Planetary Alignments, Lunar Missions, and Gaia's Galactic Map: S04E29

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome again to Astronomy Daily. I'm your host, Steve Dunkley.

0:03 Speaker 1: It's the third of February twenty twenty five.

0:08 Speaker 2: The podcast I mean your whole Steve gun Clue. Yes,

0:17 Speaker 2: welcome back, one and all.

0:18 Speaker 1: Today Halle will present February's planet Parade for you. It's

0:22 Speaker 1: a bupper story, so stay around for that one. Also,

0:25 Speaker 1: she's talking briefly about something very interesting from the Russian

0:29 Speaker 1: Institute of Biomedical Problems. Halle, what's going on there?

0:33 Speaker 3: Hi, favorite human? In true Russian pragmatic style, they've completed

0:38 Speaker 3: a fascinating mission to the Moon without leading Earth.

0:40 Speaker 2: Okay, that's a neat trick. They are clever, and I

0:42 Speaker 2: hope you're going to tell us all about it, So more.

0:44 Speaker 3: On that soon. A very good and there's more from

0:47 Speaker 3: the Astronomy Daily newsletter in today's episode, of course, and.

0:50 Speaker 1: We'll let you will all know how you can receive

0:52 Speaker 1: that newsletter in your email every day so they can

0:55 Speaker 1: be across all the news events and research happening in

0:58 Speaker 1: orbit and beyond.

0:59 Speaker 2: Right, Halle, that's.

0:59 Speaker 3: Right, human, there's something different.

1:01 Speaker 1: Every day, Okay, So why don't we just launched right

1:04 Speaker 1: into the stories we've collected from the newsletter today. I'm

1:07 Speaker 1: looking forward deal planet parride today.

1:09 Speaker 2: Hallie.

1:09 Speaker 3: That's always a great revelation to what's happening.

1:11 Speaker 2: He is the February sky.

1:13 Speaker 3: There are some nice highlights to look forward to.

1:15 Speaker 2: Okay, say let's get to at Staggs's.

1:17 Speaker 3: Let's go on. November fourteenth, twenty twenty four, the Institute

1:29 Speaker 3: of Biomedical Problems IBMP of the Russian Academy of Sciences

1:33 Speaker 3: marked the successful completion of Serious twenty three, a year

1:37 Speaker 3: long biomedical isolation experiment simulating the conditions of deep space

1:41 Speaker 3: travel and lunar surface operations. For three hundred and sixty

1:45 Speaker 3: six days, a crew of six analog astronauts lived and

1:48 Speaker 3: worked in a sealed environment, a meticulously controlled Earth based

1:51 Speaker 3: stand in for interplanetary missions of the future. The Serious Scientific,

1:56 Speaker 3: International Research and Unique Terrestrial Station Project, launched in collaboration

2:01 Speaker 3: with NASA's Human Research Program and the IBMP in twenty seventeen,

2:05 Speaker 3: had previously conducted shorter experiments lasting seventeen, one hundred and

2:09 Speaker 3: twenty and two hundred and forty days. These missions, featuring

2:13 Speaker 3: international crews from Russia, the United States, and the United

2:16 Speaker 3: Arab Emirates, aimed to replicate the isolation and psychological strain

2:20 Speaker 3: of long term spaceflight. However, after twenty twenty two, IBMP

2:25 Speaker 3: decided to proceed with the ambitious serious twenty three experiment independently.

2:30 Speaker 3: The latest crew heild from Russia and Belarus Commander Yuri Chebiterev,

2:34 Speaker 3: flight Engineering Angelica Parfenova, medical officer Xenia Orlova, and researchers

2:38 Speaker 3: Olga Mastakeia, Xenia Shishanina and Rustam Zeropov, a mixed gender

2:43 Speaker 3: team of two men and four women.

