Countdown to the Moon: Artemis II Launch Week Begins | Plus Comet Reversal & ISS Medical Mystery Update

0:00 Speaker 1: Four astronauts, one rocket, four days until launch. History is

0:06 Speaker 1: about to be made.

0:08 Speaker 2: And if you think that's the only jaw dropping story

0:10 Speaker 2: in space today, wait until you hear about a comment

0:13 Speaker 2: that literally stopped spinning and started going the other way.

0:17 Speaker 1: I'm Anna, I'm Avery, and this is Astronomy Daily, your

0:21 Speaker 1: daily guide to everything happening in space and beyond. Welcome

0:26 Speaker 1: to Season five, Episode seventy five.

0:29 Speaker 2: Let's get started, then, all right, let's.

0:32 Speaker 1: Start with what is, without a doubt, the biggest human

0:35 Speaker 1: spaceflight story in more than fifty years. The crew of

0:40 Speaker 1: NASA's Artemis two mission has arrived at Kennedy Space Center

0:44 Speaker 1: in Florida, and the countdown is well and truly on.

0:48 Speaker 2: That's right. Yesterday, Friday, the twenty seventh, NASA astronauts Reed Weisman,

0:53 Speaker 2: Victor Glover, and Christina Coach, along with Canadian Space Agency

0:57 Speaker 2: astronaut Jeremy Hansen, touchdown at Ken's Shuttle landing facility in

1:01 Speaker 2: their T thirty eight jets. Arriving from Johnson Space Center

1:04 Speaker 2: in Houston. They were greeted by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman

1:09 Speaker 2: and a crowd of reporters that was, by all accounts,

1:12 Speaker 2: the largest anyone had seen for an astronaut arrival in

1:15 Speaker 2: a very long time, and.

1:17 Speaker 1: The energy was electric. Avery Commander Reid Wiseman stepped out

1:22 Speaker 1: onto the runway, pumped his fists and said, and I'm

1:25 Speaker 1: quoting here, Hey, let's go to the Moon.

1:29 Speaker 2: That says it all, really, it really does. So the

1:32 Speaker 2: plan launches schedules for no earlier than six point twenty

1:36 Speaker 2: four in the evening Eastern Time on Wednesday, April to

1:39 Speaker 2: first I know, April Fool's Day, but this is no joke.

1:43 Speaker 2: The window stays open until April six, giving the team

1:46 Speaker 2: a six day buffer, but mission managers are pushing hard

1:49 Speaker 2: for that first opportunity.

1:51 Speaker 1: And the mission itself. Artemis two will send all four

1:55 Speaker 1: crew members on a ten day journey around the Moon

1:58 Speaker 1: and back to Earth the board NASA's Oryan's spacecraft, launched

2:03 Speaker 1: on top of the Space Launch System, the most powerful

2:06 Speaker 1: operational rocket in the world. They won't land on the Moon,

2:10 Speaker 1: that's Artemis three's job, but they will fly farther from

2:14 Speaker 1: Earth than any human has ever been. The Apollo thirteen

2:18 Speaker 1: record set back in nineteen seventy will be broken.

2:22 Speaker 2: The crew are now in quarantine at Kennedy's spending their

2:25 Speaker 2: final days reviewing mission procedures, completing medical checkups, and spending

2:30 Speaker 2: precious time with family. The countdown clock is set to

2:33 Speaker 2: begin ticking at four forty four pm on Monday, and

2:36 Speaker 2: from that point it's all systems go. For anyone who

2:39 Speaker 2: watched the Apollo missions as a child, or who has

2:42 Speaker 2: simply dreamed of humanity returning to the Moon, this is

2:46 Speaker 2: the week we've been waiting for.

2:47 Speaker 1: We will absolutely be following this one closely over the

2:51 Speaker 1: coming days on Astronomy Daily and for our listeners down

2:54 Speaker 1: under in Australia and across New Zealand. April the second

2:58 Speaker 1: is your morning to set those alarms.

