Lightning on Mars, New Cosmic Objects, and the Future of European Spaceflight

0:00 Avery: Hello, and welcome to Astronomy Daily, the

0:02 podcast that brings you the universe, one

0:05 story at a time. I'm Avery.

0:08 Anna: And I'm Anna. Um, it's great to have you with

0:10 us. We've got news stretching from the rusty

0:13 soil of Mars all the way to the deepest

0:15 reaches of cosmic time.

0:17 Avery: That's right, we'll be talking about possible

0:19 lightning on Mars. A new crew arriving at the

0:22 space station. Europe's next gen reusable

0:25 spacecraft. A potential new kind of

0:28 cosmic monster. And we'll finally get

0:31 an answer to what drives the furious winds

0:33 of Venus.

0:35 Anna: So let's get started. Our first story takes

0:37 us to the Red Planet, where an old question

0:40 might have a shocking new answer.

0:43 Avery: Do tell, Avery.

0:45 Anna: For decades, scientists have wondered if

0:47 lightning could occur on Mars. Well, it

0:50 seems NASA's Perseverance rover may have

0:52 finally captured the first direct evidence.

0:55 Avery: Wow. Really? After all this time? How did it

0:58 detect it? Was it a flash of light?

1:01 Anna: Not visually, but audibly. The rover's

1:04 super sensitive microphone, part of the

1:06 Supercam instrument, recorded crackling

1:08 sounds, faint pops and crackles that

1:11 are distinct from the usual Martian wind.

1:14 Avery: It heard lightning. That's incredible.

1:17 So what's causing these electrical

1:19 discharges?

1:20 Anna: Scientists believe the primary suspect is the

1:22 planet's infamous dust storms. The friction

1:25 between dust particles as they're whipped

1:27 around by the wind can build up a significant

1:30 static charge. Just like shuffling your feet

1:32 on a carpet.

1:33 Avery: Right, and eventually that charge has to go

1:36 somewhere, resulting in a spark.

1:39 Anna: Exactly. A miniature Martian lightning

1:41 bolt. While the energy is likely much lower

1:44 than a typical terrestrial thunderstorm, it

1:47 proves that Mars's atmosphere is more

1:49 electrically active than we ever knew.

1:51 Avery: So Mars has more dynamic and complex weather

1:54 than we previously thought. This just makes

1:57 me even more excited for future crewed

1:59 missions. There's still so much to discover.

2:02 Anna: I think you'll find you're not the only one

2:04 waiting for that step.

2:06 Avery: Speaking of space travel, let's turn our

2:08 attention a little closer to home. On, um,

2:10 Thanksgiving Day, a crew of three

2:12 successfully launched to the International

2:14 Space Station aboard a Soyuz rocket.

2:17 Anna: That's right. The crew consists of one NASA

2:19 astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts. It's

2:22 a powerful symbol of continued international

2:25 cooperation in space, even during complicated

2:28 times here on Earth.

2:30 Avery: Absolutely. The space station has always been

2:32 a beacon for that kind of partnership. What's

2:34 on the agenda for their mission?

2:37 Anna: It's going to be a busy stay. They're

2:39 scheduled for an eight month mission, during

2:41 which they'll oversee a whole range of

2:43 scientific experiments. These experiments

2:46 cover everything from human biology and

2:48 microgravity to material science and

2:51 earth observation.

2:53 Avery: And I imagine a lot of maintenance work too,

2:55 keeping the 20 plus year old station in good

2:58 shape.

2:59 Anna: Of course, there's always something to fix or

3:01 upgrade. They'll also be preparing the

3:03 station for the arrival of new commercial

3:06 modules and supporting spacewalks for

3:08 hardware installation. It's a critical job to

3:11 keep our outpost in orbit running smoothly.

3:14 Avery: Well, we wish them, uh, a safe and productive

3:16 mission up there.

3:18 Anna: From the present of spaceflight to its

3:20 future. The European Space Agency, or

3:23 esa, has just announced a target date for a

3:26 very exciting project. The inaugural flight

3:28 of its state Space Rider vehicle is now set

3:31 for 2028.

3:33 Avery: Space Rider, that's ESA's reusable space

3:36 plane, right? What makes it different from

3:38 other spacecraft out there?

3:40 Anna: Think of it as an uncrewed robotic space

3:43 laboratory. It's designed to launch on a

3:46 Vega C rocket, deploy a multi purpose

3:49 cargo bay into orbit, and stay there for up

3:51 to two months, conducting experiments

3:53 automatically.

3:55 Avery: So it's essentially a free flying science

3:57 platform.

3:58 Anna: Exactly, and here's the key part.

4:01 After its mission is complete, it will re

4:03 enter the Earth's atmosphere and land on a

4:06 Runway just like an airplane. The vehicle and

4:09 its payloads can then be recovered,

4:10 refurbished and flown again.

