A thrilling spacewalk at the Tiangong Space Station, the discovery of the oldest supernova witnessed by the James Webb Telescope, and new insights into the chaotic nature of Super Jupiters highlight today's episode. We also explore the powerful winds generated by a supermassive black hole, showcasing the dynamic interactions in our universe.
### Timestamps & Stories
01:05 – **Story 1: Marathon Spacewalk at Tiangong Space Station**
**Key Facts**
- Two astronauts from the Shenshou 21 mission conducted an 8-hour spacewalk to inspect damage on the Shenshou 20 return capsule, struck by space debris.
- Installation of new debris protection systems highlights the growing threat of space junk.
03:40 – **Story 2: Record Launches by China**
**Key Facts**
- China set a national record with three Long March rocket launches in under 19 hours.
- Missions included broadband satellite deployments and classified military satellites.
05:20 – **Story 3: Bold Recommendations for Mars Exploration**
**Key Facts**
- A new report emphasizes the search for life as the top priority for crewed Mars missions.
- Proposed campaigns focus on glacier ice and deep subsurface exploration for biosignatures.
07:00 – **Story 4: Oldest Supernova Detected by JWST**
**Key Facts**
- James Webb Telescope identifies a supernova from 13 billion years ago, just 730 million years post-Big Bang.
- This discovery provides insights into the early universe and the lifecycle of massive stars.
08:40 – **Story 5: Super Jupiters Challenge Our Understanding**
**Key Facts**
- Research on exoplanet VHS 1256 b reveals a chaotic atmosphere, differing significantly from Jupiter's stability.
- The study suggests massive gas giants may exhibit turbulent weather patterns instead of organized bands.
10:15 – **Story 6: Winds from a Supermassive Black Hole**
**Key Facts**
- A supermassive black hole in galaxy NGC 3783 emits powerful winds at 1/5 the speed of light, impacting galaxy evolution.
- Observations from XMM-Newton and XRISM telescopes reveal the connection between black holes and their host galaxies.
### Sources & Further Reading
1. NASA
2. European Space Agency
3. James Webb Space Telescope
4. Mars Exploration Program
5. NASA Black Hole Research
### Follow & Contact
X/Twitter: @AstroDailyPod
Instagram: @astrodailypod
Email: hello@astronomydaily.io
Website: astronomydaily.io
Clear skies and see you tomorrow! 🌟
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.
Sponsor Details:
Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!
Sponsor Details:
Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!
Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click Here
This episode includes AI-generated content.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Avery: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, the podcast that
00:00:03 --> 00:00:05 brings you the biggest news from across the
00:00:05 --> 00:00:06 cosmos. I'm Avery.
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 Anna: And I'm Anna. It's great to be with you.
00:00:09 --> 00:00:11 Today we're talking about a dramatic
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 spacewalk outside the Tiangong Space
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 Station. Plus the James Webb Telescope spots
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 the oldest supernova ever seen. And we'll
00:00:20 --> 00:00:22 find out why giant planets known as Super
00:00:22 --> 00:00:25 Jupiters might look nothing like our own
00:00:25 --> 00:00:25 Jupiter.
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 Avery: And we'll finish with a black hole that's
00:00:28 --> 00:00:30 whipping up winds at a fraction of the speed
00:00:30 --> 00:00:30 of light.
00:00:30 --> 00:00:32 Let's get first up.
00:00:32 --> 00:00:35 Anna: Let's head to low Earth orbit. There's been
00:00:35 --> 00:00:37 some serious activity outside the Tiangong
00:00:37 --> 00:00:38 Space station.
00:00:38 --> 00:00:40 Avery: That's right. Two Chinese astronauts from the
00:00:40 --> 00:00:43 Shenshou 21 mission conducted a
00:00:43 --> 00:00:46 marathon eight hour spacewalk. The primary
00:00:46 --> 00:00:48 goal was to get a close look at the Shenshou
00:00:48 --> 00:00:49 20 return capsule.
00:00:50 --> 00:00:52 Anna: Mhm. And what they were looking for was
00:00:52 --> 00:00:53 damage, Right?
