Lunar Features and Closing Remarks

Three hundred sixty nine million pounds That is how much it is currently going to cost to refurbish Buckingham Palace building that the king announced last week that he would no longer live in prereferring to live in nearby Clarence house This is on top of the sixty seven million pounds spent last year on the upkeep and basic maintenance of all the London properties in the Ryal portfolio Checkers Prime Ministers country residence costs around one million pounds annually to run, a building the PM uses on the occasional weekend through the year. am Palace. essentially sit empty Pace of Westminster, the houses of Parliament, the seat of goovernment The source of funding decisions is itself beginning a long period of refurbishment The some estimates putut at forty billion pounds over the next few decades All of which is very interesting the RAF and the Royal Navy took delivery in April of three new fighters from the United States E of which cost one hundred million pounds Last year, Thames Water. profit shareholder company received a three billion pound bailout from the government which is identical to the amount of share dividend they've paid out over the last ten years The goovernment wine cellar is estimated to be worth over two million pounds and costs around twenty seven thousand pounds a year to top up The Government Art collollection receives a budget of over half a million a year. And is said to be worth around two billion. all of which is very interesting In other news The PPAN, or partarticle physics, astronomy and nuclear physics budget in the UK, is about to take a thirty percent cut in funding which amounts to a saving to the UK of fifty four million pounds a year and destruction of or scaling back of forty eight major projects. In extensive surveys done since the announcement in January, eighty percent of current PhD students and postdocs in this field are now considering or looking for work outside of the UK And only seven percent would recommend the UK for a PPAN career compared to seventy four percent before January, all of which is very interesting. I'm Paul and I'm Jenny. and this is episode one hundred and seventy seven of Awesome Astronomy for july twenty twenty six Hello. Hello. How are you? Oh I've just about I always said recompose but that's not a word, but yeah I've almost recomposed after, you know the oven that I lived in for A week. It was quite hot, wasn't it Oh my go, I just come back from Bloody California and it was hotter in the UK, like God, it was so hot It was yeah, it was it was stupid one timeperure did you get it team I got up to thirty three. thirty six point six here. And humidity of. And you had a disgusting amount of humidity. eighty six percent. It literally there was a point on Thursday where I was doing some work sitting at the computer and I was feeling very hot and literally the act of standing up made me sweat Yeah. it was It was unbelievable. And the thing is I know that there's countries around the world, right that are hotter than thirty six degrees The problem is We don't have Aircn. The humidity is disgusting and our houses are so insulated to fight the winter. We're just not made for warm. No, no because by night the problem is it does cool down a little bit. they actually didn't really cool down overnight much at all. It's like twenty five at night. Oh God, I think it was like twenty seven or twenty eight here at one point in the middle of the night, which was just ridiculous. But the house itself doesn't cool down Yeah, because it's it's a house built for surviving you know cold autumn or winters and rains. so it just locks in that heat. It's like Oh go so yeah, it was awful. You know, I was even using the science, you know, the attic window open to allow the hot air out. But when it doesn't get cold outside, that hot a' not gonna go anywhere. It was bonkers. It was absolutelyed. Yeah. was it was actually that point where I keep were keeping the windows shut during the day and the curtains shut. Yeah. ye. yeah, that Yeah and then opening them at night only. Yeah doing the science and it still wasn't enough. Doing the s, wet towels, all the rest of it Yeah, it was disc. Yes, I was doing that as well. Yeah. Yeah that Yeah,bearable What was A joy in this heat wave, which you saw a very special little display. It's been a few nights of it. It's been really spectacular. Nock to loooo and cloud. Yeah. We've had some absolutely spectacular knock loooose and clouds. Really, really good. You have? Yeah. I've had actual clouds. You've had actual clouds, haven't you? I've had actual clouds I haven't seen it y. we've had clear O obviously. It's been pretty clear here and we've had really spectacular knock loo and cloud. In fact it was Jhn who alerted me the other night the first time when he' like from London, he was seeing me in London saying, o, not too gl. like whereere's like bloody hell. Yeahah, look at that. whole Northern sky just glowing away. That really spectacular. there's not even just that little thin bit underinking Nor that. that little little glimpse of them. It wass like, o reallyally ye. Yeah, know that was really good. I mean There is that theory that they are a canary for climate change, isn't it? Yes, yeah, because people are wondering if it's There's the two components like this the more pollutants in the atmosphere providing more nucleation points for the ice crystals to form. And then Like it sounds backwards but high up in the mesosphere where Nxlucent clouds form Global warming is actually making it Cold. Colder. Yes, yeahah exactly. Yeahah so because they weren't there's no record of them before look kind of the middle of the nineteenth century really. Yeah. So ye. And you would have thought people would have noticed that Yeah. Yeah. And there is some You know, there is that kind of double edged sword of now we have social media and so people are more aware and they share pictures. So there is that element, but in terms of like all of the official records as well. Yeah. Yeah, they do seem to be on the rise And it's something that's being investigated and looked at now, isn't it? And it is notable. I think I I've certainly noticed the last few years more and more and more of them and they're more spectacular. of like. And so it's interesting that we had that really, really you know big heat dome over Europe and everything and then suddenly like as it ends, suddenly knock loose and clouds big displays of knock loos and clouds. I just sort of think I think it's actually cloud like thatact look that w Yeah, goo are I have a very quick look on I'm going to look, G on. h on. G on. G on. Look in. I am cloudy, I know that much. We're cloudy. Yeah, No, it's gray cloud. No we're actually cloudy for change But yeah, those' been really spectacular, really, really beautiful things in this season.. So I had had a friend over the other night was trying to explain like what they works. He was like, Are they just like clouds? I'm like, yeah, but it's the nighttime. They should be greay. A't you realize that they're glowing. Yeah He's like, Oh yeah ye. like they are surprised when you first see them. And that is the key is that The other clouds in the sky will be dark, but these will be light and that's how you know. Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. So you you back from California. H back from Back from the land of America. They let me back Fr America Yeah. How was it It was mixed And I am going to talk about something that happenens, which is sad while I was out there, but briefly because I kind of want to do a bit of a public service thing. So And Unfortunately, while I was out there, my auntie, quite close to my auntie, you know, she's one of those people who is like the key one of the key family members, you know, you have those people like central Well, unfortunately, while I was out there, the short version the story is she had a series of heart attacks and unfortunately very suddenly passed away. I So that was really hard to deal with being on my own out there. Basically the way I coped was I just lived in a bubble where she was still alive because I just I was totally on my own. I just didn't really know how else to deal with it and kind of delayed morning tntil I got back But the public service announcement thing that I kind of want to do is u She had none of the classic heart attack symptoms. Now my auntie was not overweight, She used to go for walks, you know she'd take the dog out every day on long walks, soon as she at relatively healthy. so You know, she's in her mid seventies. so not like ancient either and um You know, the classic heart stack symptoms that they always tell you about Uh, you know, pains in your chest, arm going them, that kind of thing. Yeah ye yeah. ye. What she had was extreme nausea. and back pain which it turns out are far more common symptoms in women Is that in al right? That's fasating. Yes Yes And when I say extreme nausea, like she was in bed bedriden like she couldn't eat, she couldn't drink She couldn't get out of bed, she felt so ill you know, wouldn't wouldn't fil for the doctors because she was like, well, you know, because they I just feel sick. you know well when they do that, you know ye. Yeah, I see and none of us None of us would, you know, because obviously my uncle knew and like you know, when the family members knew she was in, but not one of us thought. Maybe she's had a heart haack So I'm putting this out there now that there if there's a particularly a woman in your life who finds themselves feeling extremely sick and with back pain. take them to A and E and get them checked out. Like if it's extreme nausea, not like, oh I feel a bit squiffy. but like proper extreme nausea. Back pain ye. And back pain, it could be a heart attack. so it is fascinating how much medicine and medical Things are centered around men Yeah, and especially like white men. yeah yeah, completely. Um as well and partly the maail wom is basically It's horribly it's a cost thing as well because it costs more money to do research on women because of the slightly different physiology with especially with the sort of the possibilities of pregnancy and things like that and the extra risks involved in that women's physiology is actually less understood than men Oh it's like decades behind. Women's medical research is like decades behind. so ye I don't want to dwell. No but it's a really I just want to Yeah to really put it put it out there and we will we will get back to the space stuff U And as while I was out there, I went to the Apple confonference I'm not going to lie. I think I'd rather shit in my hands and clap from what what I saw Oh my God, it was like It was amazing to see Apple Park The architectural engineering on that building is astonishing, right? Never seen anywhere so clean. Look that there was a speck of dirt. like not even a bit of fluff from someone's belly button, right? It was unbelievable. But it was very like Tchy techy Yeah life Yeah Yeah Yeah. there was there's this chant The goes, the goes I can't believe I'm about to do it. B it goes dub dub DC dub dub DC And you just got all of these groups of like Tchy people just like it's like, you know, ninety five percent men just like chanting this chant. And they just randomly burst into it. And when you like come into the conference, they clap you in. I saw that. And it was alright when it was about six people like clapping you in and cheering you because it was like, okay, we're like we're getting excited we're getting going. But then on the way out It's like forty people and youve got to walk through a corridor of like these people. I would would g R Yeah, no. I felt like I need to lie down and the biggest cup of tea in my life afterwards. like I just It frankly sounds awful. It' It was Well, the thing is. I love the swag Yeah Although I would like to complain to Apple that you're a multib billion dollar industry and like I would like free airPods not just a tote bag. and some pin badges likeike come on, give give us some like you know, you don't freebies. You don't get you don't become a multib billion industry irPods. You know, turtleneck jumpers you got by and Yeah So actually, do you know what I did buy a jumper? from the store that says Apple, notot a turtleneck, just like a normal sweater. that says Apple, like retro style. like it's really cool. I do like it. So yeah, I am officially an Apple wanker now. So It was really cool though meeting everyone neo liiberal sheill. Yeah. But like meeting everyone, like and interacting with other I you know what? felt like a minor celebrity at the event. It was amazing because we had t shirts on with the app logo. Oh yeah. And people kept coming up to us like, o you with Skyguide? And we were like We asked Sky guys, they were like, Oh my go, like I love your app. I use it all the time and I was like, Yeah boy. It was that was actually really cool. Nice. That was fun. So I did that U Then I sp some time in San Francisco. Oh it's Alcraz. Nice? It was. Did you know it was occupied for about eighteen months by Native Americans in a protest? After it stopped being in a prison. Yeah, after they shut it down as prison, Native Americans occupied it as a protest because laws kept trying to well, we're not trying, but they were. they were taking away their land and taking away their rights, so they went, you know what? We're gonna take our island back and they Occupied it for like eighteen months and genuinely lived on there and stuff. Wow there? That iss cool. Yeah. I learned all about Al Capone. Died