Podcasts about astrophysical journal letters

A 700 millones de años luz de la Tierra existe una colosal región esférica de 330 millones de años luz de diámetro que desafía todo lo que sabemos sobre la estructura a gran escala del cosmos. La Vía Láctea, nuestro hogar, se encuentra situada en uno de estos vacíos de baja densidad, conocido como el Vacío KBC, o el Agujero Local. Sin embargo, ninguno de los vacíos que hemos logrado cartografiar se acerca en magnitud al Vacío de Boötes. Un equipo de investigadores estaba realizando un sondeo rutinario de corrimiento al rojo cuando descubrieron este leviatán en 1981. Esto sacudió a la comunidad astronómica. Publicaron sus hallazgos en la prestigiosa revista The Astrophysical Journal Letters, en un artículo que llevaba por título una pregunta cargada de incredulidad: "¿Un vacío de un millón de megapársecs cúbicos en Boötes?" Y es que, al cruzar los datos de su mapeo tridimensional, los astrónomos se dieron cuenta de que había un "hoyo" en el cielo. Observaron que una interpretación altamente plausible, que posteriormente fue confirmada como correcta de toda la información recogida era que esa descomunal área del espacio estaba, simple y llanamente, «casi desprovista de galaxias».

De nouvelles mesures portant sur une Jupiter chaude et sur sa compagne de type mini-Neptune indiquent que ces deux exoplanètes se seraient formées à des distances notablement plus grandes de leur étoile hôte que ne le suggère leur configuration actuelle. L'étude est parue dans The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source JWST Unveils a High Mean Molecular Weight Atmosphere for Mini-Neptune TOI-1130 b: Evidence for Formation Beyond the Water Ice LineSaugata Barat et al.The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 1002, (5 mai 2026)https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae5f8b Illustrations Vue d'artiste du système de TOI 1130 (Sci-News.com) Saugata Barat

Sponsor LinkWhen your ready to upgrade your digital security online, do what we did and get the best - NordVPN. And right now you can save a heap of money and help support the show. For details on the full deal CLICK HEREAstronomy Daily — S05E98 | Weekend Wrap | May 9, 2026   Welcome to the Astronomy Daily Weekend Space & Astronomy News Wrap! Every Saturday, Anna and Avery bring you a roundup of the biggest stories from the past week in space and astronomy — plus two fresh stories to open the show. Here's what we covered this week:   Fresh Stories  

Sponsor Link:When you're ready to secure your online life, do what we did, get NordVPN. You won't regret it. To check out our special big money saving offer Click HereEpisode Summary Astronomy Daily is back for Season 5, Episode 93 — and space has not been idle during our brief break. In today's packed episode, Anna and Avery cover six major stories: the strongest-ever evidence that JWST's mysterious 'little red dots' are in fact black hole stars, courtesy of a new Chandra X-ray discovery; the double milestone at Kennedy Space Center as Artemis III hardware arrives and the Artemis II Orion capsule returns for analysis; the spectacular return of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy after an 18-month hiatus; a new cosmological model suggesting the universe could collapse in just 33 billion years; a debrief on post-mission lessons from Artemis II; and essential skywatching guidance for the peak of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. Stories Covered •       Chandra X-ray Observatory detects X-ray signal coinciding with a JWST 'little red dot' — strongest evidence yet for 'black hole star' theory •       Artemis III SLS core stage arrives at Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building — Artemis II's Orion capsule 'Integrity' returns same day •       SpaceX Falcon Heavy returns to flight after 18 months, successfully launches ViaSat-3 F3 to complete global broadband constellation •       New axion dark energy cosmological model suggests universe may collapse in 33.3 billion years — Big Crunch scenario revisited •       Artemis II post-mission analysis: heat shield data, valve redesign needed, toilet issues flagged — teams prepare for tight Artemis III turnaround •       Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks May 6 — up to 50 meteors/hour, best viewing from Southern Hemisphere before dawn Key Links •       Astronomy Daily website: astronomydaily.io •       Follow us: @AstroDailyPod •       Network: Bitesz.com Podcast Network •       Chandra / JWST little red dots paper: The Astrophysical Journal Letters •       NASA Artemis III core stage arrival: nasa.gov •       Eta Aquarid viewing guide: NASA Science skywatchingBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Une équipe d'astrophysiciens vient de démontrer l'existence d'une cavité d'une taille de l'ordre du kiloparsec dans la distribution stellaire de la galaxie centrale de l'amas A402. Les données des télescopes Webb et Hubble mettent en évidence un noyau galactique aplati dans la distribution stellaire sur lequel se superpose la cavité, ce qui implique la présence d'un trou noir ultramassif central de masse d'environ 50 milliards de M⊙ qui serait à l'origine de cette cavité. Ils montrent en outre qu'un second trou noir supermassif candidat se trouve de l'autre côté de la cavité, avec une vitesse relative de 370 km s⁻¹. Si cette hypothèse se confirme, cela impliquerait la présence d'un système binaire de trous noirs ultramassifs séparés par plusieurs kiloparsecs, d'une masse totale de 60 milliards M⊙. Cela en ferait le système binaire de trous noirs le plus massif découvert à ce jour. L'étude est publiée dans The Astrophysical Journal. Source A Kiloparsec-scale Stellar Cavity in the Center of A402-BCG May Be Caused by Dynamic Interactions with an Ultramassive Black HoleMichael McDonald et al.The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 1002, Number 1 (23 Avril 2026 )https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae5bbe Illustrations Observations multi-longueurs d'onde de la galaxie centrale d'A402 (McDonald et al.) Michael McDonald

Wednesday, March 25, 2026   In today's episode of Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery cover six major stories from the last 24 hours in space and astronomy — including two landmark NASA announcements that could reshape the future of human space exploration.   Story 1: NASA Cancels Lunar Gateway — Pivots to $20 Billion Moon Base NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced at the agency's 'Ignition Day' event that the Lunar Gateway orbital space station has been paused, with resources redirected toward a phased $20 billion base on the lunar surface. The three-phase plan runs from 2026 to beyond 2032 and involves international partners including JAXA, the Italian Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency. Source: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/nasas-lunar-gateway-space-station-is-out-moon-bases-are-in Story 2: NASA's SR-1 Freedom — The First Nuclear-Powered Interplanetary Spacecraft Also announced at Ignition Day, Space Reactor-1 Freedom is planned for a December 2028 launch to Mars. It will use Nuclear Electric Propulsion and carry the Skyfall payload — three Ingenuity-class helicopters designed to scout future human landing sites and map subsurface water ice. Source: https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/nasas-1st-nuclear-powered-interplanetary-spacecraft-will-send-skyfall-helicopters-to-mars-in-2028 Story 3: Two Planets Forming Around Infant Star WISPIT 2 Astronomers using the ESO's Very Large Telescope have directly imaged two gas giant planets forming around the 5.4-million-year-old star WISPIT 2, located 437 light-years away in Aquila. The system is described as a mirror of our early solar system, with potential for more planets yet to be discovered. Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source: https://www.space.com/astronomy/exoplanets/scientists-discover-mirror-of-our-solar-system-in-2-exoplanets-forming-around-a-star Story 4: Hubble Revisits the Crab Nebula — 25 Years On NASA has released new Hubble Space Telescope images of the Crab Nebula, taken 25 years after the telescope first observed the object. The images reveal the nebula's continued expansion — the still-evolving remnant of a supernova first observed by astronomers in 1054 AD. Source: https://www.space.com/astronomy/hubble-revisits-a-cosmic-crab-after-25-years-space-photo-of-the-day-for-march-23-2026 Story 5: Fiber-Optic Cables Could Detect Moonquakes Two new studies from Los Alamos National Laboratory suggest that fiber-optic cables deployed directly on the lunar surface could detect moonquakes using Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS). The technique could replace expensive individual seismometers, with a single cable acting as thousands of sensors across hundreds of kilometres of lunar terrain. Source: https://www.space.com/astronomy/moon/future-artemis-missions-could-use-fiber-optic-cables-to-monitor-moonquakes Story 6: Rocket Lab 'Daughter of the Stars' — Europe's First Celeste Navigation Satellites Rocket Lab's Electron rocket launched the first two satellites for ESA's Celeste LEO-PNT constellation from Māhia, New Zealand on March 25. The mission is ESA's first foray into low-Earth orbit navigation, designed to complement and strengthen Europe's Galileo system. The constellation is named after Maria Celeste, daughter of Galileo Galilei. Source: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/rocket-lab-electron-launch-european-space-agency-celeste-navigation-satellitesBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Thank you for listening to Astronomy Daily! Here's everything from today's episode:   Story 1: Artemis II — T-Minus Days to Launch NASA is targeting April 1, 2026 for the launch of Artemis II — the first crewed lunar flyby since Apollo 17 in 1972. The crew of Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen will fly a 10-day free-return trajectory around the Moon aboard the Orion spacecraft on the SLS rocket from Kennedy Space Center. The six-day launch window runs April 1–6. Meanwhile, a new analysis suggests the mission could face elevated solar superflare risk, though NASA is proceeding after a successful Flight Readiness Review. Source: NASA — https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/ Solar risk analysis: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/artemis-2-moon-mission-shouldnt-launch-until-late-2026-new-analysis-of-solar-superflares-suggests   Story 2: G3 Geomagnetic Storm & Aurora Australis Multiple coronal mass ejections from the Sun triggered a G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm, producing vivid auroral displays from New York to Scotland to — remarkably — Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Adelaide. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe storm warning for March 23. Conditions are easing on March 24 (Kp 3–4) but some aurora activity may continue. March is historically the best month for auroras due to the equinox effect, and with Solar Cycle 25 at its peak, scientists say this could be the best aurora viewing period until the mid-2030s. Aurora forecast: https://earthsky.org/sun/sun-news-activity-solar-flare-cme-aurora-updates/ Aurora Australis guide: https://www.elle.com.au/culture/news/aurora-australis-southern-lights-march-2026-tonight-alert/   Story 3: JWST Finds 'Impossible' Atmosphere on Lava World TOI-561 b A Carnegie Institution-led team used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to detect the strongest evidence yet for an atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet. TOI-561 b — an ultra-hot super-Earth about twice Earth's mass, orbiting its star every 10.56 hours — was expected to be a bare rock. Instead, JWST measured a dayside temperature far cooler than a bare rock would produce, indicating a thick atmosphere redistributing heat above a global magma ocean. The findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source: Carnegie Institution for Science — https://carnegiescience.edu/ultra-hot-lava-world-has-thick-atmosphere-upending-expectations ScienceDaily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260322020255.htm   Story 4: Sealed Apollo 17 Moon Rocks Reveal Surprise Sulfur Signal Sealed lunar samples from Apollo 17 (collected 1972, opened through NASA's ANGSA program) have revealed unexpected sulfur isotope signatures. A Brown University-led team found volcanic material from the Taurus-Littrow region is strongly depleted in sulfur-33 — unlike anything found on Earth. Possible explanations include ancient lunar atmospheric chemistry or a legacy of the Theia impact that formed the Moon. Published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. Source: Brown University — https://www.brown.edu/news/2025-10-06/sulfur-isotopes-apollo-samples SciTechDaily: https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-open-moon-rocks-locked-away-since-1972-and-find-something-totally-unexpected/   Story 5: This Week in Global Rocketry An exceptional week of launches spanning five countries and seven rocket types: SpaceX Falcon 9 (Starlink 17-17, Tuesday; Starlink 10-44, Thursday — B1067's record 34th flight; Transporter 16, Sunday), Rocket Lab Electron (ESA Celeste demo sats, Wednesday, NZ), Isar Aerospace Spectrum (Onward and Upward, Wednesday, Norway), Chang Zheng 2C (Wednesday, China), CAS Space Kinetica 1 (Friday, China), Russia's debut Soyuz-5 (Friday, Baikonur), and ULA Atlas V (Amazon Leo batch, Sunday). The 73rd orbital launch attempt of 2026 worldwide. Full preview: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/03/launch-preview-032326/   Update: Progress MS-33 & Spectrum Rocket Progress MS-33 (also known as Progress 94) launched from the newly-repaired Site 31/6 at Baikonur on March 22 carrying 2,509 kg of supplies for the ISS Expedition 74 crew. A KURS antenna failure required ISS commander Sergei Kud-Sverchkov to dock the vehicle manually using the TORU backup system, scheduled for 13:34 UTC on March 24. Separately, Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket remains on the pad at Andøya, Norway, with a new launch window on March 25 (20:00–21:00 UTC) after weather delays. Progress MS-33: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/03/progress-ms33/ Spectrum launch info: https://isaraerospace.com/mission-updates-overview   

