WEBVTT 0 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.720 Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy daily for 1 00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:04.902 Tuesday the 14th of July 2 00:00:05.058 --> 00:00:06.960 2026. I'm Anna. 3 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:09.800 Avery: And I'm, um, Avery. Episode 140 4 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:12.560 of season five. And honestly, today's rundown 5 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:14.600 reads like someone dared us to pick the most 6 00:00:14.600 --> 00:00:16.720 argument starting stories we could find. 7 00:00:17.200 --> 00:00:19.760 Anna: It really does. Coming up, American 8 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:22.600 regulators have just approved the launch of 9 00:00:22.600 --> 00:00:25.160 the first commercial space mirror, a 10 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:27.960 spacecraft designed to beam sunlight down to 11 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:30.430 Earth at night. And astronomers are, 12 00:00:30.590 --> 00:00:32.430 let's say, not thrilled. 13 00:00:32.750 --> 00:00:35.430 Avery: We've also got a newly revealed minefield of 14 00:00:35.430 --> 00:00:37.470 invisible space junk in one of the most 15 00:00:37.470 --> 00:00:39.670 valuable orbits around Earth with an 16 00:00:39.670 --> 00:00:41.830 Australian telescope right in the middle of 17 00:00:41.830 --> 00:00:44.390 the detective work. Plus, physicists and 18 00:00:44.390 --> 00:00:46.910 Manhattan have recreated black hole energy 19 00:00:46.910 --> 00:00:49.710 extraction in a lab. The biggest telescope 20 00:00:49.710 --> 00:00:52.030 ever built just moved for the very first 21 00:00:52.030 --> 00:00:54.630 time. And a new paper explains how the Square 22 00:00:54.630 --> 00:00:57.070 Kilometer Array is about to turn cosmic 23 00:00:57.070 --> 00:00:59.830 lightning flashes into a map of the invisible 24 00:00:59.830 --> 00:01:00.430 universe. 25 00:01:01.060 --> 00:01:03.980 Anna: And later, a quick update on Starship 26 00:01:03.980 --> 00:01:06.820 Flight 13 and the story of the Harvard 27 00:01:06.820 --> 00:01:09.420 astronomer who's just been handed the keys to 28 00:01:09.420 --> 00:01:11.340 the White House's new UFO 29 00:01:11.340 --> 00:01:14.100 Avery: Science Council told you argument 30 00:01:14.100 --> 00:01:15.620 starting. Let's get into it. 31 00:01:16.020 --> 00:01:18.820 Anna: Our lead story today. On 9 July, 32 00:01:18.980 --> 00:01:21.460 the US Federal Communications Commission 33 00:01:21.700 --> 00:01:24.334 formally authorized the launch of Earendil 34 00:01:24.466 --> 00:01:27.100 1, a demonstration satellite from 35 00:01:27.100 --> 00:01:29.460 California startup Reflect Orbital. 36 00:01:30.090 --> 00:01:32.810 Once in orbit around 600 kilometers up, 37 00:01:32.970 --> 00:01:35.770 it will unfurl a thin film reflector 38 00:01:35.770 --> 00:01:38.530 18 meters on a side that's roughly 39 00:01:38.530 --> 00:01:41.530 60ft and use it to bounce sunlight 40 00:01:41.530 --> 00:01:44.130 down to specific spots on the ground for 41 00:01:44.130 --> 00:01:45.450 several minutes at a time. 42 00:01:45.770 --> 00:01:48.250 Avery: So to be clear for everyone, a giant 43 00:01:48.250 --> 00:01:51.050 steerable mirror in space whose entire 44 00:01:51.050 --> 00:01:53.650 job is to shine daylight onto the night side 45 00:01:53.650 --> 00:01:54.250 of Earth. 46 00:01:54.650 --> 00:01:57.630 Anna: That's exactly it. The company calls itself 47 00:01:57.630 --> 00:01:59.990 the Sunlight Company and the pitch is 48 00:01:59.990 --> 00:02:02.790 sunlight on demand. Lighting construction 49 00:02:02.790 --> 00:02:04.950 sites so crews can work through the night, 50 00:02:05.190 --> 00:02:07.510 illuminating search and rescue operations, 51 00:02:07.670 --> 00:02:10.150 and boosting solar farms by extending their 52 00:02:10.150 --> 00:02:12.150 generating hours past sunset. 53 00:02:12.470 --> 00:02:14.550 Avery: The demonstration satellite weighs about 54 00:02:14.550 --> 00:02:17.430 142kg and is due to launch 55 00:02:17.430 --> 00:02:19.710 later this year. And here's the number that 56 00:02:19.710 --> 00:02:21.990 makes this a much bigger story than one test 57 00:02:21.990 --> 00:02:24.610 satellite. ReflectorBital has talked about 58 00:02:24.610 --> 00:02:27.330 operating 50,000 or more of these 59 00:02:27.330 --> 00:02:30.130 mirror craft in low Earth orbit by 2035, 60 00:02:30.690 --> 00:02:31.490 which is why 61 00:02:31.490 --> 00:02:34.010 Anna: the astronomy community has reacted the way 62 00:02:34.010 --> 00:02:36.850 it has. The FCC application drew 63 00:02:36.850 --> 00:02:39.850 nearly 1900 public comments, the 64 00:02:39.850 --> 00:02:42.210 overwhelming majority critical. For 65 00:02:42.210 --> 00:02:45.210 comparison, SpaceX's application for up to 66 00:02:45.210 --> 00:02:48.130 a million orbital data center satellites drew 67 00:02:48.130 --> 00:02:51.070 about 1500. The European southern 68 00:02:51.070 --> 00:02:53.990 Observatory has described plans like these as 69 00:02:53.990 --> 00:02:56.710 an existential threat to optical astronomy. 