WEBVTT 00:00:07.829 --> 00:00:10.410 Howdy stargazers and welcome to this episode 00:00:10.410 --> 00:00:13.949 of Star Trails. Drew here, and I'll be your guide 00:00:13.949 --> 00:00:17.050 to the night sky for the week starting May 11th 00:00:17.050 --> 00:00:20.949 through the 17th. This week we welcome the Flower 00:00:20.949 --> 00:00:24.210 Moon. We say goodbye to the last remnants of 00:00:24.210 --> 00:00:27.589 the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, and we revisit 00:00:27.589 --> 00:00:30.710 a topic from a previous episode to learn what 00:00:30.710 --> 00:00:34.469 happens when a red giant eats a neutron star. 00:00:34.990 --> 00:00:39.070 The universe can be a very weird place. Whether 00:00:39.070 --> 00:00:41.670 you're tuning in from the backyard, the balcony, 00:00:41.850 --> 00:00:44.810 or just your imagination, I'm glad you're here. 00:00:45.310 --> 00:00:49.039 So find a cozy spot, let your eyes adjust, and 00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:51.899 let's see what the sky holds for us this week. 00:00:54.140 --> 00:00:56.840 Before we take a look at this week's night sky, 00:00:57.140 --> 00:00:59.820 I wanted to briefly mention a topic that's been 00:00:59.820 --> 00:01:03.060 showing up in my news feeds recently, and maybe 00:01:03.060 --> 00:01:06.700 yours too. There have been a number of headlines 00:01:06.700 --> 00:01:09.879 in recent weeks concerning the discovery of what 00:01:09.879 --> 00:01:13.480 could be a candidate for the elusive Planet 9, 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:18.219 also known as Planet X. A massive, enigmatic 00:01:18.219 --> 00:01:21.959 world in our own solar system lurking somewhere 00:01:21.959 --> 00:01:26.599 out beyond Pluto. The idea of an undiscovered 00:01:26.599 --> 00:01:29.959 planet isn't new. In fact, it stretches back 00:01:29.959 --> 00:01:33.560 more than a century. Early astronomers noticed 00:01:33.560 --> 00:01:36.780 discrepancies in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune 00:01:36.780 --> 00:01:40.219 that led them to suspect another planet was tugging 00:01:40.219 --> 00:01:44.069 on them gravitationally. This theoretical body 00:01:44.069 --> 00:01:48.209 was often referred to as Planet X. While Pluto 00:01:48.209 --> 00:01:51.750 was discovered in 1930 during that search, it 00:01:51.750 --> 00:01:55.370 was quickly deemed too small to explain the gravitational 00:01:55.370 --> 00:01:59.930 anomalies, and the mystery persisted. Fast forward 00:01:59.930 --> 00:02:04.010 to 2016. A pair of Caltech astronomers, Mike 00:02:04.010 --> 00:02:08.050 Brown and Konstantin Batygin, reignited the Planet 00:02:08.050 --> 00:02:12.009 9 discussion. They were looking at the odd clustering 00:02:12.009 --> 00:02:15.330 of several distant trans -Neptunian objects, 00:02:15.789 --> 00:02:20.090 or TNOs, icy bodies way out in the Kuiper Belt 00:02:20.090 --> 00:02:23.889 and beyond. Their orbits seemed to be shepherded 00:02:23.889 --> 00:02:28.110 by something massive. The best explanation was 00:02:28.110 --> 00:02:31.830 a yet undiscovered planet at least five to ten 00:02:31.830 --> 00:02:35.210 times the mass of Earth, orbiting far beyond 00:02:35.210 --> 00:02:39.879 Pluto on a highly elliptical, tilted path. If 00:02:39.879 --> 00:02:43.680 real, this ninth planet would take 10 ,000 to 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:48.199 20 ,000 years to complete a single orbit. Since 00:02:48.199 --> 00:02:51.539 then, astronomers have been combing sky surveys 00:02:51.539 --> 00:02:54.759 and telescope archives looking for any sign of 00:02:54.759 --> 00:02:58.360 this ghostly planet, and just recently there's 00:02:58.360 --> 00:03:02.020 been a possible breakthrough. Using infrared 00:03:02.020 --> 00:03:06.400 data from two old space missions, NASA's IRIS 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:11.699 