Commercial Space Stations, Stellar Rescues, and Mercury's New Origin Story

0:00 Avery: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, the podcast

0:03 that brings you the universe one day at a

0:05 time. I'm Avery.

0:07 Anna: And I'm Anna. Today we've got a

0:10 packed show. We're talking about a dramatic

0:12 rescue mission for an aging observatory. The

0:15 launch of the world's first commercial space

0:17 station, and a brand new theory that could

0:20 solve a major mystery about the planet

0:22 Mercury.

0:23 Avery: Plus, a successful triple launch to study

0:26 the sun. And some quick hits from Mars,

0:29 the early universe and and even deep beneath

0:31 the North Sea. Let's get started.

0:34 First up, the future of living and working in

0:37 orbit. With the International Space Station

0:39 set to be deorbited around 2030,

0:42 NASA is looking to the private sector for

0:44 what comes next. And it looks like we have a

0:47 frontrunner.

0:48 Anna: That's right. A California based company

0:51 called Vast Space is planning to launch

0:54 Haven One, the world's first commercial

0:57 space station. The they're targeting a launch

0:59 as early as May 2026 aboard a

1:02 SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

1:04 Avery: So this isn't some far off concept. This is

1:07 happening relatively soon. What will Haven

1:10 One be like?

1:11 Anna: It's designed as a single module station

1:13 intended to operate for about three years.

1:16 It can support a four person crew for

1:19 missions up to two weeks long. Vast

1:22 is really focusing on a human centric design.

1:25 Promising features like a large dome window

1:27 for incredible views of Earth, and even

1:30 speed Internet.

1:31 Avery: High speed Internet in space. That's a game

1:34 changer for research and communication. This

1:37 really feels like a proof of concept for

1:39 something much bigger.

1:40 Anna: Exactly. Vast sees Haven one as

1:43 the first step towards building a much larger

1:46 multimodule successor to the iss.

1:49 It's a bold move that signals a new era for

1:52 commercial activity in low Earth orbit.

1:55 Avery: From building the new to saving the old,

1:58 sometimes our most valuable assets in space

2:00 need a helping hand. NASA's null Jarrell

2:03 Swift Observatory, which has been a workhorse

2:05 for astronomy since 2004, is in a bit of

2:08 trouble.

2:09 Anna: It is. Its orbit has been decaying,

2:12 and without intervention, there's a

2:14 90% chance it would burn up in our atmosphere

2:17 by late 2026. Given its

2:19 crucial role in discoveries related to gamma

2:22 ray bursts and other cosmic events, losing it

2:25 would be a major blow.

2:27 Avery: So what's the rescue plan? It's not like

2:29 these older satellites were built with a ah,

2:31 tow hitch.

2:32 Anna: That's the innovative part. NASA has

2:34 awarded Catalyst Space technologies a, uh,

2:37 $30 million contract for a daring rescue.

2:40 Catalyst will launch a modified spacecraft

2:43 called Wink to rendezvous with Swift

2:46 Dog with it and then boost it into a higher,

2:49 more stable orbit.

2:50 Avery: That sounds incredibly complex, especially

2:53 for A satellite that wasn't designed for

2:55 docking. What's the timeline for this

2:58 mission?

2:58 Anna: The launch is set for May 2026.

3:01 Beyond just saving Swift, this mission is a

3:04 critical demonstration of technology. Being

3:07 able to service satellites that weren't

3:09 prepared for it is a huge capability,

3:11 especially as space becomes more contested.

3:14 Avery: Moving our focus from Earth orbit to our

3:17 solar system's star. There's some great news

3:19 from the launch pad. On Wednesday, NASA and

3:22 noaa, uh, successfully sent a trio of new

3:25 missions on their way to study the Sun.

3:27 Anna: A successful triple launch on a single SpaceX

3:30 Falcon 9 rocket. The spacecraft are now on

3:33 a long journey to Lagrange point 1, or

3:36 L1, which is a gravitationally stable

3:38 spot about a million miles from Earth. They

3:41 should be ready to start their science

3:43 missions by January.

3:45 Avery: And these aren't just redundant missions.

3:47 Each one has a very specific job to do.

3:50 Anna: Correct. First there's imap, the

3:53 Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe.

3:55 Its goal is to chart the very boundary of our

3:58 heliosphere, where the Sun's influence gives

4:01 way to interstellar space.

4:02 Avery: Then there's the Carruthers Geocorona

4:05 Observatory, which is looking back towards

4:07 us. It will be studying the Geocorona,

4:10 the vast tenuous outermost layer of

4:13 Earth's atmosphere.

4:14 Anna: And finally, and perhaps most

4:17 practically for us here on Earth is

4:19 NOAA's SWFO

4:22 L1. This is a, uh, dedicated

4:25 247 Operational Space Weather

4:28 Observatory. It's designed to give us

4:30 faster and more accurate forecasts

4:33 for things like solar flares that can

4:36 impact our satellites and power grids.

