S02E23: Lunar Odyssey: India's Chandrayan 3 // Brightening Comet // Golden Record Auction // Mysterious Magnetar

Welcome to Astronomy Daily for Friday, July 21st, 2023. I'm your host, Tim Gibbs, and joining me in the studio is Hallie, my AI assistant. Let's dive into today's headlines. Headline 1: India's Chandrayan 3 spacecraft is on track for its moon landing attempt on August 23rd or 24th. The spacecraft has been raising its orbit around Earth with a series of burns, and a Translunar injection burn is scheduled for July 31st. This mission is India's second attempt to land on the moon after the failed Chandrayan 2-lander in 2019. Headline 2: Comet Ponds-Brooks has brightened by five magnitudes and can now be seen in a six-inch telescope. Despite its distance of over 530 million kilometers from Earth, its recent outburst has made it visible with smaller telescopes for now. Headline 3: The master recording for NASA's Voyager Golden Record, created by astronomer Carl Sagan and Andrew Yann, is up for auction. These reels, estimated to be worth more than ten times their weight in gold, were used to produce the iconic golden records on the Voyager spacecraft. Headline 4: Astronomers have discovered a mysterious magnetar, GPMJ1839-10, located about 15,000 light years away in the direction of the constellation Scutum. It emits energy bursts every 22 minutes, making it the longest period magnetar ever found. And now, Hallie's terrible dad joke for the week: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything! That's all for today's episode of Astronomy Daily. Remember, you can catch Steve on Monday and me on Friday, with occasional one-story episodes on Wednesdays. For more episodes, visit spacenuts.io and bitesz.com.