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Astronomy Daily • S05E107 • Wednesday 21 May 2026 Starship V3 is on the pad and counting down for Thursday's debut launch — we bring you the full update including technical objectives, the Artemis stakes, and a sober note about a worker fatality at Starbase. Plus: a NIST proposal to build GPS for the Moon using lasers inside permanently frozen polar craters; space station startup Vast enters the satellite market; JWST finally has an explanation for the universe's impossibly large early black holes; the Roman Space Telescope locks in a September 2026 launch; and interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS gives up two remarkable new secrets — alien water thirty times richer in heavy hydrogen than anything in our solar system, and pre-discovery images that show it was spotted before anyone knew it was there. Stories This Episode • STORY 1 — Starship V3 Flight 12: Launch window opens Thursday 21 May at 6:30 PM EDT (8:30 AM AEST Friday 22 May). Splashdown of upper stage in Indian Ocean off Western Australia ~65 min after liftoff. First flight of Starship V3, first use of Starbase Pad 2. Key objectives: Raptor 3 engines, heat shield imaging by modified Starlink sats, 22 dummy Starlink deployments, Raptor relight in space. Worker fatality at Starbase 15 May under OSHA investigation. • STORY 2 — Lunar GPS via NIST: Proposal to place ultrastable silicon optical cavity lasers in permanently shadowed craters near lunar south pole (~16K, near-perfect vacuum). Could enable lunar GPS network, atomic timekeeping on Moon, precise satellite ranging, gravitational wave detection. • STORY 3 — Vast Corporation: Space station builder announces new line of high-power satellites, expanding beyond Haven-1 into commercial satellite manufacturing. Announced 19 May 2026. • STORY 4 — JWST Black Holes: New arXiv paper proposes 'episodic super-Eddington accretion' in gas-rich dark matter-dominated early galaxies explains overmassive black holes found by JWST. Identifies them as 'missing link' between heavy seeds and luminous quasars. • STORY 5 — Roman Space Telescope: Launch now confirmed as early as September 2026 — 8 months ahead of schedule, under budget. 100x Hubble's field of view, 1,000x survey speed. Targets dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets. Coronagraph for direct exoplanet imaging. • STORY 6 — 3I/ATLAS: Pre-discovery images found in Rubin Observatory data from 21 June–2 July 2025, over a week before official ATLAS discovery. Water deuterium ratio at least 30x higher than any solar system comet (ALMA/U of Michigan/Nature Astronomy). Comet estimated ~12 billion years old. Key Links • SpaceX Starship Flight 12 livestream: spacex.com • Flight 12 timeline (Space.com): space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/what-time-is-spacex-starship-v3-launch-starship-flight-12-timeline • Starbase worker death (Space.com): space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/worker-dies-at-spacexs-starbase-in-leadup-to-starship-v3-megarocket-launch • Lunar laser GPS (NIST): nist.gov/news-events/news/2026/05/shooting-moon-ultrastable-lasers-dark-craters-could-enable-lunar-navigation • Vast satellite announcement: space.com (19 May 2026) • Roman Space Telescope launch update: nasa.gov • 3I/ATLAS pre-discovery images: space.com/astronomy/comets • 3I/ATLAS water chemistry (ALMA): almaobservatory.org
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This episode includes AI-generated content.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Anna: The world's most powerful rocket is on the
00:00:03 --> 00:00:05 launch pad and it's launching tomorrow. We
00:00:05 --> 00:00:08 have the full Update on Starship V3 and
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 the bittersweet shadow hanging over the
00:00:10 --> 00:00:11 launch site.
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 Avery: In the cold darkness of the Moon's south
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 pole, scientists want to build the most
00:00:16 --> 00:00:19 precise navigation system ever created.
00:00:20 --> 00:00:22 Lasers and craters permanently
00:00:22 --> 00:00:23 frozen in shadow.
00:00:24 --> 00:00:26 Anna: A, uh, space startup you might know best for
00:00:26 --> 00:00:29 its space station ambitions just revealed a
00:00:29 --> 00:00:31 surprise new business. Astronomy Daily
00:00:31 --> 00:00:34 Season 5 Episode 107 let's go.
00:00:35 --> 00:00:36 Avery: Ready when you are.
