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

0:00 Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source for

0:02 the latest news from the cosmos. I'm your

0:04 host Anna, and I'm thrilled to guide you

0:07 through today's fascinating stories. We've

0:09 got a jam packed episode lined up for you.

0:11 We'll be diving into everything from yet

0:13 another delay to the Axiom mission due to an

0:16 air leak on the iss to a giant cosmic

0:19 cloud that's baffling scientists and even

0:22 a plan to terraform Mars. So buckle

0:25 up and let's explore the universe together.

0:28 Alright, first up, NASA and Axiom Space

0:31 are putting the brakes on the axe 4 private

0:34 astronaut mission to the International Space

0:37 Station. Yeah, apparently there's a bit of a

0:39 hiccup with an air leak in the Russian

0:41 Zvezda module. This leak which

0:44 they actually spotted back in 2019. It's been

0:47 a headache for Roscosmos, but now

0:49 NASA says they've detected a new pressure

0:52 signature in the module. So

0:54 to give everyone a bit more time to

0:56 investigate and figure out what's going on,

0:58 they've decided to delay the mission

1:00 indefinitely. Roscosmos is doing

1:03 their thing, inspecting the module, sealing

1:06 off different areas and trying to keep the

1:08 pressure stable. The mission was supposed to

1:11 launch shortly, but has been delayed to allow

1:13 further analysis of the situation.

1:16 Now switching gears a little bit with a quick

1:18 update. The FAA has officially closed its

1:21 investigation into the SpaceX Starship Flight

1:24 8 mishap. The culprit, a

1:27 hardware failure in one of the engines

1:28 apparently. But the good news is

1:31 SpaceX has taken some corrective actions to

1:33 prevent this from happening again. And the

1:36 faa, they've gone ahead and verified that

1:38 those actions were implemented before The

1:40 Starship Flight 9 mission just last month.

1:43 Alright, next up in the news, astronomers

1:46 have stumbled upon something truly gigantic

1:49 and kind of mind bending. They've discovered

1:52 this massive cloud of energetic particles.

1:54 And when I say massive, I mean massive. This

1:57 thing is wrapped around a galaxy cluster and

2:00 stretches out for about 20 million light

2:02 years. To put that in perspective, our

2:05 entire Milky Way galaxy is only about

2:07 100,000 light years across. So

2:10 yeah, this cloud is huge. Now what's really

2:12 interesting is that this discovery is kind of

2:14 messing with our current theories about how

2:16 these particles manage to stay energised or

2:19 over such insane distances. It's like we

2:22 thought we had things figured out and then

2:24 the universe throws us a curveball. It's

2:26 pretty cool stuff.

2:27 M switching gears now, let's talk about

2:30 something a little closer to home. Well, our

2:33 celestial home, that is the Moon.

2:36 Remember those Apollo missions? Well,

2:38 apart from the iconic footprints and moon

2:40 rocks, the Astronauts found something pretty

2:43 special. Tiny brilliant orange glass

2:46 beads scattered, scattered across the lunar

2:47 surface. And get this, these little

2:50 beads, each smaller than a grain of sand, are

2:53 actually ancient time capsules. They were

2:56 formed during volcanic eruptions on the moon

2:58 billions of years ago. New research is

3:01 using advanced microscopic techniques to

3:03 analyse these beads. And they're revealing

3:05 all sorts of info about the moon's volcanic

3:07 past. It's like reading the diary of a lunar

3:10 volcano, only instead of words, the story is

3:12 written in tiny glass beads. Pretty neat,

3:14 huh? Huh?

3:16 Now for a discovery that sounds like

3:18 something straight out of a sci fi movie.

3:20 Astronomers have found what they're calling a

3:22 missing link in the world of dead stars. It's

3:25 a white dwarf named

3:26 Gaia22ayj. And it's been

3:29 dubbed a teenage vampire because it's

3:31 actively feeding on plasma from a nearby

3:33 companion star. I know, sounds kind of wild,

3:35 right? This white dwarf is basically sucking

3:37 the life force or stellar material from its

3:40 neighbourhood. And this vampiric behaviour is

3:42 giving astronomers some major clues about the

3:44 life cycle of white dwarf pulsars. See,

3:47 stars like our sun eventually turn into these

3:49 things called white dwarfs after they've used

3:52 up all their fuel. Sometimes, if they have a

3:55 companion star nearby, they can get a second

3:57 wind, a second chance at life by stealing

4:00 material from that companion.

4:01 Gaia22AYJ is special because it's caught in

4:04 the act of this mass transfer, this vampiric

4:06 feeding process. It's like finding a missing

4:09 puzzle piece that helps us understand how

4:11 these white dwarf pulsars evolve and how

4:14 binary star systems, where two stars orbit

4:16 each other, change over time. So a

4:19 teenage vampire star. Who knew? The universe

4:22 is full of surprises, folks. The universe is

4:24 full.

4:26 Okay, so now let's travel to Mars, because

4:28 scientists have actually outlined a three

4:30 phase plan to terraform the red planet. Yeah,

4:33 you heard that right. Terraforming. Using the

4:35 latest in climate modelling, space tech, and

4:38 even synthetic biology, they're envisioning a

4:40 future where Mars could actually be

4:42 habitable. The first phase, warming up the

4:44 planet. I mean, Mars is pretty chilly, right?

4:47 So they're talking about using things like

4:49 solar mirrors and engineered aerosols to trap

4:51 more heat and get the temperatures up. Phase

4:54 two is all about building an alien ecosystem.

4:57 And that's where it gets really interesting.

5:00 M scientists want to introduce specially

5:02 engineered organisms, extremophiles that

5:05 can withstand the harsh conditions on Mars.

5:07 These little guys would start to transform

5:09 the planet's chemistry, maybe even produce

5:11 oxygen. And the third phase

5:14 focuses on technologies that could also

5:16 benefit Earth. So things like crops that

5:19 can resist drought and better ways to

5:21 understand and model our own ecosystems. I

5:23 mean it sounds like a win win situation,

5:25 right? Terraforming Mars while learning how

5:28 to better take care of our own planet. It's a

5:30 long term vision for sure, taking potentially

5:33 hundreds of years, but it's pretty cool to

5:34 think about the possibility of a greener,

5:37 more Earth like Mars in the distant future.

5:41 And with that idea out there, it's time to

5:44 say that's all for today's Astronomy Daily.

5:47 Thanks for listening. This episode was hosted

5:49 by me, anna. Visit

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6:06 Until next time. You know what to do. Keep

6:08 looking up. Our universe is an extraordinary

6:11 place and you never know what you might see.

6:13 Bye