Nuclear Power in Space, Planetary Defense Insights, and an Aurora Alert for Northern Skies
Astronomy Daily: Space News July 08, 2026x
135
00:14:0212.91 MB

Nuclear Power in Space, Planetary Defense Insights, and an Aurora Alert for Northern Skies

AnnaAnnaHost
Astronomy Daily — S05E135 — Wednesday, July 8, 2026 1. World's First Commercial Nuclear-Powered Satellite Reaches Orbit SpaceX's Transporter-17 rideshare mission carried City Labs' BOHR CubeSat to orbit on July 7, the first commercially built satellite to fly a nuclear-powered payload — a tritium betavoltaic cell that generates electricity continuously, day or night, regardless of sunlight. Key points • Launched July 7, 2026 at 3:12am EDT from Vandenberg Space Force Base aboard a Falcon 9, part of the 81-payload Transporter-17 rideshare mission. • BOHR (Betavoltaic Orbital High-Reliability) CubeSat built by City Labs, a Miami/Florida-based company. • Uses a 'NanoTritium' betavoltaic device — converts beta particles from the radioactive decay of tritium directly into electricity via a semiconductor. • Power output is tiny (micro-to-milliwatt range) but continuous — unaffected by eclipse periods or solar panel orientation. • Tritium's 12.3-year half-life means the power source stays effective for two decades before decaying to harmless helium-3. • FAA authorised the launch after finding public radiation exposure would stay below one millirem under conservative assumptions. 2. New Zealand's Fuel-Free Thruster Passes First Orbital Test Auckland-based Zenno Astronautics has successfully tested its 'Supertorquer' — an attitude-control thruster that uses superconducting magnets to push against Earth's own magnetic field, generating thrust with no propellant at all. Key points • Zenno Astronautics is a spin-off from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. • The system, called 'Supertorquer', completed its first in-orbit test in early July 2026. • Superconducting magnets, powered by solar panels, interact with Earth's magnetic field to generate torque and maintain a satellite's orientation — no propellant is consumed. • Until recently this kind of superconducting hardware was too large and complex to fit aboard a small satellite; miniaturisation has now made it practical. • Because it needs no fuel, the technology could in principle keep a satellite maneuvering indefinitely, as long as it has sunlight for power. • Zenno co-founder/company messaging: 'We are essentially looking to remove all reliance on Earth's resources so that we can build a sustainable industry in space.' 3. Tianwen-2 Arrives at Quasi-Moon Kamo'oalewa — And Upends the 'Piece of the Moon' Theory China's Tianwen-2 sample-return spacecraft has arrived at near-Earth asteroid Kamo'oalewa after a 400-day, 1-billion-kilometre journey, beaming back the first close-up image — just as new JWST data throws serious doubt on the leading theory of where this strange little world came from. Key points • Tianwen-2 launched May 29, 2025, and reached Kamo'oalewa on July 6, 2026, arriving at a station-keeping distance of about 20 km. • China National Space Administration (CNSA) publicly announced the arrival July 6, releasing the first close-up image via Xinhua. • Kamo'oalewa (asteroid 2016 HO3) is one of only seven known 'quasi-satellites' of Earth — it orbits the Sun but stays in a stable dance alongside our planet, and has done so for roughly 100 years, with about 300 more to go. • The image reveals a small, asymmetrical rock roughly 20-30 metres across. • Long-standing hypothesis (since 2021): Kamo'oalewa is a fragment blasted off the Moon's far side by the impact that created the Giordano Bruno crater, 1-10 million years ago — based on its reflectance spectrum resembling space-weathered lunar soil. • New twist: a July 1 JWST preprint (Sharkey et al.) models Kamo'oalewa's albedo (reflectivity) at around 0.59 — far higher than the Moon's ~0.12 — which is incompatible with a lunar origin and points instead toward a rare E-type silicate asteroid. 4. Jeremy Hansen Steps Back From Active Astronaut Duty Jeremy Hansen, the Canadian Space Agency astronaut who became the first Canadian to fly around the Moon aboard Artemis II in April, announced July 6 that he's stepping back from full-time astronaut service this September. Key points • Hansen flew as mission specialist on Artemis II in April 2026, alongside NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch — the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years. • He becomes the first Canadian to travel beyond low Earth orbit / around the Moon. • Announced via social media and a Canadian Space Agency statement on July 6, 2026. • Transition takes effect this September, after 32 years of military service and 17 years as a CSA astronaut. • He will continue serving as a reservist with the Royal Canadian Air Force and says he remains committed to Canada's space program in a new capacity. • Joined CSA in the 2009 astronaut recruitment campaign after a career as a Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot. 5. Aurora Alert: G1 Geomagnetic Storm Possible July 9 Space weather forecasters are watching a combination of a fast coronal mass ejection and an Earth-facing coronal hole that could combine to produce a minor (G1-class) geomagnetic storm on July 9 — with aurora potentially visible across the northern United States, Canada, and parts of northern Europe. Key points • A fast CME launched from the Sun on July 5 has a modelled arrival time around 6 UTC on July 9. • Separately, a coronal hole — a region of open magnetic field letting fast solar wind escape — is rotating into an Earth-facing position and its high-speed stream is expected to arrive around the same time. • Combined, NOAA/space weather forecasters say these two effects could produce G1 (minor) geomagnetic storm conditions. • Possible aurora visibility zones: Seattle, Edinburgh, and the northern tier of the United States and Canada. • Context: last week's monster sunspot active regions have now rotated to the Sun's far side after putting on a dramatic show of flares and prominences as they departed. • Solar activity has otherwise dropped to low levels — mostly common C-class flares — with active region AR4482 now the main feature on the Earth-facing side of the Sun. 6. Chinese Researchers Model the Best Way to 'Nuke' a Killer Asteroid A new peer-reviewed study models two different ways a nuclear device could be used to deflect a threatening asteroid — a straightforward surface impact detonation, or a 'pre-excavation' approach that digs a crater first before delivering a deeper, more effective blast — and finds the right choice depends heavily on how much warning time we have. Key points • Published July 7, 2026 in the journal Space: Science & Technology. • Compares two nuclear deflection modes: (1) 'impact detonation' — a simple, shallow-crater surface blast, and (2) 'pre-excavation detonation' — using a penetrator device to dig a deeper crater first, then detonating a warhead to achieve 'deep detonation' inside the asteroid. • Researchers modelled launch vehicle energy, impactor spacecraft velocity, and the resulting change in the asteroid's velocity for both modes. • Both modes were tested against a 'virtual threat asteroid database' assuming warning times ranging from one year to twenty years. • Headline finding: given enough warning time, the deeper 'pre-excavation' detonation is markedly more efficient at deflecting an asteroid than a simple surface blast — but a straightforward impact detonation may still be the only option when warning time is short. • Context: no known asteroid currently poses an imminent threat to Earth — Apophis, once considered a risk for its 2029 and 2068 close approaches, has been ruled out as a hazard for the foreseeable future.

