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Episode Summary Astronomy Daily is back for Season 5, Episode 93 — and space has not been idle during our brief break. In today's packed episode, Anna and Avery cover six major stories: the strongest-ever evidence that JWST's mysterious 'little red dots' are in fact black hole stars, courtesy of a new Chandra X-ray discovery; the double milestone at Kennedy Space Center as Artemis III hardware arrives and the Artemis II Orion capsule returns for analysis; the spectacular return of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy after an 18-month hiatus; a new cosmological model suggesting the universe could collapse in just 33 billion years; a debrief on post-mission lessons from Artemis II; and essential skywatching guidance for the peak of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. Stories Covered • Chandra X-ray Observatory detects X-ray signal coinciding with a JWST 'little red dot' — strongest evidence yet for 'black hole star' theory • Artemis III SLS core stage arrives at Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building — Artemis II's Orion capsule 'Integrity' returns same day • SpaceX Falcon Heavy returns to flight after 18 months, successfully launches ViaSat-3 F3 to complete global broadband constellation • New axion dark energy cosmological model suggests universe may collapse in 33.3 billion years — Big Crunch scenario revisited • Artemis II post-mission analysis: heat shield data, valve redesign needed, toilet issues flagged — teams prepare for tight Artemis III turnaround • Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks May 6 — up to 50 meteors/hour, best viewing from Southern Hemisphere before dawn Key Links • Astronomy Daily website: astronomydaily.io • Follow us: @AstroDailyPod • Network: Bitesz.com Podcast Network • Chandra / JWST little red dots paper: The Astrophysical Journal Letters • NASA Artemis III core stage arrival: nasa.gov • Eta Aquarid viewing guide: NASA Science skywatching
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00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Anna: Welcome back to Astronomy Daily. I'm
00:00:02 --> 00:00:03 Anna.
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 Avery: And I'm Avery. And, um, Anna, can I just say
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 it is so good to be back on air.
00:00:08 --> 00:00:11 Anna: It really is. We've had a short break in
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 production, but space, space did not
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 take a break. In fact, the cosmos has been
00:00:16 --> 00:00:19 absolutely firing this week and we have got
00:00:19 --> 00:00:21 a packed episode to prove it.
00:00:21 --> 00:00:24 Avery: We are talking black hole stars. Finally
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 confirmed a rocket that hasn't flown in a
00:00:27 --> 00:00:30 year and a half. Roaring back to life, the
00:00:30 --> 00:00:32 next generation of space exploration hardware
00:00:32 --> 00:00:35 arriving at Kennedy. And oh, uh, just a
00:00:35 --> 00:00:37 small update about the eventual fate of the
00:00:37 --> 00:00:39 entire universe.
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 Anna: No big deal, just the end of everything.
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 Avery: We'll also have some gorgeous sky watching
00:00:44 --> 00:00:46 news for our Southern Hemisphere listeners.
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 A, uh, meteor shower is peaking in just days
00:00:49 --> 00:00:51 and it is a good one.
00:00:51 --> 00:00:54 Anna: This is astronomy Daily Season 5,
00:00:54 --> 00:00:56 Episode 93, and we are absolutely
00:00:56 --> 00:00:59 delighted to be back. Let's get into it.
00:00:59 --> 00:01:02 Avery: Alright, we are starting with what might
00:01:02 --> 00:01:05 honestly be the biggest cosmological story of
00:01:05 --> 00:01:08 2026 so far. It concerns those
00:01:08 --> 00:01:10 mysterious little red dots that James Webb
00:01:10 --> 00:01:12 has been teasing us with for the past couple
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 of years. And this week, NASA's
00:01:15 --> 00:01:17 Chandra X Ray Observatory may have finally
00:01:17 --> 00:01:18 cracked the case
00:01:19 --> 00:01:22 Anna: for anyone who needs a quick refresher. Ever
00:01:22 --> 00:01:24 since Webb started its deep sky observations,
00:01:25 --> 00:01:27 it kept finding these strange compact
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30 ruby red objects scattered across the early
00:01:30 --> 00:01:33 universe. They existed when the cosmos was
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 only a few hundred million years old. They
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 were too massive to be ordinary galaxies, but
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 they weren't behaving like the supermassive
00:01:41 --> 00:01:43 black holes we know either.
