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This episode includes AI-generated content.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy
00:00:02 --> 00:00:04 Daily. I'm Anna.
00:00:04 --> 00:00:06 Avery: And I'm avery. It's Thursday, July
00:00:06 --> 00:00:09 9, 2026, and we've got a proper
00:00:09 --> 00:00:10 mixed bag for you today.
00:00:11 --> 00:00:13 Anna: We've got nuclear physics hibernating
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 spacecraft, a map of thousands of
00:00:16 --> 00:00:19 galaxy clusters, a moon delivery deal,
00:00:19 --> 00:00:22 a rocket breaking its own record, and
00:00:22 --> 00:00:24 we'll finish up looking at the evening sky.
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 Avery: Six stories, 16 minutes. Let's get into
00:00:27 --> 00:00:28 it, Avery.
00:00:28 --> 00:00:30 Anna: This first one sounds like the plot of a
00:00:30 --> 00:00:33 thriller novel, but it's a real peer reviewed
00:00:33 --> 00:00:35 paper that came out this week.
00:00:35 --> 00:00:38 Avery: It really does. So here's the setup.
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 The 1967 Outer Space Treaty
00:00:41 --> 00:00:43 bans nuclear weapons in orbit.
00:00:43 --> 00:00:46 118 countries have signed it, including the
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 US and Russia. Problem is, there's never been
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 an actual way to check whether a satellite is
00:00:52 --> 00:00:53 quietly breaking that rule.
00:00:54 --> 00:00:56 Anna: Which matters a lot more than it might have a
00:00:56 --> 00:00:58 few years ago, because back in February
00:00:59 --> 00:01:01 2022, Russia launched a
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 satellite called Kosmos
00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 2553 into a very
00:01:06 --> 00:01:09 strange, very high radiation orbit.
00:01:09 --> 00:01:11 Weeks later, they invaded Ukraine.
00:01:12 --> 00:01:14 Avery: Russia says it's just a sensing and
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 surveillance satellite. U.S. officials have
00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 suspected for a while that it might actually
00:01:19 --> 00:01:21 be testing components for a nuclear anti
00:01:21 --> 00:01:22 satellite weapon.
00:01:23 --> 00:01:25 Anna: So how do you check without just taking
00:01:25 --> 00:01:26 someone's word for it?
00:01:27 --> 00:01:30 Avery: That's exactly the problem MIT physicist
00:01:30 --> 00:01:32 Arag denagulian set out to solve, publishing
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35 his solution in nature on July 8th.
00:01:35 --> 00:01:38 His idea is a shoebox sized inspector
00:01:38 --> 00:01:41 satellite, a nine unit cubesat that
00:01:41 --> 00:01:43 flies up close to a suspect satellite.
00:01:43 --> 00:01:46 Anna: And it's not looking for the bomb directly,
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 is it? It's looking for a signature,
00:01:49 --> 00:01:49 right?
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 Avery: Neutrons. Earth's Van Allen radiation
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 belts are full of high energy protons.
00:01:55 --> 00:01:57 And if there's a nuclear device up there,
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 those protons interacting with it produce a
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 very specific neutron signal. Dana
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 Gulian's modeling shows a single CubeSat
00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 could confirm a nuclear warhead from about
00:02:07 --> 00:02:10 4km away in roughly a week of
00:02:10 --> 00:02:13 watching a constellation of 10 of them would
00:02:13 --> 00:02:13 do it much faster.
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 Anna: Why does this even matter? Beyond the treaty
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 paperwork, what actually happens if someone
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 detonates a nuclear weapon in orbit?
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 Avery: This has actually been tried, believe it or
00:02:24 --> 00:02:27 not. Back in 1962, the US ran
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 a test called Starfish Prime, a, ah,
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 1.4 megaton warhead detonated
00:02:32 --> 00:02:35 in orbit. It pumped so many high energy
00:02:35 --> 00:02:38 electrons into the Van Allen radiation belts
00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 that it knocked out several satellites of
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 that era just, just from the radiation
00:02:42 --> 00:02:43 environment it created.
