00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily.
00:00:02 --> 00:00:03 I'm your host, Anna, and I'm really
00:00:04 --> 00:00:05 excited to bring you your daily dose of
00:00:05 --> 00:00:08 cosmic happenings. Today, we've got some
00:00:08 --> 00:00:09 really cool stuff to talk about. From a
00:00:09 --> 00:00:12 giant planet orbiting a tiny star to a
00:00:12 --> 00:00:14 weird star that might just solve one of
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 astronomy's biggest mysteries. We will
00:00:16 --> 00:00:18 also cover China's reusable rocket and
00:00:18 --> 00:00:20 two galaxy clusters about to crash into
00:00:20 --> 00:00:23 each other again. So, buckle up, space
00:00:23 --> 00:00:26 fans. It's going to be an awesome ride.
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 First up, we're diving into the
00:00:28 --> 00:00:30 headscratching discovery of a giant
00:00:30 --> 00:00:34 planet to
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 6b orbiting a red dwarf star called
00:00:37 --> 00:00:38 Toy
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 6. Now, this star is tiny. I mean,
00:00:41 --> 00:00:44 we're talking about 1/5 the size of our
00:00:44 --> 00:00:46 sun, which makes the discovery of this
00:00:46 --> 00:00:48 planet like a huge
00:00:48 --> 00:00:51 surprise. See, these small stars weren't
00:00:51 --> 00:00:52 thought to have enough material to even
00:00:52 --> 00:00:58 form giant planets. But there it is. TOI
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 6b, a gas giant roughly the size of
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 Saturn. It's kind of like finding a
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05 fully grown elephant living in a mouse
00:01:05 --> 00:01:08 hole. You know, this discovery kind of
00:01:08 --> 00:01:09 turns our understanding of planet
00:01:09 --> 00:01:11 formation on its head. The current
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 theory suggests that the amount of
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 material in the disc around a star,
00:01:15 --> 00:01:17 which eventually forms planets, is
00:01:17 --> 00:01:20 proportional to the stars mass. So, a
00:01:20 --> 00:01:22 tiny star shouldn't have enough stuff to
00:01:22 --> 00:01:24 make a giant planet. But apparently
00:01:24 --> 00:01:28 nature loves to throw curve balls. Now
00:01:28 --> 00:01:29 because TOI
00:01:29 --> 00:01:32 6894b has such deep transits, I mean
00:01:32 --> 00:01:34 when it passes in front of its star, it
00:01:34 --> 00:01:37 blocks a whopping 17% of the light. It's
00:01:37 --> 00:01:38 a perfect candidate for atmosphere
00:01:38 --> 00:01:41 study. A team of astronomers has already
00:01:41 --> 00:01:43 applied for time with the James Webb
00:01:43 --> 00:01:46 Space Telescope, JWST, to do just that.
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 They are hoping to find a lot of methane
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 in the exoplanet's atmosphere. That'll
00:01:50 --> 00:01:52 give us a better idea of how this planet
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 formed and maybe help us refine our
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 planet formation theories. Pretty cool,
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 huh? Next up, let's talk about a really
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 odd star, Lamos
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 J0804 +
00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 5, residing in what's known as the
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 Gaia Sausage. And no, it's not a
00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 galactic deli item. The Gaia Sausage is
00:02:12 --> 00:02:14 actually the remains of a dwarf galaxy
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 that merged with our Milky Way billions
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 of years ago. Now, this star, it may
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 just help us solve one of astronomy's
00:02:21 --> 00:02:23 big mysteries. Where did the universe's
00:02:23 --> 00:02:25 heaviest elements come from? These
00:02:25 --> 00:02:27 elements like uranium and thorium are
00:02:28 --> 00:02:30 created through something called the R
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 process. That's a rapid neutron capture
00:02:32 --> 00:02:35 process. Essentially, atomic nuclei
00:02:35 --> 00:02:37 rapidly grab neutrons in extreme
00:02:37 --> 00:02:39 environments like neutron star mergers
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41 or supernovas, creating heavier
00:02:41 --> 00:02:44 elements. But here's the thing. We
00:02:44 --> 00:02:45 haven't quite figured out all the
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47 sources of the R process. And that's
00:02:47 --> 00:02:52 where Lamost J0804 plus 5740 comes in.
