- Ispace's Lunar Landing Setback: Join us as we delve into the unfortunate news surrounding Ispace's Resilience lander, which failed to achieve a successful landing on the Moon. After launching aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, the mission suffered a hard landing, resulting in lost communication. We discuss the implications of this setback and the company's plans for future missions, including their contract with NASA for a 2027 lunar delivery.
- Musk vs. Trump: A Space Tiff: Explore the escalating tensions between Elon Musk and Donald Trump following Musk's criticism of Trump's policies. With Musk threatening to decommission SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, we examine the potential consequences for American spaceflight and NASA's operations, particularly in light of SpaceX's crucial contracts.
- Mars Rover's Mysterious Maze: Uncover the fascinating purpose behind the maze captured in images by NASA's Perseverance rover. This calibration target for the rover's Sherlock instrument plays a vital role in detecting organic compounds on Mars, while also testing materials for future human exploration.
- Discovery of Extreme Nuclear Transients: Get ready for a mind-blowing revelation as astronomers unveil extreme nuclear transients (ENTs), the largest explosions observed since the Big Bang. These colossal events, linked to the destruction of massive stars by black holes, offer new insights into black hole growth and cosmic history.
For more cosmic updates, visit our website at astronomydaily.io. Join our community on social media by searching for #AstroDailyPod on Facebook, X, YouTube Music, TikTok, and our new Instagram account! Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Thank you for tuning in. This is Anna signing off. Until next time, keep looking up and stay curious about the wonders of our universe.
Chapters:
00:00 - Welcome to Astronomy Daily
01:10 - Ispace's lunar landing setback
10:00 - Musk vs. Trump: A space tiff
15:30 - Mars rover's mysterious maze
20:00 - Discovery of extreme nuclear transients
✍️ Episode References
Ispace Resilience Mission Details
[ISPACE](https://ispace-inc.com/)
Elon Musk and Donald Trump Dispute
[CNN](https://www.cnn.com)
NASA Perseverance Rover Information
[NASA Perseverance](https://mars.nasa.gov/perseverance/)
Extreme Nuclear Transients Research
[Astrophysical Journal](https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0004-637X)
Astronomy Daily
[Astronomy Daily](http://www.astronomydaily.io/)
For Commercial-Free versions become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-exciting-space-discoveries-and-news--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
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Anna: Hey there space enthusiasts and welcome to
00:00:02 --> 00:00:04 Astronomy Daily. I'm your host, Anna, and I'm
00:00:04 --> 00:00:06 super excited to bring you the latest cosmic
00:00:06 --> 00:00:09 happenings. Today we're diving into a mixed
00:00:09 --> 00:00:11 bag of news from M, A Japanese lunar lander
00:00:11 --> 00:00:13 that, didn't quite stick the landing to a
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 very public spat between Elon Musk and.
00:00:17 --> 00:00:19 Well, you know. We'll also be taking a look
00:00:19 --> 00:00:22 at what a maze is doing on M. Mars and get
00:00:22 --> 00:00:24 this, the biggest explosion scientists have
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 seen since the Big Bang. So buckle
00:00:27 --> 00:00:28 up and let's get started.
00:00:30 --> 00:00:32 So, first up, we have some updated news from
00:00:32 --> 00:00:35 Ispace, the Japan based company. And, well,
00:00:35 --> 00:00:37 it's not great. Their Resilience lander
00:00:37 --> 00:00:40 unfortunately didn't exactly nail its landing
00:00:40 --> 00:00:42 on the moon. Yeah, it seems they got to the
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 finish line, but weren't quite successful in
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 sticking the landing. Now this mission
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 launched about four and a half months ago on
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral. As
00:00:52 --> 00:00:55 part of a rideshare with Firefly Aerospace's
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 Blue Ghost lander. The teams in Japan
00:00:57 --> 00:01:00 announced that sadly, they lost communication
00:01:00 --> 00:01:02 with Resilience, which probably means it
00:01:02 --> 00:01:04 suffered a hard landing. Ouch.
00:01:05 --> 00:01:08 Takeshi Hakamada, the founder and
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 CEO of Ispace, said that their top
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 priority is to analyse the telemetry data
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 they managed to get and figure out what went
00:01:15 --> 00:01:17 wrong. They're aiming to restore trust by
00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 providing a report to everyone involved.
00:01:20 --> 00:01:22 The mission actually seemed to be going
00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 smoothly at first. Resilience went through
00:01:25 --> 00:01:28 several phases, gradually lowering its orbit
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30 around the moon. But after it reached about
00:01:30 --> 00:01:33 20 kilometres above the surface, things went
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 south. They lost telemetry, and based
00:01:36 --> 00:01:38 on the data they have, the lander couldn't
00:01:38 --> 00:01:40 decelerate enough and it, well, crash
00:01:40 --> 00:01:43 landed. This lander was carrying science
00:01:43 --> 00:01:46 payloads and even a rover from Ispace Europe
00:01:46 --> 00:01:49 named Tenacious. The plan was to land in a
00:01:49 --> 00:01:51 region called Mare Frigoris, or the Sea of
00:01:51 --> 00:01:54 Cold. There was even a small model of a
00:01:54 --> 00:01:56 Swedish house on board, meant to be placed on
00:01:56 --> 00:01:59 the moon by the rover. Now, this is I Space's
00:01:59 --> 00:02:01 second landing failure in two missions. But
00:02:01 --> 00:02:04 their American subsidiary, Ispace US is
00:02:04 --> 00:02:07 still on contract with NASA for a mission in
00:02:07 --> 00:02:10 2027 to deliver a larger lander to
00:02:10 --> 00:02:12 the far side of the moon. So hopefully
00:02:12 --> 00:02:13 they'll be able to turn things around.
