Cosmic Milestones: All-Female Spaceflight, Supernova Secrets, and Stellar Symphonies

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, where we bring you the latest

0:03 Speaker 1: in space and astronomy news. I'm your host, Anna, and

0:06 Speaker 1: today we'll explore an exciting array of cosmic events, from

0:09 Speaker 1: Blue Origins historic all female flight to supernovae that may

0:13 Speaker 1: have shaped Earth's history, and much more. From stellar rhythms

0:16 Speaker 1: that reveal the secrets of our galaxy to NASA's Lucy

0:19 Speaker 1: spacecraft preparing for its next asteroid encounter. We have a

0:23 Speaker 1: universe of discoveries to share with you today. Let's kick

0:26 Speaker 1: things off today with the one story everyone seems to

0:28 Speaker 1: be talking about. Blue Origin made history this past Monday

0:33 Speaker 1: with a groundbreaking achievement in human spaceflight, the first all

0:37 Speaker 1: female crewed rocket launch since nineteen sixty three. What took

0:41 Speaker 1: them so long? Their new Shepherd rocket carried six remarkable

0:45 Speaker 1: women beyond Earth's atmosphere on the company's thirty first launch

0:48 Speaker 1: and eleventh crude mission overall. At nine thirty am Eastern

0:52 Speaker 1: on April fourteenth, the RSS Carmen Line space capsule lifted

0:56 Speaker 1: off from Blue Origins Launch Site one in West Texas

0:59 Speaker 1: with an extra ordinary passenger manifest Pop superstar Katy Perry

1:03 Speaker 1: joined mission leader Lauren Sanchez journalist Gail King, bioastronautics scientist

1:09 Speaker 1: Amanda and Guien, film producer carry Anne Flynn, and former

1:13 Speaker 1: NASA rocket scientist Ayisha Bo on this historic journey. The

1:16 Speaker 1: flight itself lasted approximately ten point five minutes, but its

1:20 Speaker 1: impact will be felt for generations. During those brief moments

1:24 Speaker 1: in space, the crew experienced about four minutes of weightlessness

1:28 Speaker 1: as their capsule arked above the Carmen Line, the internationally

1:32 Speaker 1: recognized boundary of space at sixty two miles altitude. Despite

1:35 Speaker 1: the brevity of their spaceflight, each woman returned transformed by

1:40 Speaker 1: what astronauts often call the overview effect, that profound shift

1:44 Speaker 1: and awareness that comes from seeing our planet from space.

1:47 Speaker 1: As Katy Perry eloquently put it after landing, it is

1:50 Speaker 1: the highest high and it is surrendered to the unknown trust.

1:55 Speaker 1: The mission carried special significance beyond its all female crew composition.

2:00 Speaker 1: Amanda and Guyen made history as the first Vietnamese and

2:02 Speaker 1: Southeast Asian woman to fly to space. For Gail King,

2:06 Speaker 1: who has an outspoken fear of flying, the mission represented

2:09 Speaker 1: an extraordinary step outside her comfort zone. Each passenger brought

2:13 Speaker 1: personal items that carried deep meaning. Perry brought a daisy,

2:16 Speaker 1: which she described as a resilient flower that grows through

2:19 Speaker 1: any condition, symbolizing strength and beauty. And Guyen carried two

2:23 Speaker 1: particularly poignant items, her hospital band from a sexual assault

2:27 Speaker 1: and a written promise to herself from that time, using

2:30 Speaker 1: the flight to honor her journey of healing. For Lauren Sanchez,

2:34 Speaker 1: the mission leader and fiance of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos,

2:38 Speaker 1: the experience revealed Earth's underlying unity. We are so connected,

2:42 Speaker 1: more connected than you realize, she reflected, noting how the

2:46 Speaker 1: view from space dissolves the artificial divisions between people. This

2:50 Speaker 1: historic suborbital flight not only broke barriers, but also demonstrated

2:54 Speaker 1: the expanding horizons of commercial spaceflight, where increasingly diverse crews

2:59 Speaker 1: are experiencing a life changing perspective that comes from seeing

3:02 Speaker 1: our fragile, blue planet against the vast darkness of space.

