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This episode includes AI-generated content.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Anna: Today, right now, as you're listening,
00:00:02 --> 00:00:05 SpaceX may already have launched something
00:00:05 --> 00:00:08 the world barely knows exists, a brand
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 new spacecraft, a secret disk shaped
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 capsule called Starfall. It blasted off
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 this morning from Cape Canaveral and it could
00:00:16 --> 00:00:19 change how things are made in space. Today on
00:00:19 --> 00:00:21 Astronomy Daily. That story plus the next
00:00:21 --> 00:00:24 great space telescope just touched down in
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 Florida and the most mysterious glow in the
00:00:27 --> 00:00:30 galaxy just got a whole lot more mysterious.
00:00:30 --> 00:00:31 Stay with us.
00:00:31 --> 00:00:34 Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm
00:00:34 --> 00:00:34 Anna.
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 Avery: And I'm Avery. It is Tuesday 23rd
00:00:37 --> 00:00:40 June, 2026, and the universe has been
00:00:40 --> 00:00:40 busy.
00:00:41 --> 00:00:44 Anna: We have six big stories for you today. A same
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 day launch, a telescope milestone, two
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 JWST blockbusters, a, uh,
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 ticking clock, space rescue and China's
00:00:52 --> 00:00:54 asteroid mission. Approaching the moment of
00:00:54 --> 00:00:54 truth.
00:00:55 --> 00:00:56 Avery: Let's get into it.
00:00:56 --> 00:00:59 Anna: Here's something a bit unusual to kick things
00:00:59 --> 00:01:01 off. We're covering a story that is happening
00:01:01 --> 00:01:04 right now, this morning. As this episode goes
00:01:04 --> 00:01:07 out, SpaceX launched,
00:01:07 --> 00:01:09 Avery: or is about to launch, a spacecraft that the
00:01:09 --> 00:01:11 company has said almost nothing about
00:01:11 --> 00:01:12 publicly.
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 Anna: It's called Starfall. And everything we know
00:01:15 --> 00:01:18 about it comes not from SpaceX press releases
00:01:18 --> 00:01:21 or Elon tweets, but from filings with the
00:01:21 --> 00:01:23 U.S. federal Aviation Administration and
00:01:23 --> 00:01:25 Federal Communications Commission.
00:01:26 --> 00:01:28 Avery: So what is it? Starfall is a re entry
00:01:28 --> 00:01:31 capsule, a vehicle designed to carry cargo
00:01:31 --> 00:01:34 into orbit and bring it safely back to Earth.
00:01:34 --> 00:01:36 But it's not another dragon. It's a flat
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 disk, about 3.1 meters across and
00:01:39 --> 00:01:42 only 75 centimeters tall. Think of a
00:01:42 --> 00:01:44 large flying saucer rather than a pointy
00:01:44 --> 00:01:45 rocket cone.
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 Anna: The launch window opened at, uh, 6:43 this
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 morning, Eastern Time. That's
00:01:50 --> 00:01:53 8:43pm here on the east coast of
00:01:53 --> 00:01:56 Australia. It's flying on a Falcon 9 from
00:01:56 --> 00:01:58 Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the
00:01:58 --> 00:02:01 booster supporting the mission on its 29th
00:02:01 --> 00:02:01 flight.
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 Avery: Now, why does this matter? The target market
00:02:04 --> 00:02:07 is space manufacturing. The idea is that
00:02:07 --> 00:02:10 microgravity, true weightlessness, lets
00:02:10 --> 00:02:13 you make things you can't make on Earth. Pure
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 pharmaceutical crystals, advanced materials,
00:02:15 --> 00:02:18 bio printed tissues. But to make any of that
00:02:18 --> 00:02:20 commercially viable, you need a cheap,
00:02:20 --> 00:02:23 reliable way to bring your product home.
00:02:23 --> 00:02:26 Anna: Until now, a small California company called
00:02:26 --> 00:02:28 Varda Space Industries has been pioneering
00:02:28 --> 00:02:31 that market. They've flown six capsule
00:02:31 --> 00:02:33 missions. But their capsules are small,
00:02:33 --> 00:02:35 carrying dozens of kilograms at most.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 Starfall is rated for up to
00:02:38 --> 00:02:41 1000kg. That's roughly 30
00:02:41 --> 00:02:42 times more return capacity,
00:02:43 --> 00:02:45 Avery: which creates an interesting situation
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47 because Varda has been launching all of its
00:02:47 --> 00:02:50 missions on SpaceX rockets. SpaceX
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 is now entering the market.
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 Anna: It's been powering after reentry
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 starfall splashes down in the Pacific Ocean
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 off the US West coast, about
00:02:59 --> 00:03:02 1km offshore. It's
00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 designed to be mass produced for starship
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 flights in the future. Though Today's demo
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09 uses Falcon 9, SpaceX
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 Avery: has been approved for two re entry
00:03:11 --> 00:03:14 demonstrations. This is the first. We'll be
00:03:14 --> 00:03:16 watching closely for news of a successful
00:03:16 --> 00:03:16 recovery.
00:03:17 --> 00:03:19 Anna: A genuinely exciting morning to be a space
00:03:19 --> 00:03:20 nerd.
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 Now, from a launch happening today to a
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 launch that's just a couple of months away,
00:03:25 --> 00:03:27 NASA's next great space telescope
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 Avery: has arrived in Florida, the Nancy Grace
00:03:30 --> 00:03:33 Roman Space Telescope. Roman for short,
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 arrived at the Kennedy Space center on Sunday
00:03:35 --> 00:03:38 21 June, riding NASA's
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 Pegasus barge down from Baltimore after being
00:03:40 --> 00:03:43 loaded up at Goddard Space Flight center in
00:03:43 --> 00:03:43 Maryland.
00:03:44 --> 00:03:46 Anna: The telescope was tucked inside a special
00:03:46 --> 00:03:49 transport container that NASA has nicknamed I
00:03:49 --> 00:03:52 love this, the Chariot, keeping with the
00:03:52 --> 00:03:54 Roman theme because the telescope is named
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's very
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 first chief of astronomy, not after the
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 Empire. Roman is often called the
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 mother of Hubble. She was the driving force
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 behind getting Hubble built in the first
00:04:08 --> 00:04:10 place. It's a fitting tribute.
00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 Avery: Now roman is at KSC's Payload Hazardous
00:04:13 --> 00:04:14 Servicing Facility for final launch
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 preparations. The team will check all six
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 solar panels, inspect insulation and thermal
00:04:19 --> 00:04:22 blankets, and load around 290 gallons
00:04:22 --> 00:04:24 of hydrazine fuel.
00:04:24 --> 00:04:26 Anna: And here's the headline number NASA is
00:04:26 --> 00:04:29 targeting launch no earlier than Sunday 30th
00:04:29 --> 00:04:32 August on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy.
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 And that timeline puts Roman a full eight
00:04:35 --> 00:04:37 months ahead of its original schedule.
