Cygnus XL Debut, Eclipse Wonders, and the Secrets of Makemake

0:00 Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily. Your go

0:03 to source for the latest developments in

0:05 space exploration and astronomical

0:08 discoveries. I'm Anna and I'm

0:11 here with my co host Avery to bring

0:14 you today's most exciting space news.

0:17 From cargo deliveries to the International

0:20 Space Station, to mysterious

0:22 exoplanets and upcoming

0:25 eclipses, we've got a fantastic

0:27 lineup of stories that showcase just how

0:30 dynamic and fascinating our

0:33 universe continues to be.

0:35 Avery: That's right, Anna.

0:36 Uh, we're starting today with an update and

0:38 some fantastic news from the International

0:41 Space Station where a brand new type of cargo

0:44 spacecraft has finally arrived.

0:46 Northrop Grumman's debut Cygnus XL

0:49 freighter successfully reached the ISS on

0:52 September 18, marking a significant

0:54 milestone in commercial space transportation.

0:57 This wasn't just any ordinary delivery. It

1:00 was the first first mission of their new

1:02 jumbo sized cargo vessel and it went

1:05 remarkably well despite a small hiccup along

1:07 the way. What makes this particularly

1:09 exciting is that this represents a major

1:12 evolution in Northrop Grumman's capabilities.

1:15 The original Cygnus spacecraft has been

1:17 reliably servicing the ISS since 2013,

1:20 but this new XL Ariant is a game changer.

1:23 With enhanced capacity and improved systems.

1:26 Anna: The arrival was quite the spectacle.

1:29 NASA astronaut Jonny Kim used the

1:31 station's Kaned 2 robotic arm

1:34 to grapple the Cygnus spacecraft at

1:37 exactly 7:24am um, Eastern

1:40 Time while the station was passing

1:43 260 miles above the

1:45 Democratic Republic of Congo. There was

1:48 actually a one day delay due to some

1:51 thruster issues, but the team worked through

1:53 those challenges beautifully. What makes this

1:56 mission so special is the spacecraft's

1:59 enhanced capacity. This new Cygnus

2:02 XL can carry approximately

2:04 11,000 pounds of cargo compared

2:07 to the previous model's 8,500

2:10 pounds. That's a substantial increase in

2:13 delivery capability. The technical

2:15 improvements include an enlarged service

2:18 module with better solar array

2:21 efficiency and upgraded thrusters for

2:24 improved maneuverability, making this a

2:27 significant upgrade over previous Cygnus

2:29 missions.

2:30 Avery: And the timing couldn't be better. This is

2:33 actually the first Cygnus delivery in over a

2:36 year, so the crew was probably pretty excited

2:39 to receive their supplies. The spacecraft

2:41 launched on September 14th aboard a SpaceX

2:44 Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral and

2:47 it's been named the SS William Willie

2:49 McCool in honor of the Columbia crew member.

2:52 The cargo manifest is particularly

2:54 interesting from a scientific perspective.

2:56 They're carrying materials for semiconductor

2:59 crystal experiments, equipment for cryogenic

3:02 fuel tank improvements, a, uh, UV light

3:04 system for microbial control, and supplies

3:06 for pharmaceutical crystal production

3:08 research. The spacecraft is scheduled to

3:10 remain docked until March 2026,

3:13 giving researchers plenty of time to conduct

3:15 their experiments.

3:17 Anna: Speaking of celestial events, let's

3:20 shift our focus from human made

3:22 spacecraft to a natural

3:24 astronomical phenomenon that's happening this

3:27 weekend. A partial solar eclipse is

3:30 set to occur on Sunday and Monday,

3:33 September 22nd,

3:35 though unfortunately, most of our listeners

3:38 won't be able to see it directly. The

3:41 eclipse will be visible from eastern

3:43 Australia, New Zealand and

3:45 Antarctica, with the Moon's Shadow

3:48 passing about 250 miles over

3:51 the South Pole. The entire event will

3:54 last four hours and 24 minutes,

3:57 making it a relatively lengthy eclipse

4:00 experience for those in the viewing zone.

4:02 Avery: The eclipse coverage varies significantly

4:05 depending on location. Sydney will

4:08 only see about 2% of the sun

4:10 eclipsed, while Hobart in Tasmania

4:13 gets a slightly better view at 4%.

