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Episode 100 of Series 5 and the universe is not slowing down. Today: a live ISS resupply launch, a Mars rover drama that took a week to resolve, a cosmic debate about our galactic neighbour, two extraordinary black hole findings from the James Webb Space Telescope, and a brand-new category of planet that smells of rotten eggs. Plus a quick milestone moment for the show. STORIES IN THIS EPISODE • SpaceX CRS-34 launches tonight — 6,500 lbs of cargo, science payloads, weather risks • Curiosity rover's 'Atacama' rock drama — a first in 14 years of Mars exploration • The Large Magellanic Cloud may be approaching the Milky Way for the very first time • JWST's little red dots: an X-ray clue a decade in the making • JWST: two early-universe black holes that outgrew their galaxies by a factor of hundreds • L 98-59 d: a brand-new class of planet — global magma ocean, sulphur-rich atmosphere CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS • 0:00 — Cold open & Episode 100 milestone • 1:30 — Story 1: SpaceX CRS-34 launches tonight • 5:00 — Story 2: Curiosity rover's 'Atacama' rock saga • 8:30 — Story 3: Is the Large Magellanic Cloud a first-time visitor? • 12:00 — Story 4: JWST's little red dots — the X-ray dot emerges • 15:30 — Story 5: JWST black holes that outgrew their galaxies • 19:00 — Story 6: L 98-59 d — the rotten egg planet • 22:30 — Southern skywatching & outro Subscribe for daily space and astronomy news. Find us at astronomydaily.io and across all platforms at @AstroDailyPod.
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00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm Anna.
00:00:03 --> 00:00:05 >> And I'm Avery. You're listening to
00:00:05 --> 00:00:09 season 5 and today to episode 100.
00:00:09 --> 00:00:12 >> 100 episodes this season. We should
00:00:12 --> 00:00:14 probably pause for half a second and
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 just notice that.
00:00:16 --> 00:00:18 >> Half a second starting now.
00:00:18 --> 00:00:21 >> Done. Back to the universe, which as
00:00:21 --> 00:00:23 usual hasn't slowed down to let us catch
00:00:23 --> 00:00:24 our breath.
00:00:24 --> 00:00:26 >> Not even slightly. Today we have a
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 rocket heading to the International
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 Space Station literally tonight. A Mars
00:00:31 --> 00:00:33 rover that accidentally picked up a rock
00:00:33 --> 00:00:36 and couldn't put it down. A cosmic
00:00:36 --> 00:00:38 debate that may finally be settled about
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 our closest galactic neighbor. And two
00:00:41 --> 00:00:42 extraordinary findings from the James
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 Webb Space Telescope that are rewriting
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 the early history of the cosmos.
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 >> And we're closing with a planet that's
00:00:49 --> 00:00:50 we're just going to say it smells like
00:00:50 --> 00:00:53 rotten eggs. It's a good one.
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 >> It really is. Let's go. We're starting
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 with news that is happening today, right
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 now. In fact, as you're listening to
00:00:59 --> 00:01:01 this, SpaceX and NASA are targeting
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 tonight for the launch of the 34th
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05 commercial resupply services mission to
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 the International Space Station,
00:01:07 --> 00:01:11 >> CRS 34. And this one's a big cargo run.
00:01:11 --> 00:01:14 >> It is. A Falcon 9 rocket is standing at
00:01:14 --> 00:01:16 Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape
00:01:16 --> 00:01:18 Canaveral. And the launch window opens
00:01:18 --> 00:01:21 at 7:16 this evening, Eastern time.
00:01:21 --> 00:01:23 That's 9:16 if you're on the east coast
00:01:23 --> 00:01:25 of Australia Wednesday morning.
00:01:25 --> 00:01:27 >> There is always a weather caveat with
00:01:27 --> 00:01:28 Florida launches.
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30 >> Always. Forecasters are giving only
00:01:30 --> 00:01:33 about a 35% chance of favorable
00:01:33 --> 00:01:35 conditions at liftoff. So there's a real
00:01:35 --> 00:01:37 possibility it slips to the backup
00:01:37 --> 00:01:39 window on Wednesday evening. But as of
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 right now, the mission is go.
00:01:41 --> 00:01:42 >> What's on board?
