Anna: Hello, and welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm
your host, Anna. Uh, get ready to dive into
the latest cosmic happenings. Today we're
exploring how astronomers have located the
universe's missing matter. We'll also discuss
an intriguing theory about the Big Bang
originating from a black hole and how
artificial solar eclipses are helping
scientists study the sun. Plus, we've got
updates on the Axiom mission delay, the
Project Kuiper launch, and a roundup of
upcoming launches from around the globe. So
buckle up. It's going to be an exciting
journey through space news.
let's get started with a big story. One of
the universe's biggest mysteries seems to
have been solved. That is, where's all the
missing ordinary matter? Astronomers using
fast radio bursts, those brief intense
flashes of radio waves from distant galaxies
have managed to map out where about three
quarters of the universe's normal matter has
been hiding. And guess what? It's
floating in the vast spaces between galaxies,
forming like an invisible cosmic web.
This is a pretty big deal because it's the
first time scientists have actually created a
detailed census of where all the universe's
ordinary matter is located. These fast
radio bursts act kinda like cosmic
flashlights. You see, different wavelengths
of radio waves travel at slightly different
speeds through ionised gas. So by measuring
how much each burst slowed down, scientists
could calculate the total amount of matter
the signal encountered. One cool finding
is this cosmic thermostat effect, where
supermassive black holes and exploding stars
blast gas out of galaxies, preventing them
from accumulating too much matter. This
research also gives us an independent
measurement of the universe's ordinary matter
content, which agrees with predictions from
the cosmic microwave background and Big Bang
nucleosynthesis. All in all, it's a
major step forward in understanding the
structure and composition of the universe.
Okay, next up, we're diving into some mind
bending stuff about the Big Bang. There's
a new theory floating around that suggests
the Big Bang wasn't actually the beginning of
everything, but rather the result of a
gravitational collapse inside a massive black
hole. Get your head around that one. Now,
the standard model of cosmology, which is
based on the Big Bang and cosmic inflation,
has been pretty successful. But it does leave
some questions unanswered. For example, the
Big Bang model starts with a singularity,
which is basically a point of infinite
density where the laws of physics break down.
And to explain the universe's large scale
structure, physicists came up with cosmic
inflation, which is this idea that the early
universe rapidly expanded. And let's not
forget dark energy, which is Supposed to
explain the accelerating expansion we see
today. So this new model, it kind
of looks inward instead of outward. Instead
of starting with an expanding universe, it
considers what happens when a really dense
collection of matter collapses under gravity.
Think about stars collapsing into black
holes. The math shows that as we approach
a potential singularity, the size of the
universe changes. And this collapsing cloud
of matter can actually bounce, Rebounding
outward into a new expanse expanding phase.
And get this, this bounce naturally produces
those two phases of accelerated expansion,
inflation and dark energy. One of the
cool things about this model is that it makes
testable predictions. It predicts a
small but non zero amount of positive
spatial curvature, Meaning the universe isn't
exactly flat, but slightly curved. So if
future observations confirm this, it could be
a hint that our universe really did emerge
from a bounce inside a black hole. Spooky,
right?
And now let's talk about artificial solar
eclipses. The European Space Agency, or
esa, has been pulling off some pretty cool
stuff with its Proba 3 mission. They've
managed to create the first artificial solar
eclipses Using two satellites flying in
really precise formation. We're talking about
satellites that are flying just 492ft
apart from with their positioning accurate to
within a millimetre. That's like the
thickness of your fingernail. One satellite
blocks the sun just like the moon does during
a natural solar eclipse, While the other one
aims its telescope at the corona, which is
the sun's outer atmosphere. This is a
total game changer for scientists because it
lets them study the corona for hours on end.
The longest eclipse they've managed so far
lasted five hours, and they're hoping to get
up to six hours Once they start doing
scientific observations in July. What's super
cool is that these artificial eclipses give
scientists a much better view of the corona
without needing any special image processing.
They're anticipating producing about two
solar eclipses per week, which will give them
over a thousand hours of totality during the
mission. That's way more than what you get
from natural solar eclipses. And
because the sun blocking disc and the
telescope are on two different satellites, it
gives scientists a better look at the part of
the corona that's closest to the sun.
Alright, next up, a quick update regarding
the Axiom Space Axe 4 mission to the
International Space Station. NASA says the
private astronaut mission could launch to the
ISS as soon as June 19th as it works
to understand an air leak on M, the Russian
segment of the station. Though Roscosmos has
claimed the leak is fixed, Fingers crossed,
they finally get going. This time. I'LL keep
you informed.
Now, turning our attention back to Earth, or
rather low Earth orbit. Amazon's second
Project Kuiper launch has been delayed again.
Yeah, the launch, which was set to happen
from the Florida coast, had to be postponed
because of an engineering observation of an
elevated purge temperature within the booster
engine. So the Atlas V rocket
was supposed to carry 27 satellites into
orbit, which would bring Amazon's total
constellation size to 54 satellites.
The goal of the mission is to provide fast,
reliable Internet to customers all around the
world. So it looks like we'll have to wait a
little bit longer to see these satellites
join the Kuiper constellation.
Okay, next up, let's dive into this massive
Launch Roundup from NASASpaceflight.com
We've got a whole bunch of launches scheduled
from all over the globe this week. First up,
SpaceX is planning five Falcon 9 missions.
Yes, five, that includes a rideshare. And the
Axiom Mission 4 crewed mission, hopefully,
which has, as I reported earlier, been
delayed a few times. Now, there's Also the
Angara A5 rocket launch from Russia. And
get this, the last ever flight of Japan's H2A
rocket is also on the schedule. I know. End
of an era, right? Plus, we have a Chinese
launch and a Blue Origin crewed suborbital
launch to look forward to. In a June
14 statement, NASA said it is working with
axiom space and SpaceX on reviewing launch
opportunities for the AXE 4 mission, with the
earliest such opportunity on June 19th.
So let's break it down a bit. A couple of the
Falcon 9 launches are set to take off from
Vandenberg Space Force Base in California,
while the other three are launching from
Florida. The New Shepard launch, which is,
you know, the one with the crew, is going to
be flying from West Texas. And that
Angara launch, well, it's carrying an
unknown payload from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome
in Russia. Super Mysterious
Rocket Lab also announced an electron launch
from New Zealand. And the ULA
K02 mission is scheduled as well. It's going
to be a Busy week. The H2A
that's launching the GOSAT GW Earth
Observation Satellite. It's designed to
monitor greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide
and methane and. And to measure the total
amount of Earth's water, too. It's kind of
sad to see it go, but the H3 family is taking
over. So onward and upward, right M.
And that's a wrap for today's Space News on
Astronomy Daily. Thanks so much for tuning
in. I'm Anna and it's been a blast, bringing
you all the latest space and astronomy news.
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up. I'm out of here. See you next time.