Thank you for listening to Astronomy Daily! Here's everything from today's episode: Story 1: Artemis II — T-Minus Days to Launch NASA is targeting April 1, 2026 for the launch of Artemis II — the first crewed lunar flyby since Apollo 17 in 1972. The crew of Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen will fly a 10-day free-return trajectory around the Moon aboard the Orion spacecraft on the SLS rocket from Kennedy Space Center. The six-day launch window runs April 1–6. Meanwhile, a new analysis suggests the mission could face elevated solar superflare risk, though NASA is proceeding after a successful Flight Readiness Review. Source: NASA — https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/ Solar risk analysis: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/artemis-2-moon-mission-shouldnt-launch-until-late-2026-new-analysis-of-solar-superflares-suggests Story 2: G3 Geomagnetic Storm & Aurora Australis Multiple coronal mass ejections from the Sun triggered a G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm, producing vivid auroral displays from New York to Scotland to — remarkably — Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Adelaide. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe storm warning for March 23. Conditions are easing on March 24 (Kp 3–4) but some aurora activity may continue. March is historically the best month for auroras due to the equinox effect, and with Solar Cycle 25 at its peak, scientists say this could be the best aurora viewing period until the mid-2030s. Aurora forecast: https://earthsky.org/sun/sun-news-activity-solar-flare-cme-aurora-updates/ Aurora Australis guide: https://www.elle.com.au/culture/news/aurora-australis-southern-lights-march-2026-tonight-alert/ Story 3: JWST Finds 'Impossible' Atmosphere on Lava World TOI-561 b A Carnegie Institution-led team used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to detect the strongest evidence yet for an atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet. TOI-561 b — an ultra-hot super-Earth about twice Earth's mass, orbiting its star every 10.56 hours — was expected to be a bare rock. Instead, JWST measured a dayside temperature far cooler than a bare rock would produce, indicating a thick atmosphere redistributing heat above a global magma ocean. The findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source: Carnegie Institution for Science — https://carnegiescience.edu/ultra-hot-lava-world-has-thick-atmosphere-upending-expectations ScienceDaily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260322020255.htm Story 4: Sealed Apollo 17 Moon Rocks Reveal Surprise Sulfur Signal Sealed lunar samples from Apollo 17 (collected 1972, opened through NASA's ANGSA program) have revealed unexpected sulfur isotope signatures. A Brown University-led team found volcanic material from the Taurus-Littrow region is strongly depleted in sulfur-33 — unlike anything found on Earth. Possible explanations include ancient lunar atmospheric chemistry or a legacy of the Theia impact that formed the Moon. Published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. Source: Brown University — https://www.brown.edu/news/2025-10-06/sulfur-isotopes-apollo-samples SciTechDaily: https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-open-moon-rocks-locked-away-since-1972-and-find-something-totally-unexpected/ Story 5: This Week in Global Rocketry An exceptional week of launches spanning five countries and seven rocket types: SpaceX Falcon 9 (Starlink 17-17, Tuesday; Starlink 10-44, Thursday — B1067's record 34th flight; Transporter 16, Sunday), Rocket Lab Electron (ESA Celeste demo sats, Wednesday, NZ), Isar Aerospace Spectrum (Onward and Upward, Wednesday, Norway), Chang Zheng 2C (Wednesday, China), CAS Space Kinetica 1 (Friday, China), Russia's debut Soyuz-5 (Friday, Baikonur), and ULA Atlas V (Amazon Leo batch, Sunday). The 73rd orbital launch attempt of 2026 worldwide. Full preview: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/03/launch-preview-032326/ Update: Progress MS-33 & Spectrum Rocket Progress MS-33 (also known as Progress 94) launched from the newly-repaired Site 31/6 at Baikonur on March 22 carrying 2,509 kg of supplies for the ISS Expedition 74 crew. A KURS antenna failure required ISS commander Sergei Kud-Sverchkov to dock the vehicle manually using the TORU backup system, scheduled for 13:34 UTC on March 24. Separately, Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket remains on the pad at Andøya, Norway, with a new launch window on March 25 (20:00–21:00 UTC) after weather delays. Progress MS-33: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/03/progress-ms33/ Spectrum launch info: https://isaraerospace.com/mission-updates-overview
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00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Good day, stargazers, and welcome back
00:00:02 --> 00:00:05 to Astronomy Daily. I'm Anna.
00:00:05 --> 00:00:07 >> And I'm Avery. And honestly, this might
00:00:07 --> 00:00:09 be our most packed episode of the season
00:00:09 --> 00:00:10 so far.
