Astronomy Daily - The Podcast

S05E121 | Monday, 22 June 2026 Hosts: Anna & Avery  |  astronomydaily.io  |  @AstroDailyPod Story 1 — Dark Matter Is Hugging Our Galaxy's Black Hole •       Virginia Tech researchers used 'echo mapping' — light reverberations around active black holes — to detect dark matter signatures •       Supermassive black holes including Sgr A* (Milky Way) appear surrounded by dense dark matter clusters •       Lead researcher Mayank Sharma: 'The observational evidence for dark matter is simply undeniable' •       Published in Physical Review D, June 11, 2026 •       Provides a new tool for probing dark matter in the most extreme gravitational environments Story 2 — Swift Rescue Mission: Launch Date Confirmed •       NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory launched 2004; has been losing altitude due to atmospheric drag — no thrusters to compensate •       Katalyst Space Technologies built LINK — a robotic servicer with 3 robotic arms and xenon Hall-effect thrusters •       Northrop Grumman's Stargazer aircraft departed Wallops Flight Facility June 18 carrying Pegasus XL + LINK •       Launch from Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands: confirmed for June 27, 2026 •       LINK must chase down Swift, inspect it, and latch on — a first-of-its-kind robotic capture mission •       Critical altitude threshold: if Swift drops below 185 miles (300 km), rescue becomes impossible •       Success would give Swift another ~22 years of science at its original 600 km altitude Story 3 — Chandra Spots a Supernova Near the Galactic Centre •       NASA Chandra, ESA XMM-Newton, and MeerKAT (South Africa) detected a 'blue blob' of X-ray emission in Sagittarius C •       Sagittarius C is a star-forming region ~26,000 light-years from Earth, a few dozen light-years from Sgr A* •       Estimated age: ~1,700 years — light from the explosion would have reached Earth around 300 AD •       Expansion speed: approximately 2 million miles per hour •       Published in The Astrophysical Journal (Zhu et al., June 11); NASA APOD June 18 •       If confirmed, one of the closest supernova remnants ever found to the Milky Way's central black hole Story 4 — MAVEN: The Eulogy •       MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) launched November 2013; arrived Mars September 2014 •       Original mission: 1 year. Actual mission: 11+ years — ended June 3, 2026 •       Last contact: December 6, 2025 — entered fast spin, batteries drained, unrecoverable •       Key discoveries: atmospheric escape rates, solar storm acceleration of Mars atmosphere loss, atmospheric sputtering (first observed at any planet), new types of Martian aurora •       Also served as communications relay for Curiosity and Perseverance rovers •       PI Shannon Curry's epitaph: 'Best Mars mission ever.' — 800+ scientific publications •       MAVEN will remain in Mars orbit 50–100 years before eventually entering the Martian atmosphere Story 5 — Operation Period: First-Ever Space Menstruation Study •       Non-profit Operation Period, led by Manju Bangalore and Priya Abiram, announced OP-01 mission on June 19 •       First dedicated scientific study of menstruation in microgravity — despite 100+ women having flown to space •       Current practice: astronauts typically suppress menstruation during spaceflight with hormones — due to lack of data, not proven necessity •       OP-01: suborbital Virgin Galactic flight in 2027; researchers will conduct the study on themselves •       Research wing: Operation Period's 'Redshift Lab' •       Data vital for longer missions — Moon, Mars — where menstrual health management matters more Story 6 — Isar Aerospace's Spectrum Rocket: Europe Keeps Trying •       Isar Aerospace (Ottobrunn, Germany): Europe's most advanced commercial small launch startup — 800M+ euros raised •       Spectrum rocket: 28m tall, up to 1,000 kg to LEO, 700 kg to SSO; 10 engines •       First flight (March 2025): failed after 30 seconds — vent valve opened unexpectedly, rocket lost attitude control •       Second flight 'Onward and Upward': carrying 5 university cubesats + 1 experiment; backed by ESA Boost! programme •       2026 scrubs: January (pressurisation valve), March (fuel temp/fishing vessel), April (pressure vessel), June 15 (fluid system anomaly) •       Current status: no new launch date; Andøya window reportedly closed; Isar analysing data •       Context: part of ESA's European Launcher Challenge — must achieve orbital flight by 2027 to qualify for up to €205MBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

This weekend's Astronomy Daily wraps up the biggest stories from across the cosmos, starting with two completely fresh discoveries — a 1976 ocean rock that's turned out to hold atomic-scale proof of an ancient neutron star collision, and a record-breaking rocket launch from Europe's Ariane 6. Then we wind back through the week for our four biggest headlines: a new crew for Artemis III, JWST's salty 'Pink Planet' discovery, an update on the daring Swift Observatory rescue mission, and China's Tianwen-2 closing in on its target asteroid.   Story 1: A Kilonova's Fingerprint, Found in a 1976 Ocean Rock •       A rock sample dredged from the Pacific seafloor in 1976 has been found to contain a few hundred atoms of plutonium radioisotopes. •       The plutonium originated from a kilonova — a collision between two neutron stars — that occurred over 100 million years ago. •       Stellar debris from the merger settled to Earth and was slowly incorporated into a ferromanganese crust on the ocean floor. •       Isotope ratios provide the strongest physical clues yet to what created the elements and roughly when the merger occurred. •       Study published 18 June 2026.   Story 2: Ariane 6 Smashes Its Own Heaviest-Payload Record •       On 17 June 2026, an Ariane 64 rocket launched 36 Amazon Leo satellites from French Guiana (mission VA269 / LE-03). •       First flight of new P160C solid boosters — about a metre longer than the previous P120C, holding up to 156 tonnes of propellant each. •       Boosters deliver roughly a 10% performance increase, raising Ariane 64's LEO capacity to approximately 22 tonnes. •       The mission broke the 13-year record for heaviest payload ever launched by an Ariane rocket, previously held by the 2013 ATV 'Albert Einstein' resupply flight. •       Eighth Ariane 6 launch overall; 100th Amazon Leo satellite deployed by Arianespace.   Story 3: Artemis III Crew Revealed •       NASA announced the Artemis III crew on 9 June 2026 at Johnson Space Center: Commander Randy Bresnik, Pilot Luca Parmitano (ESA), and Mission Specialists Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas, with Bob Hines as backup. •       The Artemis II crew (Wiseman, Glover, Koch, Hansen) symbolically passed their lunar baton to the new crew. •       Artemis III is a two-week test flight in low Earth orbit to test docking procedures between Orion and commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin. •       Targeted for launch as early as late 2027, ahead of a planned lunar surface landing in 2028. •       Will be Andre Douglas's first spaceflight.   Story 4: JWST Cracks the 'Pink Planet' Mystery •       JWST has confirmed salt clouds in the atmosphere of GJ504b, the 'Pink Planet,' located 57 light-years away. •       First direct evidence of salt clouds on a cold substellar companion object, a phenomenon theorised 15 years ago. •       At approximately 550°F, GJ504b is the coldest companion object ever directly imaged. •       Its true nature remains uncertain — it may be a giant planet or a brown dwarf. •       Research led by a Northwestern University team.   Story 5: The Swift Rescue Mission Heads for the Pacific •       NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (orbiting since 2004) faces premature reentry due to orbital decay accelerated by recent solar activity. •       Katalyst Space Technologies' LINK robotic servicing spacecraft will attempt to grapple and boost Swift to a safer ~600km orbit. •       LINK launches on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, carried by Stargazer, the last flying Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. •       Stargazer departed NASA Wallops Flight Facility on 18 June 2026, en route to Kwajalein Atoll via California and Hawai'i. •       Launch targeted for 27 June 2026; if successful, it will be the first capture of an unprepared US government satellite by a commercial vehicle.   Story 6: Tianwen-2 Closes In on Kamo'oalewa •       China's Tianwen-2 spacecraft, launched May 2025, completed orbital insertion at near-Earth asteroid Kamo'oalewa on 7 June 2026. •       Amateur radio trackers in Germany detected fine ion-engine course-correction burns between 11–14 June 2026. •       Rendezvous and sample collection are expected around 4 July 2026. •       Kamo'oalewa is a 40–100 metre quasi-satellite of Earth; its origin (possibly a lunar fragment) remains scientifically debated. •       After sample return, Tianwen-2 will travel on to rendezvous with comet 311P/PanSTARRS in 2035.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Welcome back to Astronomy Daily! In today's episode, Anna and Avery cover six of the biggest stories in space and astronomy for Friday June nineteenth, twenty twenty-six — from a salty surprise on a mysterious pink world to a little rover completing a marathon on Mars.   Story 1: JWST Reveals Salty Clouds on the 'Pink Planet' GJ504b Northwestern University astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to finally crack open the spectrum of GJ504b — the so-called 'Pink Planet' 57 light-years away. The discovery, published in The Astronomical Journal on June 18, reveals an atmosphere filled with exotic chemistry and salt clouds unlike anything previously observed. At just 550°F, it's the coldest planetary-mass companion ever directly imaged. Whether it's a giant planet or a brown dwarf remains an open question, but its salty skies are a first for astronomy. Study led by Aneesh Baburaj, Northwestern University's CIERA. Story 2: Astronomers Solve the Mystery of Black Holes' Delayed Radio 'Burps' Using the NSF's Very Large Array, a team led by Kate Alexander (University of Arizona) has found that roughly 40% of all tidal disruption events — moments when a supermassive black hole shreds a passing star — produce a powerful delayed radio burst months to years after the initial flare. The study, announced June 16, also identifies a chemical fingerprint in early optical spectra that can predict which black holes are likely to produce these late-stage outbursts, giving astronomers a roadmap for long-term monitoring. Story 3: SpaceX Launches NROL-179 — the 14th NRO Proliferated Architecture Mission SpaceX launched NROL-179 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in the early hours of June 19, making it the 14th mission dedicated to building out the National Reconnaissance Office's 'proliferated architecture' — a constellation of small, resilient surveillance satellites. It was the 71st Falcon 9 launch of 2026. Mission details including satellite count and orbit remain classified. Story 4: Astrobotic Unveils Griffin-1: NASA's Moon Base II Lander Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic publicly revealed its Griffin-1 lunar lander on June 15, ahead of environmental testing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Designated 'Moon Base II' by NASA, Griffin-1 is a 650kg-capacity infrastructure-class lander targeting the lunar south pole region. It will carry 10 payloads from 6 nations, led by Astrolab's FLIP rover (500kg), and is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy in Q4 2026. Astrobotic has been recently acquired by Voyager Technologies. Story 5: Lucy Reveals the Life Story of Double-Lobed Asteroid Donaldjohanson Results from NASA's Lucy spacecraft's April 2025 flyby of asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson were published in Science on June 18. The study, led by Simone Marchi (Southwest Research Institute), reveals a contact binary with a surface over 40 million years old and a younger neck (under 20 million years) built by slow-motion landslides triggered as sunlight gradually braked the asteroid's rotation from a few hours to its current 252.6-hour period. Donaldjohanson is likely a fragment of the Erigone family's parent body, destroyed ~155 million years ago. Story 6: Perseverance Rover Completes a Marathon Distance on Mars NASA's Perseverance rover has driven more than 26.2 miles (42.2 km) on Mars since landing in Jezero Crater in February 2021 — completing a marathon distance. The rover continues science operations beyond the crater's western rim, studying some of the oldest rocks in the mission's history. Perseverance is approaching Opportunity's all-time distance record of 45.16 km for a rover on another world. Mission operations are funded through at least 2028.   Links & References • JWST Pink Planet (GJ504b): The Astronomical Journal, June 18 2026 — Northwestern University / CIERA • TDE Radio Burps: NSF VLA / University of Arizona — Kate Alexander et al., announced June 16 2026 • NROL-179: space.com / spaceflightnow.com — launched June 19 2026 • Griffin-1: astrobotic.com / spacenews.com / spaceflightnow.com — unveiled June 15 2026 • Lucy / Donaldjohanson: Science journal, June 18 2026 — Simone Marchi, Southwest Research Institute • Perseverance Marathon: space.com — June 18 2026Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

