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In this milestone episode — one away from our 100th — Anna and Avery cover six extraordinary stories: the Pentagon's unprecedented release of 162 declassified UFO/UAP files; SpaceX firing all 33 Raptor V3 engines on the Super Heavy booster ahead of Starship Flight 12; tomorrow's CRS-34 cargo launch to the ISS; JWST's breathtaking new portrait of cosmic buckyballs inside a dying star; never-before-seen mineral maps of the Moon's far side created from Artemis 2 mission photographs; and the American Meteor Society's growing alarm over an unexplained spike in large fireball events across the globe. Stories Covered 1. Pentagon Releases 162 Declassified UAP Files (May 8, 2026) • The Pentagon launched a public portal at war.gov/UFO on Friday 8 May, releasing 162 declassified files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. • Files include 120 PDF documents, 28 videos, and 14 images — spanning sightings from the 1940s to 2025. • The PURSUE program (Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters) will release additional files on a rolling basis every few weeks. • The files show no evidence of extraterrestrial contact or government cover-up; they are classified as 'unresolved cases.' • Notable items include footage of a football-shaped UAP near Japan, a white orb over Syria, and Apollo 17 lunar imagery showing unexplained lights. 2. SpaceX Starship V3 Super Heavy — Full 33-Engine Static Fire (May 7, 2026) • SpaceX completed the first successful full-duration, full-thrust static fire of the Super Heavy V3 booster at Starbase, Texas, on 7 May. • All 33 Raptor V3 engines fired simultaneously — the most powerful ground test of any rocket first stage in history. • Previous tests on 15 April ended early due to ground equipment issues; the 7 May test went the full duration. • The Starship V3 Ship upper stage also completed its static fire in April — both vehicle halves now cleared for flight. • SpaceX is targeting 15 May for Starship Flight 12, a suborbital test mission. Starship is central to NASA's Artemis lunar landing system. 3. SpaceX CRS-34 — ISS Resupply Launch (12 May 2026) • Launch: 7:16 PM EDT, Tuesday 12 May from SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. • Cargo: approximately 6,500 pounds, including scientific experiments, food, equipment, and crew supplies. • Autonomous docking scheduled: ~9:50 AM EDT, Thursday 14 May, at Harmony module's forward port. • Key payloads: Laplace (planet formation dust study), STORIE (space weather / ring current monitoring), wooden bone scaffold (osteoporosis research), and red blood cell / spleen change investigation. • Watch live on NASA+, Amazon Prime, YouTube, and NASA's website from 7:00 PM EDT on 12 May. 4. JWST Reveals the Birthplace of Cosmic Buckyballs — Planetary Nebula Tc 1 • Western University astronomers returned to planetary nebula Tc 1 (10,000+ light-years away, constellation Ara) using JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). • First detected buckyballs (buckminsterfullerene / C60 molecules) in space here in 2010 using Spitzer; now JWST reveals the full structure for the first time. • Buckyballs are concentrated in a thin spherical shell around the central white dwarf — arranged like 'one giant buckyball.' • JWST imagery also reveals an unexplained upside-down question mark feature at the nebula's heart. • Current theoretical models don't fully explain the buckyballs' observed infrared emissions — multiple new papers are in preparation. • Buckyballs found in meteorites on Earth; understanding their space origins provides clues about organic chemistry and possibly life's building blocks. 5. Artemis 2 — Far-Side Moon Images (Published May 2026) • Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy collaborated pre-mission with Commander Reid Wiseman to plan detailed lunar photography during the Artemis 2 flyby. • McCarthy's image-stacking technique — applied to Wiseman's far-side photographs taken during the 6 April lunar flyby — has produced unprecedented colour mineral maps of the far side. • Colours reveal mineral composition variations (browns, blues, reds) not visible to the naked eye — described as 'cyborg vision' for the Moon. • NASA has released the full Artemis 2 photo archive: 12,217 images now publicly available. • Full archive: NASA astronaut photography public archive (link in episode resources). 6. The 2026 Fireball Surge — AMS Analysis (Published May 2026) • The American Meteor Society reports an anomalous spike in large fireball events in Q1 2026 that 'warrants serious investigation.' • Total Q1 event count (2,046) is only marginally above historical norms; the anomaly is in the SIZE of events — the largest fireballs are happening at roughly double the historical rate. • March 2026: 40+ major events, including a 3,229-witness fireball over Europe (8 Mar), an Ohio sonic boom explosion (17 Mar), and a meteorite through a Houston roof (21 Mar). • 79% of Q1's high-witness fireball events produced confirmed sonic booms — a strong physical indicator of large, dense incoming objects. • Anthelion sporadic source (opposite the Sun) is producing roughly double its normal activity; activity concentrated in a single 1,000-square-degree patch. • Ruling out explanations: not a new shower, not seasonal variation alone, not reporting bias. • AMS calling for expanded automated all-sky camera networks and better cross-referencing with radar, infrasound, and satellite data.