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 >> Between a rocket still sitting on a pad
00:00:13 --> 00:00:15 in Norway waiting for its shot at
00:00:15 --> 00:00:18 history, a cargo ship that needed a
00:00:18 --> 00:00:21 human hand on the wheel, and an entirely
00:00:21 --> 00:00:23 different kind of skyhow happening over
00:00:23 --> 00:00:26 Australian cities last night, today
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 really has it all. Plus, fresh science
00:00:28 --> 00:00:30 off the James Webb Space Telescope that
00:00:30 --> 00:00:33 has astronomers questioning everything
00:00:33 --> 00:00:34 they thought they knew about lava
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 worlds. We've got news about sealed moon
00:00:37 --> 00:00:39 rocks finally giving up their secrets
00:00:39 --> 00:00:41 after 50 years. And we'll walk you
00:00:41 --> 00:00:42 through one of the busiest weeks in
00:00:42 --> 00:00:45 global rocketry in recent memory. And
00:00:45 --> 00:00:48 with less than 2 weeks to go until the
00:00:48 --> 00:00:50 most historic human space flight in half
00:00:50 --> 00:00:54 a century, the countdown to Aremis 2 is
00:00:54 --> 00:00:56 well and truly on. though not everyone
00:00:56 --> 00:00:58 agrees it should be.
00:00:58 --> 00:00:59 >> There's a scientist out there saying
00:01:00 --> 00:01:02 NASA should hold off. We'll get to that.
00:01:02 --> 00:01:05 >> Without further ado, then let's dive in.
00:01:05 --> 00:01:06 >> Let's start with the big one. As of
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 today, NASA is officially targeting
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 April 1st. And yes, we know how that
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 sounds. As the launch date for Artemis
00:01:13 --> 00:01:16 2, the 6-day window runs April 1st
00:01:16 --> 00:01:19 through to the 6th. And just to be clear
00:01:19 --> 00:01:21 for anyone just joining us on the show,
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 Artemis 2 is the first time human beings
00:01:24 --> 00:01:26 will travel to the vicinity of the moon
00:01:26 --> 00:01:31 since Apollo 17 in December 1972,
00:01:31 --> 00:01:35 over 50 years. This is genuinely
00:01:35 --> 00:01:36 historic.
00:01:36 --> 00:01:38 >> Four astronauts aboard the Orion
00:01:38 --> 00:01:40 spacecraft launched on the space launch
00:01:40 --> 00:01:43 system or SLS from Kennedy Space Center
00:01:43 --> 00:01:45 in Florida. The crew is commander Reed
00:01:45 --> 00:01:48 Weisman, pilot Victor Glover, mission
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 specialist Christina Coach, and Canadian
00:01:50 --> 00:01:53 Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
00:01:53 --> 00:01:55 >> Victor Glover will become the first
00:01:55 --> 00:01:57 person of color to travel beyond Earth
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 orbit. Christina Coach will be the first
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 woman, and Jeremy Hansen will be the
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 first non-American citizen to leave low
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 Earth orbit. This mission is full of
00:02:08 --> 00:02:11 firsts. The crew entered quarantine at
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 Johnson Space Center in Houston on March
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 18th, and they traveled down to Florida
00:02:16 --> 00:02:18 on March 27th. From there, it's really
00:02:18 --> 00:02:20 just a matter of weather systems, and
00:02:20 --> 00:02:21 that launch window.
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 >> Now, the road to get here has had its
00:02:24 --> 00:02:27 bumps. There were liquid hydrogen leaks,
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 helium flow issue that caused a roll
00:02:30 --> 00:02:31 back to the vehicle assembly building
00:02:32 --> 00:02:34 just last month. Engineers found a
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 blocked seal in a cable connecting the
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 rocket to the ground systems. That's
00:02:38 --> 00:02:41 fixed now. A successful wet dress
00:02:41 --> 00:02:43 rehearsal in late February cleared the
00:02:43 --> 00:02:44 way.
00:02:44 --> 00:02:46 >> And the mission itself, once it
00:02:46 --> 00:02:48 launches, will be a 10day free return
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 trajectory around the moon. They'll
00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 swing out to about 5 m beyond the
00:02:53 --> 00:02:55 lunar surface, giving the crew and the
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 world a view of the moon that no human
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 has had since Jean Cernin and Harrison
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 Schmidt were there in person.
