Latest / Space News Today / Artemis II : Go for Launch — Plus Saturn’s Rings, The Gigamaser & A Star From The Dawn of Time

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Artemis II : Go for Launch — Plus Saturn’s Rings, The Gigamaser & A Star From The Dawn of Time · Space News Today

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily.
• 0:03
  I'm Anna.
• 0:04
  >> And I'm Avery. And if you're listening
• 0:06
  to this on the morning of Wednesday, the
• 0:08
  1st of April here in Australia, there is
• 0:10
  a rocket on a launchpad in Florida right
• 0:13
  now, fully fueled, fully crewed, and
• 0:16
  pointed at the moon.
• 0:18
  >> This is not an April Fool's joke.
• 0:21
  >> Absolutely not. For the first time in
• 0:24
  over 50 years, human beings are
• 0:26
  preparing to leave Earth and head toward
• 0:29
  the moon. And today on this very special
• 0:31
  episode 77 of season 5, we are your
• 0:35
  countdown companion. We have six stories
• 0:38
  for you today. And yes, Artemis 2 is
• 0:41
  front and center. But we've also got a
• 0:43
  record-breaking space laser, a 12
• 0:46
  billionyear-old comet, a star born from
• 0:49
  the ashes of the very first stars in the
• 0:51
  universe, and a new chapter in the
• 0:54
  mystery of Saturn's rings.
• 0:56
  >> It is without question one of the most
• 0:58
  extraordinary days in the history of
• 1:00
  human space flight. Let's go.
• 1:02
  >> We begin where the world's attention is
• 1:05
  today. Kennedy Space Center, Cape
• 1:07
  Canaveral, Florida, where the countdown
• 1:09
  clock for NASA's Aremis 2 mission is
• 1:12
  ticking.
• 1:13
  >> At 4:44 p.m. Eastern time yesterday,
• 1:16
  that's early this morning for our
• 1:17
  Australian listeners. NASA flight
• 1:20
  controllers started the official
• 1:21
  countdown. Liftoff is targeted at 6:24
• 1:25
  p.m. Eastern, which is 8:24 tomorrow
• 1:27
  morning, AEDT. The crew has been in
• 1:30
  quarantine at the Neil Armstrong
• 1:32
  operations and checkout building
• 1:34
  following a strict schedule of sleep,
• 1:37
  nutrition, and technical briefings.
• 1:39
  Commander Reed Wiseman told reporters on
• 1:42
  the weekend, and I love this quote,
• 1:44
  "Hey, let's go to the moon."
• 1:46
  >> That is the energy we need. Wisemen
• 1:49
  leads a crew of four. Commander Reed
• 1:51
  Wisman, pilot Victor Glover, mission
• 1:54
  specialist Christina Coch, and Canadian
• 1:56
  astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Together, they
• 1:59
  will become the first humans to travel
• 2:01
  to the vicinity of the moon since Apollo
• 2:03
  17 in December 1972.
• 2:06
  >> More than 53 years. And this mission,
• 2:10
  Artemis 2, won't land on the moon. It's
• 2:13
  a 10-day test flight. The Orion capsule
• 2:16
  launched aboard the massive space launch
• 2:18
  system rocket will perform a figure 8
• 2:21
  trajectory out around the moon coming
• 2:23
  within about 6,000 m of the lunar
• 2:26
  surface on April 6th, then back to Earth
• 2:29
  for splashdown in the Pacific on
• 2:31
  approximately April 11th.
• 2:33
  >> The purpose is to stress test the Orion
• 2:36
  capsule's life support systems with
• 2:37
  humans on board for the first time.
• 2:40
  Everything they learn paves the way for
• 2:42
  Artemis 3, now planned as a low Earth
• 2:45
  orbit docking test in 2027 and
• 2:48
  ultimately the first lunar landing since
• 2:50
  Apollo in 2028.
• 2:53
  >> NASA launch director Charlie Blackwell
• 2:55
  Thompson reported yesterday that the
• 2:57
  countdown runup has been quote extremely
• 3:00
  smooth with only very minor ground
• 3:03
  equipment issues. Weather is currently
• 3:05
  forecast at 80% favorable. Some cloud
• 3:08
  cover and potential high winds on the
• 3:10
  ground are the primary concerns.