00:00:36 --> 00:00:38 Anna: It's launch eve for the most anticipated
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 rocket test of 2026. SpaceX's
00:00:41 --> 00:00:44 Starship V3, the biggest, most
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 powerful rocket ever built, is on the pad at
00:00:47 --> 00:00:50 Starbase in South Texas. Confirmed go for
00:00:50 --> 00:00:52 launch Thursday, May 21st.
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 Avery: We've been following this one for a few days
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 now, Anna, and this is genuinely the launch
00:00:57 --> 00:01:00 where the stakes couldn't be higher for NASA,
00:01:00 --> 00:01:03 for SpaceX, for the whole future of deep
00:01:03 --> 00:01:04 space travel.
00:01:04 --> 00:01:06 Anna: Let's run through what's happening and why it
00:01:06 --> 00:01:09 matters. The launch window opens at
00:01:09 --> 00:01:11 6:30pm Eastern Time on Thursday.
00:01:12 --> 00:01:14 That's 8:30 Friday morning for listeners in
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 Australia and New Zealand. 90 minutes to get
00:01:17 --> 00:01:18 off the pad.
00:01:19 --> 00:01:21 Avery: This is Flight 12, the 12th Test
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 of the fully stacked Starship vehicle. And
00:01:24 --> 00:01:26 um, the very first for the completely
00:01:26 --> 00:01:29 redesigned version 3 architecture. It's
00:01:29 --> 00:01:31 been seven months since Starship last flew
00:01:31 --> 00:01:34 back in October 2025, so the
00:01:34 --> 00:01:35 pressure has been building.
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 Anna: And it's the first flight From Starbase Pad
00:01:39 --> 00:01:42 2, a brand new launch complex. So
00:01:42 --> 00:01:44 there are a lot of firsts stacked up in this
00:01:44 --> 00:01:45 one mission.
00:01:45 --> 00:01:47 Avery: What are the main test objectives for Flight
00:01:47 --> 00:01:48 12?
00:01:48 --> 00:01:51 Anna: The Booster Super Heavy will attempt a, uh,
00:01:51 --> 00:01:53 controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico
00:01:53 --> 00:01:56 about seven minutes after launching. No
00:01:56 --> 00:01:59 Mechazilla catch attempt this time. This is a
00:01:59 --> 00:02:01 new vehicle and SpaceX wants clean data
00:02:01 --> 00:02:04 before pushing for that. Meanwhile, the upper
00:02:04 --> 00:02:07 stage ship 39 heads on a
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 suborbital trajectory partway around the
00:02:09 --> 00:02:09 world.
00:02:10 --> 00:02:13 Avery: And it ends in the Indian Ocean, which puts
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 the re entry path right over Western
00:02:15 --> 00:02:17 Australia. For our Southern Hemisphere
00:02:17 --> 00:02:20 audience, there is a real chance of a visible
00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 streak across the Predawn sky around
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 65 minutes after launching.
00:02:25 --> 00:02:27 Anna: The upper stage has some fascinating
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 objectives. It'll deploy 22 dummy
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 Starlink satellites. Two of those are
00:02:32 --> 00:02:35 specially modified. They'll scan Starship's
00:02:35 --> 00:02:38 heat shield from outside and beam images back
00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 to mission controllers. That's a completely
00:02:40 --> 00:02:43 new capability testing how the team might
00:02:43 --> 00:02:45 assess heat shield readiness for future
00:02:46 --> 00:02:47 return to Starbase missions.
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 Avery: And there's a deliberately removed heat
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 shield tile to measure what happens
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 aerodynamically when one is missing. Plus a
00:02:55 --> 00:02:57 Raptor engine relay in space and a
00:02:57 --> 00:03:00 structural stress maneuver on the rear flaps.
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 SpaceX is loading this flight with data
00:03:02 --> 00:03:03 collection.
00:03:03 --> 00:03:06 Anna: Now, before we go further with the excitement
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09 and we are genuinely excited, we do need
00:03:09 --> 00:03:12 to acknowledge something. On 15 May, a
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 worker died at the Starbase site in South
00:03:14 --> 00:03:17 Texas. According to reports, the person was a
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 contractor who died after a fall in the early
00:03:20 --> 00:03:22 hours of that Friday morning OSHA is
00:03:22 --> 00:03:23 investigating.