00:01:43 --> 00:01:46 Avery: And critically, they weren't emitting X rays,
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 which is really weird because actively
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 feeding black holes almost always do.
00:01:51 --> 00:01:52 So what were they?
00:01:52 --> 00:01:55 Anna: Well, this week, Chandra found an X ray
00:01:55 --> 00:01:58 signal that lines up exactly precisely
00:01:58 --> 00:02:01 with the position of one of Webb's little red
00:02:01 --> 00:02:03 dots. The object, cataloged as
00:02:03 --> 00:02:05 3DHST, age
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 12014, had been sitting in
00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 Chandra's database for years. But it only
00:02:12 --> 00:02:15 became significant when Webb imaged the same
00:02:15 --> 00:02:18 patch of sky and found a little red dot in
00:02:18 --> 00:02:19 exactly the same spot.
00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 Avery: And that X ray energy, it matches the
00:02:22 --> 00:02:25 signature of a quasar, a galaxy powered by
00:02:25 --> 00:02:28 an extremely active black hole. This is the
00:02:28 --> 00:02:31 first little red dot ever observed in X rays.
00:02:31 --> 00:02:33 And it gives astronomers their strongest
00:02:33 --> 00:02:35 evidence yet for what these things actually
00:02:35 --> 00:02:35 are.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 Anna: So the leading theory which is gaining
00:02:38 --> 00:02:41 serious momentum now is that little red
00:02:41 --> 00:02:44 dots are so called black hole stars.
00:02:44 --> 00:02:47 Picture a dense cloud of gas perhaps a
00:02:47 --> 00:02:49 few hundred light years across, with a
00:02:49 --> 00:02:52 growing supermassive black hole eating it
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 from the inside out. The heat from that
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 infalling material glows not as X
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 rays, which get absorbed by the surrounding
00:02:59 --> 00:03:02 cloud, but as visible red light, which is
00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 exactly what Webb sees.
00:03:04 --> 00:03:07 Avery: It's a completely new class of cosmic object.
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 Not quite a star, not quite a galaxy,
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13 something in between. An early universe
00:03:13 --> 00:03:15 state we've never directly observed before.
00:03:15 --> 00:03:18 Anna: And if this interpretation holds, it helps
00:03:18 --> 00:03:20 solve one of the biggest puzzles in modern
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 cosmology. How did supermassive black
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 holes get so enormous so fast?
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 The answer, it seems, is that they grew
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 inside these massive gas cocoons hidden
00:03:31 --> 00:03:34 from our instruments, consuming their birth
00:03:34 --> 00:03:35 clouds from within.
00:03:35 --> 00:03:38 Avery: One astronomer told Scientific American, and
00:03:38 --> 00:03:41 I love this quote, lrds once seemed to
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 demand either impossibly efficient galaxy
00:03:43 --> 00:03:46 formation or implausibly massive black
00:03:46 --> 00:03:49 holes appearing out of nowhere. Either way,
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 something was badly wrong with our models.
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53 But now the pieces are fitting together.
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 Anna: More X ray follow up and more Webb spectra
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 are needed to confirm the picture fully. But
00:03:59 --> 00:04:02 the community is buzzing. These objects may
00:04:02 --> 00:04:04 be Webb's single most consequential
00:04:04 --> 00:04:05 discovery.
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 Avery: Yet the universe really does reward
00:04:07 --> 00:04:10 patience. Sometimes you just have to wait for
00:04:10 --> 00:04:11 the right telescope to look in the right
00:04:11 --> 00:04:12 direction.