satellite from 1983 and Japan's Akari Observatory 00:03:11.699 --> 00:03:15.280 from the 2000s, researchers may have spotted 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:19.500 a faint object moving slowly across the sky in 00:03:19.500 --> 00:03:24.680 images taken 23 years apart. That kind of motion, 00:03:24.919 --> 00:03:27.979 combined with its faintness, is exactly what 00:03:27.979 --> 00:03:31.219 you'd expect from a distant planet orbiting hundreds 00:03:31.219 --> 00:03:35.280 of times farther from the Sun than Earth. This 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:38.159 candidate object appears to be roughly the right 00:03:38.159 --> 00:03:42.000 mass, somewhere between 5 and 10 Earth masses. 00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:46.560 Its orbit seems to be tilted about 120 degrees 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:50.030 relative to the plane of the solar system. That's 00:03:50.030 --> 00:03:53.169 far more extreme than what the Planet 9 model 00:03:53.169 --> 00:03:56.110 predicts, which puts the tilt more around 15 00:03:56.110 --> 00:04:00.009 to 25 degrees, because remember our solar system 00:04:00.009 --> 00:04:03.969 is largely flat. In other words, this might not 00:04:03.969 --> 00:04:08.210 be THE Planet 9, but it could be A Planet 9, 00:04:08.849 --> 00:04:12.629 a new unknown planetary body in the far outer 00:04:12.629 --> 00:04:16.610 solar system. Mike Brown, the same astronomer 00:04:16.610 --> 00:04:20.170 who helped revive the Planet 9 theory, has expressed 00:04:20.170 --> 00:04:23.949 skepticism about this new candidate. He points 00:04:23.949 --> 00:04:26.689 out that the extreme tilt doesn't match what 00:04:26.689 --> 00:04:30.069 they expected. Still, the discovery is intriguing 00:04:30.069 --> 00:04:33.269 and adds fuel to the idea that we really don't 00:04:33.269 --> 00:04:36.170 know everything about what's lurking in the solar 00:04:36.170 --> 00:04:40.189 system's deep freeze. We're expecting a lot more 00:04:40.189 --> 00:04:44.149 clarity in the coming years. The Vera C. Rubin 00:04:44.149 --> 00:04:47.430 Observatory in Chile, set to begin operations 00:04:47.430 --> 00:04:51.290 soon, will conduct an incredibly deep, wide -field 00:04:51.290 --> 00:04:54.649 sky survey that could either confirm this object 00:04:54.649 --> 00:04:58.810 or uncover something even more compelling. So, 00:04:58.910 --> 00:05:01.129 if you've been seeing headlines about Planet 00:05:01.129 --> 00:05:04.589 Nine lately, you're not alone. The hunt is heating 00:05:04.589 --> 00:05:08.310 up again, and we may be closer than ever to discovering 00:05:08.310 --> 00:05:12.529 a whole new world orbiting in the shadows. And 00:05:12.529 --> 00:05:14.810 if you want to learn more about this search, 00:05:15.189 --> 00:05:19.750 look way back into our archive to episode 14. 00:05:26.889 --> 00:05:31.269 On Monday, we witness May's full moon, traditionally 00:05:31.269 --> 00:05:34.810 known as the Flower Moon. The name originates 00:05:34.810 --> 00:05:38.350 from Native American cultures, notably the Algonquin 00:05:38.350 --> 00:05:41.870 people, who associated the May full moon with 00:05:41.870 --> 00:05:44.569 the abundance of blooming flowers during this 00:05:44.569 --> 00:05:48.610 time of year. This full moon is also a micro 00:05:48.610 --> 00:05:51.689 -moon, occurring when the moon is near its apogee, 00:05:52.089 --> 00:05:54.610 making it appear slightly smaller than usual. 00:05:55.089 --> 00:05:58.149 Despite its size, it will illuminate the night 00:05:58.149 --> 00:06:02.639 sky beautifully. The planets are very much the 00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:04.980 same as they've been for the past few weeks. 00:06:05.300 --> 00:06:08.079 In the evening sky, Jupiter shines brightly in 00:06:08.079 --> 00:06:11.439 the west after sunset, setting before midnight. 