The Artemis II crew — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — are on final approach to Earth after nine historic days in deep space. Splashdown is scheduled for Friday off San Diego. We have the full countdown, plus the story behind what NASA scientists called 'audible screams of delight' when the crew spotted micrometeorite impact flashes on the Moon during their lunar flyby. Also in today's episode: astronomers at ISTA in Austria have identified a brand new class of stellar remnant — two ultra-massive, X-ray emitting white dwarfs named Gandalf and Moon-Sized. Mars continues to disappoint on the habitability front. Four planets are lining up in April skies. And we close with the story of four astronauts, their iPhones, and the greatest selfies in human history. Sources & links: • Artemis II splashdown coverage: nasa.gov/artemis • Micrometeorite impacts & lunar science: space.com | sciencenews.org | spaceq.ca • Gandalf & Moon-Sized white dwarfs: ista.ac.at | universetoday.com • Mars surface habitability: universetoday.com • April planet alignment: starwalk.space • Artemis II iPhone photography: space.com | engadget.com
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00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 One more sleep. After 9 days in deep
00:00:03 --> 00:00:05 space, nine days that took humanity
00:00:05 --> 00:00:07 further from Earth than we have ever
00:00:07 --> 00:00:10 been, the Artemis 2 crew is coming home.
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 Splashdown is tomorrow and we have the
00:00:13 --> 00:00:14 full countdown.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 >> Plus, the NASA scientists who literally
00:00:16 --> 00:00:18 screamed when the astronauts spotted
00:00:18 --> 00:00:20 something nobody expected to see on the
00:00:20 --> 00:00:23 moon. We'll tell you what it was and why
00:00:23 --> 00:00:25 it matters so much for future missions.
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 >> A brand new class of star has been
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 discovered. Meet Gandalf and Moonsized,
00:00:31 --> 00:00:33 two cosmic oddballs that have just
00:00:33 --> 00:00:35 rewritten the stellar rule book.
00:00:35 --> 00:00:38 >> Mars still very much not welcoming
00:00:38 --> 00:00:40 visitors. We have the science to prove
00:00:40 --> 00:00:42 it. And four planets are lining up in
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 the April sky for a rare celestial
00:00:44 --> 00:00:45 parade.
00:00:45 --> 00:00:47 >> And we close with the most relatable
00:00:47 --> 00:00:50 space story in years. What happens when
00:00:50 --> 00:00:53 four astronauts take their iPhones a
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 quarter of a million miles from Earth?
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 Spoiler, the photos are extraordinary.
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 >> Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily,
00:01:01 --> 00:01:04 season 5, episode 85. I'm Anna
00:01:04 --> 00:01:07 >> and I'm Avery. It is Thursday, the 9th
00:01:07 --> 00:01:10 of April, 2026, and we are broadcasting
00:01:10 --> 00:01:12 from astronomyaily.io
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 on the bites.com podcast network.
00:01:15 --> 00:01:17 >> It has been a big week in space, and it
00:01:18 --> 00:01:20 is about to get even bigger. Let's go.
00:01:20 --> 00:01:23 >> I'm ready. It is day nine of the Aremis
00:01:23 --> 00:01:25 2 mission and right now the Orion
00:01:25 --> 00:01:28 spacecraft call sign Integrity is
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30 hurtling back toward Earth at
00:01:30 --> 00:01:33 extraordinary speed. Tomorrow evening it
00:01:33 --> 00:01:35 will splash down in the Pacific Ocean
00:01:35 --> 00:01:37 off the coast of San Diego. And when it
00:01:37 --> 00:01:39 does, four astronauts will have
00:01:39 --> 00:01:42 completed the most significant human
00:01:42 --> 00:01:44 space flight since the Apollo program.
00:01:44 --> 00:01:46 >> The splashdown is scheduled for around
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. That's Friday
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 morning for us here in Australia and New
00:01:50 --> 00:01:52 Zealand. And NASA says the weather
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 window is looking favorable. The USS
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 John P. Murtha, the naval recovery
00:01:57 --> 00:01:59 vessel, is already on station in the
00:01:59 --> 00:02:01 Pacific with helicopters and divers
00:02:01 --> 00:02:02 ready to retrieve the crew.
