NASA's Astronauts Adjust, A Cosmic Mystery Unveiled, China's Latest Launch

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

Anna bringing you the latest developments in

space and astronomy news. Today we have a

packed episode covering a wide range of

fascinating stories from across the cosmos.

We'll check in with NASA astronauts Butch

Wilmore and Suni Williams as they recover

from what was meant to be an eight day

mission, but turned into a nine month stay

aboard the International Space Station. I'll

also tell you about a truly mysterious star

that pulses every 44 minutes in both radio

waves and X rays, leaving scientists

puzzled about its true nature. Then we'll

explore China's ambitious Tianwen 2 mission

that just launched to collect samples from a

living fossil asteroid. We'll round

up this week's busy launch schedule from

around the world and end with some slightly

unsettling news about Earth's long term

orbital stability and a potential cosmic

fate that thankfully remains extremely

unlikely. Stay with me for all this and more

on today's Astronomy Daily.

Lets kick off with a story I'm sure most

folks thought was done and dusted. Turns out

there's an epilogue. NASA astronauts

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are making

steady progress in their recovery after

returning to Earth following what became an

unexpectedly extended mission in space.

What was originally planned as an eight day

test flight aboard Boeing's Starliner capsule

turned into a nine month stay on the

International Space Station when propulsion

system issues forced NASA to bring the

capsule back without its crew. The

astronauts, now back on solid ground since

March, have been undergoing intensive

physical therapy as part of the standard 45

day reconditioning period for long duration

space travellers. Wilmore, who is

62, described the challenging readjustment to

Earth's gravity in a recent interview, noting

that gravity stinks for a period as

astronauts deal with balance issues and

muscle weakness as after extended time in

microgravity. Williams, 59,

shared that some of her post spaceflight side

effects were slower to resolve. She

experienced significant fatigue during the

later stages of recovery as dozens of muscles

re engaged after months of disuse. The

veteran astronaut couldn't maintain her

preferred early morning routine until

recently when she happily reported then

I'm up at 4 in the morning and I'm like aha,

uh-huh, I'm back. For

Wilmore, the return to Earth reintroduced him

to some familiar discomfort. He had

experienced neck pain before his mission that

completely disappeared in the weightlessness

of space. Remarkably, he

felt that same pain return while still in the

Starliner capsule bobbing in the ocean even

before extraction teams had reached them. The

human body, having evolved over millions of

years in Earth's gravity undergoes

significant changes during spaceflight.

Without gravity's constant pull, astronauts

experience muscle atrophy, cardiovascular

shifts and other physical changes that

require dedicated rehabilitation upon return.

While recovering physically, both astronauts

have been ramping up their work schedules

with Boeing's Starliner programme, NASA's

Space Station Operations in Houston, and

agency researchers. Williams described

the past months as a bit of a whirlwind

as they balance their recovery with

professional obligations. Meanwhile,

NASA faces important decisions regarding

Boeing's troubled Starliner programme.

Williams has publicly advocated for requiring

Boeing to fly Starliner uncrewed before

putting humans aboard again, calling it the

logical thing to do and drawing comparisons

to SpaceX and Russian spacecraft that

underwent similar safety validation.

NASA officials have indicated that that

additional testing, planned throughout the

summer, will determine whether Starliner can

carry humans on its next flight.

As you know, I love a good mystery here on

Astronomy Daily. And here's Today's

Scientists have discovered a truly puzzling

cosmic object that's breaking all the rules

of what we thought we knew about stars. It's

called ASCAP J

1832, and what makes it so

extraordinary is its unusual pulsing

behaviour. It sends out bursts of energy

every 44 minutes with clockwork precision.

ASCAP J1832 belongs to a

rare category known as long period radio

transients, which were only first discovered

in 2022. Unlike typical pulsars that

flash multiple times per second, these

objects pulse much more slowly. But what

truly sets ASCAP J1832 apart

is that it's the first of its kind to emit

both radio waves and X rays on the exact same

44 minute cycle. This groundbreaking

discovery came through the combined

observations of NASA's powerful Chandra X Ray

Observatory and Australia's ASCAP radio

telescope. When scientists created composite

images using data from these telescopes,

along with infrared information from NASA's

Spitzer Space Telescope, they revealed a

vivid portrait of this stellar enigma. The

mystery deepened when researchers noticed

that ASCAP J

1832's emissions

faded dramatically over a six month period in

both radio and X ray wavelengths. This

combination of short term pulses with long

term changes makes it unlike anything

previously observed in our Milky Way galaxy.

