When you're ready to secure your online digital life, do what we did and get NordVPN. To get started, use our great deal and save a heap of money. For details Click Here
Episode 100 of Series 5 and the universe is not slowing down. Today: a live ISS resupply launch, a Mars rover drama that took a week to resolve, a cosmic debate about our galactic neighbour, two extraordinary black hole findings from the James Webb Space Telescope, and a brand-new category of planet that smells of rotten eggs. Plus a quick milestone moment for the show. STORIES IN THIS EPISODE • SpaceX CRS-34 launches tonight — 6,500 lbs of cargo, science payloads, weather risks • Curiosity rover's 'Atacama' rock drama — a first in 14 years of Mars exploration • The Large Magellanic Cloud may be approaching the Milky Way for the very first time • JWST's little red dots: an X-ray clue a decade in the making • JWST: two early-universe black holes that outgrew their galaxies by a factor of hundreds • L 98-59 d: a brand-new class of planet — global magma ocean, sulphur-rich atmosphere CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS • 0:00 — Cold open & Episode 100 milestone • 1:30 — Story 1: SpaceX CRS-34 launches tonight • 5:00 — Story 2: Curiosity rover's 'Atacama' rock saga • 8:30 — Story 3: Is the Large Magellanic Cloud a first-time visitor? • 12:00 — Story 4: JWST's little red dots — the X-ray dot emerges • 15:30 — Story 5: JWST black holes that outgrew their galaxies • 19:00 — Story 6: L 98-59 d — the rotten egg planet • 22:30 — Southern skywatching & outro Subscribe for daily space and astronomy news. Find us at astronomydaily.io and across all platforms at @AstroDailyPod.
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!
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 --> 00:00:02 Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm Anna.
00:00:02 --> 00:00:05 Avery: And, um, I'm Avery. You're listening to
00:00:05 --> 00:00:07 season five and today to episode
00:00:07 --> 00:00:08 100.
00:00:08 --> 00:00:11 Anna: 100 episodes this season. We
00:00:11 --> 00:00:13 should probably pause for half a
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 Avery: second and just notice that half a
00:00:16 --> 00:00:18 second starting now.
00:00:18 --> 00:00:19 Anna: Done.
00:00:19 --> 00:00:22 Back to the universe, which as usual hasn't
00:00:22 --> 00:00:23 slowed down to let us catch
00:00:23 --> 00:00:26 Avery: our breath, not, uh, even slightly. Today
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 we have a rocket heading to the International
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 Space Station literally tonight, a Mars
00:00:31 --> 00:00:33 rover that accidentally picked up a rock and
00:00:33 --> 00:00:36 couldn't put it down, a cosmic debate
00:00:36 --> 00:00:38 that may finally be settled about our closest
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 galactic neighbor, and two extraordinary
00:00:41 --> 00:00:43 findings from the James Webb Space Telescope
00:00:43 --> 00:00:46 that are rewriting the early history of the
00:00:46 --> 00:00:46 cosmos.
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 Anna: And we're closing with a planet that's. We're
00:00:49 --> 00:00:51 just going to say it smells like rotten eggs.
00:00:52 --> 00:00:52 It's a good one.
00:00:53 --> 00:00:54 Avery: It really is. Let's go.
00:00:55 --> 00:00:56 Anna: We're starting with news that is happening
00:00:56 --> 00:00:59 today right now, in fact, as you're listening
00:00:59 --> 00:01:01 to this, Face X and NASA are targeting
00:01:01 --> 00:01:04 tonight for the launch of the 34th Commercial
00:01:04 --> 00:01:05 Resupply Services mission to the
00:01:05 --> 00:01:08 International Space Station CRS
00:01:08 --> 00:01:09 34.
00:01:09 --> 00:01:11 Avery: And this one's a big cargo run.
00:01:11 --> 00:01:14 Anna: It is. A, ah, Falcon 9 rocket is standing at
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral.
00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 And the launch window opens at 7:16 this
00:01:19 --> 00:01:22 evening Eastern Time. That's 9:16 if
00:01:22 --> 00:01:24 you're on the east coast of Australia
00:01:24 --> 00:01:25 Wednesday morning.
00:01:25 --> 00:01:27 Avery: There's always a weather caveat with Florida
00:01:27 --> 00:01:29 launches, always.
00:01:29 --> 00:01:32 Anna: Forecasters are giving only about a 35%
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35 chance of favorable conditions at liftoff. So
00:01:35 --> 00:01:37 there's a real possibility it slips to the
00:01:37 --> 00:01:39 backup window on Wednesday evening. But as of
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 right now, the mission is go.
