Monday, July 6, 2026 1. Hayabusa2's Flyby of Asteroid Torifune • JAXA's Hayabusa2 spacecraft flew within ~800 metres of near-Earth asteroid (98943) Torifune on July 5, 2026, at a relative speed of about 5.25 km/s (~18,000 km/h). • This is an extended-mission flyby, not a sample return — Hayabusa2 already delivered Ryugu samples to Earth in December 2020. • Purpose: engineering demonstration of high-precision navigation relevant to planetary defense (asteroid deflection technology). • Torifune is roughly 450 metres across. Next stop for Hayabusa2: rendezvous with asteroid 1998 KY26 in 2031. • Source: JAXA/ISAS, Nikkei Asia, phys.org (July 5, 2026). 2. Mystery Molecule Found on Both Titan and Pluto • James Webb Space Telescope data reveals an unexplained absorption feature at ~5.11 micrometres on the surfaces of Titan (Saturn's largest moon) and Pluto. • Evidence points to a surface origin rather than atmospheric origin, based on limb-vs-disc-center comparison on Titan. • Candidate compounds include allenes, but no confirmed identification yet. • Pluto's absorption line is roughly three times broader than Titan's at the same central wavelength. • Study led by Dr. Bruno Bézard's team (Paris Observatory); posted to arXiv June 11, 2026 — not yet peer-reviewed. 3. Super-Kamiokande's Hint of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background • Super-Kamiokande collaboration presented results at Neutrino 2026 (UC Irvine) after analyzing ~5,000 days of data. • Found a statistically significant excess of events between 13.3–81.3 MeV — consistent with the long-predicted Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background (DSNB). • Significance: 2.6-sigma (~99.5% confidence) — below the 5-sigma discovery threshold, so described as an 'indication,' not a confirmed detection. • If confirmed, DSNB would offer a new way to study the cosmic history of core-collapse supernovae via neutrinos rather than light. 4. A Theoretical Fix for the Black Hole Information Paradox • New theoretical study proposes black holes stop evaporating just before vanishing completely, leaving a stable Planck-scale remnant (~9×10⁻⁴¹ kg). • Mechanism: a repulsive force from spacetime torsion in a 7-dimensional Einstein-Cartan model, active at extreme (Planckian) densities. • Proposal: quantum information is preserved via long-lived 'vibrations' in the remnant's internal torsion field. • This is a theoretical/mathematical proposal, not an observational result. Researchers: Pinčák, Pigazzini, Pudlák, Bartoš. 5. Weekend Geomagnetic Storm / Aurora Wrap-Up • X1.1 solar flare (June 30) and associated CME triggered a G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm around July 3–4, 2026. • Aurora borealis visible as far south as Utah, Colorado, and Nevada in the continental US. • NOAA SWPC reports conditions easing to unsettled/G1 levels through July 6 as CME effects wane. 6. Forecasting New Horizons' Crossing Into Interstellar Space • SwRI researchers (lead: Dr. Jonathan Gasser) combined solar wind forecasting with heliosphere models to predict New Horizons' termination shock crossing. • Forecast window: 2029–2040, with possible multiple crossings as the heliosphere expands/contracts with the solar cycle. • New Horizons is currently ~66 AU from the Sun. Voyager 2 crossed its termination shock at 84 AU in 2007, with a 46% solar wind speed drop. • New Horizons would become only the third spacecraft (after Voyager 1 and 2) to cross this boundary. • Two papers: Advances in Space Research and The Astrophysical Journal (SwRI, 2026).
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This episode includes AI-generated content.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily.
00:00:02 --> 00:00:03 I'm Anna.
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 Avery: And I'm avery. It's Monday, July 6th,
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 and we've got a properly stacked show for you
00:00:08 --> 00:00:09 today.
00:00:09 --> 00:00:11 Anna: We're talking a, uh, nail biting asteroid
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 flyby from Japan. A genuine
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 cosmic mystery on two different worlds,
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 and a hint that we might finally be hearing
00:00:20 --> 00:00:22 the universe's oldest ghost signal.
