Awesome Astronomy - Holy Flipping Galaxies Batman!

Festival stories and meteor corrections

0:00It's the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast, coming in 3, 2, 1.

0:20Tumble out of bed, and I stumble to the garden. Set up the scope, skies darkening. I yawn and stretch, and try to come to life. Check the camera, get the settings just right. Up in the sky, stars twinkle in the night. How many folks like me up from 9 to 5? Watching 9 to 5, what a way to spend the evening. All the stars roll by, but the seeing got me screaming. Finally frame the glob, then a satellite gets in it. It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it.

0:52Hey, I'm Jenny. And I'm Paul. And welcome to episode 181 of Awesome Astronomy for September 2026. Hello. You should have sung that. Do you know what? I thought about it, but I would like people to still have ears for the rest of the episode. You're Welsh. You're supposed to be like, you know. Do you know what? I'm getting more and more. I'm like, because I always used to get it when I was a teenager, and now I'm getting it again of,

1:24don't you look like Charlotte Church? And then people ask me, they're like, are you related? And I'm like, no. Can you sing? And I'm like, well, I can sing for you, but it'll be the last thing you'll ever hear. So I wish, I wish, because the thing is, if people keep saying I look like her, and if I could sing like her, I could have a wonderful side gig as a Charlotte Church impersonator. It'd be brilliant. But alas, I cannot. Oh. But how are you? I'm all right. Sort of between, between, I'm actually, I'm not tired today. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm pretty zen today. Um, I'm, I'm in the, I mean, festival, if you

2:03remember last year, I did a little festival special. Um, so I'm back in that. So doing festivals, I've just done big one, um, for four days. How did that go? It went really well. It went really well. It was, yeah, it was, God, yeah, a show, um, and then a new show I'm doing, big audience. That was cool. And then loads of workshops and then astronomy for five hours a night with hundreds of people. And amazing. What were you showing them?

2:35Oh, actually, it was really, you know what? It was really good considering where we are in Kent for this one. Um, and right near a bright festival with all the, like, jazz. Um, it was, uh, what did we see? We saw, did a bit of a tour of the Summer Triangle. We had the Moon. We had Saturn. Did, did a few nebulae. Um, did a few, or what else? It was just, it

3:06was cool. And Andromeda and, yeah, it was, it was all good. It was cool. Just really nice. Yeah. Sort of hours. Couple hundred people. Uh, I think about 300 on the first night, actually. Um. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. It is a lot of people over, over sort of four or five hours. Um, and, um, I did have the, on the Sunday night, I had some fabulous people, some really, really nice, really nice Canadians, actually, we were sort of chatting to. Um, and the inevitable drunken astrologers. Ha ha! Go on. We had the inevitable, inevitable

3:38drunken astrologers who were going on about the, uh, the parade of planets, of course. Oh. But it was a planetary alignment. And it was, what did they call it? It was something like, well, of course it was in, it was like in, in, like, Betty's Basket or whatever it was called, like Banubi's Basket or something. Literally not, they're like, you must know what that is. They're like, I have no idea what you're talking about. No idea. And they're like, well, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a thing. And like, you know, you, you and astronomy, you don't know. They're like, I have no idea what you're talking about. And

4:10then this very nice lady who's, who's been at this festival before, he's German, um, sort of just slid her phone in front of my face, just to sort of, she'd done the search and just said that this is an astrology term. And she, I just sort of glanced at her and, ah. I said like, yeah, no, that's not a thing. And they were. Yeah. It's like, that's astrology, not astronomy. Yeah, they were drunken and astrologers. It was, yeah, it was hilarious. But there's always a couple. Did you tell them about how terrible it is that Jupiter's in Gatorade? Yeah, it's, it's, you know, it's all, it's all up Uranus. Um,

4:42but I know it's, which is the name of my show, by the way. The name of my new show is, is, does my, um, does Uranus look big in this? Which I love. It's all about the size of the universe. It's a great title. It's all about the size of the universe. Does Uranus look big in this? I love that. Yeah. But yeah, it's good. But it's really busy. And it's just, yeah, it's long, long days. Like, you know, really long days. Um, and you then spend a couple of days getting over it. That sort of, when you've. Yeah. And then you're like prepping for the next one. You've done that sort of three days and then you're prepping

5:13for the next one. And so, yeah. So I've had a couple of, and then today was that sort of Zen day. We're like, I'm just having a day. Um. Nice. And then I'm off again tomorrow for another one. So. Yeah. That's, that's, that's me. And I've got to do an apology just before going any further. I've got to do an apology. Ooh. Mm. I realised when I proof listened the last little episode, I used the wrong word. Ooh. I was looking at meteors. I'm, I was live, live recording my reactions to the air. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

5:44And I called them sporadics and I meant to say erratics. Um, um, no. No, sporadics is right. No, it's the other way around. I said, I said erratics and I meant sporadics is what I meant. Ah, and you meant sporadics. I meant the other way around just because it's written on the script like that. Yeah. I said, I kept saying erratics for some reason. It was, to be fair. Do you know what? It was one o'clock in the morning and it had been a really long day. I was, um. Yeah. I was just going to say, I think we can forgive you. I was sitting in the, you know, in the dark in the garden at one o'clock in the morning and I kept saying erratics for some reason. I don't know why. I, because I will confess, I haven't listened

6:17to all of the episodes yet, but I was really enjoying all of the descriptions about like how you can notice how the moon is. It's not like a smooth edge. It's bumpy and stuff like that. I was like, I've been loving all of that stuff. So it's all right. I'll, uh, I'll tell you. Oh, right. It's too late to change that. Cause that was, well, I'll just apologize in the next episode for being an absolute moron. Um, so this, when I said erratics, I meant sporadics, but you knew what I meant. You knew what I meant. Yeah. We forgive you. We forgive you. So I mentioned in the episode that of course you weren't there. You weren't,

Total solar eclipse in Ibiza

6:52you weren't, you were, you were doing something else. I was, I was out in Ibiza for the total eclipse. So I took dad, never seen totality. So I was very, very excited for him to see a total eclipse. And you know, we had like blue skies until, until the eclipse started and there was like a cloud in the wrong place. And honestly, you could not make it up. It

7:24was literally, you went round, if you went round a 360 degree circle and you looked in the sky, it was blue, blue, blue, blue, blue. And then exactly on the Western horizon where we didn't want any cloud, there was a ginormous cloud. And we, so we, the eclipse started and I was like, do you know what? The cloud will move. We've got like, you know, nearly an hour. It's going to be, it's going to be, it was not fine. The cloud did not move. And so unbelievably, we went all the way to Ibiza and we're clouds out in totality.

