Episode 100: When Black Holes Beat Galaxies, Rocks Beat Rovers and Planets Smell Terrible

0:00 Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm Anna.

0:02 Avery: And, um, I'm Avery. You're listening to

0:05 season five and today to episode

0:07 100.

0:08 Anna: 100 episodes this season. We

0:11 should probably pause for half a

0:13 Avery: second and just notice that half a

0:16 second starting now.

0:18 Anna: Done.

0:19 Back to the universe, which as usual hasn't

0:22 slowed down to let us catch

0:23 Avery: our breath, not, uh, even slightly. Today

0:26 we have a rocket heading to the International

0:28 Space Station literally tonight, a Mars

0:31 rover that accidentally picked up a rock and

0:33 couldn't put it down, a cosmic debate

0:36 that may finally be settled about our closest

0:38 galactic neighbor, and two extraordinary

0:41 findings from the James Webb Space Telescope

0:43 that are rewriting the early history of the

0:46 cosmos.

0:46 Anna: And we're closing with a planet that's. We're

0:49 just going to say it smells like rotten eggs.

0:52 It's a good one.

0:53 Avery: It really is. Let's go.

0:55 Anna: We're starting with news that is happening

0:56 today right now, in fact, as you're listening

0:59 to this, Face X and NASA are targeting

1:01 tonight for the launch of the 34th Commercial

1:04 Resupply Services mission to the

1:05 International Space Station CRS

1:08 34.

1:09 Avery: And this one's a big cargo run.

1:11 Anna: It is. A, ah, Falcon 9 rocket is standing at

1:14 Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral.

1:17 And the launch window opens at 7:16 this

1:19 evening Eastern Time. That's 9:16 if

1:22 you're on the east coast of Australia

1:24 Wednesday morning.

1:25 Avery: There's always a weather caveat with Florida

1:27 launches, always.

1:29 Anna: Forecasters are giving only about a 35%

1:32 chance of favorable conditions at liftoff. So

1:35 there's a real possibility it slips to the

1:37 backup window on Wednesday evening. But as of

1:39 right now, the mission is go.

1:41 Avery: What's on board?

1:42 Anna: About 6,500 pounds of cargo, crew,

1:45 supplies, station hardware, and several

1:47 science experiments that are genuinely

1:49 interesting. One investigation involves a

1:52 bone scaffold made from wood that researchers

1:55 hope could lead to new treatments for

1:57 osteoporosis. That's a disease that affects

1:59 bone density and it actually worsens in the

2:02 low gravity environment of space.

2:04 Avery: Which makes studying it in space especially

2:07 relevant.

2:08 Anna: Exactly. There's also a study looking at how

2:11 red blood cells and the spleen change during

2:13 extended spaceflight. And my personal

2:16 favorite, a new instrument called storie,

2:19 the Storm Time O ring Current

2:21 IMAG Evolution instrument. It'll monitor

2:24 the charged particle environment near Earth,

2:27 which is a real hazard for power grids and

2:29 satellites during solar storms.

2:31 Avery: The Dragon capsule on this mission is flying

2:33 for the sixth time and the booster will

2:36 attempt a return to launch site landing,

2:38 which never gets old to watch.

2:40 Anna: After launch, Dragon will spend about 38

2:42 hours in orbit, raising its altitude before

2:45 docking autonomously with the Harmony Module

2:48 on Thursday. Warning. We'll follow up on that

2:50 in tomorrow's episode.

2:51 Avery: From Cape Canaveral to the ISS in under

2:54 two days. Still extraordinary.

2:57 Anna: Now, Mars, and a story that is part

3:00 engineering drama, part slapstick, and

3:03 entirely endearing.

3:05 Avery: I love this one.

3:06 Anna: NASA's Curiosity rover, which has been

3:08 rolling across Mars since 2012, more

3:11 than 14 years now, recently had something

3:14 happen that had literally never happened

3:16 before in its entire mission. It drilled into

3:19 a rock and the rock wouldn't let go.

3:21 Avery: It just grabbed on and refused to release.

3:24 Anna: On April 25, Curiosity extended its

3:27 robotic arm and drilled into a rock that the

3:30 team nicknamed Atacama, after the Chilean

3:32 desert. When the rover tried to retract the

3:35 arm, the entire rock lifted off the

3:38 Martian surface. It had got, uh, lodged onto

3:40 the fixed sleeve surrounding the drill bit

3:42 and simply came with it.

