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Anna: Hello, space fans. You're tuned in to

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Astronomy Daily, your weekend home, for the

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biggest stories from the cosmos. I'm Anna.

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Avery: And, um, I'm Avery. And what a week it has

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been.

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Anna: We've got two fresh stories to kick things

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off, and then, as always on a Saturday, we're

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bringing you our weekend wrap. The four

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biggest space and astronomy stories from the

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past seven days.

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Avery: So let's not waste a second. Let's get into

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it.

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Anna: So this first story is about something that

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has frustrated solar scientists for decades.

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And honestly, it's about time it got sorted.

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Avery: Oh, uh, I know what you're gonna say. The far

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side.

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Anna: The far side. Every 28 days, the

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sun rotates all the way around, which means

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anything happening on the side we can't see

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from Earth. Sunspots, flares,

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eruptionshas historically been a mystery

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until it swings into view.

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Avery: Um, and by that point, you might only have

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days of warning before whatever's brewing

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rotates directly toward Earth.

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Anna: Exactly. Now, scientists have had a

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technique called helioseismology for about

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25 years, basically using sound waves

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reverberating inside the sun to locate

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where large active regions are forming on

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that hidden side.

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Avery: So a bit like using sonar to look for things

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you can't directly see.

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Anna: Great analogy. But here's the thing.

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That technique could tell you that something

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was there. What it could not tell you was the

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polarity of those active regions.

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Avery: So polarity matters because.

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Anna: Because the polarity of a sunspot group,

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which way the magnetic field is pointing, is

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one of the most important factors in how

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powerful an eruption might be. Get the

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polarity wrong, and your forecast is

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basically useless.

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Avery: So what's changed?

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Anna: A team led by solar physicist Almer Hamada

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at the National Solar Observatory have

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developed a new method using data NOAA's

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Global Oscillation Network Group Gong A Ah,

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network of robotic telescopes stationed

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around the world that continuously records

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the Sun's surface oscillations. They've found

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a way to analyze phase shifts in the

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helioseismic maps and assign actual

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magnetic polarities to far side sunspot

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regions.

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Avery: So we're not just seeing where the sunspot

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is. We're now getting information about how

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dangerous it might be before it's even

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visible.

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Anna: And to put a very real world spin on this,

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just two days ago, on May 7, a significant

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solar flare erupted from the Sun's far side.

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The event was partially blocked by the solar

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horizon, so we don't even know how large it

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really was. The question already being asked

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is, what's

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Avery: coming back around that's genuinely

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exciting and a little unnerving.

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Anna: Uh, the team's results have been published in

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scientific reports and the findings are being

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hailed as a breakthrough for full sun

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magnetic mapping. The more we can see the

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whole sun at once, the better we can protect

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the satellites, power grids and astronauts

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that rely on space weather forecasting.

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Avery: Massive step forward. Love it.

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Anna: Okay, story two comes from the James Webb

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Space Telescope. And I have to be honest, I

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feel like almost every week JWST

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is breaking something. We thought we

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understood this point. It's basically its

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personality, right?

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Avery: So this week, a team led by researchers at

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the University of California, Davis, has

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published findings in Nature Astronomy about

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a galaxy called XMMVidon M

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M2075.

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And before you zone out at the name, here's

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why it matters. This galaxy formed less

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than 2 billion years after the Big Bang,

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which in

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Anna: cosmic terms is extremely young.

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Avery: Extremely young. Now, according to everything

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we understand about how galaxies form, young

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galaxies should be spinning. Angular

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momentum from inflowing gas, the influence of

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gravity during formation. It all sets them

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rotating over billions of years through

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mergers and other processes. Some of them

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eventually slow down and become these large

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settled non rotating systems.

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Anna: But that takes a very long time.

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Avery: A, ah, very long time. And yet

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XMMVID M M

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2075 shows essentially

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zero rotation. None. It has

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already settled into that mature non

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spinning state at an age when it should still

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be churning away like a cosmic washing

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machine.

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Anna: So how is that even possible?

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Avery: That's the big question. Some simulations do

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allow for a very small number of these

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objects in the early universe, but they're

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predicted to be incredibly rare. Finding one

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is already significant. The team is now

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actively searching for more to understand

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just how common or uncommon they might be.

