WEBVTT 0 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.120 Anna: Hey there space enthusiasts and welcome to 1 00:00:02.120 --> 00:00:04.760 Astronomy Daily. I'm your host, Anna, and I'm 2 00:00:04.760 --> 00:00:06.760 super excited to bring you the latest cosmic 3 00:00:06.760 --> 00:00:09.360 happenings. Today we're diving into a mixed 4 00:00:09.360 --> 00:00:11.880 bag of news from M, A Japanese lunar lander 5 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:13.920 that, didn't quite stick the landing to a 6 00:00:13.920 --> 00:00:16.840 very public spat between Elon Musk and. 7 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:19.800 Well, you know. We'll also be taking a look 8 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:22.360 at what a maze is doing on M. Mars and get 9 00:00:22.360 --> 00:00:24.720 this, the biggest explosion scientists have 10 00:00:24.720 --> 00:00:27.580 seen since the Big Bang. So buckle 11 00:00:27.580 --> 00:00:28.740 up and let's get started. 12 00:00:30.420 --> 00:00:32.660 So, first up, we have some updated news from 13 00:00:32.660 --> 00:00:35.450 Ispace, the Japan based company. And, well, 14 00:00:35.450 --> 00:00:37.730 it's not great. Their Resilience lander 15 00:00:37.730 --> 00:00:40.290 unfortunately didn't exactly nail its landing 16 00:00:40.290 --> 00:00:42.490 on the moon. Yeah, it seems they got to the 17 00:00:42.490 --> 00:00:44.760 finish line, but weren't quite successful in 18 00:00:44.760 --> 00:00:47.680 sticking the landing. Now this mission 19 00:00:47.680 --> 00:00:49.840 launched about four and a half months ago on 20 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:52.600 a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral. As 21 00:00:52.600 --> 00:00:55.120 part of a rideshare with Firefly Aerospace's 22 00:00:55.120 --> 00:00:57.660 Blue Ghost lander. The teams in Japan 23 00:00:57.660 --> 00:01:00.540 announced that sadly, they lost communication 24 00:01:00.540 --> 00:01:02.900 with Resilience, which probably means it 25 00:01:02.900 --> 00:01:04.940 suffered a hard landing. Ouch. 26 00:01:05.500 --> 00:01:08.060 Takeshi Hakamada, the founder and 27 00:01:08.060 --> 00:01:11.060 CEO of Ispace, said that their top 28 00:01:11.060 --> 00:01:13.420 priority is to analyse the telemetry data 29 00:01:13.420 --> 00:01:15.420 they managed to get and figure out what went 30 00:01:15.420 --> 00:01:17.900 wrong. They're aiming to restore trust by 31 00:01:17.900 --> 00:01:19.900 providing a report to everyone involved. 32 00:01:20.700 --> 00:01:22.380 The mission actually seemed to be going 33 00:01:22.380 --> 00:01:25.210 smoothly at first. Resilience went through 34 00:01:25.210 --> 00:01:28.090 several phases, gradually lowering its orbit 35 00:01:28.090 --> 00:01:30.490 around the moon. But after it reached about 36 00:01:30.490 --> 00:01:33.210 20 kilometres above the surface, things went 37 00:01:33.210 --> 00:01:36.130 south. They lost telemetry, and based 38 00:01:36.130 --> 00:01:38.170 on the data they have, the lander couldn't 39 00:01:38.170 --> 00:01:40.690 decelerate enough and it, well, crash 40 00:01:40.690 --> 00:01:43.250 landed. This lander was carrying science 41 00:01:43.250 --> 00:01:46.050 payloads and even a rover from Ispace Europe 42 00:01:46.370 --> 00:01:49.290 named Tenacious. The plan was to land in a 43 00:01:49.290 --> 00:01:51.780 region called Mare Frigoris, or the Sea of 44 00:01:51.780 --> 00:01:54.180 Cold. There was even a small model of a 45 00:01:54.180 --> 00:01:56.100 Swedish house on board, meant to be placed on 46 00:01:56.100 --> 00:01:59.020 the moon by the rover. Now, this is I Space's 47 00:01:59.020 --> 00:02:01.500 second landing failure in two missions. But 48 00:02:01.500 --> 00:02:04.340 their American subsidiary, Ispace US is 49 00:02:04.340 --> 00:02:07.139 still on contract with NASA for a mission in 50 00:02:07.139 --> 00:02:10.060 2027 to deliver a larger lander to 51 00:02:10.060 --> 00:02:12.540 the far side of the moon. So hopefully 52 00:02:12.540 --> 00:02:13.980 they'll be able to turn things around. 