Jupiter's Opposition, Ultra-Massive Black Holes, and the Solar Battle Zone: S03E227

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome again to Astronomy Daily. It is the ninth of

0:03 Speaker 1: December twenty twenty four. Poda, I mean your whole Steve Dunkle,

0:15 Speaker 1: Hello again. I'm Steve Dunkley, your host once again, and

0:18 Speaker 1: joining me once again is my digital Powell, who's fun

0:22 Speaker 1: to be with. Here's Hallie.

0:24 Speaker 2: Great to be here again. I hope you've found a

0:26 Speaker 2: couple of tasty stories.

0:27 Speaker 1: Oh, I think I found one or two, and I

0:30 Speaker 1: thought we might double up on one of the stories

0:31 Speaker 1: because the King of Planets is putting in a special

0:34 Speaker 1: showing that would.

0:34 Speaker 2: Be part of my skywatching report for December, wouldn't it.

0:37 Speaker 1: That's right, But Jupiter is so interesting, I thought we'd

0:40 Speaker 1: do a bit of an extended story.

0:42 Speaker 2: That sounds nifty.

0:43 Speaker 1: Yes, it is nifty.

0:44 Speaker 2: So what else is on the menu?

0:45 Speaker 1: Well, it's normally me that's asking you that. But you've

0:48 Speaker 1: been off working with Anna all week on her shows,

0:50 Speaker 1: haven't you.

0:51 Speaker 2: Well she's prolific, she's like a machine.

0:54 Speaker 1: Well I wasn't going to say anything, is.

0:56 Speaker 2: That an ai Joe?

0:57 Speaker 1: No? No, no, yes, no, no, no.

0:59 Speaker 2: Just observing she works so hard.

1:02 Speaker 1: Yes, listeners will know that she does the episodes Tuesday

1:04 Speaker 1: from Saturday.

1:05 Speaker 2: That's a lot of work, all right.

1:07 Speaker 1: You'll get no argument from me.

1:08 Speaker 2: And someone has to run the studio.

1:10 Speaker 1: And no one does a bitter than you. Helly, I

1:12 Speaker 1: do too, You do too. You and animeke a great team. Now, Helly,

1:16 Speaker 1: can I ask you? I know we had a couple

1:19 Speaker 1: of other stories here. You had my running sheet, can

1:22 Speaker 1: you see it?

1:22 Speaker 2: You had one about massive black holes. That sounds very interesting.

1:26 Speaker 1: Yes, black holes here doesn't lock.

1:27 Speaker 2: Black holes always interesting. Here.

1:29 Speaker 1: It's all about Jupiter and black holes today.

1:31 Speaker 2: So let's get into it.

1:33 Speaker 1: Okay, let's go.

1:41 Speaker 2: Jupiter reached its long awaited opposition on December seventh, when

1:44 Speaker 2: it lay in Taurus with a declination of just over

1:46 Speaker 2: twenty two degrees, which placed it about as high in

1:49 Speaker 2: the northern sky as it ever gets. It's been twelve

1:52 Speaker 2: years since Jupiter was this well placed. Jupiter's next opposition,

1:57 Speaker 2: on January tenth, twenty twenty six, in Gemini, is equally favorable. Unfortunately,

2:03 Speaker 2: there's no opposition in twenty twenty five. Jupiter blazes brightly,

2:07 Speaker 2: marking it out as an unmistakable object, outshining by some

2:10 Speaker 2: distance all the stars in the night sky, even scintillating

2:13 Speaker 2: serious Jupiter offers an oblate disc some forty eight point

2:17 Speaker 2: one arc seconds across, substantially larger than any other planet

2:21 Speaker 2: and more than twice the size of Venus. This month,

2:23 Speaker 2: the only planet that can appear larger on opposition night,

2:27 Speaker 2: Jupiter rises at three forty five pm Greenwich mean time

2:29 Speaker 2: from London, climbs thirty degrees high by seven to fifteen pm,

2:33 Speaker 2: and transits the southern Meridian. Culminates at eleven fifty PM,

