In this episode of Astronomy Daily, join host Anna as she uncovers the latest astonishing discoveries and developments from our cosmic neighborhood. Prepare to be amazed as we delve into the dynamic and ever-surprising universe we inhabit.
Highlights:
- NASA's Juno Mission at Jupiter: Explore the groundbreaking findings from NASA's Juno spacecraft, which has been revealing incredible insights about Jupiter's polar cyclones and detecting warm magma flowing beneath the surface of its volcanic moon, Io. Discover how these revelations are reshaping our understanding of the largest planet in our solar system.
- Challenges with NASA's Psyche Mission: Learn about the unexpected issues faced by the Psyche spacecraft, which is currently addressing a malfunction in its electric propulsion system. Understand how engineers are working diligently to resolve the problem and ensure the mission's success in reaching its asteroid destination.
- Historical Perspectives on Alien Life: Take a fascinating journey through history as we explore how scientists and philosophers once believed that life existed throughout the cosmos. From Nicolaus Cusenus to Thomas Dick, discover the whimsical ideas that shaped our understanding of extraterrestrial life before the advent of modern science.
- The Mysterious Star Cluster Ophion: Uncover the enigma of the Ophion star cluster, where over 1,000 stars are unexpectedly breaking away from their birthplace. This discovery challenges our understanding of stellar families and hints at new dynamics at play in the cosmos.
- Magnetars and the Origins of Gold: Delve into the surprising role of magnetars—powerful neutron stars—in the creation of heavy elements like gold. Learn how recent research suggests these cosmic powerhouses may account for up to 10% of the gold in our galaxy, providing insight into the origins of the precious metals we cherish.
For more cosmic updates, visit our website at astronomydaily.io (http://www.astronomydaily.io/) . Join our community on social media by searching for #AstroDailyPod on Facebook, X, YouTubeMusic, TikTok, and our new Instagram account! Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Thank you for tuning in. This is Anna signing off. Until next time, keep looking up and stay curious about the wonders of our universe.
00:00 - Welcome to Astronomy Daily
01:10 - NASA's Juno mission findings on Jupiter and Io
10:15 - Updates on NASA's Psyche mission challenges
15:30 - Historical perspectives on alien life
20:45 - Discovery of the Ophion star cluster
25:00 - Magnetars and the origins of heavy elements
✍️ Episode References
NASA's Juno Mission
[NASA Juno]( https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/main/index.html (https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/main/index.html) )
NASA's Psyche Mission
[NASA Psyche]( https://www.nasa.gov/psyche (https://www.nasa.gov/psyche) )
History of Alien Life Beliefs
[History.com]( https://www.history.com/ (https://www.history.com/) )
Ophion Star Cluster
[NASA]( https://www.nasa.gov/ (https://www.nasa.gov/) )
Magnetars and Element Creation
[Columbia University]( https://www.columbia.edu/ (https://www.columbia.edu/) )
Astronomy Daily
[Astronomy Daily]( http://www.astronomydaily.io/ (http://www.astronomydaily.io/) )
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-exciting-space-discoveries-and-news--5648921/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-exciting-space-discoveries-and-news--5648921/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss) .
Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/26895392?utm_source=youtube
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm your
00:00:02 --> 00:00:04 host, Anna. Today, we're diving into
00:00:04 --> 00:00:06 some fascinating developments across our
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 cosmic neighborhood that highlight just
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 how dynamic and surprising our universe
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 can be. We'll begin our journey at
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 Jupiter, where NASA's Juno mission has
00:00:16 --> 00:00:17 been peering beneath the surface of both
00:00:17 --> 00:00:21 the gas giant and its volcanic moon, Io.
00:00:21 --> 00:00:22 The spacecraft's instruments have
00:00:22 --> 00:00:24 revealed remarkable insights about
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 Jupiter's massive polar cyclones and
00:00:27 --> 00:00:29 detected evidence of still warm magma
00:00:29 --> 00:00:32 flowing beneath Io's crust. Then we'll
00:00:32 --> 00:00:34 check in on NASA's Psyche mission, which
00:00:34 --> 00:00:35 is currently experiencing some
00:00:35 --> 00:00:37 unexpected issues with its electric
00:00:37 --> 00:00:39 propulsion system. Don't worry though,
00:00:39 --> 00:00:41 engineers are on the case and have
00:00:41 --> 00:00:43 redundancy built in for precisely these
00:00:43 --> 00:00:45 kinds of challenges.