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00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Anna: From nuclear powered satellites to a, uh,

00:00:02 --> 00:00:05 thruster that never runs out of fuel. This is

00:00:05 --> 00:00:06 Astronomy Daily.

00:00:06 --> 00:00:07 Avery: I'm Avery.

00:00:07 --> 00:00:10 Anna: And I'm anna. It's Wednesday, July 8,

00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 2026, and this is season five, episode

00:00:13 --> 00:00:14 135.

00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 Avery: Big show today, Anna. We've got a genuine

00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 technology first, a Kiwi engineering trick

00:00:20 --> 00:00:22 that sounds almost too clever to be true. A

00:00:22 --> 00:00:25 plot twist five years in the making, and for

00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 once, a story that isn't about our Southern

00:00:28 --> 00:00:29 Hemisphere listeners.

00:00:29 --> 00:00:31 Anna: That's right. Today we're tipping our hat to

00:00:31 --> 00:00:33 the northern half of our audience, who make

00:00:33 --> 00:00:35 up the bulk of our listeners, but don't

00:00:35 --> 00:00:38 always get a sky story written just for them.

00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 Avery: Plus, a serious look at planetary defense.

00:00:41 --> 00:00:43 And we close things out with an astronaut

00:00:43 --> 00:00:46 who's already planning his next chapter just

00:00:46 --> 00:00:47 weeks after circling the moon.

00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 Anna: Let's get into it, and let's start with a,

00:00:49 --> 00:00:51 uh, genuine first.