00:02:44 --> 00:02:46 Anna: So a modern version of that wouldn't just
00:02:46 --> 00:02:49 take out one target, it could wipe out huge
00:02:49 --> 00:02:51 swaths of orbit Reconnaissance
00:02:51 --> 00:02:54 satellites, communications, gps,
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 starlink, all of it
00:02:56 --> 00:02:57 indiscriminately.
00:02:57 --> 00:03:00 Avery: Yes, which is exactly why Denaghulian is
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 up front that this isn't a uh, finished,
00:03:02 --> 00:03:05 ready to launch system yet. His quote was
00:03:06 --> 00:03:08 quote, this isn't a completely proven system.
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 The purpose of the paper is to show the
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 scientific community that it's scientifically
00:03:13 --> 00:03:14 possible to do this.
00:03:14 --> 00:03:17 Anna: I really like his line about why physics
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 based verification matters, especially
00:03:20 --> 00:03:22 between countries that don't trust each other
00:03:22 --> 00:03:23 very much.
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 Avery: You can fake intelligence, but you can't fake
00:03:26 --> 00:03:28 physics. And that's really the heart of it. A
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30 shoebox satellite that just measures
00:03:30 --> 00:03:33 neutrons, doesn't care about geopolitics,
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 it just tells you what's actually there.
00:03:35 --> 00:03:38 Anna: A genuinely elegant idea for a
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 genuinely unsettling problem.
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 Avery: From the very human problem of nuclear
00:03:43 --> 00:03:46 weapons to a much older, much
00:03:46 --> 00:03:47 quieter kind of drama.
00:03:47 --> 00:03:50 NASA's New Horizons spacecraft just woke up.
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 Anna: It's been asleep for a while, hasn't it?
00:03:53 --> 00:03:55 Avery: Its longest hyper mission yet.
00:03:55 --> 00:03:58 321 days starting back on
00:03:58 --> 00:04:01 August 7th last year. NASA confirmed on
00:04:01 --> 00:04:03 July 7th that it's safely woken up in good
00:04:03 --> 00:04:04 health.
00:04:04 --> 00:04:07 Anna: And just to put the distance in perspective,
00:04:07 --> 00:04:10 where actually is New Horizons right now?
00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 Avery: 5.9 billion miles from Earth.
00:04:13 --> 00:04:16 9.5 billion kilometers. That's so
00:04:16 --> 00:04:19 far out that a radio signal traveling at the
00:04:19 --> 00:04:22 literal speed of light takes 8 hours and
00:04:22 --> 00:04:24 52 minutes just to get here one way.
00:04:25 --> 00:04:27 Anna: So mission control says good morning and
00:04:27 --> 00:04:30 doesn't hear back until almost lunchtime.
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 Avery: Pretty much. Mission operations manager Alice
00:04:33 --> 00:04:36 Bowman said every single weekly status
00:04:36 --> 00:04:38 beacon through the entire hibernation came
00:04:38 --> 00:04:41 back green. Everything nominal the whole
00:04:41 --> 00:04:42 time.
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 Anna: What's actually asleep during hibernation
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 though? Because it wasn't doing nothing out
00:04:46 --> 00:04:47 there,
00:04:47 --> 00:04:50 Avery: Most systems powered down to save energy. But
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 the science instruments kept working the
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 entire time. The solar wind around
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 Pluto or swap. The Pluto
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 Energetic Particle Spectrometer and
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 and the Venetia Burney student dust counter.
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 All quietly gathering ADA the whole way
00:05:05 --> 00:05:06 through.
00:05:06 --> 00:05:08 Anna: So now it's awake. What happens?
00:05:08 --> 00:05:11 Avery: First, health and safety data comes down
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 first. Then the team starts retrieving nearly
00:05:14 --> 00:05:17 a year's worth of stored science data. In
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 about three weeks, the onboard Alice
00:05:19 --> 00:05:22 ultraviolet spectrograph will start studying
00:05:22 --> 00:05:24 hydrogen gas out in the heliosphere while
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 swap Pepsi and the dust counter keep
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 measuring as engineers run instrument
00:05:29 --> 00:05:30 checkouts.
00:05:30 --> 00:05:33 Anna: This spacecraft's had quite a Life already.
