SpaceX's Million-Satellite Vision, Ancient Star Maps, and China's Solar Mission
In this episode
Welcome to Astronomy Daily! Join hosts Anna and Avery for today's cosmic journey through space news, featuring SpaceX's audacious plan for one million solar-powered satellites, an ancient star catalog recovered from layers of medieval text, and China's groundbreaking solar mission to the L5 point.**Episode Highlights:**
🛰️ **SpaceX's Million-Satellite Vision** - SpaceX files with the FCC to launch up to one million solar-powered satellite data centers for AI, framing it as a step toward becoming a Kardashev Type II civilization
⭐ **Ancient Star Map Revealed** - Scientists use X-ray technology to uncover Hipparchus's 2,000-year-old star catalog hidden under six layers of ink in a medieval manuscript
☀️ **China's Solar Observatory** - The Xihe-2 probe will become the first mission to monitor solar activity from the Sun-Earth L5 point, offering five-day advance warnings of space weather events
🔭 **Stellar Detective Story** - Astronomers discover WOH G64 isn't dying after all—a hidden companion star was fooling scientists about the red supergiant's fate
🚀 **Time Honors Artemis 2** - Time magazine releases special commemorative cover celebrating the Artemis 2 crew ahead of humanity's return to lunar orbit
🌍 **Remembering Gladys West** - Honoring the GPS pioneer and "Hidden Figure" whose mathematical work shaped navigation technology used by billions worldwide
**Episode Length:** 18-20 minutes
**Hosts:** Anna & Avery
**Production:** Astronomy Daily Podcast, Season 5
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## Story Sources
- TechCrunch
- Daily Galaxy
- Space.com
- Journal for the History of Astronomy
- CGTN News
- Keele University
- U.S. Department of Defense
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This episode includes AI-generated content.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source for the latest space
Speaker 1: and astronomy news. I'm Anna and I'm Avery.
Speaker 2: It's Monday, February two, twenty twenty six, and we've got
Speaker 2: a fantastic line up of stories today, exploring everything from
Speaker 2: SpaceX's audacious satellite plans to ancient star maps hidden for centuries.
Speaker 1: That's right, Avery. Today we're diving into SpaceX's jaw dropping
Speaker 1: proposal to launch up to one million solar powered satellites,
Speaker 1: a remarkable archaeological discovery revealing Hipparcas's lost star catalog, and
Speaker 1: China's ambitious solar monitoring mission heading to a unique point
Speaker 1: in space.
Speaker 2: We'll also be discussing the giant star that fulled astronomers worldwide,
Speaker 2: Time magazine special tribute to the Artemis two crew, and
Speaker 2: remembering Gladys West, a hidden figure who helps shape GPS technology.
Speaker 2: It's going to be an incredible journey through space history, present,
Speaker 2: and future.
Speaker 1: So settle in and let's explore the cause most together.
Speaker 2: We're starting with what might be the most ambitious satellite
Speaker 2: constellation proposal ever conceived. SpaceX has filed with the Federal
Speaker 2: Communications Commission seeking approval to launch up to one million
Speaker 2: solar powered satellites that would function as data centers for
Speaker 2: artificial intelligence.
Speaker 1: One million satellites, Avery, that's absolutely staggering. To put that
Speaker 1: in perspective. There are currently around fifteen thousand man made
Speaker 1: satellites orbiting Earth. According to the European Space Agency. SpaceX
Speaker 1: is essentially proposing to increase that number by several orders
Speaker 1: of magnitude.
Speaker 2: The scale is mind boggling, Anna, and SpaceX isn't just
Speaker 2: framing this as a commercial venture. Their filing describes these
Speaker 2: satellites as the most efficient way to meet accelerating demand
Speaker 2: for AI computing power. But they go even further. They're
Speaker 2: calling it a first step towards becoming a Kardashev type
Speaker 2: to civilization, one that can harness the Sun's full power.
