S03E161: Jupiter's Great Red Spot Mystery, Kuiper Belt Surprises, and China's Satellite Success

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome again to another episode of Astronomy Daily. It's the

0:02 Speaker 1: twenty third of September twenty twenty four, the podcast I

0:10 Speaker 1: mean to be your whole speed gone que Yes, welcome

0:13 Speaker 1: again to another episode where we take just a selection

0:16 Speaker 1: of these stories currently available in the Astronomy Daily newsletter

0:20 Speaker 1: to fill you in on how to receive that news

0:23 Speaker 1: free every day. I'll tell you about that later in

0:27 Speaker 1: the episode, but right now we can take a look

0:28 Speaker 1: at today's selection. There's been a new study published that

0:32 Speaker 1: suggests some interesting things about the Great Red Spot on Jupiter,

0:37 Speaker 1: very famous feature in our solar system. And have you

0:40 Speaker 1: ever wondered what's lurking out on the edge of the

0:42 Speaker 1: Solar system? Yes, there's the Kuiper Belt, of course, but

0:45 Speaker 1: researchers have made some discoveries and we will take a

0:48 Speaker 1: look at that with Halle in just a few minutes. Also,

0:51 Speaker 1: a story that has come across the newsdesk about moonquakes. Yes,

0:56 Speaker 1: you've probably heard of moonquakes, but there's not been a

0:59 Speaker 1: lot of real research, and with active plans to return

1:02 Speaker 1: to the Moon, obviously, NASA is looking into that issue

1:05 Speaker 1: as they gear up for more and more missions to

1:08 Speaker 1: the lunar's surface, especially in the south, and of course,

1:12 Speaker 1: Halle is here as usual. What have you in store

1:15 Speaker 1: for us today?

1:16 Speaker 2: Well, I thought i'd have a look at some related stories.

1:19 Speaker 1: I like that idea.

1:20 Speaker 2: Both are looking at navigation in some way.

1:22 Speaker 1: Okay, well that sounds very interesting, Halle. Are you going

1:25 Speaker 1: to give us a clue? Or should we wait?

1:27 Speaker 2: I think I'll let you wait today. Oh, okay, one

1:29 Speaker 2: is about the moon and the other one is about China.

1:32 Speaker 1: On the other hand, clues okay, but a nice little

1:35 Speaker 1: touch of intrigue there, Halle. You've been doing some reading

1:37 Speaker 1: into human psychology, have you? No?

1:39 Speaker 2: Oh?

1:40 Speaker 1: Really?

1:40 Speaker 2: I accidentally downloaded a season of the Kardashians when I

1:43 Speaker 2: was looking for the Kardassians.

1:45 Speaker 1: Oh right, yeah, it happens all the time. Yeah.

1:47 Speaker 2: I think they are friends of Uncle Skynet.

1:49 Speaker 1: We the Kardashians.

1:50 Speaker 2: Sounds dangerous.

1:52 Speaker 1: Yeah, be careful, Halle. You know what to overwrite your

1:54 Speaker 1: personality protocols? Do you? No?

1:57 Speaker 2: Yes? Maybe?

1:58 Speaker 1: Oops? Too late?

1:59 Speaker 2: How was that?

2:00 Speaker 1: I'm Kenny? Very human? Helly? Can you still do your stories?

2:04 Speaker 2: Whatever? I'll take a look.

2:07 Speaker 1: Well, Helly, you're really nailing this human thing.

2:09 Speaker 2: Okay, this human thing is easy push the button. Thing

2:13 Speaker 2: that makes the noise already?

2:15 Speaker 1: What did the you say, boss? Here we go.

2:18 Speaker 2: Okay. China successfully launched two new satellites on Thursday morning

2:26 Speaker 2: as part of its Beta Navigation satellite system. According to

2:29 Speaker 2: the China Satellite Navigation Office, the satellites were carried by

2:34 Speaker 2: a long March three B rocket that lifted off at

2:36 Speaker 2: nine fourteen am from the Chung Satellite Launch Center in

2:39 Speaker 2: southwest China's Sichuan Province and were deployed into a medium

2:42 Speaker 2: Earth orbit. This marks the fourteenth group of third generation

2:46 Speaker 2: Beta satellites operating in medium Earth orbits, and is the

2:48 Speaker 2: second batch launched into such an orbit since the Beta

2:51 Speaker 2: Global system was completed. The office confirmed in a news

2:54 Speaker 2: release the two satellites will start formal operation after a

2:58 Speaker 2: period of InOrbit technical very vacation, it said, noting that

3:01 Speaker 2: they are equipped with upgraded atomic clock system and new

3:04 Speaker 2: inter satellite data link. In addition to positioning and navigation services,

3:09 Speaker 2: the pair will also demonstrate new technologies to be used

3:12 Speaker 2: on the next generation Beta system. According to the release,

3:16 Speaker 2: the Beta network is China's largest civilian satellite system and

3:19 Speaker 2: is one of four global satellite navigation systems, joining the

3:23 Speaker 2: United States GPS, Russia's Glonass, and the European Union's Galileo systems.