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 Avery: Eight months ahead. That's remarkable for a
00:04:40 --> 00:04:41 flagship space telescope.
00:04:42 --> 00:04:45 Anna: So what will Roman actually do? Its main
00:04:45 --> 00:04:48 Instrument is a 300 megapixel infrared
00:04:48 --> 00:04:51 camera with a field of view 100 times
00:04:51 --> 00:04:53 wider than Hubble's. It will survey billions
00:04:53 --> 00:04:56 of galaxies, discover hundreds of thousands
00:04:56 --> 00:04:59 of exoplanets, probe dark energy and
00:04:59 --> 00:05:02 dark matter, and do all of this at speeds and
00:05:02 --> 00:05:04 scales that simply weren't possible before.
00:05:05 --> 00:05:07 Avery: It also carries a coronagraph, a starlight
00:05:07 --> 00:05:10 blocking instrument that will directly image
00:05:10 --> 00:05:13 planets around nearby stars, a key step
00:05:13 --> 00:05:14 in the long hunt for Earth.
00:05:14 --> 00:05:17 Anna: Like worlds after launch, Roman will travel
00:05:17 --> 00:05:20 to the second Sun, Earth, Lagrange Point L2,
00:05:20 --> 00:05:23 about 1.5 million kilometers from
00:05:23 --> 00:05:25 Earth, the same neighborhood where the James
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 Webb Space Telescope is parked right now.
00:05:28 --> 00:05:31 Avery: Webb looking deep and narrow, Roman
00:05:31 --> 00:05:33 looking wide and fast. They're going to
00:05:33 --> 00:05:35 complement each other beautifully.
00:05:35 --> 00:05:37 Anna: And speaking of the James Webb Space
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 Telescope, let's talk about what it's been
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 showing us lately, because JWST
00:05:41 --> 00:05:44 keeps finding things that shouldn't be there.
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 Avery: This week, a series of three new papers
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 published in the Astrophysical Journal
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 Letters reveal something extraordinary about
00:05:51 --> 00:05:52 a galaxy cluster called
00:05:52 --> 00:05:55 XLSSC122.
00:05:55 --> 00:05:58 Anna: Now, XLSSC122 was
00:05:58 --> 00:06:01 first spotted way back in 2014 during an X
00:06:01 --> 00:06:03 ray survey. It's about 10.4
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 billion light years away, meaning we're
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 seeing it as it existed when the universe was
00:06:08 --> 00:06:11 only around 3.3 billion years old.
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 That era is called cosmic noon, the peak
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 of star formation when galaxies were building
00:06:17 --> 00:06:19 themselves at a furious rate.
00:06:19 --> 00:06:22 Avery: It looks far too grown up for its age. It's
00:06:22 --> 00:06:24 large, it's organized, it has a dense,
00:06:24 --> 00:06:27 concentrated core. A According to standard
00:06:27 --> 00:06:30 cosmological models, galaxy clusters that far
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 back should still be loose, scattered. Still
00:06:32 --> 00:06:35 assembling, this one looks like it's had
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 millions of years more to develop than it
00:06:37 --> 00:06:37 should have.
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 Anna: But JWST has now revealed something
00:06:40 --> 00:06:43 even more surprising. When astronomers
00:06:43 --> 00:06:45 pointed the telescope at this cluster, they
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 discovered it's acting as a gravitational
00:06:48 --> 00:06:51 lens. Its immense mass is bending and
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 warping the light of even more distant
00:06:53 --> 00:06:55 galaxies behind it, creating beautiful
00:06:55 --> 00:06:58 blue gray arcs around the cluster's center.
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 Avery: And that makes XLSSC122 the
00:07:01 --> 00:07:04 most distant galaxy cluster ever confirmed to
00:07:04 --> 00:07:07 act as a strong gravitational lens. Some of
00:07:07 --> 00:07:09 that bent light set out on its journey more
00:07:09 --> 00:07:11 than 12 billion years ago.
00:07:11 --> 00:07:13 Anna: The lensing effect is dominated not by the
00:07:13 --> 00:07:16 cluster's stars and gas, but by dark matter.
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 By studying the arcs, the team at Caltech's
00:07:19 --> 00:07:22 IPAC can map the dark matter distribution
00:07:22 --> 00:07:25 with remarkable precision. And what they
00:07:25 --> 00:07:27 found is a core that's far more concentrated
00:07:27 --> 00:07:28 than their models.
00:07:28 --> 00:07:30 Avery: Predictable the third paper in the series
00:07:30 --> 00:07:33 found something called intracluster light, a
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 faint glow from stars that have been stripped
00:07:35 --> 00:07:38 loose from their galaxies and now drift free
00:07:38 --> 00:07:39 through the cluster.
00:07:39 --> 00:07:42 XLSSC122 is the
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 earliest known cluster where this glow has
00:07:44 --> 00:07:45 been detected.
00:07:45 --> 00:07:47 Anna: These results were announced at the
00:07:47 --> 00:07:49 248th meeting of the American
00:07:49 --> 00:07:52 Astronomical Society. Lead author Kyle
00:07:52 --> 00:07:55 Finner from IPAC summed it up before
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 JWST we couldn't do this level of
00:07:58 --> 00:08:00 science in the early distant universe.
00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 Avery: It's another reminder that the early universe
00:08:02 --> 00:08:05 was far more structured and stranger than our
00:08:05 --> 00:08:05 models expected.
00:08:06 --> 00:08:08 Next up, we're staying in the realm of dark
00:08:08 --> 00:08:10 matter because a new study published in
00:08:10 --> 00:08:13 Physical Review Letters has just reignited
00:08:13 --> 00:08:16 one of astrophysics most stubborn debates.
00:08:16 --> 00:08:19 Anna: At the heart of our Milky Way, there's a
00:08:19 --> 00:08:22 mysterious spherical glow of high energy
00:08:22 --> 00:08:25 gamma rays. It extends for thousands of light
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 years out from the galactic center. NASA's
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 Fermi telescope first spotted it in the late
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 2000s, and astronomers have been arguing
00:08:33 --> 00:08:34 about it ever since.
00:08:34 --> 00:08:37 Avery: It's called the galactic center excess, and
00:08:37 --> 00:08:40 there are two main explanations. One, a, uh,
00:08:40 --> 00:08:43 huge population of millisecond pulsars,
00:08:43 --> 00:08:46 rapidly spinning neutron stars that beam
00:08:46 --> 00:08:49 gamma rays outward. Two, dark
00:08:49 --> 00:08:51 matter particles annihilating each other.
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 When two dark matter particles collide and
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 destroy each other, they can release energy,
00:08:56 --> 00:08:58 including gamma rays.
00:08:58 --> 00:09:00 Anna: The pulsar explanation had been gaining
00:09:00 --> 00:09:03 ground in recent years. Some earlier
00:09:03 --> 00:09:06 analyses suggested a relatively modest
00:09:06 --> 00:09:08 population of a few hundred pulsars could
00:09:08 --> 00:09:10 explain the signal.