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:16.000 Mars remains reddish and prominent, located higher 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:19.100 in the sky above Jupiter, passing through Cancer. 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:22.620 You'll be able to see it until about 2 a .m. 00:06:23.660 --> 00:06:27.139 In the morning sky, Venus remains visible in 00:06:27.139 --> 00:06:30.939 the east after about 4 .30 a .m. until just before 00:06:30.939 --> 00:06:35.000 sunrise. Venus is currently at a very bright, 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:39.220 negative 4 .3 magnitude, so you can't miss it. 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:43.079 Venus and Saturn are in a conjunction less than 00:06:43.079 --> 00:06:46.459 10 degrees apart. Look for Saturn a bit above 00:06:46.459 --> 00:06:49.600 and to the right of Venus. It's currently at 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:54.379 a magnitude of 1. Mercury remains elusive, lost 00:06:54.379 --> 00:06:58.339 in the morning sun's glare. While its peak occurred 00:06:58.339 --> 00:07:01.759 earlier in May, the Etta aquarid meteor shower 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:05.819 remains active through May 21st. It's best viewed 00:07:05.819 --> 00:07:08.860 in the pre -dawn hours, especially in areas with 00:07:08.860 --> 00:07:12.170 minimal light pollution. These meteors are caused 00:07:12.170 --> 00:07:15.629 by debris from Halley's Comet, and they will 00:07:15.629 --> 00:07:18.550 appear to radiate from the southeast sky, from 00:07:18.550 --> 00:07:21.870 the constellation Aquarius, although you'll be 00:07:21.870 --> 00:07:25.970 able to see them in any portion of the sky. High 00:07:25.970 --> 00:07:29.529 in the eastern sky, you'll find Corona Borealis, 00:07:29.870 --> 00:07:33.970 the northern crown. In Greek mythology, this 00:07:33.970 --> 00:07:37.149 semicircular constellation represents the crown 00:07:37.149 --> 00:07:41.519 of Princess Ariadne of Crete. gifted to her by 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:45.240 the god Dionysus on their wedding day. After 00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:48.660 her death, Dionysus placed the crown in the heavens 00:07:48.660 --> 00:07:52.779 to honor her. This constellation is home to the 00:07:52.779 --> 00:07:57.680 blaze star T. coroni borealis, a binary star 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:01.160 system located about 3 ,000 light years away. 00:08:02.320 --> 00:08:06.220 TCB is a recurrent nova, and we know it's erupted 00:08:06.220 --> 00:08:12.439 at least twice before, in 1866 and in 1946, roughly 00:08:12.439 --> 00:08:16.779 80 years apart. Astronomers anticipate its next 00:08:16.779 --> 00:08:19.680 eruption could occur soon, potentially making 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:22.220 it visible to the naked eye for about a week, 00:08:22.620 --> 00:08:32.399 about as bright as the star Polaris. Two weeks 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:35.980 ago on Star Trails, we explored the wild phenomenon 00:08:35.980 --> 00:08:40.539 of runaway stars. Celestial bodies ejected from 00:08:40.539 --> 00:08:43.440 their stellar neighborhoods at incredible speeds, 00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:47.019 often owing to violent gravitational interactions 00:08:47.019 --> 00:08:51.720 or supernova kicks. But what happens when a runaway 00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:54.960 star doesn't escape but crashes into another 00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:58.840 star instead? That brings us to one of the weirdest 00:08:58.840 --> 00:09:02.059 and most intriguing star types ever proposed, 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:07.639 the Thorne -Zitkow object. Back in the 1970s, 00:09:07.980 --> 00:09:10.580 physicist Kip Thorne, who you might know from 00:09:10.580 --> 00:09:14.159 his work on gravitational waves and as the science 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:17.500 advisor for the film Interstellar, teamed up 00:09:17.500 --> 00:09:22.440 with Polish astrophysicist Anna Zitkow. Together, 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:25.539 they theorize the existence of a bizarre kind 00:09:25.539 --> 00:09:29.240 of star that could form under extreme circumstances. 