Cosmic Revelations: The Brightest Fast Radio Burst and New Horizons' Hibernation Journey

In this episode of SpaceTime, we uncover some of the most exciting discoveries and developments in the universe, including the detection of the brightest fast radio burst ever observed, the New Horizons spacecraft's record-setting hibernation, and an innovative method for generating oxygen in space.
Brightest Fast Radio Burst Detected
Astronomers have identified what is being hailed as the brightest fast radio burst (FRB) ever recorded. Catalogued as FRB 2025 0316A, this extraordinary flash of energy was detected 130 million light years away in the spiral galaxy NGC 4141. The burst's unprecedented brightness and proximity provide scientists with a unique opportunity to study its origins and the environment surrounding it, potentially shedding light on the enigmatic sources of these fleeting cosmic phenomena.
New Horizons Enters Record Hibernation
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has officially begun a record-setting hibernation period as it journeys through the Kuiper Belt, now over 9.2 billion kilometres from Earth. This hibernation will last until June 2026, surpassing its previous record of 273 days. Despite being in hibernation, the spacecraft will continue to collect valuable data on charged particles and dust in the outer heliosphere, which will be transmitted back to Earth upon reactivation.
Revolutionary Oxygen Generation in Space
In a significant advancement for future space missions, scientists have developed a new method for generating oxygen in space using neodymium magnets to enhance the electrolysis process. This innovative approach simplifies the extraction of oxygen bubbles from water, potentially replacing complex systems currently used in microgravity environments. By leveraging magnetic forces, this technique could improve the efficiency and reliability of oxygen production for astronauts.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Astrophysical Journal Letters
https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/2041-8205
NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/
Nature Chemistry
https://www.nature.com/nchem/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
Brightest Fast Radio Burst Detected
New Horizons Enters Record Hibernation
Revolutionary Oxygen Generation in Space

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Spacetime Series twenty eight, episode one hundred and seven,
for broadcast on the fifth of September twenty twenty five.
Coming up on space Time, the brightest fast radio burst
ever seen, the new Horizon spacecraft begins, a record setting
hibernation period in the Kuiper Belt, and a new way
to generate oxygen in space. All that and more coming

(00:22):
up on space Time.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Astronomers have detected what they're describing as the brightest fast
radio burst of all time. Fast radio births are ephemeral
flashes of energy, often lasting just a few milliseconds, but
capable momentarily outshining every other radio source in its galaxy.
These flares can be so bright that their light can
be seen from halfway across the universe, several billion light

(01:05):
years away. The source of these brief and dazzling signals
remains unknown, but scientists now have a chance to study
one fast radio burst in unprecedented detail. The burst, cataloged
as FIB twenty twenty five zero three sixteen A, was
detected some one hundred and thirty million light years away
and the spiral galaxy NNGC forty one forty one, the

(01:27):
constellation ursa major. The discovery, reported in the Astrophysical Journal Letters,
is one of the closest fast radio bursts ever detected,
and it's also one of the brightest. The burst brightness,
paired with its proximity, is giving astronomers their closest look
yet at how fast radio bursts evolve and the environments
from which they emerge. One of the studies authors, Yoshi

(01:49):
Mussui from MIT's Cavali Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research,
says this fast radio burst is literally an a cosmic neighborhood,
thereby allowing astronomers to study it in exquisite detail. The
clarity of the new detection is thanks to a significant
upgrade to CHIME, the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, a
large array of half pipe shaped antennae based in British Columbia.

(02:13):
CHIN was originally designed to detect and map the distribution
of hydrogen across the universe, but it turns out the
telescope is also sensitive to ultra fast and bright radio emissions.
In fact, since it started operations back in twenty eighteen,
CHIME has detected more than four thousand fast radio bursts
from all parts of the sky, but until now, the
telescope hasn't been able to precisely pinpoint the location of

(02:36):
each fast radio burst. That all change when Chime recently
got a significant upgrade in precision. That was in the
form of three outriggers, miniature versions of Chime, each sighted
at a different location in North America. These telescopes work
together as a single continent size system which can focus
in on any bright flash that Chime detects pinpoint its