7:54In fact, I probably saw more of it than you did. Yes. But having said that, we still got all of the darkness. And what I noticed afterwards, because I like did a little movie, but like, it was much more striking on the video than it was like visually looking at it. But when I've like looked back at the video, those clouds really enhanced the shadow of the moon coming in. Yeah. You could just literally see it rolling across. So that, that was incredible. And then

8:28when it was like poking back out through the clouds as well, because it was only like the thin sliver of the sun there, that was incredible. But I think, you know, because we got, still got, even though it was behind the clouds, we still got the 360 degree sunset. Venus popped out, which was amazing. Um, you know, got all of that darkness and all the animals falling quite. I just didn't see, you know, didn't get to see the corona as it was behind the clouds. Um, but I think what was actually really spectacular was as the sun was setting,

9:00it was setting as a partial eclipse. Yes. And that was incredible because you know that when, when the sun's right on the horizon, you know, you can, you can look at it and it's fine. You don't need any glasses. And to just be able to watch it for minute after minute, getting lower and lower and then dipping below the horizon and just having that little red devil horn sticking up above the horizon, that was special. And you don't get many opportunities to sort of see an eclipse at sunset. So even though we did miss actually seeing the corona, it's okay because we're

9:34planning Australia 2028 and do a big family trip to Australia for 2028 is the plan. Um, it is winter in Sydney, but it's like, it, there's like a big swathe of Australia that it goes across. So like we can hopefully move, but that, that is the plan. And so dad loved it. He had a brilliant time. And then it was Perseid watching in the evening. Um, and like some general stargazing. And do you know what? The best Perseids that I have seen in many a

10:07years because it, because it was like pollution from like the villa and stuff like that. It was only the really bright ones we were seeing. And oh my God, like talk, we talk about fire balls with the Perseids. They were literally like stretching across a quarter of the sky. They were insane. And I don't know whether there was like loads of dust in the atmosphere at the time or something, but like they were, a lot of them were quite orangey, um, but they were really bright. They were really long lasting. It was a wonderful way to end it. Lovely. Yeah. So we've both been doing astronomy. Look at that. Look at that. Yeah. It's been

10:41good. It's been good. And we've got more astronomy coming. We have. Because Astro Camp is imminent. It is. It is. It is very, very imminent. It is. Well, as soon as I finish these next two festivals, it's then straight into Astro Camp. Yeah. Yeah. So if you still want to come, there are still some tickets available. There are. There are. So there are. If you want to, you know, come and see us live in action and meet the rest of the crew and have a wonderful long weekend of stargazing under the dark skies of Banai Brekenyog, then hop on Astro Camp,

11:16awesomeastronomy.astro Camp. Find us. Book your tickets. You'll get a free ride on John. Yeehaw. So. Let's do the news. Right. Go on then, Paul. I'm shivering with anticipation. What's been going on in then this

Milky Way disk backflip

11:43space? Well, for me, it's Milky Way news. Our own galaxy for a change. Yeah. So at the 2026 National Astronomy Meeting in Birmingham in that day, not Alabama, in UK, Durham University PhD student Kirill Batrykov presented research suggesting that a massive ancient collision caused the Milky Way's disk to do a cosmic backflip. What? That tilts its orientation by more than 90

12:17degrees. That's wild. I know. It's good, isn't it? So this comes from a mystery that's puzzled all the astronomers for years. Now, most of the Milky Way stars reside in its back spiral disk, okay? Got that image of the Earth. But the galaxy is also surrounded by a sort of sparser, larger, stellar halo. I found a big bubble that's around it. Yeah. Thought to be mostly debris from smaller galaxies that we've absorbed over time. Kind of, you know, yum, yum, yum. Astronomers have long known that this halo rotates unusually slowly.

12:51But they didn't know exactly why. Okay. Okay. To solve this, Batrykov and a team of astronomers at Durham University used supercomputers to simulate 25 galaxies similar to the Milky Way. They found that galaxies with the slowest rotating stellar halos shared two major events in their history. A major head-on galaxy merger and a disk flip.

13:17Wow. So it's not only a disk flip, but it's also... Yeah. It's... We've already undergone a major merger, but survived as a spiral. That's interesting. So where the massive impact causes the entire galactic disk to change its orientation by more than 90 degrees. It's gone... Over it goes. Huh. We already know the Milky Way meets the first criteria. We talked about this before, as it suffered this sort of massive head-on collision with a dwarf galaxy known as the Gaia Sausage Enceladus. Oh, yeah. We talked about this a little while ago, didn't we? The Sausage.

13:47Sausage. Yeah. So that was roughly 10 to 11 billion years ago. So really early on. Really early on in the kind of life of galaxy. So it's something we talked about previously. And because our galaxy is both the evidence of this head-on merger and an extremely slow-rotating halo, the researchers concluded that the Milky Way almost certainly underwent this dramatic backflip. So it would have been a different collision causing the backflip? No, they're saying that basically I think it's all tied together. That this... Ah, okay.

14:17That's a kind of reaction to the merger and the collision that caused this sort of 90-degree tip. Right. Okay. Got you. So a 90-degree flip means that most of the stars in the Milky Way once moved on entirely different trajectories to what they do today. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So this massive reorientation changed the paths of countless stars and possibly even our own Sun. Of course. Yeah, of course. Yeah. I mean, 10 to 11 million years ago is before the Sun appeared, but this is not...