4:16 The real winner is McMurdo M Station in

4:19 Antarctica, where observers will witness

4:21 68% of the sun being blocked

4:24 by the Moon. But here's the most interesting

4:27 viewing Southern New Zealand

4:30 will experience what astronomers are calling

4:32 a shark fin eclipse at sunrise.

4:35 With about 20% coverage. It's

4:38 fascinating how the geometry works out

4:40 differently for each location. This

4:43 eclipse is actually number seven in a series

4:45 of 71 eclipses called

4:48 Saros series 154.

4:50 For those already planning ahead, the next

4:53 total solar eclipse will occur on August

4:56 12, 2026, crossing

4:59 Iceland and northern Spain. For

5:01 scientists at McMurdo Station, this eclipse

5:04 provides valuable research opportunities to

5:07 study how partial solar blocking affects

5:10 atmospheric conditions in one of Earth's most

5:13 extreme environments.

5:15 Now, uh, let's talk about a technology

5:17 demonstration that's been quietly making

5:19 history in deep space. NASA's

5:22 Deep Space Optical Communications Experiment

5:24 aboard this Psyche spacecraft has just

5:27 concluded after nearly two years of

5:29 operation. And the results have exceeded all

5:32 expectations. This laser communication system

5:35 has been beaming data back to Earth from

5:37 incredible distances, proving that high speed

5:40 communications across the solar system are

5:42 not just possible, but practical. The

5:45 mission just completed its 65th and final

5:47 pass, transmitting laser signals from

5:50 218 million miles away.

5:53 That's comparable to the distance between

5:54 Earth and Mars at certain points in their

5:56 orbits. The performance numbers are

5:59 absolutely staggering. Back in December

6:01 2023, when Psyche was 19 million

6:04 mil miles from Earth, the system successfully

6:07 streamed ultra high definition video at

6:10 267 Mbps.

6:13 Think about that for a moment. That's faster

6:15 than many home Internet connections. But the

6:18 data was traveling across millions of miles

6:20 of empty space. Using nothing but

6:22 focused laser light, the system set its

6:25 distance record in December 2024,

6:28 successfully downlinking data from

6:30 3,307 million miles away

6:34 over the entire mission duration they

6:36 received a total of 13.6

6:38 terabits of data. The ground based

6:41 infrastructure is equally impressive. They

6:43 use a 3 kilowatt uplink laser at

6:46 JPL's Table Mountain facility and receive

6:49 the signals using the 200 inch telescope at

6:52 Palomar Observatory. This technology could

6:54 revolutionize communications for future Mars

6:57 missions and deep space exploration.

7:00 NASA is already planning to implement this

7:02 technology on upcoming Mars missions,

7:04 potentially enabling high definition video

7:07 calls with Earth instead of the delayed low

7:10 quality communications we're used to today.

7:13 Anna: Let's venture beyond our solar system now to

7:15 discuss a fascinating mystery involving

7:18 exoplanets. Astronomers have launched a

7:21 new program called Atreides to study what

7:24 they call the Neptunian Desert. A, uh,

7:26 puzzling absence of planets about 20

7:29 times Earth's mass that orbit very to their

7:32 stars. You'd expect to find planets of this

7:35 size in close orbits, but they're

7:37 surprisingly rare and scientists want to

7:40 understand why. The first system they're

7:43 studying is called TOI421,

7:45 located 224 light years away.

7:48 And it's already providing some intriguing

7:50 clues about planetary formation and

7:53 evolution.

7:53 Avery: TOI421 is particularly interesting

7:56 because it has two planets with misaligned

7:58 orbits, which suggests their evolution was

8:01 quite chaotic.

8:03 TOI421B has about seven times

8:05 Earth's mass and orbits at, uh, just 6% of

8:08 the Earth's sun distance. That's incredibly

8:11 close to its star. TOI

8:13 421c is even more massive at 14

8:16 times Earth's mass and orbits at 12%

8:19 of the Earth's sun distance. The fact that

8:22 their orbits are misaligned is telling

8:24 astronomers a story about violent planetary

8:27 migration. Instead of gently spiraling

8:29 inward over millions of years, these planets

8:32 likely experience what scientists call high

8:35 eccentricity migration, essentially being

8:37 flung around by gravitational interactions

8:40 before settling into their current orbits.

