Today on Astronomy Daily: NASA's Artemis II moon rocket has arrived at Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, with a launch target of April 1st — the first crewed mission beyond Earth orbit in over 53 years. Plus: astronomers have discovered the first-ever mass-transferring brown dwarf binary; Hubble accidentally caught a comet disintegrating in real time; 15 new moons have been confirmed around Jupiter and Saturn; our Moon is accumulating over 100 metric tons of human-made debris; and a dramatic spacecraft double-header — ESA's Proba-3 has been recovered from a month-long blackout, while NASA's MAVEN Mars orbiter remains missing after more than three months of silence. Story 1: Artemis II Arrives at Launch Pad 39B NASA's Artemis II SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft completed an 11-hour overnight journey to Launch Pad 39B on March 20, 2026. Launch is targeted for no earlier than April 1. The crew — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen — will fly a 10-day free-return trajectory around the Moon, making this the first crewed deep-space mission since Apollo 17 in December 1972. Source: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/03/20/nasas-artemis-ii-rocket-arrives-at-launch-pad-39b/ Story 2: First Mass-Transferring Brown Dwarf Binary Researchers at Caltech have identified ZTF J1239+8347, a brown dwarf binary system with an orbital period of just 57.41 minutes in which one brown dwarf is actively pulling material from its companion — a first for this class of objects. The system, only ~1,000 light-years away, is a prime candidate for JWST follow-up observations. Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/this-pair-of-brown-dwarfs-cant-get-enough-of-each-other Story 3: Hubble Catches Comet C/2025 K1 Breaking Apart In a remarkable stroke of luck, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) fragmenting into at least four pieces over three consecutive days in November 2025. The comet was not the original target of the observation. The findings, published in Icarus, reveal the comet is unusually carbon-depleted and raise new questions about the delay between fragmentation and visible brightening. Source: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-unexpectedly-catches-comet-breaking-up/ Story 4: 15 New Moons Confirmed for Jupiter and Saturn The Minor Planet Center announced on March 16, 2026 that four new moons have been confirmed around Jupiter (bringing its total to 101) and 11 new moons around Saturn (bringing its total to 285). All are small irregular moons, discovered by combining archival telescope data with new observations. With the Vera C. Rubin Observatory now operational, further discoveries are expected. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/more-moons-for-jupiter-and-saturn-total-satellite-discoveries/ Story 5: Human Debris on the Moon — Over 100 Metric Tons and Counting More than 100 metric tons of human-made objects now litter the lunar surface — spacecraft hardware, scientific instruments, and even waste from Apollo missions. With a wave of crewed and commercial lunar missions approaching under Artemis and beyond, space policy researchers are urging the development of international agreements to protect scientifically sensitive lunar sites before they are damaged or contaminated by human activity. Source: https://www.universetoday.com — lunar debris policy Story 6: MAVEN Still Missing / Proba-3 Recovered NASA's MAVEN Mars orbiter, lost since December 6, 2025, remains uncontacted despite three months of recovery efforts using the Deep Space Network, Green Bank Observatory, and the Curiosity rover. An anomaly review board is assessing options. Meanwhile, ESA's Proba-3 coronagraph spacecraft — silent since February 14 after a power failure — has been successfully recovered after engineers exploited a brief window when the tumbling spacecraft's solar panels briefly faced the Sun. MAVEN source: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/nasa-wont-give-up-hope-on-silent-maven-mars-probe-were-still-looking-for-it Proba-3 source: https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/03/europe-restores-contact-lost-spacecraft/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss) .
Sponsor Details:
Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN . To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit You'll be glad you did!
Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click Here (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support)
This episode includes AI-generated content.
Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/32330037?utm_source=youtube
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Hey there stargazers, and welcome to
00:00:02 --> 00:00:04 Astronomy Daily, your daily dose of
00:00:04 --> 00:00:05 what's happening out there in the
00:00:05 --> 00:00:07 cosmos. I'm Anna.
00:00:07 --> 00:00:10 >> And I'm Avery. Today is Saturday, March
00:00:10 --> 00:00:14 21st, 2026. And honestly, Anna, we've
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 got another busy show today.
