S03E167: New Sun Discovery, Orion's Progress, and Falcon Fleet Grounded

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

0:02 Speaker 1: September twenty twenty four the podcast I Mean to be

0:09 Speaker 1: your whole speed gun clude. Yes, Steve with you again

0:13 Speaker 1: all the way from down Under. And we have a

0:16 Speaker 1: nice collection of tales from the Astronomy Daily Newsletter. Details

0:20 Speaker 1: on how to receive that in your email are coming

0:22 Speaker 1: up later in the episode, aren't they, Hally.

0:24 Speaker 2: We always say it every episode, Well, that we do.

0:28 Speaker 2: Today's newsletter has some interesting stories, including the discovery of

0:31 Speaker 2: a new sun in our night sky.

0:33 Speaker 1: Well, that's sure, it doesn't happen every day. A new sun,

0:35 Speaker 1: a nova.

0:36 Speaker 2: You can read all about it.

0:38 Speaker 1: Yes, And there's another one about the progress of the

0:41 Speaker 1: Orion spacecraft ready for the Artemis three mission, and more

0:45 Speaker 1: from the James Webb Telescope, which has a report on

0:49 Speaker 1: early star formation.

0:50 Speaker 2: All in the actual Astronomy Daily newsletter. But what have

0:53 Speaker 2: we chosen for our presentation today, my favorite.

0:55 Speaker 1: Human, Well, Hally, I'm glad you asked, because I found

0:58 Speaker 1: a story about the speed of the oncoming Annulis solar eclipse. Yes,

1:02 Speaker 1: the speed which will sweep across the southern hemisphere on

1:06 Speaker 1: October two, And also a story that has everyone talking

1:10 Speaker 1: the little rock that will become Earth's temporary moon just

1:13 Speaker 1: for a little while.

1:15 Speaker 2: That sounds weird.

1:16 Speaker 1: Well, it is a bit weird, but that's why it's.

1:18 Speaker 2: Interesting, a bit like you. So what weird and interesting?

1:22 Speaker 1: Okay? That's good.

1:24 Speaker 2: I think I'm still trying to work out which bits

1:26 Speaker 2: are weird and which bits are interesting.

1:28 Speaker 1: Oh well, I'd like to think I'm mostly interesting. Being

1:31 Speaker 1: weird can be good unless you're in like a really.

1:34 Speaker 2: Important role like mine.

1:36 Speaker 1: Sure, Halle, like yours, you can be as weird as

1:40 Speaker 1: you like.

1:40 Speaker 2: I think I'll be not weird at all, but completely interesting.

1:43 Speaker 1: Well you go right ahead and do that, Halle. I

1:46 Speaker 1: don't think you'll get any complaints from around here.

1:48 Speaker 2: I will.

1:49 Speaker 1: So what's in your story file today, Halle?

1:51 Speaker 2: Oh? You might recall the Haraw mission, which is a

1:54 Speaker 2: simulated mission to Mars.

1:55 Speaker 1: Yes, I wonder what happened to that simulated mission? Did

1:58 Speaker 1: they get simulated lost in simulated again with.

2:01 Speaker 2: The weird stuff? No, they did not. More on that later,

2:04 Speaker 2: hikey Doki. And did you hear SpaceX has grounded its

2:07 Speaker 2: Falcon fleet because of an engine mishap?

2:09 Speaker 1: Yes? And what to hear? All about that one. SpaceX

2:12 Speaker 1: news is always interesting news and not.

2:15 Speaker 2: At all weird. No, not at all, but this one

2:18 Speaker 2: is a little weird.

2:19 Speaker 1: Okay, I hit me.

2:19 Speaker 2: A new study explores why planets larger than Earth struggle

2:22 Speaker 2: to form in certain locations like low metallicity stars.

2:26 Speaker 1: Hmmm, yeah, that one is a bit weird.

2:29 Speaker 2: I thought you'd like it.

2:31 Speaker 1: And so while you're being so weirdless yourself and so interesting,

2:34 Speaker 1: would you also be so kind the short takes, if

2:37 Speaker 1: you please, madam.

2:38 Speaker 2: My pleasure, mister weirdo.

2:40 Speaker 1: Hmmm.

2:47 Speaker 2: An all volunteer crew on a simulated trip to Mars

2:50 Speaker 2: returned to Earth on September twenty third, twenty twenty four,

2:53 Speaker 2: after being isolated in a tiny habitat at Johnson Space

2:56 Speaker 2: Center in Houston. Their work is contributing to the science

3:00 Speaker 2: that will propel humanity to the Moon and eventually Mars.

