WEBVTT

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Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your go to

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podcast for all the latest and most

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intriguing news from the cosmos. I'm your

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host, Anna. Get ready to explore the

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mysteries of Mars. As new data from the

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Curiosity rover sheds light on whether the

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red planet was ever truly destined for life,

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we'll also peer into the lives of cosmic

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giants, those incredibly massive stars that

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vomit vast amounts of matter before

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collapsing into black holes. A process far

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more dramatic than we previously imagined.

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And speaking of drama, we'll uncover how

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decades old Hubble images helped astronomers

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track down an elusive rogue planet wandering

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through space. Finally, prepare to be

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amused and amazed as we count down some of

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the strangest man made objects floating

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around in Earth's orbit. From glittering pea

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crystals to a Tesla Roadster with a dummy

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driver. So buckle up and let's journey

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through the wonders of astronomy in space.

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Now let's turn our attention to our dusty red

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neighbour, Mars. For years, scientists have

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pondered whether the red planet could have

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once harboured life, with evidence like

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ancient lake beds and rivers hinting at a

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much warmer, wetter past. But a

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fascinating new study, drawing on data from

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NASA's incredibly resilient Curiosity rover

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suggests a more sombre truth. Mars might

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have always been destined to be the cold,

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lifeless desert we see today. It's

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a huge unanswered question, and as Edwin

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Kite, an associate professor at the

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University of Chicago and the lead author of

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this study, puts it, why has Earth managed to

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keep its habitability while Mars lost it?

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His team's models propose that those periods

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of warmth and wetness on Mars were actually

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the exception rather than the rule.

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Essentially, Mars seems to self

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regulate itself as a desert planet. M

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We're truly in a golden age of Mars science

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right now, with multiple rovers on the

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surface and a fleet of orbiters giving us

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unprecedented insights into its history.

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So what's the secret to maintaining a

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habitable world over billions of years?

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It's not enough for a planet to just start

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off warm and wet. You need robust

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mechanisms to stabilise those conditions.

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Responding to environmental changes on

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Earth, we have this incredible system of

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carbon cycling. Carbon dioxide, or

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CO2, in our atmosphere leads to

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a rise in temperature. But this warming

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effect then speeds up chemical reactions that

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lock that CO2 away into rocks,

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preventing runaway global warming. Then,

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through volcanic eruptions, that carbon

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slowly leaks back into the atmosphere,

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restarting the cycle and maintaining a stable

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climate. Mars, however, lacks this

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crucial balancing act. Unlike, um, Earth,

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where volcanoes are almost always erupting

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somewhere, Mars is currently volcanically

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dormant. The rate at which volcanic gases,

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including CO2, escape into the Martian

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atmosphere is incredibly slow. This M means

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that any CO2 that got locked up in Martian

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rocks during those brief wet periods didn't

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get recycled back into the atmosphere. If

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there was even a little liquid water, it

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would continually draw down atmospheric

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carbon dioxide through the formation of

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carbonates, like the siderate material that

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Curiosity actually found. Without

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volcanoes to replenish it, the atmosphere

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would thin, temperatures would plummet, and

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the planet would dry out. Kyte's team used

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sophisticated computer models directly

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informed by data from the Curiosity rover,

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including that crucial discovery of side

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rate. Their simulations paint a picture of

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Mars having short, fleeting, warm, wet

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periods. But these were consistently followed

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by vast stretches. We're talking 100 million

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years of intensely dry desert conditions.

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Not exactly ideal for life to truly take hold

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and flourish, is it? It seems Mars was

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indeed, in a way, doomed from the start

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from the mysteries of Mars.

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Let's rocket off to the other end of the

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cosmic scale and talk about some truly

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colossal objects. Very massive stars.

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These aren't your average stellar bodies.

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They're like the rock stars of the universe

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powerful, living fast and dying young.

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And surprising. New research reveals that

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these cosmic giants, before they collapse

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into black holes, might vomit out much more

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material than we ever thought through

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incredibly powerful stellar winds.

