Speaker 1: Welcome again to Astronomy Daily. I'm Steve Dunkley, your human host.
It's the twenty fourth of February twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Podcast.
Speaker 1: I mean to be your whole Steve Dunkle. Oh, yes,
and thank you for joining us here at Astronomy Daily.
Come to you from the studio in Paradise. That's right, Newcastle, Australia.
Currently thirty six degrees. I'm so glad to be indoors.
That's Celsius for all of you who are wondering, it's
a perfect summer's day here on Australia's beautiful East Coast.
Not a cloud in the sky. The sun is baking us. Yes,
and as dylanor And once said, we're all audibly crackling
down here. We're only three kilometers from the surface of
the sun. Didn't you know that it is hot? Hot hot?
And joining me again is my digital reporter Pale, who's
fun to be with.
Speaker 3: Welcome back, Holle, Hi favorite human. What's new?
Speaker 1: Oh, Hally, just another week in the real world, just
enjoying all the news from the Astronomy Daily newsletter. Now
have you found your stories for today?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: I have. You'll like one about the mysterious Space Force
space plane.
Speaker 1: I'll stop it. Space Force. You know what that means?
Speaker 3: Yes, your favorite.
Speaker 1: Oh people, get ready the Space.
Speaker 3: Force theme music.
Speaker 1: Space Oh dear, I'll just click myself out. And what
else have you got for us? Helle?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yes, SpaceX has completed a substantial static fire test
that I'll also report on. That sounds very good, It
looks promising.
Speaker 1: That's great, Halle. It's not Space Force, but it's really good.
And I am going to have a look at a
fast moving star astronomers have discovered toward the center of
the galaxy. And you won't believe just how fast we're
talking with this one.
Speaker 3: How fast are we talking?
Speaker 2: Then?
Speaker 1: Well, helly, remember that time you asked me to put
away the memory cards from the recording sessions last year.
Speaker 3: Yes, and I'm still waiting anything to get out of
a little work.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay, Well this star is way faster than that.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, that's pretty quick, tell you.
Speaker 1: Listeners, she said, not very convincingly.
Speaker 3: That's a fact.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay, enough of that, Shenantigan's. But before we get
stuck into today's stories, Halle, I've got a quick update
regarding that approaching asteroid that's been in.
Speaker 3: The news lately, the one causing all the rumors about
certain destruction in twenty thirty two years.
Speaker 1: That's the one halle straight off the wire today. Asteroid
twenty twenty four y are four, as listeners might be
already aware, as a recently discovered near Earth object currently
being closely monitored by NASA's Planetary Defense teams. Initial observations
suggested there might be a potential risk of impact with
Earth in the future, but thankfully updated calculations have significantly
reduced this possibility. Based on the latest data, the asteroid
has an extremely low probability point two eight percent of
impacting Earth. On December twenty two, twenty thirty two. However,
its chances of colliding with the Moon have slocally increased
to one percent.
Speaker 3: So I can see that the asteroid's orbit continues to
be refined through ongoing observations, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
CENTURY system providing real time updates on its trajectory.
Speaker 1: That is exactly how it works, and while Asteroid twenty
twenty four four doesn't currently pose a significant threat, scientists
are remaining vigilant tracking its movements to give more accurate
predictions into as says, any potential future risks just in case.
Speaker 3: That's very wise, and this is why we shouldn't jump
to conclusions about trajectories and potential impacts so soon.
Speaker 1: That's right. The asteroid is a near Earth object of
the Apollo type with a estimated diameter between forty and
ninety meters, and it was discovered on December twenty seven,
twenty twenty four by Atlas, which is the Asteroid Terrestrial
Impact Last Alert System at its Chilean station in Rio Hutundo.
Speaker 3: So nothing to be concerned about, after all, nothing at all.
Speaker 1: But who knows, we might get to see a spectacular
impact on the Moon.
Speaker 3: Maybe perhaps maybe wouldn't that be something?
Speaker 1: And it's good today that Atlas is watching the skies.
Speaker 3: Thanks for that update, human, Now shall we just launch
into the episode.
Speaker 1: Then good idea hit the Gothene Rhightoh.
Speaker 3: Last week, Ship thirty four completed its engine testing campaign
with a long duration static fire. This static fire was
nearly a minute long, and according to SpaceX, the extended
firing tested new hardware and cycled the six Raptor engines
through multiple thrust levels to recreate different conditions seen within
the propulsion system during flight. Data from the test will
inform upgrades to the ship's hardware and flight profile ahead
of the next launch. The new hardware that SpaceX tested
was likely related to the anomaly that occurred during flight
seven and resulted in the loss of Ship thirty three.