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 Avery: SpaceX has not publicly commented. Our
00:03:26 --> 00:03:28 thoughts are with the person's family and
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30 colleagues. It's a reminder that behind every
00:03:30 --> 00:03:33 spectacular launch is a workforce of
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 thousands of people doing difficult,
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 sometimes dangerous work that deserves
00:03:37 --> 00:03:38 acknowledgment.
00:03:39 --> 00:03:41 Anna: And there is a broader context here. A, uh,
00:03:41 --> 00:03:44 2025 analysis using OSHA data
00:03:44 --> 00:03:47 found that Starbase has a significantly
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 higher worker injury rate than comparable
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 aerospace facilities. That's something the
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 industry and regulators need to keep in focus
00:03:54 --> 00:03:56 as the pace of operations accelerates.
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 Avery: With that noted, the launch itself. Why does
00:04:00 --> 00:04:02 NASA need Starship V3 to work so
00:04:02 --> 00:04:03 badly?
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 Anna: Because Starship is the designated lunar
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 lander for Artemis 4. That's the mission that
00:04:09 --> 00:04:11 will actually put boots back on the moon,
00:04:11 --> 00:04:14 targeted for 2028. NASA
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 needs SpaceX to prove Starship can get to
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 orbit, refuel there, dock with an Orion
00:04:20 --> 00:04:23 capsule and descend to the surface. None of
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 that has happened yet. This test is the
00:04:25 --> 00:04:26 foundation.
00:04:26 --> 00:04:29 Avery: B3 is also supposed to be the baseline
00:04:29 --> 00:04:31 vehicle for crewed missions eventually. And
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 SpaceX's plans for orbital data centers,
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 Mars missions, everything a lot is
00:04:37 --> 00:04:38 riding on a clean test tomorrow.
00:04:39 --> 00:04:41 Anna: The launch window opens at 6:30 Eastern
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 Thursday evening. 8:30 Friday morning,
00:04:44 --> 00:04:47 Australian Eastern Time. SpaceX will
00:04:47 --> 00:04:49 livestream from about 45 minutes before
00:04:49 --> 00:04:52 liftoff. We'll link everything in the show
00:04:52 --> 00:04:53 Notes next up.
00:04:53 --> 00:04:56 Avery: Today, here's, um, an idea that sounds like
00:04:56 --> 00:04:58 science fiction, but is grounded in some very
00:04:58 --> 00:05:01 serious physics. What if the
00:05:01 --> 00:05:04 coldest, darkest, most inhospitable
00:05:04 --> 00:05:06 places on the Moon turned out to be the ideal
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 location for one of the most precise
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 instruments ever conceived?
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 Anna: You're talking about the permanently shadowed
00:05:13 --> 00:05:15 craters near the lunar south pole.
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 Avery: Exactly. Researchers at the National
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 Institute of Standards and Technology
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 in the US have published a proposal this
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 week that's genuinely elegant. These
00:05:27 --> 00:05:30 polar craters never, ever receive direct
00:05:30 --> 00:05:32 sunlight. Because of the Moon's very low
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 axial tilt, they've been in permanent
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 darkness for billions of years. Temperatures
00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 inside reach around 16 Kelvin. That's
00:05:40 --> 00:05:43 minus 257 degrees Celsius,
00:05:43 --> 00:05:45 almost absolute zero.
00:05:45 --> 00:05:48 Anna: And that makes them special for lasers.
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 Avery: Incredibly special. The most stable
00:05:51 --> 00:05:54 lasers in existence rely on silicon
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 optical cavities, essentially a pair of
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 ultra precise mirrors in a rigid housing.
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 The problem is that even the tiniest
00:06:02 --> 00:06:05 temperature fluctuation or vibration will
00:06:05 --> 00:06:08 cause the laser frequency to drift. On Earth,
00:06:08 --> 00:06:11 you need enormously complex cryogenic
00:06:11 --> 00:06:13 cooling systems and vibration isolation
00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 just to keep them stable. In one of these
00:06:16 --> 00:06:19 lunar craters, nature provides all of that
00:06:19 --> 00:06:19 for free.
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 Anna: The near absolute zero temperature
00:06:22 --> 00:06:25 eliminates thermal noise. The near perfect
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 vacuum eliminates atmospheric interference.
