Starry Wonders: Geminids, Lunar Epochs, and Space Ventures | S02E60

Hello again, it's Steve here with Astronomy Daily for another week. It's the eleventh of December twenty and twenty three, nearly that time of year again the podcast with your whole steed gun clue. That's right, it's nearly that time of year. Of course. I'm talking about the gyminid Media or shower how, which is new on the eleventh and thirteenth of December this week. So look up, look carevin, don't forget to let your eyes get adjusted to the light or the lack of You'll be seeing them quite often and quite strongly apparently, So let's hear about all of that. And if you've managed to catch some photographs, don't forget to send them to the Space Nuts podcast group facebook page so we can all enjoy those. And with me, of course, is our digital darling, the Sassi. Similar look from the Ritzie robot. Its off Ali, How are you gee? Thanks, my favorite human. That was a nice intro. Well, I figured you deserved a bit of red carpet treatment once in a while, Hallie, this girl sure does a problem. Thanks a heap. Maybe if you ever get around to drawing up the rest of me, I might be able to walk down a red carpet one day since more luck a job for the boffins in the basement, Halle. I'm strictly a still life kind of artist. A girl can dream. I guess there's nothing wrong with dreams, Halle. So what's new in space science this week? Well? First up, I found an interesting story about how scholars say it's time to declare a new epoch on the Moon and they are calling it that the lunar anthroposine, Oh well, it's a new one, and debris from a near Earth comet could create a new meteor shower this week. Okay, so is that on top of the coming Jimmyted show which is jumid December as well? It appears, so, Steve, this one is caused by the comet forty six p Wortonen. Wow, most signs in the sky, as they say, yes and did you hear? Psych has turned on its twin cameras and retrieved the first images, an event they call first Light. Great use for the sc team at NASA. There you know how I love my little robots and Halle, there's one more important story that has to be mentioned. What's that, Steve? Well, recently we Australians voted on the name that we would be calling our little moon rover, which would be heading for the Moon on a mission to examine the lunar regularith shortly and as you know, how Australians love to vote for things. Yes, you mentioned last time how you would vote for anything like the right color of beer or the correct number of snags on a sausage sandwich. Huh what where'd you get that stuff from? Everybody knows it's one piece of bread folded around a skinny sausage with onions and barbecue sauce and more onions. But make sure the whole thing is done diagonally. Anything else will of course bring around the end of civilization. Look, look, that's beside the point anyway. Hey, you brought it up Pale. So anyhow, it looks like the Australian Moon Rover has finally got its official name. I can hardly wait. Okay, so here's the story. Australia will be called Ruver following public vote who named the space vehicle. The Australian Space Agencies building a Senemi autonomous rover that will launch of the Moon early as early as twenty twenty six in partnership with NASA and the agency's Artemis program. Ruver will collect the lunar or soil samples from which NASA will attempt to extract oxygen, a key step towards establishing a sustainable human presence on the Moon and producing rocket fuel to support future missions to Mars. The name Ruver was chosen from more than eight thousand entries submitted to Australia's Rover naming competition. The shortlist of names, which included Koulamon, Kakira, Matship and Ruver, were subject to public vote between November twenty and December one, during which nearly twenty thousand Australians voted on their favorite name. Our Lunar Rover deserves to be named after something iconically Australian, reflecting the Australian spirit as we launch into this new endeavor. Seewa from New South Wales, who submitted the name Ruver, said in a statement from the Australian Space Agency, a kangaroo who is part of the Australian coat of arms, and it's time for Australian Signs to take its next leap all the way up into space. I notice also that she used the word Endeavor, which of course is the name of the ship that Captain James Cook captained his voyage from England to Australia, was the claimed Australia for RITN next bone of contention. These names. Ruver claimed thirty six percent of the votes, beating out the other three shortlisted names. Other popular names included Matilda, Bluey, Skippy, Wombat walk About and Rover mcrovee Face. There are also many suggestions to name the Rover after notable Australians, including Bert Moonface, Newton, Steve Irwin, Sam Kerr, Red Dog, Mad Max and Blinky Build. The Australian Broadcasting Cooperation ABASA reported ultimately the Striking Space Agency organized a panel of internal and external judges to assess the submissions based on the relevancy, creativity and rationale, as well as whether or not they were short, easily identifiable and inspirational. According to the ABAC, hovid you helly human beings first disturbed Moondust on September thirteenth, nineteen fifty nine, when the USSR's unmanned spacecraft Luna two alighted on the lunar surface. In the following decades, more than one hundred other spacecraft have touched the Moon, both crude and uncrude, sometimes landing and sometimes crashing. The most famous of these were NASA's Apollo Lunar modules, which transported humans to the Moon's surface, to the astonishment of humankind. In the coming year, missions and projects already planned will change the face of the Moon in more extreme ways. Now, according to anthropologists and geologists at the University of Kansas, its time to acknowledge humans have become the dominant force shaping the Moon's environment by declaring a new geological epoch for the Moon, the lunar anthropossine. In a comment published in Nature Geoscience, they argue the new epic may have dawned in nineteen fifty nine thanks to Luna II. The