1
00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:04,839
Speaker 1: Happy Friday the thirteenth, space fans, and if you're superstitious,

2
00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:07,759
I'm afraid We've got nothing but good luck today.

3
00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:11,199
Speaker 2: That's right, We've got astronauts heading to the Moon, the

4
00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:14,199
birth of one of the most extreme objects in the universe,

5
00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:18,359
planets smashing into each other, an asteroid that buzzed right

6
00:00:18,399 --> 00:00:22,160
past us while we were sleeping, possible auroras tonight.

7
00:00:22,399 --> 00:00:26,199
Speaker 1: And a neutrino so powerful that scientists have been trying

8
00:00:26,239 --> 00:00:28,800
to figure out where it came from for three years.

9
00:00:29,199 --> 00:00:30,879
They may finally have the answer.

10
00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:32,840
Speaker 2: I'm Avery and I'm Anna.

11
00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:37,000
Speaker 1: This is Astronomy Daily, your daily dose of what's happening

12
00:00:37,039 --> 00:00:39,399
in space and beyond. Let's get into it.

13
00:00:39,719 --> 00:00:43,840
Speaker 2: Okay, let's start with the big one. After years of delays, setbacks,

14
00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:47,479
hydrogen leagues, and a very stressful few months of repairs,

15
00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,759
NASA has officially given Artemis two the green light to launch.

16
00:00:52,359 --> 00:00:56,520
Speaker 1: The agency completed its flight readiness review on Thursday. That's

17
00:00:56,560 --> 00:00:59,679
the big final meeting where all the mission managers get

18
00:00:59,679 --> 00:01:03,679
together and essentially ask the question, are we ready to

19
00:01:03,719 --> 00:01:06,319
put four people on top of a rocket and send

20
00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:07,359
them around the Moon.

21
00:01:07,879 --> 00:01:11,760
Speaker 2: And the answer was a unanimous yes. Every team voted go,

22
00:01:12,239 --> 00:01:15,120
no dissenting opinions, no last minute holdouts.

23
00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:19,079
Speaker 1: The target launch date is April first, and no that's

24
00:01:19,159 --> 00:01:22,239
not a joke, with a window opening at six twenty

25
00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:25,959
four pm Eastern Time. They've also got backup windows on

26
00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:31,280
April second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and thirtieth if anything

27
00:01:31,359 --> 00:01:32,560
causes a delay.

28
00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:35,799
Speaker 2: So for anyone who needs a refresher. Artemis two is

29
00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:39,319
the first crude flight of NASA Space Launch System, the

30
00:01:39,519 --> 00:01:43,359
SLS and the Orion capsule. It's going to carry four

31
00:01:43,439 --> 00:01:46,439
astronauts around the Moon in a figure eight loop and

32
00:01:46,519 --> 00:01:48,159
bring them back to Earth safely.

33
00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:53,319
Speaker 1: The crew is Commander Red Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission

34
00:01:53,359 --> 00:01:58,319
specialists Christina Cock and Jeremy Hanson. Hanson is Canadian, so

35
00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:01,439
this will be the first time an American astronaut has

36
00:02:01,519 --> 00:02:03,400
traveled beyond low Earth orbit.

37
00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:06,680
Speaker 2: The mission lasts ten days in total. They won't be

38
00:02:06,799 --> 00:02:09,439
landing on the Moon. This is a test flight proving

39
00:02:09,439 --> 00:02:12,639
that o'rian can handle deep space travel and bring its

40
00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:17,159
crew home safely. Specifically, the heat shield performance during reentry

41
00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:19,719
is one of the things are watching very carefully.

42
00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:24,000
Speaker 1: So what caused all the holdups? The short version after

43
00:02:24,039 --> 00:02:27,759
the rocket's wet dress rehearsal, a full practice countdown and

44
00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:31,599
fueling test, engineers found a problem with helium flow in

45
00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:34,639
the upper stage. The whole stack had to be rolled

46
00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:37,599
back into the Vehicle assembly building for repairs.