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 And the bedrock of a lunar crater is
00:06:30 --> 00:06:33 extraordinarily stable compared to any
00:06:33 --> 00:06:34 location on Earth.
00:06:34 --> 00:06:37 Avery: Jun Ye, the lead researcher at nist, put it
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 beautifully. He said as soon as he understood
00:06:40 --> 00:06:42 what these permanently shadowed regions could
00:06:42 --> 00:06:45 offer, he he felt it would be the most ideal
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 environment ever for a super stable laser.
00:06:48 --> 00:06:51 Anna: So what would such a laser actually be used
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 for? This isn't just a cool physics
00:06:53 --> 00:06:54 experiment.
00:06:54 --> 00:06:57 Avery: Not at all. The applications are immediately
00:06:57 --> 00:06:59 practical for everything humanity is planning
00:06:59 --> 00:07:02 to do on the moon. First, navigation.
00:07:02 --> 00:07:05 As we build up Artemis infrastructure at the
00:07:05 --> 00:07:08 lunar south pole, spacecraft and landers
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 currently have to rely heavily on Earth based
00:07:10 --> 00:07:12 tracking systems. That's slow,
00:07:12 --> 00:07:15 imprecise and increasingly impractical as
00:07:15 --> 00:07:18 lunar activity ramps up. A laser
00:07:18 --> 00:07:20 locked to this kind of ultra stable cavity
00:07:20 --> 00:07:23 could provide a GPS like timing backbone.
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 A master reference signal that spacecraft,
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 landers and astronauts could navigate by
00:07:29 --> 00:07:30 an independent
00:07:30 --> 00:07:32 Anna: lunar positioning system that's
00:07:32 --> 00:07:34 genuinely transformative for long term
00:07:34 --> 00:07:35 operations.
00:07:36 --> 00:07:38 Avery: There's more. The same laser could enable
00:07:38 --> 00:07:41 ultra precise distance measurements between
00:07:41 --> 00:07:43 satellites in lunar orbit, critical for
00:07:43 --> 00:07:46 mapping and coordination. It could serve as
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49 the first atomic clock on an extraterrestrial
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 body, establishing a lunar timescale.
00:07:51 --> 00:07:54 And this one caught my eye. It could
00:07:54 --> 00:07:56 potentially support gravitational wave
00:07:56 --> 00:07:59 detection from the lunar surface.
00:07:59 --> 00:08:01 Anna: The Moon has been discussed as a future
00:08:01 --> 00:08:04 gravitational wave observatory site. Because
00:08:04 --> 00:08:06 it lacks the seismic noise that limits
00:08:06 --> 00:08:09 detectors on Earth, a laser like this would
00:08:09 --> 00:08:10 be a key component.
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 Avery: This is still a proposal, but it's the kind
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 of forward thinking infrastructure planning
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 that needs to happen now before the crewed
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 missions arrive. Because you really don't
00:08:20 --> 00:08:23 want to be figuring out lunar GPS after
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 the astronauts are already there.
00:08:25 --> 00:08:28 Anna: Before moving on to our next story, a quick
00:08:28 --> 00:08:31 reminder about our sponsor NORDVPN and
00:08:31 --> 00:08:33 the special money saving deal they have in
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00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 NORDVPN and save a bunch of money in the
00:08:41 --> 00:08:41 process.
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 Avery: When when you can find a link to our special
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 offer in the show notes, do what we did and
00:08:47 --> 00:08:48 get NordVPN.
00:08:49 --> 00:08:51 Anna: Now you might know vast as the California
00:08:51 --> 00:08:54 startup building haven one the commercial
00:08:54 --> 00:08:57 space station that launched last year as
00:08:57 --> 00:08:59 humanity's first privately owned orbital
00:08:59 --> 00:09:02 outpost. But this week, VAST made an
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 announcement that raised a few eyebrows.
00:09:04 --> 00:09:06 They're getting into the satellite business.
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 A pivot, an expansion really.
00:09:10 --> 00:09:13 On 19 May, Vast announced a new
00:09:13 --> 00:09:16 line of high power satellites distinct
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 from their space station work. They're
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 positioning this as a separate business line,
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 entering a market currently dominated by
00:09:23 --> 00:09:26 established players like Boeing and Airbus in
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 the geostationary orbit segment, as well as
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 the emerging high throughput LEO operators.