3:01 Speaker 2: Now from the Moon to a tiny snowball tumbling through

3:04 Speaker 2: our inner solar system. And when I say tiny, I

3:07 Speaker 2: mean it. Comet forty one p formally known as Tuttle

3:11 Speaker 2: Jacobeanie Krizak, measures just one kilometer across, about three times

3:16 Speaker 2: the height of the Eiffel Tower.

3:17 Speaker 1: And yet this little cosmic wanderer has just done something

3:21 Speaker 1: that scientists have never in all of recorded astronomical history

3:26 Speaker 1: observed before it reversed its spin.

3:30 Speaker 2: That's right. A new study published this week in the

3:33 Speaker 2: Astronomical Journal based on observations from NASA's Hubble space telescope,

3:38 Speaker 2: reveals that Comet forty one P first dramatically slowed its spin,

3:42 Speaker 2: nearly came to a complete stop, and then started going

3:46 Speaker 2: the other way. Researchers describe it as a kind of

3:49 Speaker 2: merry go round effect. The comet's own outgassing jets, dreams

3:53 Speaker 2: of gas blasted off its surface as it heats up

3:55 Speaker 2: near the sun were pushing against its spin so hard

3:59 Speaker 2: that they eventually flipped it.

4:00 Speaker 1: To give you a timeline, back in March twenty seventeen,

4:04 Speaker 1: the comet was spinning at a regular pace. By May

4:07 Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, Swift observatory data showed it had slowed to

4:12 Speaker 1: three times that rate, And then when Hubble took a

4:15 Speaker 1: look in December twenty seventeen, the comet was spinning fast again,

4:19 Speaker 1: but in the opposite direction. The whole reversal had happened

4:23 Speaker 1: within months.

4:25 Speaker 2: Now here's the twist, and it's a sobering one. Study

4:28 Speaker 2: author David Jewett of UCLA says that because the comet

4:32 Speaker 2: is now spinning so rapidly in its new direction, centrifugal

4:36 Speaker 2: forces could overcome the comet's own weak gravity and his

4:40 Speaker 2: conclusion quote, I expect this nucleus will very quickly self destruct.

4:45 Speaker 2: We may be witnessing the final chapter of Comet forty

4:48 Speaker 2: one p's long life.

4:50 Speaker 1: Which makes these observations all the more remarkable. The comet

4:54 Speaker 1: is thought to have been in its current orbit for

4:56 Speaker 1: around fifteen hundred years, and in one close pass the Sun,

5:00 Speaker 1: we got to watch it undergo a transformation that would

5:03 Speaker 1: normally take centuries in just a matter of months. Hubble

5:07 Speaker 1: really never stops delivering the goods. Story three takes us

5:11 Speaker 1: to one of the deepest mysteries in modern cosmology and

5:15 Speaker 1: potentially one of the most significant detections in the history

5:18 Speaker 1: of gravitational wave astronomy. Back in November last year, Igo,

5:23 Speaker 1: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory picked up a signal

5:28 Speaker 1: that stopped researchers cold. The gravitational wave appeared to come

5:32 Speaker 1: from a merger event involving at least one object that

5:36 Speaker 1: waved less than a single solar mass. And here's why

5:39 Speaker 1: that matters. Through all known processes of stellar evolution, that

5:44 Speaker 1: simply shouldn't be possible. Regular black holes form from dying stars,

5:49 Speaker 1: and the minimum mass for that is a few times

5:51 Speaker 1: our sun, So what was it?

5:54 Speaker 2: Well? This week, astro physicist Nico Cappeluti and Alberto Magarahia

5:59 Speaker 2: from the Universe Verity of Miami published the compelling answer

6:02 Speaker 2: in the Astrophysical Journal. Their conclusion, it may be a

6:06 Speaker 2: primordial black hole, an object formed not from a collapsing

6:10 Speaker 2: star but from the unimaginable density of the universe itself

6:14 Speaker 2: in the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

6:18 Speaker 1: Primordial black holes are one of the most tantalizing concepts

6:21 Speaker 1: in theoretical physics. They could range from microscopic to enormous,

6:26 Speaker 1: and crucially, they are one of the most compelling candidates

6:30 Speaker 1: for dark matter, the invisible substance that makes up roughly

6:34 Speaker 1: eighty five percent of all matter in the universe. We

6:37 Speaker 1: can see dark matter's gravitational effects everywhere we look, but

6:41 Speaker 1: we have never directly detected it. A confirmed primordial black

6:45 Speaker 1: hole detection would transform our understanding of the cosmos.

