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Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm

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your host, Anna, and I'm really excited to

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bring you your daily dose of cosmic

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happenings. Today we've got some really cool

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stuff to talk about. From a giant planet

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orbiting a tiny star to a weird star that

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might just solve one of astronomy's biggest

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mysteries. We will also cover China's

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reusable rocket and two galaxy clusters about

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to crash into each other again. So buckle up

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space fans. It's going to be an awesome ride.

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First up, we're diving into the head

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scratching discovery of a giant planet,

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TOI 6894

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b, orbiting a red dwarf star

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called TOI 6894.

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Now, this star is tiny. I mean, we're talking

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about one fifth the size of our sun, which

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makes the discovery of this planet like a

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huge surprise. See, these small

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stars weren't thought to have enough material

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to even form giant planets. But there

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it is, TOI

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6894B, a

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gas giant roughly the size of Saturn.

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It's kinda like finding a fully grown

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elephant living in a mousehole, you know,

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this discovery kinda turns our understanding

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of planet formation on its head. The current

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theory suggests that the amount of material

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in the disc around a star which eventually

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forms planets is proportional to the star's

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mass. So a tiny star shouldn't have enough

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stuff to make a giant planet. But apparently

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nature loves to throw curveballs.

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Now, because TOI6894B

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has such deep transits, I mean, when it

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passes in front of its star, it blocks a

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whopping 17% of the light. It's a perfect

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candidate for atmosphere study. A team of

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astronomers has already applied for time with

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the James Webb Space Telescope to do

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just that. They are hoping to find a lot of

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methane in the exoplanet's atmosphere.

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That'll give us a better idea of how this

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planet formed and maybe help us refine our

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planet formation theories. Pretty cool, huh?

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Huh?

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Next up, let's talk about a really odd star,

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limos J 0804

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5740, residing in what's

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known as the Gaia Sausage. And no, it's not a

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galactic deli item. The Gaia Sausage is

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actually the remains of a dwarf galaxy that

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merged with our Milky Way billions of years

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ago. Now, this star, it may just help us

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solve one of astronomy's big mysteries. Where

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did the universe's heaviest elements come

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from? These elements, like uranium and

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thorium, are created through something called

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the R process. That's a rapid

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neutron capture process, essentially

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Atomic nuclei rapidly grab neutrons in

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extreme environments like neutron star

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mergers or supernovas, creating heavier

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elements. But here's the thing. We haven't

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quite figured out all the sources of the R

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process, and that's where Lemost J

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08045740

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comes in. This star is what they call an

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actinide boost star, meaning it has a high

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abundance of radioactive elements, actinides.

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So the star's unusual composition provides

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new clues about the different types of R

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process events that can occur in the

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universe. By studying it, astronomers, hope

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to better understand where these heavy

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elements come from and how they're created.

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It's like piecing together a cosmic puzzle,

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you know? You okay?

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So shifting gears a little, let's head over

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to China where a rocket startup called Space

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Epic, or Sepok if you like it short,

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recently showed off its reusable rocket

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booster, the Yangxing Zhi one. They had a

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test launch and get this, it did a soft

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landing right in the ocean. I mean, sadly

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it sank afterwards, but hey, the launch and

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the test were still a success. Apparently the

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whole point was to test things like the

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engine's thrust control, shutdown and restart

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capabilities. Plus they tested free descent,

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gliding and hovering before splashdown.

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Pretty cool right? Now this Yangxing Zhe

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booster is kinda interesting. It's made from

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lightweight, thin walled aluminium, stainless

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steel and runs on liquid oxygen and methane.

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It's about 4.2 metres in diameter and almost

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27 metres tall. Now I know what you're

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thinking, how does this stack up against

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SpaceX? Well, SpaceX's Falcon 9

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booster is a bit narrower, but it's taller.

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And speaking of SpaceX, it's kind of wild how

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they've turned landing and reusing boosters

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into like a near daily thing. Meanwhile,

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China is catching up with a bunch of space

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startups popping up recently. And

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you know, with China working on its own mega

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satellite constellation and planning some

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seriously ambitious missions, including their

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own version of the Hubble telescope, it's

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clear they are becoming a major player in

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space exploration. Space Epoch is

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hoping to reach orbit later this year. So

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yeah, it's definitely going to be interesting

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to see what these China based startups do in

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the coming years.

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Alright. Ah, next up in our cosmic headlines,

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NASA's Chandra X Ray Observatory has spotted

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something pretty wild. We're talking about

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two galaxy clusters known as PSZ2

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G1, 81.06 plus

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48.47 that have already collided once and

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are now heading back for a second smash up.

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Now, galaxy clusters just so, you know, are

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like the biggest structures in the universe

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held together by gravity. They're basically

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massive collections of galaxies, superheated

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gas, and dark matter. These two

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clusters are about 2.8 billion light years

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away. And after their first collision, they

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created these huge parentheses shaped shock

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fronts, kind of like sonic booms, but on a

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cosmic scale. These shock fronts are now

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separated by about 11 million light years,

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which is apparently the largest separation

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astronomers have ever seen. But get this.

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Chandra and XMM Newton data show that these

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clusters are now slowing down and turning

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around for another collision. Astronomers

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have spotted three new shock fronts that seem

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to be early signs of this second crash.

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What's really interesting is that the total

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mass of this system is less than other

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colliding galaxy clusters, making it a pretty

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unusual case. This event is

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giving scientists a, peek into the dynamics

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of these massive structures and how they

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evolve over time.

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So that's your Astronomy Daily News summary

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for today. From a tiny star with a giant

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planet to colliding galaxy clusters, I've

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been your host, Anna, and I hope you enjoyed

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our little tour of the cosmos. For all the

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latest space and astronomy news, don't forget

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to visit our website at astronomydaily IO

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where you can catch up on our constantly

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updating news feed. Until tomorrow, thanks

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for tuning in and keep looking up

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stories.

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We told.