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Countdown to the Moon: Artemis II Launch Week Begins | Plus Comet Reversal & ISS Medical Mystery... · Space News Today

• 0:00
  Four astronauts, one rocket, four days
• 0:04
  until launch. History is about to be
• 0:07
  made.
• 0:08
  >> And if you think that's the only
• 0:09
  jaw-dropping story in space today, wait
• 0:12
  until you hear about a comet that
• 0:13
  literally stopped spinning and started
• 0:15
  going the other way.
• 0:17
  >> I'm Anna.
• 0:18
  >> I'm Avery.
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  >> And this is Astronomy Daily, your daily
• 0:22
  guide to everything happening in space
• 0:24
  and beyond. Welcome to season 5, episode
• 0:28
  75. Let's get started then.
• 0:30
  >> All right, let's start with what is
• 0:33
  without a doubt the biggest human space
• 0:36
  flight story in more than 50 years. The
• 0:39
  crew of NASA's Aremis 2 mission has
• 0:42
  arrived at Kennedy Space Center in
• 0:44
  Florida. And the countdown is well and
• 0:47
  truly on.
• 0:48
  >> That's right. Yesterday, Friday the
• 0:50
  27th, NASA astronauts Reed Weissman,
• 0:53
  Victor Glover, and Christina Coach along
• 0:55
  with Canadian Space Agency astronaut
• 0:57
  Jeremy Hansen touchdown at Kennedy's
• 1:00
  shuttle landing facility in their T38
• 1:02
  jets arriving from Johnson Space Center
• 1:04
  in Houston. They were greeted by NASA
• 1:07
  administrator Jared Isaacman and a crowd
• 1:09
  of reporters that was by all accounts
• 1:12
  the largest anyone had seen for an
• 1:14
  astronaut arrival in a very long time.
• 1:17
  And the energy was electric. Avery
• 1:20
  Commander Reed Wisman stepped out onto
• 1:22
  the runway, pumped his fists, and said,
• 1:25
  and I'm quoting here, "Hey, let's go to
• 1:28
  the moon." That says it all, really.
• 1:31
  >> It really does. So, the plan launch is
• 1:34
  scheduled for no earlier than 6:24 in
• 1:36
  the evening, Eastern time on Wednesday,
• 1:38
  April the 1st. I know, April Fool's Day,
• 1:41
  but this is no joke. The window stays
• 1:43
  open until April 6th, giving the team a
• 1:46
  6-day buffer, but mission managers are
• 1:48
  pushing hard for that first opportunity.
• 1:51
  >> And the mission itself, Artemis 2, will
• 1:54
  send all four crew members on a 10day
• 1:57
  journey around the moon and back to
• 1:59
  Earth aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft.
• 2:02
  Launched on top of the space launch
• 2:04
  system, the most powerful operational
• 2:07
  rocket in the world. They won't land on
• 2:10
  the moon. That's Artemis 3's job, but
• 2:12
  they will fly farther from Earth than
• 2:15
  any human has ever been. The Apollo 13
• 2:18
  record set back in 1970 will be broken.
• 2:22
  >> The crew are now in quarantine at
• 2:24
  Kennedy, spending their final days
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  reviewing mission procedures, completing
• 2:28
  medical checkups, and spending precious
• 2:30
  time with family. The countdown clock is
• 2:33
  set to begin ticking at 4:44 p.m. on
• 2:36
  Monday, and from that point, it's all
• 2:38
  systems go. For anyone who watched the
• 2:40
  Apollo missions as a child or who has
• 2:42
  simply dreamed of humanity returning to
• 2:44
  the moon, this is the week we've been
• 2:46
  waiting for.
• 2:48
  >> We will absolutely be following this one
• 2:50
  closely over the coming days on
• 2:52
  Astronomy Daily. And for our listeners
• 2:54
  down under in Australia and across New
• 2:56
  Zealand, April 2nd is your morning to
• 2:59
  set those alarms.