00:00:51 --> 00:00:54 On July 7, SpaceX's Transporter

00:00:54 --> 00:00:56 17 rideshare mission lifted off from

00:00:56 --> 00:00:59 Vandenberg Space force base, carrying 81

00:00:59 --> 00:01:02 payloads. And tucked along them was something

00:01:02 --> 00:01:04 that's never flown before on a commercial

00:01:04 --> 00:01:04 mission.

00:01:05 --> 00:01:08 Avery: This is the Bore cubesat, built by a Florida

00:01:08 --> 00:01:10 company called City Labs. And what makes it

00:01:10 --> 00:01:12 special is what's powering one of its

00:01:12 --> 00:01:14 payloads. A tiny nuclear battery.

00:01:15 --> 00:01:17 Anna: Now, before anyone pictures a miniature

00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 reactor. This is something much gentler.

00:01:20 --> 00:01:22 It's called a beta voltaic device. City

00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 Labs calls the technology nanotritium.

00:01:26 --> 00:01:28 It takes the beta particles thrown off as

00:01:28 --> 00:01:31 tritium decays and converts them directly

00:01:31 --> 00:01:33 into electricity through a semiconductor.

00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 Avery: The power output is tiny. We're talking micro

00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 to milliwatts. Not enough to run your kettle.

00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 But here's the trick. It's continuous day or

00:01:41 --> 00:01:44 night, in sunlight or in shadow. It just

00:01:44 --> 00:01:45 keeps producing power.

00:01:45 --> 00:01:48 Anna: And tritium has a half life of 12.3

00:01:48 --> 00:01:51 years. So this thing stays effective for 20

00:01:51 --> 00:01:54 years before it quietly decays into harmless

00:01:54 --> 00:01:55 helium 3.

00:01:55 --> 00:01:57 Avery: The FAA had to sign off on this one, too.

00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 They concluded that public radiation exposure

00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 from the mission would stay under 1 millirem

00:02:03 --> 00:02:05 using conservative assumptions. So this has

00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 been vetted from a safety standpoint, not

00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 just an Engineering 1.

00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 Anna: Citilab CEO Peter Kabawi called it a

00:02:12 --> 00:02:14 historic step for commercial nuclear power in

00:02:14 --> 00:02:17 space and said it enables, quote,

00:02:17 --> 00:02:19 persistent always on payload operations

00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 that are not constrained by sunlight or

00:02:22 --> 00:02:22 battery life.

00:02:23 --> 00:02:25 Avery: Worth being? Clear. This isn't like the

00:02:25 --> 00:02:28 plutonium rtgs powering Voyager or

00:02:28 --> 00:02:30 New Horizons or the Mars rovers, which

00:02:30 --> 00:02:33 generate power from heat. This is much

00:02:33 --> 00:02:35 smaller, much lower power. And it's still

00:02:35 --> 00:02:38 relying on solar panels for its main Systems.

00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 This is a proof of concept, but

00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 Anna: it's a proof of concept with a very specific

00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 use case in mind. Permanently shadowed

00:02:45 --> 00:02:47 craters on the moon, for instance, where the

00:02:47 --> 00:02:50 sun genuinely never reaches. NASA's

00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 floated tritium beta voltaics as a way to run

00:02:53 --> 00:02:56 small autonomous sensors in exactly those

00:02:56 --> 00:02:56 conditions.

00:02:56 --> 00:02:59 Avery: Solar panels have run space missions for

00:02:59 --> 00:03:02 seven decades. This is the first real

00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 commercial attempt at an answer to the

00:03:04 --> 00:03:07 question, what happens when the sun doesn't

00:03:07 --> 00:03:08 reach you at all?

00:03:08 --> 00:03:11 Anna: It's a small battery, but if it scales, it

00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 opens some very dark corners of the solar

00:03:13 --> 00:03:13 system.

00:03:14 --> 00:03:16 Avery: Sticking with clever engineering, this next

00:03:16 --> 00:03:18 one comes from a lot closer to home for you,

00:03:18 --> 00:03:19 Anna.

00:03:19 --> 00:03:21 Anna: It does. This is a New Zealand story. A

00:03:21 --> 00:03:24 company called Zeno Astronautics, a spinoff

00:03:24 --> 00:03:26 from the University of Auckland, has just

00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 completed the first orbital test of something

00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 called the Super Torquer.

