S03E187: Betelgeuse's Stellar Sidekick, Mars Rover's Rocky Road, and Cosmic Radio Riddles

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your go to source for the

0:02 Speaker 1: latest and most exciting space in astronomy news. I'm anna

0:06 Speaker 1: and I'm thrilled to bring you another episode packed with

0:08 Speaker 1: fascinating discoveries and developments from the cosmos. Today, we'll journey

0:12 Speaker 1: across the universe, starting with some intriguing updates about Beetlejuice,

0:17 Speaker 1: that enigmatic star that's been keeping astronomers on their toes.

0:21 Speaker 1: We'll then zoom in on Mars, where NASA's Perseverance Rover

0:24 Speaker 1: has been making some impressive climbs and discoveries.

0:27 Speaker 2: But that's not all.

0:28 Speaker 1: We'll also delve into some mind bending cosmic phenomena, including

0:32 Speaker 1: a puzzling radio signal that's challenging our understanding of the universe.

0:36 Speaker 1: And we'll round things off with some groundbreaking observations from

0:38 Speaker 1: the James Webb Space Telescope that are reshaping our views

0:41 Speaker 1: of the early universe. So buckle up and get ready

0:44 Speaker 1: for a cosmic adventure as we explore the wonders of

0:47 Speaker 1: our universe together on Astronomy Daily. Let's turn our attention

0:51 Speaker 1: to one of the most intriguing stars in our night sky, Beetlejuice.

0:56 Speaker 1: This red super giant, the tenth brightest star visible from Earth,

1:01 Speaker 1: has been puzzling astronomers with its peculiar behavior in recent years. Now,

1:05 Speaker 1: scientists have come up with a fascinating new theory that

1:08 Speaker 1: might explain its mysterious dimming and brightening. Between November twenty

1:13 Speaker 1: nineteen and March twenty twenty, Beetlejuice visibly dimmed, leading to

1:17 Speaker 1: speculation that it might be on the verge of going supernova.

1:20 Speaker 1: Then just a couple of years later, it suddenly brightened

1:23 Speaker 1: by fifty percent. These dramatic fluctuations left astronomers scratching their heads.

1:28 Speaker 1: Enter the latest hypothesis. Beetlejuice might have a companion. That's right,

1:32 Speaker 1: this cosmic giant may not be flying solo after all.

1:35 Speaker 1: Scientists have affectionately dubbed this potential stellar sidekick Beetlebuddy. According

1:40 Speaker 1: to a study accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal,

1:44 Speaker 1: researchers have ruled out every intrinsic source of variability they

1:48 Speaker 1: could think of to explain Beetlejuice's recent antics. The only

1:52 Speaker 1: hypothesis that seemed to fit was the presence of a

1:54 Speaker 1: companion star. Computer simulations suggest that if Beetlebuddy exists. It

1:59 Speaker 1: acts like a celesti. You'll snowplow as it orbits Beetlejuice.

2:02 Speaker 1: It pushes dust out of the way, temporarily making Betle

2:05 Speaker 1: Juice appear brighter to us here on Earth. While we

2:08 Speaker 1: don't know for certain what Bettle Buddy might be, the

2:11 Speaker 1: best guess is that it's a star about twice the

2:13 Speaker 1: mass of our Sun. Some researchers even speculate it could

2:16 Speaker 1: be a neutron star, though that's a more exotic and

2:19 Speaker 1: less probable scenario. This companion star theory not only helps

2:23 Speaker 1: explain Beetlejuice's recent behavior, but could also provide insights into

2:26 Speaker 1: the stars pulsations. Beetlejuice has two distinct pulses, one about

2:31 Speaker 1: six years long and another just over a year. Understanding

2:34 Speaker 1: which of these is the star's fundamental mode could help

2:37 Speaker 1: astronomers predict when Beetlejuice might go supernova. The next step

2:41 Speaker 1: for astronomers is to try and observe Bettle Buddy directly

2:43 Speaker 1: using a telescope. This potential companion star, if confirmed, could

2:48 Speaker 1: prompt us to reconsider our understanding of neutron stars and

2:51 Speaker 1: their behavior. It's a reminder that even well known stars

2:54 Speaker 1: like Beetlejuice can still hold secrets waiting to be uncovered.

