Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily. Your go to source
for the latest updates from across the
cosmos. I'm, um, your host, Anna. And today
we're diving into some truly groundbreaking
discoveries and significant developments in
space exploration and astronomical research.
From the Webb Telescope's first exoplanet
discovery, to private astronauts docking with
the International Space Station, and even a
fast radio burst traced back to a defunct
NASA satellite. We have a lot to cover,
so get ready to explore the universe with us.
The James Webb Space Telescope, or jwst,
has just hit an incredible new milestone.
Since beginning its science operations in
July 2022, Webb has primarily
been busy probing the atmospheres of known
alien planets, looking for signs of
habitability. But now, for the very first
time, Webb has made its own discovery,
directly imaging and finding a brand new
exoplanet. This groundbreaking find
reveals a young system hidden within a
swirling cloud of dust and debris. And the
planet itself is the lightest one imaged so
far. A truly remarkable accomplishment made
possible by Webb's advanced capabilities.
This recent discovery, detailed in the
journal Nature, opens up an exciting new
window into hidden Saturn like worlds.
Now you might wonder, how exactly does Webb
manage to see a planet that's so close to its
incredibly bright parent star? It's a
challenge because planets are many orders of
magnitude fainter than their stars, and from
our perspective, they appear incredibly close
to them. Anne Marie Lagrange, research
director at the French National Centre for
Scientific Research and lead author of the
paper, explained that when you look at a
planet, you mostly just see the star.
To overcome this issue, her team used a
special attachment for Webb's M mid infrared
instrument called a coronagraph. Think of it
like recreating a tiny solar eclipse. Within
the telescope itself, the coronagraph
blocks out the overwhelming light from the
star, making its much fainter surroundings
and any orbiting planets far more visible.
Using this ingenious technique, scientists
spotted a young planetary system only a few
million years old, named TWA7.
This system has three distinct rings, with
one being particularly narrow and surrounded
by two areas that are almost devoid of
matter. In Webb's image, something lies
right at the heart of that narrow ring. And
the scientists concluded that this something
is indeed an exoplanet. This
newly discovered exoplanet, now dubbed um,
TWA 7B, is more massive than
Neptune, but about 30% less massive than
Jupiter, making it quite similar in mass to
Saturn. TWA 7b orbits
a star that formed approximately 6.4 million
years ago. And it maintains a significant
distance from its star, about 52
astronomical units, which is 52
times the average distance between Earth and
the Sun. Lagrange noted that this is
also the first planet found that perfectly
explains the gaps observed in a
protoplanetary disc. Planets are born from
the leftover material from a star's birth
which forms a swirling disc of matter.
Previous observations of these protoplanetary
discs and have shown ring like structures and
gaps which scientists believed were telltale
signs of unseen planets. Until now,
however, there were no direct observations of
those planets. The mass and orbital
characteristics of TWA7B
precisely match the predicted properties of
an exoplanet that would have formed in the
gap between the first and second rings of
this disc. By using Webb to observe
these young faint planets, scientists have
truly unlocked a new doorway into the
discovery of alien worlds. As Lagrange
puts it. In terms of imaging, this opens up
the possibility of imaging Saturn like
planets in the future. It will allow us
to characterise the atmospheres of these
Saturn like planets that aren't heavily
irradiated by their stars, providing
invaluable insights into their composition.
It's a huge step forward and helps us
understand the complexities of searching for
very light planets in these early stages of
planetary system formation.
In other exciting space news, a quartet of
private astronauts has successfully reached
the International Space Station. Houston
based Axiom Space launched its fourth crewed
mission to the ISS known as AXE 4,
lifting off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from
NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The
mission began early Wednesday morning, taking
off at 2:31am M. Eastern Daylight Time
after what was described as a particularly
long orbital chase. More than 24 hours
between launch and rendezvous. The crew
aboard the new SpaceX Crew Dragon, aptly
named Grace, successfully docked with the
space station on Thursday morning. Commanding
the AXE 4 mission is none other than former
NASA astronaut and Axiom's director of human
space flight, Peggy Whitson. Peggy
holds the impressive record for cumulative
days spent in space by an American, a number
that continues to climb with this mission.
Joining her is a trio of international crew
members. Shubanshu Shukla from India
serving as mission pilot. Polish mission
specialist Slawos Usnanski of the European
Space Agency and Tibor Kapu of Hungary,
also a mission specialist. Upon their
arrival, these three became the very first
from their respective countries to journey on
a mission to the ISS. Marking a truly
historic moment, the AXE4
astronauts are set to spend about 14 days
aboard the orbiting lab where they will
complete a record number of science
investigations and stem, that's science,
technology, engineering and math outreach
events. In total, they have over 60
experiments planned more than any previous
Axiom mission to date. Their return date will
largely depend on the weather conditions at
Dragon's splashdown zone in the Pacific
Ocean. This will be SpaceX's second West
coast crew recovery, a shift from previous
Atlantic Ocean or Gulf recoveries.