00:01:42 --> 00:01:46 >> About 6 lb of cargo, crew supplies,
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 station hardware, and several science
00:01:48 --> 00:01:49 experiments that are genuinely
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 interesting. One investigation involves
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 a bone scaffold made from wood that
00:01:54 --> 00:01:56 researchers hope could lead to new
00:01:56 --> 00:01:58 treatments for osteoporosis. That's a
00:01:58 --> 00:02:01 disease that affects bone density, and
00:02:01 --> 00:02:03 it actually worsens in the lowgravity
00:02:03 --> 00:02:04 environment of space,
00:02:04 --> 00:02:06 >> which makes studying it in space
00:02:06 --> 00:02:08 especially relevant.
00:02:08 --> 00:02:10 >> Exactly. There's also a study looking at
00:02:10 --> 00:02:13 how red blood cells and the spleen
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 change during extended space flight. And
00:02:15 --> 00:02:18 my personal favorite, a new instrument
00:02:18 --> 00:02:21 called Story, the Storm Time O Plus Ring
00:02:21 --> 00:02:23 Current Imaging Evolution Instrument.
00:02:23 --> 00:02:25 It'll monitor the charged particle
00:02:25 --> 00:02:28 environment near Earth, which is a real
00:02:28 --> 00:02:30 hazard for power grids and satellites
00:02:30 --> 00:02:31 during solar storms.
00:02:31 --> 00:02:33 >> The Dragon capsule on this mission is
00:02:33 --> 00:02:35 flying for the sixth time, and the
00:02:35 --> 00:02:37 booster will attempt a return to launch
00:02:37 --> 00:02:39 site landing, which never gets old to
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 watch. After launch, Dragon will spend
00:02:42 --> 00:02:44 about 38 hours in orbit, raising its
00:02:44 --> 00:02:46 altitude before docking autonomously
00:02:46 --> 00:02:48 with the Harmony module on Thursday
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 morning. We'll follow up on that in
00:02:50 --> 00:02:51 tomorrow's episode.
00:02:51 --> 00:02:54 >> From Cape Canaveral to the ISS in under
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 2 days, still extraordinary.
00:02:57 --> 00:03:00 >> Now, Mars and a story that is part
00:03:00 --> 00:03:03 engineering drama, part slapstick, and
00:03:03 --> 00:03:05 entirely endearing.
00:03:05 --> 00:03:08 >> I love this one. NASA's Curiosity Rover,
00:03:08 --> 00:03:10 which has been rolling across Mars since
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13 2012, more than 14 years now, recently
00:03:13 --> 00:03:15 had something happen that had literally
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 never happened before in its entire
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 mission. It drilled into a rock and the
00:03:20 --> 00:03:21 rock wouldn't let go.
00:03:22 --> 00:03:24 >> It just grabbed on and refused to
00:03:24 --> 00:03:24 release.
00:03:24 --> 00:03:27 >> On April 25th, Curiosity extended its
00:03:27 --> 00:03:29 robotic arm and drilled into a rock that
00:03:30 --> 00:03:32 the team nicknamed Artakama after the
00:03:32 --> 00:03:34 Chilean desert. When the rover tried to
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37 retract the arm, the entire rock lifted
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 off the Martian surface. It had lodged
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 onto the fixed sleeve surrounding the
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 drill bit and simply came with it.
00:03:45 --> 00:03:47 >> How big was this rock?
00:03:47 --> 00:03:51 >> About 45 cm across at its base, around
00:03:51 --> 00:03:56 15 cm thick and roughly 13 kg or about 4
00:03:56 --> 00:03:59 1/2 kg on Mars due to the lower gravity.
00:03:59 --> 00:04:02 a substantial chunky rock dangling off
00:04:02 --> 00:04:05 the end of a rover arm 140 million
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 kilometers from the nearest mechanic.
00:04:08 --> 00:04:10 And the solution isn't as simple as just
00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 shaking it off. Every command you send
00:04:13 --> 00:04:16 to Curiosity takes up to 30 minutes to
00:04:16 --> 00:04:17 arrive,
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 >> which is what made the next week so
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 dramatic. The engineering team spent
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 several days trying different
00:04:23 --> 00:04:26 approaches, repositioning the arm,
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 vibrating the drill, trying different
00:04:28 --> 00:04:31 angles. For days, Atakama refused to
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 budge. They even watched the rock slowly
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 shed sand as the arm moved, but it
00:04:36 --> 00:04:39 stayed put. Finally, on May the 1st, the
00:04:39 --> 00:04:42 team went all in, tilting the drill,
00:04:42 --> 00:04:45 rotating it, vibrating it, and spinning
00:04:45 --> 00:04:47 the drill bit simultaneously. They were
00:04:47 --> 00:04:50 prepared to try multiple rounds. The
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 rock came off on the first attempt
00:04:52 --> 00:04:55 >> and promptly shattered when it hit the
00:04:55 --> 00:04:56 Martian ground.
