Dawn of the Very Luminous Dinosaurs.
In this month’s episode, we talk to John Weaver about EUCLID, galaxies, and black holes. Then, from our live event at the Chester Astronomy Society in March, we listen to Jodcaster Jamie’s talk about their research.

We want to hear more from our listeners, so if you would like to feature on one of our episodes, we will be releasing questions throughout the year and we want to hear what you think!

Next month’s episode features an interview from RAL space, and so we want to know -

‘What would you like to see from the space sector in the next 10-20 years? (A future mission you look forward to, will space research solve a global problem or develop new technology for the future).’

Send your answers to our social media accounts (linked at the bottom of this page) or via our email (JODCAST-FEEDBACK@listserv.manchester.ac.uk).

Interview with John Weaver

Louis talks with MIT's John Weaver about galaxy evolution, black hole suns and the EUCLID Cosmic Dawn Survey.

Live from Chester Astronomical Society with Jamie Incley

Next up, we have Jamie’s talks from our evening with the Chester Astronomy Society. Jamie, who talks about her research using neutral hydrogen for intensity mapping for cosmology.

The News

Astronomers have discovered 16 new quasars dating from a time when the Universe was still a baby.

Quasars are some of the brightest objects in the cosmos, powered by supermassive black holes feeding at the centres of young galaxies. Because they shine so intensely, they let astronomers probe the gas filling the early Universe during the final stages of the Epoch of Reionization - a transformative period in the history of the universe. What makes this discovery especially interesting is that the team used machine learning to help find them. By applying self-supervised machine learning to huge survey datasets, they were able to identify promising distant candidates much more efficiently than with traditional methods alone. This matters because these rare quasars can help answer two major questions in cosmology: how supermassive black holes grew so quickly in the young Universe, and how the first light from stars and galaxies transformed the intergalactic environment. So this is not just a story about finding distant objects, it is also a glimpse into the future of cosmology, and how innovations in computing are opening new avenues of science and enabling new discoveries.

Lighting up the night!

Concerns from UK Astronomers over the proposals to launch space-based mirrors to reflect sunlight during the day. This project, from Reflect Orbital, has submitted plans in the US to launch satellites with mirrors attached to reflect the Sun’s radiation onto the Earth’s surface during the night. They plan to launch 2 satellites by 2026, but with the aim of sending 50,000 satellites into orbit by 2035, offering the same intensity of light as daylight over hours.
This has raised concerns for UK astronomers, spearheaded by the Royal Astronomical Society, who suggest these space-based mirrors would drastically impact observational capacities for many ground based observatories. This comes at a time where challenges to overcome both radio and optical reflections from passing satellite megaconstellations contaminate increasing fractions of observation time. For ESO’s Very Large Telescope, an estimated 10% of data will be entirely contaminated by passing satellite reflections and the Vera Rubin Observatory predicts up to 40% of nightly observations could contain satellite interference.
Ultimately, satellite infrastructure remains an invaluable part of day-to-day life, and the use of reflected sunlight during the night could be beneficial. Reflect Orbital suggests that the megaconstellations could extend solar farm’s electricity generation (increasing the output of existing resources on Earth) as well as illuminating search & rescue efforts following natural disasters or military conflicts. Regardless of the impact on astronomy, considerations for extending daylight hours on Earth or ‘brightening’ the night sky needs to be investigated - considering the impact on nocturnal behaviours in animals, the psychological impacts for humans living near these reflected sites, as well as the loss to cultures and heritages tied to the night sky. The debate on regulating satellite developments in orbit around the Earth is now being shone in a different light…

News : Sohini Dutta and Louisa Mason
Interview : John Weaver and Louis Hurrey
Presenters : Sohini Dutta and Louisa Mason
Editors : Alex Walls, Jamie Incley, Josh Bishop and Louisa Mason
Show Editor : Jordan Norris
Show Lead : Louisa Mason
Website : Lilia Correa Magnus & George Bendo & Phoebe Ryder
Producer : Phoebe Ryder
Cover Art : This image shows an area of the mosaic released by ESA’s Euclid space telescope on 15 October 2024. The area is zoomed in 150 times compared to the large mosaic. On the centre-left of the image, Euclid captured two galaxies (called ESO 364-G035 and -G036) that are interacting with each other, 420 million light-years from us. On the right of the image, galaxy cluster Abell 3381 is visible, 678 million light-years away from us. CREDIT:ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi