Cosmic Chronicles: SphereX's Sky Mapping, Lunar Trailblazer's Silent Struggles

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your cosmic connection to the latest

0:03 Speaker 1: happenings beyond our atmosphere. I'm Ana, and today we're exploring

0:08 Speaker 1: a fascinating array of space discoveries and developments that remind

0:11 Speaker 1: us just how dynamic our universe truly is. In today's

0:14 Speaker 1: stellar lineup, we'll dive into NASA's sphere X space telescope,

0:19 Speaker 1: which has just begun its ambitious mission to map the

0:21 Speaker 1: entire sky in unprecedented detail. We'll also check in on

0:25 Speaker 1: the ongoing efforts to revive the silent Lunar Trailblazer orbiter

0:29 Speaker 1: that went quiet shortly after launch. Then we'll explore a

0:32 Speaker 1: truly mind bending discovery, an enormous ring of galaxies that's

0:36 Speaker 1: challenging our fundamental understanding of the universe's structure. If that

0:40 Speaker 1: wasn't enough cosmic intrigue, we'll track a piece of space

0:43 Speaker 1: history as a Soviet era Venus probe from the nineteen

0:46 Speaker 1: seventies makes an unplanned return to Earth after more than

0:49 Speaker 1: five decades in orbit. And finally, we might be getting

0:53 Speaker 1: closer to answering one of our Solar system's biggest mysteries.

0:57 Speaker 1: Is there a ninth planet lurking in the distant reas

1:00 Speaker 1: is beyond Neptune. Researchers have uncovered compelling evidence in decades

1:04 Speaker 1: old data that could point to this elusive world. So

1:09 Speaker 1: strap in for a journey across the Cosmos as we

1:11 Speaker 1: explore these fascinating developments together. We'll kick things off with

1:15 Speaker 1: a story update. After weeks of preparation and testing, NASA's

1:20 Speaker 1: sphere X space telescope has officially begun its scientific mission,

1:24 Speaker 1: marking an exciting new chapter in our exploration of the Cosmos.

1:28 Speaker 1: Launched on March eleventh, the observatory has spent the last

1:31 Speaker 1: six weeks undergoing rigorous checkouts and calibrations to ensure everything

1:35 Speaker 1: is functioning properly. Now it's ready to create something truly remarkable,

1:40 Speaker 1: a complete map of the entire sky. What makes SPHEREx

1:44 Speaker 1: special isn't just that it's mapping the sky. Other telescopes

1:48 Speaker 1: have done that before, but rather how it's doing it.

1:51 Speaker 1: The observatory is capturing roughly three thousand, six hundred unique

1:55 Speaker 1: images every single day, observing in one hundred two different waves,

2:00 Speaker 1: links or colors of infrared light that are invisible to

2:03 Speaker 1: the human eye. This spectroscopic approach will give astronomers unprecedented

2:07 Speaker 1: insights into the universe around us. From its orbit around Earth,

2:11 Speaker 1: SPHEREx looks outward into space, constantly shifting its view. The

2:15 Speaker 1: spacecraft completes more than fourteen orbits per day, passing over

2:19 Speaker 1: the poles in a north to south pattern. Each day,

2:22 Speaker 1: it photographs one circular strip of the sky as Earth

2:25 Speaker 1: moves around the Sun. Over the course of six months,

2:28 Speaker 1: Spherex's field of view gradually shifts until it has observed

2:31 Speaker 1: in every direction. The mission's primary goal is ambitious to

2:36 Speaker 1: help answer fundamental questions about the origins of our universe.

2:40 Speaker 1: By mapping the positions of hundreds of millions of galaxies

2:43 Speaker 1: in three dimensions, SPHEREx will search for clues about cosmic inflation,

2:48 Speaker 1: that mind bending moment in the first fraction of a

2:50 Speaker 1: second after the Big Bang, when the universe expanded a

2:54 Speaker 1: trillion trillion fold. Jim Fansen, the mission's project manager at

2:59 Speaker 1: NASA's Propulsion Laboratory, noted the beautiful symmetry in this approach, saying,

3:05 Speaker 1: we're going to study what happened on the smallest size

3:07 Speaker 1: scales in the universe's earliest moments. By looking at the

3:11 Speaker 1: modern universe on the largest scales. The telescope doesn't use

3:16 Speaker 1: moving mirrors or detectors like some other observatories. Instead, the

3:20 Speaker 1: entire spacecraft shifts position using reaction wheels that spin inside

3:24 Speaker 1: it to control its orientation. When it takes a picture,

3:27 Speaker 1: the light is captured by six detectors, each producing a

3:30 Speaker 1: unique image at different wavelengths. These groups of six images