00:04:56 --> 00:04:58 >> At Takama's last stand,
00:04:58 --> 00:05:00 >> NASA released the full camera sequence
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 this week. It's remarkable footage, and
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 Curiosity, for its part, is now happily
00:05:06 --> 00:05:08 back to its regular science operations.
00:05:08 --> 00:05:11 14 years in, still finding new ways to
00:05:11 --> 00:05:12 surprise us.
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 >> We're going much, much further out now.
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 Not Mars, not even our galaxy. We're
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 talking about our galaxy's largest
00:05:20 --> 00:05:23 satellite, the large magalenic cloud,
00:05:23 --> 00:05:25 >> which you can see beautifully from
00:05:25 --> 00:05:27 Australia, sitting low in the southern
00:05:27 --> 00:05:30 sky on a clear night, looking like a
00:05:30 --> 00:05:32 detached patch of the Milky Way.
00:05:32 --> 00:05:35 >> And for a long time, astronomers assumed
00:05:35 --> 00:05:37 it had been orbiting the Milky Way for
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 billions of years, making repeated
00:05:39 --> 00:05:42 passes, coming close, swinging back out,
00:05:42 --> 00:05:44 a regular visitor. New research
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 published this week argues something
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 quite different. That this is actually
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 the very first time the large magalenic
00:05:51 --> 00:05:54 cloud has ever approached our galaxy.
00:05:54 --> 00:05:56 >> A first invol.
00:05:56 --> 00:05:59 >> Exactly. A team led by Scott Lucini and
00:05:59 --> 00:06:02 colleagues ran detailed hydrodnamic
00:06:02 --> 00:06:04 simulations modeling the gas halo
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 surrounding both galaxies and compared
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 that with ultraviolet observations of
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 the gas clouds between them. They found
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 the data is consistent only with a first
00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 pass scenario. If the cloud had been
00:06:16 --> 00:06:19 here before, the models say the gas halo
00:06:19 --> 00:06:21 just wouldn't look the way it does.
00:06:21 --> 00:06:23 >> What does it mean if it's really a first
00:06:23 --> 00:06:25 time visitor?
00:06:25 --> 00:06:27 >> It has significant implications for how
00:06:27 --> 00:06:30 we understand our galaxy's evolution.
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 The large maggalenic cloud is enormous.
00:06:32 --> 00:06:35 It has billions of stars and a mass
00:06:35 --> 00:06:38 that's roughly 10% of the Milky Way. An
00:06:38 --> 00:06:40 object that size sweeping through on its
00:06:40 --> 00:06:43 first close approach causes disruptions.
00:06:43 --> 00:06:46 It warps our dark matter halo influences
00:06:46 --> 00:06:48 star formation tugs on the structure of
00:06:48 --> 00:06:51 the galactic disc. If it's done this
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 before, those effects would have played
00:06:53 --> 00:06:55 out repeatedly. If this is the first
00:06:55 --> 00:06:57 time, we're watching something quite
00:06:57 --> 00:06:58 rare.
00:06:58 --> 00:07:00 >> The team says their simulations provide,
00:07:00 --> 00:07:03 and I like this phrase, definitive
00:07:03 --> 00:07:05 evidence. Though they acknowledge there
00:07:05 --> 00:07:07 are some tensions with other data sets
00:07:07 --> 00:07:09 that still need to be resolved.
00:07:09 --> 00:07:12 >> Science is rarely simple, but the weight
00:07:12 --> 00:07:14 of this evidence is pointing one way.
00:07:14 --> 00:07:17 The large magalenic cloud is a newcomer
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 and it's heading our way.
00:07:19 --> 00:07:21 >> Nothing to worry about on a human time
00:07:21 --> 00:07:23 scale, nothing dramatic happens. But on
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 cosmic time, fascinating.
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 >> Next, time for the James Web Space
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 Telescope and the saga of the little red
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 dots. We've talked about these before.
