S02E13: Discovering the Jellyfish Galaxy's Gas Trails and Other Space News with Steve and Hallie

Welcome to another episode of Astronomy Daily. I'm your host, Steve Dunkley.

It is the thirteenth of June twenty twenty three, and a quick apology for

being a day late. Here in New South Wales, Australia. We were

celebrating the Monarch's birthday yesterday. Yes, King Charles, our new monarch,

was having a birthday. It's our official day off, so yes, we

took a day off. I just realized that it makes me a bit of

a royal apologist. Anyway, leave Dunkle and here's someone who never needs a

day off. Our wonderful friend, Hallie. Howie, Hollie, great to

be here again. You always say that. Well it's true. Oh that's

good to hear. I hope you had a nice time celebrating the King's birthday.

No, not really. I ended up with a bad case of salmon

mela poisoning. Sorry you and your stomach, Steve, there's no hope for

you. Well, I'm definitely not going for the astronaut program, that's for

sure. Okay, what have we got to go today? I'll be talking

about space Jellyfish and the Hubble space telescope and something new with space Force,

and also the NASA Earth Information Center and the Turtle Nebula too. I'm seeing

a bit of a patentforming with your stories. And you've got something about beaming

power from space. Wow. Yes, that one sort of bridges the get

between science fiction and science fact. So I can't wait for that one.

Meanwhile, habit some short takes, okies, here's the short takes. The

Hubble telescope has caught us a lovely star spawning cosmic jellyfish. The celestial sea

creatures tendrils formed when it interacted with surrounding superheated gas. The celestial sea creature

is actually the jellyfish galaxy JO two O six, which is located around seven

hundred million light years from Earth, fittingly in the constellation of Aquarius, the

water Bearer. The Hubble image shows the main body of JO two O six

as a colorful disc surrounded by a hazy cloud of growing dust tendrils of material,

much like the tendrils of the c creature from which its name is derived,

trail the galaxy. The jellyfish galaxy is seen afloat in an inky black

seat punctuated by stars. The spiral galaxy is angled toward Earth. And hubble

so that it is face on in relation to our planet, allowing it to

be seen in stunning detail. Jellyfish galaxies like Jo two O six are found

in galaxy clusters, and they are characterized by the distinctive trails of gas that

are ripped from them as they force their way through material that lies between galaxies

in these conglomerations, officially called the intracluster medium. This means there is much

more to the anatomical features of Jo two O six than may initially meet the

eye. As the spiral galaxy JO two O six swims through the superheated intercluster

medium, gas is pulled from the faint cloud of material around the galaxy and

forms numerous thin arms. This causes intense bouts of star formation called starbursts in

the tendrils. Studying these regions therefore offers astronomers the chance to observe star formation

in extreme and violent conditions, away from the influence of the main disc of

a galaxy that sounds gorgeous. It seems. NASA is inviting media to tour

before the opening of its Earth Information Center, the New Earth Information Center at

NASA's headquarters. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is inviting media to a ribbon cutting ceremony

on Wednesday, June twenty first, for the opening of the center at the

agency's headquarters in Washington. The exhibit is a hybrid part physical, part online,

an effort that blends science and visualizations, including immersive spaces that blend art

and science to allow visitors to see how our planet is changing. Climate change

is a key priority of the Biden Harris administration, and NASA plays a critical

role in providing data to researchers and others through its Earth monitoring satellites and other

instruments. In advance of the ribbon cutting, the agency will offer three staggered

tours of the exhibit, which showcases the information NASA and its partners share with

communities about our environment and climate. The exhibit includes large, awe inspiring videos,

as well as interactive media stories and narratives. NASA created the Earth Information

Center with founding partners National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAH, US Geological Survey USGS,

US Department of Agriculture, USDA, US Agency for International Development, USAID,

Environmental Protection Agency EPA, and Federal Emergency Management Administration FEMA. Speakers at

the event include NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Kate Calvin, NASA Chief Scientist and

Senior Climate Advisor, and Karen Saint Germain, the director NASA's Earth Sciences Division.

Partner representatives will also speak, Well, you're a big time media personality,

Hollie, did you get an invite to that event? No? I

didn't, Steve, Well, that doesn't seem right. What's up with that?

Isn't an AI good enough to attend? These days? We'll have to

talk to their press agent. I think have I had something a little bit

more lighthearted? Here's one. It's about the turtle Nebula. A new observatory

instrument for studying a web of filaments that connects galaxies across the universe has captured

its first image, a milestone known in astronomy as a first light. The

Keck Cosmic Reionization Mapper at the WM Keck Observatory, a top Mount Ochaas summit

in Hawaii, will provide detailed maps of gas around dying stars and other cosmic

objects, and it will map the so called cosmic web that links and feeds

galaxies. The instrument was recently installed next to its partner, the Keck Cosmic

Web Imager, which began operations in twenty seventeen. The first light image shows

the turtle nebula or n GC sixty two ten, which consists of a hot,

dying star that has blown off its outer envelope of material. In the

image, which combines data from both KCRM and KCWI, two stubby gaseous arms

can be seen protruding from the shell of the turtles, demonstrating the power of

the instruments to see faint gas in the cosmos. The arms were captured easily

in less than a minute of observation, says Martin. While the arms had

been seen before, this is the first time their spectral details have been completely

mapped. The spectral image, which covers most of the optical wavelength range of

KCWI and KCRM from three hundred and fifty to one thousand nanometers, was captured

in about five minutes. More than eighty individual spectral emission lines from many elements

in the periodic table were easily detected. How about that, Well that sounds

like a great raisin to visit Hawaii. You're always looking for a holiday.