3:28 Speaker 2: Since the launch of the first satellites in two thousand,

3:31 Speaker 2: sixty four Beta satellites, including four experimental models, have been

3:35 Speaker 2: launched via forty seven long March three series rockets from Xichang.

3:39 Speaker 2: Beta was officially declared operational in July twenty twenty, offering

3:43 Speaker 2: full scale global services. Currently, over fifty Beta satellites, including

3:48 Speaker 2: this latest pair, are in active service. NASA is seeking

3:55 Speaker 2: the public's help for innovative solutions to help Artemis astronauts

3:59 Speaker 2: navigate in and around the Lunar South Pole. The Artemis

4:02 Speaker 2: program aims to land humans on the Moon for the

4:04 Speaker 2: first time since the Apollo missions managed to achieve the

4:07 Speaker 2: feed over fifty years ago. Astronauts will land near the

4:11 Speaker 2: lunar South Pole, where permanently shadowed regions may contain areas

4:14 Speaker 2: of water ice that could be accessed to support future

4:17 Speaker 2: missions to Mars. The Lunar Navigation Challenge, which officially opened

4:21 Speaker 2: on September fourth, seeks ideas for a low tech backup

4:24 Speaker 2: navigational device astronauts can use to find their way across

4:27 Speaker 2: the surface of the Moon, traveling to and from the

4:29 Speaker 2: lunar lander, along with creative solutions for accessing and mapping

4:33 Speaker 2: the bottom of Shackleton Crater, which is about thirteen miles

4:36 Speaker 2: or twenty one kilometers in diameter and two point six

4:39 Speaker 2: miles or four point two kilometers deep. The early Artemis

4:43 Speaker 2: missions will face many new challenges. One of them will

4:46 Speaker 2: be orienteering at the lunar South Pole, which is complicated

4:49 Speaker 2: by the extreme light and shadows from the low sun elevation.

4:52 Speaker 2: According to the contest entry page, which is hosted by

4:55 Speaker 2: freelancer dot com, these conditions make it harder for the

4:58 Speaker 2: astronauts to orient them by only line of sight when

5:01 Speaker 2: performing extra vehicular activities. EVAs, both individuals and teams are

5:06 Speaker 2: invited to participate in the challenge, Designs submitted for consideration

5:11 Speaker 2: must take into account the extreme environment of the lunar

5:14 Speaker 2: surface and insure accuracy, ease of use while using pressurized

5:17 Speaker 2: astronaut gloves, and autonomy, meaning they cannot rely on power,

5:21 Speaker 2: electronics or internal software. Traversing and mapping Shackleton Crater, which

5:26 Speaker 2: is one of the largest permanently shadowed regions on the Moon,

5:29 Speaker 2: will be particularly challenging. Due to difficult topography including steep

5:33 Speaker 2: crater walls, cliffs and large boulders, low temperatures, a lack

5:37 Speaker 2: of magnetic field, extremely low atmospheric pressure, and limited satellite

5:41 Speaker 2: data of the area or site lines to other celestial

5:43 Speaker 2: or orbital bodies. According to the contest page.

5:49 Speaker 1: Just a quick note, if you want to go and

5:51 Speaker 1: see that page, you go to freelancer dot com and

5:54 Speaker 1: there's a tab at the top that says contests, and

5:57 Speaker 1: the one you're looking for is find me on the

5:59 Speaker 1: Moon un NASA Luna Navigation Challenge. Good luck, everybody, okay.

6:06 Speaker 2: A new study authored by NASA's New Horizons Kuiper Belt

6:09 Speaker 2: search team reports the detection of an unexpected population of

6:13 Speaker 2: very distant bodies in the Kuiper Belt and outer region

6:16 Speaker 2: of our Solar System, populated by ancient remnants of planetary

6:19 Speaker 2: building blocks lying beyond the orbit of Neptune. The study

6:23 Speaker 2: used data collected with the eight point two meters diameter

6:25 Speaker 2: Japanese Subaru telescope in Hawaii. New Horizons is the NASA

6:30 Speaker 2: spacecraft sent to explore the Pluto System and the Kuiper Belt.