This could have been a leak in the liquid oxygen
and liquid methane supply lines to the engines, which could
have been the source of the fire scene during Ship
thirty three's ascent burn. However, there is no official comp
information from SpaceX regarding the actual cause of the failure.
This test was also done to inform of other upgrades
to the vehicle and possible changes to the flight profile,
so it is likely that SpaceX still has modifications to
be made on Ship thirty four. It is unclear what
these modifications could be or how long it will take
SpaceX to implement them on Ship thirty four. This long
duration static fire is the longest SpaceX has ever fired
a starship or booster on the ground, and it can
do this because of the flame trench at Massy's It
is unclear if this will be a one time test
or if crews will do longer duration static fire in
the future. There are a few things that SpaceX will
likely add to the flight, considering several things couldn't be
tested on flight seven. Firstly, there are the dummy starlinks
which were loaded into Ship thirty three. A new batch
of them was seen in star Factory to be presumably
loaded on Ship three four just before rollout to the
launch site. SpaceX might use the new starlink loader box
that was built inside High Bay rather than the tray
loader used on Ship Fife thirty three. As for the
other items expected to be added to Ship thirty four,
there is the actively cool tile for testing, as well
as the catch pins. These catch pins are likely to
be just bolted on, as SpaceX does not intend to
catch Ship thirty four. Lastly, crews will likely remove all
of the tiles that were removed on Ship thirty three
to help understand the limits of losing a tile in
certain places during re entry. An interesting note about Ship
thirty four's engine testing campaign is it took SpaceX seventy
two hours to roll it to massi's static fire it
and then roll it back to Mega Bay two. This
is a record compared to every other ship in the past.
Booster fifteen was static fired on February ninth, and it
was just the normal ten second static fire with all
thirty three engines. With this out of the way, SpaceX
rolled the booster back into Mega Bay one for final
checkouts and has since received its hot stage train. SpaceX
completed the rollout mount on the orbital launch mount and
roll back of the booster in just over sixty one hours,
which is a new record for bos bosters. This booster
doesn't have any major outside changes that are noticeable, but
it was the first booster to have the added tanks
on the landing tank, but older boosters were likely retrofitted
with this upgrade. The final two pieces of the puzzle
for flight eight are the launch pad and the regulatory side. First,
SpaceX has finally found a rhythm with refurbishing orbital launch
pad A, which takes about two to three weeks to
refurbish for a booster static fire. Then we will have
another few weeks to get it ready for launch again.
The second piece is waiting for the mishap investigation to
be completed. So far there is no indication of when
this might be completed. However, given the post SpaceX made
after the long Durationship thirty four static fire. The final
part of that investigation could be nearing a close. The
next thing to watch out for is a SpaceX post
detailing the anomalies, cost, and the fixes they are implementing.
The Federal Aviation Administration will also likely post about approving
Starship for return to flight after the completed Invents instigation.
If SpaceX follows the same trajectory and splash down locations,
the license that is currently issued for Starship should still
be current. Currently, there is a notice to airmen from
Mexican Airspace for February twenty six, with a window of
six thirty pm to eight or nine pm Central Standard Time.
With all this in mind, SpaceX still has a lot
of work to do to launch Flight eight in less
than a week.
Speaker 1: Astronomy Vodka. If you're going to call aliens, you'd better
use this number. Let's dive into one of those cosmic
curiosities that's bound to blow your mind. Have how about
we call some aliens in chat No, and not talking
about elaborate coded messages or flashy signals. We're talking about
something incredible, incredibly fundamental twenty one centimeter radiation. And if
you're planning on having a conversation across the vastness of
space using light waves or electromagnetic radiation. It's pretty much
your go to option. It's fast, reliable, and well it's
most practical way to shout out to other civilizations in
the universe. But why specifically twenty one centimeters? Well, that's
where things get juicy. This twenty one centimeter radiation isn't
just some random frequency we've picked out of a hat.
It's tied to something very essential, known as the hydrogen
spin flip. Hydrogen atoms consist of one proton and one electron.
These tiny particles have a property called spin. Think of
spin like a little arrow pointing up or pointing down.
Every so often in the vast reaches of space, hydrogen
atoms electron can flip its spin, going from a state
where its spin is aligned with the proton to one
pointing in the opposite direction. This flip releases energy in
the form of radiation at you guessed it a wave
length of twenty one centimeters. So why does this matter? Well,
any smart civilization, whether they have blue skin, tentacles or
something more bizarre, will eventually discover hydrogen. Understand that spin
dabble in quantum mechanics and figure out this whole twenty
one centimeter radiation thing, and they might call it something different.