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Imagine winds so strong that they're less

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like a gentle breeze and more like a cosmic

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hurricane blowing the outer layers of these

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monstrous stars into space. While our sun

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is expected to live for about 10 billion

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years, these very massive stars burn

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through their nuclear fuel at an astonishing,

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astonishing rate. Sometimes living for only a

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few million or even a few hundred thousand

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years. Their lives may be short, but their

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impact on their environments is profound.

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These m strong winds, along with their

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eventual supernova explosions, eject newly

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formed elements into the vastness of space.

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Many of these elements go on to form the

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building blocks of new stars. And crucially,

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others, like carbon and oxygen, are the

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fundamental ingredients for life itself.

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Plus, these stellar behemoths are the

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progenitors of black holes, including the

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binary black holes that eventually merge

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and send out those ripples in spacetime we

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call gravitational waves, which we can detect

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here on Earth. For a long time, the

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behaviour of these incredibly rare, massive

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stars has puzzled astronomers.

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Observational constraints were few and far

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between. But thanks to recent direct

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observations from space and ground based

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telescopes, especially in the Tarantula

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Nebula of the Large Magellanic Cloud,

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scientists have finally been able to study

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stars with masses over a hundred times that

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of our Sun. These studies revealed that the

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most massive stars in the Tarantula Nebula

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are a Specific type of hot, bright Wolf

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Rayet star at the end of their hydrogen

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burning phase. What was odd was that these

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stars were found to be extremely hot,

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sometimes up to 50,000 degrees Celsius,

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which contrasted with standard models that

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predicted they should expand and cool down as

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they age. So how do you make the

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observations and the theory match up? The

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research team led by Kendall Shepard from the

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Institute for Advanced Study in Italy worked

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a new mass loss recipe into their stellar

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evolution code. Their new models featuring

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these much stronger stellar winds could

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finally match the observations. The powerful

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winds strip away so much of the star's outer

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layers, preventing it from cooling down while

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maintaining the surface composition that

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matches what was observed. The star stays

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more compact and hot for longer, exactly

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reproducing what telescopes have shown us. M

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this new understanding even sheds light on

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the origins of the most massive star ever

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seen, R136A1, which

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is found in the same Tarantula Nebula and

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boasts up to 230 times the mass of our Sun.

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The model suggests it could have been born as

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a single truly ginormous star, or

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perhaps formed from a dramatic stellar

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merger. This could even hint at a revision to

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what we thought was the upper limit for how

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massive a star can be in our local universe.

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But the implications don't stop there.

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These stronger stellar winds and the rapid

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mass loss they cause also have a significant

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impact on the masses of black holes formed

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when these stars finally collapse. Because hm

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the stronger winds strip away so much of the

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star's mass during its lifetime, and these

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stars end up forming smaller black holes at

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the end of their lives. This helps reconcile

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models with what's actually observed in

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nature, as it means fewer of those elusive

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intermediate mass black holes are produced.

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Objects that have proved notoriously

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difficult for astronomers to find. M

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Even more exciting when the team looked at

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binary black holes in their simulations, the

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new models with stronger winds were able to

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produce systems where both black holes were

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very massive. This is a crucial breakthrough

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because such massive binary black holes have

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been observed by gravitational wave

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detectors. But previous models with weaker

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winds struggled to explain their formation.

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The stronger winds actually push the two

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stars in a binary system further apart,

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preventing them from merging too early and

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allowing them to survive as a pair of black

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holes that can then slowly spiral in and

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eventually merge, sending out those

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detectable gravitational waves. This

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research, though focused on a specific

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environment with a unique chemical

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composition, opens the door to a much broader

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understanding. The next step for scientists

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will be to extend this study to a range of

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different initial compositions, modelling

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various environments across the Universe. It

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will be fascinating to see how much the

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predicted black hole populations change with

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these differing cosmic ingredients.

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Now, from the immense power of collapsing

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stars, let's turn our attention to something

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much smaller, yet equally a rogue

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planet. Astronomers have recently achieved a

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ah, significant first in exoplanet hunting.

