Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily, your
source for all the latest news from across
the vast universe. I'm your host, Anna,
and I'm so excited to dive into today's
cosmic happenings. We've got a busy show for
you today. We'll be looking at how NASA and
the Department of Defence are Preparing for
Artemis 2. We've got a quick update from
the ISS. We'll be checking out a jellyfish
galaxy. Plus, we'll guide you on how to
spot Mars this month.
So buckle up space fans, it's time for
liftoff. NASA and the
Department of Defence recently teamed up to
practise emergency procedures for the Artemis
2 mission, which is set to send four
astronauts around the moon next year. These
simulations are super important because, you
know, safety first. The teams
rehearsed what they would do to rescue the
crew if there was an emergency during the
launch of the Orion spacecraft. This
included scenarios where they had to abort
the launch while the rocket was still on the
pad, as well as during the ascent into space.
To make it as realistic as possible, they
used test mannequins and a version of Orion
called the crew Module Test article.
During the pad abort simulation, the launch
team went through a normal countdown before
declaring an abort just before the simulated
launch. In a real emergency, Orion's launch
abort system would kick in, propelling the
capsule and its crew to safety before
parachuting down off the coast of Florida for
the test. They placed the test Orion in the
water and then two navy helicopters
carrying Air Force pararescuers
swooped in to retrieve the mannequin crew
just like they would in a real situation.
The next day they practised an ascent, abort
scenario. The rescue team set up another
simulation at sea and after receiving the
simulated abort call, they sprang into action
using a C17 aircraft and more Air Force
pararescuers. These procedures are similar to
those used in previous tests, making sure
everyone is prepared for anything that might
happen. It's all part of NASA's commitment to
keeping the Artemis II crew safe as they
venture to the moon and back. Next up,
a quick update to our story from yesterday
about Postponements to the AXE 4 mission.
Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Friday
that a leak on the Russian segment of the
International Space Station had been
repaired, that the Interfax news agency
reported. Good news indeed. No reports yet
on how this will affect prospective launch
date, though. NASA had on Thursday
indefinitely delayed a four person cruise
mission to the ISS over an escalating probe
into air leaks aboard the orbiting
laboratory's Russian segment.
Okay, next up in our cosmic tour, astronomers
have spotted a galaxy that looks like a
jellyfish with bunny ears. I know it
sounds like something out of a sci fi
cartoon, but it's real. This galaxy
called NGC 4858 is
way out there in the Coma cluster, over 300
million light years away. Now, galaxy
clusters are these huge collections of
galaxies, often containing thousands of them,
along with hot gas and what astronomers
suspect, a whole lot of dark matter. What
makes NGC4858 so interesting is what's
happening to it inside this cluster. It's
experiencing extreme pressure, kind of like a
wind, which is stripping gas away from the
galaxy. This process stretches the galaxy,
giving it that jellyfish shape, with long
trails of gas and young stars that resemble,
you guessed it, jellyfish tentacles.
But here's where the bunny ears come in. The
Images of NGC 4858
revealed these distorted spiral arms that
astronomers are calling bunny ears.
Apparently this is likely caused by a
combination of the environmental wind pushing
on the gas and the rotation of the galaxy
itself. And there's more.
Scientists have also found evidence of a
phenomenon called fallback. This is when gas
gets stripped away from a galaxy, but doesn't
quite escape, so it falls back toward the
galactic disc. It's like a galactic fountain,
with the gas often concentrating in distorted
spiral arms on one side of the inner tail.
Because NGC 4858 is face
on, it's a prime target for further studies
on how pressure and rotation affect galaxies
in extreme conditions.
M alright, let's turn our gaze to the Red
planet. If you've been keeping an eye on Mars
since the beginning of the year, you've
probably noticed how much its brightness has
changed and how it's been interacting with
the Moon, bright stars and other celestial
objects. Now, even though 2025
isn't exactly a banner year for Mars, it's
still putting on a pretty good show.
Remember, it reached opposition. That's when
it appears directly opposite the sun in the
sky back in January. Well,
even though it's been receding from us ever
since, it's still making some eye catching
appearances this month. First up, on
June 17, Mars will be cozying up to
Regulus. That's a bright star in the
constellation Leo the Lion. If you're in the
Americas, keep an eye out. From June 13th
through the 20th, you'll see them hanging out
less than 2 degrees apart. The 15th to
18th is when they'll be super close, less
than 1 degree apart. On the 17th,
Mars will be just 3/4 of a 1 degree above
Regulus. Look for them around
10pm local time, about a quarter of the way
up in the western sky. Because they're so
close and similar in brightness, they'll
really stand out. Plus, the orange gold
of Mars and blue white of Regulus will look
even more intense next to each other. And
that's not all. On June 29,
a waxing crescent Moon will glide right past
Mars in the western sky at dusk. Now, North
America won't get to see the Moon actually
pass in front of Mars. That's called an
occultation. But it'll still be a beautiful
sight as Mars appears to glide above the
Moon. To catch it, you might need binoculars
at first, but once the sky darkens, Mars
should be easy to spot. So keep an eye on the
western sky at dusk. It will be worth a look.
Now, switching gears a bit, let's talk about
the future of space exploration. Next
week, from June 19 to 22, space
enthusiasts from all over the world will be
gathering in Orlando, Florida for the
International Space Development Conference,
or ISDC 2025.
This year's theme is Together beyond, and
it's all about collaboration across different
sectors and countries as we push further into
space. The conference is going to be packed
with discussions on everything from global
cooperation in space to developing
communities out there among the stars.
They'll also be talking about space health,
sustainability and making settlements on the
moon. Mars and beyond a, reality.
And of course, they'll be addressing the need
for planetary defence strategies to protect
Earth from asteroids. There's going to be
some seriously impressive speakers there,
too. We're talking Pascal Lee,
a planetary scientist, and Mars exploration
expert Gretchen Green, the first woman
physician, commercial astronaut Jared
Isaac Mann, who commanded the Inspiration4
mission, and former NASA astronauts Susan
Kilrain and Robert Hoot Gibson.
Also speaking is Shauna Pandya, who's set to
be the first female commercial Canadian
astronaut. It sounds like an amazing event
for anyone interested in the future of
humanity in space.
Finally today, let's dive into something a
little more mysterious. Dark matter. The
upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope,
launching in 2026, is going to play a
huge role in helping us understand this
elusive stuff. How? Through
gravitational lensing. Now, gravitational
lensing basically uses massive galaxy
clusters in the foreground, so to magnify
really distant objects in the background. And
dark matter, even though we can't see it,
makes up a massive chunk of these galaxy
clusters, like 85% or even more in some
cases. So without dark matter,
gravitational lensing wouldn't be nearly as
effective. The M Roman Space Telescope is
expected to find around 160,000 of these
gravitational lenses. But here's the cool
part. By using dark matter as a gravitational
lens, scientists can actually learn more
about it. The telescope will be on the
lookout for what are called strong
gravitational lenses. These happen when the
observer, the gravitational lens, and the
background object are all perfectly aligned.
These lenses give us a much more dramatic
magnification. Researchers are hoping to find
about 500 of these that are precise enough to
study the structure of dark matter at small
scales. These observations could help us
address some of the issues with the lambda
cold dark matter theory, which is the most
widely accepted model of Big Bang cosmology.
It's great at describing the large scale
universe, but it kind of falls apart when we
look at smaller scales. For example,
the Lambda CDM model predicts that there
should be way more dwarf galaxies around
larger galaxies like the Milky Way than we
actually see. The Roman telescope's strong
lenses should be able to detect the small
amounts of light being bent by the dark
matter halos of these galaxies. And if they
do, then the Lambda CDM M model becomes that
much stronger. Ultimately, scientists
are trying to figure out what kind of
particle makes up dark matter. Is it wimps,
axions? Or maybe sterile neutrinos? The
Roman Space Telescope is going to give us
some seriously valuable data to help us crack
the code. And that's
all the space news we have for you today. I'm
Anna and it's been a pleasure being your host
today. Don't forget to visit our website at
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Until next time, keep looking up and as they
say, I'll, see you on the flip side. This is
Anna signing off.