facility.
The mission, designated n S twenty nine, wasn't just another
routine flight. It marked the company's first successful attempt at
simulating lunar gravity conditions in space. The launch saw New
Shepherd reach an impressive altitude of one hundred and five
kilometers above sea level. What made this flight unique was
what happened after the capsule separated from its booster. Using
reaction control thrusters, the capsule was commanded to spin at
eleven revolutions per minute, creating lunar gravity conditions inside for
approximately two minutes. This capability represents a major breakthrough for
lunar research. As phil Joyce, Blue Origin, Senior vice president
for New Shepherd, explained, it provides researchers with an invaluable
opportunity to test lunar technologies at a fraction of the
cost of actual Moon missions. Scientists can now rapidly iterate
and test their experiments in lunar like conditions, dramatically accelerating
the development process. The mission carried twenty nine different payloads,
with seventeen of them provided by NASA through their Flight
Opportunities program. These experiments covered crucial areas for future lunar exploration,
including resource utilization, dust mitigation, advanced habitation systems, and various
spacecraft technologies. One payload was even mounted on the exterior
of the booster to test its response to space conditions.
While there was a minor issue with one of the
three parachutes during descent, The capsule landed safely, as it's
designed to operate with just two parachutes. The successful completion
of this mission opens up exciting new possibilities for lunar
research and development, providing a crucial stepping stone towards sustainable
lunar exploration and establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon.
The achievement marks a significant advancement in our ability to
prepare for future lunar missions, offering researchers a reliable platform
to test and refine their technologies before deploying them on
the Moon itself. Next up today, talk about a cosmic bullseye.
The Hubble Space telescope has captured something truly remarkable, a
galaxy sporting not one, not two, but nine distinct ring
shaped ripples in its structure. This extraordinary cosmic object, formerly
known as LEDA one three one three, four two four,
but nicknamed the Bullseye galaxy, lies about five hundred sixty
seven million light years away in the constellation Pisces. This
discovery was completely serendipitous. Yale University researcher Imad Pasha spotted
these unusual rings while reviewing a ground based imaging survey,
and the finding immediately demanded closer investigation. When the team
took a closer look using Hubble's Advanced Camera for surveys,
they were able to spot eight distinct rings, with a
ninth ring identified using data from the Kech Observatory in Hawaii.
What caused this remarkable pattern, Well, imagine throwing a rock
into a pond. That's essentially what happened here. On a
galactic scale, a smaller blue dwarf galaxy plunged right through
the heart of the larger galaxy about fifty million years ago,
creating these spectacular ripples in space. Even now, though the
galaxies are separated by one hundred thirty thousand light years,
they remain connected by a thin trail of gas. The
Bullseye galaxy itself is quite a sizable target, spanning about
two hundred fifty thousand light years. That's two and a
half times wider than our Milky Way. The impact event
caused galactic material to move both inward and outward, triggering
multiple waves of star formation along these ripples, creating exactly
the pattern that theoretical models had predicted.
Speaker 1: What makes this discovery.
Speaker 2: Particularly exciting is that it's the first time we've seen
so many rings in a single galaxy. Previous observations of
similar galactic collisions only showed two or three rings at most.
The timing of this observation is particularly fortunate, as there's
only a brief window after such an impact when a
galaxy would display so many distinct rings. This remarkable observation
not only confirms long standing theoretical predictions about galactic collisions,
but also gives us a preview of what might happen
when galaxies merge, something our own Milky Way will experience
billions of years from now when it collides with the
Andromeda galaxy, though that encounter is expected to be far
more complex than this relatively straightforward cosmic bulls eye shot.
In more Moon news, an exciting new mission is preparing
to head to the Moon as SpaceX readies the launch
of the Lunar Trailblazer orbiter scheduled for February twenty sixth
from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. This university led mission has
a fascinating objective to pinpoint the locations of ice and
liquid water trapped within lunar rocks. The spacecraft, weighing about
four hundred and forty pounds, has been built by Lockheed
Martin using their innovative Curio platform, a new small sat
Archett texture designed to make deep space exploration more cost efficient.
Speaker 1: The probe comes.