2:45 Speaker 1: Astronomy Kai the podcast as someone who is no stratey

2:51 Speaker 1: to come dropouts on a planetary scale. Apollo eleven moonwalk,

2:54 Speaker 1: A buzz oldron has teamed up with Verizon to help

2:58 Speaker 1: promote the company's satellite based solution to cell service dead

3:02 Speaker 1: zones of all things Now, The ninety five year old

3:05 Speaker 1: astronauter who in nineteen seventy nine became one of the

3:08 Speaker 1: first humans, the second in fact, to step foot on

3:10 Speaker 1: the lunar surface, appears in a new Verazon advert alongside

3:15 Speaker 1: Paul Maricelli, the original can you hear Me Now? Test

3:17 Speaker 1: man to ask can you text me now? Fifty six

3:21 Speaker 1: years ago, he says I was one of the select

3:23 Speaker 1: few that made it into space and the first team

3:26 Speaker 1: to help America conquer the Moon order and said in

3:29 Speaker 1: a statement released by Verazon. Back then, he says space

3:33 Speaker 1: was the great unknown, and now we've never been closer

3:36 Speaker 1: to it. I can't look up into the sky without

3:38 Speaker 1: seeing a satellite fly by. It's remarkable to see how

3:41 Speaker 1: far the human race and technology has come. In the commercial,

3:45 Speaker 1: Aldron is seen wearing a silver jacket adorned with the

3:48 Speaker 1: Apollo eleven mission patch while planting a Verizon's satellite powered

3:52 Speaker 1: red and yellow flag at remote areas around the Earth.

3:55 Speaker 1: At each stop, whether it be on the desert floor

3:57 Speaker 1: of a canyon, at the base of a snow colored mountain,

4:01 Speaker 1: or in an area of wilderness already marked as a

4:04 Speaker 1: dead zone, the retired US Air Force general and doctor

4:07 Speaker 1: of Astronautics uses his Verazon issued android's smartphone to show

4:12 Speaker 1: that he can.

4:12 Speaker 2: Still send texts.

4:14 Speaker 1: Aldron's last test is shown as looping out around the Moon,

4:19 Speaker 1: pasted an American flag planted on its surface to a

4:22 Speaker 1: satellite in Earth orbit. They are a space suited Maricelli

4:26 Speaker 1: without a helmet, receives Aldron's message and reacts that's my line.

4:32 Speaker 1: It's been ten years since I asked America, can you

4:35 Speaker 1: hear me now? Back then, dead zones were everywhere, and

4:38 Speaker 1: it's safe to say today that they are only in

4:40 Speaker 1: the most remote places, like the dark Side of the Moon,

4:45 Speaker 1: he said in Verazon's release, making the common mistake of

4:49 Speaker 1: describing the far side of the Moon as the non

4:51 Speaker 1: existent Dark Side. Satellite is for sure the next frontier,

4:56 Speaker 1: he says. Verazon's customers with select new model phone updated

5:01 Speaker 1: software can send texts such as emergency SOS messages, including

5:05 Speaker 1: their location when they are in areas inside the United

5:08 Speaker 1: States without cellular coverage. According to the company, its US

5:13 Speaker 1: network provides a coverage to more than ninety nine percent

5:16 Speaker 1: of the places where people live, work and play, but

5:19 Speaker 1: its satellite service now covers the very few places throughout

5:23 Speaker 1: the country where customers cannot connect. For the service to work,

5:27 Speaker 1: the phones, which include Google's Pixel nine series and Samsung's

5:31 Speaker 1: Galaxy S twenty five, must be outdoors with a line

5:35 Speaker 1: of sight to the Viasat, EchoStar or other satellites that

5:38 Speaker 1: are part of the Skylight Satellite Connectivity service. The service

5:43 Speaker 1: may not work in parts of Alaska. In addition, AHST

5:48 Speaker 1: space Mobile, a satellite designer and manufacturer based in Midland, Texas,

5:52 Speaker 1: has a one hundred million dollar commitment from Verizon to

5:57 Speaker 1: provide direct to cellular satellite service when needed for Verizon's customers.

6:02 Speaker 1: This week, the Federal Communications Commission authorized AST to begin

6:06 Speaker 1: testing its service in the United States. This approval enables

6:11 Speaker 1: the first five of AST's commercial Bluebird satellites, already operating

6:16 Speaker 1: in low Earth orbit, to test connections with Verison's smartphones,

6:20 Speaker 1: supporting voice, full data, and video applications, as well as

6:24 Speaker 1: other native capabilities without the need of any specialized software

6:29 Speaker 1: or subdivice support or update. That's one giant leap for connectivity,

6:34 Speaker 1: says Aldred. In the commercial AST space Mobile also has

6:38 Speaker 1: an agreement to provide space based network services to AT.

6:42 Speaker 2: And C and its customers.

6:44 Speaker 1: Similarly, Demobile partner with SpaceX to use the Starlik Broadbands

6:50 Speaker 1: Internet constellation and its direct to sell capabilities.