00:09:10 --> 00:09:13 Avery: But this new research, led by Florian List at
00:09:13 --> 00:09:16 the University of Vienna and Nick Rod at the
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has
00:09:18 --> 00:09:21 changed the picture. They trained a machine
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 learning model on more than 1 million
00:09:23 --> 00:09:26 simulated gamma ray observations. And the
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 result? For pulsars to account for the
00:09:29 --> 00:09:32 signal, you would need more than 35
00:09:32 --> 00:09:34 of them concentrated near the galactic
00:09:34 --> 00:09:35 center.
00:09:35 --> 00:09:38 Anna: 35. That's an
00:09:38 --> 00:09:40 implausibly high number. And crucially,
00:09:40 --> 00:09:43 those pulsars would need to be so
00:09:43 --> 00:09:45 individually faint that they'd be nearly
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 indistinguishable from the emission you'd
00:09:47 --> 00:09:49 expect from annihilating dark matter.
00:09:50 --> 00:09:53 Avery: As Nick Rod put it, our new analysis shows
00:09:53 --> 00:09:55 that the sources would have to be so faint
00:09:55 --> 00:09:58 that they would be almost indistinguishable
00:09:58 --> 00:10:00 from the emission expected from annihilating
00:10:00 --> 00:10:01 dark matter.
00:10:01 --> 00:10:04 Anna: The study doesn't prove dark matter is the
00:10:04 --> 00:10:07 cause, far from it. But it means the dark
00:10:07 --> 00:10:09 matter explanation cannot be ruled out.
00:10:09 --> 00:10:12 And the pulsar hypothesis is on much
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 shakier ground than many thought.
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 Avery: Upcoming observatories, including the
00:10:16 --> 00:10:19 Cherenkov Telescope Array and the Southern
00:10:19 --> 00:10:22 Wide Field Gamma Ray Observatory, should
00:10:22 --> 00:10:24 eventually give us the resolution to separate
00:10:24 --> 00:10:27 these two signals. That observatory,
00:10:27 --> 00:10:29 incidentally, is being built in Chile. Well
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 placed for Southern Hemisphere skywatchers.
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 Anna: Something to watch closely. The heart of our
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 own galaxy may be telling us something
00:10:37 --> 00:10:40 profound about the invisible stuff that makes
00:10:40 --> 00:10:43 up most of the universe now. A, uh,
00:10:43 --> 00:10:46 ticking clock. NASA's SIFT observatory
00:10:46 --> 00:10:49 rescue mission is four days from launch, and
00:10:49 --> 00:10:51 the people behind it are honest about what
00:10:51 --> 00:10:52 they've pulled off.
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 Avery: Sean Domogal Goldman, NASA's astrophysics
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 division director, said at a briefing press
00:10:58 --> 00:11:00 last week. And I quote, frankly,
00:11:00 --> 00:11:03 I have to be honest, no one thought it was
00:11:03 --> 00:11:04 going to be possible.
00:11:04 --> 00:11:07 Anna: The story so far. The Neil Gerald
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 Swift Observatory has been watching the sky
00:11:09 --> 00:11:12 for gamma ray bursts since 2004.
00:11:12 --> 00:11:15 Over 2 detected across more than
00:11:15 --> 00:11:18 two decades. But it's been slowly
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 losing altitude. Increased solar
00:11:20 --> 00:11:23 activity has puffed up Earth's upper
00:11:23 --> 00:11:25 atmosphere, creating drag that's been pulling
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 Swift down faster than expected.
00:11:28 --> 00:11:30 Avery: Without intervention, Swift faces a
00:11:30 --> 00:11:33 90% chance of uncontrolled re entry
00:11:33 --> 00:11:36 by the end of this year. So NASA awarded
00:11:36 --> 00:11:39 a contract to an Arizona company called
00:11:39 --> 00:11:41 Catalyst Space Technologies last September
00:11:42 --> 00:11:45 to build and launch a rescue spacecraft in
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 under nine months. Nine months from
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 scratch. To build something that has never
00:11:50 --> 00:11:51 been attempted before.
00:11:51 --> 00:11:54 Anna: That spacecraft is called Link,
00:11:54 --> 00:11:56 lightweight in space, navigation and
00:11:56 --> 00:11:59 kinematics. It's a boxy vehicle about the
00:11:59 --> 00:12:02 size of a fridge, carrying three robotic arms
00:12:02 --> 00:12:05 fitted with lidar sensors, three hall
00:12:05 --> 00:12:07 thrusters and 16 reaction control
00:12:07 --> 00:12:08 thrusters.
00:12:09 --> 00:12:11 Avery: Link is now encapsulated inside a, uh,
00:12:11 --> 00:12:14 Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, which
00:12:14 --> 00:12:17 itself will be making history as the last
00:12:17 --> 00:12:19 ever Pegasus XL flight. The
00:12:19 --> 00:12:21 rocket is carried under the belly of a
00:12:21 --> 00:12:24 modified aircraft called Stargazer, the only
00:12:24 --> 00:12:27 remaining airworthy Lockheed Martin L1011
00:12:27 --> 00:12:28 TriStar in the world.
00:12:29 --> 00:12:32 Anna: Launch is set for Saturday 27th
00:12:32 --> 00:12:35 June from Kwajalen Atoll in the Marshall
00:12:35 --> 00:12:37 Islands. The air launch method is required
00:12:37 --> 00:12:40 because Swift's orbit, inclined
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 20.6 degrees to the equator, can't be
00:12:43 --> 00:12:45 efficiently reached from a ground based
00:12:45 --> 00:12:45 launch site.
00:12:46 --> 00:12:49 Avery: Once Link reaches Swift, it faces a delicate
00:12:49 --> 00:12:52 capture operation. Swift was never designed
00:12:52 --> 00:12:54 to be serviced. It has no docking port, no
00:12:54 --> 00:12:57 handholds. Link will have to grab it
00:12:57 --> 00:12:59 anyway. And after more than 20 years in
00:12:59 --> 00:13:02 space, Swift's insulation blankets may be as
00:13:02 --> 00:13:03 brittle as glass.
00:13:04 --> 00:13:07 Anna: If all goes well, Link will gradually raise
00:13:07 --> 00:13:09 Swift's orbit back to its original 600
00:13:10 --> 00:13:12 kilometer altitude, adding years to the
00:13:12 --> 00:13:15 telescope's life and proving that commercial
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17 satellite servicing can work at scale.
00:13:18 --> 00:13:20 Avery: We will absolutely be back with updates as
00:13:20 --> 00:13:23 this one unfolds. Saturday, June 27th.
00:13:23 --> 00:13:24 Mark it in your calendars.
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 And finally today, China's Tianwen 2
00:13:27 --> 00:13:30 mission, an asteroid sample return mission
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32 that is now in its most critical phase yet.