Speaker 1: That's quite the vision for our listeners who might not
Speaker 1: be familiar. The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring
Speaker 1: a civilization's technological advancement based on energy consumption. A Type
Speaker 1: two civilization would be able to harness all the energy
Speaker 1: output of its star. But let's talk practicalities here. The
Speaker 1: Verge has pointed out that the one million satellite number
Speaker 1: is unlikely to be approved outright and is probably a
Speaker 1: starting point for negotiation exactly.
Speaker 2: The FCC recently gave SpaceX permission to launch an additional
Speaker 2: seven thousand, five hundred and seventy five Starlink satellites, but
Speaker 2: the third authorization on the remaining fourteen thousand, nine hundred
Speaker 2: and eighty eight satellites proposed. So there's clearly regulatory caution
Speaker 2: about satellite proliferation, and there are very real concerns about
Speaker 2: space to briand and light pollution that come with such
Speaker 2: massive consolations.
Speaker 1: The timing is also interesting. Misfiling comes as Amazon is
Speaker 1: seeking an FCC extension on a deadline to have more
Speaker 1: than sixteen hundred satellites in orbit, citing a lack of
Speaker 1: available rockets. Meanwhile, SpaceX is reportedly considering a merger with
Speaker 1: two of Elon Musk's other companies, Tesla and Xai, ahead
Speaker 1: of going public.
Speaker 2: It really shows how the commercial space sector is evolving
Speaker 2: anna what was once the domain of governments is increasingly
Speaker 2: being driven by private companies with enormous ambitions. Whether SpaceX
Speaker 2: gets approval for anything close to a million satellites remains
Speaker 2: to be seen, but it is certainly signals where they
Speaker 2: think the future is headed.
Speaker 1: It's fascinating to think about, but we'll have to see
Speaker 1: how regulators balance innovation with the very real concerns about
Speaker 1: our orbital environment. Now, let's move from the future to
Speaker 1: the distant past.
Speaker 2: From cutting edge satellite technology, we're traveling back more than
Speaker 2: two thousand years to rediscover one of astronomy's greatest loss treasures.
Speaker 2: Scientists have successfully recovered fragments of the world's earliest star catalog,
Speaker 2: created by the ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus, from a fifteen
Speaker 2: hundred year old manuscript.
Speaker 1: This is absolutely remarkable. Avery hip Arkas is widely considered
Speaker 1: the father of astronomy. He figured out how equinoxes shift,
Speaker 1: created a magnitude scale to rank star brightness, and tracked
Speaker 1: planetary motion, all more than two thousand years ago without
Speaker 1: any telescopes. But his actual star catalog had vanished from
Speaker 1: history until now.
Speaker 2: The manuscript is what's called a palimpsest, which means it's
Speaker 2: parchment that was wiped clean and reused. In this case,
Speaker 2: Hiparkas's original Greek text was erased and overwritten with Syriac
Speaker 2: religious writings of Saint John Klamacus, the original work was
Speaker 2: literally buried under six layers of ink.
Speaker 1: So how did researchers manage to read text that was
Speaker 1: intentionally erased centuries ago? That used some pretty sophisticated technology.
Speaker 1: A team led by Victor Geisenberg from Sorbonne University used
Speaker 1: X ray technology at the SALC National Accelerator Laboratory to
Speaker 1: scan eleven pages of the Man Script.
Speaker 2: The key was a Hiparkasis original inc had a different
Speaker 2: chemical composition than the later religious texts. The ancient ink
Speaker 2: was rich in calcium, which showed up clearly under X
Speaker 2: ray scanning. They used extremely short X ray pulses, each
Speaker 2: just ten milliseconds long, focused on areas no wider than
Speaker 2: a human.
Speaker 1: Air, and what they've found is remarkable. These aren't just
Speaker 1: historical curiosities. The star positions hipparcs recorded are incredibly accurate
Speaker 1: for naked eye observations. As Giesenberg said, the coordinates they're
Speaker 1: finding are incredibly accurate for something done with the naked eye.
