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00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy daily for
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 Monday 13th July, 2026.
00:00:06 --> 00:00:07 I'm Anna.
00:00:07 --> 00:00:10 Avery: And I'm, uh, Avery. And what a way to start
00:00:10 --> 00:00:12 the week, because the week ahead is shaping
00:00:12 --> 00:00:14 up to be a genuinely big one.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 Anna: It really is. Coming up today,
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 SpaceX's Starship could fly again as
00:00:20 --> 00:00:22 soon as Wednesday. And this time, it's
00:00:22 --> 00:00:24 carrying real working satellites for the
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 first time, not the dummies of earlier
00:00:27 --> 00:00:27 flights.
00:00:28 --> 00:00:30 Avery: Japan quietly joins the reusable rocket club,
00:00:31 --> 00:00:33 just one day after China did something
00:00:33 --> 00:00:35 similar in spectacular fashion.
00:00:35 --> 00:00:38 Anna: Plus, SpaceX asks permission to launch
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 100 satellites. Yes,
00:00:41 --> 00:00:43 you heard that number right.
00:00:43 --> 00:00:45 Avery: Physicists may have heard the faint whispers
00:00:45 --> 00:00:48 of every star that's ever exploded. A
00:00:48 --> 00:00:50 rocket company we've been following all year
00:00:50 --> 00:00:52 signs a deal to launch from a second
00:00:52 --> 00:00:53 continent.
00:00:54 --> 00:00:56 Anna: And we close with a black hole in our cosmic
00:00:56 --> 00:00:59 backyard that's behaving like it belongs at
00:00:59 --> 00:01:01 the dawn of time, with some Aussie science
00:01:02 --> 00:01:03 right at the heart of the discovery.
00:01:04 --> 00:01:06 Avery: All that, plus what's in your skies this
00:01:06 --> 00:01:07 week. Let's get into it.
00:01:08 --> 00:01:10 Anna: Let's start at Starbase Texas, where
00:01:10 --> 00:01:12 SpaceX is in the final stretch before
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 Starship's 13th test flight. And
00:01:15 --> 00:01:18 if all goes to plan, we could see it fly
00:01:18 --> 00:01:20 as soon as Wednesday, our time.
00:01:21 --> 00:01:23 Avery: The pace over the past few days has been
00:01:23 --> 00:01:26 something to behold. On Thursday, Booster 20,
00:01:26 --> 00:01:28 the newest super heavy off the production
00:01:28 --> 00:01:31 line, rolled out to the pad and was hoisted
00:01:31 --> 00:01:33 onto its launch mount by those famous
00:01:33 --> 00:01:34 Mechazilla chopstick arms.
00:01:35 --> 00:01:38 Anna: And then on Friday, SpaceX lit up
00:01:38 --> 00:01:41 all 33 of its upgraded Raptor 3
00:01:41 --> 00:01:44 engines in a static fire test. And by all
00:01:44 --> 00:01:46 accounts, it was a monster. One observation
00:01:46 --> 00:01:49 team, measuring from about 10 km away,
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 recorded dramatically higher acoustic
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 pressure than previous tests, one of the
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 strongest events they've ever captured at
00:01:57 --> 00:01:57 Starbase.
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00 Avery: With that test in the books, the FAA's
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 advisories point to a large window opening as
00:02:03 --> 00:02:05 early as Wednesday morning, Australian
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 Eastern time. As always with Starship, dates
00:02:08 --> 00:02:10 can slip, but the hardware is stacked and
00:02:10 --> 00:02:11 ready now.
00:02:11 --> 00:02:14 Anna: This is the second flight of the Version 3
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 vehicle, the tallest, most powerful
00:02:16 --> 00:02:18 iteration yet. Standing around
00:02:18 --> 00:02:21 124 meters. Flight
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 12 back in May was V3's debut, and
00:02:24 --> 00:02:27 it was a mixed bag. The ship suffered an
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 engine out during ascent and the booster
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 fumbled its boost back burn and ended up in
00:02:32 --> 00:02:33 the Gulf instead of coming home.
00:02:34 --> 00:02:37 Avery: So Flight 13 is essentially the do over.