3:34 Speaker 1: are called an exposure, and SPHEREx takes about six hundred

3:37 Speaker 1: exposures daily. Over its two year primary mission, the telescope

3:41 Speaker 1: will create four complete maps of the sky. But SPHEREx

3:44 Speaker 1: isn't just looking for clues about the universe's beginnings. It's

3:47 Speaker 1: also searching for the building blocks of life. The observatory

3:51 Speaker 1: will examine interstellar clouds within our own galaxy, making over

3:55 Speaker 1: nine million observations to map water and other key ingredients

3:59 Speaker 1: for life. This could help scientists understand how compounds essential

4:02 Speaker 1: to life on Earth formed and evolved throughout the cosmos.

4:07 Speaker 1: Jamie Bach, the mission's principal investigator, expressed excitement about the

4:11 Speaker 1: telescope's performance, saying, the performance of the instrument is as

4:15 Speaker 1: good as we hoped. That means we're going to be

4:18 Speaker 1: able to do all the amazing science we planned on

4:21 Speaker 1: and perhaps even get some unexpected discoveries. After twelve years

4:25 Speaker 1: of planning and development, SPHEREx is now operational and beginning

4:29 Speaker 1: to unravel some of our universe's greatest mysteries, one infrared

4:33 Speaker 1: image at a time. Next, let's pay a visit to

4:37 Speaker 1: NASA's Never Say Die department. I made that up. However,

4:41 Speaker 1: NASA is still holding out hope for its lunar Trailblazer spacecraft,

4:45 Speaker 1: which went silent just one day after its February twenty

4:47 Speaker 1: sixth launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon nine rocket. Despite more

4:52 Speaker 1: than two months of silence, mission controllers haven't given up

4:55 Speaker 1: on the ninety four million dollar lunar orbiter. The situation

4:59 Speaker 1: became concerning short after launch, when the mission team determined

5:02 Speaker 1: that the four hundred and forty pound spacecraft was spinning

5:05 Speaker 1: slowly and running dangerously low on power. The probe couldn't

5:09 Speaker 1: properly orient itself to harvest enough sunlight with its solar panels,

5:13 Speaker 1: preventing it from charging its batteries as planned. Now, engineers

5:17 Speaker 1: see a potential window of opportunity. According to NASA's latest update,

5:22 Speaker 1: modeling indicates that lighting conditions from May through mid June

5:26 Speaker 1: could be favorable enough to provide sufficient sunlight on the

5:29 Speaker 1: spacecraft's solar panels. This might recharge the batteries to operational

5:33 Speaker 1: levels and potentially allow ground controllers to regain command of

5:36 Speaker 1: the vehicle. There's cautious optimism that if contact can be

5:40 Speaker 1: re established, the mission might still be salvageable. NASA officials

5:44 Speaker 1: stated that if they can command the spacecraft again, and

5:47 Speaker 1: if the propulsion system remains functional after thawing and the

5:51 Speaker 1: scientific instruments are still operable, they may be able to

5:54 Speaker 1: guide Lunar Trailblazer into its intended elliptical orbit around the Moon.

5:59 Speaker 1: The mission team has been able to track Lunar Trailblazer's

6:02 Speaker 1: precise position using ground based equipment, which has been crucial

6:06 Speaker 1: in planning recovery efforts. If they do re establish contact,

6:10 Speaker 1: NASA will conduct a thorough review to determine whether the

6:13 Speaker 1: mission can proceed or should be terminated. However, if no

6:18 Speaker 1: signal is received by the end of this favorable period

6:20 Speaker 1: in mid June, the agency will begin procedures to officially

6:24 Speaker 1: close out the mission. Lunar Trailblazer was designed with an

6:28 Speaker 1: important scientific purpose, mapping the Moon's water stores. From lunar orbit.

6:33 Speaker 1: This information is considered vital for NASA's Artemis program, which

6:37 Speaker 1: aims to establish one or more bases near the Moon's

6:40 Speaker 1: south Pole, an area believed to contain significant deposits of

6:43 Speaker 1: water ice. Understanding the distribution and accessibility of these water

6:48 Speaker 1: resources could prove crucial for sustained human presence on the

6:51 Speaker 1: lunar surface. Interestingly, Lunar Trailblazer wasn't the only spacecraft on

6:57 Speaker 1: that February launch to encounter difficulties. It shared its ride

7:01 Speaker 1: to space with Athena, the second moonlander built by Houston

7:04 Speaker 1: based company Intuitive Machines. While Athena did successfully reach the

