The Blood Moon has come and gone — and what a show it was. In today's Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery recap last night's total lunar eclipse, the last visible from North America until New Year's Eve 2028. Plus: NASA confirms Artemis 2 repairs are complete and an April crewed Moon mission is back on track. Astronomers have found the most tightly packed quadruple star system ever discovered — four stars crammed into a space no bigger than Jupiter's orbit. Gravitational waves could be about to solve one of cosmology's biggest mysteries: the Hubble Tension. The world's first private commercial space telescope has captured its first star. And finally — why do physicists say interstellar travel is impossible and aliens definitely haven't visited? In This Episode • 00:00 — Cold Open & Show Introduction • 02:00 — Story 1: Blood Moon Total Lunar Eclipse Recap • 06:00 — Story 2: Artemis 2 Repairs Complete, April Launch on Track • 09:00 — Story 3: Record-Breaking Quadruple Star System TIC 120362137 • 12:30 — Story 4: Gravitational Waves and the Hubble Tension • 15:30 — Story 5: Mauve — World's First Private Space Telescope • 18:30 — Story 6: Why Interstellar Travel Is Impossible • 22:00 — Show Close Find Us • Website: astronomydaily.io • Social: @AstroDailyPod • Network: Bitesz.com Podcast Network
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00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Last night, the moon turned red and bled
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 across the sky for nearly an hour. A
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 spacecraft is being prepped for the most
00:00:08 --> 00:00:12 daring crude mission in half a century.
00:00:12 --> 00:00:15 And somewhere out there, four stars are
00:00:15 --> 00:00:18 dancing together in a space so tight it
00:00:18 --> 00:00:21 would fit inside Mercury's orbit.
00:00:21 --> 00:00:23 >> And apparently, no aliens are coming to
00:00:23 --> 00:00:25 visit. Physics says so.
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 >> Not even a postcard. This is Astronomy
00:00:28 --> 00:00:30 Daily. I'm Anna.
00:00:30 --> 00:00:32 >> And I'm Avery. Let's get into it.
00:00:32 --> 00:00:36 >> Welcome to Astronomy Daily, the podcast
00:00:36 --> 00:00:38 bringing you the universe's best stories
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 6 days a week. It is Wednesday, March
00:00:41 --> 00:00:45 the 4th, 2026, and we have a genuinely
00:00:45 --> 00:00:47 stellar episode for you today. Pun
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 absolutely intended.
00:00:49 --> 00:00:51 >> We have the aftermath of what many of
00:00:51 --> 00:00:53 you stayed up all night to see, the
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 blood moon total lunar eclipse. We have
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 major Artemis 2 news, a star system that
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 honestly shouldn't exist, the solution
00:01:01 --> 00:01:02 to one of cosmologyy's biggest
00:01:02 --> 00:01:05 headaches, the dawn of commercial space
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 astronomy, and the physics-based reality
00:01:07 --> 00:01:09 check on alien visitors.
00:01:10 --> 00:01:13 >> It's a lot. Let's not waste a second.
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 >> Okay, first things first. Yesterday
00:01:15 --> 00:01:16 morning, or the early hours of
00:01:16 --> 00:01:19 yesterday, depending on where you were,
00:01:19 --> 00:01:21 the moon turned blood red. And I need to
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 know, Anna, did you watch it? I
00:01:24 --> 00:01:27 absolutely did. I dragged a blanket
00:01:27 --> 00:01:29 outside and watched the whole thing from
00:01:29 --> 00:01:32 my garden. And the moment totality hit,
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35 this deep, rusty orange glow, stars
00:01:35 --> 00:01:37 suddenly visible that had been washed
00:01:37 --> 00:01:40 out by moonlight, it was genuinely one
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 of those I love being alive on a planet
00:01:42 --> 00:01:44 with a moon moments.
00:01:44 --> 00:01:46 >> Right? For those who missed it, here's
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 what happened. The moon passed
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 completely through Earth's shadow.
00:01:50 --> 00:01:51 That's what makes it a total lunar
00:01:51 --> 00:01:54 eclipse. And the reason it turns red
00:01:54 --> 00:01:56 rather than just going dark is this
00:01:56 --> 00:01:58 beautiful piece of physics. Every
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00 sunrise and every sunset happening on
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 Earth at that moment projects its orange
00:02:03 --> 00:02:05 and red light through our atmosphere and
00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 bends it onto the moon's surface. So
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 what you're seeing is the light of every
00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 dawn and dusk on the planet all at once,
00:02:12 --> 00:02:14 >> which is one of the most romantic
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 explanations in all of astronomy.