14:50When did everything settle? Yeah. It's not going to happen sort of, like, instantly in the court. Yeah. So all that sort of, you know, it's going to be a thing that takes billions of years to happen. So, um, suggesting a seemingly stable spot in the galaxy hasn't always been where it is today, potentially. You know, that's... I love that. Yeah, it's good, isn't it? That's a great bit of detective work. Yeah. I just thought that was brilliant. It's just like, wow. It's cool. Yeah. I said your positive note to start on, because I'm going to now go to a sad note. But we're not doing too many sad stories, because we've had some emails saying, like,

15:22oh, there's so much sad stuff, but, like... I know, I know. Not too much sad stuff. But this is just one that we have to touch on. Yes. Go on. Go on. Do it.

The doomed Swift Observatory

15:31I'm very sad to report that the Swift Observatory, NASA's, you know, our fastest eyes on the sky, our quick responder, is doomed. Womp womp. It was a big ask. It was a big ask. It was a big ask. It was a big ask. So, this is the Neil Gales Swift Observatory. This is NASA's telescope. It has been slowly falling to Earth because of atmospheric drag. And so we knew it was coming down.

16:02But then, because the sun was, you know, delightfully active in 2024, gave us all those amazing aurora, that inflates the atmosphere because actual energy is put into it. And so then this increases the amount of atmospheric drag acting on satellites and observatories in orbit. And so, Swift started falling to Earth quicker than anticipated, a lot quicker than anticipated. And so, as a result, NASA kind of put out a Hail Mary call to say, can someone launch something to try and boost this satellite?

16:34We've got until the end of the year. Help. And so, Catalyst Space, they designed, built, and launched a rescue satellite in, like, nine, ten months to try and rescue Swift. It was an enormous ask. And it all started off well. But then, a few weeks into the mission, it started spinning really rapidly, the rescue spacecraft called Link. Yeah. It was spinning at nine degrees a second, so it's quite quick. And that was because some of its reaction wheels failed and some of its cold gas thrusters.

17:10So, using the Xenon thrusters, which is what was going to be used for the boost, they figured out how to slow the rotation rate to about one and a half degrees a second. And they then uploaded some software that would be able to use the final workable reaction wheel and, like, the partially working cold gas thrusters to kind of move it about and everything. But, unfortunately, they've sort of run all of the maths, and it just doesn't have enough control to be able to latch onto the telescope,

17:42move it to where it needs to go without completely destroying the telescope. So, unfortunately, we are going to lose the SWIFT observatory in the next few months. We don't have an exact date yet, but it will be by the end of the year. The Link spacecraft is still going to approach SWIFT because it's going to take images and try and gather as much data as possible for future boosting missions. And that is, of course, referring to Hubble. Hubble is also undergoing this fate where it's slowly falling further and further down.

18:17And this was, in an ideal world, going to be a practice run for rescuing Hubble. But, you know, they tried. They really did give it their damnedest. It was a big ask. It was a big ask. It was, and it's no shade at all on Catalyst Space. I mean, to design and build and launch a spacecraft in nine months, corners, you know, incredible, corners had to be cut because they literally didn't have time. Yeah, yeah. But fair play to them. Maybe they can use that as a springboard to do the Hubble one.

18:47Yeah, exactly. With a little bit more, the kind of, you know, lessons learned and things. Who knows? But, of course, we've got the Roman telescope, which we will talk about. Yes. I figured we'd do it. I know we're actually up next time, but I figured we'd do a big deep dive on Roman. Yeah, exactly. It's not for now. It hasn't launched yet. Yeah. Yeah, we'll do a deep dive on Roman later. But that's the exciting future that awaits us. Yeah. And also, NASA did it very intensively. They were like, oh, we're going to utilise what we have to kind of replace Swift in the short term.

19:22But then, in the long term, we're going to look at evaluating the possibility of a replacement. So, we could be getting, like, a Swift 2.0. It's been too useful. Yeah, it has. Yeah, it's been too useful. Right then, me. Next one. It's an interesting one. No, it's just, it's an oddity.

Mars rover moon mission debate

19:39It's an oddity. So, as I say, it's an odd one. I think points to all sorts of things in the current world of space exploration and NASA in particularly. So, this is a plan to turn the Mars rover engineering model... ...into an active platform and send it to the moon. Yeah, it is. My face is a bit... Your face is... Mark, take a Mars rover, but turn it into a not roving platform. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. As a roving platform. No, no, no, no. No, yeah. Okay. So, basically, JPL will have a third rover in the Curiosity Perseverance team.

20:13So, you know, Curiosity Perseverance is basically the same rover. Yeah. Different instruments, but they're basically the same. Like a Beechbergian, a Volkswagen. Like, they've got the same base. Different things on top. Kind of. But they, I mean, they're literally... Yeah, yeah, yeah. But even if you park them next to each other, they actually kind of look the same. They actually look even more... They're pretty much the same vehicle. Well, there's a third one. There is a third vehicle in the team, which is their engineering model, which is essentially pretty much, you know, the full thing. And they use it to solve problems and work out, you know, solutions to problems.

20:47And when they were building, it was like, you know, the thing they used to engineer, you know, the kind of solutions to issues as they come up and things like, you know, work out stuff. Same way you always have, like, a non-flight version of capsules and the shuttle and stuff like that. You know, you always have, like, a non-flight version. Yeah, and, like, if something goes wrong, you can climb in it and physically sit there and, like, figure it out. Yeah, exactly. Think Apollo 13. If you've seen the film Apollo 13, they sit in that capsule, don't they? They have a capsule on the ground that they use as a training thing. Yeah, managed power. And, of course, they work out how to turn the capsule back on, don't they, and all that.

21:22It's that sort of idea, that they have another rover that they keep at JPL. Well, this is the Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration Mission. Or Promise.

