- Solar Storms and Satellite Impact: In this episode, we delve into the effects of solar storms on our satellites, revealing how geomagnetic storms can accelerate orbital decay. Discover insights from researcher Yoshita Barua on how different types of solar events impact satellite performance and how we can design more resilient spacecraft to withstand these cosmic tempests.
- First Look at the Sun's Poles: Join us as we celebrate a monumental achievement from the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter, which has provided humanity's first images of the Sun's poles. These groundbreaking visuals offer new perspectives on solar magnetic fields and the dynamics of solar plasma, shedding light on the Sun's complex behaviour.
- Unpacking Black Holes: Prepare for a mind-bending discussion on the mysteries of black holes. We explore recent theories attempting to resolve the singularity conundrum, including the controversial idea that black holes may spawn new universes. Could this be the key to understanding the enigmatic interiors of these cosmic giants?
- SpaceX's Starship Ambitions: Get the latest updates on SpaceX's Starship programme, with exciting developments in Florida as the company prepares for ambitious launch plans. We discuss the implications of the newly released draft Environmental Impact Statement and what it means for future space exploration.
- Uranus's Rusty Moons: Finally, we investigate intriguing new findings about Uranus's moons, which are accumulating dust from tiny meteorite impacts. Discover how this phenomenon challenges previous assumptions about the moons' surface characteristics and the potential role of Uranus's magnetic field.
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 - Solar storms and satellite impact
10:00 - First look at the Sun's poles
15:30 - Unpacking black holes
20:00 - SpaceX's Starship ambitions
25:00 - Uranus's dusty moons
✍️ Episode References
Solar Storms Research
[ESA](https://www.esa.int/)
Solar Orbiter Discoveries
[Solar Orbiter](https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter)
Black Hole Theories
[Physics Today](https://www.physicstoday.org/)
SpaceX Starship Updates
[SpaceX](https://www.spacex.com/)
Uranus's Moons Research
[Hubble Space Telescope](https://hubblesite.org/)
Astronomy Daily
[Astronomy Daily](http://www.astronomydaily.io/)
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Anna: Hello space enthusiasts, and welcome to Astronomy Daily.
00:00:03 --> 00:00:05 I'm your host, Anna, and I'm thrilled to guide you through the
00:00:05 --> 00:00:08 cosmos. Today we've got a stellar lineup of stories,
00:00:08 --> 00:00:11 so buckle up. Today we're diving deep into how
00:00:11 --> 00:00:13 solar storms are messing with our satellites.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 Then we'll be taking a first ever peek at the sun's
00:00:17 --> 00:00:19 poles. It's about time. Right
00:00:19 --> 00:00:22 after that, we'll question the very fabric of reality,
00:00:22 --> 00:00:25 or at least the stuff inside black holes. Plus,
00:00:26 --> 00:00:29 we'll check in on SpaceX's ambitious Starship plans
00:00:29 --> 00:00:31 down in Florida. It's gonna be huge,
00:00:32 --> 00:00:35 literally. And finally, we'll wrap
00:00:35 --> 00:00:37 things up with a dusty mystery surrounding Uranus's
00:00:37 --> 00:00:40 moons. Turns out they're weirder than we
00:00:40 --> 00:00:43 thought. So, yeah, let's jump in, shall
00:00:43 --> 00:00:44 we?
00:00:45 --> 00:00:48 Alright, first up, let's talk about space weather and how
00:00:48 --> 00:00:51 it's messing with our satellites. You know, those
00:00:51 --> 00:00:54 expensive bits of kit we kinda rely on. So
00:00:54 --> 00:00:56 geomagnetic storms, basically
00:00:56 --> 00:00:59 when the sun throws a tantrum, they can actually cause
00:00:59 --> 00:01:02 satellites in low Earth orbit to, well, lose
00:01:02 --> 00:01:05 altitude faster than expected. This is called orbital
00:01:05 --> 00:01:08 decay and it's not good news, folks. See, when
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 these solar storms hit, they puff up Earth's atmosphere,
00:01:11 --> 00:01:14 which means satellites have to fight against more drag.