• 3:12
  >> And NASA has confirmed there's a 6-day
• 3:15
  launch window from April 1st through
• 3:17
  April 6th before the next opportunity
• 3:19
  opens at the end of the month. So,
• 3:21
  there's some flexibility if they need
• 3:22
  it.
• 3:23
  >> For our Southern Hemisphere listeners,
• 3:25
  and this is genuinely moving, this is
• 3:28
  the moment our generation has been
• 3:30
  waiting for. The next chapter of human
• 3:33
  exploration of the cosmos begins
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  Thursday morning, April 2nd at 9:24 a.m.
• 3:39
  Australian Eastern time. And if in the
• 3:42
  US, 6:24 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on
• 3:46
  April 1st, which all translates to 22:24
• 3:51
  UTC on April 2nd. I hope I got all those
• 3:55
  conversions right.
• 3:56
  >> We will be watching every second. Now,
• 3:59
  there was a dramatic subplot to
• 4:01
  yesterday's launch preparations. The sun
• 4:04
  decided to get involved. On Sunday
• 4:06
  night, a massive X1.4 class solar flare
• 4:10
  erupted from an active sunspot region
• 4:13
  designated AR4405.
• 4:16
  It peaked at just after 11:00 p.m.
• 4:19
  Eastern time and triggered a significant
• 4:21
  highfrequency radio blackout across the
• 4:24
  sunlit side of Earth, including, as it
• 4:26
  happens, parts of Southeast Asia and
• 4:29
  Northern Australia.
• 4:31
  >> Class flares are the most powerful
• 4:33
  category the sun produces. An X1.4 is
• 4:36
  serious business. The flare also
• 4:39
  launched a coronal mass ejection, a
• 4:41
  massive cloud of solar plasma with a
• 4:44
  possible earthdirected component.
• 4:46
  >> So NASA had something of an anxious
• 4:49
  Monday morning, but at the Lminus2 press
• 4:51
  conference, associate administrator Amit
• 4:54
  Cashatria gave everyone the all clear.
• 4:56
  Quote, we're not expecting the CME to
• 4:59
  cause any effects. We're not tracking
• 5:01
  concerns for the mission in general.
• 5:04
  Artemis 2 is go for April 1st. DOA's
• 5:07
  space weather prediction center has
• 5:09
  issued a G2, that's moderate,
• 5:12
  geomagnetic storm watch for today,
• 5:14
  Tuesday, March 31st, with G1, minor
• 5:18
  storm conditions possible through launch
• 5:20
  day tomorrow.
• 5:21
  >> And here's the silver lining for our
• 5:23
  listeners. That geomagnetic activity
• 5:26
  means auroras could be visible at lower
• 5:28
  latitudes than usual tonight. Under G2
• 5:31
  conditions, the Southern Aurora, the
• 5:33
  Aurora Arralis, may be visible further
• 5:36
  north than normal. Southern Hemisphere
• 5:38
  aurora watchers get outside tonight.
• 5:41
  >> We'll be watching the skies and the
• 5:43
  launchpad at the same time.
• 5:45
  >> All right, now let's travel to the other
• 5:47
  end of the universe. Because while
• 5:49
  everyone's been watching the launchpad,
• 5:51
  astronomers have spotted something
• 5:53
  extraordinary in the deep cosmos.
• 5:55
  Scientists have discovered the most
• 5:57
  distant and most powerful natural space
• 6:00
  laser ever detected. And I know that
• 6:03
  sounds like science fiction, but these
• 6:05
  things are very much real. They're
• 6:07
  called, the microwave equivalent of a
• 6:10
  laser. Where a laser amplifies visible
• 6:13
  light, a mermpic
• 6:15
  radiation. When a mer is powerful enough
• 6:18
  to be seen in other galaxies, it gets
• 6:20
  the name megaer. And now astronomers
• 6:23
  have found something so powerful they're
• 6:25
  proposing an entirely new category.
• 6:28
  >> A gigamaser. The signal comes from a
• 6:31
  galaxy system designated deep breath h a
• 6:35
  t lsj42,935.3us
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  2,836.