An international team of astronomers, led by a PhD student at University of Galway, have made the groundbreaking discovery of a second planet in the same system where they discovered another planet last year. Detected at an early stage of formation in the disc around a young star, the young planet named WISPIT 2c is estimated to be about 5 million years-old and most likely ten times the mass of Jupiter. The star, WISPIT 2 is located in the constellation of the Eagle, a prominent equatorial constellation visible in the summer northern hemisphere (July-November) along the Milky Way. The study was led by PhD student Chloe Lawlor from the Centre for Astronomy at the School of Natural Sciences and the Ryan Institute at University of Galway, in collaboration with PhD student Richelle van Capelleveen, Leiden Observatory, Netherlands and postdoctoral researcher Guillaume Bourdarot, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany. This major find for the field of astronomy makes WISPIT 2 only the second-known young (and still forming) multi-planet system. WISPIT 2 may resemble the young Solar System with now two gas giant planets embedded in its multi-ringed dust disk. This includes the now confirmed planet WISPIT 2c and the planet WISPIT 2b, which was discovered last year by the same research team (led by Richelle van Capelleveen at Leiden Observatory and Dr. Laird Close from the University of Arizona). The new planet is a very young gas giant based on the temperature and its radius from the atmosphere spectrum. It is twice as massive as the previously detected WISPIT 2b and orbits four times closer to its host star, which makes it incredibly difficult to detect with ground-based telescopes. The study has been published in Astrophysical Journal Letters. The presence of this second planet was detected using the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) Very Large Telescope in Chile's Atacama Desert. By linking several telescopes together to act as one giant instrument, the research team was able to observe regions very close to the star. The team detected carbon monoxide gas, a chemical that is commonly found in the atmospheres of young giant planets. Carbon monoxide leaves a strong and distinctive chemical signature in telescope data, providing the crucial evidence needed to confirm the planet's existence. Chloe Lawlor, PhD student, Centre for Astronomy, School of Natural Sciences, University of Galway, said: "After the initial discovery of WISPIT 2b, which I was also involved in, we suspected there might be another object in the system. At first, we weren't sure if it was a planet or a very large dust clump. We very quickly made follow-up observations using the Very Large Telescope Interferometer, an incredible setup where multiple telescopes can be connected to form a large virtual telescope. This allowed us to take what we call a spectrum, which is essentially a chemical fingerprint, revealing the elements and molecules in an object's atmosphere. "Carbon monoxide is one of the key signatures we are looking for in young giant planets. When we saw it clearly in the data, that was when we knew we had something significant. There was definitely an element of disbelief. I didn't expect to be the one to find a second planet in the system. When I sent the spectrum to my supervisor Dr Christian Ginski, it was a huge shock and upon further examination, he confirmed I'd found a planet! "WISPIT 2 will become an important laboratory to study planet formation." To uncover the hidden planet, the research team used the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), which captured an image of the object and allowed also for the first study of its atmosphere. The team specifically used the recently upgraded instrument GRAVITY+, which allows the light from all four of the eight metre telescopes of the ESO to be combined. This challenging technique using cutting-edge instrumentation was fun...

Astronomy Daily — Season 5, Episode 70 Monday, March 23, 2026   In today's episode, Anna and Avery cover six stories spanning a live European rocket launch attempt, a sixty-year-old NASA emergency brought back to life through newly surfaced photographs, a cosmic explosion caught only by its echo, the fight to preserve the night sky, a supply run to the ISS with an unexpected complication, and a first-of-its-kind discovery involving brown dwarf stars.   Story 1: Europe's Spectrum Rocket — Bid for Orbit Today Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket is attempting its second test flight today — its qualification mission for ESA's European Launcher Challenge. Launching from Andøya Spaceport in Norway, the mission carries five CubeSats and one experiment from European universities and companies, all supported by ESA's Boost! program. If successful, it would mark a landmark moment for European sovereign access to space. Source: ESA — Spectrum's Qualifying Second Launch Story 2: Neil Armstrong — The Gemini 8 Emergency Sixty years ago this month, Neil Armstrong and David Scott survived one of NASA's most dangerous pre-Apollo emergencies aboard Gemini 8. A spacecraft malfunction sent the capsule into an uncontrolled spin reaching one revolution per second. Never-before-seen photographs of Armstrong's recovery have been donated to the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Source: Phys.org — Space News Story 3: Astronomers Catch the Echo of a Billion-Sun Explosion Using the ASKAP radio telescope in Western Australia, astronomers identified ASKAP J005512-255834 — a radio signal representing the most convincing "orphan afterglow" of a gamma-ray burst ever detected. The original explosion went unseen because its jet wasn't aimed at Earth, but the lingering radio echo has been detectable for over 1,000 days. Research published in The Astrophysical Journal. Source: The Conversation — A Cosmic Explosion With the Force of a Billion Suns Story 4: The Fight to Save the Night Sky The Royal Astronomical Society, ESA, and the International Astronomical Union have filed formal objections to the FCC over two proposed satellite constellations: SpaceX's application for up to one million orbiting AI data centre satellites, and Reflect Orbital's proposal for 50,000 space mirrors each four times brighter than the full Moon. Experts warn the proposals could permanently transform humanity's view of the night sky. Source: Space.com — Astronomers Protest Giant Orbiting Mirror Project Story 5: Progress 94 Launches to ISS — With a Glitch Russia's Progress 94 cargo spacecraft launched successfully from Baikonur on March 22, carrying around three tonnes of food, fuel, and supplies to the ISS. One of its KURS automated docking antennas failed to deploy after launch. Docking at the Poisk module is scheduled for March 24. If the antenna issue isn't resolved, commander Sergei Kud-Sverchkov will conduct a manual docking. Source: NASA — Progress Cargo Craft Launches to Resupply Station Crew Story 6: First-Ever Brown Dwarf Pair Caught in Mass Transfer Caltech researchers using the Zwicky Transient Facility have discovered ZTF J1239+8347 — the first-ever observed brown dwarf binary undergoing mass transfer. The pair orbit each other every 57 minutes at a separation smaller than the Earth-Moon distance. The system will eventually either merge into a single star or one dwarf will accrete enough mass to ignite fusion. Research published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source: Universe Today — This Pair of Brown Dwarfs Can't Get Enough of Each Other   Find us everywhere: astronomydaily.io  |  @AstroDailyPodBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Today on Astronomy Daily: NASA's Artemis II moon rocket has arrived at Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, with a launch target of April 1st — the first crewed mission beyond Earth orbit in over 53 years. Plus: astronomers have discovered the first-ever mass-transferring brown dwarf binary; Hubble accidentally caught a comet disintegrating in real time; 15 new moons have been confirmed around Jupiter and Saturn; our Moon is accumulating over 100 metric tons of human-made debris; and a dramatic spacecraft double-header — ESA's Proba-3 has been recovered from a month-long blackout, while NASA's MAVEN Mars orbiter remains missing after more than three months of silence.   Story 1: Artemis II Arrives at Launch Pad 39B NASA's Artemis II SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft completed an 11-hour overnight journey to Launch Pad 39B on March 20, 2026. Launch is targeted for no earlier than April 1. The crew — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen — will fly a 10-day free-return trajectory around the Moon, making this the first crewed deep-space mission since Apollo 17 in December 1972. Source: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/03/20/nasas-artemis-ii-rocket-arrives-at-launch-pad-39b/   Story 2: First Mass-Transferring Brown Dwarf Binary Researchers at Caltech have identified ZTF J1239+8347, a brown dwarf binary system with an orbital period of just 57.41 minutes in which one brown dwarf is actively pulling material from its companion — a first for this class of objects. The system, only ~1,000 light-years away, is a prime candidate for JWST follow-up observations. Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/this-pair-of-brown-dwarfs-cant-get-enough-of-each-other   Story 3: Hubble Catches Comet C/2025 K1 Breaking Apart In a remarkable stroke of luck, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) fragmenting into at least four pieces over three consecutive days in November 2025. The comet was not the original target of the observation. The findings, published in Icarus, reveal the comet is unusually carbon-depleted and raise new questions about the delay between fragmentation and visible brightening. Source: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-unexpectedly-catches-comet-breaking-up/   Story 4: 15 New Moons Confirmed for Jupiter and Saturn The Minor Planet Center announced on March 16, 2026 that four new moons have been confirmed around Jupiter (bringing its total to 101) and 11 new moons around Saturn (bringing its total to 285). All are small irregular moons, discovered by combining archival telescope data with new observations. With the Vera C. Rubin Observatory now operational, further discoveries are expected. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/more-moons-for-jupiter-and-saturn-total-satellite-discoveries/   Story 5: Human Debris on the Moon — Over 100 Metric Tons and Counting More than 100 metric tons of human-made objects now litter the lunar surface — spacecraft hardware, scientific instruments, and even waste from Apollo missions. With a wave of crewed and commercial lunar missions approaching under Artemis and beyond, space policy researchers are urging the development of international agreements to protect scientifically sensitive lunar sites before they are damaged or contaminated by human activity. Source: https://www.universetoday.com — lunar debris policy   Story 6: MAVEN Still Missing / Proba-3 Recovered NASA's MAVEN Mars orbiter, lost since December 6, 2025, remains uncontacted despite three months of recovery efforts using the Deep Space Network, Green Bank Observatory, and the Curiosity rover. An anomaly review board is assessing options. Meanwhile, ESA's Proba-3 coronagraph spacecraft — silent since February 14 after a power failure — has been successfully recovered after engineers exploited a brief window when the tumbling spacecraft's solar panels briefly faced the Sun. MAVEN source: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/nasa-wont-give-up-hope-on-silent-maven-mars-probe-were-still-looking-for-it Proba-3 source: https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/03/europe-restores-contact-lost-spacecraft/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Op 11 maart van dit jaar verscheen er een artikel in The Astrophysical Journal Letters met de titel "Gaia-GIC-1: An Evolving Catastrophic Planetesimal Collision Candidate". In deze aflevering van de Zimmerman en Space podcast kijken we samen wat dit nou weer te betekenen heeft.'Completely bonkers': Astronomers find evidence of a cataclysmic collision between exoplanets:https://www.space.com/astronomy/exoplanets/completely-bonkers-astronomers-find-evidence-of-a-cataclysmic-collision-between-planetsGaia-GIC-1: An Evolving Catastrophic Planetesimal Collision Candidate:https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae3ddcGaia20ehk:https://gsaweb.ast.cam.ac.uk/alerts/alert/Gaia20ehk/WISE ruimtetelescoop:https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/wide-field-infrared-survey-explorer-wise/Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Odd X-Pattern of Trailing Debris:https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/suspected-asteroid-collision-leaves-odd-x-pattern-of-trailing-debris/De Zimmerman en Space podcast is gelicenseerd onder een Creative Commons CC0 1.0 licentie.http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0