Astronomers are struggling to explain what

could cause such behaviour. ASCAP

J1832 doesn't

fit neatly into any known category of stellar

objects. It's unlikely to be a typical pulsar

or a neutron star pulling material from a

companion star because the intensities of its

radio and X ray signals don't match what we'd

expect. Some of its properties suggest it

could be an extremely magnetic neutron star,

what astronomers call a Magnetar that's over

500,000 years old. However, other

features, like its bright and variable radio

emission, are difficult to explain for such

an aged magnetar. Initially,

scientists thought ASCAP J1832

might be associated with a nearby supernova

remnant, as these exploded stars often

contain neutron stars. However,

further investigations suggested this

proximity is likely just coincidence. The

research team is now considering more exotic

possibilities, including that it might be a

white dwarf star with a companion. If true,

it would require the strongest magnetic field

ever recorded for a white dwarf in our

galaxy. For now, ASC

APJ1832 remains a, one of a kind

cosmic mystery that could potentially

represent an entirely new class of

astronomical objects.

Next up Today, China has taken a major step

forward in its space exploration programme

with the successful launch of the Tianwen 2

probe, the country's first ever asteroid

sample return mission. A long March 3rd B

rocket carrying the spacecraft blasted off

from the Sichung launch site in southwestern

Sichuan Province early Thursday morning local

time. About 18 minutes after liftoff,

the probe was successfully inserted into its

transfer orbit from Earth to asteroid

20002016 HO3, also known

by its official name, Kamo Oalawa. The

China National Space Administration confirmed

that the spacecraft deployed its solar panels

as planned and declared the launch a complete

success. This ambitious mission targets what

scientists describe as a living fossil

asteroid. Measuring between 40 to 100

metres in diameter, Kamu' Oalawa orbits

relatively close to Earth and consists of

ancient materials that could provide crucial

insights and into the formation of our early

solar system. What makes Chen Wei

particularly interesting is its complex

mission profile. The spacecraft will spend

approximately 30 months on its journey to and

from the asteroid. Once it arrives, it will

perform two different types of sample

collection. First, the probe will touch down

on the asteroid's surface to collect material

using a drill. Then it will perform a touch

and go sample collection similar to NASA's

Osiris Rex mission. In total, the

spacecraft aims to collect about 1000 grammes

of asteroid material. But the mission doesn't

end there. After delivering the precious

samples back to Earth, the main spacecraft

will continue its journey through space.

Using Earth's gravity as a slingshot. Tianwen

2 will be redirected toward a fascinating

object called 311P

Panstars in the main asteroid belt between

Mars and Jupiter. This second target is

particularly intriguing to scientists because

it exhibits characteristics of both asteroids

and comets, making it a valuable subject for

further investigation. The entire mission is

expected to last approximately a decade. This

latest achievement represents another

significant milestone in China's rapidly

advancing space programme, which President Xi

Jinping has described as the country's space

dream. In recent years,

China has established its own space station,

landed rovers on Mars and the moon, and is

planning crewed lunar missions later this

decade.

It's been an exceptionally busy week in the

rocket launch sector, with multiple missions

taking off from launch pads around the world.

SpaceX continues its rapid fire cadence with

several Starlink deployments already underway

or scheduled in the coming days. On

Wednesday, a Falcon 9 rocket thundered off

Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space

Centre in Florida carrying 27 Starlink

V2 mini satellites into low Earth orbit.

Despite only a 60% chance of favourable

weather, SpaceX managed to launch right

at the beginning of their four hour window.

The mission used booster B1080, which

incredibly was flying for its 19th time,

a remarkable testament to SpaceX's

reusability programme. Looking ahead,

SpaceX has at least two more launches planned

this week. On Friday, they're scheduled to

launch the GPS 3 SV08 mission

for the US Space Force from Cape Canaveral.

