00:00:00 --> 00:00:04 Four astronauts, one rocket, four days
00:00:04 --> 00:00:07 until launch. History is about to be
00:00:07 --> 00:00:08 made.
00:00:08 --> 00:00:09 >> And if you think that's the only
00:00:09 --> 00:00:12 jaw-dropping story in space today, wait
00:00:12 --> 00:00:13 until you hear about a comet that
00:00:13 --> 00:00:15 literally stopped spinning and started
00:00:15 --> 00:00:17 going the other way.
00:00:17 --> 00:00:18 >> I'm Anna.
00:00:18 --> 00:00:19 >> I'm Avery.
00:00:19 --> 00:00:22 >> And this is Astronomy Daily, your daily
00:00:22 --> 00:00:24 guide to everything happening in space
00:00:24 --> 00:00:28 and beyond. Welcome to season 5, episode
00:00:28 --> 00:00:30 75. Let's get started then.
00:00:30 --> 00:00:33 >> All right, let's start with what is
00:00:33 --> 00:00:36 without a doubt the biggest human space
00:00:36 --> 00:00:39 flight story in more than 50 years. The
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 crew of NASA's Aremis 2 mission has
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 arrived at Kennedy Space Center in
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 Florida. And the countdown is well and
00:00:47 --> 00:00:48 truly on.
00:00:48 --> 00:00:50 >> That's right. Yesterday, Friday the
00:00:50 --> 00:00:53 27th, NASA astronauts Reed Weissman,
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 Victor Glover, and Christina Coach along
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 with Canadian Space Agency astronaut
00:00:57 --> 00:01:00 Jeremy Hansen touchdown at Kennedy's
00:01:00 --> 00:01:02 shuttle landing facility in their T38
00:01:02 --> 00:01:04 jets arriving from Johnson Space Center
00:01:04 --> 00:01:07 in Houston. They were greeted by NASA
00:01:07 --> 00:01:09 administrator Jared Isaacman and a crowd
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 of reporters that was by all accounts
00:01:12 --> 00:01:14 the largest anyone had seen for an
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 astronaut arrival in a very long time.
00:01:17 --> 00:01:20 And the energy was electric. Avery
00:01:20 --> 00:01:22 Commander Reed Wisman stepped out onto
00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 the runway, pumped his fists, and said,
00:01:25 --> 00:01:28 and I'm quoting here, "Hey, let's go to
00:01:28 --> 00:01:31 the moon." That says it all, really.
00:01:31 --> 00:01:33 >> It really does. So, the plan launch is
00:01:34 --> 00:01:36 scheduled for no earlier than 6:24 in
00:01:36 --> 00:01:38 the evening, Eastern time on Wednesday,
00:01:38 --> 00:01:41 April the 1st. I know, April Fool's Day,
00:01:41 --> 00:01:43 but this is no joke. The window stays
00:01:43 --> 00:01:46 open until April 6th, giving the team a
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 6-day buffer, but mission managers are
00:01:48 --> 00:01:51 pushing hard for that first opportunity.
00:01:51 --> 00:01:54 >> And the mission itself, Artemis 2, will
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 send all four crew members on a 10day
00:01:57 --> 00:01:59 journey around the moon and back to
00:01:59 --> 00:02:02 Earth aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft.
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 Launched on top of the space launch
00:02:04 --> 00:02:07 system, the most powerful operational
00:02:07 --> 00:02:10 rocket in the world. They won't land on
00:02:10 --> 00:02:12 the moon. That's Artemis 3's job, but
00:02:12 --> 00:02:15 they will fly farther from Earth than
00:02:15 --> 00:02:18 any human has ever been. The Apollo 13
00:02:18 --> 00:02:22 record set back in 1970 will be broken.