00:02:16 --> 00:02:17 Honestly,
00:02:17 --> 00:02:20 >> totality lasted just under an hour, 59
00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 minutes to be precise, and it was
00:02:22 --> 00:02:25 visible across the US, Canada, Mexico,
00:02:25 --> 00:02:26 and parts of South America in the
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 morning hours, and from Australia, New
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 Zealand, and Asia after sunset. So,
00:02:31 --> 00:02:33 pretty much anyone who wanted to see it
00:02:33 --> 00:02:34 had a shot.
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 >> The timing was great for observers in
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 the mountain and Pacific time zones in
00:02:38 --> 00:02:41 North America. They got totality in
00:02:41 --> 00:02:44 fully dark skies. Eastern time viewers
00:02:44 --> 00:02:46 had to contend with twilight creeping
00:02:46 --> 00:02:49 in, but honestly still spectacular.
00:02:49 --> 00:02:51 >> And here's the bittersweet part. If you
00:02:51 --> 00:02:52 missed this one, you're going to be
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 waiting a while. This was the last total
00:02:55 --> 00:02:57 lunar eclipse visible from North America
00:02:57 --> 00:03:00 until New Year's Eve 2028.
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 >> So, if you watched it, well done. You
00:03:02 --> 00:03:05 caught a rare treat. And if you didn't,
00:03:05 --> 00:03:08 mark your calendars now. New Year's Eve
00:03:08 --> 00:03:11 2028. Great excuse for a party. We'd
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 love to hear from you. Did you get clear
00:03:14 --> 00:03:18 skies? Drop us a message at Astro Daily
00:03:18 --> 00:03:18 Pod.
00:03:18 --> 00:03:21 >> All right, next up, huge news for human
00:03:21 --> 00:03:24 space flight. NASA has confirmed that
00:03:24 --> 00:03:26 repairs to the Aremis 2 rocket are
00:03:26 --> 00:03:28 complete, and an April launch is still
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30 very much on the table.
00:03:30 --> 00:03:32 >> This is the one we've all been waiting
00:03:32 --> 00:03:34 for. Artemis 2 would be the first crude
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37 mission to fly around the moon in over
00:03:37 --> 00:03:40 50 years. Not a landing, not yet, but a
00:03:40 --> 00:03:41 crude flight that will take four
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 astronauts further from Earth than any
00:03:44 --> 00:03:46 humans have ever been. The crew is
00:03:46 --> 00:03:49 Commander Reed Wisman, pilot Victor
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 Glover, mission specialist Christina
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53 Cotch, who would become the first woman
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 to travel to the moon, and Canadian
00:03:56 --> 00:03:59 Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 >> The issue that needed fixing was a
00:04:01 --> 00:04:02 hydrogen leak that showed up during
00:04:02 --> 00:04:05 fueling tests. NASA took it seriously,
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 worked through it methodically, and
00:04:07 --> 00:04:09 they're now satisfied it's resolved. The
00:04:09 --> 00:04:11 vehicle is back in the vehicle assembly
00:04:11 --> 00:04:13 building at Kennedy Space Center, and
00:04:13 --> 00:04:15 the teams are working towards an April
00:04:15 --> 00:04:16 target.
00:04:16 --> 00:04:18 >> No exact launch date has been confirmed
00:04:18 --> 00:04:20 yet. NASA is still working through its
00:04:20 --> 00:04:23 checklist, but the fact that repairs are
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 complete and they're still talking April
00:04:25 --> 00:04:27 is genuinely encouraging. To put it in
00:04:27 --> 00:04:30 perspective, the last time humans flew
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 to the moon was Apollo 17 in December
00:04:33 --> 00:04:35 1972.
00:04:35 --> 00:04:38 That's 53 years. And if Artemis 2
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40 launches as planned, we'll be back in
00:04:40 --> 00:04:42 lunar space before the spring is out.
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 >> We'll keep tracking this one closely as
00:04:44 --> 00:04:47 the launch date firms up. Exciting
00:04:47 --> 00:04:48 times.
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 >> Okay, I need everyone to picture
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 something. Take our entire solar system
00:04:52 --> 00:04:55 from the sun to Mercury. That tiny
00:04:55 --> 00:04:59 sliver of space, roughly 77 million km.
