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Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your go

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to podcast for the latest news from across

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the cosmos. I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm Avery. We're thrilled to have you

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join us today as we dive into some truly

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fascinating updates that are reshaping our

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understanding of space.

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Anna: Absolutely, Avery. We'll be looking

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at the evolving lunar race with

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some significant developments from China's

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space programme that could see them reaching

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the moon soon. Sooner than anticipated.

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Avery: That's right. And we'll explore what those

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geopolitical implications can mean for the

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future of space exploration. Plus, we'll

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journey deep into the galaxy to witness a

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stunning cosmic discovery. Astronomers have

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captured an image resembling the eye of

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Sauron, revealing secrets about powerful

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blazars.

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Anna: And for all you planet hunters, we'll delve

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into new research suggesting that many

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exoplanets might be far larger than

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we ever believed, completely changing our

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perspective on alien worlds.

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Avery: Then, as always, we'll wrap things up with

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our launch roundup, including the much

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anticipated 10th flight of SpaceX's

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Starship and a unique biological mission

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sending mice and fruit flies into orbit.

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Anna: Alright, Avery, let's jump right into

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what's quickly becoming the most talked about

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development in space exploration.

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The new space race.

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China's secretive space programme has been

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making some incredibly significant strides

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and it seems their firmly on track to

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achieve their lunar ambitions.

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Avery: They certainly are, Anna. Uh, in recent

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weeks, the Chinaman Space Agency, or

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CMSA, has reported some major

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milestones. For instance, on August 6,

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they successfully tested a high fidelity

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mockup of their 26 tonne Lanyue

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Lunar lander. This test was quite

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impressive, conducted outside Beijing using

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giant tethers to simulate lunar gravity.

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As the vehicle fired its main engines and

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fine control thrusters to land and take take

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off from a cratered surface.

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Anna: That's a huge step. The

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CMSA even released a statement calling

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it a key step in their manned lunar

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exploration programme and marking the first

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time China has carried out an

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extraterrestrial landing and takeoff test

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for a manned spacecraft. They also

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reconfirmed their plan to land astronauts on

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the moon before 2030.

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Avery: And it wasn't just the lander. Just last

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Friday, the CMSA and their state operated

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rocket developer, the China Academy of

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Launch Vehicle Technology, successfully

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conducted a 30 second test firing of the Long

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March 10 rocket's centre core. This

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rocket uses seven YF100K engines

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that burn kerosene and liquid oxygen.

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And the primary variant will combine three of

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these cores to lift about 70 metric

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tonnes to low Earth orbit.

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Anna: So what we're seeing here is demonstrable

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progress across all three major elements of

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their lunar the large rocket to launch

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a crew spacecraft, the human rated

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spacecraft itself, and the lander to

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take astronauts to the surface and back.

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This really suggests that China is well

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on course to put their taikonauts on the moon

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before the end of this decade.

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Avery: It does now. For the United States and its

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allies, there's always been a bit of ah, a

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been there, done that attitude given NASA's

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Apollo programme landed humans on the moon

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nearly six decades ago. NASA's Artemis

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programme is of course aiming for something

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different, focusing on sustainability with

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in space propellant storage and refuelling

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technology for reusable lower cost missions.

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Anna: That's the ideal, right? Building a robust

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government, commercial enterprise and a lunar

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economy. However, Recent setbacks with

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SpaceX's Starship vehicle, which is one

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of NASA's two lunar landers under contract,

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the other being Blue Origin's Mark 2

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lander, indicate that these newer

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technologies are still several years away

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from being fully operational. This

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means it's increasingly probable that China

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will indeed be beat NASA back to the

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moon this decade, winning at least the

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initial heat of this new space race.

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Avery: And that brings us to the profound

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geopolitical implications of this potential

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shift. Ars Technica UH recently spoke

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with Dean Chiang, a highly respected

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analyst focusing on China space policy

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and the geopolitical aspects of this new

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space competition. He shed some light

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on just how significant China's progress

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is.

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Anna: Cheng emphasised that the Lanyu

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lander test is part of China's crawl

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walk run approach to major space

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projects. He noted that while they can

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benefit from open information like NASA's,

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they still have to build and operate the

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spacecraft themselves. So these tests,

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successful or not, are a crucial part of

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their process.

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Avery: He also highlighted the successful static

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test of the Long March 10 or LM10,

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their lunar satellite launch vehicle. Chang

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sees the LM10 even more than the Lanyue

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as significant because it's a new launch

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vehicle, especially given past issues with

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the LM5 and the cancellation of the LM9,

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which was their potential Saturn 5

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equivalent. Both of these successes indicate

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that the Chinese lunar programme is

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definitely pushing ahead.