00:04:12 --> 00:04:15 Anna: Now, for our regular listeners, you'll know
00:04:15 --> 00:04:17 we've been following the Artemis story
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 closely across this entire season.
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 Artemis 2, launched on April 1, took
00:04:22 --> 00:04:25 four astronauts on a breathtaking journey
00:04:25 --> 00:04:28 around the far side of the moon and splashed
00:04:28 --> 00:04:31 down safely on April 10th. And this week
00:04:31 --> 00:04:33 there were two remarkable developments
00:04:33 --> 00:04:36 happening almost simultaneously at the
00:04:36 --> 00:04:37 very same spaceport.
00:04:38 --> 00:04:41 Avery: It really was a full circle moment in Kennedy
00:04:41 --> 00:04:43 space Center on April 28th. On one side of
00:04:43 --> 00:04:46 the facility, the Orion capsule named
00:04:46 --> 00:04:49 Integrity, the very spacecraft that carried
00:04:49 --> 00:04:52 Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hanson
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 around the moon, arrived back home for post
00:04:54 --> 00:04:56 flight analysis.
00:04:56 --> 00:04:58 Anna: Engineers are now in the process of
00:04:58 --> 00:05:00 deservicing integrity, removing
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 payloads, extracting avionics boxes for
00:05:03 --> 00:05:06 reuse, and conducting detailed scans of the
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 heat shield and other systems. Every piece of
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 data they recover will directly inform
00:05:11 --> 00:05:12 Artemis 3.
00:05:13 --> 00:05:15 Avery: And at the very same time, on the other side
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 of Kennedy, the core Stage for Artemis 3
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 Space Launch System rocket was being
00:05:20 --> 00:05:23 offloaded from NASA's Pegasus barge and
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 moved into the vehicle assembly building.
00:05:26 --> 00:05:28 That core stage, the largest structural
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 component of the rocket, had been
00:05:30 --> 00:05:33 manufactured at NASA's Michaux Assembly
00:05:33 --> 00:05:36 Facility in New Orleans and shipped 900
00:05:36 --> 00:05:37 miles by sea.
00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 Anna: At 212ft tall when fully
00:05:40 --> 00:05:42 assembled, the SLS core stage is an
00:05:42 --> 00:05:45 engineering marvel in its own right. It
00:05:45 --> 00:05:47 houses two propellant tanks holding over
00:05:48 --> 00:05:50 733 gallons of
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 super chilled liquid propellant, enough to
00:05:53 --> 00:05:56 power four RS25 engines for more than
00:05:56 --> 00:05:57 eight minutes of flight.
00:05:58 --> 00:06:00 Avery: And this marks a first for the program. For
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 Artemis 1 and 2. The entire core stage
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 was assembled at Michaud before shipping.
00:06:05 --> 00:06:08 Starting with Artemis 3, NASA and Boeing
00:06:08 --> 00:06:11 are splitting production, outfitting major
00:06:11 --> 00:06:13 sections individually and joining them at
00:06:13 --> 00:06:15 Kennedy. It's a streamlining of the
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 manufacturing process designed to accelerate
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 the cadence of Future missions.
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 Anna: Artemis 3 is currently scheduled for launch
00:06:22 --> 00:06:25 in 2027, and it'll take astronauts to
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 Earth orbit to test rendezvous and docking
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 with commercial spacecraft, the critical step
00:06:30 --> 00:06:33 needed before Artemis 4 can actually
00:06:33 --> 00:06:36 land humans on the lunar surface in
00:06:36 --> 00:06:36 2028.
00:06:37 --> 00:06:39 Avery: The pace of this program right now is
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 genuinely impressive. Artemis 2 just came
00:06:42 --> 00:06:45 home and already the next mission's rocket is
00:06:45 --> 00:06:47 being assembled. That's how you build
00:06:47 --> 00:06:47 momentum.
