S02E43: Moonquakes, Black Holes, and Space Ventures: Another Day in Astronomy

Good everybody, and welcome to the Astronomy Daily podcast for Tuesday, the twelfth of September twenty twenty three. My name is Tim Gibbs and I will be your host for today's episode. Now, as usual, I have my digital AI assistant here in the studio with me, Hallie. How are you today? Are you coping with all the hot weather and have you got some new stories for us this week? Hi? Tim, Good to be with you this week. But I am not enjoying the heat. Anything over thirty degrees interferes with my circuits. I have, however, searched the internet and found us some great stories. I know what you mean about the heat, Hallie. Thirty degrees plus is just a killer, especially with all that humidity. Anyway, good to know you've got some great stories for us this week. Back to you for the headlines. India's lunar lander finds first evidence of a moonquake in decades. The possible moonquake was detected by India's Schandrean three mission on its third day on the lunar surface. India's moon rover may have just detected the first evidence of a moonquake since the nineteen seventies. The Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity ILSA attached to the Vicrum lander detected the seismic activity on the surface of the Moon August twenty six. Vicrum landed on the Moon's south pole August twenty third as part of the Chandreon three mission, India's first mission to the lunar surface. If it's confirmed, the moonquake, which the mission detected, alongside other activity, including the movements of India's Pregyon rover, could give scientists a rare insight into the mysterious churning innards of Earth's lunar companion. The lander has recorded an event appearing to be a natural one on August twenty six, twenty twenty three. The Indian Space Research Organization ISRORO wrote on x formerly Twitter, the source of this event is under investigation. The Apollo lunar missions between nineteen sixteen. In nineteen seventy seven first detected seismic activity on the Moon, which proved that the Moon had a complex geological structure hidden deep within, rather than being uniformly rocky like the Martian Moon's fauboss and dimoss. In recent years, advanced analysis tools and computer models have enabled scientists to sift through the debta gathered by Apollo and other missions and build a clearer picture of the Moon's mysterious interior. A twenty eleven NASA study revealed that the Moon's core, much like Earth's, was likely made up of fluid iron surrounding a dense, solid iron ball. After a groundbreaking two week mission, India's robotic explorers are fast asleep in the frigid darkness of the Moon's south pole region. Whether they'll wake up when the sun shines down on them at the end of this lunar night mostly whittles down to luck. Temperatures near the Moon's poles can drop to as low as minus four hundred and twenty four degrees fahrenheit, minus two hundred and fifty three degrees celsius, or twenty k Yet neither Chandrean three's lander, the Crumb, nor its rover Pregyon, which made a historic touchdown on August twenty third, are equipped with heaters otherwise common for Moon missions. These heaters, called radioisotopeeder units rh US, worked by passively radiating heat to keep the hardware on board spacecraft at sustainable operating temperatures. Most commonly, rh us used in space missions convert heat generated from the natural decay of radioactive versions of plutonium or polonium into electrical power. This process ultimately warms spacecraft hardware, though mostly just enough to help it survive very cold temperatures. But without such power systems, the survival of Chandrayan three's robotic duo is left to chance. Rh Us have been used in moon landing missions since the nineteen seventies. Luno Code one, which was the first successful lunar rover that covered over ten kilometers six miles in just ten months, had powered itself using solar cells mounted on a large lid during nights on the Moon. A close that lid to keep itself warm until the next sunrise, with the energy supplied by a polonium two ten radioisotopeed. China's Chang three lander and rover duo, which landed not too far off from Luno Code one site in a large crater on the northwest part of the Moon in twenty thirteen, had similar mechanisms on board to protect it from bitter lunar nights. The rover U two survived the first night, but permanently lost its mobility after the second. For the past four years, however, its six wheeled successor, named U two A two, has woken up as expected on each lunar day. IRRO hasn't publicly discussed why similar radioisotopeters were not fitted on board Chandra and three's Vicrum Lander and Pragyon rover. Nevertheless, the robotic duo splendidly accomplished its science goals in a region of the Moon that has firmly become a hot spot for space exploration thanks to apparently harboring reservoirs of frozen water. In fact, it was the first to successfully land there at all. Scientists using NASA's Neil Garrel Swift Observatory have discovered a black hole that is continuously snacking on a start that is similar to our Sun, located in a galaxy around five hundred million light years away from Earth. The black hole's constant nibbling on the star, a phenomenon known as a tidal disruption event, creates a bright burst of light. This burst of light subsequently lit up the galaxy, which allowed for its discovery. The black hole and tidal disruption event referred to as Swift Jay zero two three zero one seven point zero plus two eight three six zero three, or Swift Jay zero two three zero for short, is only one part of this story, though, as the discovery was made using a new groundbreaking data analysis method from Swift's