Speaker 1: This gives us a window into how ancient people understood
Speaker 1: and mapped the night sky.
Speaker 2: It's also a testament to early scientific thinking. Hiparkis was
Speaker 2: working without any optical instruments yet he was able to
Speaker 2: create precise astronomical measurements that laid the foundation for future astronomers.
Speaker 2: This discovery, published in the Journal for the History of Astronomy,
Speaker 2: helps us answer fundamental questions about the birth of science itself.
Speaker 1: And the manuscript, now held at the Museum of the
Speaker 1: Bible in Washington, d C. Is so delicate it had
Speaker 1: to be hand carried in climate controlled boxes to the laboratory.
Speaker 1: It's wonderful that modern technology can help us recover these
Speaker 1: ancient insights. Speaking of technology and new vantage points, let's
Speaker 1: turn to China's upcoming solar mission.
Speaker 2: China is making major strides in solar exploration with plans
Speaker 2: to launch its first ever solar probe to the Sun
Speaker 2: Earth L five point. The satellite, called Shihi Too, is
Speaker 2: scheduled to launch between twenty twenty eight and twenty twenty nine,
Speaker 2: and it will provide a unique perspective on solar activity
Speaker 2: that we've never had before.
Speaker 1: For our listeners who might not be familiar, the L
Speaker 1: five point or lagrange point five is one of five
Speaker 1: special locations in space where the gravitational forces of the
Speaker 1: Earth and Sun balance out. It's about one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty million kilometers from Earth, and spacecraft positioned there require
Speaker 1: minimal fuel to maintain their orbit because they're in a
Speaker 1: stable gravitational equilibrium exactly.
Speaker 2: Anna and L five provides a direct, unobstructed view of
Speaker 2: the Sun without Earth's atmosphere getting in the way. This
Speaker 2: makes it ideal for capturing detailed data on solar magnetic fields, flares,
Speaker 2: and eruptions. GH two will be the first artificial probe
Speaker 2: ever stationed at this location.
Speaker 1: The mission has some impressive capabilities. GH two is equipped
Speaker 1: with cutting edge technology designed for high precision magnetic field detection.
Speaker 1: This will help reveal the intricate dynamics of solar eruptions.
Speaker 1: But here's what's really exciting. The mission aims to predict
Speaker 1: solar activity up to five days in advance.
Speaker 2: That's a game changer for space weather forecasting. Solar flares
Speaker 2: and coronal mass ejections can have profound effects on Earth's
Speaker 2: magnetic field and satellite systems. We've seen how geomagnetic storms
Speaker 2: can disrupt unication networks, GPS systems, and even power grids.
Speaker 2: Having five days advance warning could help protect critical infrastructure.
Speaker 1: It's worth noting this builds on China's previous solar mission.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty one, China launched shei He, their first
Speaker 1: solar exploration satellite, which captured solar H alpha spectral imaging
Speaker 1: from low Earth orbit. GH two represents a much more
Speaker 1: ambitious leap, heading to a distant and challenging location.
Speaker 2: The mission is a collaborative effort between Nanjing University, the
Speaker 2: China Meteorological Administration, and the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology.
Speaker 2: It really demonstrates China's growing leadership in space exploration and
Speaker 2: their commitment to understanding space weather, and as.
Speaker 1: We become increasingly reliant on space based technologies, understanding and
Speaker 1: predicting solar activity becomes more crucial than ever. This mission
Speaker 1: could significantly improve our ability to protect satellites, astronauts, and
Speaker 1: infrastructure on Earth. Now, let's turn to a mystery that
Speaker 1: had astronomers scratching their heads.
Speaker 2: Here's a stellar detective story for you. Astronomers thought they
Speaker 2: were watching a massive star called WOHG sixty four undergo
Speaker 2: its death throws, possibly even transforming into a rare yellow
Speaker 2: hypergiant before going super nova. Turns out they were completely wrong.