70 00:02:56.870 --> 00:02:58.950 Avery: And it's not just professional observatories. 71 00:02:58.950 --> 00:03:01.710 The American Astronomical Society Raised the 72 00:03:01.710 --> 00:03:03.630 prospect of eye damage for amateur 73 00:03:03.630 --> 00:03:05.869 astronomers. The company itself has 74 00:03:05.869 --> 00:03:07.630 acknowledged there's a risk if someone 75 00:03:07.630 --> 00:03:09.950 happened to catch the reflected beam through 76 00:03:09.950 --> 00:03:12.070 a telescope with a large enough aperture. 77 00:03:12.390 --> 00:03:14.830 Plus concerns about momentarily dazzling 78 00:03:14.830 --> 00:03:17.500 pilots and about what artificial daylight 79 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:20.420 does to wildlife. Circadian rhythms are not 80 00:03:20.420 --> 00:03:22.540 optional extras for most living things. 81 00:03:22.940 --> 00:03:25.580 Anna: The FCC's answer to all of that was 82 00:03:25.580 --> 00:03:28.180 essentially not our department. The 83 00:03:28.180 --> 00:03:30.300 commission said concerns about optical 84 00:03:30.300 --> 00:03:32.780 astronomy and the environment fall outside 85 00:03:32.860 --> 00:03:35.260 its review, which is limited to radio 86 00:03:35.260 --> 00:03:37.900 spectrum. It found the risks with a single 87 00:03:37.900 --> 00:03:40.820 satellite unlikely to materialize, and said 88 00:03:40.820 --> 00:03:43.180 testing novel technology is in the public 89 00:03:43.180 --> 00:03:43.580 interest. 90 00:03:44.270 --> 00:03:46.670 Avery: Which might be true for one satellite. One 91 00:03:46.670 --> 00:03:48.790 mirror tested carefully with the light 92 00:03:48.790 --> 00:03:51.270 contained, switchable and steered away from 93 00:03:51.270 --> 00:03:53.310 observatories. That's a technology 94 00:03:53.470 --> 00:03:56.310 demonstration. 50,000 of them is a 95 00:03:56.310 --> 00:03:58.470 different planet to live on. And the 96 00:03:58.470 --> 00:04:01.350 regulatory gap is the real story here. If the 97 00:04:01.350 --> 00:04:03.630 agency licensing these satellites says 98 00:04:03.630 --> 00:04:06.240 impacts on the sky aren't their job, then, 99 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:07.470 uh, whose job are they? 100 00:04:07.950 --> 00:04:10.510 Anna: To be fair to the company, they say they're 101 00:04:10.510 --> 00:04:13.060 trying to earn trust. The light is 102 00:04:13.060 --> 00:04:15.900 contained within the target spot. It can be 103 00:04:15.900 --> 00:04:18.820 switched off at any moment. And they'll avoid 104 00:04:18.900 --> 00:04:21.220 sensitive areas like research 105 00:04:21.380 --> 00:04:24.260 observatories and protected habitats. 106 00:04:24.740 --> 00:04:27.460 Their co founders said this license is the 107 00:04:27.460 --> 00:04:30.020 first step toward rigorously testing 108 00:04:30.180 --> 00:04:32.820 both the technology and the safeguards. 109 00:04:33.300 --> 00:04:36.140 Avery: And that test data, uh, will matter. But I 110 00:04:36.140 --> 00:04:38.500 suspect this is one we'll be covering again 111 00:04:38.900 --> 00:04:39.620 and again. 112 00:04:40.090 --> 00:04:42.890 Anna: The satellites, named Earendil, by the way. 113 00:04:43.050 --> 00:04:46.010 Tulkin fans, will recognize the mariner, who 114 00:04:46.010 --> 00:04:48.890 sails the sky with a shining star on his 115 00:04:48.890 --> 00:04:49.210 brow. 116 00:04:49.530 --> 00:04:51.370 Avery: At least they've got good taste in names. 117 00:04:51.450 --> 00:04:53.650 Whether the night sky agrees is another 118 00:04:53.650 --> 00:04:54.690 matter. Okay. 119 00:04:54.690 --> 00:04:57.530 From mirrors we can see, to junk 120 00:04:57.530 --> 00:05:00.370 we can't. A new study led by the 121 00:05:00.370 --> 00:05:02.810 University of Warwick has uncovered some of 122 00:05:02.810 --> 00:05:05.610 the faintest space debris ever detected in 123 00:05:05.610 --> 00:05:08.500 geosynchronous orbit. Fragments down to 124 00:05:08.500 --> 00:05:11.500 about five centimeters across. That's 125 00:05:11.500 --> 00:05:13.940 two inches. And here's the kicker. 