Astronomy Daily S05E65 — 17 March 2026 Six stories from the frontiers of space and astronomy, hosted by Anna and Avery.   IN THIS EPISODE: •    

It's a bumper Friday edition of Astronomy Daily. NASA gives Artemis II the official green light to launch on April 1st, marking the first crewed lunar mission in over 53 years. Astronomers witness the birth of a magnetar for the very first time, confirming a decade-old theory and demonstrating Einstein's general relativity in a supernova. A star 11,000 light-years away shows evidence of two planets catastrophically colliding in real time. A bus-sized asteroid buzzed past Earth last night closer than the Moon, discovered just five days ago. A fast solar wind stream from a coronal hole could bring auroras to higher latitudes tonight. And scientists may have identified the source of the most energetic neutrino ever recorded. Story 1: Artemis II — Green Light for April 1 Launch NASA completed its Flight Readiness Review on 12 March 2026, with all mission teams voting unanimously ‘go' for launch. The Space Launch System and Orion capsule will roll out to Launch Complex 39B on 19 March, with the primary launch window opening on 1 April at 6:24pm ET. Backup windows exist on 2–6 April and 30 April. The crew of four — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen — will fly a 10-day figure-eight loop around the Moon. It will be the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The previously planned Moon landing on Artemis III has been moved to Artemis IV, though NASA's 2028 goal for a lunar landing remains unchanged. •       NASA Artemis II Mission Page: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/ •       CNN coverage of FRR outcome: https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/12/science/nasa-artemis-2-launch-date-risk-assessment Story 2: First-Ever Observed Birth of a Magnetar Astronomers have for the first time directly observed the birth of a magnetar — a highly magnetized, rapidly spinning neutron star — confirming it as the power source behind some of the universe's brightest stellar explosions. The discovery, published in Nature on 11 March 2026, centres on superluminous supernova SN 2024afav, located approximately one billion light-years from Earth. Graduate student Joseph Farah at UC Santa Barbara, working with Las Cumbres Observatory's global telescope network, detected a distinctive ‘chirp' pattern in the supernova's fading light — four oscillations with shortening intervals. This pattern is explained by a wobbling accretion disc around the newborn magnetar, driven by Lense-Thirring precession — a general relativistic effect. The finding confirms a 2010 theory by UC Berkeley physicist Dan Kasen, and marks the first time general relativity has been required to explain supernova mechanics. •       Berkeley News: https://news.berkeley.edu/2026/03/11/astronomers-capture-birth-of-a-magnetar-confirming-link-to-some-of-universes-brightest-exploding-stars/ •       Space.com: https://www.space.com/astronomy/stars/astronomers-witness-colossal-supernova-explosion-create-one-of-the-most-magnetic-stars-in-the-universe-for-the-first-time Story 3: Two Planets Caught Colliding 11,000 Light-Years Away Researchers at the University of Washington have published evidence of a catastrophic planetary collision observed in real time around star Gaia20ehk, located approximately 11,000 light-years from Earth near the constellation Puppis. The star began flickering erratically from 2016, before its light output went ‘completely bonkers' around 2021 — the signature of a massive debris cloud from two colliding worlds passing in front of the star. The debris orbits at roughly one astronomical unit from the star — the same as Earth's distance from the Sun — and may eventually coalesce into new planetary bodies resembling an Earth-Moon system. The paper was published 11 March in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. •       University of Washington: https://www.washington.edu/news/2026/03/11/uw-astronomers-spot-planet-collision-evidence/ •       ScienceDaily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260311213429.htm Story 4: Asteroid 2026 EG1 Flies Past Earth A bus-sized asteroid designated 2026 EG1 made its closest approach to Earth at 11:27pm EDT on 12 March 2026, passing just 197,466 miles away — closer than the Moon. Estimated at 32–72 feet (10–22 metres) across and travelling at over 21,500 mph, it posed no threat. Notably, the asteroid was only discovered on 8 March — five days before its flyby — highlighting the ongoing challenge of detecting small near-Earth objects with short warning times. NASA's Vera Rubin Observatory has already catalogued over 2,000 previously unknown solar system bodies since beginning operations. •       Space.com: https://www.space.com/stargazing/bus-sized-asteroid-will-fly-past-earth-tonight-mere-days-after-being-discovered-heres-what-to-expect-march-12-2026 Story 5: Solar Wind & Aurora Alert A fast-moving stream of solar wind from a large coronal hole on the Sun is expected to reach Earth on 13 March 2026, potentially triggering G1 (minor) geomagnetic storm conditions. Auroras may be visible from higher latitudes including Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands, Reykjavik, northern Scandinavia, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Hobart (Tasmania) during local nighttime hours. The Moon is a waning crescent at approximately 34% illumination, making for reasonably dark skies. Observers can check real-time aurora forecasting at spaceweather.com or SpaceWeatherLive. •       EarthSky solar wind update: https://earthsky.org/sun/sun-news-activity-solar-flare-cme-aurora-updates/ •       Real-time aurora forecasts: https://spaceweatherlive.com/ Story 6: KM3NeT & the Record-Breaking Neutrino Scientists working with the KM3NeT neutrino detector on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea off Sicily believe they may have identified the source of the most energetic neutrino ever recorded. Detected three years ago, the particle had energy levels exceeding anything previously observed of its kind. Researchers now believe a population of blazars — galaxies with supermassive black holes firing particle jets directly towards Earth — is the most likely source. Blazars are among the most violent and energetic phenomena in the observable universe. The finding represents a significant step in multi-messenger astronomy. •       Universe Today: https://www.universetoday.com/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Welcome to Episode 60 of Astronomy Daily Season Five! In today's episode, Anna and Avery cover six major stories from the world of space and astronomy — including a neutron star collision in an unprecedented location, the latest Artemis II news, and a cosmic mystery solved after decades.   Stories covered in this episode:   1. NASA Discovers Neutron Star Crash in Unexpected Location A fleet of NASA telescopes — including Chandra, Fermi, Swift, and Hubble — has detected a neutron star merger inside a tiny galaxy buried in a vast stream of gas, 4.7 billion light-years away. It's the first time this type of collision has been spotted in such an environment, and it may explain why gamma-ray bursts sometimes appear outside any galaxy — and how precious metals like gold and platinum ended up in distant stellar regions. Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.   2. Artemis II Flight Readiness Review NASA will host a Flight Readiness Review press conference on Thursday 12 March at Kennedy Space Center, covering progress toward the first crewed Artemis mission. The rocket is currently back in the Vehicle Assembly Building following a helium issue, with rollout to the launchpad expected around 19 March and a launch target of no earlier than 1 April 2026.   3. Firefly Alpha 'Stairway to Seven' Scrubbed Again Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket — attempting its return to flight after a 10-month grounding — has been scrubbed three times in 10 days. The latest scrub occurred on 10 March during fluid loading after off-nominal readings. A new launch date will be confirmed following engineering review. This mission is the final Block I Alpha flight, with the upgraded Block II debuting on Flight 8.   4. DART Mission Reveals 'Cosmic Snowball Fight' Between Asteroids Researchers at the University of Maryland have found the first direct visual proof of material transfer between two asteroids — fan-shaped streaks on the surface of asteroid moon Dimorphos, left by debris thrown off its parent asteroid Didymos at just 30.7 cm/s. The discovery provides visual confirmation of the YORP effect and has implications for planetary defence modelling. ESA's Hera mission arrives at Didymos in December 2026. Published in The Planetary Science Journal.   5. Starship Flight 12 — About Four Weeks Away SpaceX is approximately four weeks from the launch of Starship Flight 12, which will be the first flight of the upgraded V3 configuration — the most powerful version of the already record-breaking vehicle. Engineers have completed propellant system tests on Ship 39 at Starbase, Texas, and preflight preparations are continuing.   6. Giant Cosmic Sheet Discovered Around the Milky Way Astronomers from the University of Groningen, publishing in Nature Astronomy, have used advanced computer simulations to discover that the matter surrounding our Local Group is arranged in a vast, flat sheet — dominated by dark matter — stretching tens of millions of light-years across. This structure, flanked by enormous empty voids, explains why nearby galaxies are moving away from us rather than being pulled inward. It's the first detailed map of dark matter distribution in our cosmic neighbourhood.     Astronomy Daily is part of the Bitesz.com Podcast Network. Website: astronomydaily.io | Social: @AstroDailyPod on all major platformsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

L'existence de trous noirs supermassifs fugitifs, résultant de fusions de galaxies, est prédite depuis longtemps. Pour la première fois, en mars 2023, le télescope spatial Hubble avait donné un indice laissant penser qu'on en avait repéré un, avec l'existence d'une sorte de longue trainée de gaz choqué (voir nos épisodes 1469 et 1493). Aujourd'hui, l'équipe à l'origine de cette observation initiale a refait d'autres observations mais cette fois avec le télescope Webb. Les données confirment que cet objet se déplace à une vitesse supersonique dans le milieu intergalactique, perturbant le gaz diffus et créant un arc de choc. Les chercheurs estiment que cet objet est très probablement un trou noir supermassif, éjecté de sa galaxie et traversant le milieu intergalactique à grande vitesse. L'étude est à paraître dans The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source JWST Confirmation of a Runaway Supermassive Black Hole via its Supersonic Bow ShockPieter Van Dokkum et al.The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 998, Number 1https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae3d0e Illustrations Image du sillage obtenue par Hubble en 2023 et zone aujourd'hui observée avec Webb (Van Dokkum et al.) Modélisation 3D de l'arc de choc supersonique produit dans le milieu intergalactique (Van Dokkum et al.)3.Pieter Van Dokkum

Sponsor Link:This episode is brought to you with thanks to Squarespace. Bring your stories to life with Squarespace, the easiest way to create an exceptional website, blog, portfolio, or online store. To take up our great offer and help support the show, just visit www.squarespace.com/spacetime or use the Promo Code SPACETIME at checkout.SpaceTime with Stuart Gary Gary - Series 29 Episode 13In this episode of SpaceTime, we uncover the hidden violent past of the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, delve into the origins of water on Jupiter's Galilean moons, and explore how meteor impacts are triggering dust avalanches on Mars.The Violent History of Sagittarius AFor years, Sagittarius A, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, has been perceived as a quiet entity. However, new research published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters indicates that it may have experienced dramatic flares in the past. Observations from the CRISM Space Telescope reveal X-ray emissions from a gas cloud near Sagittarius A, suggesting a history of explosive activity that alters our understanding of supermassive black hole evolution and the history of our galaxy.Water Origins of Jupiter's Galilean MoonsA groundbreaking study has determined that the contrasting water content of Jupiter's four large Galilean moons was established during their formation rather than evolving later. This research sheds light on the stark differences between Io, which is dry and volcanically active, and Europa, believed to have a subsurface ocean. The findings suggest that the primordial environment around Jupiter played a crucial role in shaping these moons' compositions.Meteor Impacts Trigger Dust Avalanches on MarsNew evidence indicates that meteor impacts on Mars are causing dust avalanches, creating dark streaks on the planet's surface. An analysis of images from the European Space Agency's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter reveals that these avalanches occur primarily due to dry processes, driven by seasonal dust and wind activity, rather than water-related phenomena. This discovery enhances our understanding of Martian surface dynamics and the impact of meteor activity.www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com✍️ Episode ReferencesAstrophysical Journal LettersNature CommunicationsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-your-guide-to-space-astronomy--2458531/support.(00:00:00) Sagittarius A's hidden violent past revealed(00:12:45) Origins of water on Jupiter's Galilean moons(00:25:30) Meteor impacts causing dust avalanches on Mars(00:35:00) February night sky highlights and celestial events.(00:00:00) This is space time series 29, episode 13 for broadcast on 30 January 2026(00:00:47) X ray emissions from the Crism Space Telescope suggest Sagittarius A flared(00:07:59) A new study claims dust avalanches caused by meteor impacts are creating Martian streaks(00:10:22) February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars(00:12:03) February's Orion meteor showers usually peak around February 8th(00:22:18) Blue supergiant Rigel is the second brightest star in the constellation Orion(00:31:08) Rygel: Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky(00:35:09) February is a great time to look for bright stars in the night sky(00:38:04) The night sky is sparse with the old planets at the moment