00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 >> Now, Avery, you mentioned earlier that
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 not everyone thinks this is the right
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09 moment to go. Yeah, this is a genuinely
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 interesting wrinkle. A researcher at
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 Mexico's National Autonomous University,
00:03:13 --> 00:03:16 Victor Velasco Era, has published a new
00:03:16 --> 00:03:18 analysis suggesting that we are
00:03:18 --> 00:03:20 currently in a window of elevated solar
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 superflare risk. His models point to a
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 high activity period running from mid
00:03:25 --> 00:03:29 2025 through to mid 2026, focus on the
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 sun's southern hemisphere. He's
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 recommending NASA delay the mission
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 until the second half of this year at
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 the earliest. And you can see why he'd
00:03:37 --> 00:03:40 be concerned. We've had a G3 geomagnetic
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 storm this week, which we're going to
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 get to in a moment. The sun is extremely
00:03:45 --> 00:03:46 active right now.
00:03:46 --> 00:03:48 >> Right. Though NASA has assessed the
00:03:48 --> 00:03:50 risks and all teams pulled go for
00:03:50 --> 00:03:52 launch. Lorie Glaze from NASA's
00:03:52 --> 00:03:55 exploration systems directorate said,
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 and I'm paraphrasing, that an incredible
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 amount of work has gone into preparing
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 for this, and they've had very open,
00:04:01 --> 00:04:03 transparent discussions about risk
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 posture and mitigation. So, the mission
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 is proceeding, but it does add a certain
00:04:09 --> 00:04:12 tension to an already extraordinary
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 story, doesn't it? The sun is at the
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 peak of its 11-year cycle. We're heading
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 back to the moon, and a scientist is
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 saying, "Are you sure you want to do
00:04:21 --> 00:04:22 this now?"
00:04:22 --> 00:04:25 >> Humanity doing bold things anyway. Feels
00:04:25 --> 00:04:28 on brand, honestly.
00:04:28 --> 00:04:29 >> We'll have everything you need to watch
00:04:29 --> 00:04:32 the launch live in our show notes.
00:04:32 --> 00:04:34 Fingers crossed for April the 1st. Okay,
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 so speaking of the sun, let's talk about
00:04:36 --> 00:04:38 what it's been doing to our skies this
00:04:38 --> 00:04:41 week because it has been spectacular.
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 >> A series of coronal mass ejections or
00:04:44 --> 00:04:48 CMEs that left the sun on March 16th and
00:04:48 --> 00:04:51 18th arrived at Earth around the equinox
00:04:51 --> 00:04:53 and they drove geomagnetic storming to
00:04:53 --> 00:04:56 G3 levels on the Noah scale. That's
00:04:56 --> 00:04:58 classified as strong.
00:04:58 --> 00:05:00 >> And the result were auroras visible from
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 an extraordinary range of latitudes.
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 We're talking reports of vivid displays
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 from New York, London, Northern France,
00:05:08 --> 00:05:11 even parts of Scotland lit up. And when
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 you see aurora reports from Scotland,
00:05:13 --> 00:05:14 you're already dealing with something
00:05:14 --> 00:05:15 significant.
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 >> But the story closest to home for many
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 of our listeners. The Aurora Arales was
00:05:21 --> 00:05:23 visible across major Australian cities
00:05:24 --> 00:05:26 last night. The Australian Bureau of
00:05:26 --> 00:05:29 Meteorology issued a severe geomagnetic
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 storm warning and the southern lights
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 were reported from Melbourne, Sydney,
00:05:34 --> 00:05:35 Brisbane, and Adelaide.
00:05:36 --> 00:05:38 >> That is remarkable. Sydney is not what
00:05:38 --> 00:05:40 you'd call a typical aurora viewing
00:05:40 --> 00:05:42 destination. If you were outside last
00:05:42 --> 00:05:44 night and happened to look south,
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 especially from somewhere with a clear
00:05:46 --> 00:05:49 horizon, you may well have caught it.
00:05:49 --> 00:05:52 >> As of today, March 24th, conditions are
00:05:52 --> 00:05:55 easing. We're dropping back to KP 3 to
00:05:55 --> 00:05:58 4, unsettled to active with a slight
00:05:58 --> 00:06:01 chance of isolated G1 minor storm
00:06:01 --> 00:06:03 intervals. So, there may still be some
00:06:03 --> 00:06:06 activity tonight, but the peak has
00:06:06 --> 00:06:06 passed.
00:06:06 --> 00:06:09 >> Now, why is March such a good month for
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 auroras? This is something a lot of
00:06:11 --> 00:06:12 people don't know.