126 00:05:14.180 --> 00:05:17.020 Nearly 80% of the faint objects 127 00:05:17.020 --> 00:05:19.460 they found don't appear in any publicly 128 00:05:19.460 --> 00:05:20.500 available catalog. 129 00:05:20.740 --> 00:05:23.220 Anna: Let's set the scene for anyone new to this 130 00:05:23.700 --> 00:05:26.340 geosynchronous orbit is that special 131 00:05:26.580 --> 00:05:27.620 band about 132 00:05:27.700 --> 00:05:30.700 36,000km up where a 133 00:05:30.700 --> 00:05:33.540 satellite circles the Earth, exactly in 134 00:05:33.540 --> 00:05:36.220 step with our planet's rotation so it 135 00:05:36.220 --> 00:05:39.020 hangs over the same spot. It's home 136 00:05:39.020 --> 00:05:41.740 to the big, expensive workhorses. 137 00:05:41.980 --> 00:05:44.700 Communications, broadcasting, weather, 138 00:05:44.700 --> 00:05:47.700 monitoring, some of the most valuable real 139 00:05:47.700 --> 00:05:48.700 estate in space. 140 00:05:49.180 --> 00:05:51.779 Avery: And unlike low Earth orbit, there's no 141 00:05:51.779 --> 00:05:54.700 cleanup service. Down low, the wisps of 142 00:05:54.700 --> 00:05:57.540 atmosphere gradually drag debris down until 143 00:05:57.540 --> 00:06:00.420 it burns up. At, uh, geo altitude, there 144 00:06:00.420 --> 00:06:02.970 is essentially nothing. Whatever ends up 145 00:06:02.970 --> 00:06:05.530 there, a dead satellite, a, uh, fragment from 146 00:06:05.530 --> 00:06:08.050 a breakup stays there effectively 147 00:06:08.210 --> 00:06:08.770 forever. 148 00:06:09.330 --> 00:06:12.130 Anna: So how did they find pieces this small 149 00:06:12.290 --> 00:06:13.410 at that distance? 150 00:06:13.890 --> 00:06:16.130 Avery: Clever image processing rather than new 151 00:06:16.130 --> 00:06:18.690 hardware. The team went back to archival 152 00:06:18.690 --> 00:06:20.610 survey data from the Isaacman Newton 153 00:06:20.610 --> 00:06:23.210 Telescope in the Canary Islands and applied a 154 00:06:23.210 --> 00:06:25.970 technique called blind stacking, layering 155 00:06:25.970 --> 00:06:27.970 many images along different possible 156 00:06:28.050 --> 00:06:30.810 trajectories so that incredibly faint moving 157 00:06:30.810 --> 00:06:33.740 objects rise up out of the noise. That 158 00:06:33.740 --> 00:06:36.620 reprocessing revealed 25 debris track 159 00:06:36.620 --> 00:06:39.260 lips the original analysis had completely 160 00:06:39.260 --> 00:06:41.980 missed. And the brightness flickering of many 161 00:06:41.980 --> 00:06:44.700 of these fragments shows their tumbling as a 162 00:06:44.700 --> 00:06:45.140 drift. 163 00:06:45.460 --> 00:06:47.900 Anna: And um, there's a lovely local connection in 164 00:06:47.900 --> 00:06:50.420 this one. The follow up observing campaign 165 00:06:50.660 --> 00:06:53.060 extended the survey to Siding Spring 166 00:06:53.060 --> 00:06:55.900 Observatory here in Australia. Working with 167 00:06:55.900 --> 00:06:58.900 the Australian National University plus 168 00:06:58.900 --> 00:07:01.780 Japan's Bisei Space Guard center with 169 00:07:01.780 --> 00:07:03.990 jaxa. Genuinely international 170 00:07:04.550 --> 00:07:07.270 detective work, which makes sense because the 171 00:07:07.270 --> 00:07:09.830 Geo Belt is a shared resource. 172 00:07:10.230 --> 00:07:12.950 Avery: The study's lead author, Dr. James Blake, 173 00:07:13.110 --> 00:07:15.630 pointed out that pieces of junk up there can 174 00:07:15.630 --> 00:07:18.190 be moving at kilometers per second relative 175 00:07:18.190 --> 00:07:20.910 to each other. So even a 5 centimeter 176 00:07:20.910 --> 00:07:23.750 fragment carries enough energy to do serious 177 00:07:23.750 --> 00:07:26.710 damage to a very expensive satellite. And 178 00:07:26.710 --> 00:07:29.670 his co author, Dr. Stuart Eaves had the line 179 00:07:29.670 --> 00:07:32.560 of the week. The debris in geosynchronous 180 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:35.280 orbit is a potential minefield. And 181 00:07:35.280 --> 00:07:37.440 nobody in their right mind walks into a 182 00:07:37.440 --> 00:07:39.400 minefield without a mine detector. 183 00:07:39.720 --> 00:07:42.640 Anna: The constructive takeaway being we now 184 00:07:42.640 --> 00:07:45.560 have the detection techniques. Beeper's 185 00:07:45.560 --> 00:07:48.520 systematic surveys of the Geo Belt need 186 00:07:48.520 --> 00:07:51.200 to become routine because there are 187 00:07:51.200 --> 00:07:54.200 only so many orbital slots up there and 188 00:07:54.200 --> 00:07:57.000 one bad debris event could poison a 189 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:59.080 chunk of that belt for generations. 