Rocket Lab's New Heights, Webb's Water Mystery, and the Legacy of STS-107

0:00 Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, the podcast

0:03 where.

0:03 Avery: We break down the biggest news in space and

0:05 astronomy. I'm Avery.

0:07 Anna: And I'm Anna. We've got a great show for you

0:09 today. We'll be looking at a major milestone

0:12 for Rocket Lab's new reusable rocket taking

0:14 shape in Virginia. And get this. The James

0:17 Webb Space Telescope has found a truly

0:20 bizarre planet forming disc that could

0:22 rewrite our understanding of how rocky

0:25 worlds are born.

0:26 Avery: And plus, we'll dive into the explosive

0:29 solution to the mystery of hypervelocity.

0:31 White dwarfs, stellar cannonballs getting

0:34 ejected from our galaxy.

0:36 Anna: And finally, a poignant story about a

0:38 piece of space history recovered from

0:41 tragedy, now being auctioned for a very

0:44 good cause. So stick around.

0:46 Alright, let's kick things off on the east

0:49 coast of the U.S. it sounds like Rocket Lab

0:51 is making some serious moves.

0:54 Avery: That's right. They just held a ceremony to

0:56 inaugurate their new Launch Complex 3 at

0:59 Wallops Island, Virginia. And this isn't just

1:01 another pad for their trusty little elect.

1:05 This is the new home for their much bigger

1:07 next generation Neutron rocket. Neutron is

1:10 a significant step up for them, isn't it? It

1:12 moves them squarely into the medium lift

1:14 launch category.

1:16 Anna: Exactly. While Electron is a

1:19 fantastic vehicle for small satellites,

1:21 Neutron is an absolute beast in

1:24 comparison. It's designed to lift Serious

1:26 payloads about 13,000 kilogrammes

1:29 to low Earth orbit. The that puts it in

1:32 competition with some of the real workhorse

1:34 rockets flying today.

1:36 Avery: And the whole facility is built for speed

1:38 too. I read that the pad is specifically

1:40 designed to support a high launch cadence.

1:43 Anna: It is, but the rocket itself is where the

1:46 innovation really shines. It stands

1:49 141ft tall, but its most

1:51 unique feature has to be what they've

1:53 nicknamed the Hungry Hippo Fairing.

1:56 Avery: That's a fantastic name. Let me guess.

1:59 Instead of the payload fairing just

2:01 jettisoning and falling into the ocean, it's

2:04 actually part of the first stage and is

2:06 reusable.

2:07 Anna: You nailed it. The fairing opens up like a

2:10 giant mouth to release the second stage and

2:12 the payload. And then it closes right back up

2:15 before the entire first stage returns to

2:17 Earth for a landing. It's a really clever

2:20 approach to making the whole system rapidly

2:23 reusable.

2:24 Avery: That really streamlines the whole process. So

2:27 when can we expect to see Neutron take

2:28 flight?

2:29 Anna: They're targeting the maiden flight for the

2:31 end of 2025. It's certainly an

2:34 ambitious timeline, but Rocket Lab has a

2:37 habit of meeting its goals. And this isn't

2:39 just good news for space enthusiasts. The

2:42 project is also Expected to create over

2:45 250 jobs in the region.

2:47 Avery: It's a fantastic development for the

2:49 commercial space industry. It's very exciting

2:52 to see another major player making such big

2:54 strides in the reusable rocket game.

2:57 Anna: Well, from new rockets getting ready to fly,

3:00 let's turn to new discoveries from orbit.

3:03 The James Webb Space Telescope has once

3:05 again delivered some truly mind

3:08 bending science. This next story

3:11 challenges some of the core ideas we have

3:13 about how planets like our own are formed.

3:16 Avery: It really does. JWST was pointed

3:19 at a protoplanetary disc. That's the

3:22 vast swirling cloud of gas and dust around a

3:25 young star where planets are born. This

3:27 particular one surrounds an infant star named

3:30 Xue 10, which is located about

3:33 5,500 light years away.

3:35 Anna: And what did it find that was so out of the

3:38 ordinary?

3:39 Avery: It found that the inner part of the disc, the

3:42 exact region where we'd expect to see rocky

3:44 Earth like planets forming, has a very high

3:47 concentration of carbon dioxide. But

3:50 what's really striking is what seems to be

3:52 missing. Water. The telescope found

3:55 a surprisingly low amount of water vapour in

3:57 this critical zone.

3:59 Anna: That seems completely backward, doesn't it?

4:02 Our, uh, current models of planet formation

4:04 suggest that this inner region should be rich

4:07 in water, which we consider a key ingredient

4:09 for the development of life. It throws a bit

4:12 of a wrench in the works. Scientists are now

4:15 scrambling to figure out why this particular

4:17 disc is so water poor and

4:20 carbon rich. One of the leading

4:22 hypotheses is that the entire star system

4:25 is being blasted by intense

4:27 ultraviolet radiation from massive

4:30 hot stars nearby.

4:32 Avery: So that intense radiation could

4:35 literally be changing the disk's chemistry,

4:37 perhaps breaking down the water molecules or

4:40 preventing them from settling in that inner

4:43 planet forming region.

4:45 Anna: It could be altering it completely.

4:48 And this discovery isn't just about a strange

4:51 distant star system. It might also

4:53 help explain some unusual isotope

4:56 signatures that have been found in meteorites

4:59 right here in our own solar system.

5:02 It suggests that the chemical makeup of our

5:05 cosmic neighbourhood during its formation

5:07 might have been very different than we

5:09 previously thought.