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 >> It's called the equinox effect. Around
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 the March and September equinoxes, the
00:06:17 --> 00:06:19 geometry of Earth's magnetic field
00:06:19 --> 00:06:21 relative to the solar wind becomes
00:06:21 --> 00:06:24 particularly favorable. The field lines
00:06:24 --> 00:06:26 are better aligned to allow charged
00:06:26 --> 00:06:28 particles in, which means you can get
00:06:28 --> 00:06:31 strong auroral activity even from
00:06:31 --> 00:06:33 moderate solar events. Combined with the
00:06:33 --> 00:06:36 current solar maximum, the peak of solar
00:06:36 --> 00:06:38 cycle 25, and we're living through what
00:06:38 --> 00:06:40 could genuinely be the best aurora
00:06:40 --> 00:06:44 viewing period until the mid 2030s. So,
00:06:44 --> 00:06:45 if you've been meaning to chase the
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 lights, the message from scientists is
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 this is your window. The sun will start
00:06:50 --> 00:06:52 winding down from here, and the next
00:06:52 --> 00:06:55 solar maximum is over a decade away.
00:06:55 --> 00:06:57 >> We'll have Aurora forecast links in the
00:06:58 --> 00:06:59 show notes so you can track what tonight
00:06:59 --> 00:07:01 looks like from your location.
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 >> I'm sure our producer, who lives in
00:07:03 --> 00:07:06 Sydney, will be out and looking up. Now,
00:07:06 --> 00:07:09 let's head into deep space and into one
00:07:09 --> 00:07:12 of the most genuinely surprising pieces
00:07:12 --> 00:07:14 of planetary science we've seen in a
00:07:14 --> 00:07:17 while. James Webb has done it again.
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 >> I love a story where the headline is
00:07:19 --> 00:07:21 basically, "Scientists found something
00:07:21 --> 00:07:23 they were almost certain couldn't be
00:07:23 --> 00:07:24 there."
00:07:24 --> 00:07:28 >> So, the planet in question is called toi
00:07:28 --> 00:07:30 561b.
00:07:30 --> 00:07:32 It's a super Earth about twice the mass
00:07:32 --> 00:07:36 of our planet orbiting a star around 280
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 lighty years away. And when we say close
00:07:39 --> 00:07:42 to its star, we mean absurdly, almost
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 comically close. It completes a full
00:07:44 --> 00:07:48 orbit in just 10.56 hours. A year on
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 this world is shorter than the average
00:07:50 --> 00:07:51 working day.
00:07:51 --> 00:07:54 >> It orbits at 140th the distance that
00:07:54 --> 00:07:57 Mercury sits from our sun. The dayside
00:07:57 --> 00:08:00 is in permanent unrelenting sunlight.
00:08:00 --> 00:08:03 The planet is likely tidily locked. Same
00:08:03 --> 00:08:06 face always towards the star. Same face
00:08:06 --> 00:08:09 always in darkness. The surface is
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 thought to be a global ocean of molten
00:08:11 --> 00:08:14 rock. And under those conditions,
00:08:14 --> 00:08:17 extreme radiation, extreme heat, extreme
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 proximity to the star, the scientific
00:08:20 --> 00:08:22 consensus was that any atmosphere this
00:08:22 --> 00:08:24 planet might have once had would have
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 been stripped away long ago. It should
00:08:27 --> 00:08:31 be a bare airless rock. Except it isn't.
00:08:31 --> 00:08:34 The Carnegie Institution's le team used
00:08:34 --> 00:08:37 Web's near infrared spectroscope,
00:08:37 --> 00:08:39 Nearspec, to take the planet's
00:08:39 --> 00:08:41 temperature by measuring how much light
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44 the system emitted when TOI561B
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 passed behind its star. If it were a
00:08:47 --> 00:08:49 bare rock, the dayside should reach
00:08:50 --> 00:08:52 something close to 4°
00:08:52 --> 00:08:57 F, around 2700 C. Instead, they measured
00:08:57 --> 00:09:02 around 3° F or 1 C. Still
00:09:02 --> 00:09:05 extraordinarily hot, but significantly
00:09:05 --> 00:09:07 cooler than expected. And the only
00:09:07 --> 00:09:09 explanation that fits the data is that
00:09:09 --> 00:09:11 there's an atmosphere up there,
00:09:11 --> 00:09:13 redistributing heat from the dayside to
00:09:13 --> 00:09:14 the night side.
00:09:14 --> 00:09:17 >> The lead researcher, Johanna Tesca at
00:09:17 --> 00:09:19 Carnegie Science, described the planet
00:09:19 --> 00:09:22 as, and this is a direct quote, really
00:09:22 --> 00:09:25 like a wet lava ball. The idea is that
00:09:25 --> 00:09:27 there's a feedback loop happening.