Now for a fascinating and rather surprising
development in the world of astronomy. Fast
radio bursts, or FRBs, have been
a persistent mystery to astronomers ever
since the first one, known as the Lorimer
Burst, was detected in 2007.
These quick, intense bursts typically last
for mere nanoseconds, although some have been
observed for up to three seconds. While their
precise cause remains unknown, scientists
have recently traced some FRBs back to their
source, often finding them originating from
neutron stars, leading to the theory that
these bursts are caused by compact cosmic
objects. However, a recent discovery has
added a completely unexpected twist to this
cosmic puzzle. On June 13,
2024, scientists at the Australian Square
Kilometre Array Pathfinder detected a
potential fast radio burst that lasted for a
minuscule 30 nanoseconds. This pulse,
with a bandwidth strong enough to temporarily
eclipse all other radio signals in the sky,
led scientists to initially speculate that it
must have come from a distant cosmic source,
as is typically the case with these powerful
signals. But in a recent study, a team of
astronomers and astrophysicists made a
startling determination. This particular
FRB did not come from a distant astronomical
source at all. Instead, it was traced back to
something much closer to home, NASA's
Pathfinder 2 mission, a uh, now defunct
satellite orbiting Earth. The study was led
by Clancy James, an associate professor
with the International Centre for Radio
Astronomy Research, or icrar, joined by a
collaborative team from various institutions.
The satellite in question, Relay 2, was
launched way back in 1964
as part of a series of early American
satellites designed to test communications
technologies. While its predecessor,
Relay1, famously provided the first American
television transmissions across the Pacific,
Relay 2 conducted radio transmissions for
about a year before ceasing operations in
1967 when its transponders
failed. When the FRB was detected
last year, the assumption was naturally a
distant cosmic origin. However,
subsequent analysis pointed to a source much
closer to Earth. The team then used the
Skyfield Python module, an astronomy
programme that computes the positions of
stars, planets and satellites in orbit.
This programme revealed that the Relay 2
satellite was precisely within the observed
FRB's time frame and position. The
distance calculated between the ASCAP
Telescope and Relay 2 at the time of
observation was was
4,322 kilometres,
which was remarkably consistent with the
estimated distance of the burst. The signal
was so Strong because the satellite was
passing directly over the ASCAP when the
burst occurred, explaining its surprising
clarity. As for what caused this burst
from a long dead satellite, the team quickly
ruled out the possibility that Relay 2 had
somehow temporarily come back online.
Instead, they attributed it to electrostatic
discharge, also known as esd, a UH
phenomenon observed with satellites in the
past. This happens when electrostatic charges
build up on a spacecraft until they discharge
in a large sudden burst.
Another intriguing possibility is that the
burst was caused by a charged plasma cloud
resulting from a micrometeorite collision.
These groundbreaking results could lead to
new tools for studying FRBs and other
signals, potentially even new techniques for
monitoring the vast array of defunct
satellites orbiting our planet. They also
suggest that radio observatories searching
for cosmic rays could now be capable of
identifying nanosecond scale FRBs, helping
future surveys distinguish between genuine
cosmic events and interference from local
objects. It's truly a testament to how even
the oldest space junk can still hold
scientific surprises.
Now let's turn our attention to some
significant developments from SpaceX, where
they're facing extensive rebuilding efforts
following a recent anomaly, while also making
impressive progress on new infrastructure at
their Massey's test stand. SpaceX is
undertaking considerable repair work after a
major incident involving Starship 36.
During an attempted six engine static fire
test, an anomaly occurred causing substantial
damage to the facility. The immediate focus
was on making Massey safe, and M crews have
since been busy assessing the damage and
cleaning up debris while larger pieces of
Starship 36 have been removed. Cleaning the
trench itself might take longer due to the
static fire stand still being in the way. The
damage at Massey's is quite extensive. The
gantry that held the ship Quick Disconnect is
a tangled mess along with the liquid oxygen
and liquid methane piping. All the vaporizers
used to pressurise the methane tanks are
destroyed, and at least one methane pump
appears damaged. The static fire stand
structure itself seems okay, but all its
clamps and piping will need replacing. Inside
the trench, the aft section and raptors are
likely to have caused damage to the flame
deflector. One of the items that will take
the longest to replace is the control bunker,
which was completely burned out. This
structure is essential for operating the
methane tank farm and the static fire stand.