(02:57):
location in the sky with extreme ProCon The new fast
radio burst is the first detection made using this new
array combination. It appears the burst arose at the edge
of a galaxy, just outside of a star forming region.
The precise location is allowing scientists to study the environment
around the signal for clues as to what may have
triggered the event. Now, while it's still a mysterio as

(03:20):
to what produces these events, the leading hypothesis points to magnetars.
These are young neutron stars with extremely powerful magnetic fields
which can spin out high energy flares across the electromagnetic spectrum,
including in the radio band. Astronomers suspect that magnetars are
found at the centers of star forming regions where the youngest,
most active starts are being forged. The location of this

(03:42):
new fast radio burst just outside of a star forming
region may suggest that the source of this burst is
a slightly older magnetar, but Suey says the precise localization
of the burst is letting astronomers dive into the details
of exactly how old a fast radio burst source could be.
If we're right in the middle, will only be a
few thousand years old, very young for a star, but

(04:04):
this one, being on the edge, may have had a
little more time to evolve.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
Now.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
In addition to pinpointing where the new fast radio burst
was in the sky, scientists were also looking back through
chime data to see whether any similar flares have occurred
in the same region in the past. See since the
first fast radio bursts were discovered back in two thousand
and seven, must have been one off events, and that
suggested a cataclysmic event such as the destruction of a
star in a souper and ova. But a growing number

(04:31):
of repeating fast radio bursts are now being detected, and
that's pointing to a very different sort of origin. And
there's another fraction of these repeating fast radio bursts that
are flashing in a pattern sort of like a rhythmic heartbeat,
before eventually finally flaring out. So for now, at least,
the mystery surrounding fast radio bursts is whether repeaters and
non repeaters are coming from different origins. This is space

(04:54):
time still to come. The New Horizon spacecraft begins a
record setting hibernation period in the Kuiper Belt, and scientists
fired a new simpler way to produce oxygen in space.
All that and more still to come on spacetime. NASA's

(05:24):
New Horizon spacecraft has commenced a record setting hibernation period
as it continues its journey through the vast darkness of
the Kuiper Belt. Mission managers at the Johns Hopkins Applied
Physics Laboratory have confirmed that the probe has now safely
entered hibernation mode at a distance of more than nine
point two billion killimurders from Earth. The confirmation signal required

(05:45):
some eight hours and thirty one light minutes to reach
NASA's Goldstone Deep Space communications station in California. It marks
the start of the longest hibernation period in the spacecraft's history.
It'll lasts until late June twenty twenty six, surpassing the
previous record of two hundred and seventy three days, which
were set between June twenty twenty two and March twenty

(06:06):
twenty three. The Kiper built is a ring of comets,
icee worlds, and frozen debris circling the Sun beyond the
orbit of Neptune. New Horizons Principal investigator Alan Stern from
the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, says New Horizons
will continue to collect science data during its hibernation period,
using three instruments to monitor charge particles in the outer

(06:26):
heliosphere and dust in the Kuiper built itself. He says
that data will be stored on board and sent back
to Earth once the spacecraft reactivates. Going into hibernation reduces
operating costs. While in this mode, the Horizon spins in
a stable configuration with most instrument systems powered down. Its
onboard computer overseas health checks and transmits a weekly beacon

(06:50):
turn through the Deep Space Network to confirm operational status.
Since it's launched back in two thousand and six, the
spacecraft has entered hibernation mode twenty three times ranging from
a few days to many months. In twenty fifteen, New
Horizons became the first spacecraft to visit the dwarf planet
Pluto and its binary partner Sharon, as well as their

(07:11):
moons sticks Nix, Kerbos and Hydra. Then in twenty nineteen
and encounter the distant Kaper built object Arakoff, originally named Ultimothul,
and mission managers are now looking for another potential target
in the dark outer reaches of the Solar System. New
Horizons is now some nine point two seven billion kilometers
from the Sun, and it's expected to finally exit the

(07:33):
Kuiper Belt in either twenty twenty eight or twenty twenty nine.
This space time still to come. A new way to
generate oxygen in space, and the September Equinox, as well
as a tour of the constellations Capricorn, Pegasus, and Signas
are among the many harlots of the September night skies
on SkyWatch. A new study has shown that off the

(08:08):
shelf of theodinium magnets could help boost the production of
oxygen in space help support human space operations are reporting
the general nature chemistry claim. Scientists have used the magnets
to help detach oxygen bubbles from electrodes. In water, electrolysis
the process of splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen. Now,
this process generates separate oxygen hydrogen bubbles on the electrodes.

