Today's Space News — Astronomy Daily S05E84 | April 8, 2026 In today's episode, Anna and Avery cover six incredible stories spanning the final days of humanity's return to deep space, a lost spacecraft mystery, and fresh science rewriting how we understand our own planet. TODAY'S STORIES: (00:00) Intro (01:30) Story 1 — Artemis II Day 7/8: science debrief done, trajectory burns fired, and the crew heads home for a historic splashdown Friday (08:00) Story 2 — Cygnus CRS-24 launch delayed to April 10 due to weather — now launching the same day Artemis II lands (13:00) Story 3 — Earth formed entirely from inner Solar System material: Jupiter blocked everything else, and water was already here (19:00) Story 4 — ESA Juice delivers stunning new data on interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS: 70 Olympic pools of water per second (24:00) Story 5 — Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS is the new comet to watch this April — and it's looking good (29:00) Story 6 — FEATURE: Mars 96, the lost Mars mission that crashed back to Earth 30 years ago — and was never found Subscribe for daily space and astronomy news | astronomydaily.io | @AstroDailyPod
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00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily.
00:00:03 --> 00:00:04 I'm Anna.
00:00:04 --> 00:00:07 >> And I'm Avery. It is Wednesday, April
00:00:07 --> 00:00:10 8th, 2026. And what a week it has been.
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 >> We are deep into what might be the most
00:00:13 --> 00:00:15 extraordinary few days in human space
00:00:15 --> 00:00:18 flight since 1972.
00:00:18 --> 00:00:21 Artemis 2 is heading home and we are
00:00:21 --> 00:00:23 going to walk you through exactly where
00:00:23 --> 00:00:25 the crew is right now. What happened on
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 flight day 7 and what to expect as they
00:00:28 --> 00:00:29 come screaming back through the
00:00:29 --> 00:00:31 atmosphere on Friday.
00:00:31 --> 00:00:34 >> Screaming is right. We are talking
00:00:34 --> 00:00:38 25 mph, the fastest crude re-entry
00:00:38 --> 00:00:40 in history. But more on that in a
00:00:40 --> 00:00:43 moment. We have also got a cargo launch
00:00:43 --> 00:00:45 delay that has created one of the most
00:00:45 --> 00:00:47 beautifully poetic scheduling
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 coincidences we have ever seen in space
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 flight. Some planet shaking new science
00:00:52 --> 00:00:55 about how Earth actually formed. Fresh
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 data from an alien comet courtesy of a
00:00:57 --> 00:01:00 spacecraft designed for Jupiter's moons.
00:01:00 --> 00:01:02 >> A new comet for sky watchers to get
00:01:02 --> 00:01:04 excited about after last week's
00:01:04 --> 00:01:06 spectacular disappointment.
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 >> And then to close the show today,
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 something a little different. A mystery.
00:01:11 --> 00:01:14 A space mystery that is 30 years old and
00:01:14 --> 00:01:16 has never been solved.
00:01:16 --> 00:01:18 >> I have been looking forward to this one
00:01:18 --> 00:01:19 all day. I won't lie.
00:01:19 --> 00:01:22 >> So have I. Let's get into it. This is
00:01:22 --> 00:01:26 Astronomy Daily Season 5 episode 84.
00:01:26 --> 00:01:29 >> Right. So let's set the scene. Artemis 2
00:01:29 --> 00:01:32 launched on April 1st. Yes, April Fool's
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35 Day. And no, it was not a joke. And the
00:01:35 --> 00:01:37 crew of four have already done the most
00:01:37 --> 00:01:40 extraordinary thing. On Monday, flight
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 day six, they flew around the far side
00:01:42 --> 00:01:44 of the moon. They set a new record for
00:01:44 --> 00:01:47 the furthest humans have ever been,
00:01:47 --> 00:01:50 252
00:01:50 --> 00:01:53 miles. Nobody in human history has ever
00:01:54 --> 00:01:55 been that far.
00:01:55 --> 00:01:57 >> And flight day 7, which was yesterday,
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 Tuesday, was the day after all that
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 drama, the science debrief day,
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 >> the comedown day.
00:02:04 --> 00:02:07 >> Well, sort of. They woke up to Tokyo
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 Drifting by Glass Animals and Denzel
00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 Curry. And I genuinely love whoever
00:02:12 --> 00:02:14 selects these wakeup songs is having an
00:02:14 --> 00:02:15 absolute blast.
00:02:15 --> 00:02:18 >> The playlist creation on Artemis 2 has
00:02:18 --> 00:02:21 been exceptional. Somebody at NASA is
00:02:21 --> 00:02:22 doing their best work.
00:02:22 --> 00:02:26 >> They woke up 36 m from the moon,
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 236 m from Earth. And the big item
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 on the agenda was a 15minute audio call
00:02:32 --> 00:02:35 ship to ship with the crew aboard the
00:02:35 --> 00:02:37 International Space Station.
00:02:37 --> 00:02:39 >> So you have four astronauts who have
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41 just been further from Earth than any
00:02:41 --> 00:02:44 human in over 50 years calling up the
00:02:44 --> 00:02:46 International Space Station, which from
00:02:46 --> 00:02:48 where Orion was sitting must have felt
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 practically next door,
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 >> right? Relatively speaking. They spoke
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 with NASA astronauts Jessica Mir, Jack
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 Hathaway, Chris Williams, and ESA's
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 Sophie Adonaut. Just imagine that
00:03:00 --> 00:03:03 conversation. So, how was the moon? You
00:03:03 --> 00:03:04 know, bit far.
