Space News Today

Wednesday SpaceTime 20261104 Series 29 Episode 132

A cosmic blast’s dazzling glow hints at a monster in hiding Astronomers say a seemingly ordinary flash of gamma rays followed by an unusually bright afterglow is pointing to a powerful stellar monster lurking out of sight. Coronal mass ejections discovered erupting from a black hole Astronomers have for the first time, discovered an event similar to a coronal mass ejection blasting out of a Black hole. Virgin Galactic unveils its new Delta Class Space Plane Virgin Galactic has formally unveiled the first of its new next generation Delta class spaceplanes at its New Mexico Space Port. The Science Report Exposure to bushfires while pregnant linked to kids being later diagnosed with autism. Antarctic Intermediate Water rapidly reversing is long-term trends in salinity and density. Paleontologists have discovered the remains of a new species of herbivorous dinosaur. Bans on smartphones in schools shown not to have had any impact on teen mental health. Alex on Tech: cracks in the success of Apples new Iphone Duo.

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Show notes Swift's Last Orbit: NASA's burst hunter falls home, a gamma-ray burst that is two explosions in one, and 3I/ATLAS's dusty ice. Swift's Last Orbit NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere on Wednesday 4 November; the US Space Force prediction is about 03:30 EST (08:30 UTC, 19:30 AEDT), plus or minus 11 hours. Surviving fragments are confined between 20.6°N and 20.6°S, a band that includes northern Australia; NASA puts the risk of harm to anyone at about 1 in 2,100. We look back at 22 years of science from a two-year mission: more than 2,000 gamma-ray bursts, the first short-burst afterglow in 2005, the BOAT in 2022, and about 7,000 papers. Two Bursts, Two Births GRB 160425A, caught by Swift in April 2016, is a 1.7-second short spike, four minutes of silence, then a 51-second long burst from the same place. A Nature Astronomy paper (Li, Wang, Zhang, Cai et al., 23 October; preprint March) argues the first is merger-like and the second collapsar-like. One event, no confirmed supernova or kilonova. 3I/ATLAS's Dusty Ice Webb's NIRSpec found the interstellar comet's ice grains are about a micron across and mixed with lots of dust, resembling some trans-Neptunian objects more than familiar comets (Protopapa et al., ApJL, 26 October; preprint September). Quick Hits Starship Flight 15 targeted NET 12 November per the FAA (unconfirmed by SpaceX); BepiColombo's Mercury orbit insertion on 21 November; Voyager 1 reaches one light-day around 18 November. Skywatch Venus near Spica before dawn, joined by a 5%-lit crescent Moon on Saturday 7 November; Mars and Jupiter closing to 1.2° by 16 November (high from the north); Saturn high in southern evening skies; New Moon 9 November; Leonids 17–18 November. ISO 12312-2 solar safety

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Show notes

Two black holes caught feeding side by side just 1.3 billion years after the Big Bang. JWST and ALMA confirm LID-1166, the first close dual AGN found beyond the nearby universe. Plus: Swift's final days and NASA's call for ideas to save Hubble, Rubin finds Neptune's missing trailing Trojans as Lucy enters Jupiter's, TRACERS' first look at where the solar wind gets in, and a both-hemispheres skywatch built around the Mars-Jupiter meeting on 16 November. Two Hearts in One Galaxy (LID-1166) JWST/NIRSpec integral-field spectroscopy resolves two feeding black holes ~1.5 kpc (~4,900 ly) apart at z~4.5; ALMA [CII] finds matching cold gas around each. Both appear super-Eddington yet already sit on the local black hole-host mass relation. One system, projected separation; preprint posted July, published in Nature Astronomy this week. Living on Borrowed Altitude Swift ended operations on 20 October and is expected to re-enter in early November. NASA's 29 October Request for Information asks industry about boosting, servicing or safely de-orbiting Hubble, likely to re-enter in 2033-34. Not a commitment; responses due 30 November. Trojan Week Rubin early data confirms 2025 MH348 and 2025 NN80 as long-lived trailing Neptune Trojans, plus candidate 2025 MD138 (Schwamb et al., ApJL). Lucy becomes the first spacecraft to enter the Jupiter Trojan region; Eurybates flyby 11 August 2027. TRACERS: Where the Solar Wind Gets In First results (JGR: Space Physics) suggest cusp reconnection is largely spatial rather than temporal. Mission extended to spring 2027. Quick hits BepiColombo Mercury orbit insertion 21 November; Starship Flight 15 targeted November with a double catch attempt; Voyager 1 one light-day from Earth around 18 November. Skywatch Mars and Jupiter 1.2 degrees apart before dawn on 16 November; Venus, a thin Moon and Spica low at dawn 7-10 November; Saturn high in southern evenings; zodiacal light around New Moon (9 Nov); Leonids 17-18 November; supermoon 24 November. ISO 12312-2 solar safety reminder.

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Monday SpaceTime 20261102 Series 29 Episode 131

New dwarf planet discovered beyond Pluto Astronomers have discovered a new dwarf planet in the outer reaches of the Solar System, beyond the orbit of Pluto. Planetary Defence Mission sees its target for the first time The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft has now identified its target asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos achieved first light in its planetary defence mission. Russia permanently closes off part of its space station segment due to leaks Mission managers have been forced to permanently close off one of the compartments of the Russian Zvezda module on the International Space Station because of a persistent structural leak venting atmosphere into space. The Science Report Anthropic warns that AI could wipe out human existence. Rates of hospitalisations for heart problems increasing faster in states that have legalised cannabis. Atmospheric greenhouse gas levels reached record highs last year. Tehran says the Islamic republic has built the largest, most powerful conventional bomb ever made. Skeptics guide to the latest bogus cancer cure. Our Guests This Week HERA Principal Investigator Patrick Michel from ESA Our regular guests: Alex Zaharov-Reutt from techadvice.life Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics And Senior science writer and Sky and Telescope magazine contributor Jonathan Nally 🌏 Get Our Exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ www.bitesz.com/nordvpn (http://www.bitesz.com/nordvpn) . The discounts and bonuses are incredible! And it’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! ✌ If you’d like to support the podcast and gain access to bonus content by becoming a SpaceTime crew member, you can do just that through The Big Bang editions on Patreon, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Details on the Support page on our website https://www.bitesz.com/show/spacetime/support/ (https://www.bitesz.com/show/spacetime/support/) For more SpaceTime and show links: https://linktr.ee/biteszHQ (https://linktr.ee/biteszHQ) If you love this podcast, please get someone else to listen too. Thank you…

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Space Nuts: The Great Attractor, What Makes a Moon, and Life Beneath the Rings

In this listener Q&A episode of Space Nuts , Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson tackle a curious collection of cosmic questions. They explain why a crescent Moon can appear alongside the Sun in the morning sky, then explore the Great Attractor: the enormous concentration of galaxy clusters influencing the motion of our Local Group. The conversation turns to a lingering classification puzzle — what exactly makes a moon a moon, and should it have to clear its orbit? Finally, they imagine the view from a rocky world with rings, considering how the rings might look through the seasons, how sunlight would filter through them and what spectacular shadows or eclipses might occur. Join Andrew and Fred Watson for astronomy, imagination and the occasional tractor joke.

Key topics

- Why the Sun and a crescent Moon can be visible together in the morning sky.

- The Great Attractor, the Zone of Avoidance and the Laniakea Supercluster.

- Whether moons need to be spherical or clear their orbits, and the case of Pluto and Charon.

- What a ringed planet might look like from its surface, including seasonal changes, shadows and eclipses.

Timestamps

00:00 - Introduction and overview of listener questions

01:20 - Why the Sun and crescent Moon can appear together in the morning

06:00 - Moon phases and how sunlight illuminates the Moon

09:30 - Paul’s question about the Great Attractor

11:00 - The Zone of Avoidance and the Laniakea Supercluster

16:00 - What defines a moon, and should it clear its orbit?

20:00 - Binary planets, Pluto and Charon

23:00 - What it might look like to stand beneath a planet’s rings

26:00 - Seasonal ring illumination, shadows and possible eclipses

30:00 - Listener feedback, updates and closing remarks

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