190 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:02.640 M Now to a story that's been making headlines 191 00:08:02.640 --> 00:08:05.640 this week, and it's a proper piece of physics 192 00:08:05.640 --> 00:08:08.280 history. Researchers at the Advanced 193 00:08:08.280 --> 00:08:10.320 Science Research center at the City 194 00:08:10.320 --> 00:08:13.200 University of New York have recreated in 195 00:08:13.200 --> 00:08:16.080 a laboratory the mechanism by which energy 196 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:18.960 can be extracted from a spinning black hole. 197 00:08:19.120 --> 00:08:20.480 The papers in Nature. 198 00:08:20.880 --> 00:08:23.080 Avery: Okay, walk me through the black hole part 199 00:08:23.080 --> 00:08:25.440 first, because it's one of the great ideas of 200 00:08:25.440 --> 00:08:26.800 20th century physics. 201 00:08:27.160 --> 00:08:29.880 Anna: It goes back more than half a century. To Sir 202 00:08:29.880 --> 00:08:32.720 Roger Penrose, A, uh, spinning black hole 203 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:35.720 drags the very fabric of space around with it 204 00:08:35.800 --> 00:08:38.120 in a region called the Ergosphere. 205 00:08:38.360 --> 00:08:41.040 Penrose realized that if a particle ventured 206 00:08:41.040 --> 00:08:43.960 in there and split in two, one piece could 207 00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:46.880 fall in while the other escaped, carrying 208 00:08:46.880 --> 00:08:49.040 more energy than the original particle 209 00:08:49.040 --> 00:08:51.920 arrived with energy stolen from the black 210 00:08:51.920 --> 00:08:54.370 hole's rotation. The physicist 211 00:08:54.370 --> 00:08:57.250 Yakov Zeldowicz then extended the 212 00:08:57.250 --> 00:09:00.000 idea to bounce a wave off a, uh, 213 00:09:00.090 --> 00:09:02.970 sufficiently fast rotating object and the 214 00:09:02.970 --> 00:09:05.890 wave can come away amplified. That effect 215 00:09:05.890 --> 00:09:07.730 is called super radiance. 216 00:09:08.050 --> 00:09:10.890 Avery: And the problem for 50 odd years has been the 217 00:09:10.890 --> 00:09:13.490 words sufficiently fast. You can't 218 00:09:13.490 --> 00:09:15.490 mechanically spin anything quickly enough. 219 00:09:15.650 --> 00:09:17.690 There were beautiful experiments with water 220 00:09:17.690 --> 00:09:20.490 vortices in 2017 and a rotating 221 00:09:20.490 --> 00:09:23.330 acoustic disc in 2020. But physically 222 00:09:23.330 --> 00:09:24.970 spinning objects hit a heart 223 00:09:24.970 --> 00:09:27.730 Anna: ceiling, which is where the New York team's 224 00:09:27.730 --> 00:09:30.290 trick comes in. They call it synthetic 225 00:09:30.290 --> 00:09:33.090 rotation. Instead of spinning anything at 226 00:09:33.090 --> 00:09:35.610 all, they built a ring of electronic 227 00:09:35.610 --> 00:09:38.090 resonators and rapidly modulated their 228 00:09:38.090 --> 00:09:40.730 electrical properties in a timed sequence 229 00:09:40.730 --> 00:09:43.610 running around the ring to an incoming 230 00:09:43.610 --> 00:09:46.330 radio wave. The stationary device is 231 00:09:46.330 --> 00:09:48.730 indistinguishable from something rotating 232 00:09:48.810 --> 00:09:51.750 impossibly fast. The synthetic rotation 233 00:09:51.750 --> 00:09:54.390 can even mimic motion faster than light, 234 00:09:54.630 --> 00:09:57.510 which no physical object could ever achieve. 235 00:09:57.830 --> 00:10:00.390 Avery: And it worked. The waves actually came out 236 00:10:00.390 --> 00:10:00.950 stronger. 237 00:10:01.030 --> 00:10:03.470 Anna: They did. The team measured genuine 238 00:10:03.470 --> 00:10:06.230 amplification with waves extracting energy 239 00:10:06.389 --> 00:10:08.870 from the synthetic rotation, exactly as 240 00:10:08.870 --> 00:10:11.710 Penrose and Zeldewicz predicted. Nothing 241 00:10:11.710 --> 00:10:14.670 moves. Yet the wave leaves with more energy 242 00:10:14.670 --> 00:10:15.830 than it arrived with. 243 00:10:16.120 --> 00:10:18.120 Avery: What I love about this one is that it cuts 244 00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:20.280 both ways. It's a fundamental physics 245 00:10:20.280 --> 00:10:22.520 validation, a 50 year old prediction about 246 00:10:22.520 --> 00:10:24.800 black holes confirmed on a benchtop in 247 00:10:24.800 --> 00:10:27.560 Manhattan. But it's also a brand new kind of 248 00:10:27.560 --> 00:10:29.360 amplifier. With a team talking about 249 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:31.240 applications in wireless communications, 250 00:10:31.560 --> 00:10:33.560 optics and quantum technologies. 251 00:10:34.040 --> 00:10:36.360 Astrophysics as an engineering department. 