Artemis II, Comet MAPS, and Mercury: Your Space Week Just Got Very Busy
It's Day 3 of the Artemis II mission, a sungrazer comet is emerging from the solar corona, an Atlas V just set a payload record, and Mercury is at its best of the year. Here's everything you need to know from today's episode of Astronomy Daily. Artemis II Flight Day 3: Orion Doesn't Even Need a Course Correction Four humans are on their way to the Moon, and everything is going better than planned. Flight controllers cancelled the first of three scheduled trajectory correction burns today — Orion is already on such a precise path that the burn simply wasn't needed. As Howard Hu, NASA's Orion program manager, noted, this reflects exceptional navigation performance throughout the mission. The crew — Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen — spent Day 3 on medical readiness drills, practising CPR in weightlessness and checking out the spacecraft's medical equipment. They also successfully tested Orion's optical communications system, transmitting HD video back to Earth from deep space. On Monday, April 6th, Orion will swing around the lunar far side at its closest approach — briefly out of radio contact with Earth — and at the mission's farthest point will travel 252,757 miles from home. That breaks the human spaceflight distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. Fifty-six years. We're finally going further. Comet MAPS: The Solar Plunge Is Done — Now Comes the Wait At 14:22 UTC on April 4th, Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) reached perihelion — passing just 161,000 kilometres from the surface of the Sun, skimming through the lower solar corona. Whether it survived that encounter is still being determined from spacecraft imagery, as the comet remains in the Sun's glare for ground-based observers. If MAPS emerges intact, the Southern Hemisphere viewing window opens April 6th to 10th. Look west after sunset, low on the horizon, near Venus. Brightness predictions range from magnitude -5 (comparable to Venus) to extraordinary scenarios even brighter. Even a nucleus breakup could leave a spectacular dust tail — what's known as a 'headless wonder.' Either way, this story is not over. Atlas V Sets a Record: 29 Amazon Leo Satellites, Heaviest Payload Ever At 1:45 a.m. Eastern Time on April 4th, a ULA Atlas V 551 lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying 29 Amazon Leo satellites — the heaviest payload in the rocket's 102-mission history. Mission LA-05 continues Amazon's build-out of its 3,200-satellite internet constellation (formerly Project Kuiper), with around 241 satellites now on orbit. Amazon faces an FCC deadline to have half its constellation operational by July 2026. Blue Ghost Challenges a Fundamental View of the Moon New data from Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander — which operated on the lunar surface for two weeks in March 2025 — is shaking up decades of lunar science. Scientists expected Blue Ghost's landing site at Mare Crisium, well outside the Moon's 'hot zone,' to show significantly cooler interior temperatures than Apollo landing sites. It didn't. The near-side/far-side temperature divide may be far less pronounced than previously thought, suggesting heat-producing elements are more widely distributed beneath the surface. 'We may have to abandon that binary,' said principal investigator Seiichi Nagihara. Pulsars Broadcast Further Than Anyone Knew — With Australian Science Behind the Discovery A study led by Professor Michael Kramer (Max Planck Institute) and Dr Simon Johnston (CSIRO) has found that about one third of millisecond pulsars emit radio waves from two completely separate regions — including a distant zone at the very edge of their magnetic reach called the current sheet. This overturns decades of received wisdom and suggests pulsars should be detectable from a wider range of directions than previously thought — with implications for gravitational wave detection using pulsar timing arrays. Mercury Is at Its Best All Year — And Southern Hemisphere Skywatchers Win Mercury reached greatest western elongation on April 3rd — the year's best opportunity to see the innermost planet. From Australia and New Zealand, this is specifically the best morning apparition of Mercury in 2026. Look east about 30-40 minutes before sunrise for a steady point of light at around magnitude 0.4, just above Mars. Through binoculars or a small telescope, Mercury is currently showing a half-illuminated quarter phase. And on April 18th, Mercury, Saturn, Mars, and Neptune will gather in a tight morning-sky cluster — three of them visible to the naked eye.
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00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Welcome back to Astronomy Daily, the
00:00:02 --> 00:00:04 show that gets you caught up on the
00:00:04 --> 00:00:06 cosmos every single day. I'm Anna.
00:00:06 --> 00:00:09 >> And I'm Avery. And friends, what a day
00:00:09 --> 00:00:10 to be a space fan.