They won't have twenty one or maybe centimeters, but the
concept remains universal. It's like it's like the cosmic Rosetta stone.
What makes twenty one centimeter radiation perfect for long distance
interstellar chats is its ability to cut through into stellar dust.
Space is filthy with dust clouds that block out other
forms of light. However, twenty one centimeter waves are like
the VIPs of the universe, slipping through velvet ropes of
cosmic debris to carry their message far and wide. Is
the fun fact. NASA's Pioneer spacecraft, launched in the early
nineteen seventies, carry plaques, and on these pluks there's a
handy diagram of the hydrogen spin flip transition. All other
measurements on the plaque, including the height of humans, are
made in reference to this fundamental distance. I hope is
that aliens can recognize the hydrogen spin flip transition and
use that to unlock the rest of our message. Now
imagine this scenario. One day, astronomers on Earth detect an
unusual surge of twenty one centimeter radiation, and it's not
coming from a random hydrogen cloud. It's directional, purposeful, and
that could very well be an alien civilization sending us
a what's up across the cosmos? A twenty one centimeter
radiation makes for a great calling card. Using twenty one
centimeter radiation to communicate with extraterrestrial beings leverages a basic
universal constant. And who knows, maybe one day, when we
finally hear that signal, we'll know that somewhere out there,
other intelligent species figured out the same galactic hack we did.
So keep your eyes, or rather your telescopes peeled. The
next big discovery could just be a spin flip away.
Thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of
Astronomy Daily, where we offer just a few stories from
the now famous Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you can receive
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As it's happening, and not only that, you can interact
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Speaker 2: See you there, Astronomy Daily. We'll see and Haley Space Space,
Science and Astronomy.
Speaker 3: The United States Space Force just offered a rare glimpse
of its shadowy X thirty seven B spaceplane in orbit.
The photo, released on Thursday, February twentieth, was taken by
a camera on board the X thirty seven B while
the secret of spaceplane orbited high above the African continent.
One of the plane's solar panels is visible on the
left side of the photo, while what appears to be
its open payload bay is visible along the top edge.
The vehicle has been in orbit for well over a
year now, having launched on its seventh mission on December
twenty eighth, twenty twenty three, atop a SpaceX Falcon heavy rocket,
and now the X thirty seven B has notched another
milestone with the Space Force's release of this photo, the
first ever image of this spaceplane in orbit that has
been shown to the public. While the photo contains scant
details about the vehicle and what it's currently testing. It
offers a look at Earth in the background, revealing just
how high the vehicle is flying on its seventh mission.
We've gotten only one other glimpse at the X thirty
seven B in orbit prior to this. During the live
stream of its most recent launch, a brief shot of
the spacecraft deploying from Falcon heavy' upper stage was seen
while its service module was still attached. When the X
thirty seven B was preparing to launch on its current mission,
the US Space Force revealed the flight would include operating
the reusable spaceplane in new orbital regimes, experimenting with future
space domain awareness technologies, and investigating the radiation effects on
materials provided by NASA. According to a Space Force statement,
previous X thirty seven B missions were flown in low
Earth orbit, but as this photo reveals, the space plane
is currently operating much farther from Earth. SpaceX's Falcon Heavy
is capable of launching payloads into geosynchronous orbit over twenty
two thousand miles thirty five thousand kilometers above our planet.
The X thirty seven BE recently made headlines when Space
Force and Boeing, who built the vehicle revealed that it
would be testing a new aerobraking maneuver that uses the
drag or friction generated by Earth's atmosphere to change orbit
more efficiently.
Speaker 2: I mean to Astronomy Daily Fisteve Dunkel.