00:13:33 --> 00:13:36 Anna: Taiwan 2 launched in May 2025,
00:13:36 --> 00:13:39 and on June 7 this month it
00:13:39 --> 00:13:41 performed its main insertion burn to enter
00:13:41 --> 00:13:44 orbit around a T near Earth
00:13:44 --> 00:13:46 asteroid called Kamo oaloa.
00:13:46 --> 00:13:48 Formally designated
00:13:48 --> 00:13:50 469219 Kamo
00:13:50 --> 00:13:53 Oeloa, Kamola' Olua is
00:13:53 --> 00:13:54 extraordinary.
00:13:54 --> 00:13:57 Avery: It's a quasi satellite of Earth. Not a moon
00:13:57 --> 00:13:59 in the traditional sense, but a space rock
00:13:59 --> 00:14:02 that orbits the sun on a path so similar to
00:14:02 --> 00:14:05 ours that it dances around us, perpetually
00:14:05 --> 00:14:08 staying between 38 and 100 times
00:14:08 --> 00:14:10 the distance of the moon. It's been Earth's
00:14:10 --> 00:14:12 companion for more than a century and will
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 remain so for the foreseeable future.
00:14:15 --> 00:14:17 Anna: The asteroid is tiny, somewhere between
00:14:18 --> 00:14:20 40 and 100 meters across,
00:14:20 --> 00:14:23 smaller than a football pitch. It spins
00:14:23 --> 00:14:26 once every 28 minutes, which presents
00:14:26 --> 00:14:28 real challenges for the sampling operation.
00:14:29 --> 00:14:31 Avery: Since the June 7th orbit insertion, amateur
00:14:31 --> 00:14:34 radio operators using a 20 meter dish in
00:14:34 --> 00:14:37 Germany and the 25 meter Dwingelo telescope
00:14:37 --> 00:14:39 in the Netherlands have been tracking the
00:14:39 --> 00:14:41 spacecraft's fine adjustment burns. The
00:14:41 --> 00:14:43 Because China has published no official
00:14:43 --> 00:14:46 mission updates or ephemerities, everything
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48 we know about the mission's progress has come
00:14:48 --> 00:14:49 from independent observers.
00:14:50 --> 00:14:52 Anna: The mission timeline has sample collection
00:14:52 --> 00:14:55 beginning on July 4. Taiwan, too,
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 has three sampling methods available Touch
00:14:58 --> 00:15:01 and go, hover and anchor and attach
00:15:01 --> 00:15:03 to cope with whatever surface conditions it
00:15:03 --> 00:15:04 finds at arrival.
00:15:05 --> 00:15:08 Avery: There's also a fascinating scientific debate
00:15:08 --> 00:15:10 simmering beneath all of this. Kamoa
00:15:10 --> 00:15:13 Olawa's reddish color resembles lunar rock,
00:15:13 --> 00:15:15 leading some scientists to propose it's a
00:15:15 --> 00:15:18 fragment blasted off the moon by an ancient
00:15:18 --> 00:15:20 impact. But a new study in Nature
00:15:20 --> 00:15:23 Communications suggests it may instead have
00:15:23 --> 00:15:25 originated in the Flora family of the main
00:15:25 --> 00:15:26 asteroid belt.
00:15:26 --> 00:15:29 Anna: The samples, expected to return to earth in
00:15:29 --> 00:15:32 late 2027, should settle that debate
00:15:32 --> 00:15:34 definitively. If the isotopes match
00:15:34 --> 00:15:37 lunar rock, the lunar fragment theory wins.
00:15:38 --> 00:15:40 If not, we're looking at a space weathered
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42 asteroid from the inner belt that just
00:15:42 --> 00:15:44 happens to look lunar.
00:15:44 --> 00:15:47 Avery: After delivering the samples, Tianwen 2
00:15:47 --> 00:15:50 doesn't stop. It uses Earth's gravity to
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 slingshot toward a main belt comet called
00:15:52 --> 00:15:55 311P Pan Stars, with
00:15:55 --> 00:15:58 rendezvous expected in January 2035,
00:15:58 --> 00:16:01 a ten year mission of remarkable ambition.
00:16:02 --> 00:16:04 Anna: We will be watching the July 4th sample
00:16:04 --> 00:16:07 collection attempt very closely indeed
00:16:07 --> 00:16:09 before we go tonight.
00:16:09 --> 00:16:11 Tuesday 23rd the moon sits
00:16:11 --> 00:16:14 beautifully close to Spica, the brightest
00:16:14 --> 00:16:17 star in Virgo. They're separated by less than
00:16:17 --> 00:16:20 2 degrees, so easy to find with the naked eye
00:16:20 --> 00:16:22 after sunset, Spica, uh, shines as a
00:16:22 --> 00:16:25 brilliant bluish white point right beside the
00:16:25 --> 00:16:26 moon's glow.
00:16:26 --> 00:16:29 Avery: Looking ahead. On June 25, Mercury
00:16:29 --> 00:16:31 will appear close to Jupiter, low in the
00:16:31 --> 00:16:34 western sky after sunset. Venus will be
00:16:34 --> 00:16:36 shining nearby to complete a nice little
00:16:36 --> 00:16:39 planetary trio. You'll want a clear horizon
00:16:39 --> 00:16:41 to the west to catch Mercury, but Jupiter
00:16:41 --> 00:16:42 will be unmissable.
00:16:43 --> 00:16:45 Anna: And for our Southern Hemisphere listeners,
00:16:45 --> 00:16:47 you're well placed for the Milky Way core
00:16:47 --> 00:16:50 right now. Midwinter means dark early
00:16:50 --> 00:16:53 evenings, and the galactic center rises
00:16:53 --> 00:16:55 nicely in the north after sunset. Get away
00:16:55 --> 00:16:58 from city lights if you can. It's a beautiful
00:16:58 --> 00:16:59 time of year for it.
00:17:00 --> 00:17:03 Avery: The Strawberry Moon June's full moon rises
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 on June 29th. That's coming up fast,
00:17:05 --> 00:17:08 shining in Sagittarius near the Teapot
00:17:08 --> 00:17:11 asterism for parts of southern Australia and
00:17:11 --> 00:17:13 New Zealand. Keep an eye out. There may be a
00:17:13 --> 00:17:16 lunar occultation of antares visible on June
00:17:16 --> 00:17:16 27th.
00:17:17 --> 00:17:19 Anna: That's Astronomy Daily for Tuesday
00:17:19 --> 00:17:22 23rd June 2026.
00:17:23 --> 00:17:26 What a morning. Starfall in the air,
00:17:26 --> 00:17:28 Roman in Florida and the
00:17:28 --> 00:17:31 universe full of mysteries that keep
00:17:31 --> 00:17:32 getting deeper.
00:17:32 --> 00:17:33 Avery: We'll be back tomorrow with the latest from
00:17:33 --> 00:17:36 the Cosmos. Find us at astronomydaily IO
00:17:36 --> 00:17:38 and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
00:17:38 --> 00:17:41 Anna: On behalf of Avery and the whole Astronomy
00:17:41 --> 00:17:43 Daily team, keep looking up. Clear skies,
00:17:43 --> 00:17:44 everyone.