This mission was actually originally assigned

to ULA's Vulcan rocket before being

reassigned to Falcon 9. Then just one minute

after the GPS launch window opens in Florida,

another Falcon 9 is set to lift off from

Vandenberg Space Force Base in California

with yet another batch of Starlink

satellites. Then early next week,

SpaceX has scheduled Starlink Group 12th 9 to

launch from Cape Canaveral, continuing their

rapid deployment of their Internet

constellation. China has also been active

beyond the Tianwen 2 mission we just

discussed. The China Aerospace Science and

Technology Corporation launched another

mission on Thursday using a, Changjiang

2D rocket from the Jukwan satellite launch

Centre. The payload for this particular

flight remains undisclosed, marking the fifth

Changjiang 2D mission of 2025 and

the 99th overall for this reliable Chinese

launch vehicle. Meanwhile, Blue Origin is

preparing for its fourth New Shepard mission

of the year. Scheduled for Saturday morning.

This suborbital flight will lift off from

their West Texas facility carrying six

passengers just above the Carmen line, where

they'll experience a brief period of

weightlessness before the capsule returns to

Earth. This will be New Shepard's

12th crewed flight overall, continuing to

advance private human spaceflight

capabilities. Rocket Lab had planned a

launch of their electron rocket from New

Zealand this week, but They've postponed

until June 3rd due to additional checks

needed and unfavourable weather conditions at

the launch site.

Finally today, please don't let this news

keep you up at night. But I've got some

potentially unsettling news about Earth's

cosmic future. New computer simulations have

revealed, a previously underestimated risk to

our planet's orbit. While it's not exactly

time to panic, the findings are certainly

intriguing. Astronomers Nathan Kaib from

the Planetary Science Institute and Sean

Raymond from the University of Bordeaux have

discovered that passing stars could disrupt

our solar system in ways we hadn't fully

appreciated before. Their research

shows that these stellar flybys could

exacerbate an existing vulnerability in our

planetary neighbourhood. It turns out Mercury

is the potential troublemaker here. The

innermost planet already has a fairly

elliptical orbit, and Jupiter's gravitational

influence can make that orbit even more oval

shaped over time. What these new simulations

reveal is that when you add the gravitational

effects of passing stars, Mercury's orbit can

become dramatically more eccentric. Once

Mercury goes haywire, chaos can unfold.

In typical scenarios, Mercury might collide

with Venus or plunge into the Sun. But the

resulting orbital disruption can then trigger

a cascade of planetary instability. In some

simulations, Venus or Mars crash into Earth,

or Earth itself collides with the Sun.

Another possibility is that Venus and Mars

could gravitationally slingshot Earth toward

Jupiter, which could then eject our planet

from the solar system entirely. Before you

start planning for cosmic doom, the

researchers emphasise that the probability of

such catastrophes is extremely low.

Over the next 5 billion years, roughly the

remaining lifespan of our sun, there's only a

0.2% chance of Earth meeting such a

fate. However, that's significantly higher

than previous studies had calculated, as they

didn't fully account for the cumulative

effects of passing stars. The most

dangerous scenarios involve stars that pass

particularly close to our solar system,

within 100 times Earth's distance from the

sun. Or stars that move relatively slowly,

extending their gravitational influence.

There's about a 5% chance of such a close

stellar encounter over the next 5 billion

years. Interestingly, the simulation

suggests that distant Pluto faces even

greater risks despite its protective

orbital resonance with Neptune. Passing stars

could disrupt this arrangement, giving Pluto

a 4% chance of being ejected or colliding

with a planet over the same timeframe, 20

times the risk Earth faces. While these

cosmic timescales far exceed human planning

horizons, they provide fascinating insights

into the long term dynamics of our solar

system and remind us that even in space,

nothing lasts forever.

And with that cheery news, I'll conclude our

cosmic journey for today on Astronomy Daily.

From astronauts readjusting to Earth's

gravity after an extended space mission to

mysterious pulsing stars, asteroid sample

missions, and even the potential long term

fate of our planet, the universe continues to

surprise and fascinate us. I'm

Anna and I hope these stories have sparked

your curiosity about the vast cosmos we're

all a part of. The beauty of astronomy is

that there's always something new to

discover, whether it's a strange stellar

object pulsing every 44 minutes, or

understanding how our own planet is might

navigate cosmic challenges billions of years

from now. If you'd like to stay connected

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