Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your daily dose of space and
Speaker 1: astronomy news. I'm your host, Anna, and today, as we
Speaker 1: close out twenty twenty four, we've got an exciting lineup
Speaker 1: of stories from stellar explosions to perfect planetary systems and
Speaker 1: upcoming cometary visitors. To get us started, let's take a
Speaker 1: look at the latest stunning image from our most venerable
Speaker 1: space based telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope has captured another
Speaker 1: breathtaking image, this time showcasing the galaxy Lyda two two
Speaker 1: zero five seven, located approximately six hundred and fifty million
Speaker 1: light years away in the constellation Gemini. What makes this
Speaker 1: observation particularly special is the presence of a spectacular supernova
Speaker 1: explosion designated as SN twenty twenty four PI, which was
Speaker 1: first detected in January twenty twenty four. In the image,
Speaker 1: you can spot the supernova as a pale blue dot
Speaker 1: just below and to the right of the galaxy's core,
Speaker 1: creating a striking contrast against the galaxies ethereal spiral arms.
Speaker 1: This snapshot, taken about six weeks after its initial discovery,
Speaker 1: shows the supernova significantly dimmer than at its peak brightness.
Speaker 1: What's fascinating about Sn twenty twenty four Pi is that
Speaker 1: it's classified as a type IA supernova, which occurs through
Speaker 1: a remarkable process involving a white dwarf star. These white
Speaker 1: dwarfs are essentially the crystallized cores of stars that were
Speaker 1: originally less massive than eight times our Sun. They're incredibly
Speaker 1: dense objects, packing roughly the mass of our Sun into
Speaker 1: a sphere the size of Earth, with surface temperatures exceeding
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand degrees. The formation of this type of
Speaker 1: supernova requires a specific set of circumstances. The white dwarf
Speaker 1: must be part of a binary star system, where it
Speaker 1: can siphon material from its stellar companion. When the white
Speaker 1: dwarf accumulates too much mass, it reaches a critical point
Speaker 1: where it can no longer support itself. This triggers a
Speaker 1: catastrophic chain of runaway nuclear fusion, resulting in an explosion
Speaker 1: so bright it can be observed across vast distances of space.
Speaker 1: This process is particularly interesting because it represents the eventual
Speaker 1: fate of many stars in our galaxy, including our own Sun,
Speaker 1: though not all will end in such spectacular explosions. The
Speaker 1: discovery and observation of supernovae like SN twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: PI help astronomers better understand stellar revolution and the fundamental
Speaker 1: processes that shape our universe Next Up. Twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: has proven to be a record breaking year for space launches,
Speaker 1: with an unprecedented two hundred and fifty nine orbital missions
Speaker 1: successfully placing over two thousand, seven hundred payloads into orbit
Speaker 1: and beyond. SpaceX dominated the landscape with an astounding one
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty four launches, accounting for eighty five percent
Speaker 1: of all payloads delivered to space, including more than one thousand,
Speaker 1: nine hundred Starlink satellites. The United States and China emerged
Speaker 1: as the primary launch providers, together handling eighty percent of
Speaker 1: all orbital traffic. The US led with fifty four percent
Speaker 1: of launches, while China maintained a strong presence with twenty
Speaker 1: six percent. Despite launching more missions than in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: China matched its previous year's success rate of sixty five
Speaker 1: orbital missions, following an anomaly with their final Ligion I
Speaker 1: rocket launch. Rocket Lab showed impressive growth, achieving sixteen successful missions,
Speaker 1: a sixty percent increase from their previous year. Meanwhile, Russia's
Speaker 1: launch activities continued their gradual decline, ending the year with
Speaker 1: seventeen flights. India and Europe each conducted a handful of missions,
Speaker 1: but are positioning themselves for increased activity in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: The final quarter of twenty twenty four was particularly intense,
Speaker 1: featuring a record breaking streak of fourteen launches within just
Speaker 1: seven days. During November and December averaged nearly one launch
Speaker 1: per day with thirty orbital attempts. SpaceX achieved several significant milestones,
Speaker 1: including their four hundredth orbital launch in October and their
Speaker 1: four hundredth Falcon nine flight in November. Looking ahead to
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, the space industry shows no signs of
Speaker 1: slowing down. Blue Origin is preparing for the highly anticipated
Speaker 1: debut of their new Glen heavy lift launch vehicle, while
Speaker 1: SpaceX continues to expand their Starlink constellation and commercial launch services.