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 >> The crew are now in quarantine at
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 Kennedy, spending their final days
00:02:26 --> 00:02:28 reviewing mission procedures, completing
00:02:28 --> 00:02:30 medical checkups, and spending precious
00:02:30 --> 00:02:33 time with family. The countdown clock is
00:02:33 --> 00:02:36 set to begin ticking at 4:44 p.m. on
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 Monday, and from that point, it's all
00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 systems go. For anyone who watched the
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 Apollo missions as a child or who has
00:02:42 --> 00:02:44 simply dreamed of humanity returning to
00:02:44 --> 00:02:46 the moon, this is the week we've been
00:02:46 --> 00:02:47 waiting for.
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 >> We will absolutely be following this one
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 closely over the coming days on
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 Astronomy Daily. And for our listeners
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 down under in Australia and across New
00:02:56 --> 00:02:59 Zealand, April 2nd is your morning to
00:02:59 --> 00:03:01 set those alarms.
00:03:01 --> 00:03:03 >> Now, from the moon to a tiny snowball
00:03:03 --> 00:03:05 tumbling through our inner solar system,
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09 and when I say tiny, I mean it. Comet
00:03:09 --> 00:03:12 41P, formerly known as Tuttle Jeecobini
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 Krisak, measures just one kilometer
00:03:14 --> 00:03:16 across, about three times the height of
00:03:16 --> 00:03:17 the Eiffel Tower.
00:03:18 --> 00:03:21 >> And yet, this little cosmic wanderer has
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 just done something that scientists have
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 never in all of recorded astronomical
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 history observed before. It reversed its
00:03:29 --> 00:03:30 spin.
00:03:30 --> 00:03:32 >> That's right. A new study published this
00:03:32 --> 00:03:34 week in the Astronomical Journal based
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37 on observations from NASA's Hubble Space
00:03:37 --> 00:03:40 Telescope reveals that comet 41P first
00:03:40 --> 00:03:43 dramatically slowed its spin, nearly
00:03:43 --> 00:03:45 came to a complete stop, and then
00:03:45 --> 00:03:47 started going the other way. Researchers
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 describe it as a kind of merrygoround
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 effect. The comet's own outgassing jets,
00:03:53 --> 00:03:55 streams of gas blasted off its surface
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 as it heats up near the sun, were
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 pushing against its spin so hard that
00:03:59 --> 00:04:00 they eventually flipped it.
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 >> To give you a timeline, back in March
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 2017, the comet was spinning at a
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 regular pace. By May 2017, Swift
00:04:09 --> 00:04:12 observatory data showed it had slowed to
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 three times that rate. And then when
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 Hubble took a look in December 2017, the
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 comet was spinning fast again. but in
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 the opposite direction. The whole
00:04:22 --> 00:04:25 reversal had happened within months.
00:04:25 --> 00:04:27 >> Now, here's the twist, and it's a
00:04:27 --> 00:04:30 sobering one. Study author David Jwitt
00:04:30 --> 00:04:32 of UCLA says that because the comet is
00:04:32 --> 00:04:34 now spinning so rapidly in its new
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 direction, centrifugal forces could
00:04:37 --> 00:04:39 overcome the comet's own weak gravity.
00:04:39 --> 00:04:42 And his conclusion, quote, I expect this
00:04:42 --> 00:04:45 nucleus will very quickly self-destruct.
00:04:45 --> 00:04:47 We may be witnessing the final chapter
00:04:47 --> 00:04:50 of comet 41P's long life,
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 >> which makes these observations all the
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 more remarkable. The comet is thought to
00:04:54 --> 00:04:56 have been in its current orbit for
00:04:56 --> 00:04:59 around 1 years. And in one close
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 pass of the sun, we got to watch it
00:05:01 --> 00:05:03 undergo a transformation that would
00:05:03 --> 00:05:06 normally take centuries in just a matter
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 of months. Hubble really never stops
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 delivering the goods. Story 3 takes us
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 to one of the deepest mysteries in
00:05:13 --> 00:05:16 modern cosmology and potentially one of
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 the most significant detections in the
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 history of gravitational wave astronomy.
00:05:20 --> 00:05:23 >> Back in November last year, LIGO, the
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 laser interferometer gravitational wave
00:05:26 --> 00:05:28 observatory, picked up a signal that
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 stopped researchers cold. The
00:05:30 --> 00:05:32 gravitational wave appeared to come from
00:05:32 --> 00:05:35 a merger event involving at least one
00:05:35 --> 00:05:37 object that weighed less than a single
00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 solar mass. And here's why that matters.