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 >> And Avery, before any of that can
00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 happen, there's a critical sequence of
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 events. The crew module, the part that
00:02:09 --> 00:02:11 carries the astronauts, has to separate
00:02:11 --> 00:02:14 from the service module. Then it plunges
00:02:14 --> 00:02:17 into the atmosphere at around 25
00:02:17 --> 00:02:19 miles an hour. There will be a blackout
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 period of several minutes when mission
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 control loses all contact as the plasma
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 sheath forms around the capsule.
00:02:26 --> 00:02:28 >> And then parachutes. First the drogue
00:02:28 --> 00:02:30 shoots to slow them down dramatically.
00:02:30 --> 00:02:33 Then the main parachutes and Orion drops
00:02:33 --> 00:02:36 to about 17 mph for a soft ocean
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 landing. After 9 days and nearly 700
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41 m of travel.
00:02:41 --> 00:02:43 >> Now the heat shield. This is the thing
00:02:43 --> 00:02:45 that has been quietly keeping engineers
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47 awake at night. After the uncrrewed
00:02:47 --> 00:02:50 Artemis 1 mission, inspectors found that
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 chunks of the heat shield had sheared
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 away unevenly during re-entry. NASA and
00:02:55 --> 00:02:57 Loheed Martin spent 4 years
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 investigating and redesigning it. Both
00:02:59 --> 00:03:02 say they are highly confident it will
00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 perform perfectly tomorrow, but it will
00:03:04 --> 00:03:07 be the realworld test. Once safely
00:03:07 --> 00:03:09 aboard the Murtha, the crew will undergo
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 medical evaluations before flying to
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 Johnson Space Center in Houston.
00:03:13 --> 00:03:15 Commander Reed Weisman, pilot Victor
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 Glover, mission specialist Christina
00:03:18 --> 00:03:20 and Canadian Space Agency
00:03:20 --> 00:03:22 astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
00:03:22 --> 00:03:24 >> History makers, every single one of
00:03:24 --> 00:03:26 them. Victor Glover, the first person of
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 color to travel to the moon. Christina
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 the first woman. Jeremy Hansen,
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 the first person from a country other
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 than the United States to reach lunar
00:03:35 --> 00:03:36 distance.
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 >> And when they get home, President Trump
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 has apparently already promised them a
00:03:40 --> 00:03:41 White House visit. I'd say they've
00:03:42 --> 00:03:42 earned it.
00:03:42 --> 00:03:44 >> We'll of course have the full splashdown
00:03:44 --> 00:03:46 coverage in tomorrow's episode of
00:03:46 --> 00:03:49 Astronomy Daily. Set those alarms. Now,
00:03:50 --> 00:03:51 while all the drama of the homeward
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53 journey has been unfolding, the science
00:03:53 --> 00:03:55 team at Johnson Space Center has been
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 going absolutely wild over what the crew
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 observed during the lunar flyby on
00:03:59 --> 00:04:00 Monday.
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 >> And I do mean wild, Avery. NASA's lunar
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 science lead Kelsey Young described, and
00:04:06 --> 00:04:08 this is a direct quote from the press
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 conference, audible screams of delight
00:04:11 --> 00:04:13 in the science evaluation room.
00:04:13 --> 00:04:16 >> What were they screaming about? Micro
00:04:16 --> 00:04:19 meteorite impact flashes. During the
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 solar eclipse phase of the flyby, when
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 the moon blocked the sun and Orion was
00:04:23 --> 00:04:26 in darkness, the crew spotted between
00:04:26 --> 00:04:29 four and six distinct flashes of light
00:04:29 --> 00:04:31 on the lunar surface. Brief colorless
00:04:32 --> 00:04:34 pin pricks of light lasting just
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 milliseconds. Each one was a tiny rock
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 traveling thousands of miles hour
00:04:40 --> 00:04:43 slamming into the moon. Now, scientists
00:04:43 --> 00:04:45 had hoped the crew might see one or two
00:04:45 --> 00:04:47 of these. Apollo astronauts reported a
00:04:47 --> 00:04:49 handful across all the missions, but to
00:04:49 --> 00:04:52 see multiple flashes so quickly, so
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 clearly, they genuinely weren't
00:04:54 --> 00:04:55 expecting it.
