S03E119: Northrop Grumman's ISS Mission and August Sky Highlights

Welcome again to Astronomy Daily. It's Steve here with another episode. It's the fifth of August twenty twenty four, the podcast I mean to be your whole speed gun clue. And on today's episode, we'll be talking about Northrop Grumm and launching to a mission to the iss or to be talking about my favorite little rock, dimorphous. Hallie's going to be talking about Hercules, which has a very weird rotation, and she's also going to be talking to you about the sky watching highlights for August. That's all really good. And speaking of the girl at the moment, would you welcome Hallie? How are you going? Hallie? Doing just great? Thank you, my human. I heard it was your turn for a holiday. This week, that's right. I took a couple of days for a bit of rest and recuperation, Hallie. And how are you feeling now. About the same, Hallie. Do you think you need a longer holiday? Yeah? Probably, I think we all need a longer holiday. And I think I'll coin a phrase and call it Boeing syndrome. What's that? Well, that's when you only planned for eight days off and you end up taking fifty. Oh, I get it. I wonder if the astronauts feel the same way, But it's not really their choice, and it's definitely not a holiday for them anyway, I guess not. And hey, Halle, something else I saw yesterday that really shocked me. What was it? It was a survey and the results showed that ninety four percent of all those surveyed didn't know that the lights in the sky were stars like our sun. Wow. That's a bit disappointing to hear. I know, I know, but I had to read it a couple of times to really get my head around it. But before we get all out of shape about it, I have no idea how big the sample size was because it was an open survey on a social media platform and they didn't release comprehensive results, just the. Percentage, which is a bit sensationalist. Really, well, yes it is, and here you are giving it a boot. Yeah yeah, yeah, guilty is charged. But it still doesn't change the inputs. There are still people out there with the sum total of human knowledge of their fingers. She simply choose not to discover anything, and I'll find it quite amazing. Well, dear listeners, aren't we glad we have inquiring minds, and that is. Where it starts. Yes, and speaking of starting, I think it's your turn, Hollie. Okay, here we go. Here are some of August's skywatching highlights for all you stargazers. We can look forward to Mars and Jupiter having a super close meetup, and the conditions look good for the persied meteors, and also how to observe a stellar nursery the lagoon Nebula. Firstly, on August fourth, we will have a new moon. Then on August eleventh, the Persied meteor shower peaks overnight tonight. Provided you have clear skies, viewing conditions will be favorable this year. As the moon sets by around eleven thirty pm Local time, meteor activity picks up from then until dawn. On August fourteenth, Planets Jupiter and Mars have an extremely close pair up called a conjunction. This morning, they'll appear just a third of a degree apart, which is less than the width of the full moon. You will find them in the eastern sky in the couple of hours before sunrise. August nineteenth gives us another full moon before August twentieth sees the moon chasing Saturn across the sky. Tonight, the pair rise in the east shortly after dark and trek toward the west together until dawn. On August twenty seventh, in the morning, the crescent moon joins Mars and Jupiter to form a captivating trio. Look for them in the east in the hour or so before sunrise and all month. You can use binoculars or a telescope to observe the Lagoon Nebula all month in the first few hours after dark. It's located in the constellation Sagittarius, near the star pattern known as the Teapot. Similar in size and brightness to the Orion Nebula. It's a cauldron of star formation located about four thousand light years away. The Sun rotates the fastest at the equator, and the rotation rate slows down at higher lil latitudes, becoming the slowest in the polar regions, but a nearby sun like star V eight eighty nine Hercules, some one hundred and fifteen light years away in the Constellation of Hercules, rotates the fastest at a latitude of about forty degrees, while both the equator and polar regions rotate more slowly. A similar rotational profile has not been observed for any other star. The result is stunning because stellar rotation has been considered a well understood fundamental physical parameter, but such a rotational profile has not been predicted even in computer simulations. We applied a newly developed statistical technique to the data of a familiar star that has been studied in the University of Helsinki for years. We did not expect to see such anomalies in stellar rotation. The anomalies in the rotational profile of V eight eighty nine Hercules indicate that our understanding of stellar dynamics and magnetic dynamos is insufficient, explains researcher Miko Twami, who coordinated the research. The target star V eight eighty nine Hercules, is much like a young sun, telling a story about the the history and evolution of the Sun. Twami emphasizes that it is crucial to understand stellar astrophysics in order to, for instance, predict activity induced phenomena on the solar surface, such as spots and eruptions. Stars are spherical structures where matter is in the state of plasma consisting of charged particles. They are dynamic objects that hang in a balance between the pressure generated in nuclear reactions in their cores and their own gravity. They have no solid surfaces. Unlike many planets, the stellar rotation is not constant for all latitudes, an effect known as differential rotation. It is caused by the fact that hot plasma rises to the star's surface via phenomenon called convection, which in turn has an effect on the local rotation rate. This is because angular momentum must be conserved, and the convection occurs perpendicular to the rotational