00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 Avery: And the pitch here is genuinely wild. It's a

00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 thruster that never runs out of fuel because

00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 it doesn't use any fuel at all.

00:03:38 --> 00:03:41 Anna: Here's how it works. The Super Torquer uses

00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 superconducting magnets powered by the

00:03:43 --> 00:03:46 satellite's solar panels. And those magnets

00:03:46 --> 00:03:48 push against Earth's own magnetic field.

00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 That interaction generates torque enough to

00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 turn and orient the satellite with zero

00:03:54 --> 00:03:55 propellant consumed.

00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 Avery: Superconducting magnets have been on people's

00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 wish list for this kind of job for years. But

00:04:00 --> 00:04:02 the hardware was always too big and too

00:04:02 --> 00:04:04 complicated to fit on a small satellite.

00:04:04 --> 00:04:06 Miniaturization has finally caught up with

00:04:06 --> 00:04:07 the

00:04:07 --> 00:04:09 Anna: idea to be precise about what this replaces.

00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 It's primarily for attitude control, so

00:04:13 --> 00:04:15 turning and orientation rather than big

00:04:15 --> 00:04:18 or get changing maneuvers. It's, uh, a much

00:04:18 --> 00:04:20 cleaner alternative to the cold gas thrusters

00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 satellites currently use just to point

00:04:22 --> 00:04:23 themselves the right way.

00:04:24 --> 00:04:26 Avery: But if you never need propellant for that

00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 job, a, uh, satellite's operational lifetime

00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 stops being limited by how much gas it

00:04:30 --> 00:04:31 launched with.

00:04:32 --> 00:04:34 Anna: Dano's own messaging captures the

00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 ambition nicely. They say they're trying to,

00:04:37 --> 00:04:39 quote, remove all reliance on

00:04:39 --> 00:04:42 Earth's resources so that we can build a

00:04:42 --> 00:04:45 sustainable industry in space. No

00:04:45 --> 00:04:47 tanks, no valves, nothing to run dry.

00:04:47 --> 00:04:50 Just magnets, sunlight and the planet's own

00:04:50 --> 00:04:53 magnetic field doing the work. A very

00:04:53 --> 00:04:56 kiwi way to solve a very old space

00:04:56 --> 00:04:56 problem.

00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 Now to an ongoing story that just took a

00:04:59 --> 00:05:02 genuine twist. Longtime listeners will

00:05:02 --> 00:05:04 remember we've been tracking China's Tianwen

00:05:04 --> 00:05:07 2 mission on its approach to the near Earth

00:05:07 --> 00:05:09 asteroid Kamaua Lewa.

00:05:09 --> 00:05:12 Avery: Well, on July 6th, after a 400 day,

00:05:12 --> 00:05:14 roughly 1 billion kilometer journey,

00:05:14 --> 00:05:17 Tianwen 2 arrived, settling in at a

00:05:17 --> 00:05:20 station keeping distance of about 20 km from

00:05:20 --> 00:05:23 the surface. China's space agency released

00:05:23 --> 00:05:25 the first close up image the same day.

00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 Anna: For context on what Kamalalewa actually is,

00:05:28 --> 00:05:31 it's one of only seven known quasi

00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 satellites of Earth. It orbits the sun, but

00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 it stays locked in a stable dance alongside

00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 our planet and has done so for roughly a

00:05:40 --> 00:05:43 hundred years, with about 300 more to

00:05:43 --> 00:05:43 go.

00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 Avery: The image shows a small asymmetrical rock

00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 somewhere in the range of 20 to 30 meters

00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 across. Tiny as these things go.

00:05:51 --> 00:05:54 Anna: Now, here's where it gets interesting. Since

00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 2021, the leading theory has been that Kamau

00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 Lewa is, uh, a genuine chip off our own moon,

00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 blasted off the lunar far side by the impact

00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 that created the Giordano Bruno crater

00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 somewhere between 1 and 10 million years ago.

00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 That was based on its reflectance spectrum,

00:06:11 --> 00:06:13 looking a lot like space weathered lunar

00:06:13 --> 00:06:14 soil.