00:04:59 --> 00:05:03 Now cram three stars into it. Three
00:05:03 --> 00:05:04 stars.
00:05:04 --> 00:05:07 >> That's I mean that's insane. Stars are
00:05:08 --> 00:05:09 enormous.
00:05:09 --> 00:05:12 >> They are. And yet astronomers have just
00:05:12 --> 00:05:18 confirmed a system called TIC120362137
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 where exactly that is happening. three
00:05:21 --> 00:05:23 stars, all bigger and hotter than our
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 sun, packed into a volume smaller than
00:05:26 --> 00:05:29 Mercury's orbit around our star. And
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 then, as if that weren't enough, there's
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 a fourth star orbiting all three of them
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 at a distance comparable to where
00:05:36 --> 00:05:38 Jupiter sits in our solar system.
00:05:38 --> 00:05:41 >> So, it's a triple star system with a
00:05:41 --> 00:05:42 chaperone.
00:05:42 --> 00:05:44 >> That's genuinely the best way I've heard
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 it described. The research was published
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 in Nature Communications and led by
00:05:48 --> 00:05:50 astronomer Tamas Borovitz at the
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 University of Seed in Hungary. His team
00:05:53 --> 00:05:55 used data from NASA's test satellite
00:05:55 --> 00:05:57 originally designed to hunt for
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 exoplanets alongside groundbased
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 telescopes in Hungary, Arizona, the
00:06:02 --> 00:06:05 Czech Republic, and Slovakia. 73 spectra
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 from the Fred Whipple Observatory in
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 Arizona alone.
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 >> How do you even spot something like
00:06:11 --> 00:06:12 this?
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 >> It starts with dips in starlight. The
00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 stars eclipse each other as they orbit,
00:06:16 --> 00:06:18 causing tiny periodic drops in
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 brightness. What initially looked like a
00:06:21 --> 00:06:24 simple pair of stars eclipsing every 3.3
00:06:24 --> 00:06:27 days turned out on closer inspection to
00:06:27 --> 00:06:29 be hiding a third star, too. And then
00:06:29 --> 00:06:31 the fourth was teased out using a clever
00:06:31 --> 00:06:34 algorithm that isolated each star's
00:06:34 --> 00:06:36 spectral fingerprints individually. This
00:06:36 --> 00:06:38 system is in the constellation Signis,
00:06:38 --> 00:06:40 the Swan, and its technical
00:06:40 --> 00:06:43 classification is a 3 + 1 type
00:06:43 --> 00:06:46 quadruple. Three inner stars in a tight
00:06:46 --> 00:06:48 mutual orbit with a fourth outer
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 companion. The outer stars orbital
00:06:50 --> 00:06:54 period is just 1 days, the shortest
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 ever recorded for this type of system.
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 >> And the team was also able to model the
00:06:59 --> 00:07:01 systems eventual fate. Over billions of
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 years, the heavyweight stars will
00:07:03 --> 00:07:06 exhaust their fuel, swell into giants,
00:07:06 --> 00:07:08 and shed their outer layers. The whole
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 thing will likely end up as a pair of
00:07:10 --> 00:07:13 white dwarfs orbiting each other. A
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 slow, quiet fade into stellar
00:07:15 --> 00:07:16 retirement.
00:07:16 --> 00:07:19 >> From cosmic chaos to cosmic peace. I
00:07:19 --> 00:07:21 find that oddly comforting.
00:07:21 --> 00:07:24 >> It's a reminder that our own son, lone,
00:07:24 --> 00:07:27 solitary, planetarily well behaved,
00:07:27 --> 00:07:30 might actually be the weird one. Most
00:07:30 --> 00:07:32 stars in the galaxy have at least one
00:07:32 --> 00:07:35 companion. Some apparently have three.
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 >> Right. This next one is for the
00:07:37 --> 00:07:39 cosmology nerds, but we're going to make
00:07:39 --> 00:07:42 it make sense for everyone because it is
00:07:42 --> 00:07:43 genuinely important.
00:07:43 --> 00:07:46 >> The Hubble tension. It sounds like a
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 minor bureaucratic disagreement, but
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 it's actually one of the biggest
00:07:50 --> 00:07:53 unsolved problems in modern physics.