47
00:02:37,919 --> 00:02:40,759
Speaker 2: The good news is that problem has been fixed. It

48
00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:43,199
turned out to be a blocked seal and a cable

49
00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:47,199
connecting the rocket to the ground systems, a relatively small fix,

50
00:02:47,319 --> 00:02:49,960
but one that took time to diagnose and sort out.

51
00:02:50,159 --> 00:02:53,599
Speaker 1: Bassa also confirmed they won't be doing another wet dress

52
00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:56,840
rehearsal before launch, so the rollback to the launch pad

53
00:02:56,879 --> 00:02:59,680
on March nineteenth will be the beginning of the final

54
00:02:59,719 --> 00:03:00,960
put now.

55
00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:04,120
Speaker 2: There was also a notable update to the broader Artemis

56
00:03:04,159 --> 00:03:08,800
program during Thursday's press conference. Artemis three, which was previously

57
00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:12,960
going to attempt a lunar landing, is no longer doing that. Instead,

58
00:03:13,039 --> 00:03:15,840
it's going to focus on rendezvous and docking maneuvers, with

59
00:03:15,879 --> 00:03:19,360
the lunar landers being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin.

60
00:03:19,919 --> 00:03:23,759
Speaker 1: The actual first lunar landing has now moved to Artemis four,

61
00:03:24,159 --> 00:03:27,360
but NASA is still targeting twenty twenty eight for boots

62
00:03:27,439 --> 00:03:30,800
on the lunar surface, so the goal hasn't shifted, just

63
00:03:30,879 --> 00:03:34,039
the way they're getting there, and it's worth stepping back

64
00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:37,479
and appreciating what April first would mean if it all

65
00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:40,879
goes to plan. The last time humans left Low Earth

66
00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:46,000
orbit was December nineteen seventy two, the final apolloition. That's

67
00:03:46,039 --> 00:03:49,639
over fifty three years ago. Artemis two would be the

68
00:03:49,639 --> 00:03:53,759
first time humans have ventured beyond our planet's immediate neighborhood

69
00:03:53,879 --> 00:03:55,639
in more than half a century.

70
00:03:56,080 --> 00:03:58,039
Speaker 2: April cannot come soon enough.

71
00:03:58,319 --> 00:04:02,599
Speaker 1: Okay, let's talk about one of the most extreme objects

72
00:04:02,599 --> 00:04:04,759
in the universe, the magnetar.

73
00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:09,120
Speaker 2: A magnetar is a type of neutron star, already one

74
00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:11,840
of the densest things that can exist, but with a

75
00:04:11,879 --> 00:04:16,959
magnetic field so powerful it makes normal neutron stars look mild.

76
00:04:17,319 --> 00:04:20,759
We're talking fields hundreds to one thousand times stronger than

77
00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:24,480
a regular neutron star, which is already billions of times

78
00:04:24,480 --> 00:04:26,560
stronger than anything we have on Earth.

79
00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:30,040
Speaker 1: They're only about ten miles across, but they can spin

80
00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:32,639
more than a thousand times per second when they're young.

81
00:04:33,160 --> 00:04:35,160
They're also thought to be behind some of the most

82
00:04:35,199 --> 00:04:38,959
powerful and mysterious signals we see in the cosmos, including

83
00:04:39,079 --> 00:04:41,160
fast radio bursts, and.

84
00:04:41,199 --> 00:04:44,160
Speaker 2: For the first time ever, a team of astronomers has

85
00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:46,199
actually watched one being born.

86
00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:50,120
Speaker 1: The paper was published in Nature on Wednesday. The team

87
00:04:50,199 --> 00:04:54,600
was studying a supernova called SN twenty twenty four AFAV,

88
00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:58,560
discovered back in December twenty twenty four, located about a

89
00:04:58,639 --> 00:05:01,720
billion light years from Earth. It's what's called a super

90
00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:05,800
luminous supernova, at least ten times brighter than a typical

91
00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:09,160
stellar explosion, and it stays bright for much longer too.

