Exploring the Cosmos Asteroid Donaldjohanson, Mercury's Gem, and a Busy Launch Week

0:00 Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily, your daily dose of

0:02 Speaker 1: cosmic news and celestial happenings. I'm anna your guide through

0:06 Speaker 1: the cosmos. Today, we've got a stellar lineup of space

0:10 Speaker 1: stories that will take us from nearby asteroids to the

0:13 Speaker 1: mysteries of distant galaxies. We'll explore NASA's Lucy spacecraft and

0:17 Speaker 1: its fascinating encounter with the uniquely shaped asteroid Donald Johanson,

0:22 Speaker 1: dive into the surprising discovery of a potential diamond layer

0:25 Speaker 1: inside Mercury, and catch up on this week's busy launch schedule.

0:29 Speaker 1: We'll also look at Amazon's Project Kuiper as it prepares

0:31 Speaker 1: for a milestone launch, and examine an ambitious plan to

0:34 Speaker 1: place satellites around the Moon to detect radio signals from

0:38 Speaker 1: the universe's ancient dark ages. So buckle up for a

0:41 Speaker 1: journey across our Solar System and beyond as we explore

0:44 Speaker 1: the latest developments in space exploration and astronomical discovery. Let's

0:49 Speaker 1: get started. NASA's Lucy spacecraft has just completed its second

0:54 Speaker 1: asteroid encounter, giving us an unprecedented view of asteroid Donald

0:58 Speaker 1: Johansson from approximately six hundred miles away. The images which

1:03 Speaker 1: started arriving on April twentieth, twenty twenty five, have already

1:07 Speaker 1: revealed some fascinating details about this cosmic object that formed

1:11 Speaker 1: roughly one hundred fifty million years ago. Scientists had previously

1:15 Speaker 1: observed large brightness variations from Donald Johansson over a ten

1:19 Speaker 1: day period, suggesting it might be an elongated body, but

1:23 Speaker 1: when Lucy's first images came in, they showed something even

1:27 Speaker 1: more intriguing. What appears to be a contact binary, essentially

1:32 Speaker 1: two smaller bodies that collided and stuck together. What's particularly

1:36 Speaker 1: striking about Donald Johansson is the unusual shape of the

1:39 Speaker 1: narrow neck connecting its two lobes. Mission scientists describe it

1:43 Speaker 1: as looking like two nested ice cream cones. This unique

1:47 Speaker 1: structure wasn't what the team expected and adds another puzzle

1:50 Speaker 1: piece to our understanding of how asteroids form and evolve.

1:54 Speaker 1: Preliminary analysis from Lucy's the Lory imager indicates Donald Johanson

1:58 Speaker 1: is larger than originally estimated, about five miles long and

2:01 Speaker 1: two miles wide at its widest point. The full asteroid

2:05 Speaker 1: wasn't initially visible in the high resolution images because it's

2:09 Speaker 1: actually larger than the imager's field of view. The team

2:12 Speaker 1: expects to download the complete data set over the coming week,

2:15 Speaker 1: which should provide a more comprehensive picture of the asteroids shape.

2:19 Speaker 1: Hal Leveson, Lucy's principal investigator, notes that asteroid Donald Johanson

2:25 Speaker 1: has strikingly complicated geology. As we study the complex structures

2:29 Speaker 1: in detail, they will reveal important information about the building

2:33 Speaker 1: blocks and collisional processes that form the planets in our

2:37 Speaker 1: Solar system. While Donald Johansson isn't a primary target for

2:41 Speaker 1: the Lucy mission, this flyby served as a full dress

2:45 Speaker 1: rehearsal for future encounters. The spacecraft conducted a series of

2:49 Speaker 1: dense observations to maximize data collection. In addition to images,

2:54 Speaker 1: Lucy's other scientific instruments, the Laralf color Imager and infrared spectrometer,

2:59 Speaker 1: along with the Latis Thermal Infrared Spectrometer, collected data that

3:03 Speaker 1: will be analyzed in the coming weeks. Lucy will spend

3:07 Speaker 1: most of the remainder of twenty twenty five traveling through

3:10 Speaker 1: the main asteroid belt before reaching its first main target,

3:14 Speaker 1: the Jupiter Trojan asteroid euribites, in August twenty twenty seven.