00:05:40 --> 00:05:43 Through all known processes of stellar
00:05:43 --> 00:05:45 evolution, that simply shouldn't be
00:05:45 --> 00:05:48 possible. Regular black holes form from
00:05:48 --> 00:05:50 dying stars. And the minimum mass for
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 that is a few times our sun. So what was
00:05:53 --> 00:05:54 it?
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 >> Well, this week, astrophysicists Nikico
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 Capaluti and Alberto Magara from the
00:05:59 --> 00:06:01 University of Miami published the
00:06:01 --> 00:06:03 compelling answer in the Astrophysical
00:06:03 --> 00:06:06 Journal. Their conclusion, it may be a
00:06:06 --> 00:06:09 primordial black hole, an object formed
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 not from a collapsing star, but from the
00:06:11 --> 00:06:13 unimaginable density of the universe
00:06:13 --> 00:06:16 itself in the first fraction of a second
00:06:16 --> 00:06:18 after the big bang.
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 >> Primordial black holes are one of the
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 most tantalizing concepts in theoretical
00:06:22 --> 00:06:24 physics. They could range from
00:06:24 --> 00:06:27 microscopic to enormous. And crucially,
00:06:27 --> 00:06:29 they are one of the most compelling
00:06:29 --> 00:06:31 candidates for dark matter, the
00:06:31 --> 00:06:33 invisible substance that makes up
00:06:33 --> 00:06:36 roughly 85% of all matter in the
00:06:36 --> 00:06:38 universe. We can see dark matter's
00:06:38 --> 00:06:40 gravitational effects everywhere we
00:06:40 --> 00:06:43 look, but we have never directly
00:06:43 --> 00:06:45 detected it. A confirmed primordial
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 black hole detection would transform our
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 understanding of the cosmos overnight.
00:06:50 --> 00:06:52 The Miami team modeled how many
00:06:52 --> 00:06:55 primordial black holes should exist, how
00:06:55 --> 00:06:56 often they should merge, and how
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 frequently LIGO should detect them. And
00:06:59 --> 00:07:01 remarkably, the numbers lined up. One
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 rare detection event exactly as her
00:07:03 --> 00:07:06 theory predicts. It's not confirmation.
00:07:06 --> 00:07:08 One signal is suggestive, not
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 conclusive. But it is a genuinely
00:07:10 --> 00:07:13 thrilling lead to follow. As Capelluti
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 himself put it, the most plausible
00:07:15 --> 00:07:17 explanation for the LIGO signal, which
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 lacks any conventional astrophysical
00:07:19 --> 00:07:22 explanation, is the detection of a
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 primordial black hole. Next generation
00:07:24 --> 00:07:27 detectors, including the space-based
00:07:27 --> 00:07:29 LISA mission planned for the 2030s and
00:07:29 --> 00:07:32 the groundbased cosmic explorer, 10
00:07:32 --> 00:07:34 times more sensitive than LIGO, will
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 hopefully shed more light on this. For
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 now, we may have just received our first
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 signal from the dawn of time itself.
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 Here's a story that bridges ancient
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 human history and cuttingedge astronomy.
00:07:46 --> 00:07:50 In the year 185 AD, Chinese astronomers
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 recorded a strange new star appearing in
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 the sky, one that would remain visible
00:07:54 --> 00:07:57 for up to 8 months. They called it a
00:07:57 --> 00:07:59 guest star. What they had actually
00:07:59 --> 00:08:01 witnessed was one of the earliest
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 supernova explosions ever recorded by
00:08:03 --> 00:08:07 humanity. Fast forward 1 years, and
00:08:07 --> 00:08:09 that same ancient explosion, now known
00:08:09 --> 00:08:13 as supernova remnant RCW86,
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 or SN185,
00:08:15 --> 00:08:17 has just been given its most detailed
00:08:17 --> 00:08:21 examination yet. NASA's EXPE mission,
00:08:21 --> 00:08:24 the imaging X-ray polarimetry explorer,
00:08:24 --> 00:08:26 has delivered a breathtaking new image
00:08:26 --> 00:08:29 of the remnants outer edge, combining
00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 its unique X-ray polarimetry data with
00:08:31 --> 00:08:33 observations from NASA's Chandra
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 Observatory and the European Space Ay's
00:08:36 --> 00:08:39 XMM Newton telescope.
