Astronaut Adventures, Asteroid Insights, and Martian Mysteries: S04E26

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm Anna, and today we have

0:02 Speaker 1: a packed show covering some of the most fascinating developments

0:05 Speaker 1: in space exploration and astronomy. We'll be checking in with

0:09 Speaker 1: NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams aboard the International

0:12 Speaker 1: Space Station, where they've been experiencing an unexpectedly extended stay.

0:18 Speaker 1: We'll hear directly from Sunny about what it's like living

0:20 Speaker 1: in space for so long, including her surprising revelation about

0:23 Speaker 1: forgetting how to walk. We'll also dive into some incredible

0:27 Speaker 1: discoveries from asteroid Benu that have scientists rethinking how life

0:30 Speaker 1: might have emerged in our Solar system. Plus, we've got

0:33 Speaker 1: an intriguing new study about how super massive black holes

0:37 Speaker 1: prepare their cosmic meals, and we'll take a look at

0:40 Speaker 1: some spectacular geyser activity on Mars. Stay with us for

0:44 Speaker 1: all this and the latest updates from the European Space

0:47 Speaker 1: Agency Conference. Day two. A lot to cover, so let's

0:51 Speaker 1: get into it. The situation aboard the International Space Station

0:55 Speaker 1: has taken an interesting turn for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore

0:59 Speaker 1: and Sunny william What was initially planned as an eight

1:02 Speaker 1: day test mission has stretched into a seven month stay

1:06 Speaker 1: Following concerns about their original return vehicle, Boeing Starliner spacecraft.

1:12 Speaker 1: NASA made the decision back in August to switch their

1:14 Speaker 1: return plans to a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, determining that

1:18 Speaker 1: the Starliner posed too much risk. The spacecraft that will

1:22 Speaker 1: bring them home is already docked to the station, having

1:25 Speaker 1: arrived with the Crew nine mission in September with empty

1:27 Speaker 1: seats specifically reserved for Wilmore and Williams. Their return journey,

1:32 Speaker 1: originally scheduled for February, has now been pushed to late March.

1:35 Speaker 1: SpaceX requested additional time to complete processing of a new

1:38 Speaker 1: Crew Dragon capsule that will replace theirs for the upcoming

1:41 Speaker 1: Crew ten mission. This scheduling adjustment is part of NASA's

1:45 Speaker 1: carefully coordinated Space Station operations, where timing is crucial to

1:49 Speaker 1: maintain proper staffing levels. The extended stay has recently attracted

1:54 Speaker 1: attention from various quarters, including President Donald Trump, who made

1:59 Speaker 1: an unusual inter into NASA's operations by publicly calling on

2:03 Speaker 1: SpaceX to return the astronauts as soon as possible. However,

2:08 Speaker 1: any changes to the current schedule could potentially leave the

2:11 Speaker 1: station's US contingent understaffed, complicating the maintenance of critical systems

2:16 Speaker 1: aboard the ISS. Despite the extended mission, both Wilmore and

2:20 Speaker 1: Williams remain in good health and continue their scientific research

2:24 Speaker 1: aboard the station. They're part of a seven person crew

2:27 Speaker 1: currently orbiting Earth, working alongside their international colleagues to maintain

2:31 Speaker 1: the space station's operations and conduct valuable scientific experiments. While

2:37 Speaker 1: their stay has been considerably longer than planned, the astronauts

2:41 Speaker 1: have adapted to the situation, maintaining their professional duties while

2:45 Speaker 1: awaiting their eventual return to Earth aboard the SpaceX vessel.

2:49 Speaker 1: Still Elon says he's bringing them back soon, So I

2:53 Speaker 1: guess we'll have to wait and see how this all

2:54 Speaker 1: plays out. While we're talking about Sunny, Massachusetts native Sunny

2:59 Speaker 1: Williams recently shared some fascinating insights about her unexpectedly extended

3:03 Speaker 1: stay aboard the International Space Station. After nearly seven months

3:08 Speaker 1: in orbit, she's experiencing some unique adjustments to life in microgravity.