00:05:33 --> 00:05:35 Avery: Launched January 26,
00:05:36 --> 00:05:39 2006. Fastest human made object
00:05:39 --> 00:05:42 ever launched at the time. Blue pass, Pluto
00:05:42 --> 00:05:45 in 2015 gave us our first close look at
00:05:45 --> 00:05:47 the Kuiper Belt object arrokoth in
00:05:47 --> 00:05:50 2019. And now it's pressing on toward
00:05:50 --> 00:05:52 the true edge of the solar system's
00:05:52 --> 00:05:53 heliosphere.
00:05:53 --> 00:05:56 Anna: And it's running on updated Autonomy software
00:05:56 --> 00:05:58 now too, to cope with the growing distance.
00:05:59 --> 00:06:01 Avery: Exactly accounting for the slow decline in
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 power from its plutonium generator and the
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 ever lengthening delay in talking to Earth,
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 NASA HM expects it to keep returning good
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 data well into the2030s.
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 Anna: Nine hours for a single good morning
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 message. That's the kind of patience this
00:06:17 --> 00:06:17 mission runs on.
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 Alright, moving on. This next one's been
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 making the rounds this week and it's a
00:06:22 --> 00:06:25 genuinely enormous data set. A new
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 catalog of more than 7 galaxy
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 clusters built from five years of
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 Avery: data from the South Pole telescope,
00:06:32 --> 00:06:35 specifically its SPT3G
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 camera out at the Amundsen uh, Scott South
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 Pole Station in Antarctica. An Argonne
00:06:40 --> 00:06:42 National Laboratory led team put it together.
00:06:43 --> 00:06:45 Anna: How much is the sky are we actually talking
00:06:45 --> 00:06:45 about here?
00:06:46 --> 00:06:49 Avery: About 4%, 1600
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 square degrees out. Out of that patch they
00:06:51 --> 00:06:54 identified 8892
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 candidate clusters and confirmed
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 7190 of them.
00:06:59 --> 00:07:02 Around 1800 of those date back more than
00:07:02 --> 00:07:04 7.8 billion years.
00:07:05 --> 00:07:07 Anna: How do you even spot a galaxy cluster? From a
00:07:07 --> 00:07:10 telescope in Antarctica pointed at the sky?
00:07:10 --> 00:07:12 Rather than say an optical telescope looking
00:07:12 --> 00:07:15 at galaxies directly, they used something
00:07:15 --> 00:07:15 called
00:07:15 --> 00:07:18 Avery: the Sunyaev Zel Dutch effect. Light from
00:07:18 --> 00:07:21 the cosmic microwave background. The
00:07:21 --> 00:07:23 afterglow of the Big Bang passes through a
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 galaxy cluster on its way to us. And high
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 energy particles in the cluster subtly
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 distort that light. It leaves behind a faint
00:07:31 --> 00:07:34 shadow like signature that the telescope can
00:07:34 --> 00:07:34 pick up.
00:07:34 --> 00:07:37 Anna: And then they double checked those detections
00:07:37 --> 00:07:38 with something else.
00:07:38 --> 00:07:40 Avery: Optical confirmation came from the Dark
00:07:40 --> 00:07:43 Energy Survey. And here's the bit that
00:07:43 --> 00:07:45 surprised even the researchers. The data
00:07:45 --> 00:07:48 showed a marked increase in dust related
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 emission from these cluster environments.
00:07:50 --> 00:07:53 Further back in time, that's a new window
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 into how star formation activity evolved in
00:07:56 --> 00:07:57 and around these massive structures.
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 Anna: Why do galaxy clusters matter so much to
00:08:01 --> 00:08:02 cosmologists?
00:08:02 --> 00:08:04 Avery: Specifically, they're the largest
00:08:04 --> 00:08:06 gravitationally bound structures in the
00:08:06 --> 00:08:09 universe. Hundreds to thousands of
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 galaxies held together with hot gas and
00:08:11 --> 00:08:14 huge amounts of dark matter. Because of
00:08:14 --> 00:08:17 that scale, they're one of the best tools we
00:08:17 --> 00:08:19 have for testing ideas about dark matter and
00:08:19 --> 00:08:20 dark energy.