• 6:44
  Located approximately 8 billion
• 6:46
  lightyear from Earth. The light we're
• 6:49
  detecting began its journey when the
• 6:51
  universe was barely half its current
• 6:53
  age.
• 6:54
  >> It was discovered by the Mircat radio
• 6:56
  telescope array in South Africa. 64
• 6:59
  linked radio dishes working as one
• 7:01
  instrument. The detection was completely
• 7:04
  serendipitous. Team leader Tat Manamela
• 7:07
  from the University of Ptoria described
• 7:09
  it as quote, "We are seeing the radio
• 7:12
  equivalent of a laser halfway across the
• 7:14
  universe." And the mechanism is
• 7:17
  spectacular. Two galaxies are colliding.
• 7:20
  The gravitational violence of the merger
• 7:22
  compresses enormous clouds of gas,
• 7:25
  triggering a burst of new star
• 7:27
  formation. The intense radiation from
• 7:29
  those newborn stars then excites
• 7:31
  hydroxal molecules. That's one oxygen
• 7:34
  atom bonded to one hydrogen atom,
• 7:36
  causing them to emit microwaves in a
• 7:39
  focused amplified beam.
• 7:41
  >> The signal is so intense, roughly a
• 7:43
  100,000 times the luminosity of a star
• 7:47
  concentrated into a very narrow slice of
• 7:50
  the electromagnetic spectrum that it
• 7:52
  warrants its own classification beyond
• 7:55
  Mega Mazer. And it wouldn't even be
• 7:57
  visible without a stroke of cosmic luck.
• 8:01
  A completely unrelated foreground galaxy
• 8:04
  is perfectly aligned between the source
• 8:06
  and earth acting as a gravitational lens
• 8:10
  and amplifying the signal further.
• 8:12
  >> Bead researcher Mona said this is just
• 8:15
  the beginning. We don't want to find
• 8:16
  just one system. We want to find
• 8:18
  hundreds to thousands. The expectation
• 8:21
  is that when the square kilometer array
• 8:23
  comes fully online in South Africa,
• 8:26
  we'll start finding these gigamasers
• 8:28
  across cosmic history.
• 8:29
  >> The universe is remarkable.
• 8:32
  >> From one ancient signal to another, our
• 8:35
  old friend, the interstellar comet
• 8:37
  Threeey Atlas has just revealed a
• 8:40
  staggering secret about its age.
• 8:42
  >> We've been following Threeey Atlas since
• 8:44
  it was discovered back in July 2025. the
• 8:47
  third known interstellar object to pass
• 8:50
  through our solar system. It swung
• 8:52
  around the sun, caused enormous
• 8:53
  excitement, and now it's heading back
• 8:56
  out toward Jupiter and beyond. But new
• 8:58
  analysis using data from the James Web
• 9:00
  Space Telescope has given scientists a
• 9:03
  remarkable new insight by examining the
• 9:06
  isotopic composition of gases outgassing
• 9:08
  from the comet, specifically the ratio
• 9:11
  of carbon 12 to carbon 13 and the
• 9:13
  dutyium content of its water.
• 9:16
  Researchers now believe threeey atlas
• 9:18
  may be between 10 and 12 billion years
• 9:21
  old.
• 9:22
  >> Let that sink in. Our sun is 4.6 billion
• 9:27
  years old. Earth is 4.5 billion years
• 9:30
  old. This comet may have formed nearly
• 9:33
  three times earlier than that in the
• 9:35
  very earliest epoch of the Milky Way's
• 9:38
  history when the galaxy was first
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  igniting with star formation.
• 9:42
  >> The chemical signature tells the story.
• 9:45
  3i-TLS's
• 9:47
  water contains more dutyium, a heavier
• 9:49
  form of hydrogen, than any comet
• 9:52
  previously studied. Its carbon isotope
• 9:54
  ratios are also markedly different from
• 9:57
  anything in our solar system. These
• 9:59
  signatures point to formation in an
• 10:01
  extremely cold environment around 30
• 10:04
  Kelvin. That's minus243
• 10:08
  degrees C in the early metal pore
• 10:11
  protolanetary disc of some ancient long
• 10:14
  vanished star.
