EVSN: Escape Velocity Space News

One of our recurring topics is ?Planet formation is not well understood,? and a trio of new papers is making it clear why planet formation continues to... not be well understood. Put simply: the universe likes to create more diverse solar systems than an entire planet?s worth of sci-fi writers can imagine.

Earlier in March, Congress voted into place the FY2024 budgets for multiple agencies, including NASA. The agency is being asked for an overall 2% cut. Combined with inflation rates over 3%, we are looking at a fairly significant cut to the U.S. budget for space science. Dr. Pamela Gay breaks down what these cuts will affect, including people and missions, as we move forward with this already stressful fiscal year. (This episode was recorded on March 14, 2024)

As you know, our team loves volcanoes, and since we?ve been focused on Iceland for months, we brought in Dr. Melissa Scruggs (aka VolcanoDoc on Twitch) for a chat about Grindavik and all things volcanic in Iceland.

It is possible to buy stickers, sweatshirts, mugs, and other stuff and things emblazoned with the simple phrase, ?We are star stuff?. This phrase was popularized by Carl Sagan, and it serves as a gentle reminder that all the complex atoms - by which I mean most everything heavier than helium - found their start either in the nuclear core of a star or in the nuclear explosions of a dying star or stars. But, as with so many things, the truth is much more complicated than the meme.

One of the unexpected realities of JWST is the discovery that we have really been asking the wrong questions in many astronomy areas. For instance: we generally asked how supermassive black holes and galaxies formed, with a basic assumption that these things happened in some interrelated process. We thought stellar mass black holes came from stars and that there might have been tiny primordial black holes that evaporated away, but that was it. Closed case. Black holes formed with all the normal structures we experience today. Except that now, JWST?s observations require us to find a way to accelerate the formation of those structures, and one way to do that is to seed the universe with black holes.

Every time I get the digital ?why can?t you scientists just look at the data? lecture, I wonder what people think scientists do. All we do is look at data, and when that data tells us our understanding of the universe is wrong, we?re pretty good at accepting the data and throwing out our false understandings? even when the data makes our life a whole lot harder. Such is the case with the accelerating rate of expansion of the Universe...

Robots on Mars have a long history of exceeding all possible expectations. From Spirit and Opportunity lasting far beyond their planned 90-day missions to Ingenuity lasting 72 flights out of a planned five, these craft have become so beloved that we mourn their missions ending. Today, while we recognize NASA's Day of Remembrance, we also celebrate all the Mars missions that have done more than expected.

If you take a compass and follow its pointy little needle, you will end up in Northern Canada but not at the North Pole. If you have a boat, you'll end up on Ellesmere Island wondering where Santa is hiding. The fact that the rotational north pole of the Earth and the magnetic pole of the Earth don?t align means that if you want to actually get to the Earth?s rotational North Pole - the one the pole sticks out of on your globe - you have to look up corrections online and veer a little bit in whatever direction the correction happens to be at the moment. And if you are catching this show sometime far, far in the future, then Ellesmere Island that is true in early 2024 is likely no longer true.

From October 25, 2023: Around our parent collaboration, CosmoQuest, Halloween is, hands-down, the most beloved season of the year. Costumes are worn. Yards are decorated. We are here for all the strangers that knock on our door - the weirdos, the witches, and the oh-so-many werewolves - and there will be as much candy as we can afford given out. We know we are not the only ones. With about a week to go, we know that any day now, NASA, ESA, ESO, and others will begin releasing their spooky season images. There will be nebulae cropped with the contrast adjusted just so to reveal witches' hats, and others rotated to reveal ghosts and maybe - I can hope - a goblin or two.

In this episode, we look at what tree rings can teach us about past earthquakes, and how well machine learning can identify life, like trees, from carbon-rich materials that were never alive to distant galaxies and spinning black holes. We even take a deep dive into anti-matter, but not a literal deep dive? just a conceptual deep dive.

As the Thanksgiving leftovers reach the stage of possibly gaining intelligence in the back of our refrigerators, we?re going to take a look at the origins of life, how we might find simple life on icy moons, and even how we can practice learning to communicate with other civilizations by chatting up a humpback whale.

When we headed into recording this episode, I didn?t know if there would be a government shutdown or not, and I have to admit, on Saturday, September 30, I spent more than a few hours binge-watching TV shows while frequently updating my news feeds. This episode would have looked very different with a shutdown. Since we got a budget, today?s episode focuses on science. In the first segment, I get to talk about something I never thought I?d even read about -- the effects of spawning anchovies on energy dissipation in the ocean. Along with that fishy story, we have news from the Mars rovers, pretty images, and information on watching the October 14th annular eclipse. (This episode was originally released on October 4, 2023.)

