Astronomical Adventures: From China's Mini Satellites to Chiron's Retrograde

0:00 Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily,

0:03 your essential guide to the latest news from

0:05 across the cosmos. I'm, um, your host, Anna.

0:08 Avery: And I'm Avery. It's fantastic to have you

0:11 with us for another episode. We have a very

0:13 diverse lineup of stories for you today,

0:15 spanning from low Earth orbit to the depths

0:18 of the asteroid belt.

0:19 Anna: That's right, Avery. We'll be starting with

0:22 a, uh, brilliant display of international

0:24 partnership as a Chinese rocket

0:27 successfully launches a, uh, payload,

0:29 including some very special satellite

0:32 designed and built in Mexico.

0:34 Avery: Then we'll delve into a bit of mystery. The

0:36 U.S. space Force's secretive

0:38 X37B spaceplane is about to embark

0:41 on its seventh mission. We'll talk about what

0:44 we know and what we don't, including a

0:46 groundbreaking NASA experiment it's carrying

0:49 that could change the future of deep space

0:51 navigation.

0:52 Anna: From there, we'll turn our eyes to a

0:54 celestial object you may have heard about

0:56 online recently. Chiron is in

0:59 retrograde. We're going to break down what

1:02 Chiron actually is. It's a

1:04 fascinatingly weird little world and explain

1:07 the astronomical reality behind

1:10 retrograde motion.

1:11 Avery: And for our final story, we're visiting an

1:14 old friend, the dwarf planet Siris.

1:17 Exciting new research suggests that it may

1:19 have once possessed all the necessary

1:20 ingredients to fuel life, offering a

1:23 tantalising glimpse into its ancient past.

1:26 It's a packed show, so let's get right to it.

1:28 Anna: Let's kick things off with that story of

1:31 international collaboration. On Tuesday

1:33 afternoon, Chinese commercial launch provider

1:36 CAS Space successfully conducted

1:39 the eighth flight of its Kinetica 1 rocket,

1:42 lifting off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch

1:45 Centre in the Gobi Desert.

1:47 Avery: It was a full ride, carrying seven different

1:49 satellites into orbit. The payload included

1:52 things like a Synthetic Aperture Radar

1:53 satellite and an Earth Observation Satellite.

1:57 But the real headline grabbers were two tiny

1:59 spacecraft designed and built in Mexico by

2:02 the private firm Thumbset.

2:04 Anna: And when we say tiny, we mean it. These

2:06 are Pico satellites, each weighing about

2:09 100 grammes. It really goes to show how

2:12 miniaturisation is democratising access

2:15 to space. But, Avery, these

2:18 thumbsats have some pretty unconventional

2:21 missions, don't they?

2:22 Avery: They really do. According to the company,

2:25 thumbsat one is carrying what they call a

2:27 selfie payload. Its goal is to capture

2:30 a mirror selfie of itself in orbit, which

2:33 is just fantastic. Meanwhile,

2:35 Thumbsat 2 features an artistic payload

2:38 aiming to blend science with creativity. I

2:41 just love this approach. It's a powerful

2:44 statement that space exploration is a human

2:46 endeavour about expression as much as it is

2:48 about data collection.

2:50 Anna: It's a beautiful sentiment. The collaboration

2:53 extended to the hardware as well. Cast

2:55 Space reported that they used a custom built

2:58 satellite deployer designed through close

3:01 cooperation between their engineers and the

3:03 team from thumbsat. This wasn't just a

3:06 taxi service, it was a true partnership.

3:09 Avery: And the engagement doesn't stop once the

3:12 satellites are in orbit. Thumbsat is planning

3:14 to install ground receiving stations across

3:17 Mexico. This will allow students, hobbyists

3:19 and enthusiasts to track the from orbit using

3:22 free antennas and software. It's an

3:25 incredible STEM outreach initiative baked

3:27 right into the mission.

3:28 Anna: Cast Space is rightfully describing this as

3:31 a landmark in Sino Mexican space

3:34 cooperation. And it's a significant

3:36 milestone for China's commercial space

3:38 sector, giving them a foothold in the North

3:41 American market. The Kinetica 1 rocket

3:44 is proving to be a highly reliable and sought

3:47 after vehicle.