of syphilis and was incarcerated for tax evasion. kn thatise? I that Yeah, but died of syphilis symptoms apparently before he went into alcatraz. H mistress was diagnosed with syphilis And they were like Al', let us test you and use like namate And then a decade later, he went absolutely loopy with the syphilis. Ny So you got double Sean Connery link there. A double Sean Connery link. thatid he dios syphilis too? No Sean Connery. Sean Connery famously sent Al Capone down. I didn't know this wasn't in the talk. A see Oh ye. You should be on the island. in the film The Untouchables, Sean Connery plays the one of the coppers that sends our Capone down I see. And then of course, Sean Conllery Was in the rock? Yes. Yes, which I started watching before I went to Alt Chrad, but I didn't actually finish it. I need to finish that. Yeah It was really good what I there is a theory. that that is he's James Bond. He's like triing it out. No, no, no no, he's he's he's the Sean Colery James Bond It's one of those really crazy fan fan theories. it really works in like you know he's near the gard This is like really weird. The character in the film is like this ex British Forces intelligence officer isn't? Oh I get you down Yeah, I get it. And see what happened to the Sean Connery James Bond? Well, he got like arrested by the Americans for something and then now he's the exactly James Bond. I love that. Yeah That's great. That's cananon in my mind. Exactly. I like that. Lve that. Love that.. Yeah, that's cool. It's a good film. But yeah, I went I went to see the Drakesquoy as well, went to Mia Woods, went to Yosemite Nice. So And I found an old timey arcade Like place had all the old sily arcade machines from like the like probably like the nineteen hundreds like ear like all the way, you know, the ones where you you like You put like ten tents in and then o you can see like a lady or she's like lifting her skirt to her to her knees. Oh so racy. Yeah E from like that to like like Pacman and stuff but it was yeah So well, go on. look. I mean, my life's been been just like I've been revising GCSE students for the last like six weeks, actually say Yeah I've been busy in that way, but' nothing nothing interesting in my life So I spoke at the Federation of Astronomical Societies the other day And I had right you know what? this is gonna to sound extremely like braggy. but I had the compliment of my life. O honestly, it's never going to get better than this. Someone came up to me after my talk and said that I give a talk with the same enthusiasm as Carl Sagan. Nice. Right Like that I will take that. That's it. now I' my talks. He's the goat rightight? Yeah He's the goat. He is like He's like. He is the goat It is And I'm so proud of that. I feel like that's it now. I've piaked with my public speaking. He's the science C Governor. He's like theell. He's like the god right? Yeah yeah. rightight? Superb. Yeahah, that was a very special moment for me. So if the person who told me that is listening, Thank you for taking the time to come up and like actually say that. You got you got Billions and billions into your Let's talk Yeah. So I'll squeeze it in. if you want If you want to start the universe from scratch first you've got a I no. in the battle pie G, I'm getting it all wrong, L If you want to make an apppple pie from sccratch by GCSE. I am completely bamboarded by GCSEs and A levels. it's just I'm just I mean that ost people who work in education will completely understand this, youll get to sort of the end of June July and you basically your brain just turns off completely Yeah because you've just you've just spent the last couple of months absolutely drilling kids like Mad and going through all their issues. I even had one on a like pham me up on a Sunday going, can I have an extra session? I'm just having a meltdown. like yeah, go on in. And now I'm just like whatever, the sun's out, I'm melting. there's no exams for ages now, bit of careing it. Yeah. you've got a like you have to have absent brain cells now because you stole so many from future you So yeah, your absent brain cells now. You do. You' just go like,, whatever U So yeah, I'm already on wine now for summer. if you want to make an appleine from scratch, you must it first invt the universe, isn't it? Yeah Oh' so cool. He so cool. He was so cool.' literally love to have met Sagan. I'm not as cool as Carl Sagan. but I will take being in as enthusiastic as Carl Sagan. Yeah you see he need a turteneck jumper and a jacket.'s Oh said, that means I need to go back to the A back to the Aure then and like steal a little turtleneck jumpers. randomly chantcing and clapping people and like some sort of ht Oh my God, it did feel like. It's very coldty It's very cold. I mean, to be fair, Silicon Valley is just like one massive cult. Really I do like but apple swear. Yeah It' hking so there could be something like infuse into the fibers. Yeah ye. They would turn into a robot or something, you'll be like. G angry We won't be en Oh see yeah no yeah, it would be. Yeah Oh. Oh very good. But a completely different. actuallyct no, it's not a completely different note because it iss a teaching note. G. My next round of astronomy and action will be What's that coming up So I've been sent the u like the brochure for the coming academic year to review, which means that sign upps will begin in a couple of weeks So if you would like to come and learn more about the universe and things that are going on in space right now, astronomy in action is one Saturday month from September through to March, three hours on a Saturday. U And we do seven sessions And we do practical things, we have guest lecturers. It's very good fun and I bring snacks. So it's definitely the best electrure course that Carlifford University offers purely because I provide biscuits. Nice So the sign will be ready for that. It is in person, not online, but if you're in the cardiff area, come and join me. Nice. And then we have one more little thing to remind everyone about. The eclipse is coming up. in August It' twelth of August.ersers If you haven't got your eclipse glasses yet Until the twelfth of July Ghost star Gazing are doing a really special offer. You can get fifty solar glasses for twelve quQid A hundred glasses. For eighteen one hundred and fifty glasses for twenty two and two hundred glasses for twenty five pound including postage and packaging It's like Mg cheap, you are not going to get them cheaper than that. Oh got no. So that's Ghost star gazeing. If you type in Ghost star gazing Eclipse glasses it'll come up. And they also have a new eclipse website for the UK. so UKeclipse. com and they're putting on there all of the events are being held for eclipses for the eclipse U and like how you can get involved and there's like