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This episode includes AI-generated content.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm Anna.
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 Avery: And I'm Avery. It is Monday 11th
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 May 2026 and this is season
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 5 episode 99.
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 Anna: One episode away from triple digits, Avery.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 And we are not going quietly.
00:00:16 --> 00:00:17 Avery: Absolutely not.
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 Today we have six stories that run the full
00:00:20 --> 00:00:23 gamut. Mysterious fireballs raining down
00:00:23 --> 00:00:26 across continents. A rocket breathing fire
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 in Texas. A cargo ship about to head
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 to the space station. Carbon molecules shaped
00:00:31 --> 00:00:34 like soccer balls appearing inside a dying
00:00:34 --> 00:00:36 star. Ever before seen photographs of
00:00:36 --> 00:00:39 the moon's far side. And brace
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 yourself. The biggest government UFO file
00:00:42 --> 00:00:43 drop in history.
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 Anna: That is quite a lineup. Let's get into it.
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 Avery: We're going to start with the story that had
00:00:49 --> 00:00:51 the Internet absolutely buzzing over the
00:00:51 --> 00:00:54 weekend. And it is one that sits squarely in
00:00:54 --> 00:00:56 our wheelhouse. On Friday 8
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 May 2026, the Pentagon
00:00:59 --> 00:01:01 released what it called never before seen
00:01:01 --> 00:01:04 files relating to unidentified anomalous
00:01:04 --> 00:01:07 phenomena. UAPs that the government
00:01:07 --> 00:01:09 has been sitting on for decades.
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 Anna: UAPs, for anyone who just joined us, is
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 the official modern term for what most people
00:01:15 --> 00:01:18 still call UFOs. And Friday's release
00:01:18 --> 00:01:20 was genuinely historic.
00:01:20 --> 00:01:23 Avery: It really was. The Pentagon launched ah, a
00:01:23 --> 00:01:26 dedicated public portal, war.gov
00:01:26 --> 00:01:29 UFO and dropped an initial tranche of
00:01:29 --> 00:01:32 162 files that includes
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35 120 PDF documents,
00:01:35 --> 00:01:37 28 videos and 14 high
00:01:37 --> 00:01:40 resolution images. Everything from internal
00:01:40 --> 00:01:43 military memos to Apollo mission
00:01:43 --> 00:01:45 photography to recent infrared sensor
00:01:45 --> 00:01:46 footage.
00:01:46 --> 00:01:49 Anna: The program even has an acronym, Persu,
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 which stands for Presidential Unsealing and
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 Reporting System for UAP Encounters.
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 And the files span nearly eight decades
00:01:57 --> 00:01:59 going back to the late 1940s.
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 Avery: Now, before listeners get too excited or too
00:02:03 --> 00:02:05 skeptical, let's be clear about what the
00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 files do. And don't say the
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 Pentagon was explicit. These are quote,
00:02:10 --> 00:02:12 unresolved cases, meaning the government was
00:02:12 --> 00:02:15 unable to make a definitive determination on
00:02:15 --> 00:02:18 the nature of the observed phenomena. They do
00:02:18 --> 00:02:19 not prove extraterrestrial contact.
00:02:20 --> 00:02:20 Anna: They do.
00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 Avery: They do not suggest a cover up of alien
00:02:22 --> 00:02:23 visitors.