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 But there's some new research out there that suggests we can
00:01:17 --> 00:01:20 actually design satellites to be less susceptible to these
00:01:20 --> 00:01:23 solar storms. Apparently, it's
00:01:23 --> 00:01:25 not just about predicting the storms better, but also
00:01:25 --> 00:01:27 about tweaking the spacecraft themselves.
00:01:28 --> 00:01:31 One of the researchers, Yoshita Barua,
00:01:31 --> 00:01:34 found that different types of solar events have different
00:01:34 --> 00:01:37 effects. You've got your coronal mass ejections,
00:01:37 --> 00:01:40 or CMEs, which are like huge explosions
00:01:40 --> 00:01:43 of plasma from the sun. And you've got these high
00:01:43 --> 00:01:45 speed streams coming from coronal holes.
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 These create what they call stream interaction regions,
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 or CIRs. And get this. The
00:01:52 --> 00:01:55 study found that CIR induced storms, even though
00:01:55 --> 00:01:57 they're generally weaker than CME storms, can
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 actually be more damaging to satellite orbits because they last
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 longer. Go figure, huh? The
00:02:03 --> 00:02:06 researchers looked at data from ESA's Swarm satellites
00:02:06 --> 00:02:09 and found that during a strong CME storm, a
00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 satellite decayed 37 metres. During a more
00:02:12 --> 00:02:15 moderate CIR storm, a satellite decayed almost
00:02:15 --> 00:02:18 100 metres. They also looked
00:02:18 --> 00:02:20 at something called the ballistic coefficient, which is
00:02:20 --> 00:02:23 basically how well a satellite cuts through the atmosphere.
00:02:23 --> 00:02:26 Satellites with a lower ballistic coefficient, like the
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 International Space Station, are more affected by these
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 storms. So the takeaway here is that better space
00:02:32 --> 00:02:35 weather prediction is important, but so is designing
00:02:35 --> 00:02:38 satellites that can weather the storm, so to speak. Keeps
00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 those birds in the sky for longer, you know.
00:02:41 --> 00:02:44 Now for something truly awesome. Humanity's gotten its first
00:02:44 --> 00:02:47 glimpse of the Sun's poles. Yeah, you heard that right.
00:02:47 --> 00:02:50 The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter. It's like
00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 change the game. I mean, think about it. Every
00:02:53 --> 00:02:56 single picture you've ever seen of the sun probably taken
00:02:56 --> 00:02:59 from around its equator. That's cause Earth and all
00:02:59 --> 00:03:02 the other planets, we all orbit the sun on this flat disc called
00:03:02 --> 00:03:05 the ecliptic plane. But Solar Orbiter,
00:03:05 --> 00:03:08 it's different. It tilted its orbit, giving us this
00:03:08 --> 00:03:10 unprecedented view from above and below. Talk about a
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13 stellar selfie. The images were actually
00:03:13 --> 00:03:16 captured back in March, but they're just blowing minds
00:03:16 --> 00:03:19 now, showing the Sun's south pole in all its glory.
00:03:19 --> 00:03:22 The spacecraft used a bunch of fancy instruments. The
00:03:22 --> 00:03:25 Polarimetric and Helioseismic imager or
00:03:25 --> 00:03:28 phi. The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager,
00:03:28 --> 00:03:31 which is eui. And the spectral imaging of the coronal
00:03:31 --> 00:03:34 environment Spice. Each one sees the sun in
00:03:34 --> 00:03:36 a totally different way. The phi maps the
00:03:36 --> 00:03:39 magnetic field. The EUI studies the superheated
00:03:39 --> 00:03:42 plasma in the corona, which is way hotter than the
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 sun's surface. I mean, how does that even work?
00:03:45 --> 00:03:48 And Spice? Well, it can capture light emitted by
00:03:48 --> 00:03:51 plasmas at different temperatures, helping us model the Sun's
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 atmosphere. One of the coolest discoveries
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 so far. The M magnetic fields around the sun's south
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 pole, they're a complete mess. Like
00:04:00 --> 00:04:02 instead of nice orderly north and south poles,
00:04:02 --> 00:04:05 you've got both polarities all mixed up. Apparently this
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 happens when the sun's poles are about to flip, which is part of its 11
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 year cycle. But get this, the
00:04:11 --> 00:04:14 solar Orbiter also helps scientists track different elements
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 as they move through the sun, measuring the speed of
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 carbon atoms being ejected from the sun and seeing the
00:04:20 --> 00:04:23 flows in three dimensions. The
00:04:23 --> 00:04:26 mission's still ongoing, so there's a lot more to come. But this
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 is a huge step in understanding how our sun works and how
00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 it affects, well, everything.
