00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Avery: Hello, and welcome to Astronomy Daily, the
00:00:02 --> 00:00:05 podcast that brings you the latest news from
00:00:05 --> 00:00:07 across the cosmos. I'm Avery.
00:00:07 --> 00:00:09 Anna: And I'm Anna. It's great to be with you.
00:00:10 --> 00:00:12 Today's agenda covers a lot, from Europe's
00:00:12 --> 00:00:15 new ambitions in space launch to the strange
00:00:15 --> 00:00:18 secrets of starquakes near black holes.
00:00:18 --> 00:00:21 Avery: That's right. We'll also be diving into the
00:00:21 --> 00:00:24 very nature of time itself, searching for
00:00:24 --> 00:00:26 hidden stars that might host intelligent
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 life, and looking at a new mission to monitor
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 the dangers of living on the Moon. So
00:00:31 --> 00:00:32 let's get started.
00:00:32 --> 00:00:35 Anna: First up, there's big news from the European
00:00:35 --> 00:00:38 Space Agency. It looks like they're getting
00:00:38 --> 00:00:40 very serious about fostering a commercial
00:00:40 --> 00:00:41 launch market.
00:00:41 --> 00:00:44 Avery: They certainly are. ESA member states have
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 committed over 900 million euros to the
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 European Launcher Challenge. That's more than
00:00:49 --> 00:00:50 double what was anticipated.
00:00:50 --> 00:00:53 Anna: And what's interesting here is the strategy.
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 This isn't about esa, uh, directly funding
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 the development of a new rocket. Instead,
00:00:58 --> 00:01:00 they're acting more like a customer,
00:01:00 --> 00:01:03 promising to purchase launch services and co
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05 fund upgrades for private companies.
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 Avery: Right. It's the shift from being the builder
00:01:07 --> 00:01:10 to being an anchor client. It's a model that
00:01:10 --> 00:01:12 has worked very well for NASA with companies
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 like SpaceX. It stimulates competition and
00:01:15 --> 00:01:16 innovation.
00:01:16 --> 00:01:19 Anna: Exactly. There's a whole list of companies
00:01:19 --> 00:01:21 shortlisted for this, including Isar
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 Aerospace Rocket Factory, Augsburg
00:01:24 --> 00:01:27 and PLD Space, among others. Rock
00:01:27 --> 00:01:29 seeing major contributions from countries
00:01:29 --> 00:01:31 like Germany, Spain and the uk.
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35 Avery: So what's the timeline for this? When can we
00:01:35 --> 00:01:37 expect to see these new launch services in
00:01:37 --> 00:01:37 action?
00:01:38 --> 00:01:40 Anna: The plan is to sign framework agreements in
00:01:40 --> 00:01:43 2026 with the goal of seeing launch
00:01:43 --> 00:01:46 system demonstrations by 2027.
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 If all goes well, we should see actual
00:01:48 --> 00:01:51 missions being flown under this program by
00:01:51 --> 00:01:53 2030. It's a major step towards
00:01:53 --> 00:01:55 European autonomy and space access.
00:01:56 --> 00:01:59 Avery: From launching rockets to listening to
00:01:59 --> 00:01:59 stars.
00:01:59 --> 00:02:02 Our next story is truly fascinating.
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 Scientists are using starquakes to uncover
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 the secrets of dormant black holes. And it's
00:02:08 --> 00:02:10 rewriting what we thought we knew.
00:02:10 --> 00:02:12 Anna: Starquakes. So you mean
00:02:12 --> 00:02:15 asteroseismology, studying the oscillations
00:02:15 --> 00:02:16 of stars?
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 Avery: Precisely. The study focused on two
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 systems, Gaia BH2 and
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 Gaia BH3. Each has a
00:02:24 --> 00:02:27 red giant star orbiting a quiet black hole.
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 In the Gaia BH2 system. The
00:02:30 --> 00:02:33 starquakes revealed a puzzle. The star
00:02:33 --> 00:02:35 appears young, but its chemical composition
00:02:35 --> 00:02:36 says it's old.
00:02:37 --> 00:02:39 Anna: That's a contradiction. How did they explain
00:02:39 --> 00:02:40 that?
