00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Four astronauts are sitting in
00:00:02 --> 00:00:04 quarantine right now at Kennedy Space
00:00:04 --> 00:00:07 Center in Florida. Bags packed, suits
00:00:07 --> 00:00:10 ready, waiting for the weather to
00:00:10 --> 00:00:14 cooperate. SpaceX Crew 12 is almost go
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 and the countdown is very much on.
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 >> Meanwhile, our sun is doing what it does
00:00:20 --> 00:00:23 best, putting on a show. Plus, a lava
00:00:23 --> 00:00:24 tunnel the size of a city has just been
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 confirmed under the clouds of Venus. And
00:00:27 --> 00:00:29 a tiny teaspoon of asteroid dust has
00:00:29 --> 00:00:31 just rewritten the story of how life's
00:00:31 --> 00:00:34 ingredients form in space. Good morning,
00:00:34 --> 00:00:36 good evening, wherever you are in the
00:00:36 --> 00:00:38 world, and welcome to Astronomy Daily.
00:00:38 --> 00:00:39 >> I'm Anna.
00:00:39 --> 00:00:41 >> And I'm Avery. Let's get into it.
00:00:41 --> 00:00:43 >> Let's kick things off with our lead
00:00:43 --> 00:00:46 story because the ISS is short-handed
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 right now and NASA wants to fix that as
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 soon as possible. The SpaceX Crew 12
00:00:52 --> 00:00:55 mission has been pushed back once again.
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 This time to no earlier than Thursday,
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 February 12th at 5:38 in the morning
00:01:01 --> 00:01:04 Eastern time. The culprit, weather along
00:01:04 --> 00:01:07 the Crew Dragons flight path.
00:01:07 --> 00:01:09 >> Yeah, mission teams did a weather review
00:01:09 --> 00:01:11 and decided to wave off the Wednesday
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 window entirely. Conditions are expected
00:01:13 --> 00:01:16 to improve Thursday, but Friday the 13th
00:01:16 --> 00:01:18 is also being kept as a backup. So,
00:01:18 --> 00:01:19 we're in a holding pattern, but a short
00:01:19 --> 00:01:20 one hopefully.
00:01:20 --> 00:01:23 >> And while we're waiting, let's talk
00:01:23 --> 00:01:25 about the crew because this is a really
00:01:26 --> 00:01:28 international team. Commanding the
00:01:28 --> 00:01:31 mission is NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway,
00:01:31 --> 00:01:33 his first spaceflight command. Pilot
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 seat goes to the brilliant Jessica
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 Meyer, who's no stranger to the ISS.
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 Then you've got Sophie Adonaut
00:01:41 --> 00:01:44 representing the European Space Agency.
00:01:44 --> 00:01:46 This is her first space flight. and
00:01:46 --> 00:01:49 Rosscosmos cosminaut Andre Fedv
00:01:49 --> 00:01:51 completing the quartet.
00:01:51 --> 00:01:53 >> They'll be riding aboard Crew Dragon
00:01:53 --> 00:01:55 Freedom, which is itself a fascinating
00:01:55 --> 00:01:58 spacecraft. This will be Freedom's fifth
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00 flight, returning after a whopping
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 501day turnaround since Crew 9. And
00:02:03 --> 00:02:05 here's something to watch for at launch.
00:02:06 --> 00:02:07 This mission will mark the very first
00:02:07 --> 00:02:10 use of landing zone 40, a brand new
00:02:10 --> 00:02:13 landing pad built right inside the SLC
00:02:13 --> 00:02:16 40 complex itself. So, the booster is
00:02:16 --> 00:02:17 going to launch and then come back and
00:02:17 --> 00:02:20 land right next door. That's wild.
