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Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily,

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your daily guide to the cosmos, where we.

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Avery: Explore the latest breakthroughs and biggest

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stories from the world of space and

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astronomy. I'm Avery.

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Anna: And I'm Anna. It's great to have you with us.

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We have an absolutely stellar lineup for you

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today.

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Avery: We certainly do. We'll be visiting the

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distant ice giant Uranus, which has a brand

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new moon. We'll also be exploring the lonely

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lives of rogue planets, which it turns out

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might not be so lonely after

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a.

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Anna: Tale of two sibling asteroids that could hold

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clues to the origin of life. And

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we'll be chasing the famous Devil Comet to

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find out if it's responsible for the water in

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our oceans.

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Avery: It's a packed show, so let's jump right in.

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Anna: Our first story takes us out to the seventh

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planet from the sun. The solar system's

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family portrait has a new addition as

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astronomers have officially confirmed the

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discovery of a new moon orbiting Uranus.

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Avery: That is fantastic news. It feels like the

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outer planets are the final frontier of our

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own solar system. It's amazing to think we're

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still finding new members out there. What do

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we know about this newcomer?

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Anna: Well, for one thing, it's incredibly small.

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Current estimates put its diameter, uh, at

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just five miles, or about eight kilometres.

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That makes it a strong contender for the

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title of smallest of Uranus's now 28

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known moons.

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Avery: Five miles, that's miniscule on a planetary

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scale. To put that in perspective, that's

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shorter than running a 10k race. How on Earth

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did they even spot something so tiny so far

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away?

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Anna: With a very powerful telescope and

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a lot of patience. The discovery was made

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using the Magellan telescopes at the Las

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Campanas Observatory in Chile. The first

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sighting was on November 4, 2023.

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But it took further observations to confirm

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its orbit and officially announce it on

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February20.

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Avery: And it's been given one of those classic

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catchy astronomer names, I assume.

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Anna: Of course, for now, it's carrying the

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temporary designation S

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2023 U1. It will likely

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get a more permanent name later,

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traditionally from the works of Shakespeare

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or Alexander Pope. In keeping with Uranus's

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other moons.

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Avery: I'll be waiting to see if it becomes a Juliet

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or a Puck. I also read that its orbit is

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huge. It takes 680 days to

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circle Uranus. That's a long year for such a

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tiny moon.

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Anna: It is indeed. And this find is significant

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because it's the first new Uranian

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moon discovered in more than 20 years. It

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really underscores how much we still have to

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learn about the ice Giants. They're distant,

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dim and difficult to study from Earth.

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Avery: It makes you wonder what else is hiding out

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there in the dark. A tiny body like this was

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probably a captured object from the Kuiper

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Belt, wasn't it? A visitor that got a little

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too close and was pulled into orbit?

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Anna: That's the leading theory. Its distant

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eccentric orbit suggests it wasn't formed

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from the same disc of material as Uranus's

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larger inner moons. It's a relic from the

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early solar system, now a permanent part of

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Uranus's family.

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Avery: Well, from a captured moon to entire

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systems without a sun.

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Our next story is a real mind bender. It's

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about rogue planets and the astonishing

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possibility that they can form their own

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moons.

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Anna: This is truly a revolutionary idea,

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backed by some stunning observations from the

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James Webb Space Telescope. For our

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listeners. Rogue planets, or as

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they're officially called, free floating

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planetary mass objects, are worlds that

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drift through interstellar space completely

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untethered from any star.

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Avery: We used to imagine them as cold, dark and

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solitary objects, but this new research

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suggests that they might be the centre of

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their own little solar systems. JWST

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observed eight of these rogue planets in the

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nearby Orion Nebula.

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Anna: And it didn't just see the planets

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themselves. It saw that they were surrounded

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by discs of gas and dust. What's

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more, the telescope's instruments detected

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the chemical signature of crystalline

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silicates within these discs.

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Avery: And that's important because.

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Anna: Because that's the very same material we

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see in the protoplanetary discs around

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young stars. It's the raw material that

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clumps together to form planets, moons

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and asteroids. Finding it around a

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rogue planet is a huge surprise.

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Avery: Uh, so you're saying these starless planets

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have their own proto moon discs,

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that they're basically acting like miniature

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suns, gravitationally gathering material

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to build their own satellite systems?

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Anna: That's exactly what the evidence points to.

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These discs could and likely will

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coalesce into moons and perhaps even

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ring systems, all orbiting a planet

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that has no star. It creates a whole

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new class of celestial object, a

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rogue planetary system.

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Avery: Wow. That fundamentally challenges our

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models of system formation. We've always put

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a star at the heart of that process. The

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star's gravity and energy were thought to be

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essential.

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Anna: It seems the fundamental physics of accretion

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might be more universal than we thought.

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Gravity is the key ingredient and it

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seems a, uh, planet sized object has enough

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of it to start building a family of its own.

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The galaxy could be teeming with these dark

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wandering systems, completely

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invisible to us until now.

