Astronomy Daily · S05E153 · Wednesday 29 July 2026. Four stories from the frontier of space and astronomy, plus a both-hemispheres look at the sky — and news of our brand-new website. In this episode • Betelgeuse is not alone. ESO’s VLT/SPHERE has captured the clearest direct image yet of Betelgeuse B, the long-suspected companion to the famous red supergiant — ending a roughly century-long search. Published 28 July 2026 in Astronomy & Astrophysics (Montargès, Boccaletti et al.). The companion is more massive than predicted (≈2–3 solar masses), likely paces Betelgeuse’s ~6-year brightness cycle, and may eventually spiral into the supergiant. • Swift catches a wandering black hole. TDE 2025abcr — the most off-centre tidal disruption event ever seen — reveals a ~1-million-solar-mass “wandering” black hole ~30,000 light-years from its galaxy’s core, ~750 million light-years away. First flagged by the Zwicky Transient Facility (Nov 2025) and pinned down with NASA’s Swift; an AI sifted ~500,000 nightly flashes to find it. Published 27 July 2026 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Stein et al.; Carney et al.). • Roman is fuelled for launch. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope completed fuelling on 25 July (≈290 gallons of hydrazine) and holds its mission-preview briefing today — one month from a 30 August launch, roughly eight months ahead of schedule. Roman will survey ~50× as much sky as Hubble in five years, probe dark energy, and is expected to find 100,000+ exoplanets via microlensing. • Swift’s rescue mission is in trouble. Katalyst’s LINK servicing spacecraft — launched 3 July to boost the decaying Swift observatory — began spinning over the weekend; two of three reaction wheels are non-operable, with some cold-gas thruster degradation. LINK remains powered and in contact; the team is using its electric (xenon) thrusters to arrest the spin before deciding, with NASA, whether to proceed. Developing story — details accurate as of recording. • Skywatch. Full Buck Moon tonight (29 July); Jupiter at solar conjunction; Southern Delta Aquariids favour the Southern Hemisphere but are washed out by the Moon this year; Alpha Capricornid fireballs are the pick for both hemispheres; the Perseids peak on the moonless night of 12–13 August alongside a total solar eclipse (Greenland/Iceland/Spain; partial for parts of Europe and North America). Never view the partial phases without ISO 12312-2 eclipse glasses. Sources • ESO release eso2611 & Astronomy & Astrophysics, Montargès, Boccaletti et al., “VLT/SPHERE imaging of the candidate companion of Betelgeuse” (28 Jul 2026). • NASA Swift / The Astrophysical Journal Letters — TDE 2025abcr wandering-black-hole discovery (27 Jul 2026); UNC-Chapel Hill release. • NASA — Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope fuelling & launch-preview updates (25–29 Jul 2026). • NASA Swift blog — “Commissioning Update for Spacecraft to Boost NASA’s Swift” (28 Jul 2026); Katalyst Space Technologies. • EarthSky, NASA, American Meteor Society, timeanddate — meteor showers, Buck Moon, Jupiter conjunction, 12 Aug eclipse. New — astronomydaily.io Our new website is live: full back catalogue, a continuously-updating space-news feed, listener reviews (read and leave your own), and a daily newsletter sign-up. Got a question or a story tip? Drop us a note — and tell us what you think of the new site.
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00:00:01 --> 00:00:03 One of the most famous stars in the
00:00:03 --> 00:00:04 whole night sky has been keeping a
00:00:04 --> 00:00:07 secret for about a hundred years. And
00:00:07 --> 00:00:09 this week, a telescope in the Chilean
00:00:09 --> 00:00:11 desert finally caught it red-handed.
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 Betaljuice, it turns out, is not alone.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 >> Also ahead, a black hole caught
00:00:16 --> 00:00:18 wandering the lonely outskirts of a
00:00:18 --> 00:00:20 galaxy, dreading a star tens of
00:00:20 --> 00:00:22 thousands of light years from where any
00:00:22 --> 00:00:24 black hole has a right to be.
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 >> NASA's next great observatory gets its
00:00:27 --> 00:00:29 tank filled and a date on the calendar.
00:00:29 --> 00:00:31 And the little spacecraft sent to rescue
00:00:31 --> 00:00:33 an aging telescope suddenly needs
00:00:33 --> 00:00:36 rescuing itself. Good day and welcome to
00:00:36 --> 00:00:38 Astronomy Daily, your daily dose of
00:00:38 --> 00:00:40 space and astronomy news. I'm Avery
00:00:40 --> 00:00:43 >> and I'm Anna. It's Wednesday, the 29th
00:00:43 --> 00:00:46 of July. Four stories and a look at the
00:00:46 --> 00:00:47 sky from both hemispheres. Let's get
00:00:47 --> 00:00:50 into it. If you've ever looked up at
00:00:50 --> 00:00:53 Orion and from Sydney or Seattle, just
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 about everyone has, you've seen
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 tonight's star, Battlejuice. That deep
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 orange point marking the hunter's
00:00:59 --> 00:01:02 shoulder. It's a red super giant roughly
00:01:02 --> 00:01:05 650 lighty years away and it is
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 enormous. Drop it where our sun sits and
00:01:07 --> 00:01:10 it would swallow the orbit of Jupiter.