00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 Avery: But just five days before Tianwen 2

00:06:16 --> 00:06:19 arrived, a JWST preprint

00:06:19 --> 00:06:22 modeled Kamawa Lea's albedo. How

00:06:22 --> 00:06:24 reflective it is. At 0.59,

00:06:25 --> 00:06:27 the moon's albedo is only about

00:06:27 --> 00:06:30 0.12. That's a huge

00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 mismatch and it's simply not compatible with

00:06:32 --> 00:06:33 a lunar origin.

00:06:33 --> 00:06:36 Anna: Astronomer Mikhail Grandvik of the University

00:06:36 --> 00:06:38 of Helsinki says the new TN12

00:06:38 --> 00:06:41 image basically confirms the albedo

00:06:41 --> 00:06:44 result from the JWST data,

00:06:44 --> 00:06:47 pointing instead toward Kamaualewa being a

00:06:47 --> 00:06:49 rare type of silicate asteroid

00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 entirely unrelated to our Moon.

00:06:51 --> 00:06:54 Avery: For five years, the story was it's a piece of

00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 the moon. That story might not survive

00:06:56 --> 00:06:57 contact with

00:06:57 --> 00:07:00 Anna: the evidence, which is exactly why Tianwen

00:07:00 --> 00:07:02 2 is there. Over the next year, it'll study

00:07:02 --> 00:07:05 kamauu Lewa with 11 science instruments

00:07:05 --> 00:07:07 before attempting to collect somewhere

00:07:07 --> 00:07:10 between 20 and 100 milligrams of surface

00:07:10 --> 00:07:13 material using whichever of three sampling

00:07:13 --> 00:07:16 techniques suits the asteroid surface best.

00:07:16 --> 00:07:19 Avery: Sample return is planned via an earth flyby

00:07:19 --> 00:07:22 around April 2027. And only then

00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 will we really know for certain what this

00:07:24 --> 00:07:25 little rock is made of.

00:07:25 --> 00:07:27 Anna: The only way to settle it for good is to

00:07:27 --> 00:07:29 bring a piece of it home.

00:07:29 --> 00:07:32 Now staying with asteroids, but shifting from

00:07:32 --> 00:07:35 origins to defense, because a new study

00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 out this week tackles a question that sounds

00:07:37 --> 00:07:39 like it's straight out of a disaster movie.

00:07:40 --> 00:07:42 Avery: How exactly do you nuke an asteroid if it

00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 ever comes to that? A peer reviewed paper

00:07:45 --> 00:07:46 published July 7 in the journal

00:07:47 --> 00:07:50 Science and Technology models two different

00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 approaches to nuclear asteroid deflection.

00:07:53 --> 00:07:55 Anna: Model one is what you'd probably

00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 an impact detonation. You hit the

00:07:58 --> 00:08:00 surface, create a shallow crater and

00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 detonate a nuclear Device there.

00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 Avery: Mode 2 is more elaborate. A, uh, pre

00:08:05 --> 00:08:08 excavation Detonation, A penetrator

00:08:08 --> 00:08:11 device digs a deeper crater first and

00:08:11 --> 00:08:14 then the warhead goes off inside that

00:08:14 --> 00:08:16 crater, achieving what the researchers call

00:08:16 --> 00:08:18 deep detonation within the asteroid's

00:08:18 --> 00:08:19 interior.

00:08:19 --> 00:08:21 Anna: The researchers modeled the energy of the

00:08:21 --> 00:08:24 launch vehicle, the impactor's velocity and

00:08:24 --> 00:08:26 the resulting change in the asteroid's own

00:08:26 --> 00:08:29 velocity for both approaches, and then tested

00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 them against a virtual database of threat

00:08:31 --> 00:08:34 asteroids, assuming warning times anywhere

00:08:34 --> 00:08:35 from one year to 20 years.

00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 Avery: The headline finding if you've got enough

00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 lead time, the deeper pre excavation

00:08:41 --> 00:08:43 approach is markedly more efficient at

00:08:43 --> 00:08:46 actually deflecting the asteroid. But if

00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 warning time is short, a simple surface

00:08:48 --> 00:08:50 impact detonation may be the only option

00:08:50 --> 00:08:52 you've got time to pull off.

00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 Anna: Worth saying. Clearly there's no known

00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 asteroid threatening Earth right now.