00:00:45 --> 00:00:46 We'll also take a fascinating historical
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 detour to explore how scientists
00:00:49 --> 00:00:51 throughout the centuries imagined alien
00:00:51 --> 00:00:53 life. You might be surprised to learn
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 that many prominent thinkers once
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 believed every planet, star, and even
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 the vacuum of space itself must be
00:00:59 --> 00:01:02 teeming with living creatures. Speaking
00:01:02 --> 00:01:03 of surprises, astronomers have
00:01:04 --> 00:01:06 discovered something truly puzzling. A
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 young family of over 1 stars that
00:01:08 --> 00:01:10 seem to be fleeing their birthplace in a
00:01:10 --> 00:01:13 tremendous hurry. This star cluster
00:01:13 --> 00:01:16 nicknamed Ofon is breaking all the rules
00:01:16 --> 00:01:18 about how stellar families typically
00:01:18 --> 00:01:20 behave. And finally, we'll explore an
00:01:20 --> 00:01:22 unexpected cosmic source of precious
00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 metals. It turns out that magnetars,
00:01:26 --> 00:01:28 incredibly powerful neutron stars with
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30 massive magnetic fields, may be
00:01:30 --> 00:01:32 responsible for creating up to 10% of
00:01:32 --> 00:01:34 the heavy elements like gold in our
00:01:34 --> 00:01:37 galaxy. So settle in as we explore these
00:01:38 --> 00:01:39 cosmic mysteries and cuttingedge
00:01:39 --> 00:01:42 discoveries that continue to reshape our
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 understanding of the universe around us.
00:01:45 --> 00:01:46 Let's get
00:01:46 --> 00:01:49 started. NASA's Juno mission, launched
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 in 2011 and orbiting Jupiter since 2016,
00:01:52 --> 00:01:53 continues to revolutionize our
00:01:54 --> 00:01:55 understanding of the solar system's
00:01:55 --> 00:01:58 largest planet and its moons. Originally
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00 planned as a 5-year mission, Juno has
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 been extended and is now scheduled to
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 continue operations until September of
00:02:04 --> 00:02:06 this year or until the spacecraft itself
00:02:06 --> 00:02:09 can no longer function. One of Juno's
00:02:09 --> 00:02:11 most fascinating recent discoveries
00:02:11 --> 00:02:14 comes from its microwave radiometer or
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 MWR, an instrument initially designed to
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 study Jupiter's clouds. Scientists
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 cleverly repurposed this technology to
00:02:21 --> 00:02:23 examine Io, one of Jupiter's four
00:02:23 --> 00:02:26 Galilean moons first observed by Galileo
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 Galile back in 1610. What they found was
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 surprising. Evidence of still warm magma
00:02:32 --> 00:02:33 flowing beneath Io's cooled surface
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 crust. As Shannon Brown from NASA's Jet
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 Propulsion Laboratory explains, "When we
00:02:38 --> 00:02:41 incorporated the MWR data with Jerham's
00:02:41 --> 00:02:43 infrared imagery, we were surprised by
00:02:43 --> 00:02:46 what we saw. This cooling magma appears
00:02:46 --> 00:02:47 to be present at virtually every
00:02:47 --> 00:02:50 latitude and longitude they examined
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 with approximately 10% of the moon's
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 surface showing these remnants. These
00:02:55 --> 00:02:57 findings help explain Io's extraordinary
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 volcanic activity. The moon essentially
00:02:59 --> 00:03:01 functions like a car radiator,
00:03:01 --> 00:03:03 efficiently transferring heat from its
00:03:03 --> 00:03:05 interior to the surface where it can
00:03:05 --> 00:03:07 dissipate into space. It's a remarkable
00:03:07 --> 00:03:09 cooling system that helps regulate the
00:03:09 --> 00:03:12 moon's intense internal heat.