(08:32):
On Earth, these bubbles would simply float up in a way,
but in the microgravity conditions of space, there's no buoyancy
to lift the bubbles, so instead they simply cling to
the electrodes. Because of that, special pumps are used to
deliver the bubbles to a centrifuge, which can then separate
the two gases from the liquid water. It's a complicated,
energy intensive system, and its unreliability requires astronauts to keep

(08:55):
spare components on hand. The new research simply uses magnet
to manipulate the electro chemistry process. Now you don't notice
it here on Earth, but actually water has a slight
tendency to be very weakly repelled by opponent magnet. But
in space, this tiny repulsion force becomes dominant, so the
water moving away from the magnet displaces the gases which

(09:18):
are less susceptible to magnetism. Now there's also an interaction
between the external magnets field and those are the ions
moving under the electrical field. Now, as these charges move
in the liquid, the magnetic field induces an effect called
Lorentz force, which steers the water's flow, causing it to
swirl and move the bubbles to where they can be extracted.
So this new technique could eventually replace both the pump

(09:40):
and the centrifuge. This is space time and time out.

(10:01):
It turn O wise to the skies and check out
the night skies for September on SkyWatch. September was the
seventh month of the year in the old Roman calendar,
which had just ten months. That's before the edition of
January and February. That ten month year is still reflected
today in the name September or Septem, being Latin for
seven October Octo meaning eight, November and November nine, and

(10:26):
December of Deci meaning ten. It really wasn't until the
Gregorian calendar that January the first marked the start of
the new year. But in the beginning it was mostly
only Catholic countries that adopted it. Protestant nations only gradually
moved across, with the British, for example, not adopting the
reform calendar until seventeen fifty two. Prior to that date,

(10:49):
the British Empire and its American colonies still celebrated the
new year on March the twenty fifth, marking the feast
of the Annunciation in Easter. The earliest record of a
new year celebration are believed to have taken place in
Mesopotamia around two thousand BCE, around the time of the
Northern Hemisphere vernal equinox in mid March. A variety of

(11:12):
other dates tied to the seasons are also used by
various ancient cultures. The Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Persians began their
year off with the fall equinox, and the Greeks celebrated
it on the winter solstice well. The Jewish New Year
or Russia Shanna, the Festival of Trumpets, occurs in September,
where it marks the beginning of the Northern Hemisphere cycle

(11:33):
of sewing, growth and harvest, and apparently the creation of
Adam and Eve. According to the Jewish Bible the Old Testament,
the September Equinox will take place at four nineteen in
the morning of Tuesday September the twenty third Australian Eastern
Standard time. That's two nineteen in the afternoon of Monday,
the twenty second of September US Eastern daylight time, and

(11:54):
six nineteen in the evening Greenwich meantime. The day marks
the point in earth orbit around the Sun when the
planet's were rotational axial tilt means the Sun will appearize
exactly due east to someone standing on the equator. It
means almost equal hours of darkness and light. In fact,
the word equinox is derived from the Latin meaning aquiness

(12:16):
or equal and knox meaning night. It all comes about
because Earth's rotational axis is tilted at an angle of
around twenty three point four degrees in relation to the ecliptic,
the plane created by Earth's orbit around the Sun, and
Earth's axial tilt is pointed to the same direction in
the sky, regardless of Earth's orbital position around the Sun,

(12:37):
so on other days of the year, either the northern
or southern hemisphere are tilted more towards the Sun, But
on the two equinoxes around March the twenty first and
September twenty third, the tilt of Earth's axis is directly
perpendicular to the Sun's rays. For those in the northern
hemisphere it means the start of fall or autumn, while

(12:57):
those of the south of the equator moving into spring.
It's also worth noting that the solstice season equinoxes change
and they're impacted by what's known its procession. That causes
Earth's spin axis to wobble ever so slightly, sort of
like the axle of a spinning top. Now, the rate
of procession is only very slight, just half a degree
per century, so you don't notice it on normal human timescales.

