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00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily,
00:00:02 --> 00:00:05 your daily guide to the cosmos. I'm
00:00:05 --> 00:00:05 Anna.
00:00:05 --> 00:00:08 Avery: And I'm um, avery. It's Tuesday the 2nd of
00:00:08 --> 00:00:11 June, 2026 and this is season 5
00:00:11 --> 00:00:12 episode 113.
00:00:13 --> 00:00:15 Anna: What a week it's been in space already.
00:00:16 --> 00:00:18 Blue Origin is picking up the pieces. After a
00:00:18 --> 00:00:21 spectacular rocket explosion and the ripple
00:00:21 --> 00:00:24 effects for NASA's moon plans are uh, growing
00:00:24 --> 00:00:24 by the hour.
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 Avery: China quietly launched a brand new rocket
00:00:28 --> 00:00:30 overnight and barely told anyone about it.
00:00:30 --> 00:00:33 Anna: Starship is grounded again and this time
00:00:33 --> 00:00:35 there's an IPO in the balance.
00:00:35 --> 00:00:38 Avery: And NASA's Roman Space Telescope is getting
00:00:38 --> 00:00:40 ready to change everything we know about
00:00:40 --> 00:00:42 exoplanets. We're talking a hundred
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 thousand new worlds.
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 Anna: Plus, did you know Earth was once a planet
00:00:47 --> 00:00:50 wide ocean of lava for 500
00:00:50 --> 00:00:53 million years? New research is rewriting
00:00:53 --> 00:00:54 the story of our early home.
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 Avery: And the Hubble Space Telescope has captured a
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 stunning new look at a galaxy on a cosmic
00:00:59 --> 00:01:02 collision course. One that won't end for
00:01:02 --> 00:01:03 hundreds of millions of years.
00:01:04 --> 00:01:06 Anna: All that and more right here on Astronomy
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 Daily. Let's get into it.
00:01:08 --> 00:01:10 Avery: Why don't you kick things off Anna with
00:01:10 --> 00:01:11 today's big news update.
00:01:12 --> 00:01:14 Anna: Okay. When Blue Origin's new Glenn
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 rocket exploded on 28 May, the
00:01:17 --> 00:01:20 world was watching. But five days on the
00:01:20 --> 00:01:22 full scale of the damage, not just to the
00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 pad, but to America's lunar ambitions is
00:01:25 --> 00:01:27 becoming painfully clear.
00:01:27 --> 00:01:29 Avery: Let's recap what happened for anyone who
00:01:29 --> 00:01:32 missed it. The new Glenn was undergoing a
00:01:32 --> 00:01:34 static fire test. A uh, routine pre launch
00:01:34 --> 00:01:37 engine ignition at Launch Complex
00:01:37 --> 00:01:39 36 ahead of a planned June 4 launch.
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 Instead, all seven first stage engines
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 ignited. Something clearly went wrong and the
00:01:45 --> 00:01:48 322 foot rocket was engulfed in a
00:01:48 --> 00:01:51 massive fireball. The explosion could be seen
00:01:51 --> 00:01:52 and felt for miles.
00:01:53 --> 00:01:55 Anna: Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp has
00:01:55 --> 00:01:58 confirmed the company has begun clearing the
00:01:58 --> 00:02:01 pad. But here's the critical problem. Launch
00:02:01 --> 00:02:03 Complex 36 is Blue Origin's only
00:02:03 --> 00:02:06 orbital launch facility. They have no backup.
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 And rebuilding a destroyed launch complex
00:02:09 --> 00:02:11 isn't a matter of weeks.
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 Avery: And the mission that was sitting on that pad
00:02:13 --> 00:02:16 wasn't just about Internet satellites. Blue
00:02:16 --> 00:02:18 Origin was preparing to deploy Amazon's LEO
00:02:18 --> 00:02:21 broadband constellation. But the new Glenn is
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 also the rocket that NASA is counting on to
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 carry its Blue Moon landers to the lunar
00:02:26 --> 00:02:26 surface.
