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Alaknanda Rewrites Cosmic History, Roman Launches & Starship's Double Catch
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
The James Webb Space Telescope has found a fully formed spiral galaxy just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang — and it's breaking our best models of cosmic assembly. Plus NASA's Roman Telescope begins its dark energy hunt and SpaceX targets a historic double catch on Starship Flight 15.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
A galaxy called Alaknanda shouldn't exist. Not yet.
Pulling back from the deep past to the very near future. NASA's Roman Space Telescope launched on August thirtieth, and it's now in final equipment checks ahead of its first science runs.
One collaboration already taking shape around Roman involves the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute. Their ground-based KMTNet network focuses microlensing observations on the outer galaxy regions, while Roman will penetrate the dust-obscured galactic center in infrared.
Over at SpaceX, the target for Starship's fifteenth flight is November thirteenth, and the goal is unprecedented. SpaceX wants to catch both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage using the launch tower's mechanical arms.
One more development. A fourth sednoid, designated twenty twenty-three KQ fourteen, has been identified by the Subaru Telescope.
The real through-line across all of this is that our models are under pressure from multiple directions. Alaknanda challenges formation timelines.
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