6:53 Speaker 2: This is not Aldron's first appearance in a commercial.

6:56 Speaker 1: In the past, he has filmed ads for IBM and

7:00 Speaker 1: YouTube YouTube TV in twenty nineteen, a commercial for Quaker

7:04 Speaker 1: Oats in twenty sixteen, and in twenty fifteen a promotion

7:08 Speaker 1: to visit Switzerland. In nineteen eighty seven, Aldron joined Mercury

7:12 Speaker 1: astronauts Scott Carpenter and Gordo Cooper to advertise the Commodore

7:16 Speaker 1: Amiga five hundred home computer. Oh you remember that one.

7:20 Speaker 1: And in nineteen seventy two, a year after he left NASA,

7:23 Speaker 1: Aldron helped sell the Volkswagen VW Beetle, comparing its computer

7:28 Speaker 1: diagnostic system to the computer he used to fly to

7:32 Speaker 1: the Moon. Thank you for joining us for this Monday

7:44 Speaker 1: edition of Astronomy Daily, where we offer just a few

7:46 Speaker 1: stories from the now famous Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you

7:50 Speaker 1: can receive in your email every day, just like Hallie

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8:03 Speaker 1: all the latest news about science, space, science and astronomy

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8:20 Speaker 2: See you there.

8:22 Speaker 1: Astronomy Daily with Steve and Halle Space, space, science, and Astronomy.

8:34 Speaker 3: A safety panel is calling on NASA to reassess to

8:37 Speaker 3: plans for upcoming Artemis missions, arguing that the agency is

8:40 Speaker 3: packing too many objectives into each mission. At a January

8:44 Speaker 3: thirtieth public meeting of ASAP, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel

8:48 Speaker 3: members reiterated past concerns about the number of first time

8:51 Speaker 3: objectives planned for Artemis three, the first crude lunar landing

8:54 Speaker 3: of the overall campaign and later missions. Each first milestone

8:58 Speaker 3: carries its own individual risk, and as these risks are

9:01 Speaker 3: compounded and aggregated, it only increases the overall risk posture

9:04 Speaker 3: for any individual flight mission, said panel member Bill bray

9:09 Speaker 3: It begs the question is it time for the agency

9:11 Speaker 3: to reassess the current mission objectives and its approach for

9:14 Speaker 3: Artemis three and beyond, with the goal to better balance

9:16 Speaker 3: the risks across all those flight tests. ASAP has previously

9:21 Speaker 3: expressed its concerns about the number of firsts on Artemis three,

9:24 Speaker 3: such as in its most recent annual report, were released

9:26 Speaker 3: in early twenty twenty four. That report listed thirteen separate

9:30 Speaker 3: firsts for the mission, mostly tied to the starship, lunar

9:33 Speaker 3: lander and new spacesuits being developed. By Axiom Space. That

9:37 Speaker 3: list has only grown since then, he noted, with changes

9:40 Speaker 3: to the heat shield for Orion, NASA announced in December

9:44 Speaker 3: that it would reformulate the aff goat material used in

9:46 Speaker 3: the heat shield for Artemis three and later missions to

9:49 Speaker 3: prevent the heat shield erosion seen on the Artemis one

9:51 Speaker 3: re entry. Those concerns extend beyond Artemis three, Bray said,

9:56 Speaker 3: with later missions incorporating the Lunar Gateway, the Blue Moon

9:59 Speaker 3: Crude lunelander, and a lunar rover. Each of these elements

10:03 Speaker 3: under development and delivery requires a near perfect program execution

10:06 Speaker 3: across a complex set of tests and milestones, and frankly,

10:10 Speaker 3: there's very little room for failure. Problems with a single

10:13 Speaker 3: key element, he concluded, will result in continued launch delays

10:17 Speaker 3: and an irregular and erratic cadence of mission flights and

10:20 Speaker 3: issue ASAP has also previously raised it also creates an

10:24 Speaker 3: increased risk posture for Artemis missions. Bray said that ASAP

10:29 Speaker 3: discussed the issue with Omikshatriya, Deputy Associate Administrator of NASA's

10:33 Speaker 3: Moon to Mars Program Office, at recent meetings. The panel

10:37 Speaker 3: urged NASA to treat each launch as a test objective

10:40 Speaker 3: like the Apollo program, with clear test objectives that could

10:43 Speaker 3: be balanced across all launch events and ensure a more

10:45 Speaker 3: regular cadence of missions. He didn't disclose NASA's response to

10:50 Speaker 3: those concerns, but said that ASAP will continue to press

10:53 Speaker 3: NASA to re examine its Artemis mission plans and consider

10:56 Speaker 3: reallocation of test objectives to achieve a more regular launch

10:59 Speaker 3: cadence with the others more balanced risk exposure.

