Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-latest-space-news--5648921/support.
Sponsor Details:
Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.astronomydaily.io/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!
Get the best secure and private email on the planet. Stop your Government, google and who knows who else spying on every email you write. Do what we did and use ProtonMail. They beleive in privacy and there are no ads in their business model...yet they still provide a free forever service. Check them out and get out special deal at www.astronomydaily.io/protonmail
Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click Here
This episode includes AI-generated content.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your daily
00:00:02 --> 00:00:05 dose of the latest space and astronomy news.
00:00:05 --> 00:00:06 I'm Anna.
00:00:06 --> 00:00:09 Avery: And I'm avery. It's Friday the 17th
00:00:09 --> 00:00:12 of July, 2026, and honestly,
00:00:12 --> 00:00:14 if you only listen to one episode of this
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 show all month, make it this one.
00:00:17 --> 00:00:19 Anna: No pressure then, but Avery's not
00:00:19 --> 00:00:21 exaggerating. Today we're leading with a
00:00:21 --> 00:00:24 genuine milestone in the search for life
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 beyond Earth. The first atmosphere ever
00:00:27 --> 00:00:29 detected on a rocky temperate planet
00:00:29 --> 00:00:31 sitting in the habitable zone of.
00:00:32 --> 00:00:34 Avery: We've also got last night's starship drama.
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 And there was drama, just not the kind
00:00:37 --> 00:00:40 anyone had scripted. Plus, the meteorite
00:00:40 --> 00:00:42 that smashed through a New Jersey bedroom
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 ceiling and turned out to be carrying the
00:00:44 --> 00:00:46 chemical ingredients of life itself.
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 Anna: And later, the earliest evidence yet of a
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 galaxy building itself from the inside out.
00:00:52 --> 00:00:55 Some gloriously strange metallic waves on
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 Mars. And as always, we'll close with what to
00:00:58 --> 00:01:00 look for in tonight's southern skies. And
00:01:00 --> 00:01:02 trust me, tonight you'll actually want to
00:01:02 --> 00:01:04 step outside, buckle um in.
00:01:04 --> 00:01:05 Avery: Let's get into it.
00:01:05 --> 00:01:06 Anna: Avery.
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 Every so often a result comes along that
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 future textbooks will point back to. This
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 might be one of those. Astronomers have
00:01:13 --> 00:01:16 detected an atmosphere around a rocky
00:01:16 --> 00:01:19 temperate planet called LHS 1140
00:01:19 --> 00:01:22 b. And that makes it the first rocky world in
00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 a habitable zone anywhere beyond our solar
00:01:25 --> 00:01:27 system confirmed to have air.
00:01:27 --> 00:01:30 Avery: Lets set, uh, the scene, because context is
00:01:30 --> 00:01:33 everything here. LHS 1140
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 B sits about 48 light years away,
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 orbiting a small, cool red dwarf star.
00:01:39 --> 00:01:42 It's what we call a super Earth. Roughly five
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 and a half times the mass of our planet. And
00:01:45 --> 00:01:48 crucially, it orbits inside the habitable
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 zone. That's the region where temperatures
00:01:50 --> 00:01:53 allow liquid water to exist on a planet's
00:01:53 --> 00:01:53 surface.
00:01:54 --> 00:01:56 Anna: Now, detecting atmospheres on exoplanets
00:01:56 --> 00:01:59 isn't new. We've been doing it for more than
00:01:59 --> 00:02:02 two decades. But until now, essentially
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 every confirmed atmosphere belonged to big
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 gas, bloated giants, hot Jupiters,
00:02:08 --> 00:02:10 planets. Nothing like our own. Small,
00:02:10 --> 00:02:13 rocky planets are so much dimmer and smaller
00:02:13 --> 00:02:16 than their stars that teasing out an
00:02:16 --> 00:02:18 atmospheric signal has been fiendishly
00:02:18 --> 00:02:19 difficult.
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 Avery: Which is what makes this such a big deal. The
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 team led by Colin Cherubim, who did this work
00:02:24 --> 00:02:27 as a PhD student at Harvard, found a
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 signature of helium escaping from the
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 planet's atmosphere. The result has just been
00:02:32 --> 00:02:33 published in the journal Science.
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 Anna: Helium might sound like an odd headline.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 Gas. Nobody is imagining alien birthday
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 balloons. But it tells us something profound.
00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 This planet has held onto an atmosphere
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 despite orbiting a red dwarf. And red
00:02:48 --> 00:02:51 dwarfs are famously nasty neighbors. They
00:02:51 --> 00:02:53 blast their planets with X rays and
00:02:53 --> 00:02:56 ultraviolet Radiation that tends to strip
00:02:56 --> 00:02:57 atmospheres entirely.
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 Avery: The modeling suggests
00:02:59 --> 00:03:02 LHS1140B
00:03:02 --> 00:03:05 is far enough from its star that it's managed
00:03:05 --> 00:03:07 to keep a good chunk of the primordial helium
00:03:07 --> 00:03:09 it gathered when it formed. And the
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 researchers think there's more to this world
00:03:11 --> 00:03:14 than helium. Its density suggests
00:03:14 --> 00:03:17 it's rocky, likely with an iron core.
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 And it probably holds a lot of water, too.
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 Anna: And here's the tantalizing bit. If the
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 atmosphere provides even a modest greenhouse
00:03:25 --> 00:03:28 effect, and we now know there is an
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30 atmosphere, then conditions on this planet
00:03:30 --> 00:03:33 could plausibly support liquid water. A
00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 rocky planet, an atmosphere, the right
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 temperature. That's the trifecta, uh,
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 astrobiologists have been chasing for 30
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 years now.
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 Avery: The discipline. The lead author has been very
00:03:45 --> 00:03:47 clear that nobody is claiming this planet has
00:03:47 --> 00:03:50 life. What they are claiming, and it's
00:03:50 --> 00:03:52 remarkable enough, is the first direct
00:03:52 --> 00:03:55 evidence that a rocky habitable zone planet
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 can hold an atmosphere at all. That's a
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 foundational question answered.
00:03:59 --> 00:04:02 Anna: There's also a lovely thought buried in this
00:04:02 --> 00:04:05 work. Researchers suspect that the very early
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 Earth might have gone through a phase with a
00:04:07 --> 00:04:10 primordial atmosphere a bit like this one.
00:04:10 --> 00:04:11 So in studying
00:04:11 --> 00:04:14 HLS1140B, we
00:04:14 --> 00:04:16 might be looking at an echo of our own
00:04:16 --> 00:04:18 planet's infancy.
00:04:18 --> 00:04:20 Avery: Expect a stampede of follow up observations.
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 Astronomers will want to know what else is in
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 that atmosphere and whether there's water.
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 LHS1140B just
00:04:28 --> 00:04:31 became one of the most important addresses in
00:04:31 --> 00:04:31 the galaxy.
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 Anna: 48 light years away, a small world is
00:04:35 --> 00:04:37 holding its breath. Well, holding its
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 atmosphere. And for the first time, we can
00:04:40 --> 00:04:42 say that with evidence from a world
00:04:42 --> 00:04:45 Avery: with air to a rocket that never left the
00:04:45 --> 00:04:45 ground.
00:04:46 --> 00:04:47 Regular listeners know we've been tracking
00:04:47 --> 00:04:50 Starship Flight 13 all week, and last
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 night was supposed to be the night.
00:04:52 --> 00:04:55 Anna: Quick refresher for anyone just joining the
00:04:55 --> 00:04:58 Ark. Flight 13 is the second outing for
00:04:58 --> 00:05:00 Starship's version 3 hardware. And its
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 headline task is deploying 20 real
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 Starlink V3 satellites. Actual
00:05:05 --> 00:05:07 functioning spacecraft, not the mass
00:05:07 --> 00:05:09 simulators of earlier flights.
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 Avery: So Thursday evening, Texas time, the
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 countdown ran all the way down. The Raptor
00:05:15 --> 00:05:17 engines on the super heavy booster began
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 igniting. And then everything stopped.
00:05:20 --> 00:05:22 Several engines failed to start, and the
00:05:22 --> 00:05:24 vehicle's automated systems triggered a
00:05:24 --> 00:05:26 launch abort at T0.
00:05:26 --> 00:05:29 Anna: Which, let's be clear, is the system doing
00:05:29 --> 00:05:32 exactly what it's designed to do. An abort at
00:05:32 --> 00:05:35 ignition is undramatic by design. The
00:05:35 --> 00:05:37 vehicle is safe, the pad is safe, and
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 everyone gets to try again.
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 Avery: Elon Musk weighed in shortly Afterwards,
00:05:42 --> 00:05:44 confirming that some engines didn't start and
00:05:44 --> 00:05:47 the automatic abort kicked in. And the fix is
00:05:47 --> 00:05:49 already defined. Two Raptor engines will be
00:05:49 --> 00:05:52 removed and replaced with the most likely new
00:05:52 --> 00:05:54 launch window early next week.
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 Anna: And it's worth remembering the stakes riding
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 on this one. The FAA only closed out its
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 Flight 12 mishap investigation last week.
00:06:02 --> 00:06:05 That flight lost the booster during its
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 landing burn and dropped an engine on ascent.
00:06:08 --> 00:06:11 Flight 13 carries the fixes for all of
00:06:11 --> 00:06:13 that, plus that first real payload
00:06:13 --> 00:06:13 deployment.
00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 Avery: And the bigger picture. SpaceX has filed
00:06:16 --> 00:06:19 plans for a next Gener Starlink
00:06:19 --> 00:06:21 constellation of up to 100 V3
00:06:21 --> 00:06:24 satellites. A network that only works if
00:06:24 --> 00:06:27 Starship becomes a reliable, high cadence
00:06:27 --> 00:06:30 workhorse. Every one of these test flights is
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 a stepping stone toward that and toward
00:06:32 --> 00:06:35 NASA's Artemis lunar landings, which depend
00:06:35 --> 00:06:36 on Starship too.
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 Anna: So, a, uh, frustrating night at Starbase, but
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 a recoverable one. Two engines out. Two
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 engines in and we go again. We'll bring you
00:06:44 --> 00:06:47 the launch, the actual launch. Fingers
00:06:47 --> 00:06:48 crossed, as soon as it happens.
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52 Now for my favorite story of the day. Cast
00:06:52 --> 00:06:54 your mind back to 16th July,
00:06:54 --> 00:06:57 2024. Two years ago this week, a
00:06:57 --> 00:07:00 daytime fireball streaked across the skies of
00:07:00 --> 00:07:03 the US East Coast. A sonic boom rattled
00:07:03 --> 00:07:05 New York City. And in the town of
00:07:05 --> 00:07:07 Hillsborough, New Jersey, a rock from space
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 punched straight through the roof of a house
00:07:10 --> 00:07:11 and into a bedroom.
00:07:12 --> 00:07:14 Avery: Imagine coming home to that, a hole in your
00:07:14 --> 00:07:16 ceiling and sitting there among the
00:07:16 --> 00:07:19 insulation, a stone reeking of sulfur.
00:07:19 --> 00:07:22 That was quite recently in interplanetary
00:07:22 --> 00:07:22 space.
00:07:23 --> 00:07:25 Anna: And here's where the homeowner becomes the
00:07:25 --> 00:07:27 hero of the story. Rather than putting it on
00:07:27 --> 00:07:30 the mantelpiece, they acted fast, gathering
00:07:30 --> 00:07:33 the fragments, sealing them in glass jars and
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 quickly contacting the American Meteor
00:07:35 --> 00:07:38 Society. That speed mattered enormously
00:07:38 --> 00:07:40 because meteorites start reacting with
00:07:40 --> 00:07:43 Earth's moist atmosphere the moment they
00:07:43 --> 00:07:43 land.
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 Avery: Two years of laboratory work later, the
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 results have just been published in Science
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 Advances, and the Hillsborough meteorite has
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 turned out to be a, uh, genuine treasure.
00:07:53 --> 00:07:55 It's a carbonaceous chondrite, the carbon
00:07:55 --> 00:07:57 rich family of meteorites that preserves
00:07:57 --> 00:08:00 primitive material from before the planets
00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 even finished forming. More than 4 1/2
00:08:02 --> 00:08:04 billion years old.
00:08:04 --> 00:08:07 Anna: But it gets rarer. CM M type
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 meteorites are usually classed as CM M1 or
00:08:10 --> 00:08:12 CM M2, depending on how much ancient
00:08:12 --> 00:08:14 water altered them while they were still part
00:08:14 --> 00:08:17 of their parent. Hillsborough sits
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 right in between a cm um 1,
00:08:20 --> 00:08:23 2. And it's only the second meteorite of
00:08:23 --> 00:08:26 that intermediate type ever seen falling to
00:08:26 --> 00:08:28 Earth. Thanks to that quick thinking
00:08:28 --> 00:08:30 homeowner, it's the most pristine example we
00:08:30 --> 00:08:31 have.
00:08:31 --> 00:08:34 Avery: And the chemistry inside is the real
00:08:34 --> 00:08:36 prize. The analysis found amino, uh,
00:08:37 --> 00:08:39 acids, the building blocks of proteins, along
00:08:39 --> 00:08:42 with carboxylic acids and a whole inventory
00:08:42 --> 00:08:45 of organic compounds. Researchers at
00:08:45 --> 00:08:48 NASA Goddard's astrobiology lab concluded
00:08:48 --> 00:08:50 these molecules likely formed inside the
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 parent AstroDailyPod along by briny,
00:08:53 --> 00:08:54 salty fluids.
00:08:55 --> 00:08:57 Anna: Salty is the operative word. The team
00:08:57 --> 00:09:00 found tiny salt rich fragments suggesting
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 this rock came from near the surface of its
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 parent asteroid, where liquid water
00:09:04 --> 00:09:07 evaporated and concentrated salts,
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 essentially an asteroid with brine deposits.
00:09:10 --> 00:09:12 They're now comparing those salts directly
00:09:12 --> 00:09:14 with the samples returned from asteroids
00:09:14 --> 00:09:16 Ryugu and Bennu.
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 Avery: And the big picture takeaway this
00:09:18 --> 00:09:21 strengthens the idea that meteorites just
00:09:21 --> 00:09:24 like this one delivered organic molecules,
00:09:24 --> 00:09:27 the raw ingredients for life's chemistry, to
00:09:27 --> 00:09:29 the early Earth. The stuff of
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 biology arriving by special
00:09:31 --> 00:09:34 Anna: delivery fragments are now being curated at
00:09:34 --> 00:09:37 the American Museum of Natural History in New
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 York City. And one of the scientists made the
00:09:39 --> 00:09:42 point that if a meteorite ever visits your
00:09:42 --> 00:09:45 house, you're not unlucky. You've been handed
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 a treasure. So maybe check your roof
00:09:47 --> 00:09:48 insurance policy.
00:09:48 --> 00:09:51 Avery: All the same, yesterday we looked at how
00:09:51 --> 00:09:53 supermassive black holes feed themselves
00:09:53 --> 00:09:55 today. A related question from the other
00:09:56 --> 00:09:59 how do galaxies build their centers in the
00:09:59 --> 00:10:01 first place? Astronomers at Durham University
00:10:02 --> 00:10:04 have just found the earliest example of that
00:10:04 --> 00:10:05 construction in action.
00:10:06 --> 00:10:09 Anna: Using the James Webb Space Telescope, the
00:10:09 --> 00:10:11 Durham led team studied a galaxy as it
00:10:11 --> 00:10:14 appeared more than 9 billion years ago, when
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 the universe was well under half its current
00:10:16 --> 00:10:19 age. And at its center they found something
00:10:19 --> 00:10:22 never before seen at that distancea nuclear
00:10:22 --> 00:10:24 Avery: disk, a nuclear disk being
00:10:25 --> 00:10:27 and I love that astronomy makes this sound
00:10:27 --> 00:10:30 more alarming than it is a compact,
00:10:30 --> 00:10:33 dense rotating disk of stars right at a
00:10:33 --> 00:10:35 galaxy's core. They're common in mature
00:10:35 --> 00:10:38 galaxies near us today, but nobody had ever
00:10:38 --> 00:10:40 caught one this far back in cosmic history.
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 Anna: And this one is busy. It's compact,
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 rich in young stars, and showing all the
00:10:46 --> 00:10:49 signs of organized, orderly growth. The
00:10:49 --> 00:10:52 galaxy also hosts a long stellar bar,
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 one of those elongated structures of stars
00:10:55 --> 00:10:57 that rotate as a single unit, which is
00:10:57 --> 00:10:59 thought to funnel gas inward and feed the
00:10:59 --> 00:11:02 disk's construction. The paper is out in the
00:11:02 --> 00:11:04 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
00:11:04 --> 00:11:05 Society.
00:11:05 --> 00:11:08 Avery: The lead author, Zoe Leconte, called it a
00:11:08 --> 00:11:11 remarkable and unexpected find, one that
00:11:11 --> 00:11:13 will push astronomers to rethink galaxy
00:11:13 --> 00:11:16 evolution and the role of stellar bars in the
00:11:16 --> 00:11:19 early universe. It's another entry in what's
00:11:19 --> 00:11:21 becoming Webb's signature discovery.
00:11:21 --> 00:11:24 Mature looking galaxies showing up far
00:11:24 --> 00:11:26 earlier than anyone predicted.
00:11:26 --> 00:11:28 Anna: And there's a black hole connection here,
00:11:28 --> 00:11:31 too. Nuclear disks are Believed to act
00:11:31 --> 00:11:33 as reservoirs, storing gas that can
00:11:33 --> 00:11:35 eventually spiral down to feed a, uh,
00:11:36 --> 00:11:38 galaxy's central supermassive black hole.
00:11:39 --> 00:11:41 So finding 1,9 billion years back may
00:11:41 --> 00:11:44 help explain how black holes bulked up during
00:11:44 --> 00:11:46 the universe's most hyperactive era.
00:11:47 --> 00:11:49 Avery: The team's next step is follow up
00:11:49 --> 00:11:51 observations to map how the stars and gas
00:11:51 --> 00:11:54 actually move within this distant galaxy.
00:11:54 --> 00:11:56 Watch this space, quite literally.
00:11:56 --> 00:11:59 Anna: Next up, time for something purely
00:11:59 --> 00:12:02 gloriously visual. The European
00:12:02 --> 00:12:05 Space Agency has released a new image
00:12:05 --> 00:12:07 from its veteran Mars Express
00:12:08 --> 00:12:10 orbiter. And it shows what looks for all
00:12:10 --> 00:12:13 the world like an ocean of frozen metal
00:12:13 --> 00:12:15 on the Red planet.
00:12:15 --> 00:12:18 Avery: The scene is Keizer Crater, a huge impact
00:12:18 --> 00:12:21 basin about 180km across
00:12:21 --> 00:12:24 and a couple of kilometers deep, sitting in
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 Noassus Terra, one of the oldest, most
00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 battered landscapes on Mars, pummeled by
00:12:29 --> 00:12:31 impacts for the past 4 billion years.
00:12:31 --> 00:12:34 Anna: And across the crater floor, waves
00:12:34 --> 00:12:37 dark, sinuous, almost shiny ridges
00:12:37 --> 00:12:40 that genuinely look carved from polished
00:12:40 --> 00:12:42 metal. They're sand dunes,
00:12:42 --> 00:12:45 enormous ones, some towering more than a
00:12:45 --> 00:12:47 hundred meters above the surrounding terrain.
00:12:48 --> 00:12:51 That's a dune taller than a 30 story
00:12:51 --> 00:12:51 building.
00:12:52 --> 00:12:55 Avery: The metallic sheen has a lovely explanation.
00:12:55 --> 00:12:58 Bright frost deposits clinging to the dune's
00:12:58 --> 00:13:01 south facing slopes, catching the light. Dark
00:13:01 --> 00:13:04 volcanic sand below. Glittering frost on
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 top. Mars doing its best impression of a
00:13:06 --> 00:13:07 sculpture garden.
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10 Anna: The winds in this region blow predominantly
00:13:10 --> 00:13:13 from the west, herding the sand into those
00:13:13 --> 00:13:16 distinctive crests. Some standing alone,
00:13:16 --> 00:13:19 others merging into a continuous dune field
00:13:19 --> 00:13:22 stretching for kilometers. It's a reminder
00:13:22 --> 00:13:25 that Mars is not a static museum piece.
00:13:25 --> 00:13:28 It's a working windy world where landscapes
00:13:28 --> 00:13:29 are still being shaped today.
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32 Avery: The image comes from the orbiter's high
00:13:32 --> 00:13:35 resolution stereo camera, captured last
00:13:35 --> 00:13:37 October and released this week. Mars Express,
00:13:38 --> 00:13:40 remember, has been at Mars since 2003.
00:13:41 --> 00:13:43 23 years of service and still sending
00:13:43 --> 00:13:46 back postcards like this. We'll pop the link
00:13:46 --> 00:13:48 in the show notes. It's worth a proper look
00:13:48 --> 00:13:49 on a big screen.
00:13:50 --> 00:13:52 And so to the skies above us and tonight's
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 Southern hemisphere friends, you get the good
00:13:54 --> 00:13:57 stuff. Without even staying up late, head out
00:13:57 --> 00:14:00 Anna: just after sunset and look to the western
00:14:00 --> 00:14:02 sky. There you'll find a beautifully
00:14:02 --> 00:14:05 thin crescent moon, only a few days
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 past noon, hanging near brilliant
00:14:07 --> 00:14:10 Venus, with the bright star Regulus, the
00:14:10 --> 00:14:13 heart of Leo the lion, completing the trio.
00:14:13 --> 00:14:16 Avery: This is the meeting we flagged earlier in the
00:14:16 --> 00:14:18 week, and tonight's the night. A crescent
00:14:18 --> 00:14:21 moon and Venus together in twilight is one of
00:14:21 --> 00:14:23 the most photogenic sights in all of sky
00:14:23 --> 00:14:25 watching. No telescope required, though.
00:14:25 --> 00:14:28 Binoculars will show you Earthshine glowing
00:14:28 --> 00:14:29 softly on the moon's nightside.
00:14:30 --> 00:14:32 Anna: And because the Moon is still such a slim
00:14:32 --> 00:14:35 crescent, dark sky conditions continue this
00:14:35 --> 00:14:38 weekend from southern latitudes. The Milky
00:14:38 --> 00:14:41 Way core is riding gloriously high in the
00:14:41 --> 00:14:43 evening. Sagittarius and Scorpius
00:14:43 --> 00:14:46 overhead, dust lanes and star clouds on
00:14:46 --> 00:14:49 full display. If you can get away from city
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 lights, this is prime time.
00:14:51 --> 00:14:54 Avery: One diary note before we go. Exactly one
00:14:54 --> 00:14:57 month from now, on the 12th of August, a
00:14:57 --> 00:14:59 total solar eclipse sweeps across the Arctic,
00:14:59 --> 00:15:02 Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain. It's
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 a Northern Hemisphere show this time, but if
00:15:04 --> 00:15:06 you're one of our listeners traveling for it,
00:15:07 --> 00:15:09 safe journeys, pack your eclipse glasses and
00:15:09 --> 00:15:10 we want a full report.
00:15:11 --> 00:15:13 Anna: Dallas, of the eclipse chasers. But tonight's
00:15:13 --> 00:15:16 Moon Venus pairing is our consolation price.
00:15:16 --> 00:15:17 And it's a lovely one.
00:15:18 --> 00:15:20 Avery: And that's Astronomy Daily for Friday,
00:15:20 --> 00:15:23 17 July. A first atmosphere
00:15:23 --> 00:15:25 on a habitable zone. Rocky world starship
00:15:25 --> 00:15:28 stopped at zero. A bedroom meteorite
00:15:28 --> 00:15:31 carrying life's ingredients. A, uh, galaxy
00:15:31 --> 00:15:34 growing up fast. Metal waves on Mars and
00:15:34 --> 00:15:36 a date with the Moon and Venus tonight.
00:15:36 --> 00:15:39 Anna: Not a bad Friday. For all of today's stories
00:15:39 --> 00:15:41 and links, head to astronomydaily
00:15:42 --> 00:15:44 IO and find us everywhere.
00:15:44 --> 00:15:46 AstroDailyPod if today's
00:15:46 --> 00:15:49 lead story gave you goosebumps, share the
00:15:49 --> 00:15:51 episode with someone who needs goosebumps,
00:15:51 --> 00:15:51 too.
00:15:52 --> 00:15:54 Avery: The weekend news wrap is tomorrow, and if a
00:15:54 --> 00:15:56 certain rocket flies early next week, you
00:15:56 --> 00:15:58 know where to hear about it first. Until
00:15:58 --> 00:16:00 then, I'm Avery.
00:16:00 --> 00:16:02 Anna: And I'm Anna. Thanks for listening. And as
00:16:02 --> 00:16:05 always, clear skies Astronomy
00:16:05 --> 00:16:08 Day stories.
00:16:11 --> 00:16:11 Love.