8:42 Understanding this process could help explain

8:45 why hot Neptune sized planets are so rare

8:47 and give us insights into how planetary

8:50 systems form and evolve. The

8:52 Atreides program uses advanced telescopes and

8:55 space based observations to measure not just

8:58 planetary size and mass, but also

9:00 atmospheric composition and ocean orbital

9:02 dynamics with unprecedented precision,

9:05 helping astronomers understand the complex

9:07 gravitational processes that shape these

9:10 systems over millions of years.

9:12 Anna: For our final story today, let's journey to

9:15 the outer reaches of our own solar system,

9:17 where the James Webb Space Telescope has made

9:20 a remarkable discovery. Webb has

9:23 detected methane gas on Makemake,

9:26 a distant dwarf planet, making it only the

9:29 second trans Neptunian object after

9:31 Pluto where gas has been.

9:35 Makemake is about 890 miles across,

9:38 roughly 2/3 the size of Pluto. And this

9:41 detection suggests it's far more dynamic

9:44 than previously thought. The methane was

9:46 identified through what scientists call solar

9:49 excited fluorescence, where sunlight causes

9:52 the methane molecules to emit detectable

9:55 signals.

9:56 Avery: This discovery opens up fascinating

9:59 possibilities about what's happening on

10:01 Makemake's surface. The methane could

10:03 indicate the presence of a thin atmosphere,

10:06 or it might suggest active sublimation

10:08 processes where ice turns directly into

10:11 gas or even cryovolcanic activity,

10:14 essentially ice volcanoes. If Makemake

10:17 does have an atmosphere, it would be

10:19 incredibly tenuous, with temperatures around

10:22 40 Kelvin, that's minus

10:24 233 degrees Celsius and

10:26 atmospheric pressure about a hundred billion

10:29 times weaker than Earth's, making it a

10:32 million times more tenuous than even Pluto's

10:34 thin atmosphere. But the very fact that we

10:37 can detect this gas shows that Makemake

10:40 isn't just an inactive chunk of rock and ice

10:43 floating in the outer solar system. It's a

10:45 dynamic world with ongoing geological or

10:48 atmospheric processes. This challenges

10:51 our understanding of what makes a world

10:53 active in the outer solar system. And

10:55 scientists are planning follow up

10:57 observations to determine whether the methane

10:59 represents seasonal effects or more

11:01 fundamental geological activity.

11:04 Anna: You know, Avery, when we look at all these

11:06 stories together, what really strikes me is

11:08 how they represent different scales of human

11:11 achievement and cosmic discovery. We've got

11:13 practical successes like cargo delivery to

11:16 the iss, incredible technological leaps

11:19 like laser communications that will enable

11:21 future exploration, and we're pushing the

11:23 boundaries of knowledge by studying distant

11:26 worlds and exoplanets that expand our

11:28 understanding of planetary formation.

11:31 Avery: Absolutely, Anna. Uh, and what I find

11:33 particularly exciting is how these

11:35 technologies and discoveries build on each

11:38 other. The same infrared detection

11:40 capabilities that let us find methane on

11:42 MakeMake are helping us characterize

11:45 exoplanet atmospheres. The laser

11:47 communication systems being proven on the

11:49 Psyche mission will eventually enable high

11:51 bandwidth data transmission from Mars. Even

11:54 the enhanced cargo capabilities of the Cygnus

11:57 XL are enabling the kinds of experiments that

11:59 will prepare us for establishing permanent

12:01 research stations throughout the solar

12:03 system.

12:05 Anna: And that wraps up today's episode of

12:07 Astronomy Daily. From the successful arrival

12:09 of the new Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft

12:12 at the International Space Station to the

12:15 mysterious dynamics of distant dwarf planets,

12:18 it's been another incredible day in space

12:20 exploration and astronomical discovery news.

12:24 Avery: Thanks for joining us today, everyone. I'm

12:26 Avery along with Anna, reminding you to keep

12:29 looking up and stay curious about the amazing

12:31 universe around us. We'll be back tomorrow

12:34 with more exciting space news and

12:36 discoveries. Until then, clear skies.