Intro
foreign
hello and welcome to this episode of
Night Sky News for August 2023 with me
astrophysicist Dr Becky smethurst this
is the show where we chat about what you
should look out for in the night sky in
the next couple of weeks and then we
chat about what's been happening in
space news in the past few weeks in this
episode we're chatting about the future
of Voyager 2 after NASA recently lost
then regained Communications with it
plus Giada bus T has found water vapor
in the zone where rocky planets form
around a star you might also have seen
this jwst study popping up on your news
feeds this month claiming that these
objects are not galaxies as first
thought but supermassive Stars powered
by dark matter or even this study using
Gaia data to show a modified theory of
gravity fits the data best one that
doesn't need any dark matter in the
universe to work so as usual there's too
much to fit into one night sky news so
those two research studies are going to
be separate videos by themselves so look
out for those two videos coming up on my
channel in the next couple of weeks for
now though if you want to skip ahead to
any specific news story that I'm going
to cover those chapter markers down here
so that you can do that plus any
scientific research papers I mentioned
are all going to be linked in the video
description down below free to read so
without any further Ado let's kick
things off and start by looking up
all right let's start with the new moon
that's happening this weekend on the
16th of August because with no moon in
the sky it makes it a perfect time to
look for the Milky Way combine that with
the fact that in the southern hemisphere
right now it's winter so you've got much
longer nights or combine that with the
fact that it's summer here in the
northern hemisphere which is caused by
the tilt of the Earth's axis which gives
the Northern Hemisphere that much better
of a view towards the center of our
galaxy The Milky Way so the view in the
sky is that much better so if you can
get away from light pollution this
weekend and see if you can spot that
glow across the sky that looks like
spilled milk giving it its name the
Milky Way which is the combined light of
millions and billions of stars so far
away we can't make them all out
individually if you're in the northern
hemisphere then look towards the
Southwest at around midnight so that
you're looking towards the center of our
galaxy where there's more stars and
therefore the Milky Way will be much
brighter and if you are a really dark
sky you should notice that it is much
brighter towards that Center on the
southern Horizon and then arcs out
overhead and gets that much fainter if
you're in the southern hemisphere then
just look directly up to find the center
of the Milky Way and again see it arcing
out from there while you're there keep
an eye out for shooting stars in the
perseids meteor shower that I talked
about last month the peak was last
weekend on the 12th and 13th of August
but there are still going to be a few
around so keep your eyes peeled for that
now if you can't escape light pollution
then do not worry because there's still
things that you'll be able to spot even
from the center of the city so on the
18th and 19th of August the Crescent
Moon will come really close to the
planet Mars in the evening just after
Sunset hanging around for about an hour
or so in the west before they both set
Mars will look reddish in color and
should be very distinct from any stars
in that area of the sky plus I mean if
you're looking right after Sunset then
you're going to have the glow of
Twilight around so really the only
things you're going to be able to see
are the moon and Mars and you shouldn't
be able to confuse them for anything
else house then the weekend after next
so the 26th and 27th of August my
favorite planet Saturn reaches what's
known as opposition when it's in the
exact opposite position in the sky from
the sun which means it's perfectly lit
from our position here on Earth meaning
on that weekend it is the brightest that
it ever gets in the night sky so you are
gonna wanna try and spot this now this
should be visible all night from
wherever you are in the world rising in
the East after Sunset reaching its
highest point in the sky around about
midnight and then setting in the west
Just Before Sunrise the further you are
from the equator the lower in the sky it
will be when it reaches its highest
point so for example here in Southern
England it will get to about 25 degrees
above the Horizon so that's around about
the distance between your thumb and your
little finger when you hold them out at
arm's length in front of you satello
appear a sort of yellowish color and
will be a lot brighter than the Stars
surrounding it it'll also have more of a
sort of solid good light to it rather
than sort of like the twinkle of the
stars and that's just because you know
you're reflecting a lot of light off
Saturn's disk it's coming from sort of
like an area and so as that light passes
through the atmosphere you know more of
it has to get Disturbed to make Saturn
look like it's twinkling whereas stars
are just little pinpricks of light and
so any disturbance in the atmosphere
you're going to see it and that's what
makes them twinkle but if you're still
struggling to pick it out from the stars
then don't worry because the full moon
will come very close to Saturn on the
30th and 31st of August which you can
then use as a marker point for where to
look the full moon will be very bright
though we'll wash out Saturn quite a bit
but you know once you have spotted it
you'll know where to look on the next
clear night that you have another trick
is to take a long exposure shot using
night mode on your phone to try and pick
it out from the stars and then you can
use that image as like a star chart or a
map of where to look I've made a video
before on my tips for astrophotography
with your phone which I'll link in the
description down below if you're
interested but back to the full moon now
on this 31st of August we're going to
have another Super Moon which is when
the moon is much closer to us on its
oval-shaped orbit making the moon
slightly larger and brighter in the sky
but the differences are far too subtle
for your eyes to be able to pick them
out despite that this will still get
hyped in the media especially because
this is a blue super moon and sadly no
the moon won't look blue a blue moon is
the second full moon in a calendar month
a full moon happens roughly every 29 and
a half days as the moon orbits the earth
and a calendar month while the majority
of them are 30 or 31 days long so if the
timing is right you can have a full moon
right at the start of a month and right
at the end of a month blue moons happen
roughly every 33 months or two and three
quarter years whereas super moons are
much more common and they happen maybe
three to four times in a single year
however the next blue super moon pairing
won't be until August 2032.
