The ISS's Fiery Farewell, Self-Making Water Worlds, and The Black Hole Birth Theory

0:00 Avery: Welcome back to Astronomy Daily, the

0:03 podcast that brings the cosmos down to Earth.

0:05 Uh, I'm Avery.

0:07 Anna: And I'm Anna. Uh, we have another

0:10 busy show for you today. We're discussing

0:13 the end of an era for the International Space

0:15 Station, a huge.

0:17 Avery: Moment in space history.

0:19 Anna: We'll also explore new research

0:21 suggesting some planets can create their own

0:24 water. We'll cover a ridiculously

0:27 busy week for rocket launches around the

0:29 globe. And we'll dive into into a mind

0:32 bending new theory that our universe

0:35 might have been born inside a black hole.

0:38 Avery: That last one sounds incredible. Let's

0:41 get right into it.

0:42 Anna: First up, um, a story that marks a monumental

0:45 transition in space exploration.

0:48 After more than 25 years of continuous

0:51 human presence in low Earth orbit.

0:54 NASA has detailed its final plan for the

0:57 International Space Station.

0:59 Avery: It's hard to imagine our presence in space

1:01 without it. So the deorbit is planned

1:04 for late 2030. What is the final

1:07 farewell going to look like for this

1:09 incredible structure?

1:11 Anna: Well, it won't be a quiet retirement.

1:14 The plan is to perform a controlled DE

1:16 orbit, guiding the 460

1:19 ton station to a fiery re entry

1:22 over the Pacific Ocean. Right.

1:24 Avery: And they have a very specific target in mind,

1:27 don't they?

1:27 Anna: They do. The target is Point

1:30 Nemo, also known as the Oceanic

1:33 Pole of Inaccessibility. It's the point

1:35 on Earth farthest from any land.

1:38 Avery: The spacecraft cemetery. I remember

1:41 reading that it's so isolated, the closest

1:44 humans are often the astronauts flying

1:47 overhead on the ISS itself. A

1:50 fitting final resting place it is.

1:53 Anna: That isolation minimizes any risk

1:56 to people or property from falling debris.

1:59 To get it there, NASA will use a modified

2:02 SpaceX Dragon capsule to essentially

2:05 act as a deorbit vehicle, providing

2:08 the final push to guide the station's

2:10 descent.

2:11 Avery: And this is a big deal. Physically speaking,

2:13 it's the largest human made object ever

2:16 to be brought down from orbit, isn't it?

2:18 Anna: By far. Most of the station is expected

2:21 to vaporize due to the intense heat of

2:24 reentry. But some some denser, more

2:27 resilient components will likely survive the

2:30 plunge and sink to the ocean floor.

2:32 Avery: Mhm. And the goal is to avoid what happened

2:35 with Skylab in 1979.

2:38 Anna: Exactly. The uncontrolled re entry of

2:41 Skylab scattered debris across parts of

2:44 Western Australia, which was a major wake up

2:47 call. They learned from that. And Russia's

2:49 much more precise deorbit of the Mir space

2:52 station in 2001 provided a better

2:55 model, which this plan builds upon.

2:57 Avery: A carefully managed end for a monumental

3:00 piece of human history. From that story

3:03 of cosmic endings. Let's turn to one

3:06 about cosmic creation. Anna.

3:09 This next story about planets making their

3:11 own water is fascinating.

3:13 Anna: It really is. New research

3:15 suggests that certain types of

3:17 exoplanets, specifically a class called

3:20 sub neptunes, might not need water

3:23 delivered by comets or asteroids. They might

3:26 be able to generate it themselves.

3:29 Avery: So they're self sufficient water factories.

3:31 How does that work?

3:33 Anna: The theory centers on their unique structure.

3:36 These planets have rocky interiors, but

3:39 they're enveloped in thick hydrogen rich

3:41 atmospheres. During their chaotic formation

3:45 their surfaces would have been vast magma

3:47 oceans.

3:48 Avery: Okay, magma and hydrogen.