00:00:16 --> 00:00:18 >> We really do. A moon rocket has arrived
00:00:18 --> 00:00:21 at the launchpad for the first time in
00:00:21 --> 00:00:23 over 50 years, carrying astronauts.
00:00:23 --> 00:00:25 We've got a pair of weird dying stars
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 behaving in ways nobody's ever seen
00:00:28 --> 00:00:30 before and a comet that basically fell
00:00:30 --> 00:00:32 apart while Hubble happened to be
00:00:32 --> 00:00:33 watching accidentally.
00:00:34 --> 00:00:36 >> Plus, 15 brand new moons in our solar
00:00:36 --> 00:00:39 system, a growing garbage problem on our
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 own moon, and the genuinely dramatic
00:00:42 --> 00:00:45 spacecraft story. One lost, one found.
00:00:45 --> 00:00:47 >> It's a big one. Let's get into it.
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 >> We're going to start with NASA's Aremis
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 2. And this one feels different. After
00:00:52 --> 00:00:54 months of delays, repairs, and anxious
00:00:54 --> 00:00:57 waiting, the rocket is finally on the
00:00:57 --> 00:00:57 pad.
00:00:57 --> 00:01:01 >> At 11:21 a.m. Eastern time on Friday,
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 March 20th, NASA's Space Launch System
00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 rocket and Orion spacecraft arrived at
00:01:06 --> 00:01:09 launchpad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 Florida. After an 11-hour overnight
00:01:12 --> 00:01:13 journey from the vehicle assembly
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 building, hauled by the giant crawler
00:01:15 --> 00:01:18 transporter at less than one mile per
00:01:18 --> 00:01:18 hour,
00:01:18 --> 00:01:22 >> a 322 ft tall moon rocket creeping
00:01:22 --> 00:01:24 through the night at jogging pace. And
00:01:24 --> 00:01:26 honestly, that's exactly how it should
00:01:26 --> 00:01:27 be.
00:01:27 --> 00:01:29 >> It really is. And the current target
00:01:29 --> 00:01:31 launch date is no earlier than
00:01:31 --> 00:01:34 Wednesday, April 1st, which means we
00:01:34 --> 00:01:36 could be watching the first humans leave
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 Earth's orbit in over 50 years in less
00:01:39 --> 00:01:40 than 2 weeks.
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 >> So, who's on board? The Aremis 2 crew is
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 commander Reed Wisman, pilot Victor
00:01:45 --> 00:01:47 Glover, and mission specialist Christina
00:01:47 --> 00:01:50 Coach. All from NASA, along with
00:01:50 --> 00:01:52 Canadian Space Agency mission specialist
00:01:52 --> 00:01:53 Jeremy Hansen.
00:01:53 --> 00:01:55 >> And this mission is full of historic
00:01:56 --> 00:01:58 firsts. Victor Glover will become the
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00 first person of color to travel beyond
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 Earth orbit. Christina Coach will be the
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 first woman to do so. And Jeremy Hansen
00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 will be the first non-American citizen
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 to leave Earth orbit.
00:02:09 --> 00:02:11 >> They'll fly a free return trajectory
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 around the moon and back to Earth in
00:02:13 --> 00:02:16 approximately 10 days. No landing. This
00:02:16 --> 00:02:18 is a test flight, but it's a crucial
00:02:18 --> 00:02:18 one.
00:02:18 --> 00:02:21 >> Now, the road to the pad was not smooth.
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 Earlier this year, a helium flow problem
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 in the rocket's upper stage forced the
00:02:26 --> 00:02:28 team to roll the whole stack back to the
00:02:28 --> 00:02:30 vehicle assembly building that pushed
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 the launch from February, then March,
00:02:32 --> 00:02:33 and now April.
00:02:33 --> 00:02:36 >> But the team fixed what needed fixing,
00:02:36 --> 00:02:37 including replacing batteries on the
00:02:37 --> 00:02:40 flight termination system, and now pad
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 teams are moving into final countdown
00:02:42 --> 00:02:43 preparations.
