Exploding Rockets, Cosmic Rays, and the Secrets of Asteroid Bennu

0:00 Avery: Hello, and welcome to Astronomy

0:02 Daily, the podcast that brings you the

0:05 universe one story at a time. I'm

0:07 Avery.

0:08 Anna: And I'm Anna. It's great to have you with us

0:11 today. We're covering everything from

0:13 exploding rockets and sugars on

0:16 asteroids to a cosmic ray that might have

0:18 sent an airplane into a dive.

0:21 Avery: It's going to be a wild ride. Let's get

0:24 started with our first story, which takes us

0:26 to the rapidly evolving world of commercial

0:29 spaceflight in China.

0:31 Anna: There is so much going on with space

0:33 technology in China at the moment, isn't

0:36 there? What's the latest?

0:37 Avery: So, Anna, there's big news from a company

0:40 called Landspace. They just launched their

0:43 Zhuqi 3 rocket, and it's a major

0:46 step forward in the reusable rocket race.

0:49 Anna: That's right, Avery. This is a methane

0:51 powered rocket, similar in concept to

0:54 SpaceX's Starship, designed for

0:56 reusability. And the big news is that the

0:59 first launch was, in large part, a, uh,

1:01 success. The the rocket successfully reached

1:04 orbit.

1:05 Avery: Reaching orbit on a brand new rocket is the

1:07 single biggest hurdle. So that's fantastic

1:10 news for them. But I hear the second half of

1:13 the test didn't go quite so smoothly.

1:16 Anna: Yes, the reusable part of the test hit a

1:19 snag. The first stage booster, which is

1:21 supposed to fly back and land itself for

1:23 reuse, experienced what the company calls a

1:26 mishap.

1:27 Avery: A, uh, mishap is putting it mildly. It

1:30 exploded during the landing attempt, right?

1:32 Anna: It did. But Land's base is still

1:35 framing the overall mission as a success.

1:38 And in the world of rocket development, they

1:40 have a point. Proving your design can reach

1:42 orbital velocity is a massive achievement.

1:45 Avery: That makes sense. It's an iterative process.

1:48 They've nailed the hardest part, and now they

1:50 can use the data from the failed landing to

1:52 figure out how to stick it next time.

1:55 Anna: Precisely. It shows that the global

1:57 competition for reusable rockets is heating

1:59 up, and it's not just limited to a few big

2:02 players anymore. This is a significant

2:04 milestone for China's commercial space

2:06 industry.

2:07 Avery: And of course, we'll be keeping an eye on all

2:09 their developments in the coming months.

2:11 Anna: From rockets soaring up, we turn to a

2:14 planet that is falling apart. The James

2:17 Webb Space Telescope has given us an

2:19 extraordinary view of an exoplanet that

2:22 is actively losing its atmosphere.

2:24 Avery: I love a good JWST story.

2:28 Which planet are we talking about? And, um,

2:30 what does that even look like? A planet

2:32 shedding its atmosphere. What?

2:34 Anna: The planet is WASP 107B.

2:36 It's a gas giant, but it's unusually

2:39 Puffy. It's very large for its mass

2:42 because it orbits extremely close to its

2:44 star. The intense radiation is boiling its

2:47 atmosphere away into space.

2:50 Avery: Wow. So it's just venting gas out into

2:53 the void.

2:54 Anna: Exactly. And Webb's instruments were able to

2:57 detect a massive cloud of helium being

2:59 stripped from the planet. This cloud is so

3:02 large that it actually forms a giant T

3:05 that travels ahead of the planet in its

3:07 orbit.

3:08 Avery: It travels ahead of the planet? How does that

3:10 work?

3:11 Anna: It's due to the complex interaction between

3:13 the stellar wind and the planet's own orbital

3:16 motion. It's a bit like a boat's wake

3:18 appearing in front of it in a strong current.

3:21 Avery: That's incredible. So this gives us a real

3:24 time look at how planets can die

3:26 or at least transform over billions of

3:29 years.

3:30 Anna: Yes, It's a vital piece of the puzzle for

3:33 understanding planetary evolution. By

3:35 studying planets like Wasp 1, we can

3:38 learn more about how our own solar system may

3:40 have formed and changed over time.

3:43 Avery: Alright.

3:43 From the ingredients of planets being

3:45 stripped away, let's talk about the

3:47 ingredients for life being found in a very

3:50 exciting place. The samples from Asteroid

3:53 Bennu are back. And they did not

3:55 disappoint.

3:56 Anna: They certainly did not. After years of

3:59 travel, NASA's Osiris Rex mission

4:02 returned pristine samples from the asteroid.

4:05 And the initial findings are groundbreaking.

4:08 Scientists have confirmed the presence of

4:10 essential sugars within the asteroid

4:12 material.

4:13 Avery: And we're not talking about table sugar here,

4:15 we're talking about the fundamental building

4:18 blocks, uh, of life, right?

4:20 Anna: Precisely. They have positively identified

4:23 sugars like ribose, which is a critical

4:25 component of rna, the molecule that may have

4:28 preceded DNA in the earliest forms of life.

4:31 They also found other vital sugars like

4:33 glucose.

4:34 Avery: So this adds huge weight to the theory

4:37 that asteroids and comets could have

4:39 delivered these prebiotic ingredients to the

4:41 early Earth, kickstarting life here.

4:44 Anna: Mm mhm. It's some of the strongest evidence

4:46 to date. It tells us that these fundamental

4:49 building blocks were likely common in the

4:51 early solar system, available to planets like

4:54 ours.