3:18 Speaker 1: The spacecraft's ultimate mission is to study these Trojan asteroids,

3:23 Speaker 1: which orbit the Sun in the same path as Jupiter

3:25 Speaker 1: and are considered time capsules from the early Solar System.

3:29 Speaker 1: As Tom Statler, programmed scientist for Lucy at NASA Headquarters,

3:32 Speaker 1: put it, these early images of Donald Johansson are again

3:36 Speaker 1: showing the tremendous capabilities of the Lucy spacecraft as an

3:39 Speaker 1: engine of discovery. The potential to really open a new

3:42 Speaker 1: window into the history of our Solar System when Lucy

3:45 Speaker 1: gets to the Trojan asteroids is immense. Let's get a

3:49 Speaker 1: little update on Mercury and a finding that might make

3:52 Speaker 1: the planet a lot more attractive to some people. Mercury

3:55 Speaker 1: may be the closest planet to the Sun and often

3:58 Speaker 1: overlooked in our cosmic neighborhood, but scientists have recently discovered

4:02 Speaker 1: something truly dazzling about this scorched world. New research suggests

4:06 Speaker 1: that Mercury may be hiding a diamond layer approximately ten

4:09 Speaker 1: miles thick beneath its surface. This extraordinary finding comes from

4:13 Speaker 1: analyzing data collected by NASA's Messenger spacecraft, which mapped Mercury

4:18 Speaker 1: in detail during its mission. The spacecraft detected graphite patches

4:22 Speaker 1: scattered across Mercury's crust, indicating the planet once had a

4:26 Speaker 1: magma ocean incredibly rich in carbon content, higher than any

4:30 Speaker 1: other rocky world in our Solar System. When this ancient

4:33 Speaker 1: magma ocean cooled, lighter carbon floated upward, creating the dark

4:38 Speaker 1: graphite patches visible on the surface. Meanwhile, denser materials, including carbon,

4:44 Speaker 1: sank inward. According to researchers from China and Belgium led

4:49 Speaker 1: by doctor janhow Lynn, this heavier carbon descended alongside sinking

4:53 Speaker 1: metal and recrystallized into diamond under immense pressure. To test

4:59 Speaker 1: this theory, scientific tis recreated Mercury's interior conditions in a laboratory.

5:03 Speaker 1: They used a specialized press to squeeze synthetic mantle rock

5:07 Speaker 1: to seven gigapascals roughly seven times the pressure found at

5:11 Speaker 1: the bottom of the Mariana Trench, while heating it to

5:13 Speaker 1: nearly three thousand, six hundred degrees fahrenheit. Their experiments confirmed

5:18 Speaker 1: that at Mercury's core mantle boundary, with its unique pressure

5:22 Speaker 1: and temperature conditions, carbon transforms from graphite into diamond. These

5:27 Speaker 1: diamonds would theoretically form a sparkling shell up to eleven

5:30 Speaker 1: miles thick around the planet's metallic core. This diamond layer

5:34 Speaker 1: may also explain another Mercury mystery, its surprisingly strong magnetic field.

5:39 Speaker 1: For a planet only slightly wider than the continental United States,

5:43 Speaker 1: Mercury maintains a robust magnetic field that requires heat to

5:47 Speaker 1: flow out of the core diamond, being an excellent thermal conductor,

5:52 Speaker 1: would efficiently funnel this energy upward, helping to maintain the

5:56 Speaker 1: magnetic dynamo that generates the field. Unlike Earth, Mars, and Venus,

6:01 Speaker 1: which lost most of their carbon to space or locked

6:03 Speaker 1: it in carbonates, Mercury appears to have hoarded its carbon,

6:07 Speaker 1: first as floating graphite and then as diamond sinking to

6:10 Speaker 1: great depths. While we can't directly observe Mercury's interior, the

6:15 Speaker 1: European Japanese BEPY Columbo mission currently en route to the

6:18 Speaker 1: planet may provide conformation When it arrives in twenty thirty.

