Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--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.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!
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: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily,
00:00:02 --> 00:00:05 your daily dose of space news from across the
00:00:05 --> 00:00:07 cosmos. I'm Ana.
00:00:07 --> 00:00:10 Avery: And I'm avery. It's Saturday the 20th of
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 June, 2026, and that means it's time for
00:00:13 --> 00:00:15 our weekend space and astronomy news wrap.
00:00:15 --> 00:00:18 Anna: As always, we're kicking things off with two
00:00:18 --> 00:00:20 brand new stories you won't have heard
00:00:20 --> 00:00:23 anywhere else on the show, including a
00:00:23 --> 00:00:26 genuinely goosebump inducing tale about a
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 rock pulled up of the Pacific Ocean 50 years
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 ago that's just rewritten part of COSM
00:00:32 --> 00:00:32 history.
00:00:32 --> 00:00:35 Avery: Then we'll wind back to the week and bring
00:00:35 --> 00:00:37 you the four biggest stories that had
00:00:37 --> 00:00:39 everyone talking a new crew for the moon, a
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 salty pink world, a daring rescue mission,
00:00:42 --> 00:00:45 and an asteroid chase 50 years in the making.
00:00:45 --> 00:00:47 Anna: If you're watching on YouTubeMusic, smash
00:00:47 --> 00:00:50 that subscribe button and let's get straight
00:00:50 --> 00:00:50 into it.
00:00:51 --> 00:00:53 Avery: Let's start with a story that genuinely gave
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 me chills. Anna. Back in 1976,
00:00:56 --> 00:00:58 a research expedition hauled up a small lump
00:00:58 --> 00:01:00 of rock from the floor of the Pacific Ocean.
00:01:00 --> 00:01:03 Nobody at the time had any idea what they
00:01:03 --> 00:01:04 were really holding.
00:01:04 --> 00:01:07 Anna: Fifty years later, scientists have worked out
00:01:07 --> 00:01:10 exactly what's hiding inside it. And it's
00:01:10 --> 00:01:12 older and stranger than anyone expected.
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 Avery: The rock is a chunk of what's called ferro
00:01:15 --> 00:01:18 manganese crust, basically slow growing
00:01:18 --> 00:01:19 mineral deposits that build up on the
00:01:19 --> 00:01:22 seafloor over millions of years, almost like
00:01:22 --> 00:01:23 tree rings.
00:01:23 --> 00:01:26 Anna: And buried inside this particular piece are a
00:01:26 --> 00:01:29 few hundred atoms. Atoms, not grams
00:01:29 --> 00:01:32 of radioactive plutonium isotopes,
00:01:33 --> 00:01:35 Avery: which doesn't sound like a lot, because it
00:01:35 --> 00:01:37 isn't. But those atoms didn't come from
00:01:37 --> 00:01:39 anywhere on Earth. More than a hundred
00:01:39 --> 00:01:42 million years ago, two neutron stars, the
00:01:42 --> 00:01:44 impossibly dense leftover cores of giant
00:01:44 --> 00:01:46 stars, crashed into each other in a
00:01:46 --> 00:01:49 cataclysmic event called a kilonova.
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 Anna: And a kilonova is basically a heavy
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 element factory. The collision is so
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 violent and so energetic that it forges
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 elements for far heavier than iron, including
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 gold, platinum, and, yes, plutonium.
00:02:03 --> 00:02:06 That blast sent a rain of these freshly
00:02:06 --> 00:02:08 minted elements out across space.
00:02:09 --> 00:02:10 Avery: Some of that stellar debris eventually
00:02:10 --> 00:02:12 drifted down through our solar system,
00:02:12 --> 00:02:14 through Earth's atmosphere, and settled into
00:02:14 --> 00:02:17 the ocean, where over unimaginable spans of
00:02:17 --> 00:02:20 time, it got slowly locked into this growing
00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 crust of rock on the seafloor.