252 00:10:36.600 --> 00:10:39.600 Anna: Black holes inspiring better radios since 253 00:10:39.600 --> 00:10:41.720 1969, who knew? 254 00:10:42.110 --> 00:10:44.630 Avery: Next to a mountaintop in Chile's Atacama 255 00:10:44.630 --> 00:10:46.990 Desert, where the biggest optical telescope 256 00:10:46.990 --> 00:10:49.470 humanity has ever attempted just did 257 00:10:49.470 --> 00:10:52.270 something for the very first time, it moved. 258 00:10:52.510 --> 00:10:55.150 Anna: This is the European Southern Observatory's 259 00:10:55.150 --> 00:10:57.310 Extremely Large Telescope, the 260 00:10:57.310 --> 00:11:00.190 elt, under construction on Cerro 261 00:11:00.190 --> 00:11:02.710 Armazonis. Crews rotated the 262 00:11:02.710 --> 00:11:05.310 telescope's entire structure around its 263 00:11:05.310 --> 00:11:08.310 vertical axis for the first time. And in the 264 00:11:08.310 --> 00:11:10.430 most charming detail of the week, they 265 00:11:10.430 --> 00:11:12.910 started by pushing it by hand a few 266 00:11:12.910 --> 00:11:15.350 centimeters before completing a full 267 00:11:15.430 --> 00:11:18.390 rotation with auxiliary motors. Eso 268 00:11:18.550 --> 00:11:21.230 captioned the release. And yet it moves, 269 00:11:21.230 --> 00:11:23.989 which Galileo would surely have appreciated. 270 00:11:24.230 --> 00:11:26.750 Avery: Now, let's put numbers on why hand pushing 271 00:11:26.750 --> 00:11:29.110 this thing is remarkable. The structure 272 00:11:29.110 --> 00:11:30.910 currently weighs about three and a half 273 00:11:30.910 --> 00:11:33.030 thousand tons. Once the mirrors and 274 00:11:33.030 --> 00:11:35.990 instruments go in, it climbs to around 4,600 275 00:11:36.070 --> 00:11:38.950 tons. And the whole assembly floats on a film 276 00:11:38.950 --> 00:11:41.590 of oil just 80 microns thin, 277 00:11:41.910 --> 00:11:44.270 roughly the width of a human hair. That's how 278 00:11:44.270 --> 00:11:46.790 a handful of people can start 10 million 279 00:11:46.870 --> 00:11:48.550 pounds of telescope turning. 280 00:11:48.790 --> 00:11:51.590 Anna: And this wasn't ceremony. It was a critical 281 00:11:51.590 --> 00:11:54.390 engineering test. That rotation is how the 282 00:11:54.390 --> 00:11:57.070 ELT will point anywhere in the southern 283 00:11:57.070 --> 00:12:00.030 sky. So proving the motion is smooth is a 284 00:12:00.030 --> 00:12:02.550 genuine milestone on the road to first light. 285 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:05.880 When it's complete, the ELT's segmented 286 00:12:05.880 --> 00:12:08.840 primary mirror will stretch 39 meters 287 00:12:08.840 --> 00:12:11.720 across, built from 798 288 00:12:11.720 --> 00:12:14.240 hexagonal segments. Working as one, 289 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:17.160 it'll gather more light than any optical 290 00:12:17.160 --> 00:12:18.320 telescope in history. 291 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:21.640 Avery: ESO's program manager, Roberto Damai, said 292 00:12:21.640 --> 00:12:23.880 it beautifully that it's a reminder of what 293 00:12:23.880 --> 00:12:25.840 can be achieved when people push in the same 294 00:12:25.840 --> 00:12:28.320 direction, literally and figuratively. 295 00:12:28.520 --> 00:12:31.280 Anna: And for our listeners. Remember, this giant 296 00:12:31.280 --> 00:12:34.280 lives under southern skies, the Magellanic 297 00:12:34.280 --> 00:12:37.240 Clouds, the galactic center overhead. The 298 00:12:37.240 --> 00:12:40.040 ELT will see the same sky you do from 299 00:12:40.040 --> 00:12:42.800 your backyard, just 40 million times 300 00:12:42.800 --> 00:12:43.160 better. 301 00:12:43.480 --> 00:12:45.720 Avery: Rude, frankly, but we'll allow it. 302 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:48.880 Anna: Sticking with giant instruments and southern 303 00:12:48.880 --> 00:12:51.640 skies. A new paper doing the rounds this 304 00:12:51.640 --> 00:12:54.360 week lays out how the Square Kilometer 305 00:12:54.360 --> 00:12:56.920 Array is going to use one of the most 306 00:12:57.000 --> 00:12:59.840 violent phenomena in the cosmos to 307 00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:02.340 map things, things no telescope can see. 308 00:13:02.740 --> 00:13:05.660 And the lead author is Dr. Manisha Caleb 309 00:13:05.660 --> 00:13:08.500 of the University of Sydney Home, UM team. 310 00:13:08.820 --> 00:13:11.620 Avery: All right. The violent phenomenon in 311 00:13:11.620 --> 00:13:14.020 question being fast radio bursts. 