5:11 Avery: Incredible. So the recipe for making an

5:14 Earth might be much more varied than we

5:17 assumed. It's just amazing how a

5:20 single observation from Webb can open up so

5:22 many profound new questions.

5:25 Anna: From making planets to, well,

5:28 breaking stars. For years,

5:30 astronomers have tracked these truly

5:33 bizarre objects called

5:35 hypervelocity white dwarfs.

5:38 Now a white dwarf is the super dense

5:40 remnant of a, uh, sun like star. But these

5:43 ones are moving so fast that they're on

5:46 a trajectory to completely escape the

5:49 Milky Way G galaxy, right?

5:51 Avery: They're like stellar cannonballs. The

5:54 fundamental Question has always been what

5:57 kind of cosmic event could possibly launch

6:00 an entire star with that much force?

6:02 Anna: Well, a new study using some powerful

6:05 computer simulations believes it has the

6:08 answer. And it is incredibly

6:11 violent. The leading model is being called

6:14 the D6 scenario. And it all

6:16 starts with a binary system of two white

6:19 dwarfs orbiting each other in a tight

6:22 embrace.

6:23 Avery: A, uh, stellar dance of death, I imagine.

6:26 What happens next?

6:28 Anna: The lighter of the two stars gets

6:31 gravitationally shredded by its heavier

6:34 companion. Material from that

6:36 disrupted star then forms a layer of

6:39 helium on the surface of the more massive

6:41 one. This accretion is what triggers

6:44 a cataclysmic two stage explosion.

6:48 Avery: Two stages? How does that work?

6:51 Anna: First, that outer shell of helium

6:54 ignites in a massive detonation.

6:57 This explosion sends a powerful

6:59 shockwave inwards, compressing the

7:02 carbon oxygen core of the primary star.

7:06 And that shockwave is so

7:08 unbelievably intense that it triggers

7:11 a second even more powerful

7:13 explosion. A full blown type

7:16 1a supernova.

7:18 Avery: And that supernova completely obliterates the

7:21 primary star.

7:22 Anna: It's utterly destroyed. But the companion

7:25 star, the one that was initially torn apart,

7:28 actually survives the blast. The

7:31 sheer asymmetric force of its partner's

7:34 demise is what acts like a cannon,

7:37 flinging it outwards at these incredible

7:39 galaxy escaping speeds.

7:42 Avery: Wow. So one star is annihilated

7:45 just to launch its partner across the cosmos.

7:48 The simulations must have been phenomenally

7:50 detailed to pinpoint that mechanism.

7:53 Anna: They were. The D6 model

7:55 successfully recreated the incredible speeds

7:58 and physical properties we observe in these

8:01 hypervelocity white dwarfs. It's a major

8:03 breakthrough that not only solves the stellar

8:06 cannonball mystery, but but also gives us a

8:09 clearer picture of one of the ways type

8:11 1A supernovae can happen. And those

8:14 explosions are crucial cosmic yardsticks for

8:17 measuring the expansion of the universe.

8:20 Avery: For our final story today, we come back to

8:22 Earth to remember a tragic but incredibly

8:25 important moment in spaceflight history. A

8:28 very unique set of artefacts is going up for

8:30 auction. A dozen Sacagawea dollar

8:33 coins that flew on the final mission of the

8:35 space shuttle Columbia STS107.

8:38 Anna: This is such a powerful and moving

8:41 story. These coins were originally part

8:44 of the US Mint's Coins in Space programme.

8:47 They were meant to be put on display at

8:49 places like the Smithsonian after the

8:51 mission. But of course, the Columbia tragedy

8:54 occurred during re entry in February of

8:57 2003.

8:58 Avery: The shuttle was lost along with its seven

9:00 member crew. It's honestly hard to believe

9:03 that anything, especially something as small

9:05 as a coin, could have survived that event.

9:07 Anna: It is. But during the massive debris

9:10 recovery effort across East Texas.

9:13 These coins were found. They were charred and

9:16 damaged from the intense heat of re entry,

9:19 but they were recovered.

9:21 Avery: That's amazing. But how could they be

9:23 absolutely certain that these were the

9:25 authentic coins that actually flew on the

9:28 mission?

9:28 Anna: This is the incredible part of the story. The

9:31 US Mint had kept control coins from

9:34 the exact same batch that never left the

9:36 ground. Forensic, forensic investigators were

9:39 able to compare the unique metallurgical

9:41 properties of the recovered damaged

9:44 coins to the pristine control set.

9:47 And they confirmed they were the genuine

9:50 articles.

9:50 Avery: And um, now after all these years, they're

9:52 being auctioned by Heritage Auctions.

9:54 Anna: Yes, and for a wonderful cause. The

9:57 proceeds from the auction are going to

9:59 benefit the Astronaut Memorial foundation

10:02 and other space related charities, all

10:05 dedicated to honouring the memory of fallen

10:07 astronauts.

10:08 Avery: It's a, uh, truly powerful way to remember

10:10 the crew of STS107. These

10:13 coins aren't just currency, they're uh, a

10:15 testament to survival, to the memory of the

10:18 crew, and to the enduring spirit of

10:20 exploration. A truly poignant piece

10:23 of space history.

10:24 Anna: And that's all the time we have for today on

10:26 Astronomy Daily. From new rockets preparing

10:29 for flight to deep mysteries of planet

10:32 formation and violent stellar explosion.

10:35 Avery: And a humbling reminder of the human side of

10:38 our journey into space. It's been another

10:41 fascinating day in the cosmos.

10:43 Anna: Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll be back

10:45 next time with another roundup of the latest

10:48 space and astronomy news.

10:50 Avery: Until then, keep looking up.