3:13 Speaker 1: During a recent video call with students from her alma mater,

3:16 Speaker 1: Needham High School, she revealed that she's actually trying to

3:19 Speaker 1: remember what it feels like to walk As Williams explained,

3:23 Speaker 1: the sensation of being in space feels more like swimming

3:25 Speaker 1: or flying. She hasn't walked, sat down, or even laid

3:29 Speaker 1: down in months. There's simply no need to. In the

3:32 Speaker 1: weightless environment of the space station. You can just float

3:35 Speaker 1: wherever you are and close your eyes to rest. The

3:38 Speaker 1: extended mission has also changed how Williams maintains connections with

3:42 Speaker 1: her loved ones back on Earth. She's developed a particularly

3:46 Speaker 1: close routine with her aging mother, making it a point

3:49 Speaker 1: to check in with her almost daily. These frequent calls

3:52 Speaker 1: have created a different kind of relationship than what they

3:55 Speaker 1: had initially planned for what was supposed to be a

3:57 Speaker 1: brief mission. Despite being physically separated from Earth by hundreds

4:01 Speaker 1: of miles, Williams doesn't feel isolated. Her busy schedule keeps

4:05 Speaker 1: her thoroughly engaged, and modern communication technology allows her to

4:09 Speaker 1: stay connected with people back home. The ability to maintain

4:13 Speaker 1: these connections has helped make the unexpected extension of her

4:16 Speaker 1: mission more manageable. When asked about the mission's extension, Williams

4:20 Speaker 1: admitted it came as quite a shock. While she and

4:23 Speaker 1: her crewmate Butch Wilmore had anticipated their test flight might

4:26 Speaker 1: last longer than the planned eight days. They hadn't expected

4:29 Speaker 1: a stay of this length. However, they've adapted to the situation,

4:33 Speaker 1: maintaining their professional duties while making the most of this

4:36 Speaker 1: unique opportunity to spend additional time conducting research and experiments

4:40 Speaker 1: in space. In other news today, in a remarkable development

4:45 Speaker 1: from NASA's Osiris REX mission, scientists studying the samples returned

4:50 Speaker 1: from asteroid Benu have made an extraordinary discovery. The asteroid

4:54 Speaker 1: grains contain such an abundance of life's chemical building blocks

4:58 Speaker 1: that researchers are now pondered a fascinating new question, why

5:02 Speaker 1: didn't life emerge on Benu itself billions of years ago

5:06 Speaker 1: when conditions seemed perfect for it. The samples revealed more

5:10 Speaker 1: than ten thousand different organic chemicals, including fourteen of the

5:14 Speaker 1: twenty amino acids used by Earth based life to create proteins.

5:19 Speaker 1: Even More intriguingly, scientists found all five of the nucleobases

5:23 Speaker 1: that are DNA and RNA, used to encode genetic information.

5:27 Speaker 1: The samples also contained significant amounts of ammonia and formaldehyde,

5:31 Speaker 1: two chemicals that can combine to form complex molecules essential

5:35 Speaker 1: for life. Evidence suggests that Benu's parent body once had

5:39 Speaker 1: liquid water in its interior. Salt crystals found in the samples,

5:43 Speaker 1: similar to those in dry lake beds on Earth, indicate

5:46 Speaker 1: the presence of ancient briny fluids rich in bio essential

5:50 Speaker 1: elements like phosphorus and sulfur. Rather than surface lakes, scientists

5:55 Speaker 1: believe the asteroid had something more akin to a muddy

5:58 Speaker 1: surface with pockets of fluid underneath. While these findings don't

6:01 Speaker 1: suggest that life ever existed on Benu, careful examination revealed

6:06 Speaker 1: no cellular structures or chemical fossils, they do support an

6:10 Speaker 1: important theory about how life might have emerged on Earth.

