Latest / Space News Today / Episode 100: When Black Holes Beat Galaxies, Rocks Beat Rovers and Planets Smell Terrible

Transcript

Episode 100: When Black Holes Beat Galaxies, Rocks Beat Rovers and Planets Smell Terrible · Space News Today

• 0:00
  Welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm Anna.
• 0:03
  >> And I'm Avery. You're listening to
• 0:05
  season 5 and today to episode 100.
• 0:09
  >> 100 episodes this season. We should
• 0:12
  probably pause for half a second and
• 0:14
  just notice that.
• 0:16
  >> Half a second starting now.
• 0:18
  >> Done. Back to the universe, which as
• 0:21
  usual hasn't slowed down to let us catch
• 0:23
  our breath.
• 0:24
  >> Not even slightly. Today we have a
• 0:26
  rocket heading to the International
• 0:28
  Space Station literally tonight. A Mars
• 0:31
  rover that accidentally picked up a rock
• 0:33
  and couldn't put it down. A cosmic
• 0:36
  debate that may finally be settled about
• 0:38
  our closest galactic neighbor. And two
• 0:41
  extraordinary findings from the James
• 0:42
  Webb Space Telescope that are rewriting
• 0:44
  the early history of the cosmos.
• 0:47
  >> And we're closing with a planet that's
• 0:49
  we're just going to say it smells like
• 0:50
  rotten eggs. It's a good one.
• 0:53
  >> It really is. Let's go. We're starting
• 0:55
  with news that is happening today, right
• 0:57
  now. In fact, as you're listening to
• 0:59
  this, SpaceX and NASA are targeting
• 1:01
  tonight for the launch of the 34th
• 1:03
  commercial resupply services mission to
• 1:05
  the International Space Station,
• 1:07
  >> CRS 34. And this one's a big cargo run.
• 1:11
  >> It is. A Falcon 9 rocket is standing at
• 1:14
  Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape
• 1:16
  Canaveral. And the launch window opens
• 1:18
  at 7:16 this evening, Eastern time.
• 1:21
  That's 9:16 if you're on the east coast
• 1:23
  of Australia Wednesday morning.
• 1:25
  >> There is always a weather caveat with
• 1:27
  Florida launches.
• 1:28
  >> Always. Forecasters are giving only
• 1:30
  about a 35% chance of favorable
• 1:33
  conditions at liftoff. So there's a real
• 1:35
  possibility it slips to the backup
• 1:37
  window on Wednesday evening. But as of
• 1:39
  right now, the mission is go.
• 1:41
  >> What's on board?
• 1:42
  >> About 6,500 lb of cargo, crew supplies,
• 1:46
  station hardware, and several science
• 1:48
  experiments that are genuinely
• 1:49
  interesting. One investigation involves
• 1:52
  a bone scaffold made from wood that
• 1:54
  researchers hope could lead to new
• 1:56
  treatments for osteoporosis. That's a
• 1:58
  disease that affects bone density, and
• 2:01
  it actually worsens in the lowgravity
• 2:03
  environment of space,
• 2:04
  >> which makes studying it in space
• 2:06
  especially relevant.
• 2:08
  >> Exactly. There's also a study looking at
• 2:10
  how red blood cells and the spleen
• 2:13
  change during extended space flight. And
• 2:15
  my personal favorite, a new instrument
• 2:18
  called Story, the Storm Time O Plus Ring
• 2:21
  Current Imaging Evolution Instrument.
• 2:23
  It'll monitor the charged particle
• 2:25
  environment near Earth, which is a real
• 2:28
  hazard for power grids and satellites
• 2:30
  during solar storms.
• 2:31
  >> The Dragon capsule on this mission is
• 2:33
  flying for the sixth time, and the
• 2:35
  booster will attempt a return to launch
• 2:37
  site landing, which never gets old to
• 2:39
  watch. After launch, Dragon will spend
• 2:42
  about 38 hours in orbit, raising its
• 2:44
  altitude before docking autonomously
• 2:46
  with the Harmony module on Thursday
• 2:48
  morning. We'll follow up on that in
• 2:50
  tomorrow's episode.