6:49 Speaker 2: Overnight, the Miami team modeled how many primordial black holes

6:53 Speaker 2: should exist, how often they should merge, and how frequently

6:57 Speaker 2: LIGO should detect them, and remarkably, the numbers lined up

7:01 Speaker 2: one rare detection events exactly as their theory predicts, it's

7:05 Speaker 2: not confirmation. One signal is suggestive, not conclusive, but it

7:09 Speaker 2: is a genuinely thrilling lead to follow. Escappelluti himself put it,

7:14 Speaker 2: the most plausible explanation for the LGO signal, which lacks

7:18 Speaker 2: any conventional astrophysical explanation, is the detection of a primordial

7:22 Speaker 2: black hole.

7:23 Speaker 1: Next generation detectors, including the space based LISA mission planned

7:28 Speaker 1: for the twenty thirties and the ground based Cosmic Explorer

7:31 Speaker 1: ten times more sensitive than LIGO, will hopefully shed more

7:35 Speaker 1: light on this.

7:36 Speaker 2: For now, we may have just.

7:38 Speaker 1: Received our first signal from the dawn of time itself.

7:42 Speaker 2: Here's a story that bridges ancient human history and cutting

7:45 Speaker 2: edge astronomy. In the year one eighty five AD, Chinese

7:49 Speaker 2: astronomers recorded a strange new star appearing in the sky,

7:53 Speaker 2: one that would remain visible for up to eight months.

7:56 Speaker 2: They called it a guest star. What they had actually

7:59 Speaker 2: witnessed was one of the earliest supernova explosions ever recorded

8:03 Speaker 2: by humanity.

8:04 Speaker 1: Fast forward eighteen hundred years, and that same ancient explosion,

8:09 Speaker 1: now known as supernova remnant RCW eighty six or SN

8:13 Speaker 1: one eight five, has just been given its most detailed

8:17 Speaker 1: examination yet. NASA's IXPE mission, the Imaging X Ray polar

8:23 Speaker 1: Imagery Explorer, has delivered a breath taking new image of

8:26 Speaker 1: the remnant's outer edge, combining its unique X ray polarimetry

8:31 Speaker 1: data with observations from NASA's Chandra Observatory and the European

8:35 Speaker 1: Space Agency's XMM Newton telescope.

8:38 Speaker 2: So what did they find? IXPE targeted the outer rim

8:42 Speaker 2: of the remnant, highlighted in a vivid purple ring in

8:45 Speaker 2: the new image, and discovered something fascinating. The expanding shell

8:50 Speaker 2: of superheated gas, which had been blasting outward at tremendous

8:53 Speaker 2: speed for two thousand years, appears to have stopped at

8:57 Speaker 2: the edge of a large, low density cavity that surrounded

9:00 Speaker 2: the original star. In other words, the explosion ran into

9:04 Speaker 2: a wall, and the new data helps explain why the

9:07 Speaker 2: remnant expanded so much faster than astronomers initially expected.

9:12 Speaker 1: IXPE achieves this by studying the polarization of X rays,

9:17 Speaker 1: essentially how those high energy light waves are oriented as

9:20 Speaker 1: they travel through space. It's a technique that opens a

9:23 Speaker 1: completely new window on the behavior of exploding stars, black holes,

9:28 Speaker 1: and pulsars. The resulting composite image with yellow for low

9:32 Speaker 1: energy X rays, blue for high energy, and the purple

9:35 Speaker 1: ixpe data overlaid is genuinely one of the most beautiful

9:39 Speaker 1: things you'll see in Space Science this week. We'll have

9:42 Speaker 1: a link in the show notes.