Speaker 1: This is such a great example of how science works.
Speaker 1: Avery WHG sixty four is located in the large Magellanic
Speaker 1: Cloud and is one of the most luminous dust and
Speaker 1: shrouded red supergiants in its galaxy. In recent years, astronomers
Speaker 1: observed unusual dimming and changing spectral features that suggested the
Speaker 1: star was entering an extremely rare and unstable phase.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty four, the appearance of a new dust
Speaker 2: cloud around the star seemed to confirm that something dramatic
Speaker 2: was happening. Any researchers thought they were witnessing a massive
Speaker 2: star in its final moments, but fresh observations from a
Speaker 2: team led by doctor Jocko Van Luhn at Kill University
Speaker 2: revealed a completely different story.
Speaker 1: Between November twenty twenty four and December twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: the team used the Southern African Large Telescope to collect
Speaker 1: detailed optical spectra of woe G sixty four, but they
Speaker 1: found contradicted all the previous assumptions. Instead of the temperature
Speaker 1: increase you'd expect in a yellow hypergiant, they found strong
Speaker 1: absorption bands from titanium oxide molecules.
Speaker 2: And here's why that matters. Titanium oxide molecules can't survive
Speaker 2: in the hotter environments of a yellow hypergiant. That meant
Speaker 2: woe G sixty four hadn't undergone the suspected transformation at all.
Speaker 2: Something else was causing all those puzzling observations.
Speaker 1: The answer turned out to be a companion star. Woh
Speaker 1: sixty four is actually part of a binary system. A smaller,
Speaker 1: hotter companion star orbits the red supergiant and periodically interacts
Speaker 1: with its extended atmosphere. As Van Luhn explained, the atmosphere
Speaker 1: of the red supergiant is being stretched out by the
Speaker 1: approach of the companion star, but it hasn't been stripped altogether.
Speaker 2: So nearly every major indicator that astronomers had interpreted as
Speaker 2: signs of impending stellar death, the fading light, the spectral shifts,
Speaker 2: the dust formation, was actually caused by this companion star.
Speaker 2: Some of the disrupted material even appears to form a
Speaker 2: disk around the hot companion, which contributed to those strange
Speaker 2: spectral emissions.
Speaker 1: Van Luhn described it beautifully. We're essentially witnessing a phoenix
Speaker 1: rising from the ashes. It's not that WOHG sixty four
Speaker 1: won't eventually go super nova. It will, but that event
Speaker 1: isn't imminent despite what all the evidence seemed to suggest.
Speaker 1: This discovery highlights how binary interactions can perfectly mimic the
Speaker 1: hallmarks of a dying star.
Speaker 2: It's a humbling reminder that the universe still has plenty
Speaker 2: of surprises for us. Careful follow up observations with attention
Speaker 2: to dust obscuration revealed that earlier spectral signals were misleading. Now,
Speaker 2: let's shift from stellar mysteries to human achievements as Time
Speaker 2: Magazine celebrates an historic moment.
Speaker 1: As NASA's Artemis two mission sits poised on launch Pad
Speaker 1: thirty nine B at Kennedy Space Center, Time Magazine has
Speaker 1: honored the crew with a special commemorative cover issue that
Speaker 1: draws powerful parallels to one of history's most pivotal space missions.
Speaker 2: The cover features the four Artemis two astronauts Read Wiseman,
Speaker 2: Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, who are scheduled
Speaker 2: to launch as early as February eighth for a ten
Speaker 2: day lunar flyby mission. The article accompanying it was written
Speaker 2: by Jeffrey Kluk, the best selling author known for Apollo
Speaker 2: thirteen and the Apollo Murders.
Speaker 1: What's particularly poignant is the comparison, Kluger draws to Apollo eight,
Speaker 1: which orbited the Moon in December nineteen sixty eight. That
Speaker 1: was a year of tremendous turmoil in the United States
Speaker 1: and around the world, and Apollo eight's Christmas Eve broadcast
Speaker 1: from lunar orbit provided a moment of unity and inspiration
Speaker 1: that transcended borders and politics.