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 Meanwhile, Juno has been conducting
00:03:14 --> 00:03:16 groundbreaking measurements of Jupiter's
00:03:16 --> 00:03:19 atmospheric temperatures since
00:03:19 --> 00:03:22 2023. For the first time ever,
00:03:22 --> 00:03:23 scientists have been able to measure the
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 temperature of Jupiter's north pole cap,
00:03:26 --> 00:03:28 discovering its approximately 11°
00:03:29 --> 00:03:32 C areas. This polar region is also
00:03:32 --> 00:03:35 encircled by powerful winds exceeding
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 160 kmh.
00:03:37 --> 00:03:40 Perhaps most spectacular are Jupiter's
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 polar cyclones, which Juno has been
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 meticulously tracking. Unlike hurricanes
00:03:45 --> 00:03:47 on Earth, which form and move in
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 isolation, Jupiter's cyclones operate
00:03:50 --> 00:03:52 quite differently. The gas giant hosts a
00:03:52 --> 00:03:54 massive northern polar cyclone with a
00:03:54 --> 00:03:58 diameter of 3 km, nearly as large as
00:03:58 --> 00:04:00 Earth's moon, surrounded by eight
00:04:00 --> 00:04:02 smaller cyclones, each still larger than
00:04:02 --> 00:04:04 the dwarf planet Pluto. As these
00:04:04 --> 00:04:06 cyclones drift toward Jupiter's pole,
00:04:06 --> 00:04:08 they interact with each other in
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 fascinating ways. Juno co-investigator
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 Yohai Casby describes it as a mechanical
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 system of springs with the cyclones
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 bouncing off one another while slowly
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 drifting westward in a clockwise pattern
00:04:21 --> 00:04:24 around the pole. As Scott Bolton, Juno's
00:04:24 --> 00:04:26 mission principal investigator, puts it,
00:04:26 --> 00:04:29 "Everything about Jupiter is extreme.
00:04:29 --> 00:04:31 From its enormous polar cyclones to its
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 fierce jetreams and the intense volcanic
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 activity of Io, Jupiter's system
00:04:36 --> 00:04:38 continues to demonstrate the immense
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40 energies and complex dynamics at work in
00:04:40 --> 00:04:43 our solar system's most massive
00:04:43 --> 00:04:46 planet. Next up today, NASA is currently
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 investigating a concerning issue with
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 the electric propulsion system on its
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 Psyche spacecraft, which is on a mission
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 to the main belt asteroid of the same
00:04:54 --> 00:04:56 name. On April 1st, the electric
00:04:56 --> 00:04:58 thrusters abruptly shut down when
00:04:58 --> 00:05:00 pressure fell in a line feeding xenon
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 propellant to the system. According to a
00:05:03 --> 00:05:04 statement released by NASA in late
00:05:04 --> 00:05:07 April, the pressure dropped from 36 lb
00:05:07 --> 00:05:10 per square in to 26 lb per square in,
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 triggering the shutdown. This
00:05:12 --> 00:05:14 information wasn't widely publicized
00:05:14 --> 00:05:17 until April 30th when more details began
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 to emerge about the situation. The
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 Psyche spacecraft launched in October
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 2023 and had just activated its Hall
00:05:24 --> 00:05:26 effect thrusters this past May. These
00:05:26 --> 00:05:28 thrusters, combined with a Mars gravity
00:05:28 --> 00:05:31 assist scheduled for May 2026, are
00:05:31 --> 00:05:33 crucial for the spacecraft to reach its
00:05:33 --> 00:05:37 destination asteroid by August 2029.
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 Without properly functioning thrusters,
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 the entire mission timeline could be
00:05:41 --> 00:05:42 jeopardized.
00:05:42 --> 00:05:44 Louise Proctctor, director of NASA's
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 planetary science division, addressed
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 the issue at a recent meeting, saying
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 that teams at JPL are working diligently
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53 to identify the specific problem. Both
00:05:54 --> 00:05:55 the electric propulsion system and the
00:05:55 --> 00:05:58 spacecraft bus were provided by Maxar
00:05:58 --> 00:06:00 Space Systems, formerly known under a
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 different name. Fortunately, NASA has
00:06:03 --> 00:06:04 stated that Psyche can continue to coast
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 until midJune before there would be any
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 significant impact on its trajectory.