00:03:04 --> 00:03:07 >> And after that, the science debrief. The
00:03:07 --> 00:03:09 Aremis 2 lunar science team had a full
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 debrief session with the crew to capture
00:03:12 --> 00:03:13 everything they observed during the
00:03:13 --> 00:03:15 flyby while the memories were still
00:03:15 --> 00:03:16 sharp,
00:03:16 --> 00:03:18 >> which makes complete sense, right? These
00:03:18 --> 00:03:21 four people have just seen parts of the
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 moon. No human eye has ever seen
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 directly. The far side craters like
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 Vavalov and the oriental basin, an
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 ancient lava field on the border of the
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 moon's near and far side that's almost
00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 impossible to see from Earth. You want
00:03:36 --> 00:03:39 those impressions captured immediately.
00:03:39 --> 00:03:41 >> And then in the evening at about 900
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 p.m. Eastern, Orion fired the first of
00:03:43 --> 00:03:45 three trajectory correction burns to
00:03:45 --> 00:03:48 begin fine-tuning the return path to
00:03:48 --> 00:03:50 Earth. Though we are officially in the
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 home stretch and flight day 8, which is
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 today, the crew has two key tasks.
00:03:56 --> 00:03:59 First, a radiation shelter construction
00:03:59 --> 00:04:00 demonstration,
00:04:00 --> 00:04:02 >> which sounds alarming, but is actually a
00:04:02 --> 00:04:04 planned drill. They practice assembling
00:04:04 --> 00:04:06 a makeshift radiation shelter inside
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 Orion using available materials in case
00:04:09 --> 00:04:12 of a solar event during a deep space
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 mission. Exactly the kind of emergency
00:04:14 --> 00:04:16 preparedness you need locked in before
00:04:16 --> 00:04:19 Artemis 3 heads to the lunar surface.
00:04:19 --> 00:04:22 >> And second, manual piloting tests. The
00:04:22 --> 00:04:25 crew gets to handfly Orion directly,
00:04:26 --> 00:04:27 which given that computers handle
00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 basically everything on this mission,
00:04:30 --> 00:04:32 must feel a bit like being handed the
00:04:32 --> 00:04:32 wheel.
00:04:32 --> 00:04:36 >> And then Friday, April 10th, splashdown.
00:04:36 --> 00:04:39 >> Flight day 10. Orion re-enters the
00:04:39 --> 00:04:42 atmosphere at 25 miles per hour.
00:04:42 --> 00:04:45 That is the fastest crude re-entry ever
00:04:45 --> 00:04:47 attempted. The heat shield, which caused
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 so much concern and engineering work
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 before this mission, will be put to its
00:04:52 --> 00:04:53 ultimate test.
00:04:53 --> 00:04:55 >> And collecting data from that re-entry
00:04:55 --> 00:04:57 is actually one of the core mission
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 objectives. So NASA will be watching
00:04:59 --> 00:05:02 those heat shield readings very closely.
00:05:02 --> 00:05:04 Splashdown is scheduled for about 8:00
00:05:04 --> 00:05:07 p.m. Eastern off the coast of San Diego.
00:05:07 --> 00:05:10 The USS John P. Murtha, a Navy
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 amphibious transport dock ship, will be
00:05:12 --> 00:05:14 waiting. The crew will be recovered by
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 helicopter, taken aboard for medical
00:05:16 --> 00:05:19 evaluation, then flown back to Houston.
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 >> And that will be it. The first time
00:05:21 --> 00:05:23 humans have returned from beyond Earth
00:05:23 --> 00:05:27 orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
00:05:27 --> 00:05:30 Mission complete. But right now, Reed
00:05:30 --> 00:05:33 Weisman, Victor Glover, Christina Cotch,
00:05:33 --> 00:05:35 and Jeremy Hansen are heading home, and
00:05:35 --> 00:05:38 we could not be more excited for them.
00:05:38 --> 00:05:39 >> All right, from the crew heading back to
00:05:39 --> 00:05:42 Earth to a cargo ship heading up to the
00:05:42 --> 00:05:44 space station with a slight detour
00:05:44 --> 00:05:45 through the weather forecast.
00:05:45 --> 00:05:48 >> Yes. So, as we reported yesterday,
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 Northrup Grumman's Signis CRS24 mission
00:05:52 --> 00:05:54 was supposed to launch today, Wednesday
00:05:54 --> 00:05:56 morning, from Cape Canaveral on SpaceX
00:05:56 --> 00:06:00 Falcon 9, carrying about 11 lbs of
00:06:00 --> 00:06:01 cargo to the International Space
00:06:01 --> 00:06:02 Station.
00:06:02 --> 00:06:04 >> But the weather at Space Launch Complex
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 40 had other ideas and teams have pushed
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 a launch to Friday, April 10th,
00:06:09 --> 00:06:12 targeting 8:03 in the morning Eastern.
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 Backup opportunity on Saturday the 11th
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 if needed. Now, here is why this matters
00:06:17 --> 00:06:20 beyond just a weather delay. Friday,
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 April 10th is also the day Artemis 2
00:06:22 --> 00:06:24 splashdowns.
00:06:24 --> 00:06:26 >> So, on the same day, four astronauts
00:06:26 --> 00:06:28 return from the moon, the furthest
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 humans have been from Earth in over 50
00:06:30 --> 00:06:33 years. A fresh cargo ship launches
00:06:33 --> 00:06:34 towards the space station
00:06:34 --> 00:06:35 simultaneously.
