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]