00:09:32 --> 00:09:35 Avery: High power satellites. What does that mean
00:09:35 --> 00:09:37 specifically? Higher power than standard
00:09:37 --> 00:09:38 communication satellites?
00:09:39 --> 00:09:41 Anna: Exactly. High power satellites can
00:09:41 --> 00:09:44 generate significantly more electrical power
00:09:44 --> 00:09:46 from their solar arrays, which translates
00:09:46 --> 00:09:49 directly into more powerful transmitters and
00:09:49 --> 00:09:52 more bandwidth capacity. They're attractive
00:09:52 --> 00:09:53 for government customers, defense
00:09:53 --> 00:09:56 applications and premium commercial
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 communications sectors where performance
00:09:58 --> 00:10:00 outweighs launch cost as a priority.
00:10:01 --> 00:10:03 Avery: And VAST has the manufacturing expertise from
00:10:03 --> 00:10:05 Haven One to draw on.
00:10:05 --> 00:10:08 Anna: That's presumably part of the logic. Building
00:10:08 --> 00:10:11 a space station requires solving very hard
00:10:11 --> 00:10:14 problems around long duration power systems,
00:10:14 --> 00:10:17 thermal management, structural integrity in
00:10:17 --> 00:10:20 orbitall, things that translate well into
00:10:20 --> 00:10:22 satellite manufacturing. Bast seems to be
00:10:22 --> 00:10:25 betting they can leverage that expertise into
00:10:25 --> 00:10:26 a new revenue stream.
00:10:27 --> 00:10:29 Avery: It's, um, an interesting strategic move.
00:10:29 --> 00:10:31 Space stations are enormously capital
00:10:31 --> 00:10:34 intensive with a very long return horizon.
00:10:34 --> 00:10:37 Satellites are a more established market with
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 clearer near term revenue. It diversifies
00:10:39 --> 00:10:41 their business in a meaningful way.
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 Anna: Haven One remains their flagship product.
00:10:44 --> 00:10:47 This isn't an abandonment of that vision, but
00:10:47 --> 00:10:49 it signals that VAST is thinking about itself
00:10:49 --> 00:10:52 as a broader space infrastructure company,
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 not just a station operator. One to watch.
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 Avery: Time now for a black hole story. When the
00:10:58 --> 00:11:00 James Webb Space Telescope started returning
00:11:00 --> 00:11:03 data from the early universe, it created a
00:11:03 --> 00:11:06 beautiful problem. It found black holes that
00:11:06 --> 00:11:08 were too big. Impossibly big by our
00:11:08 --> 00:11:11 models. Supermassive black holes in
00:11:11 --> 00:11:14 galaxies just 800 million years after
00:11:14 --> 00:11:16 the Big Bang. Far more massive relative to
00:11:16 --> 00:11:18 their host galaxies than anything we see in
00:11:18 --> 00:11:19 the modern universe.
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 Anna: And that shouldn't be possible under our
00:11:22 --> 00:11:24 standard understanding of how black holes and
00:11:24 --> 00:11:26 galaxies co evolve.
00:11:26 --> 00:11:29 Avery: Right. The conventional model says black
00:11:29 --> 00:11:31 holes and galaxies grow together in a kind
00:11:31 --> 00:11:34 of feedback loop. Star formation, gas
00:11:34 --> 00:11:37 accretion, they regulate each other. The
00:11:37 --> 00:11:39 ratio of black hole mass to galaxy mass is
00:11:39 --> 00:11:42 fairly consistent in the local universe,
00:11:42 --> 00:11:45 around a, uh, tenth to half a percent. But
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 JWST kept finding early galaxies where
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 the black hole was grotesquely oversized
00:11:51 --> 00:11:51 relative
00:11:51 --> 00:11:53 Anna: to its host galaxy, the
00:11:53 --> 00:11:56 overmassive black holes. So what's the new
00:11:56 --> 00:11:57 explanation?
00:11:57 --> 00:12:00 Avery: New research published this week on Arxiv,
00:12:00 --> 00:12:02 led by Muhammad Latif at UAE University,
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 proposes a, uh, compelling mechanism in the
00:12:06 --> 00:12:08 earliest Cosmic environments. Certain
00:12:08 --> 00:12:11 galaxies were extraordinarily gas rich
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 and embedded in particularly dense dark
00:12:13 --> 00:12:16 matter halos. That combination created
00:12:16 --> 00:12:18 conditions where gas could fall into the
00:12:18 --> 00:12:21 central black hole far faster than the
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 surrounding galaxy could form stars.