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 Engineers are exploring potential
00:06:11 --> 00:06:12 solutions, including switching to a
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 backup propellant line that was wisely
00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 incorporated into the spacecraft's
00:06:16 --> 00:06:19 design. As Proctor reassuringly noted,
00:06:19 --> 00:06:21 this kind of thing happens, and that's
00:06:21 --> 00:06:22 why we build redundancy into our
00:06:22 --> 00:06:24 missions. We don't have any concerns at
00:06:24 --> 00:06:26 the moment about it, but we're obviously
00:06:26 --> 00:06:29 keeping tabs on it. Prior to this issue,
00:06:29 --> 00:06:31 Psyche had been performing well since
00:06:31 --> 00:06:33 its launch on a Falcon Heavy rocket.
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35 However, the mission itself has faced
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 challenges throughout its development,
00:06:38 --> 00:06:39 including software testing delays that
00:06:40 --> 00:06:42 pushed its launch back from August 2022
00:06:42 --> 00:06:45 to October 2023 and increased the
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 mission's cost from $1 billion to $1.2
00:06:48 --> 00:06:51 billion. An investigation into these
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 earlier problems revealed broader
00:06:53 --> 00:06:55 institutional issues at JPL, stemming
00:06:55 --> 00:06:57 from heavy workloads and communication
00:06:57 --> 00:06:59 problems within the laboratory. The
00:07:00 --> 00:07:01 current thruster issue appears to be
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 unrelated to these previous challenges,
00:07:04 --> 00:07:05 but serves as another reminder of the
00:07:05 --> 00:07:09 inherent difficulties in deep space
00:07:09 --> 00:07:11 exploration. Okay, time now for a little
00:07:11 --> 00:07:14 history lesson. Long before we began
00:07:14 --> 00:07:16 searching for bio signatures on distant
00:07:16 --> 00:07:18 exoplanets, scientists and philosophers
00:07:18 --> 00:07:20 were convinced that intelligent life
00:07:20 --> 00:07:23 must exist throughout the cosmos. It's
00:07:23 --> 00:07:25 fascinating to look back at how certain
00:07:25 --> 00:07:27 many thinkers were that aliens not only
00:07:27 --> 00:07:29 existed but populated virtually every
00:07:29 --> 00:07:32 surface in the universe. This conviction
00:07:32 --> 00:07:35 began taking shape in the early 1500s
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 when scholars like Nicolas Kusenus
00:07:37 --> 00:07:40 argued that countless stars and planets
00:07:40 --> 00:07:43 must exist beyond our own. Remarkably,
00:07:43 --> 00:07:46 Kusanis even believed the sun itself was
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 inhabited by what he called bright and
00:07:48 --> 00:07:51 enlightened intellectual denisens. He
00:07:51 --> 00:07:53 wasn't alone in this thinking. The
00:07:53 --> 00:07:55 Italian philosopher Jordano Bruno
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 similarly reasoned in 1584 that it would
00:07:58 --> 00:08:00 be ill if the whole of space were not
00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 filled with life. These early
00:08:02 --> 00:08:04 speculators operated on a simple but
00:08:04 --> 00:08:07 compelling logic. Why would so much
00:08:07 --> 00:08:09 cosmic real estate exist if not to be
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 occupied? The belief that everything in
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 existence must serve a purpose led to
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 the conclusion that uninhabited worlds
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 would represent a cosmic waste. This
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 thinking became remarkably mainstream
00:08:20 --> 00:08:21 over subsequent
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 centuries. The conviction that every
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 cosmic surface must host life led to
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 some extraordinary claims. The English
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 astronomer Edmund Hi suggested in 1692
00:08:30 --> 00:08:32 that Earth itself must be hollow and
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 filled with nested spheres to maximize
00:08:34 --> 00:08:37 living space. Others proposed that even
00:08:37 --> 00:08:40 the void of space itself teamed with
00:08:40 --> 00:08:42 microorganisms with the French diplomat
00:08:42 --> 00:08:46 Benois de Mayet theorizing in the 1720s
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 that seeds of living creatures circulate
00:08:48 --> 00:08:49 throughout the
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 cosmos. Perhaps most amusing to our
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 modern sensibilities were the cosmic
00:08:54 --> 00:08:57 censuses conducted in the 1800s. Thomas
00:08:57 --> 00:08:59 Dick, a British theologian and
00:08:59 --> 00:09:02 astronomer, used England's population
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 density to calculate that our solar
00:09:04 --> 00:09:07 system must house nearly 22 trillion
00:09:07 --> 00:09:09 inhabitants. He later expanded his
00:09:09 --> 00:09:11 estimate to the visible universe,
00:09:11 --> 00:09:14 arriving at the specific figure of 60
00:09:14 --> 00:09:18 sexillian 573 quintilian living beings.