Researchers currently think solar maximum - when the Sun is most active - will occur sometime in late 2024 to early 2025. With this cycle, we will experience just what a good blast of solar radiation can do to the small sats, CanSats, and other satellites in low-earth orbit. If history is to be listened to, it?s only a matter of time before a solar event wreaks havoc on satellites and our ground-based society.

We keep tweaking our format a little bit every episode, trying to find the right mix for YouTube, podcasts, and now, short-form video. We think we the setup is on the mark now and thank you for your patience as we made adjustments. Soon, we will have content to share on TikTok and Reels. For now, enjoy this week's deep dive into planetary formation and all the ways scientists have tried to explain stellar systems. (This episode was originally released in video format on December 1, 2023.)

There are some news cycles that are just plain weird, and this news cycle tried really, really hard to be one of them. Headlines last week highlighted that JWST observed methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet, which is entirely true. This headline was followed by stories that the reason could be aliens? and there is not enough data to be aliens. We want there to be definitive signs of life on other worlds. We want to know that life is common. We want the universe to thrive with societies capable of art, exploration, empathy, and science. We want our universe to not be a tremendous waste of space. And it is really frustrating to see these stories that inevitably imply that researchers are trying to cover up the truth. We?re not; we?re impatiently waiting for there to be enough evidence that we can say, yes, there is life out there among the stars. And that evidence isn?t here. (This episode was originally released on YouTube September 27, 2023.)

Dr. Pamela is big on volcanoes, and she hoped we?d have an awesome new eruption to report, but we don't. There is, however, still a lot of news this week that doesn?t include an Iceland eruption. Instead, the news includes the first images from a new spacecraft, updates on Lucy?s discovery of a contact binary, and more on the OSIRIS-REx sample return. (This episode was originally released in video format on November 24, 2023.)

In this week's episode, we look at the upcoming solar maximum, how solar activity affects Neptune, the robotic invasion fleet on Mars, and how some of the weirdest star systems in reality have been able to form. In our closer look, we fail to see dark matter - like everyone - but observe its gravitational impact on light from objects we can see. (This episode was originally released on YouTube September 13, 2023.)

This episode reminds you to look up, look out, and reflect on what we see around us. Stories cover a weird white dwarf that is doing things our Sun may do billions of years from now, how satellite images can now be used to measure river flows here and on Mars, and Titan, as well as the emerging field of planetary geoarcheology, that will help us understand just how long it will take for Mars rovers to become buried relics. And also climate change. Buckle up, the news isn't good. (This episode was originally released on YouTube August 9, 2023.)

According to satellite cataloger Jonathan McDowell, there are now 18 satellite constellations, like Starlink, being planned. These constellations will contain 543,811 satellites. This is a whole lot of missions to try and keep from colliding and all it takes is one particularly bad collision to transform the more than half-million objects from useful technologies to a shield of shrapnel that protects our universe from us by trapping us here. In our closer look today, we are going to look at early warning systems that are being developed, and how future - more highly mobile satellites, can both do good and create chaos. (This episode was originally released on YouTube July 29, 2023.)

In today?s episode, we?re going to look at everything from how past Earth couldn?t support photosynthesis because the days were just too short, to current Earth letting us get hit by more Cosmic Rays prior to Earthquakes going off, and to supernovae threatening our world while alien stars eat other planets. Science, sometimes, is just kind of violent. (This episode was originally released on YouTube July 8, 2023.)

Each week, when we set off to do this show, we start with one core idea: We want to tell you what is new in space and astronomy? and remember Earth is a planet too. When we select stories, we try to find the ones we?re excited to talk about over coffee, or the ones we know we will be sharing randomly with strangers who make the mistake of asking, ?What do astronomers do?? We are here, week after week, to inflict space on others, and we hope that when we do you will return the favor and inflict this show on others. (This episode was originally released on YouTube June 24, 2023.)

In this episode, we need to take one of our periodic looks at our planet's science and understand what it means to life as we know it. But we will only look at Earth for the first two segments. Then we?re going to race away to enjoy an interview by Beth Johnson with Dr. Kat Volk about the icy Trans-Neptunian Objects that fill the spaces around Neptune and beyond Pluto. In our final segment, we look at all the amazing - and in one case alarming - launch attempts of the past two weeks. (This episode was originally released on YouTube June 3, 2023.)

Space science isn?t where the money is? at least not yet. Astronomy and planetary science in the U.S. are funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, and a variety of smaller foundations and extremely wealthy individuals. And this means that sometimes science can only advance at the speed Congress is willing to budget. The U.S. is in a new space race with China, and our ability to remain competitive in low-earth orbit is now an economic issue, with communications and imaging satellites powering multiple sectors. If a multi-year authorization is passed, there is hope folks will be able to dream, focus on research, and maybe, just maybe, spend less time asking for money. (This episode was originally released on YouTube May 20, 2023.)