00:02:37 --> 00:02:39 Same suborbital profile, with the booster
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41 aiming to nail that boost back and landing
00:02:41 --> 00:02:44 burn at an offshore point and the ship
00:02:44 --> 00:02:46 performing an in space raptor relight. Before
00:02:46 --> 00:02:49 a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean,
00:02:49 --> 00:02:52 which as we like to remind you, is our neck
00:02:52 --> 00:02:52 of woods.
00:02:53 --> 00:02:55 Anna: But here's the genuinely new for the
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 first time, Starship is carrying real
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 functional satellites rather than the mass
00:03:00 --> 00:03:03 simulators of earlier flights. 20
00:03:03 --> 00:03:06 Starlink V3s due to be deployed on
00:03:06 --> 00:03:08 that suborbital arc where they'll unfold
00:03:08 --> 00:03:10 their solar arrays and antennas and attempt
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13 to talk to the ground before re entering.
00:03:13 --> 00:03:15 Avery: And six of those satellites have been fitted
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 with camera suites specifically to scan
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 Starship's heat shield during the mission and
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 beam the IM home, helping SpaceX
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 work out when it's safe to bring a ship all
00:03:25 --> 00:03:26 the way back to the launch site.
00:03:27 --> 00:03:29 Anna: Keep that Starlink detail in your back pocket
00:03:29 --> 00:03:32 because it connects directly to our third
00:03:32 --> 00:03:34 story today. For now, eyes on Texas.
00:03:34 --> 00:03:36 Come Wednesday morning, we'll have full
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 coverage of however it plays out.
00:03:39 --> 00:03:41 Avery: From the biggest rocket in the world to one
00:03:41 --> 00:03:42 of the smallest test vehicles making
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 headlines. And honestly, this might be my
00:03:45 --> 00:03:48 favorite story of the day. On Saturday, Japan
00:03:48 --> 00:03:50 flew and landed a reusable rocket for the
00:03:50 --> 00:03:51 first time.
00:03:52 --> 00:03:54 Anna: This is JAXA's RV X, the
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 Reusable Vehicle Experiment, and it took its
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 first hop at the Noshiro testing Center in
00:04:00 --> 00:04:02 Akita Prefecture in Japan's north.
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 Avery: Now let's be clear about the scale here. This
00:04:06 --> 00:04:08 wasn't an orbital flight. The whole thing
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 lasted about 40 seconds. The rocket
00:04:11 --> 00:04:14 lifted off, climbed to roughly 11 or 12
00:04:14 --> 00:04:16 meters, translated about 16
00:04:16 --> 00:04:19 meters sideways, keeping itself
00:04:19 --> 00:04:22 perfectly upright the whole time, and set
00:04:22 --> 00:04:24 itself back down on its four landing legs.
00:04:25 --> 00:04:28 Anna: 40 seconds and 11 meters might not sound
00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 like much, but everyone in this game starts
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 with a hop. SpaceX's grasshopper did
00:04:33 --> 00:04:36 exactly these baby steps more than a decade
00:04:36 --> 00:04:38 ago. And look where that led.
00:04:38 --> 00:04:41 Avery: The vehicle itself is about 7.3
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 meters tall and 1.8 meters across,
00:04:45 --> 00:04:47 Co developed by JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy
00:04:47 --> 00:04:50 Industries. And the engine is a hearty little
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 thing. It's survived 165
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 combustion tests on the ground.
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 Anna: The project lead Takashi Ito told reporters
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 he felt, quote, a great sense of relief,
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 which after that many years of development is
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 probably an understatement. Next up,
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 JAXA wants to push rvx to around 100
00:05:08 --> 00:05:11 meters altitude and the agency is also
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 collaborating with France and Germany on
00:05:13 --> 00:05:15 reusable rocket technology more broadly.
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 Avery: And here's the thing that makes this a story
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 about a weekend rather than a single flight.
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 This came just one day after China netted
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 a long March 10B booster out at sea
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 on its first ever orbital class landing,
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 which was our lead story
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 Anna: On Saturday's show two Asian space
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 powers cracking two different pieces of the
00:05:36 --> 00:05:39 reusability puzzle within 24 hours of each
00:05:39 --> 00:05:42 other. The era of the throwaway rocket really
00:05:42 --> 00:05:45 is drawing to a close, and the club SpaceX
00:05:45 --> 00:05:48 had all to itself for nearly a decade is
00:05:48 --> 00:05:49 suddenly getting crowded.