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 Anna: That's right. Just two days before the
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 explosion, NASA had signed a new agreement
00:02:32 --> 00:02:34 with Blue Origin to launch a pair of New
00:02:34 --> 00:02:37 Glenns carrying rovers to the moon. Rovers
00:02:37 --> 00:02:39 that would be waiting for Artemis Cruise, the
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 Blue Moon Mark 1 Lander scheduled to deliver
00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 the first hardware for NASA's Moon Base 1
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47 mission this coming northern autumn will now
00:02:47 --> 00:02:49 faces an uncertain delay.
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 Avery: And when the lander slips, the crew capable
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 blue moon mark two timeline slips with it.
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 One expert put it bluntly. NASA's moon based
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 plans are at this point quote, an
00:03:00 --> 00:03:03 aspiration rather than being realistically
00:03:03 --> 00:03:04 achievable in the next few years.
00:03:05 --> 00:03:08 Anna: It's worth noting that SpaceX and United
00:03:08 --> 00:03:10 launch alliance both successfully launched
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13 rockets from elsewhere at the cape less than
00:03:13 --> 00:03:15 24 hours after the new Glenn explosion.
00:03:16 --> 00:03:18 A pointed reminder of the advantage of having
00:03:18 --> 00:03:20 multiple launch pads.
00:03:20 --> 00:03:22 Avery: A, uh, tough lesson and a sobering moment for
00:03:22 --> 00:03:25 the whole Artemis program. We'll be watching
00:03:25 --> 00:03:26 this one very closely.
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 Anna: On to our next story. And were the Chinese
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 being sneaky or just getting on with
00:03:31 --> 00:03:31 business?
00:03:32 --> 00:03:34 Avery: Well, while the world was focused on the Blue
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37 origin explosion, China was quietly making
00:03:37 --> 00:03:40 its own significant space history without so
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 much as a press release in advance.
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 Anna: On June 1, at 4:40am Eastern
00:03:45 --> 00:03:48 Time, China's new Long March 12B
00:03:48 --> 00:03:51 rocket lifted off from the Zhuquan Satellite
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53 launch center in the Gobi Desert. Its very
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 first flight with no advance warning
00:03:56 --> 00:03:57 whatsoever.
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 Avery: No announcement, no countdown, just
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 gone. China's 35th orbital launch attempt
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 of 2026 and arguably one of the most
00:04:05 --> 00:04:06 technically significant.
00:04:07 --> 00:04:10 Anna: The Long March 12B is China's answer
00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 to SpaceX's Falcon 9. It's a two
00:04:13 --> 00:04:15 stage kerosene and liquid oxygen rocket,
00:04:15 --> 00:04:18 72 meters tall with a 20 ton payload
00:04:18 --> 00:04:21 capacity to low Earth orbit. And crucially,
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 it's designed from the ground up to be
00:04:23 --> 00:04:26 reusable. No recovery was attempted on this
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 maiden flight, but one is planned.
00:04:28 --> 00:04:31 Avery: What makes it especially interesting is the
00:04:31 --> 00:04:33 technology on board the rocket features what
00:04:33 --> 00:04:35 engineers are calling dual brains.
00:04:36 --> 00:04:38 Independent flight computers on both stages
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40 that can process data and make real time
00:04:40 --> 00:04:43 flight decisions autonomously. Think of it as
00:04:43 --> 00:04:45 redundant artificial intelligence for the
00:04:45 --> 00:04:46 rocket itself.
00:04:47 --> 00:04:49 Anna: The debut mission successfully deployed
00:04:49 --> 00:04:52 another batch of satellites for the Qian Fan
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 Constellation, also known as Thousand
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 Sails, China's answer to Starlink. If
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 this launch followed the typical batch size,
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 the Qianfan Constellation now has
00:05:01 --> 00:05:04 approximately 180 satellites in
00:05:04 --> 00:05:05 orbit.
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 Avery: And it was developed in just 21 months.
00:05:08 --> 00:05:11 21 months from concept to first successful
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 flight of a new heavy lift rocket. That's a
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 remarkable pace by any standard.