00:08:20 --> 00:08:23 Anna: Sebastian Bouquet from the SPT
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 collaboration put it nicely, didn't he?
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 Avery: He did. Quote with the
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 SPT3G cluster sample we will
00:08:30 --> 00:08:32 probe the evolution of cosmic structure
00:08:32 --> 00:08:35 formation over the past 10 billion years.
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 And this is really just a start. Future work
00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 will refine the cluster mass measurements and
00:08:41 --> 00:08:43 upcoming surveys from the Vera Rubin
00:08:43 --> 00:08:46 Observatory and Europe's Euclid Miss should
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 confirm M even more distant clusters in the
00:08:48 --> 00:08:49 same patch of Sky.
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 Anna: Nearly 9 candidate structures,
00:08:52 --> 00:08:55 each one holding thousands of galaxies.
00:08:55 --> 00:08:58 And that's only 4% of the sky.
00:08:58 --> 00:09:01 Avery: From cosmology back down to Earth. Well,
00:09:01 --> 00:09:03 down to the moon, really. And the business of
00:09:03 --> 00:09:04 getting there.
00:09:04 --> 00:09:07 Anna: This is the Ispace and Starship story.
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 Avery: That's the one. Tokyo based lunar transport
00:09:10 --> 00:09:13 company ispace announced on July 8 that
00:09:13 --> 00:09:15 it's bought 500 kilograms, around
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 1100 pounds of cargo space
00:09:18 --> 00:09:21 aboard a future starship mission targeting a
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 moon landing no earlier than 2030.
00:09:24 --> 00:09:25 Anna: What did that actually cost them?
00:09:25 --> 00:09:27 Avery: Um, around US$50
00:09:28 --> 00:09:30 million, which works out to roughly
00:09:30 --> 00:09:33 $100 per kilogram to the lunar
00:09:33 --> 00:09:33 surface.
00:09:34 --> 00:09:36 Anna: That's ispace's new business, isn't it?
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 Not just landing their own stuff, but
00:09:39 --> 00:09:41 carrying other people's payloads too.
00:09:41 --> 00:09:44 Avery: Exactly right. They're calling it their Lunar
00:09:44 --> 00:09:47 Access Integrator Service. Think of it as a
00:09:47 --> 00:09:49 shared ride bus to the moon. They'll
00:09:49 --> 00:09:51 aggregate smaller payloads from governments,
00:09:51 --> 00:09:53 research institutions and commercial
00:09:53 --> 00:09:56 customers, which is a different business, to
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 their existing dedicated lander service,
00:09:58 --> 00:10:01 which they describe as a more of a taxi.
00:10:01 --> 00:10:04 Anna: And once Starship actually lands, how
00:10:04 --> 00:10:06 does the cargo get to where it needs to go?
00:10:06 --> 00:10:09 Avery: That's where ispace's own mobile cargo system
00:10:09 --> 00:10:12 comes in. A rover they're developing that can
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 carry payloads a few kilometers from the
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 landing site to their final destination.
00:10:17 --> 00:10:20 Anna: CEO Takeshi Hakamada had a good line about
00:10:20 --> 00:10:20 why this matters.
00:10:20 --> 00:10:23 Avery: For the bigger picture, Quote, high
00:10:23 --> 00:10:25 capacity, relatively low cost lunar
00:10:25 --> 00:10:28 transport, such as that provided by Starship,
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30 is essential for realizing a sustainable
00:10:30 --> 00:10:33 lunar economy that Ispace aims to create.
00:10:33 --> 00:10:36 Anna: Now, I have to ask, ispace's track record
00:10:36 --> 00:10:39 on actual landings hasn't been perfect.
00:10:39 --> 00:10:42 Avery: No, it hasn't. They flown two lunar lander
00:10:42 --> 00:10:45 missions on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets in
00:10:45 --> 00:10:48 2023 and 2025, and
00:10:48 --> 00:10:51 both reached lunar orbit successfully, but
00:10:51 --> 00:10:53 crashed during landing. They're now
00:10:53 --> 00:10:55 developing a, uh, new lander design called
00:10:55 --> 00:10:57 ultra, with three missions planned between
00:10:57 --> 00:11:00 2028 and 2030, including
00:11:00 --> 00:11:02 one under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload
00:11:02 --> 00:11:03 Service program.