00:04:55 --> 00:04:57 >> Commander Wiseman described it
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 beautifully in the postflyby debrief. He
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 said they had 5 minutes of what he
00:05:02 --> 00:05:05 called human emotional reaction, just
00:05:05 --> 00:05:07 staring at the darkened moon during the
00:05:08 --> 00:05:10 eclipse, and then the impact started
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 showing up. And why does this matter
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 scientifically? Because knowing the
00:05:15 --> 00:05:17 frequency and location of micrometeorite
00:05:17 --> 00:05:20 impacts is critical engineering data.
00:05:20 --> 00:05:22 When future Artemis crews are living and
00:05:22 --> 00:05:25 working on the lunar surface, building
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 habitats, doing spacew walks, those tiny
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 rocks are going to be falling on their
00:05:30 --> 00:05:32 heads and their equipment. Every data
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 point about impact rates helps engineers
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 design better protection. The Lunar
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 Reconnaissance Orbiter team is right now
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 using the crew's sketches and timing
00:05:42 --> 00:05:44 notes to hunt for fresh craters from
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 those specific impacts. They may
00:05:46 --> 00:05:49 actually be able to see the new craters
00:05:49 --> 00:05:50 from orbit.
00:05:50 --> 00:05:51 >> And there's a beautiful human moment
00:05:52 --> 00:05:54 buried in all of this, too. During the
00:05:54 --> 00:05:56 flyby, the crew proposed names for two
00:05:56 --> 00:05:58 previously unnamed craters on the lunar
00:05:58 --> 00:06:01 far side. They suggested integrity after
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 their spacecraft and Carol in honor of
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 Commander Wiseman's late wife. Those
00:06:07 --> 00:06:08 names have been submitted to the
00:06:08 --> 00:06:10 International Astronomical Union for
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 official consideration.
00:06:12 --> 00:06:15 >> That stopped me in my tracks when I read
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 it. History made names written into the
00:06:18 --> 00:06:19 moon.
00:06:19 --> 00:06:21 >> Moving now to a story that has
00:06:21 --> 00:06:23 absolutely nothing to do with Artemis,
00:06:23 --> 00:06:25 but is just as extraordinary in its own
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 way. Astronomers have just identified a
00:06:28 --> 00:06:31 brand new class of stellar objects and
00:06:31 --> 00:06:33 they've named them Gandalf and
00:06:33 --> 00:06:34 moonsized.
00:06:34 --> 00:06:37 >> I'm immediately interested.
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 >> As you should be. So context. When a
00:06:40 --> 00:06:42 star like our sun runs out of fuel, it
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 eventually collapses into what's called
00:06:44 --> 00:06:47 a white dwarf. An incredibly dense
00:06:47 --> 00:06:49 Earth-sized remnant. These are common.
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52 We know them well. But when two white
00:06:52 --> 00:06:54 dwarfs in a binary system collide and
00:06:54 --> 00:06:57 merge, the resulting object can be
00:06:57 --> 00:06:58 strange.
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 >> Define strange.
00:07:01 --> 00:07:04 >> Ultra massive, highly magnetic, rapidly
00:07:04 --> 00:07:07 rotating, and this is the weird part,
00:07:07 --> 00:07:09 emitting X-rays even though they're
00:07:09 --> 00:07:12 completely alone. No companion star, no
00:07:12 --> 00:07:14 material being pulled in from somewhere
00:07:14 --> 00:07:18 else, just X-rays from a solo stellar
00:07:18 --> 00:07:21 remnant. Normally X-ray emissions from
00:07:21 --> 00:07:23 white dwarfs come from accretion. One
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 star stealing material from another. So
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 to see it happening in isolation is
00:07:29 --> 00:07:32 genuinely new. Exactly. And researchers
00:07:32 --> 00:07:34 at the Institute of Science and
00:07:34 --> 00:07:37 Technology Austria ISTA have now
00:07:37 --> 00:07:39 confirmed two of these objects share
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 five distinct characteristics. Ultram
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 massive, highly magnetic, rapidly
00:07:44 --> 00:07:48 rotating, companionless, and X-ray
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 emmitting. Two is enough to define a
00:07:50 --> 00:07:53 class. And one of them is surrounded by
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 a half ring of ionized gas trapped in
00:07:56 --> 00:07:59 its own asymmetrical magnetic field,
00:07:59 --> 00:08:01 hydrogen emission spectra that looked
00:08:01 --> 00:08:04 like, and I love this description, cat
00:08:04 --> 00:08:05 ears.
