Lunar Lander Launches, Australian Rockets, and the Secrets of Magnetars: S04E50

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

0:03 Speaker 1: astronomy news. Today, we're going to explore some big developments

0:07 Speaker 1: in space exploration and research. We'll be diving into SpaceX's

0:11 Speaker 1: latest lunar mission that's carrying both a private lander and

0:14 Speaker 1: a NASA orbiter to hunt for water on the Moon.

0:17 Speaker 1: We'll also look at Australia's historic preparations for their first

0:20 Speaker 1: orbital launch attempt, and discover how NASA technologies are revolutionizing

0:24 Speaker 1: life here on Earth. Plus, we'll explore some fascinating new

0:28 Speaker 1: findings about mysterious dwarf galaxies, check in on NASA's Lucy

0:32 Speaker 1: spacecraft as it approaches its next asteroid target, and uncover

0:35 Speaker 1: new insights into some of the most magnetic objects in

0:38 Speaker 1: our universe, magnetars. Let's get started with today's space news.

0:44 Speaker 1: In a spectacular sunset launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center,

0:48 Speaker 1: SpaceX's Falcon nine rocket successfully carried two lunar bound spacecraft

0:53 Speaker 1: into space. The primary payload, the Athena lunar lander built

0:57 Speaker 1: by Intuitive Machines, is now on its way to explore

1:00 Speaker 1: the Moon's South Pole region in search of water ice deposits.

1:04 Speaker 1: This marks intuitive machines second mission to the Moon following

1:08 Speaker 1: their historic first landing earlier this month. Athena carries ten

1:12 Speaker 1: NASA science instruments, with its main package being Prime one,

1:16 Speaker 1: which includes a drill called Trident that can reach three

1:19 Speaker 1: feet below the lunar surface and a mass spectrometer to

1:23 Speaker 1: analyze the collected samples for water and other compounds. But

1:27 Speaker 1: Athena isn't traveling alone. The mission also includes an innovative

1:30 Speaker 1: hopper robot named Grace that will explore nearby craters through

1:34 Speaker 1: a series of controlled jumps, and a small rover called

1:37 Speaker 1: Map that will test the Moon's first cellular network. These

1:41 Speaker 1: tools will work together to study areas that have remained

1:44 Speaker 1: largely unexplored, including permanently shadowed craters where scientists believe significant

1:49 Speaker 1: deposits of water ice may exist. Sharing the ride is

1:53 Speaker 1: NASA's Lunar Trailblazer orbiter, which will map water ice deposits

1:58 Speaker 1: from lunar orbit, complementing Athena's ground based observations. This coordinated

2:03 Speaker 1: approach will give scientists an unprecedented view of lunar water

2:06 Speaker 1: resources critical for NASA's Artemis program and future human settlements

2:11 Speaker 1: on the Moon. The mission represents a significant step forward

2:16 Speaker 1: in commercial NASA partnerships, with intuitive machines leading the way

2:20 Speaker 1: in delivering scientific payloads to the lunar surface. If successful,

2:24 Speaker 1: Athena will touch down in the Monsmuton region, where it

2:28 Speaker 1: will operate for about ten Earth days, gathering crucial data

2:32 Speaker 1: about potential resources that could support future lunar missions and

2:36 Speaker 1: potentially even sustain human presence on the Moon. Next up

2:40 Speaker 1: one for our listeners. Down Under, Australia is about to

2:44 Speaker 1: mark a historic milestone in its space exploration journey. Gilmour Space,

2:49 Speaker 1: an Australian company that's been developing rocket technology since twenty fifteen,

2:53 Speaker 1: has announced its first orbital launch attempts scheduled from March

2:56 Speaker 1: fifteenth from the Bowen Orbital Spaceport in northern Queensland, and

3:01 Speaker 1: their rocket, named Airis, stands an impressive eighty two feet

3:04 Speaker 1: tall and represents years of Australian innovation and engineering. This

3:09 Speaker 1: three stage hybrid propulsion rocket is designed to carry payloads

