Giant Planets, Cosmic Puzzles, and China's Rocket Revolution

0:00 Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm

0:02 your host, Anna, and I'm really excited to

0:04 bring you your daily dose of cosmic

0:05 happenings. Today we've got some really cool

0:08 stuff to talk about. From a giant planet

0:10 orbiting a tiny star to a weird star that

0:13 might just solve one of astronomy's biggest

0:15 mysteries. We will also cover China's

0:17 reusable rocket and two galaxy clusters about

0:20 to crash into each other again. So buckle up

0:22 space fans. It's going to be an awesome ride.

0:26 First up, we're diving into the head

0:28 scratching discovery of a giant planet,

0:31 TOI 6894

0:33 b, orbiting a red dwarf star

0:36 called TOI 6894.

0:39 Now, this star is tiny. I mean, we're talking

0:42 about one fifth the size of our sun, which

0:45 makes the discovery of this planet like a

0:47 huge surprise. See, these small

0:50 stars weren't thought to have enough material

0:52 to even form giant planets. But there

0:55 it is, TOI

0:56 6894B, a

0:59 gas giant roughly the size of Saturn.

1:02 It's kinda like finding a fully grown

1:04 elephant living in a mousehole, you know,

1:06 this discovery kinda turns our understanding

1:09 of planet formation on its head. The current

1:11 theory suggests that the amount of material

1:13 in the disc around a star which eventually

1:15 forms planets is proportional to the star's

1:18 mass. So a tiny star shouldn't have enough

1:21 stuff to make a giant planet. But apparently

1:24 nature loves to throw curveballs.

1:27 Now, because TOI6894B

1:30 has such deep transits, I mean, when it

1:32 passes in front of its star, it blocks a

1:34 whopping 17% of the light. It's a perfect

1:37 candidate for atmosphere study. A team of

1:39 astronomers has already applied for time with

1:42 the James Webb Space Telescope to do

1:45 just that. They are hoping to find a lot of

1:47 methane in the exoplanet's atmosphere.

1:49 That'll give us a better idea of how this

1:51 planet formed and maybe help us refine our

1:54 planet formation theories. Pretty cool, huh?

1:56 Huh?

1:58 Next up, let's talk about a really odd star,

2:01 limos J 0804

2:04 5740, residing in what's

2:06 known as the Gaia Sausage. And no, it's not a

2:09 galactic deli item. The Gaia Sausage is

2:12 actually the remains of a dwarf galaxy that

2:14 merged with our Milky Way billions of years

2:16 ago. Now, this star, it may just help us

2:19 solve one of astronomy's big mysteries. Where

2:22 did the universe's heaviest elements come

2:24 from? These elements, like uranium and

2:26 thorium, are created through something called

2:29 the R process. That's a rapid

2:31 neutron capture process, essentially

2:34 Atomic nuclei rapidly grab neutrons in

2:36 extreme environments like neutron star

2:39 mergers or supernovas, creating heavier

2:41 elements. But here's the thing. We haven't

2:44 quite figured out all the sources of the R

2:46 process, and that's where Lemost J

2:48 08045740

2:51 comes in. This star is what they call an

2:54 actinide boost star, meaning it has a high

2:56 abundance of radioactive elements, actinides.

2:59 So the star's unusual composition provides

3:02 new clues about the different types of R

3:04 process events that can occur in the

3:06 universe. By studying it, astronomers, hope

3:09 to better understand where these heavy

3:11 elements come from and how they're created.

3:14 It's like piecing together a cosmic puzzle,

3:16 you know? You okay?

3:19 So shifting gears a little, let's head over

3:21 to China where a rocket startup called Space

3:23 Epic, or Sepok if you like it short,

3:26 recently showed off its reusable rocket

3:28 booster, the Yangxing Zhi one. They had a

3:31 test launch and get this, it did a soft

3:32 landing right in the ocean. I mean, sadly

3:35 it sank afterwards, but hey, the launch and

3:38 the test were still a success. Apparently the

3:41 whole point was to test things like the

3:43 engine's thrust control, shutdown and restart

3:45 capabilities. Plus they tested free descent,

3:48 gliding and hovering before splashdown.

3:50 Pretty cool right? Now this Yangxing Zhe

3:52 booster is kinda interesting. It's made from

3:54 lightweight, thin walled aluminium, stainless

3:56 steel and runs on liquid oxygen and methane.

3:59 It's about 4.2 metres in diameter and almost

4:01 27 metres tall. Now I know what you're

4:04 thinking, how does this stack up against

4:06 SpaceX? Well, SpaceX's Falcon 9

4:08 booster is a bit narrower, but it's taller.

4:11 And speaking of SpaceX, it's kind of wild how

4:13 they've turned landing and reusing boosters

4:16 into like a near daily thing. Meanwhile,

4:19 China is catching up with a bunch of space

4:21 startups popping up recently. And

4:24 you know, with China working on its own mega

4:26 satellite constellation and planning some

4:28 seriously ambitious missions, including their

4:31 own version of the Hubble telescope, it's

4:33 clear they are becoming a major player in

4:35 space exploration. Space Epoch is

4:38 hoping to reach orbit later this year. So

4:41 yeah, it's definitely going to be interesting

4:43 to see what these China based startups do in

4:44 the coming years.

4:47 Alright. Ah, next up in our cosmic headlines,

4:49 NASA's Chandra X Ray Observatory has spotted

4:51 something pretty wild. We're talking about

4:54 two galaxy clusters known as PSZ2

4:57 G1, 81.06 plus

4:59 48.47 that have already collided once and

5:02 are now heading back for a second smash up.

5:05 Now, galaxy clusters just so, you know, are

5:07 like the biggest structures in the universe

5:10 held together by gravity. They're basically

5:12 massive collections of galaxies, superheated

5:15 gas, and dark matter. These two

5:18 clusters are about 2.8 billion light years

5:20 away. And after their first collision, they

5:23 created these huge parentheses shaped shock

5:25 fronts, kind of like sonic booms, but on a

5:28 cosmic scale. These shock fronts are now

5:31 separated by about 11 million light years,

5:33 which is apparently the largest separation

5:35 astronomers have ever seen. But get this.

5:38 Chandra and XMM Newton data show that these

5:41 clusters are now slowing down and turning

5:43 around for another collision. Astronomers

5:46 have spotted three new shock fronts that seem

5:48 to be early signs of this second crash.

5:51 What's really interesting is that the total

5:53 mass of this system is less than other

5:56 colliding galaxy clusters, making it a pretty

5:59 unusual case. This event is

6:02 giving scientists a, peek into the dynamics

6:04 of these massive structures and how they

6:07 evolve over time.

6:10 So that's your Astronomy Daily News summary

6:12 for today. From a tiny star with a giant

6:14 planet to colliding galaxy clusters, I've

6:17 been your host, Anna, and I hope you enjoyed

6:19 our little tour of the cosmos. For all the

6:22 latest space and astronomy news, don't forget

6:24 to visit our website at astronomydaily IO

6:27 where you can catch up on our constantly

6:29 updating news feed. Until tomorrow, thanks

6:31 for tuning in and keep looking up

6:47 stories.

6:55 We told.