Stellar Songs, Mysterious Light Pulses, and Jupiter's Dazzling Auroras

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

0:03 Speaker 1: news from the cosmos. I'm your host, Anna, and today

0:06 Speaker 1: we're exploring an eclectic mix of astronomical discoveries and breakthroughs

0:11 Speaker 1: that are expanding our understanding of the universe around us.

0:15 Speaker 1: From scientists who have managed to listen to the music

0:17 Speaker 1: of stars to the James Webb Space telescope capturing Jupiter's

0:21 Speaker 1: auroras glowing hundreds of times brighter than anything we see

0:24 Speaker 1: on Earth, We've got fascinating stories to share. We'll also

0:29 Speaker 1: dive into mysterious unexplained light pulses detected in a SETI survey,

0:33 Speaker 1: examine this week's busy launch schedule across three continents, and

0:37 Speaker 1: explore a revolutionary new theory that might finally bridge Einstein's

0:41 Speaker 1: gravity with quantum physics, potentially solving one of science's greatest puzzles.

0:46 Speaker 1: So sit back and join me as we journey through

0:49 Speaker 1: the latest developments from the depths of space to the

0:52 Speaker 1: cutting edge of theoretical physics. Get comfortable and we'll get started.

0:58 Speaker 1: Astronomers have achieved something truly remarkable. They've managed to peer

1:01 Speaker 1: inside a nearby star by listening to its resonance using

1:05 Speaker 1: the same principle that helps geologists understand Earth's interior layers.

1:09 Speaker 1: Scientists are now applying this technique to stars. A groundbreaking

1:13 Speaker 1: study published in the Astrophysical Journal reveals how researchers at

1:17 Speaker 1: the Keck Observatory in Hawaii train their instruments on HD

1:21 Speaker 1: two hundred nineteen thousand, one hundred thirty four, a cool

1:25 Speaker 1: orange star just twenty one light years from our Solar system,

1:28 Speaker 1: practically our stellar neighbor. The vibrations of a star are

1:32 Speaker 1: like its unique song, explains lead author Yagwang Lie from

1:35 Speaker 1: the University of Hawaii at Manoa. By listening to those oscillations,

1:40 Speaker 1: we can precisely determine how massive a star is, how

1:43 Speaker 1: large it is, and how old it is. While stellar

1:46 Speaker 1: songs have been detected before using astro seismology, they've typically

1:50 Speaker 1: only been recorded for very hot stars. Scientists previously thought

1:55 Speaker 1: the oscillations of smaller, cooler stars would be too subtle

1:58 Speaker 1: to detect. Until now. The Keck planet Finder, an instrument

2:03 Speaker 1: usually employed to discover exoplanets, proves sensitive enough to measure

2:07 Speaker 1: the slight motions of HD two hundred nineteen thousand, one

2:10 Speaker 1: hundred thirty four surface over four consecutive nights, researchers collected

2:15 Speaker 1: more than two thousand precise velocity measurements from the star.

2:20 Speaker 1: What they discovered was astonishing. HD two hundred nineteen thousand,

2:24 Speaker 1: one hundred thirty four is approximately ten point two billion

2:27 Speaker 1: years old, more than twice the age of our Sun.

2:30 Speaker 1: This makes it one of the oldest stars ever aged

2:32 Speaker 1: using astra seismology. This breakthrough is particularly significant because traditional

2:38 Speaker 1: techniques for determining stellar ages don't work well as stars

2:41 Speaker 1: get older. One common method relies on measuring stellar spin

2:45 Speaker 1: as younger stars rotate faster. However, this slowdown becomes less

2:50 Speaker 1: pronounced over time, making it increasingly difficult to date elderly stars.

2:55 Speaker 1: The team also found that HD two hundred nineteen thousand,

2:57 Speaker 1: one hundred thirty four is about four four percent smaller

3:01 Speaker 1: than previous measurements suggested. This discrepancy might indicate that cooler

3:05 Speaker 1: stars don't fit the same models used to estimate the

3:08 Speaker 1: size of hotter stars. This stellar music technique opens a

3:12 Speaker 1: new window into understanding the life cycles of stars and

3:15 Speaker 1: will help astronomers better characterize the at least five planets,

3:19 Speaker 1: including two rocky worlds larger than Earth, that orbit HD

3:23 Speaker 1: two hundred nineteen thousand, one hundred thirty four. As researcher

3:27 Speaker 1: Lee puts it, this is like finding a long lost

3:29 Speaker 1: tuning fork for stellar clocks. It gives us a reference

3:32 Speaker 1: point to calibrate how stars spin down over billions of years.