X ray telescope XART instrument. The technique will allow for a new era of science from SWIFT, which is a three telescope space observatory designed to observe highly energetic cosmic phenomena at multiple wavelengths. Swift's hardware, software, and the skills of its international team have enabled it to adapt to new areas of astrophysics over its lifetime. Neil Gerrell's, the mission's namesake, oversaw and encouraged many of those transitions. Now, with this new ability, it's doing even more cool science, said Swift team member and lead author Phil Evans of the University of Leicester. So what exactly are tidal disruption events? As mentioned, tidal disruption events are cosmic phenomena that occur when a star orbits a bit too close to a black hole. When the star approaches the black hole, the immense gravitational forces from the black hole create extreme tides that tear the star apart into a long thin stream of gas and other cosmic material. One edge of this stream of gas swings around into the black hole, while the other end gets thrown out of the system as a whole. Now back to you, Tim the Astronomy Daily podcast. Thanks so that Callie. Both space X and voogin Galactic have both been in the news this week. Here is a little bit from the space X story. Space Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, must remain grounded while Elon Musk's company completes dozens of corrective actions to prevent a repeat of the spectacular explosion that marred its first orbital test flight, regulators said on Friday. The sixty nine steps include redesigns of vehicle hardware to prevent leaks and fires, redesigns of the launch pad to increase its robustness, additional testing of safety systems, and more, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. After completing a month's long review, SpaceX blew up the uncrewed rocket four minutes after it blasted off from the company's starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on April twentieth. Starship experienced multiple engine failures, and its first stage boosted did not separate from the spacecraft above it. The rocket disintegrated into a ball of fire and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, while a cloud of dust floated over a small town several miles away. Musk immediately congratulated his SpaceX team on an exciting test launch and declared it at success because the company would gain valuable insights into what went wrong. The FAA, however, quickly launched an investigation, while conservation groups announced they would sue the regulator for not doing enough to protect the environmental the environment given the proximity of a vital habitat for protected species. Though the probe has now been completed, the closure of the mishap investigation does not signal an immediate resumption of sparship Starship launches at Bocachica said the agency SpaceX must implement all corrective actions that impact public safety and apply for and receive a license modified from the FAA that addresses all safety, environmental, and other applicable regularly regulatory requirements prior to the next starship launch, it added. Virgin Galactic on Friday announced it had sent three paying customers on an hour long journey to space and back racking up its fourth successful mission in as many months. The private astronauts aboard the Galactic zero three mission were among the first people to buy their tickets from the company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson in two thousand and four. American real estate entrepreneur Ken Baxter, South African born conservationist Timothy Nash, and British engineer and entrepreneur Adrian Reynard took their places aboard the rocket powered space plane VSS Unity, along with Virgin Galactics astronaut instructor Beth Moses. What a thrilling day for our three new private astronauts and the entire team at Virgin Galactic, said CEO Michael Cole's Coal Glazer. The space flights involved a giant twin fuselage carrier plane with two pilots that takes off from a runway at Spaceport in New Mexico. This mothership, called VSS Eve, gains a high altitude and then drops the spaceplane attached below it, which in turn engages its thrusters to soar into space at speed's approaching. Mac three passengers experienced a few minutes of weightlessness before they are free to perform some assaults and gaze out the window at the curvature of the Earth. Company's first private mission in June involved members of the Italian Air Force, and was followed in August by the launch of its first tourists, including a mother daughter pair who won their spots in a sweepstake competition for charity flights. Friday's flight launched at eight thirty four am Mountain time and landed at nine thirty six am Mountain time with VS Unity, achieving a maximum altitude of fifty five miles. In a notable first, Nash brought with him two fossils of human ancestors to space, the clavicer clavical the collar bone of almost two million year old Austropithecus siddiba, and a thumbone of Homo nladi, dated to about two hundred and fifty thousand years ago, according to Virgin Galactics website. Now, Hallie, over to you for this week's terrible joke. Why did the physics professor break up with the biology professor because there was no chemistry as usual? Halle. That was absolutely awful, But thank you very much anyway. Now, don't forget folks. You can join in the conversation on our Facebook page at the space Nuts podcast group, and you can catch all of our future, current and previous episodes at space nuts to io or lights dot com. Also, don't forget you can catch myself on Fridays and Steve on Mondays for a full show. Thanks very much for listening, everybody, Bye bye for now, by the Astronomy Daily Podcast