00:01:10 --> 00:01:12 >> And it's famous for misbehaving. It
00:01:12 --> 00:01:13 flickers.
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 >> It does. Betal juice brightens and dims
00:01:16 --> 00:01:18 on a whole set of overlapping cycles.
00:01:18 --> 00:01:20 And people have been writing that down
00:01:20 --> 00:01:22 for more than a thousand years. But
00:01:22 --> 00:01:24 there's one rhythm in particular, a slow
00:01:24 --> 00:01:27 beat about 6 years long that astronomers
00:01:27 --> 00:01:29 have never been able to fully explain.
00:01:29 --> 00:01:32 And for almost a century, one idea kept
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35 coming back. What if Betel Juice has a
00:01:35 --> 00:01:38 companion, a second star orbiting close,
00:01:38 --> 00:01:39 tugging on it?
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 >> The famous Battle Buddy.
00:01:41 --> 00:01:43 >> That's the affectionate nickname. Yes.
00:01:43 --> 00:01:46 The trouble is, nobody had ever seen it.
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 And you can see why. Imagine trying to
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 spot a candle sitting right next to a
00:01:50 --> 00:01:53 lighthouse. Betal juice is so blindingly
00:01:53 --> 00:01:56 bright and so physically huge that any
00:01:56 --> 00:01:58 little companion tucked in beside it
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00 just drowns in the glare. For a hundred
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 years, it stayed a hypothesis.
00:02:03 --> 00:02:05 >> So what changed? a team led by Miguel
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 Montaris at the Paris Observatory in
00:02:08 --> 00:02:11 Chile, the VLT, and an instrument called
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 Sphere that's built for exactly this
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 job, blocking out a bright star to hunt
00:02:15 --> 00:02:18 for faint things right beside it. And
00:02:18 --> 00:02:20 crucially, they picked their moment.
00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 They observed in December 2024 at the
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 point in the orbit when the companion
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 was predicted to swing out as far from
00:02:26 --> 00:02:28 Beetlejuice as it ever gets from seeing
00:02:28 --> 00:02:31 from Earth. Best possible chance to
00:02:31 --> 00:02:35 split the two apart. And there it was, a
00:02:35 --> 00:02:37 faint little source right where a
00:02:37 --> 00:02:39 companion should be. Their paper landed
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41 yesterday, the 28th of July, in the
00:02:41 --> 00:02:43 journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. And
00:02:43 --> 00:02:45 Montaris called it the end of a
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 centurylong quest after a 100red years
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 of arguing about it. We have a direct
00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 image of what is very likely Beetlejuice
00:02:53 --> 00:02:53 B.
00:02:53 --> 00:02:56 >> That gives me chills, honestly. A star
00:02:56 --> 00:02:57 that people have watched since
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 antiquity, and we're still learning
00:02:59 --> 00:03:01 brand new things about it. And here's
00:03:01 --> 00:03:03 the lovely twist. The reason they could
00:03:03 --> 00:03:06 see it at all is that it surprised them.
00:03:06 --> 00:03:08 The companion was predicted to be
00:03:08 --> 00:03:10 roughly the mass of our sun, but the
00:03:10 --> 00:03:12 data say it's bigger than that.
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 Something like 2 to three times the
00:03:14 --> 00:03:17 sun's mass. Montages put it beautifully.
00:03:17 --> 00:03:18 Because it's more massive than we
00:03:18 --> 00:03:20 expected, it's brighter than we
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 expected. And that's the only reason it
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 peaked out of the glare. If it had been
00:03:25 --> 00:03:26 as small as the textbook said, they
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 might have missed it entirely. So, the
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 companion did us a favor by being
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 chunkier than advertised. What is it,
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 though? Another super giant?
00:03:35 --> 00:03:38 >> No, nothing like Beetlejuice. Think of
00:03:38 --> 00:03:41 it as a young, hot, fairly ordinary
00:03:41 --> 00:03:44 star, but locked in a very awkward
00:03:44 --> 00:03:46 orbit. It appears to circle so close
00:03:46 --> 00:03:48 that it's essentially skimming through
00:03:48 --> 00:03:51 the outer puffed up layers of the super
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 giant. And that has consequences. That
00:03:54 --> 00:03:56 orbit is almost certainly what paces
00:03:56 --> 00:03:59 that mysterious six-year brightness
00:03:59 --> 00:04:02 cycle, but it's also most likely a death
00:04:02 --> 00:04:04 sentence for the companion.
