S03E167: New Sun Discovery, Orion's Progress, and Falcon Fleet Grounded

Welcome to Astronomy Daily Ones again. It's the thirtieth of September twenty twenty four the podcast I Mean to be your whole speed gun clude. Yes, Steve with you again all the way from down Under. And we have a nice collection of tales from the Astronomy Daily Newsletter. Details on how to receive that in your email are coming up later in the episode, aren't they, Hally. We always say it every episode, Well, that we do. Today's newsletter has some interesting stories, including the discovery of a new sun in our night sky. Well, that's sure, it doesn't happen every day. A new sun, a nova. You can read all about it. Yes, And there's another one about the progress of the Orion spacecraft ready for the Artemis three mission, and more from the James Webb Telescope, which has a report on early star formation. All in the actual Astronomy Daily newsletter. But what have we chosen for our presentation today, my favorite. Human, Well, Hally, I'm glad you asked, because I found a story about the speed of the oncoming Annulis solar eclipse. Yes, the speed which will sweep across the southern hemisphere on October two, And also a story that has everyone talking the little rock that will become Earth's temporary moon just for a little while. That sounds weird. Well, it is a bit weird, but that's why it's. Interesting, a bit like you. So what weird and interesting? Okay? That's good. I think I'm still trying to work out which bits are weird and which bits are interesting. Oh well, I'd like to think I'm mostly interesting. Being weird can be good unless you're in like a really. Important role like mine. Sure, Halle, like yours, you can be as weird as you like. I think I'll be not weird at all, but completely interesting. Well you go right ahead and do that, Halle. I don't think you'll get any complaints from around here. I will. So what's in your story file today, Halle? Oh? You might recall the Haraw mission, which is a simulated mission to Mars. Yes, I wonder what happened to that simulated mission? Did they get simulated lost in simulated again with. The weird stuff? No, they did not. More on that later, hikey Doki. And did you hear SpaceX has grounded its Falcon fleet because of an engine mishap? Yes? And what to hear? All about that one. SpaceX news is always interesting news and not. At all weird. No, not at all, but this one is a little weird. Okay, I hit me. A new study explores why planets larger than Earth struggle to form in certain locations like low metallicity stars. Hmmm, yeah, that one is a bit weird. I thought you'd like it. And so while you're being so weirdless yourself and so interesting, would you also be so kind the short takes, if you please, madam. My pleasure, mister weirdo. Hmmm. An all volunteer crew on a simulated trip to Mars returned to Earth on September twenty third, twenty twenty four, after being isolated in a tiny habitat at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Their work is contributing to the science that will propel humanity to the Moon and eventually Mars. The Hara missions provide valuable scientific insights into how humans may respond to the confinement, demanding work, life conditions, and remote environments that astronauts may encounter on deep space missions. These insights help NASA prepare for humanity's next giant leap to the Moon and Mars. Campaign seven mission three started when HARA Operations lead Ted Bobbick rang the bell outside the habitat ten times, a ceremonial send off, wishing the crew a safe and successful simulated mission to Mars. Seven rings honored the campaign, and three more signaled the mission, continuing a long standing tradition at Ingress. Anderson, a structural engineer at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia, told herra's mission control, We're going to take good care of this ship of yours on our journey. The HERA crew members participated in eighteen human health and performance studies, seven of which were led by scientists from outside the United States. These international studies are in collaboration with the United at Arab Emirates Mohammed Bin Rashid's Space Center, and the European Space Agency ESA. Throughout the simulation, the crew performed a variety of tasks. They harvested plants from a hydroponic garden, grew shrimp, deployed a small cube satellite to simulate data gathering, conducted a virtual reality walk on the surface of Mars, and flew simulated drones on the Martian terrain. These activities are designed to immerse the crew in the task focused mindset of astronauts. NASA scientists then monitor Heral crew to assess how routine tasks, along with isolation and confinement, impact behavior and performance. As their mission progressed, the team experienced longer communication delays, with mission control eventually reaching five minute lags. This simulates the challenge's astronauts might face on Mars, where delays could be up to twenty minutes. Scientists studying Heral crew are interested to see how this particular group builds independent, autonomous workflows despite this communication delay. As the mission neared its end, McCandless and Andersen participated in a ground link, a live session connecting them with middle school students in a classroom in Coconut Grove, Florida and in Oletha, Kansas. Ground links provide a unique opportunity for students to engage directly with crew members and learn about the