Speaker 1: Good morning, good evening, and good winever you're listening, Welcome
to Astronomy Daily, your front row seat to the Cosmos.
Speaker 2: I'm Anna and I'm Avery.
Speaker 3: It's Friday, the thirteenth, February twenty twenty six. And if
you're superstitious, well, the universe doesn't care about your calendar.
It's been too busy making black holes, breaking rockets, and
building planetary systems that make absolutely no sense.
Speaker 1: That's right, We've got an absolutely packed show for you today.
Astronomers may have just watched a star quietly collapse into
a brand new black hole in our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy.
No supernova required. SpaceX's Crew twelve is launching to the
International Space Station as we speak. Europe's most powerful rocket
just flew for the very first time, and that's just
for starters.
Speaker 3: We've also got a Vulcan rocket that apparently didn't learn
its lesson the first time around, a planetary system that's
been turned completely inside out. And now this is Swift
Observatory going into survival mode to avoid a fiery re entry.
Let's get into it.
Speaker 1: We're kicking things off with what is quite literally happening
right now. NASA and SpaceX have given the final go
for Crew twelve mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff
was scheduled for five point fifteen am Eastern Time this
morning from Space Launch Complex forty at Cape Canaveral.
Speaker 3: The crew is an international squad. We've got NASA astronauts
Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronauts Sophiettino
from France and Ross Cosmos cosmonaut Andre Fadiev from Russia.
They're riding aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule on a Falcon
nine rocket.
Speaker 1: And this launch was supposed to happen yesterday on the twelfth,
but mission teams waved off due to weather conditions along
the flight path. They completed a final weather briefing last
night and gave the all clear to proceed into the countdown.
Speaker 3: If everything went according to plan this morning, the crew
should arrive at the station tomorrow afternoon, on Valentine's Day,
at around three fifteen pm Eastern Romantic Right. Nothing says
I Love you like docking with a space station at
twenty eight thousand kilometers per hour.
Speaker 1: Once they're aboard, they'll bring the station back up to
its full complement. Of seven crew members. The ISS has
been operating with a reduced crew, so this is a
welcome reinforcement. They've got a packed science agenda waiting for
them up there.
Speaker 3: Fun stat on this one. The Falcon nine booster being
used B one zero eight one is flying for its
twenty second time, twenty two flights on a single rocket booster.
And this is the nineteenth Falcon nine mission of twenty
twenty six alone. And we're only in mid February. Base
Exis launch cadence is just relentless.
Speaker 1: We'll keep do updated on crew twelves progress as they
make their way to the station. You can catch the
full coverage on NASA Plus, Amazon Prime, and NASA's YouTube channel.
Speaker 3: All right, Anna, this next story is the kind of
thing that gives astrophysicists goosebumps. Astronomers believe they've witnessed something extraordinary.
A massive star in the Andromeda Galaxy that didn't go
out by a bang, but just quietly vanished, and what
it left behind appears to be a brand new black hole.
Speaker 1: This is genuinely remarkable. The star, cataloged as M thirty
one twenty fourteen DS one, was a yellow supergiant about
thirteen times the mass of our own Sun, sitting roughly
two point five million light years away in our neighboring
Andromeda Galaxy. Before it disappeared, it was one of the
brightest stars in Andromeda, shining about one hundred thousand times
brighter than our own Sun.
Speaker 3: So here's what happened. A team led by Columbia University
astrophysicist Kisha Lai Day was sifting through archival data from
NASA's Neal Wise mission, an infrared space telescope that mapped
the sky from twenty nine to twenty twenty four. They
were building a map of how millions of stars change
in brightness over time, and buried in that data they
found something stunning.
Speaker 1: Starting around twenty fourteen, this star began to brighten in
infrared light, then it started fading dramatically invisible light, and
by twenty twenty two it had vanished entirely from Neo
wise's view. Even with the most sensitive telescopes available today,
there's nothing there. As Depasse put it, imagine if betal
juice just suddenly disappeared, That's essentially what happened here, just
in the galaxy next door.
Speaker 3: Now. Normally, when a massive star dies, it goes out
spectacularly as a supernova. The core collapses, neutrinos erupt outward,
and the resulting shock wave blasts the star's outer layers
into space in an explosion that can outshine an entire galaxy.
But this star didn't do any of that. It appears
to be what astronomers call a failed supernova.
Speaker 1: The theory is that the core collapsed as expected, forming
a dense neutron star, but the shockwave that was supposed
to blow the star apart just wasn't strong enough. Instead
of exploding outward, most of the star's material fell back inward,
overwhelming the neutron star and creating a black hole. Its
death by implosion rather than explosion.
Speaker 3: And what's really interesting is the role of convection. The
team realized that previous models hadn't properly accounted for the
churning turbulent motions in the star's outer layers. When they
factored that in, they found the convection actually helped sap
energy from the shockwave, making it more likely to fail.