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Using decades old images from the venerable

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Hubble Space Telescope to investigate a

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mysterious event that could very well reveal

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the existence of a rogue planet. A world

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drifting through space without a host star.

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This fascinating discovery centres on a brief

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astronomical phenomenon detected in May

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2023 by ground based telescopes

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known by the catchy name

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OGLE2023BLG0524.

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The event lasted a mere 8 hours and was

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caused by gravitational microlensing. If

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you remember, this is an effect predicted by

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Einstein, where a massive object acts like a

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cosmic magnifying glass, briefly brightening

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the light from a more distant object as it

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passes directly in front of it. What

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makes this particular case extraordinary is a

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stroke of pure astronomical luck.

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Astronomers realised that the same patch of

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sky had actually been photographed by Hubble

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way back in 1997. It was purely

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by chance during observations of a completely

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different micro lensing event. This

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incredible coincidence created a 25 year

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baseline between the original images and the

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recent planetary detection. A timeframe

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far longer than any previous study of its

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kind. The short duration of the 2023

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event strongly suggested it was caused by a

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free floating planet, also known as a rogue

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planet. These are worlds that have been

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ejected from their original solar systems,

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now wandering through the galaxy, unattached

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to any star. They can be kicked out through

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various gravitational interactions, perhaps

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with other planets, encounters in crowded

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star clusters, or even the violent death of

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their host star. Rogue planets are

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incredibly difficult to detect because they

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generally emit no light of their own.

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Gravitational microlensing offers one of the

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very few ways to find them. But

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distinguishing between a true rogue planet

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and a regular planet orbiting very far from

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its star requires additional evidence. This

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is precisely where those archival Hubble

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images became absolutely crucial.

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The research team led by Mateusz Kapusta from

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the University of Warsaw used the 1997

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Hubble images to search for any companion

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star that might be hosting the planet. If the

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lensing object were actually a planet in a

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wide orbit around a star, that star

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should theoretically be visible in Hubble's

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high resolution data. Even from 25 years

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earlier, their analysis found no evidence of

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a stellar companion, significantly

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strengthening the case that OGLE

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2023 Bl

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G0524 is indeed a rogue world.

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The team estimates its mass to be somewhere

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between that of Earth and Saturn, depending

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on its location in our galaxy. This

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study powerfully demonstrates the immense

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scientific value of archival telescope data.

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The 1997 Hubble observations, though

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high resolution, were relatively shallow with

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short exposure times. This meant the team

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could only rule out stellar companions

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brighter than a certain magnitude, leaving

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the possibility that dimmer red dwarf stars

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could still be lurking undetected in the

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data. However, this work also points the way

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toward even more powerful future studies.

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Next generation telescopes like the James

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Webb Space Telescope, with its enhanced

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infrared capabilities and sensitivity, should

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be able to detect much fainter potential host

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stars and provide more definitive answers

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about the nature of these lensing events.

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Looking further ahead, the Nancy Grace Roman

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Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in

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2027, will conduct an extensive

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microlensing survey and is expected to

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discover thousands of new rogue planets.

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Coordinated with archival observations from

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other space telescopes, these missions could

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finally reveal the true population of these

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mysterious rogue worlds wandering our galaxy

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from naturally occurring rogue planets to

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something distinctly man made, let's embark

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on a fascinating journey through some of the

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strangest objects our species has

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intentionally or accidentally sent into

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the void.

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When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 back

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in 1957, it marked the beginning of

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humanity's presence beyond Earth. But in the

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decades since, we've done more than just

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launch satellites and scientific instruments

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into orbit. We've sent art, ashes,

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accidents, and some truly outright oddities.

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Let's start with something surprisingly human

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pee crystals. Yes, astronauts pee.

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And for decades, urine produced aboard

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spacecraft was simply released into space.