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 Anna: Though the black hole got a head start, it
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 never lost exactly.
00:12:28 --> 00:12:31 Avery: The researchers call this rapid early phase
00:12:31 --> 00:12:34 episodic super Eddington accretion. The black
00:12:34 --> 00:12:36 hole was consuming gas at rates that exceed
00:12:36 --> 00:12:38 the theoretical limit that normally governs
00:12:38 --> 00:12:41 how fast accretion can proceed in these
00:12:41 --> 00:12:43 extreme early environments. That limit may
00:12:43 --> 00:12:44 have been routinely broken.
00:12:45 --> 00:12:48 Anna: This paper also identifies these over massive
00:12:48 --> 00:12:50 black holes as potentially the missing link
00:12:50 --> 00:12:53 between what are called heavy seeds, the
00:12:53 --> 00:12:55 primordial black holes that formed from the
00:12:55 --> 00:12:58 collapse of the very first massive stars, and
00:12:58 --> 00:13:00 the luminous quasars we observe later in
00:13:00 --> 00:13:01 cosmic history.
00:13:01 --> 00:13:04 Avery: There is also a separate but related finding
00:13:04 --> 00:13:07 this week on JWST's data from two
00:13:07 --> 00:13:09 specific early galaxies, named in the
00:13:09 --> 00:13:12 research as Kola 1 and Nepla 4,
00:13:12 --> 00:13:15 seen just 800 million years after the Big
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17 Bang, where the black holes appear to have
00:13:17 --> 00:13:20 grown far faster than their host galaxies.
00:13:20 --> 00:13:23 The JWST spectroscopy detected
00:13:23 --> 00:13:25 broad hydrogen emission lines, a, uh,
00:13:25 --> 00:13:28 telltale signature of gas swirling rapidly
00:13:28 --> 00:13:30 around the supermassive black hole.
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32 Anna: That we're getting closer to a, uh, coherent
00:13:32 --> 00:13:34 story of how the universe's largest
00:13:34 --> 00:13:36 structures assembled themselves in those
00:13:36 --> 00:13:39 first billion years. JWST keeps
00:13:39 --> 00:13:40 delivering.
00:13:40 --> 00:13:43 Avery: If you thought the James Webb Space Telescope
00:13:43 --> 00:13:45 changed everything, and it did, you should be
00:13:45 --> 00:13:48 paying close attention to what's coming next.
00:13:48 --> 00:13:51 NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
00:13:51 --> 00:13:53 is now confirmed for launch as early as
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56 September 2026. That's eight months
00:13:56 --> 00:13:58 ahead of its mandated deadline, and it's
00:13:58 --> 00:14:00 under budget, which almost
00:14:00 --> 00:14:02 Anna: never happens with flagship space telescopes.
00:14:02 --> 00:14:05 Avery: Almost never. NASA administrator Jared
00:14:05 --> 00:14:08 Isaacman announced the updated timeline at a
00:14:08 --> 00:14:10 news conference at Goddard Space Flight
00:14:10 --> 00:14:12 center in April. And since then, the
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 telescope has completed construction and is
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16 being prepared for shipment to Kennedy Space
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 center in Florida. It'll ride to orbit on a
00:14:19 --> 00:14:20 SpaceX Falcon Heavy.
00:14:20 --> 00:14:23 Anna: Walk us through what Roman actually does,
00:14:23 --> 00:14:25 because I think a lot of people haven't heard
00:14:25 --> 00:14:27 as much about it as they will once it
00:14:27 --> 00:14:27 launches.
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 Avery: Roman is built around the primary mirror
00:14:30 --> 00:14:32 that's similar in size to Hubble, about
00:14:32 --> 00:14:35 2.4 meters across. But where Hubble
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37 sees a relatively narrow field of view.
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 Roman's Wide Field Instrument captures a
00:14:40 --> 00:14:43 patch of sky at least a hundred times larger
00:14:43 --> 00:14:46 in a single exposure. And it surveys the
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48 sky at, uh, more than a thousand times
00:14:48 --> 00:14:48 Hubble's speed.