00:00:23 --> 00:00:25 Avery: Plus a black hole theory that could rewrite
00:00:25 --> 00:00:27 the rulebook. A, uh, look back at the
00:00:27 --> 00:00:29 weekend's aurora action, and a very long
00:00:29 --> 00:00:32 range weather forecast for the edge of the
00:00:32 --> 00:00:32 solar system.
00:00:33 --> 00:00:34 Anna: All that right after this.
00:00:35 --> 00:00:37 Avery: Let's kick off in Japan, where Mission
00:00:37 --> 00:00:40 Control had a genuinely nervous Sunday night.
00:00:40 --> 00:00:43 Anna: This is Hayabusa2. Yes, the
00:00:43 --> 00:00:45 same spacecraft that brought samples back
00:00:45 --> 00:00:48 from asteroid Ryugu in 2020. It's
00:00:48 --> 00:00:50 been on an extended mission ever since
00:00:50 --> 00:00:53 because it turned out to have fuel to spare.
00:00:53 --> 00:00:56 Avery: And on July 5, Japan time, it did
00:00:56 --> 00:00:58 something it was never really designed to do.
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 A high speed flyby of a near Earth asteroid
00:01:01 --> 00:01:04 called Toroph, passing within about
00:01:04 --> 00:01:07 800 meters at, uh, more than 18
00:01:07 --> 00:01:08 kilometers an hour.
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 Anna: 800 meters at that speed.
00:01:11 --> 00:01:14 Jaxa described it like trying to shoot a coin
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 somewhere between Okinawa and Hokkaido.
00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 Avery: The spacecraft's cameras were never built for
00:01:19 --> 00:01:22 a flyby like this. Hayabusa 2 is a
00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 rendezvous spacecraft designed to hover close
00:01:25 --> 00:01:28 to an asteroid for months, not scream past
00:01:28 --> 00:01:29 one in a heartbeat.
00:01:29 --> 00:01:31 Anna: So this whole encounter is really an
00:01:31 --> 00:01:34 engineering demonstration first, science
00:01:34 --> 00:01:34 second.
00:01:35 --> 00:01:37 Avery: And the reason it matters, beyond the wow
00:01:37 --> 00:01:40 factor, is planetary defense. If
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 humanity ever needs to nudge a hazardous
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 asteroid off course, we need to know how
00:01:45 --> 00:01:47 these bodies behave up close. Do they act
00:01:47 --> 00:01:50 like solid rock? Or more like a loose pile of
00:01:50 --> 00:01:53 rubble? That changes everything about how
00:01:53 --> 00:01:54 you'd deflect one.
00:01:54 --> 00:01:56 Anna: JAXA confirmed the spacecraft is healthy.
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 The flyby went to plan, and cameras captured
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 imagery of Torophone's shape, texture and
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 temperature that scientists are poring over
00:02:05 --> 00:02:05 now.
00:02:06 --> 00:02:08 Avery: Torophone itself is only about 450
00:02:08 --> 00:02:11 meters across. No sample returned this
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 time. This one's, uh, a look and go.
00:02:13 --> 00:02:16 Hayabusa2's next big date is
00:02:16 --> 00:02:18 2031, when it rendezvous with a
00:02:18 --> 00:02:21 completely different target, the small, fast
00:02:21 --> 00:02:23 spinning asteroid 1998
00:02:23 --> 00:02:24 KY26.
00:02:25 --> 00:02:28 Anna: So think of Sunday as a dress rehearsal. A
00:02:28 --> 00:02:31 spacecraft already passed its day job, still
00:02:31 --> 00:02:32 finding ways to be useful.
00:02:33 --> 00:02:35 Avery: Our next story is one of those lovely we
00:02:35 --> 00:02:38 genuinely don't know what this is moments in
00:02:38 --> 00:02:39 astronomy.