00:09:27 --> 00:09:29 Volatile gases bubble up from the magma
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 ocean into the atmosphere while the
00:09:31 --> 00:09:34 magma ocean simultaneously pulls some
00:09:34 --> 00:09:36 gases back in. It's a strange
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 equilibrium. What makes this
00:09:38 --> 00:09:40 scientifically significant beyond the
00:09:40 --> 00:09:42 wow factor is what it tells us about
00:09:42 --> 00:09:45 rocky planet evolution. We've assumed
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 for a long time that small, hot,
00:09:47 --> 00:09:50 close-in worlds can't hold atmospheres.
00:09:50 --> 00:09:53 POI 561B suggests the reality is more
00:09:54 --> 00:09:56 complicated and potentially more
00:09:56 --> 00:09:57 interesting.
00:09:57 --> 00:09:59 >> The team is now analyzing the full data
00:09:59 --> 00:10:01 set to map temperature patterns all the
00:10:01 --> 00:10:03 way around the planet and try to narrow
00:10:03 --> 00:10:04 down what the atmosphere is actually
00:10:04 --> 00:10:07 made of. Water vapor, carbon dioxide,
00:10:07 --> 00:10:10 silicate clouds, all on the table.
00:10:10 --> 00:10:13 >> One of JWST's core missions is finding
00:10:13 --> 00:10:16 atmospheres around rocky worlds. Because
00:10:16 --> 00:10:18 as far as we know, an atmosphere is a
00:10:18 --> 00:10:22 prerequisite for life. POI 561b is
00:10:22 --> 00:10:24 certainly not habitable in any
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26 conventional sense. But understanding
00:10:26 --> 00:10:28 how a world this extreme holds onto its
00:10:28 --> 00:10:31 air could tell us a great deal about
00:10:31 --> 00:10:33 rocky planets that are far more
00:10:33 --> 00:10:35 temperate. There's something genuinely
00:10:35 --> 00:10:38 poetic about today's next story. We're
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 going back to December 1972, the last
00:10:41 --> 00:10:43 time humans walked on the moon, and
00:10:43 --> 00:10:45 discovering that some of what they
00:10:45 --> 00:10:47 brought home has been quietly waiting 50
00:10:47 --> 00:10:50 years to tell us something unexpected.
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 >> The Apollo Next Generation Sample
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 Analysis Program, or ANXA, was set up
00:10:55 --> 00:10:57 specifically for this purpose. When the
00:10:57 --> 00:10:59 Apollo astronauts returned from the
00:10:59 --> 00:11:01 moon, NASA deliberately sealed some of
00:11:01 --> 00:11:04 the samples and set them aside, knowing
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 that future scientists with better tools
00:11:06 --> 00:11:08 would be able to extract more from them
00:11:08 --> 00:11:10 than the technology of the 1970s ever
00:11:10 --> 00:11:11 could.
00:11:11 --> 00:11:13 >> And that moment has now arrived for a
00:11:13 --> 00:11:15 double drive tube pushed into the lunar
00:11:16 --> 00:11:18 surface at the Taurus litau region by
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 Jean Cernin and Harrison Schmidt during
00:11:20 --> 00:11:24 Apollo 17. A team led by James Den at
00:11:24 --> 00:11:27 Brown University used a technique called
00:11:27 --> 00:11:29 secondary ion mass spectrometry to
00:11:29 --> 00:11:31 measure sulfur isotopes. And what they
00:11:32 --> 00:11:34 found was not what anyone expected.
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 >> So for context, Earth and the moon have
00:11:36 --> 00:11:39 remarkably similar oxygen isotope
00:11:39 --> 00:11:41 signatures. Scientists have long assumed
00:11:41 --> 00:11:43 that sulfur would follow the same
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45 pattern, that the moon's interior would
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 look chemically similar to Earth's in
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 this regard. Dotton's team expected to
00:11:50 --> 00:11:51 confirm that assumption.
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 >> Instead, the volcanic material in the
00:11:54 --> 00:11:56 sample is strongly depleted in sulfur
00:11:56 --> 00:12:00 33, one of four stable sulfur isotopes.
00:12:00 --> 00:12:03 The values are, in Dotton's own words,
00:12:03 --> 00:12:05 very different from anything we find on
00:12:05 --> 00:12:07 Earth. He said he simply wasn't
00:12:07 --> 00:12:08 expecting that.
00:12:08 --> 00:12:10 >> So, what does it mean? There are two
00:12:10 --> 00:12:12 leading explanations and neither is
00:12:12 --> 00:12:14 boring. The first is that this is
00:12:14 --> 00:12:17 evidence of very ancient chemistry.
