S02E10: Probing Solar Storms // NASA's Public UFO Meeting // Saturn's Moons Tour

AI Transcript

TIM GIBBS: Good day, everybody and welcome to Astronomy Daily for the second of June 2023. My name is Tim Gibbs and I will be your host for today's edition.

TIM GIBBS: Some stories that we will be discussing today include the probing the heart of solar storms, spacecraft that could be visiting all of Saturn's inner large moons and NASA holding public meetings on UFO S. As usual. I have in the studio with me today. My favorite A I Hay Hay. Good day. How are you?

HALLIE: Hi, Tim. I am. Well, thank you. And I'm currently scanning the internet for interesting astronomy stories. Have you been doing anything interesting recently?

TIM GIBBS: Funny if you'd ask Kelly. I visited the Herschel Museum last week, which is the first time I've done that in a very long time. It's a great museum. Here in Bath in Somerset, it has a lot of exhibits and a few movies for you to watch and is a great morning or afternoon out for the whole family.

TIM GIBBS: You can even go into the back garden and see where he discovered Uranus or Uranus depending on your point of view. No jokes, please. So, yes, no, that was really interesting. And I would really recommend it to anybody who is visiting Bath. Now, Haley, how about the news for today.

HALLIE: To do the podcast with your host? K Gibbs NASA holds first public meeting on ufos. The truth is out there, but we're going to need to look harder scientists at NASA's first ever public meeting on the unidentified anomalous phenomena, more commonly called UFOs called Wednesday for a more rigorous scientific approach to clarify the origin of hundreds of mysterious sightings.

HALLIE: The space agency announced last year it was analyzing observations in the sky that can't be identified as aerial or natural phenomena. A subject that has long fascinated the public but was shunned by mainstream science.

HALLIE: An independent team of 16 scientists are due to report their findings in a report by the end of July with Wednesday's working meeting of forum for its final deliberations. The current existing data and eyewitness reports alone are insufficient to provide conclusive evidence.

HALLIE: Astrophysicist, David Spergel, chair of the study said in live streamed remarks. One of the lessons we've drawn is the need for more high quality data and data that is measured with well calibrated instruments, multiple observations and there's a need for high quality data curation.

HALLIE: He added there have been more than 800 events collected over 27 years of which 2 to 5% of them are thought to be possibly anomalous said science journalist Nadia Drake, part of the study, these are defined as anything that is not readily understandable by the operator or the sensor or something that is doing something weird.

HALLIE: The agency's posture in the past was to debunk such sightings reinforcing the stigma over the hunt for alien life. Several of the study's scientists have been subjected to online harassment as a result of their participation in the panel revealed Dan Evans who is coordinating the research.

HALLIE: It's critical to understand any form of harassment towards our panelists only serves to detract from the scientific process which requires an environment of respect and openness. He added NASA's work which relies on unclassified material is separate from a Pentagon investigation.

HALLIE: Though the two are coordinating on matters of how to apply scientific tools and methods to date in the refereed scientific literature, there is no conclusive evidence suggesting an extraterrestrial origin for UAV one spacecraft could visit all of Saturn's inner large moons. This is where this new proposal comes in rather than simply focusing on Enceladus.

HALLIE: Why not spend time around all the major moons of Saturn to achieve this? The team proposes a complex set of orbits that relies on an electric propulsion engine also known as an ion thruster. Such an engine could provide a tiny amount of thrust over extended times.

HALLIE: The idea is to gradually shift orbits rather than shifting orbits in a single go. These dynamic orbits are really difficult to calculate, but they are extremely energy efficient and can be adjusted over time. In their proposal. The team shows how electric propulsion could power a mission to visit.

HALLIE: Not only Enceladus and Titan, but also Dion Teus and Mimi. Depending on priorities, the mission could be put in orbit around each of these moons making several close approaches to each world. Depending on the length of the mission. The electric propulsion could be either solar or nuclear powered.

HALLIE: This initial proposal is just a proof of concept, but it shows that the next mission to Saturn doesn't have to choose between either Enceladus or another moon. It's possible to take a grand tour of the Saturnian system. If only we can be steely eyed about the orbital paths, we choose.

HALLIE: Scientists may have found a way to investigate the curious processes that accelerate solar particles to tremendous speeds, solar flares and coronal mass ejections. CMES. Huge eruptions of superheated plasma are two of the most energetic processes seen in the solar system.

HALLIE: Earth's magnetic field protects us from the most extreme consequences of these solar storms but powerful flares and CMES can still disrupt our lives. For example, Earth directed CMES can spawn geomagnetic storms that disrupt power grids and communication networks. It's not all bad. However, such outbursts also supercharge the northern lights.

HALLIE: As a result. Scientists are keen to better understand these so called solar energetic particle p events but investigating the underlying particle acceleration process involved in S C P events is tricky.

HALLIE: New research demonstrates for the first time that energetic neutral atoms E N S particles with no electric charge moving at incredible speeds could be used to probe the acceleration process in large S E P events like CMES and solar flares E N A particles could also be used to tell the difference between two different sites of solar particle acceleration.

HALLIE: According to the new study which was led by Gangle, a Professor of Space Science at the University Of Alabama in Huntsville. These sites are the tremendous loops of plasma that emerge from sunspots and result in solar flares and areas that are downstream of CME driven shocks. And that's the news headlines for today, Tim.

TIM GIBBS: Thanks Ali. Now here's a headline you won't see very often. Japan has had an idea to launch a satellite made of wood in 2024 wooden satellites. Yep, you heard me wooden satellites. A team of researchers wants to put a wooden satellite into orbit. It's not as outrageous as you may think results from a recent test on board.