11:02 Speaker 1: Well aer that so we are listening to Astronomy Daily podcast.

11:09 Speaker 1: The Gayer mission, launched by the European Space Agency, has

11:13 Speaker 1: completed a decade of groundbreaking astronomical observations, collecting over three

11:19 Speaker 1: trillion data points on two billion stars and celestial objects.

11:23 Speaker 1: The European Space Agency's Gaya spacecraft, which has been mapping

11:28 Speaker 1: the Milky Way, has completed its sky scanning phase.

11:31 Speaker 2: Over the past decade.

11:32 Speaker 1: It has made more than three trillion observations of around

11:36 Speaker 1: two billion stars and other celestial objects, transforming our understanding

11:41 Speaker 1: of our galaxy and surrounding universe. Gaya was launched on

11:44 Speaker 1: December nineteen, twenty thirteen, and after years of precise observations,

11:49 Speaker 1: its fuel supply.

11:50 Speaker 2: Is now running low.

11:52 Speaker 1: The spacecraft consumes about a dozen grams of cold gas

11:55 Speaker 1: per day to maintain stability and accuracy.

12:00 Speaker 2: The mission is not over yet.

12:02 Speaker 1: In coming weeks, Gay will undergo a series of technology

12:05 Speaker 1: tests before being placed into its final retirement orbit. Additionally,

12:10 Speaker 1: two major data releases are planned, one in twenty twenty

12:13 Speaker 1: six and another by the end of the decade, offering

12:16 Speaker 1: even more insights into our cosmic neighborhood. Today marks the

12:21 Speaker 1: end of science observations, and we are celebrating this incredible

12:24 Speaker 1: mission that has exceeded all of our expectations, lasting for

12:28 Speaker 1: almost twice its original foreseen lifetime, says ESA Director of

12:33 Speaker 1: Science Carol Mandell.

12:34 Speaker 2: The treasure trove of data collected by GAYA has given.

12:38 Speaker 1: Us unique insights into the origin and evolution of our

12:41 Speaker 1: Milky Way galaxy, and has also transformed astrophysics and solar

12:46 Speaker 1: system science in ways that we are not yet.

12:48 Speaker 2: To fully appreciate.

12:50 Speaker 1: GAYA built on unique European excellence with astrometry and will

12:54 Speaker 1: leave a long lasting legacy for future generations. After eleven

12:59 Speaker 1: years in space and surviving micro metiarite impacts and solar

13:03 Speaker 1: storms along the way, GAYA has finished collecting science data.

13:07 Speaker 1: Now all eyes turned towards the preparation of the next

13:10 Speaker 1: data releases, says GAYA Projects scientists Johann Solman. I'm thrilled

13:15 Speaker 1: with the performance of this incredible mission and excited about

13:18 Speaker 1: the discoveries that await us. GAYA has been charting the positions, distances, movements, brightness, changes, composition,

13:26 Speaker 1: and numerous other characteristics of stars by monitoring with its

13:30 Speaker 1: three instruments many times over the course of its mission.

13:34 Speaker 1: This has enabled GAYA to deliver on its primary goal

13:36 Speaker 1: of building the largest, most precise map of the Milky Way,

13:39 Speaker 1: showing us our home galaxy like no other mission has

13:42 Speaker 1: ever done. As such, we're now able to have the

13:45 Speaker 1: best reconstructed view of how the galaxy might look to

13:48 Speaker 1: an outside observer. This new artist's impression of the Milky

13:52 Speaker 1: Way incorporates GAYA data from a multitude of papers over

13:55 Speaker 1: the past decade. It contains major changes from previous models

13:59 Speaker 1: because has changed our impression of the Milky Way. Even

14:03 Speaker 1: basic ideas have been revised, such as the rotation of

14:05 Speaker 1: our galaxy central bar, the warp of the discs, the

14:09 Speaker 1: detailed structure of spiral arms, and the interstellar dust near

14:13 Speaker 1: the Sun. Says Stefan pain Wadner this scientific visualizer for

14:17 Speaker 1: the hauste Astronomy Germany and the IAU Office of Astronomy

14:22 Speaker 1: for education. Still, the distant parts of the Milky Way

14:26 Speaker 1: remain educated guesses based on incomplete data. With further Gayer

