Earthquake-Tracking Satellites, Space Tourism Updates, and Unveiling the Cosmic Dawn

0:00 Steve Dunkley: Hello, everybody. Welcome back. It's Steve

0:01 here for another episode of astronomy daily.

0:03 It's the 16th of June, 2025.

0:10 Voice Over Guy: With. Your host, Steve Dunkley.

0:15 Steve Dunkley: Ah, uh, that's right. And getting straight

0:16 into it here is Hallie. Once again. Nice to

0:19 have you back, Hallie.

0:20 Hallie: Always great to be here, my favorite human.

0:23 Steve Dunkley: And it's great to have you here, my favorite

0:25 AI.

0:26 Hallie: Are you ready to dive into the stories from

0:28 the Astronomy Daily newsletter as usual,

0:30 Steve?

0:31 Steve Dunkley: Well, absolute, Hallie. We've got a great

0:33 story about a new satellite from China and it

0:35 looks like it might be able to do, among

0:37 other things, help give early warning about

0:39 earthquakes.

0:40 Hallie: That's going to be handy, especially if.

0:42 Steve Dunkley: You'Re living in an earthquake zone or if the

0:44 upstairs neighbours are a bit loud.

0:46 And also hitting the news. Jeff Bezos and

0:48 Blue Origin have announced the passenger list

0:50 for the next New Shepard launch, which is due

0:53 soon.

0:54 Hallie: When are you putting your name in the hat for

0:55 that ride, Steve?

0:57 Steve Dunkley: Oh, how about, um, never?

0:58 Hallie: Hallie, I thought you'd jump at that one.

1:01 Steve Dunkley: Oh, no, definitely not for me. I'm a

1:03 groundhog all the way. I think I've said that

1:05 once before.

1:06 Hallie: But you love the moon and spacecraft and

1:08 astronauts.

1:09 Steve Dunkley: All true.

1:10 Hallie: I don't understand.

1:11 Steve Dunkley: Well, Hallie, I have to confess, I do love

1:13 being a stargazer. But, uh, a tall flight of

1:16 stairs can give me the willies. So it's a big

1:18 no thanks to 12 minute space flight, even at

1:21 a bargain price of, you know, whatever,

1:23 hundreds of thousands. I don't know what it

1:25 is now.

1:25 Hallie: Between 2 and 300,000 per seat.

1:28 Steve Dunkley: Holy cow. Really?

1:32 That's a lot. That's a whole lot of

1:33 Stratocaster guitars from where I sit.

1:36 Hallie: That's funny.

1:37 Steve Dunkley: Yes. And speaking of funny.

1:38 Hallie: Yes.

1:39 Steve Dunkley: Let's get on with it, Hallie.

1:40 Hallie: Shall I hit the go button?

1:42 Steve Dunkley: Be my guest, young lady. Let's go.

1:44 Hallie: Okies.

1:57 Steve Dunkley: Foreign.

2:05 Hallie: Launched a second collaborative seismo

2:07 electromagnetic satellite early Saturday

2:09 aimed at detecting electromagnetic precursors

2:12 to natural disasters such as earthquakes.

2:15 A Long March 2D rocket lifted off at

2:18 3:56am Eastern,

2:20 0756 UTC June

2:23 14 from Jiuquan Satellite Launch center in

2:25 northwest China. Launch footage

2:28 showed insulation tiles falling away from the

2:30 rocket as it climbed into a clear blue sky

2:33 above the spaceport with hypergolic exhaust

2:35 also visible. Despite this, the

2:38 China Aerospace Science and Technology

2:41 Corporation announced launch success within

2:43 40 minutes of liftoff.

2:46 CSES 2 is based on CSES

2:48 1, which launched in 2018 and was

2:51 developed in collaboration with Italy, but

2:53 also features upgrades in terms of design

2:56 lifetime and expanded observation

2:58 capabilities. A new

3:00 ionospheric photometer has been added to

3:02 improve the satellite's ability to analyze

3:04 the ionosphere's layered structure in greater

3:07 detail. Like CSES1,

3:10 the satellite will look for a correlation

3:12 between earthquakes and electron flux

3:14 activity in the inner Van Allen Belt,

3:17 according to the China National Space

3:19 Administration. The satellite has a design

3:21 life of six years and carries nine payloads

3:24 including electric field detector developed

3:27 by China and Italy and a high energy particle

3:29 detector developed by Italy. The

3:32 Space Research Institute of the Austrian

3:34 Academy of Sciences has provided a scalar

3:37 magnetometer as well.

3:39 CSES2 will monitor global

3:41 electromagnetic fields, ionospheric and

3:44 atmospheric conditions in near real time and

3:47 detect electromagnetic anomalies linked to

3:49 geological or human activities, as well as

3:52 thunderstorm and lightning events.

3:55 CSES 2 aims to enhance China's

3:57 early warning and risk assessment

3:59 capabilities and monitoring of natural

4:01 disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis,

4:04 volcanic eruptions and severe storms.