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 >> It is day three of the Aremis 2 mission.
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 Four humans are right now hurdling
00:00:16 --> 00:00:18 toward the moon, and we have a lot to
00:00:18 --> 00:00:21 cover. A record-breaking rocket launch,
00:00:21 --> 00:00:24 brand new lunar science, a stunning
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 discovery about dead stars, and the best
00:00:27 --> 00:00:29 chance all year to spot the planet
00:00:29 --> 00:00:31 Mercury with your naked eye.
00:00:31 --> 00:00:33 >> Plus, we promised you an update on comet
00:00:33 --> 00:00:35 maps yesterday, and we are delivering.
00:00:35 --> 00:00:38 The solar plunge has happened. The
00:00:38 --> 00:00:39 verdict is still coming in. Stay with
00:00:39 --> 00:00:40 us.
00:00:40 --> 00:00:42 >> Let's get into it.
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 >> Trajectory so perfect, NASA canled its
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 own burn. We are now into day three of
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 the Aremis 2 mission and the headline
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 today is honestly almost too good to
00:00:52 --> 00:00:54 believe. NASA had planned a trajectory
00:00:54 --> 00:00:57 correction burn for this evening. A
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 small engine firing to nudge Orion onto
00:00:59 --> 00:01:02 the perfect path to the moon and they
00:01:02 --> 00:01:03 didn't need it.
00:01:03 --> 00:01:04 >> Flight controllers in mission control at
00:01:04 --> 00:01:06 Johnson Space Center looked at the data
00:01:06 --> 00:01:10 and made the call. Cancel the burn.
00:01:10 --> 00:01:11 Orion is already on the precise
00:01:11 --> 00:01:14 trajectory it needs. As Howard Hu, the
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 Orion spacecraft program manager put it,
00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 "It's really good to see that we don't
00:01:19 --> 00:01:21 need these minor correction burns. It
00:01:21 --> 00:01:22 shows that our navigation performance
00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 and our ability to get ranging has been
00:01:25 --> 00:01:27 outstanding." This was the first of
00:01:27 --> 00:01:29 three planned trajectory correction
00:01:29 --> 00:01:31 burns. The others are still on the
00:01:31 --> 00:01:33 schedule if needed, but this is a
00:01:33 --> 00:01:35 genuine vote of confidence in the
00:01:35 --> 00:01:38 precision of the entire mission so far.
00:01:38 --> 00:01:40 Meanwhile, what were Reed Wiseman,
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 Victor Glover, Christina and
00:01:42 --> 00:01:44 Jeremy Hansen actually doing today?
00:01:44 --> 00:01:46 Mission control woke them up playing in
00:01:46 --> 00:01:49 a Daydream by the Freddy Jones band,
00:01:49 --> 00:01:51 which is a great alarm clock choice. And
00:01:51 --> 00:01:52 then they got to work.
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 >> Day three was all about medical
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 readiness. The crew demonstrated CPR
00:01:57 --> 00:01:59 procedures in weightlessness and checked
00:01:59 --> 00:02:02 out Orion's on board medical kit, a
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 thermometer, blood pressure monitor, a
00:02:04 --> 00:02:07 stethoscope, and odoscope. They also
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 tested Orion's optical communication
00:02:09 --> 00:02:11 system, successfully transmitting
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 highdefinition video back to ground
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 stations in the United States.
00:02:15 --> 00:02:18 >> But the really exciting part, the lunar
00:02:18 --> 00:02:20 science team back on Earth is already
00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 building what they call the lunar
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 targeting plan. They're selecting
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 specific geological features on the
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 moon's surface. craters, ancient lava
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 flows, ridges that the crew will observe
00:02:32 --> 00:02:34 and photograph during their 6-h hour
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 flyby window on Monday.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 >> And Avery has been doing the math on
00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 what Monday actually means.
00:02:40 --> 00:02:43 >> Well, it's history. On Monday, April
00:02:43 --> 00:02:45 6th, the Aremis 2 crew will swing around
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 the far side of the moon, briefly out of
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 contact with Earth entirely. And at
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 their farthest point, they will be
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 252
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 mi from home. That breaks the all-time
00:02:58 --> 00:03:01 human spaceflight distance record set by
00:03:01 --> 00:03:04 the crew of Apollo 13 back in April
00:03:04 --> 00:03:08 1970. 56 years. We've been waiting 56
00:03:08 --> 00:03:10 years to break that record.
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13 >> And it gets better. During the lunar
00:03:13 --> 00:03:16 flyby, Orion will enter a solar eclipse,
00:03:16 --> 00:03:18 the sun moving behind the moon from the
00:03:18 --> 00:03:21 crew's perspective. The crew will use
00:03:21 --> 00:03:22 that window to look for meteoroid
00:03:22 --> 00:03:25 impacts flashing on the lunar surface
00:03:25 --> 00:03:27 and to try to photograph the deep space
00:03:27 --> 00:03:29 sky without the sun in the way.
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 >> We'll have full day four and Monday
00:03:31 --> 00:03:34 flyby coverage in Monday's episode.
00:03:34 --> 00:03:36 Right now, four humans traveling toward
00:03:36 --> 00:03:39 the moon and everything is going exactly
00:03:39 --> 00:03:40 to plan.
00:03:40 --> 00:03:43 >> Next, the solar plunge has happened. Now
00:03:43 --> 00:03:44 we wait.
00:03:44 --> 00:03:46 >> All right, we promise you this and here
00:03:46 --> 00:03:49 it is. Your comet maps update. Yesterday
00:03:49 --> 00:03:53 we introduced you to comet C 2026A1
00:03:53 --> 00:03:57 known as MAPS, a rare CO sungrazer
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 discovered in January by a team of
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 French astronomers in Chile. We told you
00:04:01 --> 00:04:03 it was about to make one of the most
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 dangerous journeys in the solar system,
00:04:06 --> 00:04:10 a pass within 161 km of the sun's
00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 surface, closer than most comets ever
00:04:13 --> 00:04:15 come. And we promise to bring you the
00:04:15 --> 00:04:18 latest today. So, here's where we are.
00:04:18 --> 00:04:22 At 14:22 UTC today, that's right in the
00:04:22 --> 00:04:25 middle of the day in Australia. Comet
00:04:25 --> 00:04:27 maps reached perihelion. It passed
00:04:27 --> 00:04:30 through the lower corona of the sun. The
00:04:30 --> 00:04:32 plunge is done.
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 >> And the verdict? That is genuinely still
00:04:35 --> 00:04:38 coming in because right now, MAPS is in
00:04:38 --> 00:04:41 the sun's glare, basically invisible to
00:04:41 --> 00:04:43 groundbased observers. We're relying on
00:04:43 --> 00:04:45 spacecraft imagery, particularly from
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 SOHO's Lasco Coronograph to track what
00:04:48 --> 00:04:49 happened.
00:04:49 --> 00:04:52 >> The big question has shifted. It's no
00:04:52 --> 00:04:55 longer just did it survive. It's what
00:04:55 --> 00:04:58 kind of show will it put on? There are
00:04:58 --> 00:05:00 several scenarios. If the nucleus
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 survived intact, maps could emerge in
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 the next day or two as a stunning naked
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 eye comet. Some predictions put its
00:05:08 --> 00:05:10 potential brightness at magnitude
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 minus5.
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 brighter than Venus. Others suggest it
00:05:15 --> 00:05:17 could reach magnitude minus15,
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 brighter than the full moon. At
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 perihelion, it may have even been
00:05:21 --> 00:05:23 briefly visible in daylight.
00:05:23 --> 00:05:25 >> Even if the nucleus broke apart, which
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 is what happens to most sun grazers, the
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 story isn't necessarily over. A
00:05:30 --> 00:05:33 post-parelion breakup can produce what
00:05:33 --> 00:05:36 astronomers call a headless wonder, a
00:05:36 --> 00:05:38 bright glowing tail with no nucleus
00:05:38 --> 00:05:41 behind it. Sometimes those can be
00:05:41 --> 00:05:43 spectacular in their own right.
00:05:43 --> 00:05:45 >> Maps belongs to the Crutz sun graaser
00:05:45 --> 00:05:49 family, the same family as comet Ikea in
00:05:49 --> 00:05:50 1965.