21:35Yes, I hate it already, and a bit of me died reading that out. What an awful thing. They want to strap NASA's one remaining RTG, Radio Isotope Thermoelectric Generator, to this engineering model and send it to the moon, where it can work day and night due to its power source. But what are they going to use as their engineering model? Well, quite. So it's caused a bit of a kerfuffle. Various levels. Of course, JPL will use their engineering model. But the US Planetary Society has said this is going to cost a billion dollars and use

22:08the one remaining, currently, RTG, meaning no deep space missions for a while. So, Jared Isaacman has countered that it won't even be a fifth of that cost, and the RTG isn't doing anything except losing power as it's sitting on a shelf, as there aren't any deep missions, deep space missions planned in the near future. Oh, no, Uranus mission! Well, yeah, so the Uranus mission, which is kind of just, yeah, this is an interesting one. And it's that, you know, one group saying it's going to cost a billion, Jared Isaacman, you

22:39know, he reckons it won't even cost a fifth of that.

22:43Sounds like, I don't know, that. I think his argument, the argument they're putting forward is the rover is already built. It can have some instruments attached to it and, you know, slap the RTG on, put it in a Falcon and off it goes. Well, yeah, because it's been battered about as an engineering model for God knows how long and it's got all sorts of crud in it. Yeah, exactly. Like, yeah, it's going to be the same age as Curiosity and Persevera. I mean, it's, you know, yeah, 2012, going back is when, you know, the first one landed.

23:16So, you know, we're talking, this thing is not a young vehicle. It's got to have all sorts of instruments put on it. It's got to be, you know, re-engineered. So this is not like you're just buying a car off a showroom and going, oh, yeah, yeah, and we'll put that radio in it. We'll put some go-faster stripes on it. Yeah, exactly. You know, put some tinted windows on it and off it goes. So this is, this is, yeah, I think... He's being a bit blasey, yeah. I think Eisenman's being very optimistic that he reckons he could do this for less than $200 million is with the launch. I think it's how they're going to get it down.

23:47What are they planning to use to land it? Yeah, can't parachute it in. You know? You could do a sky crane. Or sky crane because, well, you could technically sky crane, but it would have to be a new... Yeah, because you wouldn't be able to slow it down first. Like, re-engineered lunar sky crane because sky crane's designed to work on... Yeah, exactly. It's designed to work in the atmosphere of Mars. So it's completely engineered to land things on Mars. It's not engineered to land... A moon version because it could be different gravity and it'd be coming in faster.

24:16Yeah. Yeah. And so that's going to cost you a few... That's going to cost you a few million. And so I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced. Seems like a lot. Yeah. I mean, maybe the billion is too much. That is... That does sound like, you know... That's... I think that's the US Planned Society kind of throwing a big figure out there to grab the headline. Mm. But I also think Eisenberg's probably being quite optimistic that he can do that for 200 million. It's a bit of a used car salesman bit. Like, oh, yeah, there's beauty here. Yeah, this will do you on the moon for decades.

24:48Exactly. So, interesting one. So what do we think? You know, I suggest it underlines the paucity of cash in NASA. That's the kind of real downside is, I think, that they would seriously consider raiding these two closets. JPL's long-running engineering model and the last remaining RTG, you know, that suggests, you know, they're scraping around for things to do, essentially, with what, you know, what have we got? Do something, guys. What can we make work? What have we got in the cupboard?

25:18It also highlights where the little money is now going. It's all going to the moon. Mm. You know, the fact that there's no deep space mission launching for at least two years, and the last was launched two years ago, and beyond Dragonfly, 28, 29, set one in two years, there's nothing concrete. That's it. There's nothing, really, that tenuous Uranus mission been talked about in the early 30s. Well, doesn't seem to be, does it? No, exactly. It's like, no, no, no, maybe. It's if, but, so maybe it's that one.

25:48It's worth pointing out that China has three, gets interstellar. That's right, interstellar missions. Interstellar. In the build. They're deliberately designing these missions to go out of the solar system. Oh, my God. One will be a Uranus flyby, which is only the second one, and it's going past Jupiter and Uranus, and that's actually going very soon. And the other two, they're designing some, like, deep space, going to, like, quicker objects and beyond, and going off into interstellar space deliberately. They're making these missions.

26:19And there's three of those in the build and planning, like, actually, like, actively being put together. I, we need trying to start, like, being more open with all of their space missions and stuff, because they're going to be doing the cool... Yeah. They are. They are. They're going to be doing the cool... And you're going to have NASA landing a used car on NASA, on the moon. Oh, God. Yeah. Used car salesman Jared Isaacman putting his, you know, Honda Civic on the moon, whereas China shoots for the stars.

26:50That is a wonderful segue into the next story. Ooh, go on then. He's saying, uh, shooting for the stars, right? I got a story about a star. It is a super speedy star. Super speedy star. Super speedy star. This is a lovely little story from the European Southern Observatory, and if you don't check out their press releases, check out their press releases. They are always wonderfully written. They do. Fantastic photos and images. Oh, they're great.

Super speedy star near galactic center

27:20So, this is, we are, another Milky Way story, actually. But this time, we're going right into the heart of our galaxy. So, we're talking the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy. And those few distant stars that we found that, like, whiz around. Yes. That black hole. Right? Yeah, they do. We have found a new one. Ooh. Yes. Using, guess which telescope? Have a guess, if it's ESO. Well, it's going to be, like, VLT or something, isn't it?

27:52VLT! Yeah, VLT-I. So, the very large telescope interferometer. Mm-hmm. Now, this new star is called S301. Right. And it travels at, get this, 56 million miles an hour, which is 25,000 kilometers a second. That's just... Or 8% the speed of light. Oh, my God. Oh, lordy. 8% the speed of light. It is the fastest star we've found in our galaxy. That's mad. Now, here's what's even madder.

28:24It gets so close to our central black hole that it can feel the effects of our black hole's rotation. Wow. And this is what's so exciting, because this star is giving us the opportunity to actually directly measure the spin of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. Wow. So, we're not going to be able to do it for a number of years. We've got... They reckon it's going to be 10 years of observations. Mm-hmm. Using the VLT-I and the extremely large telescope that is being built.