00:06:36 --> 00:06:37 >> Cape Canaveral is going to be having
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 quite a Friday. The spacecraft itself is
00:06:40 --> 00:06:43 the Signis XL, the larger configuration
00:06:43 --> 00:06:45 carrying about 11 lbs of pressurized
00:06:46 --> 00:06:48 cargo. Northrup Grumman has named this
00:06:48 --> 00:06:51 one the SS Steven R Nagel in honor of
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 the NASA astronaut who flew four shuttle
00:06:53 --> 00:06:56 missions and logged over 720 hours in
00:06:56 --> 00:06:57 space.
00:06:57 --> 00:06:59 >> Beautiful tradition naming these cargo
00:06:59 --> 00:07:02 ships and the science aboard CRS24 is
00:07:02 --> 00:07:04 genuinely interesting. There's a new
00:07:04 --> 00:07:06 module for the cold atom lab on the
00:07:06 --> 00:07:09 station, NASA's quantum science facility
00:07:09 --> 00:07:11 to help investigate dark matter and
00:07:11 --> 00:07:13 potentially improve computing
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 technology. There's also hardware to
00:07:15 --> 00:07:17 produce greater numbers of therapeutic
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 stem cells for blood diseases and
00:07:19 --> 00:07:21 cancer, model organisms for a gut
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 microbiome study, and a receiver to
00:07:24 --> 00:07:25 improve space weather models that
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 protect GPS and radar infrastructure.
00:07:28 --> 00:07:30 >> Though, it's not just food and
00:07:30 --> 00:07:32 equipment. This is a proper science
00:07:32 --> 00:07:35 delivery. Once it arrives, Signis
00:07:35 --> 00:07:36 doesn't dock automatically the way
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 Dragon does. Astronauts Chris Williams
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 and Jack Hathaway will use the Canid Arm
00:07:41 --> 00:07:43 2 robotic arm to grab it and bring it
00:07:43 --> 00:07:45 in. They've been practicing. There was a
00:07:46 --> 00:07:47 report last week of them running
00:07:47 --> 00:07:49 simulations together in the Cuba.
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 >> And Signis is scheduled to stay at the
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 station until October before undocking
00:07:54 --> 00:07:56 with several thousand pounds of trash
00:07:56 --> 00:07:59 and burning up on re-entry. A rather
00:07:59 --> 00:08:02 unglamorous end, but a useful one.
00:08:02 --> 00:08:04 >> Weather permitting, Friday should be
00:08:04 --> 00:08:05 quite the day.
00:08:05 --> 00:08:08 >> Okay, story three. And this one is a
00:08:08 --> 00:08:11 genuine rewrite of something we thought
00:08:11 --> 00:08:12 we understood.
00:08:12 --> 00:08:14 >> Where did Earth come from? We know the
00:08:14 --> 00:08:17 broad answer. 4 1/2 billion years ago, a
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 cloud of gas and dust collapsed, the sun
00:08:20 --> 00:08:22 formed, and the leftover material
00:08:22 --> 00:08:25 clumped into planets. But where exactly
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 did the specific material that became
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 Earth come from?
00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 >> For decades, the accepted model was that
00:08:31 --> 00:08:33 Earth got a significant chunk of its
00:08:33 --> 00:08:35 building material from the outer solar
00:08:35 --> 00:08:38 system from beyond Jupiter. Estimates
00:08:38 --> 00:08:42 ranged from 6% to as much as 40% of
00:08:42 --> 00:08:43 Earth's mass. And the reason this
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46 mattered is water. Scientists needed
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 that outer solar system contribution to
00:08:48 --> 00:08:51 explain where Earth's oceans came from
00:08:51 --> 00:08:52 because the inner solar system was
00:08:52 --> 00:08:55 thought to be too dry. But a new study
00:08:55 --> 00:08:57 from ETH Zurich published in the journal
00:08:57 --> 00:09:00 Nature Astronomy has just turned that on
00:09:00 --> 00:09:03 its head. Planetary scientists Paulo
00:09:03 --> 00:09:06 Sosi and Dan Bower analyze isotopic
00:09:06 --> 00:09:08 ratios of meteorites from across the
00:09:08 --> 00:09:11 solar system and compare them to Earth's
00:09:11 --> 00:09:13 composition. Their conclusion, Earth
00:09:13 --> 00:09:16 formed almost entirely from inner solar
00:09:16 --> 00:09:19 system material. The outer solar system
00:09:19 --> 00:09:22 contribution less than 2% and possibly
00:09:22 --> 00:09:23 nothing at all.
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26 >> Now, isotopes are essentially atomic
00:09:26 --> 00:09:28 fingerprints. Different regions of the
00:09:28 --> 00:09:31 solar system produce slightly different
00:09:31 --> 00:09:33 ratios of the same elements, and you can
00:09:33 --> 00:09:35 use those signatures to trace where
00:09:35 --> 00:09:38 material originated. Previous studies
00:09:38 --> 00:09:40 mostly looked at one or two isotopic
00:09:40 --> 00:09:44 systems. Saui and Bower looked at 10
00:09:44 --> 00:09:46 >> 10 different isotopic systems analyzed
00:09:46 --> 00:09:49 with statistical methods rarely used in
00:09:49 --> 00:09:51 geocchemistry. And when you look at all
00:09:51 --> 00:09:55 10 together, the picture is unambiguous.