• 2:51
  >> From Cape Canaveral to the ISS in under
• 2:54
  2 days, still extraordinary.
• 2:57
  >> Now, Mars and a story that is part
• 3:00
  engineering drama, part slapstick, and
• 3:03
  entirely endearing.
• 3:05
  >> I love this one. NASA's Curiosity Rover,
• 3:08
  which has been rolling across Mars since
• 3:10
  2012, more than 14 years now, recently
• 3:13
  had something happen that had literally
• 3:15
  never happened before in its entire
• 3:17
  mission. It drilled into a rock and the
• 3:20
  rock wouldn't let go.
• 3:22
  >> It just grabbed on and refused to
• 3:24
  release.
• 3:24
  >> On April 25th, Curiosity extended its
• 3:27
  robotic arm and drilled into a rock that
• 3:30
  the team nicknamed Artakama after the
• 3:32
  Chilean desert. When the rover tried to
• 3:34
  retract the arm, the entire rock lifted
• 3:38
  off the Martian surface. It had lodged
• 3:40
  onto the fixed sleeve surrounding the
• 3:42
  drill bit and simply came with it.
• 3:45
  >> How big was this rock?
• 3:47
  >> About 45 cm across at its base, around
• 3:51
  15 cm thick and roughly 13 kg or about 4
• 3:56
  1/2 kg on Mars due to the lower gravity.
• 3:59
  a substantial chunky rock dangling off
• 4:02
  the end of a rover arm 140 million
• 4:05
  kilometers from the nearest mechanic.
• 4:08
  And the solution isn't as simple as just
• 4:10
  shaking it off. Every command you send
• 4:13
  to Curiosity takes up to 30 minutes to
• 4:16
  arrive,
• 4:17
  >> which is what made the next week so
• 4:19
  dramatic. The engineering team spent
• 4:21
  several days trying different
• 4:23
  approaches, repositioning the arm,
• 4:26
  vibrating the drill, trying different
• 4:28
  angles. For days, Atakama refused to
• 4:31
  budge. They even watched the rock slowly
• 4:34
  shed sand as the arm moved, but it
• 4:36
  stayed put. Finally, on May the 1st, the
• 4:39
  team went all in, tilting the drill,
• 4:42
  rotating it, vibrating it, and spinning
• 4:45
  the drill bit simultaneously. They were
• 4:47
  prepared to try multiple rounds. The
• 4:50
  rock came off on the first attempt
• 4:52
  >> and promptly shattered when it hit the
• 4:55
  Martian ground.
• 4:56
  >> At Takama's last stand,
• 4:58
  >> NASA released the full camera sequence
• 5:00
  this week. It's remarkable footage, and
• 5:03
  Curiosity, for its part, is now happily
• 5:06
  back to its regular science operations.
• 5:08
  14 years in, still finding new ways to
• 5:11
  surprise us.
• 5:12
  >> We're going much, much further out now.
• 5:15
  Not Mars, not even our galaxy. We're
• 5:18
  talking about our galaxy's largest
• 5:20
  satellite, the large magalenic cloud,
• 5:23
  >> which you can see beautifully from
• 5:25
  Australia, sitting low in the southern
• 5:27
  sky on a clear night, looking like a
• 5:30
  detached patch of the Milky Way.
• 5:32
  >> And for a long time, astronomers assumed
• 5:35
  it had been orbiting the Milky Way for
• 5:37
  billions of years, making repeated
• 5:39
  passes, coming close, swinging back out,
• 5:42
  a regular visitor. New research
• 5:44
  published this week argues something
• 5:46
  quite different. That this is actually
• 5:48
  the very first time the large magalenic
• 5:51
  cloud has ever approached our galaxy.
• 5:54
  >> A first invol.
• 5:56
  >> Exactly. A team led by Scott Lucini and
• 5:59
  colleagues ran detailed hydrodnamic
• 6:02
  simulations modeling the gas halo
• 6:04
  surrounding both galaxies and compared
• 6:07
  that with ultraviolet observations of
• 6:09
  the gas clouds between them. They found
• 6:11
  the data is consistent only with a first
• 6:14
  pass scenario. If the cloud had been
• 6:16
  here before, the models say the gas halo
• 6:19
  just wouldn't look the way it does.