7:09 Speaker 1: lunar surface on March sixth, it toppled over shortly after

7:12 Speaker 1: touchdown near the moon South Pole, cutting short its planned

7:15 Speaker 1: ten day mission. The coming weeks will be critical for

7:18 Speaker 1: Lunar Trailblazer as engineers watch closely for any signs of

7:22 Speaker 1: life from the silent spacecraft, hoping that the changing solar

7:26 Speaker 1: conditions might just provide enough power to bring it back

7:29 Speaker 1: from the brink. Next on today's story, Rundown, a startling

7:33 Speaker 1: discovery in the depths of space is challenging our fundamental

7:36 Speaker 1: understanding of the universe. Astronomers have identified a colossal structure

7:40 Speaker 1: dubbed the Big Ring, an almost perfect ring of galaxies

7:45 Speaker 1: measuring an astonishing one point three billion light years in diameter.

7:49 Speaker 1: This enormous cosmic formation appears in light that has traveled

7:53 Speaker 1: six point nine billion years to reach our telescopes, meaning

7:56 Speaker 1: we're seeing it as it existed when the universe was

7:59 Speaker 1: roughly half its current age. What makes this discovery so

8:02 Speaker 1: remarkable is that it simply shouldn't exist according to our

8:06 Speaker 1: current cosmological models. The standard model of cosmology is built

8:11 Speaker 1: upon what's called the cosmological principle, the idea that on

8:14 Speaker 1: a large enough scale, matter should be evenly distributed throughout

8:18 Speaker 1: the universe. Theoretical calculations suggest structures shouldn't exceed about one

8:23 Speaker 1: point two billion light years in size, yet the Big

8:26 Speaker 1: Ring dramatically exceeds this limit. The discovery was led by

8:30 Speaker 1: astronomer Alexia Lopez of the University of Central Lancashire and

8:34 Speaker 1: presented at a recent American Astronomical Society meeting. Even more

8:39 Speaker 1: intriguing is that this isn't the first megastructure Lopez and

8:42 Speaker 1: her team have found in this region. In twenty twenty one,

8:46 Speaker 1: they announced the discovery of the giant arc in the

8:49 Speaker 1: same area of sky and at the same cosmic distance.

8:53 Speaker 1: That structure was nearly three times larger than the theoretical

8:56 Speaker 1: size limit. Neither of these two ultra large strips ructures

9:00 Speaker 1: is easy to explain in our current understanding of the universe,

9:03 Speaker 1: Lopez explained, and their ultra large sizes, distinctive shapes and

9:08 Speaker 1: cosmological proximity must surely be telling us something important. Upon

9:13 Speaker 1: closer inspection, researchers determined that the Big Ring isn't actually

9:17 Speaker 1: a perfect circle, but more of a corkscrew shape that

9:19 Speaker 1: appears ring like from our vantage point. This rules out

9:23 Speaker 1: the possibility that it's a baryon acoustic oscillation circular arrangements

9:27 Speaker 1: of galaxies formed by acoustic waves in the early universe,

9:30 Speaker 1: which typically measure around one to one billion light years

9:32 Speaker 1: across the presence of these enormous structures raises fascinating possibilities.

9:38 Speaker 1: Some astronomers suggest they could be evidence supporting alternative cosmological theories,

9:43 Speaker 1: such as Roger Penrose's conformal cyclic cosmology, which proposes the

9:48 Speaker 1: universe goes through endless Big Bang expansion cycles. Another possibility

9:52 Speaker 1: is that they represent cosmic strings, theoretical defects in the

9:56 Speaker 1: fabric of space time that formed as the universe expanded

9:59 Speaker 1: in its earliest moments. Finding multiple ultra large structures in

10:03 Speaker 1: close proximity also presents a statistical anomaly. As Lopez noted,

10:09 Speaker 1: we could expect maybe one exceedingly large structure in all

10:12 Speaker 1: our observable universe, Yet the Big Ring and the Giant

10:15 Speaker 1: Arc are two huge structures and are even cosmological neighbors.

10:19 Speaker 1: This discovery adds to a growing list of observations that

10:22 Speaker 1: don't neatly fit within our current understanding of the universe.

10:26 Speaker 1: The best path forward may involve finding more such arrangements

10:30 Speaker 1: scattered throughout the Cosmos, potentially hiding in plain sight in

10:33 Speaker 1: our astronomical data. Whatever the Big Ring ultimately proves to be,

10:38 Speaker 1: it serves as a humbling reminder that the universe remains

10:41 Speaker 1: full of mysteries, even in its largest and most fundamental structures.