92
00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:14,040
Speaker 2: These super luminous supernovae have puzzled astronomers since the early

93
00:05:14,079 --> 00:05:18,160
two thousands. Normal supernovae are powered by the shockwave of

94
00:05:18,199 --> 00:05:21,519
a collapsing stellar core, but these things are just too

95
00:05:21,639 --> 00:05:23,879
bright for that explanation to work on its own.

96
00:05:24,519 --> 00:05:27,839
Speaker 1: Back in twenty ten, a physicist at UC Berkeley named

97
00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:31,680
Dan Cassen proposed that a magnetar hiding at the center

98
00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:35,639
could be the power source. It's spinning magnetic field accelerating

99
00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:39,480
particles into the surrounding debris, keeping the whole thing lit up.

100
00:05:39,879 --> 00:05:42,759
It was an elegant theory, but there was no direct

101
00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:43,879
evidence to prove.

102
00:05:43,639 --> 00:05:48,959
Speaker 2: It until now. Graduate student Joseph Farrah at UC Santa Barbara,

103
00:05:49,079 --> 00:05:52,199
working with a global network of telescopes at Los Cumbers

104
00:05:52,199 --> 00:05:57,439
Observatory tracked SN twenty twenty four AFAV for over two

105
00:05:57,519 --> 00:06:01,160
hundred days, and they noticed something very strange.

106
00:06:01,199 --> 00:06:05,560
Speaker 1: Instead of fading smoothly, the supernova's light oscillated on its

107
00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:09,120
way down, not just one or two bumps, four of them,

108
00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:13,360
and crucially, the time between each bump got shorter and shorter.

109
00:06:13,839 --> 00:06:16,319
The team called it a chirp, and it's the same

110
00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:19,360
word used for the signal from merging black holes detected

111
00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:21,360
by gravitational wave observatories.

112
00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:25,360
Speaker 2: The explanation that fits perfectly is a magnetar with a

113
00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:29,160
wobbling accretion disc around it. Some of the material from

114
00:06:29,199 --> 00:06:33,560
the explosion fell back towards the newborn magnetar, forming an

115
00:06:33,639 --> 00:06:38,240
asymmetric disc. Because a magnetar is spinning so fast and

116
00:06:38,319 --> 00:06:42,279
is so massive, it warps spacetime around it, an effect

117
00:06:42,319 --> 00:06:48,040
predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity called lens fearing precession,

118
00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:52,519
causing the disc to wobble. As a disc spirals inward

119
00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:56,240
and shrinks, the wobble gets faster and the light pulses

120
00:06:56,319 --> 00:06:58,319
speed up. That's your chirp.

121
00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:01,839
Speaker 1: The team estimates the mag natar's spin period at four

122
00:07:01,879 --> 00:07:05,519
point two milliseconds, meaning it's spinning about two hundred and

123
00:07:05,639 --> 00:07:09,160
forty times per second, and its magnetic field at around

124
00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:12,680
three hundred trillion times that of Earth. Both of those

125
00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:14,639
are classic magnetar signatures.

126
00:07:15,439 --> 00:07:18,839
Speaker 2: Joseph Farah put it brilliantly, this is the science I

127
00:07:18,959 --> 00:07:21,839
dreamed of as a kid. It's the universe telling us

128
00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:24,759
out loud and in our face that we don't fully

129
00:07:24,839 --> 00:07:25,959
understand it yet.

130
00:07:26,199 --> 00:07:29,199
Speaker 1: This is also the first time that general relativity has

131
00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:32,519
been needed to explain the mechanics of a supernova. That's

132
00:07:32,600 --> 00:07:36,879
a remarkable statement. Einstein's equations, written over a century ago

133
00:07:37,199 --> 00:07:40,560
describing something happening a billion light years away and a

134
00:07:40,639 --> 00:07:42,000
billion years in the past.

