- Axiom Mission Delay: In this episode, we discuss the indefinite postponement of the Axiom Space AX-4 mission to the International Space Station, caused by a newly detected air leak in the Russian Zvezda module. NASA and Roscosmos are working diligently to investigate the situation, ensuring the safety of future missions.
- SpaceX Starship Flight 8 Investigation: The FAA has concluded its investigation into the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 mishap, attributing the incident to a hardware failure. We review the corrective measures implemented by SpaceX ahead of their Flight 9 mission and what this means for the future of space exploration.
- Discovery of a Massive Cosmic Cloud: Astronomers have uncovered a colossal cloud of energetic particles enveloping a galaxy cluster, stretching over 20 million light years. This astonishing find challenges existing theories about particle energisation over vast distances, prompting a re-evaluation of our understanding of the universe.
- Ancient Lunar Glass Beads: Explore the fascinating discovery of tiny orange glass beads on the Moon, remnants of ancient volcanic eruptions. New research is uncovering their secrets, providing insights into the Moon's volcanic history and its geological evolution over billions of years.
- The Teenage Vampire Star: Meet Gaia22ayj, a white dwarf star engaging in a unique "vampiric" behaviour by feeding on plasma from a companion star. This discovery offers significant clues to the life cycle of white dwarfs and the dynamics of binary star systems.
- Terraforming Mars: Scientists unveil an ambitious three-phase plan to terraform Mars, aiming to transform the Red Planet into a habitable environment. From warming the planet to introducing engineered organisms, this long-term vision could reshape our understanding of planetary ecosystems and benefit Earth in the process.
For more cosmic updates, visit our website at astronomydaily.io. Join our community on social media by searching for #AstroDailyPod on Facebook, X, YouTube Music, TikTok, and our new Instagram account! Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Thank you for tuning in. This is Anna signing off. Until next time, keep looking up and stay curious about the wonders of our universe.
Chapters:
00:00 - Welcome to Astronomy Daily
01:10 - Axiom mission delay
10:00 - SpaceX Starship Flight 8 investigation
15:30 - Discovery of a massive cosmic cloud
20:00 - Ancient lunar glass beads
25:00 - The teenage vampire star
30:00 - Terraforming Mars
✍️ Episode References
Axiom Space Mission Updates
[NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/)
SpaceX Starship Investigation
[SpaceX](https://www.spacex.com/)
Cosmic Cloud Discovery
[Astronomy Journal](https://www.astronomy.com/)
Lunar Glass Beads Research
[Lunar Science Institute](https://www.lunarscience.org/)
Gaia22ayj Discovery
[Astrophysical Journal](https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0004-637X)
Terraforming Mars Research
[Mars Society](https://www.marssociety.org/)
Astronomy Daily
[Astronomy Daily](http://www.astronomydaily.io/)
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00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source for
00:00:02 --> 00:00:04 the latest news from the cosmos. I'm your
00:00:04 --> 00:00:07 host Anna, and I'm thrilled to guide you
00:00:07 --> 00:00:09 through today's fascinating stories. We've
00:00:09 --> 00:00:11 got a jam packed episode lined up for you.
00:00:11 --> 00:00:13 We'll be diving into everything from yet
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 another delay to the Axiom mission due to an
00:00:16 --> 00:00:19 air leak on the iss to a giant cosmic
00:00:19 --> 00:00:21 cloud that's baffling scientists and even
00:00:22 --> 00:00:25 a plan to terraform Mars. So buckle
00:00:25 --> 00:00:27 up and let's explore the universe together.
