In today's episode of Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery unpack six major space stories. China has achieved a crucial milestone in its crewed lunar programme, successfully testing the Mengzhou capsule's abort system at maximum dynamic pressure while also demonstrating SpaceX-style rocket recovery with the Long March 10 first stage. ULA's Vulcan Centaur rocket is set to launch its longest mission yet, delivering GSSAP space surveillance satellites directly to geosynchronous orbit for the US Space Force. We explain why NASA's Artemis 2 Moon mission has remarkably few launch opportunities — just 11 dates across March and April — and what orbital mechanics, solar power constraints, and hydrogen leaks have to do with it. In astronomy news, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has produced its clearest image yet of the Egg Nebula, a pre-planetary nebula offering a rare glimpse of a Sun-like star in its death throes. A provocative new study in the journal Astrobiology argues that the 1976 Viking missions may have detected signs of Martian life after all, with perchlorates masking the organic signatures. And finally, astronomers continue searching for remnants of Comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS, which spectacularly disintegrated during the 2020 pandemic — but may not be entirely gone. Timestamps [00:00] Introduction [01:30] China's Mengzhou capsule abort test & Long March 10 rocket recovery [05:30] ULA Vulcan USSF-87 launch — GSSAP satellites for Space Force [08:30] Artemis 2 launch windows — why only 11 chances in 2 months [11:30] Hubble's stunning Egg Nebula image — a dying star's final act [14:00] Did NASA's Viking missions find life on Mars? New evidence says maybe [16:30] The mystery of 'dead' Comet ATLAS — could fragments survive? [18:00] Sign-off
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00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Good day and welcome to Astronomy Daily,
00:00:03 --> 00:00:05 your go-to source for everything
00:00:05 --> 00:00:08 happening in space and astronomy. I'm
00:00:08 --> 00:00:09 Anna
00:00:09 --> 00:00:11 >> and I'm Avery. It's Thursday, February
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 the 12th, 2026, and we have a packed
00:00:14 --> 00:00:15 show for you today.
00:00:15 --> 00:00:18 >> We really do. China has just pulled off
00:00:18 --> 00:00:21 a major milestone in its push to land
00:00:21 --> 00:00:23 astronauts on the moon, including a
00:00:23 --> 00:00:26 pretty spectacular rocket splashdown
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 that should have a few people at SpaceX
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 paying attention. We've also got ULA's
00:00:31 --> 00:00:33 Vulcan Centaur rocket launching a pair
00:00:33 --> 00:00:35 of space surveillance satellites for the
00:00:35 --> 00:00:38 US Space Force, a deep dive into why
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 Artemis 2 has so few chances to actually
00:00:41 --> 00:00:43 get off the ground, and a stunning new
00:00:43 --> 00:00:46 Hubble image of a dying star. Plus, did
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 NASA's Viking missions actually find
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 life on Mars 50 years ago? New research
00:00:52 --> 00:00:55 says the answer might be yes, and
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 astronomers are still hunting for the
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 remains of a comet that dramatically
00:01:00 --> 00:01:02 fell apart during CO lockdowns.
00:01:02 --> 00:01:05 >> Let's get into it. Our lead story today
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 takes us to Wang Chong Space launch site
00:01:07 --> 00:01:10 on the island of Hainan where yesterday,
00:01:10 --> 00:01:13 February 11th, China conducted a
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 landmark test that checked off multiple
00:01:16 --> 00:01:18 firsts in a single mission. This was a
00:01:18 --> 00:01:20 lowaltitude demonstration flight of
00:01:20 --> 00:01:23 China's next generation Long March 10
00:01:23 --> 00:01:26 rocket carrying the Mangjo crew capsule.
00:01:26 --> 00:01:28 And what they were testing was something
00:01:28 --> 00:01:31 called a Max Q abort. Basically, can the
00:01:31 --> 00:01:33 capsule safely escape the rocket at the
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 moment of maximum aerodynamic stress
00:01:36 --> 00:01:37 during ascent?
00:01:37 --> 00:01:39 >> And for context, that's the point during
00:01:39 --> 00:01:42 any rocket launch where the vehicle is
00:01:42 --> 00:01:44 experiencing the greatest combination of
00:01:44 --> 00:01:47 speed and atmospheric resistance. If
00:01:47 --> 00:01:50 something goes wrong at max Q, the crew
00:01:50 --> 00:01:53 needs to get away fast. This was China's
00:01:53 --> 00:01:55 first ever test of that scenario with a
00:01:55 --> 00:01:58 crude class spacecraft. The capsule
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00 successfully separated from the rocket,
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 deployed its parachutes, and was
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 recovered at sea. It was carrying lunar
00:02:04 --> 00:02:06 space suits and test dummies rather than
00:02:06 --> 00:02:09 actual tyonuts, obviously, but the abort
00:02:09 --> 00:02:11 system performed exactly as designed.