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Avery: From lonely wanderers. Let's come Back closer

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to home for a story about family.

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Two of the most famous asteroids in recent

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memory, Ryugu and Bennu, have been

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confirmed to be siblings.

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Anna: This is the payoff for two of the most

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ambitious sample return missions ever

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attempted. Japan's Hayabusa 2

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mission visited Ryugu and NASA's

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Osiris Rex mission visited Bennu. Both

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successfully brought back pristine samples.

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And now we're seeing the incredible result.

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Avery: Uh, and the results are conclusive. By

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analysing the composition of the return

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samples, scientists have confirmed that both

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of these carbon rich top shaped

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asteroids are fragments of the same

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much larger parent body.

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Anna: So somewhere long ago, a, uh, giant

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asteroid got hit by something else in a

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catastrophic collision and shattered. And

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Ryugu and Bennu are two of the pieces that

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went flying.

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Avery: Precisely. The mineralogy and chemical

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makeup are just too similar for it to be a

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coincidence. But what's really exciting

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isn't just that they're related, but what

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they're made of. This is where it gets really

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interesting for us here on Earth, right?

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Anna: Absolutely. Both samples are rich

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in water bearing clay minerals. That tells us

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their parent body once had a lot of water

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ice. And even more importantly, they

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are packed with a wide variety of organic

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molecules.

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Avery: Amino, um, acids, the building blocks of

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proteins. The very stuff of life.

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Anna: Exactly. This discovery provides

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powerful support for the hypothesis that

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asteroids and comets acted as a

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cosmic delivery service for the early Earth.

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They could have delivered both the water for

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our oceans and the complex organic

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compounds necessary to kickstart life.

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Avery: So when we look at these two sibling

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asteroids, we could be looking at the same

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type of object that gave Earth its

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starter kit for life. It's like finding the

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delivery truck that brought the ingredients

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for the first ever cake.

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Anna: That's a great analogy. It

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reinforces the idea that the ingredients for

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life aren't necessarily rare or unique

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to Earth, but are widespread throughout the

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solar system, just waiting for the right

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conditions.

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Avery: Well, speaking of that cosmic delivery

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service, our final story today zooms

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in on one very specific delivery

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truck, the Devil Comet. And it's

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carrying a very precious cargo.

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Anna: Yes, the Comet, officially named 12

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P. Pons Brooks, has been putting

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on quite a show for astrophotographers.

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But for planetary scientists, the real show

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is what's inside the water vapour it's

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releasing as it nears the sun.

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Avery: Using incredibly sensitive instruments like

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the Atacama Large Millimetre Sub Millimetre

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Array, or ALMA, and

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NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility,

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researchers have been able to analyse that

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water. And they found what many have been

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searching for for decades.

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Anna: They have the water in Comet

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Pons Brooks has an isotopic

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signature that is a near perfect

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match for the water here on Earth.

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Avery: Okay, let's break that down. An

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isotopic signature is like a chemical

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fingerprint. Right. It's about the different

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flavours of hydrogen atoms in the water

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molecules.

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Anna: That's a good way to put it. Specifically,

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scientists measure the ratio of

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deuterium, a heavy version of hydrogen,

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to normal hydrogen. This is

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known as the D to H ratio.

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For a long time, the comets we were able to

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measure had much higher D to H AH

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ratio than Earth's oceans, which made

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the cometary delivery theory a bit

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shaky.

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Avery: Right. The fingerprints didn't match, so

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scientists started looking more towards

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asteroids as the primary water source.

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Anna: Exactly. But this new measurement from

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Pons Brooks changes the story. It's a

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Halley type comet originating from the

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icy Oort Cloud. And. And its water is

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virtually indistinguishable from ours.

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The fingerprint is a match.

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Avery: So this single comet provides the strongest

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evidence yet that its ancient relatives are

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the reason we have oceans. Billions of years

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ago, a relentless bombardment of comets like

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Pons Brooks could have painted our dry,

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rocky planet blue.

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Anna: It makes the cometary origin of Earth's

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water a leading theory. Once again, it

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doesn't mean asteroids didn't contribute.

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It was likely a combination of both.

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But this is a huge piece of the puzzle.

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Avery: It's incredible to think about. Every time

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you have a glass of water, you might be

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drinking the remnants of ancient comets that

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travelled for billions of years across the

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solar system. That's a, uh, truly cosmic

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connection.

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Anna: And what a profound thought to end on.

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That's all the time we have for today on

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Astronomy Daily. We've journeyed from a

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new moon around Uranus to the very

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origins of the water on our own

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planet.

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Avery: It's been another day of incredible

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discoveries that remind us just how dynamic

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and interconnected the universe is. Thank you

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so much for joining us.

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Anna: For more details on all today's stories and

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links to the original research, be sure

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to visit our

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website@astronomydaily.IO

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we'll be back tomorrow with more of the

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latest news from across the cosmos.

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Until then, I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm Avery. Keep looking up