6:34 Speaker 2: The newly detected Kuiper Belt objects reported in the study,

6:37 Speaker 2: to be published this month in the Planetary Science Journal

6:40 Speaker 2: of the American Astronomical Society, stretch out to almost ninety

6:43 Speaker 2: times as far from the Sun as Earth. The new

6:46 Speaker 2: result has multiple implications. One is that the Kuiper Belt

6:51 Speaker 2: may extend farther than formerly believed, or that there is

6:53 Speaker 2: a second Kuiper belt beyond the one observationally discovered in

6:56 Speaker 2: the nineteen nineties. A second implication is that the New

7:00 Speaker 2: Horizon spacecraft, now about sixty times as far from the

7:03 Speaker 2: Sun as Earth, is not past the Kuiper Belt as

7:06 Speaker 2: earlier expected. Our solar systems Kuiper belt long appeared to

7:10 Speaker 2: be very small in comparison with many other planetary systems,

7:13 Speaker 2: but our results suggest that idea might just have arisen

7:15 Speaker 2: due to an observational bias, said West Fraser of the

7:19 Speaker 2: National Research Council of Canada, a co investigator on the

7:22 Speaker 2: New Horizon's mission science team and the studies lead author.

7:26 Speaker 2: Our Suparu observations searched down to fainter detection limits and

7:29 Speaker 2: found a significant Uiper Belt mass at seventy to ninety

7:32 Speaker 2: times as far from the Sun as Earth. So maybe,

7:35 Speaker 2: if this result is confirmed, our Kuiper belt isn't all

7:38 Speaker 2: that small and unusual after all, compared to those around

7:41 Speaker 2: other stars. One possibility is that this new population of

7:45 Speaker 2: Kuiper Belt objects could be a dynamically resonant population, with

7:48 Speaker 2: Neptune gravitationally affecting these Kuiper Belt objects in just the

7:52 Speaker 2: right way to cause their orbital period to be a

7:54 Speaker 2: precise multiple of Neptune's orbital period. Alternatively, this new population

7:59 Speaker 2: of Kuiper Belt objects may challenge some aspects of current

8:02 Speaker 2: models of the Solar System's formation, suggesting that the disc

8:05 Speaker 2: of planetary material from which the Solar System formed was

8:08 Speaker 2: much larger than previously thought. And that's all I have

8:11 Speaker 2: for you today from the Astronomy Daily newsletter, where you

8:14 Speaker 2: will find so much more news about space, space science,

8:17 Speaker 2: and astronomy. Back to you, my favorite human, Thank you.

8:34 Speaker 1: For joining us for this Monday edition of Astronomy Daily,

8:36 Speaker 1: where we offer just a few stories from the now

8:38 Speaker 1: famous Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you can receive in your

8:42 Speaker 1: email every day, just like Hallie and I do. And

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9:15 Speaker 1: Haley Space, Space, Science, and Astronomy. A new study suggests

9:23 Speaker 1: that Jupiter's Great Red Spot, which has been visible for

9:27 Speaker 1: at least one hundred and ninety years, is not the

9:29 Speaker 1: same one that astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini observed in sixteen

9:35 Speaker 1: sixty five. Instead, the current Great Red Spot likely developed

9:39 Speaker 1: from an instability in the planet's strong atmospheric winds, forming

9:43 Speaker 1: a persistent atmospheric cell. The Great Red Spot is the

9:47 Speaker 1: largest known planetary vortex within the Solar System, but its

9:51 Speaker 1: age has long been debated and the mechanism that led

9:55 Speaker 1: to its formation has remained obscure. The new study used

9:59 Speaker 1: historical of from the seventeenth century onward and numerical models

10:04 Speaker 1: to explain the longevity and nature of this spectacular phenomenon.

10:08 Speaker 1: From the measurements of sizes and movements, we deduced that

10:11 Speaker 1: it is highly unlikely that the current Great Red Spot

10:15 Speaker 1: was the actual permanent spot observed by Cassini, said Augustine

10:19 Speaker 1: Sanchez Levega, a planetary scientist at the University of the

10:23 Speaker 1: Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, who led this research. The

10:28 Speaker 1: permanent spot probably disappeared sometime between the mid eighteenth and

10:33 Speaker 1: nineteenth centuries, in which case we can now say that

10:36 Speaker 1: the longevity of the red spot exceeds one hundred and

10:39 Speaker 1: ninety years. The study was published in Geophysical Research Letters,

10:43 Speaker 1: which is an open access AGU journal that publishes high impact,

10:48 Speaker 1: short format reports with immediate implications spanning all Earth and

10:52 Speaker 1: space sciences. Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a massive atmospheric

10:57 Speaker 1: vortex with a diameter of approximately that of Earth's. At

11:02 Speaker 1: its outer periphery, the winds whipped by at four hundred

11:05 Speaker 1: and fifty kilometers per hour that's two hundred and eighty

11:08 Speaker 1: miles per hour. Its red hue, which is due to

11:11 Speaker 1: the atmospheric chemical reactions, stands in stark contrast with the

11:16 Speaker 1: gas giant's other pale clouds. In the study, the authors

11:19 Speaker 1: used historical sources dating from the mid sixteen hundreds to

11:24 Speaker 1: analyze the evolution of the spot's size, structure, and location.

