Welcome to Astronomy Daily — your daily space and astronomy news podcast. In Season 5, Episode 89, Anna and Avery cover today's biggest stories from across the cosmos.
🔭 NASA'S ROMAN TELESCOPE IS COMPLETE
NASA has unveiled the fully assembled Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland — one of the last chances to see it before it ships to the launch pad. With a field of view 100 times wider than Hubble's, Roman is targeting a launch as early as fall 2026 and will map hundreds of millions of galaxies.
🪐 MARS 'BATHTUB RING' — ANCIENT OCEAN EVIDENCE
Caltech researchers publishing in Nature have identified a vast coastal shelf wrapping Mars' northern hemisphere — a geological 'bathtub ring' consistent with an ancient ocean that once covered a third of the Red Planet. River delta alignments bolster the case for a stable, habitable Martian sea that may have persisted for millions of years.
🚀 FAA GROUNDS NEW GLENN ROCKET
Following Sunday's upper-stage failure that left the AST SpaceMobile BlueBird 7 satellite stranded at the wrong altitude, the FAA has formally classified the event as a mishap and grounded Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket pending investigation. CEO Dave Limp has identified a BE-3U engine underperformance as the likely cause.
🌌 SPHEREX MAPS THE MILKY WAY IN 102 COLOURS
NASA's SPHEREx observatory — which launched in March 2025 — has published its first science results, mapping interstellar ice including water, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, as well as complex organic molecules, across star-forming regions of our galaxy. SPHEREx captures 3,600 images per day across 102 infrared wavelengths.
💧 EXOPLANETS NEED WATER TO STAY HABITABLE
New research finds that being in the habitable zone is not enough — exoplanets without substantial water lose the carbon cycle stability that maintains liveable temperatures, and can become greenhouse worlds regardless of their orbital position. The findings raise the bar for what counts as a truly Earth-like world.
🧠 SPACE CHANGES YOUR BRAIN — AND IT LINGERS
A new study published in PNAS reveals that spaceflight physically shifts the brain inside the skull, affecting sensory and balance regions — and those effects can persist after astronauts return to Earth. The findings have significant implications for long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.
📌 CHAPTERS
0:00 — Introduction & Headlines
1:00 — NASA Roman Telescope Unveiled
6:00 — Mars 'Bathtub Ring' Ocean Evidence
11:00 — FAA Grounds New Glenn Rocket
15:30 — SPHEREx Maps the Milky Way
20:00 — Exoplanets Need Water to Stay Habitable
24:30 — Space Changes Your Brain
29:00 — Sign-off
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