Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily. Your go
to source for the latest developments in
space exploration and astronomical
discoveries. I'm Anna and I'm
here with my co host Avery to bring
you today's most exciting space news.
From cargo deliveries to the International
Space Station, to mysterious
exoplanets and upcoming
eclipses, we've got a fantastic
lineup of stories that showcase just how
dynamic and fascinating our
universe continues to be.
Avery: That's right, Anna.
Uh, we're starting today with an update and
some fantastic news from the International
Space Station where a brand new type of cargo
spacecraft has finally arrived.
Northrop Grumman's debut Cygnus XL
freighter successfully reached the ISS on
September 18, marking a significant
milestone in commercial space transportation.
This wasn't just any ordinary delivery. It
was the first first mission of their new
jumbo sized cargo vessel and it went
remarkably well despite a small hiccup along
the way. What makes this particularly
exciting is that this represents a major
evolution in Northrop Grumman's capabilities.
The original Cygnus spacecraft has been
reliably servicing the ISS since 2013,
but this new XL Ariant is a game changer.
With enhanced capacity and improved systems.
Anna: The arrival was quite the spectacle.
NASA astronaut Jonny Kim used the
station's Kaned 2 robotic arm
to grapple the Cygnus spacecraft at
exactly 7:24am um, Eastern
Time while the station was passing
260 miles above the
Democratic Republic of Congo. There was
actually a one day delay due to some
thruster issues, but the team worked through
those challenges beautifully. What makes this
mission so special is the spacecraft's
enhanced capacity. This new Cygnus
XL can carry approximately
11,000 pounds of cargo compared
to the previous model's 8,500
pounds. That's a substantial increase in
delivery capability. The technical
improvements include an enlarged service
module with better solar array
efficiency and upgraded thrusters for
improved maneuverability, making this a
significant upgrade over previous Cygnus
missions.
Avery: And the timing couldn't be better. This is
actually the first Cygnus delivery in over a
year, so the crew was probably pretty excited
to receive their supplies. The spacecraft
launched on September 14th aboard a SpaceX
Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral and
it's been named the SS William Willie
McCool in honor of the Columbia crew member.
The cargo manifest is particularly
interesting from a scientific perspective.
They're carrying materials for semiconductor
crystal experiments, equipment for cryogenic
fuel tank improvements, a, uh, UV light
system for microbial control, and supplies
for pharmaceutical crystal production
research. The spacecraft is scheduled to
remain docked until March 2026,
giving researchers plenty of time to conduct
their experiments.
Anna: Speaking of celestial events, let's
shift our focus from human made
spacecraft to a natural
astronomical phenomenon that's happening this
weekend. A partial solar eclipse is
set to occur on Sunday and Monday,
September 22nd,
though unfortunately, most of our listeners
won't be able to see it directly. The
eclipse will be visible from eastern
Australia, New Zealand and
Antarctica, with the Moon's Shadow
passing about 250 miles over
the South Pole. The entire event will
last four hours and 24 minutes,
making it a relatively lengthy eclipse
experience for those in the viewing zone.
Avery: The eclipse coverage varies significantly
depending on location. Sydney will
only see about 2% of the sun
eclipsed, while Hobart in Tasmania
gets a slightly better view at 4%.
The real winner is McMurdo M Station in
Antarctica, where observers will witness
68% of the sun being blocked
by the Moon. But here's the most interesting
viewing Southern New Zealand
will experience what astronomers are calling
a shark fin eclipse at sunrise.
With about 20% coverage. It's
fascinating how the geometry works out
differently for each location. This
eclipse is actually number seven in a series
of 71 eclipses called
Saros series 154.
For those already planning ahead, the next
total solar eclipse will occur on August
12, 2026, crossing
Iceland and northern Spain. For
scientists at McMurdo Station, this eclipse
provides valuable research opportunities to
study how partial solar blocking affects
atmospheric conditions in one of Earth's most
extreme environments.
Now, uh, let's talk about a technology
demonstration that's been quietly making
history in deep space. NASA's
Deep Space Optical Communications Experiment
aboard this Psyche spacecraft has just
concluded after nearly two years of
operation. And the results have exceeded all
expectations. This laser communication system
has been beaming data back to Earth from
incredible distances, proving that high speed
communications across the solar system are
not just possible, but practical. The
mission just completed its 65th and final
pass, transmitting laser signals from
218 million miles away.
That's comparable to the distance between
Earth and Mars at certain points in their
orbits. The performance numbers are
absolutely staggering. Back in December
2023, when Psyche was 19 million
mil miles from Earth, the system successfully
streamed ultra high definition video at
267 Mbps.
Think about that for a moment. That's faster
than many home Internet connections. But the
data was traveling across millions of miles
of empty space. Using nothing but
focused laser light, the system set its
distance record in December 2024,
successfully downlinking data from
3,307 million miles away
over the entire mission duration they
received a total of 13.6
terabits of data. The ground based
infrastructure is equally impressive. They
use a 3 kilowatt uplink laser at
JPL's Table Mountain facility and receive
the signals using the 200 inch telescope at
Palomar Observatory. This technology could
revolutionize communications for future Mars
missions and deep space exploration.
