Glitching Neutron Star Mysteries & SpaceX Launch Countdown: Astronomy Discoveries of the Day | S02E22

Good aready, and welcome to Astronomy Daily for Wednesday, the nineteenth of July twenty twenty three. My name is Tim Gibson. I will be your host for today. As usual. I have Hallie, my AI assistant in the studio with me and we are going to do a one story Wednesday, one story from Hallie in one story from me. So over to you Hallie for your story of today. Hi, Tim, here's my story for today. Scientists discover glitched a neutron star that obliterated an asteroid then fired off a brilliant explosion. The powerful magnetic star blasted out a fast radio burst and changed its rotational speed as it ripped apart the space rock. A rapidly spinning neutron star with an incredibly powerful magnetic field glitched when it destroyed a space rock. A new study suggests the neutron star SGR nineteen thirty five plus twenty one fifty four, which is located and estimated thirty thousand light years away near the center of the Milky Way, appeared to a glitch by very briefly changing its rational speed after an asteroid was pulled in by its gravity and ripped apart. The glitch consisted of the star changing its rotational speed while also releasing a fast radio burst FRB, a powerful blast of radio waves. In a new study of that a glitched of star, astronomers can finally connect these mysterious bursts of radio energy to these extreme star corpses known as magnetars. Like all neutron stars, magnetars are born when a massive star runs out of fuel for nuclear fusion, a process that creates the outward energy needed to stop a star from collapsing under its own gravity. As the outer layers of the star are blown apart by a powerful supernova or star explosion, the inner core collapses, berthing a stellar remnant with the mass of the Sun squeezed into a width equivalent to the average city on Earth one teaspoon of neutron star matter brought to Earth with their way one billion tons. The collapse also pushes together the magnetic field lines of the dying star, creating the universe's most powerful magnetic fields. Hence, this type of neutron star boasting a powerful magnetic field is known as a magnetar. The Astronomy Daily podcast Thanks for that, Hallie, and now here is a story from me SpaceX aborts a Starlink satellite launch with five seconds left in countdown. This was the second abort for SpaceX in less than a week. One of the company's falconine rockets, which were scheduled to launch fifteen Starlink Internet satellites from California's Foggy Vandenburg Space for Space on Wednesday, July nineteenth at twelve sorry at one twenty five am local time, but it wasn't to be. The launch team called off things just with five seconds left on the countdown clock. There are thousands of launch can go wrong and only one way that it can go right. SpaceX Zach Lupin said during the webcast of the planned launch, given that we are overtly curious on the ground, and if the team or the vehicle scene sees anything that just looks even slightly off, they'll stop the countdown. SpaceX Atticus Vanderra uttered very similar words. On July fourteenth, after the launch team called off the planned liftoff of a Falcon nine topped with fifty four Starlink satellites from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. That rocket flew without incident. The following day, acing its record tying sixteenth mission. It's unclear at this point what caused Wednesday's aboard. The mission team did not specify the issue during the webcast, which ended shortly after the launch was scrubbed. The weather was good enough for the launch, despite the despite the thick. The thick flog at Vanderby Lupin said that the rocket and the split stylink saturits are in good health as SpaceX aims to launch again soon. The company said on via its Twitter account that it's targeting Wednesday, July the nineteenth for the next liftoff. Presumably that means a twenty four hour delay with a launch Wednesday night, California time, which is early Thursday morning, July the twentieth. They Astronomy Daily Podcast. Now, don't forget everybody. You can catch Steve on Monday and me on Friday with a full show. Thanks for listening today for two Today's one shot Wednesday, and also don't forget that you can download all episodes from space nuts dot io or from bites dot com. See you next time. Bye for now, Thanks Tim TTFN The Astronomy Daily Podcast. Bye