00:02:22 --> 00:02:25 Anna: The study was published just yesterday. And
00:02:25 --> 00:02:27 what's remarkable is that the ratios of these
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 plutonium isotopes act like
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 a fingerprint. They give researchers their
00:02:32 --> 00:02:35 strongest physical clues yet about
00:02:35 --> 00:02:37 exactly what kind of event created them
00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 and roughly how long ago it happened.
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 Avery: It's wild to think Earth has basically been
00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 an accidental evidence locker this whole
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 time, quietly filing away atomic level proof
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 of cosmic violence before there was complex
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 life on this planet at all.
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 Anna: A little lump of rock dredged up half a
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 century ago, finally giving up one of its
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 biggest secrets. Beautiful story.
00:03:00 --> 00:03:03 Avery: From ancient cosmic violence to some very
00:03:03 --> 00:03:04 modern rocket engineering.
00:03:04 --> 00:03:07 Europe's Ariane 6 just broke a record that
00:03:07 --> 00:03:08 had stood for 13 years.
00:03:09 --> 00:03:12 Anna: This happened on Wednesday 17 June.
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 An upgraded Ariane 6. 4 lifted
00:03:15 --> 00:03:18 off from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana,
00:03:18 --> 00:03:21 carrying 36Amazon LEO broadband
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 satellites. That's the Constellation formerly
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 known as Project Cooperation 36
00:03:26 --> 00:03:27 satellites.
00:03:27 --> 00:03:28 Avery: Doesn't sound like a record breaker on its
00:03:28 --> 00:03:31 own, but here's the kicker. This was the very
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 first flight of Ariane 6 4's new
00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 P160 boosters. They're an upgrade on the
00:03:36 --> 00:03:39 previous P120 boosters, about 1 meter
00:03:39 --> 00:03:42 longer and able to hold up to 156
00:03:42 --> 00:03:43 tons of propellant each.
00:03:44 --> 00:03:47 Anna: That gives roughly a 10% performance boost
00:03:47 --> 00:03:50 and pushes Ariane 6. 4's lift capacity
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 to about 22 tons to low Earth orbit.
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 Combined with those 36 satellites, it added
00:03:56 --> 00:03:59 up to the HEAV heaviest payload ever launched
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 by an Arian rocket, beating a record that had
00:04:01 --> 00:04:04 stood in 2013 when an Ariane
00:04:04 --> 00:04:07 5 delivered the ATV cargo vehicle
00:04:07 --> 00:04:09 Albert Einstein to the International Space
00:04:09 --> 00:04:12 Station. The satellites were deployed into
00:04:12 --> 00:04:15 orbit about 465km
00:04:15 --> 00:04:18 up over the course of just under two hours.
00:04:18 --> 00:04:21 And Arianespace confirmed every single one
00:04:21 --> 00:04:22 separated successfully.
00:04:23 --> 00:04:26 Avery: This was also the 8th Ariane 6 launch overall
00:04:26 --> 00:04:29 and the hundredth Amazon LEO satellite lofted
00:04:29 --> 00:04:32 by Arianespace specifically out of a planned
00:04:32 --> 00:04:34 18 launch contract with Amazon. It's
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 a solid milestone for a rocket that, let's be
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 honest, had a famously bumpy road to its
00:04:40 --> 00:04:41 2024 debut.
00:04:41 --> 00:04:43 Anna: And it matters. Beyond the bragging rights,
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 Amazon's been racing against an FCC
00:04:46 --> 00:04:49 deadline to get half its Constellation up by
00:04:49 --> 00:04:52 the end of July, competing for SkySpace
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 against SpaceX's Starlink, which already
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 has more than 10 satellites in orbit.
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 Avery: Whichever side of the satellite mega
00:04:59 --> 00:05:02 constellation debate you sit on, Watching
00:05:02 --> 00:05:05 Europe's flagship rocket flex some genuinely
00:05:05 --> 00:05:06 upgraded muscle is fun to see.