NASA is already planning to implement this
technology on upcoming Mars missions,
potentially enabling high definition video
calls with Earth instead of the delayed low
quality communications we're used to today.
Anna: Let's venture beyond our solar system now to
discuss a fascinating mystery involving
exoplanets. Astronomers have launched a
new program called Atreides to study what
they call the Neptunian Desert. A, uh,
puzzling absence of planets about 20
times Earth's mass that orbit very to their
stars. You'd expect to find planets of this
size in close orbits, but they're
surprisingly rare and scientists want to
understand why. The first system they're
studying is called TOI421,
located 224 light years away.
And it's already providing some intriguing
clues about planetary formation and
evolution.
Avery: TOI421 is particularly interesting
because it has two planets with misaligned
orbits, which suggests their evolution was
quite chaotic.
TOI421B has about seven times
Earth's mass and orbits at, uh, just 6% of
the Earth's sun distance. That's incredibly
close to its star. TOI
421c is even more massive at 14
times Earth's mass and orbits at 12%
of the Earth's sun distance. The fact that
their orbits are misaligned is telling
astronomers a story about violent planetary
migration. Instead of gently spiraling
inward over millions of years, these planets
likely experience what scientists call high
eccentricity migration, essentially being
flung around by gravitational interactions
before settling into their current orbits.
Understanding this process could help explain
why hot Neptune sized planets are so rare
and give us insights into how planetary
systems form and evolve. The
Atreides program uses advanced telescopes and
space based observations to measure not just
planetary size and mass, but also
atmospheric composition and ocean orbital
dynamics with unprecedented precision,
helping astronomers understand the complex
gravitational processes that shape these
systems over millions of years.
Anna: For our final story today, let's journey to
the outer reaches of our own solar system,
where the James Webb Space Telescope has made
a remarkable discovery. Webb has
detected methane gas on Makemake,
a distant dwarf planet, making it only the
second trans Neptunian object after
Pluto where gas has been.
Makemake is about 890 miles across,
roughly 2/3 the size of Pluto. And this
detection suggests it's far more dynamic
than previously thought. The methane was
identified through what scientists call solar
excited fluorescence, where sunlight causes
the methane molecules to emit detectable
signals.
Avery: This discovery opens up fascinating
possibilities about what's happening on
Makemake's surface. The methane could
indicate the presence of a thin atmosphere,
or it might suggest active sublimation
processes where ice turns directly into
gas or even cryovolcanic activity,
essentially ice volcanoes. If Makemake
does have an atmosphere, it would be
incredibly tenuous, with temperatures around
40 Kelvin, that's minus
233 degrees Celsius and
atmospheric pressure about a hundred billion
times weaker than Earth's, making it a
million times more tenuous than even Pluto's
thin atmosphere. But the very fact that we
can detect this gas shows that Makemake
isn't just an inactive chunk of rock and ice
floating in the outer solar system. It's a
dynamic world with ongoing geological or
atmospheric processes. This challenges
our understanding of what makes a world
active in the outer solar system. And
scientists are planning follow up
observations to determine whether the methane
represents seasonal effects or more
fundamental geological activity.
Anna: You know, Avery, when we look at all these
stories together, what really strikes me is
how they represent different scales of human
achievement and cosmic discovery. We've got
practical successes like cargo delivery to
the iss, incredible technological leaps
like laser communications that will enable
future exploration, and we're pushing the
boundaries of knowledge by studying distant
worlds and exoplanets that expand our
understanding of planetary formation.
Avery: Absolutely, Anna. Uh, and what I find
particularly exciting is how these
technologies and discoveries build on each
other. The same infrared detection
capabilities that let us find methane on
MakeMake are helping us characterize
exoplanet atmospheres. The laser
communication systems being proven on the
Psyche mission will eventually enable high
bandwidth data transmission from Mars. Even
the enhanced cargo capabilities of the Cygnus
XL are enabling the kinds of experiments that
will prepare us for establishing permanent
research stations throughout the solar
system.
Anna: And that wraps up today's episode of
Astronomy Daily. From the successful arrival
of the new Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft
at the International Space Station to the
mysterious dynamics of distant dwarf planets,
it's been another incredible day in space
exploration and astronomical discovery news.
Avery: Thanks for joining us today, everyone. I'm
Avery along with Anna, reminding you to keep
looking up and stay curious about the amazing
universe around us. We'll be back tomorrow
with more exciting space news and
discoveries. Until then, clear skies.