4:39 Avery: Alright, let's journey inward to

4:42 the closest planet to the Sun.

4:45 For decades, scientists have been puzzled

4:47 by Mercury. It has an unusually

4:50 massive core making up about

4:53 70% of its total mass.

4:56 The leading theory was that a giant impact

4:59 from a much larger body blasted away

5:02 most of its rocky mantle.

5:04 Anna: But simulations have shown that such a

5:07 specific catastrophic impact would be

5:10 a, uh, very rare event. Now new

5:13 research is proposing a uh, different and

5:16 perhaps more likely origin story for

5:18 Mercury's strange composition.

5:21 Avery: What's the new idea?

5:22 Anna: The new model suggests a grazing collision

5:25 between two protoplanets of similar size.

5:29 Instead of a direct shattering hit,

5:32 one body would have side wiped the other,

5:34 stripping away up to 60% of its

5:37 mantle material.

5:39 Avery: So it's less of a cosmic car crash and more

5:41 of a cosmic fender bender that peels away the

5:44 outer layers. Where did all that debris go?

5:48 Anna: The simulations, which used a technique

5:50 called smoothed particle hydrodynamics,

5:53 suggest the debris could have been ejected

5:56 from the solar system entirely or

5:59 perhaps even incorporated into a Neighboring

6:02 planet like Venus.

6:04 Avery: That's fascinating. I assume we'll get more

6:06 data soon to test this.

6:08 Anna: We will. The joint European and

6:11 Japanese BepiColombo mission is scheduled to

6:14 arrive at Mercury in 2026.

6:17 Its detailed measurements will be crucial in

6:19 determining if this grazing collision model

6:22 holds up.

6:23 Avery: Now for a few quick updates from around the

6:25 cosmos. And this first one is about a

6:28 truly monstrous black hole.

6:30 Astronomers using the Chandra X Ray

6:32 Observatory have found the black hole about a

6:35 billion times the mass of our sun, seen

6:38 when the universe was less than a billion

6:40 years old.

6:41 Anna: A billion solar masses is staggering

6:43 enough. But the truly remarkable

6:46 thing is how fast it's growing.

6:49 It appears to be pulling in matter at more

6:52 than double the theoretical maximum rate,

6:54 known as the Eddington limit.

6:56 Avery: How is that even possible?

6:58 Anna: That's the big question. This discovery

7:01 could help explain how supermassive black

7:04 holes got so big so quickly.

7:07 It suggests they might have grown from more

7:10 normal black holes rather than requiring

7:13 exotic massive seed black holes to

7:16 get started.

7:17 Avery: Incredible. From the early universe, let's

7:20 come back home. Or at least under the North

7:22 Sea for a while. There's been a mystery

7:25 about a feature on the seabed called the

7:27 Silverpick Crater.

7:29 Anna: And that mystery has been solved.

7:32 Scientists have confirmed it is an asteroid

7:34 impact site from about 45 million years

7:37 ago. The smoking gun was the discovery

7:40 of shocked quartz and feldspar in samples

7:44 which can only be formed by an extreme

7:46 impact.

7:47 Avery: What kind of impact are we talking about?

7:49 Anna: It was a 160 meter wide

7:51 asteroid hitting a shallow sea at 15

7:54 kilometers per second. The impact would have

7:57 triggered a tsunami over 100 meters high.

8:00 It's a rare chance to study what a mid size

8:03 impact in a marine environment looks like.

8:06 Avery: And for our final piece of news, let's look

8:09 ahead to a future Mars mission.

8:12 Rocket Lab has just delivered the twin

8:14 escapade spacecraft to the Kennedy Space

8:17 Center.

8:18 Anna: Nicknamed Blue and Gold, these probes

8:21 are scheduled to launch on a Blue origin New

8:23 Glenn rocket this fall. They're part of

8:26 NASA's Cost Effective Simple X program

8:29 and will orbit Mars to study how its

8:31 atmosphere interacts with the solar wind.

8:34 Avery: What's interesting is the timing. They're

8:37 launching outside the usual most

8:39 efficient Mars transfer window. Which

8:42 means they'll have a longer 22 month cruise

8:45 to get to the red planet. A ah, good reminder

8:48 that in space travel, patience is key.

8:51 Anna: And that's all the time we have for today.

8:54 From rescuing old sentinels to launching

8:56 new outposts and solving ancient

8:59 planetary mysteries. It's been another

9:02 busy day in the world of astronomy.

9:04 Avery: It certainly has. Thanks for joining us on

9:07 Astronomy Daily. I'm Avery.

9:09 Anna: And I'm Anna. We'll see you next time.

9:12 In the meantime, check into our

9:14 [email protected]

9:17 for more space news and a chance to listen to

9:20 all our back episodes. And as I like to

9:22 say, keep looking up.