6:22 Speaker 1: Its instruments will refine gravity maps and look for twists

6:26 Speaker 1: in Mercury's magnetic field that could reveal the presence of

6:29 Speaker 1: this superconductive diamond layer. This discovery isn't about finding gemstones

6:33 Speaker 1: for jewelry. It's about understanding planetary evolution. Carbon's behavior shapes

6:39 Speaker 1: a planet's heat flow, cross composition, and even its magnetic field.

6:44 Speaker 1: By tracing carbon's journey through mercury, scientists can refine models

6:48 Speaker 1: that apply to worlds throughout our universe, including those orbiting

6:52 Speaker 1: distance stars. What initially appears is just a scorched ball

6:56 Speaker 1: of rock is revealing exotic physics and hidden secrets that

6:59 Speaker 1: are absolutely worth exploring further. Time to take a look

7:02 Speaker 1: at this week's launch calendar. This week is shaping up

7:05 Speaker 1: to be a busy one for space launches, with missions

7:07 Speaker 1: taking off from around the globe. Let's start with China's

7:10 Speaker 1: upcoming crude mission to their Tiangong space station. On Thursday,

7:15 Speaker 1: April twenty fourth, the Changjang Ti F rocket will lift

7:18 Speaker 1: off from the Juquan Satellite Launch Center carrying three taikanats

7:22 Speaker 1: on the Shenho twenty mission. This marks China's fifteenth crewed

7:25 Speaker 1: space flight and the ninth crew transportation mission to their

7:28 Speaker 1: space station. While the three crew members were selected back

7:32 Speaker 1: in February, China typically doesn't officially announce their names until

7:36 Speaker 1: about a day before launch. The Shenzho twenty crew will

7:40 Speaker 1: replace the current occupants of the station, song Ling Dong

7:43 Speaker 1: Kai Shuji and Wang Houzi, who have spent the past

7:46 Speaker 1: six months in orbit. Once a formal handover ceremony is completed,

7:51 Speaker 1: the Shenzho nineteen crew will return to Earth. SpaceX is

7:55 Speaker 1: having a particularly active week, with three Falcon nine launches

7:58 Speaker 1: on their manifest. The first is their third bandwagon ride

8:02 Speaker 1: share mission, scheduled for Monday evening from Cape Canaveral. Bandwagon

8:06 Speaker 1: missions carry multiple smaller satellites to mid inclination low Earth orbits,

8:11 Speaker 1: complementing SpaceX's transporter missions, which primarily target Sun synchronous orbits.

8:17 Speaker 1: Notable payloads on this flight include vasts Haven Demo technology

8:21 Speaker 1: demonstrator weighing approximately five hundred kilograms at miss space Cargo's

8:25 Speaker 1: Phoenix one prototype re entry capsule, which will test an

8:29 Speaker 1: innovative inflatable heat shield, and several Earth observation satellites from

8:33 Speaker 1: Hawkeye three hundred and sixty. The Falcon nine boosters supporting

8:37 Speaker 1: this mission B one THOY ninety will be making its

8:40 Speaker 1: third flight and is scheduled to return for a landing

8:43 Speaker 1: at Cape Canaveral's Landing Zone two. SpaceX has two more

8:47 Speaker 1: starlink launches planned later in the week, one from Florida

8:50 Speaker 1: on Thursday evening, carrying satellites for Starlink Group six seventy four,

8:55 Speaker 1: and another from Vandenberg in California on Friday afternoon for

8:59 Speaker 1: Starlink Group eleven nine. These launches continue the rapid expansion

9:04 Speaker 1: of SpaceX's Internet Mega Constellation, which now connects over five

9:08 Speaker 1: million users across one hundred twenty five countries. Meanwhile, Firefly

9:14 Speaker 1: Aerospace is preparing to launch its Alpha Rocket from Vandenberg

9:17 Speaker 1: Space Force Base on Sunday. This mission, playfully dubbed Message

9:21 Speaker 1: in a Booster, will carry Lockheed Martin's LM four hundred

9:25 Speaker 1: technology demonstration satellite. This marks the sixth launch of Firefly's

9:30 Speaker 1: Alpha Rocket and the second flight in a multi launch

9:32 Speaker 1: agreement with Lockheed Martin that could span up to twenty

9:35 Speaker 1: five launches over the next five years. The LM four

9:39 Speaker 1: hundred is Lockheed's new mid sized satellite bus. Designed for versatility.