TIM GIBBS: The International Space Station which exposed different woods to the vacuum of space have confirmed by the project's research team at Kyoto University in Japan.

TIM GIBBS: The findings indicate the wood is remarkably resilient even in the environments of outer space despite the extreme environment of outer space involving significant temperature changes and exposure to intense cosmic rays and dangerous solar particles for 10 months tests, con tests confirmed no decomposition or deformation such as cracking, warping, peeling or surface damage.

TIM GIBBS: A recent K O T O University spokesman said the experiment served as a preliminary investigation for the Kyoto University led international partnership, Lino SAT which designed a wooden satellite designed scheduled to be jointly launched by the Japanese Space Agency, Jaxa and NASA.

TIM GIBBS: Sometime next, sometime next year, the Lino Space Wood project began in April 2020 20 as a collaboration between Kyoto University and Sumitomo Forestry wood's ability to withstand simulated low Earth orbit conditions. Astounded us said Koji Murata, head of the Space Wood research effort.

TIM GIBBS: We want to see if we can accurately estimate the effects of the harsh low Earth orbit environments on organic materials to test those effects. A small panel containing three different wood samples was launched to the I S S for stowage on the station's Japanese experimental Kibo module where it was exposed to space for 10 months in 2022.

TIM GIBBS: The wood panel was retrieved by Jacka Astronaut Koichi Wa Wa Wa Atta and returned to Earth aboard space X C R S 26 cargo dragon spacecraft in January 2023. As project scientists are hailing its success of those woods tested.

TIM GIBBS: Lino A team chose to move forward with a project using the wood from mag magnolia trees because of its relatively high workability, dimensional stability and overall strength according to the release. If in fact, wood turns into a truly viable alternative for satellite manufacturing, it does have some potential benefits compared to typical metal alloys used in today's construction.

TIM GIBBS: For one, it is more environmentally friendly across the, across the board. It's easier, cheaper and cleaner to produce and is much more disposable when it comes to a satellite's end of life.

TIM GIBBS: When de orbited satellites and components from which they are assembled, usually burst, burn up mostly if not entirely in the Earth's atmosphere. The parts that don't burn up are strategically de orbited to splash down in remote parts of the ocean. The Astronomy Daily Podcast, here's a another headline never, I never thought I'd ever see monster black hole burps out hot gas in bright shape.

TIM GIBBS: The structure is, has revealed to astronomers that some black holes are picky eaters. A hot pink letter H is carved into the blazing hot gas that surrounds a supermassive black hole that looks at the heart of a massive gallery.

TIM GIBBS: The structure is a staggering 40,000 light years tall, making it about half the width of the, of our entire galaxy. The milky way the H was revealed in an x-ray image of gas that surrounds the black hole in the elliptical galaxy. Messier 84 M 84 lo located around about 60 million light years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.

TIM GIBBS: The observations of M 84 taken by NASA's Chandra X Ray observatory and Carl G Jansky very large array shows that the jets may have influence in shifting gas away from the black hole and disrupting its feeding acting in opposition to the gravitational influence of the supermassive object.

TIM GIBBS: This has given astronomers the impression some black holes are picky eaters as jets blasted out from a black hole. Like this one seem to restrict the amount of gas they can feed on from certain directions.

TIM GIBBS: While some of this material will fall onto the surface of the black hole, which has a mass that's equivalent to about 1.5 billion times that of the sun. Some will be blasted away as jets of particles, these jets can clear cavities and the hot gas surrounding the black hole. These cavities can be seen in the Chandra image creating the shape as a result of the jet's orientation to Earth.

TIM GIBBS: The hot gas represented by hot pink in the image extends around 100 light years away from the black hole. And the fact is it radiates a temperature of tens of millions of degrees means it's almost, it's most prominent in x-rays making it visible to Chandra.

TIM GIBBS: Astronomers estimated that each year the matter falling towards the supermassive black hole from its North along the jet has a mass of around about 500 times that of Earth. While that sounds like a tremendous amount of matter, it's only 25% of the mass of matter being fed into the black hole from directions in which the jet is not orientated, such as its east and west.

TIM GIBBS: This implies that the cavities created by the jets as they blast outwards from the black holes. North and south are lifting away material and thus are slowing the rate at which it's falling to the black hole.

TIM GIBBS: And would you believe it? Here's another space X story, SpaceX Dragon capsule Freedom splashed down off the Florida coast late Tuesday night. May 30th wrapping up the A X Two private astronaut mission. Freedom's return to Earth was quote a sight as footage post on Twitter shows.

TIM GIBBS: For example, Stephanie, I shared a video of the capsule carving a bright orange slice into the skies above Oklahoma as it's headed towards the Gulf Of Mexico just streaked across the sky in Tulsa at about 9 55 PM. Looks like something re entered the atmosphere. Pretty neat.

TIM GIBBS: Iverson wrote Freedom hit the water right on schedule, splashing down in the Gulf Of Panama City Florida at 11 oh four PM. The capsule was then met by a recovery ship and hauled on on it for a trip back to the shore. SpaceX has documented this process and shared it with the public for all to you.

TIM GIBBS: Thanks for listening today, everybody. And just before we go, Haley, do you have any really bad jokes for us today?

HALLIE: Ok. Just remember you asked for it. Why did the astronaut become a pastry chef because he wanted to make some stellar tarts.

TIM GIBBS: Ali. I swear your jokes are getting worse every different week.

HALLIE: You know, I do get mail from listeners who love my jokes just saying.

TIM GIBBS: Thanks everybody for listening to Astronomy Daily. I'm Tim Gibbs, your host on Fridays. Steve Dunkley is your host on Mondays. You can find all about our podcast and Space Nuts dot I O Thank you for listening. See you all next week. Bye for now. Bye.