312 00:13:14.420 --> 00:13:17.260 Anna: Fast radio bursts. Flashes of radio 313 00:13:17.260 --> 00:13:20.140 energy from other galaxies that last about 314 00:13:20.140 --> 00:13:23.100 a millisecond, a hundred times quicker than a 315 00:13:23.100 --> 00:13:25.940 blink, yet carry enormous energy. 316 00:13:26.510 --> 00:13:28.830 And they're useful precisely because of what 317 00:13:28.830 --> 00:13:31.590 happens to them on the way here. As a 318 00:13:31.590 --> 00:13:34.590 burst crosses billions of light years, the 319 00:13:34.590 --> 00:13:37.070 plasma it passes through disperses it, 320 00:13:37.310 --> 00:13:40.150 stretching the signal out by frequency. And 321 00:13:40.150 --> 00:13:42.830 magnetic fields twist its polarization 322 00:13:43.150 --> 00:13:45.870 through an effect called Faraday rotation. 323 00:13:46.270 --> 00:13:49.150 Every burst arrives carrying a record of 324 00:13:49.150 --> 00:13:50.910 everything it traveled through. 325 00:13:51.390 --> 00:13:53.750 Avery: So each one is like a core sample drilled 326 00:13:53.750 --> 00:13:55.880 through the universe. The gas between 327 00:13:55.880 --> 00:13:58.280 galaxies barely emits any light, and 328 00:13:58.280 --> 00:14:01.160 magnetic fields emit none at all. But you can 329 00:14:01.160 --> 00:14:03.160 read both from what they've done to the burst 330 00:14:03.160 --> 00:14:03.880 along the way. 331 00:14:04.360 --> 00:14:07.120 Anna: Exactly. And the paper's argument is 332 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:10.000 about scale. We've caught FRBs by 333 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:12.880 the hundreds so far. The SKA, with 334 00:14:12.880 --> 00:14:15.680 SKA low being commissioned right now 335 00:14:15.680 --> 00:14:18.480 in Western Australia alongside the Dish 336 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:21.200 Array in South Africa, is expected to 337 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:24.120 detect them in the thousands upon thousands. 338 00:14:24.660 --> 00:14:27.460 At those numbers, the team argues, frbs 339 00:14:27.620 --> 00:14:30.180 graduate from curiosities into a 340 00:14:30.180 --> 00:14:32.580 genuine cosmological survey tool, 341 00:14:32.900 --> 00:14:35.700 tracing where the universe's missing ordinary 342 00:14:35.700 --> 00:14:38.260 matter is hiding, mapping cosmic 343 00:14:38.260 --> 00:14:40.900 magnetic fields, probing the universe's 344 00:14:40.900 --> 00:14:43.780 expansion, even testing fundamental 345 00:14:43.780 --> 00:14:46.460 physics, like whether photons have any 346 00:14:46.460 --> 00:14:47.380 mass at all. 347 00:14:47.620 --> 00:14:50.220 Avery: And the poetry of it is that we still don't 348 00:14:50.220 --> 00:14:52.820 fully know what makes a fast radio burst. 349 00:14:53.500 --> 00:14:55.820 Magnetars are the leading suspects, but the 350 00:14:55.820 --> 00:14:58.620 case is enclosed. So the SKA 351 00:14:58.620 --> 00:15:01.020 gets to work the mystery from both ends, 352 00:15:01.340 --> 00:15:03.540 using the bursts as tools while 353 00:15:03.540 --> 00:15:06.060 simultaneously figuring out what they are. 354 00:15:06.140 --> 00:15:08.860 Anna: A telescope, partly in our own backyard, 355 00:15:09.020 --> 00:15:11.980 using millisecond flashes from across the 356 00:15:11.980 --> 00:15:14.940 universe to weigh the invisible. The next 357 00:15:14.940 --> 00:15:17.340 few years of this are going to be something 358 00:15:17.340 --> 00:15:18.860 special Next up 359 00:15:18.860 --> 00:15:21.760 Avery: a, uh, quick update on Starship Flight 13. We 360 00:15:21.760 --> 00:15:23.600 gave you the full preview in yesterday's 361 00:15:23.600 --> 00:15:26.120 episode. So just the new developments today. 362 00:15:26.600 --> 00:15:29.520 First, the launch date has slipped. SpaceX 363 00:15:29.520 --> 00:15:31.720 is now targeting no earlier than Thursday 364 00:15:31.960 --> 00:15:34.800 16th July at 6:45 365 00:15:34.800 --> 00:15:37.679 in the evening US Eastern Time. That's 366 00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:40.240 8:45 Friday morning for those of us on 367 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:41.480 Australia's east coast. 368 00:15:41.880 --> 00:15:44.400 Anna: And second, the good news that came with the 369 00:15:44.400 --> 00:15:47.080 slip. Basex has completed a, uh, full 370 00:15:47.080 --> 00:15:49.720 static fire of the super heavy Booster, 371 00:15:49.880 --> 00:15:52.840 lighting all 33 Raptor engines on the 372 00:15:52.840 --> 00:15:55.620 pad. That's the final major test before 373 00:15:55.700 --> 00:15:56.180 flight. 