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.