• 6:21
  >> What does it mean if it's really a first
• 6:23
  time visitor?
• 6:25
  >> It has significant implications for how
• 6:27
  we understand our galaxy's evolution.
• 6:30
  The large maggalenic cloud is enormous.
• 6:32
  It has billions of stars and a mass
• 6:35
  that's roughly 10% of the Milky Way. An
• 6:38
  object that size sweeping through on its
• 6:40
  first close approach causes disruptions.
• 6:43
  It warps our dark matter halo influences
• 6:46
  star formation tugs on the structure of
• 6:48
  the galactic disc. If it's done this
• 6:51
  before, those effects would have played
• 6:53
  out repeatedly. If this is the first
• 6:55
  time, we're watching something quite
• 6:57
  rare.
• 6:58
  >> The team says their simulations provide,
• 7:00
  and I like this phrase, definitive
• 7:03
  evidence. Though they acknowledge there
• 7:05
  are some tensions with other data sets
• 7:07
  that still need to be resolved.
• 7:09
  >> Science is rarely simple, but the weight
• 7:12
  of this evidence is pointing one way.
• 7:14
  The large magalenic cloud is a newcomer
• 7:17
  and it's heading our way.
• 7:19
  >> Nothing to worry about on a human time
• 7:21
  scale, nothing dramatic happens. But on
• 7:23
  cosmic time, fascinating.
• 7:26
  >> Next, time for the James Web Space
• 7:28
  Telescope and the saga of the little red
• 7:31
  dots. We've talked about these before.
• 7:33
  For listeners who haven't heard, give us
• 7:35
  the quick version.
• 7:36
  >> The quick version. When JWST began
• 7:39
  looking at the very early universe,
• 7:41
  galaxies that existed just a few hundred
• 7:44
  million years after the Big Bang, he
• 7:46
  found hundreds of strange, compact,
• 7:48
  faint red objects that nobody expected
• 7:51
  and nobody can fully explain. They
• 7:54
  became known as little red dots. They're
• 7:56
  roughly 12 billion lighty years away.
• 7:59
  They're intensely red. They're tiny and
• 8:01
  they have properties that don't fit
• 8:03
  neatly into any existing category. The
• 8:06
  debate has been raging for years. Are
• 8:08
  they massive star forming regions?
• 8:11
  Ancient black holes and thick dust
• 8:13
  cocoons? An entirely new type of object?
• 8:16
  >> And now there's a new twist.
• 8:18
  >> There is. Astronomers have been studying
• 8:20
  an unusual object that had been sitting
• 8:23
  unnoticed in archival data from NASA's
• 8:25
  Chandra X-ray Observatory for over a
• 8:28
  decade. It's called the X-ray dot
• 8:31
  cataloged as 3DHST-
• 8:34
  AEGIS-12014.
• 8:38
  And it only revealed its significance
• 8:40
  when JWST recently observed the same
• 8:44
  patch of sky and showed that this X-ray
• 8:46
  source is sitting in exactly the same
• 8:48
  location as one of the little red dots.
• 8:51
  >> A 10-year-old clue hiding in plain
• 8:54
  sight. The team led by researchers at
• 8:56
  Princeton believes this X-ray dot may be
• 8:59
  what an older little red dot looks like.
• 9:01
  In the current theory, little red dots
• 9:03
  are young black holes surrounded by
• 9:05
  dense clouds of gas that they're
• 9:07
  consuming. And that gas absorbs the
• 9:09
  X-rays, which is why most little red
• 9:11
  dots don't show up in X-ray surveys. But
• 9:14
  as that gas gets eaten or blown away,
• 9:17
  the X-rays start getting through. So,
• 9:19
  the X-ray dot might be the same type of
• 9:21
  object, just older and less shrouded,
• 9:24
  >> possibly, or it might be something else
• 9:26
  entirely, a black hole wrapped in exotic
• 9:29
  dust never previously observed. The team
• 9:31
  says further observations are needed.