SpaceTime with Stuart Gary Gary - Series 29 Episode 10In this episode of SpaceTime, we explore groundbreaking developments in space exploration, including the imminent launch of the first nuclear-powered rocket, the merging of low mass dwarf galaxies, and the intriguing connection between Earth-like planets and gas giants.The Dawn of Nuclear Rocket TechnologyHistory is set to be made as NASA and DARPA prepare to test the world's first fully operational nuclear-powered orbital rocket. This innovative vehicle utilizes a nuclear thermal propulsion system that heats liquid hydrogen propellant through nuclear fusion, achieving nearly double the efficiency of conventional rockets. The test aims to validate reactor operation in orbit, potentially revolutionizing space travel by reducing transit times to Mars and allowing for larger payloads.Merging Dwarf Galaxies: A New DiscoveryA recent study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters confirms that low mass dwarf galaxies can merge with one another. Observations of the Ursa Minor dwarf spheroidal galaxy reveal previously hidden stellar structures, suggesting that even the smallest galaxies experience mergers. These findings challenge traditional views on galaxy formation and evolution, indicating that interactions between dwarf galaxies may be more common than previously believed.The Connection Between Earth-Like and Gas Giant PlanetsAstronomers have found that rocky planets similar to Earth are more likely to exist in star systems that also contain large gas giants like Jupiter. This research, reported in Astronomy and Astrophysics, shows that cold Jupiters, which orbit beyond the snow line, play a significant role in the formation of super Earths in the inner regions of their planetary systems. The study offers new insights into the complex dynamics of planetary formation and the conditions that lead to the development of terrestrial planets.www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com✍️ Episode ReferencesAstrophysical Journal LettersAstronomy and AstrophysicsScience AdvancesBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-your-guide-to-space-astronomy--2458531/support.(00:00:00) NASA and DARPA prepare to test the first nuclear-powered orbital rocket(00:10:15) New study confirms mergers among low mass dwarf galaxies(00:20:45) Link discovered between Earth-like planets and gas giants(00:30:00) China breaks through barriers in nuclear fusion reactor development(00:35:20) The impact of ultra-processed foods on global health.

Eind vorig jaar werd een artikel gepubliceerd in the Astrophysical Journal Letters met de titel "The First RELHIC? Cloud-9 is a Starless Gas Cloud". Wat er zo bijzonder is aan een plek zonder sterren hoort u in deze aflevering, tenzij u natuurlijk besluit niet te luisteren.Why not finding stars has astronomers on Cloud-9:https://www.astronomy.com/science/why-not-finding-stars-has-astronomers-on-cloud-9/  The First RELHIC? Cloud-9 is a Starless Gas Cloud:https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae1584Reionization:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReionizationFive-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST):https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-hundred-meter_Aperture_Spherical_TelescopeSteun deze podcast en koop het album met muziek:https://henszimmermanaudio.bandcamp.com/album/really-slow-tapesHey en bedankt hè, iedereen die mijn muziekjes al kocht! Geweldig.De Zimmerman en Space podcast is gelicenseerd onder een Creative Commons CC0 1.0 licentie.http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0

Un planeta fuera del Sistema Solar desconcierta a la ciencia por su forma, su atmósfera y su origen  Por Félix Riaño @LocutorCo A más de mil kilómetros por segundo, una estrella muerta gira como un faro en el espacio profundo. A su alrededor, muy cerca, hay un objeto que no debería existir. Tiene el tamaño de Júpiter, la forma de un limón aplastado y una atmósfera hecha casi por completo de carbono. No tiene agua. No tiene oxígeno. No tiene nitrógeno. Y nadie sabe cómo pudo formarse. El PSR J2322-2650b se ha convertido en uno de los mayores misterios recientes de la astronomía moderna. Tal vez no sea un planeta como creemos.  Vamos a explicar qué se ha descubierto y por qué tiene tan desconcertada a la comunidad científica. Este objeto se encuentra a unos dos mil años luz de la Tierra y orbita un púlsar. Un púlsar es el núcleo colapsado de una estrella que explotó como supernova. Tiene casi la masa del Sol, pero comprimida en un espacio similar al tamaño de una ciudad. Gira muy rápido y lanza radiación constantemente. El planeta gira alrededor de ese púlsar a una distancia de apenas un millón seiscientos mil kilómetros. Para ponerlo en contexto, la Tierra está a unos ciento cincuenta millones de kilómetros del Sol. Por esa cercanía extrema, un año en este planeta dura solo unas ocho horas. La gravedad del púlsar lo estira de forma brutal, tanto que su diámetro ecuatorial es casi un cuarenta por ciento mayor que su diámetro polar. Por eso los astrónomos lo describen como un planeta con forma de limón.  Este mundo fue observado con el James Webb Space Telescope, que permitió analizar su atmósfera con un nivel de detalle nunca visto en un sistema de este tipo.  Aquí empieza el verdadero problema. Cuando los científicos estudiaron la atmósfera de PSR J2322-2650b esperaban encontrar gases comunes, como vapor de agua, metano o dióxido de carbono. Pero lo que apareció fue algo totalmente distinto. La atmósfera está dominada por helio y por carbono molecular, formas simples de carbono que casi nunca aparecen solas en planetas.  El carbono suele unirse a otros elementos. Para que exista de esta forma, casi no puede haber oxígeno ni nitrógeno. Y eso es justo lo que ocurre aquí. Entre más de ciento cincuenta planetas estudiados con este nivel de detalle, ninguno muestra una composición similar. Las temperaturas tampoco ayudan a explicarlo. En el lado más frío del planeta se alcanzan unos seiscientos cincuenta grados Celsius. En el lado más caliente, más de dos mil grados Celsius.  Con esos valores, el carbono debería reaccionar con otros elementos. Pero no lo hace. Esto rompe las teorías actuales sobre cómo se forman los planetas y cómo evolucionan sus atmósferas. Los modelos conocidos no encajan. Ninguno.  Ante este rompecabezas, los científicos manejan varias ideas. Una posibilidad es que este objeto no sea un planeta en el sentido clásico. Podría ser el resto de una estrella que orbitaba el púlsar y que fue perdiendo masa durante millones de años, como ocurre en los sistemas llamados “viuda negra”. En esos sistemas, el púlsar va despojando poco a poco a su compañero hasta casi hacerlo desaparecer.  Otra idea es que estemos viendo un tipo de objeto totalmente nuevo, algo que aún no tiene nombre. Un cuerpo que logró mantenerse estable alrededor de un púlsar durante miles de millones de años, resistiendo una radiación extrema y fuerzas gravitatorias enormes. En ese caso, la ciencia tendría que ampliar su definición de lo que puede existir en el universo.  Los datos del Webb sugieren que en su atmósfera pueden formarse nubes de hollín hechas de carbono. Con el tiempo, ese carbono podría cristalizar en el interior del planeta y formar diamantes. Un mundo rojo, cubierto de polvo oscuro, con tormentas que siguen su forma alargada. Un lugar que parece ciencia ficción, pero es real.  Por ahora, los investigadores van a buscar más sistemas similares. Solo así podrán saber si este planeta es una rareza absoluta o el primer ejemplo de una familia desconocida de mundos extremos.  Este hallazgo fue posible porque el sistema tiene una ventaja poco común. El púlsar emite sobre todo radiación de alta energía, como rayos gamma, que el Webb no detecta. Eso permite observar la luz del planeta sin que la estrella lo opaque, algo que no suele ocurrir con estrellas normales.  Además, este es el único planeta conocido con masa, tamaño y temperatura similares a un Júpiter caliente que orbita un púlsar. De los más de seis mil exoplanetas registrados hasta ahora, solo unos pocos están asociados a púlsares, y ninguno se parece a este.  El estudio fue publicado en The Astrophysical Journal Letters y ha sido destacado por la NASA y por medios como The New York Times. Todos coinciden en lo mismo: este objeto no encaja en ninguna caja conocida.Lejos de ser frustrante, este tipo de descubrimientos son los que empujan a la ciencia a avanzar. Cada vez que aparece algo así, las teorías se ajustan, se amplían o se descartan. Y eso nos acerca un poco más a entender cómo funciona realmente el universo.  Un planeta con forma de limón, una atmósfera de carbono y un origen desconocido acaba de poner en jaque a la astronomía. Vamos a seguir atentos a este misterio cósmico. Cuéntanos qué opinas y acompáñanos en Flash Diario  

Le 18 août 2025, la collaboration LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA a détecté des ondes gravitationnelles issues de la fusion d'un système binaire d'étoiles à neutrons en dessous du seuil de masse classique. Au moins une des étoiles à neutrons avait une masse inférieure à celle du Soleil. Le Zwicky Transient Facility a cartographié la localisation approximative de cet événement et a découvert une source transitoire coïncidant spatialement et temporellement avec le déclenchement des ondes gravitationnelles. La première semaine de suivi a révélé des propriétés similaires à celles d'une kilonova de type GW170817. Mais les suivis ultérieurs suggèrent des propriétés plus proches de celles d'une jeune supernova de type IIb à enveloppe dépouillée. Une analyse approfondie montre qu'il pourrait s'agir en fait des deux, dans un nouveau processus qu'on appelle une superkilonova... L'étude est parue dans The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source ZTF25abjmnps (AT2025ulz) and S250818k: A Candidate Superkilonova from a Subthreshold Subsolar Gravitational-wave TriggerMansi Kasliwal et al.The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 995, Number 2 (15 december 2025)https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae2000 Illustrations Vue d'artiste du phénomène de superkilonova (Caltech/K. Miller and R. Hurt (IPAC)) Mansi Kasliwal

Want to be a top notch candidate for hosting alien life? Then there's a few key requirements you should be aware of: Ideally, you're a large object like a moon or a planet; scientists suspect you also have an atmosphere and water; plus, you should orbit your star from a nice mid-range distance — in the "Goldilocks Zone" of habitability. Until recently, you would be competing against TRAPPIST-1 e. It's a planet outside of our solar system. TRAPPIST-1 e is also only 40 light years away, rocky and the same size as Earth, which prompted researchers to investigate whether it also has an atmosphere — and the potential for alien life. A team of researchers has been investigating TRAPPIST-1 e to learn more about its potential. Their answers, recently published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, say a lot not just about this exoplanet, but about how scientists should refocus their hunt for alien life.Interested in more space science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

