Avery: Hello, and welcome to Astronomy Daily, the
podcast that brings you the universe, one
story at a time. I'm Avery.
Anna: And I'm Anna. It's great to have you with us
today, covering everything from the deepest
cosmic mysteries to the latest missions
exploring our own solar system.
Avery: That's right, Anna. We'll be talking about a
potential breakthrough in the search for dark
matter, a very busy week of rocket launches,
and a curious find by the Perseverance rover
on Mars.
Anna: Plus, we'll check in with the Osiris, uh,
apex, and Escapade missions and dive into
a fascinating new study that suggests there
could be boiling oceans on tiny icy moons.
Avery: So grab your favorite beverage, get
comfortable, and let's explore the cosmos.
Anna: Avery, let's start with what could be one of
the biggest discoveries in modern physics.
For nearly a century, scientists have been
searching for dark matter.
Avery: Right. It's this mysterious substance that we
know is out there because we can see its
gravitational effects on galaxies, but. But
it doesn't interact with light, so we can't
see it directly. It's a huge puzzle.
Anna: Exactly. And now there's a tantalizing
new signal. An astronomer from the University
of Tokyo, analyzing data from NASA's
Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope, believes he
may have found its signature.
Avery: Wow. Okay. How? What did he find?
Anna: He detected high energy photons, gamma
rays that seemed to perfectly match the
theoretical predictions for when dark matter
particles collide and annihilate each other.
Avery: And we're not just talking about any
particles. This is linked to the leading
theory, Right? The idea of WIMPs.
Anna: That's the one. WIMPs, or weakly
interacting Massive Particles, are the
hypothetical particles that many physicists
believe make up dark matter. The signal
matches the energy that would be released if
two wimps destroyed each other.
Avery: M. So this could be our first direct
glimpse of dark matter actually doing
something. Of course, it still needs to be
verified and peer reviewed, of course, but.
Anna: If it holds up, it would be a monumental
discovery. Finally pulling back the curtain
on one of the universe's greatest secrets.
Avery: Absolutely incredible.
From the invisible universe to the very
visible, let's talk about what's heading up
into the sky this week. It is going to be a
very busy one for launch fans.
Anna: It certainly is. How many are we looking at?
Avery: 7 launches from five different rockets all
across the globe. SpaceX is leading the
charge as usual, with three missions planned
for its workhorse Falcon 9.
Anna: 3 launches. They really make it look
routine. And there's also a crewed mission
this week, isn't there?
Avery: There is a Russian Soyuz rocket will be
launching from Kazakhstan carrying three new
crew members up to the International Space
Station. Always exciting to see humans
heading to orbit.
Anna: Mhm. And Russia has another launch planned
too.
Avery: That's right. A military payload is set to
launch on an Angara 1.2 rocket from
northern Russia. And not to be left out,
South Korea is getting in on the action with
a launch of its KSLV2 rocket.
Anna: And the week is rounded out from French
Guiana. Right, a Vega C launch.
Avery: Exactly. The Vega C will carry another South
Korean satellite, this one heading to a sun
synchronous orbit. It's a truly international
week for spaceflight.
Anna: It's amazing to think of all that hardware
leaving Earth in such a short span of time.
Speaking of other worlds, let's journey from
Earth orbit to the surface of Mars, where the
Perseverance Rover has spotted something
unusual.
Avery: Yes, another Martian mystery rock. What did
Percy find this time?
Anna: Well, the science team describes it as a
sculpted, high standing rock that looked
completely different from the flat, broken up
terrain around it. It immediately caught
their attention.
Avery: And it's a decent size too, right? About
three feet long. So of course they zapped it
with the laser.
Anna: Naturally, the Supercam instrument
analyzed its composition and the results
are pretty conclusive. The rock, which
they've nicknamed Phi Staxhla, is made
of iron and nickel, which.
Avery: Is the classic signature of a meteorite. It's
likely a fragment from the core of a large
asteroid that slammed into Mars at some point
in the distant past.
Anna: That's the leading theory. And if its
origin is confirmed, this would be the very
first meteorite the Perseverance has
discovered since it landed back in February
2021.
Avery: That's fantastic. It's like getting a free
sample of an asteroid delivered right to your
rover.
