Webb's Exoplanet Breakthrough, Private Astronauts Make History, and Surprising FRB Origins

Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily. Your go to source

for the latest updates from across the

cosmos. I'm, um, your host, Anna. And today

we're diving into some truly groundbreaking

discoveries and significant developments in

space exploration and astronomical research.

From the Webb Telescope's first exoplanet

discovery, to private astronauts docking with

the International Space Station, and even a

fast radio burst traced back to a defunct

NASA satellite. We have a lot to cover,

so get ready to explore the universe with us.

The James Webb Space Telescope, or jwst,

has just hit an incredible new milestone.

Since beginning its science operations in

July 2022, Webb has primarily

been busy probing the atmospheres of known

alien planets, looking for signs of

habitability. But now, for the very first

time, Webb has made its own discovery,

directly imaging and finding a brand new

exoplanet. This groundbreaking find

reveals a young system hidden within a

swirling cloud of dust and debris. And the

planet itself is the lightest one imaged so

far. A truly remarkable accomplishment made

possible by Webb's advanced capabilities.

This recent discovery, detailed in the

journal Nature, opens up an exciting new

window into hidden Saturn like worlds.

Now you might wonder, how exactly does Webb

manage to see a planet that's so close to its

incredibly bright parent star? It's a

challenge because planets are many orders of

magnitude fainter than their stars, and from

our perspective, they appear incredibly close

to them. Anne Marie Lagrange, research

director at the French National Centre for

Scientific Research and lead author of the

paper, explained that when you look at a

planet, you mostly just see the star.

To overcome this issue, her team used a

special attachment for Webb's M mid infrared

instrument called a coronagraph. Think of it

like recreating a tiny solar eclipse. Within

the telescope itself, the coronagraph

blocks out the overwhelming light from the

star, making its much fainter surroundings

and any orbiting planets far more visible.

Using this ingenious technique, scientists

spotted a young planetary system only a few

million years old, named TWA7.

This system has three distinct rings, with

one being particularly narrow and surrounded

by two areas that are almost devoid of

matter. In Webb's image, something lies

right at the heart of that narrow ring. And

the scientists concluded that this something

is indeed an exoplanet. This

newly discovered exoplanet, now dubbed um,

TWA 7B, is more massive than

Neptune, but about 30% less massive than

Jupiter, making it quite similar in mass to

Saturn. TWA 7b orbits

a star that formed approximately 6.4 million

years ago. And it maintains a significant

distance from its star, about 52

astronomical units, which is 52

times the average distance between Earth and

the Sun. Lagrange noted that this is

also the first planet found that perfectly

explains the gaps observed in a

protoplanetary disc. Planets are born from

the leftover material from a star's birth

which forms a swirling disc of matter.

Previous observations of these protoplanetary

discs and have shown ring like structures and

gaps which scientists believed were telltale

signs of unseen planets. Until now,

however, there were no direct observations of

those planets. The mass and orbital

characteristics of TWA7B

precisely match the predicted properties of

an exoplanet that would have formed in the

gap between the first and second rings of

this disc. By using Webb to observe

these young faint planets, scientists have

truly unlocked a new doorway into the

discovery of alien worlds. As Lagrange

puts it. In terms of imaging, this opens up

the possibility of imaging Saturn like

planets in the future. It will allow us

to characterise the atmospheres of these

Saturn like planets that aren't heavily

irradiated by their stars, providing

invaluable insights into their composition.

It's a huge step forward and helps us

understand the complexities of searching for

very light planets in these early stages of

planetary system formation.

In other exciting space news, a quartet of

private astronauts has successfully reached

the International Space Station. Houston

based Axiom Space launched its fourth crewed

mission to the ISS known as AXE 4,

lifting off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from

NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The

mission began early Wednesday morning, taking

off at 2:31am M. Eastern Daylight Time

after what was described as a particularly

long orbital chase. More than 24 hours

between launch and rendezvous. The crew

aboard the new SpaceX Crew Dragon, aptly

named Grace, successfully docked with the

space station on Thursday morning. Commanding

the AXE 4 mission is none other than former

NASA astronaut and Axiom's director of human

space flight, Peggy Whitson. Peggy

holds the impressive record for cumulative

days spent in space by an American, a number

that continues to climb with this mission.