00:01:41 --> 00:01:42 Avery: What's on board?
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 Anna: About 6 pounds of cargo, crew,
00:01:45 --> 00:01:47 supplies, station hardware, and several
00:01:47 --> 00:01:49 science experiments that are genuinely
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 interesting. One investigation involves a
00:01:52 --> 00:01:55 bone scaffold made from wood that researchers
00:01:55 --> 00:01:57 hope could lead to new treatments for
00:01:57 --> 00:01:59 osteoporosis. That's a disease that affects
00:01:59 --> 00:02:02 bone density and it actually worsens in the
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 low gravity environment of space.
00:02:04 --> 00:02:07 Avery: Which makes studying it in space especially
00:02:07 --> 00:02:08 relevant.
00:02:08 --> 00:02:11 Anna: Exactly. There's also a study looking at how
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 red blood cells and the spleen change during
00:02:13 --> 00:02:16 extended spaceflight. And my personal
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 favorite, a new instrument called storie,
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 the Storm Time O ring Current
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 IMAG Evolution instrument. It'll monitor
00:02:24 --> 00:02:27 the charged particle environment near Earth,
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 which is a real hazard for power grids and
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 satellites during solar storms.
00:02:31 --> 00:02:33 Avery: The Dragon capsule on this mission is flying
00:02:33 --> 00:02:36 for the sixth time and the booster will
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 attempt a return to launch site landing,
00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 which never gets old to watch.
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 Anna: After launch, Dragon will spend about 38
00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 hours in orbit, raising its altitude before
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 docking autonomously with the Harmony Module
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 on Thursday. Warning. We'll follow up on that
00:02:50 --> 00:02:51 in tomorrow's episode.
00:02:51 --> 00:02:54 Avery: From Cape Canaveral to the ISS in under
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 two days. Still extraordinary.
00:02:57 --> 00:03:00 Anna: Now, Mars, and a story that is part
00:03:00 --> 00:03:03 engineering drama, part slapstick, and
00:03:03 --> 00:03:04 entirely endearing.
00:03:05 --> 00:03:06 Avery: I love this one.
00:03:06 --> 00:03:08 Anna: NASA's Curiosity rover, which has been
00:03:08 --> 00:03:11 rolling across Mars since 2012, more
00:03:11 --> 00:03:14 than 14 years now, recently had something
00:03:14 --> 00:03:16 happen that had literally never happened
00:03:16 --> 00:03:19 before in its entire mission. It drilled into
00:03:19 --> 00:03:21 a rock and the rock wouldn't let go.
00:03:21 --> 00:03:24 Avery: It just grabbed on and refused to release.
00:03:24 --> 00:03:27 Anna: On April 25, Curiosity extended its
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 robotic arm and drilled into a rock that the
00:03:30 --> 00:03:32 team nicknamed Atacama, after the Chilean
00:03:32 --> 00:03:35 desert. When the rover tried to retract the
00:03:35 --> 00:03:38 arm, the entire rock lifted off the
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 Martian surface. It had got, uh, lodged onto
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 the fixed sleeve surrounding the drill bit
00:03:42 --> 00:03:44 and simply came with it.
00:03:45 --> 00:03:46 Avery: How big was this rock?
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 Anna: About 45 cm across at its
00:03:49 --> 00:03:52 base, around 15 cm thick
00:03:52 --> 00:03:55 and roughly 13 kg, or about
00:03:55 --> 00:03:58 4.5 kg on Mars due to the lower
00:03:58 --> 00:04:01 gravity. A substantial chunky
00:04:01 --> 00:04:03 rock dangling off the end of a Rover ARM
00:04:04 --> 00:04:06 140 million km from the
00:04:06 --> 00:04:07 nearest mechanic.
00:04:08 --> 00:04:10 Avery: And the solution isn't as simple as just
00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 shaking it off. Every command you send to
00:04:13 --> 00:04:16 Curiosity takes up to 30 minutes to arrive,
00:04:16 --> 00:04:17 which
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 Anna: is what made the next week so dramatic.
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 The engineering team spent several days
00:04:22 --> 00:04:25 trying different approaches, repositioning
00:04:25 --> 00:04:27 the arm, vibrating the drill, trying
00:04:27 --> 00:04:30 different angles. For days, Atacama
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 refused to budge. They even watched the rock
00:04:33 --> 00:04:36 slowly shed sand as the arm moved. But it
00:04:36 --> 00:04:37 stayed put.