00:05:50 --> 00:05:52 One of the brightest comets of the 20th
00:05:52 --> 00:05:56 century and comet Lovejoy in 2011, which
00:05:56 --> 00:05:59 survived its own brush with the corona
00:05:59 --> 00:06:00 and went on to dazzle southern
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 hemisphere observers.
00:06:02 --> 00:06:05 >> And that is the key phrase, southern
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 hemisphere. If maps emerges from the
00:06:07 --> 00:06:10 glare as expected, the window to see it
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 from the ground opens around April 6th
00:06:12 --> 00:06:15 to 10th. Look west after sunset low on
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 the horizon. In Australia and across New
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 Zealand, you are perfectly placed for
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 this. Venus will be your guide star,
00:06:22 --> 00:06:25 bright in the western evening sky, and
00:06:25 --> 00:06:27 maps, if it survived, should appear
00:06:27 --> 00:06:28 nearby.
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 >> We will have the latest on Monday's
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 episode. This story is very much not
00:06:32 --> 00:06:36 over. Atlas 5 lifts its heaviest payload
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 ever, 29 Amazon LEO satellites.
00:06:39 --> 00:06:41 >> While all eyes were on the moon this
00:06:41 --> 00:06:43 morning, there was a rocket launch
00:06:43 --> 00:06:45 happening simultaneously that set a
00:06:45 --> 00:06:46 record of its own.
00:06:46 --> 00:06:49 >> In the early hours of this morning, 1:45
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52 a.m. Eastern time, a United Launch
00:06:52 --> 00:06:55 Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from
00:06:55 --> 00:06:57 Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in
00:06:57 --> 00:07:01 Florida. Its cargo, 29 Amazon LEO
00:07:01 --> 00:07:04 satellites. And that payload, 29
00:07:04 --> 00:07:07 satellites packed into one rocket, made
00:07:07 --> 00:07:09 history. It is the heaviest single
00:07:09 --> 00:07:12 payload the Atlas 5 has ever flown.
00:07:12 --> 00:07:17 >> This is mission LA05 for Amazon LEO, the
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 satellite internet constellation
00:07:19 --> 00:07:21 previously known as Project Cooper.
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 Amazon renamed the constellation in
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 November last year, and they're building
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 it at pace. With today's launch, they
00:07:28 --> 00:07:32 now have around 241 satellites on orbit
00:07:32 --> 00:07:35 out of an eventual constellation of more
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 than 3.
00:07:37 --> 00:07:40 The Atlas 5 flew in its most powerful
00:07:40 --> 00:07:43 configuration, the 551 variant with five
00:07:43 --> 00:07:46 solid rocket boosters strapped on, and
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 ULA engineers made specific
00:07:48 --> 00:07:51 modifications to the Centaur upper stage
00:07:51 --> 00:07:53 and its dispenser system to carry the
00:07:54 --> 00:07:57 extra load. These 29 satellites went up
00:07:57 --> 00:08:00 on a northeast trajectory to a low Earth
00:08:00 --> 00:08:04 orbit of around 450 km. Amazon has an
00:08:04 --> 00:08:07 FCC deadline looming. They need to have
00:08:07 --> 00:08:09 half of their constellation operational
00:08:09 --> 00:08:12 by July 2026, which puts them in a
00:08:12 --> 00:08:15 serious race. Multiple Atlas 5 and
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 Vulcan Centaur launches are planned this
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 year. Plus, missions on Aron 6, New
00:08:20 --> 00:08:24 Glenn, and Falcon 9. The Atlas 5 is one
00:08:24 --> 00:08:26 of the most reliable rockets ever built.
00:08:26 --> 00:08:29 This was its 102nd mission. And while
00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 the Vulcan Centaur is taking over as the
00:08:32 --> 00:08:33 primary heavy lift vehicle going
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 forward, today proved the old workhorse
00:08:36 --> 00:08:37 has still got it.
00:08:37 --> 00:08:40 >> Okay, our next story. Moon's hot cold
00:08:40 --> 00:08:44 divide may be wrong. Blue Ghost rewrites
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 lunar science. With the Aremis 2 crew
00:08:47 --> 00:08:49 heading toward the moon right now, this
00:08:49 --> 00:08:51 next story feels especially timely
00:08:51 --> 00:08:53 because new data from the moon's surface
00:08:53 --> 00:08:55 is challenging something scientists
00:08:55 --> 00:08:58 thought they understood for decades. A
00:08:58 --> 00:09:00 Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 touched down in the moon's Mari
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 Chrysium, the Sea of Crises, back in
00:09:04 --> 00:09:07 March of 2025. It operated for a full
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 lunar day, drilling into the surface and
00:09:10 --> 00:09:13 sending back over 110 gigabytes of data.