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 Alright, let's dive into something that's gonna make your head spin a
00:04:35 --> 00:04:36 little. Black holes.
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 Specifically what's inside them. So remember how
00:04:40 --> 00:04:43 we've talked about singularities before? That point at
00:04:43 --> 00:04:46 the centre of a black hole where everything gets crushed
00:04:46 --> 00:04:49 into infinite density? Yeah, well
00:04:49 --> 00:04:51 physicists, they're still not super happy with that
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 idea because it kind of breaks the known laws of physics, which,
00:04:55 --> 00:04:58 you know, isn't ideal. There was this research earlier
00:04:58 --> 00:05:00 this year that proposed a solution. It suggested
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 modifying Einstein's equation so that gravity acts
00:05:03 --> 00:05:06 differently in super curved spacetime. This would
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 supposedly replace the singularity with a highly warped
00:05:09 --> 00:05:12 but static region sounds promising, right? Well, not
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 everyone's convinced. One physicist,
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 Nikodem Poplawski, he's got a few major issues with
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 this theory. First off, it needs five dimensions to
00:05:21 --> 00:05:23 work, and as far as we know, we're stuck with four.
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 Secondly, the interior of the black hole would have to be static, and
00:05:26 --> 00:05:29 Poplarski says that gravity equations predict that it
00:05:29 --> 00:05:32 can't be. And thirdly, the model adds an
00:05:32 --> 00:05:35 infinite number of terms to the equations just to get rid
00:05:35 --> 00:05:37 of the singularity. He argues there's no real solid
00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 physical reason for that. It's just like math for
00:05:40 --> 00:05:43 math's sake, he says. Now, most
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 other attempts to solve this singularity problem, they try
00:05:46 --> 00:05:49 to merge general relativity with quantum physics,
00:05:49 --> 00:05:51 which is another can of worms entirely.
00:05:52 --> 00:05:55 String theory is one of those attempts, but it's got its own
00:05:55 --> 00:05:58 problems, like needing even more dimensions and the
00:05:58 --> 00:06:00 fact that there's no experimental evidence for it.
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 Poplarsky thinks the only way we'll ever truly understand
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 what's at the heart of a black hole is if, get this,
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 every black hole creates a new universe.
00:06:09 --> 00:06:12 Yeah, he's been working on that hypothesis since
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 2010. The idea is if our
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 universe was born in a black hole, we might be able to
00:06:17 --> 00:06:20 find evidence of it in the cosmic microwave background
00:06:20 --> 00:06:23 radiation, or maybe even in gravitational waves.
00:06:24 --> 00:06:27 It's a long shot, but hey, it took a hundred years to detect
00:06:27 --> 00:06:29 gravitational waves after Einstein predicted them.
00:06:30 --> 00:06:33 So who knows, maybe in a few decades we'll finally
00:06:33 --> 00:06:34 crack the black hole code.
00:06:35 --> 00:06:38 Okay, switching gears completely, let's talk about
00:06:38 --> 00:06:41 starship. You know, SpaceX's giant rocket
00:06:41 --> 00:06:44 that's supposed to take us to Mars and stuff? Well, they're making
00:06:44 --> 00:06:46 some serious Progress in Florida. SpaceX wants to
00:06:46 --> 00:06:49 launch starship from the Space coast, and they've been working
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52 on getting all the paperwork sorted out.
00:06:52 --> 00:06:55 Specifically, the Department of the Air Force just released a
00:06:55 --> 00:06:58 draught Environmental impact statement, or
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 EIS, for Starship launches from Space
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 Launch Complex 37. That's
00:07:03 --> 00:07:06 SLC 37. This document outlines
00:07:06 --> 00:07:08 SpaceX's plans for the site. Now,
00:07:08 --> 00:07:11 SpaceX has wanted a starship presence in Florida for a while.