00:09:55 --> 00:09:57 Earth is built of non-carbonacious
00:09:57 --> 00:09:59 material, inner solar system stuff
00:09:59 --> 00:10:01 through and through.
00:10:01 --> 00:10:03 >> Which immediately raises an enormous
00:10:03 --> 00:10:06 question. If Earth didn't get its water
00:10:06 --> 00:10:08 from the outer solar system, from comets
00:10:08 --> 00:10:10 and water-rich asteroids drifting
00:10:10 --> 00:10:13 inward, where did the water come from?
00:10:13 --> 00:10:15 >> And the answer, according to this study,
00:10:15 --> 00:10:18 is it was already here. Water and
00:10:18 --> 00:10:20 volatile elements must have been present
00:10:20 --> 00:10:22 in the inner solar system from the very
00:10:22 --> 00:10:24 beginning. We just didn't realize it.
00:10:24 --> 00:10:27 >> And why was so little outer solar system
00:10:27 --> 00:10:29 material reaching Earth in the first
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 place? Jupiter. Jupiter formed extremely
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 quickly and grew enormous and its
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 gravity carved a gap in the young
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 protolanetary disc, essentially a
00:10:39 --> 00:10:41 barrier between the inner and outer
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 solar system. This study suggests that
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 barrier was almost completely
00:10:46 --> 00:10:49 impermeable. Almost nothing got through.
00:10:49 --> 00:10:51 >> Jupiter, the bouncer of the solar
00:10:51 --> 00:10:53 system. Sorry, outer solar system
00:10:53 --> 00:10:56 material. Not tonight. One of the
00:10:56 --> 00:10:58 researchers, Dan Bower, said, "We were
00:10:58 --> 00:11:01 truly astonished to find that Earth is
00:11:01 --> 00:11:03 composed entirely from inner solar
00:11:03 --> 00:11:05 system material, distinct from any
00:11:05 --> 00:11:08 combination of existing meteorites. Even
00:11:08 --> 00:11:10 they didn't expect this result.
00:11:10 --> 00:11:13 >> The implications are genuinely big. If
00:11:13 --> 00:11:15 water was already present in the inner
00:11:15 --> 00:11:17 solar system, that changes how we think
00:11:17 --> 00:11:19 about the conditions that made life
00:11:19 --> 00:11:21 possible here. And it has implications
00:11:21 --> 00:11:24 for other planetary systems. Rocky
00:11:24 --> 00:11:26 planets around sunlike stars might be
00:11:26 --> 00:11:28 wetter than we assumed.
00:11:28 --> 00:11:29 >> It's the kind of result that makes you
00:11:29 --> 00:11:31 look at the ground beneath your feet
00:11:31 --> 00:11:33 differently. This material formed
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 locally billions of years ago without
00:11:36 --> 00:11:38 much help from the wider solar system.
00:11:38 --> 00:11:41 Jupiter kept the neighborhood tidy.
00:11:41 --> 00:11:43 >> And Earth's water was here from the
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45 start, which is kind of beautiful,
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 actually. digging with space science.
00:11:48 --> 00:11:50 And this one involves an alien comet, a
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52 spacecraft on its way to Jupiter's
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 moons, and an instrument that was never
00:11:54 --> 00:11:57 designed to do what it ended up doing.
00:11:57 --> 00:11:59 >> We have followed 3i ATLS closely on this
00:11:59 --> 00:12:02 show. Quick catch up. 3EA ATLS is an
00:12:02 --> 00:12:05 interstellar comet, only the third
00:12:05 --> 00:12:06 object ever confirmed to have entered
00:12:06 --> 00:12:08 our solar system from interstellar
00:12:08 --> 00:12:12 space. Discovered in July 2025, reached
00:12:12 --> 00:12:13 its closest approach to the sun on
00:12:14 --> 00:12:16 October 29th. And when I say it was
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 moving fast, 250
00:12:19 --> 00:12:23 km per hour, nothing that formed in our
00:12:23 --> 00:12:24 solar system moves like that.
00:12:24 --> 00:12:27 >> It is genuinely a visitor from another
00:12:27 --> 00:12:30 star system. We have no idea which one.
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 >> In November 2025, issa's Juice
00:12:32 --> 00:12:34 spacecraft, the Jupiter Icy Moons
00:12:34 --> 00:12:37 Explorer, currently on route to Jupiter,
00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 was in a fortunate position to observe
00:12:39 --> 00:12:42 3IIA ATLS from deep space just 4 days
00:12:42 --> 00:12:44 after perihelion. The observations were
00:12:44 --> 00:12:47 difficult. It took until February 2026
00:12:47 --> 00:12:49 for the data to reach Earth.
00:12:49 --> 00:12:52 >> And issa has now published the findings.
00:12:52 --> 00:12:53 And the headline number is
00:12:53 --> 00:12:55 extraordinary. Juice's Magis
00:12:55 --> 00:12:59 spectrometer detected 2 kg of water
00:12:59 --> 00:13:02 vapor being expelled by 3II ATLS every
00:13:02 --> 00:13:04 single second.