00:02:43 --> 00:02:45 >> The last time humans flew beyond Earth
00:02:45 --> 00:02:50 orbit was Apollo 17 in December 1972.
00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 That was over 53 years ago. April 1st
00:02:53 --> 00:02:55 cannot come come soon enough.
00:02:55 --> 00:02:57 >> We will absolutely be following this
00:02:57 --> 00:02:58 one. Let's move on.
00:02:58 --> 00:03:01 >> All right, story 2 is pure stellar
00:03:01 --> 00:03:02 science and it's one of those
00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 discoveries that makes you realize how
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 much of the universe we still haven't
00:03:06 --> 00:03:07 seen yet.
00:03:07 --> 00:03:09 >> Astronomers have found something that
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 until now nobody was sure could even
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 exist. a pair of brown dwarf stars
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 orbiting each other so closely that one
00:03:17 --> 00:03:19 is actively pulling material from the
00:03:19 --> 00:03:20 other.
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 >> Let's back up slightly. So, what is a
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 brown dwarf? So, brown dwarfs are
00:03:25 --> 00:03:28 sometimes called failed stars. They're
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30 bigger than giant planets, but not
00:03:30 --> 00:03:32 massive enough to ignite and sustain
00:03:32 --> 00:03:34 hydrogen fusion the way our sun does.
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37 They sort of sit in a strange no man's
00:03:37 --> 00:03:39 land between planet and star. And we
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 know many of them exist in binary pairs.
00:03:42 --> 00:03:47 But this system designated ZTF J1239
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 plus 8347
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 is something else entirely. These two
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53 brown dwarfs are in an incredibly tight
00:03:54 --> 00:03:56 orbit, completing a full loop around
00:03:56 --> 00:03:58 each other in 57 minutes.
00:03:58 --> 00:04:02 >> 57 minutes. For context, our moon takes
00:04:02 --> 00:04:05 about 27 days to orbit Earth. These two
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 are practically on top of each other.
00:04:07 --> 00:04:09 And because they're so close, the
00:04:09 --> 00:04:11 gravity of one is pulling material from
00:04:11 --> 00:04:13 the surface of the other, a process
00:04:13 --> 00:04:16 called mass transfer. This kind of
00:04:16 --> 00:04:18 behavior has been seen before in binary
00:04:18 --> 00:04:20 white dwarfs, the dense remnants of dead
00:04:20 --> 00:04:23 stars, but never in brown dwarfs. This
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 is a first.
00:04:25 --> 00:04:27 >> The research team led by Caltech
00:04:27 --> 00:04:29 graduate student Samuel White actually
00:04:29 --> 00:04:31 had colleagues who didn't believe the
00:04:31 --> 00:04:33 finding at first. One co-author said,
00:04:33 --> 00:04:36 and I love this, "We've told some of our
00:04:36 --> 00:04:37 colleagues about them, and they didn't
00:04:37 --> 00:04:39 believe such a thing exists,
00:04:39 --> 00:04:41 >> which is the best kind of science
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 discovery. The system is only about a
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 thousand light-years away, which is
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 close enough that followup observations
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 with the James Webb's telescope are
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 being planned." And what's the eventual
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 fate of these two? Either they merge
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 into a single brighter star or the one
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 that's gaining mass eventually becomes
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 massive enough to trigger nuclear fusion
00:05:01 --> 00:05:04 and become a proper star. Either way, a
00:05:04 --> 00:05:06 fascinating ending.
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 >> Incredible stuff. Story three, Anna. And
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 this one involves Hubble being very,
00:05:11 --> 00:05:12 very lucky.
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 >> So, this story starts with a mishap and
00:05:15 --> 00:05:17 ends up as one of the most extraordinary
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 observational luck stories in recent
00:05:19 --> 00:05:20 astronomy.
00:05:20 --> 00:05:23 >> Tell us all about it. Okay, so
00:05:23 --> 00:05:25 researchers at Auburn University had won
00:05:25 --> 00:05:27 telescope time on the Hubble Space
00:05:27 --> 00:05:30 Telescope to study a specific comet. But
00:05:30 --> 00:05:32 then new technical constraints meant
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 their original target wasn't viewable.