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 Alright, first up, NASA and Axiom Space
00:00:31 --> 00:00:34 are putting the brakes on the axe 4 private
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 astronaut mission to the International Space
00:00:37 --> 00:00:39 Station. Yeah, apparently there's a bit of a
00:00:39 --> 00:00:41 hiccup with an air leak in the Russian
00:00:41 --> 00:00:44 Zvezda module. This leak which
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 they actually spotted back in 2019. It's been
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 a headache for Roscosmos, but now
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 NASA says they've detected a new pressure
00:00:52 --> 00:00:54 signature in the module. So
00:00:54 --> 00:00:56 to give everyone a bit more time to
00:00:56 --> 00:00:58 investigate and figure out what's going on,
00:00:58 --> 00:01:00 they've decided to delay the mission
00:01:00 --> 00:01:03 indefinitely. Roscosmos is doing
00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 their thing, inspecting the module, sealing
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 off different areas and trying to keep the
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 pressure stable. The mission was supposed to
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 launch shortly, but has been delayed to allow
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 further analysis of the situation.
00:01:16 --> 00:01:18 Now switching gears a little bit with a quick
00:01:18 --> 00:01:21 update. The FAA has officially closed its
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 investigation into the SpaceX Starship Flight
00:01:24 --> 00:01:27 8 mishap. The culprit, a
00:01:27 --> 00:01:28 hardware failure in one of the engines
00:01:28 --> 00:01:31 apparently. But the good news is
00:01:31 --> 00:01:33 SpaceX has taken some corrective actions to
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 prevent this from happening again. And the
00:01:36 --> 00:01:38 faa, they've gone ahead and verified that
00:01:38 --> 00:01:40 those actions were implemented before The
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 Starship Flight 9 mission just last month.
00:01:43 --> 00:01:46 Alright, next up in the news, astronomers
00:01:46 --> 00:01:49 have stumbled upon something truly gigantic
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 and kind of mind bending. They've discovered
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 this massive cloud of energetic particles.
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 And when I say massive, I mean massive. This
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 thing is wrapped around a galaxy cluster and
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 stretches out for about 20 million light
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 years. To put that in perspective, our
00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 entire Milky Way galaxy is only about
00:02:07 --> 00:02:10 100 light years across. So
00:02:10 --> 00:02:12 yeah, this cloud is huge. Now what's really
00:02:12 --> 00:02:14 interesting is that this discovery is kind of
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 messing with our current theories about how
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 these particles manage to stay energised or
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 over such insane distances. It's like we
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 thought we had things figured out and then
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 the universe throws us a curveball. It's
00:02:26 --> 00:02:27 pretty cool stuff.
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 M switching gears now, let's talk about
00:02:30 --> 00:02:33 something a little closer to home. Well, our
00:02:33 --> 00:02:35 celestial home, that is the Moon.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 Remember those Apollo missions? Well,
00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 apart from the iconic footprints and moon
00:02:40 --> 00:02:43 rocks, the Astronauts found something pretty
00:02:43 --> 00:02:46 special. Tiny brilliant orange glass
00:02:46 --> 00:02:47 beads scattered, scattered across the lunar
00:02:47 --> 00:02:50 surface. And get this, these little
00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 beads, each smaller than a grain of sand, are
00:02:53 --> 00:02:56 actually ancient time capsules. They were
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 formed during volcanic eruptions on the moon
00:02:58 --> 00:03:01 billions of years ago. New research is
00:03:01 --> 00:03:03 using advanced microscopic techniques to
00:03:03 --> 00:03:05 analyse these beads. And they're revealing
00:03:05 --> 00:03:07 all sorts of info about the moon's volcanic
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 past. It's like reading the diary of a lunar
00:03:10 --> 00:03:12 volcano, only instead of words, the story is
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 written in tiny glass beads. Pretty neat,
00:03:14 --> 00:03:15 huh? Huh?
00:03:16 --> 00:03:18 Now for a discovery that sounds like
00:03:18 --> 00:03:19 something straight out of a sci fi movie.