• 9:34
  But either way, it's a piece of the
• 9:35
  puzzle, and it's pointing us toward
• 9:37
  understanding one of the strangest
• 9:39
  populations of objects ever discovered.
• 9:41
  Now, just quickly before we move on to
• 9:44
  our next story, a reminder that our
• 9:46
  sponsor this week, NordVPN, has a great
• 9:49
  deal in place for you. You'll save a
• 9:51
  heap of money and be securing your
• 9:54
  online life. This deal makes peace of
• 9:56
  mind very affordable. You can check out
• 9:59
  the details by following the link in our
• 10:01
  show notes.
• 10:02
  >> Okay, moving on. We're staying with the
• 10:04
  James Webb Space Telescope because it
• 10:06
  keeps delivering. But now we're looking
• 10:09
  at a completely different puzzle. And
• 10:11
  this one was published yesterday.
• 10:13
  >> Hot off the preprint server.
• 10:15
  >> Literally, astronomers have identified
• 10:18
  two early universe galaxies named Cola 1
• 10:21
  and Neppla 4 observed just 800 million
• 10:25
  years after the Big Bang. And here's the
• 10:27
  strange part. Their black holes at the
• 10:29
  centers of these galaxies are between
• 10:32
  400 and 800 times more massive relative
• 10:35
  to their host galaxies than black holes
• 10:37
  in the modern universe.
• 10:39
  >> In the local universe, galaxies like our
• 10:41
  own, the mass of a central black hole is
• 10:43
  typically about a tenth to a half% of
• 10:46
  the total stellar mass of the galaxy.
• 10:48
  These two are nowhere near that ratio.
• 10:51
  Their black holes weigh in at somewhere
• 10:53
  between 170 and 190 million solar
• 10:57
  masses. The galaxies around them are
• 11:00
  comparatively tiny. The black holes
• 11:02
  appear to have grown first and fast
• 11:04
  while their host galaxies were still in
• 11:06
  their infancy.
• 11:07
  >> Which raises the question, how?
• 11:09
  >> That's the core mystery. The standard
• 11:12
  model of galaxy formation says black
• 11:14
  holes and galaxies grow together in a
• 11:16
  kind of feedback loop. The black hole
• 11:18
  influences star formation. Star
• 11:20
  formation influences the black hole.
• 11:23
  These two objects suggest that in the
• 11:25
  very early universe that relationship
• 11:27
  could be inverted. The black hole didn't
• 11:29
  wait. It grew explosively, outpacing its
• 11:32
  own galaxy by a huge margin.
• 11:34
  >> Astronomers have been finding over
• 11:36
  massive black holes in the early
• 11:38
  universe regularly now with JWST. Each
• 11:41
  new example adds weight to the idea that
• 11:43
  our models of galaxy formation in the
• 11:45
  first billion years need significant
• 11:47
  revision. And the early universe keeps
• 11:50
  revealing that it was a far wilder,
• 11:52
  faster, more extreme place than we
• 11:54
  imagined. These are not gentle
• 11:57
  processes. This is cosmic violence at a
• 11:59
  scale that's hard to comprehend.
• 12:02
  >> We're closing today with a planet
• 12:03
  discovery that is genuinely new and
• 12:06
  genuinely strange. Strap in.
• 12:09
  >> The headline said rotten eggs. I want to
• 12:11
  hear about the rotten eggs.
• 12:13
  >> We'll get there. Astronomers have been
• 12:15
  studying an exoplanet called L98-59D.
• 12:20
  It sits just 35 lighty years away in the
• 12:23
  southern constellation Volins,
• 12:25
  practically next door by cosmic
• 12:27
  standards, and it's been in their sights
• 12:29
  for a while. But new research published
• 12:32
  this week in the journal Nature has
• 12:34
  revealed just how unusual it is. This
• 12:37
  planet doesn't fit any existing
• 12:39
  category.