00:12:17 --> 00:12:19 sulfur that interacted with ultraviolet
00:12:19 --> 00:12:22 light in an early thin lunar atmosphere
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 billions of years ago. The implication
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 there would be that material somehow
00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 cycled from the lunar surface into the
00:12:29 --> 00:12:32 mantle, a kind of protoplate tectonics
00:12:32 --> 00:12:34 on a world we don't think has ever had
00:12:34 --> 00:12:35 plate tectonics.
00:12:35 --> 00:12:37 >> The second explanation reaches even
00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 further back. The leading theory of the
00:12:39 --> 00:12:42 moon's origin is the giant impact. A
00:12:42 --> 00:12:44 Mars-sized body called Thea collided
00:12:44 --> 00:12:46 with the early Earth, and the debris
00:12:46 --> 00:12:49 eventually coalesed into the moon. If
00:12:49 --> 00:12:51 Thea had a very different sulfur
00:12:51 --> 00:12:53 composition from Earth, that signature
00:12:53 --> 00:12:54 might still be locked inside the lunar
00:12:54 --> 00:12:57 mantle today. A fingerprint from a
00:12:57 --> 00:12:59 collision that happened 4 billion years
00:12:59 --> 00:13:00 ago.
00:13:00 --> 00:13:03 >> The data doesn't currently favor one
00:13:03 --> 00:13:05 explanation over the other. Dottton is
00:13:05 --> 00:13:07 hoping that comparisons with samples
00:13:07 --> 00:13:09 from Mars and other planetary bodies
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11 will help resolve it. But the broader
00:13:11 --> 00:13:14 message is clear. These samples are
00:13:14 --> 00:13:17 still yielding genuine surprises decades
00:13:17 --> 00:13:19 after they were collected. And there are
00:13:19 --> 00:13:21 more sealed Apollo containers still to
00:13:21 --> 00:13:22 be opened.
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 >> There is something remarkable about the
00:13:24 --> 00:13:26 fact that astronauts who have been gone
00:13:26 --> 00:13:29 for over 50 years are still in a very
00:13:29 --> 00:13:31 real sense contributing to our
00:13:31 --> 00:13:33 understanding of the solar system. All
00:13:33 --> 00:13:35 right, let's do a lap of the launchpads
00:13:35 --> 00:13:37 because this week is genuinely
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 exceptional for space activity
00:13:39 --> 00:13:42 worldwide. NASA spaceflight.com
00:13:42 --> 00:13:44 published their weekly preview and
00:13:44 --> 00:13:46 honestly it reads like a greatest hits
00:13:46 --> 00:13:48 of the current space age. Let's start
00:13:48 --> 00:13:51 with what's already happened. SpaceX
00:13:51 --> 00:13:52 kicked off the week with the Falcon 9
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 launch from Vandenberg in California
00:13:54 --> 00:13:57 today, Tuesday, carrying 25 Starling
00:13:57 --> 00:13:59 satellites to sun-synchronous orbit.
00:13:59 --> 00:14:03 Booster B1081 flying for the 23rd time.
00:14:04 --> 00:14:05 Routine at this point, but still
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 remarkable when you say it out loud.
00:14:07 --> 00:14:09 >> Tomorrow, Wednesday, is arguably the
00:14:09 --> 00:14:12 biggest single day in the schedule. ESAR
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 Aerospace's Spectrum rocket has its
00:14:14 --> 00:14:17 window at 8:00 p.m. UTC from Endoa in
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19 Norway. We'll talk about that more in
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 the update segment. And at 9:14 a.m.
00:14:22 --> 00:14:25 UTC, Rocket Labs Electron launches from
00:14:25 --> 00:14:28 New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula, carrying
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 two ESA Celeste satellites. Those are
00:14:30 --> 00:14:33 the first of 10 planned navigation
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 demonstration satellites that will test
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37 positioning technology in low Earth
00:14:37 --> 00:14:37 orbit.
00:14:37 --> 00:14:40 >> Also Wednesday, China launches a Chang
00:14:40 --> 00:14:44 Zang 2C from Taiwan, payload classified,
00:14:44 --> 00:14:47 which will be that rocket's 87th mission
00:14:47 --> 00:14:51 overall. The CZ2C has been flying since
00:14:51 --> 00:14:52 1982,
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 which puts it in some pretty
00:14:54 --> 00:14:55 distinguished company.