3:48 Avery: No kidding. With this flight, it's now

3:51 deployed 70 satellites weighing a total of

3:53 more than seven metric tonnes. For the space

3:56 nerds out there, the rocket is 30 metres

3:59 long, weighs 135 tonnes at

4:01 liftoff and can carry up to 1.5

4:04 tonnes to a 500 kilometre Sun Synchronous

4:07 orbit. It's a real workhorse, alright,

4:10 From a very public and collaborative mission

4:12 to one that is famously secretive.

4:15 Our next story focuses on the US Space

4:17 Force's X37B orbital test

4:20 vehicle. This uncrewed, reusable

4:23 spaceplane is set to launch on its seventh

4:25 mission, this time aboard a powerful Falcon

4:28 Heavy rocket from Kennedy space centre.

4:31 Anna: The X37B is an enigma.

4:34 It looks like a miniature,

4:36 unpiloted version of the Space shuttle.

4:38 And its primary purpose is to test and

4:41 deploy new space technologies. But

4:44 the vast majority of its payloads and

4:47 specific mission objectives are, uh,

4:49 classified. What we do know is that it's

4:51 capable of staying in orbit for extraordinary

4:54 lengths of time. Its last mission set a

4:57 new record. Landing after

4:59 908 days in space.

5:02 Avery: That's incredible. Nearly two and a half

5:05 years. So for this seventh mission, most of

5:08 the manifest is a secret, as usual. However,

5:11 NASA has publicly announced one of its

5:13 experiments that's flying on the X37B's

5:16 service module. And it's a big one. It's

5:19 called the deep Space Atomic Clock

5:21 2.

5:22 Anna: This piece of technology, which is about the

5:25 size of a toaster, could be a

5:27 complete game changer for how we navigate

5:30 in deep space. Currently,

5:33 navigating a spacecraft far from Earth

5:35 requires a two way conversation. We

5:38 send a signal from Earth, it's received by

5:41 the spacecraft, sent back, and we measure

5:44 the round trip time to determine its position

5:46 and velocity.

5:48 Avery: But as you get further out, say to Mars,

5:51 that Round trip time m can be 40 minutes

5:54 or more. It's inefficient and not

5:57 practical for complex manoeuvres or

5:59 eventually for crewed missions that need more

6:01 autonomy. This new atomic clock is

6:04 designed to be far more stable and precise

6:06 than any clock previously flown in space.

6:09 Anna: By having such an accurate clock on board,

6:12 the spacecraft can essentially navigate

6:14 itself. It would receive a, uh, one way

6:17 signal from Earth. And by knowing the

6:19 precise time the signal was sent and the

6:22 time it was received, it can calculate its

6:25 position without having to talk back. It's

6:28 like giving our deep space probes their own

6:30 version of gps.

6:32 Avery: NASA plans to test the clock for a full year,

6:34 putting it through its paces in the harsh

6:36 radiation environment of space to ensure it

6:39 performs as expected. This isn't just an

6:42 incremental improvement. It's a foundational

6:45 technology that's crucial for enabling

6:47 ambitious future missions, especially crewed

6:50 expeditions to Mars.

6:52 Anna: Okay, from cutting edge hardware to

6:54 a question of celestial mechanics.

6:57 Avery.

6:58 If our listeners spend any time on social

7:01 media, they may have seen a

7:03 peculiar astronomical phrase making the

7:06 rounds lately. Chiron is in

7:08 retrograde. And their first reaction might

7:11 have been, what even is Chiron?

7:15 Avery: It's true, it's not exactly a household name,

7:18 so let's dive in. Um, Chiron is a

7:20 fascinating and somewhat bizarre object in

7:23 our solar system. It's what's known as a

7:25 centaur, a class of small bodies that orbit

7:28 the sun in the chaotic region between Jupiter

7:31 and Neptune.

7:32 Anna: When it was first discovered in 1977,

7:35 it was classified as an asteroid. But then

7:38 in 1989, astronomers were

7:41 surprised to see it develop a coma, a

7:44 fuzzy cloud of gas and dust, and even a

7:47 faint tail. This is the hallmark of a

7:49 comet.

7:51 Avery: So is it an asteroid or a comet?