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 For listeners who haven't heard, give us
00:07:35 --> 00:07:36 the quick version.
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 >> The quick version. When JWST began
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 looking at the very early universe,
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 galaxies that existed just a few hundred
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 million years after the Big Bang, he
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 found hundreds of strange, compact,
00:07:48 --> 00:07:51 faint red objects that nobody expected
00:07:51 --> 00:07:54 and nobody can fully explain. They
00:07:54 --> 00:07:56 became known as little red dots. They're
00:07:56 --> 00:07:59 roughly 12 billion lighty years away.
00:07:59 --> 00:08:01 They're intensely red. They're tiny and
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 they have properties that don't fit
00:08:03 --> 00:08:06 neatly into any existing category. The
00:08:06 --> 00:08:08 debate has been raging for years. Are
00:08:08 --> 00:08:11 they massive star forming regions?
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 Ancient black holes and thick dust
00:08:13 --> 00:08:16 cocoons? An entirely new type of object?
00:08:16 --> 00:08:18 >> And now there's a new twist.
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 >> There is. Astronomers have been studying
00:08:20 --> 00:08:23 an unusual object that had been sitting
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 unnoticed in archival data from NASA's
00:08:25 --> 00:08:28 Chandra X-ray Observatory for over a
00:08:28 --> 00:08:31 decade. It's called the X-ray dot
00:08:31 --> 00:08:34 cataloged as 3DHST-
00:08:34 --> 00:08:38 AEGIS-12014.
00:08:38 --> 00:08:40 And it only revealed its significance
00:08:40 --> 00:08:43 when JWST recently observed the same
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46 patch of sky and showed that this X-ray
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 source is sitting in exactly the same
00:08:48 --> 00:08:51 location as one of the little red dots.
00:08:51 --> 00:08:54 >> A 10-year-old clue hiding in plain
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 sight. The team led by researchers at
00:08:56 --> 00:08:59 Princeton believes this X-ray dot may be
00:08:59 --> 00:09:01 what an older little red dot looks like.
00:09:01 --> 00:09:03 In the current theory, little red dots
00:09:03 --> 00:09:05 are young black holes surrounded by
00:09:05 --> 00:09:07 dense clouds of gas that they're
00:09:07 --> 00:09:09 consuming. And that gas absorbs the
00:09:09 --> 00:09:11 X-rays, which is why most little red
00:09:11 --> 00:09:14 dots don't show up in X-ray surveys. But
00:09:14 --> 00:09:17 as that gas gets eaten or blown away,
00:09:17 --> 00:09:19 the X-rays start getting through. So,
00:09:19 --> 00:09:21 the X-ray dot might be the same type of
00:09:21 --> 00:09:24 object, just older and less shrouded,
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26 >> possibly, or it might be something else
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 entirely, a black hole wrapped in exotic
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 dust never previously observed. The team
00:09:31 --> 00:09:34 says further observations are needed.
00:09:34 --> 00:09:35 But either way, it's a piece of the
00:09:35 --> 00:09:37 puzzle, and it's pointing us toward
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 understanding one of the strangest
00:09:39 --> 00:09:41 populations of objects ever discovered.
00:09:41 --> 00:09:44 Now, just quickly before we move on to
00:09:44 --> 00:09:46 our next story, a reminder that our
00:09:46 --> 00:09:49 sponsor this week, NordVPN, has a great
00:09:49 --> 00:09:51 deal in place for you. You'll save a
00:09:51 --> 00:09:54 heap of money and be securing your
00:09:54 --> 00:09:56 online life. This deal makes peace of
00:09:56 --> 00:09:59 mind very affordable. You can check out
00:09:59 --> 00:10:01 the details by following the link in our
00:10:01 --> 00:10:02 show notes.
00:10:02 --> 00:10:04 >> Okay, moving on. We're staying with the
00:10:04 --> 00:10:06 James Webb Space Telescope because it
00:10:06 --> 00:10:09 keeps delivering. But now we're looking
00:10:09 --> 00:10:11 at a completely different puzzle. And
00:10:11 --> 00:10:13 this one was published yesterday.
00:10:13 --> 00:10:15 >> Hot off the preprint server.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:18 >> Literally, astronomers have identified
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 two early universe galaxies named Cola 1
00:10:21 --> 00:10:25 and Neppla 4 observed just 800 million
00:10:25 --> 00:10:27 years after the Big Bang. And here's the
00:10:27 --> 00:10:29 strange part. Their black holes at the
00:10:29 --> 00:10:31 centers of these galaxies are between
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 400 and 800 times more massive relative
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 to their host galaxies than black holes
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 in the modern universe.
