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00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source for
00:00:02 --> 00:00:05 the latest space and astronomy news. I'm
00:00:05 --> 00:00:06 Anna.
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 Avery: And I'm, um, avery. It's Saturday, July 4,
00:00:08 --> 00:00:11 2026. Happy Independence Day to everyone
00:00:11 --> 00:00:12 celebrating today.
00:00:12 --> 00:00:15 And welcome to our weekend space and
00:00:15 --> 00:00:16 astronomy news wrap.
00:00:16 --> 00:00:18 Anna: That means we're doing things a little
00:00:18 --> 00:00:21 differently today. We've got four of the
00:00:21 --> 00:00:23 biggest stories from the past five days, plus
00:00:23 --> 00:00:26 two brand new stories to keep things fresh.
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 Avery: And what a week it's been. We've got a rescue
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 mission that finally got off the ground, a
00:00:31 --> 00:00:33 telescope in Chile that just changed the game
00:00:33 --> 00:00:36 for astronomy. A, ah, geomagnetic storm
00:00:36 --> 00:00:39 timed perfectly for the holiday weekend, and
00:00:39 --> 00:00:41 a very close encounter between Mars and
00:00:41 --> 00:00:43 Uranus happening literally today.
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 Anna: Plus, uh, NASA's given us the perfect Fourth
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 of July present. Cosmic fireworks
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 courtesy of the James Webb Space Telescope.
00:00:52 --> 00:00:53 Avery: Let's get into it.
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 Anna: Let's start with the story we've been
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 following all week. And finally some good
00:00:58 --> 00:01:00 news. The Swift Boost mission has
00:01:00 --> 00:01:02 finally successfully launched.
00:01:02 --> 00:01:05 Avery: After weather scrubs and then that software
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 navigation issue that aborted Thursday's
00:01:07 --> 00:01:10 attempt, Catalyst Space's Link
00:01:10 --> 00:01:12 spacecraft got away clean Early Friday
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 morning, 4:36am Eastern Time
00:01:16 --> 00:01:18 on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL
00:01:18 --> 00:01:21 rocket release from the Stargazer aircraft
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 over Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
00:01:24 --> 00:01:26 Anna: And there's a bit of history in this launch
00:01:26 --> 00:01:29 too. That was the very last flight of
00:01:29 --> 00:01:32 the Pegasus rocket. Full stop. End of an
00:01:32 --> 00:01:33 era for that vehicle.
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 Avery: It really is now. Link isn't just going to
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 zip up and grab Swift straight away. It's got
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 two to three weeks of careful observation
00:01:41 --> 00:01:44 ahead of it, sizing up the observatory to
00:01:44 --> 00:01:46 find the best spot to grapple onto it.
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 Anna: Right. Swift, uh, wasn't built to be
00:01:48 --> 00:01:51 serviced, so this is delicate work. Once
00:01:51 --> 00:01:54 Link picks its grab point and secures Swift
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 with its three robotic arms, it'll fire up
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 gentle ion thrusters and spend several months
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 slowly raising the pair back to a safe orbit.
00:02:03 --> 00:02:05 Avery: If it works, it'll be the first time a
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 commercial spacecraft has ever captured a
00:02:08 --> 00:02:10 government satellite that was never designed
00:02:10 --> 00:02:12 to docking. No pressure, Link.
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 Anna: After the week it's had just getting off the
00:02:15 --> 00:02:16 ground, I, uh, think it's earned a little
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 confidence. We'll keep tracking this one as
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 it approaches Swift in the coming weeks.
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 Avery: Story two is genuinely one of the biggest
00:02:24 --> 00:02:27 moments in astronomy. This year. The Vera C.
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 Rubin Observatory in Chile has officially
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 begun its 10 year legacy survey of space and
00:02:32 --> 00:02:33 time.
00:02:33 --> 00:02:36 Anna: This has been three decades in the making.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 Rubin sits atop Cerro Pachon and
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 it's using the largest digital camera ever
00:02:42 --> 00:02:44 built. 3200
00:02:44 --> 00:02:47 megapixels to photograph the entire
00:02:47 --> 00:02:49 southern sky every few nights.
00:02:49 --> 00:02:51 Avery: Every single image captures a patch of sky
00:02:51 --> 00:02:54 about 45 full moons wide, and the
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 camera snaps a new one roughly every 40
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 seconds. Over 10 years, it's expected
00:02:59 --> 00:03:02 to catalog around 17 billion
00:03:02 --> 00:03:05 stars and 20 billion galaxies.