(13:21):
But because the direction of Earth's axis of rotation determines
at which point in Earth's orbit around the Sun the
seasons occur, precession will cause a particular season, for example,
the Southern Hemisphere summer to occur at a slightly different
place on the calendar from year to year over a
twenty six thousand year cycle relative to the planet's orbital position.
At the same time, obliquity causes the angle of the

(13:44):
axial tilt to change with respect to the ecliptic, that
is Earth's orbital plane around the Sun. It's obliquity, that
is the tilt of the axis. It's currently twenty three
and a half degrees, and it's what's actually responsible for
the seasons, and that varies over a cycle of roughly
forty one thousand years between approximately twenty two point one
and twenty four point five degrees. This axial tilt or

(14:07):
obliquity changes due to the gravitational pull of the Sun,
the Moon, and other planets. A higher obliquity leads to
more extreme seasons, while a lower tilt results in milder
seasons and can contribute to glacial periods. Then there's eccentricity.
This involves changes in the actual shape of Earth's orbit

(14:28):
around the Sun, sometimes making it more circular and other
times more elliptical. This gradually shifts the point of perihelion,
which is Ear's closest orbital position to the Sun. Now,
these three effects procession, obliquity, and eccentricity are collectively known
as Melakovich cycles, and they affect the amount of solar
energy reaching the planet and have a major influence on

(14:50):
climatic patterns. Okay, let's start out to the September night
skies by looking towards the east and the constellation of Capricornus.
The The name comes from the ancient Greek tale about
the demon Typhon emerging from a fissure in the earth
and attacking Zeus, the King of Gods, during a banquet.

(15:10):
The sudden appearance of Typhon scared Pan, the flute playing
goat boy, who tried to escape by turning to a
fish and swimming away. However, he realized his cowardice before
completing the transformation, and so distracted the demon by playing
his flut instead, and this gave Zeus enough time to
use a thunderbolt from the heavens to frighten Typhon away.

(15:33):
Because of his actions both cowardly and brave, Zeus placed
Pan in the sky forevermore, still in his half goat,
half fish guys. The brightest starr in Capricornis is Delta Capricorni,
also known as Dennibal Jetty or the tail of the Goat.
It's an eighbor located just thirty nine light years away.

(15:55):
A light year is about ten trall in kilometers, the
distance of photo can travel in a year at the
speed of light, which is about three hundred thousand kilometers
per second in a vacuum, and the ultimate speed limit
across the universe. Then, a bell jetty is a spectral
type a white beta lyrap variable eclipsing binary. It's comprised

(16:15):
of two stars closely orbiting each other. Now, astronomers describe
stars in terms of spectral types, a classification system based
on temperature and characteristics. The hottest, most massive, and most
luminous stars are known as spectral type O blue stars.
They're followed by specual type B blue white stars, then

(16:36):
specual type A white stars, specual type F whitish yellow stars,
specual type G yellow stars. That's where our Sun fits in.
Then there's spectual type K orange stars, and the coolest
and least massive stars are known as specual type M
red dwarf stars. Each specual classification can also be subdivided

(16:56):
using an eumeric digit to represent temperature, with zero being
the hottest and name the coolest, and a Roman nuneral
to represent luminosity. Now put all that together, and our
Sun is officially classified as a speciotype G two v
G two five yellow dwarf star. Also included in the
stellar classification system are specialtypes LT and Y, which are

(17:21):
assigned to feled stars known as brown dwarves, some of
which were born as spectrotype M red dwarf stars but
became brown dwarves after losing some of their mass. Brown
dwarves fit into a category between the largest planets, which
are about thirteen times the mass of Jupiter, and the
smallest spectrotype m red dwarf stars, which are usually about
seventy five to eighty times the mass of Jupiter or