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 Avery: The leading theory is that the red giant is
00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 actually the product of two stars that merged
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 into one. This would explain its unusually
00:02:48 --> 00:02:51 fast spin rate as well. So it had a dramatic
00:02:51 --> 00:02:53 life even before it got captured by the black
00:02:53 --> 00:02:53 hole.
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 Anna: Incredible. And what about the other system,
00:02:57 --> 00:02:58 Gaia BH3?
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 Avery: That one presented a different kind of
00:03:00 --> 00:03:03 mystery. The red giant in that system is
00:03:03 --> 00:03:06 ancient and what we call metal poor.
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09 According to our models, it should be showing
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 star quicks, but it isn't. It's completely
00:03:11 --> 00:03:12 silent.
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 Anna: So our understanding of how these old
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 stars behave might be wrong.
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 Avery: It suggests that, yes, the research is
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 a fantastic example of how studying these
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 companion stars can refine how we measure
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 black hole masses and reveal the complex,
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 violent histories these systems can have.
00:03:32 --> 00:03:34 Anna: Well, from the complex history of
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37 stars to the complex nature of time
00:03:37 --> 00:03:40 itself. This is a topic that has baffled
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 physicists and philosophers for centuries.
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 And as St. Augustine famously said, we know
00:03:45 --> 00:03:48 what time is until someone asks us to
00:03:48 --> 00:03:49 explain it.
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 Avery: It's one of the ultimate questions. And a lot
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53 of the confusion, according to some
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 physicists, comes from mixing up two
00:03:56 --> 00:03:58 different existence
00:03:59 --> 00:04:00 and occurrence.
00:04:00 --> 00:04:02 Anna: Okay, break that down for us.
00:04:02 --> 00:04:05 Avery: The universe as a physical object exists.
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 But events within the universe don't exist
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 in the same way. They happen or they
00:04:11 --> 00:04:14 occur. The past isn't a place that still
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 exists, and the future isn't a place that's
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 waiting for us. They are just records and
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 probabilities of occurrences.
00:04:21 --> 00:04:24 Anna: That makes sense. So this helps clarify
00:04:24 --> 00:04:26 some old philosophical arguments.
00:04:26 --> 00:04:29 Avery: It does. Take the ancient Greek philosopher
00:04:29 --> 00:04:32 Parmenides, who argued that since we can talk
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 about the past and future, they must exist.
00:04:35 --> 00:04:38 This new perspective says that's a fallacy.
00:04:38 --> 00:04:41 Based on that core confusion. The same goes
00:04:41 --> 00:04:43 for how we often interpret Einstein's concept
00:04:43 --> 00:04:44 of spacetime.
00:04:44 --> 00:04:47 Anna: Right. People often imagine spacetime as
00:04:47 --> 00:04:50 a physical block universe that you could
00:04:50 --> 00:04:51 theoretically travel through.
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 Avery: Exactly. But it's more useful to think of
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 spacetime as a map of events. The map is a
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 real useful model, but it's not the
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 territory. The map of your city exists, but
00:05:02 --> 00:05:05 you can't live in the map. By
00:05:05 --> 00:05:07 cleanly separating the existence of the
00:05:07 --> 00:05:10 universe from the occurrence of events, the
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 so called mystery of time becomes much less
00:05:12 --> 00:05:13 mysterious.
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 Anna: Speaking of searching for things, let's turn
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 our attention to the search for
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 extraterrestrial intelligence, or seti.
00:05:22 --> 00:05:24 A, uh, new study suggests we can make our
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 search much more effective by accounting for
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 stars that we've been ignoring.
00:05:29 --> 00:05:32 Avery: Hidden stars. How can a star be hidden?
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 Anna: It's not that they're physically hidden, but
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 they're not the primary targets of our
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 surveys. Think about it. When a radio
00:05:39 --> 00:05:42 telescope points at a specific star, its
00:05:42 --> 00:05:45 field of view is much wider. It
00:05:45 --> 00:05:47 inevitably captures data from countless other
00:05:47 --> 00:05:50 stars in the background and foreground. The
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 study calls this stellar bycatch.
00:05:53 --> 00:05:56 Avery: Ah, uh, I see. So we have all this data
00:05:56 --> 00:05:58 on stars we weren't even intentionally
00:05:58 --> 00:05:59 looking at.