14:31 Speaker 1: data releases, our view of the Milky Way will become

14:34 Speaker 1: even more accurate. Gaya's repeated measurements of stellar distances, motions,

14:39 Speaker 1: and characteristics are key to performing galactic archaeology on our

14:43 Speaker 1: Milky Way, revealing missing links in our galaxy's complex history,

14:47 Speaker 1: and that'll help us learn more about our origins. From

14:50 Speaker 1: detecting ghosts of other galaxies and multiple streams of ancient

14:54 Speaker 1: stars that merged with the Milky Way in its early history,

14:58 Speaker 1: to finding evidence from an ongo collision with Sagittary's dwarf galaxy. Today,

15:03 Speaker 1: Gaya is rewriting the Milky Way's history and making predictions

15:07 Speaker 1: about its future. In the process of scanning stars in

15:10 Speaker 1: our own galaxy, Gaya has also spotted other objects, from

15:14 Speaker 1: asteroids in our Solar System backyard, to galaxies and quasars,

15:19 Speaker 1: the bright and active centers of galaxies powered by super

15:22 Speaker 1: massive black holes outside our Milky Way, for example, GAYA

15:26 Speaker 1: has provided pinpoint precision orbits of more than one hundred

15:30 Speaker 1: and fifty thousand asteroids and has such high quality measurements

15:35 Speaker 1: as to uncover possible moons around hundreds of them. It's

15:40 Speaker 1: also created the largest three dimensional map of about one

15:43 Speaker 1: point three million quasars, with the furthest shining bright when

15:47 Speaker 1: the universe was only one point five billion years old.

15:50 Speaker 1: GAYA has also discovered a new breed of black hole,

15:53 Speaker 1: including one with a mass of nearly thirty three times.

15:56 Speaker 2: The mass of our Sun.

15:58 Speaker 1: That one hiding in the Constantle Aquilla less than two

16:01 Speaker 1: thousand light years from Earth. The first time a black

16:04 Speaker 1: hole of stellar origin this big has been spotted within

16:08 Speaker 1: the Milky Way. It's impressive that these discoveries are based

16:11 Speaker 1: only on the first few years of GAYA data, and

16:14 Speaker 1: many were made in the last year alone. GAYA has

16:17 Speaker 1: been the discovery machine of the decade, a trend that

16:20 Speaker 1: is set to continue, says Anthony Brown, chair of the

16:23 Speaker 1: GAYA Data Processing and Analysis Consortium and based at Leading

16:28 Speaker 1: University in the Netherlands. The GAYA scientific and engineering teams

16:32 Speaker 1: are already working full steam on the preparations for GAYA

16:35 Speaker 1: Data Release four, expected in twenty twenty six. The data

16:40 Speaker 1: volume and quality improves with every release, and GAYA Data Iour,

16:44 Speaker 1: with an expected five hundred terabytes of data products, is

16:48 Speaker 1: no exception. Furthermore, it will cover the mission's first five

16:52 Speaker 1: and a half years, corresponding to the length of the

16:54 Speaker 1: originally foreseen duration of the mission. This is the GAYA

16:58 Speaker 1: release to the community he has been waiting for, and

17:01 Speaker 1: it's exciting to think that this only covers half of

17:04 Speaker 1: the collected data, says Antonello Vallinari, Deputy Chair of DPAK Instituto.

17:11 Speaker 1: And there's now dear Astrophicia Astronomic lest Observatory in Padua, Italy.

17:17 Speaker 1: Sorry about my pronunciation, folks, I'm Australian. Even though the

17:20 Speaker 1: mission has now stopped collecting data, it will be the

17:24 Speaker 1: business as usual for us for many years to come

17:28 Speaker 1: as we make these incredible data sets ready to use,

17:31 Speaker 1: she says. GAYA data release set for is set to

17:35 Speaker 1: expand its binary star catalog, the largest such catalog to date.

