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Are We Missing Alien Signals? Space Weather, Brain Changes and the Mars Life Question · Space News Today

• 0:00
  Welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm Anna.
• 0:03
  >> And I'm Avery. It's Monday, March 9th.
• 0:06
  And if you've been following the news
• 0:07
  this past week, the universe has been
• 0:09
  spectacularly busy.
• 0:11
  >> We've got alien signals going missing in
• 0:13
  the cosmic static. Astronaut brains
• 0:16
  getting physically rearranged in space,
• 0:19
  a dramatic launchpad rescue story
• 0:21
  straight out of a thriller, and a
• 0:23
  genuinely mindbending discovery about
• 0:26
  why Earth's seasons work the way they
• 0:28
  do. Plus, we're asking one of
• 0:30
  astrobiologyy's most provocative
• 0:32
  questions. Did life on Earth actually
• 0:34
  start on Mars? It's a packed episode.
• 0:37
  Let's get into it.
• 0:38
  >> Here's a thought that's going to sit
• 0:40
  with you for a while. What if we're not
• 0:42
  alone in the universe, but we've been
• 0:44
  tuning to the wrong frequency this whole
• 0:47
  time?
• 0:47
  >> That's essentially what a new study from
• 0:49
  SETI is suggesting. Researchers Vishal
• 0:52
  Gajar and Grace Brown have published
• 0:54
  work showing that stellar space weather,
• 0:57
  the kind of turbulent plasma and solar
• 0:59
  activity that stars constantly turn out,
• 1:02
  could physically distort alien radio
• 1:04
  signals before they even leave their
• 1:06
  home solar system. So, here's how SETI
• 1:09
  searches typically work. For decades,
• 1:11
  scientists have been scanning the sky
• 1:13
  for very tightly focused narrowband
• 1:16
  radio signals. Extremely specific
• 1:18
  frequencies that nothing natural in the
• 1:21
  universe should produce. If you detect
• 1:23
  one of those, the thinking goes, it's
• 1:25
  almost certainly artificial. It's almost
• 1:28
  certainly someone. And that logic is
• 1:30
  still sound, but the new research
• 1:32
  highlights a gap in the reasoning. Even
• 1:34
  if an alien civilization sends a
• 1:36
  perfectly clean narrowband signal, their
• 1:39
  own stars environment might smear it out
• 1:41
  before it escapes. Plasma density
• 1:44
  fluctuations and stellar winds or a
• 1:46
  burst from a coronal mass ejection can
• 1:49
  spread that tight signal across a much
• 1:51
  wider range of frequencies, reducing its
• 1:53
  strength at any single point below what
• 1:56
  our detectors can pick up. The team ran
• 1:58
  simulations of the million closest
• 2:01
  sunlike and red dwarf stars and found
• 2:03
  that 70% of stars would broaden a signal
• 2:06
  by more than one hertz, 30% by more than
• 2:09
  10 hertz. And if a coronal mass ejection
• 2:12
  happened to fire off at the moment of
• 2:14
  transmission, the broadening could
• 2:16
  exceed 1,000 hertz, making the signal
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  essentially invisible to the way we
• 2:21
  currently search.
• 2:22
  >> And red dorp stars are the biggest
• 2:24
  culprits here. And that's particularly
• 2:26
  significant because red dwarfs make up
• 2:28
  about 3/4 of all the stars in the Milky
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  Way. A lot of our SETI attention has
• 2:33
  focused on those systems precisely
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  because they're so common. And it turns
• 2:38
  out they may also be the most likely to
• 2:40
  garble any messages being sent from
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  their planets. The good news is that
• 2:45
  identifying the problem is the first
• 2:47
  step to solving it. The team says this
• 2:49
  gives us a framework for redesigning
• 2:51
  searches to remain sensitive even when
• 2:54
  signals are broadened to look for what
• 2:56
  actually arrives at Earth rather than
• 2:58
  what was originally transmitted.
• 3:01
  >> It's a bit like realizing you've been
• 3:02
  trying to tune into a radio station, but
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  the signal had passed through a foggy
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  atmosphere on its way to you. It's not
• 3:09
  that the station isn't broadcasting.
• 3:11
  It's that we need a better aerial.
• 3:13
  >> And that's a much more hopeful framing
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  than nobody's out there. The universe
• 3:18
  might be full of voices we just haven't
• 3:20
  learned to hear yet.