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 Dick confidently declared that there is
00:09:20 --> 00:09:21 but one religion throughout the
00:09:21 --> 00:09:25 universe, conveniently his own. As late
00:09:25 --> 00:09:28 as the 1890s, some scholars still
00:09:28 --> 00:09:31 maintained that the sun was inhabited. A
00:09:31 --> 00:09:33 German named Carl Gutsy published a book
00:09:33 --> 00:09:36 in 1896 insisting that dinosaurs and
00:09:36 --> 00:09:39 mammoths roamed the sun's clement polar
00:09:39 --> 00:09:41 regions alongside
00:09:41 --> 00:09:43 humans. Even mainstream scientists like
00:09:43 --> 00:09:46 biochemist William the Praer speculated
00:09:46 --> 00:09:48 that suns might be glowing organisms
00:09:48 --> 00:09:50 whose breath may perhaps be shining
00:09:50 --> 00:09:53 vapor. This assumption of cosmic
00:09:53 --> 00:09:55 abundance finally began to crumble in
00:09:55 --> 00:09:57 the early 20th century. The discovery of
00:09:57 --> 00:09:59 radioactivity revealed that space is
00:09:59 --> 00:10:02 filled with harmful radiation. While
00:10:02 --> 00:10:03 advancing science clarified the
00:10:03 --> 00:10:05 stringent conditions required for life
00:10:05 --> 00:10:09 to exist. By 1926, English cosmologist
00:10:09 --> 00:10:11 James concluded that the physical
00:10:11 --> 00:10:13 conditions under which life is possible
00:10:13 --> 00:10:15 form only a tiny fraction of the range
00:10:15 --> 00:10:17 of physical conditions which prevail in
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 the universe. Our modern, more cautious
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 approach to extraterrestrial life
00:10:23 --> 00:10:25 represents a profound shift from
00:10:25 --> 00:10:27 centuries of wishful thinking. Perhaps
00:10:28 --> 00:10:29 this historical perspective should
00:10:29 --> 00:10:31 remind us to be equally careful with
00:10:31 --> 00:10:34 today's tantalizing bio signature
00:10:34 --> 00:10:36 discoveries. Next up, as you should know
00:10:36 --> 00:10:39 by now, I love a good mystery. In a
00:10:39 --> 00:10:41 cosmic puzzle that's leaving astronomers
00:10:41 --> 00:10:43 scratching their heads, over 1 stars
00:10:43 --> 00:10:45 are breaking up their family reunion far
00:10:45 --> 00:10:47 sooner than expected. This newly
00:10:47 --> 00:10:50 discovered star cluster nicknamed Ofian
00:10:50 --> 00:10:53 after its home constellation Ofucus is
00:10:53 --> 00:10:54 behaving in ways that defy our
00:10:54 --> 00:10:56 understanding of stellar families.
00:10:56 --> 00:10:58 Typically stars born together from the
00:10:58 --> 00:11:00 same molecular cloud stay clustered for
00:11:00 --> 00:11:02 hundreds of millions of years before
00:11:02 --> 00:11:05 gradually drifting apart. The Pletes
00:11:05 --> 00:11:07 cluster visible to the naked eye and
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 Taurus is still tightly grouped after
00:11:09 --> 00:11:12 100 million years. The more dispersed
00:11:12 --> 00:11:14 beehive cluster in cancer has been
00:11:14 --> 00:11:18 together for around 600 million years.