but please remember this doesn't mean
anything inanimate ancient rocks do not
give a about what we're all up to
down here now if you keep an eye on the
moon in the next few days going into
September it will be rising in the East
with Jupiter a few hours after sunset on
the evening of the 4th of September
Jupiter is one of the brightest objects
in the night sky after the moon in Venus
so it should be really easy to spot next
that beautiful three-quarters Moon very
low on the horizon just after Sunset but
then they'll rise higher together in the
sky as the night goes on then by the
morning of the 12th of September the
moon will be back to a crescent shape
this time a waning crescent and be close
to the brightest planet Venus in the
east in the morning Sky Just Before
Sunrise again Venus the brightest object
in the night sky so this should be a
really nice thing to spot if you are an
early morning Riser and while you're
there look out for the constellation of
Orion Rising the east as well which we
haven't seen for a really long time over
the summer and so can only mean in one
thing winter is coming all right that's
enough for looking up at the night sky
let's come back down to earth now and
chat about what's been happening in
space news in the past month
all right let's start with the recap on
telescope news so the Euclid Space
Telescope which launched last month on
the 1st of July 2023 has now reached its
orbital position of L2 a gravitationally
stable point in the earth sun system
that is 1.5 million kilometers away from
Earth once it got there it took its
first test science images in both
obstacle and near infrared light and
they look
incredible like really showcasing the
high quality data that we can expect
from Euclid as it Maps out the positions
and distances to over 10 billion
galaxies in the universe in the next
couple of years if you want to know more
about how we're going to use that map to
study dark matter and dark energy check
out the video that I've made previously
I'll link it down below now the
community were a little bit worried
towards the end of July when sort of
like the first light images were taken
where the telescope wasn't focused yet
it was just sort of like testing every
then turning everything on but there was
clearly light that was leaking onto the
detector from somewhere and they
eventually figured out there must have
been some sort of like crack or hole in
the spacecraft Hull of some sort that
was actually letting in sunlight onto
the detector so we were a little bit
worried about whether Euclid was going
to be able to be used at all at one
point but thankfully Easter have managed
to figure out a workaround essentially
it only affects the telescopes detectors
if the telescope is a certain angle to
the Sun and as long as they only use the
telescope at the angles that it doesn't
affect it and everything is absolutely
fine so it makes operations a bit more
complex but nothing that Esa can't
handle so I'm excited for it to start
taking proper science data for the
survey and then for that survey data to
be released in a few years time let's
stick with another pretty picture
because this month an international team
of astronomers released this incredible
image taken by the Jameson Space
Telescope jwst of the iconic Ring Nebula
made famous really by the Hubble Space
Telescope but also beloved by stargazers
because it's iconic ring shape it is
also visible you know even with like a
small three-inch amateur telescope you
could find it yourself in the
constellation of Lyra if you fancy
having a go spotting it now the rig
nebula is the remnant of a star a bit
bigger than the Sun that has lived died
and gone Supernova around about 4 000
years ago so throwing off its outer
layers of hydrogen which is then lit by
the leftover glowing hot core of the
star in the center now it's this
material that's thrown off that enriches
the gas around the dead star with
heavier elements so the next generation
of star with its planetary system can
form out of that enriched gas and form
things like rocky planets with all the
ingredients for life which is why this
team led by Michael Barlow of UCL
applied to use jwst to study the
molecules present in great detail you
using jwst spectroscopic instrument the
team is still analyzing all of that much
more complex data but for now they've
just released this incredible image of
the Ring Nebula in infrared light so yes
it's a false color image where the
colors are used to highlight the
scientific information that you wouldn't
otherwise be able to see with your eyes
if it was just a black and white image
showing infrared light detected here and
not here now the team didn't release any
information on sort of the color choices
they actually made in this image as far
as I know but from digging through all
the information in that jwst proposal of
this project I'm guessing that one of
the filter images they proposed for was
called purple and then this other one
here green so then you can highlight the
cooler regions around the outskirts
where you detect mostly longer infrared
wavelengths and then the hotter regions