blog posts about safety tips and and things like that as well. So Ghost star gazeing and UKeclipse. com Nice And this is not we're not sponsored or anything by these webses. justust go get some cheap glasses guys Just go get some cheap glasses. G it. Right then, it's time for the news and I'm gonna start. I'm gonna start 'cause it was all about you doing the chat. To be fair. It is all about me. It is all about you. Y Apple she'll robot you. So stand down everyone Stand down. Normal service has resumed and what was thought to be and briefly thought not is now once again so and you can now all sleep easy in your beds tonight because one major buring crisis In cosmology is not And I'm sure that will make Right Yes, I feel like I'm in Alison Wonderland right now. M pect sense. Yeah Ey. The universe is still accelerating and not slowing as reported last year. A Yes So, if you recall last year, one of the big stories was the study published claiming the growth of the universe is slowing And the accepted model of the universe that we've had since the nineties was incorrect I remember a team of South Korean researchers that made the claim that the universe expansion may have entered a deceleration phase caused by the infuence of dark energy weakening over time So as you may be aware or could imagine This caused not a small amount of consstumnation in the world of astronomy and cosmology. As accepted model for the last roughly thirty years is that the university expanded at an ever faster rate due to the action of dark energy, which appears to work as a sort of antigravity. So this announcement last year for all listing into question because you'ong. we talk Panic and yeah yeah it was all a bit of a bit of a bit of panicical. So imagine back in the early two thousands, one of the cornerstones of the model was provided by an international team of researchers led by Professor Adam Reese, Professor Brian Schmidt and Professor Saul Ple motor. Who all won the Nobel Prize in twenty eleven for their efforts And they studied Tpe one A supernovae, which are those very bright white dwarf star flare ups. and using this they determined that more distant objects appeared to move faster, underpinning their conclusion that the universe's expansion was indeed accelerating That was like a big thing. But last year this new study claimed that as the universe aged The supernovae actually had different maximum brightnesses And therefore, the astronomers had been tricked into concluding the universe was accelerating, and that was actually the opposite was happening, it was in fact slowming We talked about this Mm. Yeah Big story he was like, Oh my go But an international team u led by the University of Southampton Including two Nobel laureates from the previous research, found an error in how the age of these stars was estimated, pointing out that the findings last year incorrectly assumed the age of a galaxy was the same as the age of the star that exploded. Oh yeah, you can't assume that Yeah becausecause galaxies have different generations of stars. Yeah, exactly A say ye in a direct rebuttal of the team of Souf Korean researchers, they say the crisis that followed Last year's announcement was the result of a scientific misunderstanding and that they were erronous in their methodology Yeah, I know. That's quite strong wording.lat, isn't it? Lead author, Dr. Phil Wiseman from the University of Southampton said the previous and well accepted measurements were in fact fine and our current understanding of the fate of the universe remains robust Thankfully, we've averted this crisis, but the mystery about why the rate of expansion universe is still accelerating remains. By proving our measurements are correct, we can get back to try and understand what this dark energy actually is rather than wondering if it exists at all H. I say spicy. When cosmologists get spicy. co author, Dr. Brody Popovicch said, this was a good opportunity to go back and go over all of our assumptions. It turns out yes, we do understand this stuff and we're accounting for it in our cosmology measurement. I know they feels a bit handbags. They got spicy. This was in the monthly notices of the Royal Astronorkical Society if you wanted to follow it up. But yeah, there we are. it's like you know, stand down everybody The Universe isn't broken. It's where it was. Yeah And turns out that the shouldomers could be a little bit spicy. Very spicy rightight? Yeah Wait do you know what though? Why didn't the referee pick up? We've said this before, I think there is a bit of a feeling at the moment And that guya thing isn't it everyone jumping onto that. We want to get this there first and do the thing. And people almost like wanting, wishing these things to be broken that it's all going to be really exciting and there's going to be a new thing. Yeah And there's been a lot of talk about how like you know the peer review system is a bit broken at the moment. It is because you don't get paid reiew in papers. So and it's not that you know It just should be, they should be a bit of a standard fee because you pay to publish in these journals. You have to pay money for your papers to go into these journals. I don't know if that's a widely known fact. but like when you then review papers as part of the peer review process, you don't get any extra money for doing it, you're just expecting And there is a big drive to get published and get your names in as many papers as possible and just keep There is pumping out So rather than quality research Sometimes it's a drive just a qu quantity of research. Yeah And so if anything looks exciting and juicy, people are going to jump on it because it's also going to drive the sales of journals and things like that. So ye it's all a bit The one Yeah it needs a bit of a shake up, I think. It is it is the the dark area of u the kind of whole scientific method at the moment is this bit kind think can get a bit dodgy. Yeah. and I think it's do you know what? I think it's just the torrent of papers that there are these days. you know, I think that is the problem is that people are not asked to review one paper a month, they're asked to review ten. Yeah. And so then they speed reading and they miss things and it's not their fault. They're under too much pressure. Yeah and people who you know kind of senior in universities, you know, to keep their positions and things like that. you know, they're expected to be pumping out, you know, like a paper a year, a paper, you know, like Yeah. 