Dark Matter Breakthrough, Seven Rocket Launches, and Mars' Meteorite Discovery

0:00 Avery: Hello, and welcome to Astronomy Daily, the

0:02 podcast that brings you the universe, one

0:04 story at a time. I'm Avery.

0:06 Anna: And I'm Anna. It's great to have you with us

0:09 today, covering everything from the deepest

0:11 cosmic mysteries to the latest missions

0:13 exploring our own solar system.

0:16 Avery: That's right, Anna. We'll be talking about a

0:18 potential breakthrough in the search for dark

0:20 matter, a very busy week of rocket launches,

0:22 and a curious find by the Perseverance rover

0:25 on Mars.

0:26 Anna: Plus, we'll check in with the Osiris, uh,

0:28 apex, and Escapade missions and dive into

0:31 a fascinating new study that suggests there

0:33 could be boiling oceans on tiny icy moons.

0:37 Avery: So grab your favorite beverage, get

0:39 comfortable, and let's explore the cosmos.

0:41 Anna: Avery, let's start with what could be one of

0:44 the biggest discoveries in modern physics.

0:46 For nearly a century, scientists have been

0:48 searching for dark matter.

0:50 Avery: Right. It's this mysterious substance that we

0:52 know is out there because we can see its

0:54 gravitational effects on galaxies, but. But

0:57 it doesn't interact with light, so we can't

0:59 see it directly. It's a huge puzzle.

1:01 Anna: Exactly. And now there's a tantalizing

1:04 new signal. An astronomer from the University

1:07 of Tokyo, analyzing data from NASA's

1:09 Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope, believes he

1:12 may have found its signature.

1:14 Avery: Wow. Okay. How? What did he find?

1:17 Anna: He detected high energy photons, gamma

1:20 rays that seemed to perfectly match the

1:22 theoretical predictions for when dark matter

1:25 particles collide and annihilate each other.

1:27 Avery: And we're not just talking about any

1:29 particles. This is linked to the leading

1:30 theory, Right? The idea of WIMPs.

1:32 Anna: That's the one. WIMPs, or weakly

1:35 interacting Massive Particles, are the

1:37 hypothetical particles that many physicists

1:39 believe make up dark matter. The signal

1:42 matches the energy that would be released if

1:44 two wimps destroyed each other.

1:45 Avery: M. So this could be our first direct

1:47 glimpse of dark matter actually doing

1:50 something. Of course, it still needs to be

1:52 verified and peer reviewed, of course, but.

1:55 Anna: If it holds up, it would be a monumental

1:57 discovery. Finally pulling back the curtain

2:00 on one of the universe's greatest secrets.

2:02 Avery: Absolutely incredible.

2:04 From the invisible universe to the very

2:06 visible, let's talk about what's heading up

2:08 into the sky this week. It is going to be a

2:11 very busy one for launch fans.

2:13 Anna: It certainly is. How many are we looking at?

2:16 Avery: 7 launches from five different rockets all

2:19 across the globe. SpaceX is leading the

2:22 charge as usual, with three missions planned

2:24 for its workhorse Falcon 9.

2:26 Anna: 3 launches. They really make it look

2:29 routine. And there's also a crewed mission

2:31 this week, isn't there?

2:33 Avery: There is a Russian Soyuz rocket will be

2:35 launching from Kazakhstan carrying three new

2:38 crew members up to the International Space

2:40 Station. Always exciting to see humans

2:42 heading to orbit.

2:43 Anna: Mhm. And Russia has another launch planned

2:46 too.

2:46 Avery: That's right. A military payload is set to

2:48 launch on an Angara 1.2 rocket from

2:51 northern Russia. And not to be left out,

2:53 South Korea is getting in on the action with

2:56 a launch of its KSLV2 rocket.

2:59 Anna: And the week is rounded out from French

3:01 Guiana. Right, a Vega C launch.

3:03 Avery: Exactly. The Vega C will carry another South

3:06 Korean satellite, this one heading to a sun

3:08 synchronous orbit. It's a truly international

3:11 week for spaceflight.

3:13 Anna: It's amazing to think of all that hardware

3:15 leaving Earth in such a short span of time.

3:18 Speaking of other worlds, let's journey from

3:20 Earth orbit to the surface of Mars, where the

3:23 Perseverance Rover has spotted something

3:25 unusual.

3:26 Avery: Yes, another Martian mystery rock. What did

3:29 Percy find this time?

3:31 Anna: Well, the science team describes it as a

3:33 sculpted, high standing rock that looked

3:36 completely different from the flat, broken up

3:38 terrain around it. It immediately caught

3:40 their attention.

3:41 Avery: And it's a decent size too, right? About

3:43 three feet long. So of course they zapped it

3:46 with the laser.

3:48 Anna: Naturally, the Supercam instrument

3:50 analyzed its composition and the results

3:53 are pretty conclusive. The rock, which

3:56 they've nicknamed Phi Staxhla, is made

3:59 of iron and nickel, which.

4:01 Avery: Is the classic signature of a meteorite. It's

4:04 likely a fragment from the core of a large

4:06 asteroid that slammed into Mars at some point

4:09 in the distant past.

4:11 Anna: That's the leading theory. And if its

4:14 origin is confirmed, this would be the very

4:17 first meteorite the Perseverance has

4:19 discovered since it landed back in February

4:22 2021.

4:23 Avery: That's fantastic. It's like getting a free

4:26 sample of an asteroid delivered right to your

4:28 rover.

