Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your go to
podcast for the latest and greatest in space
news. I'm your host Anna, and I'm thrilled
to have you join me today as we embark on
another fascinating journey through the
cosmos. We have a packed episode for you
covering some truly remarkable developments
and a few unexpected turns in our exploration
of the universe. Today we'll discuss a
private spaceflight mission that faced an
unexpected anomaly. We'll then look at how
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is
learning new manoeuvres after nearly two
decades, offering fresh insights into the Red
Planet for stargazers. We'll highlight a
recent nova explosion that made a previously
dim star visible to the naked eye.
We'll also dive into a new statistical
analysis of exoplanet habitability,
revealing promising candidates for life.
Finally, we'll explore a cutting edge
collaboration between NASA and Australia on
lunar laser communications for the Artemis 2
mission.
So buckle up and let's get started.
First up, let's talk about a recent private
space flight that didn't quite go according
to plan, yet is still being called a partial
success by the exploration company. This
incident involved their Nyx capsule, which
was part of the SpaceX Transporter 14
rideshare mission launched on June 23.
Among the 70 payloads sent into orbit, the
Nyx capsule had a very special cargo
Memorial remains contributed by loved ones
through Celestis Memorial Space Flights.
Celestis offers various tiers of space
memorial services, from launching DNA into
space and returning it to Earth to sending
remains into deep space for their 25th
launch. Dubbed the Perseverance Flight,
Celestis partnered with the Exploration
Company's Mission Possible to carry its
memorial payload aboard the Nyx capsule with
the intention of returning it to Earth. The
mission proceeded nominally throughout, with
the capsule performing as expected, powering
its payloads in orbit, stabilising itself
and even re establishing communication after
the expected blackout period during RE entry.
This blackout happens when intense friction
with the atmosphere creates a superheated
plasma layer around the spacecraft.
Everything seemed to be going perfectly right
up until a few minutes before its scale
scheduled splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
That's when an anomaly occurred. The
exploration company reported losing
communication with Nyx. A later statement
from Celestis shed more light on the issue,
confirming that the capsule's parachute
system failed to deploy. This tragic
failure resulted in the Nyx capsule impacting
the Pacific Ocean and dispersing its contents
at sea. It's an incredibly sombre outcome
for the families who entrusted their loved
ones remains to this journey. Celestis
expressed their hope that families will find
some Peace in knowing their loved ones were
part of a historic journey. Launched into
space, orbited Earth and are now
resting in the vastness of the Pacific, akin
to a traditional and honoured sea scattering.
The Exploration company also extended an
apology to all their clients. Despite this
significant setback, the Exploration company
is viewing the mission as a partial success.
They highlight the technical, um, milestones
achieved, emphasising their ambition and the
inherent risks involved in innovation. The
Nyx capsule is a crucial part of their future
plans, designed to transport both crew and
cargo to and from low Earth orbit and
beyond. They are determined not to let this
snag slow them down and are already preparing
to re fly as soon as possible, leveraging the
lessons learned from this ongoing
investigation.
Now let's turn our gaze to Mars, where NASA's
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO, is
proving that you can indeed teach an old
spacecraft new tricks. After nearly two
decades orbiting the Red Planet, MRO is
literally on a roll, performing new
manoeuvres to extract even more science data.
Engineers have managed to teach this probe to
roll almost completely upside down, a feat
that allows it to peer deeper beneath the
Martian surface in its hunt for liquid and
frozen water. These new capabilities,
detailed in a recent paper, describe three
very large roles executed between
2023 and 2024. This
innovative approach means that entirely new
regions of the Martian subsurface are now
accessible for exploration. While MRO M
was originally designed to roll up to 30
degrees to point its instruments, these new
rolls push the limits to a full 120
degrees. The main beneficiary of these
extreme manoeuvres is the shallow radar, or
SHARAD instrument. SHARAD is designed to
penetrate one to two kilometres below ground,
helping scientists distinguish between
materials like rock, sand and ice.