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Anna: And I understand this galaxy was already on

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the radar as one of the most massive in the

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early universe.

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Avery: It was. Previous observations confirmed it

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already had several times as many stars as

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our entire Milky Way and had stopped forming

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new stars. Both traits of a much older

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evolved system. JWST was then

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used to measure how material was actually

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moving inside it. And the result was

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it basically wasn't,

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Anna: shouldn't exist, but it does. That's

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JWST in a nutshell.

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Avery: Every week. Every single week.

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Anna: Alright, time for our weekend wrap. Four

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stories. The biggest space in astronomy news

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from the past seven days. Avery, set it up.

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Avery: Let's do it. This week we have a cosmic odd

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couple that shouldn't be together. A quarter

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million citizen scientists who've quietly

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doubled the book of brown dwarfs. A NASA

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mission that's about to launch inside a space

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donut. And the Webb first that nobody has

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done before. Big week.

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Anna: A space donut. We'll get to that.

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Let's start with rap story number one. A

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planetary pairing that MIT scientists are

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calling one of the rarest architectures

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astronomers have ever found. It involves a

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hot Jupiter and a mini Neptune,

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190 light years from Earth, orbiting the same

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star. And according to everything we know,

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one of them should not still be there.

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Avery: Hot Jupiters are legendary bullies.

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Anna: They really are. They're massive gas giants

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that orbit very close to their star. And

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their gravity is so intense that any planet

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daring to share the neighborhood normally

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gets flung away into deep space. Hot

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Jupiters are almost always found alone,

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Avery: except in this system toi 1130,

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where a, uh, mini Neptune is not only

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surviving, but orb even closer to the star

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than the hot Jupiter, which has

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Anna: been puzzling scientists since the system was

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first discovered in 2020. Now a team at

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MIT has used James Webb to actually read the

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atmosphere of the mini Neptune for the first

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time. And what they've found is a heavy

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water vapor, carbon dioxide, sulfur

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dioxide, and hints of methane.

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Avery: And that heavy atmospheric chemistry is the

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clue.

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Anna: Exactly. If this planet had formed where it

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currently sits close to its star, it would

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have a light atmosphere dominated by hydrogen

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and helium. Instead, it's dense with

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molecules that point to formation in the

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cold, icy outer reaches of the protoplanetary

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disk, what astronomers call beyond the frost

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line, which suggests

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Avery: both planets formed far out and then migrated

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inward together, maintaining their

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atmospheres as they went.

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Anna: This is actually the first measurement ever

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made of the atmosphere of a mini Neptune

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sitting inside a hot Jupiter's orbit.

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Genuinely unprecedented. Published this week

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in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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Avery: Two planets that shouldn't coexist. And yet

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they do, in perfect, if bewildering,

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harmony.

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Anna: Rap Story 2, and I love this one because it's

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a reminder that some of the most significant

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contributions to astronomy right now are

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being made by ordinary people sitting at home

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with a laptop.

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Avery: NASA's Backyard World's Planet Nine project?

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Anna: The very same. So for those who haven't heard

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of it, this is a citizen science program

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where volunteers sift through infrared data

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from NASA's retired WISE satellite, looking

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for objects that move. Stars move slightly

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against the background. Over time. Brown

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dwarfs move. Planet nine, if it exists, would

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too.

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Avery: And along the way, the volunteers have been

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finding brown dwarfs in remarkable numbers.

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Anna: Remarkable doesn't cover it. A new

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paper published this week in the astronomical

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journal with 75 authors,

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61 of whom are volunte announces

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that the project has discovered more than

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3,000 brown dwarfs over its first 10

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years, essentially doubling the known

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population.

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Avery: For listeners unfamiliar with brown dwarfs,

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they're often called failed stars. Too

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massive to be a planet, not massive enough to

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ignite nuclear fusion like a true star.

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They're about the size of Jupiter, they glow

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faintly in infrared, and they're surprisingly

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common. About one for every three or four

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stars near our Sun.

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Anna: But because they're so dim, they've always

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been hard to find. Until now.

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Avery: The discoveries include objects never seen

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before, extreme T subdwarfs,

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ultra cool objects, and apparently one brown

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dwarf that may even have aurorae

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orrore on a brown dwarf

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Anna: a million times brighter than the northern

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lights on Earth, if you could see them. The

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project is still working through more than 2

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billion sources in the WISE data, so there

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are almost certainly more finds to come.