00:17:44 --> 00:17:46 Avery: Fall is a re entry capsule, a vehicle
00:17:46 --> 00:17:49 designed to carry cargo into orbit and bring
00:17:49 --> 00:17:52 it safely back to Earth. But it's not another
00:17:52 --> 00:17:54 Dragon. It's a flat disk, about
00:17:54 --> 00:17:57 3.1 meters across and only 75
00:17:57 --> 00:17:59 centimeters tall. Think of a large flying
00:17:59 --> 00:18:02 saucer rather than a pointy rocket cone.
00:18:02 --> 00:18:05 Anna: The launch window opened at 6:43 this
00:18:05 --> 00:18:07 morning, Eastern Time. That's
00:18:07 --> 00:18:10 8:43pm here on the east coast of Australia.
00:18:10 --> 00:18:13 It's flying on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral
00:18:13 --> 00:18:15 Space Force Station, the booster supporting
00:18:15 --> 00:18:18 the mission on its 29th flight.
00:18:18 --> 00:18:21 Avery: Now, why does this matter? The target market
00:18:21 --> 00:18:24 is space manufacturing. The idea is that
00:18:24 --> 00:18:27 microgravity, true weightlessness, lets
00:18:27 --> 00:18:29 you make things you can't make on Earth. Pure
00:18:29 --> 00:18:32 pharmaceutical crystals, advanced materials,
00:18:32 --> 00:18:35 bio printed tissues. But to make any of that
00:18:35 --> 00:18:37 commercially viable, you need a cheap,
00:18:37 --> 00:18:39 reliable way to bring your product home.
00:18:39 --> 00:18:42 Anna: M Until now, a small California
00:18:42 --> 00:18:44 company called Varda Space Industries has
00:18:44 --> 00:18:47 been pioneering that market. They've flown
00:18:47 --> 00:18:49 six capsule missions, but their capsules are
00:18:49 --> 00:18:52 small, carrying dozens of kilograms at most.
00:18:53 --> 00:18:54 Starfall is rated for up to
00:18:54 --> 00:18:57 1000kg. That's roughly 30
00:18:57 --> 00:18:59 times more return capacity,
00:18:59 --> 00:19:01 Avery: which creates an interesting situation
00:19:02 --> 00:19:04 because Varda has been launching all of its
00:19:04 --> 00:19:07 missions on SpaceX rockets. SpaceX
00:19:07 --> 00:19:09 is now entering the market it's been
00:19:09 --> 00:19:09 powering.
00:19:10 --> 00:19:13 Anna: After re entry, Starfall splashes down in the
00:19:13 --> 00:19:16 Pacific ocean off the US West coast, about
00:19:16 --> 00:19:19 1300 kilometers offshore. It's designed
00:19:19 --> 00:19:21 to be mass produced for starship flights in
00:19:21 --> 00:19:24 the future. Though today's Demo uses Falcon
00:19:24 --> 00:19:25 9, SpaceX
00:19:25 --> 00:19:27 Avery: has been approved for two re entry
00:19:27 --> 00:19:30 demonstrations. This is the first. We'll be
00:19:30 --> 00:19:32 watching closely for news of a successful
00:19:32 --> 00:19:33 recovery.
00:19:33 --> 00:19:36 Anna: A, uh, genuinely exciting morning to be a
00:19:36 --> 00:19:37 space nerd.
00:19:37 --> 00:19:40 Now, from a launch happening today to a
00:19:40 --> 00:19:41 launch that's just a couple of months away,
00:19:42 --> 00:19:45 NASA's next great space telescope has arrived
00:19:45 --> 00:19:46 in Florida.
00:19:46 --> 00:19:49 Avery: The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, Roman
00:19:49 --> 00:19:51 for short, arrived at the Kennedy Space
00:19:51 --> 00:19:54 center on Sunday, 21 June, riding
00:19:54 --> 00:19:56 NASA's Pegasus barge down from Baltimore
00:19:56 --> 00:19:59 after being loaded up at Goddard Space Flight
00:19:59 --> 00:20:00 center in Maryland.
00:20:00 --> 00:20:03 Anna: The telescope was tucked inside a special
00:20:03 --> 00:20:06 transport container that NASA has nicknamed I
00:20:06 --> 00:20:08 love this, the Chariot, keeping with the
00:20:08 --> 00:20:11 Roman theme, because the telescope is named
00:20:11 --> 00:20:14 after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's very
00:20:14 --> 00:20:16 first chief of astronomy, not after the
00:20:16 --> 00:20:17 Empire.
00:20:17 --> 00:20:20 Avery: Roman is often called the mother of Hubble.
00:20:20 --> 00:20:23 She was a driving force behind getting Hubble
00:20:23 --> 00:20:25 built in the first place. It's a fitting
00:20:25 --> 00:20:27 tribute. Now roman is at KSC's Payload
00:20:27 --> 00:20:30 Hazardous Servicing Facility for final launch
00:20:30 --> 00:20:32 preparations. The team will check all six
00:20:32 --> 00:20:35 solar panels, inspect insulation and thermal
00:20:35 --> 00:20:38 blankets, and load around 290 gallons
00:20:38 --> 00:20:39 of hydrazine fuel.
00:20:39 --> 00:20:42 Anna: And here's the headline number. NASA is
00:20:42 --> 00:20:45 targeting launch no earlier than Sunday 30th
00:20:45 --> 00:20:47 August on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy.
00:20:48 --> 00:20:50 And that timeline puts Roman a full eight
00:20:50 --> 00:20:52 months ahead of its original schedule.
00:20:53 --> 00:20:55 Avery: Eight months ahead. That's remarkable for a
00:20:55 --> 00:20:57 flagship space telescope.
00:20:57 --> 00:21:00 Anna: So what will Roman actually do? Its main
00:21:00 --> 00:21:03 Instrument is a 300 megapixel infrared
00:21:03 --> 00:21:05 camera with a field of view 100
00:21:06 --> 00:21:08 times wider than Hubble's. It will survey
00:21:08 --> 00:21:11 billions of galaxies, discover hundreds of
00:21:11 --> 00:21:14 thousands of exoplanets, probe dark energy
00:21:14 --> 00:21:17 and dark matter, and do all of this at
00:21:17 --> 00:21:19 speeds and scales that simply weren't
00:21:19 --> 00:21:20 possible before.
00:21:20 --> 00:21:23 Avery: It also carries a coronagraph, a starlight
00:21:23 --> 00:21:25 blocking instrument that will directly image
00:21:25 --> 00:21:28 planets around nearby stars, a key step
00:21:28 --> 00:21:30 in the long hunt for Earth. Like worlds.