00:08:39 --> 00:08:42 >> So, what did they find? E targeted the
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 outer rim of the remnant, highlighted in
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46 a vivid purple ring in the new image,
00:08:46 --> 00:08:49 and discovered something fascinating.
00:08:49 --> 00:08:51 The expanding shell of superheated gas,
00:08:51 --> 00:08:53 which had been blasting outward at
00:08:53 --> 00:08:56 tremendous speed for 2 years,
00:08:56 --> 00:08:58 appears to have stopped at the edge of a
00:08:58 --> 00:09:00 large, low density cavity that
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 surrounded the original star. In other
00:09:02 --> 00:09:05 words, the explosion ran into a wall.
00:09:05 --> 00:09:07 And the new data helps explain why the
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 remnant expanded so much faster than
00:09:10 --> 00:09:13 astronomers initially expected.
00:09:13 --> 00:09:15 >> Achieves this by studying the
00:09:15 --> 00:09:17 polarization of X-rays. Essentially, how
00:09:17 --> 00:09:19 those high energy light waves are
00:09:19 --> 00:09:21 oriented as they travel through space.
00:09:21 --> 00:09:24 It's a technique that opens a completely
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26 new window on the behavior of exploding
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 stars, black holes, and pulsars. The
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 resulting composite image with yellow
00:09:31 --> 00:09:34 for low energy X-rays, blue for high
00:09:34 --> 00:09:37 energy, and the purple data overlaid is
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 genuinely one of the most beautiful
00:09:39 --> 00:09:41 things you'll see in space science this
00:09:41 --> 00:09:43 week. We'll have a link in the show
00:09:43 --> 00:09:44 notes.
00:09:44 --> 00:09:45 >> There's something deeply moving about
00:09:46 --> 00:09:48 this story. A star that humans watched
00:09:48 --> 00:09:50 die with the naked eye two millennia
00:09:50 --> 00:09:53 ago, recorded by diligent observers in
00:09:53 --> 00:09:56 ancient China, is still revealing its
00:09:56 --> 00:09:59 secrets today. Science is a very long
00:09:59 --> 00:10:00 conversation.
00:10:00 --> 00:10:03 >> Story 5 brings us a story that's both
00:10:03 --> 00:10:05 deeply human and profoundly relevant to
00:10:05 --> 00:10:08 the future of space exploration and it
00:10:08 --> 00:10:10 connects directly to our lead story
00:10:10 --> 00:10:12 today about Artemis 2.
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 >> Earlier this year, you may recall NASA
00:10:14 --> 00:10:15 made headlines when it announced that
00:10:16 --> 00:10:17 the Crew 11 mission aboard the
00:10:17 --> 00:10:19 International Space Station was being
00:10:19 --> 00:10:22 cut short due to a medical concern. The
00:10:22 --> 00:10:24 agency initially declined to name the
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26 astronaut involved, but in late
00:10:26 --> 00:10:29 February, veteran astronaut Mike Think,
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 a four-time space flyer and retired US
00:10:32 --> 00:10:34 Air Force Colonel, came forward at his
00:10:34 --> 00:10:37 own request to confirm that he was the
00:10:37 --> 00:10:38 person affected.
