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Pulsar Diamond Planet, Interstellar Comet & Fast Radio Burst Source Found
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
JWST has uncovered a diamond-pressure pulsar planet that defies every known formation model, an interstellar comet 12 billion years old, and the first pinpointed extragalactic fast radio burst source. Today's episode also covers Euclid's 60-million-star Milky Way mosaic, Vast's biotech partnerships, and SpaceX's relentless Starlink cadence.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
A planet has been found orbiting a pulsar with a carbon-rich atmosphere, soot clouds, possible diamonds beneath the surface, and a lemon-shaped body being stretched by gravitational tides. No known formation mechanism explains how it got there.
On a related front, JWST has done something else worth paying attention to. Astronomers have identified the first candidate source of a fast radio burst outside our galaxy.
The other major story is older. Much older.
ESA's Euclid telescope has released the largest high-resolution visible-light image of the Milky Way's center ever captured, a mosaic covering sixty million stars. The practical value here is specific: this image will serve as a reference baseline for NASA's Roman Space Telescope, which will measure exoplanet masses using gravitational microlensing.
On the commercial side, Vast signed memoranda of understanding with four biotech firms on June twenty-fourth, including LambdaVision, Auxilium, BioOrbit, and the Sanford Stem Cell Institute. The agreements are for microgravity research aboard Haven stations after the ISS retires.
SpaceX launched its twenty-fourth Starlink mission of the year on June twenty-fifth, lifting twenty-four V2 Mini satellites from Vandenberg. Seven of eight planned June launches have now lifted off from Vandenberg, with booster turnarounds running at around fifty-six hours.
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