In this episode, we?re going to look at how we now work to understand the history of life - including human life - on Earth by studying the geology of our planet, and we?re going to take those lessons learned and apply them to Mars, and exoplanets beyond our solar system. (This episode was originally released on YouTube May 13, 2023.)

In this episode, we?re going to be talking more about meteors - including the source of the Geminids meteor shower, asteroid Phaethon - as well as hot planets, hungry black holes, and how we?re working to uncover the identity of dark matter. (This episode was originally released on YouTube May 6, 2023.)

While we could spend an entire episode on Earth, there is just too much going on in the universe to linger anywhere too long. From our world, we journey out to look at the super massive black hole in the core of M87, and then Beth Johnson will join us with an interview of the SETI Institute?s Dr Chenoa Tremblay and how radio astronomers are one step closer to simultaneously looking for life and doing science with the very large array. This interview highlights how advances in signal detection and processing will now allow researchers to both study the science of distant stars and look for potential signals of alien civilizations. (This episode was originally released on YouTube April 29, 2023.)

This episode features the kind of news week where we looked at the April 20th eclipse in the South Pacific and decided it just wasn?t a huge priority. Between watching Starship's ?will it won?t it? launch attempts and getting news of discoveries in cosmology and new software in planetary science? and the discovery of a totally weird rock formation on Mars? there is a lot going on out there. We?ll have a total eclipse on April 8, 2024. With that event occurring in less than a year, now is the time to start planning your travel if you want to see a transformative celestial experience. (This episode was originally released on YouTube April 22, 2023.)

For decades now, our planetary science news cycles have been dominated by Mars. Mars is relatively close, and we have a lot of experience landing there and science goals to pursue. But it has left our other closest neighbor, Venus, off the mission list. That is, until 2021, when NASA and the European Space Agency announced three separate but complimentary missions to that hellscape world. And now, one of those missions - VERITAS - is threatened to be completely mothballed before even really beginning. Later on in the show, Beth Johnson will interview deputy principal investigator, Darby Dyar, about why VERITAS is suddenly on the chopping block, what this means for planetary exploration, and how the public can help change NASA?s mind. (This episode was originally released on YouTube April 15, 2023.)

Humans are the ultimate pattern matchers - at least for now. I have to admit I?m looking forward to the day I can give some new AI a set of images and ask it to tell me what animals it can find among the nebulae. The software isn?t there yet? But we?re also going to take a closer look at how art and AI look at space. And also science: From looking at active volcanism on Venus to eruptions on the Sun to rotating black hole jets and more, we take you on a journey through all that is new in space and astronomy. (This episode originally aired on YouTube April 1, 2023.)

Right now, humans are tantalizingly close to being able to search for life on other worlds where it is reasonable to think life could exist. We can?t do it yet - at least not in a way that would be safe for any potential life, but this is a long game, and as we?ll discuss in this episode, the technologies we need are being actively developed and tested on Earth, and the missions we need to find the best places to search are either already out there doing their job, or preparing to launch. This could happen, provided nothing happens to prevent us from getting off the planet? (This episode originally aired on television March 25, 2023.)

A new asteroid has been discovered with an orbit that crosses our own planet?s orbit. In general, this object and Earth are very good and not trying to occupy the same space at the same time, and we?ve managed to coexist for a fair amount of time. We are going to have a close approach, however, in 2046, and for the first time in a long time, the potentially dangerous asteroids list actually gave us something to worry about. (This episode originally aired on television March 18, 2023.)

In general, the kind of year we?ll experience gets its label at the end of the year. 2005 was the year of the never-ending hurricane season. 2017 was the year we experienced an eclipse and lost Cassini. 2020 was the year satellite constellations went from a handful to hundreds of spacecraft. 2022 was the year of Mars exploration with Curiosity, Percy, Ginny, Insight, and Tianwen-1. Each year gets to define itself, and it is up to us to fight or embrace what that year brings us. This year, 2023, is still young, but I?m going to guess that come January 2024, this will be the year of Io. (This episode originally aired on television March 11, 2023)

OK so this is actually episode six, but our producer Ally numbered the episodes weird and we got mixed up. This week, thanks to the support of so many, we?re going to be looking at earthquakes, early results from JWST, spherical novae, the Dark Side of the Moon, and a whole lot more. (This episode originally aired on television March 4, 2023)

In this show, we?ll go through more than 20 studies and observations ranging from planetary climates to galaxy mergers, and we?ll take a closer look at how Artificial Intelligence is being asked to play a role in every area of this research. And we?ll ask, ?Is this how we get Cylons?? (This episode originally aired on television February 18, 2023)