It has been instrumental in mapping
subsurface ice deposits, which are crucial
for understanding Mars climate and geology
and are also vital potential resources for
future human missions. However,
Sharad's antennas were mounted at the back of
the orbiter to give prime viewing to other
cameras, which inadvertently caused parts of
the spacecraft to interfere with its radar
signals, making images less clear.
By performing these dramatic 120 degree
rolls, the team found they could give the
radio waves an unobstructed path to the
surface, strengthening the radar signal by 10
times or more and providing a much clearer
picture of the Martian underground.
Planning these roles isn't simple. MRO
carries five science instruments, each with
different pointing requirements. Regular
rolls are planned weeks in advance, with
instrument teams negotiating for science
time. An algorithm then commands the orbiter
to roll, adjusting solar arrays for power and
the high gain antenna for communication with
Earth. The very large rolls are
even more complex, requiring special
analysis to ensure enough battery power for
safety, as the spacecraft's antenna isn't
pointed at Earth and its solar arrays can't
track the sun during the manoeuvre. Because
of these challenges, the mission is currently
limited to one or two of these very large
rolls per year, although engineers hope to
streamline the process for more frequent use.
In addition to shared, another MRO
instrument, the Mars Climate Sounder, is also
adapting its operations. This instrument,
which provides detailed information on Mars's
atmosphere, now relies on MRO's standard
roles for its observations and calibrations
as its ageing gimbal has become unreliable.
These clever adaptations ensure that MRO
continues to deliver cutting edge science
even as it approaches its two decade mark in
space.
From the robotic wonders of Mars, we now
shift our focus to a celestial spectacle
happening right now in our own night sky. An
ordinarily dim star has suddenly burst into
brilliance, putting on a powerful display
that's even visible to the naked eye. We're
talking about the Nova V462 Lupi,
first spotted on June 12 by the All Sky
Automated Survey for Supernovae.
This star, usually far too faint for us to
see with a visual magnitude of 22.3, has
undergone a dramatic transformation. Its
explosion of radiation has caused it to
brighten so significantly that it appears as
if brand new star is shining in the night
sky. Just as a reminder, the lower an
object's magnitude, the brighter it appears.
Our eyes can typically pick out stars with a
magnitude of plus 6.5 or greater under good
dark sky conditions. So what
exactly is a classical nova? It's a
fascinating type of stellar explosion that
occurs in binary star systems. Imagine a
white dwarf star, which is the dense remnant
of a star like our sun, orbiting very closely
with a companion star. The white dwarf's
strong gravitational pull strips mass
mostly hydrogen from its companion.
This material then accumulates on the surface
of the white dwarf. As more and more material
piles up, it becomes incredibly hot and
dense, eventually reaching a critical point
where a cataclysmic fusion reaction is
ignited. This sudden, powerful
explosion releases a colossal outpouring
of radiation, which is what we observe as a
nova. Soon after its discovery,
V462 Lupi was reported to be
visible through binoculars with an apparent
magnitude of around 7.9.
It continued to brighten steadily in the days
that followed, eventually becoming visible to
the naked eye around the middle of June, with
some reports even placing its peak brightness
at over 5.5. While it was
truly spectacular, the nova is now on the
decline and its brightness is fading. But
don't despair. You still have a chance to
witness this ancient light before it vanishes
from our view. The dark skies around the new
moon offer a perfect opportunity to get away
from city lights and hunt down
V462 Lupi. We
recommend bringing a pair of 10x50
binoculars, which will make it easier to spot
the subsiding light while providing a wide
field of view to appreciate the surrounding
stars. To find
V462 Lupi, you'll need to look
in the constellation Lupus the Wolf, near the
bright stars Delta Lupi and Kappa Centauri.
For precise positioning, a star chart is your
best friend. You can generate one easily on
the American association for Variable Stars
or AAVSO website. Just type
V462, loop into the Pick a Star box
and click Create a Finder Chart.