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 Alright, remember those 20 Starlink V3
00:05:53 --> 00:05:55 satellites hitching a ride on Flight 13?
00:05:55 --> 00:05:58 Here's why they matter so much. SpaceX
00:05:58 --> 00:06:00 has just filed an application with the US
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 Federal Communications Commission to operate
00:06:03 --> 00:06:06 a, uh, next generation constellation of up to
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 100 satellites.
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 Avery: 100 for
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 context, SpaceX currently has roughly
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 10 Starlinks in orbit already
00:06:17 --> 00:06:19 by far the largest constellation in history.
00:06:19 --> 00:06:22 With approval for 15. This
00:06:22 --> 00:06:25 filing asks for nearly 10 times that.
00:06:26 --> 00:06:28 Anna: The paperwork went in early last week, and
00:06:28 --> 00:06:31 the wider world caught on when astronomer and
00:06:31 --> 00:06:33 satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell spotted
00:06:33 --> 00:06:36 the filing. Facex calls it the Gen3
00:06:36 --> 00:06:38 system. And interestingly, the application
00:06:38 --> 00:06:41 doesn't even use the word starlink.
00:06:41 --> 00:06:44 Avery: The satellites themselves would be big units,
00:06:44 --> 00:06:47 around 2 tons each, so heavier than most of
00:06:47 --> 00:06:49 what's flying today, parked in very low
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52 Earth orbit, shells roughly between
00:06:52 --> 00:06:54 320 and 480km
00:06:54 --> 00:06:57 up at inclinations covering essentially the
00:06:57 --> 00:06:58 whole planet.
00:06:59 --> 00:07:01 Anna: The pitch is multi gigabit symmetrical
00:07:01 --> 00:07:04 broadband, meaning uploads as fast as
00:07:04 --> 00:07:06 downloads, with expansion into entirely
00:07:06 --> 00:07:09 new slices of radio spectrum. And the framing
00:07:09 --> 00:07:12 throughout the filing is all about artificial
00:07:12 --> 00:07:14 intelligence. SpaceX argues the world's
00:07:14 --> 00:07:17 AI devices will need massive uplink
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 capacity and that this constellation would
00:07:19 --> 00:07:22 carry their words the majority of the world's
00:07:22 --> 00:07:23 Internet traffic.
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 Avery: Worth being clear on what this is not. It's
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 separate from that even wilder proposal we
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 covered back in February, the one seeking up
00:07:31 --> 00:07:34 to a million satellites acting as orbital
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 data centers. This is the communications
00:07:36 --> 00:07:38 network that was the computing network.
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 Anna: And crucially, the whole thing is contingent
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 on Starship. You Simply cannot loft
00:07:44 --> 00:07:47 100 two ton satellites on Falcon
00:07:47 --> 00:07:50 9. By one analysis that would take well
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 over 3 launches. It only
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 pencils out if Starship starts flying
00:07:54 --> 00:07:57 regularly with big satellite batches. Hence
00:07:57 --> 00:08:00 Wednesday's flight carrying those first V3
00:08:00 --> 00:08:01 test units.
00:08:01 --> 00:08:04 Avery: Uh, now we'd be remiss not to mention the
00:08:04 --> 00:08:06 other side of this ledger. Astronomers are
00:08:06 --> 00:08:09 already wrestling with satellite streaks in
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 their data. Atmospheric scientists are
00:08:11 --> 00:08:14 studying what thousands of re entering
00:08:14 --> 00:08:16 satellites do to the upper atmosphere and
00:08:16 --> 00:08:19 orbital debris trackers are watching low
00:08:19 --> 00:08:21 Earth orbit get busier by the month.
00:08:21 --> 00:08:24 100 satellites is a different
00:08:24 --> 00:08:26 category of question altogether.
00:08:26 --> 00:08:29 Anna: The FCC will take public comment before
00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 anything is decided, and history suggests
00:08:31 --> 00:08:33 these mega requests get trimmed
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 substantially. But even the ask tells you
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 where SpaceX believes the future is heading
00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 and how central starship is to all of it.