00:02:12 --> 00:02:13 >> Now, here is where it gets really
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 interesting, Avery. After the capsule
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 separated, the Long March 10 first stage
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 didn't just tumble into the ocean. It
00:02:22 --> 00:02:25 performed a powered vertical landing, a
00:02:25 --> 00:02:28 soft splashdown at sea, very much in the
00:02:28 --> 00:02:30 style of SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 recoveries.
00:02:32 --> 00:02:34 >> And that's a huge deal because until now
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 only the United States has had
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 operational reusable orbital class
00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 rockets. This was China's first
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 successful rocket recovery attempt and
00:02:42 --> 00:02:44 it worked on the very first powered
00:02:44 --> 00:02:47 flight of the Long March 10 prototype.
00:02:47 --> 00:02:49 And they even had a dedicated autonomous
00:02:49 --> 00:02:52 recovery vessel called the Ling Hangzer
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 standing by which is essentially China's
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 answer to SpaceX's drone ships. The full
00:02:58 --> 00:03:01 Long March 10 is going to be an absolute
00:03:01 --> 00:03:03 beast when it's complete. A Tririccore
00:03:03 --> 00:03:06 rocket standing around 90 m tall with
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09 about 2700 tons of liftoff thrust. It's
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 designed to be China's largest launch
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 vehicle and the only one capable of
00:03:13 --> 00:03:16 sending both a crew spacecraft and a
00:03:16 --> 00:03:18 lunar lander to the moon in a single
00:03:18 --> 00:03:21 launch. If things continue at this pace,
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 China is projecting a full orbital
00:03:23 --> 00:03:27 flight of the long march 10 by 2027 with
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 tyonauts on the lunar surface before the
00:03:30 --> 00:03:32 end of the decade. That puts them in a
00:03:32 --> 00:03:34 very real race with NASA's Aremis
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37 program, which is targeting its own
00:03:37 --> 00:03:40 crude landing with Artemis 3 no earlier
00:03:40 --> 00:03:41 than 2028.
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 >> And this test was conducted from the
00:03:43 --> 00:03:45 brand new launchpad number three in
00:03:45 --> 00:03:47 Wangchang, which was built specifically
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 for these lunar missions. So, the
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 infrastructure is going in alongside the
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 hardware. A genuinely significant day
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 for the Chinese space program and one
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 that adds real momentum to what's
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 shaping up to be the most exciting moon
00:04:01 --> 00:04:03 race since Apollo.
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 >> Sticking with rockets, but moving to
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 Cape Canaveral, ULA's Vulcan Centaur
00:04:08 --> 00:04:09 rocket is set to launch early this
00:04:09 --> 00:04:11 morning, February 12, with the window
00:04:11 --> 00:04:14 opening at 3:30 a.m. Eastern time.
00:04:14 --> 00:04:16 >> This is the fourth Vulcan mission
00:04:16 --> 00:04:19 overall and the first of 2026. The
00:04:19 --> 00:04:23 payload is a pair of GSSAP satellites.
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 That's the geocynchronous space
00:04:25 --> 00:04:28 situational awareness program built by
00:04:28 --> 00:04:31 Northrop Grumman for the US Space Force.
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 >> Think of GSSAP as a neighborhood watch
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 program for geocynchronous orbit. These
00:04:36 --> 00:04:39 satellites monitor other spacecraft at
00:04:39 --> 00:04:42 that critical 35 km altitude,
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 improving flight safety and giving Space
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 Force operators better situational
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 awareness about what's happening up
00:04:48 --> 00:04:51 there. There's also a secondary payload
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 called Propulsive ESPA. Essentially, a
00:04:54 --> 00:04:56 training spacecraft that Space Force
00:04:56 --> 00:04:59 Guardians will use to practice precision
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 orbital maneuvers and validate
00:05:01 --> 00:05:03 techniques for protecting assets in
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 orbit. What's notable about this
00:05:05 --> 00:05:07 particular mission is that it's the
00:05:07 --> 00:05:10 longest Vulcan flight to date, nearly 10
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 hours, because the Centaur upper stage
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 is performing a direct insertion all the
00:05:15 --> 00:05:17 way to geocynchronous orbit rather than
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 just dropping the satellites into a
00:05:19 --> 00:05:22 transfer orbit. ULA is under some
00:05:22 --> 00:05:24 pressure this year. They've got interm
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 CEO John Elbon at the helm after Tory
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 Bruno departed to join Blue Origin late
00:05:29 --> 00:05:33 last year and they're targeting 18 to 22
00:05:33 --> 00:05:36 launches in 2026 after falling short of
00:05:36 --> 00:05:39 their targets in 2025.