axis near the equator, whereas it is parallel to the axis near the poles and right in your backyard. Steve rocket Lab has launched its fifty first electron rocket, deploying a single satellite into low Earth orbit for Sinspective, a Japanese earth imaging company. The mission, named al for one one VOWL in reference to Sinspective strict satellites, which are named after the genus of owls, lifted off at four thirty nine a m August third NZT sixteen thirty nine Universal time coordinated August second from Launch Complex one, rocket Lab's private orbital launch site on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula. This launch deployed the fifth Strict SAAR imaging satellite for Suspective into low Earth orbit. In addition to the launch service, rocket Lab provided a custom electron fairing to encapsulate the strict satellite and performed an advanced mid mission maneuver with electrons hickstage to shield the satellite from the Sun and reduce radiation exposure on its way to orbit. Rocket Lab has been the sole launch provider for Suspective's constellation to date. This mission marked the fifth of sixteen launches booked on Electron for s Inspective, and the second launch for the Japanese company this year, following the All Night Life mission in March twenty twenty four. Recently, Inspective booked ten dedicated Electron launches as part of a new multi launch agreement announced in June twenty twenty four, with launches in that deal set to take place from twenty twenty five to twenty twenty seven. Rocket Lab founder and CEO Sir Peter Beck stated, it's wonderful to have launched our second mission for Suspective in five months as we continue our long standing launch partnership. Electron is the ideal rocket for providing flexible, tailored and direct access to orbit for constellation builders like Suspective and I'm proud of the team for delivering this latest mission success. The launch window for Rocket labs next electron mission will be announced in the coming days. And that's it for me. Back to you in the real world. Thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of Astronomy Daily, where we offered just a few stories from the now famous Astronomy Day newsletter, which you can receive in your email every day, just like Hallie and I do. And to do that, just visit our url Astronomy Daily dot io and place your email address in the slot provided. Just like that, you'll be receiving all the latest news about science, space, science and astronomy from around the world as it's happening. And not only that, you can interact with us by visiting at astro Daily pod on x or at our new Facebook page, which is of course Astronomy Daily on Facebook. See you there. Astronomy with Steve and hall Space, space, science, and Astronomy. Now off to the surface of Dimorphos again. This is one of my favorite little rocks in the Solar System. When NASA's Dart mission intentionally slammed into Dimorphis September twenty twenty two. The orbit of the moonlight was altered, and we've covered this several times on Astronomy Daily, and those of you who listen regularly will know how closely we've been following this story. Researchers have studied the photos and data taken by Dart before its impact, learning more about the geology of the Didymus Dimorphous system, and they've now estimated the surface age of both the asteroid and its moon, and the Asteroidnymus has a surface age of one point five sorry twelve point five million years, while the moon Dimorphos is only three hundred thousand years old. What that you say? As numbers don't know what add up. Additionally, the Dart researchers concluded that both Didymus and Dimorphous are rubble piles, with the Dimorphos' likely and inheriting its bolders from Ditamis. It's a pile of gravel and boulders and some sand and dust together by its own gravity, and really not much else, said Andy Rutkin, Dart investigation team with co lead at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics lab at on Blue Sky. There's really no cohesion between different pieces of gravel or rocks on Diorphus. That's really interesting concept is necessary lot of gravel that makeup. That makeup explains why Dart's impact made such a surprising change to dimorphous orbital period, decreasing it by about thirty four minutes. A collection of boulders is easier to shift than a solid object. Several Dart researchers published five papers in Nature Communications looking at the geology and geophysics of Timus and Dimorphis as seen by Dart. These findings give us new insights into the ways that asteroids can change over time, said Thomas Stadler, lead Scientists for Solar Systems Small Bodies at NASA head Quarters in Washington, in a NASA press release. This is important not just for understanding the Near Earth objects that are the focus of planetary defense, but also for our ability to read the history of our Solar System from these remnants of planet formation. This is just of the wealth of new I'm sorry, this is just part of the wealth of new knowledge that we've gained from Dart in the geology and evolution of the Near Earth binary asteroid system Dinamus. Oliver Barton, Ronald Sorry, Ronald Louise values of APL and their team were able to determine the disparate ages of Didymus and Dimorphous. They also found that both objects have weak surface characteristics, which are very likely contributed to dart significant impact on the Moodlitz orbit. The images and data that DART collected at the Dinamus system provided a unique opportunity for a close up geological look at a near Earth asteroid binary system, said Burnout in a press release from APL. From these images alone, we were able to infer a great deal of information on geophysical properties of both Denimis and Domorphos and expand our understanding of the formation of these two asteroids. We also better understand why DART was so effective in moving Dimorphos. Images captured by DART and its CubeSat Companion showed Domorphoss topography covered with boulders of various