In this episode, we traverse the cosmos, unveiling the latest developments in space exploration and astronomical discoveries. We kick off with exciting news from Denmark, as the European Space Agency has greenlit its first lunar mission, named Mani, aimed at high-resolution mapping of the Moon's surface. This marks a significant milestone for Denmark, showcasing its commitment to lunar exploration alongside ESA's push for cost-effective missions.Next, we celebrate SpaceX's impressive start to 2026, with the successful launch of the Cosmoskymet satellite, enhancing Earth observation capabilities for various applications. As we shift our focus to exoplanets, we unravel the mystery of Fomalhaut B, which has been revealed as an expanding cloud of debris rather than a planet, highlighting the dynamic nature of protoplanetary systems.Our journey continues with insights from the James Webb Space Telescope, revealing the tumultuous history of the Milky Way through the study of distant galaxies. This research reshapes our understanding of galactic evolution, showcasing a violent youth filled with mergers and intense star formation.As we look to the night sky, we provide tips for stargazing, with Jupiter shining brightly during its opposition on January 10th. This is the perfect opportunity for enthusiasts to spot the gas giant and its moons, as well as enjoy the Quadrantids meteor shower.Finally, we share good news for the International Space Station crew, as a persistent leak in the Russian segment has been successfully sealed after years of effort. This development ensures continued stability for ongoing operations aboard the ISS.Join us as we explore these captivating stories and more in this episode of Astronomy Daily!00:00 – **Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your go-to spot for space and astronomy news
00:34 – **Danish team gets green light from esa for first lunar mission
01:56 – **SpaceX launches Italian Earth observing satellite Cosmoskymet on January 2
04:24 – **Canadian astronomers used JWST data to piece together Milky Way's turbulent past
07:02 – **After years of dealing with leak in Russian segment, it's stopped
08:00 – **This week's Astronomy Daily includes: New missions, launches and more### Sources & Further Reading1. European Space Agency (https://www.esa.int/) 2. SpaceX (https://www.spacex.com/) 3. NASA (https://www.nasa.gov/) 4. Hubble Space Telescope (https://www.hubblesite.org/) ### Follow & ContactX/Twitter: @AstroDailyPod
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00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your go-to
00:00:02 --> 00:00:04 spot for the latest in space and
00:00:04 --> 00:00:07 astronomy news. I'm Anna here with my
00:00:07 --> 00:00:09 co-host and good friend Avery. Hey
00:00:09 --> 00:00:11 Avery, happy January 3rd. Hope
00:00:11 --> 00:00:13 everyone's recovering from the new year
00:00:13 --> 00:00:14 festivities.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 >> Hey Anna, and hello to all our listeners
00:00:16 --> 00:00:19 out there in the cosmos. Absolutely.
00:00:19 --> 00:00:22 2026 is off to a flying start, literally
00:00:22 --> 00:00:24 with some launches and sky events
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 already. We've got six great stories
00:00:27 --> 00:00:29 today. From lunar missions to vanishing
00:00:29 --> 00:00:31 planets and some good news up on the
00:00:31 --> 00:00:34 ISS. Let's dive right in, shall we?
00:00:34 --> 00:00:36 >> Starting with something exciting for our
00:00:36 --> 00:00:39 European friends. Denmark just got the
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 green light from its very first mission
00:00:42 --> 00:00:46 to the moon. The mission's called Mani,
00:00:46 --> 00:00:48 named after the Norse personification of
00:00:48 --> 00:00:49 the moon.
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 >> Yeah, this is huge. It's the largest
00:00:52 --> 00:00:54 Danish satellite mission ever and the
00:00:54 --> 00:00:56 first time Denmark is leading an ESA
00:00:56 --> 00:00:58 mission. The spacecraft is being built
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 by Space Inventor, a company based in
00:01:01 --> 00:01:04 Alborg with a budget of about 130
00:01:04 --> 00:01:07 million Danish croners or around 17
00:01:07 --> 00:01:09 million euros. The goal is high
00:01:09 --> 00:01:11 resolution mapping of the lunar surface
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 to help identify the best spots for
00:01:13 --> 00:01:16 future crude landings and even habitats
00:01:16 --> 00:01:18 for long-term human presence. It's part
00:01:18 --> 00:01:21 of ISA's push for small cost effective
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 lunar missions capped at 50 million
00:01:24 --> 00:01:26 euros development cost and ready to
00:01:26 --> 00:01:29 launch within 4 and a half years. This
00:01:29 --> 00:01:31 one got selected after a competitive
00:01:31 --> 00:01:34 process that started back in 2023.
00:01:34 --> 00:01:38 Launch is eyed for 2029 led by the
00:01:38 --> 00:01:40 University of Copenhagen. Yen's
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 frightenbang the mission leader said
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 it's about to get exciting now that the
00:01:45 --> 00:01:48 journey truly begins. Totally. It's
00:01:48 --> 00:01:49 awesome to see more countries getting
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 involved in lunar exploration. This kind
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 of scouting data will be invaluable for
00:01:54 --> 00:01:56 Artemis and beyond.
