Now Playing
JWST Galaxy Crisis Deepens, Faintest Exoplanet Imaged & SpaceX's 100th Launch
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
The James Webb Space Telescope is reshaping our understanding of galaxy formation after nine early galaxies came in three to four times more massive than models predicted. Plus, astronomers directly image the faintest exoplanet ever captured from Earth, and SpaceX hits 100 orbital launches in a single calendar year.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
The James Webb Space Telescope has just handed astronomers a serious problem. Nine early galaxies, observed from the first billion years of cosmic history, are carrying three to four times more mass than our best models predicted.
Shift now to a different kind of observational breakthrough, this one from the ground. Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope have directly imaged the faintest exoplanet ever captured from Earth's surface.
On the commercial side, SpaceX crossed a milestone that would have seemed unreachable just a few years ago. A Falcon nine launched from Vandenberg deployed twenty-nine Starlink satellites, and in doing so, became the company's one hundredth orbital mission of twenty twenty-six.
Three threads are worth tracking closely from here. First, how the wider astronomy community responds to JWST's galaxy mass findings.
Chapter summary auto-generated from the verified script. Listen to the full episode for the complete content.