00:07:53 --> 00:07:55 >> So, here's the setup. We know the
00:07:55 --> 00:07:57 universe is expanding. The question is
00:07:57 --> 00:08:00 how fast. And when astronomers use two
00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 different methods to measure that
00:08:02 --> 00:08:04 expansion rate called the Hubble
00:08:04 --> 00:08:06 constant, they get two different answers
00:08:06 --> 00:08:09 that stubbornly refuse to agree. One
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 method uses the early universe, the
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 cosmic microwave background, the
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 leftover light from shortly after the
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 big bang. Other methods use nearby
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 cosmic distance markers like Sephiid
00:08:20 --> 00:08:23 variable stars and type 1A supernova.
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 Both methods are solid. Both have been
00:08:25 --> 00:08:28 refined for decades and they still don't
00:08:28 --> 00:08:29 match.
00:08:29 --> 00:08:32 >> The gap between them is only about 8 or
00:08:32 --> 00:08:35 9% numerically. But that small
00:08:35 --> 00:08:37 discrepancy is a massive headache
00:08:37 --> 00:08:38 because it suggests either our
00:08:38 --> 00:08:40 measurements are wrong or more
00:08:40 --> 00:08:43 excitingly there's new physics we don't
00:08:43 --> 00:08:44 understand yet.
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 >> And now scientists are proposing a third
00:08:47 --> 00:08:49 completely independent method.
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 Gravitational waves. When two massive
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 objects like black holes or neutron
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 stars spiral together and merge, they
00:08:56 --> 00:08:58 send ripples through the fabric of
00:08:58 --> 00:09:00 spaceime itself, these gravitational
00:09:00 --> 00:09:03 waves carry precise information about
00:09:03 --> 00:09:05 the distance to the event and how fast
00:09:05 --> 00:09:07 the universe is expanding at that point.
00:09:07 --> 00:09:09 >> The beautiful thing is gravitational
00:09:09 --> 00:09:12 wave detectors like LIGO and Virgo don't
00:09:12 --> 00:09:14 rely on the same assumptions as the
00:09:14 --> 00:09:16 other methods. So, if gravitational wave
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 measurements can pin down the Hubble
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 constant independently, we'll finally
00:09:20 --> 00:09:22 have a referee in this argument.
00:09:22 --> 00:09:24 >> We don't have enough events yet to be
00:09:24 --> 00:09:27 definitive. Gravitational wave astronomy
00:09:27 --> 00:09:30 is still young. But as detectors improve
00:09:30 --> 00:09:33 and we observe more mergers, this could
00:09:33 --> 00:09:35 be the key that unlocks one of
00:09:35 --> 00:09:37 cosmologyy's greatest mysteries.
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 >> Physics still keeping us humble since
00:09:40 --> 00:09:40 always.
00:09:40 --> 00:09:43 >> A genuine milestone in the history of
00:09:43 --> 00:09:45 astronomy this week. The MAV telescope,
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 the world's first privatelyowned
00:09:47 --> 00:09:50 commercial space telescope, has captured
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 its first observation, and it's the
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 first star. This is a big deal. MAV is
00:09:55 --> 00:09:57 operated by a London-based startup
00:09:57 --> 00:10:00 called Blue Skies Space, and it launched
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 back in November aboard a Space X ride
00:10:02 --> 00:10:05 share mission. It's a small satellite
00:10:05 --> 00:10:07 about the size of a suitcase weighing
00:10:07 --> 00:10:10 under 19 kg. But what it can do is
00:10:10 --> 00:10:12 genuinely unique. BAV is designed to
00:10:12 --> 00:10:15 observe stars in ultraviolet light
00:10:15 --> 00:10:17 wavelengths that are completely blocked
00:10:17 --> 00:10:19 by Earth's atmosphere. So you simply
00:10:19 --> 00:10:21 cannot study them from the ground. The
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 last dedicated ultraviolet space
00:10:23 --> 00:10:24 observatory was the International
00:10:24 --> 00:10:27 Ultraviolet Explorer which was retired
00:10:27 --> 00:10:29 back in 1996. So there's been a three
00:10:30 --> 00:10:32 decade gap in this kind of science.