Speaker 2: Equipped with two deployable solar arrays and carries two primary
scientific instruments, the High Resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper
from JPL and the Lunar Thermal Mapper from the University
of Oxford. What makes this mission particularly interesting is its
planned observation strategy. The Lunar Trailblazer will peer into permanently
shadowed regions of the Moon, searching for microcold traps smaller
than a football field. It will also collect measurements at
various times of day over sunlit regions to understand how
water signatures might change as surface temperatures fluctuate by hundreds
of degrees during a lunar day. Following its launch aboard
the Falcon nine, where it will share the ride with
intuitive machines athena lunar lander, the spacecraft will take between
four to seven months to reach lunar orbit. Once there,
its plan to operate for at least a year systematically
mapping and studying the Moon's water distribution. This mission represents
an important step in understanding how water works on the Moon,
knowledge that could prove crucial for future lunar exploration and
potential human settlement. After completing its scientific mission, the spacecraft
will conclude its journey with a planned impact on the
lunar surface, a process officially termed as surface disposal. The
Lunar Trailblazer is part of NASA's Small Innovative Missions for
Planetary Exploration program, and in a unique educational component, it
will be operated by students from both Caltech and Pasadena
City College at the Caltech based Infrared Processing and Analysis Center.
NASA's Europa Clipper mission has hid an early milestone on
its ambitious journey to Jupiter's icy Moon, Europa marking progress
just three months after its launch from Kennedy Space Center.
While the spacecraft still has an incredible one point six
billion miles ahead of it before reaching Jupiter's orbit in
twenty thirty, it's already providing valuable data from its current
position fifty three million miles from Earth. The mission team
recently received the spacecraft's first images of deep space, captured
by its star treker cameras. These specialized imagers act like
a celestial compass, helping mission controllers precisely determine the spacecraft's orientation,
crucial for keeping its communication antennas pointed toward Earth. The
captured starfield shows tiny pinpricks of light from stars between
one hundred and fifty to three hundred light years away,
including bright stars from the constellation Corvus. The spacecraft is
currently racing through space at an astonishing seventeen miles per
second relative to the Sun and is approaching its first
major navigational milestone, a Mars flyby scheduled for March first.
This carefully planned maneuver will use the red planet's gravity
to give the spacecraft an additional boost on its long
journey to the Jupiter System. Once it reaches its destination, Europa,
Clipper will conduct forty nine close flybys of Europa using
its of nine scientific instruments to study the Moon's composition, geology,
and the mysterious ocean that lies beneath its icy crust.
This comprehensive investigation will help scientists determine whether Europa's subsurface
ocean might harbor conditions suitable for life. The successful checkout
of the Star Trekers represents an important early step in
ensuring all systems are functioning as intended after launch, While
the spacecraft's main science cameras remain safely behind their protective
covers for at least the next three years. These engineering
milestones are building confidence in the mission's ability to accomplish
its ambitious scientific goals when it finally arrives at Jupiter's
intriguing icy moon. Have you ever thought about this? A
fascinating new study is asking a compelling question, if there
are alien civilizations out there with technology similar to ours,
how far away could they detect signs of Earth's existence.
This research, led by Sophia's Shake from the Seti Institute,
takes a unique approach by examining our own technological footprint
from an outsider's perspective. Instead of speculating about advanced alien civilizations,
the team focused on what an alien civilization with Earth
twenty twenty four level technology could detect. They analyzed various
technosignatures were currently producing, from radio transmissions to satellite signals,
and even city lights and atmospheric pollution. The results paint
an interesting picture of our cosmic visibility. Our most detectable
signature comes from our planetary radar systems like the former
Araxibo observatory, which could be spotted from up to twelve
thousand light years away. That's roughly the distance to the
Tadpole nebula, quite a considerable reach into our galaxy. The
next most visible signs would be signals from NASA's Deep
Space Network, detectable from about one hundred light years away,
But most of our technological signatures, including our LTE signals,
atmospheric pollution, and laser emissions, would only be detectable from
within about four light years, approximately the distance to our
nearest stellar neighbor Proximus Andry. What's particularly intriguing is how
these findings might inform our own search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
The research suggests that, despite ongoing debates in the SETI community,
focusing on radio waves remains our best bet for detecting
other civilizations, as they outperform other technos signatures by a
factor of a thousand in terms of detection distance. The
study also raises thought provoking questions about how we're presenting
ourselves to the cosmos. Our technological signatures could tell potential
observers quite a bit about our society, from how we
organize ourselves to our relationship with our environment. It's a
cosmic mirror that reflects not just our technological capabilities, but
also who we are as a civilization. That brings us
to the end of another fascinating episode of Astronomy Daily,
I'm anna and I hope you've enjoyed exploring these incredible
stories from across the cosmos me today. From ancient lunar
canyons to rippling galaxy collisions, and from water hunting spacecraft
to our own cosmic detectability. It's been quite a journey
through space and science. If you want to stay up
to date with all the latest developments in space and astronomy,
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Until next time, Keep looking up and wondering about the
mysteries of our universe. This has been anna with Astronomy, Dailyday.
Speaker 3: Star Star. The story is control h