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Avery: Hello, and welcome to Astronomy Daily, the

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podcast that brings you the latest news from

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across the cosmos. I'm Avery.

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

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Today's agenda covers a lot, from Europe's

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new ambitions in space launch to the strange

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secrets of starquakes near black holes.

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Avery: That's right. We'll also be diving into the

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very nature of time itself, searching for

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hidden stars that might host intelligent

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life, and looking at a new mission to monitor

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the dangers of living on the Moon. So

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let's get started.

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Anna: First up, there's big news from the European

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Space Agency. It looks like they're getting

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very serious about fostering a commercial

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launch market.

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Avery: They certainly are. ESA member states have

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committed over 900 million euros to the

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European Launcher Challenge. That's more than

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double what was anticipated.

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Anna: And what's interesting here is the strategy.

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This isn't about esa, uh, directly funding

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the development of a new rocket. Instead,

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they're acting more like a customer,

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promising to purchase launch services and co

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fund upgrades for private companies.

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Avery: Right. It's the shift from being the builder

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to being an anchor client. It's a model that

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has worked very well for NASA with companies

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like SpaceX. It stimulates competition and

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innovation.

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Anna: Exactly. There's a whole list of companies

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shortlisted for this, including Isar

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Aerospace Rocket Factory, Augsburg

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and PLD Space, among others. Rock

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seeing major contributions from countries

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like Germany, Spain and the uk.

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Avery: So what's the timeline for this? When can we

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expect to see these new launch services in

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action?

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Anna: The plan is to sign framework agreements in

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2026 with the goal of seeing launch

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system demonstrations by 2027.

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If all goes well, we should see actual

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missions being flown under this program by

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2030. It's a major step towards

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European autonomy and space access.

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Avery: From launching rockets to listening to

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stars.

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Our next story is truly fascinating.

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Scientists are using starquakes to uncover

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the secrets of dormant black holes. And it's

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rewriting what we thought we knew.

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Anna: Starquakes. So you mean

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asteroseismology, studying the oscillations

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of stars?

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Avery: Precisely. The study focused on two

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systems, Gaia BH2 and

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Gaia BH3. Each has a

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red giant star orbiting a quiet black hole.

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In the Gaia BH2 system. The

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starquakes revealed a puzzle. The star

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appears young, but its chemical composition

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says it's old.

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Anna: That's a contradiction. How did they explain

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that?

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Avery: The leading theory is that the red giant is

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actually the product of two stars that merged

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into one. This would explain its unusually

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fast spin rate as well. So it had a dramatic

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life even before it got captured by the black

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hole.

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Anna: Incredible. And what about the other system,

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Gaia BH3?

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Avery: That one presented a different kind of

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mystery. The red giant in that system is

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ancient and what we call metal poor.

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According to our models, it should be showing

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star quicks, but it isn't. It's completely

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silent.

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Anna: So our understanding of how these old

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stars behave might be wrong.

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Avery: It suggests that, yes, the research is

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a fantastic example of how studying these

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companion stars can refine how we measure

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black hole masses and reveal the complex,

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violent histories these systems can have.

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Anna: Well, from the complex history of

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stars to the complex nature of time

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itself. This is a topic that has baffled

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physicists and philosophers for centuries.

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And as St. Augustine famously said, we know

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what time is until someone asks us to

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explain it.

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Avery: It's one of the ultimate questions. And a lot

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of the confusion, according to some

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physicists, comes from mixing up two

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different existence

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and occurrence.

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Anna: Okay, break that down for us.

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Avery: The universe as a physical object exists.

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But events within the universe don't exist

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in the same way. They happen or they

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occur. The past isn't a place that still

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exists, and the future isn't a place that's

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waiting for us. They are just records and

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probabilities of occurrences.

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Anna: That makes sense. So this helps clarify

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some old philosophical arguments.

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Avery: It does. Take the ancient Greek philosopher

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Parmenides, who argued that since we can talk

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about the past and future, they must exist.