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07 >> Cat ears. The spectral signature kept
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 switching between two peaks in sync with
00:08:10 --> 00:08:12 the object's 6-minute rotation period.
00:08:12 --> 00:08:14 Something no one had ever seen in a
00:08:14 --> 00:08:16 white dwarf before, which is why they
00:08:16 --> 00:08:18 named it after the Tolken character who
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 famously speaks in riddles.
00:08:20 --> 00:08:23 >> Gandalf, who likes to speak in riddles,
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 that is perfect.
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 >> And moon size is its companion in this
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 new class. A white dwarf so dense that a
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 mass equivalent to our entire sun is
00:08:33 --> 00:08:35 compressed into something roughly the
00:08:35 --> 00:08:36 size of the moon.
00:08:36 --> 00:08:39 >> I need a moment to process that.
00:08:39 --> 00:08:42 >> Take your time. The universe will wait.
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 >> So, what does it all mean? Are there
00:08:44 --> 00:08:45 more of these out there?
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 >> Almost certainly. The researchers say
00:08:48 --> 00:08:49 finding two objects with five
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 overlapping features is, and I'm
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 paraphrasing here, more than enough to
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 start a search. The hunt for more
00:08:56 --> 00:08:59 Gandalfs and moon sizes is on.
00:08:59 --> 00:09:01 >> Now to the red planet and a story that
00:09:01 --> 00:09:03 offers a rather sobering perspective on
00:09:03 --> 00:09:05 humanity's ambitions there.
00:09:06 --> 00:09:07 >> New research published this week
00:09:07 --> 00:09:09 suggests that Mars' surface was never
00:09:09 --> 00:09:12 really a viable candidate for life. Not
00:09:12 --> 00:09:14 just now, but potentially at any point
00:09:14 --> 00:09:17 in its history. Scientists at Universe
00:09:17 --> 00:09:18 Today have been covering a study that
00:09:18 --> 00:09:21 consolidates a growing body of evidence.
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 radiation bombardment, toxic
00:09:23 --> 00:09:25 percllorates in the soil, and the near
00:09:25 --> 00:09:27 total absence of a protective
00:09:27 --> 00:09:28 atmosphere.
00:09:28 --> 00:09:30 >> We've known for a long time that Mars is
00:09:30 --> 00:09:32 hostile. Now, the question has always
00:09:32 --> 00:09:35 been whether there was a window billions
00:09:35 --> 00:09:37 of years ago when Mars had liquid water
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 in a thicker atmosphere when life could
00:09:39 --> 00:09:41 have gained a foothold.
00:09:41 --> 00:09:42 >> And the emerging picture is that even
00:09:42 --> 00:09:45 then, the surface may have been too
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 brutal. The radiation levels alone
00:09:47 --> 00:09:48 without a magnetic field to deflect
00:09:48 --> 00:09:50 solar particles would have been
00:09:50 --> 00:09:53 devastating to any surface biology.
00:09:53 --> 00:09:55 Whatever life Mars may have had, if any,
00:09:55 --> 00:09:57 would have needed to be underground
00:09:57 --> 00:09:59 almost immediately.
00:09:59 --> 00:10:00 >> Which actually makes missions like
00:10:00 --> 00:10:04 Aremis even more striking by contrast.
00:10:04 --> 00:10:06 Earth got it right. We're here. We
00:10:06 --> 00:10:09 evolved. We survived long enough to send
00:10:09 --> 00:10:13 four people around the moon on iPhones.
