In today's episode, Anna and Avery explore five of the week's most compelling space and astronomy stories: a new SETI Institute study suggesting stellar space weather could be scrambling alien radio signals before they even leave their home systems; groundbreaking research revealing that spaceflight physically shifts and deforms the human brain inside the skull; the impressive engineering story behind Roscosmos restoring Baikonur's launch pad in record time ahead of the Progress MS-33 mission; a surprising new finding from Nature that Earth's elliptical orbit plays a much bigger role in shaping El Niño and global weather patterns than previously thought; and the endlessly fascinating question of whether asteroid impacts could allow microbes to travel between planets — including the possibility that life on Earth may have originated on Mars. Stories Covered • Why SETI may be missing alien radio signals — space weather around distant stars could be smearing narrowband signals beyond the reach of current detectors (SETI Institute, March 2026) • Spaceflight physically shifts and deforms the brain inside the skull — new MRI study of 26 astronauts published in PNAS reveals extent of microgravity's neurological impact (University of Florida, March 2026) • Baikonur's Site 31/6 launch pad fully restored after November 2025 damage — over 150 workers complete repairs in under two months, clearing path for Progress MS-33 on March 22 (NASASpaceFlight, March 2026) • Earth's distance from the Sun found to dramatically alter seasons — new Nature study shows orbital eccentricity drives its own annual cycle in the Pacific cold tongue, influencing El Niño over millennia (UC Berkeley, March 2026) • Did Earth life begin on Mars? New research examines how asteroid impacts could allow microbes to travel between planets via ejected rock (Universe Today, March 2026) Connect With Us Website: astronomydaily.io Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Tumblr: @AstroDailyPod Part of the Bitesz.com Podcast Network
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss) .
Sponsor Details:
Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN . To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit You'll be glad you did!
Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click Here (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support)
This episode includes AI-generated content.
Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/32083275?utm_source=youtube
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm Anna.
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 >> And I'm Avery. It's Monday, March 9th.
00:00:06 --> 00:00:07 And if you've been following the news
00:00:07 --> 00:00:09 this past week, the universe has been
00:00:09 --> 00:00:11 spectacularly busy.
00:00:11 --> 00:00:13 >> We've got alien signals going missing in
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 the cosmic static. Astronaut brains
00:00:16 --> 00:00:19 getting physically rearranged in space,
00:00:19 --> 00:00:21 a dramatic launchpad rescue story
00:00:21 --> 00:00:23 straight out of a thriller, and a
00:00:23 --> 00:00:26 genuinely mindbending discovery about
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 why Earth's seasons work the way they
00:00:28 --> 00:00:30 do. Plus, we're asking one of
00:00:30 --> 00:00:32 astrobiologyy's most provocative
00:00:32 --> 00:00:34 questions. Did life on Earth actually
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 start on Mars? It's a packed episode.
00:00:37 --> 00:00:38 Let's get into it.
00:00:38 --> 00:00:40 >> Here's a thought that's going to sit
00:00:40 --> 00:00:42 with you for a while. What if we're not
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 alone in the universe, but we've been
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 tuning to the wrong frequency this whole
00:00:47 --> 00:00:47 time?