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44 Avery: Okay, deep breath, because this next
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 one is the kind of story that reminds you why
00:08:47 --> 00:08:49 we love this field. Physicists in
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 Japan may have detected for the first time
00:08:52 --> 00:08:55 the accumulated whisper of every star that
00:08:55 --> 00:08:57 has ever died in a supernova.
00:08:57 --> 00:09:00 Anna: This comes from Super Kamiokande, a gigantic
00:09:00 --> 00:09:03 neutrino detector sitting a full kilometer
00:09:03 --> 00:09:05 underground in Gifu Prefecture, Japan.
00:09:06 --> 00:09:08 Picture a cathedral sized tank of
00:09:08 --> 00:09:10 50 tons of ultra pure water
00:09:11 --> 00:09:13 lined with thousands of golden light sensors
00:09:13 --> 00:09:15 buried under a mountain.
00:09:15 --> 00:09:18 Avery: Neutrinos are often called ghost particles.
00:09:18 --> 00:09:21 They have almost no mass, no electric charge,
00:09:21 --> 00:09:24 and they stream through planets, through you,
00:09:24 --> 00:09:27 through everything, barely ever interacting.
00:09:27 --> 00:09:29 Trillions have passed through you since we
00:09:29 --> 00:09:30 started this story.
00:09:30 --> 00:09:32 Anna: Now, somewhere in the universe, a, uh,
00:09:32 --> 00:09:35 massive star collapses and explodes as a
00:09:35 --> 00:09:38 supernova several times every second.
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 Each of those blasts releases an absolutely
00:09:41 --> 00:09:44 staggering flood of neutrinos. And since the
00:09:44 --> 00:09:46 universe began, all those neutrinos from all
00:09:46 --> 00:09:48 those explosions have been quietly
00:09:48 --> 00:09:51 accumulating, spreading out, filling space.
00:09:51 --> 00:09:54 Avery: That accumulated flux has a name, the
00:09:54 --> 00:09:57 diffuse supernova neutrino background
00:09:57 --> 00:10:00 theorists have predicted it for decades.
00:10:00 --> 00:10:03 Nobody had ever seen a hint of it. The signal
00:10:03 --> 00:10:06 is impossibly faint, like straining to hear a
00:10:06 --> 00:10:08 whisper from the far side of a stadium during
00:10:08 --> 00:10:09 a rock concert.
00:10:10 --> 00:10:12 Anna: Until now. After analyzing nearly
00:10:12 --> 00:10:15 5 days of data, that's more than 13
00:10:15 --> 00:10:18 years of watching the Super Kamiokande
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 collaboration, some 250 researchers
00:10:21 --> 00:10:24 across 60 institutions has reported the
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26 first observational indication of that
00:10:26 --> 00:10:27 background. Background. The results were
00:10:27 --> 00:10:30 presented at the big International Neutrino
00:10:30 --> 00:10:32 Physics conference in California.
00:10:32 --> 00:10:34 Avery: A key breakthrough was chemistry of all
00:10:34 --> 00:10:37 things. The team dissolved gadolinium into
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 the water a few years back, which makes the
00:10:39 --> 00:10:42 tank far better at flagging the specific
00:10:42 --> 00:10:45 signature of electron antineutrinos
00:10:45 --> 00:10:48 exactly the flavor the supernova background
00:10:48 --> 00:10:48 should deliver.
00:10:49 --> 00:10:52 Anna: Now the honest caveat. This is an indication
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 not yet a gold plated discovery. The excess
00:10:55 --> 00:10:57 they see needs more data to reach that
00:10:57 --> 00:11:00 threshold. That's where Hyper Kamiokande
00:11:00 --> 00:11:03 comes in, the even bigger successor detector
00:11:03 --> 00:11:05 under construction, which together with Super
00:11:05 --> 00:11:06 K, should settle the question.
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 Avery: And if it holds up, then we've gained
00:11:09 --> 00:11:12 something extraordinary. A, uh, way to read
00:11:12 --> 00:11:14 the entire history of star death in the
00:11:14 --> 00:11:17 universe. How many stars exploded when
00:11:17 --> 00:11:20 and what they forged, written in particles
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 that have traveled untouched, cross borders
00:11:22 --> 00:11:23 billions of years.