3:06 Speaker 1: Each of the women who experienced the historic n S

3:09 Speaker 1: thirty one mission returned to Earth with transformative insights that

3:13 Speaker 1: went far beyond the typical excitement of spaceflight. Their perspectives

3:17 Speaker 1: offer a glimpse into how seeing our planet from above

3:20 Speaker 1: can fundamentally shift human consciousness. Mission leader Lauren Sanchez described

3:25 Speaker 1: Earth from space as profoundly quiet and peaceful. We're so connected,

3:30 Speaker 1: more connected than you realize, she reflected, because you just

3:33 Speaker 1: see all these things that divide us but were not.

3:37 Speaker 1: The experience left her wanting to come back and just

3:40 Speaker 1: hug everyone with the realization that we're in this together.

3:44 Speaker 1: Sanchez expressed hope that more people could experience this perspective shift,

3:49 Speaker 1: uncertain of just how deeply it would change her. For

3:52 Speaker 1: Amanda ne Gullen, the flight carried immense symbolic weight as

3:56 Speaker 1: she became the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman in space.

4:00 Speaker 1: Her journey held special significance for survivors of trauma. I

4:04 Speaker 1: just want all survivors to know that you can heal.

4:07 Speaker 1: No dream is too wild, she said, referencing her own

4:10 Speaker 1: experience as a sexual assault survivor. By bringing her hospital

4:14 Speaker 1: band from that day into space, she honored her past

4:17 Speaker 1: self and demonstrated the possibility of healing and achievement even

4:20 Speaker 1: after profound trauma. Gail King, who has a well known

4:24 Speaker 1: fear of flying, found unexpected courage through the experience. Eleanor

4:28 Speaker 1: Roosevelt once said, courage is doing something that scares you,

4:32 Speaker 1: but you do it anyway. King reflected, now that I've

4:35 Speaker 1: done it, I really do feel I can take on anything.

4:38 Speaker 1: She described the powerful silence of space and how it

4:41 Speaker 1: reminded her of our shared responsibility on Earth. It's really

4:44 Speaker 1: quiet and peaceful. If everybody could experience that piece that

4:48 Speaker 1: we had up there, I'll never ever, ever forget. Aisha bo,

4:53 Speaker 1: a former NASA rocket scientist, was transformed by the view.

4:57 Speaker 1: I will never be the same, she declared, noting how

5:00 Speaker 1: Earth filled their windows with no visible boundaries or borders.

5:03 Speaker 1: Her message after landing was emphatically clear, dream it planet

5:07 Speaker 1: and go and do it. I never really thought I

5:09 Speaker 1: could go to space, although I really wanted to go.

5:12 Speaker 1: For Katie Perry, the experience ranked as her life's second

5:14 Speaker 1: most incredible moment after the birth of her daughter. It's

5:18 Speaker 1: not about me, it's not about singing my songs. It's

5:21 Speaker 1: about a collective energy, Perry emphasized. It's about making space

5:25 Speaker 1: for future women and taking up space and belonging. The

5:29 Speaker 1: bond formed through this shared journey created what King called

5:31 Speaker 1: a true sisterhood that will connect these pioneering women forever.

5:37 Speaker 1: Speaking of launches, let's get a quick roundup of what

5:39 Speaker 1: else is planned this week. The global launch schedule is

5:42 Speaker 1: hitting a bit of a lull this week, with just

5:45 Speaker 1: four launches on the calendar, but each mission carries significant

5:48 Speaker 1: importance for space exploration and national security. Leading the week's

5:53 Speaker 1: activities is a MINOTAURNA four rocket set to lift off

5:57 Speaker 1: from Vandenberg Space for Space in California on Wednesday. This mission,

6:01 Speaker 1: designated NROLL one hundred seventy four, will carry a classified

6:05 Speaker 1: payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. The seventy eight foot

6:09 Speaker 1: tall four stage rocket, derived from the Peacekeeper missile design,

6:13 Speaker 1: will follow a southeasterly trajectory to place its mysterious cargo

6:18 Speaker 1: into low Earth orbit. This marks the first Minotaur for

6:22 Speaker 1: mission of twenty twenty five, and just the sixth in

6:24 Speaker 1: the vehicle's operational history. Friday brings US Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket,

6:30 Speaker 1: which will make another attempt to launch Lockheed Martin's new

6:33 Speaker 1: LM four hundred satellite bus from Vandenberg. Dubbed Message in

6:37 Speaker 1: a Booster, this mission has faced multiple delays since its

6:41 Speaker 1: originally scheduled March launch window. The LM four hundred will

6:44 Speaker 1: carry a demonstration communications payload into orbit, marking Alpha's first

6:49 Speaker 1: flight of twenty twenty five and its sixth mission overall.