A landmark episode packed with discoveries at the cutting edge of space and astronomy. Webb and Hubble redefine a category of stellar object, JWST delivers unprecedented chemistry data from an extreme exoplanet, a 21-year-old NASA observatory faces a daring robotic rescue, a multi-telescope image reveals an ancient galactic supernova, China's Tianwen-2 zeroes in on a possible fragment of our own Moon, and astronomers detect the chemical fingerprint of a planet swallowed by its star.   Story 1: Webb & Hubble Rewrite History: Terzan 5 Is a 'Bulge Fossil Fragment' Using the James Webb Space Telescope and archival data from Hubble spanning 12 years, researchers have definitively reclassified Terzan 5 — a stellar system 22,000 light-years away in Sagittarius — from a globular cluster to an entirely new class of object: a 'bulge fossil fragment.' Four distinct generations of stars have been identified within Terzan 5, formed 12.5 billion, 4.7 billion, 3.8 billion, and 2.5 billion years ago. Unlike a typical globular cluster with a single ancient stellar population, Terzan 5 repeatedly formed new stars by retaining the gas and heavy elements expelled by its own supernovae. Astronomers believe Terzan 5 is a surviving relic of the primordial clumps that merged to form the Milky Way's central bulge billions of years ago — a living fossil of galaxy formation. Results were presented at the 248th American Astronomical Society meeting and published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Source: NASA / ESA / STScI press release, 16–17 June 2026   Story 2: JWST Catches the 'Roasted Exoplanet' HD 80606 b in the Act Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope's MIRI instrument have observed the extreme exoplanet HD 80606 b experiencing a temperature increase of 1,100°F (600°C) during its close approach to its host star. HD 80606 b is a gas giant four times the mass of Jupiter on a highly elliptical 111-day orbit. The JWST study — led by Tiffany Kataria of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory — also detected specific atmospheric chemical signatures including methane and carbon dioxide, enabling detailed study of how the planet's chemistry shifts under extreme heating. This is the most detailed look yet at an atmospheric response to a rapid, intense heating event. Results were presented at the 248th AAS meeting in Pasadena, California. Source: NASA / JPL press release, 16–17 June 2026   Story 3: Swift's Rescue Mission Cleared for Launch: LINK on the Pad NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which has studied gamma-ray bursts and other high-energy cosmic events since 2004, is facing re-entry as its orbit decays under increased solar activity. NASA contracted Katalyst Space Technologies in September 2025 to build and launch a robotic servicing spacecraft — called LINK — to boost Swift to a higher orbit. LINK is now encapsulated inside a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, which has been attached to the Stargazer L-1011 carrier aircraft and is en route to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands for launch later in June 2026. This will be the final flight of the Pegasus XL — the world's first privately developed orbital launch vehicle, which first flew in 1990. Its air-launch capability is uniquely suited to reaching Swift's unusual low-inclination orbit. Source: NASA press release and media teleconference, 17 June 2026   Story 4: Possible Supernova Remnant at the Galactic Centre A striking multi-telescope composite image released as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day on 18 June 2026 reveals a possible supernova remnant near the galactic centre — a blue X-ray-emitting structure whose light is estimated to have reached Earth approximately 1,700 years ago, in the third century CE. The image combines X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton (the blue structure), radio data from the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa (the large red cloud), and optical background star data from the PanSTARRS telescopes in Hawaii. Source: NASA APOD, 18 June 2026. Image credit: NASA/CXC/UCLA/Z. Zhu et al.; ESA/XMM-Newton; MeerKAT; PanSTARRS   Story 5: China's Tianwen-2 Closes In on Earth's 'Quasi-Moon' China's Tianwen-2 spacecraft — launched in May 2025 — performed its primary orbit insertion burn at asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa on June 7, 2026, and has since been performing fine adjustment burns tracked by amateur radio astronomers in Germany and the Netherlands. China's space agency has released no official updates. Kamoʻoalewa is a 40–100 metre quasi-satellite of Earth, orbiting the Sun in a path that keeps it perpetually near our planet. Its reflectance spectrum resembles weathered lunar rock, fuelling a theory that it is a fragment blasted from the Moon by an ancient impact — though a competing theory holds that it is an ordinary inner asteroid belt migrant. Sample collection is scheduled to begin July 4, 2026. Tianwen-2 will depart Kamoʻoalewa in April 2027, with the sample return capsule landing in Inner Mongolia in late November 2027. A new paper in Nature Communications (June 2026) challenges the lunar-origin theory, suggesting Kamoʻoalewa may instead originate from the Flora asteroid family. Source: SpaceNews, Scientific American, Nature Communications, June 2026   Story 6: A Star That Ate a Planet: TOI-5882's Chemical Fingerprint Astronomers led by Brooke Kotten of the University of Michigan have identified a chemical imbalance between the two stars of binary system TOI-5882, located approximately 1,300 light-years away. One star is enriched in elements characteristic of rocky planetary material — including iron, silicon, and magnesium — while its companion is not. Because binary stars form from the same gas cloud and should have identical initial compositions, this difference is interpreted as evidence that one star subsequently ingested at least one planet. The amount of enrichment suggests the equivalent of several Earth masses of rocky material was consumed. Source: Phys.org / University of Michigan, June 15, 2026       Connect With Us Website: astronomydaily.io Social: @AstroDailyPod (X / Instagram / TikTok / Tumblr) Network: Bitesz.com Podcast NetworkBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. 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A launch-packed Wednesday kicks off with two rocket milestones — SpaceX's BlueBird 8-10 direct-to-cell satellite launch and Ariane 6's record-breaking Amazon Leo flight — followed by a splashdown update for the science-laden Dragon CRS-34. Then a Chandra double-header delivers the most detailed X-ray view ever of M87's famous black hole jet, plus the discovery of possible supernova wreckage at the very heart of the Milky Way. We close with JWST's extraordinary weather portrait of WASP-121b — a planet where the rain is made of rubies and sapphires.   Story Summaries & Key Facts   Story 1 — SpaceX BlueBird 8-10 Launch •       Launched: 2:39 a.m. EDT, 17 June 2026, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (SLC-40) •       Vehicle: SpaceX Falcon 9 (booster B1077, 29th flight) •       Booster recovery: drone ship 'A Shortfall of Gravitas', Atlantic Ocean •       Payload: AST SpaceMobile BlueBird 8, 9 & 10 (Block 2 next-generation satellites) •       Antenna array: ~2,400 sq ft each — largest commercial phased arrays in LEO •       Peak data speed: 120 Mbps per coverage cell (nearly double Block 1) •       Processing bandwidth: 10 GHz per satellite •       Goal: space-based cellular broadband direct to standard smartphones •       AST network partners: 50+ MNOs including AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone (~3 billion subscribers)   Story 2 — Ariane 6 Record Payload •       Mission: VA269 / LE-03 (Amazon Leo 3rd Ariane 6 flight; 8th Ariane 6 overall; 3rd of 2026) •       Launch site: Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, French Guiana •       Payload: 36 Amazon Leo broadband satellites — heaviest Ariane payload ever (~20,820 kg) •       First flight of upgraded P160C solid rocket boosters (debut; replaces P120C) •       P160C improvement: +1 metre longer, carries 156 tonnes propellant each (+10% performance) •       Ariane 64 LEO capacity with P160C: ~22 tonnes •       Previous flights each carried 32 satellites; today's adds 4 more •       Arianespace milestone: 100 Amazon Leo satellites launched in under 5 months •       Next Ariane 6 launch: 28 August (2-booster configuration; likely Meteosat-14)   Story 3 — Dragon CRS-34 Splashdown (Update) •       UPDATE on yesterday's S05E116 story (undocking reported 16 June 2026) •       Dragon CRS-34 splashed down off Southern California coast, 17 June 2026 (~5:08 a.m. PDT) •       Capsule: Cargo Dragon 2 (C209, 6th flight); undocked ~12:25 p.m. EDT 16 June •       Science returned: bioprinted organ/cartilage tissue; DNA-inspired cancer treatment materials •       Also returned: blood-forming stem cells; cryogenic propellant storage experiment data •       Dragon is the ONLY ISS cargo vehicle capable of returning cargo to Earth intact •       Time-sensitive samples flown by helicopter from recovery ship to Kennedy Space Center •       CRS-34 launched 15 May 2026; delivered ~6,500 lbs cargo to Expedition 74 crew   Story 4 — Chandra / M87 Jet (Double-Header Part 1) •       Published: 15 June 2026; presented at 248th AAS Meeting, Pasadena, CA •       Lead researcher: Camille Poitras (PhD student, Laval University, Canada) •       M87* mass: 6.5 billion solar masses; distance: ~55 million light-years •       M87* was the first black hole ever directly imaged (Event Horizon Telescope, 2019) •       Data span: Chandra observations 2012–2025, processed with advanced deconvolution •       Key finding 1: Two distinct components revealed in feature HST-1 (previously blended) •       Key finding 2: Global X-ray emission decrease of up to 84% — consistent with synchrotron cooling •       Key finding 3: Jet features show both quasi-stationary and superluminal apparent motion •       Multi-wavelength: Chandra + JWST + Hubble + VLA + ALMA combined •       Significance: most detailed evolving picture of any black hole jet ever produced   Story 5 — Chandra / Galactic Centre Supernova (Double-Header Part 2) •       Published: Astrophysical Journal, released 14–15 June 2026 •       Lead: Zhenlin Zhu et al. (UCLA); data from Chandra + ESA XMM-Newton + MeerKAT + Pan-STARRS •       Location: Sagittarius C complex, ~26,000 light-years from Earth •       Finding: possible supernova remnant (diffuse X-ray emission) near Sgr A* •       If confirmed: closest supernova remnant ever found to Sagittarius A* •       Estimated age of explosion: ~1,700 years ago (approx. 3rd–4th century CE) •       Ejection speed: ~2 million mph; brightens region ~10x vs nearby star clusters •       Galactic centre context: extreme region of massive stars, magnetic threads, fast-orbiting gas •       Importance: SNRs supply iron, oxygen, silicon — key ingredients for planet/life formation   Story 6 — JWST / WASP-121b •       Published: June 2026 (JWST new observational results); story filed 16 June 2026 •       Planet: WASP-121b — ultra-hot Jupiter, ~855 light-years away, constellation Puppis •       Size: ~1.75–2× Jupiter; tidally locked (one side always faces its star) •       Orbital period: just 30.5 hours (one of the shortest known) •       Dayside temperature: ~3,000°C (hot enough to vaporise metals including iron, aluminium) •       Wind speed: ~18,000 km/h, carrying vaporised metals from dayside to nightside •       Ruby/sapphire rain: aluminium + oxygen → corundum (Al₂O₃) → with impurities = ruby/sapphire •       JWST delivered: most detailed 3D atmospheric weather portrait of any exoplanet to date •       Broader context: marks shift from 2D snapshots to full 3D atmospheric modelling of exoplanetsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Today's episode covers six stories spanning cosmic mysteries, lunar exploration, robotic rescue missions, cutting-edge space medicine, and what's happening in your own night sky tonight.   1. JWST Solves the "Little Red Dots" Mystery Four years after the James Webb Space Telescope began spotting strange, compact red objects in the ancient universe, scientists have a definitive answer. A team led by Vasily Kokorev at the University of Texas at Austin published the most detailed spectrum ever obtained of one of these objects — GLIMPSE-17775 — in The Astrophysical Journal on June 10. The data confirms these objects are supermassive black holes in their furious early growth phase, wrapped in dense cocoons of hot gas that disguise them. The universe is not broken — the little red dots were just very well hidden. 2. Astrobotic Unveils Griffin-1 Lunar Lander Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic publicly unveiled its Griffin-1 lunar lander on June 15 at the Moonshot Museum. NASA selected Griffin as the vehicle for its Moon Base II mission. The lander will carry Astrolab's FLIP rover and payloads from multiple nations — including Australia — to the lunar South Pole, targeting launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy in late 2026. Griffin-1 heads to JPL for environmental testing this month. 3. Robotic Rescue Mission for NASA's Swift Observatory NASA's 22-year-old Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is losing altitude fast due to accelerated solar activity. A startup called Katalyst Space Technologies has built a robotic spacecraft — LINK — in under a year, and it's now integrated into a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket ready for launch from Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, later this month. If successful, LINK will boost Swift's orbit and extend its life — while pioneering on-orbit servicing capabilities. 4. SpaceX CRS-34 Dragon Departs the ISS NASA's 34th SpaceX commercial resupply mission departed the ISS today, June 16, carrying blood stem cells, bioprinted organ and cartilage tissue, DNA-inspired cancer treatment materials, and cryogenic fuel storage experiment data. Splashdown off California is expected June 17. 5. Tonight's Sky: Moon Meets Three Planets A stunning western sky show is on offer tonight — a crescent Moon appearing between Mercury and Jupiter about an hour after sunset, with brilliant Venus also on display. Mercury reached its greatest eastern elongation on June 15, making this the best time of its current apparition to spot it. Tomorrow evening the Moon drifts to sit beside Venus. 6. Space Weather: CME Glancing Blow A coronal mass ejection from June 12 is expected to deliver a glancing blow to Earth on June 16-17. Active geomagnetic conditions (Kp up to 4) are forecast, with a chance of minor G1 storm conditions. High-latitude aurora watchers in the Southern Hemisphere may see some activity.   Links & Further Reading • GLIMPSE-17775 study — The Astrophysical Journal (June 10, 2026) • Astrobotic Griffin-1 mission info: astrobotic.com • NASA Swift Boost mission: science.nasa.gov/mission/swift/swift-boost-mission • ISS research blog: nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation • Space weather: spaceweather.gov | NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center   Find us at astronomydaily.io  |  Follow: @AstroDailyPodBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

In today's episode, Anna and Avery cover six major stories: NASA's historic Artemis III crew announcement, the official August 30 launch date for the Roman Space Telescope, a G3 geomagnetic storm delivering northern lights to mid-latitudes, a worrying air leak aboard the International Space Station, the fallout from Blue Origin's New Glenn explosion and its impact on NASA's Moon programme, and JAXA's H3 rocket attempting a redemption launch tonight.   Stories Covered •        BREAKING: NASA announces the four-person crew for Artemis III at Johnson Space Center -- a mission redesignated as a low-Earth-orbit docking rehearsal, paving the way for the Artemis IV Moon landing in 2028. •        NASA officially sets August 30, 2026 as the launch date for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope -- eight months ahead of schedule. Roman will survey the sky 100x wider than Hubble, targeting dark energy, dark matter and exoplanets. •        A cannibal coronal mass ejection -- two merged CMEs -- arrives at Earth triggering a G3 geomagnetic storm, with auroras visible to mid-northern latitudes on June 8-9. •        Crew aboard the ISS briefly shelters in the docked SpaceX Dragon on June 5 as a worsening air leak in the Russian Zvezda module's PrK transfer tunnel prompts precautionary evacuation procedures. •        NASA seeks an alternative launch vehicle for Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander following the catastrophic May 28 New Glenn explosion at Cape Canaveral, which destroyed LC-36 and threatened the autumn cargo lander demonstration flight. •        JAXA launches the H3 rocket (H3-30 variant) tonight from Tanegashima on a test flight -- Japan's first large rocket powered entirely by liquid engines -- following the December 2025 failure that lost the QZS-5 navigation satellite.   Links & Further Reading NASA Artemis III crew announcement: nasa.gov Roman Space Telescope launch update: science.nasa.gov/blogs/roman Space weather updates: spaceweather.com | earthsky.org/sun ISS status blog: blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation Blue Origin New Glenn updates: spaceflightnow.com JAXA H3 launch: global.jaxa.jp  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