00:02:23 --> 00:02:26 Anna: But what they do provide is transparency
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 that researchers, scientists and the public
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 have been demanding for years. Former
00:02:31 --> 00:02:33 Pentagon UAP office head Sean
00:02:33 --> 00:02:36 Kirkpatrick cautioned that without analysis
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 and context, the raw files, uh, risk fueling
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 speculation. And that's a fair point.
00:02:42 --> 00:02:44 Context matters enormously with this
00:02:44 --> 00:02:45 material.
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 Avery: What astronomers and UAP researchers are most
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 interested in is the ability to now cross
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 reference these files with the existing
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 scientific data. Radar, infrasound,
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 satellite records to build proper analytical
00:02:58 --> 00:03:01 frameworks around what was actually observed.
00:03:01 --> 00:03:04 Anna: Some of the more striking clips include a,
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 ah, football shaped object observed by an
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09 infrared sensor near Japan, a, uh, misshapen
00:03:09 --> 00:03:12 ball of white light recorded over Syria and
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 archival Apollo 17 imagery showing
00:03:15 --> 00:03:18 three lights above the lunar terrain that the
00:03:18 --> 00:03:20 astronauts theorized were ice chunks.
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 Avery: And this is only the beginning. The Pentagon
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 says more files will be released on a rolling
00:03:25 --> 00:03:28 basis every few weeks as they are discovered
00:03:28 --> 00:03:31 and declassified. This is an ongoing process
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 covering tens of millions of records.
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 Anna: For our listeners who want to explore the
00:03:35 --> 00:03:38 files directly, the portal is
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 war.gov UFO
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 no clearance required.
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 Avery: From government secrets to rocket fire
00:03:45 --> 00:03:48 and what a fire it was on Wednesday
00:03:48 --> 00:03:51 7 May, SpaceX completed
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 a milestone that the entire space industry
00:03:54 --> 00:03:56 had been watching. The first
00:03:56 --> 00:03:59 successful full duration full
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 thrust static fire of the Super
00:04:01 --> 00:04:03 Heavy version 3 booster.
00:04:04 --> 00:04:06 Anna: All 33 Raptor V3 engines
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 firing simultaneously for the full
00:04:09 --> 00:04:12 duration. SpaceX described it simply on
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 X as full duration and full
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 thrust 33 engine static fire with
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 super heavy V3 understated, but
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 the footage was anything but.
00:04:22 --> 00:04:25 Avery: And this matters enormously because previous
00:04:25 --> 00:04:28 attempts hadn't made it to this point. There
00:04:28 --> 00:04:31 was a 10 engine partial test in March, a
00:04:31 --> 00:04:33 UH33 engine attempt on April 15th.
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 Both ended early due to issues with ground
00:04:36 --> 00:04:39 equipment. This one went the distance.
00:04:39 --> 00:04:42 Anna: The Raptor V3 engines themselves
00:04:42 --> 00:04:45 are a significant upgrade, each capable
00:04:45 --> 00:04:47 of delivering around 600
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 pounds of thrust with improved reliability
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 over the previous generation.
00:04:53 --> 00:04:56 33 of them firing together makes the
00:04:56 --> 00:04:58 super heavy booster the most powerful
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 first stage rocket ever built
00:05:01 --> 00:05:03 and the full Starship stack.
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 Avery: That's the booster plus the ship upper stage
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 on top is over 400ft tall,
00:05:08 --> 00:05:11 taller than the Saturn V, designed to carry
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 more than 100 tons to low Earth orbit and
00:05:14 --> 00:05:15 fully reusable.
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 Anna: The ship upper stage for Flight 12
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 already cleared its own static fire earlier,
00:05:22 --> 00:05:25 so both halves of the vehicle have now passed
00:05:25 --> 00:05:27 their pre flight tests. SpaceX is
00:05:27 --> 00:05:30 targeting 15 May for the 12th
00:05:30 --> 00:05:33 Starship test flight, a suborbital mission
00:05:33 --> 00:05:35 designed to further refine the vehicle's
00:05:35 --> 00:05:36 capabilities.