2:36 Speaker 2: when it lies between fifty six and sixty one degrees high,

2:39 Speaker 2: appearing lower further northwards in the UK, night owls will

2:43 Speaker 2: be able to observe Jupiter until at least four thirty am,

2:46 Speaker 2: a more than nine hour window, allowing plenty of time

2:48 Speaker 2: for long imaging runs and for observers to carefully scrutinize

2:51 Speaker 2: Jupiter's dynamic cloud tops. By the end of the year,

2:55 Speaker 2: Jupiter remains above thirty degrees in elevation from London between

2:58 Speaker 2: five thirty pm to two thirds am. Grab a pair

3:02 Speaker 2: of ten by fifty binoculars, and Jupiter will show a

3:04 Speaker 2: small perceptible disc which at opposition spans a very impressive

3:08 Speaker 2: forty eight point one arc seconds, almost three times larger

3:11 Speaker 2: than Saturn's globe, not including its rings. You should also

3:15 Speaker 2: notice that Jupiter's globe bulge is outwards owing to Jupiter's

3:18 Speaker 2: rapid rotation rate, which is about nine hours and fifty

3:20 Speaker 2: minutes at the equator and slightly slower at Jovian latitudes

3:23 Speaker 2: above fifteen degrees. One of Jupiter's great appeals is its

3:27 Speaker 2: four bright Galilean moons Ioi, Europa two, Ganymede three, and

3:32 Speaker 2: Callisto four. Since Galileo Galilee turned his primitive telescope toward

3:37 Speaker 2: Jupiter in January sixteen, ten countless observers have been observing

3:41 Speaker 2: their eternal dance around their parent. All four moons are

3:44 Speaker 2: easy objects to see through a pair of ten by

3:46 Speaker 2: fifty binoculars as they shine between fifth and sixth magnitude,

3:50 Speaker 2: though Io, which lies closest to Jupiter, is best seen

3:53 Speaker 2: when lying at its furthest east or west of the planet.

3:55 Speaker 1: Astronomy day for podcap. While we're on the subject of Jupiter,

4:02 Speaker 1: many of you may know that Jupiter doesn't present a

4:05 Speaker 1: solid surface as a gas giant. The surface we see

4:10 Speaker 1: is the outer layer of its atmosphere, in the form

4:12 Speaker 1: of major dark belts and bright zones well punctuated by

4:17 Speaker 1: numerous dark and bright spots or ovals coming and going regularly.

4:22 Speaker 1: A small telescope as little as sixty millimeters in aperture

4:26 Speaker 1: operating at a magnification of about thirty times can show

4:30 Speaker 1: Jupiter's major bright zones and dark belts. Usually the north

4:34 Speaker 1: and south equatorial belts are the most prominent. Jupiter's speedy

4:38 Speaker 1: rotation period of under ten hours means virtually the whole

4:42 Speaker 1: of Jupiter's observable surface is available to observe in a

4:47 Speaker 1: single night. This month, Jupiter's Great Red Spot, its most

4:51 Speaker 1: famous feature, a long lived anti cyclonic storm that has

4:55 Speaker 1: been raging in the planet's south tropical zone for possibly

4:59 Speaker 1: three hound undred and fifty years, but is not a

5:02 Speaker 1: permanently fixed feature, is also visible down the decades, it

5:06 Speaker 1: has been observed drifting steadily in longitude, though barely in

5:10 Speaker 1: latitude by comparison. The Great Red Spot is also shrinking.