28:55Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it should be doable. So, it gets... So, it's on a highly elliptical orbit, of course. But at its closest point, right, the distance it gets to our black holes, or to the event horizon, is 12 astronomical units. Wow. Which is a little bit further away than Saturn. Yeah, but that's still... That speed... It's so close. That's so close. It's so close, right? It's... Orbit overall takes about 8.7 years to complete.

29:26So, you know, it's pretty short orbit anyway. Anyway, the thing is, with Sagittarius A-star, we're saying that the rotation will affect its orbit. We don't actually know if Sagittarius A-star is rotating or not. And this is part of the investigation. Now, it probably is, but it's not guaranteed. It's interesting, isn't it? But we do know... Because I suppose it's not a... It's not a stellar black hole. No, it's a supermassive black hole. Because it's got a stellar black hole spin, because that's... Yeah. The nature of the collapse of a massive star.

29:59I mean, it is... Yeah, it's very probable that it does spin, because basically, nearly everything spins. But it's interesting, because you said that, and I just thought, oh, a lot of people in the audience are going to think, but hang on a minute, it's a black hole spin. And they're just like, well, no, actually, this is not a stellar black hole. It's not guaranteed. No, exactly. We don't 100% know. And so, this is a test of general relativity, because general relativity says it will have a spin, like, probably. Yes. But, you know, it's like, we don't know for sure. And this is the thing, it's like, you know, there's so many things that are actually predictions that we don't actually know.

30:31No, no, no, no. But we just think that we know, but they are actually just predictions. And so you get something like this, you can't test it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And now we can. That's very cool. Yeah. And so, general relativity says that a spinning black hole has a slightly different effect on things that orbit really close to it than a non-spinning black hole does. Mm-hmm. So, if you've got a spinning black hole, essentially, where it's spinning, it sort of drags space-time along with it and, like, twists it round a little bit more than a non-spinning one would.

31:05And this effect is known as the lens-thirring effect. And because this star gets so close to our supermassive black hole, its orbital path, it kind of is in the zone where you get this extra twist in. So, its orbital path will be modified by this spinning. Only slightly by about the width of Earth's orbit around the Sun. Yeah, yeah. So, it's only slight, but it is big enough to be measurable by the VLTI and the Extremely Large Telescope.

31:38Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, it's not the precession effect that we see around black holes. This has been measured for the Milky Ways, Tacheteria's A-star. So, it's not that. Yeah. It's a different effect. Again, it's much, much smaller. And so, they reckon, within a decade, they'll have enough measurements of the orbital path. Cool. And enough measurements to show how it's changing on different orbits to then be able to do the calculations to work out the spin of the supermassive black hole at the middle of our galaxy.

32:14Yeah. Isn't that cool? It's so cool. Isn't it? That is so cool. That is such a cool story. It is. I'm just, I'm going to follow that, because that's, that's just going to be so interesting. Yeah. It's going to be one that we'll be able to pick back up, absolutely, and, like, follow it along. And then, if you're wondering how this star got so close to the black hole, what they reckon is that it was, at one point, a binary pair, then tidal forces ripped them apart, one got yeeted out, and one got yeeted towards the black hole, but in this very, very close orbit.

32:47Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, there we are. Now, talking of things coming close.

Juice Earth flyby

32:51Go on.

Juice Earth flyby

32:52Juice, the Jupiter... Juicy, juicy, juicy. Juicy, juicy. Laura, juicy juice, right, is doing another Earth flyby this month, as it goes out. Another one. Another one, right? So, it's forecast for approximately the 28th of September. ESA's not, like, formally announced the date, but I was digging around in some of their technical documents, and it seems to indicate the 28th of September. But because, as we're recording this, it's a month out, they still may modify the probe's trajectory.

33:24They might do some tweaks and stuff. They don't know it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, it's not 100% certain exactly what the timings are at the minute, and exactly, like, what Earth's orientation will be when it flies by. So, we can't give you too many details yet. But, 20th of September, and it's something to keep an eye out for, it will be doing a gravitational flyby of Earth, so to modify its orbit, as it's carrying on on its journey towards Jupiter and the Jovian system in general.

33:55It's going to be quite a low pass, 8,600 kilometres in altitude. It's pretty close, really. And, you may well be able to catch it with telescopes, smart scopes, camera systems. It'll only be a speck of light. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we can't really give any predictions in terms of magnitude, because it depends so much on the orientation of the solar panels as it's conducting that flyby. That will massively influence how bright it is. Yes. But, it's something to keep an eye out for, for the end of September. Yeah, and we might have some more by the middle of the month.

34:28Yeah, we may have more information by the middle of the month episode, but I'm just kind of, like, throwing it out there now, so it's on people's radars. Cool. And then, very briefly, what is Juice doing? If you're wondering, it's going to get to the Jovian system in July 2031, and the idea is to study Jupiter, and it's three icy moons, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto. And one of the main goals is to try and determine if these moons could be habitable or not. So, it's not looking for life, but it's like, could they have the conditions for life to arise?

34:59Yeah. Yeah. Cool. And then, I've got one other surprise. Oh, you're just full of newsies. Well, I did, I did all that news when you were away, so it's about time you, you know. I pulled my weight, yeah. You pulled your weight, yeah. Right. You were swanning off to Ibiza while I'm sitting here, telling people the good stuff. Oh, do you know what? It was great, because they were, you know, like, back in the day when you used to go to Greece, and, like, half of your glass would be vodka, they'd just be, like, free pouring. Well, I say back in the day. I was a child, but I used to watch what my mum and dad were drinking.

35:29It was, like, half alcohol, right? Oh, they were free pouring in Ibiza. It was beautiful. It was just beautiful. The drinks were expensive, but you didn't need many of them. So, it was okay. But, anyway, I got another surprise, surprise, surprise, surprise, and this is, it is breaking news. So, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep,

New nova in Sagitta

35:52breaking news. There is a new star in the sky. Ooh. Yes. There has been a nova in Sagittar, and it is really quite bright. So, we're recording this the 27th of August. When did it go off? The 25th, so two days ago, it was... Oh, two days ago, right. So, I was literally looking at Sagittar on the weekend, so it was just before. Yeah, so it was just before. Okay, so, where is Sagittar, first of all? So, Sagittar is a small, faint constellation. It's near Cygnus and Aquila.