6:13 Speaker 1: The evidence suggests that asteroids like Benu could have been

6:17 Speaker 1: among the cosmic delivery services that brought water and life's

6:20 Speaker 1: chemical building blocks to our young planet, as well as

6:23 Speaker 1: to other worlds like Mars and Europa. Remarkably, these findings

6:27 Speaker 1: come from analyzing just thirty percent of the one hundred

6:30 Speaker 1: twenty gram sample returned by osiris Rex. The remainder is

6:35 Speaker 1: being carefully preserved, including seven point five grams that will

6:39 Speaker 1: be stored at minus eighty degrees celsius for the next

6:42 Speaker 1: fifty years, waiting for future scientists with even more advanced

6:46 Speaker 1: analytical techniques to unlock its secrets. As one researcher noted,

6:50 Speaker 1: we're just scratching the surface of what these samples might

6:53 Speaker 1: tell us about the chemical foundations of life in our

6:55 Speaker 1: solar system. Now, you know, I love a good black

6:59 Speaker 1: hole story, while here's today's. Just as we're careful to

7:02 Speaker 1: blow on hot food before eating it, it seems black

7:05 Speaker 1: holes have their own way of cooling down their cosmic meals.

7:09 Speaker 1: New research using NASA's Chandra X ray telescope and the

7:13 Speaker 1: Very Large Telescope has revealed fascinating details about how super

7:17 Speaker 1: massive black holes prepare the matter they consume. These cosmic giants,

7:22 Speaker 1: which can weigh billions of times more than our sun,

7:25 Speaker 1: launch powerful jets that strike the hot gas between galaxies

7:28 Speaker 1: and galaxy clusters. When these jets collide with the hot gas,

7:33 Speaker 1: they create large cavities and trigger the formation of intricate

7:36 Speaker 1: filamentary structures made of both hot ionized gas and cooler gas.

7:41 Speaker 1: This process acts like a cosmic cooling system. The cooler

7:44 Speaker 1: gas eventually falls back toward the center of the galaxy cluster,

7:48 Speaker 1: where it feeds the supermassive black hole. This feeding process

7:52 Speaker 1: then triggers more outbursts, creating a self sustaining cycle. It's

7:56 Speaker 1: as if the black hole is preparing its own continuous

7:59 Speaker 1: before cooling down each serving before consumption. The scientists found

8:05 Speaker 1: clear evidence of a connection between the brightness of both

8:08 Speaker 1: hot gas filaments and warm gas tendrils. This relationship provides

8:13 Speaker 1: the first concrete proof of how black holes regulate their

8:16 Speaker 1: feeding process, similar to the gaseous tails seen in what

8:20 Speaker 1: astronomers call jellyfish galaxies. But this discovery has implications beyond

8:26 Speaker 1: just black hole feeding mechanisms. These cool filaments of gas

8:30 Speaker 1: are thought to provide the essential ingredients for new star formation.

8:34 Speaker 1: This means the relationship between hot and cool gas could

8:37 Speaker 1: be fundamental to both galaxy growth and supermassive black hole development,

8:43 Speaker 1: revealing a complex cosmic dance that shapes the evolution of

8:46 Speaker 1: our universe. The research team made these discoveries using innovative

8:51 Speaker 1: techniques that allowed them to distinguish hot filaments from other structures,

8:55 Speaker 1: including the massive cavities carved out by black hole jets

8:59 Speaker 1: in vast hotigh gas clouds. This new understanding of how

9:03 Speaker 1: black holes prepare and consume their meals is helping us

9:06 Speaker 1: better comprehend the complex mechanisms that drive galaxy formation and evolution. Now,

9:12 Speaker 1: let's take a journey to Mars South Polar Region, where

9:15 Speaker 1: an extraordinary seasonal display is currently underway. Recent observations from

9:21 Speaker 1: NASA's Mars Reconnaissance orbiter have captured a spectacular phenomenon that

9:25 Speaker 1: occurs every Martian spring, natural geysers erupting from the planet's surface.

9:31 Speaker 1: During the harsh Martian winter, a thick blanket of carbon

9:34 Speaker 1: dioxide ice accumulates across the polar region. As spring arrives

9:38 Speaker 1: and the sun climbs higher in the sky, something remarkable

9:41 Speaker 1: begins to happen. The sunlight penetrates through this transparent ice

9:45 Speaker 1: layer and gets absorbed at its base, initiating a fascinating process.