00:07:12 --> 00:07:15 They even had plans to build starship vehicles there, but
00:07:15 --> 00:07:18 they ended up focusing on Starbase in Texas. They
00:07:18 --> 00:07:20 are still building the heat shield tile factory though.
00:07:20 --> 00:07:23 That's still going on. They also started
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 building a starship launch tower AT Launch Complex
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 39A at Kennedy Space Centre. But
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 that kind of stopped for a bit too. But earlier this
00:07:31 --> 00:07:34 year, work resumed to apply all the
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 lessons learned from the first starship launch.
00:07:37 --> 00:07:40 So while all that's going on. SpaceX has also been working on a
00:07:40 --> 00:07:42 Starship launch site at Space Launch Complex
00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49 The Air Force says that the proposed actions for SLC
00:07:49 --> 00:07:52 37 won't negatively impact the environment
00:07:52 --> 00:07:55 or the public, which is good news. There's going
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 to be a public comment period so folks can share their thoughts on the
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 Draught eis. After that, the comments
00:08:01 --> 00:08:04 will be evaluated and a final EIS is expected in the
00:08:04 --> 00:08:07 fall of 2025. SpaceX
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 doesn't have to wait though. They already have limited access to
00:08:10 --> 00:08:12 the site and have been working on demolishing some old structures
00:08:12 --> 00:08:15 to make way for new construction. So why
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 SLC 37? Well, the draught
00:08:18 --> 00:08:21 EIS says it's to support national security launches with
00:08:21 --> 00:08:24 Starship. SpaceX already has two Starship
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 launch pads at Starbase, but they're not on a military
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 base. And Starbase is not really suited for the
00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 requested 76 launches per year.
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 76, that's a whole lot of launches.
00:08:35 --> 00:08:38 Plus, the Air force already awarded SpaceX
00:08:38 --> 00:08:40 a contract to study using Starship for point to point
00:08:40 --> 00:08:43 cargo transportation. The site would eventually have
00:08:43 --> 00:08:46 two Starship launch pads, each with a launch
00:08:46 --> 00:08:49 mount, a launch integration tower and a flame
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 trench. And get this, the launch integration towers
00:08:52 --> 00:08:55 are going to be taller than the ones at starbase. Like almost 200ft
00:08:55 --> 00:08:58 taller. Wow. They're also planning on building up
00:08:58 --> 00:09:00 to two potential catch towers to support the high launch
00:09:00 --> 00:09:03 cadence. Of course, launching that many
00:09:03 --> 00:09:06 rockets requires a lot of propellant, so
00:09:06 --> 00:09:09 SpaceX is planning to build a natural gas
00:09:09 --> 00:09:12 pretreatment system, a methane liquefier and an
00:09:12 --> 00:09:14 air separation unit. It's basically a whole industrial
00:09:14 --> 00:09:17 complex just to fuel these rockets. Now the
00:09:17 --> 00:09:20 plans outlined in the draught EIS cover some pretty
00:09:20 --> 00:09:23 ambitious Starship variants, even some that
00:09:23 --> 00:09:26 haven't been announced yet. The numbers for thrust,
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 rocket height and propellant capacity are all way
00:09:29 --> 00:09:32 beyond what Elon Musk has been talking about. This is
00:09:32 --> 00:09:35 likely because SpaceX wants to future proof the study and make
00:09:35 --> 00:09:37 sure it covers all future versions of Starship.
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 Under the current plan, launches from SLC
00:09:41 --> 00:09:43 37 could begin in 2026 and
00:09:43 --> 00:09:46 SpaceX would need an additional 450 employees
00:09:46 --> 00:09:49 or contractors to support the operations.
00:09:49 --> 00:09:52 Initially, Starship stages would be built at
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 Starbase and then transported to Florida on barges.
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 But eventually SpaceX plans to build its
00:09:58 --> 00:10:01 own Starship manufacturing facilities in Florida.
00:10:01 --> 00:10:04 With all of these launches, it will bring the total Starship
00:10:04 --> 00:10:07 related activities in Florida to over 600 per year.
00:10:07 --> 00:10:09 A, ah, busy year ahead for the Space Coast.
