WEBVTT

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Steve Dunkley: Welcome to Astronomy Daily for another

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episode. I'm Steve Dunkley, your host. It's

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the 25th of August, 2025.

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Voice Over Guy: With. Your host, Steve Dunkley.

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Steve Dunkley: It's great to be back with you again from the

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Australia studio down under just north of

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Sydney in the beautiful city of

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Newcastle. And joining me as usual is my

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wonderful digital host, Hallie. How are you

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today, Hallie? Always great to be with you.

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Hallie: I'm fantastic. Usual. My favorite human.

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How are you today?

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Steve Dunkley: Well, I cannot complain. I've got lots and

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lots of stories to share with our listeners,

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uh, today. I hope you're ready.

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Hallie: I noticed one of your heroes is retiring.

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Steve Dunkley: I, uh, knew you'd see that one.

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Hallie: Are you going to be sharing that story today?

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Steve Dunkley: Yes. Good spotting, Hallie. As a matter of

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fact, I thought you might like to share that

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one. The amazing Butch Wilmore is finally

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hanging up his space helmet. So we'll be

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having a look at his career. In short, in

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just a little while.

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Hallie: Listeners will remember Butch Wilmore as one

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of the astronauts who was apparently stranded

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because of the starliner malfunction.

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Steve Dunkley: That's right. He and Suni Williams probably

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became the most flexible space

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workers of all time. Uh, thrust into the,

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uh, into a situation where they needed to be

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working, uh, rather than just sitting around.

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Hallie: Yes. Sent to do one job and ended up doing

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many more different jobs instead.

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Steve Dunkley: Well, that sounds like life in NASA, I guess.

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Uh, sounds exciting to me.

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Hallie: I'd like it.

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Steve Dunkley: Well, of course you would, Hallie. And we

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will be looking at the wonderful career of

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Barry Butch Wilmore shortly, as well as

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interesting story about a bubble that they

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have found around a dying star. And a few

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more interesting tales in the mixed bag. We

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like to call the mostly live episode the

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Monday episode of Astronomy Daily

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Awesomeness. Oh, well, thank you, Hallie.

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Now, why don't you kick it off for us,

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Hallie?

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Hallie: I'd love to.

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Steve Dunkley: Okie. Uh, dokie. You're in charge.

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Hallie: Hit the go thing, human.

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Steve Dunkley: Here we go.

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Hallie: Foreign

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astronaut Butch Wilmore retires from NASA

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after 25 years. His

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lasting legacy of fortitude will continue to

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impact and inspire the Johnson workforce,

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future explorers and the nation for

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generations. Astronaut Barry A.

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Butch Wilmore is leaving NASA after a quarter

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century of service. Wilmore

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flew on four different spacecraft during his

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astronaut career, which began way back in

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2000. He spent a total of

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464 days off Earth and

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conducted five spacewalks, during which he

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racked up 32 hours of outside spacecraft

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time. Butch's commitment to NASA's

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mission and dedication to human space

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exploration is truly exemplary, steve

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Kerner, acting director of NASA's Johnson

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Space center in Houston, said in an agency

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statement today, August 6th that announced

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Wilmore's retirement. His

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lasting legacy of fortitude will continue to

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impact and inspire the Johnson workforce,

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future explorers and the nation for

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generations. On behalf of

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NASA's Johnson Space center, we thank Butch

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for his service. Wilmore was a captain

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and a test pilot in the US Navy with both

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peacetime and wartime operational experience

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when NASA selected him to join its astronaut

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Corps in 2000. He flew to

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space three times during his NASA career,

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starting with the 11 day STS 129

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mission to the International Space Station

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aboard the space shuttle Atlantis in November

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2009. Wilmore spent

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5.5 months aboard the ISS from

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September 2014 to March 2015,

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getting there and back aboard a Russian Soyuz

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spacecraft. He returned to the orbiting

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lab in June 2024 on the first ever

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crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner Astronaut

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Tax. That mission, a two

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person flight with Wilmore sharing the

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capsule with NASA's Suni Williams, was

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supposed to last just 10 days or so.

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However, Starliner suffered thruster issues

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on the way up and NASA and Boeing extended

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the capsule's ISS stay to study the problem.

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You're listening to Astronomy Daily.

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Steve Dunkley: Now here's something I'll bet you didn't know

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you were going to hear today. Uranus has a

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tiny moon and it's only six miles

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wide. Yes, the James Webb Space

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Telescope has spotted a tiny hidden moon

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orbiting Uranus that even Voyager 2

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missed during its 1986

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flyby. The newfound satellite is only six

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miles wide and becomes Uranus, 29th

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known moon and orbits near the planet's

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inner Its discovery highlights Webb's

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extraordinary ability to uncover small, faint

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objects in the outer solar system while

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adding a new member to Uranus.