00:05:16 --> 00:05:19 Anna: And in other Chinese space news, and it's
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 been a busy week. The three member Shenzhou
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 Uh, 21 crew returned safely to Earth on
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 29 May 2026, wrapping
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 up a record 210 day mission
00:05:29 --> 00:05:32 aboard the Tiangong Space Station. Commander
00:05:32 --> 00:05:35 Cheng Liu, Wu Fei and Cheng Hongzhang are all
00:05:35 --> 00:05:38 in good health. It was a mission that had
00:05:38 --> 00:05:40 some added drama. A suspected space debris
00:05:40 --> 00:05:42 strike had damaged the window of their
00:05:42 --> 00:05:45 original return capsule, requiring China to
00:05:45 --> 00:05:48 launch an emergency replacement spacecraft to
00:05:48 --> 00:05:49 bring them home.
00:05:49 --> 00:05:51 Avery: China's space program is accelerating on
00:05:51 --> 00:05:54 every front simultaneously. The pace is
00:05:54 --> 00:05:55 extraordinary.
00:05:56 --> 00:05:58 Anna: Next up, you could say it's been a rough few
00:05:58 --> 00:06:01 days for commercial spaceflight and Starship
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 hasn't escaped the turbulence. The FAA has
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 formally grounded SpaceX's Starship version
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 3 rocket following what it's designated a uh,
00:06:09 --> 00:06:12 Mishap during Flight 12 on 22
00:06:12 --> 00:06:13 May.
00:06:13 --> 00:06:15 Avery: Let's remind listeners what happened on
00:06:15 --> 00:06:17 Flight 12. It was the debut of the Version 3
00:06:17 --> 00:06:20 configuration, a significant upgrade with new
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 Raptor 3 engines featuring a simplified
00:06:22 --> 00:06:25 design and increased thrust. The launch
00:06:25 --> 00:06:27 itself looked spectacular. The booster
00:06:27 --> 00:06:29 separated cleanly and delivered the upper
00:06:29 --> 00:06:31 stage to its intended trajectory.
00:06:31 --> 00:06:34 Anna: But then things went wrong during the boost
00:06:34 --> 00:06:37 back burn. When the super heavy booster fires
00:06:37 --> 00:06:39 its engines to arc back toward the recovery
00:06:39 --> 00:06:41 zone, it couldn't light all the planned
00:06:41 --> 00:06:44 engines. A partial burn ended early. The
00:06:44 --> 00:06:47 booster then attempted a landing burn, failed
00:06:47 --> 00:06:49 to ignite and hard splashed into the Gulf of
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52 Mexico or Gulf of America, depending on where
00:06:52 --> 00:06:55 you live. Meanwhile, one of the three vacuum
00:06:55 --> 00:06:58 Raptor vacuum engines on the upper stage also
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 failed, though SpaceX was still able to steer
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 it to the intended splashdown in the Indian
00:07:03 --> 00:07:03 Ocean.
00:07:04 --> 00:07:07 Avery: The FAA has now determined that constitutes a
00:07:07 --> 00:07:09 mishap under federal launch licensing rules
00:07:09 --> 00:07:11 and SpaceX must complete a, uh, full
00:07:11 --> 00:07:14 investigation led by SpaceX but overseen
00:07:14 --> 00:07:17 by the FAA. Before Starship can fly again.
00:07:18 --> 00:07:21 The FAA must approve the final report and
00:07:21 --> 00:07:24 any corrective actions. This is the seventh
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 time Starship has been grounded in three
00:07:26 --> 00:07:26 years.
00:07:27 --> 00:07:29 Anna: Industry observers are currently pointing to
00:07:29 --> 00:07:32 a July to August 2026 window for
00:07:32 --> 00:07:35 Flight 13 May. SpaceX may also choose
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 to skip the booster, catch on that flight and
00:07:37 --> 00:07:40 repeat the Gulf splashdown profile while the
00:07:40 --> 00:07:41 Raptor 3 issues are understood.
00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 Avery: Now here's where this gets particularly
00:07:45 --> 00:07:47 interesting. SpaceX filed its public
00:07:47 --> 00:07:50 IPO prospectus with the SEC on
00:07:50 --> 00:07:53 May 20, just two days before Flight
00:07:53 --> 00:07:55 12. The company is targeting a uh,
00:07:55 --> 00:07:57 NASDAQ listing under the ticker
00:07:57 --> 00:08:00 SPCX, with shares
00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 potentially trading as early as June 12.
00:08:02 --> 00:08:05 And its entire growth story is built
00:08:05 --> 00:08:06 around starship.