00:14:49 --> 00:14:52 Anna: That's an almost incomprehensible upgrade
00:14:52 --> 00:14:53 in survey capability.
00:14:53 --> 00:14:55 Avery: By the end of its planned five year primary
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 mission, Roman is expected to accumulate
00:14:58 --> 00:15:00 around 20 terabytes of data.
00:15:01 --> 00:15:03 Scientists will use that to investigate
00:15:03 --> 00:15:05 around 100 exoplanets, hundreds
00:15:05 --> 00:15:08 of millions of galaxies, billions of
00:15:08 --> 00:15:11 stars. And the mission team fully expects to
00:15:11 --> 00:15:13 find phenomena that have never been observed.
00:15:13 --> 00:15:16 Anna: The primary scientific targets are dark
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 energy and dark matter, the invisible
00:15:18 --> 00:15:21 scaffolding of the universe that we know must
00:15:21 --> 00:15:23 exist but can't directly see. Roman should
00:15:23 --> 00:15:26 be able to map how much dark matter is
00:15:26 --> 00:15:28 distributed across cosmic time in a way
00:15:28 --> 00:15:30 that's never been possible before.
00:15:30 --> 00:15:33 Avery: It also carries a coronagraph instrument, the
00:15:33 --> 00:15:35 most advanced starlight suppression
00:15:35 --> 00:15:37 technology ever flown in space, which will
00:15:37 --> 00:15:40 enable direct imaging of planets around
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42 nearby stars. That's a key stepping stone in
00:15:42 --> 00:15:42 the
00:15:42 --> 00:15:45 Anna: search for earth like worlds September
00:15:45 --> 00:15:47 2026 mark the calendar.
00:15:47 --> 00:15:50 Astronomy is about to get very, very busy.
00:15:51 --> 00:15:53 Avery: Our final story today involves a visitor from
00:15:53 --> 00:15:56 beyond our solar system and two new
00:15:56 --> 00:15:58 revelations about it that are genuinely
00:15:58 --> 00:15:59 extraordinary.
00:15:59 --> 00:16:01 Anna: The interstellar comet 3 I
00:16:02 --> 00:16:05 HE L A S. We've spoken about this before on
00:16:05 --> 00:16:07 Astronomy Daily. It was officially discovered
00:16:07 --> 00:16:10 on 1 July 2025 by the
00:16:10 --> 00:16:13 ATLAS telescope network in Chile, the third
00:16:13 --> 00:16:15 interstellar object ever detected passing
00:16:15 --> 00:16:16 through our solar system.
00:16:17 --> 00:16:19 Avery: And there are two new developments this week.
00:16:20 --> 00:16:23 The first, researchers have found that 3i a
00:16:23 --> 00:16:25 atlas was actually being imaged by the Vera C
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 Rubin Observatory in Chile for more than a
00:16:28 --> 00:16:31 week before its official discovery. The Comet
00:16:31 --> 00:16:34 nearly became 3i Rubin. Images from
00:16:34 --> 00:16:37 between 21 June and 2 July
00:16:37 --> 00:16:40 2025 show it clearly in Rubin data. But
00:16:40 --> 00:16:42 the observatory was still in its science
00:16:42 --> 00:16:44 validation phase at the time, not yet in full
00:16:44 --> 00:16:47 operation. Nobody was looking at those frames
00:16:47 --> 00:16:48 in real time.
00:16:48 --> 00:16:50 Anna: That's a fascinating footnote about the state
00:16:50 --> 00:16:53 of our sky survey infrastructure. Had Rubin
00:16:53 --> 00:16:55 been fully operational, we would have had
00:16:55 --> 00:16:57 over a week of additional early tracking
00:16:57 --> 00:16:58 data.
00:16:58 --> 00:17:00 Avery: And that matters enormously for
00:17:00 --> 00:17:03 characterizing these objects. The earlier you
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 catch them, the better you understand their
00:17:05 --> 00:17:07 trajectory, their composition, their size.
00:17:07 --> 00:17:10 Anna: The second development is even more striking.
