Launch Delay, Stellar Discoveries, and Outlandish Space Food

0:00 Avery: And hello and welcome back to Astronomy

0:02 Daily, your daily dose of cosmic news. I'm

0:04 Avery.

0:05 Anna: And I'm Anna. It's great to be with you all

0:07 again as we break down the latest happenings

0:10 from across the universe.

0:11 Avery: And today we've got a major rocket launch

0:14 that got scrubbed at the last minute. The

0:16 discovery of a truly unique exoplanet system,

0:19 and our first ever detailed look at a star

0:22 outside our own galaxy.

0:24 Anna: Plus we'll be looking at the dangerous

0:26 weather on Venus and, well,

0:29 let's just say a new recipe for space food

0:31 that is raising some eyebrows.

0:33 Avery: You're not kidding, Anna. It's definitely an

0:35 interesting one. So let's not wait any

0:37 longer. Let's get right into it.

0:39 Anna: I'm ready if you are.

0:40 Avery: Okay, first up, uh, let's talk about some

0:42 drama down on the launch pad. It was supposed

0:45 to be a big day for Blue Origin, but their

0:47 second ever New Glenn rocket launch was

0:49 scrubbed yet again.

0:51 Anna: Right. This was a really crucial mission for

0:53 them. This wasn't just another test flight.

0:55 It was a commercial mission carrying NASA's

0:58 Escapade spacecraft.

0:59 Avery: Escapade is headed to Mars, so a very

1:01 important payload. But the launch was hit

1:04 with a triple whammy of problems.

1:06 Anna: Mhm. What happened?

1:08 Avery: First, there was bad weather moving into the

1:10 area. That's pretty standard. Then they

1:12 reported some minor equipment issues they

1:14 needed to sort out. But the real kicker was a

1:17 cruise ship.

1:18 Anna: A cruise ship?

1:21 Avery: You're kidding. Nope. A cruise ship had

1:23 apparently wandered into the restricted

1:25 flight path zone offshore. You can plan for

1:28 technical glitches and weather, but it's

1:30 tough to plan for a road rogue vacation

1:32 vessel.

1:32 Anna: Wow. That has to be frustrating for the

1:35 entire team. So when will they try again?

1:38 Avery: The new launch date is set for November 12,

1:41 so fingers crossed they get a clear sky and

1:43 more importantly, a clear ocean.

1:46 Anna: And there's so much riding on this

1:48 because it's not just about getting the NASA

1:51 probe on its way. It's about the rocket

1:53 itself. The main goal for Blue Origin here is

1:56 to prove the reusability of the new Glenn's

1:59 first first stage booster.

2:00 Avery: Exactly. During the very first launch, that

2:03 booster failed to land successfully on the

2:06 drone ship. For a rocket to be commercially

2:08 viable these days, it has to be reusable.

2:12 So this is a massive test for Blue Origin to

2:14 show they can compete.

2:15 Anna: We'll definitely be watching on November

2:17 12th.

2:18 Let's move from our solar system to worlds

2:21 much farther away. Astronomers have just

2:24 confirmed a fascinating new exoplanet system

2:27 called TOI2267.

2:30 Avery: Oh, this is the one in the binary star

2:32 system, right? The one that's about 72 light

2:34 years away?

2:35 Anna: That's the one. It's a system with two

2:38 red dwarf stars orbiting each other

2:40 relatively closely. And what makes this

2:42 discovery so groundbreaking is that it's the

2:45 first time we've ever found planets that are

2:48 transiting or passing in front of both of

2:51 the stars in a binary system.

2:53 Avery: Wow, that's incredible. So there are planets

2:56 orbiting each of the suns in this two sun

2:59 system. How many did they find?

3:01 Anna: They have confirmed two rocky exoplanets

3:04 and they have a very strong candidate for a

3:06 third. This is so exciting because

3:09 finding planets in such a close binary system

3:12 really throws a wrench in our existing models

3:14 of planet formation.