4:13 Avery: That's a huge step for Europe. Reusability

4:15 is the name of the game for making access to

4:18 space more affordable and sustainable. Having

4:20 their own reusable vehicle opens up a lot of

4:23 possibilities for science and technology

4:24 development.

4:25 Anna: It really does. It will give European

4:28 scientists and companies a routine way to run

4:31 experiments in microgravity and bring them

4:33 back to Earth for analysis without relying on

4:36 other launch providers. 2028 will be

4:39 a year to watch.

4:40 Avery: All right, now let's journey from low Earth

4:43 orbit out to the edge of the observable

4:45 universe. The James Webb Space Telescope has

4:47 found something peculiar. And it might be

4:50 a new class of object we've never seen

4:53 before.

4:54 Anna: This is one of those stories that really

4:56 stretches the imagination. In some of its

4:58 deepest images of the early universe, Webb

5:01 spotted a series of tiny, extremely red

5:04 dots.

5:05 Avery: Okay, tiny red dots in deep space,

5:08 that could be a lot of things. What's the

5:10 theory?

5:11 Anna: Well, after ruling out more conventional

5:13 explanations like distant red galaxies,

5:16 a team of astrophysicists has proposed a

5:19 wild new idea. They think these could be

5:22 a new kind of cosmic monster.

5:25 Whoa. They're calling them black hole

5:28 stars. The idea is that, uh, at the core of

5:30 each of these objects is a supermassive

5:33 black hole, but it's surrounded by an

5:36 incredibly dense, massive shell of gas

5:39 that it's feeding on.

5:40 Avery: So it would look like a giant puffy star from

5:43 the outside, but it's really a black hole in

5:46 disguise.

5:46 Anna: That's the essence of it. This shell of gas

5:49 is so thick that it traps the light from the

5:52 accreting, uh, material, making the object

5:54 appear as a single redd point of light

5:57 rather than a blazing quasar, which is what

5:59 we'd normally expect to see.

6:02 Avery: That would be a game changer for

6:03 understanding how the very first

6:05 supermassive black holes grew so big

6:08 so fast in the early universe.

6:10 Anna: It certainly would. If this hypothesis holds

6:13 up, it means there could be a hidden

6:15 population of these growing black holes

6:18 that we've been completely missing until now.

6:21 It's a testament to how JWST

6:24 isn't just seeing farther, it's seeing,

6:26 seeing things in a whole new way.

6:28 Avery: It really does make you wonder what else is

6:31 out there that we know nothing about. But

6:33 let's hope it's not a case of ignorance is

6:36 bliss.

6:36 Anna: Ya betcha.

6:37 Okay, for our final story, we come back

6:40 to our own solar system, to Earth's evil

6:43 twin sister planet, Venus. We're talking

6:46 about its hellish atmosphere and the

6:49 extreme winds that whip around the planet.

6:52 Avery: Ah, uh, Venusian super rotation.

6:55 This has been a huge puzzle for decades. The

6:58 entire atmosphere rotates around the planet

7:01 60 times faster than the planet itself

7:04 spins.

7:05 Anna: How is that even possible

7:07 exactly? The mechanics have been a

7:09 mystery, but new research is pointing to a

7:12 key driver. A massive atmospheric

7:15 tide fueled by the heat of the Sun.

7:18 Avery: An, um, atmospheric tide like the ocean.

7:20 Anna: Tides on Earth, Similar in principle, but

7:23 driven by heat, not gravity. The

7:26 sun intensely heats the dense atmosphere on

7:29 the day side of Venus. This creates a

7:32 huge planet wide thermal wave. As

7:35 Venus slowly rotates, this wave of hot

7:38 expanding gas travels around the planet,

7:40 pushing the atmosphere and maintaining those

7:43 incredible wind speeds.

7:45 Avery: So the daily cycle of heating and cooling

7:48 from the sun is constantly pumping energy

7:50 into the atmosphere, keeping it spinning like

7:53 a top.

7:53 Anna: That's a perfect analogy. Previous theories

7:56 focused on other factors, but this research

7:59 suggests this daily thermal tide is a

8:02 major contributor, if not the primary one.

8:05 It's a huge step forward in understanding the

8:07 climate of not just Venus, but potentially

8:10 of tidally locked exoplanets around other

8:13 stars.

8:14 Avery: And that's all the time we have for today.

8:17 From the crackle of Martian lightning to the

8:20 roar of Venusian winds and the

8:22 silent mysteries of the Eurelli universe, it'

8:25 been another incredible time in

8:28 astronomy.

8:29 Anna: It certainly has. Thank you for joining us,

8:32 uh, on Astronomy Daily. We hope you'll

8:34 subscribe and join us again next time as we

8:37 continue to explore the cosmos. You'll

8:40 find us on all podcast platforms, or

8:43 simply visit our website at astronomydaily

8:46 IO for details. Plus, you can catch up on

8:49 all the latest space news by checking out our

8:51 constantly updating news feedback.

8:54 Avery: Um, until tomorrow then, this has been.

8:56 Anna: Avery and Anna wishing

8:59 you Clear Sky.