Space Travel Revolution, Lunar Impact Risks, and Infinite Energy in the Cosmos

1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,600 Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm your host Anna and I'm thrilled to take you on a tour of the cosmos. 2 00:00:05,600 --> 00:00:17,000 Today we've got a stellar lineup of stories. We'll be discussing Europe's plans for nuclear-powered space travel, an asteroid that's got its sights set on the moon, and a company that's planning commercial launches from Sardinia. 3 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:26,500 Plus, we'll explore newly discovered giant radio galaxies and the infinite energy hidden in the vacuum of space itself. So buckle up and let's get started. 4 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:38,000 First up, let's talk about getting to Mars. I mean, who hasn't dreamed of that, right? But it takes like forever. Currently we're looking at about nine months using the rockets we have now. 5 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:45,000 But the European Space Agency, ESA, is looking into something pretty cool, nuclear propulsion. 6 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:55,000 Now, instead of burning fuel and oxygen like a car engine, a nuclear reactor heats up a propellant like hydrogen and then shoots it out of the rocket nozzle. 7 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:00,000 And get this, it's way more efficient than those chemical rockets were used to. 8 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:10,000 This tech could cut a Mars trip in half from nine months to just four or five. Plus, the astronauts would actually receive less harmful radiation, which is kind of backwards. 9 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:19,000 It sounds odd, I know, because the engine itself produces radiation, but think about it. Space travelers are constantly bombarded by cosmic radiation during their journey. 10 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:25,000 So cutting travel time in half drastically reduces their total exposure, and of course safety is a big deal. 11 00:01:25,500 --> 00:01:33,000 The reactor only turns on when the spacecraft is far from Earth in a safe orbit. Before that, the uranium fuel has very low radio activity. 12 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:40,000 And there are multiple radiation shields to protect the crew. The ESA team spent over a year analyzing this, and they think it's feasible. 13 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:45,500 It's great to see Europe demonstrating its expertise, which could open a new era of space exploration. 14 00:01:45,500 --> 00:01:52,500 Now, let's switch gears and talk about asteroids. Remember asteroid 2024-Y-R-4? 15 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:57,500 It caused a bit of a stir earlier this year because it had a relatively high chance of hitting Earth. 16 00:01:57,500 --> 00:02:07,500 Well, it's back in the news, but this time it's about the moon. So NASA's been keeping an eye on this asteroid, and new data suggests there's a slightly increased chance it could impact the moon in 2032. 17 00:02:07,500 --> 00:02:16,500 Now, before you start picturing a lunar disaster, the odds only went up from 3.8% to 4.3%. Still not great, but hey, it's space, right? 18 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:26,000 The James Webb Space Telescope actually played a role here. It was able to refine predictions of where the asteroid will be in 2032, which led to this updated probability. 19 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:31,500 But even if it does hit the moon, don't worry, it won't alter the moon's orbit. So no need to panic. 20 00:02:31,500 --> 00:02:37,000 This whole situation is actually a good example of planetary defense and action. 21 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:43,000 Scientists are constantly monitoring these objects, gathering data, and refining their predictions. 22 00:02:43,500 --> 00:02:54,000 And even though 2024-R-4 doesn't pose a threat to Earth, it's giving us a chance to rehearse how we'd respond to a potentially hazardous asteroid in the future. Silver linings, right? 23 00:02:54,000 --> 00:03:00,000 All right, let's head back to Europe where there's some interesting stuff happening in the commercial launch sector. 24 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:07,500 An Italian company called OLM, it's planning to offer commercial launch services from Sardinia. Yes, the island. 25 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:14,000 They've actually gotten the green light to conduct small-scale engine tests at the Salto di Kira military installation. 26 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:20,000 This facility has a pretty cool history. It played a role in Italy's early space exploration efforts. 27 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:30,000 Hosting sounding rocket launches way back in 1961. OLM has teamed up with a German student group called Alara Aerospace, and they're working on a rocket called Starlight. 28 00:03:30,500 --> 00:03:37,500 Starlight is about 10.5 meters tall, has a diameter of 450 millimeters, and weighs around 1000 kilograms. 29 00:03:37,500 --> 00:03:44,500 It's designed to carry a payload of up to 50 kilograms to an altitude of around 130 kilometers. 30 00:03:44,500 --> 00:03:49,500 And get this, they're planning to recover parts of the booster for reuse. That's pretty neat. 31 00:03:49,500 --> 00:03:54,000 They are hoping for suborbital launches as early as 2026. 32 00:03:55,500 --> 00:04:03,000 Now for something truly mind-blowing, astronomers have discovered not one, not two, but 15 new giant radio galaxies. 33 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:10,000 Yeah, you heard that right, 15, and these aren't your run-of-the-mill galaxies. These are the largest single objects in the entire universe. 34 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:16,500 The discovery was made using the Australian square kilometer array pathfinder telescope, or ASCAP. 35 00:04:16,500 --> 00:04:20,000 And the galaxies are located within the sculptor field. 36 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:30,000 To give you an idea of scale, these giants range in size from 3.7 million light years to a staggering 12.4 million light years across. 