Artemis II Preparations, Jellyfish Galaxy, and Mars' Celestial Dance

0:00 Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source for all the latest news from across the vast universe. I'm your host, Anna, and I'm so excited to dive into today's cosmic happenings. We've got a busy show for you today. We'll be looking at how NASA and the Department of Defence are Preparing for Artemis 2. We've got a quick update from the ISS. We'll be checking out a jellyfish galaxy. Plus, we'll guide you on how to spot Mars this month. So buckle up space fans, it's time for liftoff. NASA and the Department of Defence recently teamed up to practise emergency procedures for the Artemis 2 mission, which is set to send four astronauts around the moon next year.

0:42 These simulations are super important because, you know, safety first. The teams rehearsed what they would do to rescue the crew if there was an emergency during the launch of the Orion spacecraft. This included scenarios where they had to abort the launch while the rocket was still on the pad, as well as during the ascent into space. To make it as realistic as possible, they used test mannequins and a version of Orion called the crew Module Test article. During the pad abort simulation, the launch team went through a normal countdown before declaring an abort just before the simulated launch.

1:15 In a real emergency, Orion's launch abort system would kick in, propelling the capsule and its crew to safety before parachuting down off the coast of Florida for the test. They placed the test Orion in the water and then two navy helicopters carrying Air Force pararescuers swooped in to retrieve the mannequin crew just like they would in a real situation. The next day they practised an ascent, abort scenario. The rescue team set up another simulation at sea and after receiving the simulated abort call, they sprang into action using a C17 aircraft and more Air Force pararescuers.

1:52 These procedures are similar to those used in previous tests, making sure everyone is prepared for anything that might happen. It's all part of NASA's commitment to keeping the Artemis II crew safe as they venture to the moon and back. Next up, a quick update to our story from yesterday about Postponements to the AXE 4 mission. Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Friday that a leak on the Russian segment of the International Space Station had been repaired, that the Interfax news agency reported.

2:21 Good news indeed. No reports yet on how this will affect prospective launch date, though. NASA had on Thursday indefinitely delayed a four person cruise mission to the ISS over an escalating probe into air leaks aboard the orbiting laboratory's Russian segment. Okay, next up in our cosmic tour, astronomers have spotted a galaxy that looks like a jellyfish with bunny ears. I know it sounds like something out of a sci fi cartoon, but it's real. This galaxy called NGC 4858 is way out there in the Coma cluster, over 300 million light years away.

2:57 Now, galaxy clusters are these huge collections of galaxies, often containing thousands of them, along with hot gas and what astronomers suspect, a whole lot of dark matter. What makes NGC4858 so interesting is what's happening to it inside this cluster. It's experiencing extreme pressure, kind of like a wind, which is stripping gas away from the galaxy. This process stretches the galaxy, giving it that jellyfish shape, with long trails of gas and young stars that resemble, you guessed it, jellyfish tentacles.

3:27 But here's where the bunny ears come in. The Images of NGC 4858 revealed these distorted spiral arms that astronomers are calling bunny ears. Apparently this is likely caused by a combination of the environmental wind pushing on the gas and the rotation of the galaxy itself. And there's more. Scientists have also found evidence of a phenomenon called fallback. This is when gas gets stripped away from a galaxy, but doesn't quite escape, so it falls back toward the galactic disc. It's like a galactic fountain, with the gas often concentrating in distorted spiral arms on one side of the inner tail.

4:05 Because NGC 4858 is face on, it's a prime target for further studies on how pressure and rotation affect galaxies in extreme conditions. M alright, let's turn our gaze to the Red planet. If you've been keeping an eye on Mars since the beginning of the year, you've probably noticed how much its brightness has changed and how it's been interacting with the Moon, bright stars and other celestial objects. Now, even though 2025 isn't exactly a banner year for Mars, it's still putting on a pretty good show.

4:36 Remember, it reached opposition. That's when it appears directly opposite the sun in the sky back in January. Well, even though it's been receding from us ever since, it's still making some eye catching appearances this month. First up, on June 17, Mars will be cozying up to Regulus. That's a bright star in the constellation Leo the Lion. If you're in the Americas, keep an eye out. From June 13th through the 20th, you'll see them hanging out less than 2 degrees apart. The 15th to 18th is when they'll be super close, less than 1 degree apart.