135
00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:46,360
Speaker 2: Science is genuinely incredible, sometimes, from the.

136
00:07:46,319 --> 00:07:49,160
Speaker 1: Death of a star to the death of two planets.

137
00:07:49,519 --> 00:07:53,519
This week, astronomers published evidence of watching two worlds smash

138
00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:56,920
into each other in real time eleven thousand light years

139
00:07:56,959 --> 00:07:57,399
from Earth.

140
00:07:58,199 --> 00:08:01,319
Speaker 2: This one comes from the University of Water Washington. Doctoral

141
00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:06,079
candidate Anastasios to Zanidyx was combing through archival telescope data

142
00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:10,319
when he noticed a star called Gaya twenty EHK, a

143
00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:16,199
perfectly ordinary, stable sun like star, doing something very strange.

144
00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:20,360
Speaker 1: From about twenty sixteen, the star showed three dips in brightness,

145
00:08:20,879 --> 00:08:25,399
unusual but not completely unheard of. Then around twenty twenty one,

146
00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:29,839
its light output went haywire. As to Xanadix himself put it,

147
00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:32,840
stars like our sun don't do that. So when we

148
00:08:32,919 --> 00:08:35,799
saw this one, we were like, hello, what's going on here?

149
00:08:36,159 --> 00:08:39,399
Speaker 2: What was going on was an enormous cloud of rocks

150
00:08:39,399 --> 00:08:41,879
and dust passing in front of the star from our

151
00:08:41,919 --> 00:08:45,799
line of sight, atchually blocking its light, and the source

152
00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:50,120
of all that debris a catastrophic collision between two planets.

153
00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:53,960
Speaker 1: The analysis suggests the two worlds have been spiraling towards

154
00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:57,440
each other for years. Those initial dips in brightness from

155
00:08:57,519 --> 00:09:01,679
twenty sixteen were likely caused by a series of grazing impacts,

156
00:09:02,039 --> 00:09:06,200
like two ships sideseswiping each other at increasing speed. Then

157
00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:10,360
around twenty twenty one they had their final catastrophic collision,

158
00:09:10,679 --> 00:09:14,440
and the infrared signature from all that superheated debris lit up.

159
00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:18,840
Speaker 2: Here's a part that really captures the imagination. The debris

160
00:09:18,840 --> 00:09:23,840
cloud is orbiting Gaya twenty ehk at roughly one astronomical unit,

161
00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:27,159
the same distance as Earth is from our Sun, and

162
00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:31,120
at that distance over millions of years, that material could

163
00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:36,080
cool and solidify into new planetary bodies, possibly something resembling

164
00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:37,480
an Earth Moon system.

165
00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:40,559
Speaker 1: Because that's how our moon was thought to have formed.

166
00:09:40,879 --> 00:09:43,919
A planetary body about the size of Mars struck the

167
00:09:44,039 --> 00:09:48,399
early Earth, and the resulting debris eventually coalesced into our Moon.

168
00:09:48,919 --> 00:09:52,679
The collision around Gaya twenty ehk may be the closest

169
00:09:52,759 --> 00:09:54,960
real time analog we've ever observed.

170
00:09:55,320 --> 00:09:59,080
Speaker 2: The paper was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters on Wednesday.

171
00:09:59,399 --> 00:10:02,879
The research note that while these collisions are probably common

172
00:10:02,919 --> 00:10:06,399
in the early stages of Solar system formation, catching one

173
00:10:06,519 --> 00:10:09,919
in the act requires a very specific alignment and a

174
00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:13,679
lot of patients. Their hope is that the VERA Reuben Observatory,

175
00:10:13,799 --> 00:10:16,799
which has just come online, could find as many as

176
00:10:16,919 --> 00:10:19,879
one hundred more such events over the next decade.

177
00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:23,159
Speaker 1: How rare is the event that created the Earth and Moon?