10:47 Speaker 1: A relic from the space race era is about to

10:50 Speaker 1: make an unexpected return to Earth. Cosmos four hundred and

10:53 Speaker 1: eighty two, a Soviet spacecraft originally designed to explore Venus

10:58 Speaker 1: back in nineteen seventy two, is now on track for

11:01 Speaker 1: an uncontrolled re entry into Earth's atmosphere around May tenth.

11:05 Speaker 1: This half ton piece of space history never fulfilled its

11:09 Speaker 1: intended mission due to a rocket malfunction that left it

11:12 Speaker 1: stranded in Earth orbit instead of heading toward our neighboring planet.

11:16 Speaker 1: For over five decades fifty three years to be precise,

11:20 Speaker 1: this abandoned spacecraft has been silently circling our world in

11:23 Speaker 1: a highly elliptical orbit that has gradually degraded over time.

11:27 Speaker 1: Dutch scientist Marco Langbrook, who's been tracking the object, predicts

11:31 Speaker 1: it will come plummeting down at approximately one hundred and

11:34 Speaker 1: fifty miles per hour if it remains intact during re entry.

11:38 Speaker 1: What makes the situation particularly interesting is the spacecraft's specialized design.

11:44 Speaker 1: Cosmos four hundred eighty two, was built to withstand the

11:47 Speaker 1: incredibly harsh conditions of Venus's atmosphere, which is much thicker

11:51 Speaker 1: than Earth's and filled with carbon dioxide. This robust construction

11:56 Speaker 1: means there's a significant possibility that the spacecraft could survive

12:00 Speaker 1: its fiery descent through our atmosphere, rather than burning up

12:03 Speaker 1: as most space debris does. The surviving component is believed

12:07 Speaker 1: to be The landing capsule itself a spherical object roughly

12:11 Speaker 1: three feet in diameter, weighing about one thousand pounds or

12:14 Speaker 1: nearly five hundred kilograms. Although experts doubt that its parachute

12:18 Speaker 1: system would still function after so many years in the

12:21 Speaker 1: harsh environment of space, the heat shield might remain effective

12:25 Speaker 1: enough to protect the craft during re entry. Jonathan McDowell

12:29 Speaker 1: from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics noted that it

12:32 Speaker 1: would actually be better if the heat shield fails, causing

12:36 Speaker 1: the spacecraft to burn up during its atmospheric dive. Otherwise

12:40 Speaker 1: we could have a half ton metal object falling from

12:43 Speaker 1: the sky. While this sounds alarming, Langbrook emphasizes that the

12:48 Speaker 1: risk to people on Earth is relatively small, comparable to

12:51 Speaker 1: that of a random meteorite fall, several of which occur

12:55 Speaker 1: each year. The spacecraft could potentially re enter anywhere between

12:58 Speaker 1: fifty one point seven degrees north and south latitude, encompassing

13:02 Speaker 1: a vast area from as far north as London and

13:05 Speaker 1: Edmonton down to near South America's Cape Horn. Given that

13:09 Speaker 1: most of our planet is covered by water, the odds

13:12 Speaker 1: favor and ocean splashed down rather than landfall. However, the

13:16 Speaker 1: exact location remains unpredictable at this time. This event adds

13:20 Speaker 1: to a growing list of uncontrolled re entries in recent years,

13:23 Speaker 1: including a Chinese booster rocket in twenty twenty two and

13:27 Speaker 1: the tiangong I space station in twenty eighteen, both of

13:30 Speaker 1: which fortunately ended without incident. And to wrap up today's stories,

13:35 Speaker 1: could we be about to solve a major space mystery.

13:39 Speaker 1: In what could be the most significant development in our

13:41 Speaker 1: Solar System's outer reaches in decades. Astronomers have uncovered compelling

13:46 Speaker 1: evidence for the long hypothesized planet nine by examining infrared

13:50 Speaker 1: surveys conducted twenty three years apart. This potential new member

13:54 Speaker 1: of our planetary family has been hiding in plain sight,

13:58 Speaker 1: buried within archival data from two different space telescopes. The

14:02 Speaker 1: detective work was led by astronomer Terry long Fan of

14:05 Speaker 1: Taiwan's National Singhua University, who devised an ingenious method to

14:10 Speaker 1: hunt for the elusive planet. The team compared infrared images

14:14 Speaker 1: from NASA's IRAS satellite, which operated in nineteen eighty three,

14:18 Speaker 1: with those from Jacks's Akari spacecraft, which collected data between

14:23 Speaker 1: two thousand and six and twenty eleven. They were searching

14:26 Speaker 1: for objects that appeared in one position in the nineteen

14:29 Speaker 1: eighty three data and had moved by the time Akari

14:31 Speaker 1: looked at the same region of sky. What makes this

14:34 Speaker 1: discovery particularly credible is that they found an object that

14:38 Speaker 1: moved exactly the distance that would be expected for a

14:41 Speaker 1: large planet in a distant orbit over that time period.