00:09:30.100 --> 00:09:33.679 A neutron star, that's the dense core remnant 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:37.759 of a supernova, merging into a red supergiant. 00:09:39.220 --> 00:09:42.480 The science is mind -bending. A neutron star 00:09:42.480 --> 00:09:46.120 is roughly the size of a city, but contains more 00:09:46.120 --> 00:09:49.919 mass than our sun. If such an object were to 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:52.740 collide with a red supergiant, it wouldn't just 00:09:52.740 --> 00:09:56.200 pass through. It would sink to the core of the 00:09:56.200 --> 00:09:59.820 larger star, embedding itself there, and essentially 00:09:59.820 --> 00:10:04.980 take over its inner workings. This hybrid part 00:10:04.980 --> 00:10:08.340 -star and part -Frankenstein experiment is what 00:10:08.340 --> 00:10:14.389 we now call a Thorn -Zitkow Object, or TZO. These 00:10:14.389 --> 00:10:17.370 objects are difficult to locate. On the outside, 00:10:17.470 --> 00:10:21.409 they look almost exactly like normal red supergiants. 00:10:21.830 --> 00:10:24.950 But inside, the neutron star is altering the 00:10:24.950 --> 00:10:29.470 star's fusion process in bizarre ways. TZOs are 00:10:29.470 --> 00:10:32.490 expected to produce unusual amounts of certain 00:10:32.490 --> 00:10:36.750 heavy elements like rubidium, molybdenum, and 00:10:36.750 --> 00:10:39.830 lithium that aren't typically abundant in red 00:10:39.830 --> 00:10:44.360 giants. So far, only one strong candidate has 00:10:44.360 --> 00:10:49.840 emerged, a star known as HV2112, located in the 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:54.240 small Magellanic cloud. This star shows a chemical 00:10:54.240 --> 00:10:57.399 fingerprint that fits the profile, though some 00:10:57.399 --> 00:11:00.399 scientists argue alternative explanations are 00:11:00.399 --> 00:11:05.100 still on the table. If confirmed, HV2112 would 00:11:05.100 --> 00:11:08.419 be the first real -life Thorne -Zitkow object 00:11:08.419 --> 00:11:12.629 ever discovered. A neutron star cocooned inside 00:11:12.629 --> 00:11:16.450 a swollen red giant envelope, the aftermath of 00:11:16.450 --> 00:11:20.830 a stellar collision or a failed binary. It's 00:11:20.830 --> 00:11:24.250 essentially a star that died, then was reborn 00:11:24.250 --> 00:11:28.230 inside another, invisible to the eye, yet rewriting 00:11:28.230 --> 00:11:31.879 the physics of its host from within. Eventually, 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:35.500 it's theorized the star's structure destabilizes 00:11:35.500 --> 00:11:38.200 and the whole system may collapse into a black 00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:41.960 hole, leaving behind almost no trace of what 00:11:41.960 --> 00:11:50.639 once was. If the stars spoke to you this week, 00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:53.299 or if a question's been on your mind, I'd love 00:11:53.299 --> 00:11:57.519 to hear it. Visit our website, StarTrails .Show, 00:11:57.799 --> 00:12:01.279 where you can contact me and explore past episodes. 00:12:01.940 --> 00:12:05.480 Be sure to follow us on Mastodon, Blue Sky, and 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:08.919 YouTube. Links are in the show notes. Until we 00:12:08.919 --> 00:12:12.039 meet again beneath the stars, clear skies everyone.