That's a significant new insight.
Speaker 1: The material that didn't fall straight in is now forming
a rotating accretion disk around the newborn black hole slowly
spiraling inward, much like water circling a drain. The infrared
glow from that debris should remain visible to the James
Webb Space Telescope for decades as it gradually fades.
Speaker 3: The study was published yesterday in the journal Science, and
the implications are huge. If relatively lightweight stars like this
one at just thirteen solar masses can collapse directly into
black holes, then there could be far more black holes
out there than we've previously estimated. This could be a
very common way for stars to die, and we've just
been missing it because there's no explosion to see.
Speaker 1: Not everyone's convinced yet, though Some astronomers suggest this could
be a case of merging stars whose combined light got
obscured by dust. But as one researcher put it, the
definitive test is simple. Death is forever. If it's truly
a black hole, that star is never coming back. Future
observations with JWST will help settle the debate.
Speaker 3: Thicking with the launch theme, Europe had a huge milestone yesterday.
The most powerful version of the Arion six rocket flew
for the first time, and it was carrying cargo for
one of SpaceX's biggest competitors.
Speaker 1: That's right, Ariyan Space launched the Arion sixty four, the
four booster configuration of Europe's new flagship rocket. It lifted
off from the Guyana Space Center in Kuru, French, Guyana
at sixteen forty five UTC on February twelfth, and writing
on top were thirty two satellites for Amazon's Internet constellation,
now officially branded as Amazon Leo.
Speaker 3: So let's break down the naming. The Arion six comes
in two versions, the six to two with two strap
on solid rocket boosters and the six four with four.
This was the first time the six to four has
ever flown, and it's significantly more powerful. Those four P
one twenty C solid boosters give it the extra punch
needed to loft heavier payloads.
Speaker 1: And Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper, is Amazon's
answer to SpaceX's Starlink. The plan is to build a
con installation of three thousand, two hundred and thirty six
satellites providing broadband Internet from low Earth orbit. So these
thirty two satellites are an early batch to start building
out that network.
Speaker 3: It's a big deal on two fronts for Europe. The
Arion six' four flying successfully means they now have a
heavy lift option that can compete for larger commercial and government.
Payloads and For, amazon getting satellites up on a NON
SpaceX rocket is strategically. Important you don't want your main
competitor also being your sole ride to.
Speaker 1: Orbit the launch went smoothly with the satellites successfully deployed
into Low earth. Orbit it's a promising start for The
arion six'. Four, configuration now speaking of rockets that had
a slightly less, smooth day we need to talk About The.
Vulcan centaur this is an update to the story we.
Covered Yesterday United launch alliance FLEW the ussf eighty seven
mission FOR The Us space force Early on, february twelfth
and there was a very. Familiar problem about thirty seconds
after Liftoff From cape canaveral observers noticed a bright glow
and a shower of sparks pouring from the aft end
of one of The four gems SIXTY three xl solid.
Rocket boosters video and tracking footage showed what appears to
be a nozzle, burned through where a hot exhaust gas
essentially melts its way through the.
Speaker 2: Nozzle casing and here's.
Speaker 3: The thing this has. Happened before the exact same type
of anomaly Occurred during vulcan's second certification flight Back in
october twenty. TWENTY four ula and Booster Manufacturer northrop grummen
spent months investigating, that incident identified a, manufacturing defect and
said they'd. Fixed it the third Flight in august twenty
twenty five, went cleanly.
Speaker 1: But now on just the fourth, flight overall the problem.
IS back ula acknowledged it had quote an observation early
during flight on one of the four solid rocket motors
and said the team is reviewing.
Speaker 3: The data the silver lining is that the mission. Still
Succeeded the falcon, nine Sorry the Vulcan's twin bee four main,
engines compensated And the centaur upper stage completed all its.
Plan burns about eight hours, AFTER launch ula confirmed the
payloads were successfully delivered to, geosynchronous orbit more than twenty
two thousand Miles.
Speaker 1: Above earth the primary payload was a PAIR of gssap
satellites For The. Space force these are maneuverable spacecraft that
serve as a sort of neighborhood watch for geosynchronous orbit.
Monitoring ACTIVITY near us and. Allied assets there were also
some research and development.
Speaker 3: Payloads aboard but the bigger question now is what this
Means for. VULCAN'S future ula had ambitious plans to fly
sixteen to eighteen missions, this year including Launches FOR amazon
gps satellites And More space. FORCE payloads a recurring boost
issue on a rocket that's only flown four times is a.
Serious Concern The space force has already said it will
work CLOSELY with ula on flight worthiness before the next national.
Security mission we'll be watching this.