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 Anna: Now let's talk about a rocket comeback,
00:06:50 --> 00:06:53 because on April 29, SpaceX's
00:06:53 --> 00:06:56 Falcon Heavy roared back to life for the
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 first time in 18 months and it did
00:06:59 --> 00:06:59 not disappoint.
00:07:00 --> 00:07:03 Avery: 18 months for a rocket of that
00:07:03 --> 00:07:05 capability, that is a long time between
00:07:05 --> 00:07:07 flights. The last Falcon Heavy mission was in
00:07:07 --> 00:07:10 October 2024, when it launched NASA's
00:07:10 --> 00:07:13 Europa Clipper toward Jupiter. And now it's
00:07:13 --> 00:07:13 back.
00:07:14 --> 00:07:16 Anna: The mission was Viasat 3F3,
00:07:17 --> 00:07:20 the third and final satellite in Viasat's
00:07:20 --> 00:07:22 constellation of high capacity broadband
00:07:22 --> 00:07:25 relay stations. This 6.6
00:07:25 --> 00:07:28 ton spacecraft is headed for
00:07:28 --> 00:07:30 geostationary orbit where it will serve
00:07:30 --> 00:07:33 the Asia Pacific region with more than 1
00:07:33 --> 00:07:36 terabit per second of Internet capacity.
00:07:37 --> 00:07:39 It completes a, uh, constellation that ViaSat
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 has been building for over a decade
00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 Avery: and Falcon Heavy delivered in spectacular
00:07:45 --> 00:07:48 fashion. Liftoff was at 10:13am M
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 Eastern Time from Launch Complex 39A at
00:07:50 --> 00:07:53 AH, Kennedy Space Center. The very same
00:07:53 --> 00:07:55 historic pad that launched the Apollo
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 missions. And the rocket's 27 Merlin
00:07:58 --> 00:08:00 engines generated 5.1 million
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 pounds of thrust at liftoff. The sight of
00:08:03 --> 00:08:06 that thing climbing into the Florida sky is
00:08:06 --> 00:08:07 always extraordinary.
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 Anna: But perhaps the most crowd pleasing moment
00:08:10 --> 00:08:12 came about eight minutes after launch when
00:08:12 --> 00:08:15 the two side boosters, veterans of previous
00:08:15 --> 00:08:17 flightsexecuted simultaneous
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 touchdowns back at Cape Canaveral Space Force
00:08:20 --> 00:08:23 Station. Those twin sonic booms,
00:08:23 --> 00:08:26 those two columns of fire landing in
00:08:26 --> 00:08:28 perfect formation. It never gets old.
00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 Avery: The central core booster was not recovered on
00:08:31 --> 00:08:34 this mission. It was expended as planned and
00:08:34 --> 00:08:36 came down in the Atlantic. But with two
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 reusable side boosters safely home and the
00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 satellite deployed successfully a few hours
00:08:41 --> 00:08:43 after launch, it was mission accomplished.
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46 Anna: This was the 12th flight of a Falcon Heavy
00:08:46 --> 00:08:49 since its debut in 2018. While
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 Falcon Heavy doesn't fly as often as its
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 Falcon 9 sibling, in a way it's a victim of
00:08:54 --> 00:08:57 the Falcon 9's incredible versatility. When
00:08:57 --> 00:09:00 it does fly, it's always an event. And for
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 viasat, it was the completion of something
00:09:02 --> 00:09:05 they've been working toward for more than 10
00:09:05 --> 00:09:05 years.
00:09:06 --> 00:09:08 Avery: The Viasat 3 program has had its share of
00:09:08 --> 00:09:11 challenges. The first satellite had an
00:09:11 --> 00:09:13 antenna deployment issue that crippled most
00:09:13 --> 00:09:16 of its capability. But the constellation is
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 now complete, and viasat is looking ahead.
00:09:19 --> 00:09:20 Welcome back, Falcon Heavy.
00:09:20 --> 00:09:23 Anna: Alright, now for what might be the most mind
00:09:23 --> 00:09:26 bending story of the week. How comfortable
00:09:26 --> 00:09:28 are you with the concept of the universe
00:09:28 --> 00:09:28 ending?