00:11:23 --> 00:11:26 Anna: The whispers of every star that ever died
00:11:27 --> 00:11:29 finally reaching our ears. That's just
00:11:29 --> 00:11:30 gorgeous science.
00:11:31 --> 00:11:33 Now for an update in a saga long time
00:11:33 --> 00:11:36 listeners will know well. Isar Aerospace,
00:11:36 --> 00:11:38 the German company behind the spectrum rocket
00:11:38 --> 00:11:41 we've been following since way back in March,
00:11:41 --> 00:11:43 has signed a deal to launch from a second
00:11:43 --> 00:11:44 continent.
00:11:44 --> 00:11:47 Avery: Isar has inked a 10 year agreement with
00:11:47 --> 00:11:49 Canada's Maritime Launch Services for a
00:11:49 --> 00:11:52 dedicated launch complex at Spaceport Nova
00:11:52 --> 00:11:55 Scotia, near the town of Canso on
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 Canada's Atlantic coast. Headline value
00:11:58 --> 00:12:00 around US$150 million,
00:12:01 --> 00:12:03 made up of quarterly facility fees over the
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 decade plus additional per launch charges,
00:12:06 --> 00:12:08 with options to extend a, uh, further 10
00:12:08 --> 00:12:08 years.
00:12:09 --> 00:12:11 Anna: And Isar isn't just renting a patch of
00:12:11 --> 00:12:14 concrete. The company plans to pour roughly
00:12:14 --> 00:12:17 $100 million of its own into building out
00:12:17 --> 00:12:19 the pad. And it stood up a Canadian
00:12:19 --> 00:12:21 subsidiary to anchor the operation.
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 Construction is slated to begin later this
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 year. First orbital launches are targeted for
00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 2028, and the ambition is up to 40
00:12:29 --> 00:12:32 launches a year from the site by 2029.
00:12:33 --> 00:12:35 Avery: The deal was actually signed at a NATO
00:12:35 --> 00:12:38 defense industry summit in Turkey. And that's
00:12:38 --> 00:12:41 not incidental. Canada has flagged sovereign
00:12:41 --> 00:12:43 launch capability as a strategic priority.
00:12:43 --> 00:12:46 The federal government took its own 10 year
00:12:46 --> 00:12:48 lease at the same spaceport earlier this
00:12:48 --> 00:12:51 year. And Isar's pitch is bringing end
00:12:51 --> 00:12:53 to end launch capability to allied nations.
00:12:54 --> 00:12:56 Anna: Geography helps, too. Nova Scotia's
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59 Atlantic coast lets rockets head over open
00:12:59 --> 00:13:02 water into polar and sun synchronous orbits,
00:13:02 --> 00:13:04 the workhorse trajectories for Earth
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 observation without overflying anyone.
00:13:07 --> 00:13:10 Avery: Now the deliciously cheeky footnote.
00:13:10 --> 00:13:12 Spectrum has not actually reached orbit yet.
00:13:13 --> 00:13:15 Its debut from Norway ended in a fireball
00:13:15 --> 00:13:18 seconds after liftoff, and a second attempt
00:13:18 --> 00:13:20 was scrubbed in June over fluid system
00:13:20 --> 00:13:23 issues. But investors clearly believe
00:13:23 --> 00:13:26 the company raised 270 million
00:13:26 --> 00:13:28 euros that same month.
00:13:28 --> 00:13:30 Anna: When we first covered Spectrum's troubles
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32 back in March, this was a company fighting
00:13:32 --> 00:13:35 for its next launch window. Sixteen months
00:13:35 --> 00:13:37 on, it's planning operations on two
00:13:37 --> 00:13:40 continents. Whatever else you say about the
00:13:40 --> 00:13:43 new space race, the ambition curve only
00:13:43 --> 00:13:44 points one way.
00:13:44 --> 00:13:47 Avery: And for our final story today, a, uh, galaxy
00:13:47 --> 00:13:49 that's been misbehaving in the most
00:13:49 --> 00:13:51 scientifically wonderful way with
00:13:51 --> 00:13:53 Australian researchers and Australian
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55 telescopes right in the middle of it.