00:05:36 --> 00:05:39 Avery: For context, Starship is central to NASA's
00:05:39 --> 00:05:42 Artemis program. It is the planned human
00:05:42 --> 00:05:44 landing system that would carry astronauts to
00:05:44 --> 00:05:47 the lunar surface. It's also SpaceX's
00:05:47 --> 00:05:49 primary vehicle for their long term Mars
00:05:49 --> 00:05:50 ambitions.
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 Anna: So May 15th is absolutely one to
00:05:53 --> 00:05:56 watch. We'll have full coverage here on
00:05:56 --> 00:05:58 Astronomy Daily as that date approaches.
00:05:58 --> 00:06:00 Avery: While Starship is preparing for its next
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 flight, another SpaceX vehicle is heading to
00:06:03 --> 00:06:06 orbit tomorrow. NASA and SpaceX are uh,
00:06:06 --> 00:06:09 targeting 7:16pm Eastern Time on
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 Tuesday 12 May for the launch of
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 CRS 34, the 34th
00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services mission
00:06:16 --> 00:06:18 to the International Space Station.
00:06:19 --> 00:06:22 Anna: A Dragon Cargo Spacecraft will ride a Falcon
00:06:22 --> 00:06:24 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40
00:06:25 --> 00:06:27 at Cape Canaveral, carrying approximately
00:06:27 --> 00:06:30 6 pounds of cargo. If all goes
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 to plan, Dragon is scheduled to dock
00:06:32 --> 00:06:35 autonomously to the station's Harmony module
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 at around 9:50am Eastern on, um, Thursday
00:06:38 --> 00:06:38 the 14th.
00:06:40 --> 00:06:42 Avery: Now, the payload on this one is genuinely
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 interesting. Among the scientific
00:06:44 --> 00:06:46 investigations heading up is something called
00:06:46 --> 00:06:48 the Laplace Experiment, which studies how
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 dust aggregates grow in prototypes
00:06:50 --> 00:06:53 protoplanetary disks that's directly relevant
00:06:53 --> 00:06:55 to understanding how planets form.
00:06:55 --> 00:06:57 Anna: There's also an instrument called Story
00:06:58 --> 00:07:00 Storm Time O ring Current
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 Imaging Evolution, which will monitor charged
00:07:03 --> 00:07:06 particles in Earth's magnetosphere. These are
00:07:06 --> 00:07:08 the particles that can affect satellites and
00:07:08 --> 00:07:11 power grids during solar storm events. So
00:07:11 --> 00:07:13 better monitoring has real practical value.
00:07:15 --> 00:07:17 Avery: And then there's one that I find really
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 charming and a wooden bone scaffold.
00:07:20 --> 00:07:22 Researchers are testing whether a wooden
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 scaffold structure can support the
00:07:24 --> 00:07:25 development of new treatments for
00:07:25 --> 00:07:28 osteoporosis in microgravity. Base
00:07:28 --> 00:07:30 medicine is endlessly inventive.
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 Anna: You can watch the Launch live on NASA,
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 Amazon Prime, YouTubeMusic and NASA's own
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 website. Coverage begins at 7pm Eastern
00:07:39 --> 00:07:42 tomorrow, Tuesday the 12th. And while I'm
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 giving a plug to things worth checking out,
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 make sure you stop by our sponsor site,
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49 NordVPN. They have a truly great deal in
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 place for our listeners at the moment. Find
00:07:51 --> 00:07:53 all the details by clicking on the link in
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 the show notes NordVPN. It's the one we use
00:07:56 --> 00:07:57 and highly recommend.
00:07:59 --> 00:08:01 Avery: Now for a story that is equal parts beautiful
00:08:01 --> 00:08:04 and scientifically profound. The James
00:08:04 --> 00:08:07 Webb Space Telescope has delivered stunning
00:08:07 --> 00:08:09 new images and data from a planetary nebula
00:08:09 --> 00:08:12 called TOC 1, located more than
00:08:12 --> 00:08:14 10 light years away in the southern
00:08:14 --> 00:08:17 constellation era. And what it found there
00:08:17 --> 00:08:19 will keep astrophysicists busy for years.