00:10:32 --> 00:10:33 >> And the science it's doing matters
00:10:34 --> 00:10:36 enormously for the search for life. Not
00:10:36 --> 00:10:38 every star is as well behaved as our
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 sun. Many stars, especially the cooler,
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 more common red dwarfs, produce intense
00:10:44 --> 00:10:45 UV flares that could strip the
00:10:45 --> 00:10:48 atmospheres off nearby planets, making
00:10:48 --> 00:10:50 them uninhabitable regardless of their
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 distance from the star. MAV will survey
00:10:52 --> 00:10:54 hundreds of stars to figure out which
00:10:54 --> 00:10:57 ones are genuinely friendly to life. The
00:10:57 --> 00:10:59 commercial model here is also
00:10:59 --> 00:11:01 interesting. Data access is provided
00:11:01 --> 00:11:03 through annual subscriptions to research
00:11:03 --> 00:11:05 teams, a sort of Netflix for UV
00:11:05 --> 00:11:07 astronomy data. It's a new way of
00:11:08 --> 00:11:10 funding space science. And if it works,
00:11:10 --> 00:11:12 Blue Sky Space plans a whole fleet of
00:11:12 --> 00:11:13 these.
00:11:13 --> 00:11:15 >> The first star observed was one of the
00:11:15 --> 00:11:17 brightest stars in the Ursa Major
00:11:17 --> 00:11:19 constellation. A calibration target to
00:11:19 --> 00:11:20 check the instrument is working
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 correctly. And it is. First light
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 achieved. Science operations underway.
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 >> The universe has its first commercial
00:11:27 --> 00:11:30 telescope. I, for one, welcome our new
00:11:30 --> 00:11:32 private sector stargazers.
00:11:32 --> 00:11:34 >> And finally, our lighter closer.
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 Although I'd argue there's nothing light
00:11:36 --> 00:11:38 about the physics involved.
00:11:38 --> 00:11:40 >> A new piece from the brighter side of
00:11:40 --> 00:11:41 news has been making the rounds this
00:11:41 --> 00:11:44 week and it takes a long hard look at
00:11:44 --> 00:11:46 why despite the vastness of the universe
00:11:46 --> 00:11:48 and the billions of potentially
00:11:48 --> 00:11:50 habitable worlds out there, no alien
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52 civilization has ever shown up on our
00:11:52 --> 00:11:55 doorstep. And the answer, it turns out,
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 isn't conspiracy. It's physics.
00:11:58 --> 00:12:00 >> Five barriers. That's the argument. Five
00:12:00 --> 00:12:02 physical constraints that together make
00:12:02 --> 00:12:04 interstellar contact essentially
00:12:04 --> 00:12:07 impossible. Shall we run through them?
00:12:07 --> 00:12:07 >> Let's do it.
00:12:08 --> 00:12:10 >> Number one, distance. The nearest star
00:12:10 --> 00:12:13 to us, Proxima Centauri, is 4.24 lighty
00:12:13 --> 00:12:16 years away. The Parker Solar Probe, the
00:12:16 --> 00:12:18 fastest humanmade object ever built,
00:12:18 --> 00:12:22 would take around 6600 years to reach
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 it. And that's our closest neighbor, the
00:12:24 --> 00:12:27 Milky Way, is 100 light-years
00:12:27 --> 00:12:30 across. Number two, the speed of light.
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 This is not an engineering problem. It's
00:12:32 --> 00:12:34 a law of reality. Einstein's special
00:12:34 --> 00:12:36 relativity tells us that as you
00:12:36 --> 00:12:38 accelerate anything with mass toward the
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 speed of light, it takes ever more
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 energy for ever smaller gains in speed.
00:12:43 --> 00:12:45 To actually reach light speed would take
00:12:46 --> 00:12:48 infinite energy. Not a lot of energy,
00:12:48 --> 00:12:48 infinite.
00:12:48 --> 00:12:51 >> Number three, propulsion. Even if you
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54 accept a much lower target, say 1% of
00:12:54 --> 00:12:56 light speed, you run straight into
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59 what's called the rocket equation. To
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 accelerate, you need fuel. But fuel has
00:13:01 --> 00:13:04 mass, which means you need more fuel to
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 push the fuel, which adds more mass. It
00:13:06 --> 00:13:09 grows exponentially. The fuel required
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11 for even a modest interstellar trip
00:13:12 --> 00:13:13 would be staggering.
00:13:13 --> 00:13:16 >> Number four, biology. The human body
00:13:16 --> 00:13:19 evolved on Earth under Earth's magnetic
00:13:19 --> 00:13:22 field under Earth's gravity. Deep space
00:13:22 --> 00:13:26 is brutal. Cosmic radiation shreds DNA.