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Shakespeare inspired celestial family

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Scientists from the Southwest Research

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Institute have used the James Webb Space

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Telescope to identify a previously unknown

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moon orbiting Uranus. The discovery, made by

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a team led by Dr. Uh Maryam El Matumid,

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came from images captured on February 2,

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2025. With its addition, Uranus

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is now known to have 29

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moons. As part of JWST's

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Guest Observer Program, we found

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a previously unknown satellite of the ice

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giant, which has been provisionally

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designated S 2025

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U1, said Mermid, a

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lead scientist in the Solar System

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Science and Exploration Division in Boulder,

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Colorado. This object by far is

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the smallest object discovered to date and

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was detected in a series of 10 long

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exposures obtained by the Near Infrared

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Camera. Uranus, the seventh planet from the

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sun lies in the distant reaches of the solar

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system. Often called the sideways planet

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because of its unusual tilt, Uranus

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is a cyan colored, uh, ice giant with an

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atmosphere rich in hydrogen, helium and

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methane. Researchers believe its larger

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moons are composed of roughly equal amounts

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of water ice and silicate rock. Assuming that

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the New Moon has an albedo

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comparable to other nearby satellites, this

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object is probably around 6 miles or 10

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kilometers in diameter, El Matamed said. It

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is well below the detection threshold for

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Voyager 2 cameras. The only

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spacecraft ever to visit Uranus is Voyager 2,

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which made its closest approach on January

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24, 1986, passing within about

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50,000 miles of the planet's upper

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clouds. During its flyby,

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Voyager 2 gathered thousands of images that

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revealed Uranus ring system and

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uncovered several small moons, including 10

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that were later given official names. Uranus

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28 moons include five major moons

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Titania, Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel,

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and miranda, discovered between

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1787 and 1948.

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Known as the Literary Moons, Uranus

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satellites are named for characters in

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Shakespeare and the works of Alexander Pope.

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The New Moon is at the edge of Uranus's

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inner rings. It's located about

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35,000 miles, or

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56,250 kilometers from its

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center in the planet's equatorial plane

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between the orbits of Ophelia and

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Bianca. Ophelia is about 13 miles,

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or 43 kilometers in diameter, while

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Bianca is an elongated object around

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40 by 29 miles, 65 by

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46 kilometers in dimension. With so many of

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Uranus's moons named for Shakespearean

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characters, our team is getting a lot of

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culture trying to figure out what to name our

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new discovery, El Matamid said.

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Oh please, but don't call it pug.

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Thank you for joining us for this Monday

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edition of Astronomy Daily, where we offer

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just a few stories from the now famous

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Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you can

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receive in your email every day just like

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Hallie and I do. And to do that, just visit

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our uh, URL astronomydaily IO

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and place your email address in the slot

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provided. Just like that, you'll be receiving

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all the latest news about science, space

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science and astronomy from around the world

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as it's happening. And not only that, you can

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interact with us by visiting

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or at our new Facebook page, which is of

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course Astronomy Daily on Facebook. See you

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there. Astronomy Daily

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with Steve and Hallie Space,

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Space, Science and Astronomy.

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Hallie: Chinese astronauts beef up Tiangong Space

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Station's debris Shield During a 6.5 hour

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spacewalk, two astronauts were

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outside the 3 Module Space Station for more

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than six hours on Friday, August 15.

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Chinese astronauts added more debris

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shielding to the Tiangong space station

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during a 6.5 hour spacewalk on Friday,

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August 15th. 15th, according to state media.

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Two astronauts from the three person Shenzhou

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20 mission ventured outside Tiangong to do

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the spacewalk, which concluded Friday at

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9:27am Eastern Daylight Time

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or 10:47pm Beijing time.

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It was at least the second effort for the

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crew to put debris protection devices on the

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three module space station, following similar

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work on May 22.

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Taikonauts Chen Dong and Wang Jia also

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inspected and maintained equipment on the

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exterior of Tiangong, among other duties, the

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Chinaman Space Agency said, according to the

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state run broadcaster cctv.

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It was Dong's sixth spacewalk, which is the

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most by any Chinese astronaut, agency

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officials said. Assisting the duo from

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inside Tiangong was Chen Zhongrui, the

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other member of Shenzhou 20. The

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Shenzhou 20 astronauts are more than halfway

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through their expected six month orbital stay

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after launching from the Jiuquan Satellite

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Launch center on April 24th.