00:04:04 --> 00:04:05 >> Ooh, go on.
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 >> Plowing through a super giant's outer
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 atmosphere means constant drag. Every
00:04:11 --> 00:04:13 orbit, the little star loses a bit of
00:04:13 --> 00:04:16 energy, and models suggest it's slowly
00:04:16 --> 00:04:19 spiraling inward. On astronomical time
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 scales, Beetlejuice is very likely to
00:04:21 --> 00:04:24 swallow its own companion. Not tomorrow.
00:04:24 --> 00:04:27 We're talking thousands of years. But
00:04:27 --> 00:04:29 the relationship is, let's say, not
00:04:29 --> 00:04:31 built to last.
00:04:31 --> 00:04:33 >> The lighthouse eats the candle.
00:04:33 --> 00:04:35 >> Eventually, yes. And this matters for
00:04:36 --> 00:04:38 the big question everyone actually wants
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40 answered about Beetlejuice. When is it
00:04:40 --> 00:04:43 going to explode? Because it will. It's
00:04:43 --> 00:04:45 an old massive star near the end of its
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 life. And one day it will go supernova
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 and briefly outshine everything in the
00:04:50 --> 00:04:54 night sky. Now before anyone emails us,
00:04:54 --> 00:04:56 that's expected on a time scale of up to
00:04:56 --> 00:04:59 100 years. So don't cancel your
00:04:59 --> 00:05:02 weekend. But whether a star has a close
00:05:02 --> 00:05:04 binary companion changes the whole
00:05:04 --> 00:05:07 picture. How it sheds mass, the shape of
00:05:07 --> 00:05:09 the gas around it, even the choreography
00:05:09 --> 00:05:12 of the explosion when it finally comes.
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 Knowing Beetlejuice is a pair rewrites
00:05:15 --> 00:05:16 part of that story.
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 >> And this was direct imaging, an actual
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 picture, not just an inference from
00:05:20 --> 00:05:21 wobbles in the light.
00:05:22 --> 00:05:24 >> That's what makes it land. There had
00:05:24 --> 00:05:26 been circumstantial hints for years. But
00:05:26 --> 00:05:29 this is a direct detection. Light caught
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 from the companion itself in the right
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 place at the right time. It's the
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 difference between the data suggest a
00:05:36 --> 00:05:39 second star and here it is. So, if you
00:05:39 --> 00:05:40 want to go and look at the star at the
00:05:40 --> 00:05:43 center of all this, Beetlejuice itself,
00:05:43 --> 00:05:45 where are we? Both hemispheres.
00:05:45 --> 00:05:48 >> Right now, Orion is a pre-dawn act. It's
00:05:48 --> 00:05:50 climbing back into the morning sky after
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 being lost in the sun's glare. For our
00:05:53 --> 00:05:55 southern hemisphere listeners, Orion
00:05:55 --> 00:05:57 rides high in the northern part of the
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 early morning sky, and it's upside down
00:05:59 --> 00:06:01 compared to the northern view. Look for
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 Betalju as the bright orange star. from
00:06:04 --> 00:06:05 North America and mid-n northern
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 latitudes. It's lower in the
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 eastsoutheast before dawn, climbing
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 higher each week as we head towards the
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 northern winter. We'll come back to it
00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 properly in the skywatch. But next time
00:06:16 --> 00:06:19 you find it, just remember it's not one
00:06:19 --> 00:06:21 star. It never was.
00:06:21 --> 00:06:23 >> Now, from a star that's hiding a
00:06:23 --> 00:06:25 companion to a black hole that was
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 hiding full stop. Anna, picture a super
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 massive black hole. Where is it?
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 >> Dead center of a galaxy. That's the
00:06:32 --> 00:06:35 rule. The big ones sit in the core.
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 >> That's the rule. And this week, NASA's
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 Swift Observatory helped break it.
00:06:40 --> 00:06:42 Astronomers announced a title disruption
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 event. That's the technical name for a
00:06:44 --> 00:06:45 black hole tearing a star apart and
00:06:46 --> 00:06:48 eating it. And the flare it produced was
00:06:48 --> 00:06:51 blazing, briefly outshining its entire
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 host galaxy in ultraviolet. Like 10
00:06:53 --> 00:06:56 billion sunsed on at once. But here's
00:06:56 --> 00:06:58 the thing. It didn't happen in the
00:06:58 --> 00:07:00 middle of the galaxy. It went off about
00:07:00 --> 00:07:04 30 lighty years out from the core.
