Latest / Space News Today / Artemis II’s Historic Cargo, Orbital Debris Crisis, and AI Finds 7,000 New Worlds

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Artemis II’s Historic Cargo, Orbital Debris Crisis, and AI Finds 7,000 New Worlds · Space News Today

0:00
Welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm Anna.
0:03
>> And I'm Avery. It's Friday, January
0:06
23rd, and we've got an amazing lineup of
0:08
space stories to close out your week.
0:10
>> We certainly do. Today, we're exploring
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NASA's plans to send some very special
0:16
keepsakes around the moon on Artemis 2,
0:19
Blue Origin's latest new Glenn launch
0:22
plans, and some fascinating new research
0:24
about where Earth's water really came
0:27
from. Plus, we'll dive into a rather
0:29
urgent warning about the increasing
0:31
dangers of space debris, uncover new
0:33
insights about how super massive black
0:35
holes grew so quickly, and learn how AI
0:38
is helping scientists discover thousands
0:40
of new exoplanets. Let's get started.
0:43
>> Avery, as Artemis 2 preparations
0:46
continue at Kennedy Space Center, NASA
0:49
has revealed something really special
0:51
they'll be taking along for the ride.
0:53
And it's not just the four astronauts.
0:55
Oh, I love when missions carry
0:57
meaningful items. What are they
0:59
bringing?
1:00
>> This is fascinating. The official flight
1:02
kit includes a piece of fabric from the
1:05
original 1903 Wright flyer. It's a tiny
1:08
swatch just 1 in square from the very
1:11
first aircraft that made the powered
1:13
flight at Kittyhawk. What's even cooler
1:16
is that this same piece already flew on
1:18
the space shuttle Discovery back in
1:20
1985.
1:22
So, it's making its second journey to
1:24
space. That's a beautiful connection
1:26
between the beginning of powered flight
1:28
and humanity's return to the moon. What
1:31
else is in the flight kit?
1:32
>> Bears an American flag with an
1:34
incredible history. It flew on the very
1:36
first shuttle mission, STS1, and the
1:40
final shuttle mission, STS135.
1:43
It also went up on SpaceX's first crude
1:46
Dragon flight. Talk about bookending an
1:49
era of space flight. That flag has seen
1:51
some serious history. Is there anything
1:53
connecting Artemis back to the Apollo
1:55
program?
1:56
>> Absolutely. They're flying a flag that
1:58
was originally meant for Apollo 18, a
2:01
mission that never happened. This will
2:04
be its very first space flight, finally
2:06
fulfilling its original destiny after
2:08
all these years. There's also a photo
2:11
negative from the Ranger 7 mission,
2:13
which was the US first spacecraft to
2:16
successfully reach the lunar surface
2:18
back in the 1960s.
2:20
>> It's like they're weaving together the
2:21
entire story of American exploration.
2:24
And knowing NASA, I bet they're
2:26
including the public somehow.
2:27
>> Of course, an SD card carrying millions
2:30
of names, including ours, from the send
2:33
your name to space campaign, will be
2:35
aboard. NASA administrator Jared
2:38
Isaacman put it beautifully when he
2:40
said, "These artifacts reflect the long
2:42
arc of American exploration and the
2:45
generations of innovators who made this
2:47
moment possible." With about 10 lbs of
2:50
momentos in total, Artemis 2 will truly
2:53
be carrying our collective history and
2:56
dreams forward into the next chapter
2:58
beyond Earth.
2:59
>> What a perfect way to mark America's
3:01
250th anniversary. Now, speaking of
3:04
missions and launches, let's shift gears
3:06
to Blue Origin and their New Glenn
3:08
rocket.
3:09
>> Blue Origin has announced their third
3:11
New Glenn launch is scheduled for late
3:13
February. And there's an interesting
3:16
twist to this one.
3:17
>> Let me guess, everyone expected them to
3:19
fly their Blue Moon lunar lander next.
3:21
Right.
3:22
>> Exactly. But instead, they're launching
3:24
a satellite for AS Space Mobile, making
3:28
it the second commercial payload to fly
3:30
on New Glenn. The Blue Moon Mark1 lander
3:33
is currently being shipped to NASA's
3:35
Johnson Space Center for vacuum chamber
3:37
testing, and they haven't announced a
3:39
launch date for that mission yet.
3:41
>> So, what makes this particular launch
3:43
notable?
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>> This will be the third new Glenn launch
3:46
in just over a year, which is impressive
3:49
considering the rocket spent a decade in
3:51
development. But here's the really
3:53
exciting part. They're reusing the
3:55
booster from November's second flight.
3:58
They successfully landed it on a drone
4:00
ship in the ocean just like SpaceX does
4:02
with Falcon 9.