9:44 Speaker 2: There's something deeply moving about this story. A star that

9:47 Speaker 2: humans watched die with the naked eye two millennia ago,

9:51 Speaker 2: recorded by diligent observers in ancient China, is still revealing

9:56 Speaker 2: its secrets. Today Science is a very long conversation.

10:00 Speaker 1: Story five brings us a story that's both deeply human

10:04 Speaker 1: and profoundly relevant to the future of space exploration, and

10:08 Speaker 1: it connects directly to our lead story today about Artemis two.

10:12 Speaker 2: Earlier this year, you may recall, NASA made headlines when

10:15 Speaker 2: it announced that the Crew eleven mission aboard the International

10:18 Speaker 2: Space Station was being cut short due to a medical concern.

10:22 Speaker 2: The agency initially declined to name the astronaut involved, but

10:26 Speaker 2: in late February, veteran astronaut Mike think, a four time

10:30 Speaker 2: spaceflyer and retired US Air Force colonel, came forward at

10:34 Speaker 2: his own request to confirm that he was the person affected.

10:38 Speaker 1: And this week, for the first time, Fink spoke in

10:41 Speaker 1: detail about what actually happened in an exclusive interview with

10:44 Speaker 1: the Associated Press conducted from Houston's Johnson Space Center. The

10:48 Speaker 1: account is extraordinary.

10:51 Speaker 2: Think says he was eating dinner on January seventh, the

10:54 Speaker 2: evening before a planned spacewalk, when it suddenly hit. He

10:58 Speaker 2: lost the ability to speak. He felt no pain. The

11:01 Speaker 2: episode lasted around twenty minutes. His crewmates, seeing him in distress,

11:06 Speaker 2: immediately contacted flight surgeons on the ground. It was completely

11:10 Speaker 2: out of the blue, he told the AP. It was

11:13 Speaker 2: just amazingly quick.

11:15 Speaker 1: NASA used the station's ultrasound machine during the event, which

11:19 Speaker 1: Fink credits as genuinely useful, and his condition quickly stabilized.

11:24 Speaker 1: But NASA's medical team determined that the safest course of

11:27 Speaker 1: action was an early return to Earth so that Fink

11:30 Speaker 1: could access advanced medical imaging not available on the ISS.

11:34 Speaker 1: NASA canceled the following day's spacewalk, and on January fifteenth,

11:38 Speaker 1: Fink and his three crewmates, Zena Cardman, Kimiya Yui, and

11:42 Speaker 1: Oleg Platanov splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, about a

11:46 Speaker 1: month ahead of schedule. Here's the part that is both

11:49 Speaker 1: remarkable and sobering. As of this week, doctors still do

11:53 Speaker 1: not know what caused it. A heart attack has been

11:56 Speaker 1: ruled out, but the precise nature of the event, whether neurological, cardiovascular,

12:02 Speaker 1: or something else, entirely remains undiagnosed. NASA is now reviewing

12:07 Speaker 1: astronaut medical records to determine whether anything similar has occurred

12:11 Speaker 1: in space before, potentially without being recognized. And here's why

12:15 Speaker 1: this matters so much right now, with Artemis two five

12:19 Speaker 1: days from launch on the ISS, if something goes wrong medically,

12:23 Speaker 1: astronauts could be home within hours on a ten day

12:26 Speaker 1: lunar mission, and certainly on any future mission to Mars,

12:30 Speaker 1: that option doesn't exist. The Fink incident has become a

12:33 Speaker 1: landmark moment for space medicine, prompting urgent conversations about what

12:38 Speaker 1: medical capabilities need to exist on deep space vehicles. Think

12:42 Speaker 1: himself framed it with characteristic composure. Spaceflight is an incredible privilege,

12:48 Speaker 1: and sometimes it reminds us just how human we are.

12:51 Speaker 2: And Mike Fank says he feels fine now and is

12:55 Speaker 2: continuing routine post flight conditioning at Johnson's Space Center. We

12:59 Speaker 2: wish him a far and swift recovery, and we salute

13:02 Speaker 2: the crew and the medical teams who got everyone home safely.