• 3:01
  >> Now, from the moon to a tiny snowball
• 3:03
  tumbling through our inner solar system,
• 3:06
  and when I say tiny, I mean it. Comet
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  41P, formerly known as Tuttle Jeecobini
• 3:12
  Krisak, measures just one kilometer
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  across, about three times the height of
• 3:16
  the Eiffel Tower.
• 3:18
  >> And yet, this little cosmic wanderer has
• 3:21
  just done something that scientists have
• 3:23
  never in all of recorded astronomical
• 3:26
  history observed before. It reversed its
• 3:29
  spin.
• 3:30
  >> That's right. A new study published this
• 3:32
  week in the Astronomical Journal based
• 3:34
  on observations from NASA's Hubble Space
• 3:37
  Telescope reveals that comet 41P first
• 3:40
  dramatically slowed its spin, nearly
• 3:43
  came to a complete stop, and then
• 3:45
  started going the other way. Researchers
• 3:47
  describe it as a kind of merrygoround
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  effect. The comet's own outgassing jets,
• 3:53
  streams of gas blasted off its surface
• 3:55
  as it heats up near the sun, were
• 3:57
  pushing against its spin so hard that
• 3:59
  they eventually flipped it.
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  >> To give you a timeline, back in March
• 4:03
  2017, the comet was spinning at a
• 4:06
  regular pace. By May 2017, Swift
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  observatory data showed it had slowed to
• 4:12
  three times that rate. And then when
• 4:14
  Hubble took a look in December 2017, the
• 4:17
  comet was spinning fast again. but in
• 4:20
  the opposite direction. The whole
• 4:22
  reversal had happened within months.
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  >> Now, here's the twist, and it's a
• 4:27
  sobering one. Study author David Jwitt
• 4:30
  of UCLA says that because the comet is
• 4:32
  now spinning so rapidly in its new
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  direction, centrifugal forces could
• 4:37
  overcome the comet's own weak gravity.
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  And his conclusion, quote, I expect this
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  nucleus will very quickly self-destruct.
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  We may be witnessing the final chapter
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  of comet 41P's long life,
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  >> which makes these observations all the
• 4:52
  more remarkable. The comet is thought to
• 4:54
  have been in its current orbit for
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  around 1,500 years. And in one close
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  pass of the sun, we got to watch it
• 5:01
  undergo a transformation that would
• 5:03
  normally take centuries in just a matter
• 5:06
  of months. Hubble really never stops
• 5:09
  delivering the goods. Story 3 takes us
• 5:11
  to one of the deepest mysteries in
• 5:13
  modern cosmology and potentially one of
• 5:16
  the most significant detections in the
• 5:18
  history of gravitational wave astronomy.
• 5:20
  >> Back in November last year, LIGO, the
• 5:23
  laser interferometer gravitational wave
• 5:26
  observatory, picked up a signal that
• 5:28
  stopped researchers cold. The
• 5:30
  gravitational wave appeared to come from
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  a merger event involving at least one
• 5:35
  object that weighed less than a single
• 5:37
  solar mass. And here's why that matters.
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  Through all known processes of stellar
• 5:43
  evolution, that simply shouldn't be
• 5:45
  possible. Regular black holes form from
• 5:48
  dying stars. And the minimum mass for
• 5:50
  that is a few times our sun. So what was
• 5:53
  it?
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  >> Well, this week, astrophysicists Nikico
• 5:57
  Capaluti and Alberto Magara from the
• 5:59
  University of Miami published the
• 6:01
  compelling answer in the Astrophysical
• 6:03
  Journal. Their conclusion, it may be a
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  primordial black hole, an object formed
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  not from a collapsing star, but from the
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  unimaginable density of the universe
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  itself in the first fraction of a second
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  after the big bang.