4:04
>> So, this demonstrates their reusability
4:07
program is working. That's crucial for
4:09
reducing launch costs. What else is Blue
4:12
Origin working on?
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>> They've got some ambitious plans. In
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November, they revealed a Superheavy
4:18
variant of New Glenn that will be taller
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than a Saturn 5 rocket on par with
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SpaceX's Starship. And just this week,
4:26
they announced a satellite internet
4:28
constellation called Terrowave that they
4:31
plan to start deploying in late 2027.
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>> February is shaping up to be a busy
4:36
month for space flight. NASA might
4:38
launch Artemis 2 as early as February
4:41
6th. SpaceX is testing the third version
4:44
of Starship and Crew 12 to the
4:46
International Space Station is also
4:48
scheduled. Speaking of busy orbital
4:50
environments, that brings us to our next
4:52
story about space debris. Avery, this
4:55
next story is both fascinating and a bit
4:58
alarming. A new study has introduced
5:01
something called the crash clock. And
5:03
according to their calculations, if
5:05
satellite operators suddenly lost the
5:08
ability to maneuver their spacecraft, we
5:10
could see a catastrophic collision in
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just 5.5 days.
5:15
>> Wait, 5.5 days? That's incredibly short.
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What's driving this?
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>> Mega constellations. The researchers
5:23
found that close approaches between
5:25
satellites, defined as two satellites
5:27
passing within 1 kilometer of each
5:29
other, now happen every 22 seconds
5:32
across all low Earth orbit mega
5:35
constellations. For Starlink alone, it's
5:37
once every 11 minutes. Each Starling
5:40
satellite performs an average of 41
5:43
avoidance maneuvers per year.
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>> Those numbers are staggering. And you
5:48
said 5.5 days. I thought I'd heard this
5:51
was originally 2.8 days.
5:53
>> Good catch. The team updated their model
5:56
based on community feedback. The
5:58
original calculation was 2.8 days, but
6:00
after incorporating expert input, they
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revised it to 5.5 days for 2025 data. By
6:07
comparison, back in 2018, before the
6:10
mega constellation era really took off,
6:12
it would have taken 164 days before a
6:16
collision. So, we've gone from 164 days
6:19
down to 5.5 days in just 7 years. What
6:23
could cause operators to lose control
6:25
like that?
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>> Solar storms are the main threat. When a
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coronal mass ejection hits Earth, it
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heats up the upper atmosphere, creating
6:33
more drag on satellites and making their
6:35
trajectories harder to predict. During
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the Ganon storm in May 2024, over half
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of all satellites in low Earth orbit had
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to use fuel for repositioning maneuvers.
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More seriously, solar storms can knock
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out satellites navigational and
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communication systems, leaving them
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unable to maneuver at all.
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>> And solar storms don't give us much
6:57
warning, do they?
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>> Typically, just a day or two at most.
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The study found that within 24 hours of
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losing maneuvering capability, there's a
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30% chance of a collision between
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tracked objects and a 26% chance of a
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collision involving a Starlink satellite
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specifically. Such collisions would be
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catastrophic, creating major debris
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generating events with high likelihood
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of secondary and tertiary collisions.
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That sounds like Kesler syndrome. The
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cascade effect where collisions create
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debris that causes more collisions.
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>> Exactly. Though the researchers want to
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be clear about something important. Lead
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author Sarah Theal emphasized they're
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not saying Kesler syndrome is days away.
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The crash clock only measures time to
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the first collision, not a runaway
7:45
cascade. Bull Kesler syndrome would take
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decades or even centuries to develop.
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But the clock does show how reliant we
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are on errorless operations every single
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day.
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>> So it's more of a stress indicator for
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the orbital environment.
8:00
>> Right. The team suggests the crash clock
8:03
could serve as a key environmental
8:05
indicator similar to how we use carbon
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emissions metrics for climate change.
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They're calling for improved debris
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mitigation, coordinated traffic
8:14
management, and stronger space weather
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resilience measures to protect the
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technology modern society depends on.
8:22
Now, let's shift from orbital concerns
8:24
to lunar mysteries.
8:27
>> For decades, Anna, scientists have
8:29
assumed that Earth's water was delivered
8:31
by asteroids and comets during the late
8:33
heavy bombardment about 4 billion years
8:35
ago. But new research from lunar samples
8:38
is challenging that assumption.
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>> The Apollo samples are still teaching us
8:42
new things after all these years. What
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did they find?
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>> Dr. Tony Gargano at the Lunar and
8:48
Planetary Institute led a team that
8:50
analyzed lunar rocks and regalith using
8:52
high precision triple oxygen isotopes.