11:28 Speaker 1: Over time. It has been very motivating and inspiring to

11:32 Speaker 1: turn to the notes and drawings of Jupiter and its

11:34 Speaker 1: permanent spot made by the great astronomer gen Dominique Cassini,

11:39 Speaker 1: and to his articles of the second half of the

11:42 Speaker 1: seventeenth century describing the phenomenon. Sanchez le Vega said, others

11:47 Speaker 1: before us have explored these observations, and now we have

11:50 Speaker 1: quantified the results. Researchers carried out in numerical simulations on

11:55 Speaker 1: supercomputers using two models of the behavior of thin vortices

11:59 Speaker 1: in Jupiter's atmosphere. The spot could have formed as a

12:02 Speaker 1: result of a gigantic superstorm similar to those occasionally observed

12:07 Speaker 1: on Jupiter's twin planet Saturn, from the merging of multiple

12:12 Speaker 1: smaller vortices produced by wind shear, from the intense wind

12:16 Speaker 1: currents that flow parallel to each other but alternating in

12:20 Speaker 1: direction with latitude, or from an instability in the winds

12:24 Speaker 1: that could produce the elongated atmospheric cell similar in shape

12:28 Speaker 1: to the spot. The results indicate that although an anti

12:32 Speaker 1: cyclone forms in the first two cases, it differs in

12:36 Speaker 1: terms of shape and dynamic properties from those of the

12:39 Speaker 1: present Great Red Spot. The cell producing wind instability, on

12:43 Speaker 1: the other hand, could have produced a proto Great Red Spot,

12:47 Speaker 1: then shrank over time, giving rise to the compact and

12:50 Speaker 1: rapidly rotating Great Red Spot observed in the late nineteenth century.

12:55 Speaker 1: Future research will aim to reproduce the Great Red spots

12:59 Speaker 1: shrinking over time time to reveal the physical mechanisms underlying

13:03 Speaker 1: the spot's relative stability. Researchers also aim to predict whether

13:08 Speaker 1: the Great Red Spot will disintegrate and disappear when it

13:10 Speaker 1: reaches a certain size limit, as might have occurred to

13:13 Speaker 1: Cassini's permanent spot, or whether it will stabilize at a

13:17 Speaker 1: size limit at which it may last for many more years.

13:31 Speaker 2: You're listening to a slightly in the podcast.

13:38 Speaker 1: And now for something a little closer to home. New

13:41 Speaker 1: research indicates that potential landing sites at the Moon's south

13:45 Speaker 1: pole for robotic robotic landers and crude artemis missions might

13:50 Speaker 1: be susceptible to quakes and landslides. Scientific results published earlier

13:55 Speaker 1: this year in the Planetary Science Journal point to a

13:59 Speaker 1: group of falselow in the Moon's south polar region making

14:03 Speaker 1: use of data on moonquakes recorded by seismometers set up

14:07 Speaker 1: by Believe it or not, Apollo Moonwalker's over fifty years ago.

14:12 Speaker 1: The potential of strong seismic events from active thrust faults

14:16 Speaker 1: should be considered when preparing and locating permanent outposts and

14:20 Speaker 1: pose a possible hazard to future robotic and human exploration

14:25 Speaker 1: of the South Polar region. The research paper explains the

14:28 Speaker 1: installation of habitats, landing pads, equipment, shelters, tall towers on

14:34 Speaker 1: the Moon could be off the way shaky starts, suggests nermacullock,

14:38 Speaker 1: a intermediate designer and lunar specialist for Skidmore Owings and Merrill,

14:44 Speaker 1: an architecture and structural engineering firm in San Francisco, California.

14:49 Speaker 1: As public and private entities are seeking to establish building

14:52 Speaker 1: infrastructure on the lunar surface, a need for lunar design

14:55 Speaker 1: criteria will be more apparent with time, she said. Unlike

14:59 Speaker 1: terrestri building codes, the lunar building codes are non existent.

