Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your daily space and astronomy podcast — S05E86, Friday 17 April 2026.
TODAY'S TOP STORIES:
• ARTEMIS II CREW SPEAK OUT: Just six days after splashdown, Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen held their first full post-mission press conference. Wiseman said a Moon landing is 'absolutely doable, and doable soon' — and that given a lander, they'd have touched down. 'We launched as friends, and came back as best friends.'
• BLUE ORIGIN NEW GLENN SUNDAY LAUNCH: After a successful static fire yesterday, the NG-3 mission is targeting a 6:45am ET liftoff on Sunday April 19 — the world's first reuse of a heavy-lift rocket booster. The booster 'Never Tell Me the Odds' previously flew the NASA EscaPADE mission in November 2025.
• WORLD'S HIGHEST TELESCOPE OPENS: The Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) was inaugurated April 9 at 18,400 feet in Chile's Atacama Desert — higher than Everest Base Camp. 34 years in the making, it will revolutionise submillimeter astronomy.
• 33,000 HYDROGEN HALOS DISCOVERED: The HETDEX survey has found 33,000 Lyman-alpha nebulae surrounding early galaxies — a tenfold increase. These are the hydrogen fuel clouds that powered Cosmic Noon, the universe's greatest star-making era 10–12 billion years ago.
• COMET ALERT — TONIGHT: NASA says today is your best chance to see Comet C/2025 R3, potentially the brightest comet of 2026. Binoculars needed; closest approach April 27. It's also New Moon tonight — perfect dark skies!
• AURORA ALERT: A co-rotating interaction region plus fast solar wind from a coronal hole could trigger G1–G2 geomagnetic storms tonight and Saturday. Aurora chasers at high and mid-latitudes — stay alert!
Subscribe to Astronomy Daily: astronomydaily.io | @AstroDailyPod on Instagram, TikTok, X & Tumblr
Part of the Bitesz.com Podcast Network