6:53 Speaker 1: The two stage rocket stands nearly ninety seven feet tall

6:56 Speaker 1: and uses kerosene and liquid oxygen to power its reaver

6:59 Speaker 1: engines in the first day and single lightning engine in

7:01 Speaker 1: the second stage. SpaceX rounds out the week with two

7:05 Speaker 1: Falcon nine launches. The first, scheduled for Saturday from Vandenberg,

7:10 Speaker 1: will loft another classified NRO payload, believed to be the

7:13 Speaker 1: tenth batch of Starshield Reconnaissance satellites. The booster supporting this

7:18 Speaker 1: mission is expected to land on the drone ship of

7:21 Speaker 1: Course I Still Love You, stationed about four hundred miles

7:23 Speaker 1: downrange in the Pacific Ocean. The second Falcon nine mission

7:27 Speaker 1: comes Monday with the CRS thirty two cargo resupply mission

7:31 Speaker 1: to the International Space Station, launching from Kennedy Space Center

7:35 Speaker 1: in Florida. This flight will deliver essential supplies, scientific experiments,

7:41 Speaker 1: and spare parts to the orbiting laboratory. Among the science

7:44 Speaker 1: payloads is a French atomic clock for the Atomic Clock

7:47 Speaker 1: Ensemble in Space experiment, which will test Einstein's theory of

7:51 Speaker 1: general relativity by measuring how gravity affects the flow of

7:55 Speaker 1: time with unprecedented precision. Also heading to the ISS are

8:00 Speaker 1: experiments to monitor airborne particles inside the station, a robotic

8:03 Speaker 1: spacecraft guidance demonstration, pharmaceutical manufacturing experiments, and plant growth studies.

8:10 Speaker 1: The Falcon nine booster for this mission is expected to

8:13 Speaker 1: return for a landing at Cape Canaveral's landing Zone one

8:15 Speaker 1: shortly after launch. Meanwhile, further out in space, NASA's Lucy

8:21 Speaker 1: spacecraft is now just days away from its second asteroid encounter,

8:25 Speaker 1: approaching the small Main Belt asteroid Donal Johansson at a

8:28 Speaker 1: distance of less than fifty million miles. The April twentieth

8:32 Speaker 1: rendezvous will serve as a comprehensive dress rehearsal for Lucy's

8:36 Speaker 1: primary mission, exploring multiple Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter's orbit

8:40 Speaker 1: around the Sun over the next decade. The upcoming flyby

8:44 Speaker 1: builds on lessons learned from Lucy's first asteroid encounter last November,

8:48 Speaker 1: when it successfully visited the tiny Main Belt asteroid Dinkinesh

8:53 Speaker 1: and its satellite cellum mission controllers are now preparing for

8:57 Speaker 1: a more complex observation sequence as Lucy approaches Donald Johansson

9:03 Speaker 1: at its closest approach, scheduled for one fifty one pm

9:06 Speaker 1: Eastern on Saturday. Lucy will pass within just five hundred

9:09 Speaker 1: and ninety six miles of the asteroid. About thirty minutes

9:12 Speaker 1: before this moment. The spacecraft will orient itself to track

9:16 Speaker 1: Donald Johansson, temporarily turning its high gain antenna away from

9:19 Speaker 1: Earth and suspending communications. Guided by its terminal tracking system,

9:25 Speaker 1: Lucy will autonomously rotate to keep the asteroid in view

9:28 Speaker 1: while all three science instruments collect data. Unlike the Dinkinesh encounter,

9:33 Speaker 1: Lucy will need to stop tracking Donald Johansson forty seconds

9:36 Speaker 1: before closest approach to protect its sensitive instruments from intense sunlight.