00:05:39 --> 00:05:40 >> They've invested heavily in
00:05:40 --> 00:05:42 infrastructure, a second mobile launch
00:05:42 --> 00:05:44 platform and a second integration
00:05:44 --> 00:05:47 facility at the Cape. So, the capacity
00:05:47 --> 00:05:49 is there. The question is whether Vulcan
00:05:49 --> 00:05:51 can deliver on the reliability and
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53 cadence that their roughly 80 mission
00:05:53 --> 00:05:55 backlog demands.
00:05:55 --> 00:05:57 >> We should note that ULA's webcast
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 coverage will end at fairing separation
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 about 5 minutes after launch because the
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 classified nature of the payload means
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 the rest of the mission is conducted in
00:06:07 --> 00:06:10 silence. Now, speaking of getting
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 rockets off the ground, let's talk about
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 Artemis 2. Because if you've been
00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 following the countdown to the first
00:06:16 --> 00:06:19 crude moon mission in over 50 years, you
00:06:19 --> 00:06:22 might have noticed something surprising
00:06:22 --> 00:06:24 about how few chances there actually are
00:06:24 --> 00:06:27 to launch. NASA has published the
00:06:27 --> 00:06:29 available launch dates and there are
00:06:29 --> 00:06:31 just 11 opportunities across March and
00:06:31 --> 00:06:34 April combined. Five dates in March, the
00:06:34 --> 00:06:37 6th through the 9th, plus March 11th,
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 and six in April. Each window is about 2
00:06:40 --> 00:06:44 hours long. 11 chances in 61 days.
00:06:44 --> 00:06:47 That's it. And some of those could be
00:06:47 --> 00:06:49 lost to weather or the need to replace
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52 consumables like rocket fuel. So why so
00:06:52 --> 00:06:53 few?
00:06:53 --> 00:06:55 >> It all comes down to orbital mechanics
00:06:55 --> 00:06:57 and the specific requirements of this
00:06:57 --> 00:07:00 mission. Artemis 2 doesn't fly straight
00:07:00 --> 00:07:02 to the moon. The SLS rocket first
00:07:02 --> 00:07:05 delivers the Orion capsule to high Earth
00:07:05 --> 00:07:07 orbit where the crew and ground teams
00:07:07 --> 00:07:09 run through a series of checkouts. Then
00:07:09 --> 00:07:12 comes a trans lunar injection burn to
00:07:12 --> 00:07:14 send Orion on its way.
00:07:14 --> 00:07:17 >> So the launch time on any given day has
00:07:17 --> 00:07:20 to thread the needle. SLS needs to reach
00:07:20 --> 00:07:22 the right orbit. Orion needs to be in
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 the correct alignment with both Earth
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 and the moon for that trans lunar
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 injection burn. And the whole trajectory
00:07:29 --> 00:07:32 has to work as a free return loop using
00:07:32 --> 00:07:34 the moon's gravity to sling the capsule
00:07:34 --> 00:07:35 home.
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 >> And then there's a power constraint.
00:07:37 --> 00:07:39 Orion's solar arrays can't be in
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 darkness for more than 90 minutes at a
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 stretch. So NASA has to rule out any
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 trajectory that would put the spacecraft
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49 in an extended eclipse. That alone
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 eliminates a lot of potential dates.
00:07:51 --> 00:07:54 >> The return profile matters too. Orion
00:07:54 --> 00:07:56 needs a specific entry angle and
00:07:56 --> 00:07:58 conditions for splashdown. So that
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 further narrows the field. Now, the
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 reason we're talking about March and
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 April specifically, is that the first
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07 wet dress rehearsal, that's the full
00:08:07 --> 00:08:09 practice run of fueling and countdown
00:08:09 --> 00:08:12 procedures, ended early on February 2nd,
00:08:12 --> 00:08:14 because of a liquid hydrogen leak that
00:08:14 --> 00:08:17 took February off the table entirely. A
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 second wet dress attempt is expected
00:08:20 --> 00:08:22 soon, possibly this weekend. And NASA
00:08:22 --> 00:08:25 officials have been reassuring everyone
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 that there are launch opportunities in
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 every month beyond April as well. They
00:08:29 --> 00:08:32 just haven't published those dates yet.