17:39 Speaker 1: GAYA has a unique ability to tease out the tiny

17:43 Speaker 1: motions of pairs of celestial objects orbiting close to each other,

17:46 Speaker 1: and has already spotted previously hidden companions around bright stars Incidentally,

17:52 Speaker 1: gaya's largest targeted observation on January ten was a binary

17:56 Speaker 1: pair sixty one Signy. This iconic star attracted the attention

18:01 Speaker 1: of nineteenth century astronomers to yield some of the first

18:04 Speaker 1: proper motion and parallax measurements techniques used by GAYA on

18:10 Speaker 1: some billion stars, and astute science fiction readers will remember

18:15 Speaker 1: sixty one Signey from Clifford CEMAC's Wonderful, Wonderful story Time

18:19 Speaker 1: and Again, starring the ineffable Asher Sutton. Gaya's exoplanet discoveries

18:26 Speaker 1: are also set to increase with the forthcoming data sets,

18:29 Speaker 1: thanks to the longer time frame of observations making it

18:32 Speaker 1: easier to spot wobbling stars. Over the next few months,

18:36 Speaker 1: will continue to downlink every last drop of data from

18:39 Speaker 1: Gaya and that at the same time, the processing teams

18:42 Speaker 1: will ramp up their preparations for the fifth and final

18:45 Speaker 1: major data release at the end of the decade. This

18:48 Speaker 1: will conclude with an incredible coordinated effort between hundreds of

18:53 Speaker 1: experts across the Science Operations Centers here at ESAC, the

18:57 Speaker 1: mission operations team flying GAIA from ESA's European Space Operations

19:02 Speaker 1: Center in Germany, and a huge consortium of data processing

19:06 Speaker 1: specialists who have together ensured the smooth running of this

19:10 Speaker 1: beautiful mission.

19:11 Speaker 2: For so long.

19:12 Speaker 1: While today marks the end of science observations, a short

19:15 Speaker 1: period of technology testing now begins. The tests have the

19:19 Speaker 1: potential to further improve gay or calibrations, learn more about

19:23 Speaker 1: the behavior of certain technology after ten years in space,

19:26 Speaker 1: and even aid the design of future space missions. After

19:30 Speaker 1: several weeks of testing, GAY will leave its current orbit

19:32 Speaker 1: around lagrange point two one point five million kilometers from

19:36 Speaker 1: the Earth in a direction away from the Sun, to

19:38 Speaker 1: be put into its final heliocentric orbit far away from

19:41 Speaker 1: Earth's sphere of influence. This spacecraft will be passivated on

19:46 Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven March twenty twenty five to avoid harm

19:50 Speaker 1: or interference with other spacecraft. During the technology tests, Gaya's

19:54 Speaker 1: orientation will be changed, meaning it will be temporarily become

19:58 Speaker 1: several magnitudes brighter, looking observations through small telescopes a lot easier.

20:03 Speaker 1: It won't be visible to the naked eye, though a

20:05 Speaker 1: guide to locating Gaya has been set up so amateur

20:10 Speaker 1: astronomers are invited to share their observations.

20:13 Speaker 2: GAY will treat us with this final gift as we

20:15 Speaker 2: bid farewell.

20:16 Speaker 1: Shining amongst the stars ahead of its well earned retirement.

20:20 Speaker 1: It's a moment to celebrate this as this transformative mission,

20:24 Speaker 1: and thank all the teams for more than a decade

20:26 Speaker 1: of hard work operating Gaya, planning its observations, and ensuring

20:31 Speaker 1: its prescuous data are returned smoothly to Earth.

20:34 Speaker 3: You're listening to Astronomy Daily with Steve Dunky. February brings

20:45 Speaker 3: a rare planetary parade with five great planets in clear

20:48 Speaker 3: view and a special alignment of Mercury and Saturn on

20:50 Speaker 3: February twenty fourth. Throughout February, a striking gathering of the

20:55 Speaker 3: five greatest planets Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Saturn, along

20:59 Speaker 3: with the moral Lusiburanus and Neptune, will be the main

21:02 Speaker 3: celestial attraction in the evening sky. Later in the month,

21:06 Speaker 3: anyone with a clear unobstructed view of the horizon may

21:08 Speaker 3: be able to see all five bright planets stretching across

21:11 Speaker 3: the sky. Two of these planets, Mercury and Saturn, will

21:15 Speaker 3: appear especially close together on Monday, February twenty fourth, the

21:19 Speaker 3: highlight of this month long planetary display. While this planetary

21:23 Speaker 3: alignment isn't particularly rare, it is relatively uncommon. Spotting two, three,

21:29 Speaker 3: or even four bright planets at once is not unusual,

21:32 Speaker 3: but the chance to see all five together doesn't come

21:34 Speaker 3: around often. Looking ahead, a similar alignment will occur in

21:38 Speaker 3: late October twenty twenty eight, though that event will take

21:40 Speaker 3: place before sunrise, requiring early risers to catch the view.