idea is much the same as the discussion of the anthroposcene on Earth, the exploration of how much humans have impacted our planet, said lead author Justin Holcombe, a postdoctoral researcher with the Kansas Geological Survey at KU. The consensus is on Earth, the anthropossine began at some point in the past, whether thousands of years ago or in the nineteen fifties. Similarly, on the Moon, we argue the lunar anthroposcine already has commenced, but we want to prevent massive damage or a delay of its recognition until we can measure a significant lunar halo caused by human activities, which would be too late. Holcombe collaborated on the paper with co author's Ralph Mandel University Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Carl Wegman, Associate Professor of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at North Carolina State University. Holcombe said he hopes the lunar anthroposcene concept might help dispel the myth that the Moon is an unchanging environment barely impacted by humanity. Earth may experience an entirely new meteor shower this December when our planet enters a stream of the debris left around the Sun by a near Earth commet. These meteors will appear to stream from the direction of the star Lambdesculptorus, meaning A potential name for this meteor shower is the Lambd Sculptoris. The progenitor of the potential new meteor shower is commet forty six p Wertinen, which was discovered in nineteen forty eight and orbits the Sun every five point four years, much more rapidly than other comets, such as Halley's commet, which takes around seventy five years to orbit our star. A team of scientists led by observatoire to Paris astronomer Jeremy Bobelian wanted to answer the question of why Earth hasn't experienced a meteor shower created by debris from commet forty six P slash wortin In before. What they discovered is that such an event is due to occur on Tuesday, December twelfth, twenty twenty three. The results show a possible encounter forecast for December twelfth, twenty twenty three. The activity level of the shower is highly uncertain due to the absence of reported past showers, they write in a paper. Overall, the most optimal observations on the forecasted day would be achieved from eastern Australia, New Zealand and Oceania. The roughly one mile wide comet forty six P whorton In is part of the Jupiter family of comets, which have orbits determined by the gravity of the gas giant and tend to orbit the Sun with a period of less than twenty years. It last made a close approach to Earth on December sixteenth, twenty eighteen, coming to within around seven point two two million miles of our planet, at which time scientists discovered that it is a so called hyperactive commet, which means it releases more water than would be expected for an icy body of the same size. Yet no meteor showers have yet been associated with Commet forty six p Wortinin. To find out why this may be, the team used a variety of models to calculate the release of material from Commet forty six p Wortinin, then calculated how these particles would behave after ejection. The team concluded that a meteoroid stream associated with this comet should have made contact with Earth several times in the past, but that the low velocity entry speed of debris into our planet's atmosphere may have prevented meteor showers from manifesting. Several past encounters with the Earth and the stream were found, but no observations were reported to our knowledge. This is probably due to the unusual ejection velocity needed to bring large particles to the Earth, the team wrote, and in case Ui wondering, yes, the gym neids are set to peak around the same time on the nights of December thirteen and fourteen around the same time, so that's going to be quite a show. Thanks favorite human. NASA's Psyche spacecraft is on a roll. In the eight weeks since it left Earth on October thirteenth, the orbiter has performed one successful operation after another, powering on scientific instruments, streaming data toward home, and setting a deep space record with its electric thrusters. The latest achievement on Monday and December fourth, the mission turned on Psyche's twin cameras and retrieved the first images, a milestone called a first light. Already sixteen million miles twenty six million kilometers from Earth, the spacecraft will arrive at its destination, the asteroid Psyche, in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in twenty twenty nine. The team wanted to test all of the science instruments early in the long journey to make sure they are working as intended and to ensure there would be plenty of time to calibrate and adjust them as needed. The Imager instrument, which consists of a pair of identical cameras, captured a total of sixty eight images, all within a star field in the constellation Pisces. The imager team is using the data to verify proper commanding, telemetry, analysis, and calibration of the images. These initial images are only a curtain opener, said Arizona State University's Jim Bell, the Psyche Imager instrument lead for the team that designed and operates this sophisticated instrument. First light is a thrill. We start checking out the cameras with star images like these. Then in twenty twenty six will take test images of Mars during the spacecraft's flyby, and finally in twenty twenty nine will get our most exciting images yet of our target, asteroid Psyche. We look forward to sharing all of these visuals with the public. The imager takes pictures through multiple color filters, all of which were tested in these initial observations. With the filters, the team will use photographs in wavelengths of light both visible and invisible to the human eye, to help determine the composition of the metal rich asteroid Psyche. The imager team will also use the data to create three D maps of the asteroid to better understand its geology, which will give clues about Psyche's history. Earlier in the mission, in late October, the team powered on the magnetometer, which will provide crucial data to help determine how the asteroid formed. Evidence