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 >> And it's worth remembering that Artemis
00:08:34 --> 00:08:37 1 had similar hydrogen leak issues and
00:08:37 --> 00:08:40 still flew successfully in late 2022. So
00:08:40 --> 00:08:42 this isn't uncharted territory.
00:08:42 --> 00:08:45 >> Whenever it flies, it'll be historic. No
00:08:46 --> 00:08:47 astronaut has been beyond low Earth
00:08:47 --> 00:08:51 orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 That's over 53 years.
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 >> Moving on to our next story, and it's
00:08:56 --> 00:08:59 time for some pure cosmic beauty. NASA
00:08:59 --> 00:09:02 has released a breathtaking new image
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 from the Hubble Space Telescope showing
00:09:04 --> 00:09:07 the Egg Nebula in extraordinary detail.
00:09:07 --> 00:09:09 The Egg Nebula is about a thousand
00:09:09 --> 00:09:11 lighty years away in the constellation
00:09:11 --> 00:09:14 Signis and it's what astronomers call a
00:09:14 --> 00:09:16 pre-planetary nebula which despite the
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 name has nothing to do with planets
00:09:18 --> 00:09:21 forming. It's the early stage of a dying
00:09:21 --> 00:09:24 sunlike star shedding its outer layers.
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26 And NASA describes it as the first,
00:09:26 --> 00:09:28 youngest, and closest pre-planetary
00:09:28 --> 00:09:31 nebula ever discovered, which makes it
00:09:31 --> 00:09:33 incredibly valuable for studying how
00:09:33 --> 00:09:35 stars like our sun eventually meet their
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 end. What makes this image so striking
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 is the structure. At the center, you
00:09:41 --> 00:09:43 have the dying star, the yolk of the
00:09:43 --> 00:09:46 egg, hidden behind a dense cloud of
00:09:46 --> 00:09:49 dust. Quinn beams of light punch outward
00:09:49 --> 00:09:51 through gaps in that dusty shell,
00:09:51 --> 00:09:53 illuminating a series of concentric arcs
00:09:53 --> 00:09:56 of gas that ripple outward like waves.
00:09:56 --> 00:09:59 And unlike most nebula, which glow
00:09:59 --> 00:10:01 because their gas has been ionized, the
00:10:01 --> 00:10:04 Egg Nebula shines purely by reflected
00:10:04 --> 00:10:07 light from the central star. The star
00:10:07 --> 00:10:09 hasn't heated up enough yet to ionize
00:10:09 --> 00:10:11 its surroundings. That's what makes this
00:10:11 --> 00:10:14 a pre-planetary nebula rather than a
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 full planetary nebula. The symmetry is
00:10:16 --> 00:10:19 remarkable, too. Scientists say the
00:10:19 --> 00:10:21 patterns are far too orderly to have
00:10:21 --> 00:10:22 come from a violent event like a
00:10:22 --> 00:10:25 supernova. Instead, they point to
00:10:25 --> 00:10:27 coordinated sputtering events in the
00:10:27 --> 00:10:30 carbonenenriched core of the dying star.
00:10:30 --> 00:10:32 Though the exact mechanism is still
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 poorly understood, there's also evidence
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 of gravitational interactions with one
00:10:37 --> 00:10:40 or more hidden companion stars buried
00:10:40 --> 00:10:42 deep within the dust, which may be
00:10:42 --> 00:10:43 helping to shape those dramatic
00:10:44 --> 00:10:47 outflows. This pre-planetary phase only
00:10:47 --> 00:10:50 lasts a few thousand years, an absolute
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 blink in cosmic terms. So catching a
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 nebula at this stage is like catching
00:10:55 --> 00:10:57 lightning in a bottle. And the material
00:10:57 --> 00:10:59 being shed here is the same kind of
00:10:59 --> 00:11:02 carbonri stardust that seated our own
00:11:02 --> 00:11:04 solar system 4 and a half billion years
00:11:04 --> 00:11:07 ago. Hubble has observed the Egg Nebula
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 before, but this new image taken with
00:11:09 --> 00:11:12 the wide field camera 3 combines
00:11:12 --> 00:11:14 multiple data sets to produce the most
00:11:14 --> 00:11:17 detailed portrait yet. 35 years in orbit
00:11:17 --> 00:11:20 and Hubble is still delivering. Now for
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 a story that could fundamentally change
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 how we think about Mars. New research
00:11:25 --> 00:11:28 published in the journal Astrobiology is
00:11:28 --> 00:11:30 making the case that NASA's Viking
00:11:30 --> 00:11:32 missions may have actually detected
00:11:32 --> 00:11:35 signs of life on Mars back in 1976.