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  >> Primordial black holes are one of the
• 6:20
  most tantalizing concepts in theoretical
• 6:22
  physics. They could range from
• 6:24
  microscopic to enormous. And crucially,
• 6:27
  they are one of the most compelling
• 6:29
  candidates for dark matter, the
• 6:31
  invisible substance that makes up
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  roughly 85% of all matter in the
• 6:36
  universe. We can see dark matter's
• 6:38
  gravitational effects everywhere we
• 6:40
  look, but we have never directly
• 6:43
  detected it. A confirmed primordial
• 6:45
  black hole detection would transform our
• 6:48
  understanding of the cosmos overnight.
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  The Miami team modeled how many
• 6:52
  primordial black holes should exist, how
• 6:55
  often they should merge, and how
• 6:56
  frequently LIGO should detect them. And
• 6:59
  remarkably, the numbers lined up. One
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  rare detection event exactly as her
• 7:03
  theory predicts. It's not confirmation.
• 7:06
  One signal is suggestive, not
• 7:08
  conclusive. But it is a genuinely
• 7:10
  thrilling lead to follow. As Capelluti
• 7:13
  himself put it, the most plausible
• 7:15
  explanation for the LIGO signal, which
• 7:17
  lacks any conventional astrophysical
• 7:19
  explanation, is the detection of a
• 7:22
  primordial black hole. Next generation
• 7:24
  detectors, including the space-based
• 7:27
  LISA mission planned for the 2030s and
• 7:29
  the groundbased cosmic explorer, 10
• 7:32
  times more sensitive than LIGO, will
• 7:34
  hopefully shed more light on this. For
• 7:36
  now, we may have just received our first
• 7:39
  signal from the dawn of time itself.
• 7:41
  Here's a story that bridges ancient
• 7:44
  human history and cuttingedge astronomy.
• 7:46
  In the year 185 AD, Chinese astronomers
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  recorded a strange new star appearing in
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  the sky, one that would remain visible
• 7:54
  for up to 8 months. They called it a
• 7:57
  guest star. What they had actually
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  witnessed was one of the earliest
• 8:01
  supernova explosions ever recorded by
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  humanity. Fast forward 1,800 years, and
• 8:07
  that same ancient explosion, now known
• 8:09
  as supernova remnant RCW86,
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  or SN185,
• 8:15
  has just been given its most detailed
• 8:17
  examination yet. NASA's EXPE mission,
• 8:21
  the imaging X-ray polarimetry explorer,
• 8:24
  has delivered a breathtaking new image
• 8:26
  of the remnants outer edge, combining
• 8:29
  its unique X-ray polarimetry data with
• 8:31
  observations from NASA's Chandra
• 8:33
  Observatory and the European Space Ay's
• 8:36
  XMM Newton telescope.
• 8:39
  >> So, what did they find? E targeted the
• 8:42
  outer rim of the remnant, highlighted in
• 8:44
  a vivid purple ring in the new image,
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  and discovered something fascinating.
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  The expanding shell of superheated gas,
• 8:51
  which had been blasting outward at
• 8:53
  tremendous speed for 2,000 years,
• 8:56
  appears to have stopped at the edge of a
• 8:58
  large, low density cavity that
• 9:00
  surrounded the original star. In other
• 9:02
  words, the explosion ran into a wall.
• 9:05
  And the new data helps explain why the
• 9:07
  remnant expanded so much faster than
• 9:10
  astronomers initially expected.
• 9:13
  >> Achieves this by studying the
• 9:15
  polarization of X-rays. Essentially, how
• 9:17
  those high energy light waves are
• 9:19
  oriented as they travel through space.
• 9:21
  It's a technique that opens a completely
• 9:24
  new window on the behavior of exploding
• 9:26
  stars, black holes, and pulsars. The
• 9:29
  resulting composite image with yellow
• 9:31
  for low energy X-rays, blue for high
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  energy, and the purple data overlaid is
• 9:37
  genuinely one of the most beautiful
• 9:39
  things you'll see in space science this
• 9:41
  week. We'll have a link in the show
• 9:43
  notes.
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  >> There's something deeply moving about
• 9:46
  this story. A star that humans watched
• 9:48
  die with the naked eye two millennia
• 9:50
  ago, recorded by diligent observers in
• 9:53
  ancient China, is still revealing its
• 9:56
  secrets today. Science is a very long
• 9:59
  conversation.