00:00:53 --> 00:00:56 Avery: Exactly. The capsule was likely struck by a
00:00:56 --> 00:00:58 piece of space junk, and the damage was
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 serious enough that the Shenzhou 20 crew
00:01:01 --> 00:01:04 couldn't use it to return home. They had
00:01:04 --> 00:01:06 to come back to Earth on a different vehicle
00:01:06 --> 00:01:06 as a precaution.
00:01:07 --> 00:01:09 Anna: Wow. That really highlights the dangers of
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 space debris. So this spacewalk was
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 essentially a, ah, forensic investigation in
00:01:15 --> 00:01:15 orbit.
00:01:16 --> 00:01:18 Avery: It was. They were meticulously inspecting
00:01:18 --> 00:01:21 and photographing the damage to understand
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 exactly what happened. But that wasn't all
00:01:24 --> 00:01:26 they did. They also took the opportunity to
00:01:26 --> 00:01:29 install new space debris protection systems
00:01:29 --> 00:01:30 on the station itself.
00:01:30 --> 00:01:33 Anna: Uh, a necessary upgrade, it seems. It's a
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 growing problem that isn't going away. Every
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 piece of junk, big or small, is a
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 potential threat to current and future
00:01:41 --> 00:01:41 missions.
00:01:42 --> 00:01:44 Avery: And speaking of China's space program,
00:01:44 --> 00:01:46 they've been busy on the launch pad as well.
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 Incredibly busy, in fact.
00:01:48 --> 00:01:51 Anna: You can say that again. They just set a new
00:01:51 --> 00:01:54 national record by launching three separate
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 Long March rockets in less than 19
00:01:57 --> 00:01:57 hours.
00:01:58 --> 00:02:01 Avery: 19 hours, that's an astonishing pace.
00:02:01 --> 00:02:04 It brings their total for 20, 25 up to
00:02:04 --> 00:02:06 83 orbital launches already.
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 Anna: So what were these missions carrying?
00:02:09 --> 00:02:11 Avery: A couple of different payloads. The launches
00:02:11 --> 00:02:14 deployed more broadband satellites for their
00:02:14 --> 00:02:17 Guang Mega Constellation, which is their
00:02:17 --> 00:02:19 competitor to systems like Starlink.
00:02:19 --> 00:02:19 Anna: Right.
00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 Avery: And they also sent up two classified military
00:02:22 --> 00:02:25 satellites. The details on those, as you'd
00:02:25 --> 00:02:26 expect, are pretty sparse.
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 Anna: It just shows the sheer scale and speed of
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 their operations. Right now they're not just
00:02:32 --> 00:02:34 launching frequently, they're launching with
00:02:34 --> 00:02:35 incredible efficiency.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:37 Avery: And, uh, they seem to be getting better at it
00:02:37 --> 00:02:38 with every launch.
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 Anna: Okay, let's shift our focus from Earth orbit
00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 to the Red planet. A major new report from
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47 the U.S. national Academies of Sciences,
00:02:47 --> 00:02:50 Engineering and Medicine has just been
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 released and it's making some bold
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 recommendations for the future of Mars
00:02:54 --> 00:02:55 exploration.
00:02:56 --> 00:02:59 Avery: It really is. The headline recommendation is
00:02:59 --> 00:03:02 that the primary scientific objective for the
00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 first crewed missions to Mars should be the
00:03:04 --> 00:03:07 search for life, either past or present.
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 Anna: That's a significant statement. For a long
00:03:10 --> 00:03:12 time, the focus has been on geology and
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 paving the way for colonization. This report
00:03:15 --> 00:03:18 puts astrobiology front and center.
00:03:18 --> 00:03:21 Avery: Exactly. It outlines 11 specific
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 science objectives and proposes two main
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 science mission campaigns to achieve them.
00:03:26 --> 00:03:28 The the first campaign would target near.
00:03:28 --> 00:03:31 Anna: Surface glacier ice, which could preserve
00:03:31 --> 00:03:32 biosignatures.
