Galactic Wonders, Record Launches, and Cometary Intrigue: S03E246

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

0:03 Speaker 1: astronomy news. I'm your host, Anna, and today, as we

0:06 Speaker 1: close out twenty twenty four, we've got an exciting lineup

0:09 Speaker 1: of stories from stellar explosions to perfect planetary systems and

0:13 Speaker 1: upcoming cometary visitors. To get us started, let's take a

0:17 Speaker 1: look at the latest stunning image from our most venerable

0:19 Speaker 1: space based telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope has captured another

0:24 Speaker 1: breathtaking image, this time showcasing the galaxy Lyda two two

0:30 Speaker 1: zero five seven, located approximately six hundred and fifty million

0:34 Speaker 1: light years away in the constellation Gemini. What makes this

0:38 Speaker 1: observation particularly special is the presence of a spectacular supernova

0:42 Speaker 1: explosion designated as SN twenty twenty four PI, which was

0:47 Speaker 1: first detected in January twenty twenty four. In the image,

0:51 Speaker 1: you can spot the supernova as a pale blue dot

0:54 Speaker 1: just below and to the right of the galaxy's core,

0:57 Speaker 1: creating a striking contrast against the galaxies ethereal spiral arms.

1:02 Speaker 1: This snapshot, taken about six weeks after its initial discovery,

1:06 Speaker 1: shows the supernova significantly dimmer than at its peak brightness.

1:10 Speaker 1: What's fascinating about Sn twenty twenty four Pi is that

1:14 Speaker 1: it's classified as a type IA supernova, which occurs through

1:18 Speaker 1: a remarkable process involving a white dwarf star. These white

1:22 Speaker 1: dwarfs are essentially the crystallized cores of stars that were

1:25 Speaker 1: originally less massive than eight times our Sun. They're incredibly

1:29 Speaker 1: dense objects, packing roughly the mass of our Sun into

1:32 Speaker 1: a sphere the size of Earth, with surface temperatures exceeding

1:35 Speaker 1: one hundred thousand degrees. The formation of this type of

1:39 Speaker 1: supernova requires a specific set of circumstances. The white dwarf

1:43 Speaker 1: must be part of a binary star system, where it

1:46 Speaker 1: can siphon material from its stellar companion. When the white

1:49 Speaker 1: dwarf accumulates too much mass, it reaches a critical point

1:52 Speaker 1: where it can no longer support itself. This triggers a

1:56 Speaker 1: catastrophic chain of runaway nuclear fusion, resulting in an explosion

2:00 Speaker 1: so bright it can be observed across vast distances of space.

2:05 Speaker 1: This process is particularly interesting because it represents the eventual

2:08 Speaker 1: fate of many stars in our galaxy, including our own Sun,

2:12 Speaker 1: though not all will end in such spectacular explosions. The

2:15 Speaker 1: discovery and observation of supernovae like SN twenty twenty four

2:19 Speaker 1: PI help astronomers better understand stellar revolution and the fundamental

2:23 Speaker 1: processes that shape our universe Next Up. Twenty twenty four

2:28 Speaker 1: has proven to be a record breaking year for space launches,

2:31 Speaker 1: with an unprecedented two hundred and fifty nine orbital missions

2:35 Speaker 1: successfully placing over two thousand, seven hundred payloads into orbit

2:39 Speaker 1: and beyond. SpaceX dominated the landscape with an astounding one

2:42 Speaker 1: hundred and thirty four launches, accounting for eighty five percent

2:46 Speaker 1: of all payloads delivered to space, including more than one thousand,

2:50 Speaker 1: nine hundred Starlink satellites. The United States and China emerged

2:54 Speaker 1: as the primary launch providers, together handling eighty percent of

2:58 Speaker 1: all orbital traffic. The US led with fifty four percent

3:02 Speaker 1: of launches, while China maintained a strong presence with twenty

3:06 Speaker 1: six percent. Despite launching more missions than in twenty twenty three,

3:10 Speaker 1: China matched its previous year's success rate of sixty five

3:13 Speaker 1: orbital missions, following an anomaly with their final Ligion I

3:17 Speaker 1: rocket launch. Rocket Lab showed impressive growth, achieving sixteen successful missions,

3:23 Speaker 1: a sixty percent increase from their previous year. Meanwhile, Russia's

3:27 Speaker 1: launch activities continued their gradual decline, ending the year with

3:31 Speaker 1: seventeen flights. India and Europe each conducted a handful of missions,

3:35 Speaker 1: but are positioning themselves for increased activity in twenty twenty five.