53 00:02:15.260 --> 00:02:17.960 Okay, next up, we've got a bit of a, ah, 54 00:02:17.960 --> 00:02:20.580 well, let's call it a situation brewing 55 00:02:20.580 --> 00:02:23.220 between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Yeah, you 56 00:02:23.220 --> 00:02:25.220 heard that right. So apparently these two 57 00:02:25.220 --> 00:02:27.260 aren't exactly seeing eye to eye anymore. 58 00:02:27.580 --> 00:02:29.660 After Musk served as a special government 59 00:02:29.660 --> 00:02:31.580 employee leading the Department of Government 60 00:02:31.580 --> 00:02:34.300 Efficiency, or doge. Things seemed 61 00:02:34.300 --> 00:02:37.260 fine. Trump even called Musk one of 62 00:02:37.260 --> 00:02:39.300 the greatest business leaders and innovators 63 00:02:39.300 --> 00:02:42.180 the world has ever produced. But things 64 00:02:42.180 --> 00:02:44.660 went downhill after Musk criticised Trump's 65 00:02:44.660 --> 00:02:47.100 big beautiful bill. Trump fired back, 66 00:02:47.100 --> 00:02:48.780 suggesting the US could save money by 67 00:02:48.780 --> 00:02:50.820 cancelling government contracts with Musk's 68 00:02:50.820 --> 00:02:53.380 companies. And that's when things got spicy. 69 00:02:53.780 --> 00:02:55.700 Musk responded with a threat to begin 70 00:02:55.700 --> 00:02:58.260 decommissioning SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft 71 00:02:58.260 --> 00:03:00.940 immediately. Now, if Musk is 72 00:03:00.940 --> 00:03:02.940 serious, this could have some pretty big 73 00:03:02.940 --> 00:03:05.740 consequences for American spaceflight. I 74 00:03:05.740 --> 00:03:08.220 mean, think about it. SpaceX's Dragon 75 00:03:08.220 --> 00:03:10.420 spacecraft have been crucial for NASA 76 00:03:10.420 --> 00:03:12.300 operations on the International Space 77 00:03:12.300 --> 00:03:15.030 Station, ushering in a new era of US 78 00:03:15.030 --> 00:03:17.830 spaceflight. If Dragon gets decommissioned, 79 00:03:17.910 --> 00:03:20.350 that would basically end US based astronaut 80 00:03:20.350 --> 00:03:23.110 launches for a while. And Boeing's Starliner 81 00:03:23.110 --> 00:03:24.950 isn't quite ready to fill that gap yet. 82 00:03:25.750 --> 00:03:27.990 SpaceX has some pretty substantial government 83 00:03:27.990 --> 00:03:30.710 contracts, including NASA's Commercial Crew 84 00:03:30.710 --> 00:03:33.150 Programme, cargo resupply services for the 85 00:03:33.150 --> 00:03:35.910 ISS, and oh yeah, they're 86 00:03:35.910 --> 00:03:37.550 supposed to provide the lunar lander for 87 00:03:37.550 --> 00:03:40.250 NASA's Artemis moon programme. So if those 88 00:03:40.250 --> 00:03:42.450 contracts get cancelled along with the 89 00:03:42.450 --> 00:03:44.730 proposed cuts to NASA's budget, it could 90 00:03:44.730 --> 00:03:46.970 seriously impact NASA as we know it. 91 00:03:47.530 --> 00:03:49.450 Now it's not clear what this would mean for 92 00:03:49.450 --> 00:03:51.610 SpaceX's private spaceflight endeavours. 93 00:03:51.930 --> 00:03:54.370 Axiom Space is about to launch its fourth 94 00:03:54.370 --> 00:03:56.370 private astronaut mission on a brand new 95 00:03:56.370 --> 00:03:58.970 Dragon. And SpaceX has been doing some cool 96 00:03:58.970 --> 00:04:00.930 stuff with private spacewalks and polar 97 00:04:00.930 --> 00:04:03.650 orbits. NASA's being pretty tight lipped 98 00:04:03.650 --> 00:04:05.980 about the whole situation, saying they'll 99 00:04:05.980 --> 00:04:07.900 continue to execute the President's vision 100 00:04:07.900 --> 00:04:10.220 for the future of space. So we'll have to 101 00:04:10.220 --> 00:04:12.500 wait and see how this all plays out. But 102 00:04:12.490 --> 00:04:14.530 yeah, stay tuned folks, because this could 103 00:04:14.530 --> 00:04:15.210 get interesting. 