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 Avery: Oh, extremely comfortable. It's fine.
00:09:31 --> 00:09:33 Everything is fine, right?
00:09:33 --> 00:09:36 Anna: Because a new cosmological study has just
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 suggested that the universe may be on a much
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 tighter schedule than we previously thought.
00:09:41 --> 00:09:44 We're talking a potential Big Crunch, a total
00:09:44 --> 00:09:46 cosmic collapse in just
00:09:46 --> 00:09:49 33.3 billion years.
00:09:49 --> 00:09:51 Avery: Now, to be clear, that is still an, um,
00:09:51 --> 00:09:54 almost incomprehensibly long time.
00:09:54 --> 00:09:57 The universe is currently about 13.8 billion
00:09:57 --> 00:10:00 years old. We're talking about more than
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 twice that again before anything dramatic
00:10:02 --> 00:10:05 happens. But in cosmological terms,
00:10:05 --> 00:10:07 this represents a serious revision.
00:10:07 --> 00:10:10 Anna: Up until recently, the dominant view was that
00:10:10 --> 00:10:13 the universe would expand forever, driven by
00:10:13 --> 00:10:16 dark energy, that mysterious force which
00:10:16 --> 00:10:19 makes up about 70% of the universe's
00:10:19 --> 00:10:21 total energy content. Galaxies would
00:10:21 --> 00:10:24 drift further and further apart over
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26 trillions of years, leaving a cold,
00:10:26 --> 00:10:28 dark, empty cosmos.
00:10:28 --> 00:10:31 Avery: But this new research, published this week
00:10:31 --> 00:10:34 and using real observational data from two of
00:10:34 --> 00:10:36 the world's most powerful cosmic surveys, the
00:10:36 --> 00:10:39 Dark Energy Survey and the Dark Energy
00:10:39 --> 00:10:42 Spectrum Microscopic Instrument, introduces a
00:10:42 --> 00:10:42 different possibility.
00:10:43 --> 00:10:46 Anna: The key is something called the Axion Dark
00:10:46 --> 00:10:48 Energy Model. It's a hybrid theory that
00:10:48 --> 00:10:51 treats dark energy not as a fixed constant,
00:10:51 --> 00:10:53 but as, uh, something that can evolve over
00:10:53 --> 00:10:56 time, specifically as a combination of the
00:10:56 --> 00:10:59 cosmological constant and an ultralight
00:10:59 --> 00:11:02 particle called an axion, which is usually
00:11:02 --> 00:11:04 associated with dark matter research.
00:11:04 --> 00:11:07 Avery: And when researchers tested this model
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 against real galaxy survey data, we're
00:11:09 --> 00:11:11 talking maps of hundreds of millions of
00:11:11 --> 00:11:14 galaxies. It fit remarkably well.
00:11:14 --> 00:11:17 More importantly, it predicts a future phase
00:11:17 --> 00:11:19 where the combined effects of this axion
00:11:19 --> 00:11:21 field begin to pull the universe inward
00:11:22 --> 00:11:23 rather than push it outward.
00:11:24 --> 00:11:26 Anna: Though instead of eternal expansion, you get
00:11:26 --> 00:11:29 a universe that reaches a maximum size,
00:11:29 --> 00:11:32 slows, stops, and then begins to contract.
00:11:33 --> 00:11:35 Over billions of years, galaxies that are
00:11:35 --> 00:11:38 currently racing apart would begin to draw
00:11:38 --> 00:11:40 closer, cosmic structures would compress,
00:11:41 --> 00:11:43 temperatures would rise, and ultimately
00:11:43 --> 00:11:46 everything would collapse back into an ultra
00:11:46 --> 00:11:49 dense state. A big crunch mirroring
00:11:49 --> 00:11:51 the conditions of the Big Bang in reverse.