• 12:40
  >> What's it like? Imagine a world where
• 12:43
  the entire surface is an ocean, but not
• 12:46
  water. Molten rock, a global magma ocean
• 12:50
  stretching from pole to pole of silicut
• 12:53
  material heated to temperatures that
• 12:55
  would reduce anything we know to vapor.
• 12:58
  Above this ocean sits a thick, dense
• 13:01
  atmosphere. And that atmosphere is
• 13:03
  loaded with sulfur compounds,
• 13:05
  >> which is where the rotten eggs come in.
• 13:07
  hydrogen sulfide, the same compound
• 13:10
  responsible for that distinctive aroma.
• 13:13
  The atmosphere traps heat so efficiently
• 13:15
  that the magma ocean has been kept
• 13:17
  molten for billions of years. A
• 13:20
  permanent planetwide lava sea with a
• 13:22
  toxic sky above it. The lead researcher,
• 13:25
  Dr. Harrison Nichols from the University
• 13:27
  of Oxford, puts it perfectly. He says,
• 13:30
  "The categories astronomers currently
• 13:32
  use to describe small planets may simply
• 13:36
  be too simple.
• 13:37
  >> How did they figure all of this out? You
• 13:39
  can't exactly send the probe."
• 13:41
  >> Advanced computer modeling combined with
• 13:43
  observational data about the planet's
• 13:45
  mass, size, and density. The planet is
• 13:48
  less dense than we'd expect for its
• 13:50
  size, which gave the team the clue that
• 13:52
  the interior is molten rather than
• 13:54
  solid. The co-author, Professor Raymond
• 13:57
  Pier Humber, described being able to
• 14:00
  reconstruct the hidden interior of a
• 14:02
  planet we will never visit. That's
• 14:04
  extraordinary.
• 14:06
  >> And the question it leaves you with,
• 14:08
  what other kinds of planets are out
• 14:09
  there waiting to be discovered is a
• 14:11
  great one.
• 14:12
  >> L98-59D
• 14:15
  suggests we've barely scratched the
• 14:17
  surface of planetary diversity. Worlds
• 14:20
  with global magma oceans, sulfur
• 14:22
  atmospheres, permanent volcanic
• 14:24
  landscapes, and who knows what else. The
• 14:27
  universe is endlessly creative.
• 14:30
  >> Just maybe don't plan a holiday there.
• 14:33
  >> Before we go, a quick look at the
• 14:35
  southern sky for the coming nights.
• 14:37
  >> May is a spectacular month for sky
• 14:39
  watching from Australia and New Zealand.
• 14:41
  Saturn is well placed in the east before
• 14:44
  midnight, and Jupiter is becoming more
• 14:46
  prominent in the pre-dawn sky. The Milky
• 14:48
  Way is arcing beautifully overhead in
• 14:51
  the evening hours. A perfect time to
• 14:53
  look for the large magalenic cloud and
• 14:55
  small megalic cloud low in the south.
• 14:58
  Just as we discussed today,
• 14:59
  >> a pair of firsttime visitors right there
• 15:02
  above you.
• 15:03
  >> Exactly. And if you're under dark skies,
• 15:05
  the southern Milky Way through Centaurus
• 15:08
  and Krux is extraordinary this time of
• 15:10
  year.
• 15:11
  >> That's everything for episode 100. Thank
• 15:14
  you genuinely for being part of this
• 15:16
  journey. 100 episodes means 100 days of
• 15:19
  choosing to spend a few minutes thinking
• 15:21
  about the universe. And we appreciate
• 15:24
  every one of you who comes back each
• 15:26
  day. If you're enjoying the show, please
• 15:28
  subscribe, leave a review wherever you
• 15:30
  listen, and find us on all the socials
• 15:32
  at astroaily pod. The website is
• 15:35
  astronomyaily.io.
• 15:37
  >> We'll be back tomorrow with the outcome
• 15:39
  of tonight's SpaceX CRS 34 launch and
• 15:43
  whatever else the cosmos has in store.
• 15:46
  from all of us at Astronomy Daily. Keep
• 15:48
  looking up.
• 16:00
  Stories told.