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 So they quickly found a replacement, a
00:05:36 --> 00:05:40 different comet designated C/2025
00:05:40 --> 00:05:42 K1/Atlas
00:05:42 --> 00:05:44 or just comet K1 for short.
00:05:44 --> 00:05:47 >> Routine enough so far. routine until one
00:05:47 --> 00:05:49 of the team, co-investigator John Nonan,
00:05:50 --> 00:05:51 sat down to look at the data the next
00:05:51 --> 00:05:54 morning, and he found not one comet in
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 the images. He found four because comet
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 K1 was falling apart right in front of
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 Hubble's cameras. The comet had
00:06:02 --> 00:06:04 fragmented into at least four distinct
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 pieces, each with its own coma, that
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 fuzzy envelope of gas and dust around
00:06:09 --> 00:06:12 the comet nucleus. and Hubble's sharp
00:06:12 --> 00:06:15 eyes could clearly resolve each fragment
00:06:15 --> 00:06:16 separately, something groundbased
00:06:16 --> 00:06:18 telescopes could barely make out as
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 blurry blobs. The timing was
00:06:21 --> 00:06:24 extraordinary. The comet had passed
00:06:24 --> 00:06:28 closest to the sun, its parhelion, just
00:06:28 --> 00:06:31 about a month before. That's the most
00:06:31 --> 00:06:33 intense heat and gravitational stress a
00:06:33 --> 00:06:36 comet experiences. And for long period
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 comets like cone, it's when they're most
00:06:39 --> 00:06:41 vulnerable to breaking up.
00:06:41 --> 00:06:44 >> And Hubble just happened to be watching.
00:06:44 --> 00:06:45 The team was able to trace the history
00:06:46 --> 00:06:48 of each fragment back in time,
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 essentially reconstructing exactly how
00:06:50 --> 00:06:53 and when the breakup happened. This is
00:06:53 --> 00:06:55 the first time Hubble has captured a
00:06:55 --> 00:06:57 comet this early in the fragmentation
00:06:57 --> 00:06:58 process.
00:06:58 --> 00:07:00 >> There's also an intriguing mystery
00:07:00 --> 00:07:02 buried in the data. There was a delay
00:07:02 --> 00:07:04 between when the comet broke up and when
00:07:04 --> 00:07:06 bright fault bursts were seen from the
00:07:06 --> 00:07:09 ground. Normally, when a comet fragments
00:07:09 --> 00:07:11 and exposes fresh ice to sunlight, you'd
00:07:11 --> 00:07:13 expect it to brighten almost
00:07:13 --> 00:07:16 immediately, but this one didn't. Why?
00:07:16 --> 00:07:17 Nobody knows yet.
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 >> And the initial analysis shows that
00:07:19 --> 00:07:22 comet K1 is unusually depleted in
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 carbon, which gives us new clues about
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 the primordial chemistry of our early
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 solar system. All from a comet that
00:07:29 --> 00:07:31 wasn't even the intended target.
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 >> Best accidents in science, honestly.
00:07:33 --> 00:07:36 Onwards. Story 4 is a numbers game.
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 >> So, how many moons does Saturn have
00:07:39 --> 00:07:42 >> as of this week? 285.
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 >> 285.
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 And Jupiter?
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 >> 101. The minor planet center of the
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 International Astronomical Union
00:07:50 --> 00:07:53 announced on March 16th that four new
00:07:53 --> 00:07:55 moons have been confirmed around Jupiter
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 and 11 new moons around Saturn.
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 >> 15 new moons just like that. I love this
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 recurring story. It feels like somebody
00:08:03 --> 00:08:04 keeps going around the back of these
00:08:04 --> 00:08:07 planets and finding more hiding there.