(00:00:00) Galactic Tug-of-War: The Small Magellanic Cloud's Struggle Against Gravitational Forces (00:00:46) One of our nearest neighbouring galaxies being torn apart (00:08:00) A giant spider on the Jovian Ice Moon Europa (00:12:23) Mars could have been habitable for long periods (00:14:14) The Science Report (00:17:23) Skeptics guide to why some people are born suckers (00:20:24) Episode Wrap In this episode of SpaceTime, we delve into fascinating cosmic phenomena and groundbreaking discoveries that could reshape our understanding of the universe.The Small Magellanic Cloud: A Galaxy Under DuressAstronomers have uncovered that the Small Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy, is being torn apart by gravitational forces from its neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud. This revelation, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, highlights the complex movements of Cepheid variable stars within the galaxy, indicating that it is being stretched in multiple directions. By utilizing data from the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite, researchers have gained unprecedented insights into the interactions between these two galaxies, prompting a reevaluation of their structural dynamics and gravitational relationships with the Milky Way.Europa's Spider: Signs of Subsurface Water?A striking spider-like feature on Jupiter's moon Europa has scientists buzzing with excitement. Researchers suggest this formation, found near the Menanan impact crater, may be evidence of subsurface water seeping through the moon's icy crust following an asteroid impact. The findings, reported in the Planetary Science Journal, could have significant implications for the moon's habitability and the presence of life. By drawing parallels with similar features on Mars, scientists are eager to explore Europa's subsurface properties further, especially with the upcoming Europa Clipper mission set to launch in April 2030.Mars: A Longer Habitable History?New research indicates that Mars may have been habitable for a much longer duration than previously believed. A study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Planets reveals that ancient underground water may have flowed beneath the Martian sand dunes, creating conditions conducive to life long after its surface water disappeared. This discovery not only enhances our understanding of Mars' geological history but also highlights the potential of subsurface environments as targets for future exploration in the search for past life.www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com✍️ Episode ReferencesAstrophysical Journal LettersPlanetary Science JournalJournal of Geophysical Research PlanetsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-your-guide-to-space-astronomy--2458531/support.

Of the seven Earth-sized worlds orbiting the red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, one planet in particular has attracted the attention of scientists. This planet orbits the star within the "Goldilocks zone" - a distance where water on its surface is theoretically possible, but only if the planet has an atmosphere. And where there is water, there might be life. TRAPPIST-1e, an Earth-sized, habitable-zone exoplanet Two recently scientific papers detail initial observations of the TRAPPIST-1 system obtained by a research group using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. In these publications, the authors, including Sukrit Ranjan with the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, present a careful analysis of the results so far and offer several potential scenarios for what the planet's atmosphere and surface may be like. While these reports are intriguing and show progress toward characterizing the nearest potentially earth-like exoplanet, Ranjan urges caution in a third paper, arguing that more rigorous studies are needed to determine whether TRAPPIST-1e has an atmosphere at all and whether preliminary hints of methane detected by James Webb are indeed signs of an atmosphere or have their origin with its host star. The TRAPPIST system, so named after the survey that discovered it - "Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope project" - is located about 39 light-years from Earth. It resembles a miniature version of our solar system. The star and all its planets would comfortably fit inside the orbit of planet Mercury. A "year" for any given TRAPPIST planet lasts mere days by Earth standards. "The basic thesis for TRAPPIST-1e is this: If it has an atmosphere, it's habitable," said Ranjan, who is an assistant professor at LPL. "But right now, the first-order question must be, 'Does an atmosphere even exist?'" To answer this question, researchers aimed the space telescope's powerful Near-Infrared Spectrograph, or NIRSpec, instrument at the TRAPPIST system as planet TRAPPIST-1e transited - or passed in front of - its host star. During a transit, starlight filters through the planet's atmosphere - if there is one - and is partially absorbed, allowing astronomers to deduce what chemicals it may contain. With each additional transit, the atmospheric contents become clearer as more data is collected. The four transits of TRAPPIST-1e studied by the team revealed hints of methane. However, because TRAPPIST-1e's star is a so-called M dwarf, about one tenth the size of our sun and only slightly larger than Jupiter, its unique properties call for extra caution when interpreting data, Ranjan said. "While the sun is a bright, yellow dwarf star, TRAPPIST-1 is an ultracool red dwarf, meaning it is significantly smaller, cooler and dimmer than our sun," he explained. "Cool enough, in fact, to allow for gas molecules in its atmosphere. We reported hints of methane, but the question is, 'is the methane attributable to molecules in the atmosphere of the planet or in the host star?'" To rule on this question, Ranjan and colleagues simulated scenarios in which TRAPPIST-1e might have a methane-rich atmosphere and evaluated the probability for each of them. In the most likely scenario among the ones tested, the planet resembled Saturn's methane-rich moon, Titan. However, the work showed that even that scenario was very unlikely. "Based on our most recent work, we suggest that the previously reported tentative hint of an atmosphere is more likely to be 'noise' from the host star," Ranjan said. "However, this does not mean that TRAPPIST-1e does not have an atmosphere - we just need more data." Ranjan pointed out that while James Webb is revolutionizing exoplanet science, the telescope was not originally designed to study small, Earth-like exoplanets. "It was designed long before we knew such worlds existed, and we are fortunate that it can study them at all," he said. "There is only a handful of E...

Deux fusions de trous noirs, mesurée à un mois d'intervalle fin 2024 par la collaboration LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA, permet aux chercheurs de mieux comprendre la nature et l'évolution des collisions les plus violentes de l'univers. Les données recueillies lors de ces fusions valident également avec une précision sans précédent les lois fondamentales de la physique prédites par Albert Einstein et font progresser la recherche de nouvelles particules élémentaires encore inconnues, susceptibles d'extraire de l'énergie des trous noirs. L'étude est parue dans The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source GW241011 and GW241110: Exploring Binary Formation and Fundamental Physics with Asymmetric, High-spin Black Hole CoalescencesLVK CollaborationThe Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 993, Number 1 (28 october 2025)https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae0d54 Illustration Vue d'artiste d'une fusion de trous noirs asymétriques (Carl Knox, OzGrav, Swinburne University of Technology)

Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( @Nmcanopus ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. travelersinthenight.org Today's 2 topics: - Recently Dr. Yossi Shvartzvald led a team which published their discovery of an Earth sized planet using microlensing in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The newly discovered planet OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb orbits a small dim object about 13,000 light years from us. With only 7.8% of the Sun's mass the new planet's star may be a brown dwarf and not a star at all. At about the same distance from its star as we are from the Sun this new planet is likely to be an ice ball world colder than Pluto. - In 2018 the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite nicknamed TESS will be launched and begin a two to three year mission to discover small Earth sized planets orbiting bright stars in the solar neighborhood.   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.  Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.

Une équipe d'astronomes vient d'identifier une planète errante qui est en train de grossir à un taux record de 6 milliards de tonnes par seconde en accrétant de très grandes quantités de gaz. Cette planète sans étoile, nommée Cha 1170-7626 est située à environ 600 années-lumière est fait déjà la bagatelle de 5 à 10 fois la masse de Jupiter. Va-t-elle devenir une étoile ? L'étude est parue dans The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source Discovery of an Accretion Burst in a Free-floating Planetary-mass ObjectVictor Almendros-Abad, et al.The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 992, Number 1 (2 october 2025)https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae09a8 Illustrations Vue d'artiste de Cha1107-7626 accrétant du gaz (ESO/L. Calçada, M. Kornmesser) Victor Almendros-Abad

Sponsor Details:This episode of SpaceTime is brought to you with the support of Insta360. Capture your adventures with their latest game-changer, the GOUltra. For a special SpaceTime listener offer, visit store.insta360.com and use the promo code SPACETIME at checkout. Help support SpaceTime and get a great deal. Win/win!In this episode of SpaceTime, we delve into some astounding revelations in solar physics and planetary science, including the extreme temperatures of solar flares, new insights into the formation of Jupiter's core, and the tantalising possibility of life evolving on nearby exoplanets.Solar Flares Hotter Than Ever ImaginedRecent research has revealed that solar flares can reach temperatures exceeding 60 million degrees Celsius, a staggering six and a half times hotter than previously believed. This groundbreaking finding, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, may provide answers to a long-standing mystery regarding solar flare spectral lines. The study suggests that positively charged particles, or ions, are heated more intensely than electrons during these explosive events, leading to a significant revision of our understanding of solar flare dynamics.New Insights into Jupiter's Core FormationA new study challenges previous theories regarding the formation of Jupiter's core, suggesting that a giant impact may not be responsible for the planet's dilute core structure. Instead, it appears that Jupiter's core formed gradually through the absorption of heavy and light materials during its evolution. This revelation, supported by advanced computer simulations, indicates that the core does not have a distinct boundary but rather blends smoothly into the surrounding hydrogen layers, reshaping our understanding of gas giant formation.Could Life Thrive on Nearby Exoplanets?Exciting new research posits that life may be evolving right now on some of Earth's nearest exoplanets, despite the high levels of radiation they receive. Scientists have drawn parallels between the harsh conditions on these exoplanets and early Earth, where life first emerged amidst extreme ultraviolet radiation. This research highlights the potential for habitability on planets like Proxima b, igniting further interest in the search for extraterrestrial life.www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com✍️ Episode ReferencesAstrophysical Journal Lettershttps://iopscience.iop.org/journal/2041-8205Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societyhttps://academic.oup.com/mnrasCornell Universityhttps://www.cornell.edu/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-space-astronomy--2458531/support.Solar Flares Hotter Than Ever ImaginedNew Insights into Jupiter's Core FormationCould Life Thrive on Nearby Exoplanets?

FRB 20250316A est à ce jour le sursaut radio rapide le plus brillant jamais détecté. Il se trouvait dans la galaxie NGC 4141 située à une distance de seulement 40 Mpc. Grâce à sa proximité et son intensité, la collaboration canadienne CHIME qui traque les FRB (Fast Radio Burst) depuis de nombreuses années, est parvenue à le localiser avec une précision de seulement 13 pc, et a donc pu étudier en détail l'environnement de cet événement pour tenter de comprendre la nature de son progéniteur. L'étude est parue dans The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Sources FRB 20250316A: A Brilliant and Nearby One-Off Fast Radio Burst Localized to 13 parsec PrecisionCHIME/FRB CollaborationThe Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 989, Number 2 (21 august 25)http://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adf62f James Webb Space Telescope Observations of the Nearby and Precisely-Localized FRB 20250316APeter Blanchard et al.The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 989, Number 2 (21 august 25)http://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adf29f Illustrations Vue d'artiste de la détection de FRB par CHIME/FRB (NASA/ESA/CSA/CfA/P. Blanchard et al.; Image processing: CfA/P. Edmonds.) Localisation de FRB 20250316A dans la galaxie NGC 4141 (CHIME collaboration)