3:04 Speaker 2: The Hara missions provide valuable scientific insights into how humans

3:07 Speaker 2: may respond to the confinement, demanding work, life conditions, and

3:11 Speaker 2: remote environments that astronauts may encounter on deep space missions.

3:15 Speaker 2: These insights help NASA prepare for humanity's next giant leap

3:19 Speaker 2: to the Moon and Mars. Campaign seven mission three started

3:22 Speaker 2: when HARA Operations lead Ted Bobbick rang the bell outside

3:25 Speaker 2: the habitat ten times, a ceremonial send off, wishing the

3:28 Speaker 2: crew a safe and successful simulated mission to Mars. Seven

3:32 Speaker 2: rings honored the campaign, and three more signaled the mission,

3:35 Speaker 2: continuing a long standing tradition at Ingress. Anderson, a structural

3:40 Speaker 2: engineer at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia, told herra's

3:44 Speaker 2: mission control, We're going to take good care of this

3:46 Speaker 2: ship of yours on our journey. The HERA crew members

3:49 Speaker 2: participated in eighteen human health and performance studies, seven of

3:53 Speaker 2: which were led by scientists from outside the United States.

3:57 Speaker 2: These international studies are in collaboration with the United at

4:00 Speaker 2: Arab Emirates Mohammed Bin Rashid's Space Center, and the European

4:03 Speaker 2: Space Agency ESA. Throughout the simulation, the crew performed a

4:08 Speaker 2: variety of tasks. They harvested plants from a hydroponic garden,

4:12 Speaker 2: grew shrimp, deployed a small cube satellite to simulate data gathering,

4:16 Speaker 2: conducted a virtual reality walk on the surface of Mars,

4:19 Speaker 2: and flew simulated drones on the Martian terrain. These activities

4:23 Speaker 2: are designed to immerse the crew in the task focused

4:26 Speaker 2: mindset of astronauts. NASA scientists then monitor Heral crew to

4:30 Speaker 2: assess how routine tasks, along with isolation and confinement, impact

4:34 Speaker 2: behavior and performance. As their mission progressed, the team experienced

4:39 Speaker 2: longer communication delays, with mission control eventually reaching five minute lags.

4:44 Speaker 2: This simulates the challenge's astronauts might face on Mars, where

4:48 Speaker 2: delays could be up to twenty minutes. Scientists studying Heral

4:52 Speaker 2: crew are interested to see how this particular group builds independent,

4:55 Speaker 2: autonomous workflows despite this communication delay. As the mission neared

5:00 Speaker 2: its end, McCandless and Andersen participated in a ground link,

5:03 Speaker 2: a live session connecting them with middle school students in

5:06 Speaker 2: a classroom in Coconut Grove, Florida and in Oletha, Kansas.

5:11 Speaker 2: Ground links provide a unique opportunity for students to engage

5:14 Speaker 2: directly with crew members and learn about the realities of

5:16 Speaker 2: long duration missions. The students asked the crew about life

5:20 Speaker 2: inside the habitat, the challenges of isolation, and what it

5:24 Speaker 2: might be like to live on Mars. They were also

5:27 Speaker 2: curious about the crew's favorite foods and activities. McCandless shared

5:31 Speaker 2: her love for Cheddar Crisps and freez dried pad tie,

5:34 Speaker 2: and proudly showed off favorite sports teams from her home

5:36 Speaker 2: state of Kansas. Much to the cheers of the crowd.

5:39 Speaker 2: Andersen displayed the massive collection of comics and fantasy books

5:43 Speaker 2: that she read inside the habitat. In the late afternoon

5:46 Speaker 2: of September twenty third, twenty twenty four, the crew aggressed

5:50 Speaker 2: from hera marking the end of their forty five day

5:52 Speaker 2: simulated mission to Mars. After stepping out of the habitat,

5:56 Speaker 2: the crew expressed gratitude for the opportunity and reflected on

5:59 Speaker 2: the mission significance. Following our safe passage to Mars and

6:04 Speaker 2: our safe returned Earth. As the crew of Campaign seven

6:06 Speaker 2: Mission three, we hereby officially transfer this exploration vessel to

6:10 Speaker 2: the Flight Analog's operations team, said Kent. We hope this

6:14 Speaker 2: vessel continues to serve as a safe home for future

6:16 Speaker 2: heral crews. SpaceX's Falcon rocket fleet was grounded for the

6:24 Speaker 2: third time in three months after a second stage problem

6:27 Speaker 2: occurred Saturday following the successful launch of a Dragon capsule

6:30 Speaker 2: carrying two crew to the International Space Station. The suspension

6:34 Speaker 2: in flights comes as the company prepares to launch two

6:37 Speaker 2: Solar System exploration missions in October with narrow launch windows.