00:11:36 --> 00:11:37 We just didn't know how to read the
00:11:37 --> 00:11:38 data.
00:11:38 --> 00:11:41 >> This is a big claim, so let's unpack it.
00:11:41 --> 00:11:43 The Viking landers carried an instrument
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45 called the GCMS,
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 the gas chromatography mass
00:11:47 --> 00:11:49 spectrometer, which was designed to
00:11:49 --> 00:11:52 detect organic molecules in the Martian
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 soil. At the time, it returned what was
00:11:54 --> 00:11:57 interpreted as a negative result. No
00:11:57 --> 00:11:59 organics found. Case closed.
00:11:59 --> 00:12:01 >> And that conclusion essentially shut
00:12:01 --> 00:12:03 down the debate for decades. The Viking
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 project scientist Gerald Soffen famously
00:12:06 --> 00:12:09 said, "No bodies, no life." And that
00:12:09 --> 00:12:11 became the textbook answer.
00:12:11 --> 00:12:15 >> But here's the twist. In 2008, NASA's
00:12:15 --> 00:12:17 Phoenix Lander discovered perchlorates
00:12:17 --> 00:12:19 in the Martian soil. Perchlorates are
00:12:20 --> 00:12:22 powerful oxidizing chemicals. And it
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 turns out they break down organic
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 molecules when heated, which is exactly
00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 what the Viking GCMS did to its soil
00:12:29 --> 00:12:33 samples. Though in 2010, astrobiologist
00:12:33 --> 00:12:36 Raphael Navaro Gonzalez showed that if
00:12:36 --> 00:12:38 you take organic material and heat it in
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 the presence of perchlorate, you get
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 methyl chloride and carbon dioxide,
00:12:43 --> 00:12:45 which is precisely the chemical
00:12:45 --> 00:12:47 signature that Viking detected and
00:12:47 --> 00:12:50 dismissed as either contamination or an
00:12:50 --> 00:12:52 unknown chemical process.
00:12:52 --> 00:12:54 >> Lead author Dr. Benner puts it very
00:12:54 --> 00:12:58 directly. The GCMS didn't fail to
00:12:58 --> 00:13:01 discover organics. It did discover them
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 through their degradation products. We
00:13:03 --> 00:13:05 just didn't understand what we were
00:13:05 --> 00:13:06 looking at.
00:13:06 --> 00:13:08 >> The team has even developed a model for
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10 what Martian microbes might look like.
00:13:10 --> 00:13:13 They call it Barum. That's bacterial
00:13:13 --> 00:13:16 autoroes that respire with stored oxygen
00:13:16 --> 00:13:18 on Mars. The idea is that these
00:13:18 --> 00:13:20 organisms could photosynthesize during
00:13:20 --> 00:13:23 the Martian day, produce and store
00:13:23 --> 00:13:25 oxygen, then use it to survive the
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 freezing Martian nights. I should
00:13:27 --> 00:13:30 emphasize this doesn't prove there's
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32 life on Mars, but it does reopen a door
00:13:32 --> 00:13:35 that was closed 50 years ago and makes a
00:13:35 --> 00:13:37 compelling case that the evidence was
00:13:37 --> 00:13:40 there all along hiding in plain sight.
00:13:40 --> 00:13:43 >> And it raises a fascinating question. If
00:13:43 --> 00:13:45 we go back to Mars with modern
00:13:45 --> 00:13:47 instruments designed with perchlorates
00:13:47 --> 00:13:49 in mind, what else might we find?
00:13:49 --> 00:13:52 >> Our final story today is a bit of a
00:13:52 --> 00:13:56 cosmic cold case. Remember comet C209 Y4
00:13:56 --> 00:13:57 Atlas?
00:13:57 --> 00:13:59 >> Oh, the pandemic comet. It was
00:14:00 --> 00:14:02 discovered in December 2019. And as it
00:14:02 --> 00:14:04 flew toward the inner solar system in
00:14:04 --> 00:14:07 early 2020, it brightened so rapidly
00:14:07 --> 00:14:09 that astronomers predicted it could
00:14:09 --> 00:14:11 become visible to the naked eye, a real
00:14:11 --> 00:14:13 lockdown spectacle.
