Galactic Drama, Polar Perspectives, and Lunar Brick Innovations

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your daily dose of space and

0:03 Speaker 1: astronomy news. This is Anna bringing you the latest updates

0:07 Speaker 1: on cosmic discoveries, space missions, and lunar exploration. Today we've

0:12 Speaker 1: got a bumper lineup of stories that span our cosmic

0:14 Speaker 1: neighborhood and beyond. We'll be exploring new research suggesting that

0:18 Speaker 1: one of our neighboring galaxies might be literally tearing another apart.

0:23 Speaker 1: Here first hand accounts from the first humans to orbit

0:26 Speaker 1: Earth's poles, and learn about China's ambitious plans to three

0:29 Speaker 1: D print building materials on the lunar surface. Plus, we'll

0:33 Speaker 1: dive into a surprising discovery from the James Webb Space

0:36 Speaker 1: Telescope about a planet's demise, and look at innovative robots

0:41 Speaker 1: that could soon be exploring beneath the Moon surface. So

0:44 Speaker 1: sit back and prepare for a journey through the latest

0:47 Speaker 1: developments in our understanding of the universe. Our first story

0:52 Speaker 1: takes us to our cosmic neighborhood, where a galactic drama

0:55 Speaker 1: is unfolding. If you've ever been lucky enough to view

0:58 Speaker 1: the night sky from the southern hemisphere, you might have

1:01 Speaker 1: spotted two fuzzy patches of light These are the Magellanic

1:05 Speaker 1: Cloud satellite galaxies that orbit our own Milky Way like

1:08 Speaker 1: bees around a hive. New research from Japan has revealed

1:11 Speaker 1: something quite remarkable about these celestial neighbors. Scientists now believe

1:16 Speaker 1: that the Large Magellanic Cloud or LMC, might actually be

1:20 Speaker 1: tearing apart its smaller companion, the Small Magellanic Cloud. Associate

1:25 Speaker 1: Professor keng Go Tachihara and his team at Nagoya University

1:28 Speaker 1: use data from the Gaya Space Telescope to track the

1:31 Speaker 1: movements of over seven thousand massive stars in the Small

1:34 Speaker 1: Magellanic Cloud. These aren't just any stars. They're giants, more

1:39 Speaker 1: than eight times the size of our Sun, young enough

1:42 Speaker 1: that they typically live only a few million years before

1:45 Speaker 1: exploding as supernova. What they discovered was startling. The stars

1:49 Speaker 1: in the SMC were moving in opposite directions on either

1:52 Speaker 1: side of the galaxy, as if being pulled apart by

1:55 Speaker 1: some invisible force. Some stars are approaching the Large Magellanic

1:59 Speaker 1: Cloud while others are moving away from it, strong evidence

2:03 Speaker 1: of the larger galaxies gravitational influence. When we first got

2:08 Speaker 1: this result, we suspected that there might be an error

2:11 Speaker 1: in our method of analysis. Tachihara admitted, but the data

2:15 Speaker 1: was clear the SMC appears to be undergoing a slow

2:19 Speaker 1: motion destruction. Perhaps even more surprising was the finding that

2:22 Speaker 1: these massive stars, and likely the interstellar gas from which

2:26 Speaker 1: they formed, don't follow a rotational pattern. This suggests the

2:31 Speaker 1: small Magellanic cloud itself doesn't rotate as previously thought. As

2:36 Speaker 1: researcher Satoya Nakano points out, this could potentially change our

2:40 Speaker 1: understanding of the three way interaction between the Magellanic clouds

2:44 Speaker 1: and our own Milky Way galaxy. The findings offer us

2:47 Speaker 1: a rare front row seat to cosmic disruption and action,

2:50 Speaker 1: and may help astronomers better understand how galaxies evolve through

2:54 Speaker 1: gravitational interactions, a process happening throughout the universe but rarely

2:59 Speaker 1: observable in such detail. Next, let's get an update on

3:04 Speaker 1: the FRAM two mission, which just concluded. The first humans

3:07 Speaker 1: to ever experience a polar orbit of our planet are

3:10 Speaker 1: now sharing what it was like to see Earth from

3:12 Speaker 1: this unique vantage point. The FRAM two mission, named after

3:16 Speaker 1: the famous polar exploration vessel, launched on March thirty first,

3:21 Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, with SpaceX's crew Dragon Resilience, carrying an

3:25 Speaker 1: international crew of four on their groundbreaking journey. Unlike typical

3:29 Speaker 1: space missions that orbit roughly along Earth's equator, this crew

3:33 Speaker 1: ventured into a ninety degree inclined orbit, taking them directly

3:37 Speaker 1: over the North and South Poles during their three and

3:40 Speaker 1: a half day mission. This unprecedented trajectory gave them an

3:44 Speaker 1: entirely different perspective on our home planet. Mission Commander Chun Wang,