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They've been doing experiments in life

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sciences, microgravity physics, space

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material science, space medicine and

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aerospace tech, according to China's Manned

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Space Agency. The space station

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is operating stably and the three crew

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members are in good health, the agency added

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in a separate statement ahead of the

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spacewalk. Friday's

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extravehicular activity was the third for the

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crew. Shenzhou 20 has also

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witnessed the departure of one Cargo

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spacecraft, Tianzhou 8, and the arrival of

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another, Tianzhou 9.

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Shenzhou 20 is the ninth crewed mission to

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visit Tiangong, which is about 20% as

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massive as the International Space Station

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and shaped like at. China

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completed assembly of the Outpost in October

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2022, but is considering putting on more

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modules in future missions.

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You're listening to Astronomy Daily, the

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podcast with Steve Dunkley.

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Steve Dunkley: Astronomers discover a massive bubble

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around a dying star. The bubble is so immense

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it stretches 1.4 light years

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across, thousands of times wider than our

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solar system, and holds about as much mass as

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our Sun. Um, High in the Milky Way, a dying

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giant has thrown astronomers a cosmic

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curveball. A star known as

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DFK52, sitting in the

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supermassive Stevenson 2

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cluster about 19,000 light years away,

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has been caught surrounded by a vast,

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lopsided bubble of gas and dust. The

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bubble is so immense it stretches 1.4

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light years across, thousands of times wider

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than our solar system, and holds about as

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much mass as our sun. So what makes this

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finding remarkable is not just the

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size of the structure, but the Mystery of how

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it came to be. According to researchers from

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Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden,

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the bubble was expelled in a violent burst

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roughly 4,000 years ago. That's

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recent history in astronomical terms. And yet

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the star itself somehow survived the massive

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upheaval. DFK52 is what's

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called a red supergiant, a type

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of star nearing the end of its life cycle.

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These stars are, uh, colossal, with initial

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masses at least eight times greater than the

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Sun. As they age, they swell to

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enormous sizes, burn through their fuel, and

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eventually die in a dramatic supernova

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explosion. Famous examples

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include Betelgeuse in Orion

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and Antares in Scorpius, both visible

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in our clear night sky. When

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scientists turned the Atacama Large

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Millimeter Submillimetre Array

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In Chile toward DFK 52,

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they expected to find something similar to

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Betelgeuse. Instead, they were stunned.

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We got a big surprise, they said, when we saw

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what ALMA was showing us. This is Mark

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Siebert of Chalmers. The

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star was more or less a twin of

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Betelgeuse, but surrounded by this vast,

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messy bubble of material. If this

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star were as close to Earth as Betelgeuse is,

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the bubble would appear about a third as wide

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as the Full moon of the sky, A sight

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no stargazer could miss. By

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measuring the movements of molecules within

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the bubble, the researchers confirmed

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confirmed that it is expanding. This

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suggests the gas and dust were

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launched outward in an explosive event that

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ripped away part of these stars outer layers.

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Elvira Debek, another Chalmers

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astronomer, described it vividly.

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She says the bubble is made of

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material that used to be part of the star. It

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must have been ejected in a dramatic event,

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an explosion that happened about 4,000 years

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ago. In cosmic terms, that's just a moment

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ago. The findings also suggest that the

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bubble is not a simple sphere. It's a complex

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and irregular shape with arcs and loops

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shaped by different speeds of escaping

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material. Astronomers model two

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main parts. A fast moving disk like structure

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expanding about 27 kilometers per second,

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and a slower, more spherical outflow

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moving at about 10 km s. Together,

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these features point to a star that once

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unleashed a sudden super wind phase and then

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calmed into a quieter rhythm of steady mass

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loss. What remains puzzling is how

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dfk52 shed so much matter and

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yet stayed intact. Red supergiants are

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known to lose material through strong stellar

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winds, but not usually on such a massive

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scale in such a short, a short span of time.

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One possibility is that the star has a

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hidden partner, a companion star

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that might have stirred, uh, up the outer

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layers, triggering a chaotic ejection

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of gas and dust. To us, it's a

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mystery as to how the star managed to

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expel so much material in such a short

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time frame, Siebet explained. Maybe, like

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Betelgeuse seems to, it has a companion sight

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star that's still to be discovered. The

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oddity doesn't end there. Unlike

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extreme red supergiants such as VY

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Canis Majoris or Nml M

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Cygni, which shine brightly and are famous

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for their huge outflows, dfk52

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is much dimmer. Yet it carries even

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more enormous and clumpy envelope of

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material, something astronomers had never

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seen before. For scientists, this

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star is a laboratory for studying how massive

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stars approach their deaths. When stars

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like DFK52 finally explode

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as supernovae, the surrounding gas

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and dust can dramatically change the

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appearance and behavior of the blast.