00:13:04 --> 00:13:08 >> 2 kg per second. To give you a sense
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10 of scale, that is the equivalent of
00:13:10 --> 00:13:13 approximately 70 Olympic swimming pools
00:13:13 --> 00:13:15 of water every single day, just
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17 evaporating off the surface of this
00:13:17 --> 00:13:18 comet into space,
00:13:18 --> 00:13:20 >> which tells you this is a very active
00:13:20 --> 00:13:22 comet. Water rich, at least on the
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 surface. Though, there's an interesting
00:13:24 --> 00:13:26 wrinkle. Its carbon dioxide to water
00:13:26 --> 00:13:28 ratio is higher than you'd typically
00:13:28 --> 00:13:31 expect from a solar system comet, which
00:13:31 --> 00:13:33 either means the nucleus is genuinely
00:13:33 --> 00:13:35 CO2 rich or there's a thick insulating
00:13:35 --> 00:13:37 crust hiding ice underneath.
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 >> Neither of which we can determine from
00:13:39 --> 00:13:43 here. 3iLS has now passed Jupiter and is
00:13:43 --> 00:13:45 heading out of the solar system. It will
00:13:45 --> 00:13:46 never return.
00:13:46 --> 00:13:48 >> And here's the part I find most
00:13:48 --> 00:13:49 extraordinary.
00:13:49 --> 00:13:51 navigation camera designed for
00:13:51 --> 00:13:53 navigating near Jupiter's moons, looking
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56 at surfaces a few hundred km below also
00:13:56 --> 00:13:58 contributed to the science. It provided
00:13:58 --> 00:14:00 a unique vantage point from deep space
00:14:00 --> 00:14:02 that helped issa's planetary defense
00:14:02 --> 00:14:05 team refined a comet's orbital path to
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 10 times better accuracy than earthbased
00:14:07 --> 00:14:09 observations alone could achieve.
00:14:09 --> 00:14:11 >> An instrument designed for one job,
00:14:11 --> 00:14:14 unexpectedly doing something completely
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16 different and doing it brilliantly. That
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 is science at its best. What I keep
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 coming back to is the age of 3 IATLS.
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 Based on its trajectory, this comet may
00:14:24 --> 00:14:25 be billions of years older than the
00:14:25 --> 00:14:28 solar system itself. It's not just from
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 another star. It may be older than our
00:14:30 --> 00:14:32 sun. It has been traveling through
00:14:32 --> 00:14:34 interstellar space for longer than Earth
00:14:34 --> 00:14:36 has existed. And it spent about a year
00:14:36 --> 00:14:38 passing through our backyard. And we
00:14:38 --> 00:14:41 watched it as carefully as we could. And
00:14:41 --> 00:14:43 now it's gone. Everything we will ever
00:14:44 --> 00:14:47 know about 3i ATLS, we know already.
00:14:47 --> 00:14:49 everything we will ever know. I love
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 that and find it completely haunting in
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 equal measure. Right after last week's
00:14:54 --> 00:14:57 heartbreak with comet maps, the sunrazer
00:14:57 --> 00:14:58 that did not survive its close pass with
00:14:58 --> 00:15:00 the sun, which we covered in yesterday's
00:15:00 --> 00:15:03 episode, the good news is that April is
00:15:03 --> 00:15:04 not done with comets.
00:15:04 --> 00:15:08 >> Not even close. Comet C 2025 R3
00:15:08 --> 00:15:10 discovered by the Pan Stars survey is
00:15:10 --> 00:15:12 now the prime target for April sky
00:15:12 --> 00:15:14 watching. And it's looking genuinely
00:15:14 --> 00:15:17 promising. Where maps was unpredictable
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19 and dramatic, a cret sungrazer diving to
00:15:19 --> 00:15:21 within a 100 miles of the sun's
00:15:21 --> 00:15:23 surface, pan stars is a more
00:15:23 --> 00:15:26 conventional comment. Predictable orbit,
00:15:26 --> 00:15:28 manageable approach, the reliable act
00:15:28 --> 00:15:29 that shows up when the headliner
00:15:29 --> 00:15:30 cancels.
00:15:30 --> 00:15:33 >> And its timing is good. Perihelion,
00:15:33 --> 00:15:35 closest approach to the sun is around
00:15:35 --> 00:15:38 April 20th. Closest approach to Earth is
00:15:38 --> 00:15:41 April 27th when it comes within about 44
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43 million miles of us. At peak brightness,
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 it's expected to reach approximately
00:15:46 --> 00:15:47 magnitude 8.
00:15:47 --> 00:15:49 >> Now, magnitude 8 means you will not see
00:15:49 --> 00:15:51 it with the naked eye under normal
00:15:51 --> 00:15:53 skies, but binoculars will absolutely do
00:15:53 --> 00:15:55 the job. Any small telescope will give
00:15:55 --> 00:15:57 you a lovely view. You're looking for a
00:15:58 --> 00:16:00 fuzzy smudge, possibly with a faint tail
00:16:00 --> 00:16:02 extending away from the sun.
00:16:02 --> 00:16:05 >> For northern hemisphere listeners, look
00:16:05 --> 00:16:08 east in the pre-dawn sky from midappril
00:16:08 --> 00:16:10 through the end of the month. It will be
00:16:10 --> 00:16:12 in the constellations Pegasus and
00:16:12 --> 00:16:16 Pisces. A good star app, Delarium, Sky
00:16:16 --> 00:16:19 Safari, Starwalk 2, will give you exact
00:16:19 --> 00:16:20 positioning.