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This new perspective says that's a fallacy.

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Based on that core confusion. The same goes

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for how we often interpret Einstein's concept

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of spacetime.

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Anna: Right. People often imagine spacetime as

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a physical block universe that you could

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theoretically travel through.

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Avery: Exactly. But it's more useful to think of

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spacetime as a map of events. The map is a

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real useful model, but it's not the

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territory. The map of your city exists, but

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you can't live in the map. By

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cleanly separating the existence of the

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universe from the occurrence of events, the

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so called mystery of time becomes much less

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mysterious.

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Anna: Speaking of searching for things, let's turn

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our attention to the search for

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extraterrestrial intelligence, or seti.

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A, uh, new study suggests we can make our

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search much more effective by accounting for

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stars that we've been ignoring.

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Avery: Hidden stars. How can a star be hidden?

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Anna: It's not that they're physically hidden, but

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they're not the primary targets of our

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surveys. Think about it. When a radio

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telescope points at a specific star, its

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field of view is much wider. It

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inevitably captures data from countless other

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stars in the background and foreground. The

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study calls this stellar bycatch.

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Avery: Ah, uh, I see. So we have all this data

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on stars we weren't even intentionally

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looking at.

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Anna: Precisely. The challenge is knowing which

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stars are in that bycatch. To to solve

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this, scientists are using something called

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the Besanc Galactic model. It

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simulates our galaxy's star populations,

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allowing them to predict which hidden stars

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are likely in a telescope's field of view at

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any given time.

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Avery: So this vastly expands the number of stars

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we're monitoring for technosignatures without

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needing any new observations or equipment.

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Anna: Yes, and it also helps remove human

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bias from target selection. Projects like

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Breakthrough Listen can now apply this method

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to get a much more comprehensive survey of

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our galaxy. It's a very clever way to

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maximize the scientific return from the data

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we're already collecting.

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Avery: For our final story, we're coming back a

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little closer to home to the Moon. As

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nations like China and the US make serious

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plans for lunar bases, a new mission from

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Hong Kong aims to monitor a constant threat.

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Things falling from the sky.

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Anna: You mean meteoroid impacts? We know they

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happen, but this mission aims to provide the

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first ever continuous monitoring of them from

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lunar orbit.

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Avery: That's right. The mission is called Wessen,

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which means Moon flashes. It's a lunar

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orbiter set to launch by 2028. Its

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primary job will be to watch for the bright

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flashes caused by meteoroids hitting the

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lunar surface.

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Anna: And this data is critical. Without an

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atmosphere to burn them up, even small

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pebbles can hit with the force of a hand

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grenade. These impacts pose a very real

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threat to future lunar infrastructure and

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of course, to astronauts.

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Avery: It's a huge engineering and safety challenge.

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Wesson's data will be particularly valuable

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for China's ambitious plans to establish a

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lunar research station. What's also notable

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is that the telescope for the mission is

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being designed and built in Hong Kong,

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marking a significant step for the city in

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space exploration.

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Anna: It will be a great complement to other

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monitoring efforts like NASA's Earth based

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observations and ESA's proposed

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Lumio mission. To truly understand the

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risks of living on the Moon, we need that

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constant close up view. USAN

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promises to deliver just that.

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Avery: And that's all the time we have for today.

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From commercial rockets to cosmic

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philosophies, we've covered a lot of ground.

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Anna: We hope you enjoyed the journey. Join us next

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time for another edition of, uh, Astronomy

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Daily, where we continue to explore the

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universe one story at a time.

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Avery: Thanks for listening and one quick plug.

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For more space and astronomy news and

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all our back catalog just visit our

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website@astronomydaily.IO.

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you can also follow us on social media. Just

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search for AstroDaily Pod on your

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favorite platforms. That's it for me. I'm

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Avery Clear Skies, everyone, and keep looking

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up.