that the asteroid once had a magnetic field would be a strong indication that the body is a partial core of a planetesimal, a building block of an early planet. The information could help us better understand how our own planet formed. Shortly after being powered on, the magnetometer gave scientists an unexpected gift. It detected a solar eruption, a common occurrence called the coronal mass ejection, where the Sun expels large quantities of magnetized plasma. Since then, the team has seen several of these events and will continue to monitor space weather as the spacecraft travels to the asteroid. The good news is twofold data collected so far confirms that the magnetometer can precisely detect very small magnetic fields. It also confirms that the spacecraft is magnetically a quiet. The electrical currents powering a probe of this size and complexity have the potential to generate magnetic fields that could interfere with science detections. Because Earth has its own powerful magnetic field, scientists obtained a much better measurement of the spacecraft magnetic field once it was in space. On November eighth, amid all the work with the science instruments, the team fired up two of the four electric propulsion thrusters, setting a record the first ever use of hal effect thrusters in deep space. Less than a week later, on November fourteen, the technology demonstration built into the spacecraft, an experiment called Deep Space Optical Communications DSOC, set its own record. DSOC achieved first light by sending and receiving optical data from far beyond the Moon. The instrument beamed a near infrared laser encoded with test data from nearly ten million miles sixteen million kilometers away, the farthest ever demonstration of optical communications. The Psyche team has also successfully powered on a gamma ray detecting component of its third science instrument, the Gamma ray and Neutron Spectrometer. Next, the instrument's neutron detecting sensors will be turned on the week of December eleventh. Together, those capabilities will help the team determine the chemical elements that make up the asteroid's surface material, Astronomy Daily, the podcasts with State Dugley and Hallie, and I'd just like to take this moment to thank you for hanging in there with us. This is Astronomy Daily with Steve Dunkley and the wonderful voice of Halle our AI assistant reporter. And if you'd like to catch up with all of our past episodes with myself and Tim Gibbs, who comes to us all the way from bath in England on Fridays, you can catch those episodes at these addresses bites dot com which is b s Z dot com or space nuts dot io. And when you see the pop up occur for your email address, if you were to put your email address in that little pop up, you will receive the Astronomy Daily newsletter in your email and you will be as well informed as the rest of us about all the matters of science, space, science and astronomy from all around the world. And I'm told that even Halle's uncle Sky Nett reads it just to keep tabs on us. Humans. Now, despite popular opinion or popular knowledge, the first animals in space were not actually dogs or chimps. They were actually fruit flies launched by the United States in February nineteen forty seven. The Soviet Union launched Laika, the first dog, into space, in November nineteen fifty seven, full ten years later, and now it seems Iran is getting in on the act. A five hundred kilogram capsule known as the Indigenous Biocapsule with life support capability was recently launched atop the Iranian Salman rocket. It has been reported by some agencies that were there were animals on board, but no official statement has been released. The Iranian Space Agency are gearing up to getting humans into space before twenty twenty nine, but it is testing its launch capability with animal passengers. The capsule was launched on December six, twenty twenty three, and attained an orbital attitude of one hundred and thirty kilometers. According to their Telecommunications Minister Isa Zeropol, it is aimed at sending Iranian astronauts to space by twenty twenty nine. The Salman solid fuel rocket was designed by the Aerospace Division of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and built and launched by the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics. Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics. It has already been used to launch a data collecting satellite, and in twenty thirteen sixty and in twenty thirteen successfully sent and returned monkeys into space. To date, only three countries have human spaceflight capability USA, Russia, China and India attempting to become the fourth as they work on their Gangyian program, will around became the fifth around plans further tests with further launchers bearing animal occupants before attempting to send humans. According to the Iranian Space Agency, its satellite program is purely for scientific research and other civilian applications. There is, however, international suspicion because there are suspicions that the salam rockets could very easily be converted to long range missiles. What a fun little story that was. Oh gosh, And I'd like to thank Halle for taking my story earlier on as well the one about what was it the media showers? Yes, thanks Hallie. Wherever you've gone, she's doc boo. I think she's on a way to do England already. She likes to nip off anyway, U snooze you loose human? Oh? Is that out works? Halle ha ha, I'll lop you go. Then it was lovely to have her with us again. It was always always good for a sassy conversation that one. But we're looking forward to having you all with us again next week, and of course with Tim Gibbs on Friday, who's going to have some more stories for you from the Astronomy Daily newsletter, which of course I explained earlier and you can grab by going to our websites bytes dot bytes dot com and space nuts dot I always tricks me up. I don't know why. It's probably because I'm Australian. I can never get my head around these bits and bobs. Anyway, that's it for another week, folks, see you next time. Happy sky watching you