• 10:00
  >> Story 5 brings us a story that's both
• 10:03
  deeply human and profoundly relevant to
• 10:05
  the future of space exploration and it
• 10:08
  connects directly to our lead story
• 10:10
  today about Artemis 2.
• 10:12
  >> Earlier this year, you may recall NASA
• 10:14
  made headlines when it announced that
• 10:16
  the Crew 11 mission aboard the
• 10:17
  International Space Station was being
• 10:19
  cut short due to a medical concern. The
• 10:22
  agency initially declined to name the
• 10:24
  astronaut involved, but in late
• 10:26
  February, veteran astronaut Mike Think,
• 10:29
  a four-time space flyer and retired US
• 10:32
  Air Force Colonel, came forward at his
• 10:34
  own request to confirm that he was the
• 10:37
  person affected.
• 10:38
  >> And this week, for the first time, Fank
• 10:40
  spoke in detail about what actually
• 10:42
  happened in an exclusive interview with
• 10:44
  the Associated Press conducted from
• 10:46
  Houston's Johnson Space Center. The
• 10:48
  account is extraordinary. Think says he
• 10:51
  was eating dinner on January 7th, the
• 10:54
  evening before a planned spacew walk,
• 10:56
  when it suddenly hit. He lost the
• 10:59
  ability to speak. He felt no pain. The
• 11:02
  episode lasted around 20 minutes. His
• 11:04
  crew mates, seeing him in distress,
• 11:06
  immediately contacted flight surgeons on
• 11:09
  the ground. It was completely out of the
• 11:11
  blue, he told the AP. It was just
• 11:13
  amazingly quick. NASA used the station's
• 11:17
  ultrasound machine during the event,
• 11:18
  which Frink credits as genuinely useful,
• 11:21
  and his condition quickly stabilized.
• 11:24
  But NASA's medical team determined that
• 11:26
  the safest course of action was an early
• 11:28
  return to Earth so that Fank could
• 11:30
  access advanced medical imaging not
• 11:32
  available on the ISS. NASA canled the
• 11:35
  following day spacew walk. And on
• 11:37
  January 15th, Fank and his three crew
• 11:40
  mates, Zen Cardman, Kima Yui, and Oleg
• 11:43
  Platinov, splashed down in the Pacific
• 11:45
  Ocean about a month ahead of schedule.
• 11:48
  Here's the part that is both remarkable
• 11:50
  and sobering. As of this week, doctors
• 11:53
  still do not know what caused it. A
• 11:55
  heart attack has been ruled out, but the
• 11:57
  precise nature of the event, whether
• 12:00
  neurological, cardiovascular, or
• 12:02
  something else entirely, remains
• 12:04
  undiagnosed. NASA is now reviewing
• 12:07
  astronaut medical records to determine
• 12:09
  whether anything similar has occurred in
• 12:11
  space before, potentially without being
• 12:14
  recognized. And here's why this matters
• 12:16
  so much right now with Artemis 2 5 days
• 12:19
  from launch on the ISS. If something
• 12:21
  goes wrong medically, astronauts could
• 12:24
  be home within hours. On a 10-day lunar
• 12:26
  mission, and certainly on any future
• 12:28
  mission to Mars, that option doesn't
• 12:31
  exist. The FINK incident has become a
• 12:34
  landmark moment for space medicine,
• 12:36
  prompting urgent conversations about
• 12:38
  what medical capabilities need to exist
• 12:40
  on deep space vehicles. Think himself
• 12:42
  framed it with characteristic composure.
• 12:45
  Spaceflight is an incredible privilege
• 12:48
  and sometimes it reminds us just how
• 12:50
  human we are.
• 12:51
  >> And Mike Fank says he feels fine now and
• 12:54
  is continuing routine post-flight
• 12:56
  conditioning at Johnson Space Center. We
• 12:59
  wish him a full and swift recovery. And
• 13:01
  we salute the crew and the medical teams
• 13:03
  who got everyone home safely.