14:44 Speaker 1: The object appears in the Iras imagery and then shows

14:47 Speaker 1: up again in Akari's data approximately forty seven point four

14:51 Speaker 1: arc minutes away, consistent with the slow movement of an

14:55 Speaker 1: extremely distant planet. To rule out false positives, fans tear

15:00 Speaker 1: time carefully accounted for parallax effects caused by Earth's movement

15:03 Speaker 1: around the Sun, and eliminated fast moving nearby objects by

15:07 Speaker 1: examining hourly changes in position. Their meticulous approach has yielded

15:13 Speaker 1: what appears to be the most promising Planet nine candidate

15:16 Speaker 1: to date. Based on the object's brightness in both infrared surveys,

15:21 Speaker 1: researchers estimate it would be more massive than Neptune, significantly

15:25 Speaker 1: larger than the super Earth sized body they initially expected

15:29 Speaker 1: to find. This came as a surprise, as previous surveys

15:33 Speaker 1: had already ruled out the possibility of Jupiter or Saturn

15:37 Speaker 1: sized planets at these distances. If confirmed, this object would

15:41 Speaker 1: currently be located approximately seven hundred astronomical units from the Sun.

15:46 Speaker 1: That's seven hundred times farther than Earth's distance from our star,

15:49 Speaker 1: or about sixty five billion miles away. Its orbit appears

15:53 Speaker 1: highly eccentric, potentially bringing it as close as two hundred

15:56 Speaker 1: eighty AU and as far as one thousand, one hundred

15:59 Speaker 1: twenty AU from the Sun. The mystery of how such

16:02 Speaker 1: a massive planet ended up in this remote region remains.

16:06 Speaker 1: Fans suggests two possibilities. Either it formed closer to the

16:09 Speaker 1: Sun near where our known giant planets developed, and was

16:13 Speaker 1: later gravitationally scattered outward, or it was a rogue planet

16:16 Speaker 1: captured by our Son's gravity during the early days of

16:19 Speaker 1: the Solar System. While this isn't the first potential Planet

16:23 Speaker 1: nine candidate, astronomer Michael Rowan Robinson found a different object

16:26 Speaker 1: in the IRAS data in twenty twenty one, fans discovery

16:30 Speaker 1: holds more weight because it appears in two separate data

16:33 Speaker 1: sets taken decades apart. Definitive conformation will require detecting the

16:38 Speaker 1: object in current observations with advanced instruments like the soon

16:41 Speaker 1: to launch Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, the Via C

16:45 Speaker 1: Reuben Observatory, and the already operational Dark Energy Camera, Astronomers

16:50 Speaker 1: now have a specific target to investigate. After years of

16:53 Speaker 1: theoretical debate about Planet nine's existence, we may finally be

16:57 Speaker 1: on the verge of officially welcoming the newest member of

16:59 Speaker 1: our Solar System family. That wraps up today's journey through

17:04 Speaker 1: our fascinating cosmos from NASA's SPHEREx Telescope beginning its ambitious

17:09 Speaker 1: all sky mapping mission to the potential discovery of the

17:12 Speaker 1: elusive planet nine hiding in decades old data. The universe

17:16 Speaker 1: continues to surprise and challenge us. We've explored the mysterious

17:20 Speaker 1: Big Ring structure that defies our cosmological models, NASA's ongoing

17:25 Speaker 1: efforts to revive the silent Lunar Trailblazer, and even tracked

17:29 Speaker 1: a Soviet era Venus probe making its way back to

17:31 Speaker 1: Earth after fifty three years in orbit. I'm your host, Anna,

17:35 Speaker 1: and I want to thank you for spending time with

17:37 Speaker 1: me today exploring these cosmic wonders. The universe is vast

17:41 Speaker 1: and full of mysteries waiting to be unraveled, and will

17:44 Speaker 1: continue bringing them to you right here on Astronomy Daily.

17:48 Speaker 1: Visit our website at Astronomy Daily dot io, where you

17:51 Speaker 1: can catch up on all the latest space and astronomy

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17:57 Speaker 1: all our back episodes. You can also find us on

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18:09 Speaker 1: the same curiosity that drives astronomers to search the cosmos

18:13 Speaker 1: is within all of us. So until our next cosmic conversation,

18:17 Speaker 1: keep wondering, keep questioning, and most importantly, keep looking up stars,

18:32 Speaker 1: Star