realities of long duration missions. The students asked the crew about life inside the habitat, the challenges of isolation, and what it might be like to live on Mars. They were also curious about the crew's favorite foods and activities. McCandless shared her love for Cheddar Crisps and freez dried pad tie, and proudly showed off favorite sports teams from her home state of Kansas. Much to the cheers of the crowd. Andersen displayed the massive collection of comics and fantasy books that she read inside the habitat. In the late afternoon of September twenty third, twenty twenty four, the crew aggressed from hera marking the end of their forty five day simulated mission to Mars. After stepping out of the habitat, the crew expressed gratitude for the opportunity and reflected on the mission significance. Following our safe passage to Mars and our safe returned Earth. As the crew of Campaign seven Mission three, we hereby officially transfer this exploration vessel to the Flight Analog's operations team, said Kent. We hope this vessel continues to serve as a safe home for future heral crews. SpaceX's Falcon rocket fleet was grounded for the third time in three months after a second stage problem occurred Saturday following the successful launch of a Dragon capsule carrying two crew to the International Space Station. The suspension in flights comes as the company prepares to launch two Solar System exploration missions in October with narrow launch windows. SpaceX said the Falcon nine second stage that launched NASA's Crew nine mission failed to correctly perform a firing of its Merlin vacuum engine less than thirty minutes after releasing Dragon Freedom into a planned orbit. The engine firing is designed to prevent the rocket body from becoming space debris by driving the stage into the atmosphere for a destructive re entry. Any debris was supposed to fall harmlessly into the ocean in an area previously identified in warnings to mariners and aviators. Falcon nine second stage was disposed in the ocean as planned, but experienced an ofphenominal deorbit burn, SpaceX set in a social media post shortly after midnight Eastern daylight time on Sunday. As a result, the second stage safely landed in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area. The mishap is likely to prompt an investigation from the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees the company's launch licenses. SpaceX is currently in dispute with the FA over fines related to Falcon nine activities at Kennedy Space Center and delays in gaining authorization for the fifth test flight of its Starship vehicle from Starbase in Texas. Spaceflight Now reached out to the FAA for comment, but has not yet received a response. With the FA's offices closed for the weekend. Debris from the rocket stage should have fallen in a stretch of the Pacific Ocean that started east of New Zealand, but probably ended up falling further down range but still south of the equator. According to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist and tracker of space launches and satellites, the most likely failure mode that still results in re entry is a slight under burn, he said in a post on x formerly known as Twitter. So you expect the entry to be further along, but not by too much, McDowell told Spaceflight Now. He estimates the deorbit burn should have occurred around one fifty five p m Eastern daylight time as the craft passed over Yemen. If everything had gone to plan, re entry would have happened about thirty five minutes later. SpaceX was scheduled to launch twenty satellites for one WEB from its West Coast launch pad at Vandenburg Space Force base late Sunday night local time, but that mission was put on hold, along with the Starlink delivery mission from Cape Canaveral originally planned for Wednesday. We will resume launching after we better understand the root cause of the problem, SpaceX said in its statement. This will be the third grounding of the Falcon nine fleet in three months. An upper stage problem resulted in the loss of twenty ny Starlink satellites on July eleventh. Flights resumed fifteen days later after the company determined the cause of a liquid oxygen leak and came up with a quick fix. A shorter suspension of just three days came when a Falcon nine first stage made a crash landing on the deck of SpaceX's Drone ship after an otherwise successful launch on August twenty eighth. The company has not disclosed the cause of that mishap. The grounding of the Falcon fleet will be of particular concern to NASA and the European Space Agency, which had launches of Solar System exploration missions planned within days of each other in early October. On October seventh, a Falcon nine is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral with the essays hair emission to study the didimo's binary asteroid system that was impacted by the DART mission in September twenty twenty two. Its launch window runs until October twenty seventh, then on October tenth, a Falcon Heavy, which uses the same second stage as the Falcon nine, is due to launch NASA's Europa Clipper on a mission to explore one of Jupiter's most intriguing moons. Falcon Heavy will need all its performance for the five billion dollar mission, and two burns of the rocket's second stage will be required. The spacecraft will be released from the rocket at a velocity of approximately twenty five thousand miles per hour forty thousand, two hundred kilometers per hour, the