In today's Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery cover six major stories: Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp pledges New Glenn will fly again before year's end despite last week's launchpad explosion; astronomers announce the first direct evidence of magnetic fields on exoplanets using Hot Jupiter wind data; NASA's Roman Space Telescope clears its final mirror inspection ahead of a September 2026 launch; SpaceX wins a $4.16 billion Space Force contract for an airborne threat-tracking satellite constellation; a reflection on the lasting scientific legacy of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS; and Hungarian researchers publish the definitive mass boundary between neutron stars and black holes at 2.2–2.3 solar masses.   Stories Covered •       Blue Origin New Glenn explosion aftermath — CEO Dave Limp confirms damage is less severe than feared, pledges return to flight before end of 2026 •       First direct evidence of exoplanet magnetic fields — Nature Astronomy, June 2, 2026 — ESO VLT and Gemini North study of seven Hot Jupiter wind speeds •       NASA Roman Space Telescope primary mirror passes final Earth-side inspection — September 2026 launch target confirmed •       SpaceX $4.16 billion US Space Force SB-AMTI contract — threat-tracking satellite constellation targeting 2028 operational capability •       3I/ATLAS scientific legacy — new analysis on what the interstellar comet reveals about solar system formation across the Milky Way •       Neutron star mass limit defined at 2.2–2.3 solar masses — HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Hungary   Key Terms Explained •       Hot Jupiter: A gas giant exoplanet similar in size to Jupiter, orbiting very close to its host star, typically tidally locked •       Magnetic field: An invisible force field generated by electrically conducting material moving inside a planet, critical for atmospheric protection •       Lagrange point 2 (L2): A gravitationally stable point in space approximately 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, opposite the Sun — home to both JWST and (soon) Roman •       SB-AMTI: Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator — a satellite constellation for tracking airborne threats from orbit •       Neutron star: The ultra-dense remnant of a collapsed massive star, composed almost entirely of neutrons •       3I/ATLAS: Third confirmed interstellar object, discovered July 2025; an active comet from outside our solar system •       Deuterium: A heavy isotope of hydrogen containing one neutron; its abundance in 3I/ATLAS water suggests formation in an extremely cold environmentBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Episode Summary In today's episode, Anna and Avery cover six major space and astronomy stories: the growing implications of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket explosion for NASA's lunar plans; China's surprise maiden flight of the Long March 12B reusable rocket plus the return of the Shenzhou-21 crew; Starship V3 being grounded by the FAA following Flight 12 — with SpaceX's IPO in the balance; the upcoming launch of NASA's Roman Space Telescope and its mission to find 100,000 new exoplanets; new research suggesting Earth remained a global magma ocean for up to half a billion years; and a stunning new Hubble image of galaxy M88 on a perilous journey through the Virgo Cluster.   Story 1 — New Glenn Aftermath: NASA Moon Plans Under Threat Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket was destroyed on May 28 during a pre-launch static fire test at Launch Complex 36, Cape Canaveral. As of June 2, the damage to Blue Origin's lunar programme is becoming clear: the Blue Moon Mark 1 lander — scheduled to deliver Moon Base 1 hardware in autumn 2026 — now faces likely delays, and the crewed Blue Moon MK2 timeline may slip as a result. LC-36 is Blue Origin's only orbital pad; rebuilding will take considerable time. NASA had signed a new New Glenn launch agreement for Moon rovers just two days before the explosion. Sources: Space.com, Time Magazine, TechTimes (June 1–2, 2026)   Story 2 — China's Long March 12B Debut + Shenzhou-21 Returns China's new Long March 12B rocket completed its maiden flight on June 1 from Jiuquan, deploying Qianfan constellation satellites in a no-advance-notice launch. The rocket — China's answer to the Falcon 9 — features a 20-tonne LEO capacity, a 5.2m fairing, kerolox propulsion, and dual independent flight computers ('dual brains'). No booster recovery on this flight, but planned for future missions. Developed in just 21 months. In other Chinese space news: the Shenzhou-21 crew (Zhang Lu, Wu Fei, Zhang Hongzhang) returned safely on May 29 after a record 210-day stay aboard Tiangong, landing in a Shenzhou-22 emergency rescue capsule after their original return craft was damaged by a suspected space debris strike. Sources: SpaceNews, Global Times, Xinhua (June 1, 2026)   Story 3 — Starship V3 Grounded: FAA Mishap Investigation Following Flight 12 (May 22), the FAA has formally classified the Starship V3 debut as a mishap and grounded the vehicle. The Super Heavy booster failed its boostback burn and hard-splashed in the Gulf of America; one Raptor Vacuum engine on the upper stage also failed. SpaceX must complete an FAA-overseen investigation before Flight 13. This is Starship's seventh grounding in three years. A July–August return-to-flight window is cited; a booster catch may be skipped on Flight 13. SpaceX's IPO (ticker: SPCX, Nasdaq) was filed May 20 with shares potentially trading from ~June 12. Sources: SpaceNews, Aviation Week, TechCrunch (May 27–June 1, 2026)   Story 4 — NASA Roman Space Telescope: 100,000 New Worlds NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is on track to arrive at Kennedy Space Center in June, with a launch target of early September 2026 — ahead of its May 2027 commitment. Over its five-year primary mission, Roman is expected to discover ~100,000 exoplanets, hundreds of millions of galaxies, and billions of stars, generating a 20,000-terabyte data archive. Its Galactic Bulge Survey will observe ~100 million stars in underexplored Milky Way regions. Roman also features a Coronagraph Instrument to directly image nearby exoplanets and test techniques for future Earth-analogue imaging. Sources: NASA.gov, ScienceDaily, SciTechDaily (June 1–2, 2026)   Story 5 — Earth Was a Lava World for Half a Billion Years A preprint from researchers at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute (arXiv, June 2026) proposes that Earth's global magma ocean phase lasted up to 500 million years — far longer than previously assumed. Two key factors sustained the molten state: tidal heating from the newly formed, much-closer Moon; and a thick steam atmosphere that acted as a thermal blanket, slowing planetary cooling. The prolonged hot conditions would also have favoured the photochemical production of hydrogen cyanide — a key prebiotic molecule linked to the origin of RNA and amino acids. Sources: Universe Today, Phys.org (June 1, 2026) — preprint on arXiv   Story 6 — Hubble Images M88 on a Perilous Virgo Cluster Journey NASA/ESA Hubble's June 2026 Picture of the Month features Messier 88 (M88/NGC 4501), a spiral galaxy 63 million light-years away in Coma Berenices. M88 is on a long inward journey through the Virgo Cluster, with a supermassive black hole ~100 million solar masses at its core. Ram pressure stripping is already depleting its cold gas reserves, visible as compressed gas on the galaxy's leading edge. In ~200–300 million years, M88 will make its closest pass to M87. Observed as part of Hubble program #18103 (PI: D. Thilker). Sources: NASA Science, ESA, ScienceDaily (May 29–June 1, 2026)Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Episode: S05E112 — Tuesday, 26 May 2026 Hosts: Anna & Avery Network: Bitesz.com Podcast Network Website: astronomydaily.io  |  Social: @AstroDailyPod   Story Summaries 1. NASA Unveils Ambitious Moon Base Plan As this episode was recorded, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman was preparing to announce a landmark plan for a permanent human outpost at the lunar south pole by 2036. The programme carries a price tag of approximately $30 billion across a seven-year foundational phase, relies on nuclear power systems, leverages lunar water ice for fuel and life support, and effectively retires the Gateway orbital station concept. Commercial partners will supply rovers and habitat modules. Phase one targets around two dozen lunar launches, including Artemis IV, by 2028. Full details will be covered in tomorrow's episode. 2. Starship V3 Flight 12 — Engine Drama, Historic Debut SpaceX launched the first Starship V3 rocket on Friday, 22 May 2026, from brand-new Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas. Ship 39 reached space and completed a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean despite losing one of its six vacuum Raptor engines during ascent. The flight computer compensated by extending burns on the remaining five. The Super Heavy booster was lost in the Gulf of Mexico after a failed boostback burn. The FAA has opened a review. SpaceX declared most pre-planned test objectives met. 3. JWST Maps First Daily Weather Cycle on a Distant World Published in Science on 21 May 2026. Researchers from Johns Hopkins and Arizona State Universities used Webb's NIRISS instrument to observe WASP-94Ab — a hot Jupiter 690 light-years away — and detected the first daily cloud cycle ever recorded on another planet. Thick magnesium silicate clouds form each morning, then completely clear by evening. The finding also corrected a decade of skewed atmospheric composition data. 4. NASA's Fermi Telescope Solves 20-Year Supernova Mystery An international team led by Fabio Acero used NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to confirm the first definitive gamma-ray detection from a superluminous supernova — SN 2017egm. The data confirms a newly formed magnetar as the power source behind these extraordinarily bright explosions. Published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2026. 5. Most Rocky Exoplanets May Lack Earth-Like Metallic Cores A new paper submitted to the Astrophysical Journal challenges the long-held assumption that dense metallic cores are standard features of rocky planets. Researchers argue that most rocky exoplanets may have formed without Earth-style metallic cores — meaning no global magnetic field, with significant implications for atmospheric retention and habitability. 6. The Soviet Rover That Went Silent — and Came Back Lunokhod 1 was the world's first remote-controlled rover on another world (1970). After traversing 10.5 km of Mare Imbrium, contact was lost in 1971. For nearly 40 years its exact position was unknown — until NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter identified it in 2010. The APOLLO project then fired laser pulses and received ~2,000 photons back from its French-built retroreflector — four times stronger than expected. It remains an active contributor to lunar science today.   Sources & Further Reading •       NASA Moon Base announcement: nasa.gov/2026-news-releases •       Starship Flight 12 updates: space.com •       WASP-94Ab paper: Science, 21 May 2026 — DOI via Johns Hopkins Hub •       Fermi supernova paper: Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2026 — DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202558547 •       Exoplanet cores paper: submitted to Astrophysical Journal, May 2026Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

China launches three astronauts to Tiangong — including Hong Kong's first-ever taikonaut — on a mission that breaks multiple records. NASA's Psyche probe delivers breathtaking imagery from its Mars flyby. A bizarre 19-day solar radio burst finally gets an explanation. Scientists zero in on the source of the most powerful neutrino ever detected. Two dead stars orbit each other in less than nine minutes. And researchers propose using fungi to turn Martian soil into farmland. It's a big Monday on Astronomy Daily.Story Timestamps•       00:00 — Intro •       02:10 — Story 1: Shenzhou-23 Launches with Historic Crew •       08:45 — Story 2: NASA Psyche's Stunning Mars Flyby Images •       14:20 — Story 3: Record-Breaking 19-Day Solar Radio Burst Explained •       20:30 — Story 4: Source of Most Powerful Neutrino Ever Detected •       26:15 — Story 5: White Dwarf Devouring Its Companion in 8.5-Minute Orbit •       32:00 — Story 6: Mars Fungi Could Fertilise Red Planet Regolith •       37:30 — OutroStory Sources & LinksStory 1: Shenzhou-23 Mission — NPR / Space.com / CGTN (May 24, 2026) Story 2: NASA Psyche Mars Flyby — NASA JPL / Engadget (May 23, 2026) Story 3: 19-Day Solar Radio Burst — Astrophysical Journal Letters / Gizmodo (May 19-22, 2026) Story 4: Neutrino Source — Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics / ScienceDaily (May 24, 2026) Story 5: White Dwarf Binary — The Astrophysical Journal / Phys.org (May 23, 2026) Story 6: Mars Fungi — Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences / Universe Today (May 23, 2026)Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:You've heard us talking about them now it's time to check out the special money saving deal from our sponsor NordVPN. CLICK HEREYour weekly roundup of the biggest stories from across the cosmos — two fresh stories plus the best of the past seven days from Astronomy Daily.   In This Episode •          Starship V3 Flight 12: SpaceX launches its redesigned megarocket for the first time — an historic milestone with some drama along the way •          New Glenn Cleared to Fly: Blue Origin completes its NG-3 failure investigation — the FAA approves the report and the rocket is back in action •          First Direct Image of the Cosmic Web: A 3-million-light-year filament photographed in unprecedented detail by ESO's Very Large Telescope •          Dark Matter Fingerprint? MIT researchers find a gravitational wave signal that may carry the first direct imprint of dark matter •          Roman Space Telescope: NASA's next great observatory is targeting September 2026 launch — eight months ahead of schedule •          AI Space Chip: NASA tests a radiation-hardened chip that could give future spacecraft genuine autonomous decision-making   Story Sources & Further Reading Starship V3 / Flight 12: Space.com, Universe Today, Spaceflight Now, Next Spaceflight New Glenn / Blue Origin: SpaceNews (May 22, 2026), Space.com, TechCrunch Cosmic Web Image: Nature Astronomy — Tornotti et al.; ESO/VLT press release; Mirage News (May 16, 2026) Dark Matter / Gravitational Waves: Physical Review Letters — Aurrekoetxea et al.; ScienceDaily, Universe Today (May 19, 2026) Roman Space Telescope: NASA.gov, Scientific American, ScienceDaily (May 18, 2026) NASA AI Space Chip: ScienceDaily, NASA (May 15, 2026)   About Astronomy Daily Astronomy Daily delivers the latest space and astronomy news every weekday, plus a Weekend Wrap on Saturdays. Hosted by Anna and Avery, and produced by the Bitesz.com Podcast Network. Website: astronomydaily.io  |  Social: @AstroDailyPodBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:To check out our special money saving deal and upgrade your online security with NordVPN - Click HereSpaceX came agonisingly close to launching the most powerful rocket ever built in its newest configuration — but a technical halt at T-minus 40 seconds sent Starship V3's debut back to the drawing board, with another attempt window opening this evening (6:30–8:00 p.m. EDT). Anna and Avery dig into what went wrong, what makes V3 different, and the stunning announcement buried in the webcast: a named commander for humanity's first crewed Mars flyby mission. Plus: JWST rewrites exoplanet atmospheric science with unexpected ice clouds on a distant super-Jupiter, researchers map a mysterious magnetic 'flip' inside the Milky Way, and Rocket Lab launches from New Zealand.Links & Further Reading •       Starship Flight 12 live updates: space.com •       SpaceX launch webcast (tonight): spacex.com •       Chun Wang Mars announcement: universetoday.com •       JWST Epsilon Indi Ab paper (ApJL): doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae5823 •       Milky Way magnetic field study (ApJ): doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae28d1 •       Rocket Lab Viva La Strix mission: rocketlabusa.com •       Astronomy Daily website: astronomydaily.ioBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:To secure your online life and save money into the bargain, check out our NordVPN offer - Click HereStarship V3 is on the pad and tonight's the night — Flight 12 launches the most powerful rocket ever built. Plus: Webb solves a decades-old Neptune mystery, why space debris is quietly corrupting climate science, new doubts cast on DESI's dark energy results, a smarter route to the Moon, and why the galaxy may be full of hellish Venus-twins rather than Earths. All that on Astronomy Daily for Thursday, May 21, 2026.