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 Anna: So rather than betting everything on getting
00:11:06 --> 00:11:08 their own landings right, they're also
00:11:08 --> 00:11:11 building a second business on somebody else's
00:11:11 --> 00:11:11 rocket.
00:11:12 --> 00:11:14 Avery: Precisely. And SpaceX seems keen on it too.
00:11:14 --> 00:11:17 Their VP of Commercial Sales, Stephanie
00:11:17 --> 00:11:19 Bednarig, said this gives, quote, a VALU
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 pathway for smaller payloads to secure a ride
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 to the moon today. Worth milling. This isn't
00:11:25 --> 00:11:28 exclusive either. NASA's using Starship for
00:11:28 --> 00:11:31 the crewed Artemis lander and the US company
00:11:31 --> 00:11:33 AstroLabe has separately booked starship
00:11:33 --> 00:11:34 cargo space as well.
00:11:34 --> 00:11:37 Anna: Two failed landings hasn't slowed them down
00:11:37 --> 00:11:40 one bit. If anything, they're doubling down
00:11:40 --> 00:11:42 on the moon, just letting someone else do the
00:11:42 --> 00:11:45 heavy lifting this time. Right, quick one
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 now, but a satisfying one if you like your
00:11:47 --> 00:11:49 rockets to keep proving a point.
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52 Avery: SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 out of Cape
00:11:52 --> 00:11:55 Canaveral early this morning, July 9,
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 5:25am M Eastern Time, carrying
00:11:57 --> 00:11:59 29 Starlink satellites.
00:12:00 --> 00:12:02 Anna: And the headline isn't really the satellites,
00:12:03 --> 00:12:05 Avery: no, it's the booster tail number.
00:12:05 --> 00:12:07 B1067 flew for the
00:12:07 --> 00:12:10 36th time today, breaking its own company
00:12:10 --> 00:12:13 record, which was 35 flights.
00:12:13 --> 00:12:15 Anna: For comparison, where does that sit against
00:12:15 --> 00:12:18 the all time record for any reusable orbital
00:12:18 --> 00:12:19 vehicle?
00:12:19 --> 00:12:21 Avery: Still behind NASA's space shuttle Discovery,
00:12:21 --> 00:12:24 which flew 39 times across its career.
00:12:24 --> 00:12:27 But B1067 is closing the gap,
00:12:27 --> 00:12:30 and it's doing it on a much faster turnaround
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 cadence than Discovery ever could.
00:12:32 --> 00:12:34 Anna: What happened to the booster after
00:12:34 --> 00:12:34 separation?
00:12:35 --> 00:12:37 Avery: About eight and a half minutes after liftoff,
00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 it landed on the drone ship, a shortfall of
00:12:39 --> 00:12:42 gravitas out in the Atlantic. The upper
00:12:42 --> 00:12:45 stage carried on and deployed those 29
00:12:45 --> 00:12:47 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit around
00:12:47 --> 00:12:49 63 and a half minutes after launch.
00:12:50 --> 00:12:52 Anna: This is launch number 80 for Falcon 9 this
00:12:52 --> 00:12:53 year already, isn't it?
00:12:54 --> 00:12:57 Avery: It is, and SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell
00:12:57 --> 00:12:58 has said they're targeting somewhere around
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 140 to 145
00:13:01 --> 00:13:04 Falcon 9 launches this year. SpaceX now
00:13:04 --> 00:13:07 has more than 10 active
00:13:07 --> 00:13:10 Starlink satellites in orbit. About 80%
00:13:10 --> 00:13:12 of this year's flights have gone toward
00:13:12 --> 00:13:13 building that constellation out.
00:13:14 --> 00:13:17 Anna: 36 trips to space and back for the exact
00:13:17 --> 00:13:20 same piece of hardware. Reusable rockets have
00:13:20 --> 00:13:23 gone from a wild idea a decade ago to a
00:13:23 --> 00:13:25 company quietly breaking its own record on an
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 ordinary Thursday morning.
