Axiom Mission Delays, Cosmic Clouds Unveiled, and Mars' Terraforming Blueprint

0:00 Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source for the latest news from the cosmos. I'm your host Anna, and I'm thrilled to guide you through today's fascinating stories. We've got a jam packed episode lined up for you. We'll be diving into everything from yet another delay to the Axiom mission due to an air leak on the iss to a giant cosmic cloud that's baffling scientists and even a plan to terraform Mars. So buckle up and let's explore the universe together. Alright, first up, NASA and Axiom Space are putting the brakes on the axe 4 private astronaut mission to the International Space Station.

0:37 Yeah, apparently there's a bit of a hiccup with an air leak in the Russian Zvezda module. This leak which they actually spotted back in 2019. It's been a headache for Roscosmos, but now NASA says they've detected a new pressure signature in the module. So to give everyone a bit more time to investigate and figure out what's going on, they've decided to delay the mission indefinitely. Roscosmos is doing their thing, inspecting the module, sealing off different areas and trying to keep the pressure stable.

1:09 The mission was supposed to launch shortly, but has been delayed to allow further analysis of the situation. Now switching gears a little bit with a quick update. The FAA has officially closed its investigation into the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 mishap. The culprit, a hardware failure in one of the engines apparently. But the good news is SpaceX has taken some corrective actions to prevent this from happening again. And the faa, they've gone ahead and verified that those actions were implemented before The Starship Flight 9 mission just last month.

1:43 Alright, next up in the news, astronomers have stumbled upon something truly gigantic and kind of mind bending. They've discovered this massive cloud of energetic particles. And when I say massive, I mean massive. This thing is wrapped around a galaxy cluster and stretches out for about 20 million light years. To put that in perspective, our entire Milky Way galaxy is only about 100,000 light years across. So yeah, this cloud is huge. Now what's really interesting is that this discovery is kind of messing with our current theories about how these particles manage to stay energised or over such insane distances.

2:21 It's like we thought we had things figured out and then the universe throws us a curveball. It's pretty cool stuff. M switching gears now, let's talk about something a little closer to home. Well, our celestial home, that is the Moon. Remember those Apollo missions? Well, apart from the iconic footprints and moon rocks, the Astronauts found something pretty special. Tiny brilliant orange glass beads scattered, scattered across the lunar surface. And get this, these little beads, each smaller than a grain of sand, are actually ancient time capsules.

2:55 They were formed during volcanic eruptions on the moon billions of years ago. New research is using advanced microscopic techniques to analyse these beads. And they're revealing all sorts of info about the moon's volcanic past. It's like reading the diary of a lunar volcano, only instead of words, the story is written in tiny glass beads. Pretty neat, huh? Huh? Now for a discovery that sounds like something straight out of a sci fi movie. Astronomers have found what they're calling a missing link in the world of dead stars.

3:24 It's a white dwarf named Gaia22ayj. And it's been dubbed a teenage vampire because it's actively feeding on plasma from a nearby companion star. I know, sounds kind of wild, right? This white dwarf is basically sucking the life force or stellar material from its neighbourhood. And this vampiric behaviour is giving astronomers some major clues about the life cycle of white dwarf pulsars. See, stars like our sun eventually turn into these things called white dwarfs after they've used up all their fuel.

3:53 Sometimes, if they have a companion star nearby, they can get a second wind, a second chance at life by stealing material from that companion. Gaia22AYJ is special because it's caught in the act of this mass transfer, this vampiric feeding process. It's like finding a missing puzzle piece that helps us understand how these white dwarf pulsars evolve and how binary star systems, where two stars orbit each other, change over time. So a teenage vampire star. Who knew? The universe is full of surprises, folks.

4:23 The universe is full. Okay, so now let's travel to Mars, because scientists have actually outlined a three phase plan to terraform the red planet. Yeah, you heard that right. Terraforming. Using the latest in climate modelling, space tech, and even synthetic biology, they're envisioning a future where Mars could actually be habitable. The first phase, warming up the planet. I mean, Mars is pretty chilly, right? So they're talking about using things like solar mirrors and engineered aerosols to trap more heat and get the temperatures up.

4:54 Phase two is all about building an alien ecosystem. And that's where it gets really interesting. M scientists want to introduce specially engineered organisms, extremophiles that can withstand the harsh conditions on Mars. These little guys would start to transform the planet's chemistry, maybe even produce oxygen. And the third phase focuses on technologies that could also benefit Earth. So things like crops that can resist drought and better ways to understand and model our own ecosystems. I mean it sounds like a win win situation, right?

5:26 Terraforming Mars while learning how to better take care of our own planet. It's a long term vision for sure, taking potentially hundreds of years, but it's pretty cool to think about the possibility of a greener, more Earth like Mars in the distant future.

5:41 And with that idea out there, it's time to say that's all for today's Astronomy Daily. Thanks for listening. This episode was hosted by me, anna. Visit astronomydaily.IO to sign up for our free daily newsletter and and catch up on the latest space and astronomy news with our constantly updating newsfeed. Subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify and YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time. You know what to do. Keep looking up. Our universe is an extraordinary place and you never know what you might see.

6:13 Bye