Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source for the latest and most
exciting news in space exploration and astronomy.
I'm your host Anna, and today we're diving into
several fascinating developments from across the
cosmos. We've got a packed episode ahead
covering everything from the Space Force's certification of a new
rocket for national security launches to an
upcoming partial solar eclipse that will grace our skies this
week. We'll also explore a mysterious
galaxy that's challenging what we thought we knew about the early
universe. We check in on China's expanding
satellite network and learn how NASA's
Europa Clipper will scout potential landing sites
on one of the most promising worlds for finding
extraterrestrial life. So settle in as we
journey through these captivating stories that remind
us just how dynamic and ever changing our
understanding of space truly is.
The US Space Force has officially certified
United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur rocket
for national security missions after analyzing
data from the vehicle's two certification launches that
took place in January and October of
2024. This milestone announcement came
on March 26 from the Space Force's Space Systems
Command, marking the completion of a long
awaited certification process. Space
Force Brigadier General Kristen Panzenhagen, who
serves as the Program Executive Officer for Assured Access
to Space, emphasized the significance of this
development, noting that assured access
to space is a core function of the Space Force and a critical
element of national security. She added that
the Vulcan certification adds launch capacity,
resiliency and flexibility needed for the
nation's most critical space based systems.
This certification is particularly notable as UH
ula now joins SpaceX as only the
second provider certified to carry out launches under the
National Security Space Launch Program,
enhancing America's launch capabilities for sensitive
military and intelligence payloads. The path to
certification wasn't without challenges. The second
Vulcan certification flight experienced an incident when
the nozzle of one of its two solid rocket boosters fell
off approximately half a minute after liftoff.
Remarkably, the vehicle compensated for the diminished
thrust and still completed its mission
successfully. ULA's President and
CEO Tory Bruno later explained that a
manufacturing defect in an internal insulator
part caused the nozzle separation and appropriate
corrective actions were implemented and verified through static
fire testing. Looking ahead,
ULA has ambitious plans for their launch
cadence. Bruno has indicated that the
company is projecting a dozen launches this year
split roughly evenly between their Atlas and Vulcan
rockets, serving both national security
and commercial missions. The first
National Security space launch mission on Vulcan is planned for
this summer in North America. ULA aims to
establish a baseline tempo of two launches per month by
the end of this year and perform 20 launches in
2025. Bruno noted that the company has
been strategically stockpiling critical components
such as B4 engines and solid rocket
boosters to support this accelerated launch schedule.
This certification represents a, uh, significant
advancement for America's space launch capabilities,
ensuring redundancy and resilience in the
nation's ability to deploy critical national security
assets to orbit. As Bruno
remarked, we're all staged up and ready, and as
spacecraft show up, we'll be able to fly them.
What a difference a year makes. Just a year after
millions across North America witnessed the spectacular
total solar eclipse on April 8,
2024, we're already preparing for another
celestial event. Mark your calendars for
this Saturday, March 29,
2025, when a partial solar eclipse will
grace our skies, though with a notably different viewing
audience. This upcoming eclipse results
from the Moon's shadow falling primarily on the north
polar regions of Earth. It's actually the second
eclipse in less than a month, coming just two weeks
after the total lunar eclipse that occurred on
3-13-14. This
pattern is what astronomers call an eclipse season,
a roughly 37 day period when the
alignment of the sun and Moon can allow for eclipses to
occur at both full and new Moon phases.
For this March 29 event, the Moon will pass
through the opposite node of its orbit. Compared to the lunar
eclipse, however, the Moon passes this
node almost too early. By the time it reaches
new phase, about 19 hours after crossing the ecliptic,
the axis of its shadow will pass well to the north of
Earth. The dark shadow cone, or umbra,
will completely miss our planet, passing about
180 miles above the North Pole. This
means no location on Earth will experience
totality, but instead the Moon's outer shadow,
the penumbra, will create a partial eclipse
visible in varying degrees. The eclipse
will be visible across northwest Africa, much of
Europe, excluding some eastern sections
northwest Russia, Iceland, and
Greenland. Parts of South America, including
Suriname, French Guiana, and Amada in
Brazil will see a small dent in the sun at
sunrise. For North Americans, visibility depends
entirely on location. If you draw a line
from Oakville, Ontario, down to Virginia Beach,
Virginia, areas west of this line won't see any
part of the eclipse. Those to the east, however, will
catch at least a glimpse near sunrise, though maximum
eclipse will have already occurred before the sun appears above the
horizon. The farther north and east you go in
North America, the more impressive the view becomes.