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Anna: When asked about the likelihood of China

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landing humans on the moon before NASA's

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Artemis programme returns, Cheng's response

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was quite direct. He stated the at the rate

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things are going, sadly it seems quite likely

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that the Chinese will land on the moon before

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NASA can return to the moon.

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Avery: That's a powerful statement and the

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geopolitical impact, according to Chang,

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would be enormous. He explained that it

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would signify the End of American

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exceptionalism. For decades, since

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1969, the US has been the

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only nation to land humans on another

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celestial body. The saying, we've put

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a man on the moon, we can do anything, would

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lose its resonance.

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Anna: It would also suggest that China can achieve

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big things while the US struggles to

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replicate projects it undertook 50 or more

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years ago. This, Cheng argued, would

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certainly affect other nations perceptions of

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who is winning or losing the broader

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technological and ideological competition

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between the US and China.

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Avery: He even connected it back to the idea of a

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Beijing Consensus as an alternative to the

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Washington Consensus. While the

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Washington Consensus promotes democracy,

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pluralism and capitalism, the Beijing

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Consensus suggests that authoritarianism is

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more likely to lead to modernization and

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advancement. If Beijing can achieve these

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grand space endeavours, it would reinforce

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that ideological element.

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Anna: And beyond just the landing, Cheng raised an

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important question about the language of

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cislunar space. China isn't just

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aiming for a single landing. Their likely

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choice of landing sites, such as the South

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Pole, suggests an intent to establish

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longer term facilities and a, uh, permanent

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presence. If they regularly dispatch lunar

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missions, they could rightfully argue that

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Chinese should be a primary language, if not

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the language of lunar and cislunar space

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traffic management.

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Avery: Not only that, but China would also have

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enormous influence over technical and data

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standards for CIS lunar activities. The

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PRC has already indicated it will deploy a

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lunar positioning, navigation and

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timing network and likely a uh, communication

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system. This long term

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systematic approach is what Chang sees as

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China's major advantage, contrasting it

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with what he describes as the US's lack of

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programmatic stability to despite its

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economic and industrial advantages, it's

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really a complex and evolving landscape.

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Speaking of powerful forces at play, let's

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shift gears from geopolitical competition to

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a uh, truly stunning astronomical

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discovery. Astronomers have recently captured

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an incredibly detailed image that's being

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dubbed the Eye of Sauron. And it's

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beaming directly at Earth.

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Anna: That's right, Avery. This isn't a new fantasy

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film, but a real cosmic phenomenon. This

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eye is actually the core of a powerful

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blazar named PKS1424

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240. Located

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billions of light years away. For years

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this particular blazar has puzzled

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scientists. It's known as the brightest

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source of neutrinos of its kind and also

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shines intensely in very high energy gamma

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rays.

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Avery: But here's the kicker. Its cosmic jet seemed

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to drift unusually slowly, which defied

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the assumption that only rapidly moving jets

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could produce such powerful emissions. It was

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a real head scratcher.

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Anna: Well, after 15 years of meticulous

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observations using the Very Long Baseline

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Array, or VLBA astronomers have

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finally gotten an unprecedented look into

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this jet structure. What they found was

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absolutely stunning. Near perfect

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ring shaped or toroidal magnetic

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fields. These magnetic fields act like

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a colossal coiled spring, accelerating

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particles to extraordinary energies.

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This mechanism finally explains both the high

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energy neutrinos and the gamma rays pouring

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from this blazar. It's a massive

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breakthrough in multi messenger astronomy,

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solidifying the link between these

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relativistic jets, high energy

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neutrinos, and the role of magnetic

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fields in shaping cosmic accelerators.

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It's truly like looking directly into the

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heart of a cosmic monster.

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And speaking of rethinking what we see, I

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want to talk about some new research that's

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completely changing our perspective on

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exoplanets. It turns out hundreds

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of distant planets we thought we knew might

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be far larger than we ever believed.

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Avery: That's quite a revelation. How did scientists

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miss something so significant?

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Anna: It comes down to how these exoplanets are

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detected. NASA's Transiting Exoplanet

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Survey Satellite TESS, launched in 2018,

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finds planets by observing tiny dips in

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starlight as a planet passes in front of its

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star. The size of that dip tells us the

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planet's size. But here's the

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TESS has relatively low resolution and

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sometimes light from other nearby stars can

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mix with the target star's light. This makes

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the planet's shadow appear smaller than it

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truly is, leading to an underestimation of

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its size.

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Avery: So it's like an optical illusion in space.

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Anna: Precisely. A new study led by Tay

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Han at the University of California, Irvine

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uncovered how serious this problem is. They

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found that many planet sizes have been

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underestimated by about 6.1%.