3:39 Speaker 1: The final quarter of twenty twenty four was particularly intense,

3:43 Speaker 1: featuring a record breaking streak of fourteen launches within just

3:46 Speaker 1: seven days. During November and December averaged nearly one launch

3:50 Speaker 1: per day with thirty orbital attempts. SpaceX achieved several significant milestones,

3:57 Speaker 1: including their four hundredth orbital launch in October and their

4:00 Speaker 1: four hundredth Falcon nine flight in November. Looking ahead to

4:04 Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, the space industry shows no signs of

4:07 Speaker 1: slowing down. Blue Origin is preparing for the highly anticipated

4:11 Speaker 1: debut of their new Glen heavy lift launch vehicle, while

4:14 Speaker 1: SpaceX continues to expand their Starlink constellation and commercial launch services.

4:20 Speaker 1: These developments signal an exciting new chapter in space exploration,

4:24 Speaker 1: with increasing launch cadence and capabilities across the industry. The

4:29 Speaker 1: year's achievements demonstrate not just the growing commercialization of space,

4:33 Speaker 1: but also the incredible reliability and efficiency of modern launch systems,

4:37 Speaker 1: setting new standards for what's possible in space access and

4:41 Speaker 1: orbital operations. While on the subject of successful launches, India's

4:46 Speaker 1: space program has marked another significant milestone with the successful

4:50 Speaker 1: launch of their space docking experiment, known as SPADEX. The

4:55 Speaker 1: mission lifted off on December thirtieth from the Satish Dowan

4:59 Speaker 1: Space Center aboard of Polar Satellite launch vehicle, carrying two

5:03 Speaker 1: specialized spacecraft designed to test crucial docking technologies. The mission

5:09 Speaker 1: features two two hundred twenty kilogram spacecraft, a chaser and

5:12 Speaker 1: a target, placed into precise four hundred seventy five kilometers

5:16 Speaker 1: circular orbits. These spacecraft are equipped with advanced technology, including

5:21 Speaker 1: a low impact docking system, laser range finders, and sophisticated

5:25 Speaker 1: sensors to enable precise orbital maneuvers. What makes this mission

5:29 Speaker 1: particularly noteworthy is its role in India's broader space ambitions.

5:34 Speaker 1: The technology being tested is essential for India's Gagannion program,

5:37 Speaker 1: which aims to make India only the fourth nation capable

5:40 Speaker 1: of independent human spaceflight. The first crude mission under this

5:44 Speaker 1: program is scheduled for twenty twenty six, following uncrued test

5:47 Speaker 1: flights planned for twenty twenty five, but the implications extend

5:51 Speaker 1: beyond human spaceflight. These docking capabilities will be crucial for

5:55 Speaker 1: India's ambitious Chandrion four lunar mission, targeted for twenty twenty

5:59 Speaker 1: seven or TIX twenty eight. This mission plans to collect

6:02 Speaker 1: samples from the Moon's south pole and return them to Earth,

6:06 Speaker 1: a feat that requires precise orbital docking maneuvers to transfer

6:10 Speaker 1: the precious lunar samples from the ascent vehicle to the

6:13 Speaker 1: return spacecraft. The mission's secondary payload module, POEM four, carried

6:19 Speaker 1: twenty four different experiments, including innovative technologies like a walking

6:23 Speaker 1: robotic arm, a debriscapture system, and various research modules. This

6:28 Speaker 1: demonstrates India's commitment to maximizing the scientific value of each

6:32 Speaker 1: launch while advancing their technological capabilities. The successful deployment of

6:37 Speaker 1: both spacecraft marks just the beginning of this experimental mission.