00:03:05 --> 00:03:07 Anna: And because it's revisiting the same patches
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 of sky over and over, it'll build up what
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13 astronomers are calling a time lapse movie of
00:03:13 --> 00:03:15 the universe, catching supernovae,
00:03:15 --> 00:03:18 asteroids, and anything else that moves,
00:03:18 --> 00:03:20 brightens, or fades practically as it
00:03:20 --> 00:03:21 happens.
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 Avery: One of the project leads called it the end of
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 a 30 year wait. And for anyone down here in
00:03:26 --> 00:03:28 the Southern Hemisphere, it's worth
00:03:28 --> 00:03:31 remembering. This is very much our sky.
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 Anna: Rubin's watching a proud moment for Chile
00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 and for astronomy generally. This is going to
00:03:36 --> 00:03:39 keep producing headlines for a decade.
00:03:39 --> 00:03:42 Next up, if you've been outside the last
00:03:42 --> 00:03:44 couple of nights, you might already know
00:03:44 --> 00:03:47 about this one. That x1.1
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 solar flare from earlier in the week has
00:03:49 --> 00:03:52 triggered a, uh, proper geomagnetic storm.
00:03:52 --> 00:03:55 Avery: NOAA Space Weather Prediction center has
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 forecasted G2 to possibly G3
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 class storming across July 3rd and into
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 today July 4th, thanks to a series of
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 coronal mass ejections arriving in close
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 succession in the Northern Hemisphere.
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 Anna: That's put the aurora view line unusually
00:04:11 --> 00:04:13 far south parts of Montana, North
00:04:13 --> 00:04:16 Dakota, Minnesota, even as far as
00:04:16 --> 00:04:18 Kansas or Maryland if things get feisty.
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 Avery: And for us in the Southern Hemisphere, storms
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 of this strength can bring the aurora, uh,
00:04:23 --> 00:04:26 Australis into view, too. Worth keeping an
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 eye on the southern horizon tonight if you're
00:04:28 --> 00:04:29 away from city lights.
00:04:30 --> 00:04:32 Anna: Just a reminder, the key thing to watch is
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 the BZ component of the interplanetary
00:04:35 --> 00:04:37 magnetic field. When it swings south,
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 that's when the show really gets going.
00:04:40 --> 00:04:43 Avery: So tonight might just serve up fireworks in
00:04:43 --> 00:04:45 the sky as well as on the ground. Not a bad
00:04:45 --> 00:04:47 way to spend Independence Day if you're one
00:04:47 --> 00:04:50 for celebrating. Story four is a quick recap
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 for anyone who missed Friday's episode
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 because it's too big a story.
00:04:54 --> 00:04:56 Not to mention, in a weekly wrap,
00:04:56 --> 00:04:59 Anna: astronomers led by A team at UH UC Irvine
00:04:59 --> 00:05:00 have confirmed
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 GJ3378b,
00:05:03 --> 00:05:06 a super Earth orbiting a small red dwarf
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 just 25 light years from us, sitting right in
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 the star's habitable zone.
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 Avery: It's got a minimum mass a bit over twice
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 Earth's, and it receives almost the same
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 amount of starlight we do. That's about as
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 close to an Earth analog as these things get
00:05:21 --> 00:05:22 in terms of energy balance.
00:05:23 --> 00:05:25 Anna: The next step is figuring out whether it
00:05:25 --> 00:05:27 actually has an atmosphere. That's what would
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 let scientists start hunting for
00:05:29 --> 00:05:32 biosignatures or liquid water. But
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 even without that confirmation yet, it's a
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 genuinely exciting addition to the short list
00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 of nearby potentially habitable worlds.
00:05:40 --> 00:05:43 Avery: One of the researchers put it nicely. The
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 line between habitability and desolation
00:05:46 --> 00:05:47 might be thinner than we think.
00:05:48 --> 00:05:50 We'll be watching for follow up observations
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53 Anna: now for one of our fresh news stories today.
00:05:53 --> 00:05:56 And it's got perfect timing. NASA has
00:05:56 --> 00:05:59 released a brand new James Webb image just
00:05:59 --> 00:06:01 in time for America's 250th
00:06:01 --> 00:06:02 birthday.
00:06:02 --> 00:06:05 Avery: This one shows the FS TAO system about
00:06:05 --> 00:06:08 450 light years away in Taurus, and
00:06:08 --> 00:06:10 it is dripping with what NASA itself is
00:06:10 --> 00:06:13 calling cosmic fireworks. Background
00:06:13 --> 00:06:15 galaxies bursting into view and the cluster
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 of young protostars lighting up the frame.