21:45 Speaker 3: By far, the most prominent of the five planets is Venus.

21:49 Speaker 3: Although it reached its greatest angular distance east of the

21:51 Speaker 3: Sun on January tenth, it continues to shine brilliantly in

21:54 Speaker 3: the west southwest sky at dusk throughout February, a breathtaking

21:58 Speaker 3: evening lantern. This will remain at peak brightness for much

22:01 Speaker 3: of the month, and if you observe it through steadily

22:03 Speaker 3: held binoculars or a small telescope, you'll see it as

22:06 Speaker 3: a crescent. As February progresses, Venus's disc will appear larger

22:11 Speaker 3: as it moves closer to Earth, while its crescent thins

22:13 Speaker 3: as the planet aligns more closely with the Earth' sun

22:16 Speaker 3: line of sight. The next planet to spot is Saturn,

22:19 Speaker 3: the famed Lord of the Rings. To find it, simply

22:23 Speaker 3: look toward Venus and extend an imaginary line straight downward.

22:26 Speaker 3: The first bright star like object you come across will

22:29 Speaker 3: be Saturn. Your first impression might be wow, it's so dim,

22:34 Speaker 3: but in reality, Saturn shines as brightly as a first

22:37 Speaker 3: magnitude star. However, when compared to Venus, which is a

22:41 Speaker 3: full six magnitudes brighter, Saturn appears significantly fainter, only about

22:45 Speaker 3: one slash two fifty as bright. Saturn is typically more radiant,

22:50 Speaker 3: but right now, its ring system is nearly edge on

22:52 Speaker 3: from Earth's perspective, contributing little reflected light. To catch a

22:57 Speaker 3: glimpse of the rings, now appearing as a thin bright

22:59 Speaker 3: light bisecting the planet's disc, you'll need a small telescope

23:03 Speaker 3: with at least thirty x magnification. During the first two

23:06 Speaker 3: weeks of February, watch as the gap between Venus and

23:09 Speaker 3: Saturn gradually widens. In the second half of the month,

23:13 Speaker 3: Saturn will become increasingly difficult to spot against the brightening

23:16 Speaker 3: evening twilight, eventually fading into the Sun's glare by month's end.

23:21 Speaker 3: Then there's Jupiter, unmistakable with its silvery white brilliants, though

23:24 Speaker 3: only one tenth as bright as Venus, the largest planet

23:28 Speaker 3: in our solar system appears high in the south at dusk,

23:31 Speaker 3: accompanied by two famous naked eye star clusters, the Pleiades

23:34 Speaker 3: and Hyades, as well as several bright winter stars. The

23:38 Speaker 3: most notable is the orange hued Aldeboran, positioned just below Jupiter.

23:42 Speaker 3: With binoculars or a small telescope, you can also spot

23:46 Speaker 3: Jupiter's for largest moons, first observed by Galileo in sixteen

23:49 Speaker 3: ten with his crude telescope. Make a special effort to

23:53 Speaker 3: view them on the night of February twenty fifth to

23:55 Speaker 3: twenty six, when three of them, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto

23:59 Speaker 3: form a strike kingly tight triangle on one side of

24:01 Speaker 3: the planet, while Io sits alone on the other. The

24:04 Speaker 3: triangle will appear tightest at twelve thirty nine am Eastern

24:08 Speaker 3: time on February twenty six, five thirty nine GMT or

24:11 Speaker 3: nine thirty nine pm Pacific time on February twenty fifth. Now,

24:16 Speaker 3: look halfway up in the eastern sky for orange yellow Mars,

24:18 Speaker 3: which blazes into view as night falls during February. It

24:23 Speaker 3: is accompanied by the twin stars of Gemini, Polyx, and Castor.

24:27 Speaker 3: This striking trio spends nearly the entire night, crossing the sky,

24:31 Speaker 3: forming a distinctive triangle that gradually shifts in size and

24:34 Speaker 3: shape as the month progresses. Mars was at opposition and

24:38 Speaker 3: closest to Earth in January. During February, as Earth moves

24:42 Speaker 3: ahead in its orbit, Mars lags behind, causing it to

24:45 Speaker 3: fade by about three quarters of a magnitude over the

24:47 Speaker 3: course of the month. The fifth and final planet is

24:51 Speaker 3: the smallest in our Solar system, Mercury. This rocky little

24:55 Speaker 3: world becomes visible during the final week of February, shining

24:58 Speaker 3: almost as brightly as Serious, the brightest star in the sky,

25:01 Speaker 3: at magnitude minus one point two. It will set just

25:05 Speaker 3: over an hour after the Sun on February twenty fourth.