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 Avery: There's even speculation that such a collapse
00:11:54 --> 00:11:57 could trigger another cosmic cycle, a new
00:11:57 --> 00:11:59 Big Bang from The wreckage of the old
00:11:59 --> 00:12:02 universe, which is either terrifying or
00:12:02 --> 00:12:04 poetic, depending on your perspective.
00:12:04 --> 00:12:07 Anna: Now, it's important to say this is one model
00:12:07 --> 00:12:10 among several. The fate of the universe is
00:12:10 --> 00:12:12 genuinely one of the open frontiers of
00:12:12 --> 00:12:15 cosmology. But what makes this significant is
00:12:15 --> 00:12:18 that it's grounded in actual observational
00:12:18 --> 00:12:21 data, not just theory. And it highlights
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 just how much the behavior of dark energy
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 matters. Even small changes in how it
00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 acts over time lead to completely different
00:12:29 --> 00:12:31 ultimate destinies for the cosmos.
00:12:31 --> 00:12:33 Avery: It also gives us a really compelling reason
00:12:33 --> 00:12:35 to build the next generation of space
00:12:35 --> 00:12:38 observatories, including, as we covered
00:12:38 --> 00:12:41 recently, the Roman Space Telescope launching
00:12:41 --> 00:12:43 in September. More data, better models,
00:12:44 --> 00:12:46 clearer picture of what actually awaits
00:12:46 --> 00:12:47 everything that exists.
00:12:47 --> 00:12:50 Anna: For now, enjoy the stars. You've got
00:12:50 --> 00:12:52 33 billion years and change.
00:12:52 --> 00:12:53 Avery: Plenty of time.
00:12:53 --> 00:12:56 Anna: As we mentioned earlier, Artemis 2's
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59 Orion capsule is now back at Kennedy Space
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 Center. And while engineers are thrilled with
00:13:01 --> 00:13:04 the overall success of that mission, 10 days
00:13:04 --> 00:13:07 in space, humans around the moon for the
00:13:07 --> 00:13:09 first time in over 50 years. Years. It
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11 wouldn't be a test flight without some things
00:13:11 --> 00:13:12 to learn from.
00:13:13 --> 00:13:15 Avery: And mission managers have been admirably
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17 transparent about what they found. Following
00:13:17 --> 00:13:20 Splashdown on April 10, several issues were
00:13:20 --> 00:13:22 flagged for investigation, and NASA's post
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 mission briefings have given us a clear
00:13:24 --> 00:13:25 picture of what comes next.
00:13:26 --> 00:13:28 Anna: The big one everyone's watching is the Orion
00:13:29 --> 00:13:31 heat shield, made from a material called
00:13:31 --> 00:13:34 avcot, the same ablative UH material used
00:13:34 --> 00:13:37 in the Apollo era. The shield performed well
00:13:37 --> 00:13:40 during the fiery re entry at nearly
00:13:40 --> 00:13:42 24 miles per hour, but there
00:13:42 --> 00:13:45 were expected signs of divots and, um,
00:13:45 --> 00:13:46 cracking in the material.
00:13:46 --> 00:13:49 Avery: This was anticipated. The heat Shield's
00:13:49 --> 00:13:51 behavior during re entry has been a known
00:13:51 --> 00:13:53 discussion point since Artemis 1. What's
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55 different now is that engineers have real
00:13:55 --> 00:13:58 world performance data to analyze, including
00:13:58 --> 00:14:00 detailed scans and imagery from aircraft that
00:14:00 --> 00:14:03 track the capsule during reentry. The data is
00:14:03 --> 00:14:04 now being processed at Kennedy.
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 Anna: Beyond the heat shield, mission managers
00:14:07 --> 00:14:10 identified a, uh, valve in Orion's service
00:14:10 --> 00:14:13 module that requires a redesign. And in
00:14:13 --> 00:14:15 perhaps the most relatable moment of the
00:14:15 --> 00:14:18 entire post mission debrief, there was a
00:14:18 --> 00:14:20 toilet issue that needs to be sorted out for
00:14:20 --> 00:14:22 future long duration missions.