4:29 From one NASA mission to another, let's come

4:32 a little closer to home and talk about a

4:35 spacecraft that just paid Earth a flying

4:37 visit.

4:38 Anna: You must be talking about Osiris Apex.

4:41 This is the same spacecraft that delivered

4:43 the sample from Astero Bennu, but now on

4:46 a new mission.

4:47 Avery: Exactly. Its new name is Osiris

4:50 Apophis Explorer. And its new target

4:53 is Asteroid Apophis. To get

4:56 there, it needed a gravity assist from Earth,

4:59 and that just happened on September 23rd.

5:02 Anna: How close did it come?

5:04 Avery: It flew within about 2,100 miles of the

5:07 surface. But the team didn't waste

5:09 opportunity. As it approached and flew past,

5:11 the spacecraft turned its instruments back

5:13 towards home.

5:15 Anna: Right. To calibrate them. Since we know Earth

5:18 so well, it's the perfect subject to test

5:20 your instruments. On to make sure they're

5:23 working correctly before you get to your new

5:25 target. I bet they got some beautiful

5:28 images.

5:29 Avery: They certainly did. It's always a bit

5:31 special seeing our home planet from the

5:33 perspective of one of our robotic explorers.

5:37 Anna: From a, uh, spacecraft looking back at us.

5:40 Let's talk about one that's looking at

5:42 itself. So NASA's new escapade

5:45 mission has just sent back its first selfies.

5:48 Avery: That's right. This mission is a pair of twin

5:51 spacecraft, and about a week after their

5:53 launch, One of them turned its camera around

5:56 to snap a picture.

5:58 Anna: And what do these selfies show? It's not just

6:01 for social media, I assume.

6:03 Avery: No, though they are pretty cool. The

6:05 images taken by the visible and infrared

6:08 observation system, or visions, show part

6:11 of the spacecraft solar panel against the

6:13 backdrop of space.

6:15 Anna: It's an important engineering check. Right.

6:18 It confirms that the camera system has

6:20 deployed correctly and is functioning as

6:23 expected as the explorer's speed away from

6:25 Earth. It's the first step in a long journey.

6:29 Avery: Exactly. It's the spacecraft saying,

6:32 I'm okay, My eyes are open and

6:34 I'm ready for what's next. It's a simple

6:37 image, but a very reassuring one for the

6:39 mission team.

6:40 Anna: It always is.

6:42 Avery: And speaking of long journeys, let's take one

6:44 ourselves out to the far reaches of the solar

6:47 system for our final story, which sounds like

6:50 something straight out of science fiction.

6:52 Anna: This is the one I've been waiting for.

6:54 Boiling oceans on icy moons.

6:57 It sounds contradictory.

6:59 Avery: It does. But a, uh, new study suggests it

7:02 might be possible. We already have strong

7:04 evidence that some larger icy moons, Like

7:07 Saturn's moon Enceladus or Jupiter's

7:10 Europa, have liquid water oceans under their

7:13 icy shells.

7:14 Anna: Right. Kept liquid by the heat generated from

7:17 tidal forces. The constant gravitational

7:20 push and pull from their giant parent planet.

7:23 Avery: Exactly. This new research takes it a

7:26 step further. It models what might happen

7:29 inside much smaller icy moons, Moons that

7:32 we previously thought would be frozen solid.

7:35 The study finds that the same tidal forces

7:37 could generate so much heat in the rocky core

7:40 that the water at the bottom of the ocean

7:42 could actually be boiling.

7:45 Anna: So you'd have this incredible environment

7:47 With a ceiling of ice, A floor of

7:50 boiling rock, and a vast, uh, liquid ocean

7:53 in between.

7:54 Avery: That's the idea. And if you have liquid water

7:57 and a source of heat and chemical energy,

8:00 like a hydrothermal vent system at the bottom

8:02 of an ocean, then you have.

8:04 Anna: The key ingredients for life, as we know

8:08 dramatically expands the number of places in

8:10 our solar system that could potentially host

8:13 living organisms. What an

8:16 amazing thought.

8:18 Avery: It really is. And it's not just about finding

8:20 life, but understanding its limits.

8:23 These environments would be under immense

8:25 pressure and in total darkness. Life there

8:28 would be fundamentally different, likely

8:31 chemosynthetic, thriving on chemical

8:33 reactions from the core rather than sunlight.

8:36 Anna: And that has huge implications.

8:39 It suggests that the habitable zone

8:42 isn't just about the distance from a star,

8:45 but also about the internal dynamics of a

8:47 world. You could have potentially habitable

8:50 moons orbiting rogue planets that were

8:53 ejected from their star systems, wandering

8:55 through interstellar space.

8:58 Avery: And on, um, that note, we'll call it a wrap

9:00 on today's episode of Astronomy Daily.

9:02 Anna: From a potential glimpse of dark matter, a

9:05 week of powerful launches, a meteorite

9:08 on Mars, and missions checking in on their

9:11 way to new adventures, all the way to

9:14 boiling oceans on distant moons,

9:17 the universe is never short of wonders.

9:20 Avery: It certainly isn't. A huge thank you to all

9:23 of you for joining us on Astronomy Daily. We

9:26 hope you've enjoyed the journey.

9:28 Anna: You can find links to all the stories we

9:30 discussed today on our website. And be sure

9:33 to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts

9:35 so you don't miss an episode. Until next

9:38 time. I'm Anna.

9:39 Avery: And I'm, um, Avery. Keep looking up.

9:53 Is the

9:54 tongue.