00:10:13 --> 00:10:15 Mars just didn't make it.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:17 >> The subsurface is still the focus of
00:10:17 --> 00:10:20 active scientific interest. There may be
00:10:20 --> 00:10:21 liquid water deep below the Martian
00:10:22 --> 00:10:24 crust. There may be microbial life
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26 sheltering from the surface hellscape.
00:10:26 --> 00:10:28 But the romantic notion of ancient
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30 surface life basking under a warm
00:10:30 --> 00:10:33 Martian sun. The science is increasingly
00:10:33 --> 00:10:34 against it.
00:10:34 --> 00:10:36 >> And it makes the search for life
00:10:36 --> 00:10:38 elsewhere feel even more precious and
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 the protection of life here feel even
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 more urgent. Well said. On to something
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 a little more uplifting, at least
00:10:46 --> 00:10:47 visually.
00:10:47 --> 00:10:50 >> Skywatching time. And this month's night
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 sky is offering up a genuinely lovely
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 alignment. Four planets are currently
00:10:55 --> 00:10:57 visible together in April skies.
00:10:57 --> 00:11:00 Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and Neptune.
00:11:00 --> 00:11:03 >> Now, Neptune you'll need binoculars or
00:11:03 --> 00:11:05 small telescope for. It's not naked eye
00:11:05 --> 00:11:07 under any practical conditions. But
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 Mercury, Mars, and Saturn are all
00:11:10 --> 00:11:12 available to the unaded eye. if you know
00:11:12 --> 00:11:14 where and when to look.
00:11:14 --> 00:11:16 >> For our southern hemisphere listeners in
00:11:16 --> 00:11:18 Australia and New Zealand, the best
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 viewing window is the eastern sky in the
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 hours before dawn. Mercury is the
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 trickiest. It's always close to the sun,
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 but right now it's at a reasonable
00:11:27 --> 00:11:29 elongation and worth hunting for. Mars
00:11:29 --> 00:11:31 has been a reliable presence in our
00:11:31 --> 00:11:34 skies for months now. And Saturn is that
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 beautiful, steady, golden glow that
00:11:36 --> 00:11:38 never twinkles the way stars do. If you
00:11:38 --> 00:11:40 grab even a modest pair of binoculars
00:11:40 --> 00:11:42 and point them at Saturn, you can make
00:11:42 --> 00:11:45 out the ring system. It never gets old.
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 >> This is a great time to get kids outside
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 and look up. Four planets at once.
00:11:50 --> 00:11:53 Artemis 2 coming home tomorrow. The
00:11:53 --> 00:11:55 timing couldn't be better for a bit of
00:11:55 --> 00:11:56 genuine wonder.
00:11:56 --> 00:11:58 >> Clear skies permitting. Check the
00:11:58 --> 00:12:00 Starwalk app or your local astronomy
00:12:00 --> 00:12:02 society for specific viewing times from
00:12:02 --> 00:12:04 your location. Links as always in our
00:12:04 --> 00:12:07 show notes. And we close today with
00:12:07 --> 00:12:09 perhaps the most delightfully human
00:12:09 --> 00:12:12 story of the entire Aremis 2 mission.
00:12:12 --> 00:12:14 >> You know, amongst all the orbital
00:12:14 --> 00:12:15 mechanics and the heat shield
00:12:15 --> 00:12:17 engineering and the science about
00:12:17 --> 00:12:19 micromedorite impacts, there's this
00:12:20 --> 00:12:22 other story quietly running alongside it
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 all. The four Artemis 2 astronauts
00:12:24 --> 00:12:27 brought their iPhones. not to make
00:12:27 --> 00:12:31 calls. There's no signal 252
00:12:31 --> 00:12:33 miles from Earth. But NASA administrator
00:12:33 --> 00:12:36 Jared Isaacman made a deliberate
00:12:36 --> 00:12:38 decision to allow the crew to bring
00:12:38 --> 00:12:41 iPhone 17 Pro Maxes on board as personal
00:12:41 --> 00:12:44 cameras. The idea was simple. Give the
00:12:44 --> 00:12:47 crew the tools to capture their own
00:12:47 --> 00:12:48 story.