• 3:21
  >> Now, if you're planning a trip to space
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  or if you're just a big Aremis fan, this
• 3:26
  next story is worth paying attention to.
• 3:27
  Though, we want to say upfront that it's
• 3:29
  fascinating rather than alarming.
• 3:31
  >> A new study published in the proceedings
• 3:33
  of the National Academy of Sciences has
• 3:36
  found that spaceflight doesn't just
• 3:38
  change your perspective on life. It
• 3:40
  literally shifts the physical position
• 3:42
  of your brain inside your skull. A team
• 3:45
  led by Rachel Sidler at the University
• 3:48
  of Florida analyzed MRI scans from 26
• 3:51
  astronauts taken before and after
• 3:54
  missions to the ISS. Missions ranging
• 3:56
  from a few weeks to over a year. To
• 3:59
  measure the brain's actual movement,
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  they aligned each person's skull across
• 4:03
  the two scans so they could track the
• 4:06
  brain's position relative to the bone
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  itself.
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  >> And what they found was striking. The
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  brain shifts upward and backward inside
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  the skull. It also physically deforms,
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  stretching and compressing in different
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  directions. The sensory and motor
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  regions show the largest shifts. And
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  crucially, the longer someone spent in
• 4:26
  space, the more pronounced these changes
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  were.
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  >> The underlying cause is what you'd
• 4:30
  expect from microgravity. On Earth,
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  gravity constantly pulls fluids,
• 4:35
  including the cerebral spinal fluid
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  surrounding your brain, downward. In
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  space, that force disappears. Fluid
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  redistributes towards the head. The
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  brain effectively floats in the skull
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  and it responds to different forces from
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  surrounding tissues.
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  >> Previous research already knew the brain
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  shifts upward in space. What makes this
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  study important is the level of detail.
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  Instead of treating the brain as one
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  object, the team divided it into more
• 5:00
  than 100 regions and tracked each
• 5:03
  individually. that revealed patterns
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  like opposing lateral shifts on each
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  side of the brain that had been
• 5:09
  canceling each other out and going
• 5:11
  unnoticed in whole brain averages. The
• 5:14
  reassuring news, most of the changes
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  recover within 6 months of returning to
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  Earth, and the astronauts themselves
• 5:20
  didn't report symptoms like headaches or
• 5:22
  cognitive fog. The researchers stressed
• 5:25
  that this doesn't mean people shouldn't
• 5:27
  go to space. But as missions get longer
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  and as Aremis starts taking humans back
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  to the moon and eventually towards Mars,
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  understanding these effects will be
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  important for designing proper
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  countermeasures.
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  >> It's a reminder that space is a
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  genuinely alien environment for the
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  human body. We evolved under one gravity
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  and every time we leave it, we're
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  running an experiment on ourselves. The
• 5:49
  more we understand those experiments,
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  the safer we can make longduration space
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  flight. Now for a story that is in the
• 5:56
  best possible way a bit of a thriller.
• 5:59
  In November last year, something went
• 6:01
  wrong at the historic Biconor Cosmodrome
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  in Kazakhstan and nobody was entirely
• 6:06
  sure it could be fixed in time.
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  >> It started on November 27th, 2025. A
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  Soyuse rocket lifted off from launch
• 6:14
  site 31 carrying the Soyuse MS28
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  spacecraft with two Rose Cosmos
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  cosminauts and NASA astronaut
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  Christopher Williams aboard. The launch
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  was successful. The crew docked with the
• 6:25
  ISS without incident,
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  >> but post-launch inspection footage
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  revealed significant damage to the pad
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  itself. A component called the service
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  cabin, which retracts into a protective
• 6:36
  cavity to shield it from engine exhaust
• 6:38
  during ascent, hadn't been properly
• 6:40
  secured. The powerful rocket exhaust,
• 6:43
  dislodged it, and the structure fell
• 6:44
  several meters into the launch trench,
• 6:47
  deforming bridges, access walkways, and
• 6:49
  other critical infrastructure. The space
• 6:52
  community was skeptical this could be
• 6:54
  fixed quickly. These are heavy, complex
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  structures, but Rose Cosmos committed to
• 6:59
  the repair. And it turns out their long
• 7:01
  history with the Soyuse system gave them
• 7:03
  an unexpected advantage. Bare service
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  cabins had been sitting in storage, left
• 7:08
  over from refurbishment plans dating
• 7:10
  back to the 1970s.