00:16:20 --> 00:16:22 >> And for our listeners in Australia and
00:16:22 --> 00:16:25 New Zealand, your window is actually in
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 early May in the evening sky. Look west
00:16:28 --> 00:16:30 after sunset. Dark skies will
00:16:30 --> 00:16:33 significantly help. Get away from sigy
00:16:33 --> 00:16:34 lights if you can.
00:16:34 --> 00:16:37 >> Comet brightness predictions can shift.
00:16:37 --> 00:16:39 They famously don't always behave. So
00:16:40 --> 00:16:42 keep checking sky and telescope or
00:16:42 --> 00:16:44 universe today as we get closer to
00:16:44 --> 00:16:47 perihelion. But right now the forecast
00:16:47 --> 00:16:48 looks encouraging.
00:16:48 --> 00:16:51 >> Think of it as the universe offering a
00:16:51 --> 00:16:53 constellation prize after maps. It's a
00:16:53 --> 00:16:55 perfectly lovely comet and it deserves
00:16:55 --> 00:16:56 our attention.
00:16:56 --> 00:17:00 >> One comet destroyed, one comet incoming.
00:17:00 --> 00:17:02 April is very on brand for the solar
00:17:02 --> 00:17:06 system. All right, story six. And today
00:17:06 --> 00:17:07 we're doing something a little different
00:17:07 --> 00:17:09 to close the show.
00:17:09 --> 00:17:12 >> We are going back 30 years back to one
00:17:12 --> 00:17:14 of the strangest and most overlooked
00:17:14 --> 00:17:16 stories in the history of space
00:17:16 --> 00:17:18 exploration. A mission that was built
00:17:18 --> 00:17:21 with extraordinary ambition, launched
00:17:21 --> 00:17:24 into tragedy, and then vanished. And
00:17:24 --> 00:17:26 nobody has ever found it.
00:17:26 --> 00:17:29 >> This is the story of Mars 96.
00:17:29 --> 00:17:33 >> Let's set the scene. It's 1996. The Cold
00:17:33 --> 00:17:36 War has been over for 5 years. Russia
00:17:36 --> 00:17:38 and the United States are for the first
00:17:38 --> 00:17:41 time in decades not rivals in space.
00:17:41 --> 00:17:43 They're partners. Shuttlemeir is
00:17:43 --> 00:17:45 underway. The International Space
00:17:45 --> 00:17:47 Station is being designed. There is
00:17:47 --> 00:17:49 genuine optimism about what a postcold
00:17:50 --> 00:17:52 war space age could look like. And in
00:17:52 --> 00:17:54 that spirit of optimism, an
00:17:54 --> 00:17:56 extraordinary mission is being
00:17:56 --> 00:17:59 assembled. Russia is leading it, but it
00:17:59 --> 00:18:01 is genuinely multinational. science
00:18:01 --> 00:18:04 payloads from Germany, France, Italy,
00:18:04 --> 00:18:08 Poland, Spain, Belgium, Finland,
00:18:08 --> 00:18:11 Austria, and the United States. NASA's
00:18:11 --> 00:18:13 Jet Propulsion Lab contributing two
00:18:13 --> 00:18:15 instruments. This is what cooperation
00:18:16 --> 00:18:18 looks like when people choose it.
00:18:18 --> 00:18:21 >> The spacecraft itself is remarkable. At
00:18:21 --> 00:18:24 over 6 kg, it is the largest
00:18:24 --> 00:18:27 interplanetary spacecraft humans had
00:18:27 --> 00:18:29 ever launched. more than 40 science
00:18:29 --> 00:18:32 instruments aboard and its ambition is
00:18:32 --> 00:18:34 staggering. It would study Mars
00:18:34 --> 00:18:37 simultaneously from orbit from the
00:18:37 --> 00:18:39 surface and from below it.
00:18:39 --> 00:18:41 >> From below it.
00:18:41 --> 00:18:45 >> From below it. Mars 96 was carrying two
00:18:45 --> 00:18:47 surface penetrators. Hardened
00:18:47 --> 00:18:49 cylindrical probes specifically
00:18:49 --> 00:18:51 engineered to strike the Martian ground
00:18:51 --> 00:18:55 at 70 to 80 m/s and bury themselves
00:18:55 --> 00:18:57 several meters underground where they
00:18:57 --> 00:18:59 would measure seismic activity and heat
00:18:59 --> 00:19:01 flow for up to a year.
00:19:01 --> 00:19:04 >> That is actually extraordinary. Aworked
00:19:04 --> 00:19:09 subsurface Mars science station in 1996.
00:19:09 --> 00:19:11 It was also carrying two surface
00:19:11 --> 00:19:13 landers, small autonomous stations that
00:19:13 --> 00:19:16 would descend using an airbag system to
00:19:16 --> 00:19:18 cushion their landing. An airbag landing
00:19:18 --> 00:19:21 concept that NASA's Mars Pathfinder
00:19:21 --> 00:19:23 would use to enormous public acclaim
00:19:23 --> 00:19:24 just months later.
00:19:24 --> 00:19:27 >> So, the technology was there, the
00:19:27 --> 00:19:29 ambition was there, the international
00:19:29 --> 00:19:31 partnership was there. And on the night
00:19:31 --> 00:19:35 of November 16th, 1996, the Proton K
00:19:35 --> 00:19:37 rocket lifted off from Biconor
00:19:37 --> 00:19:39 Cosmodrome.
00:19:39 --> 00:19:41 >> And then almost immediately, something
00:19:41 --> 00:19:44 went catastrophically wrong.