00:08:07 --> 00:08:09 >> Sort of exactly what's happening
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 actually. The Saturn moons were found by
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 a team led by Edward Ashton from the
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 University of British Columbia who
00:08:15 --> 00:08:17 combed through data from the Canada
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 France Hawaii telescope going back to
00:08:20 --> 00:08:22 2019. And the Jupiter moons were spotted
00:08:22 --> 00:08:25 by a team led by Scott Shepard at the
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 Carnegie Institution. All of these newly
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 confirmed moons are tiny, barely a
00:08:30 --> 00:08:32 couple of miles across with magnitudes
00:08:32 --> 00:08:36 around 25 to 27, meaning they're far too
00:08:36 --> 00:08:37 faint to see without some of the world's
00:08:38 --> 00:08:40 most powerful telescopes. They're what
00:08:40 --> 00:08:43 astronomers call irregular moons,
00:08:43 --> 00:08:45 captured objects orbiting far from the
00:08:45 --> 00:08:47 planet, often going the wrong way in
00:08:47 --> 00:08:50 retrograde. Most of the new Saturnian
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 moons are doing just that, moving in the
00:08:53 --> 00:08:54 opposite direction to the planet's
00:08:54 --> 00:08:57 rotation, which is a strong sign they
00:08:57 --> 00:08:59 were probably captured from somewhere
00:08:59 --> 00:09:01 else. Either asteroids snagged by
00:09:01 --> 00:09:03 Saturn's gravity or fragments from a
00:09:03 --> 00:09:05 collision that broke up a larger moon in
00:09:05 --> 00:09:07 the distant past.
00:09:07 --> 00:09:09 >> And this count is only going to keep
00:09:09 --> 00:09:11 climbing. The Vera Rubin Observatory
00:09:11 --> 00:09:14 went fully online last year and it's
00:09:14 --> 00:09:16 going to be detecting these tiny faint
00:09:16 --> 00:09:19 moons at a rate we haven't seen before.
00:09:19 --> 00:09:22 >> Poor Jupiter though, still 200 moons
00:09:22 --> 00:09:24 behind Saturn. It's like Jupiter just
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26 can't catch up.
00:09:26 --> 00:09:28 >> Jupiter just needs to try harder. Okay,
00:09:28 --> 00:09:31 story five. And this one's a little
00:09:31 --> 00:09:32 closer to home.
00:09:32 --> 00:09:35 >> So, here's a question. What's on the
00:09:35 --> 00:09:38 moon right now other than dust and rock?
00:09:38 --> 00:09:42 I mean the flags, some rovers, a golf
00:09:42 --> 00:09:43 ball. I think
00:09:44 --> 00:09:47 >> more than 100 metric tons of humanmade
00:09:47 --> 00:09:49 material, spacecraft parts, scientific
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 instruments, cameras, landers, crash
00:09:52 --> 00:09:56 sites, and yes, actually, bags of human
00:09:56 --> 00:09:59 waste left behind by Apollo astronauts.
00:09:59 --> 00:10:01 >> We left our rubbish on the moon.
00:10:02 --> 00:10:04 >> We absolutely did. And that's just
00:10:04 --> 00:10:06 what's there now. We're on the verge of
00:10:06 --> 00:10:09 a completely new era of lunar activity.
00:10:09 --> 00:10:11 Crude missions, commercial landers,
00:10:11 --> 00:10:14 scientific rovers, resource prospectors,
00:10:14 --> 00:10:17 and nobody has a comprehensive framework
00:10:17 --> 00:10:19 for what happens to all the stuff we're
00:10:19 --> 00:10:21 about to bring up there. There's no
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 lunar environment protection agency.
00:10:23 --> 00:10:25 There's no international treaty
00:10:25 --> 00:10:27 specifically addressing lunar surface
00:10:27 --> 00:10:29 contamination. The Outer Space Treaty of
00:10:30 --> 00:10:32 1967 says countries are responsible for
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 their national activities in space, but
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 it doesn't get into the specifics of,
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 say, a crash lander leaking propellant
00:10:39 --> 00:10:42 near a scientifically important site.