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 >> That's essentially what a new study from
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 SETI is suggesting. Researchers Vishal
00:00:52 --> 00:00:54 Gajar and Grace Brown have published
00:00:54 --> 00:00:57 work showing that stellar space weather,
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 the kind of turbulent plasma and solar
00:00:59 --> 00:01:02 activity that stars constantly turn out,
00:01:02 --> 00:01:04 could physically distort alien radio
00:01:04 --> 00:01:06 signals before they even leave their
00:01:06 --> 00:01:09 home solar system. So, here's how SETI
00:01:09 --> 00:01:11 searches typically work. For decades,
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 scientists have been scanning the sky
00:01:13 --> 00:01:16 for very tightly focused narrowband
00:01:16 --> 00:01:18 radio signals. Extremely specific
00:01:18 --> 00:01:21 frequencies that nothing natural in the
00:01:21 --> 00:01:23 universe should produce. If you detect
00:01:23 --> 00:01:25 one of those, the thinking goes, it's
00:01:25 --> 00:01:28 almost certainly artificial. It's almost
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30 certainly someone. And that logic is
00:01:30 --> 00:01:32 still sound, but the new research
00:01:32 --> 00:01:34 highlights a gap in the reasoning. Even
00:01:34 --> 00:01:36 if an alien civilization sends a
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 perfectly clean narrowband signal, their
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 own stars environment might smear it out
00:01:41 --> 00:01:44 before it escapes. Plasma density
00:01:44 --> 00:01:46 fluctuations and stellar winds or a
00:01:46 --> 00:01:49 burst from a coronal mass ejection can
00:01:49 --> 00:01:51 spread that tight signal across a much
00:01:51 --> 00:01:53 wider range of frequencies, reducing its
00:01:53 --> 00:01:56 strength at any single point below what
00:01:56 --> 00:01:58 our detectors can pick up. The team ran
00:01:58 --> 00:02:01 simulations of the million closest
00:02:01 --> 00:02:03 sunlike and red dwarf stars and found
00:02:03 --> 00:02:06 that 70% of stars would broaden a signal
00:02:06 --> 00:02:09 by more than one hertz, 30% by more than
00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 10 hertz. And if a coronal mass ejection
00:02:12 --> 00:02:14 happened to fire off at the moment of
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 transmission, the broadening could
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 exceed 1 hertz, making the signal
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 essentially invisible to the way we
00:02:21 --> 00:02:22 currently search.
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 >> And red dorp stars are the biggest
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 culprits here. And that's particularly
00:02:26 --> 00:02:28 significant because red dwarfs make up
00:02:28 --> 00:02:31 about 3/4 of all the stars in the Milky
00:02:31 --> 00:02:33 Way. A lot of our SETI attention has
00:02:33 --> 00:02:35 focused on those systems precisely
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 because they're so common. And it turns
00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 out they may also be the most likely to
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 garble any messages being sent from
00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 their planets. The good news is that
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47 identifying the problem is the first
00:02:47 --> 00:02:49 step to solving it. The team says this
00:02:49 --> 00:02:51 gives us a framework for redesigning
00:02:51 --> 00:02:54 searches to remain sensitive even when
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 signals are broadened to look for what
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 actually arrives at Earth rather than
00:02:58 --> 00:03:01 what was originally transmitted.
00:03:01 --> 00:03:02 >> It's a bit like realizing you've been
00:03:02 --> 00:03:05 trying to tune into a radio station, but
00:03:05 --> 00:03:07 the signal had passed through a foggy
00:03:07 --> 00:03:09 atmosphere on its way to you. It's not
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 that the station isn't broadcasting.
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 It's that we need a better aerial.
00:03:13 --> 00:03:15 >> And that's a much more hopeful framing
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 than nobody's out there. The universe
00:03:18 --> 00:03:20 might be full of voices we just haven't
00:03:20 --> 00:03:21 learned to hear yet.
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 >> Now, if you're planning a trip to space
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 or if you're just a big Aremis fan, this
00:03:26 --> 00:03:27 next story is worth paying attention to.
00:03:27 --> 00:03:29 Though, we want to say upfront that it's
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 fascinating rather than alarming.
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 >> A new study published in the proceedings
00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 of the National Academy of Sciences has
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 found that spaceflight doesn't just
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 change your perspective on life. It
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 literally shifts the physical position
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 of your brain inside your skull. A team
00:03:45 --> 00:03:48 led by Rachel Sidler at the University
00:03:48 --> 00:03:51 of Florida analyzed MRI scans from 26
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53 astronauts taken before and after
00:03:54 --> 00:03:56 missions to the ISS. Missions ranging
00:03:56 --> 00:03:59 from a few weeks to over a year. To
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 measure the brain's actual movement,
00:04:01 --> 00:04:03 they aligned each person's skull across
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 the two scans so they could track the
00:04:06 --> 00:04:08 brain's position relative to the bone
00:04:08 --> 00:04:09 itself.