00:01:56 --> 00:01:59 >> Speaking of launches, SpaceX kicked off
00:01:59 --> 00:02:02 2026 with a bang. Literally their first
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 mission of the year on January 2nd. They
00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 launched an Italian Earth observing
00:02:07 --> 00:02:10 satellite called Cosmos Skyat, second
00:02:10 --> 00:02:13 generation from Vandenberg Space Force
00:02:13 --> 00:02:16 Base in California. Launch was at 9:09
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 p.m. Eastern time on a Falcon 9,
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 deploying the satellite into low Earth
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 orbit just 4.5 minutes later. This bird
00:02:24 --> 00:02:27 uses synthetic aperture radar to image
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 Earth day or night in any weather from
00:02:29 --> 00:02:33 about 385 miles up. It's for everything
00:02:33 --> 00:02:35 from emergency prevention and risk
00:02:35 --> 00:02:37 management to defense, maritime
00:02:37 --> 00:02:40 surveillance, agriculture, you name it.
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 It's operated by the Italian Space
00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 Agency and Ministry of Defense, and this
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47 is now the third in the second
00:02:47 --> 00:02:49 generation constellation. The mission
00:02:49 --> 00:02:52 went smoothly with the booster landing
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 as expected, coming off SpaceX's record
00:02:55 --> 00:02:59 165 launches in 2025. It's a strong
00:02:59 --> 00:03:00 start to the year.
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 >> Always impressive how reliable these
00:03:02 --> 00:03:05 Falcon 9 have become. Earth observation
00:03:05 --> 00:03:07 tech like this is crucial for monitoring
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 our planet in real time. Shifting to
00:03:10 --> 00:03:12 exoplanets now. A bit of a mystery
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 solved. Remember FOMO Halt B? This
00:03:15 --> 00:03:18 candidate planet around the star FOMO
00:03:18 --> 00:03:21 Halt about 25 light years away that was
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 spotted by Hubble back in 2008.
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 >> Yeah, it was hailed as one of the first
00:03:25 --> 00:03:28 directly imaged exoplanets. But new
00:03:28 --> 00:03:31 Hubble images from 2023 show its light
00:03:31 --> 00:03:34 fading and then completely disappearing.
00:03:34 --> 00:03:36 Turns out it wasn't a planet at all. It
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 was an expanding cloud of debris from a
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 massive collision between two
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 asteroidsized bodies.
00:03:42 --> 00:03:44 >> Exactly. These collisions are rare.
00:03:44 --> 00:03:47 Maybe once every 100 years or more,
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 and the dust cloud was glowing and
00:03:49 --> 00:03:52 reflecting light, mimicking a planet.
00:03:52 --> 00:03:54 There's even a second bright object now
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 called CS2 from the same event. Four
00:03:58 --> 00:04:00 independent analyses confirmed this.
00:04:00 --> 00:04:02 It's a reminder of how dynamic
00:04:02 --> 00:04:05 protolanetary systems can be. And a
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 cautionary tale for exoplanet hunters.
00:04:07 --> 00:04:10 Debris clouds can fake planet signals in
00:04:10 --> 00:04:14 reflected light. JWST's NIR Cam will
00:04:14 --> 00:04:16 take a closer look at CS2 for
00:04:16 --> 00:04:19 composition, temperature, maybe even
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 signs of ice or water. This reshapes how
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 we think about planetary formation
00:04:23 --> 00:04:24 around young stars.
00:04:24 --> 00:04:27 >> Next up, some deep insights into our own
00:04:27 --> 00:04:30 galaxy's history thanks to the James
00:04:30 --> 00:04:32 Webb Space Telescope. A team of Canadian
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 astronomers led by Dr. Vivian Tan from
00:04:35 --> 00:04:39 York University used JWST data to piece
00:04:40 --> 00:04:43 together the Milky Way's turbulent past.
00:04:43 --> 00:04:46 They studied 877 distant galaxies that
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 are twins to what the Milky Way would
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 have looked like billions of years ago
00:04:50 --> 00:04:53 when the universe was between 1.5 and 10
00:04:53 --> 00:04:57 billion years old. Combining JWST's near
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 infrared views with Hubble's visible
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 light, they map stars and star formation
00:05:01 --> 00:05:04 rates across these evolutionary stages.
00:05:04 --> 00:05:07 The early progenitors were chaotic, full
00:05:07 --> 00:05:10 of mergers, asymmetric shapes, and
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 intense starbursts triggered by
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 collisions. Then around 3 to 4 billion
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 years after the Big Bang, they started
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 growing inside out. dense cores first,
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 then building extended discs and spirals
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 through more mergers and accretion.