00:10:42 --> 00:10:44 And there are real concerns beyond
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 aesthetics. Some of the most
00:10:46 --> 00:10:48 scientifically valuable areas of the
00:10:48 --> 00:10:50 moon, like the permanently shadowed
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 craters near the poles, which may hold
00:10:52 --> 00:10:54 ancient ice deposits, could be
00:10:54 --> 00:10:57 contaminated by human activity before
00:10:57 --> 00:10:59 we've even finished studying them in
00:10:59 --> 00:11:01 their pristine state. Base policy
00:11:01 --> 00:11:04 researchers and planetary scientists are
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 increasingly pushing for binding
00:11:06 --> 00:11:08 international agreements about lunar
00:11:08 --> 00:11:10 preservation zones, impact site
00:11:10 --> 00:11:12 protections, and responsible disposal of
00:11:12 --> 00:11:15 mission hardware. It's a conversation
00:11:15 --> 00:11:17 the space community needs to have
00:11:17 --> 00:11:19 urgently because the missions are coming
00:11:19 --> 00:11:21 whether the policy frameworks are ready
00:11:21 --> 00:11:23 or not. The moon has been waiting 4 and
00:11:23 --> 00:11:26 a half billion years. The least we can
00:11:26 --> 00:11:28 do is think carefully before we trash
00:11:28 --> 00:11:29 it.
00:11:29 --> 00:11:31 >> All right, we're ending today's show
00:11:31 --> 00:11:33 with a story that has two very different
00:11:33 --> 00:11:36 outcomes. One spacecraft recently lost
00:11:36 --> 00:11:39 and one spacecraft recently found.
00:11:39 --> 00:11:42 >> Let's start with the one that was found.
00:11:42 --> 00:11:44 's ProRBA 3 mission, which we mentioned
00:11:44 --> 00:11:46 yesterday, has now been officially
00:11:46 --> 00:11:49 confirmed as recovered, and the details
00:11:49 --> 00:11:51 of how it happened are genuinely
00:11:51 --> 00:11:52 dramatic.
00:11:52 --> 00:11:55 >> So, Probota 3 is a fascinating mission.
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 It uses two separate spacecraft flying
00:11:57 --> 00:12:00 in precise formation at an altitude of
00:12:00 --> 00:12:03 over 60 km to create an artificial
00:12:04 --> 00:12:06 solar eclipse. One satellite carries a
00:12:06 --> 00:12:09 disc that blocks the sun, and the other
00:12:09 --> 00:12:11 carries a cornograph to study the faint
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 outer atmosphere of the sun, which is
00:12:13 --> 00:12:15 normally washed out by the sun's
00:12:15 --> 00:12:16 blinding light.
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 >> On February 14th, the Coronagraph
00:12:19 --> 00:12:22 spacecraft, one of the two, suffered a
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 chain of failures that caused it to lose
00:12:24 --> 00:12:27 its orientation. Its solar panels turned
00:12:27 --> 00:12:29 away from the sun, its batteries
00:12:29 --> 00:12:32 drained, and it entered survival mode,
00:12:32 --> 00:12:34 tumbling silently through space for
00:12:34 --> 00:12:36 nearly a month.
00:12:36 --> 00:12:38 >> Engineers tracked it and waited for an
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 opportunity. That opportunity came when
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 the tumbling spacecraft briefly turned
00:12:43 --> 00:12:45 its solar panels toward the sun, just
00:12:45 --> 00:12:47 enough to generate a small amount of
00:12:47 --> 00:12:50 power. Teams in Spain acted immediately
00:12:50 --> 00:12:53 and contact was reestablished. ISA
00:12:53 --> 00:12:56 Director General Joseph Ashbacher said
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59 they saw that some sunlight was actually
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 hitting the solar panels and that was
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 their moment. The spacecraft has now
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06 regained stable orientation and is
00:13:06 --> 00:13:08 charging its batteries. Engineers are
00:13:08 --> 00:13:11 carefully running checks before resuming
00:13:11 --> 00:13:13 science operations.
00:13:13 --> 00:13:16 >> Relief all around. Now contrast that
00:13:16 --> 00:13:17 with the story of NASA's Maven
00:13:17 --> 00:13:21 spacecraft currently orbiting Mars. or
00:13:21 --> 00:13:22 at least it should be.