3:49 Speaker 1: who self funded this historic flight, described the experience in

3:53 Speaker 1: vivid terms. People say Earth is a blue marble, a

3:56 Speaker 1: blue planet, but to us in polar orbit, it's more

3:59 Speaker 1: like a frozen planet. It gives you a feeling of

4:01 Speaker 1: not the Earth, but another planet, an icy planet such

4:04 Speaker 1: as Jupiter or Saturn's moons. The crew, all of whom

4:08 Speaker 1: had previously completed expeditions to both Earth's poles on the ground,

4:12 Speaker 1: found themselves surprised by the stark difference between their expectations

4:16 Speaker 1: and reality. Medical officer and mission specialist Eric Phillips noted,

4:21 Speaker 1: I was expecting to see a lot more of the Earth,

4:23 Speaker 1: the brown Earth within the polar regions. When we looked

4:26 Speaker 1: at it from above, it was completely white. This is

4:30 Speaker 1: one of the most stark contrasts between the images that

4:32 Speaker 1: we see online of these various polar locations and what

4:35 Speaker 1: we experienced. Orientation proved particularly challenging in this unusual orbit.

4:41 Speaker 1: Vehicle commander Janika Mickelson recalled struggling to recognize her home

4:45 Speaker 1: in Spalbard, An archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. It took

4:49 Speaker 1: a few seconds before we identified it because depending on

4:52 Speaker 1: how we are positioned in the cupola, we're seeing it

4:54 Speaker 1: upside down, left, right, whatever. Now this disorientation wasn't just

4:59 Speaker 1: a curios It was part of several experiments conducted during

5:03 Speaker 1: the flight. The crew tested methods to reduce space adaptation

5:06 Speaker 1: sickness by finding familiar orientations. They also studied the aurora

5:10 Speaker 1: from above, capturing images of what Mickelson called ghost auroras

5:15 Speaker 1: and the wavelengths that go perpendicular to the aurora and

5:18 Speaker 1: the magnetic field. Interestingly, Wog noted that despite their privileged position,

5:23 Speaker 1: the auroras are beautiful from the capsule, but I think

5:25 Speaker 1: all Earthlings have the best perspective of auroras from the surface.

5:30 Speaker 1: The mission concluded with another first. The crew dragons splashed

5:33 Speaker 1: down in the Pacific Ocean rather than the Atlantic, part

5:37 Speaker 1: of SpaceX's transition to West Coast recovery operations. The crew

5:41 Speaker 1: attempted to exit the capsule independently, but quickly discovered how

5:45 Speaker 1: challenging readaptation to gravity could be after even such a

5:49 Speaker 1: short mission. I was so disappointed in my own body.

5:53 Speaker 1: After only three and a half days, Mickelson admitted, my

5:56 Speaker 1: body had completely forgotten what it's known its whole life,

5:59 Speaker 1: and that's gravity. Next up, China is preparing to take

6:04 Speaker 1: a significant step toward establishing a human presence on the

6:07 Speaker 1: Moon with plans to three D print building materials using

6:11 Speaker 1: lunar soil. The chong A eight spacecraft, scheduled to launch

6:15 Speaker 1: around twenty twenty eight, will carry revolutionary technology designed to

6:19 Speaker 1: transform the Moon's surface material into construction bricks without bringing

6:24 Speaker 1: manufacturing equipment from Earth. Wu Wherein, chief designer of the

6:28 Speaker 1: Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, recently revealed details about this ambitious project.

6:35 Speaker 1: Now we have developed the world's first device that produces

6:38 Speaker 1: bricks made of lunar soil. This system harnesses sunlight, collects

6:42 Speaker 1: solar energy, and transmits it to the Moon using fiber optics.

6:46 Speaker 1: Wu explained the ingenious system works by concentrating sunlight to

6:50 Speaker 1: achieve temperatures between fourteen hundred to fifteen hundred degrees celsius

6:55 Speaker 1: hot enough to melt lunar soil. The device then uses

6:58 Speaker 1: three D printing technology to shape this molten material into

7:02 Speaker 1: bricks of various specifications. What makes this approach particularly valuable

7:07 Speaker 1: is that it eliminates the need to transport water and

7:09 Speaker 1: other materials from Earth, significantly reducing mission costs. This technology

7:14 Speaker 1: represents a major advancement in what space agencies call in

7:18 Speaker 1: situ resource utilization, the practice of using materials already present

7:23 Speaker 1: at the destination rather than carrying everything from Earth. Given

7:27 Speaker 1: the extreme expense of launching anything into space, utilizing lunar

7:31 Speaker 1: resources could dramatically expand possibilities for sustainable lunar exploration and

7:36 Speaker 1: eventual habitation. The brickmaking experiment is part of China's broader

7:41 Speaker 1: lunar exploration roadmap before Chang eights brickmaking mission, China will