9:44 Speaker 1: It can accommodate various missions including remote sensing, communications, imaging,

9:49 Speaker 1: and radar operations. This pathfinder mission will help prove the

9:53 Speaker 1: technology in orbit before it's used for customer missions. All

9:58 Speaker 1: these launches underscore the growing CADI and diversity of space

10:01 Speaker 1: missions from crude flights and satellite deployments to technology demonstrations

10:05 Speaker 1: that push the boundaries of what's possible beyond Earth. Speaking

10:10 Speaker 1: of launches, after multiple delays, we finally have a new

10:14 Speaker 1: launch date for Amazon's Project Kuiper Internet satellite constellation. United

10:18 Speaker 1: Launch Alliance announced that the first batch of twenty seven

10:22 Speaker 1: operational Kuiper satellites will lift off aboard an Atlas V

10:26 Speaker 1: rocket on April twenty eighth at seven pm Eastern Time

10:30 Speaker 1: from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. ULA has

10:34 Speaker 1: set aside a two hour launch window for this mission.

10:37 Speaker 1: This launch, designated Kuyper one, marks a significant milestone as

10:42 Speaker 1: the first of a planned eighty three launches needed to

10:44 Speaker 1: deploy Amazon's ambitious broadband constellation. The company aims to place

10:49 Speaker 1: more than three thouy two hundred satellites in low Earth

10:52 Speaker 1: orbit to provide global high speed Internet coverage. These satellites

10:56 Speaker 1: aren't Amazon's first space hardware. The company successful launched two

11:00 Speaker 1: prototype Kuper satellites last year to validate the technology and

11:04 Speaker 1: pave the way for this operational fleet. The upcoming mission

11:08 Speaker 1: will utilize ULA's Atlas V rocket in its most powerful

11:11 Speaker 1: five to five to one configuration featuring five solid rocket boosters.

11:16 Speaker 1: This launch also represents a historic moment for ULA, as

11:19 Speaker 1: it marks the two hundred and fiftieth flight of a

11:21 Speaker 1: Centaur upper stage atop an Atlass rocket. The launch was

11:25 Speaker 1: originally scheduled for early April, but was postponed due to

11:28 Speaker 1: unfavorable weather conditions. When asked about subsequent delays, ULA CEO

11:33 Speaker 1: Tory Bruno simply cited range availability as the limiting factor,

11:38 Speaker 1: suggesting congestion in the Eastern range launch schedule managed by

11:41 Speaker 1: the US Space Force. While Amazon has contracted ULA for

11:46 Speaker 1: seven more Kuiper missions on Atlas V rockets, the company

11:49 Speaker 1: is diversifying its launch providers for the remainder of its constellation.

11:53 Speaker 1: Future Kuiper satellites will ride on ULA's newer Vulcan Centaur

11:56 Speaker 1: rocket are any spaces are on EI six Blue Origins,

12:00 Speaker 1: New Glen, and even SpaceX's Falcon nine. Despite SpaceX being

12:05 Speaker 1: a direct competitor with its own Starlink Internet constellation, Amazon's

12:10 Speaker 1: Kiper satellites will operate at slightly higher altitudes than Starlink,

12:14 Speaker 1: with the fleet distributed across ninety eight orbital planes in

12:17 Speaker 1: three layers at altitudes of five hundred and ninety six

12:20 Speaker 1: hundred ten and six hundred thirty kilometers. This launch begins

12:24 Speaker 1: a new chapter not just for Amazon, but for the

12:27 Speaker 1: growing commercial space industry, as competition in the satellite internet

12:30 Speaker 1: market continues to heat up. Finally for today, in an

12:36 Speaker 1: exciting development for lunar exploration and cosmology, the Italian Space

12:41 Speaker 1: Agency has selected European company Blue Sky's Space to build

12:44 Speaker 1: a revolutionary satellite fleet that will orbit the Moon. The project,