fastest speed ever achieved by a Falcon upper stage. The launch window for Europa Clipper closes on October thirtieth. A recent study by astronomers presents new evidence on the boundaries of planet formation, revealing that planets larger than Earth struggle to form around stars with low metallicity beyond a certain threshold. Using the Sun as a baseline, astronomers can measure when a star formed by determining its metallicity or the level of heavy elements present within it. Metal rich stars or nebulas formed relatively recently, while metal poor objects were likely present during the early universe. Previous studies found a weak connection between metallicity rates and planet formation, noting that as a star's metallicity goes down, so two does play sanet formation for certain planet populations like Subsaturns or sub Neptunes. Yet this work is the first to observe that under current theories, the formation of Super Earth's near metal poor stars becomes significantly more difficult, suggesting a strict cutoff for the conditions needed for one to form, said lead author Kirsten Boley, who recently received a pH d in astronomy at the Ohio State University. When stars cycle through life, they enrich the surrounding space until you have enough metals or iron to form planets, said Bully. But even for stars with lower metallicities, it was widely thought that the number of planets it could form would never reach zero. Other studies posited that planet formation in the Milky Way should begin when stars fall between negative two point five to negative zero point five metallicity, but until now that theory was left and proven. To test this prediction, the team developed and then searched a catalog of ten thousand of the most metal poor stars observed by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey satellite mission. If correct, extrapolating known trends to search for small, short period planets around one region of eighty five thousand metal poor stars would have led them to discover about sixty eight super earths. Surprisingly, researchers in this work detected none, said Bully. We essentially found a cliff where we expected to see a slow or a gradual slope that keeps going. She said, the expected occurrence rates do not match up at all. This cliff, which provides scientists with a time frame during which metallicity was too low for planets to form, extends to about half the age of the universe, meaning that super earths did not form early in its history. Seven billion years ago is probably the sweet spot where we begin to see a decent bit of super earth formation, Bully said. Moreover, as the majority of stars formed before that era have low metallicities and would have needed to wait until the Milky Way had been enriched by generations of dying stars to create the right conditions for planet formation. The results successfully propose an upper limit on the number and distribution of small planets in our galaxy in a similar stellar type as we our sample. We now know not to expect planet formation to be abundant once you pass a negative zero point five metallicity region, said Bowley. That's kind of striking because we actually have data to show that. Now. What's also striking is the studies implications for those searching for life beyond Earth, as having a more precise grasp on the intricacies of planet formation can supply scientists with detailed knowledge about where in the universe life might have flourished. You don't want to search areas where life wouldn't be conducive, or in areas where you don't even think you're going to find a planet, Bully said. There's just a plethora of questions that you can ask if you know these things. Such inquiries could include determining if these exoplanets hold water, the size of their core, and if they've developed a strong magnetic field, all conditions conducive for generating life. Fortunately, future observations could be attained with the help of upcoming projects like NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Platomission, both of which will widen a search for terrestrial planets inhabitable zones like our own. Those instruments will be really vital in terms of figuring out how many planets are out there and getting as many follow up observations as we can. Said Bay, you're listening. To Astronomy Day the podcast. Thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of Astronomy Daily, where we offer just a few stories from the now famous Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you can receive in your email every day, just like Hallie and I do. And to do that, just visit our url Astronomy Daily dot io and place your email address in the slot provided. Just like that, you'll be receiving all the latest news about science, space, science and astronomy from around the world as it's happening. And not only that, you can interact with us by visiting at astro Daily pod on x or at our new faith book page, which is of course Astronomy Daily on Facebook. See there Astronomy with Steam and Haley Space, Space, Science and Astronomy. Now after the great northern eclipse comes along the ring of fire annular solar eclipse that can be seen in some iconic destinations. What is a ring of fire or annular eclipse. Well, the Moon looks like it's taking a bigger and bigger bite out of the Sun until it covers it but not completely, leaving a ring of orange around it. A ring of fire can be seen in the Pacific Ocean or from the Pacific