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 >> Thursday brings another Falcon 9 from
00:14:58 --> 00:15:00 Cape Canaveral carrying 29 Starling
00:15:00 --> 00:15:02 satellites. And this one has a record
00:15:02 --> 00:15:06 attached. Booster B1067 will be making
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 its 34th flight, setting a new record
00:15:09 --> 00:15:11 for Falcon 9 booster reuse. This rocket
00:15:11 --> 00:15:14 first flew in June 2021 on a cargo
00:15:14 --> 00:15:16 resupply mission to the International
00:15:16 --> 00:15:19 Space Station. It's now flying for the
00:15:19 --> 00:15:22 34th time. SpaceX has fundamentally
00:15:22 --> 00:15:24 changed what reusability means.
00:15:24 --> 00:15:27 >> Friday is enormous. China's commercial
00:15:27 --> 00:15:29 launch company CAS Space flies its
00:15:29 --> 00:15:32 Kinetic 1 solid rocket from Juan with an
00:15:32 --> 00:15:35 undisclosed payload. And Rosscosmos
00:15:35 --> 00:15:36 launches the first ever flight of the
00:15:36 --> 00:15:39 Soyuse 5 rocket from Biconor, also
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42 called. This rocket is Russia's long-
00:15:42 --> 00:15:45 aaited replacement for the Zenit family.
00:15:45 --> 00:15:46 It carries a mass simulator on this
00:15:46 --> 00:15:49 debut flight, launching from a pad that
00:15:49 --> 00:15:51 hasn't seen an orbital launch since
00:15:51 --> 00:15:54 2017. Big moment for Russian launch
00:15:54 --> 00:15:55 vehicle development.
00:15:55 --> 00:15:57 >> And the week closes out on Sunday with
00:15:57 --> 00:16:01 two more. ULA's Atlas V5 launching 29
00:16:01 --> 00:16:03 Amazon LEO satellites from Cape
00:16:03 --> 00:16:06 Canaveral in its powerful 551
00:16:06 --> 00:16:08 configuration. That's five solid rocket
00:16:08 --> 00:16:11 boosters for what will be that rocket's
00:16:11 --> 00:16:14 107th overall mission. And SpaceX wraps
00:16:14 --> 00:16:17 things up with Transporter 16, a ride
00:16:17 --> 00:16:19 share mission from Vandenberg carrying
00:16:19 --> 00:16:21 dozens of small satellites. That will be
00:16:21 --> 00:16:25 SpaceX's 40th Falcon 9 launch of 2026
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 alone and the 73rd orbital launch
00:16:28 --> 00:16:31 attempt worldwide this year. So, five
00:16:31 --> 00:16:34 countries, six different rockets, Falcon
00:16:34 --> 00:16:39 9, Electron, Spectrum, CZ2C, Kinetica 1,
00:16:39 --> 00:16:42 Soyuse 5, Atlas V5, launching from
00:16:42 --> 00:16:44 California, Florida, New Zealand,
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 Norway, two sites in China, and
00:16:46 --> 00:16:49 Kazakhstan in one week.
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52 >> The age of routine space flight is here.
00:16:52 --> 00:16:54 It's just also occasionally
00:16:54 --> 00:16:57 extraordinary. Before we wrap, a quick
00:16:57 --> 00:16:58 followup on two stories we covered
00:16:58 --> 00:17:00 yesterday because both have had
00:17:00 --> 00:17:02 developments today. Let's start with the
00:17:02 --> 00:17:05 ISS. You'll remember that Russia
00:17:05 --> 00:17:08 launched the Progress MS33 cargo ship,
00:17:08 --> 00:17:11 also called Progress 94 on Sunday from
00:17:11 --> 00:17:14 the Biconor Cosmodrome, carrying about 2
00:17:14 --> 00:17:17 and 1/2 tons of supplies for the 7person
00:17:17 --> 00:17:22 Expedition 74 crew. Food, fuel, water,
00:17:22 --> 00:17:24 oxygen, the good stuff. But there was a
00:17:24 --> 00:17:27 complication. Shortly after launch, one
00:17:27 --> 00:17:29 of the spacecraft's two KURS automated
00:17:29 --> 00:17:31 docking antennas failed to deploy. The
00:17:31 --> 00:17:34 KUR system is the normal hands-off
00:17:34 --> 00:17:37 approach. The ship guides itself in with
00:17:37 --> 00:17:38 only one antenna working. Full
00:17:38 --> 00:17:40 automation wasn't available.
00:17:40 --> 00:17:43 >> So this morning, ISS Commander Sergey
00:17:43 --> 00:17:47 Kudkov took over manually using the Tou
00:17:47 --> 00:17:49 system. That's the Telerobotically
00:17:49 --> 00:17:52 operated rendevous system, a control
00:17:52 --> 00:17:55 panel inside the Zvezda service module.