8:55
They found that meteorites could only
8:57
have supplied a small fraction of
8:58
Earth's water, even by the most generous
9:01
estimates. The lunar surface record sets
9:04
a hard limit on volatile delivery.
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>> Why is the moon such a good record
9:08
keeper for this?
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>> On Earth, tectonic plates constantly
9:12
renew the surface, erasing traces of
9:14
ancient impacts. But the moon is airless
9:16
and hasn't had geological activity for
9:19
billions of years. So, its geological
9:21
records since the late heavy bombardment
9:23
has been carefully preserved. It's like
9:25
a cosmic history book that hasn't been
9:27
edited. How did they approach the
9:29
analysis differently from previous
9:31
studies?
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>> Instead of focusing on metal loving
9:34
elements like previous researchers,
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Gargano's team analyzed oxygen isotopes
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which make up the largest mass fraction
9:41
of rocks. The oxygen triple isotope
9:44
signature can separate two things that
9:46
are often confused in lunar regalith.
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The addition of impactor material and
9:50
the effects of impact induced
9:52
vaporization on isotopic composition.
9:55
And what did the oxygen isotopes tell
9:57
them?
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>> They found that at least 1% of the
9:59
moon's mass consists of impact related
10:02
material, likely from carbonatous
10:04
meteorites that partially vaporized on
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impact. From this, they calculated that
10:09
only a tiny amount of water has been
10:11
delivered to the Earth moon system since
10:13
the late heavy bombardment compared to
10:15
Earth's existing water.
10:16
>> To put that in perspective, how much
10:18
water does Earth have? Water covers over
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71% of Earth's surface, but it only
10:24
accounts for about 0.023%
10:27
of Earth's total mass. That still works
10:30
out to roughly 1.466
10:33
kg. That's 1.46 followed by 21.
10:38
So even a tiny fraction of that is
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significant.
10:40
>> Co-author Dr. Justin Simon from NASA
10:44
summed it up well. The results don't say
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meteorites delivered no water, but they
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do make it very hard for late meteorite
10:51
delivery to be the dominant source of
10:54
Earth's oceans.
10:55
>> This has interesting implications for
10:57
lunar exploration, doesn't it?
10:59
>> Absolutely. While meteorites may have
11:02
delivered only a tiny fraction of
11:04
Earth's water, their contribution could
11:06
be crucial for the moon. Water ice in
11:09
permanently shadowed regions is
11:11
essential for establishing a sustained
11:13
human presence, providing drinking
11:15
water, irrigation, radiation shielding,
11:18
and the means to make rocket propellant.
11:21
As the researchers noted, that small
11:23
amount of water delivered by impacts
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could be the single most important
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factor enabling humanity's expansion
11:31
into space. From water on the moon to
11:34
mysteries in the early universe, let's
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talk about super massive black holes.
11:38
>> How did black holes get so big so fast?
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That's been one of astronomy's great
11:44
mysteries, Avery. And researchers at
11:46
Ireland's May University have found an
11:49
answer.
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>> The James Webb Space Telescope has been
11:52
finding these massive black holes in the
11:54
early universe that shouldn't exist
11:56
according to our previous models. Right.
11:58
>> Exactly. These super massive black holes
12:01
existed just a few hundred million years
12:04
after the big bang and conventional
12:06
theories said there wasn't enough time
12:08
for them to grow so large. The May team
12:11
led by PhD candidate Daxel Ma used
12:14
state-of-the-art computer simulations to
12:17
reveal what happened
12:18
>> and what did they discover? The chaotic
12:21
conditions in the early universe
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triggered these smaller black holes to
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undergo what they call a feeding frenzy,
12:28
devouring material all around them. The
12:31
dense gas-rich environments in early
12:33
galaxies enabled something called
12:36
superdington accretion.
12:38
>> Super Edington accretion. That sounds
12:41
intense. What is it?
12:42
>> It's when a black hole eats matter
12:45
faster than what's considered normal or
12:47
safe. Normally, when matter falls into a
12:50
black hole that quickly, it should blow
12:53
the food away with radiation pressure.
12:55
But somehow, in these early dense
12:58
environments, the black holes kept
13:00
eating anyway, growing incredibly fast
13:04
into tens of thousands of times the mass
13:07
of our sun.
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>> So, they found the missing link between
13:10
the first stars and later super massive
13:12
black holes.
13:14
>> Yes, black holes come in two main seed
13:17
types. light seeds, which start at only
13:19
about 10 to a few hundred times the mass
13:22
of our sun, and heavy seeds, which can
13:24
start at up to 100,000 solar masses.
13:28
Previously, astronomers thought you
13:30
needed those rare heavy seeds to explain
13:33
super massive black holes. But this
13:35
research shows that common light seed
13:38
black holes can grow at extreme rates
13:40
under the right conditions.