• 13:06
  >> And finally, eyes on the sun because our
• 13:09
  nearest star has been putting on a show
• 13:11
  this week.
• 13:12
  >> That's right. A new sunspot region
• 13:15
  designated AR4403
• 13:17
  rotated into view on the eastern solar
• 13:20
  limb on March 26th, and it wasted no
• 13:23
  time making its presence felt. Within
• 13:26
  hours of coming into view, AR4403
• 13:29
  unleashed the powerful M3.9 solar flare
• 13:33
  at 611 UTC, triggering an R1, that's a
• 13:37
  minor, radio blackout over the Indian
• 13:39
  Ocean. Now, the good news, as of today,
• 13:42
  Saturday the 28th, the sun is relatively
• 13:45
  quiet. AR4403
• 13:47
  has calmed after its initial outburst,
• 13:50
  and space weather forecasters are
• 13:52
  expecting mostly quiet conditions
• 13:54
  through today. But there's a catch, and
• 13:56
  it's worth noting for our listeners who
• 13:58
  love aurora watching.
• 14:00
  >> From Sunday the 29th, a co-rotating
• 14:03
  interaction region, a dense zone of
• 14:05
  compressed solar wind along with a
• 14:07
  high-speed stream from a coronal hole
• 14:10
  are expected to arrive at Earth. And a
• 14:12
  faint coronal mass ejection from the
• 14:15
  recent activity could also graze our
• 14:17
  planet's magnetic field around that
• 14:19
  time. base weather forecasters are
• 14:21
  predicting unsettled geomagnetic
• 14:23
  conditions which could in favorable
• 14:26
  circumstances push auroras to slightly
• 14:28
  lower latitudes than usual. So for our
• 14:31
  listeners in southern Australia,
• 14:33
  Tasmania and New Zealand, particularly
• 14:36
  those of you with dark skies away from
• 14:38
  city lights, Sunday and Monday nights
• 14:40
  are worth watching. Check your local
• 14:42
  Aurora alert apps. Keep an eye to the
• 14:44
  south and fingers crossed for clear
• 14:46
  skies. And if you capture anything
• 14:49
  spectacular, we'd love to see it. Tag us
• 14:51
  at Astro Daily Pod.
• 14:53
  >> We'll be keeping an eye on developments
• 14:55
  and may have an update in Monday's
• 14:57
  episode if conditions escalate. And that
• 14:59
  is a wrap on an absolutely packed
• 15:02
  edition of Astronomy Daily. To recap
• 15:04
  what we covered today, the Aremis 2 crew
• 15:07
  has landed at Kennedy Space Center with
• 15:09
  April 1st launch in their sites. Hubble
• 15:12
  has documented the first ever spin
• 15:14
  reversal of a comet and that comet may
• 15:17
  be on borrowed time. LIGO may have
• 15:19
  detected a black hole born at the dawn
• 15:21
  of the universe itself. NASA's IXP
• 15:25
  telescope gave us the finest portrait
• 15:27
  yet of a supernova first seen by human
• 15:30
  eyes in 185 AD. Astronaut Mike Finke
• 15:34
  spoke for the first time about his still
• 15:36
  mysterious medical emergency in orbit.
• 15:39
  And the sun is stirring with possible
• 15:41
  aurora opportunities on the way for
• 15:43
  southern hemisphere sky watchers.
• 15:45
  >> What an extraordinary time to be alive
• 15:48
  and looking up. If you're enjoying
• 15:50
  Astronomy Daily, please subscribe, leave
• 15:52
  us a review, and share the show with
• 15:54
  anyone in your life who loves the cosmos
• 15:56
  as much as we do. You can find us at
• 15:58
  astronomyaily.io
• 16:00
  and across all platforms at Astro Daily
• 16:03
  Pod.
• 16:04
  >> Until Monday, keep looking up.
• 16:06
  >> Clear skies, everyone.
• 16:09
  day.
• 16:11
  Stories we told.