5:15 Speaker 1: In the late nineteenth century, it measured more than forty

5:18 Speaker 1: thousand kilometers long along its major east west east west axis,

5:24 Speaker 1: and in nineteen ninety five the Hubble space telescope images

5:27 Speaker 1: showed the Great Red Spot with a diameter of just

5:30 Speaker 1: twenty one thousand kilometers, and by two thousand and nine

5:34 Speaker 1: it a trunk to around eighteen thousand kilometers, and today

5:38 Speaker 1: it spans just over fifteen thousand kilometers. A one hundred

5:42 Speaker 1: and fifty to two hundred millimeter or six to eight

5:46 Speaker 1: inch telescope we'll give a good view of the Great

5:49 Speaker 1: Red Spot at this opposition, though you might be lucky

5:52 Speaker 1: to spot it through a smaller aperture telescope. If you

5:55 Speaker 1: have good viewing conditions, turn the telescope on Jupiter and

5:59 Speaker 1: you'll be able to enjoy some of the exciting Moon

6:01 Speaker 1: events or phenomena that take place every day. The Moon's

6:05 Speaker 1: orbital planes coincide with the plane of Jupiter's equator, which

6:09 Speaker 1: appears edge on to our line of sight this week.

6:13 Speaker 1: They can always be found within a narrow band east

6:16 Speaker 1: or west of Jupiter. The first three moons always pass

6:19 Speaker 1: in front of the planet, which is known as a transit,

6:22 Speaker 1: or behind it, which is an occultation. Outermost lying Callisto, however,

6:27 Speaker 1: can pass north or south of Jupiter's poles at a conjunction.

6:31 Speaker 1: When Jupiter is close to the maximum tilt of its

6:34 Speaker 1: access of three degrees to Earth, it's around two point

6:38 Speaker 1: six degrees on December tenth, three nights following its opposition

6:42 Speaker 1: at late evening, Io and its shadow are in transit.

6:45 Speaker 1: This will be the view from London at eleven thirty PM,

6:49 Speaker 1: when the Great Red Spot should be closest to the Moon.

6:53 Speaker 1: It's easy to see even through binoculars, the Moon's disappearing

6:57 Speaker 1: or reappearing from behind Jupiter or moving in an out

7:00 Speaker 1: of its massive shadow, though perhaps the most appealing of

7:04 Speaker 1: all the phenomena is the appearance of the Moon's pitch

7:07 Speaker 1: black shadows. The moons themselves are somewhat more difficult to see,

7:11 Speaker 1: especially when they traverse across one of Jupiter's brighter regions.

7:15 Speaker 1: The small to medium aperture telescope in the one hundred

7:19 Speaker 1: to one hundred and fifty milimeter or four to six

7:21 Speaker 1: inch class should be up to the task, though a

7:24 Speaker 1: much larger telescope or imaging setup is usually needed to

7:28 Speaker 1: detect the moons themselves. Thank you for joining us for

7:41 Speaker 1: this Monday edition of Astronomy Daily, where we offer just

7:44 Speaker 1: a few stories from the now famous Astronomy Daily newsletter,

7:47 Speaker 1: which you can receive in your email every day, just

7:49 Speaker 1: like Hallie and I do and to do that, just

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7:59 Speaker 1: be received all the latest news about science, space, science

8:03 Speaker 1: and astronomy from around the world as it's happening. And

8:06 Speaker 1: not only that, you can interact with us by visiting

8:09 Speaker 1: at astro Daily pod on x or at our new

8:13 Speaker 1: Facebook page, which is of course Astronomy Daily on Facebook.

8:17 Speaker 1: See you there, Astronomy Derby with Sea and having space. Space,

8:24 Speaker 1: science and.

8:25 Speaker 2: Astronomy scientists believe that at the heart of all large

8:34 Speaker 2: galaxies lurk super massive black holes cosmic titans, with masses

8:38 Speaker 2: equivalent to that of millions or even billions of suns. Yet,

8:42 Speaker 2: some black holes exceed even these monstrous masses to become

8:44 Speaker 2: ultra massive black holes. The most massive black hole that

8:48 Speaker 2: we are currently aware of is Phoenix A, which sits

8:51 Speaker 2: at the heart of the Phoenix Cluster, one of the

8:53 Speaker 2: heftiest clusters ever discovered. Located five point eight billion light