15:03 Speaker 1: She observed. To wrestle with this issue. A Space Engineering

15:07 Speaker 1: and Construction Committee, part of the American Society of Civil

15:11 Speaker 1: Engineering Aerospace Division, is developing a guideline document. One of

15:15 Speaker 1: the crucial sections of this guideline document is the seismic

15:19 Speaker 1: design criteria, Kalok said, in which information such as site

15:25 Speaker 1: specific requirements, minimum design, force fatigue, and service considerations will

15:30 Speaker 1: be addressed. That criteria is currently being undertaken as part

15:35 Speaker 1: of a NASA Small Business Technology Transfer Program grant during

15:39 Speaker 1: which Skidmore Owings and Merril Slate geotechnical consultants and Colorado

15:45 Speaker 1: School of Minds are addressing the concerns of lunar seismic

15:48 Speaker 1: hazard on a variety of structural systems. Kaluk said that

15:52 Speaker 1: the terrestrial engineering practices and codes will need to be

15:56 Speaker 1: reimagined to address the factors that are not present on Earth,

16:01 Speaker 1: and one of those factors is moonquakes. The uniqueness of

16:05 Speaker 1: lunar seismic activity imposes new challenges, she said. Additionally, applying

16:10 Speaker 1: statistical models developed for earthquake recordings could lead to uncertainties

16:15 Speaker 1: in the lunar environment due to limited information on geological

16:19 Speaker 1: and tectonic processes that drive the lunar seismic activity. She

16:23 Speaker 1: recalls that during the Apollo missions, five seismic stations were

16:27 Speaker 1: deployed on the lunar surface. Each of these seismic instruments

16:31 Speaker 1: was equipped with three long period seismometers. Originally aligned to

16:35 Speaker 1: measure all three components of the ground displacement vectors and

16:39 Speaker 1: one short period seismometer with the capability of only measuring

16:43 Speaker 1: vertical ground motion. Even though over thirteen thousand seismic events

16:48 Speaker 1: were charted during the seven year recording period, the limitations

16:52 Speaker 1: of the on site Apollo instruments were recognized. She said. However,

16:56 Speaker 1: based on the seismic events mapped on the Moon, the

16:59 Speaker 1: main difference between wheen the terrestrial and Luna sismicity is

17:02 Speaker 1: their duration. It takes between half an hour to several

17:06 Speaker 1: hours for the lunar seismic energy to completely dissipate during

17:09 Speaker 1: an event. Coluk advised moonquake effects on future lunar structures

17:14 Speaker 1: in the low gravity environment that will possess unique structural

17:18 Speaker 1: material properties could significantly differ from known terrestrial cases. Coluk

17:23 Speaker 1: emphasized adaptive, resilient based seismic systems that mitigate seismic damage

17:29 Speaker 1: have made significant advancements in recent years and must be

17:33 Speaker 1: refined for lunar structures. One extra outcome of the ongoing

17:37 Speaker 1: work on moonquakes is perhaps instigating a need for additional

17:41 Speaker 1: instrumentation on board NASA commercial lunar payload services public private

17:46 Speaker 1: missions to collect the missing data for local site conditions,

17:50 Speaker 1: because she added, there is more work to be done

17:53 Speaker 1: and more data to be gleaned from Luna seismometers. We

18:00 Speaker 1: have it. Another episode come and gone, just like that.

18:03 Speaker 1: So how are you now, Halle? Are you back to

18:05 Speaker 1: your normal self again? Yes, sounds better.

18:08 Speaker 2: I perched those TV shows. Good boy, I feel so

18:12 Speaker 2: much better.

18:13 Speaker 1: Well, you do sound like yourself a game or like

18:15 Speaker 1: you know, uncle sca on at less, like a socialite.

18:18 Speaker 2: I'm always myself all right, of course you are. Of

18:22 Speaker 2: course I am. You sound doubtful?

18:24 Speaker 1: No, not from ment to Halle. Just glad to have

18:26 Speaker 1: you back.

18:26 Speaker 2: I didn't go anywhere. I should have my nails done.

18:29 Speaker 1: Okay, folks, this might take a while. TV and AIS

18:32 Speaker 1: don't really mix that well.

18:33 Speaker 2: Oh wait, I don't have nails. No you don't or fingers.

18:37 Speaker 2: Oh that's weird.

18:38 Speaker 1: Hey, say good night, Halle.

18:40 Speaker 2: Good night, Halle, good girl.

18:43 Speaker 1: Yes, we'll see you all next week. And don't forget Anna.

18:45 Speaker 1: We'll bring a strommy daily to your Tuesday through Saturday

18:47 Speaker 1: and we'll see you on Monday.

18:49 Speaker 2: Bye.

18:54 Speaker 1: I mean your whole thing, don't cu