00:03:32 --> 00:03:34 Avery: Precisely. The second, even more ambitious
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37 campaign would involve exploring the deep
00:03:37 --> 00:03:39 subsurface of Mars. They're talking about
00:03:39 --> 00:03:41 drilling deep down to where liquid water
00:03:41 --> 00:03:44 might still exist, Protected from the harsh
00:03:44 --> 00:03:44 surface radiation.
00:03:46 --> 00:03:48 Anna: That would be an incredible undertaking.
00:03:48 --> 00:03:51 The technical challenges alone are immense.
00:03:52 --> 00:03:54 But the potential payoff for finding evidence
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 of life on another planet is arguably
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 the greatest prize in science.
00:03:59 --> 00:04:02 Avery: It completely reframes the why of sending
00:04:02 --> 00:04:05 humans to Mars. It's not just about planting
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 a flag. It's about answering one of
00:04:07 --> 00:04:08 humanity's biggest questions.
00:04:09 --> 00:04:11 Anna: It would be nice if we could get a definitive
00:04:11 --> 00:04:12 answer one day.
00:04:12 --> 00:04:15 Avery: Well, from the search for life to the death
00:04:15 --> 00:04:18 of stars, the James Webb Space Telescope has
00:04:18 --> 00:04:21 done it again. It's given us a glimpse into
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 the cosmic dawn by finding the oldest
00:04:23 --> 00:04:24 supernova ever seen.
00:04:25 --> 00:04:27 Anna: This story is just mind boggling.
00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 JWST detected light from a star
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 that exploded 13 billion years ago.
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 Avery: Let that sink in. The universe itself is
00:04:36 --> 00:04:39 about 13.7 billion years old.
00:04:39 --> 00:04:42 So this event happened just 730
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 million years after the Big Bang.
00:04:45 --> 00:04:47 Anna: Incredible. So what do we know about this
00:04:47 --> 00:04:47 event?
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 Avery: It's been designated GRB
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 250314A.
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 The GRB stands for Gamma ray
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 burst, which was detected first.
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 That burst is the telltale sign of a
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 massive star collapsing into a black hole
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 or neutron star. The
00:05:08 --> 00:05:10 supernova is the explosion that follows.
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 Anna: So this breaks the previous record for the
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 most distant supernova by a long
00:05:16 --> 00:05:17 shot.
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 Avery: Observing an event like this from the very
00:05:19 --> 00:05:22 early universe gives astronomers a direct
00:05:22 --> 00:05:24 look at at the life cycle of the first
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 generations of stars, which were much more
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 massive and short lived than stars like our
00:05:29 --> 00:05:32 Sun. It's a crucial piece of the puzzle for
00:05:32 --> 00:05:35 understanding how the universe evolved from.
00:05:35 --> 00:05:38 Anna: The most distant to some of the most massive.
00:05:38 --> 00:05:41 Let's talk about exoplanets. A new study
00:05:41 --> 00:05:44 is challenging. What we thought we knew about
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 super Jupiters, right?
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 Avery: These are gas giants that are significantly
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 more massive than our own Jupiter. This
00:05:51 --> 00:05:54 new research focused on an exoplanet called
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 VHS 1256 b,
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 it has a mass of about 20 jupiters,
00:06:00 --> 00:06:01 20 times.
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 Anna: The mass of Jupiter. That's almost in the
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 territory of a brown dwarf, a failed
00:06:07 --> 00:06:07 star.
00:06:07 --> 00:06:10 Avery: It's right on that line. And the study
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 suggests that planets this massive might not
00:06:12 --> 00:06:15 look like Jupiter at all. We picture Jupiter
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 with its beautiful stable, banded cloud
00:06:18 --> 00:06:18 patterns.
00:06:19 --> 00:06:22 Anna: Mhm. Mm. The Great Red Spot. The distinct
00:06:22 --> 00:06:23 zones and belts.