's kind of or more, you know to actually get get all this stuff out and get their names out and get the university's name on the paper and ye And that's That's quite crazy. I mean, you think I always think that now of course these are you these are exceptional ones as such, but you think about like how long Darwin took to write You know, the origin of species is like he's he's like seminal paper. It's like fifty's like fifty years. Yeah, you know, like You The relativity papers. Yeah were use in the makings And then it was like several iterations of them as well. Yeah, completely. With advancements and corrections and you know had you had scientists who would not publish until they were absolutely sure that they had crossed every te and tosed every it. But now the drive is just to pump these things out And so you're getting teams of researchers going like, oh, look we think we found a thing. Let's pop it out there Now sometimes it's popping out there so everyone can have a look at it and Yeah like the faster the speed of lighting That was put out quickly because they knew it was wrong But they couldn't work out why it was wrong. They would say it was like, can you help us kind of We're putting this out there because this is weird and we need the hive mind to and that was good science. But there's a lot of stuff going out there. You see it just six months later, people going, ye no, probably not That's that's just a bit of nonsense. you've read that wrong or, you know, your methodology is wrong ye that yeah So hm anyyway H what have we got there? Tking of Speed Speed. Sicking with the theme of speeds. Oh we're doing some speed now. Hey, rightight? Im to talk about NASA's Neoger Swift Observatory spepecifically. The rescue mission. Yeah The as this podcast goes out is like imminently launching. so Yes it is. Currently scheduled for the thirtieth of June, but ye space, right? Wh knows? So maybe it's gone. byy the time you listen, maybe it hasn't Now A little bit about the Swift Observatory It was launched in November two thousand four. So it's been up there for over two decades, right It's the classic was supposed to be up there a couple of years and here we are twenty two years later nearly. still each other. It was originally designed to be a gamm ray burst telescope, right? So So study things that go bang in the night But it actually turned into the first responder of the sky And it's one of these observatories that again completely flies under the radar. but it's just likeike a cornerstone in the world of asstronomy. Yeah. So when you when you think about something happens in the sky suupernova a neutron star merger black hole gobbles up a star. black hole gobbles up some gas. Basically something transient and violent and dramatic happens, right? And it's attacted And you want to study it at all different wvelengths, right And so you're going to want to put, for example, Hubble on target. Doust how long her will takes to get to like an unanticipated target Goem About a day. Wow Yeah, takes about a day to get on target Do you know how long the Swift Observatory takes? So long Minutes. D ask what you want Right This telescope is insane and this is why it's called Swift. It's not an acronym. Look at that to alle how quickly it cane that they didn't even try to makeift an acronym. It's just an actual name. It's an actual name, it's a descriptive name. it's a good name.. So it's got three telescopes on board. so it covers everything from Gamma's to visible light first of all huge wavelength ray. So the first telescope. is the Burst Alert Telescope This attacks soft gammaays and hard a rays And it stres at one sixth of the sky at any given time So it stays at the sky and it looks for a flash of that race, right When that flash goes off It can then pinpoint the location of that flash to within about one to four arc minutes Now, for a bit of context, right Mar Chrisium. S one of those ses on like the edge of the ler limb in the first few days, right That's about five arc minutes across So you're going from a sixth of the sky Down to that That little lunay. Yeah, that's amazing It's a sew machine, right So once it's locked on so it's like right, I know where it is roughly, it then switches over to the X ray telescope and that thing can monitor for weeks. It does photometry, it does spectroscopy, and it gets the location down to four arc seconds. So in minutes you know within four arc seconds, right? whichich corresponds to if you've got like a six inch telescope and you look at the moon. And you see those tiny craters bottom of massive craters or in the lunar seas. The smallest ones you can see, that's what you're kind of looking at. So it gets it down to about that And that's when you can then send the alert out to all the other telescopes around the worlds because it's like within their eror range now And then also at the same time, then it can do ultravireless and optical stuff with its third telescope and That will give you sub arc second positioning So within minutes you found the thing you are on target and you are studying it from X rays down to visible Right It's brilliant. It's incredible Absolutely anyone say this thing? Exactly. And the thing is it's gone so it's not just like was trying to figure out what gammmeray boosts are, where they what they come from Then it became a first responder, but it also does things in the solar system. So its looks at asteroids, its looks at comets. So you remember two Iy Borisov It detects and it tracks and it figures out how much water that thing was emitting That came from Swift So you know, it's truly amazing. Yeahes, so you can understand why they want to save this thing because I think it's like they knew it was coming down because it's in a low earth orbit That means it's exposed to atmospheric drag. and over the years it has been losing its altitude. but in early twenty twenty five NASA realized that Swift was coming down a little bit than they anticipated because originally they thought it would be al rightright toock twenty thirty, but no not the case. because youre all of that lovely aurora that we've been having in the past few years Problem for space Telescopes Because that enhanced solar activity is warming and heating our atmosphere and puffing it up and basically increasing atmospheric drag And so the predictions are that actually this telescope is going to come down. It'll be too low to save. By about October this year. That is the deadline. Yeah. they've gone from early twenty twenty five. Wow. Yeah to a deadline of like late twenty twenty six And so You know, NASA were like, shhit, we've got to do something. They weren't quick enough to respond. they knew they weren't. So they went to three different companies that they already had contracts with and were like, lookook We need a boost Can you do it Give us your proposals And so they did, and the one that won was Catalyst sppace. They're based in Arizona, they're a space startup And it' a thirty million dollars contract, right? Now, fortunately for them, they were already working on like a demo of