7:46 Speaker 1: launch Chang seven in twenty twenty six to explore resources

7:49 Speaker 1: at the Moon's south Pole, with a particular focus on

7:52 Speaker 1: searching for water ice. If substantial water is found, it

7:56 Speaker 1: could provide drinking water, oxygen, and even rocket fuel for

7:59 Speaker 1: future misis. China has already begun Testing the concept on

8:03 Speaker 1: a smaller scale, the country has sent samples of bricks

8:06 Speaker 1: made from lunar soil simulant to its Tiangong space station,

8:11 Speaker 1: where they'll remain exposed to the harsh conditions of space

8:13 Speaker 1: for three years to test their durability. These efforts follow

8:18 Speaker 1: China's impressive series of successful lunar missions, including the historic

8:22 Speaker 1: Changai six far side sample return last year. The country

8:26 Speaker 1: is also planning to land its first astronauts on the

8:28 Speaker 1: lunar surface before twenty thirty, potentially using technologies like these

8:33 Speaker 1: three D printed bricks to establish more permanent infrastructure. Moving on,

8:38 Speaker 1: in an astronomical plot twist, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

8:42 Speaker 1: has rewritten our understanding of what happens when a star

8:45 Speaker 1: devours a planet. Observing what scientists believed to be the

8:49 Speaker 1: first star caught in the act of swallowing a planet,

8:52 Speaker 1: web has revealed a surprising mechanism behind this cosmic catastrophe.

8:56 Speaker 1: Located about twelve thousand light years away in our Milky

8:59 Speaker 1: Way galaxy, the star system known as ZTFSLRN twenty twenty

9:04 Speaker 1: was originally spotted when it flashed brightly in optical light

9:08 Speaker 1: initial theories suggested that as the star aged, it had

9:11 Speaker 1: swelled into a red giant, gradually engulfing its nearby planet,

9:15 Speaker 1: a process astronomers believed might one day happen to our

9:18 Speaker 1: own inner planets as the Sun expands. However, Webb's Mid

9:22 Speaker 1: Infrared Instrument MIRY told a completely different story. With its

9:26 Speaker 1: unprecedented sensitivity and resolution, WEB measured the hidden emission from

9:30 Speaker 1: the star with remarkable precision. What the telescope found was

9:34 Speaker 1: that the star wasn't as bright as it should have

9:36 Speaker 1: been if it had evolved into a red giant. This

9:40 Speaker 1: means there was no stellar swelling to envelop the planet

9:42 Speaker 1: as previously thought. Instead, Webb's data suggests that the jupiter

9:47 Speaker 1: sized planet's orbit gradually decayed over millions of years, bringing

9:51 Speaker 1: it closer and closer to its star, much closer than

9:54 Speaker 1: mercury orbits our Sun. Eventually, the planet began grazing the

9:58 Speaker 1: star's atmosphere, triggering a runaway process. The planet, as it's

10:03 Speaker 1: falling in started to sort of smear around the star,

10:07 Speaker 1: explained team member Morgan macloud of the Harvard Smithsonian Center

10:10 Speaker 1: for Astrophysics. This final planetary plunge blasted gas from the

10:14 Speaker 1: star's outer layers, which expanded and cooled, forming a cloud

10:18 Speaker 1: of dust. Over the following year, Webb's Near infrared spectrograph

10:22 Speaker 1: added another surprise, detecting a hot circumstellar disc of molecular

10:26 Speaker 1: gas containing carbon monoxide, reminiscent of a planet forming region.

10:31 Speaker 1: Though planets certainly aren't forming here, this cosmic autopsy provides

10:35 Speaker 1: valuable insights into the fate that might await planets in

10:38 Speaker 1: other systems, and potentially our own Solar system in the

10:41 Speaker 1: distant future. The researchers hope this is just the beginning

10:45 Speaker 1: of understanding these dramatic stellar events, with NASA's upcoming Nancy

10:48 Speaker 1: Grace Roman Space Telescope expected to detect more examples of

10:52 Speaker 1: stars consuming their planetary companions. Finally, today we head back

10:57 Speaker 1: to the Moon for a look at some more innovation.

11:00 Speaker 1: Our understanding of the Moon has advanced considerably thanks to

11:03 Speaker 1: the Apollo missions and robotic explorers, but there's still much

11:07 Speaker 1: to learn about our closest celestial neighbor. To tackle this

11:11 Speaker 1: knowledge gap and prepare for future lunar habitation, scientists are

11:15 Speaker 1: now proposing an innovative exploration method, subsurface robots. A team

11:21 Speaker 1: of researchers has developed a concept called Pleaser, persistent lunar

11:25 Speaker 1: exploration with autonomous subsurface robots. This mission would feature a

11:30 Speaker 1: snakelike robot specifically designed to penetrate the lunar regolith, allowing

11:34 Speaker 1: unprecedented access to what lies beneath the Moon's surface. Unlike

11:39 Speaker 1: traditional rovers that can only study surface features, Pleaser would

11:43 Speaker 1: be able to burrow into the regolith and even slither

11:45 Speaker 1: into skylights collapse sections that provide access to underground lava tubes.