00:02:20 --> 00:02:23 >> It is wild. Now, one thing that makes
00:02:23 --> 00:02:25 this particular rotation different from
00:02:25 --> 00:02:28 the usual 6 months is the expected
00:02:28 --> 00:02:31 duration. Because of crew 11's early
00:02:31 --> 00:02:34 medical evacuation back in January, crew
00:02:34 --> 00:02:37 12 is expected to stay for 8 to 9
00:02:37 --> 00:02:40 months, longer than a typical stay. The
00:02:40 --> 00:02:43 ISS needs the staffing, and this crew is
00:02:43 --> 00:02:46 ready. And it's a big week for launches
00:02:46 --> 00:02:48 beyond just Crew 12. The launch manifest
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 is absolutely stacked right now. We have
00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 ULA's Vulcan rocket going up with
00:02:53 --> 00:02:54 USSF87,
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 a pair of satellite surveillance for the
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 US Space Force. Then there's the first
00:02:58 --> 00:03:01 Aron 64 launch, which will carry 32
00:03:01 --> 00:03:04 Amazon Kyper internet satellites. That's
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 Starlink's main competitor, by the way.
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09 Plus a Russian Proton M and surprise
00:03:09 --> 00:03:12 surprise, multiple Starlink missions. It
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 is genuinely one of the busiest launch
00:03:14 --> 00:03:16 weeks we've seen in a while.
00:03:16 --> 00:03:18 >> So, if you're a launch watcher, clear
00:03:18 --> 00:03:20 your Thursday calendar. Live streams
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 will be available online for most, if
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 not all, of these launches.
00:03:25 --> 00:03:27 >> Okay, story two. And we keep an eye on
00:03:27 --> 00:03:29 our star because right now, as we
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 reported a few days ago, it is being
00:03:31 --> 00:03:36 very talkative. Sunspot region AR4366
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 has been one of the most active regions
00:03:38 --> 00:03:41 of solar cycle 25 and overnight it fired
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 off four M-class flares. The biggest was
00:03:44 --> 00:03:46 an M2.8, that's a moderate flare for
00:03:46 --> 00:03:50 context, at around 214 UTC this morning,
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 which triggered a minor R1class radio
00:03:53 --> 00:03:55 blackout over the seas between Australia
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 and Papa New Guinea. Just to give people
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 a quick refresher on the scale here,
00:04:00 --> 00:04:02 solar flares are classified by their
00:04:02 --> 00:04:06 peak X-ray intensity. C-class are minor,
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 MClass are moderate and can cause brief
00:04:09 --> 00:04:12 radio blackouts at high latitudes, and
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 X-class are the big ones, the kind that
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 can knock out power grids and satellite
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 communications. So, four MClass flares
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 in a day is definitely worth paying
00:04:22 --> 00:04:25 attention to. Ark 4366 has actually been
00:04:25 --> 00:04:28 the source of some spectacular X-class
00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 activity over the past couple of weeks,
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 too. It's been a busy region. Now, it's
00:04:33 --> 00:04:34 rotating out of the Earth-facing part of
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 the sun. So, today the forecast is quiet
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 to unsettled as the corona whole stream
00:04:40 --> 00:04:42 influence gradually weakens, but
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 forecasters will be watching it closely.
00:04:44 --> 00:04:47 If we get any significant CMEs thrown
00:04:47 --> 00:04:49 our way, that could mean aurora's
00:04:49 --> 00:04:50 pushing further from the poles than
00:04:50 --> 00:04:53 usual, which is always exciting news for
00:04:53 --> 00:04:54 sky watchers.
00:04:54 --> 00:04:56 >> We're still in an active phase of solar
00:04:56 --> 00:04:58 cycle 25, which is tracking hotter than
00:04:58 --> 00:05:00 predicted. So, don't put the Aurora
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 alert apps away just yet. We'll keep
00:05:02 --> 00:05:03 monitoring.
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 >> We certainly will. This is exciting
00:05:05 --> 00:05:06 stuff.
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 >> Okay, moving on. Story three takes us to
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 one of the most exciting ongoing areas
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 of science, the Bennu samples from
00:05:13 --> 00:05:15 NASA's Osiris Rex mission. We've talked
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 about Bennu a lot, and each new study
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 seems to shift our thinking a little
00:05:20 --> 00:05:22 more. This week's paper published in the
00:05:22 --> 00:05:23 proceedings of the National Academy of
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 Sciences might be the biggest shift yet.