3:12 Speaker 1: of up to four hundred and seventy four pounds to

3:15 Speaker 1: a Sun synchronous orbit three hundred and ten miles above

3:17 Speaker 1: Earth's surface. After securing the necessary approvals from Australia's Civil

3:22 Speaker 1: Aviation Safety Authority late last year. The company is now

3:25 Speaker 1: ready to attempt this groundbreaking launch. CEO Adam Gilmore has

3:29 Speaker 1: been careful to manage expectations, noting that first launches are

3:33 Speaker 1: notoriously challenging. Even SpaceX needed four attempts before achieving its

3:38 Speaker 1: first successful orbital launch. The team emphasizes that whether they

3:42 Speaker 1: make it off the pad, reach maximum aerodynamic pressure, or

3:45 Speaker 1: achieve orbit, every second of flight will provide valuable data

3:49 Speaker 1: to improve future launches. With more than two hundred employees

3:53 Speaker 1: and backing from various private investors and superannuation funds, Gilmore

3:57 Speaker 1: Space has grown from a small startup to a significant

4:00 Speaker 1: player in Australia's emerging space sector. The company isn't just

4:04 Speaker 1: focused on rockets. They're also developing satellite platforms with the

4:08 Speaker 1: ultimate goal of making space access more affordable. While the

4:12 Speaker 1: team remains optimistic, they acknowledge that various factors, including weather

4:16 Speaker 1: conditions and technical issues, could lead to delays. Safety remains

4:21 Speaker 1: their top priority, and they've made it clear they'll only

4:24 Speaker 1: proceed with the launch when all conditions are optimal. If successful,

4:29 Speaker 1: this mission will mark the first time an Australian designed

4:32 Speaker 1: and built rocket reaches orbit from Australian soil, opening a

4:35 Speaker 1: new chapter in the country's space exploration history. And may

4:39 Speaker 1: we be reporting that Australia has a happy Gilmore shortly, sorry,

4:43 Speaker 1: I couldn't resist. Let's take a look now at some

4:47 Speaker 1: of the great work NASA's been doing. NASA's latest spinoff

4:51 Speaker 1: publication has revealed some remarkable ways that space technology is

4:55 Speaker 1: revolutionizing life here on Earth. For nearly twenty five years

4:58 Speaker 1: of supporting astronauts in low Earth orbit, NASA has developed

5:02 Speaker 1: technologies that are now finding incredible applications in our daily lives.

5:07 Speaker 1: One of the most fascinating developments involves a platform that

5:10 Speaker 1: allows commercial industries to conduct space station experiments. Scientists have

5:15 Speaker 1: successfully grown higher quality human heart tissue, knee cartilage, and

5:20 Speaker 1: pharmaceutical crystals that can be used to develop new medical

5:23 Speaker 1: treatments right here on Earth. The innovation doesn't stop at

5:27 Speaker 1: medical breakthroughs. Remember those challenges of watering plants and zero gravity.

5:32 Speaker 1: The solution NASA developed has evolved into electrostatic sprayer technology

5:36 Speaker 1: now being used in sanitation, agriculture and food safety. And

5:41 Speaker 1: those specialized treadmills designed to keep astronauts fit in space.

5:45 Speaker 1: They've been adapted into anti gravity treadmills that are helping

5:49 Speaker 1: people with various conditions exercise more effectively. Even the nutritional

5:54 Speaker 1: supplements originally created to keep astronauts healthy during long space

5:58 Speaker 1: missions are now available for vers everyday use. But perhaps

6:02 Speaker 1: most exciting are the developments in construction technology. Companies are

6:06 Speaker 1: using NASA's three D printing techniques initially designed for building

6:10 Speaker 1: structures on the Moon, to print large buildings here on Earth.