6:41 Speaker 1: The actual docking maneuver, scheduled for early January, will be

6:45 Speaker 1: the true test of these new capabilities. If successful, it

6:49 Speaker 1: will represent a major step forward in India's journey toward

6:52 Speaker 1: becoming a complete spacefaring nation. Twenty twenty four proved to

6:57 Speaker 1: be a particularly challenging year for NASA, with several dramatic

7:00 Speaker 1: developments testing the agency's resilience and problem solving capabilities. Perhaps

7:05 Speaker 1: most notably, what began as a routine mission turned into

7:09 Speaker 1: an extended stay aboard the International Space Station for astronauts

7:13 Speaker 1: Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore. Their Boeing Starliner spacecraft encountered

7:19 Speaker 1: issues with helium leaks and thruster problems during its approach

7:22 Speaker 1: to the ISS, leading NASA to make the cautious decision

7:26 Speaker 1: to return the spacecraft empty, leaving the crew stranded until

7:29 Speaker 1: at least February twenty twenty five. In an ironic twist,

7:34 Speaker 1: these Boeing test pilots will ultimately return home aboard a

7:36 Speaker 1: space X Dragon spacecraft, extending their intended three month mission

7:40 Speaker 1: to eight and a half months. This situation highlighted the

7:44 Speaker 1: ongoing challenges in developing reliable commercial crew transportation systems. On Mars,

7:49 Speaker 1: we witness the bittersweet end of an extraordinary mission, as

7:53 Speaker 1: the Ingenuity helicopter made its final flight on January eighteenth.

7:57 Speaker 1: While its crash landing marked the conclusion of its journey,

8:00 Speaker 1: Ingenuity had far exceeded all expectations, completing seventy one flights

8:05 Speaker 1: over nearly three years when it was originally designed for

8:07 Speaker 1: just a handful of demonstrations over thirty days, this small

8:12 Speaker 1: one point eight kilogram helicopter proved that powered flight was

8:15 Speaker 1: possible in Mars's extremely thin atmosphere equivalent to Earth's atmosphere

8:19 Speaker 1: at eighty thousand feet. The Europa Clipper mission faced its

8:23 Speaker 1: own dramatic challenges. Just months before launch, engineers discovered hundreds

8:28 Speaker 1: of potentially compromised transistors that might not withstand Jupiter's intense

8:32 Speaker 1: radiation belts. After four months of round the clock testing,

8:36 Speaker 1: they found a workable solution by maintaining the transistors at

8:40 Speaker 1: room temperature, though this required additional power from the spacecraft's

8:44 Speaker 1: massive solar panels. In a final dramatic turn, one of

8:48 Speaker 1: the most intense Gulf of Mexico hurricanes ever recorded threatened

8:52 Speaker 1: the mission's launch. Fortunately, the storm weakened as it crossed Florida,

8:57 Speaker 1: allowing the spacecraft to launch successfully during a backup window.

9:02 Speaker 1: The Europa Clipper is now en route to its twenty

9:05 Speaker 1: twenty five Mars flyby, which will help propel it toward

9:08 Speaker 1: its ultimate destination at Jupiter. All in all, quite a

9:12 Speaker 1: challenging year for NASA now on to an exciting discovery.

9:17 Speaker 1: Located just one hundred and five light years away in

9:20 Speaker 1: the constellation Coma Baronesis, astronomers have discovered a remarkable star

9:25 Speaker 1: system that's been dubbed mathematically perfect. The star HD one

9:30 Speaker 1: to one zero zero six seven hosts six exoplanets that

9:34 Speaker 1: orbit in an incredibly synchronized dance, locked together by gravitational

9:38 Speaker 1: forces in a precise cosmic choreography. While this celestial ballet

9:43 Speaker 1: initially suggested a mature, well established system, new research has

9:47 Speaker 1: dramatically revised our understanding of its age. Previous estimates using

9:51 Speaker 1: traditional stellar aging methods, placed the system at around eight

9:54 Speaker 1: billion years old. However, a fresh analysis of the star's

9:58 Speaker 1: activity levels and rotation rates suggest us it's actually much younger,

10:01 Speaker 1: only about two point five billion years old. The team

10:05 Speaker 1: reached this conclusion by examining telltale signs of stellar youth,

10:09 Speaker 1: including higher levels of ionized calcium in the star's atmosphere

10:13 Speaker 1: and a faster rotation rate compared to older stars like

10:15 Speaker 1: our sun. HD one one zero zero six seven completes

10:19 Speaker 1: one rotation in about twenty earth days, while our more

10:22 Speaker 1: elderly son takes at least twenty seven days, indicating this

10:25 Speaker 1: star is still in its relative youth. This discovery of

10:29 Speaker 1: the system's younger age has important implications for potential habitability.