3:16 Avery: Right. Because the gravitational environment

3:18 would be so chaotic, you'd think the pull

3:20 from the second star would disrupt a delicate

3:23 process of dust and gas clumping together to

3:25 form planets.

3:27 Anna: Precisely. The thinking was that it would be

3:29 very difficult, if not impossible, for

3:32 rocky Earth like planets to form there. But

3:35 this discovery challenges that idea directly.

3:38 It suggests that the universe is better at

3:40 making planets than we gave it credit for and

3:43 that uh, rocky worlds might be far more

3:45 common in binary systems than we ever

3:47 thought.

3:48 Avery: That's amazing. What are the next steps for

3:51 studying?

3:51 Anna: The system team is planning follow up

3:53 observations with both the Hubble and the

3:56 James Webb space telescopes. They want to

3:58 study the atmospheres of these planets and

4:01 confirm the third candidate.

4:03 Avery: A multi planet system around a double

4:06 sun. It sounds like something straight out of

4:08 science fiction. I can't wait to see what

4:10 JWST.

4:11 Anna: Finds there and we'll be sure to report them

4:14 when the findings are in.

4:15 Avery: Alright, let's bring it a bit closer to home

4:17 now. Or at least closer to the astronauts

4:20 orbiting our home on the International Space

4:22 Station. Ana, uh, you tease this one at the

4:24 top of the show. Space food is getting

4:27 weird.

4:29 Anna: Creative is the word I used, I believe.

4:32 But yes, this is certainly a conversation

4:34 starter. The European Space Agency or

4:37 esa, is currently testing a new kind

4:40 of food, a powdered protein called

4:43 solane.

4:44 Avery: Solane? Okay, sounds

4:46 futuristic. What's it made from?

4:48 Anna: It's made in a bioreactor from

4:51 microbes, air and electricity.

4:54 It's a type of gas fermentation process.

4:57 But the headline grabbing part isn't how it's

4:59 made, but rather the planned source for a key

5:02 ingredient on the iss.

5:04 Avery: I'm bracing myself. What's the ingredient?

5:07 Anna: It requires a source of nitrogen

5:10 and the plan is to use urea, which would

5:12 be harvested directly from astronaut urine.

5:16 Avery: There it is. So they are making food

5:19 from astronaut.

5:20 Anna: P in a very complex,

5:22 sterile and highly scientific way. Yes.

5:26 It's all about creating a closed loop

5:28 sustainable food system for long duration

5:31 missions to the moon or Mars. You can't

5:34 rely on resupply missions from Earth for all

5:36 your food. You have to make it yourself from

5:39 what you have.

5:40 Avery: That makes perfect sense. Waste not, want

5:42 not. Especially when you're millions of miles

5:45 from the nearest grocery store. It's the

5:47 ultimate form of recycling.

5:48 Anna: Exactly. The project even has a fun

5:51 Hobi Wan. The goal is to perfect this

5:54 gas fermentation technology so that it can

5:57 operate efficiently in microgravity

6:00 environments of space. If it works, it

6:02 could be a game changer for deep space

6:04 exploration.

6:05 Avery: Obi Wan, I'm still going to picture a Jedi

6:08 knight in a lab coat. But I have to admit,

6:11 it's a fascinating and incredibly practical

6:13 innovation from the space station.

6:16 Anna: Let's journey much, much farther out.

6:19 Astronomers have just achieved a major

6:21 milestone. They've captured the first

6:24 detailed image of an individual star

6:27 outside our own Milky Way galaxy.

6:29 Avery: That's incredible. We've seen smudges of

6:32 light from other galaxies, but to resolve a

6:34 single star, that's a huge achievement.

6:37 Which star is it?

6:38 Anna: It's a red supergiant named

6:41 whog64. It's

6:44 located in the Large Magellanic, which is a

6:47 small satellite galaxy that orbits our Milky

6:49 Way. The image was taken using the European

6:52 Southern Observatory's Very Large

6:55 Telescope interferometer.

6:56 Avery: And what did they find? I imagine a red

6:59 supergiant is quite a sight.