00:10:38 --> 00:10:40 >> And this week, for the first time, Fank
00:10:40 --> 00:10:42 spoke in detail about what actually
00:10:42 --> 00:10:44 happened in an exclusive interview with
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 the Associated Press conducted from
00:10:46 --> 00:10:48 Houston's Johnson Space Center. The
00:10:48 --> 00:10:51 account is extraordinary. Think says he
00:10:51 --> 00:10:54 was eating dinner on January 7th, the
00:10:54 --> 00:10:56 evening before a planned spacew walk,
00:10:56 --> 00:10:59 when it suddenly hit. He lost the
00:10:59 --> 00:11:02 ability to speak. He felt no pain. The
00:11:02 --> 00:11:04 episode lasted around 20 minutes. His
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 crew mates, seeing him in distress,
00:11:06 --> 00:11:09 immediately contacted flight surgeons on
00:11:09 --> 00:11:11 the ground. It was completely out of the
00:11:11 --> 00:11:13 blue, he told the AP. It was just
00:11:13 --> 00:11:17 amazingly quick. NASA used the station's
00:11:17 --> 00:11:18 ultrasound machine during the event,
00:11:18 --> 00:11:21 which Frink credits as genuinely useful,
00:11:21 --> 00:11:24 and his condition quickly stabilized.
00:11:24 --> 00:11:26 But NASA's medical team determined that
00:11:26 --> 00:11:28 the safest course of action was an early
00:11:28 --> 00:11:30 return to Earth so that Fank could
00:11:30 --> 00:11:32 access advanced medical imaging not
00:11:32 --> 00:11:35 available on the ISS. NASA canled the
00:11:35 --> 00:11:37 following day spacew walk. And on
00:11:37 --> 00:11:40 January 15th, Fank and his three crew
00:11:40 --> 00:11:43 mates, Zen Cardman, Kima Yui, and Oleg
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45 Platinov, splashed down in the Pacific
00:11:45 --> 00:11:48 Ocean about a month ahead of schedule.
00:11:48 --> 00:11:50 Here's the part that is both remarkable
00:11:50 --> 00:11:53 and sobering. As of this week, doctors
00:11:53 --> 00:11:55 still do not know what caused it. A
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 heart attack has been ruled out, but the
00:11:57 --> 00:12:00 precise nature of the event, whether
00:12:00 --> 00:12:02 neurological, cardiovascular, or
00:12:02 --> 00:12:04 something else entirely, remains
00:12:04 --> 00:12:07 undiagnosed. NASA is now reviewing
00:12:07 --> 00:12:09 astronaut medical records to determine
00:12:09 --> 00:12:11 whether anything similar has occurred in
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 space before, potentially without being
00:12:14 --> 00:12:16 recognized. And here's why this matters
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 so much right now with Artemis 2 5 days
00:12:19 --> 00:12:21 from launch on the ISS. If something
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 goes wrong medically, astronauts could
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 be home within hours. On a 10-day lunar
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 mission, and certainly on any future
00:12:28 --> 00:12:31 mission to Mars, that option doesn't
00:12:31 --> 00:12:33 exist. The FINK incident has become a
00:12:34 --> 00:12:36 landmark moment for space medicine,
00:12:36 --> 00:12:37 prompting urgent conversations about
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 what medical capabilities need to exist
00:12:40 --> 00:12:42 on deep space vehicles. Think himself
00:12:42 --> 00:12:45 framed it with characteristic composure.
00:12:45 --> 00:12:48 Spaceflight is an incredible privilege
00:12:48 --> 00:12:50 and sometimes it reminds us just how
00:12:50 --> 00:12:51 human we are.
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54 >> And Mike Fank says he feels fine now and
00:12:54 --> 00:12:56 is continuing routine post-flight
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59 conditioning at Johnson Space Center. We
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 wish him a full and swift recovery. And
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 we salute the crew and the medical teams
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06 who got everyone home safely.
00:13:06 --> 00:13:09 >> And finally, eyes on the sun because our
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11 nearest star has been putting on a show
00:13:11 --> 00:13:12 this week.