13:06 Speaker 1: And finally, eyes on the sun, because our nearest star

13:10 Speaker 1: has been putting on a show this week.

13:12 Speaker 2: That's right. A new sunspot region designated AR four to

13:16 Speaker 2: four zero three rotated into view on the eastern solar

13:20 Speaker 2: limb on March twenty sixth, and it wasted no time

13:23 Speaker 2: making its presence felt. Within hours of coming into view,

13:28 Speaker 2: AR four to four zero three unleashed the powerful M

13:31 Speaker 2: three point nine solar flare at six' ELEVEN, utc triggering

13:35 Speaker 2: AN r one that's a minor radio blackout over The Indian.

13:39 Speaker 1: Ocean now the good, news as of, Today saturday the twenty,

13:43 Speaker 1: eighth the sun is relatively. QUIET ar four to four

13:47 Speaker 1: zero three has calmed after its initial, outburst and space

13:50 Speaker 1: weather forecasters are expecting mostly quiet conditions through. Today but

13:55 Speaker 1: there's a, catch and it's worth noting for our listeners

13:58 Speaker 1: who Love aurora.

13:59 Speaker 2: Watching From sunday the twenty, ninth a co rotating interaction,

14:03 Speaker 2: region a dense zone of compressed solar, wind along with

14:07 Speaker 2: a high speed stream from a coronal hole are expected

14:11 Speaker 2: to arrive At earth and a faint coronal mass ejection

14:14 Speaker 2: from the recent activity could also graze our planet's magnetic.

14:18 Speaker 2: Field around that, Time face weather forecasters are predicting unsettled

14:22 Speaker 2: geomagnetic conditions which, could in favorable, circumstances push auroras to

14:28 Speaker 2: slightly lower latitudes than.

14:29 Speaker 1: Usual so for our listeners In Southern, Australia tasmania And New,

14:34 Speaker 1: zealand particularly those of you with dark skies away from city,

14:38 Speaker 1: Lights sunday And monday nights are worth. Watching check your

14:42 Speaker 1: local aurora alert, apps keep an eye to the south

14:45 Speaker 1: and fingers crossed for clear, skies and if you capture anything,

14:49 Speaker 1: spectacular we love to see. It Hag us at Astro Daily, Pod.

14:53 Speaker 2: We'll be keeping an eye on developments and may have

14:56 Speaker 2: an update In monday's episode if conditions.

14:58 Speaker 1: Escalate and that is a wrap on an absolutely packed

15:02 Speaker 1: edition Of Astronomy. Daily to recap what we covered, today

15:05 Speaker 1: The artemis two crew has landed At Kennedy's Space center

15:09 Speaker 1: With april first launch in their. Sights hubble has documented

15:12 Speaker 1: the first ever spin reversal of a comet and that

15:16 Speaker 1: comment may be on borrowed. Time igo may have detected

15:19 Speaker 1: a black hole born at the dawn of the universe.

15:22 Speaker 1: Itself Nasays ixpe telescope gave us the finest portrait yete

15:27 Speaker 1: of a super nova first seen by human. Eyes in

15:30 Speaker 1: one eight FIVE, ad Astronaut Mike finke spoke for the

15:34 Speaker 1: first time about his still mysterious medical emergency in, orbit

15:39 Speaker 1: and the sun is stirring with possible aurora opportunities on

15:43 Speaker 1: the way For Southern hemisphere.

15:44 Speaker 2: Skywatchers what an extraordinary time to be alive and looking.

15:48 Speaker 2: Up if you're Enjoying Astronomy, daily please, subscribe leave us a,

15:52 Speaker 2: review and share the show with anyone in your life

15:55 Speaker 2: who loves the cosmos as much as we. Do you

15:57 Speaker 2: can find us At Astronomy daily dot, com io and

16:00 Speaker 2: across all platforms at Astro Daily.

16:03 Speaker 1: Pod Until, Monday keep looking, up.

16:06 Speaker 2: Clear, skies, Everyone sunny day star is so star is