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41 Anna: Researchers combing through James Webb Space
00:02:41 --> 00:02:44 Telescope data have found an unexplained
00:02:44 --> 00:02:47 absorption feature, basically a dick in the
00:02:47 --> 00:02:49 light spectrum, sitting at exactly
00:02:49 --> 00:02:52 5.11 micrometers uh, and
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 Avery: they found it twice. Once on Saturn's big
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 moon, Titan, and
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 Anna: once on Pluto, which is odd, because
00:02:58 --> 00:03:01 Titan and Pluto are about as different as
00:03:01 --> 00:03:04 two icy worlds get. Titan has a thick
00:03:04 --> 00:03:07 nitrogen methane atmosphere, methane
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 lakes, actual rain. Pluto has a
00:03:10 --> 00:03:12 wisp of an atmosphere and is bitterly cold
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 and airbound in name only.
00:03:14 --> 00:03:17 Avery: The team led by Bruno Bizard at the Paris
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 Observatory checked whether the signal could
00:03:20 --> 00:03:21 just be coming from the atmosphere rather
00:03:21 --> 00:03:24 than the surface. And on Titan at least, the
00:03:24 --> 00:03:27 absorption was actually weaker at the edge of
00:03:27 --> 00:03:29 the disk, where you'd expect an atmospheric
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 signal to be stronger that points to the
00:03:31 --> 00:03:32 surface as the source.
00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 Anna: They've ruled out the usual common
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 ices, straightforward hydrocarbons, the
00:03:38 --> 00:03:41 nitrogen photochemistry products you'd
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 expect. The closest match so far is a class
00:03:43 --> 00:03:46 of molecules called Allenes, but it's not
00:03:46 --> 00:03:47 confirmed.
00:03:47 --> 00:03:48 Avery: And, and here's the twist.
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 Anna: On Pluto, the same absorption line is
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 about three times broader than on Titan,
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 even though it sits at the same wavelength.
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 So whatever it is, it's behaving differently
00:03:59 --> 00:04:00 on each world.
00:04:01 --> 00:04:04 Avery: This result is still a preprint, so it hasn't
00:04:04 --> 00:04:06 cleared peer review yet. But the researchers
00:04:06 --> 00:04:08 are calling it one of the more compelling,
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 unassigned features they've seen. Solve this
00:04:11 --> 00:04:12 one, and you learned something new about
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 organic chemistry happening in the deep
00:04:14 --> 00:04:16 freeze on two worlds at once.
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 Next story three takes us underground,
00:04:20 --> 00:04:23 literally, to the Super Kamikande Neutrino
00:04:23 --> 00:04:24 Detector in Japan.
00:04:24 --> 00:04:27 Anna: Every second, somewhere in the universe, a
00:04:27 --> 00:04:29 massive star reaches the end of its life and
00:04:29 --> 00:04:32 collapses into a supernova. Each one of those
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 explosions flood space with neutrinos,
00:04:35 --> 00:04:38 ghostly particles that barely interact with
00:04:38 --> 00:04:38 anything.
00:04:39 --> 00:04:41 Avery: Physicists have long predicted that all of
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 those neutrinos from every supernova across
00:04:44 --> 00:04:47 the entire history of the universe should add
00:04:47 --> 00:04:49 up to a very faint, constant background
00:04:49 --> 00:04:52 hum. The diffuse supernova neutrino
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 background, or DSNB, for short.
00:04:55 --> 00:04:57 Anna: It's never been detected until
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 maybe now. The Super Kamikande
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 collaboration presented results this week at
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 the Neutrino 2026 conference in
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 California. After combing through nearly
00:05:08 --> 00:05:11 5 days, that's about 13 and a
00:05:11 --> 00:05:12 half years of data.
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 Avery: They found a statistically significant excess
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 of events in the expected energy range. The
00:05:18 --> 00:05:19 confidence level works out to about
00:05:19 --> 00:05:22 Anna: 99.5%, which sounds
00:05:22 --> 00:05:25 enormous, but in particle physics terms, it's
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 still short of the gold standard five sigma
00:05:28 --> 00:05:31 threshold needed to call it a discovery. So
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 the team is very deliberately calling this an
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 indication, not a confirmation.