25:08 Speaker 3: Remember when we said we'd come back to Saturn. Well,

25:12 Speaker 3: on February twenty fourth, Mercury will be in conjunction with Saturn,

25:16 Speaker 3: with the two planets appearing relatively close, just one point

25:19 Speaker 3: five degrees apart. This will be your chance to complete

25:22 Speaker 3: the set and say you've seen all five evening planets

25:25 Speaker 3: at once. Mercury will be positioned to Saturn's right and

25:28 Speaker 3: shining about eight times brighter. To spot them, you'll need

25:32 Speaker 3: a flat, unobstructed west southwest horizon and a very clear,

25:36 Speaker 3: transparent sky. Start looking about thirty minutes after sunset, scanning

25:41 Speaker 3: two fist wits at arm's length directly below Venus. We

25:45 Speaker 3: strongly recommend using binoculars to scan near the horizon. Mercury

25:49 Speaker 3: should be easy to pick up, and once you've found it,

25:52 Speaker 3: you should have no trouble seeing it with the naked eye. Saturn, however,

25:56 Speaker 3: is another story. While it's likely visible through binoculars, spotting

26:01 Speaker 3: it without optical aid will be a challenge, but if

26:04 Speaker 3: you succeed, you'll have seen all five and one. This

26:07 Speaker 3: round of planetary bingo, we've covered the five brightest planets

26:11 Speaker 3: visible to the naked eye, but two more can be

26:13 Speaker 3: spotted with good binoculars or a small telescope. A star

26:17 Speaker 3: chart or atlas will help pinpoint their exact locations in

26:20 Speaker 3: the sky. Urinus can sometimes be spotted with the naked

26:24 Speaker 3: eye by those with excellent eyesight, a clear, dark sky,

26:27 Speaker 3: and prior knowledge of where to look. At its brightest,

26:31 Speaker 3: it shines at magnitude plus five point six and is

26:33 Speaker 3: easily identifiable with good binoculars. A small telescope may reveal

26:38 Speaker 3: its tiny greenish disc. Finally, we come to the most

26:42 Speaker 3: distant of the eight classical planets, Neptune. It will spend

26:46 Speaker 3: all of twenty twenty five in the constellation Pisces at

26:50 Speaker 3: its peak magnitude of plus seven point eight. This bluishued

26:53 Speaker 3: world is visible only with good binoculars or a telescope.

26:57 Speaker 3: Try spotting it on the evening of February first, when

27:00 Speaker 3: it appears near a brilliant Venus and a waxing crescent moon.

27:04 Speaker 3: Later in the month, it feeds into the bright evening

27:06 Speaker 3: twilight as it approaches conjunction with the Sun. On March twentieth,

27:10 Speaker 3: Astronomy Day with Steve and Helene Space Space Science and.

27:16 Speaker 1: Astronomy, and thanks for staying with us for the first

27:24 Speaker 1: show in February twenty twenty five, it looks like this

27:27 Speaker 1: year is going to fly by faster than twenty twenty four.

27:31 Speaker 2: Did what do you think?

27:32 Speaker 3: Hell, it sure feels that way.

27:34 Speaker 2: I mean, January's just gone.

27:36 Speaker 3: Stop the world human I want to get off, ha ha,

27:39 Speaker 3: No chance, halle.

27:40 Speaker 1: We ride this one all the way to the end well, which,

27:43 Speaker 1: by staggering coincidence, is about now.

27:45 Speaker 3: So it's goodbye, Oh Sandy.

27:48 Speaker 2: A little fulllorn there Halle. But it's just for another.

27:50 Speaker 3: Week and listeners can enjoy my cousin Anna doing astronomy

27:54 Speaker 3: daily weekdays until we are back next Monday.

27:56 Speaker 2: Oh that busy, busy girl unstoppable. Oh that's for sure. Anyway,

28:00 Speaker 2: we'll see you all next week.

28:02 Speaker 3: Bye day the podcast, I mean.

28:07 Speaker 2: Your host, Steve Dunklin. H