A team of astronomers has detected for the first time a growing planet outside our solar system, embedded in a cleared gap of a multi-ringed disk of dust and gas. The team, led by University of Arizona astronomer Laird Close and Richelle van Capelleveen, an astronomy graduate student at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, discovered the unique exoplanet using the University of Arizona's MagAO-X extreme adaptive optics system at the Magellan Telescope in Chile, the U of A's Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona and the Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile. Their results are published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. A growing exoplanet For years, astronomers have observed several dozen planet-forming disks of gas and dust surrounding young stars. Many of these disks display gaps in their rings, hinting at the possibility that they are being "plowed" by nearby nascent planets, or protoplanets, like lanes being cleared by a snowplow. Yet, only about three actual young growing protoplanets have been discovered to date, all in the cavities between a host star and the inner edge of its adjacent protoplanetary disk. Until this discovery, no protoplanets had been seen in the conspicuous disk gaps - which appear as dark rings. "Dozens of theory papers have been written about these observed disk gaps being caused by protoplanets, but no one's ever found a definitive one until today," said Close, professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona. He calls the discovery a "big deal," because the absence of planet discoveries in places where they should be has prompted many in the scientific community to invoke alternative explanations for the ring-and-gap pattern found in many protoplanetary disks. "It's been a point of tension, actually, in the literature and in astronomy in general, that we have these really dark gaps, but we cannot detect the faint exoplanets in them," he said. "Many have doubted that protoplanets can make these gaps, but now we know that in fact, they can." 4.5 billion years ago, our solar system began as just such a disk. As dust coalesced into clumps, sucking up gas around them, the first protoplanets began to form. How exactly this process unfolded, however, is still largely a mystery. To find answers, astronomers have looked to other planetary systems that are still in their infancy, known as planet-forming disks, or protoplanetary disks. Close's team took advantage of an adaptive optics system, one of the most formidable of its kind in the world, developed and built by Close, Jared Males and their students. Males is an associate astronomer at Steward Observatory and the principal investigator of MagAO-X. MagAO-X, which stands for "Magellan Adaptive Optics System eXtreme," dramatically improves the sharpness and resolution of telescope images by compensating for atmospheric turbulence, the phenomenon that causes stars to flicker and blur, and is dreaded by astronomers. Suspecting there should be invisible planets hiding in the gaps of protoplanetary disks, Close's team surveyed all the disks with gaps and probed them for a specific emission of visible light known as hydrogen alpha or H-alpha. "As planets form and grow, they suck in hydrogen gas from their surroundings, and as that gas crashes down on them like a giant waterfall coming from outer space and hits the surface, it creates extremely hot plasma, which in turn, emits this particular H-alpha light signature," Close explained. "MagAO-X is specially designed to look for hydrogen gas falling onto young protoplanets, and that's how we can detect them." The team used the 6.5-meter Magellan Telescope and MagAO-X to probe WISPIT-2, a disk van Capelleveen recently discovered with the VLT. Viewed in H-alpha light, Close's group struck gold. A dot of light appeared inside the gap between two rings of the protoplanetary disk around the star. In addition, the team observed a second candidate planet inside the "cavity" between ...

Les toutes premières étoiles qui se sont formées dans l'Univers à partir de 200 ou 100 millions d'années après la singularité sont appelées des étoiles de population III.1. La plupart d'entre elles étaient très massives, voire supermassives. Aujourd'hui, un astrophysicien américain propose, analyses et calculs rigoureux à l'appui, que ces premières étoiles supermassives ont pu être les graines des premiers trous noirs supermassifs. Et cerise sur le gâteau, grâce à leur fort effet ionisant sur le milieu qui les entourait, elles pourraient résoudre plusieurs tensions cosmologiques observées aujourd'hui, et non des moindres… L'étude est publiée dans The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source Flash Ionization of the Early Universe by Population III.1 Supermassive StarsJonathan C. TanThe Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 989, Number 2 (19 august 2025)http://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adf8da Illustrations Simulation de la bulle de gaz ionisé entourant une étoile de population III.1 (M. Sanati (Chalmers & J. Tan)2.Jonathan Tan

The Trappist-1 planetary system located about 40 light years away in the constellation of Aquarius consists of a small red dwarf star and 7 Earth sized planets. By carefully studying changes in the planet's transit timings and the shape of the dip in the host star's brightness as each planet transits across it, astronomers have been able to measure the orbital period, radius, and approximate mass for each of the 7 planets. Dr Billy Quarles of the University Oklahoma and his team used thousands of numerical simulations on super computers to investigate the range in each planet's parameters which would cause it to have a stable orbit and would thus produce the Trappist-1 solar system which we see today. Their results, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters suggests that 6 of Trappist-1's planets have rocky composition like the Earth the remaining one may be composed of 25 % water by mass compared to 0.02% water by mass for Earth. The next step will be to use the James Web Space Telescope equipped with the latest scientific instruments to study the atmospheres of these distant worlds.

Avec des observations du télescope Webb, une équipe d'astrophysiciens a découvert un objet inhabituel situé à un redshift de z = 1,14,. Ils l'ont surnommé la galaxie ∞ (infini). Il s'agit de deux noyaux de galaxies séparés de 10 kpc, au milieu desquels se trouve un trou noir supermassif. L'analyse de ce qui a pu se passer dans ce système mène vers une formation du trou noir supermassif par l'effondrement direct du nuage de gaz compressé formé lors de la collision frontale de deux galaxies à disque. Ils publient leur étude dans The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source The ∞ Galaxy: A Candidate Direct-collapse Supermassive Black Hole between Two Massive, Ringed NucleiPieter van Dokkum, et al.The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 988, Number 1 (15 july 2025)https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/addcfe Illustrations Schéma du scénario proposé pour la formation du trou noir supermassif au centre du système (Van Dokkum et al.) La galaxie ∞ imagée avec Webb (Van Dokkum et al.)

Une équipe d'astrophysiciens a découvert un halo radio situé à 10 milliards d'années-lumière, il révèle que les amas de galaxies de l'univers primordial étaient déjà imprégnés de particules de haute énergie. Cette découverte suggère une activité ancienne de trous noirs ou bien des collisions de particules cosmiques énergétiques. L'étude est publiée dans The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source Discovery of Diffuse Radio Emission in a Massive z = 1.709 Cool Core Cluster: A Candidate Radio Mini-HaloJulie Hlavacek-Larrondo et al.à paraître dans The Astrophysical Journal Letters Illustrations L'amas SpARCS 1049+5640 et son mini halo imagés dans différentes longueurs d'ondes (visible, rayons X et radio) (HLavacek-Larrondo et al.) Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo

Recently Dr. Yossi Shvartzvald led a team which published their discovery of an Earth sized planet using microlensing in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The newly discovered planet OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb orbits a small dim object about 13,000 light years from us. With only 7.8% of the Sun's mass the new planet's star may be a brown dwarf and not a star at all. At about the same distance from its star as we are from the Sun this new planet is likely to be an ice ball world colder than Pluto.

The beginnings of our end — where the anus came from Our distant evolutionary ancestors had no anuses. Their waste was excreted from the same orifice they used to ingest food, much like jellyfish do today. Now a new study on bioRxiv that has yet to be peer-reviewed, scientists think they've found the evolutionary link in a worm with only a single digestive hole. Andreas Hejnol, from Friedrich Schiller University Jena, said he found genes we now associate with the anus being expressed in the worms in the opening where its sperm comes out, suggesting that in our evolutionary history a similar orifice was co-opted as a butt hole. Deepfake videos are becoming so real, spotting them is becoming increasingly diceyDetecting deepfake videos generated by artificial intelligence is a problem that's getting progressively worse as the technology continues to improve. One way we used to be able to tell the difference between a fake and real video is that subtle signals revealing a person's heart rate don't exist in artificially generated videos. But that is no longer the case, according to a new study in the journal Frontiers in Imaging. Peter Eisert, from Humboldt University and the Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institute HHI in Germany, said detecting manipulated content visually is only going to become a lot more difficult going forward. Crows can use tools, do math — and now apparently understand geometryCrows are known to be among the most intelligent of animals, and a new study has explored their geometrical sophistication. Researchers including Andreas Nieder from the University of Tübingen found that crows can recognize and distinguish different kinds of quadrilateral shapes, an ability we had thought was unique to humans. The research was published in the journal Science Advances.There's gold in them thar magnetically charged neutron stars!Astronomers have discovered a new source of the universe's heavy elements — things like gold, platinum and uranium. A study led by astrophysicist Anirudh Patel found that magnetars — exotic neutron stars with ultra-powerful magnetic fields — may produce these elements in a process analogous to the way solar flares are produced by our Sun. The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, found that a single flare from a magnetar could produce the mass equivalent of 27 moons' worth of these heavy elements in one burst.It may not be big, but it's small — and stroppyYou might not expect an insect so tiny you need a magnifying glass to see it properly to be an aggressive defender of its territory, but that's because you haven't met the warty birch caterpillar. Its territory is just the tip of a birch leaf, but it defends it by threatening intruders with vigorous, if not precisely powerful, vibrations. Jayne Yack at Carleton University has been studying this caterpillar since 2008. This research was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.Criminals beware — the microbiome leaves fingerprintsScientists have developed a new tool that can track location based on traces of the bacteria characteristic to different places. Eran Elhaik, from Lund University in Sweden, trained the AI tool using nearly 4,500 microbiome samples collected around the world from subway systems, soil and the oceans. He said they could identify the city source in 92 per cent of their urban samples, and in Hong Kong, where a lot of their data came from, they could identify the specific subway station samples were taken from with 82 per cent accuracy. The study was published in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution.

Something really weird happened out in space, and astronomers are totally baffled. A strange cosmic explosion lit up the sky, and it might be a super-rare event where everything lined up perfectly — or it could be something completely new that no one's ever seen before! It's called EP240408a, and it was first spotted by the Einstein Probe, an X-ray space telescope, on April 8, 2024. At first, it looked like your typical gamma-ray burst, which usually blasts out insanely bright X-rays. But the more scientists looked, the more things didn't add up. Now everyone's wondering if we just witnessed something brand new in the universe! Credit: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Gemini South: by International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Paredes, https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noi..., https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Blue Optical Transient: by NASA, ESA/Hubble, STScI, A. Chrimes (Radboud University), https://esahubble.org/images/heic2309c/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Sirius: by Pablo Carlos Budassi, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Tde-simulation: by Danieljamesprice, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Survey camera: by DOE/FNAL/DECam/R. Hahn/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noi..., https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Einstein Probe: by China News Service, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Antennas at Narrabri: by John Masterson, CSIRO, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... FBOTvsGRBvsSN: by Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF, https://public.nrao.edu/news/new-clas..., https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... telesopes near Datil: by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Einstein Probe Transient: by The Astrophysical Journal Letters, https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10... What Are Gamma-ray Bursts?: by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14738#media... Wavelengths of Light: by NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI), https://webbtelescope.org/contents/me... Black Hole Accretion: by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13326#media... Isolated Black Hole: by NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC), https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14620#media... Black Hole Devouring A Star: by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10807/#medi... Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/ Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD... Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook:   / brightplanet   Instagram:   / brightside.official   TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.of... Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TEMPORADA 31 DE LA LUZ DEL MISTERIO Vive el Misterio... Pasa, ponte cómodo y disfruta... FROM LONDON: Una experiencia única de comunicación de La Luz del Misterio esta seamana, nos llevará conocer mejor la noticia que ha surgido desde aquí, en Reino Unido sobre los científicos han detectado “pruebas contundentes” de vida extraterrestre en un planeta lejano. Un grupo de científicos detectaron una señal alentadora de posible vida en un planeta fuera de nuestro sistema solar, a la que describen como la “prueba más contundente” hasta ahora de la existencia de vida más allá de la Tierra. El estudio, que podría marcar un antes y un después en la búsqueda de vida fuera de la Tierra, fue publicado este miércoles en la revista Astrophysical Journal Letters. Luego vamos a responder a algunas preguntas sobre el celebre apostol que traicionó a Jesús, según las sagradas escrituras: ¿Por qué Judas traicionó a Jesús? ¿Fue realmente un traidor o una pieza clave en un plan divino que trascendía su comprensión? ¿Podemos considerar su acto un paso necesario para la redención de la humanidad? ¿O se trata más bien de un enigma que nunca se podrá resolver? Con la ayuda de Óscar Fábrega, historiador especializado en los misterios del cristianismo, nos adentraresmos en los enigmas que rodean al discípulo más controvertido de Jesús de Nazaret. El último libro de Óscar Fábrega, Judas, el Iscariote.Tras el beso del traidor, realiza un análisis profundo y accesible, cuestiona las narrativas tradicionales evangélicas y revisaremos con él fuentes tanto canónicas como apócrifas, a través de un profundo trabajo exegético, explorando las distintas caras de Judas Iscariote: desde el codicioso poseído por Satanás hasta el instrumento indispensable de un propósito superior. ¿Fue Judas el villano que nos pintaron o, quizá, un hombre atrapado en un destino inevitable. Además, recorreremos las leyendas, interpretaciones artísticas y literarias, así como diversas tradiciones culturales, que han moldeado su figura a lo largo de los siglos, revelando cómo su imagen ha evolucionado para convertirse en un símbolo universal de traición, pero también de duda y redención. De la mano de Óscar Fábrega, comprobaremos que esta compleja historia ejemplifica como pocas los problemas que debe superar todo aquel que se proponga averiguar qué hay de verdad en las narraciones evangélicas. ——————————————————— Síguenos a través de: edenex.es ZTR Radio.online London Radio World En Ivoox Itunes Spotify Amazon YouTube Si deseas apoyarnos: https://www.ivoox.com/ajx-apoyar_i1_support_29070_1.html Más información: laluzdelmisterioradio.blogspot.com laluzdelmisterio@gmail.com