(17:44):
about zero point zero eight solar masses. As we mentioned earlier,
Dinner Bell Jetty is a beat a Lyra variable eclipsing
binary system. It's made up of two stars closely orbiting
each other. The total brightness of the system changes because
the two component stars periodically pass in front of each
other as seen from Earth, thereby blocking out the light

(18:06):
from the other star in the system. The two component
stars of Beta Lyra are massive giants or even supergiants,
so close to each other that their shapes are heavily
distorted by their mutual gravitational forces. This gives each of
the stars in the system an ellipsoidal shape with extensive
mass flows from one component to the other. Just below

(18:27):
Capricornus on the eastern horizon, you see the constellation Aquarius,
the water carrier to the gods. Greek mythology describes Aquarius
as the most beautiful looking boy that ever lived, and
so was carried from Earth up to Mount Olympus by
Zeus in the guise of a quill of the Eagle
to become the water carrier. The two brighter stars in

(18:48):
Aquarius are Alprom Beta Aquary, a pair of luminous yellow
supergiants that were once Speciotype B blue white stars. The
pair are moving through space perpendicular to the plane of
the Milky Way galaxy. Beta Acquery, the brightest of the pair,
is also known as Sadhal Sud. It's a multiple star

(19:08):
system located about five hundred and forty light years away.
The primary star is about six times the mass of
the Sun, but emits roughly two three hundred times the
Sun's luminosity, implying al Radio is at least fifty times
that of our sun. Beta Aquery a piece to have
at least two faint companion stars, but you'll need a
decent sized telescope to see them. The second brightest star

(19:32):
in Aquarius is Alpha Aquery, also known as Saddal Mellik.
It's about five hundred and twenty light years away, around
six and a half times as massive as the Sun
and some three thousand times as luminous. Next we moved
to the southern constellation of Parsis Astray, and it's the
Southern Fish. The brightest star in the constellation is Formal Halt,

(19:52):
the mouth of the Southern Fish, and the eighteenth brightest
star in the night sky. Interestingly, thousands of years ago
it was as used to mark the position of the
winter solstice, the Sun's most southerly positioned the scene from
the northern hemisphere, but the procession of the equinoxes, which
we talked about earlier, has now moved the northern winter
solstice to its new position in December. Located only twenty

(20:15):
five light years away, Formal Hart is a spectral type,
a white yellow star about twice the mass of the
Sun and around sixteen times as luminous. It's also a
really young star, only about four hundred million years old.
By comparison, our own star of the Sun is some
four point six billion years of age. Former Haut exhibits
an excess of infrared radiation, indicating that it's surrounded by

(20:39):
a circumstellar disc. It's also part of a triple star system,
together with a speciotype K orange dwarf star tw Pissus
astrny and a spectuotype m red dwarf star LP eight
seventy six minus ten. Turning to the north, now they
all see the constellation Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology.

(21:00):
Pegasus is the one who delivered Medusa's head to Polydectes,
after which he traveled to Mount Olympus in order to
become the bearer of thunder and lightning bolts for Zeus.
The brightest star in Pegasus is the orange supergiant Epsilon Pegassey,
which marks the horse's muzzle. Almost twelve times the mass
of the Sun. It's blurted out to a spectrotype K

(21:21):
supergiant nearing the end of its life. Astronomers are still
debating as to whether it will end its days as
a core collapse supernova or a rare neon oxygen white dwarf.
Also in the north is the constellation Signus, the Swan,
which lies on the plate of the Milky Way galaxy.
Signus contains the star Deneb, one of the brightest stars

(21:42):
in the night sky and one of the corners of
the Summer Triangle. It's also home to the giant Signus
OB two stellar association which includes one of the largest
known stars in the universe, Mnel Signy, a red hypergiant
about one one hundred and eighty three times the radius
and fifty times the mass of our Sun. In fact,

(22:03):
were it placed at the center of our solar system,
where the Sun is, its surface would extend out beyond
the orbit of Jupiter. It's so big. It contains a
volume approximately one point six billion times that of the Sun.
Animel Signy is located about five three hundred light years
away now. Signas is also home to Signus x one,