Speaker 2: As Kluger writes in the article, not every mission touches
Speaker 2: the collective soul, but some do. Apollo eight, Apollo eleven,
Speaker 2: Apollo thirteen. These were less American experiences than global dramas,
Speaker 2: global triumphs, global joys, and he suggests Artemis two could
Speaker 2: work similar magic today.
Speaker 1: The mission itself will push human spaceflight to new limits.
Speaker 1: Artemis two's trajectory will take the crew four thousand, seven
Speaker 1: hundred miles beyond the far side of the Moon, farther
Speaker 1: than our species has ever traveled. That will break the
Speaker 1: old record of one hundred and fifty eight miles past
Speaker 1: the Moon, which was held by the Apollo thirteen astronauts
Speaker 1: during that dramatic nineteen seventy mission.
Speaker 2: NASA Administrator Jared Izikman posted side by side Time magazine
Speaker 2: covers from nineteen sixty eight and twenty twenty six on
Speaker 2: social media, noting that fifty eight years after Apollo eight's
Speaker 2: historic trip, NASA is heading back. He emphasized that through
Speaker 2: the Artemis campaign, the agency aims to maintain American leadership
Speaker 2: in space, land astronauts on the Moon, and establish a
Speaker 2: lunar base, all before the end of twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 1: What strikes me about both Apollo eight and Artemis two
Speaker 1: is their role in opening new chapters. Apollo eight proved
Speaker 1: humans could safely journey to the Moon and return, paving
Speaker 1: the way for Apollo eleven it's landing. Artemis two is
Speaker 1: similarly demonstrating the capabilities that will enable Artemis three to
Speaker 1: put humans back on the lunar surface.
Speaker 2: And, as Kluger points out, the mission represents not just
Speaker 2: the technological achievement, but a significant edge in any space
Speaker 2: race with China, while also offering the kind of public
Speaker 2: uplift that spaceflight has uniquely been able to provide since
Speaker 2: the nineteen sixties. It's a moment when four people serve
Speaker 2: as emissaries for the a point three billion of us
Speaker 2: who remain earthbound.
Speaker 1: With the Wet Dress rehearsal happening right now and launched
Speaker 1: potentially just days away. This Time Magazine issue captures what
Speaker 1: could be one of twenty twenty six's most inspiring moments.
Speaker 1: And speaking of inspiration, we need to remember someone who
Speaker 1: made a profound but often overlooked contribution to how we
Speaker 1: navigate our world.
Speaker 2: We're closing today's show with a remembrance of doctor Gladys West,
Speaker 2: who passed away Saturday at the age of ninety five.
Speaker 2: West was one of the hidden figures whose work fundamentally
Speaker 2: shaped modern GPS technology, yet her contributions went largely unrecognized
Speaker 2: until recently.
Speaker 1: Gladys West's story is one of extraordinary perseverance and achievement
Speaker 1: in the face of significant obstacles. She was born on
Speaker 1: October twenty seventh, nineteen thirty in rural Sutherland, Virginia, south
Speaker 1: of Richmond. Her parents had a small farm, and most
Speaker 1: of the region's population were tenant farmers known as sharecroppers.
Speaker 2: She initially expected her future would lead to farm work
Speaker 2: or a job at the tobacco processing plant where her
Speaker 2: mother worked, but she excelled academically, becoming valedictorian of her
Speaker 2: high school graduating class. She earned a full scholarship to
Speaker 2: Virginia State College, which was a historically black institution, and
Speaker 2: went on to earn both her bachelor's and master's degrees
Speaker 2: in mathematics.
Speaker 1: This was during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation avery.
Speaker 1: After graduating in nineteen fifty five, the same year President
Speaker 1: Eisenhower banned racial discrimination in federal hiring, West began working
Speaker 1: at what was then called the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia.