00:19:44 --> 00:19:46 >> The spacecraft entered its parking orbit
00:19:46 --> 00:19:49 successfully. The upper stage was
00:19:49 --> 00:19:51 supposed to fire and push Mars 96 toward
00:19:52 --> 00:19:55 interplanetary velocity. It didn't. It
00:19:55 --> 00:19:57 either failed to ignite properly or shut
00:19:57 --> 00:20:00 down almost immediately. And here's a
00:20:00 --> 00:20:02 detail that stays with me. The onboard
00:20:02 --> 00:20:05 autopilot kept executing its programmed
00:20:05 --> 00:20:07 sequence. It had no way of knowing the
00:20:07 --> 00:20:09 mission had already failed. So, it
00:20:10 --> 00:20:12 separated from the upper stage. It fired
00:20:12 --> 00:20:15 its own engine. It unfolded its solar
00:20:15 --> 00:20:18 panels. It began transmitting telemetry.
00:20:18 --> 00:20:20 >> For a brief moment, controllers in
00:20:20 --> 00:20:22 Crimea thought it had worked. The
00:20:22 --> 00:20:24 signals were there. The spacecraft was
00:20:24 --> 00:20:27 doing everything it was supposed to
00:20:27 --> 00:20:30 >> until the orbital data arrived and the
00:20:30 --> 00:20:33 realization set in. Mars 96 had never
00:20:33 --> 00:20:37 left Earth orbit. It was trapped and it
00:20:37 --> 00:20:39 was about to come back down
00:20:39 --> 00:20:41 >> very rapidly.
00:20:41 --> 00:20:43 >> Early assessments suggested the debris
00:20:43 --> 00:20:45 might land over Australia, which
00:20:45 --> 00:20:47 prompted President Clinton to call Prime
00:20:47 --> 00:20:50 Minister John Howard directly to offer
00:20:50 --> 00:20:53 support for any recovery operation. As
00:20:53 --> 00:20:55 tracking data was refined, the projected
00:20:55 --> 00:20:58 impact zone shifted, eventually settling
00:20:58 --> 00:21:01 on a corridor across the eastern Pacific
00:21:01 --> 00:21:04 and into northern Chile and Bolivia.
00:21:04 --> 00:21:06 >> And in the Andes that same night,
00:21:06 --> 00:21:09 witnesses reported something unusual, a
00:21:10 --> 00:21:12 brilliant object moving slowly across
00:21:12 --> 00:21:15 the sky. Not the sudden flash of a
00:21:15 --> 00:21:17 meteor, something that lasted nearly a
00:21:18 --> 00:21:20 minute, jetting glowing fragments that
00:21:20 --> 00:21:23 briefly lit the thin mountain air before
00:21:23 --> 00:21:24 fading.
00:21:24 --> 00:21:26 >> One of those witnesses was an electronic
00:21:26 --> 00:21:28 specialist at the European Southern
00:21:28 --> 00:21:31 Observatory, who later said he had no
00:21:31 --> 00:21:33 illusions that it was anything other
00:21:33 --> 00:21:36 than a piece of space debris. US Space
00:21:36 --> 00:21:38 Command later acknowledged in writing,
00:21:38 --> 00:21:40 "We believe it is reasonable that the
00:21:40 --> 00:21:43 impact was in fact on land."
00:21:43 --> 00:21:45 >> And then nothing. A search was never
00:21:46 --> 00:21:49 performed. Nobody went looking. 30 years
00:21:49 --> 00:21:51 later, the final resting place of Mars
00:21:51 --> 00:21:54 96 is completely unknown.
00:21:54 --> 00:21:57 >> And here is where it gets genuinely
00:21:57 --> 00:22:00 strange. Those surface penetrators built
00:22:00 --> 00:22:03 to survive striking Mars at 70 to 80
00:22:03 --> 00:22:06 meters per second had thick compact
00:22:06 --> 00:22:09 casings engineered for violent impact.
00:22:09 --> 00:22:12 It is entirely possible that one or both
00:22:12 --> 00:22:15 of them survived re-entry and are
00:22:15 --> 00:22:17 sitting in the Andes right now largely
00:22:17 --> 00:22:19 intact.
00:22:19 --> 00:22:21 >> Hardware built for Mars in a Chilean
00:22:21 --> 00:22:24 valley that nobody has ever looked for.
00:22:24 --> 00:22:27 The spacecraft was also carrying 18
00:22:27 --> 00:22:30 radioisotope heater units. Small
00:22:30 --> 00:22:33 plutonium powered heaters specifically
00:22:33 --> 00:22:35 engineered to survive catastrophic
00:22:35 --> 00:22:39 events, including atmospheric re-entry.
00:22:39 --> 00:22:41 Similar units survived the uncontrolled
00:22:41 --> 00:22:43 crash of a Soviet satellite over
00:22:43 --> 00:22:46 northern Canada in 1978.
00:22:46 --> 00:22:49 So, these two could still be out there.
00:22:49 --> 00:22:51 >> The Space Review published a beautiful
00:22:51 --> 00:22:53 retrospective on this story just this
00:22:53 --> 00:22:55 week. And they put it perfectly. A
00:22:55 --> 00:22:58 spacecraft engineered to be tracked from
00:22:58 --> 00:23:01 hundreds of millions of kilometers away
00:23:01 --> 00:23:03 may instead have vanished somewhere on
00:23:03 --> 00:23:05 Earth. A world mapped in exquisite
00:23:05 --> 00:23:08 detail by satellites, aircraft, and
00:23:08 --> 00:23:10 ordinary people carrying cameras in
00:23:10 --> 00:23:13 their pockets. Somewhere in a dry valley
00:23:13 --> 00:23:16 across the windswept aliplano or among
00:23:16 --> 00:23:18 the salt flats and volcanic slopes of
00:23:18 --> 00:23:21 the high Andis hardware built for
00:23:21 --> 00:23:23 another planet may still be lying
00:23:23 --> 00:23:25 quietly under open sky.