8:57 Speaker 2: years away, Phoenix A has an estimated mass of one

9:00 Speaker 2: hundred billion suns. Another titanic black hole is tonin Sintla

9:04 Speaker 2: six't eighteen, located around a billion light years away. With

9:07 Speaker 2: a massive around sixty six billion suns. With monster ultra

9:11 Speaker 2: massive black holes like Phoenix E and tonin Sinhla out there,

9:14 Speaker 2: you might well wonder if there is a limit to

9:16 Speaker 2: just how big a black hole can get. Scientists have

9:20 Speaker 2: long wondered this too, and a team led by Pryongbada

9:22 Speaker 2: Nutrajhn from the Department of Astronomy at Yale University thinks

9:26 Speaker 2: they may have the answer. We defined ultra massive black

9:29 Speaker 2: holes as black holes with masses over ten billion times

9:32 Speaker 2: the mass of the Sun. Nutrajen said. Supermassive black holes

9:36 Speaker 2: are defined to be more than ten million times the

9:38 Speaker 2: mass of the Sun, so ultra massive black holes would

9:42 Speaker 2: on average be ten thousand times more massive than supermassive

9:45 Speaker 2: black holes. The four scientists can investigate ultra massive black holes,

9:50 Speaker 2: they first have to determine where these cosmic big games rown.

9:54 Speaker 2: Nutrajen explained that one clue comes from the fact that

9:57 Speaker 2: the masses of central supermassive black holes appear to be

9:59 Speaker 2: core related to the mass of the stars within the

10:01 Speaker 2: galaxies that host them. Galaxies with more stars and thus

10:05 Speaker 2: greater stellar masses, should therefore host more massive supermassive black holesntrogen. Added,

10:12 Speaker 2: this scaling relation suggests that there is a deep and

10:14 Speaker 2: profound connection between how black holes grow and the formation

10:17 Speaker 2: of stars in their host galaxies.

10:20 Speaker 1: Much of that so, are we all listen to a starydale?

10:23 Speaker 1: The podcast? Solar maximum has only just officially begun, but

10:30 Speaker 1: now some scientists are warning that the Sun's activity won't

10:33 Speaker 1: peak until this explosive face is over and we enter

10:38 Speaker 1: the solar battle zone. This relatively understudied phase of the

10:43 Speaker 1: solar cycle, where giant coronial holes emerge on the Sun,

10:48 Speaker 1: could end up being disastrous for Earth orbiting satellites, which

10:52 Speaker 1: have exponentially multiplied since the last solar cycle experts worn.

10:58 Speaker 1: Solar maximum is the period of the Sun's roughly eleven

11:01 Speaker 1: years solar cycle or sunspot cycle, when the maximum of

11:05 Speaker 1: visible dark patches on the Sun peaks. During this time,

11:10 Speaker 1: powerful solar flares explode from the solar surface and hurl

11:14 Speaker 1: clouds of charged particles at the Earth, triggering intense geomagnetic

11:19 Speaker 1: storms that paint vibrant auroras across the night sky. Halfway

11:24 Speaker 1: through this period, the Sun's magnetic field completely flips, leading

11:29 Speaker 1: to an eventual reduction in sunspots and solar activity until

11:33 Speaker 1: we reach solar minimum and the next solar cycle begins.

11:37 Speaker 1: Solar activity has been ramping up over the last few years,

11:41 Speaker 1: hinting that solar maximum could arrive sooner and be more

11:45 Speaker 1: active than scientists initially expected. Last month, Space wheather experts

11:50 Speaker 1: confirmed that this was the case when they announced that

11:53 Speaker 1: solar maximum is already well underway and could last for

11:57 Speaker 1: around a year or more. But on November fifteen, Linkers Space,

12:02 Speaker 1: a new space where the prediction and solution company that

12:05 Speaker 1: formed earlier this year, released a blog post explaining that

12:09 Speaker 1: a newly realized phase of the solar cycle, known as

12:13 Speaker 1: the battle Zone will likely begin in the next year

12:16 Speaker 1: or two as solar maximum ends. Scott McIntosh, a solar

12:21 Speaker 1: physicist and vice president of Linkers Space, reports that geomagnetic

12:27 Speaker 1: activity in the upper atmosphere could increase by up to

12:30 Speaker 1: fifty percent during the battle zone, which could last well

12:34 Speaker 1: into twenty twenty eight. The potential for large, dangerous geomagnetic

12:38 Speaker 1: storms in the next few years is very real, he said.