3:37 Speaker 1: Let's take a look at this week's launch schedule, with

3:40 Speaker 1: a very special event for our listeners down Under on

3:43 Speaker 1: the schedule. Space launch activity is ramping up dramatically this week,

3:48 Speaker 1: with rockets lifting off from five countries across three continents

3:52 Speaker 1: in what's shaping up to be an extraordinarily busy period

3:55 Speaker 1: for space exploration. Australia is preparing to make history, with

3:59 Speaker 1: Gilmore Space readying its Airis orbital rocket for the country's

4:03 Speaker 1: first sovereign orbital launch from Bowen, Queensland. The twenty five

4:08 Speaker 1: meter tall Airis vehicle uses hybrid propulsion technology and could

4:13 Speaker 1: make Australia just the latest member of the exclusive club

4:16 Speaker 1: of nations with indigenous orbital launch capabilities. It is hoped

4:20 Speaker 1: this inaugural launch will take place on Thursday, May fifteenth

4:24 Speaker 1: morning local time. Meanwhile, SpaceX continues its relentless cadence of

4:29 Speaker 1: Starlink deployments. The company has already conducted multiple Falcon nine

4:33 Speaker 1: launches this month, with more planned from both Vandenberg and

4:36 Speaker 1: California and its Florida launch sites. One recent mission marked

4:40 Speaker 1: the twenty eighth flight for a single booster, a remarkable

4:43 Speaker 1: achievement showcasing the company's reusability prowess as it pushes toward

4:48 Speaker 1: breaking its own record of one hundred thirty two launches

4:50 Speaker 1: set just last year. In Asia, India's Space Research Organization

4:55 Speaker 1: is preparing its PSLVXL rocket to launch the EOS nine

4:59 Speaker 1: Earth Observation satellite from the Satish Dawan Space Center. This

5:04 Speaker 1: seaband synthetic Aperture Radar satellite, also known as RESAT one B,

5:08 Speaker 1: will join India's growing constellation of Earth monitoring spacecraft. Not

5:13 Speaker 1: to be outdone, China has scheduled multiple missions from the

5:16 Speaker 1: Juquan Satellite Launch Center, including a launch of their innovative

5:20 Speaker 1: JWK two E rocket. This vehicle is particularly noteworthy as

5:23 Speaker 1: it's powered by liquid methane and liquid oxygen, making it

5:27 Speaker 1: among the first methane fueled launch vehicles to successfully reach

5:30 Speaker 1: orbit across the Tasman Sea. From Australia, Rocket Lab is

5:34 Speaker 1: readying an electron rocket at their private spaceport on New

5:37 Speaker 1: Zealand's Mahea Peninsula. Their mission, whimsically named the Sea Gods Seas,

5:42 Speaker 1: will deploy a synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth

5:46 Speaker 1: imagery provider IQPS. This global surge in launch activity reflects

5:51 Speaker 1: the increasingly democratized access to space, with both established space

5:56 Speaker 1: powers and emerging players contributing to a diverse ecosystem of

5:59 Speaker 1: launch vehicles and capabilities. From SpaceX's workhorse Falcon nines to

6:04 Speaker 1: Australia's debut Aris vehicle. The variety of rockets taking flight

6:08 Speaker 1: demonstrates how space access continues to evolve beyond the exclusive

6:12 Speaker 1: domain of just a few nations. Next up today, let's

6:16 Speaker 1: return to a favorite subject here on Astronomy Daily. In

6:19 Speaker 1: the vast expanse of our universe, the search for extraterrestrial

6:23 Speaker 1: intelligence continues to yield fascinating results, though not always the

6:27 Speaker 1: kind we expect. A recent multi year survey has detected

6:31 Speaker 1: something truly puzzling that has astronomers scratching their heads. NASA