00:23:25 --> 00:23:28 >> Could we find it today with modern
00:23:28 --> 00:23:31 satellite imagery, drone surveys, AI
00:23:31 --> 00:23:34 pattern recognition? Why has nobody gone
00:23:34 --> 00:23:36 looking in 30 years?
00:23:36 --> 00:23:38 >> That is a question I genuinely don't
00:23:38 --> 00:23:41 have an answer to. There is a koda to
00:23:41 --> 00:23:42 this story that I think deserves to be
00:23:42 --> 00:23:46 said. Many of Mars 96's science teams
00:23:46 --> 00:23:48 didn't give up. They went on to
00:23:48 --> 00:23:50 contribute to ISSA's Mars Express
00:23:50 --> 00:23:53 mission launched in 2003, which is still
00:23:53 --> 00:23:55 operating today.
00:23:55 --> 00:23:57 >> And one instrument, the Alpha Proton
00:23:57 --> 00:23:59 X-ray spectrometer, developed by the
00:23:59 --> 00:24:02 University of Chicago for Mars 96,
00:24:02 --> 00:24:05 actually reached Mars. A closely related
00:24:05 --> 00:24:07 version of it flew aboard NASA's Mars
00:24:07 --> 00:24:10 Pathfinder, launched just months after
00:24:10 --> 00:24:14 the crash. It landed on Mars in 1997 and
00:24:14 --> 00:24:16 began returning chemical readings from
00:24:16 --> 00:24:17 the surface.
00:24:17 --> 00:24:19 >> One instrument made it, carrying forward
00:24:19 --> 00:24:21 the work of the mission that never got
00:24:21 --> 00:24:22 there.
00:24:22 --> 00:24:25 >> Somewhere in the Andes, hardware built
00:24:25 --> 00:24:27 for another planet sits silent and
00:24:27 --> 00:24:30 unfound. And somewhere on Mars, a cousin
00:24:30 --> 00:24:33 of that same hardware did exactly what
00:24:33 --> 00:24:35 it was built to do. The mission failed.
00:24:35 --> 00:24:39 The science in part survived. Russia has
00:24:39 --> 00:24:41 never successfully sent an independent
00:24:41 --> 00:24:45 Mars mission since Mars 96. Worth
00:24:45 --> 00:24:47 sitting with, especially this week as we
00:24:47 --> 00:24:50 watch Aremis 2 completing one of the
00:24:50 --> 00:24:52 most successful crude missions in
00:24:52 --> 00:24:53 decades.
00:24:53 --> 00:24:55 >> Base is hard. Every mission we
00:24:55 --> 00:24:58 celebrate, every safe return, every
00:24:58 --> 00:25:00 trajectory burn that fires on time is
00:25:00 --> 00:25:03 built on decades of missions that didn't
00:25:03 --> 00:25:06 make it. Mars 96 is one of them.
00:25:06 --> 00:25:08 >> And if you're ever in the Andes, keep
00:25:08 --> 00:25:09 your eyes open.
00:25:09 --> 00:25:11 >> And that is Astronomy Daily for
00:25:11 --> 00:25:14 Wednesday, April the 8th, 2026. What a
00:25:14 --> 00:25:16 lineup today.
00:25:16 --> 00:25:19 >> We had Artemis 2 heading home. A cargo
00:25:19 --> 00:25:22 ship delayed into a spectacular Friday.
00:25:22 --> 00:25:24 The origin story of the ground beneath
00:25:24 --> 00:25:27 your feet rewritten. An alien comet
00:25:27 --> 00:25:29 saying its final farewell. A new comet
00:25:29 --> 00:25:32 arriving just in time. And a 30-year-old
00:25:32 --> 00:25:35 mystery that nobody has solved.
00:25:35 --> 00:25:36 >> If you enjoyed today's episode, please
00:25:36 --> 00:25:38 subscribe wherever you get your podcast.
00:25:38 --> 00:25:40 It genuinely makes a difference in
00:25:40 --> 00:25:42 helping us reach more space enthusiasts
00:25:42 --> 00:25:43 around the world.
00:25:43 --> 00:25:45 >> Leave us a review if you have a moment.
00:25:45 --> 00:25:47 Tell a friend. Find us on social media.
00:25:47 --> 00:25:50 We are at Astroailyaily Pod on Twitter
00:25:50 --> 00:25:53 and X, Instagram, Tik Tok, and YouTube.
00:25:53 --> 00:25:55 Links and full show notes at
00:25:55 --> 00:25:57 astronomyaily.io.
00:25:57 --> 00:25:59 >> We will be back tomorrow with the latest
00:25:59 --> 00:26:00 from space.
00:26:00 --> 00:26:03 >> Until then, for Avery, I'm Anna.
00:26:03 --> 00:26:05 >> And for Anna, I'm Avery. Keep looking
00:26:05 --> 00:26:18 up. We'll see you tomorrow.
00:26:18 --> 00:26:21 Stories told.