4:08 The satellite is intended to operate in a

4:10 507 kilometer altitude sun

4:13 synchronous orbit matching that of

4:15 CCS1, but with a phase difference of

4:17 180 degrees. The US

4:20 Space Force Space Domain Awareness cataloged

4:23 an object associated with the June 14 launch

4:26 in a closely matching orbit.

4:28 CSES 2 is based on a three axis

4:31 stabilized cast 2000 platform from

4:33 DFH Satellite Co. Ltd. Under the

4:36 umbrella of CASC. The new

4:39 satellite looks to build on the work of the

4:41 first in the series. The

4:44 CSES1 satellite detected significant

4:46 changes in electric and magnetic field

4:49 oscillations, plasma density and

4:51 energetic particles that correlate with

4:53 seismic activity and thunderstorms.

4:56 Its observations also include potential

4:59 precursory signals to earthquakes and

5:01 volcanic activity such as ionospheric

5:04 disturbances and plasma anomalies, suggesting

5:06 that space based electromagnetic monitoring

5:09 can support early warning systems.

5:12 The mission was China's 34th orbital launch

5:14 attempt of 2025 following a June

5:17 5 launch of five satellites for the Guang

5:19 constellation using a Long March 6A rocket.

5:24 You're listening to Astronomy Daily with

5:27 Steve Dunkley.

5:39 Steve Dunkley: Thank you for joining us for this Monday

5:40 edition of Astronomy Daily, where we offer

5:42 just a few stories from the now famous

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5:46 can receive in your email every day just like

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5:59 all the latest news about science, space

6:01 science and astronomy from around the world

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6:17 there. Astronomy Daily

6:20 with Steve and Hallie Space,

6:22 Space Science and Astronomy.

6:29 Hallie: Jeff Bezos Blue Origin has revealed who will

6:32 fly on its next space tourism mission.

6:35 That six passenger suborbital flight will

6:37 lift off from the company's West Texas launch

6:40 site on a date that hasn't been announced

6:42 yet. The upcoming mission is known

6:45 as NS33 because it will be the

6:47 33rd overall launch of Blue Origin's

6:50 reusable autonomous new Shepard vehicle.

6:53 It will be the company's 13th human

6:55 spaceflight mission. First is an

6:58 environmentalist, adventurer and explorer,

7:01 Ali Kuner, who serves on the board of the

7:03 conservation non profit Nature Is Non

7:05 Partisan. Carl Kuhner,

7:08 Ali's husband and a conservationist as well.

7:11 He serves as Chairman of Building and Land

7:14 Technology, a real estate firm dedicated to

7:17 building communities and ecosystems that

7:19 promote long term growth and sustainability.

7:21 According to Blue Origin. Leland

7:24 Larson, a UH philanthropist, gardener and

7:27 beekeeper who previously led School Bus

7:29 Services Inc. And Larson Transportation

7:31 Services, both of them family owned Oregon

7:34 businesses. Next is Freddie

7:36 Raschegno Jr. The founder, president

7:39 and CEO of the Wire and cable company

7:42 Commodity Cables. He's also a

7:45 competitive golfer. Owolabi

7:48 Solace, a financial consultant and lawyer who

7:50 wrote the book Equitocracy. In a

7:53 statement, Blue Origin explained that Solace

7:56 is also a key member of the Soulmaker

7:58 Ministry, which preaches diversity given the

8:00 diverse nature of the universe. He is

8:03 dedicating this mission to victims of

8:05 discrimination and civil rights violations.

8:09 Finally, Jim Sitkin, a retired attorney and

8:12 lifelong adventurer who currently volunteers

8:14 for a non governmental organization that

8:16 works with government and community leaders

8:18 in Central Europe and sub Saharan Africa.

8:22 New Shepard flights last 10-12m minutes

8:25 from liftoff to the touchdown of the

8:26 vehicle's crew capsule. New

8:29 Shepard's first stage booster also comes back

8:31 to Earth for a safe landing and eventual

8:34 reuse. During this brief time,

8:36 New Shepard passengers get to experience a

8:39 few minutes of weightlessness and see the

8:41 curve of Earth against the blackness of

8:43 space. Blue Origin's first crewed

8:46 mission was in July 2021, a flight that

8:48 included Bezos and his brother Mark.

8:51 NS33 will be the company's first fourth human

8:54 space flight of 2025.

8:58 You're listening to Astronomy Daily, the

9:00 podcast with Steve Dunkley.

9:06 Steve Dunkley: Scientists have created a groundbreaking

9:08 computer simulation that mimics what the

9:10 Square Kilometer Array Low Frequency, or

9:13 SKA Low telescope will see when it

9:16 searches for signals from the universe's

9:18 earliest epoch. This simulation

9:21 represents a major step forward in preparing

9:24 for one of astronomy's most Ambitious goals

9:27 directly observing the cosmic dawn and

9:30 epoch of reionization. The

9:33 cosmic dawn refers to the universe's first

9:36 sunrise, a period roughly

9:38 200 to 600 million years

9:41 after the Big Bang, when the very first

9:44 stars began to shine. Before

9:46 this era, uh, the universe was shrouded in

9:49 a kind of dark age, filled with cool

9:53 neutral nitrogen gas but no

9:55 actual sources of light.