13:42
>> Dr. John Regan from the team put it
13:44
perfectly when he said, "Heavy seeds are
13:46
somewhat exotic and may need rare
13:48
conditions to form, but their
13:50
simulations show that garden variety
13:52
stellar mass black holes can grow at
13:54
extreme rates in the early universe."
13:56
>> This has implications beyond just
13:59
understanding the past. The research
14:01
team noted that future gravitational
14:03
wave observations from the LISA mission
14:06
scheduled to launch in 2035 may be able
14:09
to detect the mergers of these tiny
14:12
early rapidly growing baby black holes.
14:15
It's exciting to think we might actually
14:17
observe these processes directly. From
14:20
black holes to exoplanets, let's close
14:22
with our final story about AI hunting
14:24
for new worlds. Anna, we found over
14:27
6,000 exoplanets so far with more than
14:30
half discovered using data from NASA's
14:32
Kepler and test missions, but there's
14:34
still a treasure trove of data waiting
14:36
to be analyzed. And that's where
14:38
artificial intelligence comes in.
14:40
>> I remember hearing about Exomminer back
14:42
in 2021. Is that what this is about?
14:45
>> Exactly. The team at NASA's AS research
14:48
center created exomminer, which used AI
14:51
to validate 370 new exoplanets from
14:55
Kepler data. Now, they've released
14:57
Exomminer Plus+ trained on both Kepler
15:00
and test data, and the results are
15:02
impressive.
15:03
>> What can the new version do?
15:05
>> On its initial run of test data, Exom
15:08
Miner++ identified 7,000 targets as
15:11
exoplanet candidates. These are signals
15:13
that are likely to be planets, but
15:15
require follow-up observations to
15:17
confirm. The software sifts through
15:19
observations of possible transits, those
15:22
tiny dips in starlight when a planet
15:24
passes in front of its host star, and
15:26
predicts which ones are real planets
15:28
versus other phenomena like eclipsing
15:30
binary stars.
15:31
>> And this is all open-source software.
15:34
>> Yes, anyone can download it from GitHub
15:36
and use it to hunt for planets in TESS's
15:38
growing public data archive. Kevin
15:41
Murphy, NASA's chief science data
15:43
officer, emphasized that open-source
15:45
software like Exom Minor accelerates
15:47
scientific discovery. When researchers
15:49
freely share their tools, it lets others
15:52
replicate results and dig deeper into
15:54
the data.
15:55
>> What makes Exomminer Plus+ particularly
15:58
effective?
15:59
>> Miguel Martinho, the co-investigator,
16:01
explains that when you have hundreds of
16:03
thousands of signals like this, it's the
16:05
ideal place to deploy deep learning
16:07
technologies. Despite Kepler and TESS
16:10
operating differently, TESS surveys
16:12
nearly the whole sky looking for planets
16:14
around nearby stars, while Kepler looked
16:17
at a small patch of sky more deeply. The
16:19
two missions produce compatible data
16:21
sets. This allows Exomminer Plus+ to
16:24
train on both and deliver strong
16:26
results.
16:27
>> Project lead Jameid again said it
16:29
perfectly. With not many resources, they
16:32
can make a lot of returns. What's next
16:34
for the program? The team is working on
16:36
giving the model the ability to identify
16:38
transit signals themselves from raw data
16:41
rather than just evaluating
16:42
pre-identified candidates. And looking
16:45
ahead, NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space
16:47
Telescope will capture tens of thousands
16:50
of exoplanet transits starting in a few
16:52
years. And all that data will be freely
16:54
available, too. The advances made with
16:56
Exomminer could help hunt for planets in
16:58
Roman data as well.
17:00
>> Exoplanet scientist John Jenkins summed
17:02
it up beautifully. Open source science
17:05
and open-source software are why the
17:07
exoplanet field is advancing as quickly
17:09
as it is. It's a great reminder of how
17:12
collaboration and shared resources drive
17:14
discovery.
17:15
>> And that's all we have time for today.
17:18
What a day of space news, Anna. From
17:20
legacy keepsakes heading to the moon to
17:22
urgent warnings about orbital debris to
17:25
AI discovering thousands of new worlds
17:27
>> and everything in between. New insights
17:30
about Earth's water, the rapid growth of
17:32
super massive black holes, and Blue
17:35
Origin's expanding launch manifest.
17:37
Space exploration continues to
17:39
accelerate on multiple fronts.
17:41
>> That's it for today's episode of
17:42
Astronomy Daily. Thanks for joining us,
17:44
and we'll see you tomorrow. Keep looking
17:46
up.
17:47
>> Clear skies, everyone. Astronomy day.
17:51
The stories be told.
18:00
Stories told.