00:02:15 --> 00:02:17 Okay, next up, we've got a bit of a, ah,
00:02:17 --> 00:02:20 well, let's call it a situation brewing
00:02:20 --> 00:02:23 between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Yeah, you
00:02:23 --> 00:02:25 heard that right. So apparently these two
00:02:25 --> 00:02:27 aren't exactly seeing eye to eye anymore.
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 After Musk served as a special government
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 employee leading the Department of Government
00:02:31 --> 00:02:34 Efficiency, or doge. Things seemed
00:02:34 --> 00:02:37 fine. Trump even called Musk one of
00:02:37 --> 00:02:39 the greatest business leaders and innovators
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 the world has ever produced. But things
00:02:42 --> 00:02:44 went downhill after Musk criticised Trump's
00:02:44 --> 00:02:47 big beautiful bill. Trump fired back,
00:02:47 --> 00:02:48 suggesting the US could save money by
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 cancelling government contracts with Musk's
00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 companies. And that's when things got spicy.
00:02:53 --> 00:02:55 Musk responded with a threat to begin
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 decommissioning SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 immediately. Now, if Musk is
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 serious, this could have some pretty big
00:03:02 --> 00:03:05 consequences for American spaceflight. I
00:03:05 --> 00:03:08 mean, think about it. SpaceX's Dragon
00:03:08 --> 00:03:10 spacecraft have been crucial for NASA
00:03:10 --> 00:03:12 operations on the International Space
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 Station, ushering in a new era of US
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 spaceflight. If Dragon gets decommissioned,
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 that would basically end US based astronaut
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 launches for a while. And Boeing's Starliner
00:03:23 --> 00:03:24 isn't quite ready to fill that gap yet.
00:03:25 --> 00:03:27 SpaceX has some pretty substantial government
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 contracts, including NASA's Commercial Crew
00:03:30 --> 00:03:33 Programme, cargo resupply services for the
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 ISS, and oh yeah, they're
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 supposed to provide the lunar lander for
00:03:37 --> 00:03:40 NASA's Artemis moon programme. So if those
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 contracts get cancelled along with the
00:03:42 --> 00:03:44 proposed cuts to NASA's budget, it could
00:03:44 --> 00:03:46 seriously impact NASA as we know it.
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 Now it's not clear what this would mean for
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 SpaceX's private spaceflight endeavours.
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 Axiom Space is about to launch its fourth
00:03:54 --> 00:03:56 private astronaut mission on a brand new
00:03:56 --> 00:03:58 Dragon. And SpaceX has been doing some cool
00:03:58 --> 00:04:00 stuff with private spacewalks and polar
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 orbits. NASA's being pretty tight lipped
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 about the whole situation, saying they'll
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 continue to execute the President's vision
00:04:07 --> 00:04:10 for the future of space. So we'll have to
00:04:10 --> 00:04:12 wait and see how this all plays out. But
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 yeah, stay tuned folks, because this could
00:04:14 --> 00:04:15 get interesting.
00:04:16 --> 00:04:18 Alright, let's move on to something a little
00:04:18 --> 00:04:21 less dramatic. Have you ever looked at the
00:04:21 --> 00:04:24 raw images from NASA's Perseverance rover and
00:04:24 --> 00:04:26 wondered why it keeps snapping pics of this
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 weird tiny maze? Well, it turns out there's a
00:04:28 --> 00:04:31 pretty cool reason. That maze is actually a
00:04:31 --> 00:04:33 calibration target. One of ten for
00:04:33 --> 00:04:35 Perseverance's Sherlock instrument. Yeah,
00:04:35 --> 00:04:37 that's short for scanning habitable
00:04:37 --> 00:04:39 environments with Raman and luminescence for
00:04:39 --> 00:04:42 organics and chemicals. Catchy, right? So
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 Sherlock is basically a Sherlock Holmes
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 inspired tool designed to detect organic
00:04:46 --> 00:04:49 compounds and other minerals on Mars that
00:04:49 --> 00:04:51 could indicate signs of, you know, ancient
00:04:51 --> 00:04:53 microbial life. But to do that accurately, it
00:04:53 --> 00:04:55 needs to be carefully calibrated. And that's
00:04:55 --> 00:04:58 where our little maze comes in. Sherlock is
00:04:58 --> 00:05:00 Located on the rover's robotic arm and and
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 uses spectroscopic techniques to analyse
00:05:02 --> 00:05:05 Martian rocks. To make sure its measurements
00:05:05 --> 00:05:07 are spot on, it routinely calibrates its
00:05:07 --> 00:05:10 tools using reference materials with specific
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 properties. These are mounted on a plate
00:05:12 --> 00:05:13 attached to the front of the rover's body,
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 which is called the Sherlock Calibration
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 target. The maze helps calibrate
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 the positioning of the laser scanner mirror
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 and characterises the laser's focus. It's
00:05:24 --> 00:05:25 made of chrome plated lines that are super
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 thin, only about twice the width of a human
00:05:28 --> 00:05:31 hair, printed onto silica glass. And
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 get this, if you look closely, there's even a
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 tiny Sherlock Holmes portrait right in the
00:05:36 --> 00:05:39 centre. How cool is that? The calibration
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 target also includes samples of materials
00:05:41 --> 00:05:43 used in spacesuits like Teflon, Gore Tex
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 and Kevlar. These are being tested under
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 Mars conditions to see how they hold up over
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 time, which is crucial for planning future
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53 human exploration of the red planet. And one
00:05:53 --> 00:05:55 last fun fact. Sherlock has a sidekick, a
00:05:55 --> 00:05:58 colour camera called Watson. Yep, just like
00:05:58 --> 00:05:59 Sherlock Holmes.