00:10:39 --> 00:10:41 >> In the local universe, galaxies like our
00:10:41 --> 00:10:43 own, the mass of a central black hole is
00:10:43 --> 00:10:46 typically about a tenth to a half% of
00:10:46 --> 00:10:48 the total stellar mass of the galaxy.
00:10:48 --> 00:10:51 These two are nowhere near that ratio.
00:10:51 --> 00:10:53 Their black holes weigh in at somewhere
00:10:53 --> 00:10:57 between 170 and 190 million solar
00:10:57 --> 00:11:00 masses. The galaxies around them are
00:11:00 --> 00:11:02 comparatively tiny. The black holes
00:11:02 --> 00:11:04 appear to have grown first and fast
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 while their host galaxies were still in
00:11:06 --> 00:11:07 their infancy.
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 >> Which raises the question, how?
00:11:09 --> 00:11:11 >> That's the core mystery. The standard
00:11:12 --> 00:11:14 model of galaxy formation says black
00:11:14 --> 00:11:16 holes and galaxies grow together in a
00:11:16 --> 00:11:18 kind of feedback loop. The black hole
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 influences star formation. Star
00:11:20 --> 00:11:23 formation influences the black hole.
00:11:23 --> 00:11:25 These two objects suggest that in the
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 very early universe that relationship
00:11:27 --> 00:11:29 could be inverted. The black hole didn't
00:11:29 --> 00:11:32 wait. It grew explosively, outpacing its
00:11:32 --> 00:11:34 own galaxy by a huge margin.
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 >> Astronomers have been finding over
00:11:36 --> 00:11:38 massive black holes in the early
00:11:38 --> 00:11:41 universe regularly now with JWST. Each
00:11:41 --> 00:11:43 new example adds weight to the idea that
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45 our models of galaxy formation in the
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 first billion years need significant
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 revision. And the early universe keeps
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52 revealing that it was a far wilder,
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 faster, more extreme place than we
00:11:54 --> 00:11:57 imagined. These are not gentle
00:11:57 --> 00:11:59 processes. This is cosmic violence at a
00:11:59 --> 00:12:01 scale that's hard to comprehend.
00:12:02 --> 00:12:03 >> We're closing today with a planet
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 discovery that is genuinely new and
00:12:06 --> 00:12:09 genuinely strange. Strap in.
00:12:09 --> 00:12:11 >> The headline said rotten eggs. I want to
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 hear about the rotten eggs.
00:12:13 --> 00:12:15 >> We'll get there. Astronomers have been
00:12:15 --> 00:12:20 studying an exoplanet called L98-59D.
00:12:20 --> 00:12:23 It sits just 35 lighty years away in the
00:12:23 --> 00:12:25 southern constellation Volins,
00:12:25 --> 00:12:27 practically next door by cosmic
00:12:27 --> 00:12:29 standards, and it's been in their sights
00:12:29 --> 00:12:31 for a while. But new research published
00:12:32 --> 00:12:34 this week in the journal Nature has
00:12:34 --> 00:12:37 revealed just how unusual it is. This
00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 planet doesn't fit any existing
00:12:39 --> 00:12:40 category.
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 >> What's it like? Imagine a world where
00:12:43 --> 00:12:46 the entire surface is an ocean, but not
00:12:46 --> 00:12:50 water. Molten rock, a global magma ocean
00:12:50 --> 00:12:53 stretching from pole to pole of silicut
00:12:53 --> 00:12:55 material heated to temperatures that
00:12:55 --> 00:12:58 would reduce anything we know to vapor.
00:12:58 --> 00:13:01 Above this ocean sits a thick, dense
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 atmosphere. And that atmosphere is
00:13:03 --> 00:13:05 loaded with sulfur compounds,
00:13:05 --> 00:13:07 >> which is where the rotten eggs come in.
00:13:07 --> 00:13:10 hydrogen sulfide, the same compound
00:13:10 --> 00:13:13 responsible for that distinctive aroma.