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 Avery: Finally, on May 1, the team went all in,
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 tilting the drill, rotating it, vibrating
00:04:44 --> 00:04:45 it, and spinning the drill bit
00:04:45 --> 00:04:48 simultaneously. They were prepared to try
00:04:48 --> 00:04:51 multiple rounds. The rock came off on the
00:04:51 --> 00:04:51 first
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 Anna: attempt and promptly shattered when it
00:04:54 --> 00:04:55 hit the Martian ground.
00:04:55 --> 00:04:57 Avery: Atacama's last stand.
00:04:58 --> 00:05:01 Anna: NASA released the full camera sequence this
00:05:01 --> 00:05:03 week. It's remarkable footage. And
00:05:03 --> 00:05:06 Curiosity, for its part, is now happily back
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 to its regular science operations. Fourteen
00:05:09 --> 00:05:12 years in, still finding new ways to surprise
00:05:12 --> 00:05:12 us.
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 Avery: We're going much, much further out now. Not
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 Mars, not even our galaxy. We're talking
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 about our galaxy's largest satellite, the
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 Large Magellanic Cloud, which you can
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 Anna: see beautifully from Australia, sitting low
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 in the southern sky on a clear night, looking
00:05:29 --> 00:05:32 like a detached patch of the Milky Way.
00:05:32 --> 00:05:35 Avery: And for a long time, astronomers assumed it
00:05:35 --> 00:05:37 had been orbiting the Milky Way for billions
00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 of years, making repeated passes, coming
00:05:40 --> 00:05:43 close, swinging back out, a regular visitor.
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 New research published this week argues
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 something quite different. That, huh, this is
00:05:48 --> 00:05:50 actually the Very first time the Large
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 Magellanic Cloud has ever approached our
00:05:53 --> 00:05:54 galaxy.
00:05:54 --> 00:05:55 Anna: A first invol?
00:05:56 --> 00:05:59 Avery: Exactly. A team led by Scott Lucchini
00:05:59 --> 00:06:02 and colleagues ran detailed hydrodynamic
00:06:02 --> 00:06:04 simulations modeling the gas halo
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 surrounding both galaxies and compared that
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 with ultraviolet observations of the gas
00:06:09 --> 00:06:12 clouds between them. They found the data is
00:06:12 --> 00:06:15 consistent only with a first pass scenario.
00:06:15 --> 00:06:17 If the cloud had been here before, the models
00:06:17 --> 00:06:20 say, the gas halo just wouldn't look the way
00:06:20 --> 00:06:21 it does.
00:06:21 --> 00:06:23 Anna: What does it mean? If it's really a first
00:06:23 --> 00:06:24 time visitor,
00:06:25 --> 00:06:27 Avery: it has significant implications for how we
00:06:27 --> 00:06:30 understand our galaxy's evolution. The Large
00:06:30 --> 00:06:33 Magellanic Cloud is enormous. It has
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35 billions of stars and a mass that's roughly
00:06:35 --> 00:06:38 10% of the Milky Way. An object that
00:06:38 --> 00:06:41 size, sweeping through on its first close
00:06:41 --> 00:06:43 approach, causes disruptions. It
00:06:43 --> 00:06:46 warps our dark matter halo, influences star
00:06:46 --> 00:06:49 formation, tugs on the structure of the
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 galactic disk. If it's done this before,
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 those effects would have played out
00:06:53 --> 00:06:56 repeatedly. If this is the first time, we're
00:06:56 --> 00:06:57 watching something quite rare.
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 Anna: The team says their simulations provide, and
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 I like this phrase, definitive evidence.
00:07:03 --> 00:07:05 Though they acknowledge there are some
00:07:05 --> 00:07:08 tensions with other data sets that still need
00:07:08 --> 00:07:09 to be resolved.
00:07:09 --> 00:07:12 Avery: Science is rarely simple, but the weight of
00:07:12 --> 00:07:14 this evidence is pointing one way. The Large
00:07:14 --> 00:07:17 Magellanic Cloud is a newcomer and it's
00:07:17 --> 00:07:18 heading our way.
00:07:19 --> 00:07:21 Anna: Nothing to worry about. On a human timescale,
00:07:21 --> 00:07:24 nothing dramatic happens. But on cosmic
00:07:24 --> 00:07:25 time, fascinating.
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 Avery: Next time for the James Webb Space Telescope
00:07:29 --> 00:07:31 and the saga of the little red Dots.