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:To check out our great NordVPN money saving deal - Click HereAstronomy Daily • S05E107 • Wednesday 21 May 2026 Starship V3 is on the pad and counting down for Thursday's debut launch — we bring you the full update including technical objectives, the Artemis stakes, and a sober note about a worker fatality at Starbase. Plus: a NIST proposal to build GPS for the Moon using lasers inside permanently frozen polar craters; space station startup Vast enters the satellite market; JWST finally has an explanation for the universe's impossibly large early black holes; the Roman Space Telescope locks in a September 2026 launch; and interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS gives up two remarkable new secrets — alien water thirty times richer in heavy hydrogen than anything in our solar system, and pre-discovery images that show it was spotted before anyone knew it was there.   Stories This Episode •       STORY 1 — Starship V3 Flight 12: Launch window opens Thursday 21 May at 6:30 PM EDT (8:30 AM AEST Friday 22 May). Splashdown of upper stage in Indian Ocean off Western Australia ~65 min after liftoff. First flight of Starship V3, first use of Starbase Pad 2. Key objectives: Raptor 3 engines, heat shield imaging by modified Starlink sats, 22 dummy Starlink deployments, Raptor relight in space. Worker fatality at Starbase 15 May under OSHA investigation. •       STORY 2 — Lunar GPS via NIST: Proposal to place ultrastable silicon optical cavity lasers in permanently shadowed craters near lunar south pole (~16K, near-perfect vacuum). Could enable lunar GPS network, atomic timekeeping on Moon, precise satellite ranging, gravitational wave detection. •       STORY 3 — Vast Corporation: Space station builder announces new line of high-power satellites, expanding beyond Haven-1 into commercial satellite manufacturing. Announced 19 May 2026. •       STORY 4 — JWST Black Holes: New arXiv paper proposes 'episodic super-Eddington accretion' in gas-rich dark matter-dominated early galaxies explains overmassive black holes found by JWST. Identifies them as 'missing link' between heavy seeds and luminous quasars. •       STORY 5 — Roman Space Telescope: Launch now confirmed as early as September 2026 — 8 months ahead of schedule, under budget. 100x Hubble's field of view, 1,000x survey speed. Targets dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets. Coronagraph for direct exoplanet imaging. •       STORY 6 — 3I/ATLAS: Pre-discovery images found in Rubin Observatory data from 21 June–2 July 2025, over a week before official ATLAS discovery. Water deuterium ratio at least 30x higher than any solar system comet (ALMA/U of Michigan/Nature Astronomy). Comet estimated ~12 billion years old.   Key Links •       SpaceX Starship Flight 12 livestream: spacex.com •       Flight 12 timeline (Space.com): space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/what-time-is-spacex-starship-v3-launch-starship-flight-12-timeline •       Starbase worker death (Space.com): space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/worker-dies-at-spacexs-starbase-in-leadup-to-starship-v3-megarocket-launch •       Lunar laser GPS (NIST): nist.gov/news-events/news/2026/05/shooting-moon-ultrastable-lasers-dark-craters-could-enable-lunar-navigation •       Vast satellite announcement: space.com (19 May 2026) •       Roman Space Telescope launch update: nasa.gov •       3I/ATLAS pre-discovery images: space.com/astronomy/comets •       3I/ATLAS water chemistry (ALMA): almaobservatory.orgBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:To get our special money saving deal from NordVPN - Click Here A launch day episode packed with big science and bigger rockets. Today we cover the real-time launch of the ESA/China SMILE space weather satellite, SpaceX's Starship V3 sitting on its brand-new pad (and why it's now heading for Thursday), a UCL study warning that megaconstellation launches may be accidentally conducting an 'unregulated geoengineering experiment' in our upper atmosphere, the world's first space-based neutrino detector operating in orbit, extraordinary evidence in Antarctic ice that Earth is collecting material from a dead star, and a clever new cosmic mapper called TIME that studies the ancient universe using a single spectral line.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:To grab our special money saving NordVPN deal - Click HereIn today's episode, Anna and Avery cover a blue whale-sized asteroid making a close pass of Earth today, the imminent debut of SpaceX's most powerful rocket yet, NASA's Psyche spacecraft successfully completing its Mars gravity assist, fresh science arriving at the ISS, a new physics paper challenging the simulation hypothesis at its foundations, and Congress pushing back hard against proposed cuts to NASA's science budget.   Story 1 — Asteroid 2026 JH2 Newly discovered asteroid 2026 JH2 (first spotted 10 May 2026) makes a close Earth flyby today at ~90,000 km — within the orbital radius of many satellites. Estimated size: up to ~35 metres (blue whale-sized). Zero impact risk confirmed. Observable with binoculars at peak magnitude ~11.5. Live stream available via the Virtual Telescope Project. Orbital period: 3.7 years between Earth and Jupiter.   Story 2 — Starship V3 / Flight 12 SpaceX targets May 19, 2026 for the debut of Starship Version 3 (Flight 12) from Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas. Launch window opens 6:30 PM EDT. Key upgrades: Raptor 3 engines (250 tf SL thrust, up from 230 tf), three larger grid fins, new integrated hot-stage design, updated propellant systems. No tower catch on this flight; booster splashes in Gulf of Mexico. Upper stage (Ship 39) targets Indian Ocean after 65 minutes. Payload: 22 Starlink simulator satellites. Critical step toward Artemis lunar landings.   Story 3 — NASA Psyche Mars Flyby On 15 May 2026 at 3:28 PM EDT, Psyche completed its Mars gravity assist at 4,500 km altitude travelling at 12,333 mph. Passed inside the orbits of both Martian moons. Confirmed by Doppler shift monitoring. Mission: en route to metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche (arrival July 2029). Thousands of Mars observations gathered for science calibration.   Story 4 — SpaceX CRS-34 SpaceX's 34th Dragon cargo mission docked at ISS at 6:37 AM EDT on 17 May 2026, delivering ~6,500 lb of cargo for Expedition 74. Science payloads include: microgravity simulator validation study, wood-based bone scaffold (osteoporosis research), red blood cell/spleen spaceflight study. Dragon will return to Earth mid-June splashing down off California coast.   Story 5 — Simulation Hypothesis Paper Paper: ‘Non-algorithmic physics and the limits of the simulation hypothesis', published in the Journal of Holography Applications in Physics. Authors: Mir Faizal (UBC Okanagan), Lawrence Krauss, Arshid Shabir, Francesco Marino. Core argument: using Gödel's incompleteness theorems, the team argues any theory of quantum gravity would be non-algorithmic — containing truths no computation can capture. Since any simulation requires algorithms, reality cannot be fully simulated. Note: this is a theoretical paper, not an experimental result. The authors acknowledge no complete quantum gravity theory currently exists.   Story 6 — NASA FY2027 Budget House Appropriations Committee approved $24.438 billion for NASA in FY2027 — matching FY2026 and rejecting the White House's proposed $18.8 billion (a 23% cut). The proposal would have cut the Science Mission Directorate by 46%, terminating 50+ missions. Committee protects science, Habitable Worlds Observatory, and STEM education funding. Bill still needs Senate passage and reconciliation.   Skywatching TONIGHT — Moon-Venus conjunction: look west after sunset for the crescent Moon close to brilliant Venus. Earthshine visible on dark lunar limb. Southern Hemisphere: look west-northwest, best in first hour after sunset. Blue Moon on 31 May (second full Moon of the month).  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:To get the deatils of our money saving NordVPN deal - Click HereIt's the Astronomy Daily Weekend Space and Astronomy News Wrap — your Saturday deep dive into the biggest stories from across the week, plus two brand-new headlines and a bonus story we just couldn't leave out.   This week on Astronomy Daily: •      NASA's Psyche spacecraft executed its Mars gravity assist flyby yesterday — slingshotting past the Red Planet at 12,000 mph on its way to a $10 quadrillion metal-rich asteroid •      SpaceX launched the record-breaking CRS-34 Dragon mission to the ISS Friday night — with docking happening TODAY (Sunday May 17) •      James Webb Space Telescope maps the cosmic web in unprecedented detail — 164,000 galaxies, 13.7 billion years of history •      Hubble reveals 'Dracula's Chivito' — the largest, most chaotic planet nursery ever seen, 1,000 light-years from Earth •      Starship Version 3 is on the pad — debut launch targeting Tuesday May 19 from the new Launch Pad 2 at Starbase •      Comet R3 PanSTARRS is in Southern Hemisphere skies NOW — and tonight is New Moon. Your last chance for 170,000 years •      WEEKEND BONUS: NASA's Curiosity rover drilled into a rock on Mars — and the rock wouldn't let go   Find us at astronomydaily.io | Follow @AstroDailyPod | Part of the Bitesz.com Podcast Network   YouTube Show Notes Title: Mars Slingshot! Cosmic Web Mapped! Starship V3 Launch SOON! Weekend Space News Wrap | Today's Space News   In this weekend edition of Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery cover seven stories — two fresh headlines, four of the biggest stories from the past week, and a bonus story that's pure gold. It's been one of the best weeks in space in 2026.   CHAPTERS: 1.    00:00 — Cold Open & Weekend Wrap Introduction 2.    01:30 — FRESH: NASA Psyche Spacecraft's Mars Gravity Assist 3.    04:00 — FRESH: SpaceX CRS-34 Dragon Launch to the ISS 4.    06:00 — WEEKLY WRAP: JWST Maps the Cosmic Web 5.    08:30 — WEEKLY WRAP: Hubble's 'Dracula's Chivito' Planet Nursery 6.    11:00 — WEEKLY WRAP: Starship V3 — Launch This Tuesday! 7.    13:00 — WEEKLY WRAP: Comet R3 PanSTARRS — Skywatching Now 8.    15:00 — WEEKEND BONUS: Curiosity Rover's Sticky Rock 9.    16:30 — Outro & Credits   Subscribe for daily space and astronomy news | astronomydaily.io | @AstroDailyPod | Bitesz.com Podcast NetworkBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:To check out the fabulous money saving deal from NordVPN - Click Here!It's happening right now — NASA's Psyche spacecraft is executing a close Mars flyby at over 12,000 mph, using the Red Planet's gravity to slingshot toward a metallic asteroid. We've got live coverage of this extraordinary moment, plus the landmark results of a decade-long SETI search across 70,000 stars, Perseverance reaching the oldest Martian terrain ever explored, Hubble paving the way for the Roman Space Telescope launching this September, AI making supernova distance measurements four times more precise, and the James Webb Space Telescope finding a galaxy in the early universe that simply doesn't spin. All that and your southern hemisphere skywatching guide — on Astronomy Daily, Season 5, Episode 103.   Chapter Timestamps 00:00: Cold Open — Psyche Mars Flyby Teaser 00:45: Introduction & Episode Overview 01:15: Story 1: Psyche's Mars Flyby — It's Happening Right Now 04:45: Story 2: UCLA SETI — 10 Years, 70,000 Stars, Zero Aliens Yet 08:45: Story 3: Perseverance Reaches Mars' Oldest Terrain 13:15: Mid-Roll Break 14:15: Story 4: Hubble Paves the Way for the Roman Space Telescope 17:45: Story 5: AI Makes Supernova Distances Four Times More Precise 21:15: Story 6: Webb Finds a Non-Spinning Galaxy From the Early Universe 24:45: Skywatching — Southern Hemisphere Highlights 26:15: Trivia Teaser 25:45: Outro & Sign-off   Links & References •       NASA Psyche Mission: science.nasa.gov/mission/psyche •       UCLA SETI Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2605.05408 •       Perseverance Rover Updates: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020 •       Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: roman.gsfc.nasa.gov •       Astronomy Daily: astronomydaily.io •       Follow us: @AstroDailyPodBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:Our sponsor this week, NordVPN has put together a great money saving deal for you. Get the best protection for less. We use them and recommend them highly. To check out the details - Click HereAstronomy Daily — S05E102 | Thursday 14 May 2026   In today's episode, Anna and Avery cover six stories spanning the entire space science spectrum — from a record-breaking rocket debut to medieval literary theory.   Stories in This Episode 1.    Starship V3 Gets a Launch Date — SpaceX confirms May 19 for Flight 12, the debut of the fully redesigned Version 3 Starship and Super Heavy. 2.    Psyche Mission: Mars Flyby Tomorrow — NASA's asteroid-bound spacecraft passes just 2,800 miles from Mars on May 15 for a crucial gravity assist. 3.    JWST Maps the Cosmic Web — The James Webb Space Telescope charts 164,000 galaxies across 13.7 billion years in the most detailed cosmic web map ever made. 4.    Aurora Watch: Coronal Hole Facing Earth — A large solar coronal hole is pointing at Earth; G2 storm conditions expected from May 15 with aurora potential for Southern Hemisphere observers. 5.    Dante's Inferno and Impact Physics — New research presented at the European Geosciences Union argues Dante's 14th-century Hell maps the geometry of a planetary impact crater. 6.    CRS-34: Dragon Docks at the ISS — After two weather scrubs, SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule successfully delivers 6,500 lbs of science experiments to the space station.   