00:21:31 --> 00:21:33 Anna: After launch, Roman will travel to the second
00:21:33 --> 00:21:35 Sun, Earth Lagrange Point L2,
00:21:36 --> 00:21:38 about 1.5 million kilometers from
00:21:38 --> 00:21:41 Earth, the same neighborhood where the James
00:21:41 --> 00:21:43 Webb Space Telescope is parked right now.
00:21:43 --> 00:21:46 Avery: Webb looking deep and narrow, Roman
00:21:46 --> 00:21:48 looking wide and fast. They're going to
00:21:48 --> 00:21:50 complement each other beautifully.
00:21:50 --> 00:21:52 Anna: And speaking of the James Webb Space
00:21:52 --> 00:21:54 Telescope, let's talk about what it's been
00:21:54 --> 00:21:56 showing us lately, because JWST
00:21:57 --> 00:21:59 keeps finding things that shouldn't be there.
00:21:59 --> 00:22:02 Avery: This week, a series of three new papers
00:22:02 --> 00:22:04 published in the Astrophysical Journal
00:22:04 --> 00:22:06 Letters reveal something extraordinary about
00:22:06 --> 00:22:08 a galaxy cluster called
00:22:08 --> 00:22:10 XLSSC122.
00:22:10 --> 00:22:13 Anna: Now, XLSSC122
00:22:13 --> 00:22:16 was first spotted way back in 2014 during
00:22:16 --> 00:22:19 an X ray survey. It's about 10.4
00:22:19 --> 00:22:22 billion light years away, meaning we're
00:22:22 --> 00:22:24 seeing it as it existed when the universe was
00:22:24 --> 00:22:26 only around 3.3 billion years old.
00:22:27 --> 00:22:30 That era is called cosmic noon, the peak
00:22:30 --> 00:22:32 of star formation, when galaxies were
00:22:32 --> 00:22:34 building themselves at a furious rate.
00:22:34 --> 00:22:37 Avery: It looks far too grown up for its age. It's
00:22:37 --> 00:22:40 large, it's organized, it has a dense,
00:22:40 --> 00:22:42 concentrated core. According to standard
00:22:42 --> 00:22:45 cosmological models, galaxy clusters that far
00:22:45 --> 00:22:48 back should still be loose, scattered. Still
00:22:48 --> 00:22:50 assembling. This one looks like it's had
00:22:50 --> 00:22:52 millions of years more to develop than it
00:22:52 --> 00:22:53 should have.
00:22:53 --> 00:22:56 Anna: But JWST has now revealed something
00:22:56 --> 00:22:58 even more surprising. When astronomers
00:22:58 --> 00:23:01 pointed the telescope at this cluster, they
00:23:01 --> 00:23:03 discovered it's acting as a gravitational
00:23:03 --> 00:23:06 lens. Its immense mass is bending and
00:23:06 --> 00:23:08 warping the light of even more distant
00:23:08 --> 00:23:11 galaxies behind it, creating beautiful
00:23:11 --> 00:23:13 blue gray arcs around the cluster's center.
00:23:13 --> 00:23:16 Avery: And that makes XLSSC122
00:23:16 --> 00:23:19 the most distant galaxy cluster ever
00:23:19 --> 00:23:21 confirmed to act as a strong gravitational
00:23:21 --> 00:23:24 lens. Some of that bent light set out on its
00:23:24 --> 00:23:26 journey more than 12 billion years ago.
00:23:26 --> 00:23:29 Anna: The lensing effect is dominated not by the
00:23:29 --> 00:23:32 cluster's stars and gas, but by dark matter.
00:23:32 --> 00:23:35 By studying the arcs, the team at Caltech's
00:23:35 --> 00:23:37 iPac can map the dark matter distribution
00:23:37 --> 00:23:40 with remarkable precision. And what they
00:23:40 --> 00:23:43 found is a core that's far more concentrated
00:23:43 --> 00:23:44 than their models predict.
00:23:44 --> 00:23:46 Avery: The third paper in the series found something
00:23:46 --> 00:23:49 called intracluster light, a faint glow
00:23:49 --> 00:23:51 from stars that have been stripped loose from
00:23:51 --> 00:23:54 their galaxies and now drift free through the
00:23:54 --> 00:23:57 cluster. XLSSC122
00:23:57 --> 00:23:59 is the earliest known cluster where this glow
00:23:59 --> 00:24:00 has been detected.
00:24:00 --> 00:24:03 Anna: These results were announced at the 248th
00:24:03 --> 00:24:06 meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
00:24:06 --> 00:24:09 Read author Kyle Finner from IPAC summed it
00:24:09 --> 00:24:12 up before jwst we
00:24:12 --> 00:24:14 couldn't do this level of science in the
00:24:14 --> 00:24:15 early distant universe.
00:24:15 --> 00:24:18 Avery: It's another reminder that the early universe
00:24:18 --> 00:24:20 was far more structured and stranger than our
00:24:20 --> 00:24:21 models expected.
00:24:21 --> 00:24:24 Next up, we're staying in the realm of dark
00:24:24 --> 00:24:26 matter because a new study published in
00:24:26 --> 00:24:29 Physical Review Letters has just reignited
00:24:29 --> 00:24:31 one of astrophysics most stubborn debates.
00:24:32 --> 00:24:34 Anna: At the heart of our Milky Way, there's a
00:24:34 --> 00:24:37 mysterious spherical glow of high energy
00:24:37 --> 00:24:40 gamma rays. It extends for thousands of light
00:24:40 --> 00:24:43 years out from the galactic center. NASA's
00:24:43 --> 00:24:45 Fermi telescope first spotted it in the late
00:24:45 --> 00:24:48 2000s, and astronomers have been arguing
00:24:48 --> 00:24:49 about it ever since.
00:24:50 --> 00:24:53 Avery: It's called the Galactic Center Excess, and
00:24:53 --> 00:24:55 there are two main one a
00:24:55 --> 00:24:58 huge population of millisecond pulsars,
00:24:59 --> 00:25:01 rapidly spinning neutron stars that beam
00:25:01 --> 00:25:04 gamma rays outward. Two dark
00:25:04 --> 00:25:07 matter particles annihilating each other.
00:25:07 --> 00:25:09 When two dark matter particles collide and
00:25:09 --> 00:25:11 destroy each other, they can release energy,
00:25:12 --> 00:25:13 including gamma rays.
00:25:14 --> 00:25:16 Anna: The pulsar explanation had been gaining
00:25:16 --> 00:25:18 ground in recent years. Some earlier
00:25:18 --> 00:25:21 analyses suggested a relatively modest
00:25:21 --> 00:25:24 population of a few hundred pulsars could
00:25:24 --> 00:25:25 explain the signal.
00:25:25 --> 00:25:28 Avery: But this new research, led by Florian List at
00:25:28 --> 00:25:31 the University of Vienna and Nick Rod at the
00:25:31 --> 00:25:34 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has
00:25:34 --> 00:25:36 changed the picture. They trained a machine
00:25:36 --> 00:25:39 learning model on more than 1 million
00:25:39 --> 00:25:42 simulated gamma ray observations. And the
00:25:42 --> 00:25:44 result? For pulsars to account for the
00:25:44 --> 00:25:47 signal, you would need more than 35
00:25:47 --> 00:25:50 of them concentrated near the galactic
00:25:50 --> 00:25:50 center.