(22:26):
a powerful glactic X ray source, which became the first
widely accepted black hole. It was discovered back in nineteen
sixty four, and even today it remains one of the
most studied astronomical objects in the sky. The black hole
is estimated to have about fourteen point eight times the
mass of our Sun, all crammed into an event horizon

(22:46):
with a radius of just forty four kilometers. Little wonder
black holes are the densest objects in the universe. Look it,
just above the northern horizon this time of the year
is the star Vega. It's the brightest star in the
constellation Lyra and the fifth brightest star in the night sky.
Vega has about twice the mass of our Sun, and

(23:07):
it's a relatively young star, less than five hundred million
years old, and it's also fairly close, just twenty five
light years away now once again due to the procession
of Earth's rotational axis, Vega used to be the northern
pole star around fourteen thousand years ago, and it will
do so again in another twelve thousand years time. Just

(23:28):
above Vega is Alpha Aquilli or All Tear, the brightest
star the constellation Aquilla. It's a special type, a white
yellow star with about twice the mass of our sun.
All Terr is located really nearby, just sixteen point seven
light years away, and it rotates very rapidly, with an
equatorial velocity of about two hundred and eighty six kilomets

(23:49):
per second. And that's a significant fraction of the star's
estimated breakup speed of around four hundred kilomets per second. Now,
this high rotation rate means All Tear isn't verhicle, but
highly flattened at the poles. All terrries the eye of
the eagle that carried a Queries up to Mount Olympus
to become the water bearer for the gods. Looking to

(24:10):
the southeast now and you'll see the bright star Achina.
It's the brightest star of the constellation Eridanus. The river
located around one hundred and forty nine years away. Akina
has seven times the mass and three thousand times the
luminosity of our Sun. The star rotates so rapidly it's
elliptical in shape, with its equatorial diameter being about fifty

(24:31):
six percent wider than its polar diameter. September also sees
the bulk of the Origid's meteor shower, which is produced
as the Earth passes through the debris trail left by
the comet k SC nineteen eleven in one ks is
a long period comet, only reaching the inner Solar System
every eighteen hundred to two thousand years. Its meteor shower

(24:53):
runs between August the twenty eighth and September the fifth.
The Origins provide up to five swift and bright meteors
an hour will its peak just before dawn on September first.
It's best viewed from the northern hemisphere as it's radiant.
That is the direction the meteors the p to be
coming from lies in the northern sky constellation of Central
nor Regia. A second meteor shower in the month of

(25:16):
September is the Epsilon Perseods, which run from September fifth
to the twenty first. Although they're called the Epsilon Perseids,
the radiot actually lies closer to the star Beta Perseus
or Alcohol. Now the Epsilon Perseid should be confused with
last month's Perseed's meteor shower. That's because well both the
peter have their radio the constellation Perseus. They're caused by

(25:38):
debris trails from two very different comets. And now with
more of our tour of the September night skies, I'm
joined by Senior science writer Jonathan Nally. That's senior science
writer Jonathan Llyday.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
Stuart Year September evening skies. While they begin with the
Milky Way which courses Alham Galaxy scene for the inside,
and it's stretching all the way across the sky from
the north east to the southwest. As you know night
falls during September for those are little mid latitudes in
the southern hemisphere. Like I do, we've got the center
of our galaxy more or less directly overhead. As soon
as the sun goes down, which is fantastic because this
part of the Milky Way includes the starfields of Scorpius

(26:14):
and Sagittarius, those three constellations, which is an amazing region
of the sky field explore. Even if you've just got
a pair of an oculus, I mean, if you've got
dark skies, and unfortunately most people in the can cities
don't have dark skys. But if you can give yourself
to a dark spot and even just using your own eyes,
you know, you can just wonder at this amazing galaxy
there above our heads. But if you can get a

(26:34):
pair of innoculars onto it, then you can see it
a lot more so. Scorpius, for instance, is the constellation
of the scorpion. It's one of many a few constellations
that actually looks like what it's meant to look like,
like a scorpion. Once you learn to trace how its stars,
you'll see that they really do for in the shape
of a scorpion. Now there are other constellations like Triangular,

(26:54):
which is a triangle, that sort of thing which it
is not hard to make joining the dots of stuff.
The Thorpious really does look like a scorpion. It's quite incredible.
It's brightest star. By the way, Antari's is quite bright
and quite red, so it's really easy to spot. And
to the naked eye, it looks very similar to Mars.
If you've ever seen the planet Mars and the night sky,

(27:16):
and in fact, that's where Antaris gets its name from.
It means the rival of Mars, and sometimes they're not
too far from each other in the night sky, and
then you can compare the two and they really do
look quite nice together, and then you can see that
how it would get its name, the rival of Mars.
There are some other bright stars around on early September evening.