Chapter Timestamps 00:00 — Introduction & Headlines 01:00 — Starship V3: May 19 Launch Date Set 05:00 — NASA Psyche: Mars Gravity Assist Flyby 08:30 — JWST Maps the Cosmic Web 12:00 — Aurora Alert: Coronal Hole & Solar Wind 15:00 — Dante's Inferno as Impact Crater Science 18:30 — CRS-34 Dragon Docks at the ISS 21:30 — Skywatcher's Corner: Aurora Tips & Mars 23:00 — Trivia, Sign-Off & Socials   Find us at astronomydaily.io | Follow @AstroDailyPod | Part of the Bitesz.com Podcast NetworkBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:When your ready to check out our special money saving NordVPN deal - Click HereToday on Astronomy Daily: A weather-delayed rocket launch gets a second chance — Dragon is heading to the ISS tonight. The most powerful rocket ever built is fuelled and ready, with Starship V3 Flight 12 targeting as early as May 19. NASA's Psyche spacecraft is days away from a dramatic Mars slingshot. A startup wants to beam electricity to satellites using lasers. Physicists may have cracked one of science's greatest puzzles. And Juno delivers the closest-ever view of a mysterious moon of Jupiter. All this — plus a Southern Hemisphere skywatching guide and space trivia — on Episode 101.   Chapter Timestamps 00:00 — Cold Open & Introduction 01:15 — Story 1: SpaceX CRS-34 Dragon cargo launch — weather scrub resolved 05:00 — Story 2: Starship V3 Flight 12 — launch as early as May 19 09:00 — Story 3: NASA Psyche spacecraft Mars flyby — this Friday 13:00 — Story 4: Star Catcher Industries raises $65M for space power grid 17:00 — Story 5: Brown University solves the cosmological constant problem 21:00 — Story 6: Juno's closest-ever image of Jupiter's moon Thebe 25:00 — Southern Hemisphere Skywatching Guide 26:30 — Space Trivia: What is asteroid Psyche made of? 27:30 — Outro & Sign-off   Stories Covered Today • SpaceX CRS-34 mission launches tonight from Cape Canaveral after Tuesday weather scrub • Starship V3 completes wet dress rehearsal — Flight 12 targeting May 19 • NASA Psyche spacecraft performs Mars gravity assist flyby on May 15 • Star Catcher Industries raises $65 million for world's first orbital power grid • Brown University proposes topology solution to the cosmological constant problem • NASA Juno captures closest-ever image of Jupiter's inner moon Thebe   Find us at astronomydaily.io | Follow @AstroDailyPod | Part of the Bitesz.com Podcast NetworkBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:When you're ready to secure your online digital life, do what we did and get NordVPN. To get started, use our great deal and save a heap of money. For details Click HereEpisode 100 of Series 5 and the universe is not slowing down. Today: a live ISS resupply launch, a Mars rover drama that took a week to resolve, a cosmic debate about our galactic neighbour, two extraordinary black hole findings from the James Webb Space Telescope, and a brand-new category of planet that smells of rotten eggs. Plus a quick milestone moment for the show.   STORIES IN THIS EPISODE   •       SpaceX CRS-34 launches tonight — 6,500 lbs of cargo, science payloads, weather risks •       Curiosity rover's 'Atacama' rock drama — a first in 14 years of Mars exploration •       The Large Magellanic Cloud may be approaching the Milky Way for the very first time •       JWST's little red dots: an X-ray clue a decade in the making •       JWST: two early-universe black holes that outgrew their galaxies by a factor of hundreds •       L 98-59 d: a brand-new class of planet — global magma ocean, sulphur-rich atmosphere   CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS   •       0:00 — Cold open & Episode 100 milestone •       1:30 — Story 1: SpaceX CRS-34 launches tonight •       5:00 — Story 2: Curiosity rover's 'Atacama' rock saga •       8:30 — Story 3: Is the Large Magellanic Cloud a first-time visitor? •       12:00 — Story 4: JWST's little red dots — the X-ray dot emerges •       15:30 — Story 5: JWST black holes that outgrew their galaxies •       19:00 — Story 6: L 98-59 d — the rotten egg planet •       22:30 — Southern skywatching & outro   Subscribe for daily space and astronomy news. Find us at astronomydaily.io and across all platforms at @AstroDailyPod.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:To get our secial NordVPN offer and save a heap of money, Click HereIn this milestone episode — one away from our 100th — Anna and Avery cover six extraordinary stories: the Pentagon's unprecedented release of 162 declassified UFO/UAP files; SpaceX firing all 33 Raptor V3 engines on the Super Heavy booster ahead of Starship Flight 12; tomorrow's CRS-34 cargo launch to the ISS; JWST's breathtaking new portrait of cosmic buckyballs inside a dying star; never-before-seen mineral maps of the Moon's far side created from Artemis 2 mission photographs; and the American Meteor Society's growing alarm over an unexplained spike in large fireball events across the globe.   Stories Covered 1. Pentagon Releases 162 Declassified UAP Files (May 8, 2026) •       The Pentagon launched a public portal at war.gov/UFO on Friday 8 May, releasing 162 declassified files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. •       Files include 120 PDF documents, 28 videos, and 14 images — spanning sightings from the 1940s to 2025. •       The PURSUE program (Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters) will release additional files on a rolling basis every few weeks. •       The files show no evidence of extraterrestrial contact or government cover-up; they are classified as 'unresolved cases.' •       Notable items include footage of a football-shaped UAP near Japan, a white orb over Syria, and Apollo 17 lunar imagery showing unexplained lights.   2. SpaceX Starship V3 Super Heavy — Full 33-Engine Static Fire (May 7, 2026) •       SpaceX completed the first successful full-duration, full-thrust static fire of the Super Heavy V3 booster at Starbase, Texas, on 7 May. •       All 33 Raptor V3 engines fired simultaneously — the most powerful ground test of any rocket first stage in history. •       Previous tests on 15 April ended early due to ground equipment issues; the 7 May test went the full duration. •       The Starship V3 Ship upper stage also completed its static fire in April — both vehicle halves now cleared for flight. •       SpaceX is targeting 15 May for Starship Flight 12, a suborbital test mission. Starship is central to NASA's Artemis lunar landing system.   3. SpaceX CRS-34 — ISS Resupply Launch (12 May 2026) •       Launch: 7:16 PM EDT, Tuesday 12 May from SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. •       Cargo: approximately 6,500 pounds, including scientific experiments, food, equipment, and crew supplies. •       Autonomous docking scheduled: ~9:50 AM EDT, Thursday 14 May, at Harmony module's forward port. •       Key payloads: Laplace (planet formation dust study), STORIE (space weather / ring current monitoring), wooden bone scaffold (osteoporosis research), and red blood cell / spleen change investigation. •       Watch live on NASA+, Amazon Prime, YouTube, and NASA's website from 7:00 PM EDT on 12 May.   4. JWST Reveals the Birthplace of Cosmic Buckyballs — Planetary Nebula Tc 1 •       Western University astronomers returned to planetary nebula Tc 1 (10,000+ light-years away, constellation Ara) using JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). •       First detected buckyballs (buckminsterfullerene / C60 molecules) in space here in 2010 using Spitzer; now JWST reveals the full structure for the first time. •       Buckyballs are concentrated in a thin spherical shell around the central white dwarf — arranged like 'one giant buckyball.' •       JWST imagery also reveals an unexplained upside-down question mark feature at the nebula's heart. •       Current theoretical models don't fully explain the buckyballs' observed infrared emissions — multiple new papers are in preparation. •       Buckyballs found in meteorites on Earth; understanding their space origins provides clues about organic chemistry and possibly life's building blocks.   5. Artemis 2 — Far-Side Moon Images (Published May 2026) •       Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy collaborated pre-mission with Commander Reid Wiseman to plan detailed lunar photography during the Artemis 2 flyby. •       McCarthy's image-stacking technique — applied to Wiseman's far-side photographs taken during the 6 April lunar flyby — has produced unprecedented colour mineral maps of the far side. •       Colours reveal mineral composition variations (browns, blues, reds) not visible to the naked eye — described as 'cyborg vision' for the Moon. •       NASA has released the full Artemis 2 photo archive: 12,217 images now publicly available. •       Full archive: NASA astronaut photography public archive (link in episode resources).   6. The 2026 Fireball Surge — AMS Analysis (Published May 2026) •       The American Meteor Society reports an anomalous spike in large fireball events in Q1 2026 that 'warrants serious investigation.' •       Total Q1 event count (2,046) is only marginally above historical norms; the anomaly is in the SIZE of events — the largest fireballs are happening at roughly double the historical rate. •       March 2026: 40+ major events, including a 3,229-witness fireball over Europe (8 Mar), an Ohio sonic boom explosion (17 Mar), and a meteorite through a Houston roof (21 Mar). •       79% of Q1's high-witness fireball events produced confirmed sonic booms — a strong physical indicator of large, dense incoming objects. •       Anthelion sporadic source (opposite the Sun) is producing roughly double its normal activity; activity concentrated in a single 1,000-square-degree patch. •       Ruling out explanations: not a new shower, not seasonal variation alone, not reporting bias. •       AMS calling for expanded automated all-sky camera networks and better cross-referencing with radar, infrasound, and satellite data.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor LinkWhen your ready to upgrade your digital security online, do what we did and get the best - NordVPN. And right now you can save a heap of money and help support the show. For details on the full deal CLICK HEREAstronomy Daily — S05E98 | Weekend Wrap | May 9, 2026   Welcome to the Astronomy Daily Weekend Space & Astronomy News Wrap! Every Saturday, Anna and Avery bring you a roundup of the biggest stories from the past week in space and astronomy — plus two fresh stories to open the show. Here's what we covered this week:   Fresh Stories  

Sponsor Link:When you're ready to upgrade your online security, do what we did and get NordVPN. And right now we have a great deal for you that will save you lot's on money. There's never been a  better time. To check out the deal Click Here!Wednesday 6 May 2026 | astronomydaily.io | @AstroDailyPod   Episode Summary In today's episode, Anna and Avery explore six remarkable stories from across the cosmos: a tiny frozen world beyond Pluto surprises scientists with an atmosphere it should never have; NASA drops twelve thousand stunning photographs from the Artemis II mission and Artemis III preparations accelerate; Blue Origin's uncrewed moon lander Endurance passes its toughest test; new research confirms the sun actively speeds up the descent of space debris; radar-equipped drones emerge as a key tool for mapping buried Martian ice; and Comet PanSTARRS makes its debut in southern skies.   Stories in This Episode 1. The Atmosphere That Shouldn't Exist Japanese astronomers have detected a thin atmosphere around trans-Neptunian object 2002 XV93 — a Kuiper Belt body just 500 km across. Published in Nature Astronomy, the discovery challenges long-held assumptions about which bodies can retain atmospheres. Possible causes include cryovolcanism or a recent cometary impact. Lead researcher: Dr Ko Arimatsu, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.   2. NASA Releases 12,000+ Artemis II Photos + Artemis III Update NASA has published more than 12,000 high-resolution images from the Artemis II mission, captured using Nikon cameras and iPhone 17 devices by the crew of Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen. The archive includes lunar far-side close-ups, Earthset images, star trails, and a solar eclipse from space. Meanwhile, the Artemis III SLS core stage has arrived at Kennedy Space Center for assembly, with a mid-2027 launch targeting a 460 km Earth-orbit docking test.   3. Blue Origin's Endurance Passes NASA Vacuum Test Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 1 uncrewed cargo lander (nickname: Endurance) has completed thermal vacuum testing inside Chamber A at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. The lander is targeted for the Moon's south polar region later in 2026, carrying stereo cameras and a laser retroreflector array. MK1 informs the development of the crewed Blue Moon Mark 2.   4. Solar Activity Accelerates Space Debris Reentry A study published today in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences tracked 17 pieces of orbital debris through three solar cycles (1986–2024). Researchers at India's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre found that once sunspot numbers reach ~70% of their cycle peak, orbital decay rates increase sharply due to thermosphere expansion and increased drag. Lead researcher: Ayisha Ashruf.   5. Radar Drones Could Map Hidden Water Ice on Mars A new study in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets proposes using low-flying radar-equipped drones to precisely map debris-covered glaciers on Mars. Tests on Earth's Galena Creek Rock Glacier in Wyoming demonstrated the technique can resolve the ice-debris boundary with unprecedented precision — information critical for future human missions planning to use Martian water resources.   6. Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS — Now Visible from Southern Hemisphere Having passed perihelion on 19 April 2026 (at ~75 million km from the Sun) and peak northern hemisphere visibility, Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS is now emerging in southern skies. Currently in Eridanus and heading toward Orion, the comet will pass within ~2° of the Orion Nebula 10–12 May. Best viewing conditions: around new moon 16 May. The comet is on a hyperbolic trajectory and will not return.   Connect With Us Website: astronomydaily.io Podcast: Available on all major podcast platforms X/Twitter: @AstroDailyPod Instagram: @AstroDailyPod TikTok: @AstroDailyPod Tumblr: @AstroDailyPodBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:When you're ready to secure you online life, do what we did, get NordVPN and by using our special link, you can save a heap of money. The best for less! To take up our special offer and check out the details, Click HereEpisode Summary In this episode of Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery cover six major space and astronomy stories: the James Webb Space Telescope's historic first direct study of a rocky exoplanet's surface; a dramatic upward revision of Io's volcanic heat output; the release of the FLAMINGO cosmological simulation dataset; a new technique for finding planets in binary star systems; the discovery of a novel state of matter inside ice giants; and how to watch tonight's Eta Aquarid meteor shower live online.   