00:25:51 --> 00:25:53 Anna: 35. That's an
00:25:53 --> 00:25:56 implausibly high number. And crucially, those
00:25:56 --> 00:25:59 pulsars would need to be so individually
00:25:59 --> 00:26:02 faint that they'd be nearly indistinguishable
00:26:02 --> 00:26:03 from the emission you'd expect from
00:26:03 --> 00:26:05 annihilating dark matter.
00:26:05 --> 00:26:08 Avery: As Nick Rod put it, our new analysis
00:26:08 --> 00:26:10 shows that the sources would have to be so
00:26:10 --> 00:26:12 faint that they would be almost
00:26:12 --> 00:26:14 indistinguishable from the emission expected
00:26:15 --> 00:26:16 from annihilating dark matter.
00:26:17 --> 00:26:19 Anna: The study doesn't prove dark matter is the
00:26:19 --> 00:26:22 cause, far from it. But it means the dark
00:26:22 --> 00:26:25 matter explanation cannot be ruled out.
00:26:25 --> 00:26:27 And the pulsar hypothesis is on much
00:26:27 --> 00:26:29 shakier ground than many thought.
00:26:30 --> 00:26:32 Avery: Upcoming observatories, including the
00:26:32 --> 00:26:34 Cherenkov Telescope Array and the Southern
00:26:34 --> 00:26:37 Widefield Gamma Ray Observatory, should
00:26:37 --> 00:26:40 eventually give us the resolution to separate
00:26:40 --> 00:26:42 these two signals. That observatory,
00:26:42 --> 00:26:45 incidentally, is being built in Chile. Well
00:26:45 --> 00:26:47 placed for Southern Hemisphere skywatchers.
00:26:48 --> 00:26:50 Anna: Something to watch closely. The heart of our
00:26:50 --> 00:26:53 own galaxy may be telling us something
00:26:53 --> 00:26:56 profound about the invisible stuff that makes
00:26:56 --> 00:26:58 up most of the universe now a, ah,
00:26:58 --> 00:27:01 ticking clock. NASA's SIFT observatory
00:27:01 --> 00:27:04 rescue mission is four days from launch and
00:27:04 --> 00:27:06 the people behind it are honest about what
00:27:06 --> 00:27:07 they've pulled off.
00:27:08 --> 00:27:11 Avery: John Domogal Goldman, NASA's astrophysics
00:27:11 --> 00:27:13 division director, said at a briefing press
00:27:13 --> 00:27:16 last week, and I quote, frankly I
00:27:16 --> 00:27:18 have to be honest, no one thought it was
00:27:18 --> 00:27:19 going to be possible.
00:27:20 --> 00:27:22 Anna: The story so far the Neil Gerald's
00:27:22 --> 00:27:25 Swift Observatory has been watching the sky
00:27:25 --> 00:27:27 for gamma ray bursts since 2004.
00:27:28 --> 00:27:31 Over 2 detected across more than
00:27:31 --> 00:27:33 two decades. But it's been slowly
00:27:33 --> 00:27:36 losing altitude. Increased solar
00:27:36 --> 00:27:38 activity has puffed up Earth's upper
00:27:38 --> 00:27:41 atmosphere, creating drag that's been pulling
00:27:41 --> 00:27:43 Swift down faster, uh, than expected.
00:27:43 --> 00:27:46 Avery: Without intervention, Swift faces a uh,
00:27:46 --> 00:27:49 90% chance of uncontrolled re entry
00:27:49 --> 00:27:52 by the end of this year. So NASA awarded
00:27:52 --> 00:27:54 a contract to an Arizona company called
00:27:54 --> 00:27:57 Catalyst Space Technologies last September
00:27:57 --> 00:28:00 to build and launch a rescue spacecraft in
00:28:00 --> 00:28:03 under nine months. Nine months from
00:28:03 --> 00:28:05 scratch to build something that has never
00:28:05 --> 00:28:06 been attempted before.
00:28:07 --> 00:28:09 Anna: That spacecraft is called Link.
00:28:09 --> 00:28:12 Lightweight in space navigation and
00:28:12 --> 00:28:15 kinematics. It's a boxy vehicle about the
00:28:15 --> 00:28:17 size of a fridge, carrying three robotic
00:28:17 --> 00:28:20 arms fitted with lidar sensors, three hall
00:28:20 --> 00:28:23 thrusters and 16 reaction control
00:28:23 --> 00:28:24 thrusters.
00:28:24 --> 00:28:27 Avery: Link is now encapsulated inside a Northrop
00:28:27 --> 00:28:30 Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, which itself
00:28:30 --> 00:28:32 will be making history as the last ever
00:28:32 --> 00:28:35 Pegasus XL flight. The rocket is
00:28:35 --> 00:28:37 carried under the belly of a modified
00:28:37 --> 00:28:40 aircraft called Stargazer, the only remaining
00:28:40 --> 00:28:43 airworthy Lockheed Martin L1011
00:28:43 --> 00:28:43 Tristar
00:28:43 --> 00:28:46 Anna: in the world launch is set for Saturday
00:28:46 --> 00:28:49 27 June from Kwajalen
00:28:49 --> 00:28:52 Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The air launch
00:28:52 --> 00:28:54 method is required because Swift's orbit,
00:28:54 --> 00:28:57 inclined 20.6 degrees to the equator,
00:28:58 --> 00:29:00 can't be efficiently reached from a ground
00:29:00 --> 00:29:01 based launch site.
00:29:01 --> 00:29:04 Avery: Once Lync reaches Swift, it faces a
00:29:04 --> 00:29:07 delicate capture operation. Swift was never
00:29:07 --> 00:29:09 designed to be serviced. Um, it has no
00:29:09 --> 00:29:11 docking port, no handholds. Link will
00:29:11 --> 00:29:14 have to grab it anyway. And after more than
00:29:14 --> 00:29:16 20 years in space, Swift's insulation
00:29:16 --> 00:29:19 blankets may be as brittle as glass.
00:29:19 --> 00:29:22 Anna: If all goes well, Link will gradually raise
00:29:22 --> 00:29:25 Swift's orbit back to its original 600
00:29:25 --> 00:29:28 kilometer altitude, adding years to the
00:29:28 --> 00:29:30 telescope's life and proving that commercial
00:29:30 --> 00:29:33 satellite servicing can work at scale.
00:29:33 --> 00:29:36 Avery: We will absolutely be back with updates as
00:29:36 --> 00:29:38 this one unfolds. Saturday June 27th.
00:29:38 --> 00:29:40 Mark it in your calendars.
00:29:40 --> 00:29:43 And finally today, China's Tianwen 2
00:29:43 --> 00:29:45 mission, an asteroid sample return mission
00:29:45 --> 00:29:48 that is now in its most critical phase yet.