00:11:18 --> 00:11:21 But Ofian, located about 650 light years
00:11:21 --> 00:11:23 away, is essentially a stellar family in
00:11:23 --> 00:11:25 the midst of a dramatic breakup despite
00:11:25 --> 00:11:28 being just 20 million years old. As
00:11:28 --> 00:11:30 Dylan Houston of Western Washington
00:11:30 --> 00:11:32 University, who led the discovery team,
00:11:32 --> 00:11:35 explained, "Ofion is filled with stars
00:11:35 --> 00:11:37 that are set to rush out across the
00:11:37 --> 00:11:39 galaxy in a totally haphazard,
00:11:39 --> 00:11:41 uncoordinated way, which is far from
00:11:41 --> 00:11:43 what we'd expect for a family so big."
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45 What makes this cluster unique is its
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 unusually high velocity dispersion. In
00:11:47 --> 00:11:49 normal star clusters, the difference
00:11:49 --> 00:11:51 between the fastest and slowest moving
00:11:51 --> 00:11:53 stars is just a few kilometers/s.
00:11:53 --> 00:11:56 In Ofon, that difference is a whopping
00:11:56 --> 00:11:57
00:11:57 --> 00:11:59 km/s, meaning these stars are moving far
00:11:59 --> 00:12:02 too fast to stay together for long. The
00:12:02 --> 00:12:03 only reason we currently see these stars
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 as a group is that they're so young they
00:12:06 --> 00:12:07 haven't had time to completely separate
00:12:07 --> 00:12:10 yet. We're essentially witnessing a
00:12:10 --> 00:12:12 stellar family portrait taken just
00:12:12 --> 00:12:15 before the children leave home forever.
00:12:15 --> 00:12:17 This discovery wasn't immediately
00:12:17 --> 00:12:19 obvious. Husan and his colleague Marina
00:12:19 --> 00:12:21 Conungl of the University of North
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 Florida spotted Ofon while testing a new
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 model called Gaiaet. This tool can
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 simultaneously analyze the spectra of
00:12:28 --> 00:12:30 millions of stars using data from the
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 European Space Ay's Gaia mission which
00:12:32 --> 00:12:35 has measured the position, velocity,
00:12:35 --> 00:12:38 distance, and spectra of approximately 2
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 billion stars. So what caused this
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 premature stellar scattering? Examining
00:12:43 --> 00:12:45 the Gaia data more closely, the team
00:12:45 --> 00:12:48 noticed several superb bubbles, large
00:12:48 --> 00:12:50 voids created when supernova shock waves
00:12:50 --> 00:12:53 blow away interstellar gas. It's
00:12:53 --> 00:12:55 possible that after Ofon stars formed,
00:12:55 --> 00:12:57 much of the remaining gas was blown away
00:12:57 --> 00:13:00 by these stellar blast waves. Losing all
00:13:00 --> 00:13:02 this mass could have loosened the
00:13:02 --> 00:13:04 cluster's gravitational hold on its
00:13:04 --> 00:13:05 stars.
00:13:05 --> 00:13:07 Alternatively, gravitational title
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10 effects from neighboring star forming
00:13:10 --> 00:13:13 regions might have given of stars an
00:13:13 --> 00:13:17 extra push. As council noted, without
00:13:17 --> 00:13:19 the huge highquality data sets from Gaia
00:13:19 --> 00:13:21 and the new models we can now use to dig
00:13:21 --> 00:13:23 into these, we may have been missing a
00:13:23 --> 00:13:26 big piece of the stellar puzzle. This
00:13:26 --> 00:13:28 discovery suggests there may be other
00:13:28 --> 00:13:30 young families of stars racing apart
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32 that we simply haven't recognized yet,
00:13:32 --> 00:13:33 challenging our understanding of how
00:13:33 --> 00:13:36 stellar nurseries function and
00:13:36 --> 00:13:39 evolve. And finally, today, have you
00:13:39 --> 00:13:40 ever wondered where the gold in your
00:13:40 --> 00:13:42 jewelry comes from? Most of us know it's
00:13:42 --> 00:13:44 mined from the Earth, but where did the
00:13:44 --> 00:13:46 Earth get it? The cosmic origins of
00:13:46 --> 00:13:48 heavy elements like gold have long
00:13:48 --> 00:13:51 fascinated astronomers with supernovi
00:13:51 --> 00:13:53 and neutron star collisions typically
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55 given credit for forging these precious
00:13:55 --> 00:13:58 metals. Now an unexpected cosmic
00:13:58 --> 00:14:00 goldsmith has entered the scene.