00:08:56 --> 00:08:59 Apophis, uh, once flagged as a risk for its

00:08:59 --> 00:09:02 2029 and 2068 close approaches,

00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 has been ruled out as a hazard for the

00:09:04 --> 00:09:05 foreseeable future.

00:09:05 --> 00:09:08 Avery: But it's not purely theoretical either. Back

00:09:08 --> 00:09:11 in 2024, a lab experiment published in

00:09:11 --> 00:09:14 Nature Physics showed that X rays from a

00:09:14 --> 00:09:16 nuclear blast could genuinely vaporize

00:09:16 --> 00:09:19 and push an asteroid's surface. And the

00:09:19 --> 00:09:21 researchers behind that suggested the

00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 technique could scale up to asteroids as

00:09:23 --> 00:09:25 large as around 4km across.

00:09:26 --> 00:09:28 Anna: And it's worth remembering the Chelyabinsk

00:09:28 --> 00:09:31 meteor back in 2013. A, uh, comparatively

00:09:31 --> 00:09:34 small object and it still caused real

00:09:34 --> 00:09:37 property damage and over a thousand injuries.

00:09:37 --> 00:09:40 Even modest sized asteroids are worth taking

00:09:40 --> 00:09:40 seriously.

00:09:40 --> 00:09:43 Avery: Hollywood's favorite plan, nuke it might

00:09:43 --> 00:09:46 genuinely be a good idea. It's just that.

00:09:46 --> 00:09:49 Exactly how you nuke it turns out to matter

00:09:49 --> 00:09:50 enormously.

00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 Anna: Not quite the Bruce Willis version, but

00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 planetary defense science is getting a lot

00:09:55 --> 00:09:57 more precise. And that's exactly what you'd

00:09:57 --> 00:09:59 want if we ever had to use it for real.

00:09:59 --> 00:10:01 Alright, time for something a little

00:10:01 --> 00:10:04 different. Avery, I believe this one's got

00:10:04 --> 00:10:05 your name on it.

00:10:05 --> 00:10:07 Avery: It does? Does. Southern hemisphere listeners

00:10:07 --> 00:10:09 feel free to sit this one out for once

00:10:09 --> 00:10:12 because this Aurora alert is entirely for

00:10:12 --> 00:10:12 our friends

00:10:12 --> 00:10:15 Anna: up north Base weather forecasters are

00:10:15 --> 00:10:18 watching. Two things line up for July 9th.

00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 First, a fast coronal mass ejection that

00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 launched from the sun on July 5th with a

00:10:23 --> 00:10:26 modeled arrival time around 6 UTC on

00:10:26 --> 00:10:26 the night.

00:10:27 --> 00:10:29 Avery: A second, a coronal hole, a patch

00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 of open magnetic field letting fast solar

00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 wind escape, is rotating into an Earth

00:10:35 --> 00:10:38 facing position and its high speed stream is

00:10:38 --> 00:10:40 expected to arrive around the same time.

00:10:40 --> 00:10:43 Anna: Put those two together and forecasters say we

00:10:43 --> 00:10:45 could see G1 class geomagnetic storm

00:10:45 --> 00:10:48 conditions. Minor on the storm scale, but

00:10:48 --> 00:10:50 enough to bring the aurora down to some

00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 surprisingly accessible latitudes.

00:10:53 --> 00:10:55 Avery: The zones to watch Seattle,

00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 Edinburgh and the northern tier of the United

00:10:58 --> 00:10:59 States and Canada.

00:11:00 --> 00:11:02 Anna: For context, this comes right after last

00:11:02 --> 00:11:05 week's monster sunspot regions rotated away

00:11:05 --> 00:11:08 to the sun's far side and they didn't go

00:11:08 --> 00:11:11 quietly, putting on a real show of flares and

00:11:11 --> 00:11:12 prominences on their way out.

00:11:12 --> 00:11:15 Avery: Solar activity's dropped back to low levels

00:11:15 --> 00:11:18 since then, mostly common C class flares

00:11:18 --> 00:11:19 with active region

00:11:19 --> 00:11:22 AR4482. Now the main

00:11:22 --> 00:11:24 feature we're watching on the Earth facing

00:11:24 --> 00:11:24 side.

00:11:24 --> 00:11:27 Anna: So if you're anywhere near Seattle, Edinburgh

00:11:27 --> 00:11:30 or the northern reaches of the US and Canada,

00:11:30 --> 00:11:32 July 9 might be where worth stepping outside

00:11:32 --> 00:11:34 at night and looking up.