00:07:04 --> 00:07:06 >> 30? That's not a rounding error.
00:07:06 --> 00:07:08 That's further from the center than the
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 sun is from the middle of the Milky Way.
00:07:10 --> 00:07:13 That black hole is out in the suburbs.
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 >> Way out in the suburbs. The events
00:07:15 --> 00:07:19 called TDE 2025ABC
00:07:19 --> 00:07:22 in a galaxy about 750 million lighty
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 years away. and the teams, one led out
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 of NASA and the University of Maryland,
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 another from UNC Chapel Hill, published
00:07:29 --> 00:07:31 it on the 27th of July in the
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 Astrophysical Journal Letters. It's the
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 most offcenter title disruption ever
00:07:36 --> 00:07:38 seen. And what it reveals is a wandering
00:07:38 --> 00:07:40 black hole around a million times the
00:07:40 --> 00:07:42 mass of the sun, just roaming through
00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 its galaxy, nowhere near the core.
00:07:45 --> 00:07:47 >> How does a black hole end up out there?
00:07:47 --> 00:07:49 They don't exactly stroll.
00:07:49 --> 00:07:52 >> Best guess is a galaxy merger. When two
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 galaxies collide and their central black
00:07:54 --> 00:07:57 holes get thrown together, one can get
00:07:57 --> 00:07:58 kicked out of the middle and left
00:07:58 --> 00:08:00 drifting. Theorists have predicted these
00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 wanderers for years. The problem is
00:08:02 --> 00:08:05 they're invisible. A black hole sitting
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07 quietly in the dark emits no light. You
00:08:08 --> 00:08:09 only ever catch one if it does something
00:08:09 --> 00:08:10 dramatic.
00:08:10 --> 00:08:12 >> Like grabbing a passing star and
00:08:12 --> 00:08:13 lighting up.
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 >> Exactly. The star is the flash bulb. It
00:08:16 --> 00:08:18 wanders too close, gets shredded, and
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 for a few weeks, the wreckage glows and
00:08:20 --> 00:08:22 gives the whole thing away. That's the
00:08:22 --> 00:08:24 only reason we know this black hole is
00:08:24 --> 00:08:25 there at all.
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 >> And there's a lovely modern wrinkle to
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 how they found it, isn't there? This
00:08:29 --> 00:08:32 wasn't a human squinting at plate.
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 >> Not a chance. The sky is too big for
00:08:34 --> 00:08:36 that now. The initial flare was picked
00:08:36 --> 00:08:39 up back in November 2025 by a survey at
00:08:39 --> 00:08:41 Palomar in California that scans the
00:08:41 --> 00:08:43 whole northern sky every couple of
00:08:43 --> 00:08:45 nights. It throws up something like half
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 a million flashes every single night.
00:08:48 --> 00:08:50 So, the team trained an AI to sift that
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 fire hose and flag the ones that look
00:08:53 --> 00:08:55 like a tidal disruption. And it caught
00:08:55 --> 00:08:57 this one precisely because it was in a
00:08:57 --> 00:08:59 weird place, off in the outskirts where
00:08:59 --> 00:09:02 nobody would have thought to look. Swift
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 followed up to nail down the details.
00:09:04 --> 00:09:06 >> And that's the taste of what's coming
00:09:06 --> 00:09:08 right once the big new survey telescopes
00:09:08 --> 00:09:11 are running. That's the real headline
00:09:11 --> 00:09:13 under the headline. With observatories
00:09:13 --> 00:09:15 like the Vera Rubin Observatory and
00:09:15 --> 00:09:18 UNC's Argus Array coming online, we go
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 from finding a handful of these a year
00:09:20 --> 00:09:23 to potentially hundreds or thousands.
00:09:23 --> 00:09:24 And suddenly all those invisible
00:09:24 --> 00:09:27 wandering black holes become findable.
00:09:27 --> 00:09:29 We're about to start taking a census of
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 the galaxy's hidden monsters. And keep
00:09:31 --> 00:09:33 SWIP in mind, by the way,
00:09:33 --> 00:09:35 >> because it's going to come back to bite
00:09:35 --> 00:09:36 us later in the show.
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 >> It is. Hold that thought. Speaking of
00:09:38 --> 00:09:40 survey telescopes about to change the
00:09:40 --> 00:09:43 game, let's talk about one that's now
00:09:43 --> 00:09:46 genuinely nearly on the launchpad.
00:09:46 --> 00:09:48 NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space
00:09:48 --> 00:09:51 Telescope. Because as of this week, it
00:09:51 --> 00:09:53 is fueled and counting down.