9:41 Speaker 1: As in counterphase. Lead Michael Vincent explains, if you are

9:44 Speaker 1: sitting on the asteroid watching Lucy approach, you would have

9:47 Speaker 1: to shield your eyes from the sun while waiting for

9:50 Speaker 1: Lucy to emerge from the glare. After Lucy passes, the

9:53 Speaker 1: positions will be reversed, so we have to shield the

9:56 Speaker 1: instruments in the same way. This challenging gean is unique

10:00 Speaker 1: among Lucy's planned asteroid encounters. After closest approach, the spacecraft

10:06 Speaker 1: will reorient its solar arrays toward the Sun and re

10:09 Speaker 1: establish communication with Earth approximately an hour later. The twenty

10:14 Speaker 1: five minute round trip light delay presents its own challenges.

10:17 Speaker 1: When mission controllers command data playback after closest approach, they'll

10:21 Speaker 1: need to wait nearly half an hour before receiving any

10:23 Speaker 1: images or confirmation that their commands were received. Donald Johanson

10:29 Speaker 1: itself presents an intriguing target, representing a fragment from a

10:33 Speaker 1: collision that occurred one hundred and fifty million years ago,

10:36 Speaker 1: making it one of the youngest Main Belt asteroids ever

10:38 Speaker 1: visited by a spacecraft. As mission program scientist Tom Statler notes,

10:43 Speaker 1: every asteroid has a different story to tell, and these

10:45 Speaker 1: stories weave together to paint the history of our Solar System.

10:50 Speaker 1: Next up today, a fascinating new study suggests that deadly

10:53 Speaker 1: cosmic explosions may have twice brought mass extinction to our planet.

10:57 Speaker 1: Researchers from Keele University have linked TiO queue of Earth's

11:00 Speaker 1: major extinction events to nearby supernova explosions, stellar deaths so

11:05 Speaker 1: powerful they could have severely disrupted Earth's atmosphere. These massive

11:09 Speaker 1: stellar blasts, which occur when large stars collapse and explode

11:13 Speaker 1: at the end of their lives, may have destroyed our

11:16 Speaker 1: planet's protective ozone layer triggered acid rain and exposed Earth's

11:20 Speaker 1: surface to dangerous levels of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.

11:24 Speaker 1: The researchers specifically point to the Ordovician extinction about four

11:28 Speaker 1: hundred forty five million years ago and the Late Devonian

11:31 Speaker 1: extinction around three hundred seventy two million years ago as

11:35 Speaker 1: likely candidates influenced by these cosmic catastrophes. The Ordovician event

11:41 Speaker 1: wiped out sixty percent of marine invertebrates at a time

11:44 Speaker 1: when life was largely confined to the seas, while the

11:47 Speaker 1: Late Devonian extinction eliminated approximately seventy percent of all species,

11:52 Speaker 1: dramatically altering the types of fish that inhabited ancient oceans

11:56 Speaker 1: and lakes. What makes this research particularly compelling is that

12:00 Speaker 1: past studies have failed to identify clear causes for either

12:03 Speaker 1: extinction event, though both have been linked to ozone layer depletion,

12:07 Speaker 1: something as supernova could easily trigger. To reach their conclusion,

12:11 Speaker 1: the research team conducted a census of massive stars within

12:15 Speaker 1: about three thousand, two hundred and sixty light years of

12:18 Speaker 1: our Sun. By mapping the distribution of these massive ob stars,

12:22 Speaker 1: they calculated the rate at which supernova occur in our

12:25 Speaker 1: cosmic neighborhood. When they compared this data with the timing

12:30 Speaker 1: of Earth's mass extinctions, they found a compelling correlation that

12:34 Speaker 1: supports the supernova theory. The researchers describe supernova as both

12:39 Speaker 1: creators and destroyers of life. They spread heavy elements that

12:43 Speaker 1: help form and sustain life across the universe, but if

12:46 Speaker 1: a planet is too close to such an explosion, the

12:49 Speaker 1: effects can be devastating. Before you start worrying about our

12:53 Speaker 1: cosmic neighborhood, astronomers believe only two nearby stars could potentially

12:57 Speaker 1: go supernova within the next million years, and Terry's and Beetlejuice. Fortunately,

13:03 Speaker 1: both are more than five hundred light years away, and

13:06 Speaker 1: computer simulations suggests supernova at that distance likely wouldn't affect Earth.