104 00:04:16.730 --> 00:04:18.410 Alright, let's move on to something a little 105 00:04:18.410 --> 00:04:21.330 less dramatic. Have you ever looked at the 106 00:04:21.330 --> 00:04:24.090 raw images from NASA's Perseverance rover and 107 00:04:24.090 --> 00:04:26.170 wondered why it keeps snapping pics of this 108 00:04:26.170 --> 00:04:28.930 weird tiny maze? Well, it turns out there's a 109 00:04:28.930 --> 00:04:31.250 pretty cool reason. That maze is actually a 110 00:04:31.250 --> 00:04:33.710 calibration target. One of ten for 111 00:04:33.710 --> 00:04:35.990 Perseverance's Sherlock instrument. Yeah, 112 00:04:35.990 --> 00:04:37.470 that's short for scanning habitable 113 00:04:37.470 --> 00:04:39.510 environments with Raman and luminescence for 114 00:04:39.510 --> 00:04:42.510 organics and chemicals. Catchy, right? So 115 00:04:42.510 --> 00:04:44.470 Sherlock is basically a Sherlock Holmes 116 00:04:44.470 --> 00:04:46.790 inspired tool designed to detect organic 117 00:04:46.790 --> 00:04:49.110 compounds and other minerals on Mars that 118 00:04:49.110 --> 00:04:51.190 could indicate signs of, you know, ancient 119 00:04:51.190 --> 00:04:53.750 microbial life. But to do that accurately, it 120 00:04:53.750 --> 00:04:55.870 needs to be carefully calibrated. And that's 121 00:04:55.870 --> 00:04:58.550 where our little maze comes in. Sherlock is 122 00:04:58.550 --> 00:05:00.820 Located on the rover's robotic arm and and 123 00:05:00.820 --> 00:05:02.900 uses spectroscopic techniques to analyse 124 00:05:02.900 --> 00:05:05.340 Martian rocks. To make sure its measurements 125 00:05:05.340 --> 00:05:07.860 are spot on, it routinely calibrates its 126 00:05:07.860 --> 00:05:10.020 tools using reference materials with specific 127 00:05:10.020 --> 00:05:12.220 properties. These are mounted on a plate 128 00:05:12.220 --> 00:05:13.980 attached to the front of the rover's body, 129 00:05:14.140 --> 00:05:16.100 which is called the Sherlock Calibration 130 00:05:16.100 --> 00:05:18.980 target. The maze helps calibrate 131 00:05:18.980 --> 00:05:21.020 the positioning of the laser scanner mirror 132 00:05:21.020 --> 00:05:24.020 and characterises the laser's focus. It's 133 00:05:24.020 --> 00:05:25.940 made of chrome plated lines that are super 134 00:05:25.940 --> 00:05:28.550 thin, only about twice the width of a human 135 00:05:28.550 --> 00:05:31.390 hair, printed onto silica glass. And 136 00:05:31.390 --> 00:05:34.190 get this, if you look closely, there's even a 137 00:05:34.190 --> 00:05:36.110 tiny Sherlock Holmes portrait right in the 138 00:05:36.110 --> 00:05:39.030 centre. How cool is that? The calibration 139 00:05:39.030 --> 00:05:41.150 target also includes samples of materials 140 00:05:41.150 --> 00:05:43.950 used in spacesuits like Teflon, Gore Tex 141 00:05:43.950 --> 00:05:46.790 and Kevlar. These are being tested under 142 00:05:46.790 --> 00:05:48.950 Mars conditions to see how they hold up over 143 00:05:48.950 --> 00:05:51.070 time, which is crucial for planning future 144 00:05:51.070 --> 00:05:53.600 human exploration of the red planet. And one 145 00:05:53.600 --> 00:05:55.840 last fun fact. Sherlock has a sidekick, a 146 00:05:55.840 --> 00:05:58.280 colour camera called Watson. Yep, just like 147 00:05:58.280 --> 00:05:59.280 Sherlock Holmes. 148 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:02.560 Okay, now for something truly mind blowing. 149 00:06:02.880 --> 00:06:05.080 Astronomers have stumbled upon a new type of 150 00:06:05.080 --> 00:06:07.200 giant space explosion. And get this. They're 151 00:06:07.200 --> 00:06:10.040 calling them extreme nuclear transients, or 152 00:06:10.040 --> 00:06:12.990 ENTs. And, apparently they're the biggest 153 00:06:12.990 --> 00:06:15.710 bangs since the Big bang itself. These 154 00:06:15.710 --> 00:06:18.590 ents are like colossal flares of light from 155 00:06:18.590 --> 00:06:21.000 the hearts of distant galaxies. And they 156 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:23.000 linger way longer than any flares we've ever 157 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:25.760 seen before. We're talking about blasts 158 00:06:25.760 --> 00:06:28.720 that release as much energy as 100 suns would 159 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:31.040 over their entire lifetimes. I mean, wow. 160 00:06:31.520 --> 00:06:34.160 So what are they? Well, it turns out they're 161 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:36.239 kind of like stars being torn apart by black 162 00:06:36.239 --> 00:06:39.080 holes, but on a scale we've never observed 163 00:06:39.080 --> 00:06:42.040 before. Each star is a massive one, at 164 00:06:42.040 --> 00:06:44.600 least three times as massive as our sun. And 165 00:06:44.600 --> 00:06:46.600 each black hole is a supermassive beast 166 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:48.640 lurking in the centre of its host galaxy. 