Additionally, a storage tent and shipping
containers nearby were also destroyed by the
fireball. Pieces of ship 36
are scattered across Massey's for analysis.
According to SpaceX's updates, the initial
failure mode seems to be a composite
overwrapped pressure vessel that was holding
nitrogen in the payload Bay. The root
cause is still under investigation and it
could take some time to determine precisely
what happened. It's fortunate this occurred
on the ground, making the investigation much
more feasible than if it had happened in
space. As a result, no static fire
testing of ships or flights are likely to
occur until the root cause is identified and
Massey's is repaired. Despite this
setback, SpaceX is known for its resilience
and they anticipate this will only cause a
short term stand down. They hope to fly the
last two block two ships by the end of the
year. In parallel with these repairs,
SpaceX is also making steady progress on new
hardware and infrastructure elsewhere at
their Sanchez site, work continues on
components for launch Pad B, including
booster quick disconnect hardware that might
be sent to the launch site within the next
month or two. Progress on Pad B is moving at
a consistent pace. A new assembled flame
diverter ridge is also visible, likely
destined for LC39A, which will need it
in the coming months. While there was talk of
a new gigabay foundation for a new building,
that process hasn't started yet.
Over at the launch site, incredible progress
has been made on Pad B. The launch mount is
installed along with the final two water
plate manifolds and some booster quick
disconnect hardware. There's also significant
progress on the ground support equipment
structure known as the gantry, which houses
the high pressure electrical and main
cryogenic propellant lines. The flame
trench for Pad B is also seeing rapid
development, with crews installing steel
plates that will form its floor and ramps up.
This design means there will be no exposed
concrete to damage, allowing SpaceX to fix
cracks and damage by simply replacing plates
or welding cracks on the walls. This pad is
designed to use a massive amount of water,
around 450,000 gallons per launch,
flowing through the mount and flame
deflectors to protect hardware from the heat
of 33 Raptor engines during liftoff. This
will ensure quick turnaround times between
launches. To achieve this, SpaceX is
using a different pressurisation system than
at Pad A or Massey's, utilising 9
methane and oxygen turbopumps to vaporise
liquid nitrogen before pumping it into the
tanks, which then force water through the
pipes. They've also begun digging the trench
for the propellant lines that will connect to
the tower. Recently, testing of the eight
liquid oxygen pumps already installed for Pad
B's tank farm began it including flowing
liquid nitrogen through them for operational
checks and leak detection on the subcoolers.
This marks a significant step towards getting
Pad B fully operational. As for
Pad A, it's currently sitting unused,
awaiting either Booster 152 for a static
fire or Flight 10 following the loss of
ship.
36 Moving on
NASA engineers are currently working to fix
an issue with the Neutron Star Interior
Composition Explorer, or Nicer X Ray
Telescope. This vital instrument, mounted
on the International Space Station, has
temporarily halted its ability to track
celestial objects due to a bad motor.
NASA paused its operations on June 17 when
the degradation in its tracking ability
became apparent, though they haven't
specified when it might resume. This isn't
the first challenge for Nicer, which has been
in use since 2017. Back in
May 2023, it developed a light
leak when several thin thermal shields were
damaged, rendering it useless during daylight
hours. Astronaut Nick Haig installed nine
patches in January to fix the worst areas,
but some light interference continued.
Closer inspection revealed smaller cracks and
holes, prompting engineers to reconfigure the
telescope's measurement power unit, allowing
it to resume normal operations on March 12.
However, additional damage to at least one
thermal shield forced NASA to minimise
daytime observations again in late May.
Despite these setbacks, Nicer remains a
crucial tool. It measures neutron stars,
identifies black holes, active galaxies, and
other phenomena, and even helps map routes
for future Mars missions. X ray telescopes
like Nicer enable scientists to study and
better understand extreme radio events in
space. For instance, observations from
Nicer, along with the Nuclear Spectroscopic
Telescope Array, were instrumental in
assessing a rapid burst of radio waves from a
Magnetar in 2020, an event that
released as much energy in a fraction of a
second as our sun does in an entire year,
producing a laser like beam instead of an
explosion. Scientists used these same
telescopes to observe another burst from that
magnetar in October 2022.
That's all the exciting news from the cosmos
for today's episode of Astronomy Daily. Thank
you for tuning in and exploring the universe
with us. This episode was hosted by me,
Anna, and we hope you enjoyed our look at the
latest in space exploration and astronomical
discoveries. For more out of this World
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