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 >> It's wild. Our galaxy had a much more
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 violent youth than some models
00:05:31 --> 00:05:33 predicted. Simulations match some of
00:05:33 --> 00:05:35 this, but struggle with the rapid outer
00:05:35 --> 00:05:38 growth or super central early phases.
00:05:38 --> 00:05:39 This is tightening up theories on
00:05:39 --> 00:05:42 feedback processes, merger rates, and
00:05:42 --> 00:05:45 how discs stabilize. Future JWST work
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 with gravitational lensing could push
00:05:48 --> 00:05:50 this back even further to when the Milky
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 Way was just 3% of its current age. Love
00:05:53 --> 00:05:55 how we're using the universe as a time
00:05:55 --> 00:05:57 machine like this.
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 >> Absolutely mindblowing. And for
00:05:59 --> 00:06:01 something you can see right now, no
00:06:01 --> 00:06:03 telescope needed, though binoculars
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 help. Jupiter is putting on its
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 brightest show of the year this January.
00:06:07 --> 00:06:10 Opposition hits on the night of January
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 10th when Earth is right between the sun
00:06:12 --> 00:06:15 and Jupiter, making it shine big and
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 bright all night long. It's up from dusk
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 to dawn throughout the month, glowing
00:06:20 --> 00:06:23 steadily, easy to spot even in cities.
00:06:23 --> 00:06:25 >> On January 4th, it's in conjunction with
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 the full moon, super close in the sky.
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 Look high up near Gemini, surrounded by
00:06:30 --> 00:06:33 winter favorites like Orion, Taurus with
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35 the Pleaides, and Aldabaron. Binoculars
00:06:36 --> 00:06:38 will show the four big moons, Io,
00:06:38 --> 00:06:40 Europa, Ganymede, and Kalisto.
00:06:40 --> 00:06:43 >> The Quadrantids meteor shower is peaking
00:06:43 --> 00:06:46 around now, too. Up to 10 or even more
00:06:46 --> 00:06:48 streaks per hour, though the full moon
00:06:48 --> 00:06:51 might wash some out. Still, watch for
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 bright fireballs. Perfect month for
00:06:53 --> 00:06:55 getting outside and stargazing.
00:06:56 --> 00:06:58 >> Definitely grab a blanket, look up, and
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 enjoy the show. Jupiter is at its best.
00:07:01 --> 00:07:04 No excuses. Finally, some relief for the
00:07:04 --> 00:07:06 International Space Station crew. After
00:07:06 --> 00:07:08 years of dealing with a persistent leak
00:07:08 --> 00:07:11 in the Russian segment, it's finally
00:07:11 --> 00:07:13 stopped. The leak was in the PRK
00:07:13 --> 00:07:16 transfer compartment attached to the Zda
00:07:16 --> 00:07:18 module. Microscopic cracks that started
00:07:18 --> 00:07:21 showing up in 2019 and worsens over
00:07:21 --> 00:07:24 time, even doubling at rate in 2024.
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 Russian cosminauts have been
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 methodically sealing cracks with a
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 special sealant called Germetal 1,
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 closing hatches to isolate and monitor
00:07:33 --> 00:07:36 pressure. After repeated inspections and
00:07:36 --> 00:07:38 applications over half a decade, the
00:07:38 --> 00:07:41 pressure is now holding steady.
00:07:41 --> 00:07:43 >> NASA confirmed it, calling it a stable
00:07:43 --> 00:07:45 configuration, though they'll keep
00:07:45 --> 00:07:47 watching for any changes. It was a
00:07:47 --> 00:07:49 high-risk issue for both agencies, so
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 this is genuinely good news for ongoing
00:07:51 --> 00:07:53 ISS operations.
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 Yeah, maintaining a spacecraft in orbit
00:07:56 --> 00:07:58 for decades isn't easy. Glad they've
00:07:58 --> 00:08:00 plugged it, literally.
00:08:00 --> 00:08:03 >> What a roundup today. New missions,
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 launches, cosmic mysteries, galactic
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07 history, skywatching tips, and station
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 fixes. The universe keeps delivering.
00:08:10 --> 00:08:12 >> It really does. Thanks so much for
00:08:12 --> 00:08:15 joining us on Astronomy Daily. If you're
00:08:15 --> 00:08:17 enjoying the show, tell a friend or
00:08:17 --> 00:08:19 leave us a review. It helps us reach
00:08:19 --> 00:08:21 more space fans. We'll be back Monday
00:08:22 --> 00:08:25 with more fresh news. Until then, clear
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 skies and keep wondering
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 >> and keep looking up. Bye for now.
00:08:29 --> 00:08:32 Astronomy day.
00:08:32 --> 00:08:40 Stories told
00:08:40 --> 00:08:48 stories told.
00:08:48 --> 00:08:51 Story for