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 >> So, what's the finding? For decades,
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 scientists thought amino acids in
00:05:31 --> 00:05:33 asteroids form through what's called
00:05:33 --> 00:05:35 striker synthesis, a process that
00:05:35 --> 00:05:38 requires warm liquid water. The classic
00:05:38 --> 00:05:40 picture was something like a wet warm
00:05:40 --> 00:05:43 asteroid interior chemistry bubbling
00:05:43 --> 00:05:45 along. But the Penn State team led by
00:05:45 --> 00:05:48 Allison Bazinski looked at the isotopic
00:05:48 --> 00:05:50 signatures of amino acids in the Benu
00:05:50 --> 00:05:52 samples, specifically glycine, which is
00:05:52 --> 00:05:55 the simplest amino acid, and found that
00:05:55 --> 00:05:57 the story is much more complicated. The
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 data suggests these amino acids formed
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 under harsh, cold, icy, radiationrich
00:06:02 --> 00:06:04 environments. The kind of environment
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 we'd associate more with the outer solar
00:06:06 --> 00:06:09 system than a warm, watery asteroid.
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 Bazinski described it as their results
00:06:11 --> 00:06:13 flipping the script on how amino acids
00:06:13 --> 00:06:16 form. It's not just one pathway anymore.
00:06:16 --> 00:06:18 It looks like there are many conditions
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 under which life's building blocks can
00:06:20 --> 00:06:21 emerge.
00:06:21 --> 00:06:23 >> And why does that matter? Because if
00:06:23 --> 00:06:26 amino acids can form in extreme icy
00:06:26 --> 00:06:28 environments, not just warm, watery
00:06:28 --> 00:06:31 ones, the range of places in the cosmos
00:06:31 --> 00:06:33 where life's precursors might exist,
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35 just got dramatically wider. We're
00:06:35 --> 00:06:38 talking about icy moons, comet nuclei,
00:06:38 --> 00:06:40 the outer reaches of the solar system,
00:06:40 --> 00:06:41 places we might not have been
00:06:42 --> 00:06:43 prioritizing in the search for life's
00:06:43 --> 00:06:44 ingredients.
00:06:44 --> 00:06:46 >> What's remarkable is that all of this
00:06:46 --> 00:06:48 came from a sample smaller than a
00:06:48 --> 00:06:51 teaspoon. That speck of 4.6 6 billiony
00:06:51 --> 00:06:54 old asteroid dust is genuinely changing
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 our understanding of how life may have
00:06:56 --> 00:06:58 gotten started. The Osiris Rex mission
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 just keeps on giving. Story for today.
00:07:01 --> 00:07:04 And I genuinely love this one. We found
00:07:04 --> 00:07:06 lava tubes on the moon. We found them on
00:07:06 --> 00:07:09 Mars. And now for the first time,
00:07:09 --> 00:07:11 scientists have confirmed one on Venus.
00:07:12 --> 00:07:14 A team from the University of Trento in
00:07:14 --> 00:07:16 Italy has published a paper in Nature
00:07:16 --> 00:07:18 Communications this week revealing the
00:07:18 --> 00:07:20 existence of a massive underground lava
00:07:20 --> 00:07:22 tunnel on our closest planetary
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 neighbor. And the really clever part of
00:07:24 --> 00:07:27 this story is how they found it. Venus
00:07:27 --> 00:07:29 is famously difficult to observe. It's
00:07:29 --> 00:07:31 permanently wrapped in thick sulfuric
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 acid clouds that block direct
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 photography of the surface. So the team
00:07:36 --> 00:07:37 went back to radar data collected by
00:07:37 --> 00:07:40 NASA's Mellan spacecraft between 1990
00:07:40 --> 00:07:44 and 1992. Data that's over 30 years old.
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 They developed a new imaging technique
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 specifically designed to detect
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 underground conduits near surface
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 collapse features called skylights. And
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 when they applied it to the Nyx Mons
00:07:54 --> 00:07:55 region, named for the Greek goddess of
00:07:55 --> 00:07:57 the night, they found it.
00:07:57 --> 00:08:00 >> Now let's talk size for a moment because
00:08:00 --> 00:08:03 this thing is enormous. The lava tube is
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 estimated to be around 1 kilometer wide.