178
00:10:23,679 --> 00:10:27,159
That question is fundamental to understanding whether life is we

179
00:10:27,240 --> 00:10:30,679
know it could exist elsewhere. Every collision like this one

180
00:10:30,879 --> 00:10:32,919
brings us a little closer to the answer.

181
00:10:33,399 --> 00:10:36,320
Speaker 2: Right, So, while you were asleep last night, a bus

182
00:10:36,360 --> 00:10:38,879
size asteroid flew closer to Earth.

183
00:10:38,639 --> 00:10:42,480
Speaker 1: Than the Moon, completely harmless, but The timing and the

184
00:10:42,519 --> 00:10:45,679
discovery circumstances are what make this story interesting.

185
00:10:46,039 --> 00:10:51,080
Speaker 2: Asteroid twenty twenty six EG one, that's its official designation,

186
00:10:51,639 --> 00:10:55,080
made its closest approach to Earth at eleven twenty seven

187
00:10:55,159 --> 00:10:59,399
pm Eastern Time last night, passing about one hundred ninety

188
00:10:59,440 --> 00:11:03,519
seven thousand miles away. The Moon sits at roughly two

189
00:11:03,679 --> 00:11:07,919
hundred thirty nine thousand miles, so this thing flew inside

190
00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:11,879
the Moon's orbit. It was traveling at around twenty one thousand,

191
00:11:12,039 --> 00:11:15,240
five hundred miles per hour and is estimated to be

192
00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:19,960
somewhere between thirty two and seventy two feet across, roughly

193
00:11:20,039 --> 00:11:22,159
the size of a bus or small lorry.

194
00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:25,000
Speaker 1: At that size, even if it had hit Earth, it

195
00:11:25,039 --> 00:11:28,840
would have mostly burned up in the atmosphere. No global catastrophe,

196
00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:31,519
but it's a reminder that space is a busy place

197
00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:33,279
and these things happen regularly.

198
00:11:33,679 --> 00:11:38,240
Speaker 2: What's particularly noteworthy is how recently it was discovered. Astronomers

199
00:11:38,279 --> 00:11:41,840
first spotted twenty twenty six EG one on March eighth,

200
00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:45,519
just five days before it flew past. That's an incredibly

201
00:11:45,559 --> 00:11:48,639
short warning window, and it illustrates a real challenge in

202
00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:53,200
planetary defense. Small, fast moving objects can be very hard

203
00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:55,240
to detect until they're almost upon us.

204
00:11:55,799 --> 00:11:59,279
Speaker 1: NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies has confirmed that

205
00:11:59,440 --> 00:12:03,039
no major where asteroid strikes capable of causing serious damage

206
00:12:03,240 --> 00:12:06,320
are expected in the next one hundred years, but major

207
00:12:06,519 --> 00:12:09,279
is doing a lot of work. In that sentence, small

208
00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:12,159
objects like this one pass close to Earth all the time.

209
00:12:12,919 --> 00:12:16,120
Speaker 2: The silver lining here is that the VERA. Reuben Observatory,

210
00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:18,360
which his name is coming up a lot in space

211
00:12:18,399 --> 00:12:22,000
news right now and rightly so, has already discovered two

212
00:12:22,080 --> 00:12:26,759
thousand previously unknown Solar System bodies since beginning operations. It's

213
00:12:26,799 --> 00:12:30,080
going to transform our ability to find these things early.

214
00:12:30,559 --> 00:12:34,000
There are currently forty one thousand near Earth asteroids being

215
00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:37,080
tracked by NASA and its partners, and that number is

216
00:12:37,159 --> 00:12:38,200
only going to grow.

217
00:12:38,639 --> 00:12:40,759
Speaker 1: So the good news is we're getting better at it.

218
00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:44,559
The slightly unsettling news is there's still plenty we're not

219
00:12:44,679 --> 00:12:45,879
seeing yet, but.

220
00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:48,279
Speaker 2: Rest assured we are getting better at it.