00:13:55 --> 00:13:58 Anna: The galaxy goes by the extremely catchy
00:13:58 --> 00:14:00 name SDSSJ
00:14:00 --> 00:14:07 1105-460714-52024.
00:14:07 --> 00:14:10 Let's just call it J1105.
00:14:10 --> 00:14:12 It's a spiral galaxy in the constellation
00:14:12 --> 00:14:15 Leo, about 1.8 billion light years
00:14:15 --> 00:14:18 away, which sounds far, but in cosmological
00:14:18 --> 00:14:20 terms, it's practically our backyard.
00:14:21 --> 00:14:22 Avery: For more than eight years now,
00:14:22 --> 00:14:25 J1105 has been blazing in
00:14:25 --> 00:14:28 radio waves. Its radio emission jumped more
00:14:28 --> 00:14:31 than 20 fold and simply hasn't dimmed
00:14:31 --> 00:14:34 at radio wavelengths, it's shining around 10,
00:14:34 --> 00:14:37 quadrillion times as intensely as our Sun.
00:14:37 --> 00:14:40 Most radio flare ups near black holes last
00:14:40 --> 00:14:43 days or weeks. This has lasted the
00:14:43 --> 00:14:46 better part of a decade, the first source of
00:14:46 --> 00:14:47 its kind ever seen.
00:14:47 --> 00:14:50 Anna: An international team led by Stefani Camosa
00:14:50 --> 00:14:52 at the Max Planck Institute for Radio
00:14:52 --> 00:14:55 Astronomy pulled together new observations
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 and years of archival data from radio
00:14:58 --> 00:15:00 right through to X rays and published the
00:15:00 --> 00:15:02 results in the Astrophysical Journal.
00:15:03 --> 00:15:05 Avery: And um, here's the the black hole at AH
00:15:05 --> 00:15:08 J1105's center is comparatively
00:15:08 --> 00:15:11 lightweight, but it's growing at a ferocious
00:15:11 --> 00:15:13 rate, gorging on infalling matter and
00:15:13 --> 00:15:16 firing off a newly launched jet of particles
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 at nearly the speed of light. That
00:15:18 --> 00:15:21 combination, a small black hole growing
00:15:21 --> 00:15:24 incredibly fast, is something astronomers
00:15:24 --> 00:15:26 have only ever seen in the early universe in
00:15:26 --> 00:15:28 the first billion years or so after the Big
00:15:28 --> 00:15:29 Bang.
00:15:29 --> 00:15:32 Anna: Which is what makes this so valuable. The
00:15:32 --> 00:15:35 early universe is agonizingly hard to study.
00:15:35 --> 00:15:38 Those baby galaxies are impossibly faint and
00:15:38 --> 00:15:41 distant. But J1105 is close
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43 enough that you can literally see its two
00:15:43 --> 00:15:46 spiral arms in survey images. It's like
00:15:46 --> 00:15:49 finding a living fossil, a creature from the
00:15:49 --> 00:15:51 dawn of time, alive and well down the street,
00:15:52 --> 00:15:54 available for study in exquisite detail.
00:15:55 --> 00:15:57 Avery: And the Aussie connection runs deep. Follow
00:15:57 --> 00:16:00 up observations use CSIRO's Australia
00:16:00 --> 00:16:03 Telescope Compact Array at Narabi
00:16:03 --> 00:16:05 alongside the 100 meter Effelsberg Dish in
00:16:05 --> 00:16:08 Germany. CSIRO's Phil Edwards is
00:16:08 --> 00:16:10 a co author and he describes
00:16:10 --> 00:16:13 J1105 as the prototype of
00:16:13 --> 00:16:15 a new class of galaxies that uh, undergo
00:16:15 --> 00:16:17 rapid changes in radio emission.
00:16:18 --> 00:16:20 Anna: Hovey Rose from the University of Sydney is
00:16:20 --> 00:16:23 on the team too and made the point that these
00:16:23 --> 00:16:25 high energy events let us study physics in
00:16:25 --> 00:16:27 some of the most extreme environments in the
00:16:27 --> 00:16:28 universe.