00:14:13 --> 00:14:16 >> And then, like so many plans in 2020, it
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 fell apart, literally. In late April
00:14:20 --> 00:14:22 2020, the comet dramatically
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 disintegrated into dozens of pieces.
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26 Hubble tracked about 30 fragments
00:14:26 --> 00:14:29 grouped into a few clusters of icy
00:14:29 --> 00:14:31 debris. But here's the thing. A new
00:14:32 --> 00:14:34 study in the Astronomical Journal by a
00:14:34 --> 00:14:37 team led by Salvatore Cordova Kihano at
00:14:37 --> 00:14:39 Boston University has been asking if
00:14:39 --> 00:14:41 anything is still out there. Did the
00:14:41 --> 00:14:44 comet completely destroy itself or could
00:14:44 --> 00:14:47 a chunk have survived? The team scanned
00:14:47 --> 00:14:50 the skies in August and October of 2020
00:14:50 --> 00:14:52 using the Lowel Discovery Telescope in
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 Arizona and the Zwicki Transient
00:14:54 --> 00:14:56 Facility, which surveys the entire
00:14:56 --> 00:14:59 northern sky every two nights. They
00:14:59 --> 00:15:02 found nothing. But, and this is the
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 intriguing part, that doesn't
00:15:04 --> 00:15:06 necessarily mean there's nothing left.
00:15:06 --> 00:15:08 Their analysis suggests that a fragment
00:15:08 --> 00:15:11 up to about half a kilometer wide could
00:15:11 --> 00:15:13 still exist, but would be too small and
00:15:13 --> 00:15:15 too faint for those telescopes to
00:15:15 --> 00:15:18 detect. It could be out there right now,
00:15:18 --> 00:15:20 quietly tracing the comet's original
00:15:20 --> 00:15:22 orbit back toward the outer solar
00:15:22 --> 00:15:23 system.
00:15:23 --> 00:15:25 >> The researchers pose a really
00:15:25 --> 00:15:27 thoughtprovoking question. How many
00:15:27 --> 00:15:29 comets that we've assumed were
00:15:29 --> 00:15:31 completely destroyed might actually have
00:15:31 --> 00:15:34 surviving remnants still orbiting the
00:15:34 --> 00:15:36 sun? And there's a wonderful historical
00:15:36 --> 00:15:38 footnote here. Comet Atlas is believed
00:15:38 --> 00:15:41 to be a fragment of the same parent body
00:15:41 --> 00:15:44 as the great comet of 1844, which itself
00:15:44 --> 00:15:46 may have been visible to stone age
00:15:46 --> 00:15:49 civilizations about 5 years ago when
00:15:49 --> 00:15:51 it swept past the sun.
00:15:51 --> 00:15:53 >> So somewhere out there, a tiny piece of
00:15:53 --> 00:15:57 a 5-year-old cosmic traveler might
00:15:57 --> 00:15:58 still be making its lonely journey
00:15:58 --> 00:16:01 through the darkness. I find that oddly
00:16:01 --> 00:16:02 beautiful.
00:16:02 --> 00:16:05 >> Me, too. And the study serves as a heads
00:16:05 --> 00:16:07 up to astronomers. Next time a comet
00:16:07 --> 00:16:09 breaks apart, be ready to keep watching
00:16:09 --> 00:16:12 because the story might not be over.
00:16:12 --> 00:16:14 >> And that is your Astronomy Daily for
00:16:14 --> 00:16:18 Thursday, February 12th, 2026. What a
00:16:18 --> 00:16:21 lineup. From China's moon ambitions to
00:16:21 --> 00:16:23 Vikings longlost life clues. If you
00:16:23 --> 00:16:25 enjoyed the show, please do leave us a
00:16:25 --> 00:16:27 review on your podcast platform of
00:16:27 --> 00:16:29 choice. It really does help new
00:16:29 --> 00:16:31 listeners find us. And you can find full
00:16:31 --> 00:16:33 show notes, links to all our sources,
00:16:34 --> 00:16:37 and more at astronomyaily.io.
00:16:37 --> 00:16:39 >> For Avery and the whole Astronomy Daily
00:16:39 --> 00:16:41 team, I'm Anna. Keep looking up, and
00:16:41 --> 00:16:54 we'll see you tomorrow.
00:16:54 --> 00:16:57 Stories told.