in the center where you detect mostly
shorter infrared wavelengths so just a
pretty picture for now but I'm really
looking forward to this analysis being
published in the future with this more
complex data so that we can learn things
like how do these heavier molecules
survive in this environment and how are
they distributed by the Supernova and on
to another pretty picture from jwst now
of the El Gordo cluster of galaxies
famous for its interesting shaped
gravitational lenses the so-called thin
one and the Fish Hook now these are
distant galaxies whose light has been
bent as it travels along a curved space
caused by the mass of the Galaxy cluster
in the foreground acting like a lens now
this image was released alongside four
research papers from the Jay breast T
pearls team who applied for this image
to be taken the first from frying
collaborators using the lenses to
estimate the total mass of the
foreground Galaxy cluster El Gordo the
second paper from kamiana skin
collaborators using jwst to peer through
the dust in the fish hook lensed Galaxy
to work out how many stars laws of
forming in this distant Galaxy 10.6
billion light years away the third from
Diego and collaborators catalog's newly
found lensed galaxies spotted with jws t
but missed by Hubble and reported the
discovery of a possible single star that
is in the perfect alignment for its
light to get brightened by the lens so
that we can spot it similar to the
Irondale star if you're familiar if
you're not again I've made a video on
that before if you're interested and
I'll link it down in the description
below and finally the fourth paper from
Carlton and collaborators Finding Ultra
faint galaxies in the El Gordo cluster
image which as a whole is still not very
well understood so lots of interesting
signs going on off the back of this very
beautiful cluster image and I'll link
all those research papers down below if
you want to give them a read but for now
I want to focus on this jwstud study by
Pilates and collaborators which is
claimed to have found water vapor in a
protoplanet Terry disk a disc of
material around a very young star from
which planets will eventually Clump
together out of the material in the disk
and form now these discoveries were part
of a big survey with jdbst to study many
different proto-planetary disks but in
this new study they're focusing on the
PDS 70 system which has both an inner
protoplanetary disk and an outer
protoplanetary disk separated by a gap
of 8 billion kilometers wide where we
found two gas giant planets one that's
three times more massive than Jupiter
and the other that's seven times more
massive than Jupiter the star itself is
only 5.4 million years old compare that
to the sun's roughly 5 billion years old
and this star is incredibly young and
most likely still forming planets which
was why it was so exciting to see this
claim of water vapor in the disc in a
system that is still forming planets
it's the first time that's ever been
done and it's been made possible thanks
to jwst so what priority and carburetors
have done here is use the Miri
instrument on board jwst which is
sensitive to much longer infrared
wavelengths that aren't blocked by dust
you know the heavier elements that make
up the protoplanetary discs that the
planets are going to form from and
they've used Mary in its integral field
spectroscopy mode and what that means is
that at every pixel on the detector you
take the light and split it through a
prism to get a spectrum a trace of how
much light you receive at each
wavelength so what you can then do with
that data is compare say what does the
spectrum look like in this part of the
image where you've got the inner
protoplanetary disk versus the Spectrum
in this part of the image where you've
got the outer protoplanetary disk
because handily different molecules so
things like water H2O or carbon dioxide
CO2 they leave their own unique
fingerprint on light that lets us know
that they're there so what happens is
those molecules absorb light from the
Star and then re-emit it they glow at a
very specific wavelength which is unique
to that molecule so then if you look at
the Spectrum that trace of light of how
much light each wavelength you receive
you see these bumps at very specific
wavelengths which we can then identify
as being caused by certain molecules so
that's exactly what you've got here in
this plot the Blue Line shows the Miri
spectrum of the inner disk of PDs 70 and
hopefully you can see that when you zoom
in on this incredibly detailed Spectrum
into these little areas you have those
Tell-Tale bumps those fingerprints that
have been left on the light that say
that water is here which means that any
rocky planets forming in that inner
protoplanetary disk are gonna have
access to water as they form which is
incredibly exciting for a number of
reasons I mean yes we've discovered
water vapor or detective water vapor in
proto-planetary discs before but never
this close in in the inner regions
around a star or in a system that we
know has already formed planets like PDS
70 it's thanks to jwst that's made this