2:58 Speaker 1: Next up, let's get an up from Mars, the favorite

3:01 Speaker 1: planet of many of you. NASA's Perseverance rover has been

3:05 Speaker 1: making steady progress in its challenging ascent of the Jazaro

3:08 Speaker 1: Crater rim on Mars. Over the past week. The rover

3:11 Speaker 1: has been carefully navigating the steep terrain, which is composed

3:15 Speaker 1: of loose Martian soil called regolith. This makes the climb

3:18 Speaker 1: particularly tricky, as the rover's wheels tend to slip on

3:21 Speaker 1: the steepest sections. To overcome these obstacles, the science and

3:25 Speaker 1: engineering teams at NASA are working closely together to plan slow,

3:29 Speaker 1: careful drives. They've identified a relatively clear path up the

3:33 Speaker 1: crater rim, which they've aptly named Summerlind Trail, after a

3:37 Speaker 1: popular hiking trail on Mount Rainier back on Earth. As

3:41 Speaker 1: Perseverance makes its way along this trail, it's not just

3:44 Speaker 1: focused on the climb. The rover is constantly observing its surroundings,

3:48 Speaker 1: using its advanced instruments to study the Martian landscape. The

3:52 Speaker 1: supercam and MASSCAMZ have been busy capturing images of rocks

3:55 Speaker 1: on the ground and on a distant hill called Crystal Creek.

4:00 Speaker 2: But that's not all.

4:01 Speaker 1: Perseverance has also been turning its gaze skyward. Last week,

4:04 Speaker 1: the MASSCAMZ camera captured stunning images of Phobos, one of

4:08 Speaker 1: Mars two moons, as it transited in front of the Sun.

4:11 Speaker 1: This celestial observation adds another layer to the rover's scientific repertoire.

4:15 Speaker 1: The rover's next target is an outcrop of rocks called Picoterrchino. Here,

4:19 Speaker 1: the science team plans to conduct detailed studies using the

4:22 Speaker 1: PXL instrument and the newly reactivated Sherlock. These instruments will

4:27 Speaker 1: provide valuable data about the composition and structure of the

4:29 Speaker 1: Martian rocks, potentially offering new insights into the planet's geological history.

4:35 Speaker 1: Despite the excitement of reaching the ancient stratigraphy exposed in

4:38 Speaker 1: the crater rim, the Mars twenty twenty team is maintaining

4:42 Speaker 1: a steady focus on documenting the current surroundings while carefully

4:46 Speaker 1: navigating this challenging ascent. Next, a discovery that has astronomers

4:52 Speaker 1: scratching their heads and say now what. In a groundbreaking

4:55 Speaker 1: discovery astronomers have stumbled upon a cosmic radio pulse that's

4:59 Speaker 1: unlike n anything we've ever seen before. This newly detected

5:03 Speaker 1: radio transient, named acecap J one thousand, nine hundred thirty

5:07 Speaker 1: five plus two thousand, one hundred forty eight, has a

5:10 Speaker 1: cycle of nearly an hour, making it the longest ever recorded. Typically,

5:14 Speaker 1: when we point our radio telescopes into space, we detect

5:17 Speaker 1: brief bursts of radio waves from distant parts of the universe.

5:21 Speaker 1: These bursts, known as radio transients, can behave in different ways.

5:24 Speaker 1: Some appear once and never return, while others blink on

5:27 Speaker 1: and off in regular patterns. Most of these are believed

5:30 Speaker 1: to come from rotating neutron stars or pulsars, which emit

5:34 Speaker 1: consistent pulses of radio waves like cosmic lighthouses. But ASCAP

5:39 Speaker 1: JAN nine hundred thirty five plus two thousand, one hundred

5:43 Speaker 1: forty eight is something entirely different. Its fifty three point

5:47 Speaker 1: eight minute cycle is far longer than anything we've observed before.