00:14:00 --> 00:14:03 Magnetars. Magnetars are perhaps the
00:14:03 --> 00:14:05 most extreme objects in our universe.
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 These rare neutron stars possess
00:14:07 --> 00:14:09 magnetic fields up to a thousand
00:14:09 --> 00:14:12 trillion times stronger than Earth's.
00:14:12 --> 00:14:13 formed from the collapsed cores of
00:14:13 --> 00:14:16 massive stars after supernova. They're
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 essentially the ultra dense city-sized
00:14:19 --> 00:14:21 remnants of stellar deaths with magnetic
00:14:21 --> 00:14:24 fields that boggle the mind. What makes
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26 this recent discovery so exciting is
00:14:26 --> 00:14:28 that these cosmic powerhouses may be
00:14:28 --> 00:14:31 responsible for creating up to 10% of
00:14:31 --> 00:14:33 all the heavy elements like gold and
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 platinum in our galaxy. The breakthrough
00:14:35 --> 00:14:38 comes from Anerude Patel, a doctoral
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 student at Columbia University, who led
00:14:40 --> 00:14:43 a team analyzing 20-year-old archival
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45 data from NASA and ESA
00:14:45 --> 00:14:47 telescopes. Occasionally, magnetars
00:14:47 --> 00:14:49 undergo dramatic star quakes that
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 release astonishing amounts of energy
00:14:51 --> 00:14:54 through giant flares. These flares,
00:14:54 --> 00:14:56 visible even from other galaxies, create
00:14:56 --> 00:14:59 the perfect extreme conditions for
00:14:59 --> 00:15:01 something called rapid neutron capture.
00:15:01 --> 00:15:03 essentially the fusion of neutrons into
00:15:03 --> 00:15:06 heavier atomic nuclei. This process is
00:15:06 --> 00:15:08 precisely what's needed to create
00:15:08 --> 00:15:10 elements like gold. The discovery solves
00:15:10 --> 00:15:13 a persistent cosmic mystery. Back in
00:15:13 --> 00:15:14 2017, astronomers confirmed that
00:15:14 --> 00:15:17 collisions between two neutron stars
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19 could create gold and platinum. This was
00:15:19 --> 00:15:21 a major breakthrough observed through
00:15:21 --> 00:15:23 both NASA telescopes and LIGO
00:15:23 --> 00:15:26 gravitational wave detectors. However,
00:15:26 --> 00:15:28 these mergers occurred too late in the
00:15:28 --> 00:15:30 universe's history to explain the
00:15:30 --> 00:15:32 earliest heavy elements we observe.
00:15:32 --> 00:15:35 That's where magnetars come in. As Eric
00:15:35 --> 00:15:37 Burns, a co-author of the study
00:15:37 --> 00:15:38 published in the astrophysical journal
00:15:38 --> 00:15:41 Letters, explains, "This finding
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43 represents a breakthrough that solves a
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 major cosmic mystery using nearly
00:15:46 --> 00:15:49 forgotten data. Since magnetars appeared
00:15:49 --> 00:15:51 early in the universe's history, they
00:15:51 --> 00:15:52 could have been responsible for creating
00:15:52 --> 00:15:55 the first gold." The research team
00:15:55 --> 00:15:56 initially predicted that heavy elements
00:15:56 --> 00:15:58 from magnetars would appear in visible
00:15:58 --> 00:16:01 and ultraviolet light and possibly in
00:16:01 --> 00:16:03 gammaray signals too. After reviewing
00:16:03 --> 00:16:06 gammaray data from 2004 captured by
00:16:06 --> 00:16:09 NASA's RES and wind satellites, they
00:16:09 --> 00:16:11 found an unexplained signal that matched
00:16:11 --> 00:16:12 their prediction likely evidence of