3:45 Avery: How big was this rock?

3:47 Anna: About 45 cm across at its

3:49 base, around 15 cm thick

3:52 and roughly 13 kg, or about

3:55 4.5 kg on Mars due to the lower

3:58 gravity. A substantial chunky

4:01 rock dangling off the end of a Rover ARM

4:04 140 million km from the

4:06 nearest mechanic.

4:08 Avery: And the solution isn't as simple as just

4:10 shaking it off. Every command you send to

4:13 Curiosity takes up to 30 minutes to arrive,

4:16 which

4:17 Anna: is what made the next week so dramatic.

4:20 The engineering team spent several days

4:22 trying different approaches, repositioning

4:25 the arm, vibrating the drill, trying

4:27 different angles. For days, Atacama

4:30 refused to budge. They even watched the rock

4:33 slowly shed sand as the arm moved. But it

4:36 stayed put.

4:37 Avery: Finally, on May 1, the team went all in,

4:41 tilting the drill, rotating it, vibrating

4:44 it, and spinning the drill bit

4:45 simultaneously. They were prepared to try

4:48 multiple rounds. The rock came off on the

4:51 first

4:51 Anna: attempt and promptly shattered when it

4:54 hit the Martian ground.

4:55 Avery: Atacama's last stand.

4:58 Anna: NASA released the full camera sequence this

5:01 week. It's remarkable footage. And

5:03 Curiosity, for its part, is now happily back

5:06 to its regular science operations. Fourteen

5:09 years in, still finding new ways to surprise

5:12 us.

5:12 Avery: We're going much, much further out now. Not

5:15 Mars, not even our galaxy. We're talking

5:18 about our galaxy's largest satellite, the

5:21 Large Magellanic Cloud, which you can

5:24 Anna: see beautifully from Australia, sitting low

5:27 in the southern sky on a clear night, looking

5:29 like a detached patch of the Milky Way.

5:32 Avery: And for a long time, astronomers assumed it

5:35 had been orbiting the Milky Way for billions

5:37 of years, making repeated passes, coming

5:40 close, swinging back out, a regular visitor.

5:43 New research published this week argues

5:46 something quite different. That, huh, this is

5:48 actually the Very first time the Large

5:50 Magellanic Cloud has ever approached our

5:53 galaxy.

5:54 Anna: A first invol?

5:56 Avery: Exactly. A team led by Scott Lucchini

5:59 and colleagues ran detailed hydrodynamic

6:02 simulations modeling the gas halo

6:04 surrounding both galaxies and compared that

6:07 with ultraviolet observations of the gas

6:09 clouds between them. They found the data is

6:12 consistent only with a first pass scenario.

6:15 If the cloud had been here before, the models

6:17 say, the gas halo just wouldn't look the way

6:20 it does.

6:21 Anna: What does it mean? If it's really a first

6:23 time visitor,

6:25 Avery: it has significant implications for how we

6:27 understand our galaxy's evolution. The Large

6:30 Magellanic Cloud is enormous. It has

6:33 billions of stars and a mass that's roughly

6:35 10% of the Milky Way. An object that

6:38 size, sweeping through on its first close

6:41 approach, causes disruptions. It

6:43 warps our dark matter halo, influences star

6:46 formation, tugs on the structure of the

6:49 galactic disk. If it's done this before,

6:51 those effects would have played out

6:53 repeatedly. If this is the first time, we're

6:56 watching something quite rare.

6:58 Anna: The team says their simulations provide, and

7:01 I like this phrase, definitive evidence.

7:03 Though they acknowledge there are some

7:05 tensions with other data sets that still need

7:08 to be resolved.

7:09 Avery: Science is rarely simple, but the weight of

7:12 this evidence is pointing one way. The Large

7:14 Magellanic Cloud is a newcomer and it's

7:17 heading our way.

7:19 Anna: Nothing to worry about. On a human timescale,

7:21 nothing dramatic happens. But on cosmic

7:24 time, fascinating.

7:26 Avery: Next time for the James Webb Space Telescope

7:29 and the saga of the little red Dots.

7:31 Anna: We've talked about these before. For

7:33 listeners who haven't heard, give us the

7:35 quick version.