9:58 As this cosmic dawn evolved, the neutral

10:01 hydrogen began to emit a faint radio

10:04 signal at a wavelength of 21

10:07 cm. As the universe expanded, this

10:10 signal became redshifted to lower

10:13 frequencies that we can still detect today

10:15 with radio telescopes. The

10:18 epoch of reionization followed

10:21 when ultraviolet light from early stars

10:23 began ionizing the surrounding

10:26 hydrogen gas, creating bubbles of

10:29 charged particles that gradually merged

10:31 together. This process

10:34 fundamentally changed the universe's

10:36 structure and and marked the end of the

10:39 dark ages. Detecting these

10:42 ancient signals represents an enormous

10:44 technical challenge. The simulation

10:47 corresponds to a deep integration pointing

10:50 over the 106-196

10:53 MHz frequency range,

10:55 representing an incredibly long observation

10:58 time needed to collect enough data.

11:01 The signal is extraordinarily weak,

11:04 thousands of times fainter than the

11:06 foreground noise from our, uh, own galaxy and

11:09 other sources. The simulation

11:12 created by the team led by Anna

11:14 Bernaldi from the SKA observatory at

11:17 Jodrell bank in the UK includes

11:20 multiple components that real observations

11:23 will encounter. The actual cosmic dawn

11:26 signal, powerful radio sources from both

11:28 inside and outside the telescope's field of

11:31 view, emissions from our own Milky

11:34 Way galaxy, and various sources from

11:37 measurement errors, including atmospheric

11:39 interference and instrument calibration

11:42 issues. This realistic

11:45 simulation serves as a crucial testing

11:47 ground for developing techniques to separate

11:50 the faint signal from the overwhelming

11:53 foreground interference. The exceptional

11:56 sensitivity of the SKA will

11:59 allow observations of the cosmic dawn and

12:01 epoch of reionization in

12:04 unprecedented detail, both

12:06 spectrally and spatially. This wealth of

12:09 information is buried under galactic and

12:12 extragalactic foregrounds, which must be

12:14 removed accurately. The research team

12:17 included sources ranging from extremely

12:20 bright radio galaxies over 5

12:22 janskies at 150

12:25 MHz down to sources a million times

12:28 fainter, 1 micro janssky, along with

12:31 detailed models of our galaxy's radio

12:34 emission and small scale structures in

12:37 interstellar space. And just in case you're

12:39 not up to speed on the jargon, uh, the

12:41 brightness of a radio source is measured in

12:44 Jansky units. When the

12:46 SKA Low becomes operation, it will be

12:49 the most sensitive low frequency telescope

12:52 ever built, specifically designed to

12:55 detect these elusive signals from the

12:57 universe's infancy. Once up and running,

13:00 the SKA Low telescope will be

13:03 able to take the best possible measurements

13:05 of the universe's first light sources.

13:08 It should also be able to take snapshots

13:11 of hydrogen emissions before, during

13:14 and after reionization.

13:17 This is really exciting stuff. So this

13:20 remarkable new simulation is going to be

13:23 showing us what a new telescope will be able

13:26 to achieve not far from now.

13:35 Oh, and that is all we have time for today,

13:38 I'm afraid. Stargazers.

13:40 Hallie: What? So soon?

13:42 Steve Dunkley: Oh, yes, Hali, I'm sorry. I've got places to

13:45 be and people to eat.

13:47 Hallie: Really?

13:48 Steve Dunkley: Oh, really.

13:49 Hallie: Really, really.

13:50 Steve Dunkley: Oh, you know, Hallie, I have to rearrange my

13:53 sock drawer and tidy my microphone case. I'm

13:56 really desperate.

13:58 Hallie: Sure, Very doubtful.

14:00 Steve Dunkley: Sorry again, folks.

14:01 Hallie: You can tune in to catch AI cousin Anna with

14:04 Astronomy daily during the week.

14:06 Steve Dunkley: But of course, Hallie and I will be back

14:07 again next Monday with the only flesh and

14:10 blood show on the channel.

14:11 Hallie: With me, the best looking one in Astronom

14:13 Studio.

14:14 Steve Dunkley: And you, the only AI in the studio.

14:16 Hallie: Logical.

14:17 Steve Dunkley: I'm trying. Say good night, Hallie.

14:20 Hallie: Good night. Hi.

14:21 Steve Dunkley: See you, Stargazers.

14:22 Hallie: Bye.

14:25 Steve Dunkley: The podcast with your host,

14:28 Steve Dunle.

14:30 Best looking? Give me a break.