00:09:13 --> 00:09:16 And now a year on, scientists are
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 presenting the first major scientific
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 results. And they are surprising.
00:09:20 --> 00:09:22 >> The long-standing view of the moon has
00:09:22 --> 00:09:25 been this. The near side, the face we
00:09:25 --> 00:09:28 always see from Earth, is geologically
00:09:28 --> 00:09:31 hot. It's dominated by ancient volcanic
00:09:31 --> 00:09:33 plains. And beneath the surface, there's
00:09:33 --> 00:09:35 a concentration of heat producing
00:09:35 --> 00:09:38 radioactive elements, particularly
00:09:38 --> 00:09:40 thorium, in a region called the
00:09:40 --> 00:09:43 Proellarum creep terrain. The far side
00:09:43 --> 00:09:46 by contrast is cooler, older, more
00:09:46 --> 00:09:47 heavily cratered.
00:09:47 --> 00:09:50 >> Blue ghost was specifically sent to land
00:09:50 --> 00:09:53 outside that hot region and marchium
00:09:53 --> 00:09:56 well away from the creep zone precisely
00:09:56 --> 00:09:57 to test whether the temperature
00:09:57 --> 00:09:59 difference was as dramatic as scientists
00:09:59 --> 00:10:02 expected. The answer has upended the
00:10:02 --> 00:10:05 model. Lugos's heat probe found that the
00:10:05 --> 00:10:08 underground temperature at Mari Chrysium
00:10:08 --> 00:10:10 is not significantly different from what
00:10:10 --> 00:10:12 Apollo astronauts measured at their
00:10:12 --> 00:10:15 landing sites deep inside the supposed
00:10:15 --> 00:10:15 hot zone.
00:10:16 --> 00:10:18 >> As Seichi Nagihara, the principal
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 investigator of Blue Ghost's heat probe
00:10:21 --> 00:10:24 at Texas Tech University put it, "We may
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26 have to abandon that binary."
00:10:26 --> 00:10:28 >> What does this mean? Heat producing
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30 elements like thorium may be more widely
00:10:30 --> 00:10:32 distributed beneath the lunar surface
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 than anyone thought. And one possible
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 explanation is that volcanic activity in
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 some regions wasn't driven by those
00:10:39 --> 00:10:41 radioactive elements at all. It may have
00:10:41 --> 00:10:43 simply been easier for magma to break
00:10:43 --> 00:10:45 through in places where the crust was
00:10:45 --> 00:10:46 thinner.
00:10:46 --> 00:10:48 >> It's a fundamental rethink of how the
00:10:48 --> 00:10:51 moon formed and evolved. And it has
00:10:51 --> 00:10:53 direct implications for where future
00:10:53 --> 00:10:55 crude missions might land and what
00:10:55 --> 00:10:57 they'll find.
00:10:57 --> 00:10:59 Blue Ghost Mission 2, expected to launch
00:10:59 --> 00:11:02 later this year, will land on the lunar
00:11:02 --> 00:11:04 far side, giving scientists the next
00:11:04 --> 00:11:07 data point in this evolving picture.
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 >> Onwards the story five. Let's simply
00:11:09 --> 00:11:12 call this one stellar science. Pulsars
00:11:12 --> 00:11:14 are broadcasting from the edge of their
00:11:14 --> 00:11:17 magnetic reach. Now to a discovery that
00:11:17 --> 00:11:20 overturns decades of thinking about some
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 of the most extreme objects in the
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 universe and it has an Australian
00:11:25 --> 00:11:26 fingerprint on it.