00:13:22 --> 00:13:25 >> NASA lost contact with Maven on December
00:13:25 --> 00:13:28 6th last year after the spacecraft was
00:13:28 --> 00:13:31 expected to emerge from behind Mars
00:13:31 --> 00:13:34 after a routine pass on the far side of
00:13:34 --> 00:13:36 the planet. 2 days before contact was
00:13:36 --> 00:13:39 lost, telemetry showed everything was
00:13:39 --> 00:13:42 normal, no problems whatsoever. But then
00:13:42 --> 00:13:44 a fragment of tracking data from the day
00:13:44 --> 00:13:47 contact was lost suggested Maven was
00:13:47 --> 00:13:49 rotating unexpectedly as it came out
00:13:49 --> 00:13:52 from behind Mars and was no longer in
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 its planned orbit. NASA immediately
00:13:54 --> 00:13:56 began recovery efforts.
00:13:56 --> 00:13:59 >> Those efforts have now been ongoing for
00:13:59 --> 00:14:02 over 3 months. NASA has used its deep
00:14:02 --> 00:14:04 space network, the Greenbank
00:14:04 --> 00:14:07 Observatory, even the Curiosity rover,
00:14:07 --> 00:14:09 pointed skyward on the Martian surface
00:14:10 --> 00:14:13 in attempts to detect a signal. So far,
00:14:13 --> 00:14:14 nothing.
00:14:14 --> 00:14:15 >> At a conference this week, NASA's
00:14:15 --> 00:14:17 planetary science director, Louise
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19 Proctor, said, and I thought this was a
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 poignant quote, "We haven't officially
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 said Maven is lost yet. We're still
00:14:24 --> 00:14:27 looking for it. Maven has been orbiting
00:14:27 --> 00:14:31 Mars since 2013, 12 years of science,
00:14:31 --> 00:14:34 studying how Mars lost its atmosphere
00:14:34 --> 00:14:37 over billions of years and transformed
00:14:37 --> 00:14:39 from a potentially habitable world into
00:14:39 --> 00:14:42 the cold desert we see today. It also
00:14:42 --> 00:14:45 handles about 20% of communications
00:14:45 --> 00:14:48 between Earth and the Mars rovers. Other
00:14:48 --> 00:14:50 orbiters, including Mars Reconnaissance
00:14:50 --> 00:14:53 Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, and ISA's Trace
00:14:53 --> 00:14:55 Gas Orbiter, are taking up the relay
00:14:55 --> 00:14:57 duties for now, and NASA is exploring
00:14:58 --> 00:14:59 options for a replacement
00:14:59 --> 00:15:01 telecommunications orbiter.
00:15:01 --> 00:15:03 >> One story of recovery, one still
00:15:03 --> 00:15:06 unresolved. We'll keep you posted on
00:15:06 --> 00:15:07 both.
00:15:07 --> 00:15:09 >> And that is your Astronomy Daily for
00:15:09 --> 00:15:12 Saturday, March 21st, 2026. What a show
00:15:12 --> 00:15:15 today. A moon rocket on the pad, a comet
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 in pieces, failed stars behaving
00:15:18 --> 00:15:20 unexpectedly,
00:15:20 --> 00:15:22 15 new moons, a moon covered in our
00:15:22 --> 00:15:25 junk, and two spacecraft with very
00:15:25 --> 00:15:26 different stories.
00:15:26 --> 00:15:29 >> As always, links to all our source
00:15:29 --> 00:15:31 articles are in the show notes. If you
00:15:31 --> 00:15:33 enjoyed today's episode, please leave us
00:15:33 --> 00:15:36 a review wherever you get your podcasts.
00:15:36 --> 00:15:38 It genuinely helps more people find the
00:15:38 --> 00:15:39 show.
00:15:39 --> 00:15:41 >> You can find us at astronomydaily.io
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43 io and on social media everywhere at
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 astroaily pod. We are part of the
00:15:45 --> 00:15:48 bytes.com podcast network. Check them
00:15:48 --> 00:15:50 out for more great shows.
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 >> Until next time, keep looking up.
00:15:52 --> 00:15:57 >> Clear skies everyone. Astronomy day.
00:15:57 --> 00:16:01 Stories we told.