(27:36):
Looking at it from a southern hemistry of perspective, which
is what I have to do, we have Vega far
in the north. We've got Altair in the northeast. We've
got ark tourists in the northwest. Way down in the
south we've got a star called Akrona, and also way
down in the south we've also got the famous two
Pointers stars. So Vega is the brightest star in the

(27:58):
constellation of Lyra, which is named after the stringed musical
instrument called the lyre. It's quite close to star. It's
only about twenty five light years away, and it's the
fifth brightest star in the whole night sky. The other
one tourists, which is so Vegas up in the north
and Dark Tourists in the Northwest. At the moment, so
Ar Tourists is the brightest star in a constellation probably
haven't heard of. It's called Boetes. That means the plowman

(28:21):
or the herdsman, and it's the fourth brightest star in
the sky. And again it's quite close. It's only thirty
seven light years away, which is sort of nothing in
space terms. Altair is even closer. It's only seventeen light
years from us. And it's the brightest star in the
constellation of a Quilla the Eagle, and it's the twelfth
brightest star overall. The one I mentioned down in the

(28:41):
deep South Akrona. Yes, that's the sky's ninth brightest star,
and it's the brightest star of the constellation of erdenis
another one you probably haven't heard of. Erdanus is the
constellation of the River, which is a very long, thin,
winding constellation. Stars is a celestial equator and goes down
to oh about minus free fifty five degrees two thirds

(29:02):
of the way down towards the south celestial pole, and
right at the end of it is this star Akina.
Now the other ones I mentioned. The two Pointers are
named as such because if you draw a line between
these two stars and then just keep going for a
little while, you end up very close to the Southern Cross,
so they point towards across the two Pointers, or the
Pointers they're sometimes called. Now. Each of these is a

(29:23):
triple star system Beta Centauri. It's three hundred and sixty
light years from Earth, which is reasonably distant. But the
other one, the Alpha Centauri system, is famous for being
the closest star system to us, and one of its
three stars is called Proxima Centauri, and it is other

(29:43):
than the soun of course, it is the closest star
to the year seventy four and a quarter light years away.
And as I mentioned, the Southern Cross is not too
far from the two Pointers, and at this time of
the year it's lying on its right hand side. When
you go out in the early part of the evening,
it's sort of probably about twenty thirty degrees up from
the horizon, about thirty degrees off from the horizon and
lying on its side looks like a little kite. You know,

(30:05):
if you have really dark spies. I was saying before,
if you can get yourself to some a dark location,
you've got some dark sky, and you let your eyes
adapt to the dark. So no looking at the mobile phone,
and you just get rid of all sources of light
in a way, from the street lights and everything, but
your eyes adapt to the dark. See if you can
spot right next to the Southern Cross a big dark

(30:27):
patch in the milky way. Just right next to it,
this is a huge cloud of dust and gas floating
out there in space, called the coal sack, which is
a good name for it, of course, the coal sack.
And originally long time ago people thought, wow, what's this big,
seemingly empty area in all these regular stars. Is it
a big hole that we're looking through to the other side.