3:51 Anna: Exactly. Scientists recreated these

3:54 conditions in a lab. They found that the

3:56 immense pressure and heat cause

3:59 hydrogen from the atmospher to react with

4:01 iron rich silicates in the magma. This

4:04 reaction releases oxygen from the rock

4:07 which then immediately combines with the

4:10 surrounding hydrogen to form water.

4:12 Avery: That's incredible. So the planet

4:15 essentially breathes in hydrogen and

4:18 um, exhales water into its own

4:21 geology. What does this mean for the search

4:23 for life?

4:24 Anna: It's a potential game changer. It offers

4:27 a completely new pathway for how rocky

4:29 planets can acquire water which we consider

4:33 a key ingredient for habitability. It could

4:35 mean that water rich worlds are far more

4:38 common in the universe than we previously

4:40 thought.

4:41 Avery: Amazing. It widens the scope of

4:44 where we might look for life now from

4:47 planet formation to modern day exploration.

4:50 It seems like this week is shaping up to be

4:52 one of the busiest in recent memory for space

4:55 launches.

4:56 Anna: It's an absolutely packed schedule. It

4:59 feels like someone is launching something

5:01 every day, right?

5:03 Avery: Kicking things off. A Chinese Shung

5:06 Zheng 7A rocket has already

5:08 launched the Yaogan 46 Earth

5:11 observation satellite. Over in Europe

5:14 an Ariane 62 is set to

5:17 launch Sentinel 1D to

5:19 monitor Earth's surface with radar.

5:22 Anna: MHM and Rocket Lab is in on the action

5:25 too.

5:26 Avery: M of course. Their electron rocket will be

5:28 deploying the sixth QPS SAR

5:31 satellite for a Japanese Const.

5:34 And then there's SpaceX which has not one,

5:37 not two, but three Falcon 9

5:40 launches scheduled, carrying dozens more

5:43 Starlink satellites into orbit.

5:45 Anna: It's always a Busy week when SpaceX has a

5:48 triple header and we're not done.

5:50 Avery: United Launch alliance is launching an Atlas

5:52 V with a viasat communications satellite.

5:55 And the grand finale is Blue Origin's new

5:58 Glenn rocket scheduled for its second flight

6:01 carrying a really exciting NASA mission.

6:04 Anna: That's the escapade mission, isn't it? It's

6:07 sending twin spacecraft to study Mars

6:09 magnetis here which is a key to understanding

6:11 how Mars lost its atmosphere over billions of

6:14 years.

6:15 Avery: Exactly. A uh, truly global and jam

6:17 packed week for spaceflight.

6:19 Speaking of national space programs making

6:22 big moves. Let's talk about India's latest

6:24 achievement.

6:25 Anna: Yes. The Indian Space Research Organization,

6:28 or isro, had a major success.

6:31 They just launched their heaviest

6:33 communications satellite to date, called

6:35 CMS03 from the

6:37 Srihrakota launch site.

6:40 Avery: How heavy are we talking about?

6:42 Anna: 4,410 kg, or nearly

6:45 £10,000. It was launched aboard

6:48 the LVM3M M5 vehicle, which is an

6:51 upgraded version of the very same rocket that

6:53 successfully sent the Chandrayaan 3 mission

6:56 to the moon.

6:57 Avery: That rocket is proving to be a real workhorse

7:00 for them. This fits right in with India's

7:02 growing ambitions in space. I know Prime

7:05 Minister Modi praised the achievement.

7:07 Anna: It does. It's part of a broader push that

7:10 includes the goal of sending an Indian

7:11 astronaut to the moon by 2040 and a crewed

7:14 mission that's planned for as early as

7:17 2027. They are rapidly becoming

7:19 a major player in space exploration.

7:22 Avery: And what's the purpose of this specific

7:25 satellite, CMS03?

7:27 Anna: It has a crucial role. It's designed to

7:30 provide secure and encrypted communication

7:32 links specifically for the Indian Navy,

7:35 enhancing their operational capabilities

7:37 across the region.

7:38 Avery: Another impressive milestone for isro.

7:41 Okay, for our final story, we're moving from

7:44 the practical to the purely

7:46 theoretical. And this one is a mind bender.

7:50 Could our entire universe have been born

7:53 inside a black hole?