6:14 Speaker 1: There's even research into growing buildings from fungus, a concept

6:18 Speaker 1: first explored for lunar construction that's now being adapted for

6:22 Speaker 1: Earth based housing. Quality control systems on assembly lines are

6:25 Speaker 1: getting smarter thanks to artificial intelligence originally developed to help

6:29 Speaker 1: rovers navigate Mars. And in the energy sector, NASA's expertise

6:34 Speaker 1: in liquid hydrogen rocket fuel is helping pave the way

6:37 Speaker 1: for hydrogen based energy solutions. With over forty NASA originated

6:41 Speaker 1: technologies now in commercial use and more in development, these

6:44 Speaker 1: space age innovations are quietly transforming industries and improving lives

6:48 Speaker 1: across our planet. Astronomers have recently made a fascinating discovery

6:53 Speaker 1: about the universe's smallest and faintest galaxies known as ultra

6:57 Speaker 1: diffuse galaxies or UDG. While studying thirty of these mysterious

7:02 Speaker 1: cosmic entities in the hydrogalaxy cluster, located more than one

7:06 Speaker 1: hundred sixty million light years from Earth, researchers found something

7:10 Speaker 1: completely unexpected about how these galaxies move. About half of

7:14 Speaker 1: the udgs they observed showed peculiar rotational patterns in their stars,

7:18 Speaker 1: movements that simply don't align with our current theories about

7:21 Speaker 1: how these faint galaxies form and evolve. This discovery is

7:26 Speaker 1: particularly significant because these galaxies have only been known to

7:29 Speaker 1: science since twenty fifteen, and they've been puzzling astronomers ever

7:33 Speaker 1: since with their unusually elongated shapes and ultra faint nature.

7:38 Speaker 1: The research team made these observations using the Meuse Integral

7:41 Speaker 1: Field Spectrograph on the very large telescope in Chile. One

7:45 Speaker 1: UDG in particular, designated as UDG thirty two, proved especially interesting.

7:50 Speaker 1: This dwarf galaxy was found at the end of a

7:52 Speaker 1: gas filament connected to a much larger spiral galaxy called

7:55 Speaker 1: ENNGC three thousand, three hundred fourteen A. What makes the

8:00 Speaker 1: finding so intriguing is that UDG thirty two's location doesn't

8:03 Speaker 1: appear to be mere coincidence. The stars in UDG thirty

8:07 Speaker 1: two are younger than those in other udgs in the cluster,

8:10 Speaker 1: yet surprisingly they contain more heavy elements or metals in

8:14 Speaker 1: astronomical terms. This suggests these stars formed from gas and

8:18 Speaker 1: dust that was originally part of the larger neighboring galaxy,

8:22 Speaker 1: supporting the theory that some udgs might form when gas

8:26 Speaker 1: is pulled away from larger galaxies through gravitational interactions. These

8:31 Speaker 1: findings are more than just interesting space facts. They're helping

8:34 Speaker 1: us piece together the complex puzzle of how galaxies form

8:37 Speaker 1: and evolve. The research team's results have effectively doubled our

8:41 Speaker 1: knowledge of these mysterious galaxies, providing the first comprehensive view

8:45 Speaker 1: of how these faint systems exist within a still forming

8:49 Speaker 1: galaxy cluster. It's a reminder that even in our modern

8:52 Speaker 1: age of astronomy, the universe still has plenty of surprises

8:56 Speaker 1: in store for us. Lucy NASA's ambition Just Asteroid exploring

9:01 Speaker 1: spacecraft has just reached an exciting milestone in its mission

9:04 Speaker 1: by capturing its first images of asteroid Donald Johansson, currently

9:08 Speaker 1: appearing as just a tiny point of light forty five

9:10 Speaker 1: million miles away. This two mile wide space rock will

9:13 Speaker 1: be Lucy's next close encounter, scheduled for an April twentieth

9:17 Speaker 1: flyby at a distance of just five hundred and ninety

9:19 Speaker 1: six miles. This upcoming visit follows Lucy's fascinating encounter last

9:24 Speaker 1: November with asteroid Dinkinesh and its companion moon Salam, which

9:29 Speaker 1: turned out to be quite the surprising duo. Salam revealed

9:33 Speaker 1: itself to be what scientists call a contact binary, essentially

9:37 Speaker 1: two separate objects touching each other, held together by their

9:40 Speaker 1: mutual gravitational pull. The origin of this unusual pairing remains

9:44 Speaker 1: a mystery, though researchers suspect Salam might have formed from