Astronomers believe they have discovered the strongest evidence yet that life may exist on a planet outside our solar system.A group of scientists, led by the University of Cambridge, have published the results of their study in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.One of the co-authors is Dr Subhajit Sarkar, a lecturer and astrophysicist at Cardiff University, and he joins us to explain more about the planet K2-18b, why the team were looking specifically at that part of space and why he thinks it's only a matter of time before we can confirm alien life.Plus, with the long Easter weekend upon us, The Standard's Food and Drink writer, Josh Barrie, is on hand with ideas of what to do and where to go in the capital to keep the family entertained. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

En Abril de 2020 ocurrió algo excepcional. Se detectó el primer FRB dentro de nuestra galaxia, y no a cientos o miles de millones de años luz de distancia, como sucedía con todos los anteriores. Lo que permitió rastrearlo hasta un magnetar, un extraño tipo de cadáver estelar , llamado SGR 1935 + 2154 . El estallido, detectado por varios radiotelescopios de todo el mundo, fue tan poderoso que los instrumentos ni siquiera consiguieron medir su intensidad. La señal, según los investigadores, fue por lo menos un millón de veces más fuerte que el resto de los FRBs detectados hasta el momento, y la primera detectada dentro de la Vía Láctea. Tras largos meses de análisis, un nuevo estudio recién publicado en The Astrophysical Journal Letters confirma que el FRB procede, efectivamente, del magnetar SGR 1935 + 2154, un "cadáver estelar" que se encuentra a unos 30.000 años luz , dentro de nuestra propia galaxia. Lo cual llevó a pensar que también otros FRB podrían tener un origen similar.

What can the history of science tell us about the world we live in today and where we might be headed tomorrow? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome historian of science Rebecca Charbonneau, PhD from the American Institute of Physics and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory with expertise in radio astronomy and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). This episode kicks off with Allen and Chuck talking about January's Lunar Occultation of Mars. You can see a photo taken by Chuck on our YouTube Community tab. And then it's time for today's joyfully cool cosmic thing: a recent paper in the Astrophysical Journal Letters confirming there are galaxies that were fully formed just 400 million years after The Big Bang. Chuck, who studies galactic evolution, tells us why this changes our understanding of galaxy formation. Rebecca talks about how new ideas can be controversial and how personalities, politics and cultures can impact the evolution of science. She brings up the current controversy in astronomy concerning the locations of terrestrial telescopes and the tension between scientific and cultural imperatives. She also recounts seeing people in Russia wearing NASA t-shirts and explains how NASA understood the importance of controlling the narrative, even inviting Norman Rockwell to popularize the space program. Our first question comes from Pablo P. on Patreon, who asks, “Can humanity be destroyed by AI powered by quantum computing?” Rebecca explains how during the Cold War, scientists on both sides engaged in “science diplomacy” that helped lower tensions. She applies this thinking to AI, pointing out that while a “Terminator-like” scenario is unlikely, public concern is causing the tech world to confront and grapple with real threats from AI like biases in hiring algorithms. Allen, a mathematician who writes about AI professionally, addresses whether AI powered by quantum computing is more dangerous than AI in general. Rebecca shares the terrifying story of a Soviet nuclear submarine and the US navy during the Cuban Missile Crisis that nearly started a nuclear war. The dissenting actions of a single officer named Vasily Arkhipov made the difference, and she wonders if AI would have made the same decision based on the available data. For our next question, we return to our Pablo P. from Patreon for his follow up: “How [do] we answer the question about whether or not we are engaging in self-destructive behavior?” Chuck and Rebecca discuss the confluence of astronomy and the military, and how the history of the SETI program highlights their shared concerns. You'll find out what the Drake Equation has to do with concepts like The Great Filter. Science, she reminds us, is a tool to try to get closer to the truth, but it's not always perfect in pointing out whether what we're doing is safe or potentially self-destructive. Then we turn to Rebecca's other big passion, art history and the window into the human experience that art provides. Charles brings up The Scream by Edvard Munch and the fact that it's actually a depiction of a real atmospheric event. Rebecca talks the use of fractal studies to determine the authenticity of Jackson Pollock art. She also explores the artistic value of scientific artifacts like the controversial plaque attached to Pioneer 10 depicting a naked man and woman, and the interstellar Arecibo Message, sent by Frank Drake in 1974. You'll even hear how Frank worked himself into the message and what that has to do with Albrecht Durer's self-portrait painted in the year 1500. Finally, we turn to what Rebecca's been up to recently. Her new book Mixed Signals came out in January of this year. Keep up with her on her website at and follow her on X @rebecca_charbon and on BlueSky @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social. We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon. Credits for Images Used in this Episode: A young Milky Way-like galaxy and a background quasar 12 billion and 12.5 billion light-years away, respectively. – Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), M. Neeleman & J. Xavier Prochaska; Keck Observatory Artist's concept of a high red-shift galaxy. – Credit: Alexandra Angelich (NRAO/AUI/NSF) John Young and Gus Grissom are suited for the first Gemini flight March 1965. Norman Rockwell, 1965. – Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum / Norman Rockwell Edvard Munch, 1893, The Scream. – Credit: Edvard Munch / National Gallery of Norway (Public Domain) Fractal study of Jackson Pollock art. – Credit: “Perceptual and physiological responses to Jackson Pollock's fractals,” R. Taylor, et al, Front. Hum. Neurosci., 21 June 2011. The Arecibo message. – Credit: Creative Commons NASA image of Pioneer 10's famed Pioneer plaque. – Credit: NASA Albrecht Durer self-portrait. – Credit: Albrecht Dürer - Alte Pinakothek (Public Domain)

SpaceTime Series 28 Episode 10Gaia's Sky Scanning Completion and Mid Infrared Flare from Sagittarius A*The European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft has completed its sky scanning phase, marking a monumental achievement in astronomical missions. Over the past decade, Gaia has transformed our understanding of the Milky Way by mapping the positions and characteristics of billions of stars. This mission has provided unprecedented insights into the origins and evolution of our galaxy, revealing its structure and history like never before.Mid Infrared Flare from the Milky Way's Supermassive Black HoleAstronomers have detected a mid infrared flare from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. This discovery, made using NASA's Webb Space Telescope, fills a crucial gap in our understanding of black hole flares and supports existing models of magnetic reconnection in the accretion disk surrounding the black hole.Discovery of a New Type of ExoplanetNASA's Webb Space Telescope has unveiled a new type of exoplanet, unlike anything in our solar system. The planet, GJ1214B, exhibits a carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere similar to Venus, challenging previous assumptions about exoplanet atmospheres and providing new insights into planetary formation.00:00 This is space time series 28 episode 10 for broadcast of 22 January 202500:49 European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft has completed its 10th science mission05:22 First ever detection of mid infrared flare from Milky Way's supermassive black hole11:15 NASA's Webb Space Telescope has discovered a new type of planet14:11 New study suggests eating carrots can improve the treatment of type 2 diabetes17:41 Tesla is launching satellite connectivity for regular mobile phones in Australiawww.spacetimewithstuartgary.comwww.bitesz.com

Ancient human ancestors didn't eat meat, and so couldn't build big brainsOne of the main reasons scientists think we became so smart is because at some point in our evolutionary past, our ancestors started eating energy-dense meat to fuel the growth of large brains. However it hasn't been clear when this started. Using a new technology, scientists were able to analyze the tooth enamel of seven 3.5 million year old Australopithecines to directly measure their meat consumption. Tina Lüdecke, from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, said it revealed they were primarily herbivores so meat eating would have had to come later in our evolutionary history. Their study was published in the journal Science. Building a robot bee that could one day pollinate cropsBees do an incredibly important job pollinating crops and wild plants. Now scientists in the US are trying to emulate their skills with a tiny robot bee that has all the agility and ability of the real insect. They hope eventually they can be used in indoor factory farms where real bees can't survive.  Kevin Chen, associate professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at M.I.T and PhD candidate Suhan Kim were a part of this project. Their research was published in the journal Science Robotics.We are made of star stuff – but how did it get here?Elements like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen that are essential to life were forged in supernovae billions of years ago. Now new research is helping to explain how these elements – especially essential carbon – were concentrated in such a way as to be plentifully available for the chemistry of life. The study, led in part by astronomer Trystyn Berg, discovered a cosmic conveyer belt funneling carbon in and out of our galaxy over billions of years. The research was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.Australia's vanishingly rare marsupial mole gets a genetic checkupIn the southern desert of Australia, there lives an elusive and unique animal - the marsupial mole. It lives under the sand and is so rare that very few people have ever seen it. Scientists have now published the very first genetic research on this animal in the journal Science Advances, thanks to tissue samples donated by a local museum. Sarah Lucas is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Münster, Germany, and was part of the team. A climate researcher makes the case for scientist-activistsThe stereotype of a scientist is a dispassionate, objective and neutral seeker of nature's truths, and many think that this makes a career in science incompatible with political activism. Canadian climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe thinks that this is a mistake. She sees her role more like that of a physician for the planet – diagnosing its ills and advocating for the health of her patient, and her patient's inhabitants. She recently co-authored a paper in the journal Nature Climate Action arguing her case.