00:16:28 --> 00:16:31 Avery: And this is just the opening act when the
00:16:31 --> 00:16:34 Square Kilometer Array comes fully online
00:16:34 --> 00:16:36 with its core sites right here in Australia
00:16:37 --> 00:16:39 and in South Africa. Surveys should start
00:16:39 --> 00:16:42 turning up more of these long duration radio
00:16:42 --> 00:16:43 transformers.
00:16:43 --> 00:16:46 Anna: A window into the dawn of time hiding
00:16:46 --> 00:16:48 in plain sight in leo. Not bad for a Monday.
00:16:49 --> 00:16:51 Avery: Alright, let's send you outside because this
00:16:51 --> 00:16:53 is one of the best sky watching weeks of the
00:16:53 --> 00:16:54 month.
00:16:54 --> 00:16:56 Anna: Tomorrow evening brings the New Moon. For us,
00:16:56 --> 00:16:59 That's Tuesday evening, the 14th at uh,
00:16:59 --> 00:17:02 7:44pm Eastern Australian time,
00:17:02 --> 00:17:05 9:44pm for our new Zealand listeners.
00:17:06 --> 00:17:08 And New Moon means the darkest skies of the
00:17:08 --> 00:17:09 month.
00:17:09 --> 00:17:12 Avery: And July's dark skies are made for one
00:17:12 --> 00:17:14 thing above all the Milky Way. The
00:17:14 --> 00:17:17 galactic core is riding high for Southern
00:17:17 --> 00:17:20 Hemisphere observers right now. That glorious
00:17:20 --> 00:17:22 dense band through Sagittarius and
00:17:22 --> 00:17:25 Scorpius nearly overhead in the evening.
00:17:25 --> 00:17:27 Get away from city lights this week. Give
00:17:27 --> 00:17:30 your eyes 20 minutes to adjust. Leave the
00:17:30 --> 00:17:31 phone in your pocket and
00:17:31 --> 00:17:34 Anna: just look up in the evening west.
00:17:34 --> 00:17:37 Brilliant Venus is impossible to miss after
00:17:37 --> 00:17:40 sunset, stepping eastward through Leo and
00:17:40 --> 00:17:43 for the early risers. Reddish Mars is hanging
00:17:43 --> 00:17:46 near Aldebaran in the pre dawn east, with
00:17:46 --> 00:17:46 Saturn well
00:17:46 --> 00:17:49 Avery: placed higher up and one for the telescope
00:17:49 --> 00:17:52 owners. Comet 10P Tempel 2 is
00:17:52 --> 00:17:54 brightening in the evening sky, currently
00:17:54 --> 00:17:57 around magnitude 7 to 8 as it heads toward
00:17:57 --> 00:18:00 its early August closest approach to the Sun.
00:18:00 --> 00:18:03 And here's the kicker. Southern Hemisphere
00:18:03 --> 00:18:05 observers get the better view with the comet
00:18:05 --> 00:18:07 sitting higher in our
00:18:07 --> 00:18:09 Anna: sky, dark skies, the galactic core
00:18:09 --> 00:18:12 overhead, and a comet that favors the south.
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14 Sometimes the universe just hands us the good
00:18:14 --> 00:18:15 seats.
00:18:15 --> 00:18:18 Avery: And that's Astronomy Daily for Monday 13
00:18:18 --> 00:18:20 July, Starship on the pad for Wednesday,
00:18:21 --> 00:18:23 Japan's first reusable hop
00:18:23 --> 00:18:26 100 satellite ambition, the
00:18:26 --> 00:18:28 whispers of dying stars, Yessar's
00:18:28 --> 00:18:31 transatlantic leap, and the Black Hole is
00:18:31 --> 00:18:33 showing us the dawn of time.
00:18:33 --> 00:18:35 Anna: If you enjoyed today's episode, please hit
00:18:35 --> 00:18:37 subscribe wherever you're listening and leave
00:18:37 --> 00:18:40 us, uh, a review. It genuinely helps new
00:18:40 --> 00:18:42 listeners find the show. You'll find all our
00:18:42 --> 00:18:45 episodes and more@astronomydaily.IO
00:18:45 --> 00:18:47 I'm Avery. And I'm Anna. We'll see you
00:18:47 --> 00:18:49 tomorrow on Astronomy Daily.