00:10:10 --> 00:10:13 Okay, so shifting Our gaze now to the ice giant
00:10:13 --> 00:10:16 Uranus. You know, the one that's tilted on its side.
00:10:17 --> 00:10:20 New data from the Hubble Space Telescope is showing us some
00:10:20 --> 00:10:23 pretty interesting stuff about its moons. Turns out
00:10:23 --> 00:10:25 those moons are gathering dust, literally, literally.
00:10:26 --> 00:10:28 Now, uranus has like, 28 known moons, and
00:10:28 --> 00:10:31 scientists have always thought that Uranus's weird magnetic
00:10:31 --> 00:10:34 field would leave visible marks on them. But
00:10:34 --> 00:10:37 these new Hubble observations of Uranus's four
00:10:37 --> 00:10:40 largest moons, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania,
00:10:40 --> 00:10:43 and Oberon, show no clear signs of radiation
00:10:43 --> 00:10:46 damage. What's really interesting is that the two outer
00:10:46 --> 00:10:49 moons, Titania and Oberon, are
00:10:49 --> 00:10:51 actually darker on their leading sides. So
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 the opposite of what scientists thought. The theory is that
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 the darkening isn't from Uranus's magnetic field at all,
00:10:58 --> 00:11:01 but from dust. Hubble's data points to a
00:11:01 --> 00:11:04 slow inward drift of dust from Uranus's distant,
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 irregular moons. These outer moons are
00:11:06 --> 00:11:09 constantly getting hit by tiny meteorites, which
00:11:09 --> 00:11:12 kicks up dust particles that then gradually spiral
00:11:12 --> 00:11:15 inward over millions of years. As
00:11:15 --> 00:11:18 Titania and Oberon travel through this dust cloud,
00:11:18 --> 00:11:21 they're accumulating the particles mostly on their leading
00:11:21 --> 00:11:24 sides. It's kind of like, you know,
00:11:24 --> 00:11:27 driving really fast on a highway and like, all
00:11:27 --> 00:11:30 the bugs are hitting your windshield. Yeah,
00:11:30 --> 00:11:33 that's kind of what's going on with these moons. The inner
00:11:33 --> 00:11:35 moons, Ariel and Umbriel, don't show any
00:11:35 --> 00:11:38 significant difference in brightness between their leading and
00:11:38 --> 00:11:41 trailing sides, probably because Titania and
00:11:41 --> 00:11:44 Oberon are shielding them from the drifting dust.
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 Now, as for Uranus's magnetic field,
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 researchers think that its effects might be more subtle or
00:11:50 --> 00:11:53 complex than they originally thought, that it may
00:11:53 --> 00:11:56 still be interacting with the moons, but not in a way
00:11:56 --> 00:11:58 that creates strong contrasts on their surfaces.
00:11:59 --> 00:12:02 To learn more, the team has scheduled follow up
00:12:02 --> 00:12:05 observations with the James Webb Space Telescope. You
00:12:05 --> 00:12:08 know, within the next year, using infrared
00:12:08 --> 00:12:10 imaging, Webb will be taking a closer look at the same
00:12:10 --> 00:12:13 moons, potentially confirming whether it's dust,
00:12:13 --> 00:12:16 radiation, or, heck, a combination of both
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 that's shaping their surfaces. I can't wait to find out more,
00:12:19 --> 00:12:19 can you?
00:12:21 --> 00:12:24 Well, that's all the space news we have for you today. I've
00:12:24 --> 00:12:27 been your host, Anna. I hope you'll join me again tomorrow
00:12:27 --> 00:12:30 for more Astronomy Daily. Don't forget to visit our
00:12:30 --> 00:12:33 website@astronomydaily.IO where you can
00:12:33 --> 00:12:36 catch up on all the latest space and astronomy news with
00:12:36 --> 00:12:39 our constantly updating newsfeed and listen to all our back episodes.
00:12:39 --> 00:12:42 You can also subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts,
00:12:42 --> 00:12:45 Spotify and YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:12:45 --> 00:12:48 Thanks for tuning in. And keep looking up. You
00:12:48 --> 00:12:49 never know what you might see. Bye,