5:51 Speaker 1: What's even more intriguing is that this celestial oddity exhibits

5:55 Speaker 1: three distinct states. In one state, it produces bright, linearly

5:59 Speaker 1: polarized pulses lasting up to fifty seconds. In another, it

6:02 Speaker 1: emits much weaker, circularly polarized pulses, lasting only about three

6:06 Speaker 1: hundred and seventy milliseconds, and in its third state, it

6:09 Speaker 1: goes completely quiet, with no detectable pulses at all. So

6:13 Speaker 1: what could be causing this bizarre behavior. Scientists are still

6:16 Speaker 1: scratching their heads, but the prime suspect is a slow

6:19 Speaker 1: spinning neutron star. However, our current understanding of neutron stars

6:23 Speaker 1: suggests they shouldn't be able to have such a long period.

6:26 Speaker 1: Another possibility is that it could be a white dwarf,

6:29 Speaker 1: the earth sized remnant of a burnt out star, but

6:32 Speaker 1: white dwarfs aren't known to produce radio signals like this.

6:35 Speaker 1: The discovery of ASKPJ nine hundred thirty five plus two

6:38 Speaker 1: thy one hundred forty eight might prompt us to reconsider

6:41 Speaker 1: our decades old understanding of neutron stars and white dwarfs.

6:45 Speaker 2: It could provide.

6:46 Speaker 1: Valuable insights into the physics of these extreme objects and

6:49 Speaker 1: how they emit radio waves. What's particularly exciting is that

6:52 Speaker 1: there might be many more objects like this out there

6:55 Speaker 1: waiting to be discovered. We were quite fortunate to catch

6:58 Speaker 1: sight of ascap J one thousand in nine hundred thirty

7:01 Speaker 1: five plus two thousand, one hundred forty eight, given that

7:04 Speaker 1: its radio emissions are only detectable for a tiny fraction

7:07 Speaker 1: of its rotation period. As we continue to explore the Cosmos,

7:12 Speaker 1: discoveries like this remind us that the universe still has

7:15 Speaker 1: plenty of surprises in store. They challenge our existing theories

7:18 Speaker 1: and push us to expand our understanding of the Cosmos. Now,

7:23 Speaker 1: let's turn our attention to a critical issue facing one

7:25 Speaker 1: of the world's leading space agencies. A recent report by

7:28 Speaker 1: the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has

7:32 Speaker 1: raised some serious concerns about NASA's future. Titled NASA at

7:36 Speaker 1: a Crossroads, this report doesn't mince words about the challenges ahead.

7:41 Speaker 1: The report identifies several key issues that NASA needs to

7:44 Speaker 1: address urgently.

7:45 Speaker 2: These include outdated.

7:46 Speaker 1: Infrastructure, pressure to prioritize short term goals, budget mismatches, and

7:51 Speaker 1: inefficient management practices. It also points out that NASA's reliance

7:56 Speaker 1: on commercial partners may not always be strategic. What's particularly

8:00 Speaker 1: striking is the report's recommendation that NASA should rebalance its priorities.

8:04 Speaker 1: It suggests increasing investments in facilities expert workforce and cutting

8:08 Speaker 1: edge technology development, even if it means delaying the start

8:12 Speaker 1: of new missions. This is a bold stance that underscores

8:15 Speaker 1: the severity of the situation. The environment in which NASA

8:19 Speaker 1: operates has become increasingly complex. Rapid technological advancements, competition for

8:24 Speaker 1: talent with the commercial space sector, and a declining federal

8:27 Speaker 1: discretionary budget are all putting pressure on the agency. Add

8:31 Speaker 1: to this the lack of timely congressional authorization acts and

8:34 Speaker 1: increasing competition from countries like China, and you can see

8:37 Speaker 1: why NASA is at a crossroads. The report's authors, led

8:41 Speaker 1: by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine, emphasize that this

8:45 Speaker 1: is not a time for business as usual. They argue

8:48 Speaker 1: that NASA's continued success is at risk due to the

8:51 Speaker 1: mismatch between its budget and its programs, a focus on

8:55 Speaker 1: short term objectives, and aging infrastructure. What does this mean

8:59 Speaker 1: for the future of space exploration. Well, it's clear that

9:02 Speaker 1: tough decisions lie ahead. NASA may need to make some

9:05 Speaker 1: difficult choices about which missions to prioritize and which to

9:08 Speaker 1: delay or cancel. The agency might also need to redirect

9:11 Speaker 1: funds from exciting new projects to less glamorous but essential

9:14 Speaker 1: infrastructure upgrades. This situation raises important questions about how we

9:19 Speaker 1: as a society value space exploration and scientific research. Are

9:23 Speaker 1: we willing to invest in the long term health of

9:25 Speaker 1: our space program, even if it means fewer headline grabbing

9:28 Speaker 1: missions in the short term. The answers to these questions

9:31 Speaker 1: will shape the future of space exploration for years to come.