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 Avery: Still, if it holds up with more data, this
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 would be a whole new way of studying the
00:05:41 --> 00:05:43 history of the universe's. Supernovae. Using
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 particles instead of light, it could tell us
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 how often massive stars have exploded over
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 cosmic time and how black holes and neutron
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53 stars formed a background
00:05:53 --> 00:05:56 Anna: hum from every dying star that ever
00:05:56 --> 00:05:57 lived.
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 Not bad for a Monday Sticking with
00:05:59 --> 00:06:02 Avery: big theoretical ideas, Story four is
00:06:02 --> 00:06:04 a fresh attempt to solve one of physics's
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 most stubborn headachesthe Black Hole
00:06:07 --> 00:06:08 Information paradox.
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 Anna: Quick Refresher Stephen Hawking showed in the
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 1970s that black holes very
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 slowly radiate energy and in theory
00:06:17 --> 00:06:20 eventually evaporate completely. The
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 paradox is what happens to all the
00:06:22 --> 00:06:25 information about everything that ever fell
00:06:25 --> 00:06:27 in. Quantum mechanics says information
00:06:28 --> 00:06:31 can't just vanish, so where does it go?
00:06:31 --> 00:06:34 Avery: A new theoretical study proposes an answer
00:06:34 --> 00:06:36 using a seven dimensional model of spacetime
00:06:37 --> 00:06:39 built on something called Einstein Cartan
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 geometry with torsion basically letting
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 spacetime twist as well as bending.
00:06:44 --> 00:06:47 Anna: The researchers found at extreme densities
00:06:47 --> 00:06:50 right at the Planck scale, that twisting
00:06:50 --> 00:06:52 produces a, uh, repulsive force strong enough
00:06:52 --> 00:06:55 to halt the final stage of Hawking in
00:06:55 --> 00:06:56 operation completely.
00:06:57 --> 00:06:59 Avery: Instead of vanishing, the black hole would
00:06:59 --> 00:07:01 freeze into a stable leftover object,
00:07:02 --> 00:07:04 a remnant with a predicted mass of around
00:07:04 --> 00:07:07 9 times 10 to the -41
00:07:07 --> 00:07:09 kilograms. Genuinely tiny.
00:07:09 --> 00:07:12 Anna: And the proposal is that this remnant acts
00:07:12 --> 00:07:14 like a permanent archive with the black
00:07:14 --> 00:07:17 hole's information encoded in long lived
00:07:17 --> 00:07:20 internal vibrations. Rather than being lost,
00:07:20 --> 00:07:21 it's squarely in
00:07:21 --> 00:07:24 Avery: fascinating but far from settled territory.
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 This is a theoretical framework, not an
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 observation, but it's a serious attempt to
00:07:29 --> 00:07:31 answer a 50 year old question. And it comes
00:07:31 --> 00:07:34 with a neat bonus. The same geometry might
00:07:34 --> 00:07:37 also help explain why fundamental particles
00:07:37 --> 00:07:38 have, uh, uh, mass in the first place.
00:07:38 --> 00:07:41 Anna: Two birds, one seven dimensional stone
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 Next up, a quick check in on the sky show
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 from the weekend for anyone who missed it or
00:07:46 --> 00:07:47 is still out chasing it.
00:07:48 --> 00:07:51 Avery: Saturday's X1 solar flare and its
00:07:51 --> 00:07:53 coronal mass ejection slammed into Earth's
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 magnetic field as forecast, pushing
00:07:56 --> 00:07:58 geomagnetic activity up to G3.
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 Strong storm levels through July 3rd and 4th.
00:08:01 --> 00:08:04 Anna: Aurora Borealis was reported as far south
00:08:04 --> 00:08:07 as Utah, Colorado and Nevada in the US
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 with some lovely July 4th fireworks and
00:08:10 --> 00:08:12 Aurora combo shots doing the rounds online.
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 Avery: NOAA AH Space Weather Prediction center says
00:08:15 --> 00:08:17 activity has been easing since with
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 conditions dropping to unsettled to G1 levels
00:08:20 --> 00:08:23 through today the 6th as the effects of last
00:08:23 --> 00:08:24 week's CMEs fade out.