Skywatchers in the Southern Hemisphere will
have the best view as, uh, the nova will
appear highest in the post sunset sky for
them. For our listeners in The United States,
V462 Lupi will be
visible close to the southern horizon,
especially if you're in states closest to the
equator, such as Texas, Florida and
Louisiana. It's a fleeting but powerful
reminder of the dynamic nature of our
universe.
Next up, let's shift our gaze far beyond our
solar system to the fascinating world of
exoplanets and the ongoing search for life.
While direct imaging of exoplanet atmospheres
or discovering systems with multiple planets
might grab more headlines, one of the most
powerful and often underappreciated tools in
an astrobiologist's kit is statistics.
It's absolutely crucial for ensuring that
what we observe is real and not just an
artefact of our data or observational
techniques. A new paper by Caleb Traxler
and his co authors at UC Irvine has done just
that, statistically analysing a subset of
thousands of exoplanets to judge their
habitability. For decades, the search for
potentially life supporting exoplanets has
largely revolved around the concept of the
habitable zone. This is essentially a
calculation of a planet's average temperature
to determine if liquid water, a critical
medium for life as we know it, could exist on
its surface. However, the authors of this new
study argue that such a one dimensional
system is too general and not practically
useful for pinpointing planets with a high
probability of supporting life. Mhm. Instead,
they propose a more comprehensive approach,
looking at characteristics of both the planet
and its parent star, and then Comparing these
to Earth, which remains our baseline for a
habitable world. They analysed each
exoplanet based on four key its
radius, temperature, insolation, flux, that
is how much sunlight it receives, and
density. For the exoplanet's host star,
they examined its effective temperature,
radius, mass and metallicity, which is the
ratio of its iron content to its hydrogen
content. Using these eight
parameters, they sorted 517
exoplanets for which this data was available
into four distinct categories. An
excellent candidate meant the planet was
similar enough to Earth to be of strong
interest. Good planet poor
star indicated that at least one of the
star's parameters significantly differed from
our Sun. Conversely, good
star poor planet meant the
planet's characteristics were significantly
different from Earth. The final category,
poor candidate, applied to systems where
neither the star nor the planet fit the bill.
Interestingly, the good star poor planet
category contained the vast majority of
exoplanets, accounting for 388
systems, or 75% of the data set.
The researchers suggest that this isn't
necessarily a physical reality, but rather a
detection bias. Techniques
commonly used to find exoplanets like the
transit method are heavily biassed towards
detecting large planets with short orbital
periods, which would place them firmly in
this category. They believe that with longer
observational times, we could find many more
planets that fit into the excellent candidate
bucket.
And speaking of excellent candidates, out of
the entire 517 planet dataset,
only three were classified as
ExcellentEarth itself Kepler
22b and Kepler
538b. Kepler 22b
in particular stands out as a truly promising
prospect, with only a 3.1% difference
in temperature and a mere 1% difference in
insolation compared to Earth. The paper
identifies it as having the highest
likelihood of harbouring life, making it a
prime target for atmospheric observation by
the James Webb Space Telescope. Despite its
distance of 635 light years.
While Kepler 538B is
larger and hotter than Earth, it still falls
within the realm of potential habitability.
This rarity highlights that Earth is
statistically unique, but not so rare as to
require some miraculous confluence of
planetary and stellar characteristics.
Another rare type found in this analysis were
planets in the good planet poor star
category. Only six planets landed here
because their host stars, which were all M
dwarfs, the most common stars in our galaxy,
fell outside the defined habitable
temperature range. However, the
authors point out that despite lying outside
the generally accepted framework, these
candidates still have a good chance of
harbouring life given their other physical
parameters. Many are already under
observation from the James Webb space
telescope. And if they prove to have viable
habitable conditions, it could revolutionise
the field of astrobiology due to the sheer
prevalence of M dwarf host stars in the
galactic population. This statistical
analysis reinforces several key points that
astrobiologists have known for some time.