6:36 Speaker 1: veteran Richard Stanton has been conducting an optical SETI survey

6:39 Speaker 1: using a thirty inch telescope at the shay Meadow Observatory

6:42 Speaker 1: in Big Bear, California. Unlike traditional SETI efforts that focus

6:46 Speaker 1: on radio signals, Stanton's approach looks for unusual pulses of

6:50 Speaker 1: light that might indicate technological activity around distant stars. After

6:56 Speaker 1: observing more than one thousand, three hundred sun like stars

6:59 Speaker 1: over several years, Stanton detected something extraordinary, two fast, identical

7:04 Speaker 1: pulses of light from HD eighty nine thousand, three hundred

7:07 Speaker 1: eighty nine, an F type star located about one hundred

7:11 Speaker 1: light years from Earth. What makes these pulses so intriguing

7:15 Speaker 1: is their peculiar pattern and timing. They were separated by

7:18 Speaker 1: exactly four point four seconds and showed nearly identical fine

7:22 Speaker 1: structure patterns. Within each pulse, The star's light briefly brightened, dimmed,

7:27 Speaker 1: brightened again, and then returned to normal, all within about

7:30 Speaker 1: two tenths of a second. This pattern is far too

7:32 Speaker 1: strong and structured to be explained by random noise or

7:35 Speaker 1: atmospheric turbulence. As Stanton noted, how do you make a

7:39 Speaker 1: star over one million kilometers across partially disappear in a

7:43 Speaker 1: tenth of a second. Even more compelling when Stanton reviewed

7:47 Speaker 1: historical data he discovered that similar paired pulses had been

7:50 Speaker 1: detected around HD two hundred seventeen THY fourteen, better known

7:55 Speaker 1: as fifty one Pegasi, back in twenty twenty one. This

7:59 Speaker 1: G type star, located about fifty light years away, is

8:03 Speaker 1: notably the first sun like star found to have an

8:06 Speaker 1: exoplanet orbiting it. Stanton has meticulously ruled out all the

8:10 Speaker 1: usual suspects. These signals don't match known patterns from satellites, airplanes, meteors, birds,

8:16 Speaker 1: or other common sources of false positives. No movement was

8:19 Speaker 1: detected near the stars during simultaneous photography, and background sensors

8:24 Speaker 1: designed to catch satellites moving close to target stars detected

8:27 Speaker 1: nothing unusual. Various natural explanations have been considered, from atmospheric

8:33 Speaker 1: diffraction caused by shock waves to partial eclipses by distant asteroids.

8:37 Speaker 1: Even more exotic possibilities like gravity waves have been examined.

8:41 Speaker 1: None provide a satisfactory explanation for the precise, repeating nature

8:45 Speaker 1: of these pulses. This leaves open a tantalizing, if remote,

8:49 Speaker 1: possibility that these signals might have an intelligent origin. If so,

8:54 Speaker 1: Stanton suggests whatever modulated these stars light would need to

8:57 Speaker 1: be relatively close to Earth, implying potent ETI activity within

9:01 Speaker 1: our own solar system, but Stanton remains appropriately cautious. None

9:06 Speaker 1: of these explanations are really satisfying. At this point. We

9:10 Speaker 1: don't know what kind of object could produce these pulses

9:12 Speaker 1: or how far away it is. Until we learn more,

9:15 Speaker 1: we can't even say whether or not extraterrestrials are involved.

9:20 Speaker 1: To further investigate this mystery, Stanton recommends using a rays

9:24 Speaker 1: of synchronized optical telescopes to gather more data. If an

9:27 Speaker 1: object is moving between us and these stars, this approach

9:31 Speaker 1: could reveal its speed, size, and distance. Observations from telescopes

9:35 Speaker 1: separated by hundreds of kilometers might also help determine if

9:38 Speaker 1: the light variations originate from the stars themselves or from

9:42 Speaker 1: something closer to home. For now, these unexplained pulses join

9:46 Speaker 1: the growing list of astronomical curiosities that remind us how

9:49 Speaker 1: much we still have to learn about our cosmic neighborhood.