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While that might not sound like much because

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density is calculated using both size and

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mass, a small error in radius leads to

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a much bigger mistake in density, around

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20% too high. This has huge

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implications for how we understand planet

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formation, density, and even the potential

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for life beyond Earth.

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Avery: So what does this mean for our search for

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Earth like worlds?

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Anna: Well, it means we might have found fewer

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Earth like planets so far than we thought we

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had. Many planets once classified as

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rocky Earth sized worlds could now be

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reclassified as larger, less Earth like

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planets, perhaps water rich ocean worlds,

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or even larger gas layers like Uranus or

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Neptune. This doesn't rule out life, but it

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shifts our focus and makes us rethink where

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to look and how we interpret the data.

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Especially when prioritising targets for

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follow up observations with telescopes like

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the James Webb Space Telescope.

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Avery: That truly sheds new light on our

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understanding of exoplanets. Anna, huh?

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And speaking of things that are constantly

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changing, we have a packed week ahead with

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several crucial launches across the globe.

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Anna: Absolutely, Avery. From a highly

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anticipated starship flight to unique

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biological missions, let's dive into our

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launch roundup.

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Avery: First up, all eyes are in Texas for the much

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anticipated 10th flight of SpaceX's

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Starship. Ship 37, mounted on

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booster 16 is scheduled to launch this

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Sunday, August 24th from Starbase.

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This mission is pivotal as the starship

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programme is looking to recover from recent

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setbacks, including the explosion of ship 36

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during a test.

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Anna: That's right, SpaceX has been working hard,

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even designing a special mount to static fire

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ship 37 on the orbital launch padding

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after their Massey's test facility was

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knocked out of service. As we reported last

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week on this flight, ship 37 will

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deploy eight dummy Starlink satellites and

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collect crucial re entry data before a

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planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

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It's also notable as the fourth Starship

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flight of 2025, and hopefully the first

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entirely successful Block 2 flight if

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it splashes down intact.

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Avery: Over in Russia, Roscosmos has a

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fascinating biological mission scheduled. The

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Bon M M number two mission is set to launch

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on Wednesday, August 20 aboard a

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Soyuz 2.1A rocket from Baikonur

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Cosmodrome. This mission is particularly

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interesting because its 6300 kilogramme

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bion m m spacecraft is derived from the

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Vostok capsule which launched Yuri Gagarin

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into space back in 1961.

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Anna: It's a piece of history. Flying again. The

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Bion m m number two will carry 75 mice and a

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thousand fruit flies, along with plants and

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microorganisms to study how they're affected

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by radiation at a molecular level. The

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mission is slated to last 30 days before the

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spacecraft returns to Earth with its living

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cargo.

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Avery: And that's not all. For the week. China

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CAS Space is flying its second

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Connecticut 1 mission of the year, carrying

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seven satellites to to sun synchronous orbit,

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including two Mexican Femto satellites.

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Russia also has an Angara 1.2

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rocket launching from Plesetsk with an

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unknown payload, likely a military

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satellite.

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Anna: Not to be outdone, SpaceX has several

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other Falcon 9 launches on the manifest.

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We're looking forward to the United states

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Space Force 36 National Security

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Mission featuring the X37B

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Orbital Test Vehicle and and a cargo

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Dragon flight to the International Space

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station, delivering over 2,200

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kilogrammes of supplies and experiments,

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including studies on engineered liver tissue

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and bone marrow stem cells. It's

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truly a, uh, busy week in space.

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Avery: What an incredible day for space and

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astronomy news. We've covered everything

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from China's significant strides in the lunar

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race, potentially beating the US Back to

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the Moon, and and the profound geopolitical

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implications of that.

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Anna: We also delved into the cosmic wonders of the

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Eye of Sauron Blazar, revealing how

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magnetic fields accelerate particles to

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extreme energies, and learned that

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exoplanets might be much larger than we

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initially thought, shifting our perspective

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on where life might exist.

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Avery: And of course, we wrap things up with a, uh,

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look at the exciting launches on the horizon,

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including starship's anticipated Flight 10

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and Russia's unique biological mission

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carrying mice and fruit flies into orbit.

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Thank you so much for joining us on Astronomy

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Daily. We hope you enjoyed today's deep dive

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into the cosmos.

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Anna: If you did, please consider subscribing and

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leaving us a review on your favourite podcast

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platform. Your support helps us bring you

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more of the latest space news.

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Avery: And for more updates and all the stories we

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discussed today, we plus all our back

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episodes, be sure to Visit our website,

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astronomydaily.IO.

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we'll be back tomorrow with more fascinating

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news from across the universe.

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Anna: Until then, keep looking up.

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Avery: Goodbye.