00:03:20 --> 00:03:22 Astronomers have found what they're calling a
00:03:22 --> 00:03:25 missing link in the world of dead stars. It's
00:03:25 --> 00:03:26 a white dwarf named
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 Gaia22ayj. And it's been
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 dubbed a teenage vampire because it's
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 actively feeding on plasma from a nearby
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 companion star. I know, sounds kind of wild,
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 right? This white dwarf is basically sucking
00:03:37 --> 00:03:40 the life force or stellar material from its
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 neighbourhood. And this vampiric behaviour is
00:03:42 --> 00:03:44 giving astronomers some major clues about the
00:03:44 --> 00:03:47 life cycle of white dwarf pulsars. See,
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 stars like our sun eventually turn into these
00:03:49 --> 00:03:52 things called white dwarfs after they've used
00:03:52 --> 00:03:55 up all their fuel. Sometimes, if they have a
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 companion star nearby, they can get a second
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 wind, a second chance at life by stealing
00:04:00 --> 00:04:01 material from that companion.
00:04:01 --> 00:04:04 Gaia22AYJ is special because it's caught in
00:04:04 --> 00:04:06 the act of this mass transfer, this vampiric
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 feeding process. It's like finding a missing
00:04:09 --> 00:04:11 puzzle piece that helps us understand how
00:04:11 --> 00:04:14 these white dwarf pulsars evolve and how
00:04:14 --> 00:04:16 binary star systems, where two stars orbit
00:04:16 --> 00:04:19 each other, change over time. So a
00:04:19 --> 00:04:22 teenage vampire star. Who knew? The universe
00:04:22 --> 00:04:24 is full of surprises, folks. The universe is
00:04:24 --> 00:04:24 full.
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 Okay, so now let's travel to Mars, because
00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 scientists have actually outlined a three
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 phase plan to terraform the red planet. Yeah,
00:04:33 --> 00:04:35 you heard that right. Terraforming. Using the
00:04:35 --> 00:04:38 latest in climate modelling, space tech, and
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40 even synthetic biology, they're envisioning a
00:04:40 --> 00:04:42 future where Mars could actually be
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 habitable. The first phase, warming up the
00:04:44 --> 00:04:47 planet. I mean, Mars is pretty chilly, right?
00:04:47 --> 00:04:49 So they're talking about using things like
00:04:49 --> 00:04:51 solar mirrors and engineered aerosols to trap
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 more heat and get the temperatures up. Phase
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 two is all about building an alien ecosystem.
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 And that's where it gets really interesting.
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 M scientists want to introduce specially
00:05:02 --> 00:05:05 engineered organisms, extremophiles that
00:05:05 --> 00:05:07 can withstand the harsh conditions on Mars.
00:05:07 --> 00:05:09 These little guys would start to transform
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 the planet's chemistry, maybe even produce
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 oxygen. And the third phase
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 focuses on technologies that could also
00:05:16 --> 00:05:19 benefit Earth. So things like crops that
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 can resist drought and better ways to
00:05:21 --> 00:05:23 understand and model our own ecosystems. I
00:05:23 --> 00:05:25 mean it sounds like a win win situation,
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 right? Terraforming Mars while learning how
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 to better take care of our own planet. It's a
00:05:30 --> 00:05:33 long term vision for sure, taking potentially
00:05:33 --> 00:05:34 hundreds of years, but it's pretty cool to
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 think about the possibility of a greener,
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 more Earth like Mars in the distant future.
00:05:41 --> 00:05:44 And with that idea out there, it's time to
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 say that's all for today's Astronomy Daily.
00:05:47 --> 00:05:49 Thanks for listening. This episode was hosted
00:05:49 --> 00:05:50 by me, anna. Visit
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53 astronomydaily.IO to sign up for our free
00:05:53 --> 00:05:55 daily newsletter and and catch up on the
00:05:55 --> 00:05:58 latest space and astronomy news with our
00:05:58 --> 00:06:00 constantly updating newsfeed. Subscribe to
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 the podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify and
00:06:03 --> 00:06:06 YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 Until next time. You know what to do. Keep
00:06:08 --> 00:06:11 looking up. Our universe is an extraordinary
00:06:11 --> 00:06:12 place and you never know what you might see.
00:06:13 --> 00:06:13 Bye