00:13:26 --> 00:13:28 Microgravity degrades bones and
00:13:28 --> 00:13:31 cardiovascular systems. And we still
00:13:31 --> 00:13:33 haven't solved cryogenic preservation.
00:13:33 --> 00:13:35 Even robots aren't immune. Radiation
00:13:35 --> 00:13:37 degrades electronics. And over the time
00:13:37 --> 00:13:40 skills involved, entropy wins.
00:13:40 --> 00:13:43 >> And number five, and this is my favorite
00:13:43 --> 00:13:46 one, timing. Our civilization has been
00:13:46 --> 00:13:48 broadcasting radio signals for about a
00:13:48 --> 00:13:50 hundred years. That creates a bubble
00:13:50 --> 00:13:53 roughly 100 lighty years across. The
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55 Milky Way is a thousand times wider than
00:13:55 --> 00:13:59 that. The universe is 13.8 billion years
00:13:59 --> 00:14:02 old. Civilizations might rise, transmit,
00:14:02 --> 00:14:05 and fall, all before their signals even
00:14:05 --> 00:14:08 reach anyone capable of receiving them.
00:14:08 --> 00:14:09 The physicist Richard Feineman
00:14:09 --> 00:14:12 apparently compared it to fireflies
00:14:12 --> 00:14:13 blinking on different nights in a dark
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16 forest. They never overlap.
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 >> And what about UFOs? The piece applies
00:14:19 --> 00:14:21 physics to claims of craft performing
00:14:21 --> 00:14:23 impossible maneuvers. Instant
00:14:23 --> 00:14:26 acceleration to extreme speeds, sharp
00:14:26 --> 00:14:28 turns with no sonic signature. The
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 forces involved would be tens of
00:14:30 --> 00:14:33 thousands of times Earth's gravity.
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 Occupants would be pulped. Materials
00:14:35 --> 00:14:38 would fail. The physics doesn't work.
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 >> Now, is this depressing? I actually
00:14:40 --> 00:14:43 don't think so. The piece ends on
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45 something beautiful. The same laws of
00:14:45 --> 00:14:47 physics that prevent easy interstellar
00:14:47 --> 00:14:50 travel also make the universe stable,
00:14:50 --> 00:14:53 ordered, and ultimately life friendly.
00:14:53 --> 00:14:55 Light speed preserves causality. Without
00:14:56 --> 00:14:58 it, cause and effect would unravel.
00:14:58 --> 00:15:01 Stable atoms permit chemistry. Stars
00:15:01 --> 00:15:03 forge the elements that build planets
00:15:03 --> 00:15:05 and people. We might be alone in our
00:15:05 --> 00:15:07 cosmic neighborhood, but we're made of
00:15:07 --> 00:15:09 the same star stuff as every galaxy in
00:15:09 --> 00:15:11 the observable universe. We're not
00:15:11 --> 00:15:13 separate from the cosmos. We're the
00:15:13 --> 00:15:15 universe looking at itself.
00:15:15 --> 00:15:16 >> I'll take that.
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 >> That's Astronomy Daily for Wednesday,
00:15:18 --> 00:15:22 March I 4th, 2026. Blood moons, crude
00:15:22 --> 00:15:25 moon missions, cosmic star huddles, the
00:15:25 --> 00:15:27 universe's expansion mystery, the dawn
00:15:27 --> 00:15:30 of private space telescopes, and why the
00:15:30 --> 00:15:32 aliens aren't coming. Honestly, one of
00:15:32 --> 00:15:35 my favorite episodes in a while. If you
00:15:35 --> 00:15:37 enjoyed it, please subscribe wherever
00:15:37 --> 00:15:38 you get your podcasts. Leave us a
00:15:38 --> 00:15:41 review. It genuinely helps us reach more
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43 space enthusiasts. And find us on social
00:15:43 --> 00:15:46 media at Astro Daily Pod.
00:15:46 --> 00:15:49 >> New episodes every weekday and Saturday.
00:15:49 --> 00:15:51 We'll see you tomorrow for more from the
00:15:52 --> 00:15:52 universe.
00:15:52 --> 00:15:57 >> Blue skies, everyone.
00:15:57 --> 00:16:05 Stories told
00:16:05 --> 00:16:13 stories told
00:16:13 --> 00:16:16 stories