(30:47):
But no, it's not just a huge cloud of gas
and dust that's blocking all the stars behind it, and
there are a few stars in front of it. So
you know, if you get a telescope in there, you
can have a look around, and you do see that
there are stars in the foreground. But to the naked eye,
it looks like a darkish patch in the Milky Way. Now,
let's stand on the planet as evening falls. The only
one who's got visible at the moment is Mars, which

(31:09):
can be seen in the west about a quarter of
the way up to the horizon. It will remain pretty
much in that same spot all months long, and for
all but the most diligent amateur astronomers, as I would
call them, there's really not much point in trying to
look at Mars through a telescope. At the moment, it's
a long way from Earth and it appears really, really tiny.
That's the problem with Mars. That is a small planet,

(31:30):
much smaller than the Earth, and it's a long way away,
and sometimes it's near and sometimes it's further. At the moment,
it's quite a fair distance away, and so it just
looks really tiny. You can't see any details on it
when you look through a telescope. That's why astronomers wait
for every twenty six months when we get to a
point what's called opposition, where Mars is at its closest

(31:52):
approach when Mars that have started to project takes about
it twenty six months to come around every time, and
at the moment we're not anywhere near that so Mars
is a long way away looks tiny. On the other hand,
a couple of hours after sunset, we've got Saturn, which
will be rising up over the eastern horizon and a
little bit of main target this month's planetry and says yes,
at least for those up looking around in the evening hours.

(32:13):
Saturn is much larger than Mars, so even though it
is currently about four times further away than the red
planet through a telescope, it still appears to be about
eleven times bigger. So it's four times further away, but
it still appears to be eleven times bigger because it's
just a huge gas giant planet. And if you do
have the opportunity to take a look at it through
a telescope, please give it a try, because it looks

(32:34):
really quite speacky. Everyone loves Saturn through a telescope. Now
for the night shift workers, insomniacs and very early rises,
Jupiter is the next one that will be seen climbing
up over the northeastern horizon at around about three thirty
AM or southeastern horizons from the northern hemisphere. Give it
a few hours to rise and get higher, so it's
a marvel. The haze and muck on the horizon, and

(32:56):
then if you do have the chance to take a
look at the small telescope, so you think can make
out any of its at the strict bands and zones
on Earth we have we we sort of do have
atmospheric zones on the Earth, but generally just look at
a satellite picture it seems to be a jumble of
clouds and things. But on Jupiter it's really The planet

(33:16):
is divided up into sort of horizontal bands, and you
can see them through a telescope quite often. You should
also be able to see up to four of its
largest moons if they should be visible. These just look
like tiny pin pricked stars strung out in a line
on one or both sides of the planet. They go
around Jupiter. They orbit around Jupiter fairly quickly, so sometimes

(33:38):
you might see three on one side and one on
the other, or two on one side and two on
the other, sometimes four on one side. Sometimes you might
look and you might only see one or two or three,
and the fourth or the third or second one are missing.
That's because they're around the other side of Jupiter and
they're blocked from view, or they've gone into the shadow

(33:58):
of Jupiter, and so there's no side light falling on them.
So even though they might technically technically they be indirect
light of sight and not behind Jupiter, they might be
in its shadow, so you can't see them. Another morning
stargazing target the September is Venus, which rises above the
eastern horizon about an now and a half before sunrise. Now,
it's big and bright, and you simply can't mistake Venus

(34:21):
for anything else. The only other thing is bigger and
brighter in the night sky or the daytime sky for
that matter, are the Sun and the Moon, so you
just can't mistake Venus. Mercury will be there too below Venus,
so closer down towards the Sun, but it's smaller and
not quite as bright, and it'll be a bit harder
to see. And that's good. Is the ninth five of September,
and this.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
Is space Time, and that's the show for now. Space
Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher,

(35:05):
Google podcast pocker Casts, Spotify, Acast, Amazon Music Bytes, dot Com, SoundCloud, YouTube,
your favorite podcast download provider, and from space Time with
Stuart Gary dot com. Space Time's also broadcast through the
National Science Foundation, on Science Own Radio and on both
iHeartRadio and tune in Radio. And you can help to

(35:27):
support our show by visiting the Spacetime Store for a
range of promotional merchandising goodies, or by becoming a Spacetime Patron,
which gives you access to triple episode commercial free versions
of the show, as well as lots of burness audio
content which doesn't go to weir, access to our exclusive
Facebook group, and other rewards. Just go to space Time

(35:47):
with Stuart Gary dot com for full details.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
You've been listening to Spacetime with Stuart Gary. This has
been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com.

Speaker 3 (36:00):
M