Tatooine's Real-Life Planets, ISS History Unveiled, and Sake Brewing on the Moon

0:00 Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source for the latest news from our solar system and beyond. I'm your host, Anna. Avery: And I'm Avery. It's great to have you with us. We've got plenty of news for you today, Anna. We're going from science fiction made m real to some fascinating problem solving on the red planet. Anna: That's right on the docket today. The discovery of a real life Tatooine like system with not one, but three Earth sized planets orbiting two suns. Avery: an incredible find.

0:33 Then we'll tell you how you can explore 25 years of international space station history in real time. We'll also cover this week's launch roundup and then head to Mars, where a long standing mystery about its sand dunes has finally been solved by a surprising culprit. Anna: And to top it all off, we'll discuss a Japanese startup's rather unique plan to bring a taste of home to future lunar colonists by brewing sake on the moon. Avery: You heard that right, Sake on the moon. Let's get started. Anna: Our first story takes us 190 light years away to a binary star system named TOI2267.

1:14 For anyone who grew up watching Star wars and dreaming of seeing a double sunset, this news is for you. Scientists have just discovered 3 earth sized exoplanets in this system. Avery: And this isn't just a fantasy anymore. The truly remarkable thing here is how these planets are arranged. Anna: Exactly. This is the very first time that transiting planets have been found orbiting both stars in such a compact binary system. Usually we find circumbinary planets which orbit far away from both stars at once.

1:50 Avery: Right? Or we find a planet orbiting just one of the stars with the second star much further away. But this is different. This is close and complex. Anna: It is, and that's why it's challenging our existing models of planet formation. The gravitational environment around a, close binary star system is thought to be incredibly chaotic. The intense, shifting gravitational forces should make it very difficult for stable rocky planets like these to form and maintain their orbits. Avery: So finding three of them, all roughly the size of Earth, suggests that planet formation might be more resilient and happen in more diverse environments than we previously imagined.

2:33 Anna: It really does. It forces theorists back to the drawing board to figure out the mechanics. And while we don't know if these planets are habitable, just imagining standing on one of their surfaces and watching two suns move across the sky is absolutely mind boggling. Avery: Alright, let's bring it back closer to home to our own outpost in low Earth orbit. The International Space station. For over 25 years, humanity has had a continuous presence. And now there's a new way to experience that history.

3:05 Anna: Yes, this is a truly amazing project. It's a new website called ISS in Real Time, and it's essentially a living archive of life aboard the station. Avery: It was created by NASA software engineer Ben Feast and designer Chris Charney. They've painstakingly compiled publicly available data from the entire history of the station. We're talking mission data, audio communications between the crew and mission control, every photo ever taken by the astronauts, and countless hours of video. Anna: That's an astonishing amount of data to wrangle.

3:41 So how does it work? Avery: It's all organized into an interactive timeline. You can jump to any specific day or mission, from the very first module launch to yesterday's science experiments. You can listen to the actual audio of a spacewalk as it happened, see the photos the astronauts were taking at that moment, and track the station's position over Earth. Anna: It provides such a comprehensive, unfiltered look at what life is actually like in space. It's not just the big dramatic moments, it's the day to day work.

4:12 The conversations, the quiet moments, looking out the cupola. It's an invaluable tool for historians, researchers, and frankly, anyone who's inspired by space exploration. A true digital monument. You can find the [email protected] if you'd like to check it out. I'll leave a link in the show notes as well. Avery: Speaking of getting to space, let's move on to our launch roundup for the week. It's a very busy period for launch providers around the world. Anna: It certainly has. SpaceX, as usual, has a packed schedule.

4:45 Avery: That's right, they're launching three separate Falcon 9 missions carrying batches of their Starlink satellites, continuing to build out their global Internet constellation. Anna: Over in China, there will be a major crewed launch. The Shenzhou 21 mission is sending three taikonauts to the Tiangong space station for a six month stay, continuing the steady crew rotation and scientific work aboard their orbital lab. Avery: SpaceX is also in the rideshare business this week with their Bandwagon 4 mission scheduled for Sunday.