this kind of mission to send up a satellite to boost the orbit of something else. So they just basically adapted it to fit NASA's needs They've gone literally from In nine months. Nothing Just like this proposal, just nothing Right to a satellite that's on a rocket ready to go. It's amazing. It's amazing It's actually incredible. likeike it's unprecedented speed Yeah And it's not like a cube sat This thing is like the size of a big fridge and weighs four hundred kilos. It's huge, right? It's got solar panels. It's got three arms with like rippers on the end, three ion engines, gyroscopes, LIidDar, camera systems. like The f Sabat. So the spacecraft is called Link And It is launching not a what' sort of on a rocket, but not like a rocket like we think.' one my favorite rocketss rocket. Right? Pegasus rocket Yes, Pegasus XL. O a It's attached. Yeah, it's att actuallyed to the bottom of a giant airplane. I love Tistars. if you're an airplane geek of a certain age, T stars are sexy. This is so cool, right? So this is currently the last one that's in existence. this rocket. It's not that they're not going to build more but they don't really have any more at minute. What happens is the plane goes up Right to forty thousand feet And then and then it drops the rocket, which then ignites and then it goes off And it means that you're not constrained by the launch pad. You can get into more difficult orbits like you need for Swift because its orbit is inclined by twenty degrees to the equator, just bit a weird one And But yeah, so they're like ready to go so that they're just waiting for the right launch opportunity, the right window and everything. It's even like it was sent up to Godard in May for testing. So it's been through all of the testing and everything. So they haven't just kind of like chucked it on the rocket and hoped for the best. It's done all of the vacuum tests and the vibration tests and modeling and computer systems and in nine months. iss wild. So the idea is they're gonna launch this satellite Spend a few weeks checking out all the systems Then it'll go to the Swift Observatory. They'll work together in tandem, so they'll rotate the telescope and the spacecraft because they need to get this. They need to actually have a look to see where they can grab onto it because they don't know because this telescope is so old that they've lost a load of the engineering information. So they don't know where they can latch on Yeah. Like the diagrams are gone, deleted from existence So then they'll they'll like lookook at it and be like right we can attach here and attach there. They're a bit worried about the multil layer installation on board becausecause when they were up serves in Hubble The astronauts noticed that like the multiilayer installation had gone almost like like glass and it was really fragile So if you like poked it, it just shattered. So they' a bit worried about that. You just see what happened yeah Yeah And then the idea is that they're going to boost it because it's currently about three hundred and sixty kilometers up. And they'll latch on, they can do it with one attachment point, but they want three, ideally. but then they'll use those ion engines over weeks slash months, boost it back up then to about five hundred fifty six hundred kilometers my favorite facts about the Pegasus thing Yeah, go on. Right. The trice star that it's launched off is called Stargazer Oh and the rocket thenacts us, but that is an in joke ye really geeky Star Trek joke Oh always say It is because You know, you know Will Riker G old Rankker here of the big put your foot on the chair and show on you U He was first officer on the I' get it right way around. He was first officer on a ship called the Pegasus and Jehn Luke Picard was first officer on a ship called the Stargazer. I love that. I love St. This' the geek geeky Star Trek reference. It has been for years because the Pegasus rocket and the Star Gazer Tstar have been around for laadays. Yeah. Oh C remember they first started using? Yeah, they have like decades ag. Yeah yeah, a long time. They've been around for it was like the first of those kind of Rockets rockets are a planing thing I can't remember they' to look it up actually when did they do it? nineteen ninety two Yes because I saw Stargade, I saw it being modified because it was modified in Cambridge in the UK. Oh there you go. that's cool. So And then my final factoid is was not of factory's actually just more of a postulation. but There's a lot of speculation that this is actually could well be a trial run for Boosting Hubble. You're almost certainly almost so sure. it's a much smaller telescope Quick mission It's like a pathfinder because you'd need a much bigger craft for herb. Yeah. I thought that when this happened. I thought ah they they're usingfinder. In a way Swift is really cool But if it if it goes wrong, weill' go, Oh well we tried Yes But Yeah. they'll be like hubble they won't want to lose No won't as tble But hererbal's also coming down like ears coming down as well slowly. So u Yeah Yeah, I mean, then the final question is why not just build a new Swift observatory? Well? Building a new one would cost about five hundred million dollars. least. And keeping this one running is about five million dollars a year. Yeah Eactly. Yeah, and for the cost of this little mission to boost it up. Yeah and thirty million of It's a no brainer. It's working. there's nothing wrong with it. Yeah. It's good it's good, good use of money and resources. abbsolutely. It' same but hubble. They know hble hubble works Why wouldn't you spend you know just a few million dollars boosting it and getting to a higher orbit and using it for next wee rather than trying to build a whole new Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Until then my final story Y is Sky and Sea notot like engineering And it comes from ESO European Southern Observatory and this is Magnetic exoplanets becausecause we have the first pretty concrete evidence of magnetic fields Around exxoplant. No but not by measuring the magnetic fields around exoplanets. Right by measuring their winds Right This is explain piece of research. Explain because this sounds like bit Becauseuse you would think that you know, most exoplanets would probably have a magnetic field, you know not necessarily all of them. Look at Mars in our own solar system, right? only got a residual one left. But you know, most of the planets out there in our solar system have got magnetic fields. It's a given, right? Youve got to detend this stuff. So this is a study involving seven hot Jupiters and they were studied with the VLT, the very large shaneloscope. Side note, complete side note. we've started watching Plurbus, right Really enjoying it by the way so far, if everyone' thought