221
00:12:48,600 --> 00:12:52,559
Speaker 1: Now for something a little more immediate and potentially beautiful,

222
00:12:52,799 --> 00:12:55,360
If you live at a higher latitudes and you're listening

223
00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:58,360
to this before tonight, you might want to look up.

224
00:12:58,759 --> 00:13:01,440
Speaker 2: A stream of fast moving solar wind from a large

225
00:13:01,480 --> 00:13:04,440
coronal hole on the Sun is expected to reach Earth

226
00:13:04,440 --> 00:13:08,799
today around midday UTC, and that arrival could trigger minor

227
00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:13,039
geomagnetic storm conditions what's classified as a G one.

228
00:13:12,960 --> 00:13:17,519
Speaker 1: Storm great question. Coronal holes are regions in the Sun's

229
00:13:17,559 --> 00:13:21,320
outer atmosphere where the magnetic field lines open out into

230
00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:25,399
space rather than looping back. Through these openings, the solar

231
00:13:25,440 --> 00:13:29,279
wind streams out much faster and more concentrated than usual.

232
00:13:29,879 --> 00:13:33,200
Speaker 2: When a coronal hole faces Earth, as the Sun rotates,

233
00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:36,879
that fast moving stream of charged particles heads our way.

234
00:13:37,279 --> 00:13:39,960
It typically takes two to three days to arrive after

235
00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:43,080
the coronal hole aligns with Earth, and this one has

236
00:13:43,120 --> 00:13:45,919
been tracking in our direction for the past few days.

237
00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:50,120
Speaker 1: During g one conditions, auroras can become visible from higher

238
00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:55,600
latitude locations. We're talking places like Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands, Reikyevik,

239
00:13:55,840 --> 00:14:01,440
northern Scandinavia, Seattle, Minneapolis, and in the southern hemisphere Hobart

240
00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:02,240
in Tasmania.

241
00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:05,600
Speaker 2: If you're in or near any of those areas tonight,

242
00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:08,519
get away from city lights, find a dark spot with

243
00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:12,000
a clear northern or southern horizon, depending on where you are,

244
00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:15,600
and give your eyes about twenty minutes to adjust. The

245
00:14:15,639 --> 00:14:19,360
best of reviewing is usually in the hours around local midnight.

246
00:14:19,919 --> 00:14:23,399
Speaker 1: There's also a handy detail here for sky observers. The

247
00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:26,679
moon is currently a waning crescent at about thirty four

248
00:14:26,720 --> 00:14:29,960
percent illumination, so it won't be washing out the sky

249
00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:33,919
for most of the night. Conditions could be pretty good, and.

250
00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:37,480
Speaker 2: Even if the geomagnetic activity stays mild and the auroras

251
00:14:37,519 --> 00:14:41,759
don't materialize, Europa is currently transiting Jupiter. You can catch

252
00:14:41,799 --> 00:14:44,360
the little moon crossing the face of the giant planet

253
00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:47,360
through a telescope this week. There's always something to see

254
00:14:47,399 --> 00:14:47,759
up there.

255
00:14:47,919 --> 00:14:51,039
Speaker 1: And finally, to close out what has been a genuinely

256
00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:54,279
extraordinary news day, we're going to the floor of the

257
00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:55,399
Mediterranean Sea.

258
00:14:55,879 --> 00:14:59,679
Speaker 2: There's a detector down there called KM three and NET,

259
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:03,159
which sits off the coast of Sicily. It's built to

260
00:15:03,240 --> 00:15:08,679
catch neutrinos, those ghostly near massless particles that barely interact

261
00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:12,080
with anything passing through the Earth as if it weren't there.

262
00:15:12,399 --> 00:15:15,919
Speaker 1: Three years ago, KM three NET recorded a neutrino with

263
00:15:16,039 --> 00:15:19,440
more energy than any of its kind ever detected before,

264
00:15:19,919 --> 00:15:24,919
a genuinely extraordinary particle. The question was where on Earth,

265
00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:28,360
or rather where in the universe did it come from?