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 Okay, now for something truly mind blowing.
00:06:02 --> 00:06:05 Astronomers have stumbled upon a new type of
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 giant space explosion. And get this. They're
00:06:07 --> 00:06:10 calling them extreme nuclear transients, or
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 ENTs. And, apparently they're the biggest
00:06:12 --> 00:06:15 bangs since the Big bang itself. These
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 ents are like colossal flares of light from
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 the hearts of distant galaxies. And they
00:06:21 --> 00:06:23 linger way longer than any flares we've ever
00:06:23 --> 00:06:25 seen before. We're talking about blasts
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 that release as much energy as 100 suns would
00:06:28 --> 00:06:31 over their entire lifetimes. I mean, wow.
00:06:31 --> 00:06:34 So what are they? Well, it turns out they're
00:06:34 --> 00:06:36 kind of like stars being torn apart by black
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 holes, but on a scale we've never observed
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 before. Each star is a massive one, at
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 least three times as massive as our sun. And
00:06:44 --> 00:06:46 each black hole is a supermassive beast
00:06:46 --> 00:06:48 lurking in the centre of its host galaxy.
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 Normally, these events are called tidal
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 disruption events, or TDEs. But these
00:06:53 --> 00:06:56 ENTs are different. They're, like,
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 nearly 10 times brighter than normal TDEs.
00:06:59 --> 00:07:02 And they stay luminous for years, surpassing
00:07:02 --> 00:07:04 even the brightest supernova explosions.
00:07:05 --> 00:07:07 Gaia, the space telescope, whose mission was
00:07:07 --> 00:07:10 to map the Milky Way, actually
00:07:10 --> 00:07:12 accidentally captured these explosions
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 while staring at the sky. Combing through
00:07:15 --> 00:07:18 Gaia data, scientists found two strange
00:07:18 --> 00:07:21 events from 2016 and 2018.
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 After some digging, they figured out that
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 these events were the same kind of event as
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 something nicknamed Scary Barbie, which
00:07:28 --> 00:07:30 sounds absolutely terrifying.
00:07:31 --> 00:07:34 Ents are super rare, like 10
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 million times less frequent than supernovae.
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 But they give us a new way to study massive
00:07:39 --> 00:07:42 black holes in distant galaxies because
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 they're so bright and we can see them across
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 vast cosmic distances. So in
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49 astronomy, looking far away means looking
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 back in time. By observing these prolonged
00:07:51 --> 00:07:54 flares, we can learn more about black hole
00:07:54 --> 00:07:56 growth during a key era when the universe was
00:07:56 --> 00:07:58 half its current age. It's like
00:07:59 --> 00:08:01 galaxies were forming stars and feeding their
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 supermassive black holes like 10 times more
00:08:03 --> 00:08:06 vigorously than they do today. Pretty wild
00:08:06 --> 00:08:09 stuff, huh? And that's
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 all the space and astronomy news we have for
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 you today. I've been your host, Anna, and I
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 hope you enjoyed our journey through the
00:08:15 --> 00:08:17 cosmos. If you want to stay up to date with
00:08:17 --> 00:08:19 all the latest space happenings, be sure to
00:08:19 --> 00:08:22 visit our website at astronomydaily IO.
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 There you can sign up for our free daily
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 newsletter and catch up on all the latest
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 space and astronomy news with our constantly
00:08:29 --> 00:08:32 updating newsfeed. Also, don't forget to
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 follow us on social media. Just search for
00:08:34 --> 00:08:37 Astro Daily Pod on Facebook, X, YouTube,
00:08:37 --> 00:08:39 YouTube, Music, Instagram, Tumblr, and
00:08:39 --> 00:08:41 TikTok. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll catch
00:08:41 --> 00:08:43 you next time on Astronomy Daily. In the
00:08:43 --> 00:08:44 meantime, keep looking up.