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Supernovae, Asteroid Brines & Europe's Solar Eclipse | Aug 8
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
XRISM detects chlorine and potassium in Cassiopeia A at ten times predicted levels, rewriting stellar nucleosynthesis — and a New Jersey meteorite reveals billion-year-old asteroid brines with amino acids. Plus Europe's first total solar eclipse since 1999 and SpaceX launch news.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
A satellite launched less than two years ago has just rewritten what we thought we knew about where life's ingredients come from. XRISM, the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission run by JAXA, has detected chlorine and potassium in the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A at levels ten times higher than theoretical models predicted.
That same thread connecting stellar chemistry to life's origins runs directly into the second major story. A meteorite that crashed through a New Jersey home, later identified as a CM-type carbonaceous chondrite called the Hillsborough meteorite, has been found to contain pristine salt-rich fluids, organometallic compounds, and amino acids.
Shifting forward to events in the next few days. A total solar eclipse will cross Europe on August twelfth, the first totality over the continent since nineteen ninety-nine.
On Monday, a Falcon 9 is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral between ten forty-nine in the morning and two forty-nine in the afternoon Eastern time, carrying another batch of Starlink satellites. The launch should be visible from Jacksonville down to West Palm Beach, weather permitting.
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