167 00:06:49.430 --> 00:06:51.150 Normally, these events are called tidal 168 00:06:51.150 --> 00:06:53.710 disruption events, or TDEs. But these 169 00:06:53.710 --> 00:06:56.270 ENTs are different. They're, like, 170 00:06:56.270 --> 00:06:59.030 nearly 10 times brighter than normal TDEs. 171 00:06:59.190 --> 00:07:02.150 And they stay luminous for years, surpassing 172 00:07:02.150 --> 00:07:04.310 even the brightest supernova explosions. 173 00:07:05.270 --> 00:07:07.790 Gaia, the space telescope, whose mission was 174 00:07:07.790 --> 00:07:10.230 to map the Milky Way, actually 175 00:07:10.230 --> 00:07:12.470 accidentally captured these explosions 176 00:07:13.590 --> 00:07:15.790 while staring at the sky. Combing through 177 00:07:15.790 --> 00:07:18.780 Gaia data, scientists found two strange 178 00:07:18.780 --> 00:07:21.580 events from 2016 and 2018. 179 00:07:22.620 --> 00:07:24.780 After some digging, they figured out that 180 00:07:24.780 --> 00:07:26.700 these events were the same kind of event as 181 00:07:26.700 --> 00:07:28.980 something nicknamed Scary Barbie, which 182 00:07:28.980 --> 00:07:30.700 sounds absolutely terrifying. 183 00:07:31.500 --> 00:07:34.260 Ents are super rare, like 10 184 00:07:34.260 --> 00:07:36.780 million times less frequent than supernovae. 185 00:07:36.860 --> 00:07:39.380 But they give us a new way to study massive 186 00:07:39.380 --> 00:07:42.060 black holes in distant galaxies because 187 00:07:42.060 --> 00:07:44.240 they're so bright and we can see them across 188 00:07:44.320 --> 00:07:46.680 vast cosmic distances. So in 189 00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:49.120 astronomy, looking far away means looking 190 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:51.880 back in time. By observing these prolonged 191 00:07:51.880 --> 00:07:54.240 flares, we can learn more about black hole 192 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:56.520 growth during a key era when the universe was 193 00:07:56.520 --> 00:07:58.800 half its current age. It's like 194 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:01.360 galaxies were forming stars and feeding their 195 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:03.640 supermassive black holes like 10 times more 196 00:08:03.640 --> 00:08:06.120 vigorously than they do today. Pretty wild 197 00:08:06.120 --> 00:08:09.040 stuff, huh? And that's 198 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:11.040 all the space and astronomy news we have for 199 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:13.530 you today. I've been your host, Anna, and I 200 00:08:13.530 --> 00:08:15.010 hope you enjoyed our journey through the 201 00:08:15.010 --> 00:08:17.410 cosmos. If you want to stay up to date with 202 00:08:17.410 --> 00:08:19.770 all the latest space happenings, be sure to 203 00:08:19.770 --> 00:08:22.570 visit our website at astronomydaily IO. 204 00:08:23.050 --> 00:08:25.290 There you can sign up for our free daily 205 00:08:25.290 --> 00:08:27.290 newsletter and catch up on all the latest 206 00:08:27.290 --> 00:08:29.810 space and astronomy news with our constantly 207 00:08:29.810 --> 00:08:32.210 updating newsfeed. Also, don't forget to 208 00:08:32.210 --> 00:08:34.410 follow us on social media. Just search for 209 00:08:34.410 --> 00:08:37.130 Astro Daily Pod on Facebook, X, YouTube, 210 00:08:37.130 --> 00:08:39.010 YouTube, Music, Instagram, Tumblr, and 211 00:08:39.010 --> 00:08:41.660 TikTok. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll catch 212 00:08:41.660 --> 00:08:43.580 you next time on Astronomy Daily. In the 213 00:08:43.580 --> 00:08:44.940 meantime, keep looking up.