• 7:12
  >> The restoration effort was enormous.
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  Over 150 personnel worked on the
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  project. They completed over 250 m of
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  welding, painted nearly 2400 square
• 7:23
  meters of structures, replaced all
• 7:25
  fastening units, and fully updated the
• 7:28
  electrical systems. The replacement
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  cabin, originally built for an older
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  Soyuse variant, needed modifications to
• 7:34
  work with modern hardware.
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  >> And in under two months from the initial
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  damage assessment, far faster than most
• 7:40
  observers anticipated, Rose Cosmos
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  announced the pad was fully restored and
• 7:45
  declared ready for operations. That
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  means Progress MS33, an uncrrewed cargo
• 7:51
  ship, is now cleared to launch from site
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  31 on March 22nd. It will deliver around
• 7:57
  2.5 tons of supplies to the ISS.
• 8:00
  Propellant, water, food, scientific
• 8:04
  equipment, and crew parcels.
• 8:06
  >> It's a genuinely impressive piece of
• 8:08
  engineering under pressure. And it's a
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  good reminder that behind every rocket
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  launch is an enormous amount of
• 8:14
  groundwork. literally in this case that
• 8:17
  never makes headlines until something
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  goes sideways.
• 8:20
  >> Okay, pop quiz. Why do we have seasons?
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  >> Earth's axial tilt. We all learned this
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  in school. When the northern hemisphere
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  is tilted toward the sun, it's summer up
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  here. When it's tilted away, it's
• 8:32
  winter.
• 8:33
  >> Exactly right. And most people also know
• 8:36
  that Earth's orbit around the sun is
• 8:38
  slightly elliptical. We're a bit closer
• 8:40
  to the sun in January and a bit farther
• 8:43
  away in July, but we're usually told
• 8:45
  that effect is minor and it doesn't
• 8:47
  significantly change our seasons. Well,
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  a new study published in Nature suggests
• 8:53
  we may have been underelling that
• 8:55
  distance effect quite significantly. The
• 8:58
  research led by John Chiang at UC
• 9:00
  Berkeley focuses on a specific feature
• 9:02
  of the Pacific Ocean called the cold
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  tongue. A strip of cooler water that
• 9:06
  stretches westward from South America
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  along the equator. This cold tongue is
• 9:11
  closely tied to El Nino and Lania cycles
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  which influence rainfall, drought, and
• 9:16
  weather patterns across huge swaths of
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  the planet. What Chang and his
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  colleagues found is that the changing
• 9:23
  Earth's sun distance creates its own
• 9:25
  separate annual cycle in the cold
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  tongue, distinct from the tilt-driven
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  one. And the two cycles are slightly out
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  of sync. The distance-based one runs
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  about 25 minutes longer than the
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  tilt-based one. That doesn't sound like
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  much, but it means that over about
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  11,000 years, the two effects drift from
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  being perfectly in phase to perfectly
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  out of phase. When they're in phase,
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  like they are roughly today, the effects
• 9:52
  reinforce each other. When they're out
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  of phase, as they were around 6,000
• 9:56
  years ago, they partially cancel,
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  producing a much weaker seasonal cycle
• 10:00
  in the cold tongue. And since the cold
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  tongue drives El Nino, that means El
• 10:05
  Nino patterns themselves would have been
• 10:07
  dramatically different in the deep past.
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  >> The mechanism works in a
• 10:11
  counterintuitive direction, too. While
• 10:14
  axial tilt creates north south
• 10:16
  temperature differences, the distance
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  effect creates an east west contrast
• 10:21
  between the continental hemisphere of
• 10:23
  the Americas, Africa, and Eurasia and
• 10:26
  the ocean dominated Pacific side. That
• 10:29
  contrast drives trade winds which in
• 10:31
  turn shape the cold tongue.
• 10:33
  >> It's worth noting the study is entirely
• 10:35
  modelbased. It's a prediction that will
• 10:38
  need observational verification, but it
• 10:40
  opens fascinating questions for
• 10:42
  paleoclimate science. If Earth's orbital
• 10:45
  shape was changing the cold tongue over
• 10:47
  22,000year cycles, some ancient climate
• 10:50
  records may need reinterpretation. And
• 10:53
  there's something wonderfully humbling
• 10:55
  about it. We've been telling school
• 10:56
  children for generations exactly why
• 10:59
  seasons happen. And it turns out the
• 11:01
  full picture involves a subtle cosmic
• 11:04
  clockwork we hadn't fully accounted for.