9:35 Speaker 1: The James Web Space Telescope has once again pushed the

9:38 Speaker 1: boundaries of our understanding of the early universe in a

9:41 Speaker 1: groundbreaking discovery. Astronomers have used the telescope to peer back

9:45 Speaker 1: an astounding thirteen billion years, revealing surprisingly lonely supermassive black

9:50 Speaker 1: holes powering ancient quasers. This finding has left scientists scratching

9:55 Speaker 1: their heads. You see, these isolated black holes shouldn't have

9:58 Speaker 1: been able to grow to such enormous sizes, especially when

10:01 Speaker 1: the universe was just a few hundred million years old.

10:04 Speaker 1: It's like finding a fully grown adult in a nursery.

10:07 Speaker 1: It just doesn't add up. The team studied five of

10:09 Speaker 1: the earliest known quasars, formed when the Cosmos was a

10:12 Speaker 1: mere infant at six hundred to seven hundred million years old.

10:15 Speaker 1: What they found was puzzling. The environments around these quasers,

10:19 Speaker 1: called quasar fields, varied widely. Some were packed with galaxies,

10:23 Speaker 1: as expected, but others were surprisingly empty, lacking the cosmic

10:26 Speaker 1: buffet needed to feed a growing super massive black hole.

10:30 Speaker 1: This discovery challenges our current models of how these cosmic

10:33 Speaker 1: giants came to be. Previously, we thought super massive black

10:37 Speaker 1: holes needed densely populated neighborhoods to grow rapidly, but now

10:41 Speaker 1: it seems some of these ancient behemoths were sitting in

10:45 Speaker 1: cosmic deserts with little to no galactic company. The implications

10:49 Speaker 1: of this finding are far reaching. It forces us to

10:52 Speaker 1: reconsider our theories about black hole growth and even galaxy

10:55 Speaker 1: formation itself. The current understanding involves a vast cosmic web

11:00 Speaker 1: of dark matter guiding the formation of early galaxies and quasars,

11:04 Speaker 1: but these lonely quasars don't quite fit into that picture.

11:06 Speaker 2: So what's going on well.

11:08 Speaker 1: One possibility is that these quasars are surrounded by cosmic dust,

11:13 Speaker 1: hiding their galactic neighbors from view. Alternatively, there might be

11:17 Speaker 1: entirely new mechanisms at play allowing these black holes to

11:21 Speaker 1: grow rapidly even in isolation. As we continue to explore

11:25 Speaker 1: the early universe with the James Webb Space Telescope, we're

11:28 Speaker 1: bound to uncover more surprises. Each new discovery brings us

11:32 Speaker 1: closer to understanding the cosmic dawn, but also reminds us

11:35 Speaker 1: how much we still have to learn about our vast

11:37 Speaker 1: and mysterious universe. And that wraps up today's episode of

11:42 Speaker 1: Astronomy Daily. We've covered some fascinating developments, from Beetlejuice's potential

11:46 Speaker 1: companion star to the perseverance rovers challenging climb on Mars.

11:51 Speaker 2: We've also explored the discovery.

11:52 Speaker 1: Of the longest cosmic radio pulse ever detected, and discussed

11:56 Speaker 1: NASA's current challenges. Finally, we delved into the James Webb

11:59 Speaker 1: Space teles surprising observations of ancient quasars. If you're hungry

12:03 Speaker 1: for more space and astronomy news, head over to our

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12:29 Speaker 1: Anna thanking you for tuning into Astronomy Daily. Keep looking

12:32 Speaker 1: up and we'll see you next time. Esiday Star Star