We live at a time when technological advances are allowing us to explore ideas faster than ever before. So today, we bring you lab results on ice that affect how we see the outer solar system, and observations of galaxies that affect our understanding of the universe?s formation. We go from things smaller than a proton ? which we just learned is 0.73 femtometers across -- to galaxy clusters 10s of millions of lightyears across. It?s all tied together, and we?ll tell you how. (This episode originally aired on television February 11, 2023)

In this episode, we discuss one mass extinction, three stories with volcanoes, star formation, galaxy dissolution, and space mission synchronized observing. We also take a closer look at dark energy and dark matter and how giant galaxies in the early universe seem to indicate we may know even less than we thought. And rockets. There are always more rockets thanks to SpaceX. (This episode originally aired on television February 4, 2023)

This episode has a little bit of everything as we bring you results from astronomers, geoscientists, climate scientists, imaging scientists, glaciologists, meteorologists, planetary scientists, engineers, and even bioarchaeologists. This diversity of research allows us to better understand our world and beyond. In our first segment, we look at how our ecosystem and past cultures rebounded after prior naturally occurring climate events. It's unclear if this research will help us better recover from the climate change we're currently facing, but maybe it will give us hope. From our world, we travel outward, looking at the meteorology of Mars, future technology for space exploration, and the star catalogs that will help us define our place in space. (This episode originally aired on television January 28, 2023)

Hello and welcome! This show - Escape Velocity Space News - is new, and we?re so glad that you?re here with us, right from the beginning. Dr. Pamela Gay, along with a great production team, is here to put science in your brain. In this episode, we?re going to bring you the best of what?s been discovered and dive deep into the hottest topic of the week - the infrared universe. From stunning images from the JWST to better-resolved star formation seen by ESO?s VLT, this redder-than-red color of light has been all the rage in this season?s best science papers. Also joining us is aerospace journalist Erik Madaus, who brings us a rundown of last year's best launches and the stats for what was a truly bizarre launch year for the European Space Agency and an amazing year for SpaceX. We bring you all of this and more, right here on Escape Velocity Space News. (This episode was originally recorded for television on January 21, 2023)

Audition Template: 1 Mono Host track (with Speech Volume Leveler), 1 Mono Interview track (with Speech Volume Leveler), 1 Stereo Sound FX with effects, 1 Stereo Music Bed track. 44.1k, 16 bit, Stereo Master.

A trio of asteroid-related stories crossed our emails this week: Bennu?s sample is on schedule for next year?s return, researchers have developed a tool to measure an asteroid?s density distribution, and 3200 Phaeton?s rotational period has accelerated. Plus, JWST?s new Pillars of Creation image, and this week in rocket history, we look back at Venera 4.

Space is hard, and some days, getting rockets to work doesn?t go as well as expected. An Epsilon rocket launched by JAXA and carrying eight payloads including RAISE 3 was lost when mission control triggered the flight termination system due to an attitude issue. Plus, stars blowing dust rings, stars exploding, asteroids getting hit with spacecraft, and Europa?s geysers may not come from the subsurface ocean.

Catch the full-length interview with Jochen Grandell, Program Scientist for the Meteosat third generation, from our October 4th episode. 

While astronomers have observed white dwarfs consuming companion stars on numerous occasions, for the first time, they have now observed the consumption of the companion?s helium and not just hydrogen. Plus, galactic alignment, rocket launches including Crew 5, a new Europa image, and a review of the video game ?Tinykin?.

Early Saturday morning, another company entered the exclusive club of successful orbital launchers, Firefly Aerospace, when their second attempt to reach orbit, named To The Black, lifted off on October 1. Plus, a crater in Spain, a new DART image, Juno flies by Europa, and an interview with Jochen Grandell regarding the Meteosat program.

Catch the full-length interview with Eric Palmer from our September 30th show. 

The quest to understand the formation mechanisms of globular clusters was limited by the Hubble Space Telescope?s ability to peer back in time. Now, JWST?s larger mirror has allowed astronomers to find gravitationally lensed galaxies that have globular clusters almost nine billion years old. Plus, two new super-mercury exoplanets, This Week in Space History, and an interview with Eric Palmer about the DART mission.

Catch the full-length interview with Amanda Sickafoose from our September 29th episode. 

Using a machine learning algorithm, scientists have confirmed 68 out of 77 potential gravitational lens candidates from a subset of over 5,000 possibilities. Plus, generation one stars, astronauts coming home, dating craters on Earth, lunar glass, and an interview with Amanda Sickafoose regarding the DART mission.

After ten months of space travel, NASA?s DART spacecraft arrived at the asteroid Didymos, targeted the moonlet Dimorphos, and successfully flung itself at the surface. Multiple observations confirm that the system brightened and even managed to resolve a cloud of debris. Plus, rocket launches, an update on the SLS, some broken physics, and International Observe the Moon Night.