00:04:09 --> 00:04:11 >> And what they found was striking. The
00:04:11 --> 00:04:14 brain shifts upward and backward inside
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 the skull. It also physically deforms,
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 stretching and compressing in different
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 directions. The sensory and motor
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 regions show the largest shifts. And
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 crucially, the longer someone spent in
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 space, the more pronounced these changes
00:04:28 --> 00:04:28 were.
00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 >> The underlying cause is what you'd
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 expect from microgravity. On Earth,
00:04:33 --> 00:04:35 gravity constantly pulls fluids,
00:04:35 --> 00:04:37 including the cerebral spinal fluid
00:04:37 --> 00:04:39 surrounding your brain, downward. In
00:04:39 --> 00:04:42 space, that force disappears. Fluid
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 redistributes towards the head. The
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 brain effectively floats in the skull
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 and it responds to different forces from
00:04:48 --> 00:04:49 surrounding tissues.
00:04:50 --> 00:04:51 >> Previous research already knew the brain
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 shifts upward in space. What makes this
00:04:54 --> 00:04:56 study important is the level of detail.
00:04:56 --> 00:04:58 Instead of treating the brain as one
00:04:58 --> 00:05:00 object, the team divided it into more
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 than 100 regions and tracked each
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 individually. that revealed patterns
00:05:05 --> 00:05:07 like opposing lateral shifts on each
00:05:07 --> 00:05:09 side of the brain that had been
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 canceling each other out and going
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 unnoticed in whole brain averages. The
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 reassuring news, most of the changes
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 recover within 6 months of returning to
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 Earth, and the astronauts themselves
00:05:20 --> 00:05:22 didn't report symptoms like headaches or
00:05:22 --> 00:05:25 cognitive fog. The researchers stressed
00:05:25 --> 00:05:27 that this doesn't mean people shouldn't
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 go to space. But as missions get longer
00:05:29 --> 00:05:32 and as Aremis starts taking humans back
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 to the moon and eventually towards Mars,
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 understanding these effects will be
00:05:36 --> 00:05:37 important for designing proper
00:05:38 --> 00:05:39 countermeasures.
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 >> It's a reminder that space is a
00:05:41 --> 00:05:42 genuinely alien environment for the
00:05:42 --> 00:05:45 human body. We evolved under one gravity
00:05:45 --> 00:05:47 and every time we leave it, we're
00:05:47 --> 00:05:49 running an experiment on ourselves. The
00:05:49 --> 00:05:51 more we understand those experiments,
00:05:51 --> 00:05:54 the safer we can make longduration space
00:05:54 --> 00:05:56 flight. Now for a story that is in the
00:05:56 --> 00:05:59 best possible way a bit of a thriller.
00:05:59 --> 00:06:01 In November last year, something went
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 wrong at the historic Biconor Cosmodrome
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 in Kazakhstan and nobody was entirely
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 sure it could be fixed in time.
00:06:08 --> 00:06:12 >> It started on November 27th, 2025. A
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 Soyuse rocket lifted off from launch
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 site 31 carrying the Soyuse MS28
00:06:17 --> 00:06:19 spacecraft with two Rose Cosmos
00:06:19 --> 00:06:21 cosminauts and NASA astronaut
00:06:21 --> 00:06:23 Christopher Williams aboard. The launch
00:06:23 --> 00:06:25 was successful. The crew docked with the
00:06:25 --> 00:06:27 ISS without incident,
00:06:27 --> 00:06:29 >> but post-launch inspection footage
00:06:29 --> 00:06:31 revealed significant damage to the pad
00:06:31 --> 00:06:33 itself. A component called the service
00:06:33 --> 00:06:36 cabin, which retracts into a protective
00:06:36 --> 00:06:38 cavity to shield it from engine exhaust
00:06:38 --> 00:06:40 during ascent, hadn't been properly
00:06:40 --> 00:06:43 secured. The powerful rocket exhaust,
00:06:43 --> 00:06:44 dislodged it, and the structure fell
00:06:44 --> 00:06:47 several meters into the launch trench,
00:06:47 --> 00:06:49 deforming bridges, access walkways, and
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52 other critical infrastructure. The space
00:06:52 --> 00:06:54 community was skeptical this could be
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 fixed quickly. These are heavy, complex
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 structures, but Rose Cosmos committed to
00:06:59 --> 00:07:01 the repair. And it turns out their long
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 history with the Soyuse system gave them
00:07:03 --> 00:07:06 an unexpected advantage. Bare service
00:07:06 --> 00:07:08 cabins had been sitting in storage, left
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 over from refurbishment plans dating
00:07:10 --> 00:07:12 back to the 1970s.