SpaceTime Series 28 Episode 07Dark Matter's Role in Milky Way's Stellar StreamsNew research suggests that dark matter may have influenced the formation of the GD-1 stellar stream in the Milky Way. A study in the Astrophysical Journal Letters proposes that a core-collapsing, self-interacting dark matter subhalo could explain the unusual spur and gap features observed in the stream. This finding could deepen our understanding of dark matter's properties and its influence on the universe.Sun's Triple Solar Flare EruptionThe Sun has unleashed three significant X-class solar flares in a single day, with the first and third being X1.1 flares and the second an X1.5. These powerful eruptions, detected by NOAA's Solar Ultraviolet Imager, are part of the Sun's approach to solar maximum, the peak of its 11-year solar cycle. Solar flares can disrupt Earth's communications, power grids, and pose health risks to astronauts.Quadrantids Meteor Shower SpectacleThe Earth is experiencing the Quadrantids meteor shower, offering a dazzling display of shooting stars. Originating from the near-Earth asteroid 2003 EH1, the Quadrantids are best viewed from dark locations, with peak sightings expected in the Pacific region. Sky watchers can anticipate around 50 meteors per hour, with potential fireballs enhancing the spectacle.00:00 This is space time series 28 episode 7 for broadcast on 15 January 202500:46 New research proposes a self interacting dark matter subhalo could explain GD1 features04:24 The sun unleashed three significant X class solar flares on the same day07:19 Earth is experiencing one of its most spectacular meteor showers, the Quadrantids14:31 A quarter of the world's freshwater animals are at risk of extinction16:43 Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg admits that his fact checkers are dishonest20:28 CES has wrapped up in Las Vegas with lots of interesting gadgetswww.spacetimewithstuartgary.comwww.bitesz.com

SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 155*Discovery of a New Class of Cosmic X-RayAstronomers have identified a new class of cosmic X-ray source, potentially originating from a novel type of nova event. The study, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, reveals 29 unusual objects in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. These objects displayed unexpected behaviours, such as long-duration X-ray outbursts and recurring outbreaks. The findings suggest these sources, dubbed 'Milli Novae', could play a crucial role in understanding astrophysical phenomena, especially as they may contribute to the mass of white dwarfs, potentially leading to Type 1A supernovae.*Uncovering the Secrets of the CentaursUsing the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have begun studying centaurs, a unique family of comet-like asteroids orbiting between Jupiter and Neptune. The study of 2060 Chiron reveals surface chemistry unlike any other known centaur, with carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide ices, and methane gases in its coma. These findings provide new insights into the origins of our solar system, as centaurs have remained largely unchanged since its formation 4.6 billion years ago.*NASA's Plans for Commercial Space StationsWith the International Space Station set for retirement in 2030, NASA is supporting the development of multiple commercial space stations. Projects include the NASA-funded STAR Labs space station, slated for launch in 2028, and Axiom's modular space station, which will initially dock with the ISS. Other proposals, like Orbital Reef and Haven One, are also in development, promising to advance commercial space activities and research.00:00 Astronomers have identified a new class of cosmic X ray source04:44 2060 Chiron provides new clues about the origins of our solar system12:56 A number of proposals for commercial low Earth orbit space stations are growing17:46 Higher levels of air pollution associated with higher risk of hospitalisation, study finds19:31 Almost all artificial intelligence chatbots are showing symptoms of mild cognitive impairment20:47 Apple's AI summarisation feature sometimes gives incorrect summaries22:47 ChatGPT has made its search engines free24:17 Space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcastswww.spacetimewithstuartgary.comwww.bitesz.com

SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 131*Ultra High Energy Gamma Rays Detected in the Milky Way's CoreScientists have detected ultra high energy gamma rays emanating from the centre of the Milky Way. This discovery, reported in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, offers a new perspective on the violent phenomena occurring in the galactic core. Using the High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory in Mexico, researchers measured these gamma rays at over 100 tera electron volts, providing insights into the cosmic processes involving Sagittarius A, the galaxy's central supermassive black hole.*Discovery of a Potential Triple Black Hole SystemAstronomers have identified what may be the first triple black hole system, located 8,000 light years away. This discovery could be the first direct evidence of gentle black hole formation, challenging the typical violent supernova origin theory. The system includes a central black hole, a closely orbiting star, and a far-off companion star, suggesting a more subtle formation process known as direct collapse.*NASA's New Deployable Solar Array System Faces ChallengesNASA has encountered issues with its new deployable solar array and antenna system on the Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator 4 spacecraft. The lightweight integrated solar array and antenna system, designed to enhance power and communication capabilities, is not deploying correctly due to a bent boom. This technology aims to support future deep Space missions with improved efficiency.The Science RobertA recent study reveals that standing, as opposed to sitting, does not improve cardiovascular health, despite the popularity of standing desks. Fossilised remains of a new giant elephant species have been found in India's Kashmir Valley, shedding light on elephant evolution. AI-assisted colonoscopies show a slight improvement in polyp detection. Meanwhile, Apple releases its first AI update, focusing on privacy and user data protection.www.spacetimewithstuartgary.comwww.bitesz.com

SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 116*Discovery of More Black Holes Than Expected in the Early UniverseA new study using the Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a significantly higher number of supermassive black holes in the early universe than previously anticipated. Published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, the findings could revolutionise our understanding of how these ancient black holes formed shortly after the Big Bang. Astronomers, including Alice Young from Stockholm University, suggest that these massive black holes might have originated from the collapse of massive gas clouds or through rapid mergers of smaller stellar-mass black holes.*New Volcano Spotted on Jupiter's Moon IoAstronomers have discovered a new volcano on Io, one of Jupiter's moons, using the Junocam instrument aboard NASA's Juno mission. Io, the most geologically active object in the solar system, boasts over 400 active volcanoes. The newly discovered volcano, located just south of Io's equator, was identified in the first close-up images of Io in over 25 years. The images reveal multiple lava flows and volcanic deposits, with sulphur staining on the eastern side and dark lava streams on the western side.*Confirming the Mass of the W BosonScientists at CERN have confirmed the mass of the W boson, a fundamental particle in physics, to be 80,360.2 mega electron volts, with a margin of error of 9.9 mega electron volts. This confirmation resolves a previous unexpected measurement and aligns with the Standard Model of particle physics. The study utilised data from the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector at the Large Hadron Collider, involving the analysis of millions of events to achieve this precise measurement.www.spacetimewithstuartgary.comwww.bitesz.comThis week's guests include: Alice Young from Stockholm University

SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 115*How Black Holes Eat StarsAstronomers have developed a groundbreaking computer simulation detailing how supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies can rip apart and consume entire stars. The study, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, provides new insights into the mysterious optical and ultraviolet emissions observed during these catastrophic events. Lead author Daniel Price from Monash University explains that the simulation captures the full evolution of the debris from a star being tidally disrupted by a black hole.*New Revelations About Earth's MantleA new study reveals that the chemical composition of the Earth's mantle is uniform globally and only changes as it passes through different layers of crust closer to the planet's surface. Reported in the journal Nature Geoscience, the findings suggest that lavas from volcanic hotspots around the world likely originate from a worldwide uniform reservoir in the Earth's mantle.*Water More Widespread on the Moon Than Previously ThoughtNew maps from both the near and far sides of the Moon show that the lunar surface contains vast amounts of water, mostly locked in the lunar regolith. The findings, published in the Planetary Science Journal, suggest multiple sources of water and hydroxyl in sunlit rocks and soils, including water-rich rocks excavated by meteor impacts at all lunar latitudes.www.spacetimewithstuartgary.comwww.bitesz.comThis week's guests include: Professor Daniel Price from Monash University

Join us for SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 77, where we explore the latest cosmic discoveries and advancements in space exploration.First, astronomers have discovered the earliest known pair of quasars in the process of merging. Reported in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, this discovery represents the earliest known merger of supermassive black holes, occurring just 900 million years after the Big Bang. This period, known as the cosmic dawn, is crucial for understanding the formation of the first stars and galaxies and the epoch of reionization.Next, NASA's Mars Perseverance rover has discovered oddly textured, popcorn-like rocks in a formation known as Bright Angel. These rocks suggest the presence of groundwater in Mars' past, and mission managers plan to conduct detailed exploration to uncover their origins.Finally, new insights into the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, have been presented at the 244th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Using decades of x-ray data, astronomers have uncovered previously undetected flares and echoes, providing valuable information about the black hole's environment and past activity.Follow our cosmic conversations on X @stuartgary, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Join us as we unravel the mysteries of the universe, one episode at a time.Sponsor OfferThis episode is proudly supported by NordPass. Secure your digital journey across the cosmos with a password manager you can trust. Find your stellar security solution at https://www.bitesz.com/nordpass.Listen to SpaceTime on your favourite podcast app including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.Support SpaceTimeBecome a supporter of SpaceTime: https://www.bitesz.com/show/spacetime/support/www.bitesz.com

How animals dealt with the ‘Anthropause' during COVID lockdowns (1:04)During the COVID lockdowns human behaviour changed dramatically, and wildlife scientists were interested in how that in turn changed the behaviour of animals in urban, rural and wilderness ecosystems. In a massive study of camera trap images, a team from the University of British Columbia has built a somewhat surprising picture of how animals responded to a human lockdown. Cole Burton, Canada Research Chair in Terrestrial Mammal Conservation at the University of British Columbia, was part of the team and their research was published in Nature Ecology & EvolutionScientists helping maintain an essential ice road to a northern community (9:40)The only ground connection between the community of Délı̨nę in the NWT and the rest of the country is a winter ice road that crosses Great Bear Lake. But climate warming in the north is making the season for the road shorter, and the ice on the lake less stable. A team of scientists from Wilfrid Laurier University, led by Homa Kheyrollah Pour, are supplementing traditional knowledge about the ice with drones, sensors, satellites and radar to help the community maintain a safe connection with the world.Stars nudging the solar system's planets leads to literal chaos (17:40)The orbits of the planets in our solar system are in a complex dance, orchestrated by the gravitational pull from the sun but influenced by their interactions with each other. Now, due the findings of a new study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, that dance is a lot harder to predict. Nathan Kaib, from the Planetary Science Institute, said the chaos that stars passing by our solar system introduces to simulations deep into the past or far into the future make our planetary promenade predictions a lot less certain. A freaky fish, the gar, really is a living fossil because evolution has barely changed it (26:33)`The seven species of gar fish alive today are nearly indistinguishable from their prehistoric fossilised relatives that lived millions of years ago. Now in a new study in the journal Evolution, scientists describe why these “living fossils” have barely changed and why two lineages separated by 105-million years can hybridise. Chase Brownstein, a graduate student at Yale University, discovered the gar's genome has changed less over time than any other species we know, a finding which could hold the key to fighting human diseases like cancer.Water, water, everywhere. But will we have enough to drink? (33:47)To mark world water day, Quirks & Quarks producer Amanda Buckiewicz is looking at the challenges we're facing with our global freshwater resources. It's one of Nature's bounties, and vital to agriculture and healthy ecosystems. But climate change and overexploitation are creating a global water crisis as glaciers melt, snowpack becomes less predictable, rainfall patterns change, and we overdraw the global groundwater bank. We spoke with:Miina Porkka, associate professor from the University of Eastern Finland. Related paper published in the journal Nature.Christina Aragon, PhD student at Oregon State University. Related paper published in the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.Katrina Moser, associate professor and chair of the department of Geography and Environment at Western University.Scott Jasechko, associate professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Related paper published in the journal Nature.

Exoplanet discoveries have been piling up faster and faster over the last decade, limiting announcements of new discoveries to the strange, unusual, and unexpected. One unexpected type of planet is the possible Hycean world -- hot, water-covered worlds with hydrogen atmospheres larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune with sizable habitable zones.    With the addition of JWST's capabilities, previously discovered exoplanets are now being analyzed for their atmospheric composition, and the results are intriguing. In a new paper accepted for The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the atmosphere of an exoplanet known as K2-18 b was found to contain carbon dioxide and methane, adding the world to the list of possible Hycean planets. Additionally, a molecule called dimethyl sulfide, which on Earth is only produced by life, was possibly detected.   Join communications specialist Beth Johnson as she speaks with lead author Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge, in a SETI Live at a special time. (Recorded live on 21 September 2023.) Preprint of the paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2309.05566.pdf   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.  Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.