00:12:48 --> 00:12:50 >> And they have. Christina Coach and
00:12:50 --> 00:12:52 Commander Weissman use the iPhone's
00:12:52 --> 00:12:55 front camera, the selfie camera, to take
00:12:55 --> 00:12:57 what are being described as genuinely
00:12:57 --> 00:13:00 the greatest selfies in human history.
00:13:00 --> 00:13:02 Their faces softly lit from inside the
00:13:02 --> 00:13:05 cabin and behind them, suspended in the
00:13:05 --> 00:13:08 black of space, our entire planet, a
00:13:08 --> 00:13:11 pale blue crescent from a quarter of a
00:13:11 --> 00:13:14 million miles away. The EXIF data from
00:13:14 --> 00:13:16 the images shows they kept the camera on
00:13:16 --> 00:13:20 default settings. No special filters, no
00:13:20 --> 00:13:22 complicated exposures. Just point the
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 phone at the window, press the button.
00:13:24 --> 00:13:26 And then there's Reed Whitesman during
00:13:26 --> 00:13:28 the lunar flyby turning off all the
00:13:28 --> 00:13:30 cabin lights so there's no reflection on
00:13:30 --> 00:13:34 the windows, zooming his iPhone 17 to 8x
00:13:34 --> 00:13:37 and photographing Chbashef crater on the
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 far side of the moon. A place that had
00:13:39 --> 00:13:41 never been photographed by a human
00:13:41 --> 00:13:43 holding a camera in their hands before.
00:13:43 --> 00:13:46 >> You could argue Apple should just retire
00:13:46 --> 00:13:49 the shot on iPhone ad campaign. Now it
00:13:49 --> 00:13:52 has been definitively won. The crew has
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 reportedly shot more images on their
00:13:54 --> 00:13:56 phones than through the professional
00:13:56 --> 00:13:59 Nikon cameras, and NASA says everything
00:13:59 --> 00:14:01 captured will be made publicly available
00:14:01 --> 00:14:03 within 6 months. So, there's a lot more
00:14:03 --> 00:14:04 to come.
00:14:04 --> 00:14:07 >> There's something quietly extraordinary
00:14:07 --> 00:14:09 about this story. We're in an era of
00:14:10 --> 00:14:12 such technological sophistication,
00:14:12 --> 00:14:15 orbital mechanics, deep space
00:14:15 --> 00:14:18 navigation, radiation shielding, and yet
00:14:18 --> 00:14:20 one of the most resonant moments of the
00:14:20 --> 00:14:24 entire mission is four humans far from
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26 home pulling out their phones to take
00:14:26 --> 00:14:28 pictures of each other.
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 >> Because that's what people do. That's
00:14:30 --> 00:14:32 what we've always done. We go somewhere
00:14:32 --> 00:14:35 extraordinary. We look at each other. We
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37 press the button. That's humanity right
00:14:37 --> 00:14:38 there.
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 >> And that is Astronomy Daily for
00:14:40 --> 00:14:43 Thursday, the 9th of April, 2026. We'll
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45 be back tomorrow with everything you
00:14:45 --> 00:14:47 need for Artemis 2 splashdown day. Set
00:14:47 --> 00:14:49 your alarms.
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 >> You can find us on all major podcast
00:14:51 --> 00:14:54 platforms. Search astronomy Daily or
00:14:54 --> 00:14:56 head to astronomyaily.io.
00:14:56 --> 00:15:00 We are on X and Instagram as Astro Daily
00:15:00 --> 00:15:03 Pod on Tik Tok, YouTube, and Tumblr. If
00:15:03 --> 00:15:05 today's episode gave you something to
00:15:05 --> 00:15:07 think about, or if the Gandalf story
00:15:07 --> 00:15:08 made you look up at the sky a little
00:15:08 --> 00:15:10 differently, share it with someone.
00:15:10 --> 00:15:11 That's how we grow.
00:15:11 --> 00:15:12 >> From all of us at the
00:15:12 --> 00:15:16 >> byes.com podcast network, clear skies
00:15:16 --> 00:15:17 and we'll see you tomorrow.
00:15:17 --> 00:15:21 >> Goodbye. Astronomy day.
00:15:21 --> 00:15:29 Stories be told.
00:15:29 --> 00:15:33 Stories to tell.