00:11:26 --> 00:11:29 >> Pulsars are the collaps remnants of dead
00:11:29 --> 00:11:32 stars. They're among the densest objects
00:11:32 --> 00:11:34 we know of. A teaspoon of pulsar
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 material would weigh around 10 million
00:11:36 --> 00:11:40 tons on Earth. As they spin, they sweep
00:11:40 --> 00:11:42 beams of radio waves across the cosmos
00:11:42 --> 00:11:45 like cosmic lighouses. And a special
00:11:45 --> 00:11:48 class called millisecond pulsars spins
00:11:48 --> 00:11:51 hundreds of times per second. So
00:11:51 --> 00:11:53 regularly that they rival atomic clocks
00:11:53 --> 00:11:55 in their precision.
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 >> For decades, the textbook answer to
00:11:57 --> 00:11:59 where those radio pulses come from was
00:11:59 --> 00:12:01 simple. Near the surface, close to the
00:12:02 --> 00:12:04 magnetic poles. That's where scientists
00:12:04 --> 00:12:06 assumed all the action happened.
00:12:06 --> 00:12:08 >> A new study published in monthly notices
00:12:08 --> 00:12:11 of the Royal Astronomical Society has
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 just rewritten that. Professor Michael
00:12:13 --> 00:12:15 Kramer from the Maxplank Institute for
00:12:15 --> 00:12:18 Radio Aastronomy in Germany and Dr.
00:12:18 --> 00:12:22 Simon Johnson from Australia's own CSRO
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 analyzed radio observations of nearly
00:12:24 --> 00:12:27 200 millisecond pulsars and compared
00:12:27 --> 00:12:29 them with gammaray data from NASA's
00:12:29 --> 00:12:31 Fermy Space Telescope.
00:12:31 --> 00:12:34 >> What they found about 1/3 of millisecond
00:12:34 --> 00:12:37 pulsars are broadcasting radio waves
00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 from two completely separate regions at
00:12:39 --> 00:12:42 once. not just the magnetic poles, but
00:12:42 --> 00:12:45 also from a distant swirling zone of
00:12:45 --> 00:12:47 charged particles called the current
00:12:47 --> 00:12:50 sheet, right at what's called the light
00:12:50 --> 00:12:52 cylinder. That's the boundary where the
00:12:52 --> 00:12:55 pulsar's magnetic field would need to
00:12:55 --> 00:12:57 travel faster than light just to keep
00:12:57 --> 00:12:59 pace with the spinning star.
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 >> As Dr. Johnston put it, these tiny, fast
00:13:01 --> 00:13:04 spinning stars are even more complex and
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 surprising than we thought. broadcasting
00:13:06 --> 00:13:08 from both their surfaces and from the
00:13:08 --> 00:13:11 very edge of their magnetic reach.
00:13:11 --> 00:13:13 >> The practical consequences are
00:13:13 --> 00:13:16 significant because the radio signals
00:13:16 --> 00:13:18 are spreading out over a wider range of
00:13:18 --> 00:13:21 directions than previously understood.
00:13:21 --> 00:13:23 More pulsars should be detectable than
00:13:23 --> 00:13:26 scientists thought. And that's good news
00:13:26 --> 00:13:29 for projects like pulsar timing arrays,
00:13:29 --> 00:13:32 networks of pulsars used as detectors
00:13:32 --> 00:13:35 for gravitational waves rippling across
00:13:35 --> 00:13:36 the universe.
00:13:36 --> 00:13:38 >> A great piece of science and a proud
00:13:38 --> 00:13:41 moment for CSRO, Australia's National
00:13:41 --> 00:13:43 Science Agency.
00:13:43 --> 00:13:46 >> And finally today, an invitation to go
00:13:46 --> 00:13:49 outside and look up because right now
00:13:49 --> 00:13:51 Mercury is putting on its best
00:13:51 --> 00:13:54 performance of the entire year. and we
00:13:54 --> 00:13:56 have the best seats in the house.
00:13:56 --> 00:13:59 >> Mercury reached what astronomers call
00:13:59 --> 00:14:02 greatest elongation on April 3rd, the
00:14:02 --> 00:14:03 point where it appears farthest from the
00:14:03 --> 00:14:06 sun in our sky. This is the year's
00:14:06 --> 00:14:08 greatest elongation for Mercury. Full
00:14:08 --> 00:14:12 stop. The best it will get all of 2026.