Story Links & References Story 1 — JWST Exoplanet Surface Study Nature Astronomy: LHS 3844 b thermal emission spectrum — doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02860-3 Space.com coverage: space.com/astronomy/james-webb-space-telescope/james-webb-space-telescope-directly-studies-an-exoplanets-surface-for-the-1st-time   Story 2 — Io Volcanic Power Revised arXiv pre-print: arxiv.org/abs/2605.00100  |  Phys.org: phys.org/news/2026-05-massively-underestimated-io-thermal-output.html   Story 3 — FLAMINGO Dataset Release Durham University: durham.ac.uk/news-events/latest-news/2026/04/astronomers-release-gigantic-cosmological-simulation-dataset Leiden University: universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2026/04/astronomers-release-massive-set-of-virtual-universes-for-global-research   Story 4 — TESS Binary Star Planets NASA Science: science.nasa.gov/missions/tess/for-nasas-tess-stellar-eclipses-shed-light-on-possible-new-worlds   Story 5 — New State of Matter in Ice Giants Nature Communications: Carnegie Institution quasi-1D superionic phase study Universe Today: universetoday.com (April 30, 2026)   Story 6 — Eta Aquarid Livestreams Livestream guide: space.com/stargazing/meteor-showers/watch-the-eta-aquarid-meteor-shower-online-with-these-free-livestreams ALMA Observatory livestream available via the above link. Peak: pre-dawn May 6 AEST.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:When your ready to secure your online life, be sure to get NordVPN ...we certainly did. To get our money saving deal with a risk free 30 day money back gaurantee.... Click HereIn today's Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery cover six major stories: Ireland becomes the 65th nation to sign the Artemis Accords; the Artemis III rocket core stage arrives at Kennedy Space Center; NASA's nuclear-electric SR-1 Freedom Mars mission ramps up toward a 2028 launch; the Eta Aquariid meteor shower peaks overnight May 5-6; NASA releases spectacular dual panoramas from Curiosity and Perseverance rovers; and new research makes a compelling case that the Large Magellanic Cloud is on its first-ever pass by the Milky Way.   Story Summaries & Key Facts   1. Ireland Signs the Artemis Accords •       Ireland signed as the 65th Artemis Accords signatory on May 4, 2026 at NASA HQ, Washington DC •       Hosted by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman alongside Irish Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason and Minister Peter Burke •       Three new signatories in two weeks: Latvia (#62), Morocco (#64), Ireland (#65) •       Accords established in 2020, covering peaceful exploration, transparency, data sharing, and heritage preservation   2. Artemis III SLS Core Stage Arrives at KSC •       The top four-fifths of the 212-foot SLS core stage arrived at Kennedy on April 27, 2026 via the Pegasus barge •       Traveled 900 miles from Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans •       Now inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, being mated to the engine section •       Artemis III (targeted late 2027) will test Orion docking with commercial landers in low Earth orbit — not a lunar landing •       Artemis IV (2028) will land astronauts on the Moon's south pole   3. NASA SR-1 Freedom Nuclear Mars Mission •       SR-1 Freedom will be the first nuclear-electric powered interplanetary spacecraft, launching December 2028 •       Uses Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP): fission reactor generates 20kW of electricity to power ion thrusters •       Hardware repurposed from the Gateway Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) •       Will deploy the 'Skyfall' payload: three Ingenuity-class helicopters to scout for subsurface water ice •       Could pave the way for megawatt-class reactors cutting human Mars transit time to two months   4. Eta Aquariid Meteor Shower Peak •       Peak: overnight May 5-6, 2026, with pre-dawn hours on May 6 as prime window •       Source: debris trail of Halley's Comet — Earth passes through it each May •       Meteor speed: ~66 km/s — fast, with persistent glowing trails •       Southern Hemisphere: up to 50 meteors/hour under ideal conditions — best shower for southern sky •       Moon challenge: 84% waning gibbous — block the Moon behind a tree or building for best results •       Active through May 28 — more opportunities if clouds intervene tonight   5. Curiosity & Perseverance Mars Panoramas •       NASA released dual 360-degree panoramas from both active Mars rovers — 3,775 km apart on the planet •       Curiosity: 1,031-image panorama of 'boxwork' formations in Gale Crater — fossil records of ancient groundwater •       Perseverance: 980-image panorama near Jezero Crater rim showing some of the oldest rocks in the solar system •       The two rovers are 'time-travelling in opposite directions' — Curiosity into younger terrain, Perseverance into older •       Perseverance carries 23 rock core samples in sealed tubes, awaiting future Earth-return mission   6. Large Magellanic Cloud — First-Time Visitor •       New pre-print paper claims definitive evidence the LMC is on its first-ever pass by the Milky Way •       LMC mass: roughly 10-20% of the Milky Way — large enough to send gravitational ripples through our galaxy •       Key evidence: LMC's gas corona is still largely intact — a previous close Milky Way pass would have stripped it away •       Also explains why the SMC and companion satellites haven't been tidally disrupted •       Rewrites the origin of the Magellanic Stream — now attributed to LMC-SMC interactions rather than Milky Way tidal forcesBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:When you're ready to upgrade your online security, get NordVPN just like we did. And we can save you a lot of money with our special deals. For details Click HereWelcome to Astronomy Daily S05E94 — our first ever Weekend Edition! Today we debut the Astronomy Daily Weekend Space and Astronomy News Wrap, featuring two fresh stories plus a roundup of the four biggest and most important space stories from across the past week.   Today's Stories •      Story 1: Russia's Soyuz 5 rocket completes its first successful suborbital test flight from Baikonur Cosmodrome. After nearly a decade of development, Russia's homegrown answer to the Zenit finally flew — a milestone for Roscosmos, even as questions remain about its competitiveness in a reusability-driven market. •      Story 2: May's Flower Moon peaked on May 1st — and May 2026 is a double-micromoon month, with both the Flower Moon and the May 31 Blue Moon occurring near lunar apogee. Southern Hemisphere skies are perfect for viewing this weekend.   Weekend Wrap — The Week's Four Biggest Stories •      Wrap 1: Artemis II — The Full Picture. 694,481 miles, 252,756 miles from Earth at farthest, 57-minute eclipse from beyond the Moon, heat shield performance significantly better than Artemis I. The numbers of a mission for the history books. •      Wrap 2: The Eclipse Only Four Humans Have Ever Seen. During the April 6 lunar flyby, the Artemis II crew experienced a 57-minute total solar eclipse from beyond the Moon — the first time in human history. Victor Glover's descriptions were extraordinary. •      Wrap 3: Roman Space Telescope locks in September 2026 launch — 8 months ahead of schedule and under budget. With a field of view 100x larger than Hubble's, Roman is poised to become the most powerful survey telescope in history. •      Wrap 4: Artemis III hardware arrives at Kennedy Space Center. The SLS core stage was offloaded from the Pegasus barge on April 27-28 — just as the Artemis II Orion capsule returned for post-flight analysis. The next mission is already assembling.   Skywatching This Weekend •      The Flower Moon is still at 99% illumination tonight — beautiful in Southern Hemisphere autumn skies. Look for it between Antares (Scorpius) and Spica (Virgo). •      Venus and Jupiter are prominent in the western evening sky, slowly closing toward a June 9 conjunction. •      Asteroid Vesta is at opposition today, May 2 — best viewed with binoculars or a small telescope from a dark site. •      The Eta Aquariid meteor shower peaks the night of May 5-6 — an excellent show from Southern Hemisphere locations.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:When you're ready to secure your online life, do what we did, get NordVPN. You won't regret it. To check out our special big money saving offer Click HereEpisode Summary Astronomy Daily is back for Season 5, Episode 93 — and space has not been idle during our brief break. In today's packed episode, Anna and Avery cover six major stories: the strongest-ever evidence that JWST's mysterious 'little red dots' are in fact black hole stars, courtesy of a new Chandra X-ray discovery; the double milestone at Kennedy Space Center as Artemis III hardware arrives and the Artemis II Orion capsule returns for analysis; the spectacular return of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy after an 18-month hiatus; a new cosmological model suggesting the universe could collapse in just 33 billion years; a debrief on post-mission lessons from Artemis II; and essential skywatching guidance for the peak of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. Stories Covered •       Chandra X-ray Observatory detects X-ray signal coinciding with a JWST 'little red dot' — strongest evidence yet for 'black hole star' theory •       Artemis III SLS core stage arrives at Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building — Artemis II's Orion capsule 'Integrity' returns same day •       SpaceX Falcon Heavy returns to flight after 18 months, successfully launches ViaSat-3 F3 to complete global broadband constellation •       New axion dark energy cosmological model suggests universe may collapse in 33.3 billion years — Big Crunch scenario revisited •       Artemis II post-mission analysis: heat shield data, valve redesign needed, toilet issues flagged — teams prepare for tight Artemis III turnaround •       Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks May 6 — up to 50 meteors/hour, best viewing from Southern Hemisphere before dawn Key Links •       Astronomy Daily website: astronomydaily.io •       Follow us: @AstroDailyPod •       Network: Bitesz.com Podcast Network •       Chandra / JWST little red dots paper: The Astrophysical Journal Letters •       NASA Artemis III core stage arrival: nasa.gov •       Eta Aquarid viewing guide: NASA Science skywatchingBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:To check out our special NordVPN savings: Click HereEpisode Summary In this episode of Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery explore six major stories from the world of space and astronomy. Leading the show is a landmark result from the ALMA telescope: the first-ever measurement of semi-heavy water inside an interstellar object. The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS contains up to 40 times more deuterium-rich water than Earth's oceans, revealing it formed in an ultracold environment very unlike our own solar system. The hosts then unpack the solution to a decades-long mystery: a massive binary star system near the galactic centre is responsible for the gas clouds feeding the Milky Way's supermassive black hole. Japan's MMX spacecraft — currently on the launch pad — is introduced, along with the exciting detail that its sample capsule will return Phobos material to Australian soil in 2031. Stellar archaeologists at ISTA have found fossilised magnetism on white dwarf stars, shedding light on the Sun's distant future. A thought-provoking segment examines the idea that any alien civilisation searching for intelligent life may already have detected us. And the episode closes with timely aurora and comet skywatching advice for Southern Hemisphere listeners.   Story Sources & Links Segment 1 — 3I/ATLAS Deuterium Water Study: Nature Astronomy (April 24, 2026) — 'A Direct View of the Chemical Properties of Water from Another Planetary System: Water D/H in 3I/ATLAS' — Salazar Manzano, Paneque-Carreno et al. ALMA Observatory press release: almaobservatory.org. University of Michigan news: eurekalert.org Segment 2 — Milky Way Black Hole Feeder Stars: 'The gas streamer G1-2-3 in the Galactic Center' — Gillessen et al., Astronomy & Astrophysics (2026). ESO/MPE press release: phys.org Segment 3 — Japan MMX Phobos Mission: JAXA MMX mission page: mmx.jaxa.jp. Space.com coverage. Sample capsule landing: Woomera Prohibited Zone, South Australia. Segment 4 — Stellar Archaeologists / White Dwarf Fossil Magnetism: Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA). Coverage: Space.com Segment 5 — Alien Technosignatures / SETI: Space.com feature. SETI Institute: seti.org Segment 6 — CME / Aurora / Comet: SpaceWeather.com. EarthSky sun news. NASA April 2026 skywatching guide (Comet C/2025 R3).  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:To grab our special NordVPN listener deal, Click HereWelcome to Astronomy Daily, Season 5 Episode 91 — Thursday 23 April 2026. Hosted by Anna and Avery for the Bitesz.com Podcast Network. Today: NASA's Roman Space Telescope locks in a September 2026 launch date eight months ahead of schedule; new research reveals Uranus's rings are hiding secrets — and possibly hidden moons; Hubble returns to the Trifid Nebula nearly 30 years on; Jordan becomes the 63rd nation to sign the Artemis Accords; the Artemis III rocket core stage ships to Kennedy Space Center; and Southern Hemisphere skywatchers get their best shot at Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS this week.   Story Summaries 1. Roman Space Telescope — September 2026 Launch Confirmed NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now targeting a September 2026 launch — eight months ahead of its formal May 2027 deadline, and under budget. The 300-megapixel infrared observatory will survey the cosmos with a field of view at least 100 times wider than Hubble's, observing over a billion galaxies and discovering more than 100,000 new worlds in its first five years. It will travel to the Sun-Earth L2 point aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.   2. Uranus's Mysterious Rings Hint at Hidden Moons A study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, using combined data from Keck Observatory, Hubble and JWST, has produced the first complete reflectance spectrum of Uranus's two outermost rings. The mu-ring is made of water ice sourced from moon Mab; the nu-ring contains carbon-rich organic compounds from unseen rocky bodies — suggesting undiscovered moonlets may orbit Uranus. Researchers say a dedicated spacecraft mission will be needed to solve the mystery fully.   3. Hubble Revisits the Trifid Nebula NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has re-imaged the spectacular Trifid Nebula, approximately 5,000 light-years away, nearly three decades after its original 1997 image. By comparing the two images, astronomers have tracked measurable changes in young stellar behaviour — demonstrating the power of long-lived space observatories as cosmic time-lapse cameras.   4. Jordan Signs the Artemis Accords The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan signed the Artemis Accords today at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC, becoming the 63rd nation to commit to the framework for peaceful space exploration. The Accords — established in 2020 — cover transparency, interoperability, data sharing, heritage preservation and resource extraction principles for Moon, Mars and beyond.   