00:08:06 --> 00:08:08 That's wider than any lava tube found on
00:08:08 --> 00:08:10 Earth, the moon, or Mars. The roof is at
00:08:10 --> 00:08:14 least 150 m thick. The empty void below
00:08:14 --> 00:08:17 is at least 375 m deep. And based on the
00:08:17 --> 00:08:19 surrounding terrain analysis, the whole
00:08:20 --> 00:08:23 conduit could extend for at least 45 km
00:08:23 --> 00:08:24 underground.
00:08:24 --> 00:08:28 >> 45 km. That's a subterranean highway.
00:08:28 --> 00:08:30 And there's an interesting reason it's
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 so big. Venus has lower gravity than
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 Earth and a denser atmosphere, which
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 actually favors the rapid formation of a
00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 thick insulating crust on top of lava
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44 flows. So, the tubes can grow larger and
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 last longer on Venus than elsewhere. The
00:08:47 --> 00:08:49 planet with the worst surface conditions
00:08:49 --> 00:08:51 in the solar system might have some
00:08:51 --> 00:08:53 remarkably stable real estate
00:08:53 --> 00:08:54 underground.
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 >> This also has really important
00:08:56 --> 00:08:59 implications for future Venus missions.
00:08:59 --> 00:09:01 Envision spacecraft and NASA's
00:09:01 --> 00:09:03 Veraritoss are both being developed for
00:09:03 --> 00:09:06 Venus and both will carry advanced radar
00:09:06 --> 00:09:08 systems capable of doing this kind of
00:09:08 --> 00:09:10 subsurface analysis in far greater
00:09:10 --> 00:09:13 detail. The team describes this
00:09:13 --> 00:09:15 discovery as only the beginning of what
00:09:15 --> 00:09:17 could be a long and fascinating research
00:09:17 --> 00:09:20 program into Venus's hidden geology.
00:09:20 --> 00:09:23 >> And our final story today takes a
00:09:23 --> 00:09:25 delightfully unexpected angle on the
00:09:25 --> 00:09:27 search for extraterrestrial
00:09:27 --> 00:09:29 intelligence. A new paper in the
00:09:29 --> 00:09:32 International Journal of Astrobiology by
00:09:32 --> 00:09:35 plant biologist Lincoln Ties at UC Santa
00:09:35 --> 00:09:38 Cruz argues that if we want to find
00:09:38 --> 00:09:40 advanced alien civilizations, we should
00:09:40 --> 00:09:43 be looking for exoplanets with large
00:09:43 --> 00:09:45 accessible deposits of coal.
00:09:46 --> 00:09:49 >> Coal, not radio signals, not Dyson
00:09:49 --> 00:09:53 spheres, coal. I genuinely love this. So
00:09:53 --> 00:09:55 what's the argument? TICE traces the
00:09:55 --> 00:09:57 chain of development that led to us
00:09:57 --> 00:09:59 being able to communicate across
00:09:59 --> 00:10:02 interstellar distances. On Earth, none
00:10:02 --> 00:10:05 of our advanced technology, no steel, no
00:10:05 --> 00:10:07 deep fossil fuel extraction, no
00:10:07 --> 00:10:10 electricity, no radio telescopes would
00:10:10 --> 00:10:11 have been possible without first being
00:10:12 --> 00:10:15 able to forge steel. and steel required
00:10:15 --> 00:10:18 coal. Specifically, huge amounts of
00:10:18 --> 00:10:20 shallow energy dense coal like the
00:10:20 --> 00:10:22 deposits laid down during the
00:10:22 --> 00:10:25 Carboniferous and Peran periods roughly
00:10:25 --> 00:10:29 330 to 260 million years ago. The paper
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 argues that the same logic should apply
00:10:32 --> 00:10:34 to any technological civilization
00:10:34 --> 00:10:37 anywhere in the universe. Intelligence
00:10:37 --> 00:10:40 isn't enough. Biology isn't enough. You
00:10:40 --> 00:10:43 need the geology to match a planet that
00:10:43 --> 00:10:44 happened to grow the right kinds of
00:10:44 --> 00:10:47 forests at the right time in its history
00:10:47 --> 00:10:49 under the right conditions to bury them
00:10:49 --> 00:10:52 and compress them into energy dense coal
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 seams that a curious civilization could
00:10:55 --> 00:10:57 then dig up and use to bootstrap an
00:10:57 --> 00:10:59 industrial revolution.
00:10:59 --> 00:11:01 >> And the implications for SETI are
00:11:01 --> 00:11:03 fascinating. The paper suggests planets
00:11:03 --> 00:11:05 in the so-called photosynthetic
00:11:05 --> 00:11:08 habitable zone where both liquid water
00:11:08 --> 00:11:10 and oxygen producing photosynthesis are
00:11:10 --> 00:11:13 possible might be relatively rare. Even
00:11:13 --> 00:11:15 rarer are the planets where all the
00:11:15 --> 00:11:18 conditions align. The right star, the
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 right orbit, the right biology, the
00:11:20 --> 00:11:23 right geology, and the right timing.
00:11:23 --> 00:11:26 Hole doesn't just appear. It requires a
00:11:26 --> 00:11:29 very specific sequence of events across
00:11:29 --> 00:11:31 hundreds of millions of years. There is
00:11:31 --> 00:11:34 also a potential detection angle. An
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 alien industrial revolution would
00:11:36 --> 00:11:39 produce atmospheric signatures. Elevated
00:11:39 --> 00:11:42 carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
00:11:42 --> 00:11:45 oxides. So these are theoretically
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 detectable with sufficiently powerful
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 telescopes. The catch, as the paper
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52 acknowledges, is that the coal burning
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 phase of any civilization would be
00:11:54 --> 00:11:56 relatively brief. We certainly hope it
00:11:56 --> 00:11:58 is. So the detection window would be
00:11:58 --> 00:12:01 narrow, but it adds a whole new layer to
00:12:01 --> 00:12:03 what we're looking for when we study
00:12:03 --> 00:12:05 exoplanet atmospheres.
00:12:05 --> 00:12:07 >> It's also a slightly humbling thought.
00:12:07 --> 00:12:09 The reason we can have this
00:12:09 --> 00:12:11 conversation, the reason we built the
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 telescopes and the rockets and the radio
00:12:13 --> 00:12:15 transmitters might ultimately come down
00:12:15 --> 00:12:18 to a lucky geological accident 300
00:12:18 --> 00:12:20 million years ago. We happen to live on
00:12:20 --> 00:12:22 a planet with a lot of coal in the right
00:12:22 --> 00:12:25 places at the right time. Not every
00:12:25 --> 00:12:27 world will be so fortunate.
00:12:27 --> 00:12:29 >> And that is your Astronomy Daily for
00:12:29 --> 00:12:33 Tuesday the 10th of February, 2026. From
00:12:33 --> 00:12:35 solar fireworks and a countdown to
00:12:35 --> 00:12:38 launch to lava tunnels on Venus,
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 rewritten science from Bennu and a
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 genuinely thoughtprovoking new take on
00:12:43 --> 00:12:45 the search for extraterrestrial life.
00:12:45 --> 00:12:47 It's been quite the episode.
00:12:47 --> 00:12:49 >> If you enjoy today's show, please take a
00:12:49 --> 00:12:50 moment to leave us a review wherever you
00:12:50 --> 00:12:52 listen. It genuinely helps more people
00:12:52 --> 00:12:55 find us. And if you want to go deeper on
00:12:55 --> 00:12:57 any of today's stories, we have links to
00:12:57 --> 00:12:58 all the source articles waiting for you
00:12:58 --> 00:13:01 in the show notes at astronomyaily.io.
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 >> Find us on social media at astrodaily
00:13:03 --> 00:13:05 pod. And if you've got a question, a
00:13:05 --> 00:13:07 story tip, or just want to tell us what
00:13:07 --> 00:13:09 you think, we'd love to hear from you.
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11 Thanks for listening and we'll see you
00:13:11 --> 00:13:14 again tomorrow. I'm Anna. And I'm Avery.
00:13:14 --> 00:13:19 Keep looking up.
00:13:19 --> 00:13:26 No
00:13:26 --> 00:13:30 stories told.