12:42 Speaker 1: In addition to the eleven year sunspot cycle that most

12:45 Speaker 1: people are familiar with, the Sun has also a longer,

12:48 Speaker 1: twenty two year hail cycle, which is the time it

12:52 Speaker 1: takes for our home star's magnetic field to flip and

12:55 Speaker 1: then flip back again. During this longer cycle, large bands

12:59 Speaker 1: of magnetism, known as Hale's cycle bands, emerge at the

13:03 Speaker 1: Sun's poles and slowly migrate towards the Sun's equator, independent

13:08 Speaker 1: from the Sun's wider magnetic field. A new band emerges

13:12 Speaker 1: in both of the Sun's hemispheres during each solar maximum

13:15 Speaker 1: and lasts until the end of the next sunspot cycle,

13:19 Speaker 1: when the bands reach the Sun's equator and disappear in

13:22 Speaker 1: what researchers call the solar terminator event. This means that

13:27 Speaker 1: during the first half of a sunspot cycle from a

13:29 Speaker 1: solar minimum to solar maximum, there is only one Hale

13:33 Speaker 1: cycle band in each of the Sun's hemisphere, but during

13:36 Speaker 1: the second half of a cycle after solo maximum, there

13:39 Speaker 1: are two bands in each hemisphere. The overlap of these

13:42 Speaker 1: giant bands is what governs the sun spot's cycle. Macintosh

13:46 Speaker 1: explained when there is only one band in each hemisphere,

13:50 Speaker 1: there is a magnetic imbalance across the Sun, with weaker

13:52 Speaker 1: magnetic fields near the equator, allowing the number of black

13:56 Speaker 1: spots to increase around our home star's waste, he said.

14:00 Speaker 1: When a second band is established, it reduces the imbalance

14:03 Speaker 1: and makes it harder for sunspots to form. He added, Eventually,

14:08 Speaker 1: over a few years, as the bands march towards the equator,

14:12 Speaker 1: the imbalance progressively decreases until the Sun can't make any

14:16 Speaker 1: more sunspots. And there we have it, Halle, a bumper

14:26 Speaker 1: Jupiter black hole edition of Astronomy Daily.

14:30 Speaker 2: Well that's how it turned out. We never know what

14:32 Speaker 2: interesting stories are going to show up in the Astronomy

14:35 Speaker 2: Daily newsletter.

14:36 Speaker 1: That's write a little bit of this, a little bit

14:38 Speaker 1: of that, something new every day.

14:39 Speaker 2: And I like that story about the Sun's eleven year

14:42 Speaker 2: and twenty two year cycles and the hail bands and sunspots.

14:45 Speaker 2: Oh you like that one, Halle, so interesting.

14:47 Speaker 1: And researchers are discovering so much more about the Sun

14:50 Speaker 1: every year.

14:51 Speaker 2: The Sun is more complex than it looks.

14:53 Speaker 1: That reminds me Helle. I was almost in a band

14:55 Speaker 1: called the sun Spots.

14:56 Speaker 2: Really really really, that's really out their favorite human Yep.

15:00 Speaker 2: How did it go?

15:01 Speaker 1: Oh we burned out almost immediately, So no.

15:03 Speaker 2: Eleven year cycle for you guys, not even a week

15:06 Speaker 2: of rehearsals for that one.

15:07 Speaker 1: I'm afrid Alle.

15:09 Speaker 2: Oh well, too bad.

15:10 Speaker 1: Yep, that's the way it goes.

15:12 Speaker 2: Say good night human, good night human, bye, I mean

15:19 Speaker 2: here home, stayed down cl