• 10:16
  >> And here's the haunting part. The star
• 10:18
  that gave birth to this comet, the star
• 10:21
  it originally orbited, almost certainly
• 10:24
  no longer exists. It would have burned
• 10:26
  through its nuclear fuel and died
• 10:28
  billions of years ago. 3II/ATLS
• 10:32
  has been drifting through interstellar
• 10:34
  space alone for longer than our planet
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  has existed. Researcher Roma Miola of
• 10:41
  the Royal Belgian Institute for Space
• 10:43
  Aeronomi put it beautifully. He said,
• 10:46
  "If 3II-ATLS
• 10:48
  is indeed as old as this study suggests,
• 10:51
  the large amounts of volatile molecules
• 10:53
  it contains indicate that rich prebiotic
• 10:56
  chemistry may have already been
• 10:58
  occurring in star forming regions very
• 11:01
  early in the history of our galaxy."
• 11:03
  >> A comet as a time capsule from the dawn
• 11:06
  of the Milky Way. We may never get
• 11:08
  another chance to study one like this.
• 11:10
  And staying with the theme of ancient
• 11:12
  messengers, astronomers have found a
• 11:14
  star in our own cosmic backyard that
• 11:17
  preserves the chemical fingerprint of
• 11:19
  the very first stars that ever existed.
• 11:22
  The star is called Pictor II503 and it
• 11:26
  lives in an ultra faint dwarf galaxy
• 11:28
  called Pictor 2 about 150,000
• 11:31
  light-years from Earth, which in cosmic
• 11:34
  terms is practically next door. The
• 11:36
  galaxy itself is more than 10 billion
• 11:38
  years old. Ptor II503
• 11:42
  is what astronomers call a second
• 11:44
  generation star. Meaning it formed from
• 11:47
  the debris of the very first stars in
• 11:49
  the universe. Those first stars made
• 11:52
  almost entirely of hydrogen and helium
• 11:55
  burned hot and fast and exploded in
• 11:57
  supernova, scattering the first heavier
• 12:00
  elements into the cosmos. Pctor II503
• 12:04
  formed from that debris.
• 12:06
  >> The evidence is unmistakable. The star
• 12:09
  contains less iron than any other star
• 12:11
  ever measured outside the Milky Way,
• 12:14
  less than a 40,000th the iron content of
• 12:16
  our sun, and it's enormously rich in
• 12:19
  carbon. That specific chemical signature
• 12:21
  is the hallmark of material enriched by
• 12:24
  the first generation of stellar
• 12:26
  explosions. The discovery published in
• 12:29
  Nature Astronomy in March was led by Ani
• 12:32
  Ruth Cheety, a Brinsen Prize Fellow at
• 12:34
  Stanford University. It used the dark
• 12:37
  energy camera at the Victor M. Blanco
• 12:39
  4meter telescope at Sero Interamerican
• 12:42
  Observatory in Chile. So this is
• 12:45
  beautifully a southern hemisphere
• 12:47
  discovery.
• 12:48
  >> MIT astrophysicist Anna Frabel who was
• 12:50
  not involved in study told science news,
• 12:53
  "It's a fantastic discovery. I know how
• 12:56
  hard it is to find these stars. They are
• 12:58
  so so rare." What's making this
• 13:01
  particularly significant is that Ptor
• 13:04
  II503 is the first unambiguous example
• 13:07
  of a second generation star found inside
• 13:10
  an ultra faint dwarf galaxy like Pctor
• 13:14
  2, which matters because it validates
• 13:16
  the theory that many of the most
• 13:18
  primitive stars we see in the Milky Ways
• 13:20
  halo were originally formed in tiny
• 13:23
  ancient dwarf galaxies like Pctor 2,
• 13:26
  which eventually merged with our own
• 13:28
  galaxy over cosmic time. As NSF program
• 13:31
  director Chris Davis put it,
• 13:32
  "Discoveries like this are cosmic
• 13:34
  archaeology, uncovering rare stellar
• 13:37
  fossils that preserve the fingerprints
• 13:39
  of the universe's first stars." I love
• 13:42
  that phrase, cosmic archaeology.