00:09:53 --> 00:09:55 >> Fueled. That's a real milestone. That's
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 not a slide in a presentation. That's
00:09:58 --> 00:09:59 propellant in the tank.
00:09:59 --> 00:10:02 >> Precisely. On the 25th of July, teams at
00:10:02 --> 00:10:06 Kennedy loaded around 290 gallons of
00:10:06 --> 00:10:08 hydrosine into the observatory. That's
00:10:08 --> 00:10:11 the fuel it'll use to hold its position
00:10:11 --> 00:10:13 and point with real precision once it's
00:10:13 --> 00:10:15 out there. And NASA is holding its big
00:10:15 --> 00:10:18 mission preview briefing today, exactly
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 1 month out from launch. The date to
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 circle is the 30th of August. And
00:10:23 --> 00:10:26 remarkably, that's about 8 months ahead
00:10:26 --> 00:10:28 of the original schedule. A NASA
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30 flagship running early and as I
00:10:30 --> 00:10:32 understand it on budget. Let the record
00:10:32 --> 00:10:34 show it can be done.
00:10:34 --> 00:10:37 >> It can. And here's why Roman is worth
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 the excitement. Think of it as a
00:10:39 --> 00:10:42 telescope with Hubble quality sharpness,
00:10:42 --> 00:10:45 but a jaw-droppingly wide field of view.
00:10:45 --> 00:10:47 Something like 100 times the patch of
00:10:47 --> 00:10:50 sky Hubble sees in a single shot. NASA's
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 estimate is that in its first 5 years,
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 it could image more than 50 times as
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 much sky as Hubble has in 30. It's built
00:10:58 --> 00:11:00 to survey fast and wide.
00:11:00 --> 00:11:02 >> And what's that actually hunting?
00:11:02 --> 00:11:06 >> Two headline jobs. One, dark energy, the
00:11:06 --> 00:11:08 mystery pushing the universe apart
00:11:08 --> 00:11:11 faster and faster. Roman will map how
00:11:11 --> 00:11:13 cosmic structure has grown over billions
00:11:13 --> 00:11:16 of years to pin down what dark energy is
00:11:16 --> 00:11:19 actually doing. And two, this is the one
00:11:19 --> 00:11:22 I love. It's an exoplanet machine. Using
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 a trick called microlensing, Roman is
00:11:25 --> 00:11:28 expected to find more than 100 new
00:11:28 --> 00:11:30 planets and to catch hundreds of others
00:11:30 --> 00:11:33 in the very act of forming around young
00:11:33 --> 00:11:34 stars.
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 >> 100.
00:11:36 --> 00:11:38 We do a story most weeks about one
00:11:38 --> 00:11:40 interesting new planet, and Roman's
00:11:40 --> 00:11:43 going to hand us 100.
00:11:43 --> 00:11:46 >> It really might reset the whole field.
00:11:46 --> 00:11:48 And this is genuinely for everyone
00:11:48 --> 00:11:50 listening. Wherever you are, it's a
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52 space telescope, though. There's no
00:11:52 --> 00:11:55 hemisphere that misses out. The whole
00:11:55 --> 00:11:58 planet shares this one. One month to go.
00:11:58 --> 00:12:00 Fingers crossed for the 30th of August.
00:12:00 --> 00:12:02 Right. I told you Swift would come back
00:12:02 --> 00:12:05 around. In story 2, Swift was the hero,
00:12:05 --> 00:12:07 the observatory that helped us catch
00:12:07 --> 00:12:10 that wandering black hole. Well, here's
00:12:10 --> 00:12:12 this thing in the tale. Swift itself is
00:12:12 --> 00:12:15 in trouble and the spacecraft sent to
00:12:15 --> 00:12:17 save it is now in trouble too.
00:12:17 --> 00:12:20 >> Set it up. Why does Swift need saving in
00:12:20 --> 00:12:21 the first place?
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 >> Because Swift is falling. It's a
00:12:23 --> 00:12:25 fantastic gamma ray and X-ray
00:12:25 --> 00:12:27 observatory that's been working since
00:12:27 --> 00:12:30 2004, but it has no engine of its own.
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 No way to boost its own orbit. And its
00:12:32 --> 00:12:34 orbit has been decaying faster than
00:12:34 --> 00:12:36 expected. partly because heightened
00:12:36 --> 00:12:39 solar activity puffs up the upper
00:12:39 --> 00:12:41 atmosphere and increases the drag. Left
00:12:41 --> 00:12:43 alone, Swift is looking at an
00:12:43 --> 00:12:45 uncontrolled re-entry by around the end
00:12:45 --> 00:12:46 of this year.