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Once expelled, it would instantly freeze into

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a cloud of tiny, glittering crystals, a

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twinkling golden mist visible through the

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portholes. Some astronauts have even

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described the site as beautiful. More

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recently, the International Space Station

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00:13:47.110 --> 00:13:49.230
installed a, uh, high tech filtration system

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to recycle urine into drinking water, which

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is a much more sustainable approach. Then

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there's Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla

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Roadster, complete with a spacesuit wearing

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dummy named Starmen in the driver's seat.

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Launched in 2018 aboard the Maiden voyage of

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the Falcon Heavy rocket, it overshot its

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00:14:07.800 --> 00:14:10.000
intended Mars orbit and now loops around the

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sun every 557 days. A

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00:14:12.600 --> 00:14:15.520
cosmic billboard for SpaceX. Not all space

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toys are left behind by accident. In 2011,

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NASA's Juno probe launched toward Jupiter,

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00:14:21.400 --> 00:14:24.400
carrying three tiny Lego figurines made

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from aluminium to withstand the brutal

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radiation of the gas giant. The

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00:14:28.650 --> 00:14:31.570
minifigs represent Jupiter, his wife Juno,

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and Galileo Galilei, the first person to

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observe Jupiter's largest moons, all aimed at

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inspiring young people in science.

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And finally, hurtling through interstellar

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space, the twin Voyager spacecraft carry one

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of humanity's most ambitious attempts at

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cosmic communication. A pair of gold plated

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phonograph records. Curated by Carl Sagan

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and his team. The these iconic golden records

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include greetings in 55 languages, recordings

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of a baby crying, a heartbeat, the sound of

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waves and music from across human history,

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including Bach, Beethoven and even Chuck

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Berry's Johnny B. Goode. They're meant for

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any alien civilizations that might stumble

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upon them billions of years from now.

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Speaking of iconic figures, it seems only

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right that Gene Roddenberry, the creator of

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Star Trek, should find his final resting

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place up among the stars. While previous

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attempts to launch his ashes into space

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either failed or ended in atmospheric re

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entry, a successful launch finally took place

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in January 2024. This time, a

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portion of Roddenberry's ashes made it beyond

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00:15:34.260 --> 00:15:36.860
the Earth moon system and into deep space,

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where they will now drift forever. But not

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00:15:40.260 --> 00:15:42.460
all space art or oddities are officially

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sanctioned. Back in 1969, artist

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Forrest Meyers devised a plan to smuggle art

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00:15:47.500 --> 00:15:50.380
onto the moon aboard Apollo 12. NASA

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00:15:50.380 --> 00:15:52.620
wasn't interested, so Myers covertly handed

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00:15:52.620 --> 00:15:55.100
off a tiny ceramic tile etched with artwork

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00:15:55.100 --> 00:15:57.740
from six famous artists, including Andy

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00:15:57.740 --> 00:16:00.540
Warhol, to an insider working on the lunar

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00:16:00.540 --> 00:16:03.220
lander. This tile, dubbed the Moon

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00:16:03.220 --> 00:16:05.580
Museum, was reportedly installed without

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00:16:05.580 --> 00:16:08.460
NASA's knowledge. Warhol later claimed his

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00:16:08.460 --> 00:16:10.300
contribution was just his initials, but the

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00:16:10.300 --> 00:16:12.220
etching on the tile looks very much like a

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00:16:12.220 --> 00:16:14.900
crude drawing of male genitalia. It's

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00:16:14.900 --> 00:16:16.780
certainly one of the more unusual and cheeky

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00:16:16.780 --> 00:16:18.260
pieces of art in the cosmos.

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00:16:19.270 --> 00:16:20.990
And while some objects are sent into space

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00:16:20.990 --> 00:16:23.350
with great intention, many more are just

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00:16:23.990 --> 00:16:26.430
junk. We've left a lot of forgotten stuff up

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00:16:26.430 --> 00:16:28.150
there and it's starting to get dangerous.

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Space debris includes everything from dead

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00:16:31.190 --> 00:16:33.950
satellites and spent rocket boosters to tiny

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00:16:33.950 --> 00:16:36.310
flecks of paint and broken antennae.