12:49 Speaker 1: named Radio Luna, will be developed in partnership with OHB

12:52 Speaker 1: Italia and aims to use the unique radio environment of

12:56 Speaker 1: the lunar far side to detect signals from the early

12:58 Speaker 1: universe that are impossible to capture from Earth. The mission

13:02 Speaker 1: targets what astronomers call the dark Ages of the universe,

13:05 Speaker 1: the period before the first stars formed, when the cosmos

13:09 Speaker 1: was filled with neutral hydrogen gas. These ancient radio signals

13:13 Speaker 1: hold valuable information about the universe's earliest structure, but they're

13:17 Speaker 1: exceptionally faint and difficult to detect. Amid Earth's cacophony of

13:22 Speaker 1: human made radio interference. The far side of the Moon

13:25 Speaker 1: offers a perfect radio quiet zone, shielded from Earth's electromagnetic noise.

13:31 Speaker 1: If successful, Radio Luna's small satellite constellation could provide unprecedented

13:35 Speaker 1: insights into the universe's formative period, essentially creating a map

13:39 Speaker 1: of cosmic dawn. We are grateful to the Italian Space

13:43 Speaker 1: Agency for funding this activity with our project partner OHB

13:46 Speaker 1: Italia to explore novel ways of delivering exciting science, said

13:52 Speaker 1: Marcel Tesseigni, Blue Sky's co founder and CEO. He noted

13:57 Speaker 1: that the project aligns with broader international efforts to develop

14:00 Speaker 1: lunar infrastructure through programs like ESA Moonlight and NASA Artemis.

14:05 Speaker 1: What makes Radio Luna particularly innovative is its approach to

14:08 Speaker 1: spacecraft design. Rather than building expensive custom satellites, the network

14:13 Speaker 1: will utilize small cube SATs equipped with commercial off the

14:17 Speaker 1: shelf components. This strategy emphasizes simplicity and cost effectiveness, potentially

14:22 Speaker 1: creating a template for future scientific missions. Roberto Asseti, Managing

14:28 Speaker 1: director at OHB Italia, described the project as a challenge

14:32 Speaker 1: where scientific ambition meets engineering pragmatism, highlighting their pride and

14:37 Speaker 1: contributing to an observatory that could open new frontiers in

14:41 Speaker 1: our understanding of the early universe. While details on funding

14:45 Speaker 1: and launch timelines haven't been disclosed. Radio Luna represents an

14:49 Speaker 1: intriguing example of how the burgeoning lunar economy might support

14:52 Speaker 1: fundamental scientific research. By leveraging the unique properties of the

14:57 Speaker 1: lunar environment, these small satellite could help unlock some of

15:01 Speaker 1: the biggest mysteries about our cosmic origins, and that brings

15:06 Speaker 1: us to a close for this episode. What an incredible

15:09 Speaker 1: journey through space we've had today. From Lucy's close encounter

15:12 Speaker 1: with the oddly shaped asteroid Donald Johansson to the stunning

15:16 Speaker 1: possibility of a diamond layer deep within Mercury. We've explored

15:20 Speaker 1: the packed launch schedule ahead, with China sending taikonots to

15:23 Speaker 1: their space station, SpaceX's multiple missions, and Firefly preparing for

15:28 Speaker 1: their technology demonstration flight. We also learned about Amazon's Project

15:33 Speaker 1: Kuiper finally getting its launch date after several delays, with

15:37 Speaker 1: those first twenty seven Internet satellites ready to begin building

15:41 Speaker 1: their orbital constellation, and of course, the fascinating Radio Luna

15:45 Speaker 1: project that aims to use the Moon's far side as

15:48 Speaker 1: a quiet zone to listen for whispers from the universe's

15:51 Speaker 1: dark ages. Space exploration continues to surprise and inspire us,

15:57 Speaker 1: revealing new secrets about our Solar System and beyond. With

15:59 Speaker 1: each mission. These discoveries not only expand our scientific knowledge,

16:04 Speaker 1: but remind us of the incredible ingenuity of human exploration.

16:08 Speaker 1: This has been Astronomy Daily with me Anna. I want

16:11 Speaker 1: to thank you for joining me on this cosmic journey today.

16:14 Speaker 1: If you're hungry for more space news, visit our website

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16:42 Speaker 1: keep looking up at the stars and I'll see you

16:45 Speaker 1: for our next exploration of the Cosmos Stars stories. The

17:07 Speaker 1: t