10:33 Speaker 1: While the six known planets orbit too close to their

10:36 Speaker 1: parent star to support life as we know it, there

10:39 Speaker 1: could be additional undiscovered planets in more temperate zones. However,

10:43 Speaker 1: the star's younger age means it's likely still producing intense

10:46 Speaker 1: radiation that could make life challenging on any world's orbiting

10:50 Speaker 1: within its habitable zone. What makes this system particularly fascinating

10:54 Speaker 1: is how quickly its planets achieved their perfect orbital resonance,

10:59 Speaker 1: rather than require billions of years of gradual settling. Researchers

11:03 Speaker 1: now believe this synchronized orbital pattern may have established itself

11:07 Speaker 1: in as little as one billion years through gravitational interactions

11:10 Speaker 1: between the planets. As we look ahead to early twenty

11:14 Speaker 1: twenty five, skywatchers have an exciting visitor to anticipate. Comet Atlas,

11:19 Speaker 1: officially designated C twenty twenty four G three, is making

11:23 Speaker 1: its way toward the Inner Solar System and could provide

11:26 Speaker 1: quite a spectacle, particularly for observers in the southern hemisphere.

11:30 Speaker 1: The comet is scheduled to reach its closest approach to

11:33 Speaker 1: the Sun on January thirteenth, twenty twenty five, coming within

11:37 Speaker 1: a mere eight point three million miles of our star.

11:41 Speaker 1: To put that in perspective, that significantly closer than Mercury's

11:44 Speaker 1: closest approach to the Sun. This close encounter means the

11:47 Speaker 1: comet could potentially shine as brightly as Venus in our

11:50 Speaker 1: night sky. However, this extremely close solar approach comes with

11:54 Speaker 1: risks for the comet itself. While analysis of its orbital

11:58 Speaker 1: paths suggests it previously visited the inner Solar System about

12:01 Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty thousand years ago, there's no guarantee

12:05 Speaker 1: it will survive this encounter. The intense heat from such

12:08 Speaker 1: a close solar pass could potentially cause the comet to

12:10 Speaker 1: break apart. If Atlas does survive its solar encounter, observers

12:15 Speaker 1: in the southern Hemisphere will be ideally positioned to view

12:17 Speaker 1: it in the western sky after sunset. The timing isn't perfect, though,

12:21 Speaker 1: as the full moon on January thirteenth will create some interference,

12:25 Speaker 1: but viewing conditions should improve each subsequent evening as the

12:29 Speaker 1: moon rises later. The comet was first spotted on April fifth,

12:32 Speaker 1: twenty twenty four by the Asteroid Terrestrial Impact Last Alert

12:36 Speaker 1: System or ATLAS, which gives the comet its name. Like

12:41 Speaker 1: many of its kind, it originates from the ort cloud,

12:44 Speaker 1: that vast sphere of icy bodies surrounding our Solar System.

12:49 Speaker 1: Whether it survives its close encounter with the Sun or not,

12:52 Speaker 1: Comet Atlas promises to provide an interesting start to the

12:55 Speaker 1: astronomical calendar of twenty twenty five, and that brings us

13:00 Speaker 1: to the end of today's episode of Astronomy Daily. Thank

13:03 Speaker 1: you for joining me on this journey through the latest

13:05 Speaker 1: developments in space exploration and astronomical discoveries. If you want

13:10 Speaker 1: to stay up to date with all the latest space

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13:16 Speaker 1: where our newsfeed is constantly updating with the freshest stories

13:19 Speaker 1: from across the Cosmos. While you're there, you can also

13:22 Speaker 1: catch up on all our previous episodes. Looking to connect

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13:38 Speaker 1: is Anna wishing you a happy New Year and signing

13:41 Speaker 1: off until tomorrow's cosmic update. Keep looking up. There's always

13:45 Speaker 1: something amazing happening in our universe.

13:50 Speaker 2: Star the band stories control