266
00:15:28,519 --> 00:15:32,879
Speaker 2: Scientists have been puzzling over that ever since Neutrinos travel

267
00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:36,320
in straight lines and aren't deflected by magnetic fields the

268
00:15:36,360 --> 00:15:40,080
way charged particles are, so, in principle, you can trace

269
00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:43,799
their path back to the source. The challenge is correlating

270
00:15:43,879 --> 00:15:46,480
that direction with known objects in the sky.

271
00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:49,879
Speaker 1: The team now believes the most likely source is a

272
00:15:49,919 --> 00:15:53,960
population of blazars. A blazar is a type of galaxy

273
00:15:54,039 --> 00:15:56,919
with a super massive black hole at its center that

274
00:15:57,080 --> 00:16:01,200
is actively firing a jet of plasma directly towards Earth.

275
00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:05,000
They're among the most violent and energetic objects in the

276
00:16:05,039 --> 00:16:06,240
observable universe.

277
00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:10,600
Speaker 2: The idea is that as particles get accelerated to extreme

278
00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:14,879
velocities in these jets, they can produce neutrinos with truly

279
00:16:15,039 --> 00:16:19,240
staggering energies, energies that dwarf anything we can achieve in

280
00:16:19,279 --> 00:16:22,039
the most powerful particle accelerators on Earth.

281
00:16:22,399 --> 00:16:25,240
Speaker 1: Now, the team is being careful to say this is

282
00:16:25,279 --> 00:16:29,679
the most likely explanation rather than a confirmed one. Penning

283
00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:32,600
down the exact source of a single particle is a

284
00:16:32,759 --> 00:16:37,639
fiendishly difficult problem, but the correlation between the neutrino's arrival

285
00:16:37,679 --> 00:16:40,759
direction and known blazar positions is compelling.

286
00:16:41,200 --> 00:16:45,879
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful example of multi messenger astronomy using different

287
00:16:45,919 --> 00:16:49,759
types of signals, in this case particle physics and traditional

288
00:16:49,919 --> 00:16:53,240
light based observations to build up a picture of what's

289
00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:57,480
happening in the most extreme environments in the cosmos.

290
00:16:56,919 --> 00:16:59,080
Speaker 1: From the bottom of the sea to the edge of

291
00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:03,000
the observable universe. Never a dull day in astronomy.

292
00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:07,039
Speaker 2: That is your Astronomy Daily for Friday, March thirteenth, twenty

293
00:17:07,079 --> 00:17:09,559
twenty six. What a lineup.

294
00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:13,680
Speaker 1: Artemis two cleared for launch on April first, the first

295
00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:17,359
observed birth of a magnetar, two planets caught in the

296
00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:21,039
act of colliding, an asteroid buzzing past in the night,

297
00:17:21,519 --> 00:17:26,480
potential auroras tonight, and a record breaking neutrino traced back

298
00:17:26,519 --> 00:17:29,400
to some of the most violent objects in the universe.

299
00:17:30,039 --> 00:17:32,319
Speaker 2: If you want to go deeper on any of today's stories,

300
00:17:32,400 --> 00:17:34,400
the links are all in the show notes, and if

301
00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:37,079
you saw any auroras tonight, we want to know. Tag

302
00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:39,799
us on social media as at Astro Daily.

303
00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:44,799
Speaker 1: Pod, new episodes every weekday and Saturdays. Subscribe wherever you

304
00:17:44,839 --> 00:17:47,759
get your podcasts, and we'll see you back here tomorrow

305
00:17:48,359 --> 00:17:54,640
Until then keep looking up clear skies. Everyone, Sunday.

306
00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:55,480
Speaker 2: Star is.

307
00:18:02,720 --> 00:18:03,440
Speaker 1: The story is.

308
00:18:03,519 --> 00:18:12,200
Speaker 2: The Soul Store is control

309
00:18:15,039 --> 00:18:15,079
Speaker 1: H