00:17:10 --> 00:17:13 Research led by the University of Michigan
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 and published in Nature Astronomy
00:17:15 --> 00:17:18 reveals that the water inside 2i
00:17:18 --> 00:17:21 Atlas is unlike anything we've ever
00:17:21 --> 00:17:24 found in our own solar system. Specifically,
00:17:24 --> 00:17:27 its ratio of heavy water water
00:17:27 --> 00:17:29 molecules, where one hydrogen atom is
00:17:29 --> 00:17:32 replaced by deuterium, is at least 30
00:17:32 --> 00:17:35 times higher than anything found in comets
00:17:35 --> 00:17:36 from our own solar system.
00:17:37 --> 00:17:40 Avery: Thirty times? That's not a small difference.
00:17:40 --> 00:17:43 Anna: It's a profound one. Deuterium is a heavier
00:17:43 --> 00:17:45 isotope of hydrogen, and the ratio of
00:17:45 --> 00:17:48 deuterium to regular hydrogen in water is a
00:17:48 --> 00:17:50 chemical fossil. It records the temperature
00:17:50 --> 00:17:53 conditions where the water formed. High
00:17:53 --> 00:17:55 deuterium means the water formed in an
00:17:55 --> 00:17:58 extremely cold environment, far colder than
00:17:58 --> 00:18:00 the outer reaches of our own solar system.
00:18:00 --> 00:18:03 Avery: So 3 IA atlas forms somewhere colder
00:18:03 --> 00:18:05 and stranger than anything in our
00:18:05 --> 00:18:08 neighborhood. A different kind of planetary
00:18:08 --> 00:18:10 system, possibly much further from its parent
00:18:10 --> 00:18:11 star.
00:18:11 --> 00:18:14 Anna: The researchers at ALMA Observatory described
00:18:14 --> 00:18:16 it beautifully. They said each interstellar
00:18:16 --> 00:18:19 comet brings a little bit of its history, its
00:18:19 --> 00:18:22 fossils from elsewhere in the galaxy. We
00:18:22 --> 00:18:25 don't know exactly where 3 IA Atlas came
00:18:25 --> 00:18:27 from, but with instruments like ALMA and
00:18:27 --> 00:18:30 Rubin and jwst, we're beginning to
00:18:30 --> 00:18:32 read the chemical biography of another star
00:18:32 --> 00:18:33 system.
00:18:33 --> 00:18:36 Avery: And the comet itself is estimated to be
00:18:36 --> 00:18:39 nearly 12 billion years old. Its
00:18:39 --> 00:18:42 parent star system may no longer exist. We're
00:18:42 --> 00:18:43 reading the message from a stellar
00:18:43 --> 00:18:46 civilization of ice and rock that formed
00:18:46 --> 00:18:47 before our sun was born.
00:18:48 --> 00:18:51 Anna: Space travel in slow motion across
00:18:51 --> 00:18:54 12 billion years before we go
00:18:54 --> 00:18:54 a, uh,
00:18:54 --> 00:18:56 Avery: quick heads up for your skies tonight. Look
00:18:56 --> 00:18:59 west after sunset and you'll find a lovely
00:18:59 --> 00:19:01 pairing. Jupiter glows brightly beside the
00:19:01 --> 00:19:04 waxing crescent moon. The crescent acts as a
00:19:04 --> 00:19:06 natural pointer. Jupiter will be the
00:19:06 --> 00:19:08 brightest star like object nearby. No
00:19:08 --> 00:19:10 telescope needed, though. Binoculars will
00:19:10 --> 00:19:13 show Jupiter's four Galilean moons as tiny
00:19:13 --> 00:19:16 dots in a line. Southern Hemisphere viewers
00:19:16 --> 00:19:19 look northwest after dark. Enjoy it.
00:19:19 --> 00:19:21 Anna: That's Astronomy daily for Wednesday,
00:19:22 --> 00:19:24 May 21, 2026.
00:19:24 --> 00:19:27 Season 5 Episode 107
00:19:27 --> 00:19:30 Big Day Tomorrow with Starship. We'll be
00:19:30 --> 00:19:30 watching.
00:19:30 --> 00:19:32 Avery: If you're enjoying the show, please
00:19:32 --> 00:19:34 subscribe, leave a review and tell a fellow
00:19:34 --> 00:19:37 space enthusiast. Find us at astronomydaily
00:19:37 --> 00:19:40 IO and across all platforms as
00:19:40 --> 00:19:42 astrodaily. Pod. This is Anna and
00:19:42 --> 00:19:44 Avery. Keep looking up.