9:53 Speaker 1: The James Web Space Telescope has given us a Christmas

9:56 Speaker 1: gift that has astronomers absolutely mesmerized. Unprecedent views of Jupiter's

10:01 Speaker 1: auroras that make Earth's northern lights look like a dim

10:04 Speaker 1: flashlight by comparison. On Christmas Day twenty twenty three, web

10:09 Speaker 1: captured glowing auroras adorning Jupiter's north pole that are hundreds

10:13 Speaker 1: of times brighter than anything we see on our home planet.

10:17 Speaker 1: What stunned scientists wasn't just the intensity, but the dynamic

10:22 Speaker 1: nature of these celestial light shows. Jonathan Nichols from the

10:25 Speaker 1: University of Leicester, who led the study, was completely taken

10:28 Speaker 1: aback by what they observed. We wanted to see how

10:30 Speaker 1: quickly the auroras change, expecting them to fade in and

10:34 Speaker 1: out ponderously over fifteen minutes or so. Instead, we observe

10:38 Speaker 1: the whole auroral region, fizzing and popping, with light sometimes

10:42 Speaker 1: varying by the second. Jupiter's auroras form through processes both

10:46 Speaker 1: familiar and unique. Like Earth, charged particles from the Sun's

10:50 Speaker 1: solar wind get funneled toward the poles by the planet's

10:53 Speaker 1: magnetic field, but Jupiter has an additional aurora factory. Particles

10:57 Speaker 1: ejected from volcanoes on its hellish moon Io undergo the

11:01 Speaker 1: same process, adding to the spectacular display. To capture these details,

11:06 Speaker 1: scientists used a double barreled approach, combining Web's near infrared

11:10 Speaker 1: camera with Hubble's ultraviolet sensors. This dual observation revealed something

11:15 Speaker 1: especially puzzling, As Nichols explained, Bizarrely, the brightest light observed

11:21 Speaker 1: by Web had no real counterpart in Hubble's pictures. This

11:24 Speaker 1: has left us scratching our heads. This discrepancy points to

11:28 Speaker 1: something previously thought impossible, a combination of high quantities of

11:32 Speaker 1: very low energy particles somehow reaching Jupiter's atmosphere in ways

11:36 Speaker 1: current models can't explain. The phenomenon is forcing scientists to

11:40 Speaker 1: reconsider our understanding of how particles interact with planetary atmospheres.

11:45 Speaker 1: The research team plans to continue studying Jupiter's auroras with

11:48 Speaker 1: both telescopes to better understand the mysterious particle combination reaching

11:53 Speaker 1: Jupiter's atmosphere. Their findings could reveal entirely new details about

11:57 Speaker 1: Jupiter's magnetosphere, the vast region of space around the planet

12:01 Speaker 1: influenced by its magnetic field. For now, Jupiter's dazzling light

12:06 Speaker 1: show represents yet another cosmic mystery waiting to be unraveled,

12:10 Speaker 1: showing that even within our own Solar system, nature still

12:13 Speaker 1: has plenty of spectacular surprises that challenge our scientific understanding.

12:19 Speaker 1: Some exciting science news is next. I'll see if I

12:22 Speaker 1: can explain it so it makes some sort of sense.

12:25 Speaker 1: For decades, physicists have been searching for the holy grail

12:28 Speaker 1: of modern science, a unified theory that can bring together

12:32 Speaker 1: Einstein's theory of gravity with quantum mechanics. These two pillars

12:36 Speaker 1: of physics have stubbornly refused to reconcile, creating what many

12:40 Speaker 1: consider the most significant unsolved problem in theoretical physics. Now,

12:44 Speaker 1: researchers from Finland's Alto University may have made a crucial breakthrough.

12:49 Speaker 1: Miko Partanin and Yukatolki have developed what they call unified gravity,

12:54 Speaker 1: a groundbreaking approach that could finally bridge this theoretical divide.

12:58 Speaker 1: Their work, recently published in Reports on Progress in Physics,

13:02 Speaker 1: takes a novel approach to a century old problem. The

13:05 Speaker 1: fundamental challenge has always been one of mathematical language. The

13:09 Speaker 1: standard model of particle physics, which describes the electromagnetic, weak

13:14 Speaker 1: and strong forces, uses a framework called quantum field theory. Gravity,

13:20 Speaker 1: on the other hand, is described by Einstein's general relativity,

13:23 Speaker 1: which views gravity as the curvature of space time itself.