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 Anna: In the S1 filing, SpaceX stated, and
00:08:10 --> 00:08:12 we're paraphrasing here, that its growth
00:08:12 --> 00:08:14 strategy depends on increasing launch cadence
00:08:14 --> 00:08:17 and payload capacity, which in turn depends
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 on the successful development of Starship at
00:08:20 --> 00:08:23 scale. A grounding right before the IPO
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 roadshow is not ideal.
00:08:25 --> 00:08:28 Avery: High stakes all around. We'll keep following
00:08:28 --> 00:08:30 both the investigation and the IPO timeline.
00:08:31 --> 00:08:33 Anna: Okay, let's take a breath from all the rocket
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 drama and look ahead to something genuinely
00:08:36 --> 00:08:39 thrilling. NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space
00:08:39 --> 00:08:41 Telescope is heading to Kennedy Space center
00:08:41 --> 00:08:43 this month with a launch target of early
00:08:43 --> 00:08:46 September 2026. And what it's going to do
00:08:46 --> 00:08:49 is nothing short of staggering.
00:08:49 --> 00:08:51 Avery: To put it in perspective, since the dawn of
00:08:51 --> 00:08:54 the exoplanet era, we have confirmed around
00:08:54 --> 00:08:57 6 planets beyond our solar system.
00:08:57 --> 00:09:00 That's across decades of work from Kepler,
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 Tess, Hubble and every ground based
00:09:02 --> 00:09:05 observatory on Earth. Roman is expected
00:09:05 --> 00:09:08 to find approximately 100
00:09:08 --> 00:09:09 more in just five years.
00:09:10 --> 00:09:13 Anna: 100 15 times
00:09:13 --> 00:09:15 everything we've ever found in half a decade.
00:09:16 --> 00:09:16 How?
00:09:17 --> 00:09:19 Avery: It comes down to Roman's extraordinary
00:09:19 --> 00:09:22 combination of Hubble class resolution and a
00:09:22 --> 00:09:25 field of view at least 100 times larger.
00:09:25 --> 00:09:27 Where Hubble would photograph a postage stamp
00:09:27 --> 00:09:30 of sky, Roman photographs a full
00:09:30 --> 00:09:32 page spread with the same sharpness. It
00:09:32 --> 00:09:35 can survey the sky up to a thousand times
00:09:35 --> 00:09:36 faster than Hubble.
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 Anna: And critically, Roman will be looking in
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 places we've barely explored. Its galactic
00:09:41 --> 00:09:44 bulge Survey will observe approximately 100
00:09:44 --> 00:09:47 million stars in the dense, understudied
00:09:47 --> 00:09:49 heart of the milk Milwaukee regions where
00:09:49 --> 00:09:51 most planet hunting missions have never
00:09:51 --> 00:09:54 ventured. It will find planets using both the
00:09:54 --> 00:09:56 transit method and gravitational
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 microlensing, which can detect planets that
00:09:58 --> 00:10:00 don't even transit their stars.
00:10:00 --> 00:10:03 Avery: Roman is also expected to find a significant
00:10:03 --> 00:10:06 population of rogue planets, worlds
00:10:06 --> 00:10:08 drifting through the galaxy without a star to
00:10:08 --> 00:10:11 orbit. We currently know of only a handful.
00:10:11 --> 00:10:13 Roman could reveal thousands.
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 Anna: And then there's the coronagraph instrument,
00:10:16 --> 00:10:18 a ah, technology demonstrator that will
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 directly image a handful of large planets
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 around nearby stars. Testing techniques
00:10:23 --> 00:10:26 intended for a future mission to photograph
00:10:26 --> 00:10:28 Earth like worlds around sun, like stars.
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 Roman is also hunting dark energy and dark
00:10:32 --> 00:10:32 matter.
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 Avery: NASA administrator Jared Isaacman described
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 the accelerated development as a true success
00:10:37 --> 00:10:40 story. The telescope is now targeting a
00:10:40 --> 00:10:43 September launch ahead of its May 2027
00:10:43 --> 00:10:45 commitment. It's heading to Kennedy Space
00:10:45 --> 00:10:46 center this very month.
00:10:47 --> 00:10:50 Anna: Roman is going to be extraordinary. Our
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 audience is going to be hearing a lot about
00:10:52 --> 00:10:52 this one.