discovery possible in the first place
but second of all and why it's
especially exciting is because this
inner disc extends to about
160 million kilometers away from its
star the Earth orbits the Sun an average
distance of about 150 million kilometers
away so what we're seeing here in PDS 70
could be very similar conditions to how
the Earth formed and by studying it it
could help us work out how did the Earth
get its water because the leading idea
for a very long time has been that the
inner solar system had no water while
the Earth was forming and that no
protoplanetary disk does either because
UV light breaks apart water molecules it
splits H2O into a hydrogen and an o h
molecule and we've never seen any water
vapor close in in a protoplanetary disk
before in instead the leading idea has
been that you know the outer solar
system had all of the water and then it
condensed into ice and was brought to
the inner solar system by comets those
comets then impacted with the Earth
transporting their water to us which was
then protected from breaking apart by
the ultraviolet light because of the
Earth's atmosphere but perhaps there
could have been water vapor in the inner
solar system as Earth was forming like
we're seeing here in PDS 70 for the
first time thanks to JD birth tea but
the thing is this result was one of the
big puzzles to Pallotti and
collaborators because they then had to
explain well how do you get water vapor
so close into a very young volatile star
that's throwing off a lot of UV that
should be breaking these water molecules
apart but apparently
isn't and so one of their ideas there
was lots of dust in this protoplanetary
disk so a lot of heavier molecules that
were shielding the water vapor from a
lot of the UV from the Star a hypothesis
that was actually backed up by the
detection of carbon dioxide CO2 in the
Spectrum as well another molecule that
also breaks apart under UV light the
next steps here are to take an image of
the PDS 70 system with the near cam
detector on board jwst it'll be the
highest resolution image we've ever got
of PDs 70 maybe we'll get another direct
image detection of an exoponic when we
do that who knows but also to use the
near spec detector on board Jetty wst
which will give us a spectrum at lower
wavelengths where there'll be different
molecular signatures present different
bumps to say different molecules are
here in that different wavelength range
once that analysis does come out and the
results gets published you know that
I'll be covering them right here on my
channel so make sure you subscribe so
you don't miss out and for finally let's
talk about Voyager 2 because NASA gave
us all a bit of a scare this month when
they temporarily lost contact with it
because of the wrong command that was
sent as a reminder Voyager 2 launched
way back in 1979 visiting Jupiter Saturn
Uranus in Neptune the only spacecraft to
have ever visited Uranus and Neptune the
only reason we have these images of them
at all after those visits it just kept
on going to the far reaches of the solar
system and in 2018
it officially left the solar system when
it crossed what's known as the
heliopause the protective shell of
particles that are burped up by the sun
what's known as the solar wind and then
it entered into Stellar space I've
actually covered this in a night sky
news from the very early days of this
channel for those who remember it but
how we know that Voyager 2 actually left
the solar system is because of two of
its many science detectors that it has
on board one to detect the solar wind
particles the particles that are burped
up by the Sun and you know sort of
create this like heliopore shield around
it and then the other detector to detect
Interstellar cosmic rays that we assume
are coming from Supernova that get
filtered out a little bit by The Helio
pores and in 2018 those detectors on
Voyager 2 pinged back the data to show
the solar wind particles dropping off
and the cosmic ray detections going up
since then Voyager 2 has been traveling
yet further away from the Sun at around
about 56 000 kilometers per hour and at
the time of filming is around about 20
billion kilometers from the Sun that's
about 134 times the Earth Sun distance
it takes light 18 and a half hours to
travel that far from Earth to Voyager so
communicating with a spacecraft that is
that far away is incredibly complex
especially because you have to be very
careful with which Direction you send
your signal to that spacecraft because
if you're ever so slightly off then the
error in how much you're off just gets
bigger and bigger and bigger the further
away you go and you just end up
completely missing the spacecraft to
deep space network is what Nasa uses to
communicate with its spacecraft and get
the data back from them as well there's
three sites across the world with many
radio antenna at each to cover you know
all directions at any time of the day so
there's one in California in the USA one
in Madrid in Spain and one in Canberra
in Australia so then as the Earth
rotates on its axis or as also the earth
goes around the Sun as well you end up
switching which antenna which site