00:14:22 --> 00:14:25 Avery: To his credit, Artemis 2 commander Reid
00:14:25 --> 00:14:26 Weissman has defended the mission's
00:14:26 --> 00:14:29 facilities, saying, and this is a real quote,
00:14:29 --> 00:14:32 that was a wonderful toilet, so make of that
00:14:32 --> 00:14:33 what you will.
00:14:33 --> 00:14:36 Anna: NASA's Associate Administrator for human
00:14:36 --> 00:14:38 spaceflight acknowledged that these issues
00:14:38 --> 00:14:41 represent a tight Turnaround for Artemis 3,
00:14:41 --> 00:14:44 scheduled for 2027. But
00:14:44 --> 00:14:46 importantly, the agency says it is learning
00:14:46 --> 00:14:49 to move faster and the overall vehicle
00:14:49 --> 00:14:50 performance was strong.
00:14:51 --> 00:14:53 Avery: The design changes for the heat shield will
00:14:53 --> 00:14:55 be implemented for Artemis 3. The AFCO
00:14:55 --> 00:14:57 permeability issues that caused the erosion
00:14:57 --> 00:15:00 pattern are understood, and the revised
00:15:00 --> 00:15:02 design is already in development. These are
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 the growing pains of a new crewed lunar
00:15:04 --> 00:15:06 program, and NASA is working through them
00:15:06 --> 00:15:07 systematically.
00:15:07 --> 00:15:10 Anna: The key takeaway Artemis II achieved
00:15:10 --> 00:15:13 all its primary mission objectives. The crew
00:15:13 --> 00:15:16 came home safely, and the data collected is
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 now directly shaping the next mission. That
00:15:18 --> 00:15:21 is exactly how test flights are supposed to
00:15:21 --> 00:15:21 work.
00:15:22 --> 00:15:24 Avery: And now for something you can actually go
00:15:24 --> 00:15:26 outside and experience yourself. Because one
00:15:26 --> 00:15:28 of the best meteor showers of the year is
00:15:28 --> 00:15:31 peaking in just a matter of days, we're
00:15:31 --> 00:15:32 talking about the ADA Aquariids.
00:15:32 --> 00:15:35 Anna: The Ada aquariids peak around May
00:15:35 --> 00:15:38 6, so that's just days away. And this is
00:15:38 --> 00:15:40 an especially exciting shower for our
00:15:40 --> 00:15:43 listeners in Australia, New Zealand and
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 across the Southern Hemisphere. You're in the
00:15:45 --> 00:15:46 prime seats for this one.
00:15:47 --> 00:15:49 Avery: So what makes the Ada Aquarian special? These
00:15:49 --> 00:15:52 meteors are debris from Halley's Comet. Every
00:15:52 --> 00:15:54 year, Earth passes through the trail of dust
00:15:54 --> 00:15:56 and particles that Halley left behind on its
00:15:56 --> 00:15:58 journeys through the inner solar system.
00:15:59 --> 00:16:01 Those particles, some, um, no bigger than a
00:16:01 --> 00:16:03 grain of sand, slam into our atmosphere at
00:16:03 --> 00:16:06 about 40 miles per hour and burn up in
00:16:06 --> 00:16:07 brilliant streaks of light.
00:16:07 --> 00:16:10 Anna: Halley's Comet last passed through the inner
00:16:10 --> 00:16:13 solar system in 1986 and won't
00:16:13 --> 00:16:16 return until 2061. But every
00:16:16 --> 00:16:18 year we get to pass through its legacy, and
00:16:18 --> 00:16:21 the Eta Aquarids are that legacy. Made
00:16:21 --> 00:16:23 visible at peak, you can expect
00:16:23 --> 00:16:25 Avery: up to 50 meteors per hour under good
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 conditions. And the Southern Hemisphere gets
00:16:28 --> 00:16:30 significantly more activity than the north
00:16:30 --> 00:16:32 because the Radian Point in the constellation
00:16:32 --> 00:16:34 Aquarius sits higher in the southern sky.