9:50 Speaker 1: The warming sunlight causes the bottom layer of ice to

9:52 Speaker 1: transform directly from solid to gas bypassing the liquid state entirely.

9:57 Speaker 1: As pressure builds beneath the ice sheet, the carbon dioxide

10:01 Speaker 1: gas searches for escape routes through any weaknesses in the

10:04 Speaker 1: frozen surface. When it finds these weak points, it erupts

10:08 Speaker 1: in dramatic fashion, sending plumes of gas and dust shooting

10:11 Speaker 1: upward in geyser like formations. These eruptions aren't your typical

10:16 Speaker 1: earth bound geysers, their unique Martian phenomena captured in stunning

10:20 Speaker 1: detail by the high Rice camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter.

10:24 Speaker 1: This powerful instrument can photograph vast areas of the Martian

10:28 Speaker 1: terrain while still detecting features as small as a kitchen table,

10:32 Speaker 1: giving us an unprecedented view of these seasonal displays. This

10:36 Speaker 1: annual cycle of freezing and sublimation creates an ever changing

10:40 Speaker 1: landscape in Mars's polar regions, reminding us that despite its cold,

10:45 Speaker 1: desert like appearance, Mars remains a dynamically active world. These

10:50 Speaker 1: geysers represent one of the most visible and dramatic examples

10:53 Speaker 1: of the ongoing seasonal changes that continue to shape the

10:56 Speaker 1: red planet's surface. In major developments from the European space sector,

11:02 Speaker 1: the European Space Agency has announced several groundbreaking initiatives. During

11:06 Speaker 1: Day two of the European Space Conference, a significant milestone

11:11 Speaker 1: was reached with the signing of a launch agreement for

11:13 Speaker 1: the Plato Mission, an ambitious project designed to search for

11:16 Speaker 1: potentially habitable planets around Sun like stars. The mission will

11:21 Speaker 1: launch aboard an Ariane sixty two rocket from French Guiana

11:24 Speaker 1: in late twenty twenty six, marking the first science mission

11:28 Speaker 1: to fly on the new Ariani six launch system. Plato

11:32 Speaker 1: will be positioned at the Sun Earth lagrange point L two,

11:36 Speaker 1: where it will study thousands of exoplanets in unprecedented detail,

11:40 Speaker 1: with particular focus on Earth like worlds. The conference also

11:44 Speaker 1: saw the establishment of important new partnerships, including a significant

11:47 Speaker 1: agreement between the European Union and African nations. The African

11:52 Speaker 1: EU Space Partnership Program represents a major step forward in

11:55 Speaker 1: international space cooperation, focusing on using Earth observation technology for

11:59 Speaker 1: sustainable development across multiple continents. In the quantum technology sphere,

12:04 Speaker 1: progress continues with the advancement of EUROQCI, an innovative project

12:09 Speaker 1: aimed at creating a quantum communication network across the European Union.

12:13 Speaker 1: This network will utilize both fiber and satellite links, and

12:17 Speaker 1: by twenty twenty six it will be integrated with iris iiO,

12:20 Speaker 1: Europe's new secure satellite constellation. European Commissioner for Defense and

12:25 Speaker 1: Space emphasize the vital importance of maintaining a strong European

12:29 Speaker 1: presence in space, noting that the continent space capabilities serve

12:34 Speaker 1: not only European interests, but benefit all of humanity. These

12:38 Speaker 1: developments reflect Europe's growing commitment to remaining at the forefront

12:41 Speaker 1: of space exploration and technology, while fostering international collaboration and

12:46 Speaker 1: scientific advancement. Well that's all for today's episode of Astronomy Daily.

12:52 Speaker 1: I'm Anna, and I want to thank you for joining

12:54 Speaker 1: me on this journey through the latest developments in space

12:56 Speaker 1: exploration and astronomy. If you'd like to stay up to

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13:36 Speaker 1: Stars Star