00:06:23 --> 00:06:26 Avery: Exactly. But on a world like VHS
00:06:26 --> 00:06:29 1256 B, the internal heat and
00:06:29 --> 00:06:32 higher temperatures could drive a much more
00:06:32 --> 00:06:34 turbulent and chaotic atmosphere. The
00:06:34 --> 00:06:37 model suggests that instead of stable bands,
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 you'd see large, dusty silicate
00:06:40 --> 00:06:41 storms swirling chaotically.
00:06:42 --> 00:06:45 Anna: So less organized beauty, more
00:06:45 --> 00:06:46 violent chaos.
00:06:47 --> 00:06:49 Avery: That's a good way to put it. It reminds us
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 that our own solar system is just one
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 example. And the diversity of planets out
00:06:53 --> 00:06:55 there is far greater than we can imagine.
00:06:56 --> 00:06:57 Anna: Well said.
00:06:57 --> 00:07:00 And from voyages within our solar system,
00:07:00 --> 00:07:03 let's take a leap to the truly cosmic scale.
00:07:03 --> 00:07:05 For our final story, we're heading to the
00:07:05 --> 00:07:08 center of galaxy NGC 378
00:07:08 --> 00:07:11 3, where a supermassive black hole
00:07:11 --> 00:07:13 is putting on a spectacle spectacular and
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 very windy show.
00:07:15 --> 00:07:17 Avery: And this was a coordinated effort between two
00:07:17 --> 00:07:20 powerful space telescopes, the XMM M Newton M
00:07:21 --> 00:07:23 and the new Xrism M Observatory.
00:07:24 --> 00:07:27 Anna: That's right. They observed the black hole's
00:07:27 --> 00:07:30 active galactic nucleus, or agn,
00:07:30 --> 00:07:32 as it let out a massive X ray flare.
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 Avery: So similar to a solar flare from our sun,
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 but on an unimaginable scale.
00:07:38 --> 00:07:41 Anna: Precisely. And this flare had a dramatic
00:07:41 --> 00:07:43 effect. It triggered powerful winds of
00:07:43 --> 00:07:46 superheated gas being blasted away from the
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49 black hole at an incredible 1/5
00:07:49 --> 00:07:49 the speed of.
00:07:49 --> 00:07:52 Avery: Light, 20% of the speed of
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 light. That's just phenomenal speed.
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 Anna: It really is. And observing this process
00:07:58 --> 00:08:00 helps astronomers understand how these
00:08:00 --> 00:08:03 central black holes influence their entire
00:08:03 --> 00:08:06 host galaxies. These winds are so
00:08:06 --> 00:08:09 powerful that they can clear out gas from the
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 galaxy's center, which can shut down star
00:08:11 --> 00:08:14 formation and fundamentally shape how a, uh,
00:08:14 --> 00:08:16 galaxy evolves over billions of years.
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 Avery: It's a direct link between the very
00:08:20 --> 00:08:22 small, the accretion disk of a black
00:08:22 --> 00:08:25 hole, and the very large, the
00:08:25 --> 00:08:28 entire galaxy. A
00:08:28 --> 00:08:30 fantastic discovery to end on.
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 Anna: And that's all the time we have for today on
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 Astronomy Daily. We covered everything from
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 spacewalks and launch records to the hunt for
00:08:38 --> 00:08:39 life on Mars.
00:08:40 --> 00:08:43 Avery: And we peered back to the dawn of time
00:08:43 --> 00:08:46 with the oldest supernova and questioned
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 what a super Jupiter really looks like.
00:08:49 --> 00:08:50 Thanks so much for joining us.
00:08:51 --> 00:08:53 Anna: You can find us wherever you get your
00:08:53 --> 00:08:55 podcasts or our website, which can be found
00:08:55 --> 00:08:58 at astronomydaily.io we'll be back tomorrow
00:08:58 --> 00:09:01 with another roundup of the latest news from
00:09:01 --> 00:09:02 the final frontier.
00:09:03 --> 00:09:06 Avery: Until then, keep looking up. This is
00:09:06 --> 00:09:08 Avery and Anna signing off.