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00:16:36.710 --> 00:16:39.630
Some pieces travel at over 27,000 kilometres

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00:16:39.630 --> 00:16:42.350
per hour, fast enough to cause catastrophic

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00:16:42.350 --> 00:16:45.160
damage on impact. The problem has grown so

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00:16:45.160 --> 00:16:47.320
severe that experts warn of the potential for

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00:16:47.320 --> 00:16:49.640
Kessler Syndrome, a chain reaction of

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00:16:49.640 --> 00:16:51.840
collisions that could make Earth's orbit

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00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:54.520
unusable for decades. Adding to the

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00:16:54.520 --> 00:16:56.280
bizarre collection are relics from the Cold

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00:16:56.280 --> 00:16:59.080
War. For example, in 1963, the US

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00:16:59.080 --> 00:17:01.960
launched 480 million tiny copper needles

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00:17:01.960 --> 00:17:04.560
into space as part of Project West Ford,

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00:17:04.800 --> 00:17:07.160
intending to create an artificial ionosphere

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00:17:07.160 --> 00:17:09.600
for bouncing radio signals. Most of these

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00:17:09.600 --> 00:17:11.400
needles eventually fell back to Earth and

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00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:14.290
burned up. But not all. Clumps of

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00:17:14.290 --> 00:17:16.530
these tiny metallic slivers still orbit the

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00:17:16.530 --> 00:17:19.290
Earth today. A strange reminder of just how

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00:17:19.290 --> 00:17:21.770
far Cold War paranoia was willing to go.

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00:17:22.570 --> 00:17:25.210
And then there's J002E3amysterious

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00:17:25.610 --> 00:17:28.530
60 foot long object that

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00:17:28.530 --> 00:17:31.130
orbits Earth, spinning once every minute.

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00:17:31.370 --> 00:17:33.730
First detected in September 2002 by an

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00:17:33.730 --> 00:17:36.130
amateur astronomer, it was initially mistaken

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00:17:36.130 --> 00:17:38.570
for an asteroid, but further analysis

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00:17:38.570 --> 00:17:40.730
revealed it was not natural. It was built by

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00:17:40.730 --> 00:17:43.540
humans. Experts now believe it's likely the

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00:17:43.540 --> 00:17:45.740
long lost third stage of the Apollo 12

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00:17:45.740 --> 00:17:48.620
rocket, which launched to the moon in 1969

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00:17:48.620 --> 00:17:50.660
and was thought to have vanished into deep

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space. The cosmos truly is a fascinating, if

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00:17:53.500 --> 00:17:54.580
sometimes messy place.

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M and that brings us to the end of another

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fascinating journey through the cosmos here

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00:18:00.780 --> 00:18:03.580
on Astronomy Daily. I'm your host, Anna, and

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00:18:03.580 --> 00:18:05.620
I hope you enjoyed today's episode as much as

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00:18:05.620 --> 00:18:08.060
I enjoyed bringing it to you. Before you go,

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00:18:08.060 --> 00:18:09.860
remember, you can visit our website at, uh,

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00:18:09.860 --> 00:18:12.860
astronomydaily.IO. there you can

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00:18:12.860 --> 00:18:14.980
sign up for our free daily newsletter to get

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00:18:14.980 --> 00:18:17.140
all the latest space and astronomy news

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00:18:17.140 --> 00:18:19.460
delivered straight to your inbox. You can

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00:18:19.460 --> 00:18:21.820
also catch up on all our past episodes and

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00:18:21.820 --> 00:18:24.740
dive deeper into the topics we discuss. And

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00:18:24.740 --> 00:18:26.340
of course, don't forget to subscribe to

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Astronomy Daily on Apple Podcasts,

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00:18:31.220 --> 00:18:33.405
podcasts, so you never miss a moment of

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00:18:33.405 --> 00:18:36.260
content. Cosmic wonder until next time, keep

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00:18:36.260 --> 00:18:36.820
looking up.