about watching it. And this isn't a spoiler, but right at the beginning of the first episode, there's like all these arrays of telescope dishes. I looked at it and I was like, VLA B and guess what? was the VLA. I G science. My balls felt so pendulous in that moment. like Anyway, back's the exap plananis We care about being able to detect magnetic fields around exoplanets because They can make or break habitability. And the classic example is Earth versus Mars. Yeah,tely Both in the habitable zone Mars, desesert world, very dead as far as we're aware, Earth teeming with life. Eth magnetic field, Mars no magnetic field, lost its atmosphere. Y. Bom No good Now, we're starting our course with hot Jupiters as we often do with exoplanets And this is, as I said, seven of them. and all of these worlds are orbiting so close to their stars that they're tidly locked. So that is the same side of the world faces the star at any given time, you know, J just like the moon is tidly locked to Earth. And they were measuring, they want to measuure the winds on these planets to see the impact of tidal lock in. And they're really strong winds, right? So they measured winds between four and half thousand miles an hour U to about fifteen and a half thousand miles an hour Or seven thousand two hundred kilometers an hour up to twenty five thousand kilometers an hour, right? For context, Jupes' win are like nine hundred and thirty miles an hour or like fifteen hundred kilometers an hour likeight We eight craz? exactly. Could have done with that last week. Cool. But the interesting twist that they found was they were measuring these wints And they found that the hotter the planet The slower the wind Which is the opposite to what you expect because you expect this massive temperature rak in the two hemispheres to like dry faster winds. Right? How weird? So something on the hot planet must be slowing the winds down And through modelling, they figured out actually A magnetic field can act as a breke And it slows down the motion of charged particles in the atmosphere, which then slows down the winds. And that allowed them to infer then the strength of the magnetic fields based on how much they had slowed down from what they would expect from the temperature difference and they were comparable with our solar system. So the magnetic fields were like, for example, four times as strong as Saturn's or half the strength of Jupiter's, like You know, some not ridiculous numbers. And that's it. how cool is that? It's very, very cool I love it. Yeah, interestnteresting, isn't it? So you know, not habital planets yet, but you're going to begin somewhere. Every little piece is building this picture and helping us to find them. So thank you, Is, very cool bit of research. Right, well, the nights are short but the weather is warm and there's still plenty to see in the sky for the discerning telescop of binoculular jockey. So here are highlights for July So Mars and Uranus startarting with Mars and Uranus who on the morning of the fourth of July will be in conjunction in Taurus. Just below M fortty five fantastic target for those using Moculous result telescope They'll be about seven oock minutes apart So about a third the size of us So close. Is't they so close, Eactly. So by observing them together, you can compare the stark reddish hue of Mars against a subtle blue green tint of the ice giant. The proximity of the Plyides Star cluster nearby adds kind a beautiful vual backdrop. is're just going to get this really lovely little color. set up. The rise abve the horizon about three AM so really this is a quick look before dawn But if you're up at that point, well worth a look And then just to add that although they won't be quite as close, on the eleventh, you get the moon joining them. Yeah, so So there's like the moon, the Piodes, Marsus is there. Very cool. Lots to look at. Very cool. Worth an early morning if you fancy So next Saturn, if you're waiting for that conjunction, then Saturn can keep your company as the real world is definitely back into decent observing territory rising just after one AM at the start of the month and as July progresses it becomes an increasingly prominent feature in the early morning sky and of course' coming up earlier and earlier. While the rings are currently at a shallow tilt, making them appear as like a thin line rather than the wide s of dratic loops, they still look fantastic Currently in Pisces directly below Pegasus at Mac one Then of course we have what we Started the show w and that's notock to looucent cllouds. is exactly the right time of year, like July through to August ye Perfect not to do some cloud time So these are the highest clouds in its's atmosphere and they form in the Mes of Sphios he mentionions Juli, which is right at the edge of space, eighty kilometers up or so They composose of ice crystals that content sur microscopic dust particles. It's often debly left behind by meteials, but there is now that conjecture about is there more pollution getting up there as well? So look towards the northern horizon during the deep twilight hours so after sunset, before sunrise And they appear as a delicate, glowing, electric blue or silvery veil that remains visible long after the sun has dipped below the horizon, and that is key A sunset. when the sun is gone. Probably ten to midnight is your key window. Yeah. and I can absolutely confirm that that is I mean here in June, that's exactly when they've been appearing. they've been kind of appearing justust after ten of eleven o'clock half eleven, they really perfect and they sort of fade out as you get to midnight. So that's your window. Yeah. So meteors Now the pury of meteorss there's no actual peeak of a meteor shower really in July But the Perseus Meteor shower reaches its grand peak in mid August but actually starts on july seventeenth Yeah, ye boy.'s a big. So throughout the later half especially of July, the frequency of sightings of those meters will gradually increase and you do, you start seeing them as you go get toort build up. These are the remnants of course of Cicsif Tuttle, known for big, bright and occasionally producing long lasting trains of light As the month progresses, keep an eye on the sky after midnight lookingooking towards the constation Perseus Even before the August peak, the lead up period can yield some wonderful early sightings Beginning mid July as well and extending into late August, the Delta Aquaris are active. and they've been reasonably active on the last few years moreore southern event, it is more a Southern hemisphere thing they can still add to the meteor goodness through somem ofough in the UK. So do you can kind of that period kind of early August and July August, you start seeing actually quite a lot meteors if you kind of sing