• 11:07
  >> And now for our final story today, and
• 11:09
  honestly one of the most mindbending
• 11:11
  things you can contemplate on a Monday.
• 11:13
  What if you're not from Earth
• 11:16
  >> in a very literal biological sense?
• 11:19
  Possibly.
• 11:20
  >> A new study is revisiting the concept of
• 11:22
  panspermia. the idea that life doesn't
• 11:25
  necessarily originate independently on
• 11:27
  each planet, but can travel between
• 11:29
  worlds and the vehicle asteroid impacts.
• 11:33
  >> Here's the premise. We know that when a
• 11:35
  large asteroid or comet slams into a
• 11:37
  planet with enough force, it can blast
• 11:40
  material into space, rocks, dust, and
• 11:43
  potentially anything living inside those
• 11:45
  rocks. We've actually found meteorites
• 11:48
  on Earth that originated on Mars,
• 11:50
  blasted off by ancient impacts. So, the
• 11:53
  physical pathway definitely exists.
• 11:56
  >> The question has always been, could
• 11:58
  anything survive that journey? You're
• 12:00
  talking about the ejection itself, an
• 12:03
  enormous shock wave, then exposure to
• 12:05
  the vacuum and radiation of space for
• 12:08
  potentially millions of years, then a
• 12:10
  fiery atmospheric entry, and high-speed
• 12:13
  impact at the destination.
• 12:15
  >> The new research suggests the answer
• 12:17
  might be yes. under the right
• 12:19
  conditions. Some microbes, particularly
• 12:21
  those that form hardy spores or live
• 12:24
  deep within rocks, could potentially
• 12:26
  survive all of those stages. The rock
• 12:28
  itself provides shielding from radiation
• 12:30
  during transit. And the numbers game
• 12:32
  matters. Even if only a tiny fraction of
• 12:35
  ejected material survives, the sheer
• 12:37
  volume of material blasted around the
• 12:39
  early solar system means some viable
• 12:42
  biology could have made the crossing.
• 12:44
  >> The Mars connection is particularly
• 12:46
  intriguing. Early Mars was by many
• 12:49
  accounts a better candidate for life to
• 12:51
  emerge first than early Earth. It cooled
• 12:54
  faster. It had liquid water earlier. And
• 12:57
  it had a gentler gravitational well,
• 13:00
  making it easier for material to escape.
• 13:02
  If life arose on Mars billions of years
• 13:05
  ago and hitched a ride on an impact
• 13:08
  ejected rock, Earth could effectively
• 13:10
  have been seated. which would mean that
• 13:12
  if we ever find microbial life on Mars
• 13:15
  or evidence of ancient life there, we'd
• 13:17
  face a fascinating interpretive
• 13:19
  challenge. Did life arise independently
• 13:22
  on both worlds or are we all in some
• 13:24
  deep ancestral sense Martians?
• 13:27
  >> The study emphasizes this is still
• 13:29
  highly speculative. Hence Bermia remains
• 13:32
  a hypothesis rather than established
• 13:35
  science. But as our ability to study
• 13:37
  Martian samples improves, especially
• 13:40
  with future sample return missions, we
• 13:42
  may eventually be in a position to test
• 13:45
  it directly.
• 13:46
  >> Either way, the question is deeply
• 13:48
  fascinating and it gives a whole new
• 13:50
  flavor to the phrase out of this world.
• 13:53
  >> That's Astronomy Daily for Monday, March
• 13:55
  9th. From scrambled alien signals to
• 13:58
  astronaut brains, from a launchpad
• 14:01
  resurrection to the hidden clockwork of
• 14:03
  Earth's seasons, and the possibility
• 14:06
  that we're all secretly from Mars.
• 14:08
  >> It's been a great episode. If you're
• 14:10
  enjoying the show, please leave us a
• 14:12
  review wherever you listen. It genuinely
• 14:14
  helps new listeners find us. And share
• 14:16
  an episode with a friend who's curious
• 14:18
  about the universe.
• 14:19
  >> You can find us at astronomyaily.io
• 14:22
  IO and we're @ Astro Daily Pod on X,
• 14:25
  Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube, and Tumblr.
• 14:28
  >> We'll be back tomorrow with more of the
• 14:30
  universe's greatest hits. Until then,
• 14:32
  keep looking up.
• 14:33
  >> Bye for now.
• 14:45
  Stories told.