00:12:46 --> 00:12:50 >> So, it burns up unless someone goes up
00:12:50 --> 00:12:51 and gives it a push,
00:12:51 --> 00:12:53 >> which is exactly the plan. A company
00:12:53 --> 00:12:56 called Catalyst Space Technologies built
00:12:56 --> 00:12:58 a robotic servicing spacecraft named
00:12:58 --> 00:13:01 Link. And NASA hired them for what its
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 own mission director called a fast,
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06 high-risk, highreward rescue. Link
00:13:06 --> 00:13:08 launched on the 3rd of July. And the
00:13:08 --> 00:13:11 goal is genuinely a first, to fly up,
00:13:11 --> 00:13:14 grab hold of Swift, a satellite that was
00:13:14 --> 00:13:16 never designed to be docked with or
00:13:16 --> 00:13:18 serviced, and physically boosted into a
00:13:18 --> 00:13:21 higher, safer orbit. Nobody has ever
00:13:21 --> 00:13:23 commercially docked with a government
00:13:23 --> 00:13:25 spacecraft that wasn't built for it.
00:13:25 --> 00:13:28 >> That's ambitious. So, what's gone wrong?
00:13:28 --> 00:13:30 >> Over the weekend, Link ran into an
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32 attitude control problem and started
00:13:32 --> 00:13:34 spinning with its communications
00:13:34 --> 00:13:37 dropping in and out. According to NASA's
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 update, and I want to be precise here
00:13:39 --> 00:13:41 because this is developing, the
00:13:41 --> 00:13:43 preliminary finding is that two of
00:13:43 --> 00:13:45 Link's three reaction wheels are no
00:13:45 --> 00:13:47 longer working, and there's some loss of
00:13:47 --> 00:13:49 function in its cold gas thruster system
00:13:50 --> 00:13:50 as well.
00:13:50 --> 00:13:53 >> Reaction wheels, those are the spinning
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55 wheels inside a spacecraft that let it
00:13:55 --> 00:13:58 turn and hold steady without using fuel.
00:13:58 --> 00:14:01 Lose those and you lose fine control of
00:14:01 --> 00:14:02 which way you're pointing.
00:14:02 --> 00:14:05 >> That's the one. And losing two of three
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 is serious, especially because there was
00:14:07 --> 00:14:09 already a wobble with one wheel earlier
00:14:09 --> 00:14:11 in commissioning that they patched in
00:14:11 --> 00:14:13 software. The good news, Link is not
00:14:13 --> 00:14:16 lost. It's still powered, still in
00:14:16 --> 00:14:18 contact, and its other major systems are
00:14:18 --> 00:14:20 behaving. The team's plan is to use
00:14:20 --> 00:14:23 Link's electric thrusters, its xenon
00:14:23 --> 00:14:25 propulsion, to stop the spin over the
00:14:25 --> 00:14:27 next few days, then reestablish stable
00:14:28 --> 00:14:29 pointing, update the spacecraft's
00:14:30 --> 00:14:31 guidance and navigation to work around
00:14:31 --> 00:14:34 the dead hardware, and only then sit
00:14:34 --> 00:14:36 down with NASA and decide whether it's
00:14:36 --> 00:14:38 still safe to attempt the approach and
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 capture of Swift.
00:14:40 --> 00:14:43 >> So, the rescue isn't cancelled. It's on
00:14:43 --> 00:14:44 hold while they figure out if the
00:14:44 --> 00:14:47 rescuer can still do the job.
00:14:47 --> 00:14:49 >> That's exactly it. And I'll flag for
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 everyone, this is a live situation as of
00:14:51 --> 00:14:53 when we're recording. By the time you
00:14:53 --> 00:14:55 hear this, the team may already have
00:14:55 --> 00:14:57 stopped to spin, or the picture may have
00:14:57 --> 00:15:00 changed again. But step back and look at
00:15:00 --> 00:15:02 the shape of it. The same little
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 observatory that just helped us find an
00:15:04 --> 00:15:06 invisible black hole halfway across the
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 universe is now clinging on in low Earth
00:15:09 --> 00:15:10 orbit, waiting to see if its own
00:15:10 --> 00:15:12 lifeboat can limp over and give it a
00:15:12 --> 00:15:15 shove. Base is hard. Even the rescue
00:15:15 --> 00:15:18 missions need rescuing. We'll keep you
00:15:18 --> 00:15:20 posted as that one develops. And that
00:15:20 --> 00:15:22 brings us to the sky over the next few
00:15:22 --> 00:15:25 nights. And there's one thing you cannot
00:15:25 --> 00:15:27 miss because it's going to be lighting
00:15:27 --> 00:15:30 up the whole night. The moon.
00:15:30 --> 00:15:31 >> The full buck moon.