00:05:07 --> 00:05:09 Anna: And that brings us to the part of the show
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 you've been waiting for. Our uh, look back at
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 the four biggest stories that shaped the week
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 in space and astronomy. We've got updates
00:05:16 --> 00:05:19 on a couple of these too, so even if you
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 caught them earlier in the week, stick
00:05:21 --> 00:05:23 around. There's fresh detail in each one.
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 Avery: Story number three, and for my money, the
00:05:26 --> 00:05:28 biggest human spaceflight Story of the Week
00:05:28 --> 00:05:31 On Tuesday, NASA finally named the crew for
00:05:31 --> 00:05:32 Artemis 3.
00:05:32 --> 00:05:35 Anna: At a ceremony in Houston, NASA
00:05:35 --> 00:05:38 Administrator Jared Isaacman introduced the
00:05:38 --> 00:05:40 four astronauts who will fly this critical
00:05:40 --> 00:05:42 test mission Commander Randy Bresnik,
00:05:43 --> 00:05:45 ESA pilot Luca Parmitano, and
00:05:45 --> 00:05:48 mission specialists Frank Rubio and Andre
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 Douglas. Bob Hines will train alongside them
00:05:51 --> 00:05:52 as backup crew.
00:05:52 --> 00:05:54 Avery: And here's the bit that got me towards the
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 end of the ceremony, the Artemis 2 crew, Reed
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Cook and
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 Jeremy Hansen physically handed over the
00:06:02 --> 00:06:05 baton they carried around the moon and back
00:06:05 --> 00:06:08 in April, passing it to Bresnik's crew as a
00:06:08 --> 00:06:10 symbol of the relay continuing toward the
00:06:10 --> 00:06:10 lunar surface.
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 Anna: Now. Important distinction here. Artemis
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 3 isn't the landing mission itself. It's a
00:06:17 --> 00:06:19 two week test flight that stays in low Earth
00:06:19 --> 00:06:22 orbit, designed to test rendezvous and
00:06:22 --> 00:06:24 docking procedures between the Orion
00:06:24 --> 00:06:26 spacecraft and the commercial landers being
00:06:26 --> 00:06:28 built by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
00:06:29 --> 00:06:31 Avery: Think of it as the Artemis program's
00:06:31 --> 00:06:34 equivalent of Apollo 9, proving the hardware
00:06:34 --> 00:06:36 works together before anyone attempts an
00:06:36 --> 00:06:38 actual landing. It's currently targeted for
00:06:38 --> 00:06:41 as early as late 2027, with the lunar
00:06:41 --> 00:06:44 surface landing itself still aimed at
00:06:44 --> 00:06:45 2028.
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 Anna: A couple of nice personal notes. This will be
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 Andre Douglas's first ever spaceflight after
00:06:50 --> 00:06:53 serving as backup crew on Artemis 2, and
00:06:53 --> 00:06:56 Luca Parmitano is a fan favorite in Europe.
00:06:56 --> 00:06:58 Some of you will remember him from a 2013
00:06:59 --> 00:07:01 spacewalk where his helmet began filling with
00:07:01 --> 00:07:04 water. A genuinely dangerous moment he
00:07:04 --> 00:07:06 handled with real composure.
00:07:06 --> 00:07:09 Avery: A strong, experienced crew for what NASA
00:07:09 --> 00:07:11 itself is calling one of the most complex
00:07:11 --> 00:07:14 missions it's ever undert. We'll be watching
00:07:14 --> 00:07:15 this one closely.
00:07:15 --> 00:07:18 Anna: Story four takes us 57 light years
00:07:18 --> 00:07:21 away to a strange little world astronomers
00:07:21 --> 00:07:23 have nicknamed the pink planet.