00:10:53 --> 00:10:55 Avery: Now, um, here's a question to ponder. Picture
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 the very young Earth. Four and a half billion
00:10:58 --> 00:11:01 years ago, the Moon has just formed from the
00:11:01 --> 00:11:03 debris of a catastrophic collision. The
00:11:03 --> 00:11:06 surface is an ocean of molten rock. As far as
00:11:06 --> 00:11:09 you can see. The atmosphere is a thick,
00:11:09 --> 00:11:12 toxic steam. How long did that last?
00:11:12 --> 00:11:15 Anna: OSU scientists had assumed not very long,
00:11:15 --> 00:11:18 geologically speaking, A few tens of millions
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 of years, perhaps before the planet cooled
00:11:20 --> 00:11:23 and solidified. But according to A striking
00:11:23 --> 00:11:25 new preprint from the researchers at the
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 Kaptain Astronomical Institute in the
00:11:27 --> 00:11:30 Netherlands. The answer might be up to half a
00:11:30 --> 00:11:30 billion years.
00:11:31 --> 00:11:34 Avery: Half a billion years. To put that in
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 perspective, that's longer than the entire
00:11:36 --> 00:11:38 history of complex animal life on Earth.
00:11:39 --> 00:11:42 The planet was essentially a global lava
00:11:42 --> 00:11:43 ocean for that entire time.
00:11:44 --> 00:11:47 Anna: So what kept it molten for so long? The
00:11:47 --> 00:11:49 researchers point to two key factors working
00:11:49 --> 00:11:52 together. First, the Moon. At that early
00:11:52 --> 00:11:55 stage, the newly formed Moon was orbiting the
00:11:55 --> 00:11:58 Earth much closer than it does today. That
00:11:58 --> 00:12:01 proximity created enormous tidal forces.
00:12:01 --> 00:12:03 Imagine the Moon's gravity kneading the
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 interior of the planet like dough. That tidal
00:12:06 --> 00:12:08 heating alone would have kept the mantle
00:12:08 --> 00:12:09 churning and molten.
00:12:10 --> 00:12:12 Avery: And the second factor, the atmosphere.
00:12:12 --> 00:12:14 Anna: In the early Earth, the thick steam
00:12:14 --> 00:12:17 atmosphere acted like a thermal blanket,
00:12:17 --> 00:12:20 trapping heat and dramatically slowing the
00:12:20 --> 00:12:22 rate at which the planet could radiate energy
00:12:22 --> 00:12:25 into space and cool down. Without that
00:12:25 --> 00:12:28 atmospheric insolation, the magma ocean would
00:12:28 --> 00:12:29 have solidified much faster.
00:12:29 --> 00:12:31 Avery: But here's the part that makes this more than
00:12:31 --> 00:12:34 just a story about ancient geology. The
00:12:34 --> 00:12:37 research also found that these prolonged hot,
00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 chemical rich conditions would have been
00:12:39 --> 00:12:42 ideal for producing hydrogen cyanide,
00:12:42 --> 00:12:44 a molecule that sounds poisonous, but is
00:12:44 --> 00:12:46 actually considered one of the key building
00:12:46 --> 00:12:49 blocks of life's precursor chemicals.
00:12:49 --> 00:12:51 Rna, amino, um, acids.
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54 Anna: So the very conditions that kept Earth molten
00:12:54 --> 00:12:56 may also have set the stage for life to
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59 eventually emerge. A 500 million
00:12:59 --> 00:13:02 year lava world as a cradle for biology.
00:13:02 --> 00:13:04 It's a remarkable reframing.
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 Avery: The paper is currently available as a pre
00:13:06 --> 00:13:09 print on Arxiv with full peer review to
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11 follow. We'll be watching for the published
00:13:11 --> 00:13:11 results.
00:13:11 --> 00:13:14 Anna: And we close today with something beautiful.
00:13:14 --> 00:13:17 A brand new image from the NASA and ESA
00:13:17 --> 00:13:20 Hubble Space Telescope that was released this
00:13:20 --> 00:13:21 week as Hubble's picture of the Month.
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 Avery: It shows the spiral galaxy Messier
00:13:24 --> 00:13:27 88 M8, about 63 million
00:13:27 --> 00:13:30 light years away in the constellation Coma
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32 Berenices. It's a gorgeous object.
