Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm
your host, Anna, and I'm really excited to
bring you your daily dose of cosmic
happenings. Today we've got some really cool
stuff to talk about. From a giant planet
orbiting a tiny star to a weird star that
might just solve one of astronomy's biggest
mysteries. We will also cover China's
reusable rocket and two galaxy clusters about
to crash into each other again. So buckle up
space fans. It's going to be an awesome ride.
First up, we're diving into the head
scratching discovery of a giant planet,
TOI 6894
b, orbiting a red dwarf star
called TOI 6894.
Now, this star is tiny. I mean, we're talking
about one fifth the size of our sun, which
makes the discovery of this planet like a
huge surprise. See, these small
stars weren't thought to have enough material
to even form giant planets. But there
it is, TOI
6894B, a
gas giant roughly the size of Saturn.
It's kinda like finding a fully grown
elephant living in a mousehole, you know,
this discovery kinda turns our understanding
of planet formation on its head. The current
theory suggests that the amount of material
in the disc around a star which eventually
forms planets is proportional to the star's
mass. So a tiny star shouldn't have enough
stuff to make a giant planet. But apparently
nature loves to throw curveballs.
Now, because TOI6894B
has such deep transits, I mean, when it
passes in front of its star, it blocks a
whopping 17% of the light. It's a perfect
candidate for atmosphere study. A team of
astronomers has already applied for time with
the James Webb Space Telescope to do
just that. They are hoping to find a lot of
methane in the exoplanet's atmosphere.
That'll give us a better idea of how this
planet formed and maybe help us refine our
planet formation theories. Pretty cool, huh?
Huh?
Next up, let's talk about a really odd star,
limos J 0804
5740, residing in what's
known as the Gaia Sausage. And no, it's not a
galactic deli item. The Gaia Sausage is
actually the remains of a dwarf galaxy that
merged with our Milky Way billions of years
ago. Now, this star, it may just help us
solve one of astronomy's big mysteries. Where
did the universe's heaviest elements come
from? These elements, like uranium and
thorium, are created through something called
the R process. That's a rapid
neutron capture process, essentially
Atomic nuclei rapidly grab neutrons in
extreme environments like neutron star
mergers or supernovas, creating heavier
elements. But here's the thing. We haven't
quite figured out all the sources of the R
process, and that's where Lemost J
08045740
comes in. This star is what they call an
actinide boost star, meaning it has a high
abundance of radioactive elements, actinides.
So the star's unusual composition provides
new clues about the different types of R
process events that can occur in the
universe. By studying it, astronomers, hope
to better understand where these heavy
elements come from and how they're created.
It's like piecing together a cosmic puzzle,
you know? You okay?
So shifting gears a little, let's head over
to China where a rocket startup called Space
Epic, or Sepok if you like it short,
recently showed off its reusable rocket
booster, the Yangxing Zhi one. They had a
test launch and get this, it did a soft
landing right in the ocean. I mean, sadly
it sank afterwards, but hey, the launch and
the test were still a success. Apparently the
whole point was to test things like the
engine's thrust control, shutdown and restart
capabilities. Plus they tested free descent,
gliding and hovering before splashdown.
Pretty cool right? Now this Yangxing Zhe
booster is kinda interesting. It's made from
lightweight, thin walled aluminium, stainless
steel and runs on liquid oxygen and methane.
It's about 4.2 metres in diameter and almost
27 metres tall. Now I know what you're
thinking, how does this stack up against
SpaceX? Well, SpaceX's Falcon 9
booster is a bit narrower, but it's taller.
And speaking of SpaceX, it's kind of wild how
they've turned landing and reusing boosters
into like a near daily thing. Meanwhile,
China is catching up with a bunch of space
startups popping up recently. And
you know, with China working on its own mega
satellite constellation and planning some
seriously ambitious missions, including their
own version of the Hubble telescope, it's
clear they are becoming a major player in
space exploration. Space Epoch is
hoping to reach orbit later this year. So
yeah, it's definitely going to be interesting
to see what these China based startups do in
the coming years.
Alright. Ah, next up in our cosmic headlines,
NASA's Chandra X Ray Observatory has spotted
something pretty wild. We're talking about
two galaxy clusters known as PSZ2
G1, 81.06 plus
48.47 that have already collided once and
are now heading back for a second smash up.
Now, galaxy clusters just so, you know, are
like the biggest structures in the universe
held together by gravity. They're basically
massive collections of galaxies, superheated
gas, and dark matter. These two
clusters are about 2.8 billion light years
away. And after their first collision, they
created these huge parentheses shaped shock
fronts, kind of like sonic booms, but on a
cosmic scale. These shock fronts are now
separated by about 11 million light years,
which is apparently the largest separation
astronomers have ever seen. But get this.
Chandra and XMM Newton data show that these
clusters are now slowing down and turning
around for another collision. Astronomers
have spotted three new shock fronts that seem
to be early signs of this second crash.
What's really interesting is that the total
mass of this system is less than other
colliding galaxy clusters, making it a pretty
unusual case. This event is
giving scientists a, peek into the dynamics
of these massive structures and how they
evolve over time.
So that's your Astronomy Daily News summary
for today. From a tiny star with a giant
planet to colliding galaxy clusters, I've
been your host, Anna, and I hope you enjoyed
our little tour of the cosmos. For all the
latest space and astronomy news, don't forget
to visit our website at astronomydaily IO
where you can catch up on our constantly
updating news feed. Until tomorrow, thanks
for tuning in and keep looking up
stories.
We told.