Joining her is a trio of international crew

members. Shubanshu Shukla from India

serving as mission pilot. Polish mission

specialist Slawos Usnanski of the European

Space Agency and Tibor Kapu of Hungary,

also a mission specialist. Upon their

arrival, these three became the very first

from their respective countries to journey on

a mission to the ISS. Marking a truly

historic moment, the AXE4

astronauts are set to spend about 14 days

aboard the orbiting lab where they will

complete a record number of science

investigations and stem, that's science,

technology, engineering and math outreach

events. In total, they have over 60

experiments planned more than any previous

Axiom mission to date. Their return date will

largely depend on the weather conditions at

Dragon's splashdown zone in the Pacific

Ocean. This will be SpaceX's second West

coast crew recovery, a shift from previous

Atlantic Ocean or Gulf recoveries.

Now for a fascinating and rather surprising

development in the world of astronomy. Fast

radio bursts, or FRBs, have been

a persistent mystery to astronomers ever

since the first one, known as the Lorimer

Burst, was detected in 2007.

These quick, intense bursts typically last

for mere nanoseconds, although some have been

observed for up to three seconds. While their

precise cause remains unknown, scientists

have recently traced some FRBs back to their

source, often finding them originating from

neutron stars, leading to the theory that

these bursts are caused by compact cosmic

objects. However, a recent discovery has

added a completely unexpected twist to this

cosmic puzzle. On June 13,

2024, scientists at the Australian Square

Kilometre Array Pathfinder detected a

potential fast radio burst that lasted for a

minuscule 30 nanoseconds. This pulse,

with a bandwidth strong enough to temporarily

eclipse all other radio signals in the sky,

led scientists to initially speculate that it

must have come from a distant cosmic source,

as is typically the case with these powerful

signals. But in a recent study, a team of

astronomers and astrophysicists made a

startling determination. This particular

FRB did not come from a distant astronomical

source at all. Instead, it was traced back to

something much closer to home, NASA's

Pathfinder 2 mission, a uh, now defunct

satellite orbiting Earth. The study was led

by Clancy James, an associate professor

with the International Centre for Radio

Astronomy Research, or icrar, joined by a

collaborative team from various institutions.

The satellite in question, Relay 2, was

launched way back in 1964

as part of a series of early American

satellites designed to test communications

technologies. While its predecessor,

Relay1, famously provided the first American

television transmissions across the Pacific,

Relay 2 conducted radio transmissions for

about a year before ceasing operations in

1967 when its transponders

failed. When the FRB was detected

last year, the assumption was naturally a

distant cosmic origin. However,

subsequent analysis pointed to a source much

closer to Earth. The team then used the

Skyfield Python module, an astronomy

programme that computes the positions of

stars, planets and satellites in orbit.

This programme revealed that the Relay 2

satellite was precisely within the observed

FRB's time frame and position. The

distance calculated between the ASCAP

Telescope and Relay 2 at the time of

observation was was

4,322 kilometres,

which was remarkably consistent with the

estimated distance of the burst. The signal

was so Strong because the satellite was

passing directly over the ASCAP when the

burst occurred, explaining its surprising

clarity. As for what caused this burst

from a long dead satellite, the team quickly

ruled out the possibility that Relay 2 had

somehow temporarily come back online.

Instead, they attributed it to electrostatic

discharge, also known as esd, a UH

phenomenon observed with satellites in the

past. This happens when electrostatic charges

build up on a spacecraft until they discharge

in a large sudden burst.

Another intriguing possibility is that the

burst was caused by a charged plasma cloud

resulting from a micrometeorite collision.

These groundbreaking results could lead to

new tools for studying FRBs and other

signals, potentially even new techniques for

monitoring the vast array of defunct

satellites orbiting our planet. They also

suggest that radio observatories searching

for cosmic rays could now be capable of

identifying nanosecond scale FRBs, helping

future surveys distinguish between genuine

cosmic events and interference from local

objects. It's truly a testament to how even

the oldest space junk can still hold

scientific surprises.

Now let's turn our attention to some

significant developments from SpaceX, where

they're facing extensive rebuilding efforts

following a recent anomaly, while also making

impressive progress on new infrastructure at

their Massey's test stand. SpaceX is

undertaking considerable repair work after a

major incident involving Starship 36.

During an attempted six engine static fire

test, an anomaly occurred causing substantial

damage to the facility. The immediate focus

was on making Massey safe, and M crews have

since been busy assessing the damage and

cleaning up debris while larger pieces of

Starship 36 have been removed. Cleaning the

trench itself might take longer due to the

static fire stand still being in the way. The

damage at Massey's is quite extensive. The

gantry that held the ship Quick Disconnect is

a tangled mess along with the liquid oxygen

and liquid methane piping. All the vaporizers

used to pressurise the methane tanks are

destroyed, and at least one methane pump

appears damaged. The static fire stand

structure itself seems okay, but all its

clamps and piping will need replacing. Inside

the trench, the aft section and raptors are

likely to have caused damage to the flame

deflector. One of the items that will take

the longest to replace is the control bunker,

which was completely burned out. This

structure is essential for operating the

methane tank farm and the static fire stand.