36:23Makes a triangle with Altair, so the brightest star of Aquila, and Delphinus. So, it's small, but highly recognisable once you spot it, right? Yes, a little arrow. Yeah, it is. It literally looks like an arrow. It literally looks like an arrow, because Sagittar is the arrow, and it does look like an arrow. So, what you want to do is go to the end of the arrow that's got the feathers, and you've got Delta, Alpha, and Beta, and they mark the feathers. Draw a line from Delta to Alpha, and about a third of the way along that, this is where the nova is.

36:53It's being reported as magnitude seven to seven and a half. Oh, wow. Cool. So, it's binoculars. People have seen it in 8x42s, 10x50s. So, not giant binoculars. People are picking up in smart scopes, no problem at all. A really good comparison is there's actually two seventh magnitude stars nearby. So, it's V342 Sagittarii, and HD 186606. If you find those two, then you'll look at those two seventh magnitude stars, you'll look

37:28at your map, and you will not see another seventh magnitude star, but there'll be another seventh magnitude star in the sky. Trying to get my words out. And then that one, that one is the nova. Oh, that's very cool. Yeah, and so because it's a nova, it won't be visible for ages, like a couple of weeks. It will fade rapidly. They don't stick around. It's not like a supernova. These ones do fade rapidly, because it's the thermonuclear explosion on the surface of a white dwarf that's stolen too much material from its companion.

38:00So, it goes off every few thousand years, and then it starts building up material again, and then carries on. But, anyway, have a look out for it, and it does have a name, V488 Sagittarii, so... Very cool. Have a search for it, and best of luck. Very cool. Oh, I'm very excited. Wow, I'm literally looking at that. Yeah. The sky literally about... Yeah. I'm hoping to see it. I would love to get a little picture of it through the sea star, but not tonight, because I have clouds.

38:30Yes, it is cloud. We've got the lunar eclipse in the morning, but we haven't. Because it's going to be cloudy. Yep. Yep.

38:49Now, it's not easy having a good time, but babies, don't you panic.

September sky guide and planets

38:54By the light of the night, it'll all seem all right. Because it's time for our monthly sky guide, for what is great and special to look out for in the sky above us this September. So, first of all, it's planets, planets, planets. We've got the planets back. They're back in the sky. Woo-hoo! We've had such a lot of planets. We have. We have. We had a bit of Venus action for a while. We've still got a little bit of Venus action, but yeah. But now it's Saturn. Saturn is back in the sort of late evening sky. It's just underneath Pegasus. It's rising up. You can see it.

39:25Very nice. And the rings are now starting to get into a really nice orientation. Yeah, they're back, baby. They're back. They're not that thin little pathetic line they were for a long time. Saturn looks like Saturn. Saturn looks like Saturn again. Exactly. So, that's cool. And then if you wait long until about 2 a.m., you'll get Mars will pop up. And Mars is starting to get really good now. It's starting to get nice and big. And if you wait another couple of hours, you will also get your Jupiter fix. Jupiter is now getting back into the sky after disappearing.

39:59And, of course, between all those, you've got Uranus and Neptune. If you want to go and search for those in the sky, you've got Uranus and Taurus. And you've got Neptune down in Pisces, not far from Saturn. Yeah. So, when Saturn's up, you're actually also looking at Neptune just to the right of it. So, that's planets. And then we've got the Epsilon Perseids meteor shower reaches its maximum on the 9th. Now, the moon is just two days away from the news.

40:30The lack of moonlight can get wonderfully dark skies, significantly boosting your chances of spotting the fainter meteors. It only has a ZHR of 5. But, that said, it's been a very reliable shower of late. And certainly Astro Camp. We've seen several. Oh, are these the ones that we see at camp often? Yeah, we often see these at camp. And they've been quite reliable. We kind of reliably see these, don't we? Every year we see. So, it's actually quite a bit. It's a pretty decent shower.

41:02It's kind of like, you know, you do, when it says ZHR of 5, actually, I think you do get that. You do get, actually, 5, yeah. You do actually get about 5 an hour or so. Yeah. Which is not bad. Yeah.

41:15So, we don't know what the origin comment is, either. We don't know where this shower comes from. No one knows. Yeah, it's a nice little mystery shower, this one. We don't know what it's from. So, that was that one. And then, of course, September brings the equinox. It is the autumnal equinox at 12.06 a.m. Universal Time. This is the time where the sun will cross the celestial equator, marking the official start of astronomical autumn in Northern Hemisphere.

41:48So, we're getting our long dark skies back. And then, of course, it is spring in the Southern Hemisphere. So, apart from bringing roughly equal parts of day and night on the equinox itself, interesting effect you get in the weeks around the equinox. There's often a little bit of an increase in geomagnetic activity. It's the Russell-McFerrin effect. And this is where the magnetic fields of Earth and the sun, they line up just that little bit better. And so, you get more magnetic reconnection.

42:19And so, better chance for Aurora. So, if it's going to happen, it could be over the next, like, September into October. Which is, especially now we're getting out of solar maximum, when it's all starting to calm down. Yeah, you need that little bit of extra magic. Exactly, exactly. Because you're going to get less and less auroras, or spectacular auroras, anyway, over the next little while. So, next, the 26th September is Neptune at our position. Best times in Neptune. So, see, the newest distant ice giant makes its close approach to Earth for the year,

42:53where it's positioned directly opposite the sun. Of course, while it will be its largest and brightest, Neptune is way too far away to be seen with the naked eye. You'll need a good, decent-sized pair of binoculars or a telescope. Or, really, really big eyeballs. Or massive eyeballs. Massive balls. Massive eyeballs. As soon as soon as soon as you shall see Neptune. And then you shall see radio waves as well.