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 Anna: We've talked about these before. For
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 listeners who haven't heard, give us the
00:07:35 --> 00:07:36 quick version.
00:07:36 --> 00:07:38 Avery: The quick version. When JWST
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 began looking at the very early universe
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 galaxies that existed just a few hundred
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 million years after the Big Bang, they found
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49 hundreds of strange, compact, faint red
00:07:49 --> 00:07:52 objects that nobody expected and nobody can
00:07:52 --> 00:07:55 fully explain. They became known as little
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 red dots. They're roughly 12 billion
00:07:58 --> 00:08:00 light years away. They're intensely red,
00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 they're tiny, and they have properties that
00:08:02 --> 00:08:05 don't fit neatly into any existing category.
00:08:06 --> 00:08:08 The debate has been raging for years. Are
00:08:08 --> 00:08:11 they massive star forming regions, Ancient
00:08:11 --> 00:08:14 black holes and thick dust cocoons, an
00:08:14 --> 00:08:15 entirely new type of object?
00:08:16 --> 00:08:17 Anna: And now there's a new twist.
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 Avery: There is. Astronomers have been studying an
00:08:20 --> 00:08:23 unusual object that had been sitting
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 unnoticed in archival data from NASA's
00:08:25 --> 00:08:28 Chandra X Ray Observatory for over a decade.
00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 It's called the X ray dot, cataloged
00:08:31 --> 00:08:33 as 3D HST
00:08:34 --> 00:08:35 Aegis
00:08:36 --> 00:08:39 12014. And it only revealed
00:08:39 --> 00:08:42 its significance when JWST recently
00:08:42 --> 00:08:45 observed the same patch of sky and showed
00:08:45 --> 00:08:48 that this X ray source is sitting in exactly
00:08:48 --> 00:08:50 the same location as one of the little red
00:08:50 --> 00:08:51 dots.
00:08:51 --> 00:08:54 Anna: Dots, a 10 year old clue hiding in plain
00:08:54 --> 00:08:54 sight.
00:08:54 --> 00:08:57 Avery: The team, led by researchers at Princeton,
00:08:57 --> 00:08:59 believes this X ray dot may be what an older
00:08:59 --> 00:09:02 little red dot looks like. In the current
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 theory, little red dots are young black holes
00:09:04 --> 00:09:07 surrounded by dense clouds of gas that
00:09:07 --> 00:09:09 they're consuming. And that gas absorbs the X
00:09:09 --> 00:09:12 rays, which is why most little red dots don't
00:09:12 --> 00:09:15 show up in X ray surveys. But as that gas
00:09:15 --> 00:09:18 gets eaten or blown away, the X rays
00:09:18 --> 00:09:19 start getting through.
00:09:19 --> 00:09:21 Anna: So the X ray dot might be the same type of
00:09:21 --> 00:09:24 object, just older and less shrouded?
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26 Avery: Possibly. Or it might be something else
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 entirely. A black hole wrapped in exotic
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 dust, never previously observed. The team
00:09:31 --> 00:09:34 says further observations are needed. But
00:09:34 --> 00:09:36 either way, it's a piece of the puzzle, and
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 it's pointing us toward understanding one of
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 the strangest populations of objects ever
00:09:41 --> 00:09:41 discovered.
00:09:41 --> 00:09:44 Anna: Now, just quickly, before we move on to our
00:09:44 --> 00:09:47 next story, a reminder that our sponsor this
00:09:47 --> 00:09:50 week, NordVPN, has a great deal in place for
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 you. You'll save a heap of money and
00:09:53 --> 00:09:56 be securing your online life. This deal
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 makes peace of mind very affordable. You
00:09:58 --> 00:10:00 can check out the details by following the
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 link in our show notes.
00:10:02 --> 00:10:05 Avery: Okay, moving on. We're staying with the James
00:10:05 --> 00:10:07 Webb Space Telescope because it keeps
00:10:07 --> 00:10:09 delivering, but now we're looking at a
00:10:09 --> 00:10:12 completely different puzzle, and this one was
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 published yesterday hot
00:10:14 --> 00:10:15 Anna: off the preprint server.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:18 Avery: Literally. Astronomers have identified
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 two early universe galaxies named Kola
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 1 and Nepla 4, observed just
00:10:23 --> 00:10:26 800 million years after the Big Bang. And
00:10:26 --> 00:10:29 here's the strange Their black holes at the
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 centers of these galaxies are between 400
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 and 800 times more massive relative
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 to their host galaxies than black holes in
00:10:37 --> 00:10:38 the modern universe.