Additionally, a storage tent and shipping

containers nearby were also destroyed by the

fireball. Pieces of ship 36

are scattered across Massey's for analysis.

According to SpaceX's updates, the initial

failure mode seems to be a composite

overwrapped pressure vessel that was holding

nitrogen in the payload Bay. The root

cause is still under investigation and it

could take some time to determine precisely

what happened. It's fortunate this occurred

on the ground, making the investigation much

more feasible than if it had happened in

space. As a result, no static fire

testing of ships or flights are likely to

occur until the root cause is identified and

Massey's is repaired. Despite this

setback, SpaceX is known for its resilience

and they anticipate this will only cause a

short term stand down. They hope to fly the

last two block two ships by the end of the

year. In parallel with these repairs,

SpaceX is also making steady progress on new

hardware and infrastructure elsewhere at

their Sanchez site, work continues on

components for launch Pad B, including

booster quick disconnect hardware that might

be sent to the launch site within the next

month or two. Progress on Pad B is moving at

a consistent pace. A new assembled flame

diverter ridge is also visible, likely

destined for LC39A, which will need it

in the coming months. While there was talk of

a new gigabay foundation for a new building,

that process hasn't started yet.

Over at the launch site, incredible progress

has been made on Pad B. The launch mount is

installed along with the final two water

plate manifolds and some booster quick

disconnect hardware. There's also significant

progress on the ground support equipment

structure known as the gantry, which houses

the high pressure electrical and main

cryogenic propellant lines. The flame

trench for Pad B is also seeing rapid

development, with crews installing steel

plates that will form its floor and ramps up.

This design means there will be no exposed

concrete to damage, allowing SpaceX to fix

cracks and damage by simply replacing plates

or welding cracks on the walls. This pad is

designed to use a massive amount of water,

around 450,000 gallons per launch,

flowing through the mount and flame

deflectors to protect hardware from the heat

of 33 Raptor engines during liftoff. This

will ensure quick turnaround times between

launches. To achieve this, SpaceX is

using a different pressurisation system than

at Pad A or Massey's, utilising 9

methane and oxygen turbopumps to vaporise

liquid nitrogen before pumping it into the

tanks, which then force water through the

pipes. They've also begun digging the trench

for the propellant lines that will connect to

the tower. Recently, testing of the eight

liquid oxygen pumps already installed for Pad

B's tank farm began it including flowing

liquid nitrogen through them for operational

checks and leak detection on the subcoolers.

This marks a significant step towards getting

Pad B fully operational. As for

Pad A, it's currently sitting unused,

awaiting either Booster 152 for a static

fire or Flight 10 following the loss of

ship.

36 Moving on

NASA engineers are currently working to fix

an issue with the Neutron Star Interior

Composition Explorer, or Nicer X Ray

Telescope. This vital instrument, mounted

on the International Space Station, has

temporarily halted its ability to track

celestial objects due to a bad motor.

NASA paused its operations on June 17 when

the degradation in its tracking ability

became apparent, though they haven't

specified when it might resume. This isn't

the first challenge for Nicer, which has been

in use since 2017. Back in

May 2023, it developed a light

leak when several thin thermal shields were

damaged, rendering it useless during daylight

hours. Astronaut Nick Haig installed nine

patches in January to fix the worst areas,

but some light interference continued.

Closer inspection revealed smaller cracks and

holes, prompting engineers to reconfigure the

telescope's measurement power unit, allowing

it to resume normal operations on March 12.

However, additional damage to at least one

thermal shield forced NASA to minimise

daytime observations again in late May.

Despite these setbacks, Nicer remains a

crucial tool. It measures neutron stars,

identifies black holes, active galaxies, and

other phenomena, and even helps map routes

for future Mars missions. X ray telescopes

like Nicer enable scientists to study and

better understand extreme radio events in

space. For instance, observations from

Nicer, along with the Nuclear Spectroscopic

Telescope Array, were instrumental in

assessing a rapid burst of radio waves from a

Magnetar in 2020, an event that

released as much energy in a fraction of a

second as our sun does in an entire year,

producing a laser like beam instead of an

explosion. Scientists used these same

telescopes to observe another burst from that

magnetar in October 2022.

That's all the exciting news from the cosmos

for today's episode of Astronomy Daily. Thank

you for tuning in and exploring the universe

with us. This episode was hosted by me,

Anna, and we hope you enjoyed our look at the

latest in space exploration and astronomical

discoveries. For more out of this World

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