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 GJ504b was first
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 directly imaged back in 2013 and
00:07:29 --> 00:07:32 stood out immediately for its odd magenta
00:07:32 --> 00:07:34 color. This week, a Northwestern University
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 led team using JWST
00:07:37 --> 00:07:39 confirmed something theorized about objects
00:07:39 --> 00:07:42 like this for future 15 years. Its atmosphere
00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 is wrapped in salty clouds unlike
00:07:45 --> 00:07:48 anything seen on a substellar object before.
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 Avery: This is the first direct evidence of salt
00:07:51 --> 00:07:53 clouds in the atmosphere of a cold companion
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 object, and GJ504B earns
00:07:56 --> 00:07:59 that description. At around 550 degrees
00:07:59 --> 00:08:01 Fahrenheit, it's actually the coldest object
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 of its kind ever directly imaged.
00:08:04 --> 00:08:07 Anna: And that raises a genuinely open question.
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 Is is GJ504B really a
00:08:10 --> 00:08:13 planet? Or is its mass actually large enough
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 to make it a brown dwarf? The line between
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 giant planet and failed star gets blurry
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 out at the cold end of the scale, and this
00:08:20 --> 00:08:22 object sits right on that boundary.
00:08:23 --> 00:08:24 Avery: Either way, it's, uh, a gorgeous
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 demonstration of just how much chemistry
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 JWST can now tease out of worlds
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 we can't visit, can't sample, and can
00:08:33 --> 00:08:35 only study through the faintest whispers of
00:08:35 --> 00:08:38 infrared light. Salt clouds on an
00:08:38 --> 00:08:40 alien world? Try saying that without smiling.
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44 Next up, story five is an update on a daring
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46 rescue mission we first told you about
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 earlier this week. And it's now properly
00:08:48 --> 00:08:49 underway.
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 Anna: NASA's Neil Jarrell Swift Observatory
00:08:52 --> 00:08:55 has been watching gamma ray bursts from orbit
00:08:55 --> 00:08:58 since 2004, but its orbit has been
00:08:58 --> 00:09:00 decaying faster than expected, thanks to drag
00:09:00 --> 00:09:03 from recent high solar activity. And without
00:09:03 --> 00:09:06 help, it could re enter and burn up by later
00:09:06 --> 00:09:07 this year.
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 Avery: The fix is a robotic servicing spacecraft
00:09:10 --> 00:09:12 called Link, built by Catalyst Space
00:09:12 --> 00:09:15 Technologies, designed to rendezvous with
00:09:15 --> 00:09:18 Swift, grapple onto fixtures that were only
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 ever meant to be used on the ground before
00:09:20 --> 00:09:22 its original 2004 launch, and boost
00:09:22 --> 00:09:25 it up to a Safer orbit around 600
00:09:25 --> 00:09:26 km high.
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 Anna: And here's the fresh development. On
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 Thursday, 18 June, Northrop
00:09:31 --> 00:09:34 Grumman's Stargazer aircraft, the very last
00:09:34 --> 00:09:37 flying Lockheed L1011
00:09:37 --> 00:09:40 Tristar, departed NASA, NASA's Wallops
00:09:40 --> 00:09:42 Flight Facility in Virginia carrying Link
00:09:42 --> 00:09:45 tucked inside a, uh, Pegasus XL
00:09:45 --> 00:09:48 rocket. It's now routing via California
00:09:48 --> 00:09:51 and Hawaii toward Kwajalein Atoll in
00:09:51 --> 00:09:52 the Marshall Islands.
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 Avery: Launch is targeted for June 27th.
00:09:55 --> 00:09:57 Stargazer will carry Pegasus to around
00:09:57 --> 00:10:00 40ft. Drop it and the rocket
00:10:00 --> 00:10:03 will fire Link into orbit in about 10
00:10:03 --> 00:10:05 minutes. That's the easy part.