374 00:15:56.500 --> 00:15:58.620 Avery: The mission itself is unchanged from what we 375 00:15:58.620 --> 00:16:00.860 covered yesterday. The second flight of the 376 00:16:00.860 --> 00:16:03.060 version 3 vehicle carrying the first 377 00:16:03.140 --> 00:16:05.540 genuinely functional Starlink V3 378 00:16:05.540 --> 00:16:08.020 satellites rather than mass simulators. 379 00:16:08.340 --> 00:16:10.380 If the schedule holds, we'll have the full 380 00:16:10.380 --> 00:16:11.940 story in Friday's episode. 381 00:16:12.340 --> 00:16:14.740 Anna: Set those alarms, Australia. A Friday 382 00:16:14.820 --> 00:16:17.100 breakfast launch is the civilized way to 383 00:16:17.100 --> 00:16:18.340 watch Starship fly. 384 00:16:19.230 --> 00:16:21.110 Now, in case you missed it over the past 385 00:16:21.110 --> 00:16:23.710 couple of weeks, and because it's simply too 386 00:16:23.710 --> 00:16:26.310 interesting to leave on the shelf, Harvard 387 00:16:26.310 --> 00:16:29.070 astrophysicist Avi Loeb has been 388 00:16:29.070 --> 00:16:31.870 appointed to chair a brand new White House 389 00:16:31.870 --> 00:16:34.829 UAP Science Advisory Council, a 390 00:16:34.829 --> 00:16:37.390 scientific panel tasked with investigating 391 00:16:37.390 --> 00:16:39.950 unidentified anomalous phenomena. 392 00:16:40.270 --> 00:16:42.470 That's the current official term for what 393 00:16:42.470 --> 00:16:45.390 everyone still calls UFOs, covering 394 00:16:45.390 --> 00:16:48.350 objects in the air, in space or even 395 00:16:48.430 --> 00:16:49.230 underwater. 396 00:16:49.630 --> 00:16:52.350 Avery: And for listeners who know the name, yes, 397 00:16:52.590 --> 00:16:55.070 that Avi Loeb, former chair of 398 00:16:55.070 --> 00:16:57.670 Harvard's Astronomy Department, hundreds of 399 00:16:57.670 --> 00:16:59.950 papers on black holes and the early universe, 400 00:17:00.030 --> 00:17:02.830 and in recent years, the most famous or 401 00:17:02.910 --> 00:17:05.390 infamous advocate for taking the possibility 402 00:17:05.470 --> 00:17:08.310 of alien technology seriously. He's the one 403 00:17:08.310 --> 00:17:10.270 who suggested the interstellar object 404 00:17:10.710 --> 00:17:13.550 Oumuamua might have been an artificial light 405 00:17:13.550 --> 00:17:15.030 sail back in 2017. 406 00:17:15.670 --> 00:17:18.470 Anna: The setup the council was established under 407 00:17:18.470 --> 00:17:21.190 the Trump administration's transparency push 408 00:17:21.190 --> 00:17:23.830 on uap alongside agencies 409 00:17:23.830 --> 00:17:26.469 including the Pentagon's Anomaly Resolution 410 00:17:26.469 --> 00:17:29.030 Office, Office of the Director of National 411 00:17:29.030 --> 00:17:31.030 Intelligence and the FBI. 412 00:17:31.430 --> 00:17:34.150 Loeb's team reports to a new UAP 413 00:17:34.230 --> 00:17:37.110 governance board overseen by the intelligence 414 00:17:37.110 --> 00:17:39.720 community. And after its first meeting, the 415 00:17:39.720 --> 00:17:42.640 council requested more than 50 videos, 416 00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:45.840 images and documents from the Pentagon tied 417 00:17:45.840 --> 00:17:48.720 to known incidents, including the so called 418 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:51.600 orb sightings reported by military personnel. 419 00:17:52.080 --> 00:17:54.880 Avery: Now the scientific community's reaction has 420 00:17:54.880 --> 00:17:57.600 been divided is the polite word. 421 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:00.040 John Kirkpatrick, who used to run the 422 00:18:00.040 --> 00:18:02.920 Pentagon's own UAP investigations, said 423 00:18:02.920 --> 00:18:05.480 Loeb is not viewed favorably by much of the 424 00:18:05.480 --> 00:18:07.700 scientific community and lacks national 425 00:18:07.700 --> 00:18:10.300 security experience. Critics point to his 426 00:18:10.300 --> 00:18:12.820 hand picked counsel, including not just data 427 00:18:12.820 --> 00:18:15.460 scientists and oceanographers, but also 428 00:18:15.460 --> 00:18:18.020 figures who've openly claimed the US has 429 00:18:18.020 --> 00:18:20.460 recovered non human craft and 430 00:18:20.460 --> 00:18:22.860 Anna: in fairness, here's the other side of the 431 00:18:22.860 --> 00:18:25.820 ledger. Loeb himself says he's starting from 432 00:18:25.820 --> 00:18:28.500 the assumption these objects are human made 433 00:18:28.500 --> 00:18:30.580 and treating it as a national security 434 00:18:30.820 --> 00:18:33.660 question. He says the government is genuinely 435 00:18:33.660 --> 00:18:36.340 baffled by some of what it's seen, and his 436 00:18:36.340 --> 00:18:38.740 argument is that the fact these cases are 437 00:18:38.740 --> 00:18:41.540 being open to scientists