7:01 Anna: They found something very strange.

7:03 The star itself is shrouded in a

7:06 massive, thick cocoon of dust and gas.

7:09 But the cocoon isn't a neat symmetrical

7:11 sphere like our models predict.

7:13 Avery: It's.

7:14 Anna: Instead, it's clumpy and highly

7:16 asymmetrical. It's a shape that has

7:19 completely baffled the scientists who

7:21 observed it.

7:21 Avery: So it's not behaving the way an aging star is

7:24 supposed to as it sheds its outer layers into

7:27 space.

7:27 Anna: Not at all. It fundamentally challenges our

7:30 understanding of how massive stars evolved in

7:33 their final stages. And to add to the

7:35 mystery, the star has also dimmed

7:38 dramatically in recent observation.

7:40 Avery: And the two things could be related. Maybe

7:42 this new weird dust cloud is just blocking

7:44 more of its light.

7:45 Anna: That's the leading theory. Another

7:47 possibility is that

7:49 whog64 might have a

7:52 hidden companion star, and its gravity is

7:54 pulling the dust into this strange, distorted

7:57 shape. Whatever the answer is, it's a

8:00 fantastic puzzle that proves how much we

8:03 still have to learn about our closest

8:04 galactic neighbors.

8:06 Avery: For Our final story today, let's head back

8:08 into our own solar system and visit

8:10 Earth's so called evil twin, the

8:13 planet Venus.

8:15 Anna: Always a fascinating, if utterly

8:17 terrifying place.

8:19 Avery: Absolutely. A new study has managed to

8:21 model the weather on the surface of Venus for

8:24 the first time. And the findings have major

8:27 implications for future missions planning to

8:29 land there.

8:30 Anna: I imagine hot is the the main forecast,

8:33 but what about the wind?

8:35 Avery: Well, the winds themselves are surprisingly

8:37 slow, only about 1 meter per second, which

8:40 is roughly a slow walking pace. But the key

8:43 is the planet's atmosphere. It is

8:46 incredibly dense, about 90 times

8:48 denser than Earth's.

8:50 Anna: Ah. Uh, so even the slow wind has a

8:53 lot of force behind it because the air itself

8:56 is so heavy.

8:57 Avery: Exactly. The study shows that this slow

8:59 moving, super dense wind has more than enough

9:02 force to lift free fine dust and particles

9:04 from the surface. This means Venus can

9:06 experience dust storms, which is a huge

9:08 concern for any future landers like NASA's

9:11 upcoming Da Vinci mission.

9:13 Anna: You wouldn't want your very expensive probe

9:15 to get effectively sandblasted the moment

9:18 it lands. That makes sense.

9:20 Avery: Definitely not. But the study did find a sort

9:22 of silver lining to Venus's weather. It

9:25 showed that winds flowing over the planet's

9:27 mountainous regions play a crucial role in

9:30 circulating the atmosphere.

9:32 Anna: And that circulation helps moderate

9:34 temperatures. Venus has such a long day

9:37 night cycle, the temperature swings must be

9:39 enormous.

9:40 Avery: They would be, but this wind helps even

9:42 things out a bit. So the weather is both a

9:45 significant threat and the planetary

9:47 stabilizing force. It just goes to show how

9:50 complex Venus is the more we learn about it.

9:52 Anna: And with that, we are out of time for today's

9:55 episode of Astronomy Daily.

9:57 Avery: What a fascinating tour of the cosmos it was.

9:59 We had launch scrubs and cruise ships,

10:03 new planets around double suns, space

10:05 food from unconventional sources,

10:09 a, um, mysterious star in another galaxy, and

10:11 the new look at the harsh weather of Venus.

10:14 Anna: It's a constant and welcome reminder that the

10:17 universe is always full of surprises, big and

10:20 small. Thank you so much for joining us.

10:22 Avery: We'll be back tomorrow with more of the

10:24 latest news. Until then, keep looking up.

10:34 Love

10:38 story Soul.

10:41 Anna: Hmm.