00:07:12 --> 00:07:14 >> The restoration effort was enormous.
00:07:14 --> 00:07:17 Over 150 personnel worked on the
00:07:17 --> 00:07:20 project. They completed over 250 m of
00:07:20 --> 00:07:23 welding, painted nearly 2400 square
00:07:23 --> 00:07:25 meters of structures, replaced all
00:07:25 --> 00:07:27 fastening units, and fully updated the
00:07:28 --> 00:07:29 electrical systems. The replacement
00:07:30 --> 00:07:32 cabin, originally built for an older
00:07:32 --> 00:07:34 Soyuse variant, needed modifications to
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 work with modern hardware.
00:07:36 --> 00:07:38 >> And in under two months from the initial
00:07:38 --> 00:07:40 damage assessment, far faster than most
00:07:40 --> 00:07:43 observers anticipated, Rose Cosmos
00:07:43 --> 00:07:45 announced the pad was fully restored and
00:07:45 --> 00:07:47 declared ready for operations. That
00:07:47 --> 00:07:51 means Progress MS33, an uncrrewed cargo
00:07:51 --> 00:07:53 ship, is now cleared to launch from site
00:07:53 --> 00:07:57 31 on March 22nd. It will deliver around
00:07:57 --> 00:08:00 2.5 tons of supplies to the ISS.
00:08:00 --> 00:08:03 Propellant, water, food, scientific
00:08:04 --> 00:08:06 equipment, and crew parcels.
00:08:06 --> 00:08:08 >> It's a genuinely impressive piece of
00:08:08 --> 00:08:10 engineering under pressure. And it's a
00:08:10 --> 00:08:12 good reminder that behind every rocket
00:08:12 --> 00:08:14 launch is an enormous amount of
00:08:14 --> 00:08:17 groundwork. literally in this case that
00:08:17 --> 00:08:19 never makes headlines until something
00:08:19 --> 00:08:20 goes sideways.
00:08:20 --> 00:08:24 >> Okay, pop quiz. Why do we have seasons?
00:08:24 --> 00:08:26 >> Earth's axial tilt. We all learned this
00:08:26 --> 00:08:28 in school. When the northern hemisphere
00:08:28 --> 00:08:30 is tilted toward the sun, it's summer up
00:08:30 --> 00:08:32 here. When it's tilted away, it's
00:08:32 --> 00:08:33 winter.
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 >> Exactly right. And most people also know
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 that Earth's orbit around the sun is
00:08:38 --> 00:08:40 slightly elliptical. We're a bit closer
00:08:40 --> 00:08:43 to the sun in January and a bit farther
00:08:43 --> 00:08:45 away in July, but we're usually told
00:08:45 --> 00:08:47 that effect is minor and it doesn't
00:08:47 --> 00:08:50 significantly change our seasons. Well,
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 a new study published in Nature suggests
00:08:53 --> 00:08:55 we may have been underelling that
00:08:55 --> 00:08:58 distance effect quite significantly. The
00:08:58 --> 00:08:59 research led by John Chiang at UC
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 Berkeley focuses on a specific feature
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 of the Pacific Ocean called the cold
00:09:04 --> 00:09:06 tongue. A strip of cooler water that
00:09:06 --> 00:09:09 stretches westward from South America
00:09:09 --> 00:09:11 along the equator. This cold tongue is
00:09:11 --> 00:09:14 closely tied to El Nino and Lania cycles
00:09:14 --> 00:09:16 which influence rainfall, drought, and
00:09:16 --> 00:09:19 weather patterns across huge swaths of
00:09:19 --> 00:09:21 the planet. What Chang and his
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 colleagues found is that the changing
00:09:23 --> 00:09:25 Earth's sun distance creates its own
00:09:25 --> 00:09:27 separate annual cycle in the cold
00:09:27 --> 00:09:29 tongue, distinct from the tilt-driven
00:09:29 --> 00:09:32 one. And the two cycles are slightly out
00:09:32 --> 00:09:34 of sync. The distance-based one runs
00:09:34 --> 00:09:37 about 25 minutes longer than the
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 tilt-based one. That doesn't sound like
00:09:39 --> 00:09:42 much, but it means that over about
00:09:42 --> 00:09:45 11 years, the two effects drift from
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 being perfectly in phase to perfectly
00:09:47 --> 00:09:49 out of phase. When they're in phase,
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 like they are roughly today, the effects
00:09:52 --> 00:09:54 reinforce each other. When they're out
00:09:54 --> 00:09:56 of phase, as they were around 6
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 years ago, they partially cancel,
00:09:58 --> 00:10:00 producing a much weaker seasonal cycle
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 in the cold tongue. And since the cold
00:10:02 --> 00:10:05 tongue drives El Nino, that means El
00:10:05 --> 00:10:07 Nino patterns themselves would have been
00:10:07 --> 00:10:10 dramatically different in the deep past.