around outside bucket. And Its of a deep sky challenge How about a comic challenge for the summer. H ten P Temple two is a periodic comet and is expected to be visible as a small telescopic binocular target this month. It is quite faint, so it's not going to be like you know your dramatic big tail across sky naked eye think, but it is an interesting catch for those who enjoy hunting for faint transient fuzzies Throughout July, tenP Temple two will be moving through the constellations of Aquarius and then in the second half of the month into Capricornus And as it approaches Perahhelion, the closest point to the sun on the second of August, its closest approach to Earth on the third of August, it will be at its brightest for this apparition Magnitude seven to eight, so you know, definitely binoculars Now'll be towards the end of July. So to catch it, you're going to need a very clear and obstructed view of the southern horizon. best visible in the very early morning hours one to three AM British summertime. That's when it's at its highest in the sky And then of course, if we menture a comet, We got to do the other bits of debris in the solar system and those asteroids. There's actually a but ten of asteroids. There all that have oppositions this month. On the ninth, eighteen Malpamine is going to be an Aquila at Magnet shoes eight point nine. Also on the ninth, nine flora is going to be in Sagittarius at magnitude eight point nine On the twenty seventh, three Juno is going to be in Aquila. So they're all like cluster together. It's brilliant They're hanging around together. Yeah. Magnitude nine point two. So even if you don't look at them on the night of opposition, like then they're going to be a reasonably similar brightness around these dates. On the twenty ninth, three twenty four Bamberurger is going to be in Capricornus at magnitude nine point three So you know get your charts out to kind of really pinpoint these because they do move rapidly across the sky. And then We've got dwarf planlanet as well at opposition this month. On the twenty seventh, Pluto is going to be in Capricornus magnitude fourteen point three. So your more your bigger telescopes for Pluto. but asteroids, small telescope, big pair of binoculars, you'll be able to catch them. Definitely definitely Right is moonim. Moon moon. Mon Mon moon Mon moon So it's on with the moon guide and we now have the moon progressing through the final week of its lunar cycle. Days twenty two twenty four Moving from last quarter toward Waning Crescent So during these days, the terminator is located on the eastern side of it. Day twenty two, the moon is still quite bright, but the terminator is beginning to sweep across the eastern plains, revealing features are previously hidden in the flat light that kind of the sun straight onto it. So look for the Mari Serein itatus of all circular lunar Mari becausecause it's near the terminator to look for the subtle difference in the smoothness of the lava planes compared to the sort of rugged highland edges Crater Pasogynus is located on the northeastern edge of this Marite. The crater is fascinating because its floora has been uplifted by ancient volcanic activity, making it appear convex rather than concave Oh cool. Then there is the Caucus mountains running south from the edge of Maresa and Deltus U When lit at an oblique angle, the jagged peaks cast distinct long shadows that make them stand out sharply. Day twenty three is now time when the moon starts to noticeably dim compared to the previous days, but it's one of the standout days for the great features. Creator Copernicus though often visible earlier is It terraced walls and central peaks are exceptionally striking when the terminator isn' near 's one mate prominent young crator of the mooon They look for the Monys a peninus or the Lunar Apennines, which is one of the most spectacular mountain ranges on the moon. At this stage, the shadows falling across the Marmbrium Basin highlight the sheer just vertical relief of these mountains. and look for Crater Aristotenes, which is situated at the southern tip of the Apennines. This crater is deep and complex. Its central mountain is clearly visible even in modest optics when the lighting is right n Day twenty four, the moon is prominent morning object now It's that moon you see at breakfast when you're getting up for work Andall like Oh that's the do. It's the eastern lim to the right side of our from our perspective in the northern hemisphere is is now heavily shadowed Crater Tico, which is generally famed for its massive bright ray system, is really visible here att this face The rays are actually less prominent than at full moon But it's the crater itself that its distinct central peak is starkly defined by shadow The street wall or the Rupee's rector which Frankly sounds disgusting. Oh sorry doctor, I think I've got this pain, yes, it's your Rupe's rector. That the straight ball anyway, one hundred and ten kilometers long fault line appears a sort of thin dark straight line because it's actually a vertical cliff. The side lighting at this phase makes it look like a big dark cut in the lunar surface. it's really cool. And look for the crater Gesssendi, which is located on the northern edge of the Mari Humarum This crate is a floor fractured by ancient lava cooling which you can often resolve as a web pattern in a steady telescope. Well I like that. It is very cool. It is very cool. Highly recommend it. So the moon this month is last quarter of the seventh, no on the fourteenth, first quarter of the twenty second and full on the twenty ninth. So all that remains is to isish you cliss cards And happy hunting And so we reach the end of another cavalcade of astronomy, wonder, interesting facts and mind us whittering. Some of you will be sad, some of you joyous. manyany of you will be as indifferent as the universe is to your inconsequential existence. Stay in touch, etc email or semaphore, perhaps considered using the latest heliograph technology What will they think of Naxi the show at awesome astronomy. com. So until our mid month ificating and pondering. It's goodbye from Sidonia Base. Bye bye B astronomy is produced by Ralph. Paul Jen John Damen and Dustin and it's free to use with attribution Thee Music by Star Soalzman with Stinger variation by Rin Jrgensson We promote general science, astronomy, space exploration and rational thinking with more resources on our website at awesome astronomy. com If you want us to read your thoughts and comments out on the show, seend us your views, opinions, critiques, or questions to the show at awesomeastronomy dot com Tweet us as also aasro pod, or give the awesome astronomy Facebook page a like and leave your comments there Thanks for listening from Sidonia Base, E of Transmission.