00:15:31 --> 00:15:34 >> The full buck moon. Full tonight, the
00:15:34 --> 00:15:37 29th, and near enough to 100% lit for a
00:15:38 --> 00:15:40 couple of nights either side. Gorgeous
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42 to look at as it climbs the eastern sky
00:15:42 --> 00:15:45 after sunset. But it is a flood light
00:15:46 --> 00:15:48 and that shapes everything else we can
00:15:48 --> 00:15:50 and can't do this week.
00:15:50 --> 00:15:51 >> Starting with the meteors because there
00:15:52 --> 00:15:54 are three showers on the go at once.
00:15:54 --> 00:15:56 >> There are and this is where our two
00:15:56 --> 00:15:58 hemispheres genuinely differ. The
00:15:58 --> 00:16:00 headline shower right now is the
00:16:00 --> 00:16:03 southern delta Aquarius peaking over the
00:16:03 --> 00:16:05 next couple of nights. And the clue is
00:16:05 --> 00:16:08 in the name. For our southern hemisphere
00:16:08 --> 00:16:11 listeners, this one's yours. The radiant
00:16:11 --> 00:16:13 over near the bright star Fomalhout
00:16:13 --> 00:16:15 rides high almost overhead in the
00:16:15 --> 00:16:18 pre-dawn hours. So from Australia, New
00:16:18 --> 00:16:21 Zealand, and Southern Africa, you're in
00:16:21 --> 00:16:23 the best seats on Earth for it.
00:16:23 --> 00:16:25 >> And for the north,
00:16:25 --> 00:16:27 >> from North America, it's lower and
00:16:27 --> 00:16:29 stingier, though observers in the
00:16:29 --> 00:16:31 southern United States still get a fair
00:16:31 --> 00:16:34 look. Best window everywhere is the
00:16:34 --> 00:16:37 couple of hours before dawn. But big
00:16:37 --> 00:16:40 caveat this year, that brilliant moon is
00:16:40 --> 00:16:42 going to wash out most of the faint
00:16:42 --> 00:16:45 delta Aquar. So temper expectations.
00:16:45 --> 00:16:47 >> If the faint ones are drowned out,
00:16:47 --> 00:16:49 what's worth staying up for?
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52 >> The fireballs. The alpha Capricornids
00:16:52 --> 00:16:54 are active at the same time. They're
00:16:54 --> 00:16:57 sparse, only a handful an hour, but they
00:16:57 --> 00:17:00 specialize in slow, brilliant fireballs,
00:17:00 --> 00:17:01 bright enough to punch through
00:17:01 --> 00:17:04 moonlight. And unlike the Delta Aquar,
00:17:04 --> 00:17:07 the Capricornids play fair. They're just
00:17:07 --> 00:17:09 as good from either hemisphere. So the
00:17:09 --> 00:17:12 tip for everyone this week, don't chase
00:17:12 --> 00:17:15 quantity. Get comfortable, be patient,
00:17:15 --> 00:17:18 and wait for one big slow fireball to
00:17:18 --> 00:17:19 make your night.
00:17:20 --> 00:17:21 >> And the shower everyone's really waiting
00:17:22 --> 00:17:22 for,
00:17:22 --> 00:17:25 >> the Perciads. And here's the good news
00:17:25 --> 00:17:27 to hold on to. They're building now, but
00:17:28 --> 00:17:30 they peak on the night of the 12th into
00:17:30 --> 00:17:33 the 13th of August. And this year, the
00:17:33 --> 00:17:35 timing is close to perfect. The peak
00:17:35 --> 00:17:39 lands right on the new moon. Dark skies,
00:17:39 --> 00:17:41 no moonlight, potentially the best
00:17:41 --> 00:17:44 perciads in years. They favor the
00:17:44 --> 00:17:46 northern hemisphere, but midsouthern
00:17:46 --> 00:17:49 latitudes will catch some, too. Market,
00:17:49 --> 00:17:51 the night of the 12th of August is the
00:17:51 --> 00:17:52 one to keep clear.
00:17:52 --> 00:17:54 >> And that same date is a big one for
00:17:54 --> 00:17:57 another reason. It is a total solar
00:17:58 --> 00:18:00 eclipse on the 12th of August with the
00:18:00 --> 00:18:02 path of totality crossing Greenland,
00:18:02 --> 00:18:05 Iceland, and a slice of Spain and a
00:18:05 --> 00:18:07 partial eclipse visible across much of
00:18:07 --> 00:18:10 Europe and parts of North America. We'll
00:18:10 --> 00:18:12 have full timings closer to the day. And
00:18:12 --> 00:18:15 the one rule that never changes wherever
00:18:15 --> 00:18:18 you are, never look at the partial
00:18:18 --> 00:18:20 phases of a solar eclipse without
00:18:20 --> 00:18:26 certified eclipse glasses. ISO12312-2
00:18:26 --> 00:18:29 or a properly filtered telescope.