13:10 Speaker 1: This research not only helps explain Earth's past, but provides

13:14 Speaker 1: valuable insights into the complex relationship between cosmic events and

13:18 Speaker 1: life on our planet. Finally, today, have you ever wondered

13:21 Speaker 1: what stars would sound like if we could hear them. Well,

13:24 Speaker 1: scientists from UNSW Sydney, Australia have been listening to stars

13:29 Speaker 1: sing and what they've discovered is giving us unprecedented insights

13:33 Speaker 1: into stellar evolution. By analyzing the subtle oscillations of twenty

13:38 Speaker 1: seven stars in a cluster called M sixty seven, located

13:42 Speaker 1: about two thousand, seven hundred light years away, researchers have

13:45 Speaker 1: unlocked what they describe as the sounds of stars. These

13:49 Speaker 1: stellar vibrations, detectable by telescopes as tiny fluctuations in brightness,

13:53 Speaker 1: act like cosmic fingerprints that reveal a star's age, mass,

13:57 Speaker 1: and stage of life. What makes this study particularly valuable

14:01 Speaker 1: is that all these stars were born from the same

14:04 Speaker 1: gas cloud approximately four billion years ago. They share nearly

14:08 Speaker 1: identical chemical compositions but differ in mass, providing researchers with

14:13 Speaker 1: a perfect natural laboratory to observe how stars evolve under

14:16 Speaker 1: similar conditions. When we study stars in a cluster, we

14:20 Speaker 1: can see their whole sequence of individual evolution, explains doctor

14:24 Speaker 1: Claudia Reis, who led the study published in Nature. Though

14:28 Speaker 1: the same age, their different masses mean they're aging at

14:30 Speaker 1: different rates, giving scientists a snapshot of various life stages

14:34 Speaker 1: all in one place. Professor Denis Stello, co author of

14:38 Speaker 1: the study, likens this process to listening to an orchestra.

14:42 Speaker 1: The frequency by which an instrument is vibrating depends on

14:46 Speaker 1: the physical properties of the matter that the sound travels through.

14:49 Speaker 1: He says stars are the same. You can hear a

14:53 Speaker 1: star based on how it rings. The biggest stars produce

14:56 Speaker 1: the deepest sounds, while smaller stars emit higher pace frequencies.

15:01 Speaker 1: As stars mature toward becoming red giants, these frequency patterns

15:04 Speaker 1: change in distinctive ways that track their evolution. This breakthrough

15:08 Speaker 1: has significant implications. It not only helps us understand what

15:12 Speaker 1: lies ahead for our own Sun, but also allows astronomers

15:15 Speaker 1: to more accurately map the history of the Milky Way

15:18 Speaker 1: by determining the true ages of stars throughout our galaxy.

15:22 Speaker 1: Since our son was born in a cluster similar to

15:25 Speaker 1: M sixty seven, these findings give us a glimpse into

15:28 Speaker 1: both our solar systems past and its future. The research

15:32 Speaker 1: also has implications for the search for habitable planets, as

15:36 Speaker 1: the star's properties are critical for supporting life on worlds

15:39 Speaker 1: that orbit them. By listening to the stars sing, we're

15:43 Speaker 1: unlocking the secrets of the cosmos in ways never before possible.

15:48 Speaker 1: That wraps up today's cosmic journey on Astronomy Daily from

15:52 Speaker 1: the profound experiences of the latest all female crew in

15:55 Speaker 1: space to the stars that literally sing to us across

15:58 Speaker 1: the cosmos, our universe can continues to amaze and inspire,

16:02 Speaker 1: whether we're witnessing nearby asteroid encounters, tracking rocket launches, or

16:06 Speaker 1: discovering how ancient supernova may have shaped life on Earth.

16:09 Speaker 1: Space exploration connects us all to something greater than ourselves.

16:13 Speaker 1: I'm Anna, your host, and I want to thank you

16:16 Speaker 1: for joining me. To catch up on all the latest

16:18 Speaker 1: space and astronomy news, visit our website at Astronomy Daily

16:22 Speaker 1: dot io, where you can find our constantly updating news

16:26 Speaker 1: feed and listen to all our back episodes. You can

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16:37 Speaker 1: Until next time, keep looking up.