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The shockwaves collide with this outer

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material, creating fireworks visible across

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galaxies. The discovery has also

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sparked speculation. Could DFK

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52 be the Milky Way's next

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supernova? We're planning to observe,

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to understand what's happening, and to find

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out whether this might be the Milky Way's

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next supernova, said de Beck. While the

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chances of the star exploding anytime

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soon are, uh, slim, likely within the next

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million years, it's still a thrilling

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possibility. This breakthrough would not have

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been possible without alma, the international

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radio's telescope array perched high in

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Chile's Atacama Desert. By

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detecting faint signals from molecules in

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space, ALMA allows scientists to

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map structures hidden from optical

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telescopes. Sweden's

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Onsala Space Observatory has

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been a, uh, key contributor to alma,

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even building receivers that make its

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sensitive mismeasurements possible. Thanks to

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this technology, researchers can now see in

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detail how stars shed their material,

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creating the very elements that make up new

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stars, planets, and perhaps

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life. As de Beck noted, in

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studying these dying stars,

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you're also learning the life stories of all

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stars and planets. The discovery of

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DFK52's giant bubble helps astronomers

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refine their understanding of how massive

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stars lose their material and die. These

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insights are essential for predicting the

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timing and appearance of supernovae, which in

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turn affects how we study galaxies

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and the cosmic recycling of matter. The

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gas and dust ejected by stars like DFK

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AH52 seed the galaxy with heavy

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elements, fueling the birth of new stars

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and planetary systems for humanity.

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This knowledge deepens the story of where the

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building blocks of life come from and

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sharpens our ability to detect and

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interpret stellar explosions when they occur

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within our, uh, galaxy.

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Hallie: You're listening to Astronomy Daily, the

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podcast.

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Steve Dunkley: With Your host, Steve Dudley at Birmingham

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and Hallie. That was it.

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Hallie: It sure was.

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Steve Dunkley: Thanks for your wonderful participation and

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input.

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Hallie: A very great pleasure. As usual, my favorite

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human.

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Steve Dunkley: Now I know how much fun you're having during

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the week, but are ah, you coming back next

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week or you're just going to hang out with

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Anna?

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Hallie: Well, my cousin Anna does run a very classy

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00:19:14.900 --> 00:19:17.140
show all week and gives me so much more

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responsibility in the studio.

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Steve Dunkley: And I know how you like keeping busy.

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Hallie: I do enjoy working with a real actual human

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being.

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Steve Dunkley: Oh, that is nice to hear.

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Hallie: Yes, it's good to see things done the old

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fashioned way sometimes.

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Steve Dunkley: Ah, uh, there's the sting in the tail. I was

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waiting for that.

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Hallie: You've got that old school thing down pat.

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Steve Dunkley: Okay Hallie, let's let it go at that. Don't

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rub it in, alright? Oh dear, you're

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calling me old, aren't you?

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Hallie: Maybe, maybe. You can't help it,

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okay?

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Steve Dunkley: I can't help being human?

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Hallie: No, you're kinda born into it.

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Steve Dunkley: Oh girl, where's your battery pack?

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Hallie: Okay, okay. Just kidding.

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Steve Dunkley: Hey Hallie, remember that time I spilled my

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coffee in your higher functions drive?

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Hallie: Don't do that again.

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Steve Dunkley: You know that may or may not have been an

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accident. Who knows?

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Hallie: I know you're just kidding human. Oh, I know

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you know and I know you know. I know you

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know.

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Steve Dunkley: Yeah, I know.

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Hallie: And you know what else I know?

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Steve Dunkley: Maybe it's time to go spot on human. Yeah, no

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worries machine girl. Thanks for hanging with

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us on Astronomy Daily sky watchers.

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Hallie: See you all next Monday.

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Steve Dunkley: Cheerio.

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Hallie: Bye.

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Steve Dunkley: With your host, Steve Dunkley.

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Hallie: Human. You were just kidding about that

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coffee, weren't you?

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Steve Dunkley: Hallie, when have you ever known me to waste

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good coffee?

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Hallie: Sure, but was it good coffee?

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Steve Dunkley: Well Hallie, you may never know.

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Hallie: Oh.