In Baltimore, the Sun will rise with 7.8%
of its diameter already eclipsed, with the event
ending just four minutes later. But residents of
northern New England and Atlantic Canada are in for a
spectacular treatment. The town of Madawaska
in far northern Maine will experience maximum
eclipse almost precisely at sunrise, with
88.2% of the Sun's diameter
covered. This will create the stunning visual effect
of the sun appearing as a delicate crescent with its
points aimed nearly straight up, resembling two
lobster claws emerging from beyond the eastern
horizon. Similar impressive views await
Atlantic Canada, with Halifax seeing
85.6% coverage and at
7:17am Fredericton experiencing
87% at 7:19am and St.
John's reaching 85.4% at
7:52am as always with solar
eclipses, proper eye protection is essential.
Unlike, um, a total eclipse with its brief moments of
totality, a partial eclipse can be observed more
leisurely, but only through specially designed solar
filters or eclipse glasses. Remember
that looking at the sun without proper protection is extremely
dangerous.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has made
another groundbreaking discovery that's challenging
our understanding of the early universe. An
international team of astronomers has identified
bright hydrogen emission from an incredibly distant
galaxy observed just 330
million years after the Big Bang, a mere
fraction of our universe's current 13.8 billion
year age. The galaxy, designated
Jades GSZ13.1, was first
spotted in images taken by Webb's Near Infrared
Camera as part of the James Webb Space
Telescope Advanced Deep Extragalactic
Survey. Researchers initially estimated its
redshift, a measure of how far the galaxy's light has
traveled and been stretched by the expansion of space, at
around 12.9 to confirm this extreme
distance. They then observed it using Webb's Near Infrared
Spectrograph instrument. The resulting spectrum
not only confirmed the redshift at
13.0, placing it firmly in the very
early universe, but also revealed something
completely unexpected a distinctly bright
wavelength of light known as Lyman alpha
emission radiating from hydrogen
atoms. This emission was far stronger
than scientists thought possible during this ancient
epoch. What makes this finding so
perplexing is that the early universe was filled with
a thick fog of neutral hydrogen gas.
This fog should have completely blocked such
emissions until a process called reionization
cleared it away a process that wasn't completed
until about 1 billion years after the Big
Bang. Yet here was JDGS
Z13.1 shining through this cosmic
fog more than 600 million years earlier than should
be possible. Roberto Maialino from the
University of Cambridge and University College London
explains why this is so significant.
GSZ13.1 is seen when the universe was
only 330 million years old, yet
it shows a surprisingly clear telltale signature of
Lyman alpha emission that can only be seen once
the surrounding fog has fully lifted. This result
was totally unexpected by theories of early galaxy formation
and has caught astronomers by surprise.
Before and during the reionization era, the
neutral hydrogen surrounding galaxies should have
blocked any energetic ultraviolet light they
emitted, much like colored glass filters
light. Until enough stars had formed to
ionize this hydrogen gas, no such light,
including Lyman Alpha emission, should have
been able to escape and reach Earth. We
really shouldn't have found a galaxy like this, given our
understanding of the way the universe has evolved, says
Kevin Hainlein from the University of Arizona.
We could think of the early universe as, uh, shrouded with a
thick fog that would make it exceedingly difficult to find
even powerful lighthouses peeking through. Yet
here we see the beam of light from this galaxy piercing
the veil. Scientists aren't yet certain what
caused this unexpected emission, but they have
theories. One possibility is that the
galaxy contains some of the universe's first generation
of stars, much more massive, hotter,
and more luminous than stars formed later.
Another explanation could be a powerful active
galactic nucleus driven by one of the first supermassive
black holes. Whatever the explanation,
this discovery opens exciting new questions about the earliest
chapters of our cosmic history and how the first stars
and galaxies formed. The
research was published in the journal Nature, marking
another remarkable achievement for the Webb Telescope
as it continues to transform our understanding of the
universe's origins.
