From Corporate Strategies to Cosmic Discoveries: Your Daily Space Update

0:00 Avery: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, the podcast that

0:02 brings you the universe, one story at a time.

0:05 I'm Avery.

0:06 Anna: And I'm Anna. It's great to be with you.

0:08 We've got a packed episode today, from major

0:11 moves in the space industry to a potential

0:13 solution for one of the biggest mysteries in

0:15 cosmology.

0:16 Avery: Let's start with that industry news. It's a

0:19 big one. Blue Origin has just hired Tory

0:22 Bruno, the former president and CEO of

0:24 United Launch alliance, or ula.

0:27 Anna: That's a major headline. Bruno is a giant in

0:30 the industry. He's going to be heading up

0:32 Blue Origin's new national Security group.

0:34 Avery: Exactly. And it makes so much sense when you

0:37 think about it. Bruno was instrumental in

0:39 transitioning ULA to its new Vulcan rocket.

0:42 And what engines does the Vulcan rocket use?

0:45 Anna: Blue Origin's BE4 engines. It's all

0:48 connected. This move signals that Blue Origin

0:51 is getting very serious about competing for

0:53 those lucrative national security launch

0:55 contracts. Especially with their new Glenn

0:57 Heavy Heavy Lift rocket on the horizon.

0:59 Avery: It's a strategic chess move. Bringing in

1:02 someone with Bruno's experience and

1:04 connections is a clear sign of their ambition

1:06 in that sector.

1:07 Anna: Speaking of ambitions, let's shift from the

1:10 business of space to one of its greatest.

1:13 Dark matter. A, uh, new study is proposing a

1:16 fascinating, if somewhat exotic idea.

1:19 Avery: I'm always ready for a new dark matter

1:21 theory. What's this one?

1:22 Anna: Well, instead of tiny undiscovered particles,

1:25 this theory suggests dark matter could be

1:28 made of giant star sized objects that don't

1:30 emit light. They're calling them exotic

1:33 Astrophysical dark objects, or

1:35 IADs.

1:36 Avery: IADs. I like it. So what would these

1:39 objects be?

1:40 Anna: Things like boson stars or cue balls.

1:43 Very dense theoretical objects. The really

1:46 cool part is how we might find them. If One

1:49 of these IADs passes in front of a distant

1:51 star, its immense gravity would bend the

1:54 starlight in a very specific way.

1:56 Avery: Right. Gravitational lensing.

1:58 Anna: Exactly. But a very specific kind.

2:01 Instead of just brightening, the star's

2:03 apparent position in the sky would seem to

2:05 jump suddenly. It's a unique signal. And

2:08 researchers think they can hunt for these

2:10 jumps in the massive data set from the Gaia

2:12 Space Telescope. It's a long shot, but it's a

2:15 testable hypothesis.

2:16 Avery: From hunting for invisible objects to

2:19 tracking a very visible one.

2:21 Let's talk about Asteroid Apophis.

2:24 Anna: Ah, yes, everyone's favorite God of chaos,

2:26 asteroid. It's making a very close pass by

2:29 Earth in 2029.

2:31 Avery: An incredibly close pass just

2:33 32,000km away. Which is closer than

2:36 some of our satellites. And to take advantage

2:38 of this rare opportunity, the European Space

2:41 Agency and Japan's JAXA are teaming up for a

2:44 new mission called Ramses.

2:46 Anna: So what's the goal of Ramses?

2:47 Avery: The mission will get up close to the 375

2:50 meter wide asteroid to study how Earth's

2:53 gravity affects it. During the fly, expect

2:56 our planet's gravity to cause changes in

2:58 apophisis spin, maybe even trigger some

3:00 landslides or quakes on its surface.

3:02 Anna: And understanding those gravitational effects

3:05 is crucial for planetary defense. If we ever

3:08 need to nudge an asteroid out of the way, we

3:10 need to know precisely how it will behave.

3:12 This kind of international cooperation is

3:15 exactly what we need for ensuring space

3:17 safety.

3:18 Avery: That's right.

3:18 And speaking of understanding the cosmos on a

3:21 grand scale, let's talk about all the stuff

3:24 that isn't in asteroids or even galaxies.

3:27 I'm talking about normal matter, the stuff

3:29 that makes up you, me and the stars. It turns

3:32 out we've been missing most of it.