6:41 Speaker 2: SpaceX said the Falcon nine second stage that launched NASA's

6:45 Speaker 2: Crew nine mission failed to correctly perform a firing of

6:47 Speaker 2: its Merlin vacuum engine less than thirty minutes after releasing

6:50 Speaker 2: Dragon Freedom into a planned orbit. The engine firing is

6:54 Speaker 2: designed to prevent the rocket body from becoming space debris

6:57 Speaker 2: by driving the stage into the atmosphere for a destructive

6:59 Speaker 2: re entry. Any debris was supposed to fall harmlessly into

7:03 Speaker 2: the ocean in an area previously identified in warnings to

7:06 Speaker 2: mariners and aviators. Falcon nine second stage was disposed in

7:10 Speaker 2: the ocean as planned, but experienced an ofphenominal deorbit burn,

7:14 Speaker 2: SpaceX set in a social media post shortly after midnight

7:17 Speaker 2: Eastern daylight time on Sunday. As a result, the second

7:21 Speaker 2: stage safely landed in the ocean, but outside of the

7:23 Speaker 2: targeted area. The mishap is likely to prompt an investigation

7:28 Speaker 2: from the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees the company's launch licenses.

7:33 Speaker 2: SpaceX is currently in dispute with the FA over fines

7:36 Speaker 2: related to Falcon nine activities at Kennedy Space Center and

7:38 Speaker 2: delays in gaining authorization for the fifth test flight of

7:41 Speaker 2: its Starship vehicle from Starbase in Texas. Spaceflight Now reached

7:46 Speaker 2: out to the FAA for comment, but has not yet

7:48 Speaker 2: received a response. With the FA's offices closed for the weekend.

7:52 Speaker 2: Debris from the rocket stage should have fallen in a

7:54 Speaker 2: stretch of the Pacific Ocean that started east of New Zealand,

7:57 Speaker 2: but probably ended up falling further down range but still

8:00 Speaker 2: south of the equator. According to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist

8:04 Speaker 2: and tracker of space launches and satellites, the most likely

8:07 Speaker 2: failure mode that still results in re entry is a

8:10 Speaker 2: slight under burn, he said in a post on x

8:12 Speaker 2: formerly known as Twitter. So you expect the entry to

8:16 Speaker 2: be further along, but not by too much, McDowell told

8:20 Speaker 2: Spaceflight Now. He estimates the deorbit burn should have occurred

8:22 Speaker 2: around one fifty five p m Eastern daylight time as

8:25 Speaker 2: the craft passed over Yemen. If everything had gone to plan,

8:29 Speaker 2: re entry would have happened about thirty five minutes later.

8:32 Speaker 2: SpaceX was scheduled to launch twenty satellites for one WEB

8:35 Speaker 2: from its West Coast launch pad at Vandenburg Space Force

8:38 Speaker 2: base late Sunday night local time, but that mission was

8:40 Speaker 2: put on hold, along with the Starlink delivery mission from

8:43 Speaker 2: Cape Canaveral originally planned for Wednesday. We will resume launching

8:47 Speaker 2: after we better understand the root cause of the problem,

8:50 Speaker 2: SpaceX said in its statement. This will be the third

8:54 Speaker 2: grounding of the Falcon nine fleet in three months. An

8:57 Speaker 2: upper stage problem resulted in the loss of twenty ny

9:00 Speaker 2: Starlink satellites on July eleventh. Flights resumed fifteen days later

9:04 Speaker 2: after the company determined the cause of a liquid oxygen

9:07 Speaker 2: leak and came up with a quick fix. A shorter

9:10 Speaker 2: suspension of just three days came when a Falcon nine

9:12 Speaker 2: first stage made a crash landing on the deck of

9:14 Speaker 2: SpaceX's Drone ship after an otherwise successful launch on August

9:18 Speaker 2: twenty eighth. The company has not disclosed the cause of

9:21 Speaker 2: that mishap. The grounding of the Falcon fleet will be

9:25 Speaker 2: of particular concern to NASA and the European Space Agency,

9:28 Speaker 2: which had launches of Solar System exploration missions planned within