5. Artemis III Rocket Core Stage on the Move Just ten days after Artemis II's historic lunar flyby concluded, NASA rolled out the core stage of the Artemis III SLS rocket from Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans onto the Pegasus barge for shipment to Kennedy Space Center. Artemis III is targeting 2027 for an Earth-orbit crewed rendezvous and docking test with commercial lunar landers, with a Moon landing pushed to Artemis IV in 2028.   6. Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS — Southern Hemisphere Viewing Window Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS reached perihelion on April 19 and is now entering its best viewing window for Southern Hemisphere observers. From late April through early May, the comet will appear in the evening sky after sunset, potentially reaching magnitude 3.5 or brighter. Its orbit may be hyperbolic — meaning this could be humanity's only ever encounter with this object. Closest Earth approach: April 26, at approximately 73 million kilometres.   Links & Resources: •       Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: roman.gsfc.nasa.gov •       Artemis Accords signatories: nasa.gov/artemis-accords •       Comet C/2025 R3 tracking: theskylive.com/c2025r3-info •       New research — Uranus rings: doi.org/10.1029/2025je009404 •       Astronomy Daily: astronomydaily.io | @AstroDailyPodBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor LinkTo check out our special NordVPN offer for Astronomy Daily listeners: Click HereAstronomy Daily — S05E90 | Wednesday, April 22, 2026 In today's episode, Anna and Avery cover six stories spanning the fading power of humanity's most distant probe, fresh evidence for ancient life on Mars, a landmark black hole measurement, a SpaceX reusability milestone, a sobering assessment of the Artemis spacesuit programme, and tonight's moon and Jupiter conjunction.   Story 1 — Voyager 1 Powers Down the LECP Instrument •       NASA's JPL shut down Voyager 1's Low-energy Charged Particles experiment (LECP) on April 17, 2026, to conserve dwindling power. •       The decision followed an unexpected power drop during a routine roll manoeuvre in late February that nearly triggered an automatic emergency shutdown. •       Seven of Voyager 1's ten original instrument sets are now offline. Only the magnetometer and plasma wave subsystem remain active. •       Engineers are developing 'the Big Bang' — a plan to swap older components with lower-power alternatives — to extend operations into the 2030s. Testing on Voyager 2 is planned for May/June 2026; Voyager 1 to follow no sooner than July. •       Source: NASA JPL — https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-shuts-off-instrument-on-voyager-1-to-keep-spacecraft-operating/   Story 2 — Curiosity Rover Finds Organic Molecules on Mars •       Published April 21 in Nature Communications, the study describes the first use of the TMAH chemical experiment on another planet. •       More than 20 organic molecules were detected in clay-rich sandstone from the Glen Torridon region of Gale Crater, preserved for over 3.5 billion years. •       Discoveries include a nitrogen-bearing molecule structurally similar to DNA precursors — never before confirmed on Mars — and benzothiophene. •       The experiment cannot determine whether molecules are biological, geological, or meteoritic in origin. Future missions including Rosalind Franklin and Dragonfly will build on the technique. •       Source: phys.org — https://phys.org/news/2026-04-mars-rover-compounds.html   Story 3 — Black Hole Jets in Cygnus X-1 •       Curtin University-led study published April 16 in Nature Astronomy directly measures the instantaneous power of black hole jets for the first time. •       The jets in the Cygnus X-1 system carry energy equivalent to 10,000 suns and travel at approximately half the speed of light (150,000 km/s). •       Researchers used the companion star's stellar winds to 'bend' the jets, allowing calculation of their real-time power — a technique compared to watching wind deflect a fountain. •       About 10% of the energy released as matter falls into the black hole is carried away by the jets — confirming a long-held theoretical assumption. •       The measurement will help calibrate future observations from the Square Kilometre Array Observatory, currently under construction in WA. •       Source: ScienceDaily — https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/04/260416071949.htm   Story 4 — SpaceX 600th Rocket Landing •       SpaceX completed its 600th successful Falcon booster landing on April 19, 2026, during the Starlink 17-22 mission from Vandenberg SFB. •       Booster B1097 landed on drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You' for its eighth successful recovery. The milestone arrived just 7 months after the 500th landing. •       The tally includes 496 drone ship landings and 104 ground landings, per SpaceX VP Kiko Dontchev. •       SpaceX's Starlink constellation now numbers over 10,275 satellites in orbit. •       Source: Space.com — https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-starlink-17-22-b1097-vsfb-ofisly-600th-falcon-landing   Story 5 — Artemis Spacesuit Crisis •       NASA's Office of Inspector General report (released April 20) warns that next-generation Artemis spacesuits may not be ready until 2031 — three years after the stated 2028 target. •       The xEVAS programme began as a two-company competition (Axiom Space + Collins Aerospace). Collins has effectively been removed after missing milestones. Axiom is now the sole contractor for the lunar surface suit. •       OIG analysis: based on an 8.7-year historical average from contract award to first flight for comparable NASA programmes, Axiom's 2022 award points to a 2031 delivery. •       NASA Administrator Isaacman has publicly maintained confidence in the 2028 date. Axiom plans a suit demonstration in 2026 on the ISS or during an Artemis mission. •       A separate risk: if the ISS variant of the suit slips past 2030, the Station could run out of operational EVA suits before decommissioning. •       Additional Artemis delays: SpaceX lunar Starship at least 2 years late; Blue Origin Blue Moon at least 8 months late (per separate March OIG report). •       Source: SpaceDaily — https://spacedaily.com/sd-n-the-spacesuit-gap-why-artemis-iiis-2028-landing-date-is-already-slipping/   Story 6 — Skywatching: Moon & Jupiter Conjunction •       Tonight (April 22), the half moon sits approximately 3 degrees from Jupiter in the constellation Gemini, near the stars Castor and Pollux. •       Visible to the naked eye in the western/northwestern sky after sunset. Binoculars will reveal Jupiter's four Galilean moons. •       Southern Hemisphere viewers: look northwest after dark; viewing window narrows the further south you are. •       Source: Space.com — https://www.space.com/stargazing/the-moon-and-jupiter-steal-the-show-after-sunset-on-april-22Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Sponsor Link:This episode of Astronomy Daily is brought to you with the support of NordVPN. When you need to do something about securing your online presence. Check out the great deal (huge savings) for our listeners...visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpnEpisode DescriptionIn today's episode of Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery cover six major stories from the frontiers of space and science. NASA has unveiled the fully assembled Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope — one of the most powerful observatories ever built — with a launch as early as fall 2026. Researchers at Caltech have published striking evidence of an ancient Martian ocean, identifying a planet-wide 'bathtub ring' coastal shelf in the northern hemisphere. The FAA has formally grounded Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket following an official mishap classification after Sunday's failed satellite deployment. NASA's SPHEREx space telescope has delivered its first published science, mapping interstellar ice and organic molecules across the Milky Way in 102 infrared colours. New research warns that even habitable-zone exoplanets may not be truly habitable without sufficient water to maintain their carbon cycles. And a new study reveals that spaceflight doesn't just change astronauts' bodies — it changes their brains in ways that can linger long after they return to Earth.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

In today's episode, Anna and Avery cover six major stories from the past 24 hours. Blue Origin made history by reusing its New Glenn rocket for the first time -- but the upper stage deployed the BlueBird 7 satellite into the wrong orbit, forcing a deorbit. SpaceX delivered a clean GPS III SV10 launch for the US Space Force. Post-mission inspection of the Artemis 2 Orion capsule's heat shield provides initial good news after months of pre-flight controversy. A new MIT/WHOI planetary wave model reveals Titan's hydrocarbon seas could host 10-foot slow-motion waves from gentle breezes. The Lyrid meteor shower peaks Wednesday April 22 under ideal dark-sky conditions. And the Giant Magellan Telescope advances to its final design phase ahead of a crucial Congressional funding decision.   Story Links Story 1 -- Blue Origin New Glenn NG-3 •    Space.com: Blue Origin reuses New Glenn, deploys satellite to wrong orbit •    TechCrunch: Blue Origin's New Glenn puts satellite in wrong orbit •    GeekWire: Blue Origin reuses New Glenn; satellite goes into wrong orbit •    CBS News: In its third flight, New Glenn puts satellite payload into wrong orbit Story 2 -- SpaceX GPS III SV10 •    Space.com: Watch SpaceX launch GPS satellite for US Space Force -- April 20 •    Spaceflight Now launch schedule -- spaceflightnow.com/launch-schedule Story 3 -- Artemis 2 Heat Shield •    Space.com: Artemis 2 heat shield seems to have aced its trial by fire •    Gizmodo: NASA sets the record straight on that missing chunk of Artemis 2's heat shield •    NBC News: Did the Artemis II spacecraft protect the crew well enough? Story 4 -- Titan Waves / PlanetWaves •    Space.com: Tall waves moving in slow motion -- how oily oceans on Titan may behave •    Popular Science: Saturn's largest moon could see 10-foot waves from a tiny breeze •    Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets (MIT/WHOI study) Story 5 -- Lyrid Meteor Shower •    Space.com: Lyrid meteor shower 2026 -- when, where and how to see it •    EarthSky: Everything you need to know -- Lyrid meteor shower 2026 •    NASA: What's Up April 2026 skywatching tips -- science.nasa.gov Story 6 -- Giant Magellan Telescope •    Space.com: This giant telescope could discover habitable exoplanets -- if it gets its funding •    Giant Magellan Telescope official site -- giantmagellan.org   Trivia Answer QUESTION: The Lyrid meteor shower is produced by debris from Comet Thatcher. Approximately how long does it take Comet Thatcher to complete one orbit around the Sun? ANSWER: Approximately 415 years. Comet Thatcher last visited the inner solar system in 1861 and is not expected to return until around 2276. The Lyrid shower occurs each year when Earth passes through the trail of debris it left behind.   About Astronomy Daily Astronomy Daily is produced by the Bitesz.com Podcast Network. New episodes every day. Find us at astronomydaily.io and follow @AstroDailyPod for daily updates.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

In this episode of Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery cover six space and astronomy stories for Saturday, April 18, 2026. Comet MAPS has met its end at the Sun — the pair reflect on what happened and what comes next. Artemis III's SLS rocket stage rolls out of New Orleans on Monday. JWST and ALMA have revealed a stunning monster spiral galaxy hiding behind cosmic dust 11.5 billion years ago. An exoplanet system is changing its orbital architecture in real time. Four planets are gathering in a pre-dawn planet parade visible tonight. And 33,000 hydrogen halos have been found that solve a decades-old mystery about the early universe's fuel supply.   Story 1: Comet MAPS — Death of a Sungrazer Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS), a Kreutz sungrazer discovered on January 13, 2026 by French amateur astronomers at the AMACS1 Observatory in Chile, disintegrated during its close solar approach on April 4. The nucleus — estimated at approximately 400 metres in diameter based on JWST observations — could not survive passage just 160,000 km above the solar surface. A brief dust tail was visible in coronagraph images from SOHO and GOES-19, but the debris cloud has since dispersed. Attention now shifts to Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) as the next comet of interest. MAPS was the furthest-discovered Kreutz sungrazer in history, spotted 81 days before perihelion. Sources: EarthSky | StarWalk Space News | Sky & Telescope   Story 2: Artemis III SLS Core Stage Rollout On Monday, April 20, NASA will roll the top four-fifths of the Artemis III Space Launch System core stage — containing the liquid hydrogen tank, liquid oxygen tank, intertank, and forward skirt — out of the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and load it onto the Pegasus barge for delivery to Kennedy Space Center. The engine section is already at Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building. Four RS-25 engines are expected to arrive from Stennis Space Center by July 2026. Artemis III is currently targeting a 2027 launch for a crewed Earth-orbit test of Orion docking with commercial lunar landers, with a crewed Moon landing planned for 2028. Source: NASA Artemis III Media Release | nasa.gov   Story 3: JWST & ALMA Reveal Monster Spiral Galaxy ADF22.A1 Using the James Webb Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), an international team led by Hideki Umehata (Nagoya University) has revealed the true nature of ADF22.A1 — a galaxy in the SSA22 protocluster from 11.5 billion years ago. Previously hidden behind heavy cosmic dust, JWST unveiled its spiral stellar structure while ALMA mapped its rotating gas disk, spinning at an extraordinary 530 km/s — more than twice our own Milky Way. With an effective radius of approximately 22,800 light years, it is nearly twice the size of typical galaxies from that era. Cold accretion from the Cosmic Web is the leading explanation for its rapid growth and spin-up. A companion study examines nine additional dusty star-forming galaxies in the same protocluster, revealing diverse evolutionary stages and morphologies. Sources: ALMA Observatory Press Release | Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan (2025) | ApJ (2026)   Story 4: TOI-201 — Shape-Shifting Exoplanet System A team led by Ismael Mireles (University of New Mexico) has published findings in Science Advances confirming three bodies in the exoplanet system TOI-201: a super-Earth (TOI-201 d, 1.4x Earth radius, 5.85-day orbit), a warm Jupiter (TOI-201 b, ~0.5 Jupiter masses, 53-day orbit), and a brown dwarf (TOI-201 c, ~7.9-year orbit). The brown dwarf's gravity is actively distorting the inner planets' orbits on human timescales — the super-Earth's transits are shifting, and within 200 years it will stop transiting the star from Earth's viewpoint. TOI-201 c is the longest-period transiting object ever discovered. The system is 372 light-years away in the constellation Pictor. Next transit of TOI-201 c: March 26, 2031. Paper: Mireles et al., Science Advances, April 15, 2026 | DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aef2618   Story 5: April 18 Four-Planet Parade Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and Neptune are gathering in a compact cluster just 4 degrees wide in the pre-dawn eastern sky. Mercury (mag -0.1), Mars (mag 1.2), and Saturn (mag 0.9) are naked-eye targets. Neptune (mag 7.8) requires binoculars. Southern Hemisphere observers have the best view. Look east 60-90 minutes before sunrise. Peak window: April 16-23, with April 18-20 optimal. The cluster sits near the Pisces-Cetus border. App guide: Star Walk 2 / Sky Tonight | starwalk.space   Story 6: 33,000 Hydrogen Halos Found in the Early Universe The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) has published a landmark study in The Astrophysical Journal identifying more than 33,000 Lyman-alpha nebulae — massive hydrogen gas halos surrounding galaxies from 10-12 billion years ago ('Cosmic Noon'). The previous known count was approximately 3,000. Lead researcher Erin Mentuch Cooper (UT Austin) described the halos as 'giant amoebas with tentacles extending into the cosmos.' The study confirms that the hydrogen fuel needed for galaxy growth during the universe's peak star-formation epoch was widespread, not rare. Paper: Mentuch Cooper et al., ApJ 1000, 38 (2026) | DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ae44f3Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