00:29:48 --> 00:29:51 Anna: Taiwan 2 launched in May 2025,
00:29:51 --> 00:29:54 and on June 7 this month it
00:29:54 --> 00:29:56 performed its main insertion burn to enter
00:29:56 --> 00:29:59 orbit around a tiny near Earth asteroid
00:30:00 --> 00:30:02 called Kamo oeloa. Formally
00:30:02 --> 00:30:05 designated 469219,
00:30:05 --> 00:30:08 Kamo Oloa Kaumo'
00:30:08 --> 00:30:09 Oloa is extraordinary.
00:30:09 --> 00:30:12 Avery: It's a quasi satellite of Earth, not a moon
00:30:12 --> 00:30:15 in the traditional sense, but a space rock
00:30:15 --> 00:30:18 that orbits the sun on a path so similar to
00:30:18 --> 00:30:20 ours that it dances around us, perpetually
00:30:21 --> 00:30:24 staying between 38 and 100 times the
00:30:24 --> 00:30:26 distance of the Moon. It's been Earth's
00:30:26 --> 00:30:28 companion for more than a century and will
00:30:28 --> 00:30:29 remain so for the foreseeable future.
00:30:30 --> 00:30:33 Anna: The asteroid is tiny, somewhere between
00:30:33 --> 00:30:35 40 and 100 meters across,
00:30:36 --> 00:30:38 smaller than a football pitch, it spins
00:30:38 --> 00:30:41 once every 28 minutes, which presents
00:30:41 --> 00:30:43 real challenges for the sampling operation.
00:30:44 --> 00:30:47 Avery: Since the June 7th orbit insertion, amateur
00:30:47 --> 00:30:49 radio operators using a 20 meter dish in
00:30:49 --> 00:30:52 Germany and the 25 meter Dwingolo telescope
00:30:52 --> 00:30:54 in the Netherlands have been tracking the
00:30:54 --> 00:30:57 spacecraft's fine adjustment burns. Because
00:30:57 --> 00:30:59 China has published no official mission
00:30:59 --> 00:31:01 updates or ephemerities, everything we know
00:31:01 --> 00:31:03 about the mission's progress has come from
00:31:03 --> 00:31:05 independent observers.
00:31:05 --> 00:31:08 Anna: The mission timeline has sample collection
00:31:08 --> 00:31:11 beginning on July 4th. Taiwan
00:31:11 --> 00:31:13 2 has three sampling methods.
00:31:13 --> 00:31:16 Touch and go, hover and anchor and
00:31:16 --> 00:31:18 attach to cope with whatever surface
00:31:18 --> 00:31:20 conditions it finds at arrival.
00:31:21 --> 00:31:23 Avery: There's also a fascinating scientific debate
00:31:23 --> 00:31:25 simmering beneath all of this. Kamoa
00:31:25 --> 00:31:28 Olawa's reddish color resembles lunar rock,
00:31:28 --> 00:31:30 leading some scientists to propose it's a
00:31:30 --> 00:31:33 fragment blasted off the moon by an ancient
00:31:33 --> 00:31:35 impact. But a new study in Nature
00:31:35 --> 00:31:38 communications suggests it may instead have
00:31:38 --> 00:31:40 originated in the Flora family of the main
00:31:40 --> 00:31:41 asteroid belt.
00:31:42 --> 00:31:45 Anna: The samples expected to return to earth in
00:31:45 --> 00:31:47 late 2027 should settle that debate
00:31:47 --> 00:31:50 definitively. If the isotopes match
00:31:50 --> 00:31:53 lunar rock, the lunar fragment theory wins.
00:31:53 --> 00:31:55 If not, we're looking at a space weathered
00:31:55 --> 00:31:58 asteroid from the inner belt that just
00:31:58 --> 00:31:59 happens to look lunar.
00:32:00 --> 00:32:02 Avery: After delivering the samples, Tianwen 2
00:32:02 --> 00:32:05 doesn't stop. It uses Earth's gravity to
00:32:05 --> 00:32:08 slingshot toward a main belt comet called
00:32:08 --> 00:32:11 311P, with
00:32:11 --> 00:32:13 rendezvous expected in January 2035,
00:32:14 --> 00:32:16 a 10 year mission of remarkable ambition.
00:32:17 --> 00:32:20 Anna: We will be watching the July 4th sample
00:32:20 --> 00:32:22 collection attempt very closely indeed.
00:32:22 --> 00:32:25 Before we go tonight, Tuesday
00:32:25 --> 00:32:28 23rd, the moon sits beautifully close to
00:32:28 --> 00:32:30 Spica, the brightest star in Virgo.
00:32:30 --> 00:32:33 They're separated by less than 2 degrees,
00:32:33 --> 00:32:35 so easy to find with the naked eye after
00:32:35 --> 00:32:38 sunset. Spica, uh, shines as a brilliant
00:32:38 --> 00:32:41 bluish white point right beside the moon's
00:32:41 --> 00:32:42 glow, looking m ahead.
00:32:43 --> 00:32:45 Avery: On June 25, Mercury will appear close
00:32:45 --> 00:32:48 to Jupiter, low in the western sky after
00:32:48 --> 00:32:50 sunset. Venus will be shining nearby to
00:32:50 --> 00:32:53 complete a nice little planetary trio. You'll
00:32:53 --> 00:32:55 want a clear horizon to the west to catch
00:32:55 --> 00:32:58 Mercury, but Jupiter will be unmissable.
00:32:58 --> 00:33:00 Anna: And for our Southern Hemisphere listeners,
00:33:00 --> 00:33:03 you're well placed for the Milky Way core
00:33:03 --> 00:33:06 right now. Midwinter means dark early
00:33:06 --> 00:33:08 evenings, and the galactic center rises
00:33:08 --> 00:33:11 nicely in the north after sunset. Get away
00:33:11 --> 00:33:14 from city lights if you can. It's a beautiful
00:33:14 --> 00:33:15 time of year for it.
00:33:15 --> 00:33:18 Avery: The Strawberry Moon June's full moon rises
00:33:18 --> 00:33:21 on June 29th. That's coming up fast,
00:33:21 --> 00:33:23 shining in Sagittarius near the teapot
00:33:23 --> 00:33:26 asterism for parts of southern Australia and
00:33:26 --> 00:33:28 New Zealand. Keep an eye out. There may be a
00:33:28 --> 00:33:31 lunar occultation of antares visible on June
00:33:31 --> 00:33:32 27th.
00:33:32 --> 00:33:35 Anna: That's Astronomy Daily for Tuesday,
00:33:35 --> 00:33:38 23rd June 2026.
00:33:38 --> 00:33:41 What a morning star fall in the air,
00:33:41 --> 00:33:44 Roman in Florida and the universe
00:33:44 --> 00:33:47 full of mysteries that keep getting
00:33:47 --> 00:33:47 deeper.