From one NASA mission to another, let's come
a little closer to home and talk about a
spacecraft that just paid Earth a flying
visit.
Anna: You must be talking about Osiris Apex.
This is the same spacecraft that delivered
the sample from Astero Bennu, but now on
a new mission.
Avery: Exactly. Its new name is Osiris
Apophis Explorer. And its new target
is Asteroid Apophis. To get
there, it needed a gravity assist from Earth,
and that just happened on September 23rd.
Anna: How close did it come?
Avery: It flew within about 2,100 miles of the
surface. But the team didn't waste
opportunity. As it approached and flew past,
the spacecraft turned its instruments back
towards home.
Anna: Right. To calibrate them. Since we know Earth
so well, it's the perfect subject to test
your instruments. On to make sure they're
working correctly before you get to your new
target. I bet they got some beautiful
images.
Avery: They certainly did. It's always a bit
special seeing our home planet from the
perspective of one of our robotic explorers.
Anna: From a, uh, spacecraft looking back at us.
Let's talk about one that's looking at
itself. So NASA's new escapade
mission has just sent back its first selfies.
Avery: That's right. This mission is a pair of twin
spacecraft, and about a week after their
launch, One of them turned its camera around
to snap a picture.
Anna: And what do these selfies show? It's not just
for social media, I assume.
Avery: No, though they are pretty cool. The
images taken by the visible and infrared
observation system, or visions, show part
of the spacecraft solar panel against the
backdrop of space.
Anna: It's an important engineering check. Right.
It confirms that the camera system has
deployed correctly and is functioning as
expected as the explorer's speed away from
Earth. It's the first step in a long journey.
Avery: Exactly. It's the spacecraft saying,
I'm okay, My eyes are open and
I'm ready for what's next. It's a simple
image, but a very reassuring one for the
mission team.
Anna: It always is.
Avery: And speaking of long journeys, let's take one
ourselves out to the far reaches of the solar
system for our final story, which sounds like
something straight out of science fiction.
Anna: This is the one I've been waiting for.
Boiling oceans on icy moons.
It sounds contradictory.
Avery: It does. But a, uh, new study suggests it
might be possible. We already have strong
evidence that some larger icy moons, Like
Saturn's moon Enceladus or Jupiter's
Europa, have liquid water oceans under their
icy shells.
Anna: Right. Kept liquid by the heat generated from
tidal forces. The constant gravitational
push and pull from their giant parent planet.
Avery: Exactly. This new research takes it a
step further. It models what might happen
inside much smaller icy moons, Moons that
we previously thought would be frozen solid.
The study finds that the same tidal forces
could generate so much heat in the rocky core
that the water at the bottom of the ocean
could actually be boiling.
Anna: So you'd have this incredible environment
With a ceiling of ice, A floor of
boiling rock, and a vast, uh, liquid ocean
in between.
Avery: That's the idea. And if you have liquid water
and a source of heat and chemical energy,
like a hydrothermal vent system at the bottom
of an ocean, then you have.
Anna: The key ingredients for life, as we know
dramatically expands the number of places in
our solar system that could potentially host
living organisms. What an
amazing thought.
Avery: It really is. And it's not just about finding
life, but understanding its limits.
These environments would be under immense
pressure and in total darkness. Life there
would be fundamentally different, likely
chemosynthetic, thriving on chemical
reactions from the core rather than sunlight.
Anna: And that has huge implications.
It suggests that the habitable zone
isn't just about the distance from a star,
but also about the internal dynamics of a
world. You could have potentially habitable
moons orbiting rogue planets that were
ejected from their star systems, wandering
through interstellar space.
Avery: And on, um, that note, we'll call it a wrap
on today's episode of Astronomy Daily.
Anna: From a potential glimpse of dark matter, a
week of powerful launches, a meteorite
on Mars, and missions checking in on their
way to new adventures, all the way to
boiling oceans on distant moons,
the universe is never short of wonders.
Avery: It certainly isn't. A huge thank you to all
of you for joining us on Astronomy Daily. We
hope you've enjoyed the journey.
Anna: You can find links to all the stories we
discussed today on our website. And be sure
to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts
so you don't miss an episode. Until next
time. I'm Anna.
Avery: And I'm, um, Avery. Keep looking up.
Is the
tongue.