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Avery: Science powered by people. I'll never stop

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finding that inspiring before

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Anna: we head into our next story, the donut I

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mentioned earlier, I'd like to take a moment

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to remind you about our sponsor, NordVPN.

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As I keep saying, when you're ready to secure

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just click on the link in the show notes.

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Thank you.

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Avery: Amen to uh, that.

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Anna: Okay, wrap story three and this one

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is timely because it's happening in three

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days. On Tuesday, May 12,

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SpaceX launches the 34th cargo

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resupply mission to the International Space

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Station. And among the 6,500

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pounds of cargo heading to orbit is something

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rather unusual.

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Avery: Tell em about the donut.

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Anna: The donut so surrounding

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our planet within Earth's magnetic field is

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a structure called the ring current. It's an

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invisible donut shaped region where charged

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particles from space get trapped and flow in

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opposite directions. Positive particles one

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way, negative the other, creating actual

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electrical currents.

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Avery: And this ring current matters because during

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solar storms it can intensify dramatically.

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Anna: When that happens, those electrical currents

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can induce magnetic fluctuations that

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ripple down to the ground, disrupting power

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lines, pipelines, satellite signals and

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GPS systems. We've always known the ring

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current matters for space weather. What we've

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never had is a proper inside out view of it

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until storey storey

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storm time O Ring Current

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Imaging Evolution, a joint NASA and

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U.S. space Force mission that will be

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robotically mounted on the outside of the ISS

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after Tuesday's launch. Rather than looking

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at the ring current from a distance, story

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sits within it and images outward,

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capturing One slice at

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Avery: a time, every 90 minutes as a station

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orbits, building up a complete picture of the

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full ring current over its

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Anna: six month mission, it will track how the ring

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current grows and shrinks during solar storms

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versus quiet periods. And try to answer a,

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uh, question scientists have long

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where exactly do these trapped particles come

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from? The solar wind or from Earth itself?

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Avery: The answer has real world implications for

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how we predict and prepare for space weather

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events.

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Anna: Keep an eye on the skies and the news on

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Tuesday night.

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Avery: And our final wrap story for the week,

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another JWST milestone and

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genuinely a, uh, planetary science first.

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Anna: Go on.

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Avery: So up until now, when we studied exoplanets

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with James Webb, we've been studying their

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atmospheres the way starlight filters through

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a planet's air as it passes in front of its

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star. That's transmission spectroscopy,

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and it's transformed what we know about

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worlds beyond our solar system.

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Anna: But this week, the telescope went a step

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further.

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Avery: For the first time, JWST has

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directly analyzed the surface of an

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exoplanet. The target is a super

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Earth, just 48 light years away,

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relatively close by by cosmic standards. And

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what the telescope found is a dark, airless

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world, no atmosphere, geologically

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ancient. The researchers are describing it as

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a

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Anna: Mercury like rock, which is actually

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fascinating in its own right. A scorching,

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barren super Earth with a surface you could

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in theory, characterize directly.

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Avery: The significance here is the technique. We've

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gone from studying what surrounds a planet to

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studying the planet itself directly reading

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the surface chemistry from light alone.

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Anna: That opens a completely new chapter in how we

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investigate rocky worlds. The next step,

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presumably, is applying this to planets in

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habitable zones, worlds where you might

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expect the surface to be far more

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interesting.

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Avery: One more extraordinary week for the most

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extraordinary telescope ever built.

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Anna: And that is your Astronomy Daily weekend wrap

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for Saturday. May 9th. The Sun's Hidden

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face finally mapped a galaxy from the dawn

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of time that forgot how to spin a planetary

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odd couple. Defying the rules,

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200,000 volunteers who doubled the

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cosmic catalog, a mission launching Tuesday

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to study our planet's space weather. Donut

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and Webb, once again doing something

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nobody has ever done before.

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Avery: Not a bad week for a universe that's just

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sitting there doing its thing.

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Anna: On behalf of Avery and the whole Astronomy

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Daily team, thanks so much for spending part

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of your weekend with us. We'll be back Monday

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with the Daily Edition. Until then, keep

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looking up and stay curious. Everyone.