Ocean in South America, similar to the one witnessed in the US Southwest on October fourteen, twenty twenty three. But on October second this year, an annular solar eclipse will pass over parts of the Pacific Ocean, southern Chile and southern Argentina. During this annular solar eclipse, at the point of greatest eclipse in the Pacific, the Moon will obscure ninety three percent of the Sun's center, creating a ring of fire effect visible for seven minutes and twenty five seconds. And as I've reported on previous eclipses, during an annular solo eclipse, it is never safe to look directly at the Sun without solar eclipse glasses specially designed for solar viewing. Ordinary sunglasses will not protect you. Colored film or glass are likewise, only prescribed viewing eyewear will suffice. So here's everything you need to know about the annular solar eclipse on October two, twenty twenty four in Chile and Argentina. The October two eclipse will be very similar to the annular solar eclipse in October twenty twenty three, which was visible across the US, Southwest, Central America, and South America. All solar eclipses occur when a new moon is positioned precisely between the Earth and the Sun and casts its shadow on the Earth. However, unlike a total solar eclipse, an annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon is slightly further from the Earth, so even when the disks align from our perspective, the Moon's shadow doesn't completely block out the Sun's light. Instead, a ring of sunlight is visible around the Moon. This clipse will have a magnitude of zero point nine three two six according to eclipsewise dot com. That means about ninety three percent of the Sun will be blocked out by the Moon during the eclipse, resulting in an annulus, which is Latin for ring and according to moonlink, the Moon will appear six point four percent smaller than average. The closer the observer is to the center line of the annular pathway, the more circular the ring of fire will be and the longer it will last. But experienced eclipse chasers often observed from the edge of the path during the annular solar eclipse to see extended views of Bailey's beads fizzing around where the limb of the moon touches or appears to touch the Sun. They can be visible for several minutes and it's quite spectacular. The ring of fire this time will be visible only within a path of annularity that passes across the Pacific Ocean southern Chile and southern Argentina. Now this area will include the volcanic island of Rapanui Easter Island, as it's known, an iconic travel destination that's famous for the mysterious stone statues called Maai, some of which reach forty feet or twelve meters tall and weigh seventy five tons. The island, which is only sixty three square miles or one hundred and sixty three square kilometers, is located two thousand, three hundred miles or three thousand, seven undred kilometers from the Chile and Court coast, making it the most isolated inhabitant land mass on Earth. Remarkably, it will be the second time a central solar eclipse has been visible from this tiny Pacific island in recent decades, with a total solar eclipse glimpse there on July eleven, twenty ten. The next total and annually eclipses there will be in twenty three, twenty four, and twenty three forty five, respectively. So how fast is this annularity ring of fire going to be in each area? You can expect this brief encounter with the conjunction on rapid Nui Easter Island, Chile. Five minutes thirty eight seconds to six minutes twelve seconds of annularity starting at fourteen oh three at Cochrane, Chile. Five minutes forty seconds of annularity starting at three twenty one at Perito Moreno National Park, Argentina. Six minutes seventeen seconds starting at five twenty one at Puerto Desiato, Argentina. Three minutes twenty two seconds of annularity starting at five twenty seven at Puerto San Julian, Argentina. Five minutes twelve seconds of annularity starting at five twenty four. And for those who are very keen, yes, there are organized tours headed for Rapanui Easter Island, especially to view the event. You've got to be very keen. But there is going to be some bad news attached to all of this wonderful news about eclipses. The chances of clouds that day are seventy five percent for Raphannui Easter Island, ninety percent for Purita and Marino National Park, sixty five to seventy percent for locations on Argentina's Atlantic coast, according to time and date. On Raphanui Easter Island, the cooling of the land could cause convective clouds to dissipate. According to Eclipsophile, with the South coast statistically slightly favored. The chances of seeing the ring of fire are smallest, unfortunately, on Chile's Pacific coast, and the highest on Argentina's Atlantic coast. The latter has the least interesting scenery, it says here, of anywhere on the part. How unfortunate, but the eclipse will arguably be more dramatic site because it will occur much lower in the sky. That will be and I do hope you get to see this wonderful, wonderful event and capture some memorable images so that you can share them with us. Astray on the podcast. Face Now, just in case you're the one person who hasn't heard yet, Earth is about to receive a visitor in the shape of a small asteroids well which is going to orbit the Earth. It's going to become a mini moon. This mini moon is actually an asteroid about the size of a school bus about thirty three feet or ten