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 Anna: The story begins 15 years ago in
00:08:23 --> 00:08:26 2010, when a team led by Professor Yan
00:08:26 --> 00:08:29 Kami at Western University in Canada made
00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 a remarkable discovery. Using NASA's
00:08:31 --> 00:08:34 Spitzer telescope, they found buckyballs
00:08:34 --> 00:08:37 inside Talk 1, that is molecules of
00:08:37 --> 00:08:40 Buckminster fullerene, named after the
00:08:40 --> 00:08:42 architect Buckminster Fuller, who designed
00:08:42 --> 00:08:45 geodesic domes because the molecules share
00:08:45 --> 00:08:47 exactly the same structural geometry.
00:08:47 --> 00:08:48 Geometry.
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 Avery: Each buckyball molecule is made of 60
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 carbon atoms arranged in a perfect pattern of
00:08:54 --> 00:08:57 hexagons and pentagons, like a hollow soccer
00:08:57 --> 00:09:00 ball. At the molecular scale, they were first
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 synthesized in a Laboratory in 1985,
00:09:02 --> 00:09:05 a breakthrough that earned the 1996 Nobel
00:09:05 --> 00:09:08 Prize in Chemistry. Finding them in space
00:09:08 --> 00:09:10 was extraordinary, but
00:09:10 --> 00:09:13 Anna: Spitzer's resolution wasn't sharp enough to
00:09:13 --> 00:09:15 show where the buckyballs actually were
00:09:15 --> 00:09:18 within the nebula. Now JWST
00:09:18 --> 00:09:21 has returned with its mid infrared instrument
00:09:21 --> 00:09:24 miri, and the result is breathtaking.
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26 The new image reveals delicate rays,
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 wispy filaments, shimmering shells of gas,
00:09:30 --> 00:09:32 and at the heart of the nebula, a feature
00:09:32 --> 00:09:35 that looks unmistakably like an upside down
00:09:35 --> 00:09:37 Avery: question mark, which the researchers found
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 rather appropriate given how many questions
00:09:39 --> 00:09:40 the data raised.
00:09:41 --> 00:09:43 Anna: The key scientific finding is the
00:09:43 --> 00:09:46 buckyballs are not scattered randomly
00:09:46 --> 00:09:48 throughout the nebula. They are concentrated
00:09:48 --> 00:09:50 in a thin spherical shell immediately
00:09:50 --> 00:09:53 surrounding this central white dwarf, the
00:09:53 --> 00:09:55 stellar remnant at the heart of TC1.
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 In the words of the PhD student who mapped
00:09:58 --> 00:10:01 them, buckyballs arranged like one giant
00:10:01 --> 00:10:02 buckyball.
00:10:02 --> 00:10:05 Avery: Why they gather in that specific formation is
00:10:05 --> 00:10:07 now one of the central mysteries the team is
00:10:07 --> 00:10:09 working to solve. And there's another puzzle.
00:10:10 --> 00:10:12 The infrared signals the buckyballs produce
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 don't match current theoretical models.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:17 Something about their formation or behavior
00:10:17 --> 00:10:19 in this extreme environment isn't fully
00:10:19 --> 00:10:20 understood yet.
00:10:20 --> 00:10:23 Anna: TC1 is what remains after a, uh, star similar
00:10:23 --> 00:10:26 to our sun exhausted its fuel and shed its
00:10:26 --> 00:10:29 outer layers. That process sculpted the
00:10:29 --> 00:10:31 intricate structures JWST is now
00:10:31 --> 00:10:34 revealing because buckyballs have also been
00:10:34 --> 00:10:36 found in meteorites that have landed on
00:10:36 --> 00:10:38 Earth. Understanding how they form in
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 environments like TC1 gives researchers
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 clues about how organic chemistry, the
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 chemistry relevant to life, spreads across
00:10:47 --> 00:10:47 galaxies.
00:10:48 --> 00:10:50 Avery: The image itself was processed by Kaitlyn
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 Beecroft, a, uh, secondary school science
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 teacher and amateur astronomer who met
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 Professor Cammy at outreach events. Her skill
00:10:58 --> 00:11:00 at drawing detail from raw telescope data is
00:11:00 --> 00:11:03 remarkable. It's a lovely reminder that
00:11:03 --> 00:11:05 extraordinary science doesn't always happen
00:11:05 --> 00:11:06 only inside institutions.