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 Anna: So if you're in a high latitude spot,
00:08:28 --> 00:08:30 Southern Hemisphere included, tonight's still
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 worth a glance skyward. But don't expect a
00:08:33 --> 00:08:35 repeat of Saturday's fireworks. The main
00:08:35 --> 00:08:36 event has passed.
00:08:37 --> 00:08:39 Avery: Our last story is a lovely bit of long
00:08:39 --> 00:08:42 range Weather forecasting Except the weather
00:08:42 --> 00:08:45 is solar wind and the destination is
00:08:45 --> 00:08:46 interstellar space.
00:08:47 --> 00:08:49 Anna: NASA's New Horizons, the
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 spacecraft that gave us our first close up
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 look at Pluto in 2015 and then
00:08:54 --> 00:08:57 flew past the Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth
00:08:57 --> 00:09:00 in 2019, is still out there, still
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 working currently around, uh, 66
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 astronomical units from M the Sun.
00:09:05 --> 00:09:07 Avery: Researchers at the Southwest Research
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 Institute, led by Dr. Jonathan Gasser
00:09:10 --> 00:09:12 have combined solar wind forecasting with
00:09:12 --> 00:09:15 helios heliosphere models to predict when New
00:09:15 --> 00:09:18 Horizons will cross. Determination Shock the
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 first plasma boundary marking the edge of the
00:09:20 --> 00:09:22 Sun's influence before the true edge of the
00:09:22 --> 00:09:24 heliosphere further out.
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26 Anna: Their answer? Somewhere between
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 2029 and 2040, which
00:09:29 --> 00:09:32 is, let's be honest, a pretty wide window.
00:09:32 --> 00:09:34 Avery: But that's because the heliosphere isn't a
00:09:34 --> 00:09:37 fixed shell. It swells and shrinks with the
00:09:37 --> 00:09:40 solar cycle, expanding during solar maximum
00:09:40 --> 00:09:43 and contracting during solar minimum. New
00:09:43 --> 00:09:45 Horizons might even cross the boundary more
00:09:45 --> 00:09:48 than once if the shock front M moves back and
00:09:48 --> 00:09:50 forth across the spacecraft's path.
00:09:50 --> 00:09:53 Anna: For context, Voyager 2 crossed its
00:09:53 --> 00:09:55 termination shock back in 2007
00:09:55 --> 00:09:58 at 84 astronomical units and
00:09:58 --> 00:10:01 measured a sharp 46% drop
00:10:01 --> 00:10:03 in solar wind speed right at the boundary.
00:10:04 --> 00:10:06 Avery: If New Horizons gets there, it'll become only
00:10:06 --> 00:10:09 the third spacecraft in history to cross into
00:10:09 --> 00:10:12 that outer frontier after Voyager 1 and
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 2. Not bad for a mission that was just
00:10:14 --> 00:10:15 supposed to visit Pluto.
00:10:16 --> 00:10:18 Anna: A whole new frontier. And we might get to
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 watch it happen live sometime in the next
00:10:21 --> 00:10:21 decade or so.
00:10:22 --> 00:10:24 Avery: And that's a wrap on Today's episode.
00:10:24 --> 00:10:27 An asteroid 5i a, uh, shared mystery on
00:10:27 --> 00:10:30 two icy worlds, a possible whisper from
00:10:30 --> 00:10:32 every supernova that ever happened, a
00:10:32 --> 00:10:34 theoretical black hole afterlife, some
00:10:34 --> 00:10:37 leftover aurora, and a decade long forecast
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 for the edge of the solar system.
00:10:39 --> 00:10:42 Anna: If you enjoyed the show, please do leave us a
00:10:42 --> 00:10:45 rating and review. It genuinely helps other
00:10:45 --> 00:10:46 space fans find us.
00:10:46 --> 00:10:47 Avery: I'm Avery.
00:10:47 --> 00:10:50 Anna: And I'm Ana. We'll see you next time on
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 Astronomy Daily. Clear skies, everyone.
00:11:05 --> 00:11:16 Avery: Sam
00:11:16 --> 00:11:16 m.