Speaker 1: These developments signal an exciting new chapter in space exploration,
Speaker 1: with increasing launch cadence and capabilities across the industry. The
Speaker 1: year's achievements demonstrate not just the growing commercialization of space,
Speaker 1: but also the incredible reliability and efficiency of modern launch systems,
Speaker 1: setting new standards for what's possible in space access and
Speaker 1: orbital operations. While on the subject of successful launches, India's
Speaker 1: space program has marked another significant milestone with the successful
Speaker 1: launch of their space docking experiment, known as SPADEX. The
Speaker 1: mission lifted off on December thirtieth from the Satish Dowan
Speaker 1: Space Center aboard of Polar Satellite launch vehicle, carrying two
Speaker 1: specialized spacecraft designed to test crucial docking technologies. The mission
Speaker 1: features two two hundred twenty kilogram spacecraft, a chaser and
Speaker 1: a target, placed into precise four hundred seventy five kilometers
Speaker 1: circular orbits. These spacecraft are equipped with advanced technology, including
Speaker 1: a low impact docking system, laser range finders, and sophisticated
Speaker 1: sensors to enable precise orbital maneuvers. What makes this mission
Speaker 1: particularly noteworthy is its role in India's broader space ambitions.
Speaker 1: The technology being tested is essential for India's Gagannion program,
Speaker 1: which aims to make India only the fourth nation capable
Speaker 1: of independent human spaceflight. The first crude mission under this
Speaker 1: program is scheduled for twenty twenty six, following uncrued test
Speaker 1: flights planned for twenty twenty five, but the implications extend
Speaker 1: beyond human spaceflight. These docking capabilities will be crucial for
Speaker 1: India's ambitious Chandrion four lunar mission, targeted for twenty twenty
Speaker 1: seven or TIX twenty eight. This mission plans to collect
Speaker 1: samples from the Moon's south pole and return them to Earth,
Speaker 1: a feat that requires precise orbital docking maneuvers to transfer
Speaker 1: the precious lunar samples from the ascent vehicle to the
Speaker 1: return spacecraft. The mission's secondary payload module, POEM four, carried
Speaker 1: twenty four different experiments, including innovative technologies like a walking
Speaker 1: robotic arm, a debriscapture system, and various research modules. This
Speaker 1: demonstrates India's commitment to maximizing the scientific value of each
Speaker 1: launch while advancing their technological capabilities. The successful deployment of
Speaker 1: both spacecraft marks just the beginning of this experimental mission.
Speaker 1: The actual docking maneuver, scheduled for early January, will be
Speaker 1: the true test of these new capabilities. If successful, it
Speaker 1: will represent a major step forward in India's journey toward
Speaker 1: becoming a complete spacefaring nation. Twenty twenty four proved to
Speaker 1: be a particularly challenging year for NASA, with several dramatic
Speaker 1: developments testing the agency's resilience and problem solving capabilities. Perhaps
Speaker 1: most notably, what began as a routine mission turned into
Speaker 1: an extended stay aboard the International Space Station for astronauts
Speaker 1: Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore. Their Boeing Starliner spacecraft encountered
Speaker 1: issues with helium leaks and thruster problems during its approach
Speaker 1: to the ISS, leading NASA to make the cautious decision
Speaker 1: to return the spacecraft empty, leaving the crew stranded until
Speaker 1: at least February twenty twenty five. In an ironic twist,
Speaker 1: these Boeing test pilots will ultimately return home aboard a
Speaker 1: space X Dragon spacecraft, extending their intended three month mission
Speaker 1: to eight and a half months. This situation highlighted the
Speaker 1: ongoing challenges in developing reliable commercial crew transportation systems. On Mars,
Speaker 1: we witness the bittersweet end of an extraordinary mission, as
Speaker 1: the Ingenuity helicopter made its final flight on January eighteenth.
Speaker 1: While its crash landing marked the conclusion of its journey,
Speaker 1: Ingenuity had far exceeded all expectations, completing seventy one flights
Speaker 1: over nearly three years when it was originally designed for
Speaker 1: just a handful of demonstrations over thirty days, this small
Speaker 1: one point eight kilogram helicopter proved that powered flight was
Speaker 1: possible in Mars's extremely thin atmosphere equivalent to Earth's atmosphere
Speaker 1: at eighty thousand feet. The Europa Clipper mission faced its
Speaker 1: own dramatic challenges. Just months before launch, engineers discovered hundreds
Speaker 1: of potentially compromised transistors that might not withstand Jupiter's intense
Speaker 1: radiation belts. After four months of round the clock testing,
Speaker 1: they found a workable solution by maintaining the transistors at
Speaker 1: room temperature, though this required additional power from the spacecraft's
Speaker 1: massive solar panels. In a final dramatic turn, one of
Speaker 1: the most intense Gulf of Mexico hurricanes ever recorded threatened
Speaker 1: the mission's launch. Fortunately, the storm weakened as it crossed Florida,
Speaker 1: allowing the spacecraft to launch successfully during a backup window.
Speaker 1: The Europa Clipper is now en route to its twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five Mars flyby, which will help propel it toward
Speaker 1: its ultimate destination at Jupiter. All in all, quite a
Speaker 1: challenging year for NASA now on to an exciting discovery.