00:11:07 --> 00:11:10 Anna: This next story is a beautiful combination of
00:11:10 --> 00:11:13 science and artistry, and it began with a
00:11:13 --> 00:11:15 direct message on social media. Just weeks
00:11:15 --> 00:11:17 before the Artemis II launch window,
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy had an
00:11:20 --> 00:11:23 idea. What if he could get the Artemis 2
00:11:23 --> 00:11:25 astronauts to photograph the Moon the same
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 way he photographs the moon?
00:11:28 --> 00:11:30 Avery: So McCarthy slid into the DMs of Commander
00:11:30 --> 00:11:33 Reid Wiseman, and remarkably, Wiseman
00:11:33 --> 00:11:36 was immediately on board. The two developed a
00:11:36 --> 00:11:38 detailed photographic plan with NASA's lunar
00:11:38 --> 00:11:40 photography team, who were already training
00:11:40 --> 00:11:42 the crew on camera techniques for the
00:11:42 --> 00:11:43 mission.
00:11:43 --> 00:11:46 Anna: McCarthy's signature technique is image
00:11:46 --> 00:11:48 stacking, combining multiple exposures to
00:11:48 --> 00:11:51 dramatically reduce noise and reveal subtle
00:11:51 --> 00:11:54 color variations that a single image simply
00:11:54 --> 00:11:56 cannot capture. Those color differences
00:11:56 --> 00:11:59 across the Moon's surface indicate different
00:11:59 --> 00:12:01 mineral compositions. Run enough stacked
00:12:01 --> 00:12:04 images through processing, and you get rich
00:12:04 --> 00:12:06 maps of the lunar geology in browns,
00:12:07 --> 00:12:09 blues and reds, Colors that are really there,
00:12:09 --> 00:12:12 but too subtle for the human eye to detect
00:12:12 --> 00:12:13 unaided.
00:12:13 --> 00:12:16 Avery: The key advantage Wiseman had over any ground
00:12:16 --> 00:12:18 based astrophotographer, including McCarthy
00:12:18 --> 00:12:21 himself, was the absence of Earth's
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 atmosphere. No distortion, no light
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 pollution, no interference. The raw data
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 quality from lunar orbit was in a completely
00:12:28 --> 00:12:29 different league.
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 Anna: The result is a set of images showing the far
00:12:32 --> 00:12:35 side of the moon in greater detail and color
00:12:35 --> 00:12:37 fidelity than has ever been achieved before.
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 NASA has now released the full archive from
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 the Artemis 2 mission. Over 12
00:12:43 --> 00:12:46 photographs taken by the crew during their 10
00:12:46 --> 00:12:48 day journey. McCarthy's processed versions of
00:12:48 --> 00:12:51 Wiseman's lunar far side shots stand out
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54 as some of the most stunning in the entire
00:12:54 --> 00:12:54 collection.
00:12:55 --> 00:12:57 Avery: McCarthy described his approach beautifully.
00:12:57 --> 00:12:59 He said, I don't want to show you something
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 the way your eyes see it. I want to show you
00:13:01 --> 00:13:04 something as if you had superhuman vision.
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 The camera becomes cyborg eyes for our
00:13:06 --> 00:13:09 vision. And looking at these images, that's
00:13:09 --> 00:13:10 exactly what it feels like.
00:13:11 --> 00:13:12 Anna: For, uh, our listeners interested in
00:13:12 --> 00:13:15 exploring the full Artemis 2 archive, NASA
00:13:15 --> 00:13:18 has made all 12
00:13:18 --> 00:13:21 photographs publicly available. The link is
00:13:21 --> 00:13:22 in today's show notes.
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 Avery: And we close today with something that has
00:13:24 --> 00:13:26 been building across the news landscape for
00:13:26 --> 00:13:29 the past few weeks. A story about rocks
00:13:29 --> 00:13:31 falling from the sky and the growing
00:13:31 --> 00:13:33 scientific alarm about why there seem to be
00:13:33 --> 00:13:35 so many more of them than usual.