you're using to communicate with a given
spacecraft so it's a huge operation and
one of my favorite things is to look at
the website that shows you the current
status of the deep space network but on
the 21st of July NASA announced that a
series of planned commands Act
accidentally caused the antennae on
Voyager 2 to 0.2 degrees away from Earth
meaning it was sending all of its
science data in completely the wrong
direction of missing Earth and that any
of our commands that we sent to it were
being missed by the antenna because they
were far too weak of a signal to be
picked up in a different direction you
know by the time they traveled 20
billion kilometers away now this was
especially frustrating because we
weren't getting any of the scientific
data from the instruments that were
still on board Voyager 2 like for
example the cosmic ray detector that
helped us work out the Voyager 2 had
left the solar system because NASA
estimates that in around about 2026 2027
Voyager 2 is going to completely run out
of power it won't be able to power its
scientific instruments to actually
collect data and it won't have enough
power to send that data back through its
antennae to Earth so that we can receive
it so I mean it's gonna be a very sad
day when its Mission comes to an end but
it's especially frustrating now that
we're missing out on getting data from
those scientific instruments while we
still can because it's not going to be
here forever no one was especially
worried about Voyager 2 though thanks to
a Fail-Safe that was coded into the
system way back in the 70s that every
few months or so gets Voyager 2 to
completely reset its position so that
the antennae is definitely pointing back
towards Earth so we were all very
grateful for a 50 year old piece of code
this month and it meant that you know
maybe we'd have to wait till the 15th of
October when the next reset of the
antenna was
um for us to be able to get data again
so that meant that we know worst case
scenario we're gonna lose about three
months worth of scientific data which
from a scientific perspective is the
worst case scenario but from an
engineering perspective is probably the
best case scenario and thankfully at the
start of August NASA tried one last
thing before giving up essentially
shouting at the spacecraft sending out
an incredibly loud signal one with a
very large amplitude so that by the time
it made the 20 billion kilometer journey
to Voyager and it had dispersed slightly
it was still strong enough of a signal
so the antennae pointing in slightly the
wrong direction could still pick it up
NASA used the dss-43 antennae in
Canberra in Australia to send the shell
then they had to wait 37 hours to know
if it had worked 18 and a half hours for
the signal to travel from Earth to
Voyager 2 to tell it to actually you
know like turn its antennae back to
Earth and then another 18 and a half
hours for that First Data packet them
sent by Voyager back to earth to travel
from Voyager to Earth so the team sent
the command and then essentially had
their fingers crossed for over a day and
a half finally receiving a signal back
at 12 29 on the 4th of August to let
them know that all was well NASA is now
receiving science data from Voyager 2
again after only losing about two weeks
worth of data so a pretty good outcome
All Things Considered maybe this was
just the universe's way of preparing
hearing us for when the power finally
goes out on Voyager 2 in around about
three years time all right that's it for
Night Sky News for this month as always
if you snap any pictures of the night
sky send them away over on social media
but also if you see any space or
astronomy related news stories that you
want me to explain in a future Night Sky
News episode then send them my way as
well look out for those two videos that
are coming up on my channel in the next
couple weeks as well the first on those
supermassive Dark Matter stars that
people have claimed to have found in JB
West tea and the other one on the
evidence for modified Gravity from Gaia
data a theory of gravity that doesn't
need any dark matter in the universe to
work but until I see you next time
everybody happy stargazing
image is sort of like a star troll or
chart a star chart looks so odd just
like the clock
why can't you bend nicely fingers why
can't you be more dainty
trying to show off my nail polish that's
the thing elements that then go into
making things like rocky planets and all
the life that lives here as well I don't
know what this was I was just like yeah
life that's this
with an inner protoplanetary disc and an
outer put
Pluto Proto Frodo Mr Frodo and then
another to detect interstellic cause
interstellic it's like Tom Selleck
entered in my mind
just like surprise has both an inner
protoplanetary disk and an outer
protoplanetary disk so I'll just say
that three times faster
proto-planetary disk people don't come
for the bloopers right they stay they
come for the space they stay for the
bloopers maybe but they're just not
getting money that I speak and they'll
be fine
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