11:51 Speaker 1: These subsurface caverns are particularly exciting as potential sites for

11:55 Speaker 1: future lunar bases since they offer natural protection from the

11:58 Speaker 1: harsh lunar environment. Just like on Earth, the different layers

12:02 Speaker 1: tell the history of the area you are in, explains

12:05 Speaker 1: Jared Longfox, a planetary exploration research scientist involved in the research.

12:10 Speaker 1: On the Moon, there is no wind or flowing water,

12:13 Speaker 1: so the main processes that shape the surface are impacts.

12:17 Speaker 1: The robot's snakelike configuration would allow it to measure critical

12:20 Speaker 1: properties of the lunar soil, including strength, thermal conductivity, and

12:25 Speaker 1: dielectric properties. It could also detect the presence of valuable

12:28 Speaker 1: resources like water ice, crucial for sustainable lunar exploration and

12:32 Speaker 1: habitation for power, the team has explored multiple options. One

12:37 Speaker 1: intriguing design features solar panels embedded along the robot's body

12:41 Speaker 1: that could be deployed when it surfaces to bathe in

12:43 Speaker 1: the sun. This would allow the robot to operate during

12:46 Speaker 1: lunar daytime while exploring the subsurface regardless of external conditions.

12:52 Speaker 1: Beyond scientific discovery, these robots could identify areas suitable for

12:56 Speaker 1: developing lunar infrastructure, like habitats, roadways, and lands. They could

13:01 Speaker 1: even deploy subsurface sensors like seismometers to study the Moon's

13:05 Speaker 1: interior structure, instruments that are notoriously difficult to place effectively

13:09 Speaker 1: on the surface. Looking further ahead, researcher Adrian Stoica speculates

13:15 Speaker 1: that advanced versions of these robots might someday create subsurface

13:19 Speaker 1: tunnels for lunar habitats. These maybe like the machines that

13:22 Speaker 1: build underground tunnels, but perhaps more in the formation of

13:25 Speaker 1: teams rather than a big machine. He suggests, as we

13:29 Speaker 1: plan for a sustained human presence on the Moon, these

13:32 Speaker 1: subsurface explorers could prove essential in both unlocking the secrets

13:36 Speaker 1: of lunar geology and paving the way for our future

13:39 Speaker 1: among the stars. But isn't it a wild idea that

13:42 Speaker 1: sounds plausible that wraps up our cosmic journey for today?

13:48 Speaker 1: What a remarkable collection of stories that remind us just

13:50 Speaker 1: how dynamic our universe truly is. From the large Magellanic

13:55 Speaker 1: Cloud potentially tearing apart its smaller companion, to humans experiencing

13:59 Speaker 1: Earth from polar orbit for the first time, we're constantly

14:02 Speaker 1: gaining new perspectives on our place in the cosmos. The

14:06 Speaker 1: innovations we discussed today paint an exciting picture of our

14:09 Speaker 1: future in space. China's plans to three D print bricks

14:12 Speaker 1: from lunar soil by twenty twenty eight could revolutionize how

14:16 Speaker 1: we approach building offworld. Meanwhile, the proposed snakelike pleaser robots

14:21 Speaker 1: might soon be slithering beneath the lunar surface, uncovering secrets

14:25 Speaker 1: hidden for billions of years. Perhaps most humbling is Web's

14:29 Speaker 1: observation of a planet's final moments as it spiraled into

14:32 Speaker 1: its star. These cosmic autopsies not only satisfy our curiosity,

14:37 Speaker 1: but also provide glimpses into possible futures for planetary systems.

14:41 Speaker 1: Throughout the universe, including our own. The pace of discovery

14:45 Speaker 1: in astronomy and space exploration continues to accelerate, revealing a

14:49 Speaker 1: universe more complex and fascinating than we ever imagined. Each

14:53 Speaker 1: new finding raises fresh questions and ignites our desire to

14:57 Speaker 1: explore further. This is Anna, having been your host on

15:01 Speaker 1: Astronomy Daily, and today a small request from me to you.

15:06 Speaker 1: If you're enjoying Astronomy Daily, how about sharing us with

15:08 Speaker 1: any family or friends who you think might get some

15:11 Speaker 1: benefit from our stories and news updates. I'd really appreciate that,

15:15 Speaker 1: And with that, I'm out of here. Thank you for

15:17 Speaker 1: joining me on this journey through the Cosmos. Until next time,

15:20 Speaker 1: keep looking up Stars, All star s.