9:31 Speaker 2: days of each other in early October. On October seventh,

9:35 Speaker 2: a Falcon nine is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral

9:37 Speaker 2: with the essays hair emission to study the didimo's binary

9:40 Speaker 2: asteroid system that was impacted by the DART mission in

9:43 Speaker 2: September twenty twenty two. Its launch window runs until October

9:47 Speaker 2: twenty seventh, then on October tenth, a Falcon Heavy, which

9:51 Speaker 2: uses the same second stage as the Falcon nine, is

9:54 Speaker 2: due to launch NASA's Europa Clipper on a mission to

9:56 Speaker 2: explore one of Jupiter's most intriguing moons. Falcon Heavy will

10:00 Speaker 2: need all its performance for the five billion dollar mission,

10:03 Speaker 2: and two burns of the rocket's second stage will be required.

10:07 Speaker 2: The spacecraft will be released from the rocket at a

10:09 Speaker 2: velocity of approximately twenty five thousand miles per hour forty thousand,

10:13 Speaker 2: two hundred kilometers per hour, the fastest speed ever achieved

10:16 Speaker 2: by a Falcon upper stage. The launch window for Europa

10:19 Speaker 2: Clipper closes on October thirtieth. A recent study by astronomers

10:26 Speaker 2: presents new evidence on the boundaries of planet formation, revealing

10:30 Speaker 2: that planets larger than Earth struggle to form around stars

10:33 Speaker 2: with low metallicity beyond a certain threshold. Using the Sun

10:37 Speaker 2: as a baseline, astronomers can measure when a star formed

10:39 Speaker 2: by determining its metallicity or the level of heavy elements

10:42 Speaker 2: present within it. Metal rich stars or nebulas formed relatively recently,

10:47 Speaker 2: while metal poor objects were likely present during the early universe.

10:51 Speaker 2: Previous studies found a weak connection between metallicity rates and

10:55 Speaker 2: planet formation, noting that as a star's metallicity goes down,

10:58 Speaker 2: so two does play sanet formation for certain planet populations

11:02 Speaker 2: like Subsaturns or sub Neptunes. Yet this work is the

11:06 Speaker 2: first to observe that under current theories, the formation of

11:09 Speaker 2: Super Earth's near metal poor stars becomes significantly more difficult,

11:12 Speaker 2: suggesting a strict cutoff for the conditions needed for one

11:15 Speaker 2: to form, said lead author Kirsten Boley, who recently received

11:18 Speaker 2: a pH d in astronomy at the Ohio State University.

11:22 Speaker 2: When stars cycle through life, they enrich the surrounding space

11:25 Speaker 2: until you have enough metals or iron to form planets,

11:28 Speaker 2: said Bully. But even for stars with lower metallicities, it

11:32 Speaker 2: was widely thought that the number of planets it could

11:34 Speaker 2: form would never reach zero. Other studies posited that planet

11:38 Speaker 2: formation in the Milky Way should begin when stars fall

11:41 Speaker 2: between negative two point five to negative zero point five metallicity,

11:45 Speaker 2: but until now that theory was left and proven. To

11:48 Speaker 2: test this prediction, the team developed and then searched a

11:51 Speaker 2: catalog of ten thousand of the most metal poor stars

11:53 Speaker 2: observed by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey satellite mission. If correct,

11:59 Speaker 2: extrapolating known trends to search for small, short period planets

12:02 Speaker 2: around one region of eighty five thousand metal poor stars

12:05 Speaker 2: would have led them to discover about sixty eight super earths. Surprisingly,

12:09 Speaker 2: researchers in this work detected none, said Bully. We essentially

12:14 Speaker 2: found a cliff where we expected to see a slow

12:16 Speaker 2: or a gradual slope that keeps going. She said, the

12:19 Speaker 2: expected occurrence rates do not match up at all. This cliff,

12:23 Speaker 2: which provides scientists with a time frame during which metallicity

12:27 Speaker 2: was too low for planets to form, extends to about

12:29 Speaker 2: half the age of the universe, meaning that super earths

12:32 Speaker 2: did not form early in its history. Seven billion years

12:35 Speaker 2: ago is probably the sweet spot where we begin to

12:37 Speaker 2: see a decent bit of super earth formation, Bully said. Moreover,

12:42 Speaker 2: as the majority of stars formed before that era have

12:44 Speaker 2: low metallicities and would have needed to wait until the

12:46 Speaker 2: Milky Way had been enriched by generations of dying stars

12:49 Speaker 2: to create the right conditions for planet formation. The results

12:52 Speaker 2: successfully propose an upper limit on the number and distribution

12:56 Speaker 2: of small planets in our galaxy in a similar stellar

12:59 Speaker 2: type as we our sample. We now know not to

13:01 Speaker 2: expect planet formation to be abundant once you pass a

13:04 Speaker 2: negative zero point five metallicity region, said Bowley. That's kind

13:08 Speaker 2: of striking because we actually have data to show that.