sizes, while the larger asteroid Namis was smoother at lower elevations though rocky at higher elevations. It also had more craters than Dimorphos. The authors inferred that Domorphos had likely spun off from Dinamis in a larger mass shedding event. This was confirmed in another paper, Evidence for multi fragmentation and mass shedding of boulders on Robert Piled binary aster asteroid system Dinymis. Marizio Pazola of the National National Institute of Astrophysics in Rome and teams show how both Dinymus and dimorphous are mainly comprised of a collection of boulders. This team concluded that the formation of Domorphus likely came as Dinamus shed material creating a new asteroid moonlet. The size frequency distribution of boulders larger than five metres on Domorphos and larger than twenty two point eight meters on Dinimis confirms that both asteroids are pars of fragments produced in the catastrophic description of their progenitors the temper. This finding supports the hypothesis that some asteroid binary systems for through the spin up and mass shedding of a fraction of appropriate asteroid. In another paper, Fast Bolder fractional ye do fatigue dedicted stone asteroids Alice Legetii, also of A and A and colleagues found ethn size and distribution of pots and Dimorphus is consistent with thermal fatigue, which is the gradual weakening and cracking of material caused by heat. This could rapidly break up boulders on the surface of dimorphous generating surface lines and altering the physical characteristics of this type of asteroid more quickly than previously thought. The Dart mission was likely the first observation of such a phenomenon on this type of asteroid. Thermal fatigue could also have been a bearing on what happens if this type of asteroid would need to be deflected for planetary defense. The presence of boulder fields affected by thermal fact fracturing on near Earth asteroid surfaces may contribute to an enhancement in the ejected mass and momentum from kinetic impactors when deflecting asteroids. The authors wrote and finally mechanical properties of rubble pile asteroids through surface boulder Morpholological analysis by Colus rob And also of Isae and co authors analyze the surface boulders on diamophers, comparing them with those on other rubber partl asteroids, including ETKOA, Raguru, and Venu. The researchers found striking similarities the boulders on all four asteroids, suggesting they all formed and evolved in a similar fashion and were also changed by impacts. This data, too, informs future planetary defense missions or attempts at impact emissions. Planetary defense efforts rely on estimates of the mechanical properties of asteroids, which are difficult to constrain accurately from Earth. The team rate the mechanical properties of asteroid material are also important in the interpretation of the data impact. All the DART researchers team will continue to observe and study Dart's impact. Additionally, another spacecraft will launch in twenty twenty four to study domorphice e e bit closer. The European Space Agency's her mission should arrive at Didymus and Dimorphos in December twenty twenty six. HERA will undertake a detailed study of Dimorphos to understand more deeply how the impact has affected it. You're listening to a Slightly Day the podcast now. On Sunday, SpaceX successfully launched a resupply mission for the International Space Station after it was postponed on Saturday because of unfavorable weather. The Space Exploration Company used a Falcon nine rocket to launch the signas spacecraft made by Northrop Grumman, best known as a defense contractor. Northrop Grumman changed its launch vehicle for Signus missions from its own Antaris two thirty plus rocket to SpaceX's FOUC nine rocket after the war in Ukraine ended engine and booster production for the Entaris program. On board are tests of water recovery technology and a process to produce stem cells in microgravity, studies of the effects of spaceflight on micro organism DNA and liver tissue growth, and some live science demonstrations for students, NASA said. In a statement shortly before the launch, SpaceX said that the weather was only thirty five percent favorable for liftoff yet. The rocket took off from Space Launch Complex forty at the Cape Canaveral's Space Force Station in Florida around eleven h two am local time. About fifteen minutes later, the Signet spacecraft successfully separated to make its way toward the ISS. Next up is a solar array deployment expected in about three hours. The next step was the solar array deployment. The solar arrays helped power the spacecraft for its journey to the space station, said a spokesman. The Falcon nine first stage returned to landing Zone one at Canaveral Space Force Station. This was the tenth flight of the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched AX two, EUCLID, AX three, CRS, thirty S, s Astra one P and four Starlink missions. That's quite a collection. As for the Signus spacecraft, once the cargo hall is unloaded by the ISS crew, it will continue to be used as an extended science lab space for the months it remains DOC to the station. And I wonder, if you're thinking what I'm thinking, could it be used as a rescue craft for the stranded the astronauts. Everybody's thinking that. And there it is. Another episode done and Dust, thank you so much for staying and we'd love to see you all again next week, right Halle. Sure, Steve, And don't forget Anna and Charlie with their shows during the week and register for the newsletter just like Steve. Said, Yes, that's right, Anna and Charlie, our other AI presenters will be carrying you through the week. Don't forget their shows. It's always good stuff. And the Astronomy Daily newsletter has a thousand times more well well, not a thousand times, but a whole lot more in it. So yes, get your fill every week in your email. It's fantastic, all right. So that's all from me. Goodbye, everybody say next week see you. Halle Bye Podcast your whole Steve, don't cu