7:55 Anna: This is one of those ideas that sounds like

7:57 science fiction, but is grounded in some

8:00 serious physics. A new cosmological model

8:03 is proposing just that, Challenging

8:05 the Big Bang's concept of a singularity.

8:08 Avery: The singularity. The idea that everything

8:11 came from an infinitely dense point.

8:14 So what does this new model suggest instead?

8:17 Anna: The theory suggests that as matter collapses

8:19 inside a black hole in a parent universe, it

8:22 doesn't form an infinitely dense point.

8:25 Instead, quantum pressure prevents that from

8:27 happening. The matter reaches a point of

8:29 maximum compression and then rebounds in what

8:32 they call a gravitational bounce.

8:35 Avery: And that bounce is the birth of a new

8:38 universe. Our universe.

8:40 Anna: That's the idea. It expands to become a new

8:43 universe. What's compelling about this black

8:46 hole universe model is that it uses

8:48 established principles of quantum mechanics

8:50 and general relativity. It doesn't need to

8:52 invent hypothetical particles or forces to

8:55 work.

8:56 Avery: So it's a more elegant solution in a way.

8:59 Could it explain some of the big mysteries

9:01 like cosmic inflation?

9:03 Anna: Potentially, yes. The dynamics of the

9:06 bounce could naturally explain the rapid

9:08 expansion phase of the early universe and

9:11 why our universe appears to be geometrically

9:14 flat from the outside. In the parent

9:17 universe, it would just look like a normal

9:19 black hole. But on the Inside, a new

9:22 cosmos is being born.

9:24 Avery: Wow. Is a theory like this even testable?

9:28 Anna: It might be. The theory predicts there should

9:30 be a very slight detectable

9:33 curvature to our universe. Upcoming

9:35 missions, like the European Space Agency's

9:38 Arrake's telescope, could be sensitive enough

9:41 to measure it and either support or

9:43 challenge this incredible new idea.

9:46 Avery: So if this model holds true, it implies a

9:49 kind of cosmic recycling. A

9:52 multiverse where universes are constantly

9:54 budding off from one another inside black

9:57 holes. It's a staggering thought.

10:00 Does the theory say anything about what the

10:02 parent universe might be like?

10:05 Anna: That's where things get even more

10:07 speculative. The model doesn't require the

10:09 parent universe to have the same physical

10:12 laws as our own. The gravitational

10:15 bounce could effectively reset the

10:17 fundament mental constants. So the universe

10:20 next door, so to speak, could be utterly

10:23 alien to ours. With different physics,

10:25 different chemistry, perhaps not even

10:28 allowing for stars and galaxies as we know

10:30 them.

10:31 Avery: It's a humbling perspective. It means our

10:34 entire existence could just be one outcome of

10:37 a process that's happening countless times

10:39 across a much grander reality. And we're

10:42 completely isolated, unable to ever see

10:45 or interact with that parent universe.

10:48 Anna: Precisely from our perspective, the event

10:51 horizon of the black hole we were born from

10:53 acts as an ultimate boundary. It's a one

10:56 way door. Information from the parent

10:59 universe can't get in and we can't get out.

11:02 Our universe is self contained. It also

11:05 solves the problem of what came before the

11:08 Big Bang. In this scenario, there was

11:10 another universe, another timeline, another.

11:13 Avery: And it also suggests that, uh, black holes in

11:16 our own universe could potentially be

11:18 spawning new universes as we speak.

11:21 So the cycle continues.

11:23 Anna: That's the logical extension of the theory.

11:25 Yes. Every supermassive black hole

11:28 at the center of a galaxy, every stellar mass

11:31 black hole formed from a collapsing star.

11:33 Each one could be a seed for a new

11:36 cosmos. It's a beautiful, if mind

11:39 boggling picture of cosmic evolution.

11:42 Avery: What a way to end the show. From the end of

11:44 the ISS to the potential beginning of

11:47 everything, that's all the time we have for

11:49 today.

11:50 Anna: Thanks for tuning in to Astronomy Daily. Join

11:53 us again tomorrow as we continue to explore

11:55 the wonders of the universe. Until then,

11:59 keep looking up.