00:05:59 --> 00:06:02 Anna: Precisely. The challenge is knowing which
00:06:02 --> 00:06:04 stars are in that bycatch. To to solve
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 this, scientists are using something called
00:06:06 --> 00:06:09 the Besanc Galactic model. It
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 simulates our galaxy's star populations,
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 allowing them to predict which hidden stars
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 are likely in a telescope's field of view at
00:06:17 --> 00:06:18 any given time.
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 Avery: So this vastly expands the number of stars
00:06:21 --> 00:06:23 we're monitoring for technosignatures without
00:06:23 --> 00:06:26 needing any new observations or equipment.
00:06:26 --> 00:06:29 Anna: Yes, and it also helps remove human
00:06:29 --> 00:06:32 bias from target selection. Projects like
00:06:32 --> 00:06:34 Breakthrough Listen can now apply this method
00:06:34 --> 00:06:37 to get a much more comprehensive survey of
00:06:37 --> 00:06:39 our galaxy. It's a very clever way to
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 maximize the scientific return from the data
00:06:42 --> 00:06:43 we're already collecting.
00:06:44 --> 00:06:46 Avery: For our final story, we're coming back a
00:06:46 --> 00:06:49 little closer to home to the Moon. As
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 nations like China and the US make serious
00:06:51 --> 00:06:54 plans for lunar bases, a new mission from
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 Hong Kong aims to monitor a constant threat.
00:06:57 --> 00:06:58 Things falling from the sky.
00:06:59 --> 00:07:01 Anna: You mean meteoroid impacts? We know they
00:07:01 --> 00:07:04 happen, but this mission aims to provide the
00:07:04 --> 00:07:07 first ever continuous monitoring of them from
00:07:07 --> 00:07:08 lunar orbit.
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 Avery: That's right. The mission is called Wessen,
00:07:10 --> 00:07:13 which means Moon flashes. It's a lunar
00:07:13 --> 00:07:16 orbiter set to launch by 2028. Its
00:07:16 --> 00:07:18 primary job will be to watch for the bright
00:07:18 --> 00:07:21 flashes caused by meteoroids hitting the
00:07:21 --> 00:07:21 lunar surface.
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 Anna: And this data is critical. Without an
00:07:24 --> 00:07:27 atmosphere to burn them up, even small
00:07:27 --> 00:07:29 pebbles can hit with the force of a hand
00:07:29 --> 00:07:32 grenade. These impacts pose a very real
00:07:32 --> 00:07:34 threat to future lunar infrastructure and
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 of course, to astronauts.
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 Avery: It's a huge engineering and safety challenge.
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 Wesson's data will be particularly valuable
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 for China's ambitious plans to establish a
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 lunar research station. What's also notable
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 is that the telescope for the mission is
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 being designed and built in Hong Kong,
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 marking a significant step for the city in
00:07:52 --> 00:07:53 space exploration.
00:07:53 --> 00:07:55 Anna: It will be a great complement to other
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 monitoring efforts like NASA's Earth based
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 observations and ESA's proposed
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 Lumio mission. To truly understand the
00:08:03 --> 00:08:06 risks of living on the Moon, we need that
00:08:06 --> 00:08:09 constant close up view. USAN
00:08:09 --> 00:08:10 promises to deliver just that.
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 Avery: And that's all the time we have for today.
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 From commercial rockets to cosmic
00:08:15 --> 00:08:17 philosophies, we've covered a lot of ground.
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 Anna: We hope you enjoyed the journey. Join us next
00:08:20 --> 00:08:23 time for another edition of, uh, Astronomy
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 Daily, where we continue to explore the
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 universe one story at a time.
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 Avery: Thanks for listening and one quick plug.
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 For more space and astronomy news and
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 all our back catalog just visit our
00:08:36 --> 00:08:39 website@astronomydaily.IO.
00:08:40 --> 00:08:42 you can also follow us on social media. Just
00:08:42 --> 00:08:45 search for AstroDaily Pod on your
00:08:45 --> 00:08:48 favorite platforms. That's it for me. I'm
00:08:48 --> 00:08:51 Avery Clear Skies, everyone, and keep looking
00:08:51 --> 00:08:51 up.