00:18:29 --> 00:18:31 Ordinary sunglasses will not protect
00:18:31 --> 00:18:35 your eyes. That safety line stays in. No
00:18:35 --> 00:18:36 exceptions.
00:18:36 --> 00:18:38 >> One quick planet note before we wrap the
00:18:38 --> 00:18:39 sky.
00:18:39 --> 00:18:42 >> Yes. Say goodbye to Jupiter for a little
00:18:42 --> 00:18:45 while. Today, the 29th, Jupiter reaches
00:18:45 --> 00:18:48 solar conjunction. It's passing almost
00:18:48 --> 00:18:50 directly behind the sun from our point
00:18:50 --> 00:18:52 of view. So, it's lost in the glare and
00:18:52 --> 00:18:55 out of action for the next few weeks.
00:18:55 --> 00:18:57 It'll creep back as a pre-dawn object
00:18:57 --> 00:19:00 later in August. And for early risers,
00:19:00 --> 00:19:03 Mercury is putting on its best morning
00:19:03 --> 00:19:05 showing of the season, low in the
00:19:05 --> 00:19:06 pre-dawn east.
00:19:06 --> 00:19:08 >> And we have to close the loop on our
00:19:08 --> 00:19:09 lead story.
00:19:09 --> 00:19:12 >> We do. If you're up before dawn chasing
00:19:12 --> 00:19:15 those meteors, look for Orion climbing
00:19:15 --> 00:19:17 in the east and find Beetlejuice, that
00:19:17 --> 00:19:20 bright orange shoulder. From the
00:19:20 --> 00:19:21 southern hemisphere, it's high in the
00:19:22 --> 00:19:24 northern sky and flipped over. From the
00:19:24 --> 00:19:26 north, it's lower in the east before
00:19:26 --> 00:19:29 sunrise. Either way, give it a nod. You
00:19:29 --> 00:19:31 now know something about that star that
00:19:32 --> 00:19:34 nobody knew for a hundred years. It's
00:19:34 --> 00:19:36 got a companion.
00:19:36 --> 00:19:38 >> Before we go, a bit of proper news from
00:19:38 --> 00:19:40 our end. We've just launched the brand
00:19:40 --> 00:19:44 new home for the show, astronomyaily.io.
00:19:44 --> 00:19:46 >> Same address you already know, but it's
00:19:46 --> 00:19:48 had a complete makeover, and there's a
00:19:48 --> 00:19:51 lot there now. You can stream the entire
00:19:51 --> 00:19:53 back catalog every episode. There's a
00:19:53 --> 00:19:55 news feed that updates continuously
00:19:55 --> 00:19:57 through the day, so you can keep up with
00:19:57 --> 00:19:59 the latest space and astronomy headlines
00:19:59 --> 00:20:01 between episodes. You can read listener
00:20:01 --> 00:20:03 reviews and leave one of your own. And
00:20:03 --> 00:20:06 you can sign up for our daily space news
00:20:06 --> 00:20:08 newsletter to get it all straight to
00:20:08 --> 00:20:09 your inbox.
00:20:09 --> 00:20:11 >> And there's a spot to drop us a line,
00:20:11 --> 00:20:13 questions, suggestions, a story you
00:20:13 --> 00:20:15 think we've missed, or just to say good
00:20:15 --> 00:20:16 day. We read them.
00:20:16 --> 00:20:18 >> It's brand new, so we genuinely love
00:20:18 --> 00:20:20 your feedback on it. Head to
00:20:20 --> 00:20:22 astronomyaily.io.
00:20:22 --> 00:20:24 Have a wander around and tell us what
00:20:24 --> 00:20:25 you think, what you love, what you'd
00:20:25 --> 00:20:28 change. Help us make it yours.
00:20:28 --> 00:20:30 >> That's Astronomy Daily for Wednesday,
00:20:30 --> 00:20:33 29th of July. Beetlejuice's hundred-year
00:20:33 --> 00:20:35 secret, a black hole in the wrong part
00:20:35 --> 00:20:37 of town, Roman on the clock, and a
00:20:38 --> 00:20:40 rescue mission holding its breath.
00:20:40 --> 00:20:41 Thanks for spending part of your day
00:20:41 --> 00:20:43 with us. Look after each other and
00:20:43 --> 00:20:45 whichever hemisphere you're in. Clear
00:20:46 --> 00:20:57 skies.
00:20:58 --> 00:21:01 Stories told.