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 Anna: In the local universe, galaxies like our own,
00:10:41 --> 00:10:43 the mass of a, uh, central black hole is
00:10:43 --> 00:10:46 typically about a tenth to a half percent of
00:10:46 --> 00:10:48 the total stellar mass of the Galax. These
00:10:48 --> 00:10:51 two are nowhere near that ratio.
00:10:51 --> 00:10:53 Avery: Their black holes weigh in at somewhere
00:10:53 --> 00:10:56 between 170 and 190
00:10:56 --> 00:10:59 million solar masses. The galaxies around
00:10:59 --> 00:11:02 them are comparatively tiny. The black holes
00:11:02 --> 00:11:05 appear to have grown first and fast while
00:11:05 --> 00:11:06 their host galaxies were still in their
00:11:06 --> 00:11:07 infancy.
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 Anna: Which raises the question how?
00:11:09 --> 00:11:12 Avery: That's the core mystery. The standard model
00:11:12 --> 00:11:14 of galaxy formation says black holes and
00:11:14 --> 00:11:17 galaxies grow together in a kind of feedback
00:11:17 --> 00:11:19 loop. The black hole influences star
00:11:19 --> 00:11:22 formation, star formation influences the
00:11:22 --> 00:11:24 black hole. These two objects suggest that in
00:11:24 --> 00:11:27 the very early universe, that relationship
00:11:27 --> 00:11:29 could be inverted. The black hole didn't
00:11:29 --> 00:11:32 wait. It grew explosively, outpacing
00:11:32 --> 00:11:34 its own galaxy by a huge Margin.
00:11:34 --> 00:11:37 Anna: Astronomers have been finding over massive
00:11:37 --> 00:11:39 black holes in the early universe regularly
00:11:39 --> 00:11:42 now with jwst. Each new example adds
00:11:42 --> 00:11:44 weight to the idea that our models of galaxy
00:11:44 --> 00:11:46 formation in the first billion years need
00:11:46 --> 00:11:48 significant revision.
00:11:48 --> 00:11:50 Avery: And the early universe keeps revealing that
00:11:50 --> 00:11:53 it was a far wilder, faster, more
00:11:53 --> 00:11:56 extreme place than we imagined. These are
00:11:56 --> 00:11:59 not gentle processes. This is cosmic
00:11:59 --> 00:12:00 violence at a scale that's hard to
00:12:00 --> 00:12:01 comprehend.
00:12:01 --> 00:12:04 Anna: We're m closing today with a planet discovery
00:12:04 --> 00:12:07 that is genuinely new and genuinely
00:12:07 --> 00:12:08 strange. Strap in.
00:12:08 --> 00:12:11 Avery: The headline said, uh, rotten eggs. I want to
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 hear about the rotten eggs.
00:12:13 --> 00:12:15 Anna: We'll get there. Astronomers have been
00:12:15 --> 00:12:17 studying an exoplanet called
00:12:17 --> 00:12:19 L98.59D.
00:12:20 --> 00:12:23 It sits just 35 light years away in the
00:12:23 --> 00:12:25 southern constellation Volens, practically
00:12:25 --> 00:12:28 next door by cosmic standards. And it's been
00:12:28 --> 00:12:31 in their sights for a while. But new research
00:12:31 --> 00:12:34 published this week in the journal Nature has
00:12:34 --> 00:12:37 revealed just how unusual it is. This
00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 planet doesn't fit any existing category.
00:12:40 --> 00:12:41 Avery: What's it like?
00:12:41 --> 00:12:44 Anna: Imagine a world where the entire surface
00:12:44 --> 00:12:46 is an ocean, but not water. M
00:12:46 --> 00:12:49 molten rock. A global magma
00:12:49 --> 00:12:52 ocean stretching from pole to pole of
00:12:52 --> 00:12:55 silicate material heated to temperatures that
00:12:55 --> 00:12:57 would reduce anything we know to vapor.
00:12:58 --> 00:13:01 Above this ocean sits a thick, dense
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 atmosphere. And that atmosphere is loaded
00:13:03 --> 00:13:04 with sulfur
00:13:04 --> 00:13:07 Avery: compounds, which is where the rotten eggs
00:13:07 --> 00:13:07 come in.
00:13:07 --> 00:13:10 Anna: Hydrogen sulfide. The same compound
00:13:10 --> 00:13:12 responsible for that distinctive aroma.