00:13:13 --> 00:13:15 The atmosphere traps heat so efficiently
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17 that the magma ocean has been kept
00:13:17 --> 00:13:20 molten for billions of years. A
00:13:20 --> 00:13:22 permanent planetwide lava sea with a
00:13:22 --> 00:13:25 toxic sky above it. The lead researcher,
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 Dr. Harrison Nichols from the University
00:13:27 --> 00:13:30 of Oxford, puts it perfectly. He says,
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32 "The categories astronomers currently
00:13:32 --> 00:13:35 use to describe small planets may simply
00:13:36 --> 00:13:37 be too simple.
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 >> How did they figure all of this out? You
00:13:39 --> 00:13:41 can't exactly send the probe."
00:13:41 --> 00:13:43 >> Advanced computer modeling combined with
00:13:43 --> 00:13:45 observational data about the planet's
00:13:45 --> 00:13:48 mass, size, and density. The planet is
00:13:48 --> 00:13:50 less dense than we'd expect for its
00:13:50 --> 00:13:52 size, which gave the team the clue that
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 the interior is molten rather than
00:13:54 --> 00:13:57 solid. The co-author, Professor Raymond
00:13:57 --> 00:14:00 Pier Humber, described being able to
00:14:00 --> 00:14:02 reconstruct the hidden interior of a
00:14:02 --> 00:14:04 planet we will never visit. That's
00:14:04 --> 00:14:05 extraordinary.
00:14:06 --> 00:14:07 >> And the question it leaves you with,
00:14:08 --> 00:14:09 what other kinds of planets are out
00:14:09 --> 00:14:11 there waiting to be discovered is a
00:14:11 --> 00:14:12 great one.
00:14:12 --> 00:14:15 >> L98-59D
00:14:15 --> 00:14:17 suggests we've barely scratched the
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19 surface of planetary diversity. Worlds
00:14:20 --> 00:14:22 with global magma oceans, sulfur
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 atmospheres, permanent volcanic
00:14:24 --> 00:14:27 landscapes, and who knows what else. The
00:14:27 --> 00:14:30 universe is endlessly creative.
00:14:30 --> 00:14:33 >> Just maybe don't plan a holiday there.
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 >> Before we go, a quick look at the
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37 southern sky for the coming nights.
00:14:37 --> 00:14:39 >> May is a spectacular month for sky
00:14:39 --> 00:14:41 watching from Australia and New Zealand.
00:14:41 --> 00:14:44 Saturn is well placed in the east before
00:14:44 --> 00:14:46 midnight, and Jupiter is becoming more
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48 prominent in the pre-dawn sky. The Milky
00:14:48 --> 00:14:51 Way is arcing beautifully overhead in
00:14:51 --> 00:14:53 the evening hours. A perfect time to
00:14:53 --> 00:14:55 look for the large magalenic cloud and
00:14:55 --> 00:14:57 small megalic cloud low in the south.
00:14:58 --> 00:14:59 Just as we discussed today,
00:14:59 --> 00:15:02 >> a pair of firsttime visitors right there
00:15:02 --> 00:15:03 above you.
00:15:03 --> 00:15:05 >> Exactly. And if you're under dark skies,
00:15:05 --> 00:15:08 the southern Milky Way through Centaurus
00:15:08 --> 00:15:10 and Krux is extraordinary this time of
00:15:10 --> 00:15:11 year.
00:15:11 --> 00:15:14 >> That's everything for episode 100. Thank
00:15:14 --> 00:15:16 you genuinely for being part of this
00:15:16 --> 00:15:19 journey. 100 episodes means 100 days of
00:15:19 --> 00:15:21 choosing to spend a few minutes thinking
00:15:21 --> 00:15:24 about the universe. And we appreciate
00:15:24 --> 00:15:26 every one of you who comes back each
00:15:26 --> 00:15:28 day. If you're enjoying the show, please
00:15:28 --> 00:15:30 subscribe, leave a review wherever you
00:15:30 --> 00:15:32 listen, and find us on all the socials
00:15:32 --> 00:15:35 at astroaily pod. The website is
00:15:35 --> 00:15:37 astronomyaily.io.
00:15:37 --> 00:15:39 >> We'll be back tomorrow with the outcome
00:15:39 --> 00:15:43 of tonight's SpaceX CRS 34 launch and
00:15:43 --> 00:15:46 whatever else the cosmos has in store.
00:15:46 --> 00:15:48 from all of us at Astronomy Daily. Keep
00:15:48 --> 00:16:00 looking up.
00:16:00 --> 00:16:04 Stories told.