5:09 On the 17th, Mars will be just 3/4 of a 1 degree above Regulus. Look for them around 10pm local time, about a quarter of the way up in the western sky. Because they're so close and similar in brightness, they'll really stand out. Plus, the orange gold of Mars and blue white of Regulus will look even more intense next to each other. And that's not all. On June 29, a waxing crescent Moon will glide right past Mars in the western sky at dusk. Now, North America won't get to see the Moon actually pass in front of Mars.

5:42 That's called an occultation. But it'll still be a beautiful sight as Mars appears to glide above the Moon. To catch it, you might need binoculars at first, but once the sky darkens, Mars should be easy to spot. So keep an eye on the western sky at dusk. It will be worth a look. Now, switching gears a bit, let's talk about the future of space exploration. Next week, from June 19 to 22, space enthusiasts from all over the world will be gathering in Orlando, Florida for the International Space Development Conference, or ISDC 2025.

6:16 This year's theme is Together beyond, and it's all about collaboration across different sectors and countries as we push further into space. The conference is going to be packed with discussions on everything from global cooperation in space to developing communities out there among the stars. They'll also be talking about space health, sustainability and making settlements on the moon. Mars and beyond a, reality. And of course, they'll be addressing the need for planetary defence strategies to protect Earth from asteroids.

6:45 There's going to be some seriously impressive speakers there, too. We're talking Pascal Lee, a planetary scientist, and Mars exploration expert Gretchen Green, the first woman physician, commercial astronaut Jared Isaac Mann, who commanded the Inspiration4 mission, and former NASA astronauts Susan Kilrain and Robert Hoot Gibson. Also speaking is Shauna Pandya, who's set to be the first female commercial Canadian astronaut. It sounds like an amazing event for anyone interested in the future of humanity in space.

7:18 Finally today, let's dive into something a little more mysterious. Dark matter. The upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launching in 2026, is going to play a huge role in helping us understand this elusive stuff. How? Through gravitational lensing. Now, gravitational lensing basically uses massive galaxy clusters in the foreground, so to magnify really distant objects in the background. And dark matter, even though we can't see it, makes up a massive chunk of these galaxy clusters, like 85% or even more in some cases.

7:49 So without dark matter, gravitational lensing wouldn't be nearly as effective. The M Roman Space Telescope is expected to find around 160,000 of these gravitational lenses. But here's the cool part. By using dark matter as a gravitational lens, scientists can actually learn more about it. The telescope will be on the lookout for what are called strong gravitational lenses. These happen when the observer, the gravitational lens, and the background object are all perfectly aligned. These lenses give us a much more dramatic magnification.

8:23 Researchers are hoping to find about 500 of these that are precise enough to study the structure of dark matter at small scales. These observations could help us address some of the issues with the lambda cold dark matter theory, which is the most widely accepted model of Big Bang cosmology. It's great at describing the large scale universe, but it kind of falls apart when we look at smaller scales. For example, the Lambda CDM model predicts that there should be way more dwarf galaxies around larger galaxies like the Milky Way than we actually see.

8:54 The Roman telescope's strong lenses should be able to detect the small amounts of light being bent by the dark matter halos of these galaxies. And if they do, then the Lambda CDM M model becomes that much stronger. Ultimately, scientists are trying to figure out what kind of particle makes up dark matter. Is it wimps, axions? Or maybe sterile neutrinos? The Roman Space Telescope is going to give us some seriously valuable data to help us crack the code. And that's all the space news we have for you today.

9:24 I'm Anna and it's been a pleasure being your host today. Don't forget to visit our website at astronomydaily IO where you can where you can catch up on all the latest space and astronomy news with our constantly updating news feed and listen to all our back episodes. You can also find us on social media. Just search for astrodaily, pod on Facebook, X, YouTube, and TikTok. Until next time, keep looking up and as they say, I'll, see you on the flip side. This is Anna signing off.