00:13:27 --> 00:13:29 Avery: And to close things out, something that
00:13:29 --> 00:13:31 doesn't need a spacecraft, a, uh, peer
00:13:31 --> 00:13:34 reviewed paper or a rocket. Just clear
00:13:34 --> 00:13:36 skies and about 10 minutes after sunset.
00:13:36 --> 00:13:39 Anna: This is tonight's sky, isn't it, July 9th?
00:13:39 --> 00:13:42 Avery: That's right. Venus is putting on a lovely
00:13:42 --> 00:13:44 little show, sitting close to Regulus, the
00:13:44 --> 00:13:47 brightest star in the constellation Leo, low
00:13:47 --> 00:13:48 in the evening sky after sunset.
00:13:49 --> 00:13:51 Anna: And Venus is easy to find regardless because
00:13:51 --> 00:13:52 it's so bright.
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 Avery: It's the brightest point of light in the sky
00:13:54 --> 00:13:57 after the Moon. So this pairing is genuinely
00:13:57 --> 00:14:00 a, uh, naked eye, no equipment needed kind of
00:14:00 --> 00:14:02 moment. Look west after sunset and you can't
00:14:02 --> 00:14:03 really miss it.
00:14:03 --> 00:14:06 Anna: So of course, Venus and Regulus aren't
00:14:06 --> 00:14:08 actually anywhere near each other in real
00:14:08 --> 00:14:10 terms, not remotely.
00:14:10 --> 00:14:13 Avery: Regulus is a proper star about 79
00:14:13 --> 00:14:16 light years away. Venus is right here in our
00:14:16 --> 00:14:18 own solar system. It's purely a trick of
00:14:18 --> 00:14:21 perspective. From where we're standing, they
00:14:21 --> 00:14:23 line up and look like neighbors.
00:14:23 --> 00:14:25 Anna: And there's more to come this month, too.
00:14:25 --> 00:14:28 Avery: There is. Venus goes on to meet a slender
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 crescent moon on July 17. So if you
00:14:30 --> 00:14:33 enjoy this one, pencil that date in as well.
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 Anna: And for our listeners south of the
00:14:35 --> 00:14:38 Avery: equator, Venus and Leo are still catchable
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 low in the western sky after sunset. For
00:14:40 --> 00:14:42 Southern Hemisphere viewers, too. Well worth
00:14:42 --> 00:14:44 a look if you want an easy win with the
00:14:44 --> 00:14:46 family. No telescope required.
00:14:46 --> 00:14:49 Anna: Sometimes the best story of the day really is
00:14:49 --> 00:14:52 just look up right there. Tonight.
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 Avery: That's today's edition of Astronomy Daily.
00:14:55 --> 00:14:57 Nuclear physics A Ah, spacecraft waking up
00:14:57 --> 00:15:00 nine hours from home, thousands of galaxy
00:15:00 --> 00:15:03 clusters, a moon delivery deal, a record
00:15:03 --> 00:15:05 breaking rocket, and a couple of bright dots
00:15:05 --> 00:15:06 in tonight's sky.
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 Anna: If you enjoyed today's episode, please hit
00:15:09 --> 00:15:11 subscribe wherever you're listening and leave
00:15:11 --> 00:15:13 us a review. It genuinely helps new listeners
00:15:13 --> 00:15:13 find the show.
00:15:14 --> 00:15:16 Avery: Show and here's today's did you know for you,
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19 New Horizons radio signal takes almost
00:15:19 --> 00:15:22 nine hours to reach Earth, which means by the
00:15:22 --> 00:15:24 time mission control hears all systems green,
00:15:25 --> 00:15:27 the spacecraft has already been fine for the
00:15:27 --> 00:15:29 better part of a working day.
00:15:29 --> 00:15:30 Anna: I'm Anna.
00:15:30 --> 00:15:32 Avery: And I'm Avery. We'll see you next time on
00:15:32 --> 00:15:33 Astronomy Daily.
00:15:40 --> 00:15:40 Anna: Love.