00:16:12 --> 00:16:14 heavy element creation during magnet or
00:16:14 --> 00:16:18 giant flares. Looking ahead, NASA's
00:16:18 --> 00:16:20 upcoming Compton Spectrometer and Imager
00:16:20 --> 00:16:23 mission launching in 2027 will study
00:16:23 --> 00:16:25 high energy cosmic events, including
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 magnetar flares, in greater detail. As a
00:16:28 --> 00:16:30 wide field gammaray telescope, Sozai
00:16:30 --> 00:16:32 will be able to identify individual
00:16:32 --> 00:16:34 elements created in these powerful
00:16:34 --> 00:16:36 events, advancing our understanding of
00:16:36 --> 00:16:39 their cosmic origins. So the next time
00:16:39 --> 00:16:41 you admire a gold ring or necklace,
00:16:41 --> 00:16:43 remember that you're wearing the
00:16:43 --> 00:16:45 products of some of the most violent and
00:16:45 --> 00:16:47 extreme events in our universe,
00:16:47 --> 00:16:49 including perhaps the cataclysmic flares
00:16:49 --> 00:16:51 of magnettors that occurred billions of
00:16:51 --> 00:16:54 years before our solar system even
00:16:54 --> 00:16:57 formed. What an incredible journey we've
00:16:57 --> 00:16:58 taken through our cosmic neighborhood
00:16:58 --> 00:17:01 today. From Jupiter's swirling storms to
00:17:01 --> 00:17:03 stars fleeing their birth clusters, and
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 from historical perspectives on alien
00:17:05 --> 00:17:07 life to the violent magnetar flares
00:17:07 --> 00:17:10 forging gold, our universe continues to
00:17:10 --> 00:17:11 reveal its secrets in the most
00:17:11 --> 00:17:14 unexpected ways. These discoveries
00:17:14 --> 00:17:15 remind us of how interconnected cosmic
00:17:16 --> 00:17:18 phenomena truly are. Jupiter's cyclones
00:17:18 --> 00:17:20 and Io's cooling magma teach us about
00:17:20 --> 00:17:23 planetary evolution. The Psyche
00:17:23 --> 00:17:24 mission's thruster troubles highlight
00:17:24 --> 00:17:27 the challenges of space exploration even
00:17:27 --> 00:17:30 as we reach farther into the cosmos. Our
00:17:30 --> 00:17:32 changing views on extraterrestrial life
00:17:32 --> 00:17:34 demonstrate how science evolves with new
00:17:34 --> 00:17:36 evidence. While the mystery of
00:17:36 --> 00:17:38 dispersing stars shows there's still so
00:17:38 --> 00:17:40 much we don't understand about stellar
00:17:40 --> 00:17:41 life
00:17:41 --> 00:17:43 cycles. And perhaps most poetically,
00:17:44 --> 00:17:45 learning that the gold we cherish comes
00:17:45 --> 00:17:47 from the most violent cosmic events
00:17:47 --> 00:17:50 connects us directly to the stars in a
00:17:50 --> 00:17:53 tangible way. The atoms in our jewelry,
00:17:53 --> 00:17:55 our electronics, and even our bodies
00:17:55 --> 00:17:56 have journeyed across space and time to
00:17:56 --> 00:17:59 be here. This has been Astronomy Daily
00:17:59 --> 00:18:01 with me, Anna. If you've enjoyed today's
00:18:01 --> 00:18:03 cosmic tour, I invite you to visit our
00:18:03 --> 00:18:05 website at
00:18:05 --> 00:18:07 astronomydaily.io where you can sign up
00:18:07 --> 00:18:09 for our free daily newsletter and catch
00:18:09 --> 00:18:11 all our previous episodes. You can also
00:18:11 --> 00:18:13 subscribe to Astronomy Daily on Apple
00:18:13 --> 00:18:16 Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, iHeart
00:18:16 --> 00:18:18 Radio, or wherever you get your podcasts
00:18:18 --> 00:18:21 from. That way, you'll never miss our
00:18:21 --> 00:18:23 regular explorations of the universe and
00:18:23 --> 00:18:26 all its wonders. Until next time, keep
00:18:26 --> 00:18:27 looking up. The cosmos awaits with
00:18:28 --> 00:18:40 countless more stories to tell.
00:18:40 --> 00:18:42 Stories told.
00:18:42 --> 00:18:49 [Music]