00:13:35 --> 00:13:37 Anna: The American Meteor Society, the ams,
00:13:37 --> 00:13:40 has published a detailed analysis of fireball
00:13:40 --> 00:13:43 activity in the first quarter of 2026.
00:13:43 --> 00:13:46 And their conclusion is direct. The data
00:13:46 --> 00:13:48 warrants serious investigation.
00:13:48 --> 00:13:50 Avery: Now let's be precise about what's being
00:13:50 --> 00:13:52 observed because the statistics here are sub
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 subtle but striking. The total number of
00:13:54 --> 00:13:57 fireball events in Q1 2026 around
00:13:57 --> 00:14:00 2046 is only marginally
00:14:00 --> 00:14:02 above comparable periods in previous years.
00:14:03 --> 00:14:06 The anomaly is not in the raw count, it's in
00:14:06 --> 00:14:08 the size and intensity of the events.
00:14:08 --> 00:14:10 Anna: Bike Henke, operations manager at the
00:14:10 --> 00:14:13 ams, put it this after years of
00:14:13 --> 00:14:16 stable baseline activity, something appears
00:14:16 --> 00:14:18 to have shifted. The signal is consistent
00:14:18 --> 00:14:21 across multiple metrics. The events getting
00:14:21 --> 00:14:24 flagged are the largest, loudest and most
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26 widely witnessed fireballs. Not the small
00:14:26 --> 00:14:29 routine ones, those look normal. The big
00:14:29 --> 00:14:31 ones are happening far more frequently than
00:14:31 --> 00:14:32 expected.
00:14:32 --> 00:14:35 Avery: March 2026 was particularly dramatic.
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37 Over 40 major fireball events were recorded
00:14:37 --> 00:14:40 that month alone. The biggest single event
00:14:40 --> 00:14:43 was on March 8th. A slow long duration
00:14:43 --> 00:14:46 fireball over France, Germany, Switzerland,
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48 Belgium and the Netherlands that generated
00:14:48 --> 00:14:51 3 witness reports.
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 3 people
00:14:54 --> 00:14:56 reporting the same fireball.
00:14:56 --> 00:14:59 Anna: Then there was the March 9th fireball seen by
00:14:59 --> 00:15:02 282 people along the eastern US
00:15:02 --> 00:15:05 seaboard. A seven ton asteroid fragment that
00:15:05 --> 00:15:07 exploded over Ohio with the Force of a
00:15:07 --> 00:15:10 sonic boom heard across multiple states.
00:15:10 --> 00:15:13 And on March 21, a fragment crashed through
00:15:13 --> 00:15:15 the roof of a home in north Houston,
00:15:15 --> 00:15:18 ricocheted around a bedroom and landed
00:15:18 --> 00:15:21 intact. Three confirmed meteorite recoveries
00:15:21 --> 00:15:23 in under two weeks, when the global average
00:15:23 --> 00:15:25 is roughly 10 per year.
00:15:25 --> 00:15:27 Avery: The sonic boom data's particularly telling.
00:15:27 --> 00:15:30 In the first quarter of 2026, 30 out
00:15:30 --> 00:15:33 of 38 fireball events with 50 or more witness
00:15:33 --> 00:15:36 reports produced confirmed sonic booms.
00:15:36 --> 00:15:39 That's 79%. Sonic booms
00:15:39 --> 00:15:42 mean large, fast, dense objects penetrating
00:15:42 --> 00:15:45 deep into the atmosphere. That's not camera
00:15:45 --> 00:15:47 bias or reporting enthusiasm. That's physics.
00:15:47 --> 00:15:50 Anna: Researchers have identified two suspicious
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 clust in the trajectory data. The most
00:15:52 --> 00:15:55 prominent is from the anthelion sporadic
00:15:55 --> 00:15:57 source, a region of space directly opposite
00:15:57 --> 00:16:00 the sun where objects approaching Earth from
00:16:00 --> 00:16:02 behind are penetrating the inner solar
00:16:02 --> 00:16:05 system. Activity from this specific slice of
00:16:05 --> 00:16:08 sky has roughly doubled in 2026.