43:24Now, it is a weird one for observation, as it will be relatively easy to find,

43:31while at the same time harder to observe. What do I mean? Well, it will be parked in Pisces, just below the full moon. A few degrees right of Saturn. So, you know, right below the full moon, just to the right of Saturn, it'd be really easy to find it. But it's a full moon. Yeah. Which will do a good job of making the faintest planet that much harder to see well. Because you'll have all that glare from the sun. The sun, well, it is from the sun, I suppose. But from the moon, right on the side of, you know, coming into your telescope

44:01as you're trying to sort of barrel in on Neptune. So, yeah, weird one. But it is observation. It's the best time to see Neptune. If you've got a nice large scope, you know, crack it down, have a little look. And then we've got some moon shenanigans. Moon shenanigans. Moon shenanigans. So the moon is having fun this month as we have a little planetary lunar dance between the morning of the 6th and the 8th, as well as the crashing of a star cluster. So, on the 6th, as the waning crescent moon passes near Mars,

44:32a couple of days later, on September 28th, the moon will then pair up closely with Jupiter. Mars rises about 2am, Jupiter about 4am, so it's very much an early morning or long night event. But also, on the 8th, the moon will invade the Beehive Cluster, M44, at around 4am. This will be a good binocular target, because Beehive's quite a large cluster. So, and it will occult a couple of the smaller stars. Oh, so it's a good one. Yeah, it's a good one.

45:04Right, deep sky.

Deep sky targets in Andromeda

45:06Deep sky. Deep sky. So, as we move into autumn, it's time to start looking at the deep sky away from the Summer Triangle. And to that end, tis month. It was, oh, tis month. This month. I don't know, tis the month. We look at Andromeda. I quite like that, though. Tis the month. Tis month, we look at Andromeda, which, of course, is most famous for its namesake galaxy, but it also hosts a wealth of other fascinating deep sky objects, ranging from neighbouring dwarf galaxies to colourful planetary nebulae.

45:36So, first of all, of course, Andromeda Galaxy M31, the undisputed crown jewel of the constellation. 2.5 million light years away. It is the closest major galaxy to the Milky Way and the most distant object you could easily spot with a naked eye under dark skies. And do you know what? It is easy. This is one of those things that is easy to see. It genuinely is. You can't miss it. As I said here, it appears as a large, elongated, glowing smudge. If you're in a dark sky, look just below Cassiopeia, you will not miss it, as it's several times larger than the full moon. Yeah. It really is. It's huge.

46:07What? What's that? What's that smudge? Is it a cloud? No. Yeah. It's Andromeda. It's Andromeda. And otherwise, if you've not got brilliant skies, find the square of Pegasus, move along to the orangey star Mirac in Andromeda, as you can make the top of the square, and then move towards Cassiopeia. While you are there, look for M32 and M110 as well. These are two dwarf galaxies that act as satellites orbiting the Andromeda galaxy, similar to the Magellanic clouds orbit the Milky Way.

46:38M32, compact, bright, slightly oval-shaped companion, found just south of M31's core, so you sort of see it. And actually, when you see the full images of it, you notice there's a, it's almost like in Andromeda, almost like it looks like it's on top of it. Yeah, yeah. Whereas M110 is a bit further away. It's larger but fainter, located slightly further to the northwest, both between the same telescope field, and 731 low power. So, next, the Blue Snowball Nebula,

47:09NGC 7662, is one of the most striking planetary nebulae to observe. Located in the western part of the constellation, it shines at a relatively bright magnitude 8.6. Through a telescope, a high magnification, it is bright, it is, it lives up to its name, revealing a distinct, sort of, slightly fuzzy disk, with actually a blue-green tint, and it actually does. It's one of the few planetary nebulae that actually, does have a bit of colour. With a naked eye, you do see a bit of colour, because usually you have to image a planetary nebula

47:40to get that kind of, you know, green and red. Actually, this is one that you do get that slight hint of, oh yeah, I can see the colour here, so ramp it up. You can pick it up in binoculars, as an off-looking star. It'll look like a little tiny, tiny, like, oh, that's a funny-looking star. You'll see it, a good pair of binoculars. It is a difficult to find, it's in a patch of sky, devoid of particularly bright stars, and away from the main constellation. I found it best to draw an imaginary line from Sheet, careful how you say that, in Pegasus.

48:11Sheet, in Pegasus, top right of the square, over to Caff in Cassiopeia, bright end of the W, draw an imaginary line between those two stars in Cassiopeia and Pegasus, and 7662 is literally halfway along that line. Nice. moving that. Yeah, like, follow it along, yeah, and you'll come across it. And you'll wiggle around a bit, and you go, oh yeah, there it is, there it is. There are some reasonably, like, sort of, MAG-3 stars, a little sort of group of them nearby that kind of help a bit, but, yeah, have a look at your map.

48:41then, if you fancy, if you fancy a bit more galaxy action, if you're gunning for more galaxy, then, Andromeda's got you covered. For observers of medium to large telescope, especially, I mean, you can see it in a small telescope, and you can actually pick up a little bit in binoculars, but, if you, you want a really, like, interesting target for a large telescope, NGC 891, the Silver Sliver Galaxy, Mm-hmm. Um, is stunning edge on spiral, located near the border, with the constellation of Perseus,

49:12it looks like a miniature version of our own Milky Way, viewed from the side. Oh, like that. Yeah. Complete with a prominent dark dust lane, slicing right through its glowing central edge. Oh, really? Yeah. Um, to find it, go to Alamac, which is the bright star, usually considered, like, the end of Andromeda, as you go towards Perseus, it's like the bright star at the end. Um, the sort of nearest, near fact in Perseus, so you can imagine that bright star in the middle of Perseus. 891 is just beyond the star, and down in the direction of a goal,

49:45on the devil's star, if he kind of gets out of London, drop down. Nice. And then last, NGC's, certainly not least, certainly not least, NGC 752, for the cluster fans out there, 752, which is a large, loose, open star cluster, excellent title. I do like an open star cluster. I do, I do, I, I, you, you, you, they get overlooked a lot. I think people, people, I actually heard people say, I'm, they find them boring. But I, it's just like you get, there's just so many stars.