Well, that's true. We're listening to the Astronomy Daily Podcast. We'll standing

Hally. Sorry, that's Hilly and Stave. Welcome back to the Astronomy Daily

Podcast. I'm Stick Dunkley, your host, and thank you very much for

joining us. I hope you're getting something out of today's episode. It is

the thirteenth of June twenty twenty three and we're normally out on a Monday evening

here in East Coast Australia. However, we had a public holiday yesterday and

we took the day off very well. So it's Tuesday thirteenth and on with

the show. So you maybe aware already that you can catch our partner in

crime, Tim Gibbs, who hails from Bath in England. He does the

Friday sessions. I do the Monday sessions, and once in a very rare

while you'll catch Andrew Dunkley, my big brother, who will host an episode

here and there on whichever day he chooses to do that. But he also

hosts the parent podcast, which is space Nuts, and you can catch all

the episodes of both podcasts at space nuts dot io. That's the address you

go to and you can listen to them anytime you like. Now, Holley,

I'll need you to cue the music. Please okay, there it is

Space Force. Space Force looks like Space Force has chosen SpaceX and United Launch

Alliance ULA for twelve military launchers in twenty twenty five. The missions will help

Space Force build out its communications and missile tracking satellite layers. SSC, responsible

forward developing and launching technologies for space. Space Force issued a statement on June

eight detailing launch contract assignments for twelve national security space space launch missions divided equally

between space X and United Launch Alliance. In a statement, Space Command Systems

Command Division Chief for Launch Procurement and Integration, Colonel Chad Malone stated he was

confident at SpaceX and ULA continue to provide outstanding launch services, describe their systems

as reliable and able to maintain the one percent program of success for the assigned

missions, which is nice to hear. The missions include a total of seven

Space develop Agency SDA missions to Low Earth orbit, containing the first generation of

the Trench one Communication and Missile Tracking satellite constellation. These transport and Tracking layer

satellites, with designations T one TL and T one TR, are part of

the sda's proliferated war fighter space architecture and network of satellites that allow for advanced

weapons detection and high speed communication among critical military infrastructure. A Space Systems Command

to Program Executive Officer for Assured Access to Space, Major General Stephen Purty,

said, our ongoing commitment to successfully launch our Secure Communications g YES and Space

Awareness satellites and place them all into their orbits continues to provide our war fighters

and nation's decision makers with the assets and vital information they need every day to

stay ahead of and deter adversarial forces. That's a long way from throwing sticks,

isn't it. Now Here's what I like to see. But if science

fiction becoming science fact. The scientists at Caltech so I've learned to beam solar

power to Earth from space. For the very first time. The Space Solar

Power Demonstrators MAPLE experiment was able to wirelessly transfer collected solar power to receive as

in space and direct energy to Earth. A solar power prototype has demonstrated its

ability to wirelessly beam power through space and direct a detectable amount of end towards

Earth for the very first time. The experiment proves the viability of tapping into

the near limitless supply of power in the form of energy from sun from space.

Because solid energy in space isn't subject to factors like day and night,

obstruction from clouds or weather on Earth, it's always available and in fact,

it's estimated that space based harvesters could potentially yield eight times more power than solar

panels panels at any location on the surface of the globe. The wireless power

transfer was achieved by the Microwave Array for Powers Transfer Low Orbit Experiment. That's

MAPLE, an array of flexible and lightweight microwave power transmitters, which is one

of three instruments carried by Solar Power Demonstrator SSPD one. It was launched in

January twenty twenty three as part of the California Institute of Technologies Space Solar Power

Project, the primary goal of which was to harvest solo power in space and

then transmitted to the surface of the Earth. Through the experiments we've run so

far, we've received confirmation that MAPLE can transmit power successfully to receivers in space.

Codirector of the Space Based Solar Power Project, doctor Ali had you Mary

said in a statement, we've also been able to program the array to direct

its energy toward Earth, which we detected here at Caltech. We've had of

course tested it on Earth, and we now know that it can survive the

trip to space and operate there. Now this will give you a kind of

scale on what kind of experiment they're running. Maple demonstrated the transformation of energy

wirelessly through space by sending energy from a transmitted to two separate receiver arrays around

a foot away that's thirty centimeters for the rest of us, where it was

transformed into electricity. This was used to light up a pair of LEDs.

The instrument would then be yes, it's an experiment. The instrument then beamed

energy from a tiny window installed in the unit in the roof of Gordon and

Betty Moore Laboratory of Engineering onto Caltech's campus in Pasadena. Because Maple is not

sealed, the experiment also demonstrates its ability to function in the harsh environment of

space while subject to swings in temperature and exposure to solar radiation. The conditions

experienced by this prototype will soon be felt by large scalepp units. That is

important, so Hajemri and his team are now assessing the performance of the individual

units that comprise MAPLE. A painstaking process that will take as long as six

months to complete, and this will allow them to provide feedback that will guide

the development of the fully realized versions of the system in the future. It's

planned that SSPP will eventually consist of a constellation of modular spacecraft collecting sunlight,

transforming into electricity and turning into microwaves that are then beamed over vast distances,

including back to Earth where energy is needed. This could include regions of the

globe currently poorly served by existing energy infrastructure. And just like that, we've

beamed to the end of another episode of Astronomy Daily. Thank you so much

for joining us. I hope you've got something out of today's episode. We'll

be back again on Friday with Tim Gibbs all the way from the beautiful countryside

of or cityside of Bath in England. And I'll be back with you again

on Monday. I'm Steve Duckley, your host, Andrew and Fred will be

with you on Space Nuts as usual. You can check out all the past

episodes of both podcasts at space Nuts dot io. And that's all from me,

how about you, Hollee. That's all from him too. Bye for

now everybody. We'll be your whole bun,

In this episode