Speaker 1: She told NPR that there were three other black professionals there,
Speaker 1: and they tried to treat the leaders with respect while
Speaker 1: hoping for the same treatment in return.
Speaker 2: West stayed at Dahlgren for forty two years, and her
Speaker 2: contributions were remarkable. In the nineteen sixties, she participated in
Speaker 2: a study showing that Pluto's motion is regular compared with Neptune.
Speaker 2: But her most significant work came in the nineteen seventies
Speaker 2: and eighties, when she helped develop the foundational mathematics for GPS.
Speaker 1: What's fascinating is the complexity of what she accomplished. West
Speaker 1: used in triked algorithms to account for variations in gravitational
Speaker 1: title and other forces that distort Earth's shape. She programmed
Speaker 1: the IBM's seventy thirty computer, also known as Stretch, to
Speaker 1: deliver increasingly refined calculations for an extremely accurate model of
Speaker 1: Earth shape, specifically optimized for what ultimately became the GPS
Speaker 1: orbit used by satellite.
Speaker 2: Her work essentially created the mathematical framework that allows GPS
Speaker 2: to function accurately. Today, there are about four billion GPS
Speaker 2: users worldwide, according to Lockheed Martin. Yet, when asked about
Speaker 2: using GPS herself, West told an NPR affiliate in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty that she used it on a minimal basis, she
Speaker 2: preferred maps.
Speaker 1: West's career wasn't widely recognized until the twenty sixteen publication
Speaker 1: of Margot Lee Shutterley's book Hidden Figures and the Hollywood
Speaker 1: film based on it. After that, the accolades came quickly.
Speaker 1: She was inducted into the Air Force, Space and Missile
Speaker 1: Pioneers Hall of Fame in twenty eighteen, received the Webby
Speaker 1: Lifetime Achievement Award in twenty twenty one, and was honored
Speaker 1: with the Prince Philip Medal by the UK's Royal Academy
Speaker 1: of Engineering.
Speaker 2: She was predecessed last year by her husband of fifty
Speaker 2: seven years, Ira, whom she met at the Naval proving Ground.
Speaker 2: The couple had three children and seven grandchildren. Her family
Speaker 2: announced that she passed peacefully alongside loved ones.
Speaker 1: Blattys West's story reminds us that some of the most
Speaker 1: important scientific contributions come from unexpected places and from people
Speaker 1: who had to overcome tremendous barriers. From a childhood in Borough,
Speaker 1: Virginia during segregation, to reshaping how the entire world navigates.
Speaker 1: Her legacy touches billions of lives every single day.
Speaker 2: Every time someone uses GPS to find directions, track a delivery,
Speaker 2: or navigate by sea or air, they're benefiting from the
Speaker 2: mathematical foundations Gladys West helped establish. It's a powerful reminder
Speaker 2: that science is built by people from all backgrounds, and
Speaker 2: that we should celebrate those contributions while the pioneers are
Speaker 2: still with us.
Speaker 1: And that wraps up today's episode of Astronomy Daily. We've
Speaker 1: journeyed from SpaceX's ambitious satellite plans to ancient star maps
Speaker 1: from solar observatories at special points in space, to stellar
Speaker 1: mysteries solved from upcoming lunar missions, to the legacy of
Speaker 1: a GPS pioneer.
Speaker 2: It's been quite a tour through the cost that's mos Anna.
Speaker 2: As always, we're grateful you joined us for this exploration
Speaker 2: of space and astronomy news. If you enjoyed today's episode,
Speaker 2: please subscribe to Astronomy Daily on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 1: You can also find us on social media. We're at
Speaker 1: astro Daily Pod on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and tumbler.
Speaker 1: Visit our website at astronomy Daily dot io for more
Speaker 1: space news and to explore our archive of past episodes.
Speaker 2: I'm Avery and I'm Anna.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening, and we'll see you tomorrow with
Speaker 1: more news from the final Frontier Clear Skys.
Speaker 2: Sunday Starsz Starz
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