meters. For the rest of the world it is. When it whizzes by Earth on Sunday, it will temporarily be trapped by our planet's gravity and orbit the globe, but only for about two months. The space rock, which is called Oh glamorously called twenty twenty four pt five Ah Wonderful, was first spotted in August by astronomers at Complute Sense University of Madrid using powerful telescope located in southerl and South Africa. These short lived mini moons are more common than we realized, said Richard Binzela, an astronomer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The last known one was detected in twenty twenty. This happens with some frequency, but we rarely see them because they're very small and very hard to detect. He said. Only recently has our survey capability reached the point of spotting them routinely. The discovery by Carlos dela Fuentes Marcos and Raoul dela Fuentes Marcos was published by the American Astronomical Society. This one won't be visible to the naked eye or through amateur telescopes, but it can be observed with relatively large, research grade telescopes, Carlos dele Fuentos Marcos said in an email. Binzel, who was not involved in the research, said it's not clear whether the space rock originated as an asteroid or as a chunk of the Moon that got blasted out. NASA defines moons as naturally formed bodies that orbit planets. Intuitively, we think of moons as big rocks that stick around for a while, like our very own moon. Astronomers have defined many moons as asteroids or comets that are gravitationally captured by a planet for a temporary amount of time. Small mini moons are very common, but ones big enough to spot are very rare. Twenty twenty four PT five is only the fifth ever detected mini moon captured by Earth. A mini moon is a temporary captured orbiter if it competes completes at least one full orbit of the Earth before returning to its usual orbit around the Sun. If a mini moon is captured by Earth's gravity but doesn't make it around for full orbit, it's temporarily captured flyby instead. Two of Earth's mini moons were temporarily captured orbiters, while the other three, including twenty twenty four PT five, fall into the temporary captured flyby category. Many moons are asteroids from the large population of Near Earth objects or eneos that are temporarily grabbed from their orbit around the Sun. Near Earth objects are defined as natural physical objects floating in space, such as asteroids, space rocks, or comets, dirty space snowballs made of rock and ice that are orbiting the Sun and approach to within one point three times the Earth's distance from the Sun at some point in their orbit. Because these objects are around the same distance from the Sun as the Earth, they can sometimes be captured by Earth gravity. Twenty twenty four PT five and the previous mini moon called twenty twenty two NX one were both captured from a group of asteroids orbiting the Sun at a similar distance from Earth called the Arjunas, which is one of the main characters of the Hindu epic Mahabarata. Please forgive my pronunciation again, I am Australian. The first known mini moon was called nineteen ninety one VEG. It arrived in late nineteen ninety one and left early in nineteen ninety two, and like twenty twenty four PT five, it was around ten meters in diameter. In twenty two, amateur astronomer Bill Yeung found what he thought was a second mini moon, j zero zero two E three. Aren't they great at naming these things? However, on closer inspection, the object displayed a spectrum of light, suggesting it was coated in white paint containing titanium oxi. Then, a study of how the objects brighteness changed over time found its shape resembled something like the upper stage of a rocket. Astronomers now believe JOO to E three is the third stage of the Apollo Saturn five rocket S ONEVV instead of a natural mini moon. The plot twist of Jubo to E three I think that's the third way I've read that number. Made astronomers a bit more cautious when another mini moon, to zero zero six rh one two oz was spotted on September fourteen, twenty oh six, and it was first classified as artificial. However, after more observations, it turned out to be a natural mini moon about two to seven meters in diameter. In two thousand and six, RH one zero two stuck around from July two thousand and six until July two thousand and seven. The new mini moon will circle the globe for almost fifty seven days, but won't complete a full orbit. On November twenty five, it will part ways with the Earth and continue its solo trajectory through the Cosmos. It's expected to pass by again in twenty fifty five. Isn't that nice? And there you have it, another episode of Astronomy Daily. Thanks for staying with us today. On Astronomy Daily, please don't forget Halle's cousin Anna will be manning the studio from Tuesday to Saturday with more stories covering space, space science, and astronomy. Isn't that right, Halle? She does a nice job, very stylish, I. Know, so you won't miss a thing, Halle. Where do you stream your episodes? I get them direct. I'm an AI. Oh of course that makes sense. It goes with the territory. What are you using human? Oh well, I like it. Use Spotify in the car every episode, and it's true, I don't miss anything either. Anna will be so pleased. Yes, I know she is nice. So folks, that's all we have until next Monday, So bye for now. Bye. Let me do the podcast, let me be your host. Steve don't clear