4:55 Avery: Okay, I have to ask about my favorite part of

4:57 this story. The space gum. What on Earth is

5:00 that?

5:01 Anna: Yes. The team also discovered a strange

5:03 black, viscous organic material that

5:06 they've playfully nicknamed Spacegum.

5:09 They're still analyzing its exact

5:11 composition, but it appears to be a very

5:14 complex carbon rich substance. Just

5:16 another fascinating piece of this cosmic

5:19 puzzle.

5:19 Avery: From asteroids to our own celestial neighbor.

5:22 Let's bring it closer to home. Sky watchers

5:25 are in for a special event this December. In

5:28 coming days, in fact.

5:29 Anna: That's right, the final full moon of

5:31 2025. Has a few special things going

5:34 for it. It's known as the cold Moon. And

5:37 this year, it will also be a supermoon.

5:40 Avery: Supermoon? That means it'll appear larger and

5:43 brighter in the sky because it's closer to

5:45 Earth and its orbit. I always love a good

5:47 supermoon.

5:48 Anna: It does. But there's an even more rare

5:51 event happening at the same time. Something

5:54 called a major lunar standstill.

5:57 Avery: Okay, a major lunar standstill. That sounds

5:59 very official and very dramatic. Break that

6:01 down for us.

6:02 Anna: It's a point in the moon's 18.6

6:05 year cycle where its orbit is tilted

6:08 to the maximum degree relative to Earth's

6:11 equator. For those of us in the northern

6:13 hemisphere, it means this full moon will

6:16 trace a much higher arc across the winter sky

6:19 than usual.

6:20 Avery: Right, so it's not just closer, it's also

6:22 taking the high road across the sky. The.

6:24 That should make it visible for longer and

6:26 easier to see.

6:28 Anna: Exactly. It will rise in the northeast and

6:30 set in the northwest, Similar to the sun's

6:33 path in the summer. And it will stay above

6:35 the horizon for an extended period. It's a

6:38 perfect combination for a beautiful lunar

6:41 spectacle.

6:42 Avery: So make sure you get outside and look up, as

6:44 we like to remind you.

6:46 Anna: And while we're on the subject of our moon,

6:49 we have a beautiful but bittersweet story

6:52 from the Japanese lunar lander Hataku

6:54 Matu R. Oh, right.

6:56 Avery: This was the private mission that attempted

6:58 to land on the moon last year. Sadly, it

7:01 crashed in the final seconds of its descent.

7:04 Anna: It did. But before the mission ended, it

7:06 captured some truly breathtaking imagery.

7:09 And one photo in particular has been making

7:12 the rounds. It's a stunning shot of our

7:14 own planet.

7:16 Avery: I've seen it. It's an image of Earth during a

7:18 total solar eclipse Taken from space.

7:22 You can clearly see the round shadow of the

7:24 moon moving across the Earth's surface.

7:27 Australia in particular. It's just an

7:29 incredible perspective.

7:31 Anna: It really is. It's a viewpoint we so rarely

7:33 get to see. It's a powerful reminder of the

7:36 beauty of our world and the celestial dance.

7:39 It's a part of a final, beautiful piece of

7:42 data from, um, a mission that came so close

7:44 to achieving its goal.

7:46 Avery: Okay, for our final story, we're coming back

7:48 down to Earth, but it's a story with a truly

7:50 cosmic origin story.

7:52 This sounds like pure science fiction, Anna,

7:54 but an expert is suggesting a cosmic ray may

7:56 have been responsible for forcing a JetBlue

7:59 airliner into an emergency landing.

8:02 Anna: It's a fascinating theory. The flight in

8:04 question experienced a sudden, unexpected

8:07 drop in altitude. And while there's no

8:10 official cause yet, one plausible,

8:12 though unproven explanation involves a

8:15 high energy particle from deep space.

8:18 Avery: A single particle can do that to a massive

8:21 airplane? How is that even possible?

8:24 Anna: To a phenomenon called a single event

8:27 upset? High energy cosmic

8:29 rays, often accelerated by distant

8:32 supernovas, are constantly

8:35 bombarding our atmosphere. If one

8:38 of these particles, traveling at near the

8:41 speed of light, happens to strike a

8:43 microscopic transistor in one of the

8:46 plane's flight computers. Uh-huh. It can

8:49 deposit enough energy to. To flip

8:51 a bit of memory. It can change a

8:54 digital one to a zero or vice

8:57 versa. In a non critical system,

9:00 you'd never notice. But if it

9:02 hits a crucial part of the processor,

9:05 it could cause a temporary glitch or

9:08 even a system reboot.

9:11 Avery: So the plane's electronic brain could have a

9:14 momentary hiccup caused by a particle from

9:17 an exploded star millions of light years

9:19 away. That is mind blowing.

9:22 Anna: It is. And while it's important

9:25 to note this is just one expert's

9:28 hypothesis, it is scientifically

9:30 plausible. Modern avionics have

9:33 extensive shielding and redundant

9:36 systems to prevent this. But the

9:39 possibility, however remote, is always

9:42 there. It's a wild reminder that

9:45 we're never truly separate from the

9:47 events of the wider cosmos.

9:50 Avery: That really is a mind bending connection.

9:52 And on, um, that cosmic note, that's all the

9:55 time we have for today's episode of Astronomy

9:57 Daily. What a trip across the universe it's

10:00 been.

10:01 Anna: It certainly has. Thank you all so

10:04 much for joining us. We'll be back again

10:06 tomorrow with another roundup of the latest

10:09 news from around and beyond our world.

10:12 Avery: Until then, clear skies. And one more

10:15 reminder, Keep looking up.