7:36 Avery: The quick version. When JWST

7:39 began looking at the very early universe

7:41 galaxies that existed just a few hundred

7:44 million years after the Big Bang, they found

7:46 hundreds of strange, compact, faint red

7:49 objects that nobody expected and nobody can

7:52 fully explain. They became known as little

7:55 red dots. They're roughly 12 billion

7:58 light years away. They're intensely red,

8:00 they're tiny, and they have properties that

8:02 don't fit neatly into any existing category.

8:06 The debate has been raging for years. Are

8:08 they massive star forming regions, Ancient

8:11 black holes and thick dust cocoons, an

8:14 entirely new type of object?

8:16 Anna: And now there's a new twist.

8:18 Avery: There is. Astronomers have been studying an

8:20 unusual object that had been sitting

8:23 unnoticed in archival data from NASA's

8:25 Chandra X Ray Observatory for over a decade.

8:29 It's called the X ray dot, cataloged

8:31 as 3D HST

8:34 Aegis

8:36 12014. And it only revealed

8:39 its significance when JWST recently

8:42 observed the same patch of sky and showed

8:45 that this X ray source is sitting in exactly

8:48 the same location as one of the little red

8:50 dots.

8:51 Anna: Dots, a 10 year old clue hiding in plain

8:54 sight.

8:54 Avery: The team, led by researchers at Princeton,

8:57 believes this X ray dot may be what an older

8:59 little red dot looks like. In the current

9:02 theory, little red dots are young black holes

9:04 surrounded by dense clouds of gas that

9:07 they're consuming. And that gas absorbs the X

9:09 rays, which is why most little red dots don't

9:12 show up in X ray surveys. But as that gas

9:15 gets eaten or blown away, the X rays

9:18 start getting through.

9:19 Anna: So the X ray dot might be the same type of

9:21 object, just older and less shrouded?

9:24 Avery: Possibly. Or it might be something else

9:26 entirely. A black hole wrapped in exotic

9:29 dust, never previously observed. The team

9:31 says further observations are needed. But

9:34 either way, it's a piece of the puzzle, and

9:36 it's pointing us toward understanding one of

9:38 the strangest populations of objects ever

9:41 discovered.

9:41 Anna: Now, just quickly, before we move on to our

9:44 next story, a reminder that our sponsor this

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10:00 link in our show notes.

10:02 Avery: Okay, moving on. We're staying with the James

10:05 Webb Space Telescope because it keeps

10:07 delivering, but now we're looking at a

10:09 completely different puzzle, and this one was

10:12 published yesterday hot

10:14 Anna: off the preprint server.

10:15 Avery: Literally. Astronomers have identified

10:18 two early universe galaxies named Kola

10:21 1 and Nepla 4, observed just

10:23 800 million years after the Big Bang. And

10:26 here's the strange Their black holes at the

10:29 centers of these galaxies are between 400

10:32 and 800 times more massive relative

10:35 to their host galaxies than black holes in

10:37 the modern universe.

10:38 Anna: In the local universe, galaxies like our own,

10:41 the mass of a, uh, central black hole is

10:43 typically about a tenth to a half percent of

10:46 the total stellar mass of the Galax. These

10:48 two are nowhere near that ratio.

10:51 Avery: Their black holes weigh in at somewhere

10:53 between 170 and 190

10:56 million solar masses. The galaxies around

10:59 them are comparatively tiny. The black holes

11:02 appear to have grown first and fast while

11:05 their host galaxies were still in their

11:06 infancy.

11:07 Anna: Which raises the question how?

11:09 Avery: That's the core mystery. The standard model

11:12 of galaxy formation says black holes and

11:14 galaxies grow together in a kind of feedback

11:17 loop. The black hole influences star

11:19 formation, star formation influences the

11:22 black hole. These two objects suggest that in

11:24 the very early universe, that relationship

11:27 could be inverted. The black hole didn't

11:29 wait. It grew explosively, outpacing

11:32 its own galaxy by a huge Margin.

11:34 Anna: Astronomers have been finding over massive

11:37 black holes in the early universe regularly

11:39 now with jwst. Each new example adds

11:42 weight to the idea that our models of galaxy

11:44 formation in the first billion years need

11:46 significant revision.

11:48 Avery: And the early universe keeps revealing that

11:50 it was a far wilder, faster, more

11:53 extreme place than we imagined. These are

11:56 not gentle processes. This is cosmic

11:59 violence at a scale that's hard to

12:00 comprehend.