Kepler 22B remains a leading candidate for
further investigation, offering our best
current chance at finding evidence of, uh,
life beyond Earth. It also suggests
that conditions on Earth, while relatively
rare, are not so rare as to be a statistical
impossibility or a miracle. And
crucially, it highlights the significant bias
in our current exoplanet detection methods
towards planets that, due to their large size
and short orbital periods, might not be the
most habitable. As astrobiology continues
to advance, this kind of rigorous statistical
analysis will provide invaluable context,
helping to direct our powerful new
observational equipment towards the areas
most likely to answer one of humanity's most
profound questions.
Are we alone? Now let's
talk about how we'll communicate with our
brave astronauts as they venture back to the
moon. As NASA gears up for its Artemis 2
mission, there's an exciting collaboration
happening between the agency's Glenn Research
Centre in Cleveland and the Australian
National University, or anu, to test
some truly inventive and cost saving laser
communications technologies in the lunar
environment. Traditionally, communicating in
space has relied on radio waves. However,
NASA is actively exploring laser or
optical communications which promise to send
data anywhere from 10 to 100 times faster
back to Earth. Instead of radio signals,
these cutting edge systems use infrared
light to transmit high definition video,
pictures, voice and vital science
data across vast cosmic distances
in significantly less time.
While NASA has successfully demonstrated
laser communications in previous technology
tests, Artemis II will mark the first
crewed mission to attempt using lasers to
transmit data from deep space. To support
this ambitious endeavour, researchers working
on NASA's Real Time Optical Receiver or
Realtor, project have developed a remarkably
cost effective laser transceiver built
largely using commercial off the shelf parts.
Earlier this year, NASA Glenn engineers
meticulously built and tested a replica of
this system at their aerospace communications
facility. Now they're working closely with
ANU to build an identical system using the
very same hardware models. All to prepare for
the university's crucial Artemis 2 laser
communications demonstration. Jennifer
Downey, co principal investigator for the
Real Tour project at NASA Glenn, highlights
the significance of this work, stating that
Australia's upcoming lunar experiment could
showcase the capability, affordability and
reproducibility of the deep space receiver
engineered by Glenn. It's an important step
in proving the feasibility of using
commercial parts to develop accessible
technologies for sustainable exploration
beyond Earth during the Artemis 2
mission, currently scheduled for early
2026, NASA plans to fly an
optical communications system aboard the
Orion spacecraft. This system will be put to
the test, attempting to transmit recorded 4K
ultra high definition video, flight
procedures, pictures, science data and even
voice communications from the Moon all the
way back to Earth. Almost 10,000 miles away
from Cleveland at the Mount Stromlo
Observatory Ground Station, ANU researchers
are eagerly hoping to receive this data
during Orion's journey around the Moon using
the VARI Glenn developed transceiver model.
This ground station will serve as a vital
test location for the new transceiver design,
though it won't be one of the mission's
primary ground stations. If this test proves
successful, it will be a game changer,
demonstrating that readily available
commercial parts can indeed be used to build
affordable and scalable space communication
systems for future missions, not just to the
Moon, but even to Mars and beyond.
Marie Piasecki, technology portfolio
manager for NASA's Space Communications and
Navigation or SCAN programme, emphasises
that engaging with the Australian National
University to expand commercial laser
communications offerings across the world
will further demonstrate how this advanced
satellite communications capability is ready
to support the agency's networks and missions
as we set our sights on deep space
exploration. As NASA continues to
investigate the feasibility of using
commercial parts for ground stations, Glenn
researchers will continue to provide critical
support in preparation for Australia's
demonstration. These strong global
partnerships are key to advancing technology
breakthroughs and are instrumental as NASA
expands humanity's reach from the Moon to
Mars, all while fueling innovations that
improve life here on Earth.
And that brings us to the end of another
fascinating journey through the cosmos on
Astronomy Daily. I'm
Anna, your host and I hope you enjoyed our
look at the latest developments. Don't
forget, you can listen to all our back
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