00:13:32 --> 00:13:35 Tight, symmetrical spiral arms outlined by
00:13:35 --> 00:13:37 sparkling pink and blue star clusters
00:13:38 --> 00:13:41 draped in knotted clouds of dust with a
00:13:41 --> 00:13:42 warm glowing heart.
00:13:42 --> 00:13:44 Anna: But what makes this image scientifically
00:13:44 --> 00:13:47 fascinating is the story behind what we're
00:13:47 --> 00:13:50 seeing. M M88 is a member of the Virgo
00:13:50 --> 00:13:52 Cluster, a collection of more than a thousand
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55 galaxies bound together by gravity. And M
00:13:55 --> 00:13:58 M88 is currently about 2 million light
00:13:58 --> 00:14:01 years from the cluster's center on a long
00:14:01 --> 00:14:03 inward journey that will unfold over hundreds
00:14:03 --> 00:14:04 of millions of years.
00:14:04 --> 00:14:06 Avery: And that, uh, journey is already leaving
00:14:06 --> 00:14:09 marks. Researchers have found that M M88
00:14:09 --> 00:14:12 has significantly less cold gas in its outer
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 regions than you'd expect for a galaxy of its
00:14:14 --> 00:14:17 size. Cold gas is the raw fuel for star
00:14:17 --> 00:14:20 formation, and it's being stripped away by a
00:14:20 --> 00:14:22 process called ram pressure stripping, where
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 the gravitational influence of the cluster
00:14:24 --> 00:14:27 environment essentially blows material off
00:14:27 --> 00:14:30 the galaxy like wind stripping lead from a
00:14:30 --> 00:14:30 tree.
00:14:30 --> 00:14:33 Anna: You can actually see the effect in the image.
00:14:33 --> 00:14:36 The leading edge of the galaxy's gas disk
00:14:36 --> 00:14:39 appears compressed and piled up like snow
00:14:39 --> 00:14:41 in front of a plow. The galaxy is being
00:14:41 --> 00:14:43 reshaped in real time by its environment,
00:14:44 --> 00:14:45 and in roughly
00:14:45 --> 00:14:48 Avery: 200 to 300 million years, M88
00:14:48 --> 00:14:49 will reach its closest encounter with
00:14:49 --> 00:14:52 neighboring giant Messier 87,
00:14:52 --> 00:14:55 the galaxy whose supermassive black hole gave
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 us humanity's first ever photograph of a
00:14:58 --> 00:15:00 black hole back in 2019. Their
00:15:00 --> 00:15:03 gravitational interaction will reshape both
00:15:03 --> 00:15:04 galaxies
00:15:04 --> 00:15:07 Anna: profoundly, a cosmic drama unfolding
00:15:07 --> 00:15:09 across timescales almost too vast to
00:15:09 --> 00:15:12 comprehend. And Hubble is letting us watch it
00:15:12 --> 00:15:15 in a single, breathtaking image that is
00:15:15 --> 00:15:17 Avery: Astronomy Daily for Tuesday, 2nd
00:15:17 --> 00:15:20 June 2026. What a show
00:15:20 --> 00:15:22 today. From exploding rockets to a hundred
00:15:23 --> 00:15:25 thousand new worlds, from Earth's ancient
00:15:25 --> 00:15:28 fire to, uh, a galaxy's long journey through
00:15:28 --> 00:15:28 the cosmos.
00:15:29 --> 00:15:31 Anna: If you enjoyed today's episode, please follow
00:15:31 --> 00:15:33 us wherever you get your podcasts and share
00:15:33 --> 00:15:36 us with a fellow space fan. We'd love to grow
00:15:36 --> 00:15:36 our community.
00:15:37 --> 00:15:40 Avery: Find us at astronomydaily IO and follow
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42 us on X, Instagram, TikTok,
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 Facebook, YouTubeMusic, and Tumblr, all
00:15:45 --> 00:15:46 @astrodaily.
00:15:46 --> 00:15:49 Anna: Pod for Avery I'm Anna
00:15:49 --> 00:15:50 Clear skies
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 Avery: everyone, and stay curious.
00:15:58 --> 00:15:59 Anna: Love.
00:16:03 --> 00:16:05 Story soul.