12:01 Anna: We're m closing today with a planet discovery

12:04 that is genuinely new and genuinely

12:07 strange. Strap in.

12:08 Avery: The headline said, uh, rotten eggs. I want to

12:11 hear about the rotten eggs.

12:13 Anna: We'll get there. Astronomers have been

12:15 studying an exoplanet called

12:17 L98.59D.

12:20 It sits just 35 light years away in the

12:23 southern constellation Volens, practically

12:25 next door by cosmic standards. And it's been

12:28 in their sights for a while. But new research

12:31 published this week in the journal Nature has

12:34 revealed just how unusual it is. This

12:37 planet doesn't fit any existing category.

12:40 Avery: What's it like?

12:41 Anna: Imagine a world where the entire surface

12:44 is an ocean, but not water. M

12:46 molten rock. A global magma

12:49 ocean stretching from pole to pole of

12:52 silicate material heated to temperatures that

12:55 would reduce anything we know to vapor.

12:58 Above this ocean sits a thick, dense

13:01 atmosphere. And that atmosphere is loaded

13:03 with sulfur

13:04 Avery: compounds, which is where the rotten eggs

13:07 come in.

13:07 Anna: Hydrogen sulfide. The same compound

13:10 responsible for that distinctive aroma.

13:12 The atmosphere traps heat so efficiently

13:15 that the magma ocean has been kept molten for

13:18 billions of years. A permanent planet

13:21 wide lava sea with a toxic sky above

13:24 it. The lead researcher, Dr. Harrison

13:26 Nichols from the University of Oxford puts it

13:29 perfectly. He says the categories

13:31 astronomers currently use to describe small

13:34 planets may simply be too simple.

13:37 Avery: How did they figure all of this out? You

13:39 can't exactly send the probe.

13:41 Anna: Advanced computer modeling combined with

13:43 observational data about the planet's mass,

13:46 size and density. The planet is less

13:49 dense than we'd expect for its size, which

13:51 gave the team the clue that the interior is

13:53 molten rather than solid. The co author,

13:56 Professor Raymond Peer Humbert described

13:59 being able to reconstruct the hidden interior

14:01 of a planet we will never visit. That's

14:04 extraordinary.

14:05 Avery: And the question it leaves you with what

14:08 other kinds of planets are out there waiting

14:10 to be discovered? Is a great one.

14:12 Anna: L98 59D

14:15 suggests we've barely scratched the surface

14:17 of planetary diversity Worlds with global

14:20 magma oceans, sulfur atmospheres,

14:23 permanent volcanic landscapes, and who

14:26 knows what else. The universe is endlessly

14:29 creative.

14:30 Avery: Just maybe don't plan a holiday there.

14:33 Anna: Before we go, a quick look at the southern

14:35 sky for the coming nights.

14:37 Avery: May is a spectacular month for sky watching

14:39 from Australia and New Zealand. Saturn is

14:42 well placed in the east before midnight and

14:44 Jupiter is becoming more prominent in the pre

14:47 dawn sky. The Milky Way is arcing

14:50 beautifully overhead in the evening hours. A,

14:52 uh, perfect time to look for the Large

14:53 Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud

14:56 low in the south. Just as we discussed today.

14:59 Anna: A pair of first time visitors right there

15:02 above you.

15:02 Avery: Exactly. And um, if you're under dark skies,

15:05 the Southern Milky Way through Centaurus and

15:08 Crux is extraordinary this time of year.

15:11 Anna: That's everything for episode 100. Thank

15:14 you genuinely for being part of this journey.

15:16 100 episodes means 100 days of

15:19 choosing to spend a few minutes thinking

15:21 about the universe, and we appreciate every

15:24 one of you who comes back each day.

15:26 Avery: If you're enjoying the show, please

15:28 subscribe, leave a review wherever you listen

15:30 and find us on all the

15:32 [email protected]. the website

15:35 is astronomydaily.IO.

15:37 Anna: we'll be back tomorrow with the outcome of

15:39 tonight's SpaceX CRS 34 launch

15:43 and whatever else the Cosmos has in store.

15:45 From all of us at Astronomy Daily,

15:48 Avery: keep looking up Astronomy Day.

15:52 The stories we told.

15:55 Anna: Love.