9:48 Speaker 1: material ejected from Dinkinesh due to the effects of solar

9:51 Speaker 1: heating over millions of years. While Donald Johanson currently appears

9:56 Speaker 1: as nothing more than a distant speck, Lucy won't get

9:58 Speaker 1: a detailed look at the end asteroid's features until the

10:01 Speaker 1: day of the close approach, But this encounter is just

10:04 Speaker 1: one stop on Lucy's packed itinerary. In twenty twenty seven,

10:09 Speaker 1: the spacecraft will reach its first Trojan asteroid Eurybites, which

10:13 Speaker 1: sits in a vast swarm of asteroids sharing Jupiter's orbit.

10:16 Speaker 1: After visiting several more trojans, Lucy will swing back by

10:19 Speaker 1: Earth in twenty thirty for a gravitational boost before heading

10:23 Speaker 1: to explore even more of these ancient Solar System remnants. Interestingly,

10:27 Speaker 1: the asteroid Donald Johansson's name has a direct connection to

10:30 Speaker 1: Lucy's own. It honors Donald Johansson, the paleoanthropologist who discovered

10:35 Speaker 1: the famous three point two million year old human ancestor

10:38 Speaker 1: fossil nicknamed Lucy. Just as that ancient skeleton helps us

10:43 Speaker 1: understand human evolution, the asteroids Lucy is studying are like

10:47 Speaker 1: fossils from our Solar System's birth, offering crucial clues about

10:50 Speaker 1: how our cosmic neighborhood came to be. To wrap things

10:54 Speaker 1: up today, in a fascinating new study published in Nature, Astronomy,

10:58 Speaker 1: scientists have finally begun to unravel one of astronomy's most

11:02 Speaker 1: perplexing mysteries, how magnetars generate their incredibly powerful magnetic fields.

11:07 Speaker 1: These extraordinary neutron stars have magnetic fields up to a

11:10 Speaker 1: thousand times stronger than typical neutron stars. Which are already

11:14 Speaker 1: among the most magnetic objects we know of. The breakthrough

11:18 Speaker 1: came from studying what scientists call low field magnetars. These

11:22 Speaker 1: cosmic oddities present an interesting puzzle because while their baseline

11:26 Speaker 1: magnetic fields are relatively weak, they somehow manage to produce

11:30 Speaker 1: intense bursts of X rays and gamma rays that should

11:33 Speaker 1: require much stronger magnetic fields. Through detailed computer simulations, researchers

11:38 Speaker 1: have identified a likely culprit a process known as the

11:41 Speaker 1: tailor Sprut dynamo. This dynamo effect occurs because of the

11:45 Speaker 1: way these stars rotate. Unlike a solid object spinning uniformly,

11:50 Speaker 1: different parts of these stars rotate at slightly different speeds.

11:54 Speaker 1: This differential rotation, particularly strong in their cores, creates the

11:58 Speaker 1: conditions needed to amplify magnetic fields to extraordinary levels. The

12:03 Speaker 1: process appears to be kicked off during the violent supernova

12:06 Speaker 1: that creates the magnetar, when angular momentum is transferred into

12:10 Speaker 1: the core of the dying star. For low field magnetar specifically,

12:15 Speaker 1: this mechanism explains how they can temporarily boost their magnetic

12:19 Speaker 1: field strength to produce those powerful radiation bursts we observe.

12:23 Speaker 1: It's a different story from traditional magnetors, which likely generate

12:27 Speaker 1: their consistently strong fields through other means. This discovery not

12:32 Speaker 1: only helps us understand these extreme objects better, but also

12:36 Speaker 1: provides crucial insights into the complex physics at play in

12:40 Speaker 1: some of the universe's most extreme environments. And that's all

12:45 Speaker 1: for today's episode of Astronomy Daily. Thanks for joining me

12:49 Speaker 1: on this cosmic journey through the latest developments in space

12:52 Speaker 1: exploration and astronomical discoveries. I'm anna and if you want

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13:19 Speaker 1: Until next time, keep looking up and wondering about the

13:22 Speaker 1: mysteries of our universe. See you Tomorroway Star Star