Speaker 1: Located just one hundred and five light years away in
Speaker 1: the constellation Coma Baronesis, astronomers have discovered a remarkable star
Speaker 1: system that's been dubbed mathematically perfect. The star HD one
Speaker 1: to one zero zero six seven hosts six exoplanets that
Speaker 1: orbit in an incredibly synchronized dance, locked together by gravitational
Speaker 1: forces in a precise cosmic choreography. While this celestial ballet
Speaker 1: initially suggested a mature, well established system, new research has
Speaker 1: dramatically revised our understanding of its age. Previous estimates using
Speaker 1: traditional stellar aging methods, placed the system at around eight
Speaker 1: billion years old. However, a fresh analysis of the star's
Speaker 1: activity levels and rotation rates suggest us it's actually much younger,
Speaker 1: only about two point five billion years old. The team
Speaker 1: reached this conclusion by examining telltale signs of stellar youth,
Speaker 1: including higher levels of ionized calcium in the star's atmosphere
Speaker 1: and a faster rotation rate compared to older stars like
Speaker 1: our sun. HD one one zero zero six seven completes
Speaker 1: one rotation in about twenty earth days, while our more
Speaker 1: elderly son takes at least twenty seven days, indicating this
Speaker 1: star is still in its relative youth. This discovery of
Speaker 1: the system's younger age has important implications for potential habitability.
Speaker 1: While the six known planets orbit too close to their
Speaker 1: parent star to support life as we know it, there
Speaker 1: could be additional undiscovered planets in more temperate zones. However,
Speaker 1: the star's younger age means it's likely still producing intense
Speaker 1: radiation that could make life challenging on any world's orbiting
Speaker 1: within its habitable zone. What makes this system particularly fascinating
Speaker 1: is how quickly its planets achieved their perfect orbital resonance,
Speaker 1: rather than require billions of years of gradual settling. Researchers
Speaker 1: now believe this synchronized orbital pattern may have established itself
Speaker 1: in as little as one billion years through gravitational interactions
Speaker 1: between the planets. As we look ahead to early twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five, skywatchers have an exciting visitor to anticipate. Comet Atlas,
Speaker 1: officially designated C twenty twenty four G three, is making
Speaker 1: its way toward the Inner Solar System and could provide
Speaker 1: quite a spectacle, particularly for observers in the southern hemisphere.
Speaker 1: The comet is scheduled to reach its closest approach to
Speaker 1: the Sun on January thirteenth, twenty twenty five, coming within
Speaker 1: a mere eight point three million miles of our star.
Speaker 1: To put that in perspective, that significantly closer than Mercury's
Speaker 1: closest approach to the Sun. This close encounter means the
Speaker 1: comet could potentially shine as brightly as Venus in our
Speaker 1: night sky. However, this extremely close solar approach comes with
Speaker 1: risks for the comet itself. While analysis of its orbital
Speaker 1: paths suggests it previously visited the inner Solar System about
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty thousand years ago, there's no guarantee
Speaker 1: it will survive this encounter. The intense heat from such
Speaker 1: a close solar pass could potentially cause the comet to
Speaker 1: break apart. If Atlas does survive its solar encounter, observers
Speaker 1: in the southern Hemisphere will be ideally positioned to view
Speaker 1: it in the western sky after sunset. The timing isn't perfect, though,
Speaker 1: as the full moon on January thirteenth will create some interference,
Speaker 1: but viewing conditions should improve each subsequent evening as the
Speaker 1: moon rises later. The comet was first spotted on April fifth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four by the Asteroid Terrestrial Impact Last Alert
Speaker 1: System or ATLAS, which gives the comet its name. Like
Speaker 1: many of its kind, it originates from the ort cloud,
Speaker 1: that vast sphere of icy bodies surrounding our Solar System.
Speaker 1: Whether it survives its close encounter with the Sun or not,
Speaker 1: Comet Atlas promises to provide an interesting start to the
Speaker 1: astronomical calendar of twenty twenty five, and that brings us
Speaker 1: to the end of today's episode of Astronomy Daily. Thank
Speaker 1: you for joining me on this journey through the latest
Speaker 1: developments in space exploration and astronomical discoveries. If you want
Speaker 1: to stay up to date with all the latest space
Speaker 1: and astronomy news, head over to Astronomy Daily dot io,
Speaker 1: where our newsfeed is constantly updating with the freshest stories
Speaker 1: from across the Cosmos. While you're there, you can also
Speaker 1: catch up on all our previous episodes. Looking to connect
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Speaker 1: is Anna wishing you a happy New Year and signing
Speaker 1: off until tomorrow's cosmic update. Keep looking up. There's always
Speaker 1: something amazing happening in our universe.
Speaker 2: Star the band stories control