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 This star is what they call an actide
00:02:55 --> 00:02:56 boost star, meaning it has a high
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 abundance of radioactive elements,
00:02:58 --> 00:03:01 actides. So the stars unusual
00:03:01 --> 00:03:03 composition provides new clues about the
00:03:03 --> 00:03:05 different types of R process events that
00:03:05 --> 00:03:08 can occur in the universe. By studying
00:03:08 --> 00:03:09 it, astronomers hope to better
00:03:10 --> 00:03:12 understand where these heavy elements
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 come from and how they're created. It's
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 like piecing together a cosmic puzzle,
00:03:17 --> 00:03:17 you
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 know? Okay, so shifting gears a little,
00:03:20 --> 00:03:22 let's head over to China where a rocket
00:03:22 --> 00:03:25 startup called Space Epic, or SEPO if
00:03:25 --> 00:03:27 you like it short, recently showed off
00:03:27 --> 00:03:29 its reusable rocket booster, the Yang
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 Singh Ji1. They had a test launch and
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 get this, it did a soft landing right in
00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 the ocean. I mean, sadly, it sank
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 afterwards. But hey, the launch and the
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 test were still a success. Apparently,
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 the whole point was to test things like
00:03:42 --> 00:03:44 the engine's thrust control, shutdown,
00:03:44 --> 00:03:46 and restart capabilities. Plus, they
00:03:46 --> 00:03:48 tested free descent, gliding, and
00:03:48 --> 00:03:50 hovering before splashdown. Pretty cool,
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 right? Now, this Yangj booster is kind
00:03:53 --> 00:03:54 of interesting. It's made from
00:03:54 --> 00:03:56 lightweight, thinwalled aluminum,
00:03:56 --> 00:03:57 stainless steel, and runs on liquid
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 oxygen and methane. It's about 4.2 m in
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 diameter and almost 27 m tall. Now, I
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 know what you're thinking. How does this
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 stack up against SpaceX? Well, SpaceX's
00:04:07 --> 00:04:09 Falcon 9 booster is a bit narrower, but
00:04:09 --> 00:04:12 it's taller. And speaking of SpaceX,
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 it's kind of wild how they've turned
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 landing and reusing boosters into like a
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 near daily thing. Meanwhile, China is
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 catching up with a bunch of space
00:04:21 --> 00:04:22 startups popping up
00:04:22 --> 00:04:25 recently. And you know, with China
00:04:25 --> 00:04:27 working on its own mega satellite
00:04:27 --> 00:04:28 constellation and planning some
00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 seriously ambitious missions, including
00:04:30 --> 00:04:32 their own version of the Hubble
00:04:32 --> 00:04:34 telescope, it's clear they are becoming
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 a major player in space
00:04:36 --> 00:04:38 exploration. Space Epoch is hoping to
00:04:38 --> 00:04:41 reach orbit later this year. So yeah,
00:04:41 --> 00:04:42 it's definitely going to be interesting
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 to see what these China based startups
00:04:44 --> 00:04:45 do in the coming
00:04:45 --> 00:04:48 years. All right, next up in our cosmic
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 headlines, NASA's Chandra X-ray
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 Observatory has spotted something pretty
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 wild. We're talking about two galaxy
00:04:54 --> 00:04:58 clusters known as
00:04:58 --> 00:04:59 PSZ2G181.06
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 plus48.47 that have already collided
00:05:01 --> 00:05:03 once and are now heading back for a
00:05:03 --> 00:05:06 second smashup. Now, galaxy clusters,
00:05:06 --> 00:05:08 just so you know, are like the biggest
00:05:08 --> 00:05:10 structures in the universe held together
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 by gravity. They're basically massive
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 collections of galaxies, superheated
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 gas, and dark matter. These two clusters
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 are about 2.8 billion lightyears away.
00:05:20 --> 00:05:22 And after their first collision, they
00:05:22 --> 00:05:25 created these huge parentheseshaped
00:05:25 --> 00:05:27 shock fronts, kind of like sonic booms,
00:05:27 --> 00:05:30 but on a cosmic scale. These shock
00:05:30 --> 00:05:32 fronts are now separated by about 11
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 million lightyear, which is apparently
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 the largest separation astronomers have
00:05:36 --> 00:05:39 ever seen. But get this, Chandra and XMM
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 Newton data show that these clusters are
00:05:41 --> 00:05:44 now slowing down and turning around for
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 another collision. Astronomers have
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 spotted three new shock fronts that seem
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 to be early signs of this second crash.
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53 What's really interesting is that the
00:05:53 --> 00:05:56 total mass of this system is less than
00:05:56 --> 00:05:58 other colliding galaxy clusters, making
00:05:58 --> 00:06:01 it a pretty unusual case. This event is
00:06:02 --> 00:06:03 giving scientists a peak into the
00:06:03 --> 00:06:06 dynamics of these massive structures and
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 how they evolve over
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 time. So, that's your astronomy daily
00:06:11 --> 00:06:13 news summary for today. From a tiny star
00:06:13 --> 00:06:15 with a giant planet to colliding galaxy
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 clusters, I've been your host, Anna, and
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 I hope you enjoyed our little tour of
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 the cosmos. For all the latest space and
00:06:22 --> 00:06:24 astronomy news, don't forget to visit
00:06:24 --> 00:06:26 our website at
00:06:26 --> 00:06:27 astronomydaily.io, where you can catch
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 up on our constantly updating news feed.
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 Until tomorrow, thanks for tuning in and
00:06:32 --> 00:06:38 keep looking
00:06:38 --> 00:06:41 up. The stories we told.
00:06:41 --> 00:06:56 [Music]