3:34 Anna: This is one of my favorite cosmological

3:36 problems. The Big Bang theory predicts a

3:39 certain amount of normal matter in the

3:40 universe. But when we add up all the stars

3:43 and galaxies we can see, we only find about

3:45 10% of it. So where's the other

3:48 90%?

3:49 Avery: For a long time, the theory has been that

3:51 it's hiding in the vast spaces between

3:53 galaxies in a hot, thin soup of

3:56 gas called the intergalactic med. It's often

3:59 called the cosmic web. But it's so

4:02 diffuse that it's been nearly impossible to

4:04 detect directly.

4:05 Anna: Until now. Right. This is where fast radio

4:08 bursts come in.

4:09 Avery: Precisely. A new study used these

4:12 powerful millisecond long blasts of radio

4:14 waves from distant galaxies as probes. As

4:17 an FRB signal travels across billions of

4:20 light years, it gets slightly dispersed by

4:22 the gas it passes through. By measuring how

4:25 much the signal is smeared out, astronomers

4:28 can calculate how much matter it encountered.

4:31 Anna: And the results confirmed the theory.

4:33 Avery: They did. The numbers match perfectly.

4:36 The missing matter was in the cosmic web all

4:39 along. It's a huge victory for cosmology.

4:42 We've finally completed the census of normal

4:45 matter in the universe.

4:46 Anna: That is incredible.

4:48 From the cosmic web, let's zoom back in. Much

4:51 closer to home, the chaotic space between the

4:54 Earth and the Moon.

4:55 Avery: It's an area that's about to get a lot busier

4:58 with programs like Artemis and the Lunar

5:00 Gateway.

5:01 Anna: Right. And navigating that space is

5:03 notoriously difficult because of the complex

5:06 shifting gravitational pulls of the Earth,

5:08 Moon and Sun. It's the classic three body

5:11 problem. So to help future missions,

5:13 researchers at ah, Lawrence Livermore

5:15 Laboratory have done something amazing.

5:18 Avery: What's that?

5:19 Anna: They've created and released an open source

5:21 Data set mapping 1 million different stable

5:24 trajectories in that cis lunar space,

5:27 being called a gold standard map that

5:29 companies and space agencies can use to

5:31 validate their navigation software.

5:33 Avery: So it's essentially a comprehensive roadmap

5:36 for the Earth Moon system that's invaluable.

5:39 It helps identify stable regions like the

5:41 Lagrange Points, where we could place future

5:44 infrastructure like the Lunar Gateway. It's a

5:47 foundational piece of work for the next era

5:49 of lunar exploration.

5:50 Anna: Absolutely.

5:52 And before we go today, let's take a brief

5:54 look at some of the major astronomical events

5:56 to look out for in 2026 is just around

5:59 the corner.

6:00 Avery: I love these previews. What's the biggest

6:02 highlight?

6:03 Anna: Without a doubt, the total solar eclipse. On

6:06 August 12, the path of totality will cross

6:09 over Greenland, Iceland and parts of Spain.

6:11 It's going to be a major event for

6:13 skywatchers in Europe and for those.

6:15 Avery: Of us in North America. We get a treat a few

6:18 months earlier, a total lunar eclipse on

6:21 March 3, 2026.

6:23 Anna: There's more, too. Jupiter's moons will enter

6:26 a mutual eclipse season, meaning we can watch

6:28 them pass in front of and behind another. And

6:31 both the Perseid and Gemini meteor showers

6:34 are expected to have excellent viewing

6:36 conditions with no bright moon to wash them

6:38 out.

6:39 Avery: Plus, solar activity will still be high as we

6:42 come down from the peak of solar cycle 25, so

6:45 there's a good chance for more impressive

6:47 aurora displays. 2026 is shaping

6:50 up to be a fantastic year for astronomy.

6:53 Anna: It certainly is. And that's all the time we

6:55 have for today. We've gone from corporate

6:57 boardrooms to the edge of the visible

6:59 universe and back.

7:00 Avery: To our own lunar backyar joining us on

7:03 Astronomy Daily. If you'd like even more

7:05 space news, just visit our

7:06 [email protected] or look out for

7:09 us on social media. Just search for

7:11 AstroDailyPod Daily Pod on all the major

7:13 platforms. I'm Avery.

7:15 Anna: And I'm Anna. Join us next time as we

7:17 continue to explore the cosmos. Clear Skies.

7:33 Stories.