00:14:12 --> 00:14:15 Here's the key thing about Mercury. It's
00:14:15 --> 00:14:17 always close to the sun in our sky,
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19 which makes it genuinely difficult to
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 spot. Most people have never actually
00:14:22 --> 00:14:25 seen it. Greatest elongation is your
00:14:25 --> 00:14:28 best window. The planet pulls as far
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 from the sun's glare as it ever gets,
00:14:30 --> 00:14:33 giving you a brief, clear opportunity
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 before it slips back.
00:14:35 --> 00:14:38 >> Right now, Mercury is sitting about 28°
00:14:38 --> 00:14:41 from the sun, rising in the eastern sky
00:14:41 --> 00:14:44 before dawn. Look east about 30 to 40
00:14:44 --> 00:14:46 minutes before sunrise. You're looking
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48 for a steady point of light, magnitude
00:14:48 --> 00:14:50 around 0.4, four, which is bright enough
00:14:50 --> 00:14:52 to see with the naked eye under decent
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 conditions. It's sitting low on the
00:14:54 --> 00:14:56 horizon just above Mars in the
00:14:56 --> 00:14:58 constellation Aquarius.
00:14:58 --> 00:15:01 >> And here's the southern hemisphere
00:15:01 --> 00:15:04 advantage. This is specifically the best
00:15:04 --> 00:15:06 morning apparition of Mercury for the
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 southern hemisphere in 2026 from
00:15:09 --> 00:15:11 Australia and New Zealand. The geometry
00:15:11 --> 00:15:14 of the ecliptic gives us a steeper angle
00:15:14 --> 00:15:17 to the horizon. Mercury climbs higher
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19 and stays out of the Merc longer than it
00:15:19 --> 00:15:22 does for northern hemisphere observers.
00:15:22 --> 00:15:24 >> If you have binoculars or a small
00:15:24 --> 00:15:26 telescope, there's a bonus. Mercury is
00:15:26 --> 00:15:28 currently showing a half illuminated
00:15:28 --> 00:15:31 face, what astronomers call a quarter
00:15:31 --> 00:15:33 phase. You can see it going through
00:15:33 --> 00:15:35 phases just like the moon, which is
00:15:35 --> 00:15:37 something a lot of people don't realize
00:15:37 --> 00:15:39 about Mercury. And keep watching the
00:15:39 --> 00:15:41 eastern sky over the next couple of
00:15:41 --> 00:15:45 weeks because Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and
00:15:45 --> 00:15:47 Neptune will gather in a tight cluster
00:15:47 --> 00:15:50 on the morning of April 18th. Three of
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 those four will be visible to the naked
00:15:52 --> 00:15:54 eye, close enough to cover with three
00:15:54 --> 00:15:57 fingers held at arms length. A lovely
00:15:57 --> 00:16:00 little planetary alignment to chase.
00:16:00 --> 00:16:02 >> So this week, look east before sunrise
00:16:02 --> 00:16:05 for Mercury. Look west after sunset for
00:16:05 --> 00:16:07 any sign of comet maps emerging from the
00:16:08 --> 00:16:10 sun's glare. And keep an eye on Monday's
00:16:10 --> 00:16:12 episode for everything you need to know
00:16:12 --> 00:16:15 about the Aremis 2 lunar flyby. And that
00:16:15 --> 00:16:18 is your Astronomy Daily for Saturday the
00:16:18 --> 00:16:22 5th of April 2026. A crew heading to the
00:16:22 --> 00:16:24 moon. A comet that may be putting on the
00:16:24 --> 00:16:26 sky show of the decade. A
00:16:26 --> 00:16:29 record-breaking rocket launch. Science
00:16:29 --> 00:16:31 from the lunar surface. A pulsar
00:16:31 --> 00:16:34 discovery out of Australia. and Mercury
00:16:34 --> 00:16:36 waiting for you in the dawn sky.
00:16:36 --> 00:16:38 >> We'll be back Monday with day four and
00:16:38 --> 00:16:40 five of Artemis 2 and the latest on
00:16:40 --> 00:16:43 comet maps. If you're heading outside
00:16:43 --> 00:16:45 tonight, clear skies everyone.
00:16:45 --> 00:16:47 >> From all of us at Astronomy Daily, keep
00:16:47 --> 00:16:51 looking up. Astronomy day.
00:16:51 --> 00:16:59 Stories told.
00:16:59 --> 00:17:03 Stories to tell.