7:54 The answer is yes. It's one of

7:57 a few objects that hold this dual

7:59 classification. And the weirdness doesn't

8:01 stop there. Just last year, astronomers

8:04 confirmed that Chiron also has its own

8:07 system of rings.

8:08 Anna: It really is a special little world.

8:11 So what does it mean for it to be in

8:14 retrograde?

8:15 Avery: This is the key part. What we're seeing is

8:17 apparent retrograde motion. The object

8:20 hasn't actually changed direction at all.

8:23 It's purely a line of sight illusion from our

8:25 vantage point on Earth.

8:27 Anna: Think of it this way. Earth and Chiron

8:30 are both orbiting the sun in the same

8:32 direction. But Earth is on the inside

8:35 lane and moving faster. As we approach

8:38 Chiron in our orbit and then overtake it,

8:41 our faster motion makes Chiron appear

8:44 to slow down, stop, and move backwards

8:47 against the distant stars. For A period of

8:49 time.

8:50 Avery: It's just like when you're driving on a

8:52 highway and pass a slower car as you go

8:54 by. That slower car briefly looks like it's

8:57 moving backwards from your perspective.

8:59 That's exactly what's happening. And you

9:01 can't see it for yourself anyway. It's far

9:03 too faint. Sorry.

9:05 For our final story, we are heading out to

9:07 the main asteroid belt to take another look

9:10 at one of its most, uh, fascinating

9:12 residents. The dwarf planet Ceres.

9:15 Anna: Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid

9:17 belt, so large that its own gravity has

9:20 pulled it into a spherical shape. We got our

9:23 best ever look at it thanks to NASA's dawn

9:26 mission, which orbited it from 2015

9:28 until 2018.

9:30 Avery: Absolutely. Dawn's data confirmed that the

9:32 famous bright spots on Ceres surface are

9:35 made of salts left behind by liquid that came

9:38 up from a massive underground reservoir of

9:40 brine. So check one. Sarah's had

9:43 liquid water.

9:44 Anna: Cerise also revealed evidence of organic

9:47 material, carbon based molecules on the

9:50 surface. These are the fundamental building

9:53 blocks of life. So check 2.

9:55 Cerise had the right chemical ingredients.

9:58 The but there was a third crucial question.

10:02 Avery: For life to exist, it needs a source of

10:04 energy to power metabolic processes.

10:07 Essentially, it needs food. And that's where

10:10 this exciting new NASA research comes in.

10:12 Anna: Scientists built models to simulate Ceres

10:16 interior over billions of years. Their

10:18 findings suggest that for a long period in

10:21 its ancient past, Ceres likely had a

10:24 steady supply of chemical energy.

10:27 Avery: This energy came from the natural decay of

10:29 radioactive elements within the dwarf

10:31 planet's rocky core. This internal heat would

10:34 have warmed the subsurface ocean, causing hot

10:37 mineral rich water to circulate up from the

10:39 core, creating a chemical fuel source for any

10:42 potential single celled organisms.

10:44 Anna: The models indicate that the peak period for

10:47 this potential habitability was about

10:49 2.5 to 4 billion years ago.

10:52 It's important to be clear this does not mean

10:55 that life definitely existed on Cerese.

10:58 It means the food was likely available

11:01 should life have ever gotten started there.

11:03 Avery: And the implications of this are huge. It

11:06 suggests that many other water rich icy

11:08 worlds of a similar size could also have had

11:11 their own periods of habitability fueled by

11:14 this same internal engine early in their

11:16 history. It expands a search for where life

11:19 could have once existed.

11:21 And on that hopeful note, that is all the

11:23 time we have for today's episode of Astronomy

11:25 Daily.

11:26 Anna: We've covered quite the range from the

11:28 tangible success of an international rocket

11:30 launch.

11:31 Avery: To the clandestine operations of the

11:33 X37B. We untangled the celestial

11:36 illusion of Chiron's retrograde motion and

11:39 dove deep into the ancient oceans of Cerese.

11:41 Anna: We want to thank you, our listeners, for

11:44 joining us on this journey today.

11:46 Avery: We'll be back tomorrow with more of the

11:48 latest news from the cosmos. Until then, from

11:50 me, Avery, and from.

11:52 Anna: Me, Anna, keep looking up. This has been

11:55 Astronomy Daily.