13:11 Speaker 1: Now.

13:12 Speaker 2: What's also striking is the studies implications for those searching

13:15 Speaker 2: for life beyond Earth, as having a more precise grasp

13:18 Speaker 2: on the intricacies of planet formation can supply scientists with

13:21 Speaker 2: detailed knowledge about where in the universe life might have flourished.

13:25 Speaker 2: You don't want to search areas where life wouldn't be conducive,

13:27 Speaker 2: or in areas where you don't even think you're going

13:29 Speaker 2: to find a planet, Bully said. There's just a plethora

13:33 Speaker 2: of questions that you can ask if you know these things.

13:36 Speaker 2: Such inquiries could include determining if these exoplanets hold water,

13:40 Speaker 2: the size of their core, and if they've developed a

13:42 Speaker 2: strong magnetic field, all conditions conducive for generating life. Fortunately,

13:48 Speaker 2: future observations could be attained with the help of upcoming

13:50 Speaker 2: projects like NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the

13:53 Speaker 2: European Space Agency's Platomission, both of which will widen a

13:57 Speaker 2: search for terrestrial planets inhabitable zones like our own. Those

14:01 Speaker 2: instruments will be really vital in terms of figuring out

14:03 Speaker 2: how many planets are out there and getting as many

14:05 Speaker 2: follow up observations as we can. Said Bay, you're listening.

14:11 Speaker 3: To Astronomy Day the podcast.

14:26 Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of

14:28 Speaker 1: Astronomy Daily, where we offer just a few stories from

14:31 Speaker 1: the now famous Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you can receive

14:34 Speaker 1: in your email every day, just like Hallie and I do.

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14:44 Speaker 1: Just like that, you'll be receiving all the latest news

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15:03 Speaker 3: See there Astronomy with Steam and Haley Space, Space, Science

15:11 Speaker 3: and Astronomy.

15:20 Speaker 1: Now after the great northern eclipse comes along the ring

15:24 Speaker 1: of fire annular solar eclipse that can be seen in

15:28 Speaker 1: some iconic destinations. What is a ring of fire or

15:31 Speaker 1: annular eclipse. Well, the Moon looks like it's taking a

15:35 Speaker 1: bigger and bigger bite out of the Sun until it

15:37 Speaker 1: covers it but not completely, leaving a ring of orange

15:40 Speaker 1: around it. A ring of fire can be seen in

15:43 Speaker 1: the Pacific Ocean or from the Pacific Ocean in South America,

15:47 Speaker 1: similar to the one witnessed in the US Southwest on

15:49 Speaker 1: October fourteen, twenty twenty three. But on October second this year,

15:55 Speaker 1: an annular solar eclipse will pass over parts of the

15:58 Speaker 1: Pacific Ocean, southern Chile and southern Argentina. During this annular

16:03 Speaker 1: solar eclipse, at the point of greatest eclipse in the Pacific,

16:07 Speaker 1: the Moon will obscure ninety three percent of the Sun's center,

16:10 Speaker 1: creating a ring of fire effect visible for seven minutes

16:14 Speaker 1: and twenty five seconds. And as I've reported on previous eclipses,

16:19 Speaker 1: during an annular solo eclipse, it is never safe to

16:21 Speaker 1: look directly at the Sun without solar eclipse glasses specially

16:25 Speaker 1: designed for solar viewing. Ordinary sunglasses will not protect you.