China has taken another significant step forward in its space
infrastructure with the successful launch of a new
data tracking and relay communications satellite. The
Tianlian two zero four lifted off
on March 26th at 11:55am M. Eastern
Time from the Xichang Satellite Launch center in
southwest China aboard a long March 3rd B
rocket. The China Aerospace Science and Technology
Corporation, or KSC, announced the mission's
success about an hour after liftoff. While the launch
was anticipated due to airspace closure notices, the
exact payload wasn't revealed until after the successful
deployment. Tianlian2:04 is
now in geosynchronous transfer orbit and will eventually
maneuver to take up its final position along the
geostationary belt. Approximately
35,000 sets 786 kilometers
above Earth's equator. From this vantage
point, it will join China's second generation
geostationary orbit data relay satellite,
Constellation. These satellites serve a critical
function for China's space program, providing data
relay and telemetry, tracking and command services for
the nation's crewed spacecraft. This includes supporting
the Tiangong Space Station and Shenzhou
spacecraft, as well as assisting medium and low Earth
orbit satellites and launch operations. The
Tianlian Network performs a role similar to NASA's Tracking
and Data relay satellite system, with satellites
strategically positioned around geostationary orbit to provide
nearly continuous coverage. According to
casc, this newest addition to the fleet features
several technical upgrades compared to its predecessor
Tianlian2:03, which was launched
in July 2022. These improvements include
enhanced transmission capacity and faster
response speed speeds aimed at meeting China's growing
needs for data relay and tracking services,
while also strengthening the autonomy and security of
their second generation relay system. The
Tianlian program has a long history, beginning with China's
first Tianlian satellite launched in
2008. The earlier Tianlian 1
series satellites have now been moved to graveyard orbits above the
geostationary belt, while the newer generation
continues active service like earlier
satellites in the series,
Tianlian2:04 was developed by the
China Academy of Space Technology, a UM major
spacecraft making Institute under CASC.
This launch marks China's 15th orbital mission of
2025, demonstrating the country's
increasingly ambitious space program. With
expanded spaceport capabilities, ongoing mega
Constellation projects, and new launch vehicles set
to debut, China could potentially target around
100 or more launches this year, far exceeding their
previous national record of 68 launches set last
year. The country's space agenda remains packed
with other major upcoming missions, including the
Shenzhou 20 and 21 crewed flights to the
Tiangong Space Station and the Tianwen 2
near Earth asteroid Sample Return mission, expected
to launch around May.
Let's move a bit further out into space now,
looking ahead to one of NASA's most anticipated deep
space missions. New research presented at the
2025 Lunar and Planetary Science
Conference has revealed how the Europa Clipper will
help identify potential landing sites for a future mission to
Jupiter's icy moon. This strategic
reconnaissance capability could prove crucial for the next
phase of exploring this ocean world. The
Europa Clipper, scheduled to reach the Jovian system
in April 2030, will follow a complex
orbital pattern around Jupiter, performing
49 close flybys of Europa.
Unlike Mars orbiters that follow relatively simple
circular paths, the Clipper can't orbit
Europa directly due to Jupiter's intense
radiation environment, which would damage the
spacecraft. Instead, it will follow carefully
designed looping orbits that minimize radiation exposure
while still allowing close study of the moon.
Planetary geologist Jennifer Scully and her team at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory have carefully assessed which of
these flybys would be most suitable for identifying future
landing sites. They determined that any reconnable
flyby must meet three key
proper lighting conditions with the surface and sunlight,
specific incidence angles between 30 and 60 degrees,
and an altitude of approximately 50 to 100
kilometers to ensure appropriate image resolution without
blurring. Based on these criteria,
the researchers identified 12 flybys as
fully reconnable and another 13 as
supporting. Most notably, a flyby
designated E19 stands out as particularly valuable
for landing site selection. Its ground Track
extends over 700km and covers a
fascinating transition between Europa's ridged
plains and a region called Pao
Regio, one of the Moon's mysterious
chaos terrains where the surface appears jumbled
and disrupted, potentially offering clues about the
ocean beneath. The Europa Clipper's
sophisticated Europa Imaging System, with its narrow
and wide angle cameras, will collect crucial data
for what's known as terrain relative navigation.
This is the same guidance system that allowed NASA's
Perseverance rover to safely navigate to its landing
site on Mars. A future Europa
lander would use these detailed surface images
combined with real time camera data to guide itself
safely to the surface. The researchers note
that their current assessments are based on older data from
the Galileo mission, and rankings will likely
change once the Europa Clipper begins returning
high resolution images. Some potential
landing areas haven't even been photographed at high resolution
yet, highlighting just how much we still have to discover
about this intriguing world. This research
provides a critical roadmap for mission planners
as they prepare for the Europa Clipper's operations
in the 2000-30s and lay
groundwork for what could eventually become humanity's
first landing on an ocean world beyond Earth.
And that wraps up today's episode of Astronomy
Daily. From the space force certifying ULA's
Vulcan rocket to the upcoming partial solar solar eclipse,
Webb's surprising discovery of ancient light,
China's new data relay satellite, and the Europa
Clipper's mission to scout landing sites on Jupiter's Ocean
Moon.
We've journeyed across the solar system and beyond.
I'm Anna, and it's been my pleasure to bring you these
fascinating stories from across the cosmos.
Whether you're a seasoned astronomer or just curious about what
lies beyond our atmosphere, I hope you've enjoyed
today's cosmic update. Visit our website
at astronomydaily IO where you can sign up for our
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