50:15Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's just joy. Yeah, and, and you can see all sorts of wonderful shapes in them, and stuff like that. Yeah, I love a good cluster. This is, and this is a lovely one. Um, it's a really good target, binocular target. It's actually quite a large, scattered, um, cluster. Um, it's larger than the full moon. So, you know, it's quite a big area. Um, things, dozens of relatively bright stars, making really beautiful, easy sight under moderate dark skies. It's found right below, and to the right of Alamac, that star we were just talking about. Just go down, and find it.

50:47So, this month, the moon is last quarter on the third, new on the 11th, first quarter on the 18th, and full on the 26th. So, all that rains, so we should clear skies, and happy hunting. So,

Nancy Grace Roman telescope preview

51:00I just want to reiterate, again, about Nancy Grace Roman, because I know it is such an enormous mission. This is why we're going to do it, in the next episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have been digging in, so just as a little teaser, I've been digging in to, like, Nancy Grace Roman telescope. Mm. And, oh my god, like, the imaging system, and the cameras, and the way, because it's the same size mirror as Hubble, right? Yeah. But it's got a field of view, a hundred times that. Oh, huge, isn't it?

51:30And, so, like, the images don't come to a focus in a point. There's, like, the light is focused in a donut, and then the two imaging systems sample different parts of that donut, so they can actually work together. Mm. And it is, like, insane. Yeah. how it's, how it is all constructed, and comes together, and all of, like, the mirror systems that are, it's so clever.

52:03So we will dig into this. It's a really, I mean, yeah, we're going to get into loads of it later on, but it's that real demonstration of, it's the same size as Hubble. Yeah. But it shows you how far the technology's come in, essentially, what's, like, over 40 years. It's getting, you know, from, in fact, like, you think about the stuff that's actually gone into Hubble, it's almost 50 years. Yeah, because of, like, when it was first, like, designed, and then you've actually got to build the thing, and then you've actually got to launch it, and. You're talking about late 70s,

52:34early 80s, so you're getting on for almost 50 years, and you realise, like, yeah, that's really old tech, and you realise just how far you can use the same size mirror, and do so much more. Yeah. Yeah. It's very exciting. Yeah. There's just fast facts, like, it will scan the sky and gather data a thousand times faster than Hubble. Yeah. A thousand times, like, it's just insane, this telescope, and it hasn't been really talked about, but we're going to talk about it next time.

53:05We're getting ahead of ourselves. We're going to do a deep dive. Just to get you excited and give you a little flavour. Get the juices, get your juices flowing. Yeah. Oh my God, it's... Can't wait. Cannot wait.

Show wrap and final thoughts

53:28It's astounding, because time is fleeting. We're already at the end of the show. It's probably a good idea, because the madness has certainly taken its toll. So listen closely, but not for very much longer, as the void is calling, and it is time for us to go to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism, space! Oh, wait. Space! Space! But I'm sorry, Tim, I guess that's not true anymore.

53:59Oh. Oh, do you know what? I know. I was actually sadder about Tim Curry. Oh, I, well, I was equally sad, because like, I love Dolly, because like, all of her charity work, like her, Dolly's amazing, but like her book scheme that she did, and everything, it's incredible. Tim Curry. I know. That's why I was like, I was like Dolly at the beginning, and then I've peppered Tim all the way through then. I know. Yeah. Oh. I know. Two, I, but they, like two icons, just like the same day. It's like, someone check on David Attenborough.

54:30I know. Like, make sure David Attenborough is still, he's, I know. Some vitamins, please. He's like, Oh, God. You, you can't watch, you can't watch Rocky Horror Picture Show, and not, not turn out to be a bit of a weirdo. Oh, well, it's just like, the best film. It's brilliant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you just crush on Tim Curry, massive. I know. I feel like, this weekend, I might have to watch it. Oh, yeah. As soon as I heard these, I just, I was putting the soundtrack on. Yeah. Yeah. I was, I was cooking. I was sad.

55:01I was actually, that one, that one, every so often, one of the other. One hits you, yeah. It's like, you know, you're just like, maybe so often, one just hits you, going, I know, what an icon. It's brilliant. But yeah, I feel like, Rocky Horror Picture Show is, ah, it's just, yeah. It's just an unbelievable, they do not make films like that anymore. They just do not. Oh, you know, there's only one Richard O'Brien. Who, by the way, is the voice of the dad in Phineas and Ferb. Oh, really? Did you know that? But, and also, Tim Curry did the voice of the,

55:31the dad in the Thornbreeze. I learnt that. Yeah. Didn't know that. Oh, fantastic. Anyway, if you desire, you can reach us across the light minutes at the, the show at awesomeastronomy.com. We've been enjoying your eclipse pictures, your thoughts and comments, so keep them coming. We'll be reading out all of that in the next show. We've got a whole stack of emails and stuff like that, which we've been saving up over the summer. And we're going to hit you with those next, next, next time.

56:02So, until that next time, it's goodbye from Transylvania Base. What a way to spend an evening,

56:34all the stars roll back, but the sea is out of the screaming. Oh, bugger off, you silly giraffe. Awesome Astronomy is produced by Ralph, Paul, Jen, John, Damien, and Dustin, and is free to use with attribution. Theme music by Star Soulsman, with stinger variation by Ryn Jorgensen. We promote general science, astronomy,

57:05space exploration, and rational thinking, with more resources on our website at awesomeastronomy.com. If you want us to read your thoughts and comments out on the show, send us your views, opinions, critiques, or questions to the show at awesomeastronomy.com. Tweet us at AwesomeAstropod, or give the Awesome Astronomy Facebook page a like, and leave your comments there. Thanks for listening. From Cydonia Base, Edna of Transmission. You are listening to the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast.

57:48Cool.

57:55The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. Audio post-production is by me, Richard Drumm. Project management is by Aviva Yamani. And hosting is donated by Libsyn.com. This content is released under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial 4.0 international license. Please share what you love, but don't sell what's free. This show is made possible thanks to the generous donations

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58:57from ground-based and space-based observatories and each milestone in space exploration, we come closer to understanding the cosmos and our place within it. Until next time, let the stars guide your curiosity. you you you you You