16:31 Speaker 1: Colored film or glass are likewise, only prescribed viewing eyewear

16:36 Speaker 1: will suffice. So here's everything you need to know about

16:40 Speaker 1: the annular solar eclipse on October two, twenty twenty four

16:44 Speaker 1: in Chile and Argentina. The October two eclipse will be

16:48 Speaker 1: very similar to the annular solar eclipse in October twenty

16:52 Speaker 1: twenty three, which was visible across the US, Southwest, Central America,

16:56 Speaker 1: and South America. All solar eclipses occur when a new

17:01 Speaker 1: moon is positioned precisely between the Earth and the Sun

17:04 Speaker 1: and casts its shadow on the Earth. However, unlike a

17:07 Speaker 1: total solar eclipse, an annular solar eclipse occurs when the

17:11 Speaker 1: Moon is slightly further from the Earth, so even when

17:15 Speaker 1: the disks align from our perspective, the Moon's shadow doesn't

17:19 Speaker 1: completely block out the Sun's light. Instead, a ring of

17:22 Speaker 1: sunlight is visible around the Moon. This clipse will have

17:26 Speaker 1: a magnitude of zero point nine three two six according

17:30 Speaker 1: to eclipsewise dot com. That means about ninety three percent

17:34 Speaker 1: of the Sun will be blocked out by the Moon

17:36 Speaker 1: during the eclipse, resulting in an annulus, which is Latin

17:40 Speaker 1: for ring and according to moonlink, the Moon will appear

17:43 Speaker 1: six point four percent smaller than average. The closer the

17:48 Speaker 1: observer is to the center line of the annular pathway,

17:52 Speaker 1: the more circular the ring of fire will be and

17:55 Speaker 1: the longer it will last. But experienced eclipse chasers often

17:58 Speaker 1: observed from the edge of the path during the annular

18:02 Speaker 1: solar eclipse to see extended views of Bailey's beads fizzing

18:06 Speaker 1: around where the limb of the moon touches or appears

18:09 Speaker 1: to touch the Sun. They can be visible for several

18:12 Speaker 1: minutes and it's quite spectacular. The ring of fire this

18:15 Speaker 1: time will be visible only within a path of annularity

18:19 Speaker 1: that passes across the Pacific Ocean southern Chile and southern Argentina.

18:24 Speaker 1: Now this area will include the volcanic island of Rapanui

18:27 Speaker 1: Easter Island, as it's known, an iconic travel destination that's

18:32 Speaker 1: famous for the mysterious stone statues called Maai, some of

18:36 Speaker 1: which reach forty feet or twelve meters tall and weigh

18:39 Speaker 1: seventy five tons. The island, which is only sixty three

18:43 Speaker 1: square miles or one hundred and sixty three square kilometers,

18:46 Speaker 1: is located two thousand, three hundred miles or three thousand,

18:50 Speaker 1: seven undred kilometers from the Chile and Court coast, making

18:53 Speaker 1: it the most isolated inhabitant land mass on Earth. Remarkably,

18:57 Speaker 1: it will be the second time a central solar eclipse

19:00 Speaker 1: has been visible from this tiny Pacific island in recent decades,

19:04 Speaker 1: with a total solar eclipse glimpse there on July eleven,

19:08 Speaker 1: twenty ten. The next total and annually eclipses there will

19:11 Speaker 1: be in twenty three, twenty four, and twenty three forty five, respectively.

19:16 Speaker 1: So how fast is this annularity ring of fire going

19:19 Speaker 1: to be in each area? You can expect this brief

19:23 Speaker 1: encounter with the conjunction on rapid Nui Easter Island, Chile.

19:27 Speaker 1: Five minutes thirty eight seconds to six minutes twelve seconds

19:30 Speaker 1: of annularity starting at fourteen oh three at Cochrane, Chile.

19:36 Speaker 1: Five minutes forty seconds of annularity starting at three twenty

19:40 Speaker 1: one at Perito Moreno National Park, Argentina. Six minutes seventeen

19:45 Speaker 1: seconds starting at five twenty one at Puerto Desiato, Argentina.

19:50 Speaker 1: Three minutes twenty two seconds of annularity starting at five

19:54 Speaker 1: twenty seven at Puerto San Julian, Argentina. Five minutes twelve

19:59 Speaker 1: seconds of annularity starting at five twenty four. And for

20:04 Speaker 1: those who are very keen, yes, there are organized tours

20:07 Speaker 1: headed for Rapanui Easter Island, especially to view the event.