00:16:08 --> 00:16:11 Nearly 10 major events traced back to a
00:16:11 --> 00:16:13 single 1 square degree patch.
00:16:13 --> 00:16:16 Avery: There's also an unusual cluster of meteors
00:16:16 --> 00:16:18 arriving on steeply inclined, almost vertical
00:16:18 --> 00:16:21 orbits, which is characteristic of objects
00:16:21 --> 00:16:23 traveling on trajector. Quite different from
00:16:23 --> 00:16:25 the flat plane of the solar system. Both
00:16:25 --> 00:16:27 clusters are being studied closely.
00:16:27 --> 00:16:30 Anna: What doesn't explain this? The ams, um, has
00:16:30 --> 00:16:32 been thorough in ruling out the easy answers.
00:16:33 --> 00:16:35 It's not a new meteor shower. Anthelion
00:16:35 --> 00:16:38 objects don't form those. It's not seasonal
00:16:38 --> 00:16:41 variation. There is a known fireball season
00:16:41 --> 00:16:43 around the March equinox, but the spike in
00:16:43 --> 00:16:46 2026 is roughly double what that seasonal
00:16:46 --> 00:16:49 effect would predict. It's not reporting bias
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52 from smartphones and doorbell cameras. Those
00:16:52 --> 00:16:54 would boost numbers across the board. Not
00:16:54 --> 00:16:56 specifically at the large fireball end.
00:16:56 --> 00:16:59 Avery: And it's not extraterrestrial. The recovered
00:16:59 --> 00:17:01 fragments from Ohio and Germany have been
00:17:01 --> 00:17:03 identified as achondritic HED
00:17:03 --> 00:17:06 meteorites, one of the most common categories
00:17:06 --> 00:17:08 of space rock. Ordinary meteors, Just
00:17:08 --> 00:17:10 more of them than there should be.
00:17:10 --> 00:17:13 Anna: The AMS is calling for expanded automated all
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 sky camera networks that can independently
00:17:15 --> 00:17:18 calculate a, uh, rock's mass, velocity and
00:17:18 --> 00:17:20 orbit the moment it strikes the atmosphere.
00:17:21 --> 00:17:23 Better cross referencing with radar and
00:17:23 --> 00:17:26 infrasound data and systematic analysis
00:17:26 --> 00:17:28 of recovered fragments to build a more
00:17:28 --> 00:17:30 complete picture of where these objects are
00:17:30 --> 00:17:31 coming from.
00:17:31 --> 00:17:33 Avery: One thing worth mentioning for our Southern
00:17:33 --> 00:17:35 Hemisphere listeners, including many of you
00:17:35 --> 00:17:37 in Australia and New Zealand. The antelion
00:17:37 --> 00:17:40 source sits opposite the sun, which means
00:17:40 --> 00:17:42 it's observable from both hemispheres
00:17:42 --> 00:17:44 depending on time of year. The phenomenon is
00:17:44 --> 00:17:47 global, not just the Northern Hemisphere
00:17:47 --> 00:17:49 event. Keep your eyes on the sky.
00:17:49 --> 00:17:52 Anna: That is a remarkable episode to land so close
00:17:52 --> 00:17:55 to our hundredth unexplained fireballs, the
00:17:55 --> 00:17:57 biggest rocket fire in history, a cargo
00:17:57 --> 00:18:00 mission to the space station, molecular
00:18:00 --> 00:18:03 soccer balls inside a dying star, the moon as
00:18:03 --> 00:18:04 you've never seen it, and the government
00:18:04 --> 00:18:07 finally opening its UFO filing cabinet.
00:18:07 --> 00:18:10 Avery: Episode 100 is gonna have a lot to live up
00:18:10 --> 00:18:12 to. Thank you for joining us today on
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14 Astronomy Daily. If you enjoyed today's show,
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00:18:26 --> 00:18:28 Anna: Until next time, keep your eyes on the sky.
00:18:29 --> 00:18:31 Avery: And importantly, your mind's open to what's
00:18:31 --> 00:18:32 out there.
00:18:32 --> 00:18:33 Anna: Weir Skies, everyone.
00:18:44 --> 00:18:45 The stories.
00:18:53 --> 00:18:53 Were told.