Fast-Tracking to Uranus, Stellar Devastation, and a Cosmic Farewell to Ace Frehley

0:00 Anna: Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of

0:02 Astronomy Daily, your go to spot for all

0:05 things space and starts. I'm Anna.

0:07 Avery: And I'm Avery. joining you as always.

0:10 Today is October 18, 2025

0:13 and we've got some really cool stories lined

0:15 up. Like from cutting travel time to distant

0:18 planets in half to a black hole,

0:20 basically devouring a star from the inside

0:23 out. Oh, and don't forget the meteor shower

0:25 peaking soon. Perfect for stargazers like us.

0:28 Anna: Totally, Avery. And we'll touch on a massive

0:31 comet waking up way out there. And even a

0:34 cosmic tribute to a rock legend.

0:37 So let's dive right in, starting with some

0:39 exciting news about SpaceX's Starship and

0:42 potential mission to Uranus.

0:44 Avery: Okay, so you know how getting to the outer

0:47 planets takes forever? Like Voyager 2

0:49 took over nine years to reach Uranus back in

0:52 the 80s and, and that was just a flyby.

0:55 Well, according to this article From Universe

0:57 Today, SpaceX's Starship could

1:00 slash that travel time in half for a future

1:03 orbiter mission.

1:04 Anna: Whoa, really?

1:06 Avery: Half?

1:06 Anna: That's huge. so The National

1:09 Academy's 2022 Decadal Survey

1:12 prioritized a Uranus orbiter and probe,

1:15 UOP for short. Because

1:18 Uranus is this weird ice giant we

1:21 barely know anything about. It'

1:24 tilted on its side, has a funky magnetic

1:26 field, and its moons might have underground

1:29 oceans. But traditional plans using

1:32 something like Falcon Heavy would take over

1:34 13 years to get there, relying on

1:37 gravity assists from other planets.

1:39 Avery: Yeah, and that's a drag, you know,

1:41 operationally, financially, all that. But

1:44 starship changes the game with in orbit

1:46 refueling, which they're still testing, but

1:50 fingers crossed it'll be ready by the end of

1:51 the decade. Researchers from MIT

1:54 crunched the numbers and said with refueling

1:57 and even using starship as an aerobraking

2:00 shield in Uranus's atmosphere, you could

2:02 get there in just six and a half years. No

2:05 slingshots needed.

2:06 Anna: Aerobraking shield like the starship would

2:09 tag along the whole way and help slow down

2:12 the probe. That's clever. And it could

2:15 cut costs too, since shorter missions mean

2:17 less time, paying teams and all. But

2:20 NASA's funding for UOP is still up in

2:23 the air, so we gotta hope they seize those

2:25 launch windows in the2030s. Otherwise

2:29 we're waiting till the2040s. That's like 70

2:31 years since Voyager's last look.

2:34 Avery: Exactly. Anna. Uranus deserves more love.

2:36 It's key for understanding exoplanets too,

2:39 since ice giants are common out there. Super

2:42 exciting potential here.

2:43 Anna: Alright, shifting gears to something straight

2:46 out of a sci fi horror flickering,

2:48 astronomers spotted a gamma ray burst

2:51 that might be a black hole tunneling into a

2:54 star and exploding it from the inside out.

2:57 This is from sky and Telescope. And it's

3:00 wild.

3:01 Avery: Oh, man. Tell me about it. So this burst,

3:04 GRB

3:05 250702B,

3:08 was picked up by NASA's Fermi telescope on

3:10 July 2, 2025. But it actually

3:13 happened 8 billion years ago in a distant

3:16 galaxy. It lasted a, whopping seven

3:18 hours with all these flares and fades

3:21 plus soft X rays a day before from the

3:24 Einstein probe.

3:25 Anna: Normally, gamma ray bursts are either short

3:28 from neutron stars smashing together or

3:31 longer from massive stars collapsing into

3:33 black holes. Collapsars, Right, but

3:36 this one's duration and variability don't

3:39 fit. Follow ups with the Very Large

3:41 Telescope, Hubble, JWST and

3:44 more pinpointed it to the edge of a dusty

3:47 asymmetric galaxy.

3:49 Avery: Yeah, and the leading theory, a stellar mass

3:52 black hole merged with a bloated helium star.

3:55 As the star expanded, the black hole started

3:57 gobbling. Material slowed down, produced

4:00 those X rays, then dove into the core and

4:03 shot out jets that blew the star apart.

4:06 Eliza Nates from George Washington University

4:08 and her team think this could be a rare new

4:11 type of GRB interrupt.