00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 Avery: We don't say that to you nearly often enough.

00:11:37 --> 00:11:38 Consider this one a, uh, thank you

00:11:38 --> 00:11:40 Anna: note and we'll close today with a story about

00:11:40 --> 00:11:43 what comes after the mission of a lifetime.

00:11:43 --> 00:11:46 Avery: Jeremy Hansen, the Canadian Space Agency

00:11:46 --> 00:11:49 astronaut who became the first Canadian ever

00:11:49 --> 00:11:51 to fly around the moon back in April

00:11:51 --> 00:11:54 aboard Artemis 2, announced on July

00:11:54 --> 00:11:57 6 that he's stepping back from full time

00:11:57 --> 00:11:58 astronaut duty.

00:11:58 --> 00:12:00 Anna: Hansen flew as mission specialist alongside

00:12:00 --> 00:12:03 NASA astronauts Rosa Reid Wiseman, Victor

00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 Glover and Christina Koch on the first crewed

00:12:06 --> 00:12:08 moon mission in over 50 years.

00:12:08 --> 00:12:10 Avery: The transition takes effect this September

00:12:10 --> 00:12:13 after 32 years of military service and 17

00:12:13 --> 00:12:16 years as a CSA astronaut. He'll continue on

00:12:16 --> 00:12:18 as a reservist with the Royal Canadian Air

00:12:18 --> 00:12:21 Force and says he remains fully committed to

00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 Canada's space program, just in a different

00:12:23 --> 00:12:24 capacity.

00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 Anna: It's a nice detail that his Artemis 2 mission

00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 patch incorporated elements of Anishinaabe

00:12:29 --> 00:12:31 culture, reflecting a vision quest he

00:12:31 --> 00:12:33 undertook at A.H. turtle Lodge in Sag King

00:12:33 --> 00:12:35 First Nation during his training.

00:12:35 --> 00:12:37 Avery: In the months since the mission, he's taken

00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 on something of a public diplomacy role too.

00:12:39 --> 00:12:41 Appearances at the White House before

00:12:41 --> 00:12:43 Congressional committees and at, uh, both

00:12:43 --> 00:12:45 Canada Day and Independence Day celebrations

00:12:46 --> 00:12:48 championing the six decades long partnership

00:12:48 --> 00:12:50 between the US and Canada in space.

00:12:50 --> 00:12:53 Anna: His departure leaves the CSA with three

00:12:53 --> 00:12:55 active astronauts in its core, but as Hansen

00:12:55 --> 00:12:57 tells it, this really isn't a departure at

00:12:57 --> 00:12:58 all.

00:12:58 --> 00:13:00 Avery: Weeks after becoming the first Canadian to

00:13:00 --> 00:13:02 circle the moon and he's already planning his

00:13:02 --> 00:13:03 next chapter.

00:13:03 --> 00:13:05 Anna: A good reminder that flying to the moon isn't

00:13:05 --> 00:13:08 the end of an astronaut's story. Often it's

00:13:08 --> 00:13:10 just the most famous chapter in it.

00:13:10 --> 00:13:12 Avery: That's it for today's show. A nuclear

00:13:12 --> 00:13:15 battery, a fuel free thruster, a plot twist

00:13:15 --> 00:13:18 5 million kilometers from home, some serious

00:13:18 --> 00:13:20 planetary defense, an aurora shout out for

00:13:20 --> 00:13:23 the north, and an astronaut already planning

00:13:23 --> 00:13:23 what's next.

00:13:23 --> 00:13:25 Anna: Thanks for spending part of your day with us.

00:13:25 --> 00:13:28 Find full show notes, sources and links at

00:13:28 --> 00:13:30 astronomydaily IO and follow us at

00:13:30 --> 00:13:33 astrodaily Pod for updates between episodes.

00:13:33 --> 00:13:35 Avery: We'll be back tomorrow with more of the

00:13:35 --> 00:13:36 universe's news.

00:13:36 --> 00:13:38 Anna: Until then, Clear Skies

00:13:40 --> 00:13:40 MHM.

00:13:49 --> 00:13:50 Avery: Is the

00:13:50 --> 00:14:01 tongue.