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 Anna: The protostars themselves are only 1 to
00:06:21 --> 00:06:24 3 million years old babies in star
00:06:24 --> 00:06:27 terms. One of them, Fstau B, is
00:06:27 --> 00:06:29 throwing off outflows of gas and dust that
00:06:29 --> 00:06:32 have carved these striking light blue ridges
00:06:32 --> 00:06:33 into the surrounding cloud.
00:06:34 --> 00:06:36 Avery: Those ridges show up because the outflows
00:06:36 --> 00:06:38 compress the material and it starts
00:06:38 --> 00:06:40 reflecting light from the nearby protostar.
00:06:41 --> 00:06:43 Basically, the baby star is redecorating its
00:06:43 --> 00:06:45 nursery on its way out the door.
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 Anna: It's a gorgeous image and a lovely bit of
00:06:48 --> 00:06:51 cosmic timing from NASA. Infant stars
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 asserting their independence released right
00:06:53 --> 00:06:55 on America's 250th.
00:06:55 --> 00:06:57 Avery: We'll have the image linked in the show notes
00:06:57 --> 00:06:59 so you can see it for yourself. It's worth a
00:06:59 --> 00:07:00 look.
00:07:00 --> 00:07:03 And in other news today, a ah, genuine sky
00:07:03 --> 00:07:06 watching event happening right now. Mars and
00:07:06 --> 00:07:08 Uranus are as close together in our sky as
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 they've been in decades.
00:07:10 --> 00:07:12 Anna: The closest approach is calculated for around
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 6am UTC today, July 4,
00:07:16 --> 00:07:18 when the two planets will be separated by
00:07:18 --> 00:07:21 only about 6 arcminutes. For comparison,
00:07:21 --> 00:07:23 that's roughly half the separation between
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 Mizar and Alcor in the Big Dipple's handle.
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 Avery: Mars is easy. A uh, steady reddish point low
00:07:29 --> 00:07:32 in the east northeast before dawn, sitting
00:07:32 --> 00:07:34 between the Pleiades and Hyades star
00:07:34 --> 00:07:37 clusters. Uranus is the hard part since it's
00:07:37 --> 00:07:38 about 60 times fainter.
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 Anna: The trick is to use Mars as your guide star
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 point binoculars or a small scope at Mars,
00:07:44 --> 00:07:47 then look just above it for a tiny greenish
00:07:47 --> 00:07:49 dot. That's Uranus.
00:07:49 --> 00:07:52 Avery: Best viewing is around 3:30-4:00am
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 local time wherever you are with a clear
00:07:54 --> 00:07:57 eastern horizon. And because this is a sky
00:07:57 --> 00:07:59 events rather than a location specific one,
00:07:59 --> 00:08:02 it's visible from both hemispheres. So this
00:08:02 --> 00:08:04 one's for everybody wherever you're
00:08:04 --> 00:08:06 Anna: listening from a lovely quiet way to
00:08:06 --> 00:08:08 bookend a day that's going to be full of
00:08:08 --> 00:08:10 noise and fireworks for a lot of our
00:08:10 --> 00:08:11 listeners.
00:08:12 --> 00:08:14 Avery: That wraps up this week's Astronomy Daily
00:08:14 --> 00:08:16 weekend wrap. A rescue mission finally
00:08:16 --> 00:08:19 underway, a new era of sky surveying
00:08:19 --> 00:08:21 begun, an aurora show on offer, a
00:08:21 --> 00:08:24 promising new world next door, and two fresh
00:08:24 --> 00:08:26 stories bookending Independence Day with
00:08:26 --> 00:08:28 fireworks both cosmic and real.
00:08:29 --> 00:08:32 Anna: Whatever you're doing today, we hope you get
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 a clear sky tonight, whether you're watching
00:08:34 --> 00:08:37 for aurora, hunting down Uranus next to
00:08:37 --> 00:08:40 Mars, or just enjoying the fireworks down
00:08:40 --> 00:08:41 here on Earth.
00:08:41 --> 00:08:42 Avery: I'm, um, Avery.
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 Anna: And I'm Anna. Thanks for listening to
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 Astronomy Daily. Clear skies, everyone.
00:08:47 --> 00:08:49 And happy 4th of July to our North American
00:08:49 --> 00:08:51 listeners. Mhm.
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 You stories
00:09:10 --> 00:09:11 we told.