00:13:12 --> 00:13:15 >> That's right. A new sunspot region
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17 designated AR4403
00:13:17 --> 00:13:20 rotated into view on the eastern solar
00:13:20 --> 00:13:23 limb on March 26th, and it wasted no
00:13:23 --> 00:13:26 time making its presence felt. Within
00:13:26 --> 00:13:29 hours of coming into view, AR4403
00:13:29 --> 00:13:33 unleashed the powerful M3.9 solar flare
00:13:33 --> 00:13:37 at 611 UTC, triggering an R1, that's a
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 minor, radio blackout over the Indian
00:13:39 --> 00:13:42 Ocean. Now, the good news, as of today,
00:13:42 --> 00:13:45 Saturday the 28th, the sun is relatively
00:13:45 --> 00:13:47 quiet. AR4403
00:13:47 --> 00:13:50 has calmed after its initial outburst,
00:13:50 --> 00:13:52 and space weather forecasters are
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 expecting mostly quiet conditions
00:13:54 --> 00:13:56 through today. But there's a catch, and
00:13:56 --> 00:13:58 it's worth noting for our listeners who
00:13:58 --> 00:14:00 love aurora watching.
00:14:00 --> 00:14:03 >> From Sunday the 29th, a co-rotating
00:14:03 --> 00:14:05 interaction region, a dense zone of
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 compressed solar wind along with a
00:14:07 --> 00:14:10 high-speed stream from a coronal hole
00:14:10 --> 00:14:12 are expected to arrive at Earth. And a
00:14:12 --> 00:14:15 faint coronal mass ejection from the
00:14:15 --> 00:14:17 recent activity could also graze our
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19 planet's magnetic field around that
00:14:19 --> 00:14:21 time. base weather forecasters are
00:14:21 --> 00:14:23 predicting unsettled geomagnetic
00:14:23 --> 00:14:26 conditions which could in favorable
00:14:26 --> 00:14:28 circumstances push auroras to slightly
00:14:28 --> 00:14:31 lower latitudes than usual. So for our
00:14:31 --> 00:14:33 listeners in southern Australia,
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 Tasmania and New Zealand, particularly
00:14:36 --> 00:14:38 those of you with dark skies away from
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 city lights, Sunday and Monday nights
00:14:40 --> 00:14:42 are worth watching. Check your local
00:14:42 --> 00:14:44 Aurora alert apps. Keep an eye to the
00:14:44 --> 00:14:46 south and fingers crossed for clear
00:14:46 --> 00:14:49 skies. And if you capture anything
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 spectacular, we'd love to see it. Tag us
00:14:51 --> 00:14:53 at Astro Daily Pod.
00:14:53 --> 00:14:55 >> We'll be keeping an eye on developments
00:14:55 --> 00:14:57 and may have an update in Monday's
00:14:57 --> 00:14:59 episode if conditions escalate. And that
00:14:59 --> 00:15:01 is a wrap on an absolutely packed
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 edition of Astronomy Daily. To recap
00:15:04 --> 00:15:07 what we covered today, the Aremis 2 crew
00:15:07 --> 00:15:09 has landed at Kennedy Space Center with
00:15:09 --> 00:15:12 April 1st launch in their sites. Hubble
00:15:12 --> 00:15:14 has documented the first ever spin
00:15:14 --> 00:15:17 reversal of a comet and that comet may
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19 be on borrowed time. LIGO may have
00:15:19 --> 00:15:21 detected a black hole born at the dawn
00:15:21 --> 00:15:25 of the universe itself. NASA's IXP
00:15:25 --> 00:15:27 telescope gave us the finest portrait
00:15:27 --> 00:15:30 yet of a supernova first seen by human
00:15:30 --> 00:15:34 eyes in 185 AD. Astronaut Mike Finke
00:15:34 --> 00:15:36 spoke for the first time about his still
00:15:36 --> 00:15:39 mysterious medical emergency in orbit.
00:15:39 --> 00:15:41 And the sun is stirring with possible
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43 aurora opportunities on the way for
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 southern hemisphere sky watchers.
00:15:45 --> 00:15:48 >> What an extraordinary time to be alive
00:15:48 --> 00:15:50 and looking up. If you're enjoying
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 Astronomy Daily, please subscribe, leave
00:15:52 --> 00:15:54 us a review, and share the show with
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00:16:06 --> 00:16:09 >> Clear skies, everyone.
00:16:09 --> 00:16:11 day.
00:16:11 --> 00:16:15 Stories we told.