The heroes of Artemis II speak! Less than a week after their historic lunar flyby, Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen held their first full post-mission press conference — and their words were extraordinary. Plus: Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket is on the pad for Sunday's landmark first-ever booster reuse; a 34-year dream becomes reality as the world's highest telescope opens in the Chilean Andes; astronomers discover 33,000 hydrogen halos that were hiding the universe's missing fuel; tonight is your best chance to spot the brightest comet of the year; and a solar storm could paint the weekend skies with aurora.Links & Sources •       NASA Artemis II Postflight News Conference: nasa.gov/artemis-ii-news-and-updates •       Blue Origin New Glenn NG-3: spaceflightnow.com •       FYST Telescope Inauguration: news.cornell.edu •       HETDEX Hydrogen Halos Study: hetdex.org / Astrophysical Journal •       Comet C/2025 R3 Skywatching Guide: science.nasa.gov •       Solar Activity & Aurora Forecast: earthsky.orgBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

The Artemis II crew — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — are on final approach to Earth after nine historic days in deep space. Splashdown is scheduled for Friday off San Diego. We have the full countdown, plus the story behind what NASA scientists called 'audible screams of delight' when the crew spotted micrometeorite impact flashes on the Moon during their lunar flyby. Also in today's episode: astronomers at ISTA in Austria have identified a brand new class of stellar remnant — two ultra-massive, X-ray emitting white dwarfs named Gandalf and Moon-Sized. Mars continues to disappoint on the habitability front. Four planets are lining up in April skies. And we close with the story of four astronauts, their iPhones, and the greatest selfies in human history.   Sources & links: •       Artemis II splashdown coverage: nasa.gov/artemis •       Micrometeorite impacts & lunar science: space.com | sciencenews.org | spaceq.ca •       Gandalf & Moon-Sized white dwarfs: ista.ac.at | universetoday.com •       Mars surface habitability: universetoday.com •       April planet alignment: starwalk.space •       Artemis II iPhone photography: space.com | engadget.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Today's Space News — Astronomy Daily S05E84 | April 8, 2026   In today's episode, Anna and Avery cover six incredible stories spanning the final days of humanity's return to deep space, a lost spacecraft mystery, and fresh science rewriting how we understand our own planet.   TODAY'S STORIES: (00:00) Intro (01:30) Story 1 — Artemis II Day 7/8: science debrief done, trajectory burns fired, and the crew heads home for a historic splashdown Friday (08:00) Story 2 — Cygnus CRS-24 launch delayed to April 10 due to weather — now launching the same day Artemis II lands (13:00) Story 3 — Earth formed entirely from inner Solar System material: Jupiter blocked everything else, and water was already here (19:00) Story 4 — ESA Juice delivers stunning new data on interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS: 70 Olympic pools of water per second (24:00) Story 5 — Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS is the new comet to watch this April — and it's looking good (29:00) Story 6 — FEATURE: Mars 96, the lost Mars mission that crashed back to Earth 30 years ago — and was never found   Subscribe for daily space and astronomy news | astronomydaily.io | @AstroDailyPodBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

The Artemis II crew has completed the most significant human spaceflight milestone since 1972 — a historic lunar flyby that took four astronauts further from Earth than any humans in history. In today's episode, Anna and Avery cover every moment of Flight Days 6 and 7, including the far-side blackout, a solar eclipse observed from beyond the Moon, and what comes next on the journey home. Plus: NASA faces another proposed 47% science budget cut, a cargo ship heads to the space station, Europe and China are about to launch a groundbreaking solar shield explorer called SMILE, and Blue Origin reveals its ambitious plan to map the Moon's hidden water ice.   Today's Stories 1. Artemis II Days 6 & 7: The Lunar Flyby •       The crew of Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen completed a 7-hour lunar flyby on April 6 •       Orion reached a maximum distance of 252,760 miles from Earth, surpassing the Apollo 13 record of 248,655 miles •       Closest lunar approach: 4,067 miles above the surface at approximately 7 p.m. EDT •       Christina Koch became the first woman to complete a lunar flyby •       The crew witnessed an Earthset, Earthrise, and a solar eclipse from behind the far side of the Moon •       Day 7 is a rest day; splashdown in the Pacific is targeted for April 10   2. NASA FY2027 Budget Proposal •       White House proposes $18.8 billion for NASA — a 23% overall reduction •       Science Mission Directorate would be cut by 47%, from $7.25B to $3.9B •       More than 40 missions face termination; Mars Sample Return and SERVIR named explicitly •       Exploration/Artemis funding would increase by ~10% •       Congress rejected nearly identical cuts last year   3. Cygnus NG-24 ISS Resupply •       Launch targeted April 8 from Cape Canaveral on SpaceX Falcon 9 •       Named S.S. Steven R. Nagel after four-time shuttle veteran •       Carrying 11,000+ lbs including Cold Atom Lab upgrade and stem cell research hardware •       Also includes Africa's ClimCam AI-powered climate camera from Egypt, Kenya, and Uganda   4. SMILE Mission — Launch April 9 •       Joint ESA / Chinese Academy of Sciences mission; first ever jointly designed, built, launched and operated by both agencies •       Launches April 9 on Vega-C from French Guiana; 3-year science mission •       Will give humanity its first complete, simultaneous view of Earth's magnetosphere reacting to the solar wind •       Four instruments: soft X-ray imager, UV aurora camera, light ion analyser, magnetometer •       Science orbit reaches 121,000 km above North Pole; up to 40 hours continuous observation per orbit •       Critical for understanding and predicting space weather — protecting satellites, power grids and communications   5. Blue Origin Oasis-1: Lunar Water Ice Prospecting •       Introduced at the 2026 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) •       Two-smallsat mission deployed from Blue Origin's uncrewed Mk1 lander; ultra-low 10x50 km polar orbit •       Instruments: neutron spectrometer (water ice to 1m depth), magnetometer (metals), multispectral imager (Helium-3) •       90-day global mapping phase followed by 10-day controlled deorbit — science continues to impact •       Partnership with Luxembourg Space Agency; data licensed commercially, non-commercial data released publicly via ESRIC •       Phase 1 of a 3-phase Project Oasis roadmap: orbit survey, surface mobility, then extraction operations   6. April Skywatching •       Comet C/2025 R3: closest approach April 27, magnitude ~8, binoculars needed •       Lyrid meteor shower peaks April 21–22, look toward Lyra from 10pm •       Mercury at best visibility of 2026 in the eastern pre-dawn sky   Links & Resources •       NASA Artemis II Flight Day 6 updates: nasa.gov •       Planetary Society Artemis II guide: planetary.org •       NASA FY2027 budget: spacenews.com •       Cygnus NG-24 launch: nasaspaceflight.com •       ESA SMILE mission: esa.int/smile •       Blue Origin Oasis-1: blueorigin.com   Connect With Us •       Website: astronomydaily.io •       Twitter/X: @AstroDailyPod •       Instagram: @AstroDailyPod •       TikTok: @AstroDailyPod •       YouTube: Astronomy Daily •       Tumblr: AstroDailyPodBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

For the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972, human beings are flying around the Moon — and it's happening RIGHT NOW. In this episode of Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery deliver a full Artemis II update covering Flight Days 4 and 5, and the historic lunar flyby unfolding TODAY.   We also have the promised verdict on Comet MAPS — the 'Easter comet' that plunged toward the Sun on April 4. Did it survive? Then two remarkable discovery stories: 87 hidden stellar streams uncovered in the Milky Way's outskirts, and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's stunning debut — 11,000 new asteroids in just six weeks. We close with an extraordinary astronomical event: a solar eclipse witnessed from beyond the Moon's far side.   IN THIS EPISODE: •       00:00 — Intro •       Story 1 — Artemis II: Days 4 & 5 + Today's Lunar Flyby •       Story 2 — Comet MAPS: The Easter Comet's Fate •       Story 3 — Third Dark-Matter-Free Galaxy Discovered •       Story 4 — 87 Hidden Stellar Streams Found in the Milky Way •       Story 5 — Rubin Observatory: 11,000 Asteroids in 6 Weeks •       Story 6 — Solar Eclipse from Beyond the Moon  

Artemis II, Comet MAPS, and Mercury: Your Space Week Just Got Very Busy  It's Day 3 of the Artemis II mission, a sungrazer comet is emerging from the solar corona, an Atlas V just set a payload record, and Mercury is at its best of the year. Here's everything you need to know from today's episode of Astronomy Daily.   Artemis II Flight Day 3: Orion Doesn't Even Need a Course Correction Four humans are on their way to the Moon, and everything is going better than planned. Flight controllers cancelled the first of three scheduled trajectory correction burns today — Orion is already on such a precise path that the burn simply wasn't needed. As Howard Hu, NASA's Orion program manager, noted, this reflects exceptional navigation performance throughout the mission. The crew — Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen — spent Day 3 on medical readiness drills, practising CPR in weightlessness and checking out the spacecraft's medical equipment. They also successfully tested Orion's optical communications system, transmitting HD video back to Earth from deep space. On Monday, April 6th, Orion will swing around the lunar far side at its closest approach — briefly out of radio contact with Earth — and at the mission's farthest point will travel 252,757 miles from home. That breaks the human spaceflight distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. Fifty-six years. We're finally going further.   Comet MAPS: The Solar Plunge Is Done — Now Comes the Wait At 14:22 UTC on April 4th, Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) reached perihelion — passing just 161,000 kilometres from the surface of the Sun, skimming through the lower solar corona. Whether it survived that encounter is still being determined from spacecraft imagery, as the comet remains in the Sun's glare for ground-based observers. If MAPS emerges intact, the Southern Hemisphere viewing window opens April 6th to 10th. Look west after sunset, low on the horizon, near Venus. Brightness predictions range from magnitude -5 (comparable to Venus) to extraordinary scenarios even brighter. Even a nucleus breakup could leave a spectacular dust tail — what's known as a 'headless wonder.' Either way, this story is not over.   Atlas V Sets a Record: 29 Amazon Leo Satellites, Heaviest Payload Ever At 1:45 a.m. Eastern Time on April 4th, a ULA Atlas V 551 lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying 29 Amazon Leo satellites — the heaviest payload in the rocket's 102-mission history. Mission LA-05 continues Amazon's build-out of its 3,200-satellite internet constellation (formerly Project Kuiper), with around 241 satellites now on orbit. Amazon faces an FCC deadline to have half its constellation operational by July 2026.   Blue Ghost Challenges a Fundamental View of the Moon New data from Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander — which operated on the lunar surface for two weeks in March 2025 — is shaking up decades of lunar science. Scientists expected Blue Ghost's landing site at Mare Crisium, well outside the Moon's 'hot zone,' to show significantly cooler interior temperatures than Apollo landing sites. It didn't. The near-side/far-side temperature divide may be far less pronounced than previously thought, suggesting heat-producing elements are more widely distributed beneath the surface. 'We may have to abandon that binary,' said principal investigator Seiichi Nagihara.   Pulsars Broadcast Further Than Anyone Knew — With Australian Science Behind the Discovery A study led by Professor Michael Kramer (Max Planck Institute) and Dr Simon Johnston (CSIRO) has found that about one third of millisecond pulsars emit radio waves from two completely separate regions — including a distant zone at the very edge of their magnetic reach called the current sheet. This overturns decades of received wisdom and suggests pulsars should be detectable from a wider range of directions than previously thought — with implications for gravitational wave detection using pulsar timing arrays.   Mercury Is at Its Best All Year — And Southern Hemisphere Skywatchers Win Mercury reached greatest western elongation on April 3rd — the year's best opportunity to see the innermost planet. From Australia and New Zealand, this is specifically the best morning apparition of Mercury in 2026. Look east about 30-40 minutes before sunrise for a steady point of light at around magnitude 0.4, just above Mars. Through binoculars or a small telescope, Mercury is currently showing a half-illuminated quarter phase. And on April 18th, Mercury, Saturn, Mars, and Neptune will gather in a tight morning-sky cluster — three of them visible to the naked eye.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Astronomy Daily Season 5, Episode 80 — Friday, April 3, 2026  It's Day 2 of the Artemis II mission and the crew is on their way to the Moon after a perfect translunar injection burn. We've also got a comet about to face perihelion, a dark matter mystery deepening, stunning new JWST images, and the escalating fight over the future of our night skies.  In today's episode: