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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.