00:10:10 --> 00:10:11 >> The mechanism works in a
00:10:11 --> 00:10:14 counterintuitive direction, too. While
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 axial tilt creates north south
00:10:16 --> 00:10:18 temperature differences, the distance
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 effect creates an east west contrast
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 between the continental hemisphere of
00:10:23 --> 00:10:26 the Americas, Africa, and Eurasia and
00:10:26 --> 00:10:29 the ocean dominated Pacific side. That
00:10:29 --> 00:10:31 contrast drives trade winds which in
00:10:31 --> 00:10:33 turn shape the cold tongue.
00:10:33 --> 00:10:35 >> It's worth noting the study is entirely
00:10:35 --> 00:10:38 modelbased. It's a prediction that will
00:10:38 --> 00:10:40 need observational verification, but it
00:10:40 --> 00:10:42 opens fascinating questions for
00:10:42 --> 00:10:45 paleoclimate science. If Earth's orbital
00:10:45 --> 00:10:47 shape was changing the cold tongue over
00:10:47 --> 00:10:50 22year cycles, some ancient climate
00:10:50 --> 00:10:53 records may need reinterpretation. And
00:10:53 --> 00:10:55 there's something wonderfully humbling
00:10:55 --> 00:10:56 about it. We've been telling school
00:10:56 --> 00:10:59 children for generations exactly why
00:10:59 --> 00:11:01 seasons happen. And it turns out the
00:11:01 --> 00:11:04 full picture involves a subtle cosmic
00:11:04 --> 00:11:07 clockwork we hadn't fully accounted for.
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 >> And now for our final story today, and
00:11:09 --> 00:11:11 honestly one of the most mindbending
00:11:11 --> 00:11:13 things you can contemplate on a Monday.
00:11:13 --> 00:11:16 What if you're not from Earth
00:11:16 --> 00:11:19 >> in a very literal biological sense?
00:11:19 --> 00:11:20 Possibly.
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 >> A new study is revisiting the concept of
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 panspermia. the idea that life doesn't
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 necessarily originate independently on
00:11:27 --> 00:11:29 each planet, but can travel between
00:11:29 --> 00:11:33 worlds and the vehicle asteroid impacts.
00:11:33 --> 00:11:35 >> Here's the premise. We know that when a
00:11:35 --> 00:11:37 large asteroid or comet slams into a
00:11:37 --> 00:11:40 planet with enough force, it can blast
00:11:40 --> 00:11:43 material into space, rocks, dust, and
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45 potentially anything living inside those
00:11:45 --> 00:11:48 rocks. We've actually found meteorites
00:11:48 --> 00:11:50 on Earth that originated on Mars,
00:11:50 --> 00:11:53 blasted off by ancient impacts. So, the
00:11:53 --> 00:11:56 physical pathway definitely exists.
