Avery: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, the podcast that
brings you the latest news from across the
cosmos. I'm your host, Avery.
Anna: And I'm Anna. It's great to be with you all.
In today's reports, Avery, we're talking
about everything from rocket failures and
delays to solving black hole mysteries
and even filming movies in space.
Avery: That's right. It's a wild mix of stories
today. Let's get right into it.
First up, some, um, unfortunate news from the
private space space sector in China.
Anna: Yes, this involves the Ceres 1
rocket, which is operated by a private
company called Galactic Energy. They
experienced their second ever failure during
a recent launch from the Yellow Sea.
Avery: Right. So what went wrong?
Anna: Well, the initial part of the launch went
smoothly. The first three stages of the solid
propellant rocket performed exactly as
expected. The problem occurred with the
fourth and.
Avery: Final stage, the upper stage. So is
shut down early.
Anna: Exactly. It experienced what the company
called an abnormal performance and shut
down prematurely. This meant the payload
three satellites couldn't reach its intended
orbit. They were, unfortunately, lost.
Avery: That's always tough to hear. You never want
to see a mission fail. Do we know why the
stage malfunctioned?
Anna: The company is investigating now. They've
issued a public apology for the failure and
are working on pinpointing the exact cause.
It's important to note, though, this is only
their second F failure out of 22 missions.
Avery: That's a good point. A success rate over 90%
is still very respectable, especially for a
commercial launch provider. It just
highlights how incredibly difficult rocket
science is.
Anna: It certainly does.
Now, from a setback in orbit to a
major breakthrough in our understanding of
the universe's most mysterious objects.
Avery, you have an update on a so called
impossible black hole merger?
Avery: I do, and this is truly fascinating stuff.
For a while now, astronomers have been
puzzled by a specific gravitational wave
event. It signaled the merger of two
massive, rapidly spinning black holes. But
the result was a black hole that, according
to our models, shouldn't exist.
Anna: Okay, so why was it considered
impossible?
Avery: It has to do with something called the upper
stellar mass gap. It's a range of sizes
roughly between 65 and
135 times the mass of our sun,
where we just don't expect to see black holes
form from collapsing stars. This
merger's resulting black hole landed right
in that gap.
Anna: A real cosmic puzzle. So what was the
solution?
Avery: The solution came from new, more complex
simulations. And the key ingredient that had
been missing was magnetic fields.
Anna: Magnetic fields. How do they change the
equation?
Avery: Well, the new simulations included the
effects of strong magnetic fields within the
accretion disk. That's the swirling disk
of gas and dust around the black hole. These
fields are powerful enough to generate strong
outflows, ejecting a significant amount of
material out into space before it ever falls
into the black hole.
Anna: Okay, so. So the black holes essentially
started out much bigger. But the
magnetic fields threw a bunch of their
potential mass away before the final merger.
Avery: Precisely. By ejecting all that material,
the final mass of the resulting black hole
was reduced, allowing it to neatly fit into
that previously unexplained mass gap.
It's an elegant solution that shows our
understanding is always evolving.
Anna: That's incredible. A great reminder that the
universe is always, always more complex than
our models first assume.
Speaking of complex projects, there's a
development regarding a highly anticipated
new rocket.
Avery: That's right. We're talking about Rocket Labs
Mutron Rocket. The company has officially
announced that the rocket's first launch is
now delayed until 2026 at the
earliest.
Anna: No earlier than 2026. That's a
significant pushback from their earlier
targets.
Avery: It is. The company's CEO explained the
reasoning, saying, uh, they want to ensure
the first flight is fully successful.
They're choosing to conduct more extensive
testing on the ground rather than rushing to
the launch pad and risking a failure.
Anna: That seems to be a smart, if costly
trend. Prioritizing a successful
debut over sticking to an aggressive
schedule. A, uh, failure on the first flight
can be devastating for a new launch program.
Avery: Exactly. The Neutron is a really big deal for
them. It's their next generation reusable
rocket, designed to launch mega
constellations and compete with the heavy
hitters in the industry.
Anna: Mhm. A huge step up from their workhorse
electron rocket.
Avery: It's a massive leap. This delay will increase
the program's overall cost, as they noted.
But Rocket Lab believes it's the right
decision for the long term success of Neutron
Strategic patience.
Anna: I think it's a wise move.
Now let's shift from launching rockets
to filming on location.
Way, way on location.
Avery: This is a fun one. A new film, a romantic
comedy titled I See you is aiming to
be the first western movie to actually
shoot scenes in low Earth orbit.
Wow.
Anna: Uh, so we're talking
actors, directors, camera
crews actually going up there.
Avery: That's the ambitious plan. It is of course,
a massive logistical challenge. To help
them navigate it, they've brought on former
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly as an
advisor for the project.
Anna: Scott Kelly. That makes perfect sense.
He spent nearly a year in space so he'd
know a thing or two about the realities of
living and Working up there. But wait,
haven't we already had a movie filmed in
space?
Avery: We have. You're absolutely right to point
that out. The Russian film the Challenge
already holds the title of the first feature
film with scenes shot in space. They filmed
on the International Space station back in
2021. Ah.
Anna: Uh, so ICU is
competing for the title of the first
western film to do so. That's a crucial
distinction.
Avery: It is, but it's still an incredible
undertaking. It'll be fascinating to see if
they can pull it off. I can't even imagine
what the insurance policy for a project like
that looks like.
Anna: Astronomical, I'm sure.
Okay, for our final story, we're looking a
little closer to home at an
asteroid that has a date with the moon.
Avery: Yes, NASA is currently tracking an asteroid
named, uh, 2024 yr4.
Now before anyone gets alarmed, this object
poses absolutely no threat to Earth.
However, scientists have calculated there is
a small but non zero chance it could
impact the Moon.
Anna: The Moon. And when is
this potential impact supposed to happen?
Avery: The potential impact window is in 2032.
Again, the probability is low, but it's
significant enough that scientists are taking
it very seriously as both a tracking
challenge and the scientific opportunity.
Anna: A scientific opportunity. So I
assume this is because we could actually
watch it happen.
Avery: Exactly. We've never been able to study a
lunar impact of this size with modern
instruments. As it happens, observing the
collision, the flash and the resulting crater
could provide a wealth of data about the
Moon's surface composition and the physics of
high velocity impacts.
Anna: That's right. It would be a planetary science
goldmine.
Avery: And there's another important angle here.
Planetary Defense Tracking
2024 yr serves as a perfect real
world exercise for the systems we have in
place to detect and monitor near Earth
objects.
Anna: So it's a dry run in a way. Using a
non threatening object to make sure our
systems are ready for one that might actually
be a danger to Earth someday.
Avery: Precisely. It's a valuable chance to learn
and prepare, all while potentially getting a
front row seat to a rare and spectacular
cosmic event.
Anna: And that's all the time we have for today on
Astronomy Daily. From black hole
breakthroughs to cinematic ambitions in
orbit, it's been another busy day in the
world of space exploration.
Avery: It certainly has. We hope you enjoyed the
show. You can find more details and links to
all of these stories on our
website@astronomydaily.IO
thanks for tuning in.
Anna: Join us next time as we continue to explore
the final frontier. I'm Anna.
Avery: And I'm Avery. Clear Skies. Everyone
and keep looking up.
Anna: The stories.
Avery: Hmm.
Anna: Were told.