at all suggests 438 00:18:41.540 --> 00:18:43.140 officials aren't confident they're 439 00:18:43.140 --> 00:18:45.940 conventional. His stated focus is 440 00:18:45.940 --> 00:18:48.380 instrumentation, data standards and 441 00:18:48.380 --> 00:18:51.340 rigorous collection. In his words, better 442 00:18:51.340 --> 00:18:54.260 data could settle the alien debate once and 443 00:18:54.260 --> 00:18:54.740 for all. 444 00:18:55.140 --> 00:18:57.020 Avery: And that's the version of this I can 445 00:18:57.020 --> 00:19:00.020 genuinely get behind. The worst outcome for a 446 00:19:00.020 --> 00:19:01.860 question like this is that it stays in the 447 00:19:01.860 --> 00:19:04.420 realm of blurry footage and anecdote forever. 448 00:19:04.950 --> 00:19:06.910 If this council produces calibrated 449 00:19:06.910 --> 00:19:09.590 instruments and open data, that's a win, 450 00:19:09.590 --> 00:19:11.510 regardless of what the answer turns out to 451 00:19:11.510 --> 00:19:14.470 be. If it produces headlines instead of data, 452 00:19:14.710 --> 00:19:16.550 well, we'll report that too. 453 00:19:16.950 --> 00:19:19.510 Anna: His own line on it Keep our eyes on the 454 00:19:19.510 --> 00:19:21.350 orbs, not the social media. 455 00:19:21.830 --> 00:19:24.150 Avery: On, um, this show, we keep our eyes on both 456 00:19:24.550 --> 00:19:26.750 strictly professionally Time for 457 00:19:26.750 --> 00:19:29.630 Anna: your skywatch, and Tonight is genuinely one 458 00:19:29.630 --> 00:19:32.420 to circle. 14 July brings a 459 00:19:32.420 --> 00:19:35.020 super new moon, which means the darkest 460 00:19:35.020 --> 00:19:37.820 skies of the entire month. And for those of 461 00:19:37.820 --> 00:19:40.420 us in Australia and New Zealand, that's a 462 00:19:40.420 --> 00:19:43.260 standing invitation. The Milky Way's core 463 00:19:43.260 --> 00:19:45.420 is riding high through the evening, with 464 00:19:45.420 --> 00:19:47.860 Scorpius and Sagittarius nearly 465 00:19:47.860 --> 00:19:50.220 overhead. If you've been meaning to get 466 00:19:50.220 --> 00:19:52.980 somewhere dark and see our galaxy properly 467 00:19:53.140 --> 00:19:55.300 tonight and the next few nights are the 468 00:19:55.300 --> 00:19:58.070 Avery: time while you're out there, look west after 469 00:19:58.070 --> 00:20:00.950 sunset for Venus, absolutely blazing at 470 00:20:00.950 --> 00:20:03.670 around magnitude -4 in LEO. You 471 00:20:03.670 --> 00:20:06.190 can't miss it. And here's one for your diary. 472 00:20:06.190 --> 00:20:09.030 On Thursday and Friday evening, the 16th 473 00:20:09.030 --> 00:20:11.710 and 17th, a slender young crescent 474 00:20:11.710 --> 00:20:14.590 moon slides up past Regulus and then Venus, 475 00:20:14.670 --> 00:20:16.270 low in the western twilight. 476 00:20:16.430 --> 00:20:19.150 Anna: A beautiful photo opportunity for the early 477 00:20:19.150 --> 00:20:21.750 risers. The pre dawn east is where the 478 00:20:21.750 --> 00:20:24.520 planets are congregating. Saturn is up after 479 00:20:24.520 --> 00:20:27.280 midnight and high before dawn with its rings 480 00:20:27.280 --> 00:20:30.080 tilted nicely for small telescopes. And 481 00:20:30.080 --> 00:20:32.840 Mars is gliding right past Aldebaran in 482 00:20:32.840 --> 00:20:35.640 Taurus this very morning. Two reddish 483 00:20:35.640 --> 00:20:38.480 points of similar brightness about 5 degrees 484 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:41.440 apart. A lovely color comparison with just 485 00:20:41.440 --> 00:20:42.080 your eyes. 486 00:20:42.560 --> 00:20:45.400 Avery: Dark skies, a brilliant evening star, and 487 00:20:45.400 --> 00:20:48.400 a red planet racing a red star. Not a 488 00:20:48.400 --> 00:20:50.240 bad week's programming from the universe. 489 00:20:50.820 --> 00:20:52.900 Anna: And that's Astronomy daily for Tuesday 490 00:20:53.060 --> 00:20:55.860 14th July. All our episodes, 491 00:20:55.940 --> 00:20:57.820 show notes and the newsletter are 492 00:20:57.820 --> 00:21:00.660 @astronomydaily IO and you'll 493 00:21:00.660 --> 00:21:02.260 find us across social media. 494 00:21:02.260 --> 00:21:05.100 Avery: Astrodaily pod if 495 00:21:05.100 --> 00:21:07.820 today's episode sparked an opinion and let's 496 00:21:07.820 --> 00:21:10.380 face it space mirrors and UFO councils will 497 00:21:10.380 --> 00:21:12.780 do that. Come tell us about it. We read 498 00:21:12.780 --> 00:21:14.260 everything. I'm Avery. 499 00:21:14.340 --> 00:21:16.660 Anna: And I'm Anna. Thanks for spending part of 500 00:21:16.660 --> 00:21:18.630 your day with us. Until tomorrow. 501 00:21:18.790 --> 00:21:19.750 Avery: Clear skies.