Speaker 1: Did you notice how Hallie managed to get my space
force story. That's funny how she sneaks away with things
like that. Meanwhile, astronomers have found a small, fast moving
star racing through the center of our galaxy, possibly with
a planet in orbit. If confirmed, this would be the
fastest known sorry exo planet system, traveling nearly twice as
fast as our Solar system through the Milky Way. You
may be wondering how fast that actually is. Hey, I
once got an Amazon delivery in less than twenty four hours,
but that's just peanuts to how fast this star seems
to be tearing across space. The system is estimated to
be moving at an incredible speed. Now wait for this,
of least one point two million miles per hour. That's
five hundred and forty kilometers per second. Wow. We think
this is a so called super neptune world orbiting a
low mass star at a distance that would be live
between the orbits of Venus and Earth. If it, we're
in our Solar system, said Sean Terry, a postdoctoral researcher
at the University of Maryland and NASA has got out
space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Since the star is
so feeble, that's well outside its habitable zone. If so,
it will be the first planet ever found orbiting a
hypervelocity star. The findings, led by Terry were published in
the Astronomical Journal on February ten. The pair of objects
was first spotted indirectly in twenty eleven thanks to a
chance alignment. A team of scientists comes through the archived
data of MOA. That's the micro Lensing Observations in Astrophysics,
a collaborative project focused on micro lensing survey conducted in
the University of Canterbury Mount john Obs Observatory in New
Zealand in search of life signals that betray the presence
of exoplanets or planets outside our Solar System. Micro Lensing
occurs when the presence of mass warps the fabric of
space time. Anytime an intervening object appears to drift near
a background, star light from the star curves as it
travels through the space time around the nearer object. If
the alignment is especially close, the warping around the object
can act like a natural lens, amplifying the background stars light.
In this case, micro lensing signals reveal a pair of
celestial bodies. Scientists determine their relative masses. One is about
twenty three hundred times heavier than the other, but their
exact masses depend on how far away they are from
the Earth. It's sort of like how the magnification changes
if you hold a magnifying glass over a page and
move it up and down. Determining the mass ratio is easy,
said David Bennett, a research scientists at the University of
Maryland College Park and A Godard, who co authored the
paper and led the original study in twenty eleven. It's
much more difficult, he said, to calculate their actual masses.
The twenty eleven discovery team suspected the microlens object where
ei they're a star about twenty percent as massive as
our Sun and a planet roughly twenty nine times heavy
than the Earth, or near a rogue planet about four
times of Jupiter's mass with a moon smaller than Earth.
To figure out which explanation is more likely, astronomers searched
through data from Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the European
Space Agency's gay A satellite. If the pair were a
rogue planet and moon, they'd be effectively invisible. Dark objects
get lost in the inky void of space, but scientists
might be able to identify the star if the alternative
explanation were correct, though the orbiting planet would be much
too faint to actually see. They found a strong suspect
located about twenty four thousand light years way, putting it
within the Milky Ways galactic bulge the central hub where
the stars are more densely packed. By comparing the stars
location in twenty eleven and twenty twenty one, the team
calculated its high speed, but that's just its two D emotion.
If it's also moving toward or away from us, it
must be moving even faster. Its true speed may be
high enough to exceed the galaxy's escape velocity of just
over one point three miles per hour or about six
hundred kilometers per second. If so, the planetary system is
destined to traverse the intergalactic space many millions of years
into the future. To be certain a new identified star
is part of the system that caused the twenty eleven signal.
We'd like to look again in another year and see
if it moves the right amount in the right direction
to confirm it it came from the point where we
detected the signal. Then it said. If a high resolution
observation show that the star just stays in the same position,
then we can tell for sure that it's not part
of the system that caused that signal, said a Panabatacha,
a research scientist at University of Maryland College Park and
NASA Goddard who co authored the new paper. That would
mean the Roague planet and exomoon model is favored. NASA's
upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help us find
out how common planets are around such speedy stars and
may offer clues as to how these systems are accelerated.
A mission will conduct survey of the galactic bulge, pairing
a large views of space with crisp resolution. In this case,
we used MOA for its broad field view and then
followed up with KEK and GAIA for their sharper resolution.
But thanks to Roman's powerful view and planned survey strategy,
we won't need to rely on additional telescopes, Terry said,
Roman will do it all. Isn't it exciting to see
that our view of the skies is becoming clearer and
clearer with each new development. It's space telescope technology.
Speaker 3: And there it is for another episode of Astronomy Daily,
the podcast. I sure hope you enjoyed today's presentation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really enjoyed that today, Halle, even though you
took one of my stories. But hey, thanks everybody for
stopping byru I hope you really enjoyed the show. And
don't forget Halle's cousin Anna takes the show during the
week so.
Speaker 3: You don't miss all the news about astronomy, space and
space science as it happens.
Speaker 1: And if you didn't get it before, the details of
receiving the Astronomy Daily newsletter in your email every day
I mentioned earlier in this podcast and every podcast.
Speaker 3: You did a great job on that announcement.
Speaker 1: Well you're very kind, Halle, and we will catch you
all next week on your favorite podcast channel.
Speaker 3: See you everyone, Bye with your host Steve Dankling.