00:11:56 --> 00:11:58 >> The question has always been, could
00:11:58 --> 00:12:00 anything survive that journey? You're
00:12:00 --> 00:12:03 talking about the ejection itself, an
00:12:03 --> 00:12:05 enormous shock wave, then exposure to
00:12:05 --> 00:12:07 the vacuum and radiation of space for
00:12:08 --> 00:12:10 potentially millions of years, then a
00:12:10 --> 00:12:13 fiery atmospheric entry, and high-speed
00:12:13 --> 00:12:15 impact at the destination.
00:12:15 --> 00:12:17 >> The new research suggests the answer
00:12:17 --> 00:12:19 might be yes. under the right
00:12:19 --> 00:12:21 conditions. Some microbes, particularly
00:12:21 --> 00:12:24 those that form hardy spores or live
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 deep within rocks, could potentially
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 survive all of those stages. The rock
00:12:28 --> 00:12:30 itself provides shielding from radiation
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 during transit. And the numbers game
00:12:32 --> 00:12:35 matters. Even if only a tiny fraction of
00:12:35 --> 00:12:37 ejected material survives, the sheer
00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 volume of material blasted around the
00:12:39 --> 00:12:42 early solar system means some viable
00:12:42 --> 00:12:44 biology could have made the crossing.
00:12:44 --> 00:12:46 >> The Mars connection is particularly
00:12:46 --> 00:12:49 intriguing. Early Mars was by many
00:12:49 --> 00:12:51 accounts a better candidate for life to
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54 emerge first than early Earth. It cooled
00:12:54 --> 00:12:57 faster. It had liquid water earlier. And
00:12:57 --> 00:13:00 it had a gentler gravitational well,
00:13:00 --> 00:13:02 making it easier for material to escape.
00:13:02 --> 00:13:05 If life arose on Mars billions of years
00:13:05 --> 00:13:08 ago and hitched a ride on an impact
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10 ejected rock, Earth could effectively
00:13:10 --> 00:13:12 have been seated. which would mean that
00:13:12 --> 00:13:15 if we ever find microbial life on Mars
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17 or evidence of ancient life there, we'd
00:13:17 --> 00:13:19 face a fascinating interpretive
00:13:19 --> 00:13:21 challenge. Did life arise independently
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 on both worlds or are we all in some
00:13:24 --> 00:13:27 deep ancestral sense Martians?
00:13:27 --> 00:13:29 >> The study emphasizes this is still
00:13:29 --> 00:13:32 highly speculative. Hence Bermia remains
00:13:32 --> 00:13:35 a hypothesis rather than established
00:13:35 --> 00:13:37 science. But as our ability to study
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 Martian samples improves, especially
00:13:40 --> 00:13:42 with future sample return missions, we
00:13:42 --> 00:13:45 may eventually be in a position to test
00:13:45 --> 00:13:46 it directly.
00:13:46 --> 00:13:48 >> Either way, the question is deeply
00:13:48 --> 00:13:50 fascinating and it gives a whole new
00:13:50 --> 00:13:53 flavor to the phrase out of this world.
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55 >> That's Astronomy Daily for Monday, March
00:13:55 --> 00:13:58 9th. From scrambled alien signals to
00:13:58 --> 00:14:01 astronaut brains, from a launchpad
00:14:01 --> 00:14:03 resurrection to the hidden clockwork of
00:14:03 --> 00:14:06 Earth's seasons, and the possibility
00:14:06 --> 00:14:08 that we're all secretly from Mars.
00:14:08 --> 00:14:10 >> It's been a great episode. If you're
00:14:10 --> 00:14:12 enjoying the show, please leave us a
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 review wherever you listen. It genuinely
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16 helps new listeners find us. And share
00:14:16 --> 00:14:18 an episode with a friend who's curious
00:14:18 --> 00:14:19 about the universe.
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 >> You can find us at astronomyaily.io
00:14:22 --> 00:14:25 IO and we're @ Astro Daily Pod on X,
00:14:25 --> 00:14:28 Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube, and Tumblr.
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 >> We'll be back tomorrow with more of the
00:14:30 --> 00:14:32 universe's greatest hits. Until then,
00:14:32 --> 00:14:33 keep looking up.
00:14:33 --> 00:14:45 >> Bye for now.
00:14:45 --> 00:14:49 Stories told.