4:13 Anna: But is this confirmed? It challenges all

4:16 the models, right? Like, incompatible

4:19 with everything we know.

4:21 Avery: Totally. But the afterglow data shows fast

4:24 jets and shock waves that match this black

4:26 hole star merger. If it's real, it opens up a

4:29 whole new class of these events. Mind blowing

4:32 how violent the universe can be.

4:34 Now for something you can actually see from

4:36 your backyard. The Orionid meteor shower is

4:39 peaking next week, and conditions are prime.

4:41 Space.com has the details.

4:44 Anna: Yes, it runs until October 26,

4:46 but maxes out on the morning of October 21.

4:50 The Moon's new that day, so super dark skies,

4:53 no moonlight messing things up. Expect 15

4:56 to 30 meteors per hour. If you're in a rural

4:58 spot away.

4:59 Avery: From city lights, they're from Halley's

5:02 comets. Debris, you know, Earth plows through

5:04 that stream twice a year. Orionids in fall,

5:07 Eta Aquarids in spring. These guys are fast.

5:10 Like 41 miles per second. So quick

5:13 streaks and bright ones can leave trains or

5:15 even fireballs a few days after peak.

5:18 Anna: To catch em, head out before dawn, say 4 to

5:21 5am local time. Bundle up, lie

5:24 back, let your eyes adjust. Don't stare

5:26 right at the radiant near Betelgeuse in

5:28 orion. Look about 30 degrees away toward the

5:31 zenith. Visible from both hemispheres, too.

5:34 Avery: Perfect timing for us stargazers. If you're

5:37 out there, any predawn meteor has a

5:39 75% chance of being in Orionid.

5:42 Grab a friend, make it a thing.

5:44 Anna: Speaking of comets, the largest known comet

5:47 from the Oort Cloud is already active

5:49 billions of miles out. This is C

5:52 2014 UN 271

5:55 or Bernardinelli Bernstein from

5:58 Daily Galaxy.

6:00 Avery: It's huge, about 85 miles across,

6:03 way bigger than most. Currently

6:05 16.6 AU from the sun past

6:08 Saturn, over 1.5 billion

6:11 miles away. At that distance, water's still

6:14 frozen, but volatiles like carbon monoxide

6:16 are venting out in bursts.

6:18 Anna: Alma telescope in Chile caught these gas jets

6:21 at 230 gigahertz, changing between

6:24 observations. Probably rotating active

6:27 spots facing the Sun. It's got a compact

6:29 coma, low formaldehyde, so the gas is coming

6:32 straight from inside.

6:35 Avery: This challenges what we thought about when

6:37 comets wake up, usually closer in. As

6:40 a pristine Oort Cloud object, it's like a

6:42 time capsule from the solar system's birth.

6:45 Exciting for understanding ancient chemistry.

6:47 Anna: Absolutely. And it's rotating, outgassing

6:50 explosively. Can't wait to see how it evolves

6:53 as it gets closer.

6:55 Avery: Finally, a bit of a lighter but sad note.

6:58 Ace Frehley, the spaceman from KISS,

7:00 passed away at 74. Space.com did a

7:03 cosmic tribute.

7:04 Anna: Oh yeah, he died from a head injury on

7:07 October 16th. Ace was the original

7:09 guitarist for Kiss from 73 to 82,

7:12 then reunited in the 90s. His spaceman

7:15 look was all space themed makeup,

7:18 costumes of stars and lightning,

7:21 and.

7:21 Avery: His solo stuff leaned into it hard. Albums

7:24 like Frehley's Comet, Space Invader with

7:27 tracks about Mars, missions and vortices.

7:29 Spaceman in 2018, even 10,000 volts.

7:32 This year with Walkin on the Moon, he left a

7:35 cosmic mark on rock.

7:37 Anna: Totally tributes from folks like Alex

7:39 Liveson. Rest in peace Space Ace. Your sci

7:42 fi legacy lives on.

7:43 Avery: Whew, that was a packed episode. Anna From

7:45 black holes to rockstars, space never

7:48 disappoints for sure.

7:50 Anna: Thanks for tuning in to Astronomy Daily. And

7:52 remember, if you need more space and

7:54 astronomy news in your life, just visit our

7:56 website at astronomydaily IO

7:59 and check out our continuously updating

8:01 newsfeed and sign up for our free daily

8:03 newsletter. Catch us next time for more

8:05 stellar news. Stay curious. Look up

8:08 Avery: Bye for now