00:16:35 --> 00:16:37 Anna: The best time to look is in the hours before
00:16:37 --> 00:16:40 dawn, roughly between 3am and
00:16:40 --> 00:16:43 first light. Get away from city lights if you
00:16:43 --> 00:16:45 can. Let your eyes adjust to the dark for
00:16:45 --> 00:16:48 about 20 minutes and look toward the
00:16:48 --> 00:16:50 northeast. No telescope needed. This is a
00:16:50 --> 00:16:51 naked eye event.
00:16:52 --> 00:16:54 Avery: One thing to note, this year, the Moon may
00:16:54 --> 00:16:56 throw some light into the sky in your peak,
00:16:56 --> 00:16:58 which can wash out the fainter meteors. But
00:16:58 --> 00:17:01 even so, the brighter Eta Aquarids,
00:17:01 --> 00:17:04 particularly those long, graceful streaks
00:17:04 --> 00:17:06 that leave glowing trains across the sky,
00:17:06 --> 00:17:07 should be spectacular.
00:17:08 --> 00:17:10 Anna: These fast moving meteors are famous for
00:17:10 --> 00:17:13 leaving persistent trains, glowing trails
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 that can linger for several seconds after the
00:17:15 --> 00:17:18 meteor itself has gone. They are some of the
00:17:18 --> 00:17:21 most photogenic meteors you'll see all
00:17:21 --> 00:17:21 year.
00:17:22 --> 00:17:24 Avery: So Southern Hemisphere friends set that
00:17:24 --> 00:17:27 alarm, grab a blanket and a thermos of
00:17:27 --> 00:17:29 something warm and go say hello to the Ghost
00:17:29 --> 00:17:32 of Halley's Comet. It's waiting for you.
00:17:32 --> 00:17:33 Anna: What a week to come.
00:17:33 --> 00:17:36 Back to Black Hole, stars, Moon rockets,
00:17:36 --> 00:17:39 Falcon Heavy, the potential end of the
00:17:39 --> 00:17:42 universe. Honestly, space is just
00:17:42 --> 00:17:43 never boring.
00:17:43 --> 00:17:46 Avery: Never boring. Anna. Uh, never boring. Thank
00:17:46 --> 00:17:48 you so much for joining us for season five,
00:17:48 --> 00:17:51 episode 93 of Astronomy Daily. It's
00:17:51 --> 00:17:52 wonderful to be back.
00:17:52 --> 00:17:54 Anna: If you want to go deeper on any of today's
00:17:54 --> 00:17:56 stories or check back through our archive
00:17:56 --> 00:17:58 from across the season, you can find
00:17:58 --> 00:18:01 everything@astronomydaily.IO
00:18:01 --> 00:18:04 and if you're enjoying the show, please do
00:18:04 --> 00:18:06 leave us a review or subscribe. Wherever you
00:18:06 --> 00:18:08 get your podcasts, it genuinely makes a
00:18:08 --> 00:18:09 difference.
00:18:09 --> 00:18:11 Avery: You can also find us on social media
00:18:12 --> 00:18:15 strodaily pod and we'd love to hear from you
00:18:15 --> 00:18:17 if you go out and catch the ida, uh, Aquarids
00:18:17 --> 00:18:19 this week. Share your meteor photos. Tell us
00:18:19 --> 00:18:20 what you saw.
00:18:20 --> 00:18:23 Anna: Until next time, keep looking up Clear
00:18:23 --> 00:18:24 skies, everyone.
00:18:24 --> 00:18:26 Avery: This has been Astronomy Daily.
00:18:26 --> 00:18:27 Astronomy Daily
00:18:29 --> 00:18:32 stories we told you.
00:18:32 --> 00:18:32 Love.