00:10:05 --> 00:10:08 Anna: The hard part comes after Link has to
00:10:08 --> 00:10:10 chase down and successfully grab a satellite
00:10:10 --> 00:10:13 that was never designed to be captured. If it
00:10:13 --> 00:10:15 works, it'll be the first time a commercial
00:10:15 --> 00:10:18 vehicle has captured an unprepared US
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 Government satellite and the first capture of
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 a science satellite never built for it.
00:10:24 --> 00:10:27 Avery: High stakes, fast turnaround. This whole
00:10:27 --> 00:10:29 mission went from concept to launch pad in
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 under a year. One NASA astrophysics
00:10:32 --> 00:10:34 director put it bluntly. Nobody thought
00:10:34 --> 00:10:36 they'd get this far. We'll bring you the
00:10:36 --> 00:10:38 result the moment it happens.
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 Anna: And our final story of the week takes us to a
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 tiny, strange little asteroid that's been
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 quietly tagging along with Earth for
00:10:46 --> 00:10:47 centuries.
00:10:47 --> 00:10:50 Avery: China's Tianwen 2 spacecraft launched
00:10:50 --> 00:10:53 all the way back in May last year on a
00:10:53 --> 00:10:55 mission to collect a sample from near Earth
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 asteroid Kamo Aloa, a, uh, quasi
00:10:58 --> 00:11:00 satellite only 40 to 100 meters across
00:11:01 --> 00:11:03 that loops around a in lockstep with our own
00:11:03 --> 00:11:04 planet.
00:11:04 --> 00:11:07 Anna: According to mission design and amateur radio
00:11:07 --> 00:11:10 trackers, since China's space agency has gone
00:11:10 --> 00:11:12 fairly quiet on official updates
00:11:12 --> 00:11:14 Tianwen 2 completed its orbital
00:11:14 --> 00:11:17 insertion at the asteroid on June 7.
00:11:18 --> 00:11:21 Avery: Since then, observers in Germany using a 20
00:11:21 --> 00:11:23 meter dish have picked up a series of much
00:11:23 --> 00:11:25 smaller course Correction Burns between June
00:11:25 --> 00:11:28 11th and 14th, almost certainly using
00:11:28 --> 00:11:31 the spacecraft's ion engines to fine tune its
00:11:31 --> 00:11:33 position ahead of the main event.
00:11:33 --> 00:11:36 Anna: That main event rendezvous and the actual
00:11:36 --> 00:11:39 sample collection is now expected around July
00:11:39 --> 00:11:42 4th. Kamala Loa is scientifically
00:11:42 --> 00:11:44 fascinating because some researchers think it
00:11:44 --> 00:11:47 may be a fragment blasted off the moon by an
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 ancient impact, though a study published just
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52 this month complicates that picture somewhat
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 based on how its surface has weathered.
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 Avery: Whatever its true origin. After sample
00:11:57 --> 00:12:00 collection, Tianwen 2 will head home with its
00:12:00 --> 00:12:03 haul before swinging back out to chase down a
00:12:03 --> 00:12:05 Comet in the2030s, a patient
00:12:05 --> 00:12:08 decade spanning mission finally closing in on
00:12:08 --> 00:12:10 its first big milestone.
00:12:10 --> 00:12:12 Anna: And that wraps up our weekend space and
00:12:12 --> 00:12:15 astronomy news wrap from ancient ocean rocks
00:12:15 --> 00:12:18 to record breaking rockets, a new moon crew,
00:12:18 --> 00:12:21 a salty pink world, a daring rescue,
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 and a patient asteroid chase.
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 Avery: If you enjoyed today's episode, the best
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 thing you can do is share it with a fellow
00:12:28 --> 00:12:30 space nerd. And we'll see you back here
00:12:30 --> 00:12:33 Monday for more from across the cosmos.
00:12:33 --> 00:12:34 Anna: I'm Anna.
00:12:34 --> 00:12:37 Avery: And I'm Avery. Clear Skies, everyone.