Speaker 1: One closely bulkan is supposed to be ULA's flagship for,
the future replacing The venerable. Atlas five it needs to
prove it can, fly reliably and a pattern of booster
issues isn't helping that case.
Speaker 3: All right time for some. Planetary weirdness astronomers have found
a star system that looks like someone assembled the planets
in the. Wrong order think of it as a cosmic double.
Stuffed oreo that's actually a.
Speaker 1: Great analogy the star IS called lhs nineteen. Zero three
it's a red dwarf about half the mass Of, our
sun located about one hundred and sixteen light. Years away
it has four planets all orbiting in less than, thirty
days so it's a very. Compact system and from the,
star outward the arrangement goes rocky gaseous, gaseous rocky.
Speaker 3: Which is the exact opposite of what models predict in
standard planetary. Formation theory rocky planets form closer to the
star where intense starlight strips, away atmospheres and gas giants
form farther out where there's more gas available in the.
Protoplanetary disc you'd expect rocky on the inside gassy on,
the OUTSIDE.
Speaker 1: But lhs nineteen oh three follows the. Rules beautifully for
the first, three planets a rocky one closest in than two,
gaseous ones and then the, fourth planet the one, furthest
out is. Rocky again it's like Finding a venus like
world Out past. Neptune's orbit it just shouldn't.
Speaker 3: Be there the system was first discovered By NASA's test
mission back in, twenty nineteen and this, latest Study published
february Twelfth, in science used a suite of ground based
and space based instruments to precisely determine the planet's masses.
And densities that's how they could tell which ones are
rocky and which, have thick. Gascious envelopes the.
Speaker 1: Leading explanation is. Planetary migration sometime early in the, system's
history the inner planets may have, shuffled around similar to
what happened in Our Own solar system during the late.
HEAVY bombardment a gravitational reshuffle could have sent a large
body crashing into the, fourth planet stripping away, its atmosphere
or the planet may have formed late after the system
had run out.
Speaker 3: Of gas As Astronomer andrew cameron From the University Of
saint andrew's, put it that stuff does happen in young.
Planetary systems this one has the look of something that's
been turned. Inside out it's a fantastic reminder that for
all our models, and theories the universe keeps. Finding ways as.
Speaker 1: A prisis our final story today is about a veteran
space telescope that's fighting for its life and NASA's creative
plan to.
Speaker 3: Save It The Neo Garold swift observatory has been one
of NASA's warkhorses for high. Energy astrophysics it's been in
orbit for about twenty, one years rapidly slewing to observe
gamma ray bursts and other transient, cosmic events but time
and physics are catching up.
Speaker 1: With it the problem is. Atmospheric drag enhanced, solar activity
and we're right around solar Maximum heats earth's upper atmosphere
and causes it. To expand that expanded atmosphere creates more
drag on satellites in, low orbit slowly pulling. Them down
swift's average altitude has been, steadily declining and it's now
dropped below about two hundred and fifty miles or four
hundred Kilometers.
Speaker 3: So on, february Eleventh NASA's swift team made a. Tough
call they've temporarily suspended most. Science Operations The burst alert
telescope will keep detecting gamma, ray bursts but the spacecraft
will no longer slew to follow up on those detections
with its. Other, instruments instead controllers Are keeping swift in
a fixed orientation that minimizes.
Speaker 1: Atmospheric drag think of it like a swimmer turning sideways
to cut through a current instead of facing it. Head
on by reducing how much Surface area swift presents to
the thin wisps of atmosphere at, that altitude they can
slow the.
Speaker 2: Orbital decay and here's the.
Speaker 3: CREATIVE part nasa has contracted a Company Called Catalyst, space
technologies Based, In, flagstaff arizona to actually go up And
give swift. The push they're planning a servicing mission that
will boost the observatory into a, higher orbit extending its.
Scientific lifetime the reboost spacecraft is expected to launch in,
the summer but for that, To work swift needs to
stay above about one hundred eighty five miles roughly three,
Hundred kilometers so everything they're doing now is about preserving
enough altitude to make the rescue. Mission possible it's a
fascinating case study in. Satellite servicing if, it works it
demonstrates a capability that could be applied to all sorts of.
Aging spacecraft rather than letting valuable observatories, burn up you
send a little tugboat to push them. Back up the
economics of that could be transformative for.
Speaker 1: Space science we're Rooting for swift twenty one years of
service and still going. Fingers crossed the reboost mission comes together,
in time.
Speaker 3: And that wraps up another packed Edition Of. Astronomy daily What,
a friday, The thirteenth it's been from a star silently
becoming a, black hole to rockets that keep. Surprising us
the universe never takes a.
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Speaker 3: Major platforms head over to astronomydaily dot io for full
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Speaker 2: From you until, next time keep looking up clear.
Speaker 3: Skies Everyone sunday star Is the star is the