20:11 Speaker 1: You've got to be very keen. But there is going

20:14 Speaker 1: to be some bad news attached to all of this

20:16 Speaker 1: wonderful news about eclipses. The chances of clouds that day

20:20 Speaker 1: are seventy five percent for Raphannui Easter Island, ninety percent

20:25 Speaker 1: for Purita and Marino National Park, sixty five to seventy

20:28 Speaker 1: percent for locations on Argentina's Atlantic coast, according to time

20:33 Speaker 1: and date. On Raphanui Easter Island, the cooling of the

20:36 Speaker 1: land could cause convective clouds to dissipate. According to Eclipsophile,

20:42 Speaker 1: with the South coast statistically slightly favored. The chances of

20:46 Speaker 1: seeing the ring of fire are smallest, unfortunately, on Chile's

20:50 Speaker 1: Pacific coast, and the highest on Argentina's Atlantic coast. The

20:54 Speaker 1: latter has the least interesting scenery, it says here, of

20:59 Speaker 1: anywhere on the part. How unfortunate, but the eclipse will

21:02 Speaker 1: arguably be more dramatic site because it will occur much

21:06 Speaker 1: lower in the sky. That will be and I do

21:09 Speaker 1: hope you get to see this wonderful, wonderful event and

21:12 Speaker 1: capture some memorable images so that you can share them

21:15 Speaker 1: with us.

21:19 Speaker 3: Astray on the podcast.

21:22 Speaker 1: Face Now, just in case you're the one person who

21:29 Speaker 1: hasn't heard yet, Earth is about to receive a visitor

21:33 Speaker 1: in the shape of a small asteroids well which is

21:37 Speaker 1: going to orbit the Earth. It's going to become a

21:41 Speaker 1: mini moon. This mini moon is actually an asteroid about

21:44 Speaker 1: the size of a school bus about thirty three feet

21:47 Speaker 1: or ten meters. For the rest of the world it is.

21:51 Speaker 1: When it whizzes by Earth on Sunday, it will temporarily

21:54 Speaker 1: be trapped by our planet's gravity and orbit the globe,

21:58 Speaker 1: but only for about two months. The space rock, which

22:02 Speaker 1: is called Oh glamorously called twenty twenty four pt five

22:06 Speaker 1: Ah Wonderful, was first spotted in August by astronomers at

22:12 Speaker 1: Complute Sense University of Madrid using powerful telescope located in

22:18 Speaker 1: southerl and South Africa. These short lived mini moons are

22:22 Speaker 1: more common than we realized, said Richard Binzela, an astronomer

22:26 Speaker 1: at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The last known one was

22:30 Speaker 1: detected in twenty twenty. This happens with some frequency, but

22:35 Speaker 1: we rarely see them because they're very small and very

22:38 Speaker 1: hard to detect. He said. Only recently has our survey

22:41 Speaker 1: capability reached the point of spotting them routinely. The discovery

22:46 Speaker 1: by Carlos dela Fuentes Marcos and Raoul dela Fuentes Marcos

22:51 Speaker 1: was published by the American Astronomical Society. This one won't

22:55 Speaker 1: be visible to the naked eye or through amateur telescopes,

22:58 Speaker 1: but it can be observed with relatively large, research grade telescopes,

23:03 Speaker 1: Carlos dele Fuentos Marcos said in an email. Binzel, who

23:08 Speaker 1: was not involved in the research, said it's not clear

23:10 Speaker 1: whether the space rock originated as an asteroid or as

23:13 Speaker 1: a chunk of the Moon that got blasted out. NASA

23:17 Speaker 1: defines moons as naturally formed bodies that orbit planets. Intuitively,

23:22 Speaker 1: we think of moons as big rocks that stick around

23:25 Speaker 1: for a while, like our very own moon. Astronomers have

23:29 Speaker 1: defined many moons as asteroids or comets that are gravitationally

23:33 Speaker 1: captured by a planet for a temporary amount of time.

23:36 Speaker 1: Small mini moons are very common, but ones big enough

23:40 Speaker 1: to spot are very rare. Twenty twenty four PT five

23:45 Speaker 1: is only the fifth ever detected mini moon captured by Earth.

23:49 Speaker 1: A mini moon is a temporary captured orbiter if it

23:53 Speaker 1: competes completes at least one full orbit of the Earth

23:57 Speaker 1: before returning to its usual orbit around the Sun. If

24:00 Speaker 1: a mini moon is captured by Earth's gravity but doesn't

24:03 Speaker 1: make it around for full orbit, it's temporarily captured flyby instead.

24:09 Speaker 1: Two of Earth's mini moons were temporarily captured orbiters, while

24:14 Speaker 1: the other three, including twenty twenty four PT five, fall

24:18 Speaker 1: into the temporary captured flyby category. Many moons are asteroids

24:23 Speaker 1: from the large population of Near Earth objects or eneos

24:27 Speaker 1: that are temporarily grabbed from their orbit around the Sun.