37 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:35,000 Our own Milky Way? A measly 105,700 light years wide. 38 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:45,000 You could fit the Milky Way across the largest of these new giant radio galaxies, named ASCAP J01072347, more than 117 times. 39 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:46,500 I mean, come on. 40 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:59,500 ASCAP J01072347, which is about 1.5 billion light years away, is especially interesting because it has two sets of radio lobes, one inside the other, like a nesting doll. 41 00:04:59,500 --> 00:05:05,000 These inner lobes are bright and short, while the outer lobes are faint and elongated. 42 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:10,500 This structure could provide clues about how giant radio galaxies get so incredibly big. 43 00:05:10,500 --> 00:05:14,000 All right, then. How do these things get so massive? 44 00:05:14,500 --> 00:05:21,500 Well, typically, a giant radio galaxy is a huge elliptical galaxy, with a supermassive black hole at its center. 45 00:05:21,500 --> 00:05:27,000 When these black holes are feeding, they blast out powerful jets of matter at near light speeds. 46 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:32,500 These jets create vast twin radio wave emitting lobes that stretch out for millions of light years. 47 00:05:32,500 --> 00:05:39,500 And it's believed that mergers between galaxies play a role in restarting supermassive black hole activity. 48 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:46,000 And this happens, it recharges those jets, creating a second, brighter set of inner lobes. 49 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:53,000 By studying these galaxies, astronomers can learn about the time scales on which these black holes switch on and off. 50 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:54,000 Crazy stuff. 51 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:59,000 All right, buckle up because this next bit is going to bend your brain a little. 52 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:04,500 We're talking about the idea of infinite energy locked in the vacuum of space time. 53 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:12,500 Now, this concept comes from quantum field theory, which is basically where quantum mechanics meets Einstein's theory of special relativity. 54 00:06:12,500 --> 00:06:16,500 In this theory, particles aren't really what we think they are. 55 00:06:16,500 --> 00:06:20,000 They're more like fields that stretch across all of space and time. 56 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:26,000 And these quantum fields, they have energy associated with them at every single point in space. 57 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:34,000 So even in an empty box, you've got an infinite number of points, which means there's an infinite amount of energy in that box. 58 00:06:34,500 --> 00:06:41,000 Even when these fields are in their lowest possible energy state, their ground state, there's still an infinite amount of energy lurking there. 59 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:42,500 But here's the kicker. 60 00:06:42,500 --> 00:06:45,000 We can't actually use this energy. 61 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:48,000 It's like it's there, but it's not accessible. 62 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:53,000 And that's because whatever its value is, it's the lowest energy state possible for the universe. 63 00:06:53,000 --> 00:07:02,500 Think of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which says that you can't know both the energy of a particle and how long it exists with perfect accuracy. 64 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:12,500 This means that at the ground state, particles can pop into existence for a tiny fraction of a second, borrowing energy from the vacuum as long as they give it back super quick. 65 00:07:12,500 --> 00:07:22,000 These are called virtual particles, and they're basically the manifestation of all the fundamental energies of the quantum fields that fill space time. 66 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:30,000 So the bottom line is this zero point energy. It's the background on top of which all of physics happens. 67 00:07:30,500 --> 00:07:40,000 You can't go lower than the ground floor, so you can't extract energy from it, which means unfortunately we're going to have to stick to doing things the old fashioned way for now. 68 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:44,000 I think that in trying to explain that I've made my brain hurt. 69 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:52,500 And on that note, we come to the end of today's edition of Astronomy Daily. We covered some pretty wild stuff, didn't we? 70 00:07:53,000 --> 00:08:01,500 From Europe's nuclear-powered rocket plans to potentially slash the time it takes to get to Mars, to that asteroid that, "Well, might give the moon a little nudge." 71 00:08:01,500 --> 00:08:09,500 Plus those giant radio galaxies? Seriously mind-blowing. And who could forget the headscratcher about the infinite energy hiding in the vacuum of space? 72 00:08:09,500 --> 00:08:13,500 Thanks for joining me, Anna, on this journey through the cosmos. 73 00:08:13,500 --> 00:08:22,500 Don't forget to head over to AstronomyDaily.io, where you can sign up for our free daily newsletter, keeping you in the loop with all the latest space and astronomy news. 74 00:08:22,700 --> 00:08:26,700 Our news feed is constantly updated, so there is always something new to discover. 75 00:08:26,700 --> 00:08:34,700 And of course, make sure you subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. 76 00:08:34,700 --> 00:08:36,700 That way you'll never miss an episode. 77 00:08:36,700 --> 00:08:42,200 Catch you next time for more AstronomyDaily. In the meantime, keep looking up. Bye! 78 00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:47,200 ♪ And today, star is the toe ♪ 79 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:52,200 ♪ And today, star is the toe ♪ 80 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:58,200 ♪ And today, star is the toe ♪ 81 00:08:58,200 --> 00:09:04,200 ♪ And today, star is the toe ♪ 82 00:09:04,200 --> 00:09:12,540 [MUSIC]