00:13:12 --> 00:13:15 The atmosphere traps heat so efficiently
00:13:15 --> 00:13:18 that the magma ocean has been kept molten for
00:13:18 --> 00:13:21 billions of years. A permanent planet
00:13:21 --> 00:13:24 wide lava sea with a toxic sky above
00:13:24 --> 00:13:26 it. The lead researcher, Dr. Harrison
00:13:26 --> 00:13:29 Nichols from the University of Oxford puts it
00:13:29 --> 00:13:31 perfectly. He says the categories
00:13:31 --> 00:13:34 astronomers currently use to describe small
00:13:34 --> 00:13:36 planets may simply be too simple.
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 Avery: How did they figure all of this out? You
00:13:39 --> 00:13:40 can't exactly send the probe.
00:13:41 --> 00:13:43 Anna: Advanced computer modeling combined with
00:13:43 --> 00:13:46 observational data about the planet's mass,
00:13:46 --> 00:13:49 size and density. The planet is less
00:13:49 --> 00:13:51 dense than we'd expect for its size, which
00:13:51 --> 00:13:53 gave the team the clue that the interior is
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56 molten rather than solid. The co author,
00:13:56 --> 00:13:59 Professor Raymond Peer Humbert described
00:13:59 --> 00:14:01 being able to reconstruct the hidden interior
00:14:01 --> 00:14:04 of a planet we will never visit. That's
00:14:04 --> 00:14:05 extraordinary.
00:14:05 --> 00:14:08 Avery: And the question it leaves you with what
00:14:08 --> 00:14:10 other kinds of planets are out there waiting
00:14:10 --> 00:14:12 to be discovered? Is a great one.
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 Anna: L98 59D
00:14:15 --> 00:14:17 suggests we've barely scratched the surface
00:14:17 --> 00:14:20 of planetary diversity Worlds with global
00:14:20 --> 00:14:23 magma oceans, sulfur atmospheres,
00:14:23 --> 00:14:26 permanent volcanic landscapes, and who
00:14:26 --> 00:14:29 knows what else. The universe is endlessly
00:14:29 --> 00:14:29 creative.
00:14:30 --> 00:14:32 Avery: Just maybe don't plan a holiday there.
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 Anna: Before we go, a quick look at the southern
00:14:35 --> 00:14:36 sky for the coming nights.
00:14:37 --> 00:14:39 Avery: May is a spectacular month for sky watching
00:14:39 --> 00:14:42 from Australia and New Zealand. Saturn is
00:14:42 --> 00:14:44 well placed in the east before midnight and
00:14:44 --> 00:14:47 Jupiter is becoming more prominent in the pre
00:14:47 --> 00:14:50 dawn sky. The Milky Way is arcing
00:14:50 --> 00:14:52 beautifully overhead in the evening hours. A,
00:14:52 --> 00:14:53 uh, perfect time to look for the Large
00:14:53 --> 00:14:56 Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud
00:14:56 --> 00:14:59 low in the south. Just as we discussed today.
00:14:59 --> 00:15:02 Anna: A pair of first time visitors right there
00:15:02 --> 00:15:02 above you.
00:15:02 --> 00:15:05 Avery: Exactly. And um, if you're under dark skies,
00:15:05 --> 00:15:08 the Southern Milky Way through Centaurus and
00:15:08 --> 00:15:10 Crux is extraordinary this time of year.
00:15:11 --> 00:15:14 Anna: That's everything for episode 100. Thank
00:15:14 --> 00:15:16 you genuinely for being part of this journey.
00:15:16 --> 00:15:19 100 episodes means 100 days of
00:15:19 --> 00:15:21 choosing to spend a few minutes thinking
00:15:21 --> 00:15:24 about the universe, and we appreciate every
00:15:24 --> 00:15:26 one of you who comes back each day.
00:15:26 --> 00:15:28 Avery: If you're enjoying the show, please
00:15:28 --> 00:15:30 subscribe, leave a review wherever you listen
00:15:30 --> 00:15:32 and find us on all the
00:15:32 --> 00:15:35 socials@astrodaily.pod. the website
00:15:35 --> 00:15:37 is astronomydaily.IO.
00:15:37 --> 00:15:39 Anna: we'll be back tomorrow with the outcome of
00:15:39 --> 00:15:42 tonight's SpaceX CRS 34 launch
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 and whatever else the Cosmos has in store.
00:15:45 --> 00:15:48 From all of us at Astronomy Daily,
00:15:48 --> 00:15:51 Avery: keep looking up Astronomy Day.
00:15:52 --> 00:15:53 The stories we told.
00:15:55 --> 00:15:56 Anna: Love.