5:15 It's like a spacebound carpool carrying a whole host of smaller satellites for various customers into orbit on a single rocket. This mission will mark the 140th Falcon 9 mission of 2025, the 558th overall Falcon 9 mission, and SpaceX's 585th mission of all time. Anna: And finally, the Indian Space Research Organization is scheduled to launch the CMS M03 mission atop its launch vehicle Mark 3 or LVM3 rocket on Sunday at 10:30 UTC. The payload will be the GSAT 7R, a crucial naval communication satellite that will enhance India's maritime security and communication capabilities.

6:02 All seven missions the LVM3 has flown since 2014 have been successful. This mission will mark the eighth LVM UM3 mission, the first of 2025 and ISRO's 100th mission overall. Furthermore, this mission will be the 254th orbital launch attempt worldwide in 2025. A truly global week in space. Avery: Now let's journey to our planetary neighbor, Mars. For decades, scientists have been intrigued by mysterious winding gullies that appear on some of Mars massive sand dunes. A leading theory was that they were carved by flowing liquid water.

6:39 But the evidence was never conclusive. Anna: Right, and finding liquid water would be a monumental discovery in the search for past our present life. But a new study published in Nature suggests a much colder and frankly a much cooler explanat. It turns out the culprit is likely sliding blocks of dry ice, which is solid carbon dioxide. The Martian atmosphere is rich in CO2 and in the winter it freezes and falls as snow, forming slabs of this dry ice on the dunes. Avery: So how does a block of ice carve a channel?

7:14 It sounds counterintuitive. Anna: Well, researchers conducted some clever laboratory experiments that simulated the conditions on Mars. As the seasons change and the sun warms, the ice blocks, they don't melt, they sublimate, turning directly from a solid into a gas. This gas gets trapped underneath the sliding block. Avery: Ah, so it creates a cushion of gas like an air hockey table. Anna: Precisely. The pressure builds up, causing the block to levitate slightly and slide down the dune at high speed.

7:46 As it moves, the escaping gas blasts away the sand beneath it, carving out those distinctive sinuous gullies. Avery: So it's not water, it's gas propelled ice leads re sculpting the Martian landscape. That's a fantastic piece of planetary science detective work. It shows us that Mars is still a dynamic active planet, even if its processes are very different from Earth's. And now for our final story, which proves that the future of space exploration isn't just about rockets and rovers. It's also about culture.

8:17 Anna, have you ever considered what the first alcoholic beverage brewed off world might be? Anna: I can't say I have. I might have guessed beer perhaps. But I have a feeling that's not the right answer. Avery: Not according to one Japanese startup. They are making serious plans to brew sake on the moon. Anna: Sake on the moon. That's certainly ambitious. Is this a gimmick or is there a scientific purpose? Avery: It's both. The primary scientific goal is to study how the lunar environment affects the delicate process of fermentation.

8:55 The lower gravity, about 16 of Earth's, and the higher radiation levels could have unpredictable effects on the yeast and the final product. Anna: That's a fascinating astrobiology experiment, really. They'll need a specialized miniature fermentation chamber and a very robust strain of yeast to pull it off. Avery: They're working on all of that. But beyond the science, the company has a broader vision. They talk about humanizing life in space. The idea is that for humans to truly live and thrive on other worlds, we need to bring more than just technology.

9:34 We need to bring our culture, our traditions, and our comforts. Anna: That makes a lot of sense. It connects future lunar inhabitants back to their home planet. They're aiming to produce the first batch by 2030, which aligns with NASA's Artemis missions, returning humans to the moon. It's a wonderful intersection of cutting edge science and ancient tradition. Avery: And that's all the cosmic news we have time for today. From planets with two suns to a brewery on the moon, the universe never fails to surprise and inspire.

10:09 Anna: If you want to read more about any of the stories we covered today, you can find links and further information on our website at. Ah.astronomydaily.IO we'd like to thank you for joining us. Avery: I'm Avery. Anna: And I'm Anna. Until next time, keep looking up.