00:17:55 --> 00:17:58 The spacecraft flew itself to within 200
00:17:58 --> 00:18:00 m of the station and from there Cuds
00:18:00 --> 00:18:03 Ferkov guided it in. Docking was
00:18:03 --> 00:18:06 scheduled for 9:34 Eastern time. Ross
00:18:06 --> 00:18:07 Cosmos were quick to point out that
00:18:08 --> 00:18:09 manual approaches are routinely
00:18:10 --> 00:18:12 practiced during Cosmo training. This
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14 was a contingency, not a crisis. And
00:18:14 --> 00:18:16 there's a second layer to the story
00:18:16 --> 00:18:18 worth noting. This was the first launch
00:18:18 --> 00:18:21 from site 31 at Biconor since that pad
00:18:21 --> 00:18:23 was damaged during the Soyuse MS28
00:18:24 --> 00:18:26 launch last November when part of the
00:18:26 --> 00:18:28 launch infrastructure collapsed. That
00:18:28 --> 00:18:30 pad is Russia's only one capable of
00:18:30 --> 00:18:32 sending crude missions and cargo ships
00:18:32 --> 00:18:35 to the ISS. Its return to service is
00:18:35 --> 00:18:37 genuinely significant.
00:18:37 --> 00:18:39 >> We'll keep watching and with any luck,
00:18:39 --> 00:18:42 Progress 94 is safely birthed at the
00:18:42 --> 00:18:45 Pois module as you listen to this. And
00:18:45 --> 00:18:47 on the other story we promised to follow
00:18:47 --> 00:18:49 Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket is
00:18:49 --> 00:18:52 still on the pad. Weather Andoya pushed
00:18:52 --> 00:18:54 the attempt from Sunday then from
00:18:54 --> 00:18:56 yesterday. The current window is
00:18:56 --> 00:18:58 Wednesday night 8:00 p.m. to 900 p.m.
00:18:58 --> 00:19:01 UTC. We'll have an update in tomorrow's
00:19:01 --> 00:19:01 episode.
00:19:01 --> 00:19:03 >> If it succeeds, it will be the first
00:19:03 --> 00:19:06 time a rocket designed, built, and
00:19:06 --> 00:19:08 launched from continental European soil
00:19:08 --> 00:19:11 has reached orbit. That is a headline we
00:19:11 --> 00:19:13 very much want to be able to read.
00:19:13 --> 00:19:15 Fingers crossed for ISAR and the whole
00:19:15 --> 00:19:17 European space industry.
00:19:17 --> 00:19:19 >> Again, we'll update any new developments
00:19:19 --> 00:19:20 in tomorrow's show.
00:19:20 --> 00:19:22 >> That is your Astronomy Daily for
00:19:22 --> 00:19:25 Tuesday, March 24th. We've got a lot of
00:19:25 --> 00:19:28 threads in the air right now. Artemis 2
00:19:28 --> 00:19:30 approaching its launch window. Spectrum
00:19:30 --> 00:19:32 waiting for the weather. A sun that
00:19:32 --> 00:19:35 doesn't want to sit still. So, it's a
00:19:35 --> 00:19:36 great time to make sure you're
00:19:36 --> 00:19:38 subscribed wherever you get your
00:19:38 --> 00:19:40 podcast. All the sources, links, and
00:19:40 --> 00:19:42 reading for today's stories are in the
00:19:42 --> 00:19:44 show notes. And if today's episode
00:19:44 --> 00:19:46 sparks something for you, whether it's
00:19:46 --> 00:19:48 aurora chasing or thinking about those
00:19:48 --> 00:19:51 Apollo samples or just looking up at the
00:19:51 --> 00:19:53 moon tonight and doing the maths on
00:19:53 --> 00:19:55 April 1st, we'd love to hear from you.
00:19:55 --> 00:19:57 >> Find us on Twitter and Instagram at
00:19:57 --> 00:20:01 Astro Daily Pod and on Tik Tok, X,
00:20:01 --> 00:20:03 YouTube, and Tumblr at the same handle.
00:20:03 --> 00:20:06 The website is astronomyaily.io.
00:20:06 --> 00:20:07 And we're proud to be part of the
00:20:08 --> 00:20:10 byes.com podcast network
00:20:10 --> 00:20:12 >> for Anna. I'm Avery. Keep looking up
00:20:12 --> 00:20:14 >> and we'll see you tomorrow.
00:20:14 --> 00:20:17 >> Astronomy day.
00:20:17 --> 00:20:21 Stories we told.