• 13:44
  >> And we close today with Saturn, because
• 13:47
  who doesn't love Saturn? And a fresh new
• 13:50
  chapter in one of planetary science's
• 13:52
  best mysteries. Where did those
• 13:54
  magnificent rings come from? Saturn's
• 13:56
  rings are one of the most iconic sites
• 13:58
  in the solar system. But here's the
• 14:00
  thing, they're surprisingly young.
• 14:03
  Saturn itself is over 4 12 billion years
• 14:06
  old, but its rings appear to be only
• 14:08
  somewhere between a 100 million and a
• 14:10
  few hundred million years old. The
• 14:12
  question has always been, why are they
• 14:14
  so young? New research presented at the
• 14:17
  Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
• 14:19
  in Texas this month adds compelling new
• 14:21
  weight to what's become the leading
• 14:23
  hypothesis that the rings were created
• 14:25
  when Saturn destroyed one of its own
• 14:28
  moons. The hypothetical moon has been
• 14:30
  named Chrysalis, a beautiful name
• 14:32
  because it transformed into something
• 14:34
  else entirely. The scenario led by Ye Fe
• 14:38
  Xiao of the University of California,
• 14:39
  Santa Cruz goes like this. Sometime
• 14:42
  between a 100 and 200 million years ago,
• 14:45
  the orbit of Chrysalis became
• 14:47
  gravitationally destabilized, sending it
• 14:49
  on a fatal trajectory towards Saturn.
• 14:52
  >> Saturn's tidal forces then went to work.
• 14:55
  The simulations show that the planet
• 14:57
  would have preferentially stripped away
• 15:00
  the moon's icy outer mantle while
• 15:02
  leaving much of its denser, rocky core
• 15:05
  intact. That distinction is crucial
• 15:09
  because it explains a long-standing
• 15:11
  puzzle. Why are Saturn's rings composed
• 15:14
  almost entirely of water ice with almost
• 15:18
  no rock?
• 15:19
  >> Because the rock sank into Saturn and
• 15:21
  the ice became the rings. The stripped
• 15:24
  icy material remained in orbit, was
• 15:26
  gradually shaped and sculpted by the
• 15:28
  gravitational influence of Saturn's
• 15:30
  larger moons, particularly Titan, and
• 15:33
  spread into the magnificent ring system
• 15:35
  we see today.
• 15:36
  >> And there's a bonus explanation. Saturn
• 15:39
  has a surprisingly steep axial tilt.
• 15:42
  It's tilted about 26.7°.
• 15:45
  The loss of Chrysalis is thought to have
• 15:47
  been the gravitational trigger that
• 15:49
  knocked Saturn out of a resonance with
• 15:51
  Neptune, which had been controlling its
• 15:53
  tilt for billions of years. Lose the
• 15:56
  moon, lose the resonance, and the tilt
• 15:58
  changes. As lead researcher Jiao told
• 16:01
  space.com, "This scenario can clearly
• 16:03
  explain why Saturn's rings are young.
• 16:06
  It's one of those moments where a single
• 16:08
  event, a moon falling to its doom,
• 16:10
  explains multiple mysteries at once."
• 16:13
  Chrysalis, the moon that became a
• 16:15
  butterfly, or in this case, one of the
• 16:18
  most breathtaking sites in the solar
• 16:20
  system.
• 16:20
  >> And that is your astronomy daily for
• 16:22
  today, episode 77 of season 5. What a
• 16:26
  day to be a space fan.
• 16:28
  >> Tomorrow, if all goes to plan, four
• 16:30
  human beings will ride fire into the sky
• 16:33
  and begin the journey to the moon for
• 16:35
  the first time since 1972.
• 16:38
  It's hard to fully comprehend what that
• 16:40
  means. We'll be back as soon as we can
• 16:43
  with launch coverage. In the meantime,
• 16:45
  if you're in Australia or New Zealand
• 16:47
  tonight, look south. There may be
• 16:49
  auroras.
• 16:50
  >> And if you're watching the launch and
• 16:51
  you feel a lump in your throat when that
• 16:53
  rocket clears the tower, that's exactly
• 16:56
  the right reaction.
• 16:57
  >> From Anna and me, this is Astronomy
• 16:59
  Daily. Clear skies, everyone.
• 17:12
  The stories told
• 17:20
  stories