13:27 Speaker 1: This clash between the internal symmetries of quantum fields and

13:30 Speaker 1: the external symmetries of space time has made gravity extremely

13:33 Speaker 1: difficult to fit into the quantum framework. As Partanin explains,

13:38 Speaker 1: their innovative solution introduces an eight component spinoorial representation of

13:43 Speaker 1: quantum fields and a spacetime dimension field that allows them

13:47 Speaker 1: to extract familiar four dimensional spacetime quantities from an eight

13:51 Speaker 1: dimensional spine or space. This mathematical sleight of hand enables

13:55 Speaker 1: them to treat gravity using compact, finite dimensional unitary seine immetries,

14:01 Speaker 1: the same kind used in the standard model. What makes

14:04 Speaker 1: this approach particularly promising is that it allows gravity to

14:07 Speaker 1: be represented in flat space time using the Minkowski metric

14:12 Speaker 1: without requiring the curve space time of general relativity. This

14:17 Speaker 1: makes it possible to write gravity in the same mathematical

14:20 Speaker 1: form as the other fundamental forces. Partinin notes, that's something

14:24 Speaker 1: we haven't been able to do before. The researchers have

14:28 Speaker 1: gone beyond just theoretical formulations. They've derived Fineman rules for

14:32 Speaker 1: unified gravity, essentially the mathematical instructions used to calculate how

14:37 Speaker 1: particles interact in quantum field theory. Their analysis suggests that

14:42 Speaker 1: all infinities in the equations could be absorbed into a

14:45 Speaker 1: small number of redefined parameters, suggesting the theory could be renormalizable,

14:50 Speaker 1: a critical feature that previous quantum gravity theories have struggled

14:54 Speaker 1: to achieve. If proven correct, unified gravity would have profound implications.

15:00 Speaker 1: It could provide tools to explore the universe's most extreme environments,

15:04 Speaker 1: where both quantum effects and gravity matter, the interiors of

15:08 Speaker 1: black holes, and the moment of the Big Bang itself.

15:12 Speaker 1: Without a quantum theory of gravity, we can't fully describe

15:15 Speaker 1: what happens at high energies, where space and time behave

15:18 Speaker 1: very differently, says Partainin. Their theory might eventually answer fundamental

15:23 Speaker 1: questions about why there's more matter than antimatter in the universe,

15:27 Speaker 1: or how space time behaved in the earliest moments of existence.

15:30 Speaker 1: While the theory still needs to be proven at higher

15:33 Speaker 1: orders of quantum correction, the researchers are optimistic that unified

15:37 Speaker 1: gravity could do for twenty first century physics what Einstein's

15:41 Speaker 1: general relativity did a century ago, open entirely new frontiers

15:46 Speaker 1: of understanding and technological possibility. Phew, how'd I go? Hopefully

15:50 Speaker 1: that all made sense. On that note, then we'll wrap

15:54 Speaker 1: up today's journey through the cosmos. From listening to the

15:58 Speaker 1: music of stars and tracking this week busy launch schedule

16:01 Speaker 1: to unexplained pulses of light that have SETI researchers puzzled,

16:05 Speaker 1: Jupiter's spectacular auroras, and a potential breakthrough in unifying physics

16:10 Speaker 1: greatest theories. We've covered quite a bit of ground among

16:13 Speaker 1: the stars. Hi'm anna, thanks for joining me on Astronomy Daily.

16:17 Speaker 1: If you'd like to stay updated on these stories and more,

16:19 Speaker 1: visit our website at Astronomy Daily dot io, where you

16:22 Speaker 1: can sign up for our free daily newsletter and catch

16:25 Speaker 1: up on all the latest space and astronomy news with

16:28 Speaker 1: our constantly updating news feed, and don't forget to follow

16:31 Speaker 1: us on social media. Just search for astro Daily Pod

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16:38 Speaker 1: We'd love to continue the conversation about today's fascinating topics

16:42 Speaker 1: with you there. Until next time, keep looking.

16:44 Speaker 2: Upday Star Star Story.

17:04 Speaker 1: The tw