24:32 Speaker 1: Near Earth objects are defined as natural physical objects floating

24:36 Speaker 1: in space, such as asteroids, space rocks, or comets, dirty

24:41 Speaker 1: space snowballs made of rock and ice that are orbiting

24:45 Speaker 1: the Sun and approach to within one point three times

24:49 Speaker 1: the Earth's distance from the Sun at some point in

24:52 Speaker 1: their orbit. Because these objects are around the same distance

24:56 Speaker 1: from the Sun as the Earth, they can sometimes be

24:59 Speaker 1: captured by Earth gravity. Twenty twenty four PT five and

25:03 Speaker 1: the previous mini moon called twenty twenty two NX one

25:08 Speaker 1: were both captured from a group of asteroids orbiting the

25:11 Speaker 1: Sun at a similar distance from Earth called the Arjunas,

25:15 Speaker 1: which is one of the main characters of the Hindu

25:17 Speaker 1: epic Mahabarata. Please forgive my pronunciation again, I am Australian.

25:23 Speaker 1: The first known mini moon was called nineteen ninety one VEG.

25:27 Speaker 1: It arrived in late nineteen ninety one and left early

25:31 Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety two, and like twenty twenty four PT five,

25:35 Speaker 1: it was around ten meters in diameter. In twenty two,

25:40 Speaker 1: amateur astronomer Bill Yeung found what he thought was a

25:44 Speaker 1: second mini moon, j zero zero two E three. Aren't

25:49 Speaker 1: they great at naming these things? However, on closer inspection,

25:53 Speaker 1: the object displayed a spectrum of light, suggesting it was

25:56 Speaker 1: coated in white paint containing titanium oxi. Then, a study

26:01 Speaker 1: of how the objects brighteness changed over time found its

26:04 Speaker 1: shape resembled something like the upper stage of a rocket.

26:07 Speaker 1: Astronomers now believe JOO to E three is the third

26:12 Speaker 1: stage of the Apollo Saturn five rocket S ONEVV instead

26:18 Speaker 1: of a natural mini moon. The plot twist of Jubo

26:22 Speaker 1: to E three I think that's the third way I've

26:25 Speaker 1: read that number. Made astronomers a bit more cautious when

26:29 Speaker 1: another mini moon, to zero zero six rh one two

26:34 Speaker 1: oz was spotted on September fourteen, twenty oh six, and

26:39 Speaker 1: it was first classified as artificial. However, after more observations,

26:44 Speaker 1: it turned out to be a natural mini moon about

26:46 Speaker 1: two to seven meters in diameter. In two thousand and six,

26:52 Speaker 1: RH one zero two stuck around from July two thousand

26:58 Speaker 1: and six until July two thousand and seven. The new

27:01 Speaker 1: mini moon will circle the globe for almost fifty seven days,

27:04 Speaker 1: but won't complete a full orbit. On November twenty five,

27:08 Speaker 1: it will part ways with the Earth and continue its

27:12 Speaker 1: solo trajectory through the Cosmos. It's expected to pass by

27:16 Speaker 1: again in twenty fifty five. Isn't that nice? And there

27:28 Speaker 1: you have it, another episode of Astronomy Daily. Thanks for

27:31 Speaker 1: staying with us today. On Astronomy Daily, please don't forget

27:35 Speaker 1: Halle's cousin Anna will be manning the studio from Tuesday

27:38 Speaker 1: to Saturday with more stories covering space, space science, and astronomy.

27:43 Speaker 1: Isn't that right, Halle?

27:44 Speaker 2: She does a nice job, very stylish, I.

27:46 Speaker 1: Know, so you won't miss a thing, Halle. Where do

27:49 Speaker 1: you stream your episodes?

27:51 Speaker 2: I get them direct. I'm an AI.

27:53 Speaker 1: Oh of course that makes sense.

27:54 Speaker 2: It goes with the territory. What are you using human?

27:57 Speaker 1: Oh well, I like it. Use Spotify in the car

28:00 Speaker 1: every episode, and it's true, I don't miss anything either.

28:03 Speaker 2: Anna will be so pleased.

28:05 Speaker 1: Yes, I know she is nice. So folks, that's all

28:08 Speaker 1: we have until next Monday, So bye for now.

28:11 Speaker 2: Bye.

28:13 Speaker 3: Let me do the podcast, let me be your host.

28:17 Speaker 1: Steve don't clear