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It's happening right now — NASA's Psyche spacecraft is executing a close Mars flyby at over 12,000 mph, using the Red Planet's gravity to slingshot toward a metallic asteroid. We've got live coverage of this extraordinary moment, plus the landmark results of a decade-long SETI search across 70,000 stars, Perseverance reaching the oldest Martian terrain ever explored, Hubble paving the way for the Roman Space Telescope launching this September, AI making supernova distance measurements four times more precise, and the James Webb Space Telescope finding a galaxy in the early universe that simply doesn't spin. All that and your southern hemisphere skywatching guide — on Astronomy Daily, Season 5, Episode 103. Chapter Timestamps 00:00: Cold Open — Psyche Mars Flyby Teaser 00:45: Introduction & Episode Overview 01:15: Story 1: Psyche's Mars Flyby — It's Happening Right Now 04:45: Story 2: UCLA SETI — 10 Years, 70,000 Stars, Zero Aliens Yet 08:45: Story 3: Perseverance Reaches Mars' Oldest Terrain 13:15: Mid-Roll Break 14:15: Story 4: Hubble Paves the Way for the Roman Space Telescope 17:45: Story 5: AI Makes Supernova Distances Four Times More Precise 21:15: Story 6: Webb Finds a Non-Spinning Galaxy From the Early Universe 24:45: Skywatching — Southern Hemisphere Highlights 26:15: Trivia Teaser 25:45: Outro & Sign-off Links & References • NASA Psyche Mission: science.nasa.gov/mission/psyche • UCLA SETI Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2605.05408 • Perseverance Rover Updates: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020 • Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: roman.gsfc.nasa.gov • Astronomy Daily: astronomydaily.io • Follow us: @AstroDailyPod
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This episode includes AI-generated content.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Anna: Something extraordinary is happening in our
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 solar system right now. As you listen to
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 this episode, a, uh, NASA spacecraft is
00:00:08 --> 00:00:11 hurtling past Mars at over 12
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 miles per hour, using the red Planet's
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 gravity like a cosmic slingshot. We have got
00:00:16 --> 00:00:19 the details and a whole lot more coming right
00:00:19 --> 00:00:21 up on Astronomy Daily.
00:00:21 --> 00:00:24 Avery: Hello, and welcome to Astronomy Daily, your
00:00:24 --> 00:00:26 daily guide to the universe. Hi, I'm Avery.
00:00:26 --> 00:00:29 Anna: And I'm anaa. It's Friday, the 15th of
00:00:29 --> 00:00:32 May, 2026, and you are listening to
00:00:32 --> 00:00:35 season five, episode 103.
00:00:35 --> 00:00:38 Avery: What a lineup we have for you today. Six
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 stories spanning the solar system, the deep
00:00:41 --> 00:00:42 cosmos, and even the search for
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 extraterrestrial intelligence.
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 Anna: That's right. Including the results of the
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 most rigorous SETI search in history.
00:00:50 --> 00:00:52 Ten years of listening. 70
00:00:52 --> 00:00:55 stars, 100 million signals.
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 And the answer might surprise you.
00:00:58 --> 00:01:00 Avery: We'll also check in with the Perseverance
00:01:00 --> 00:01:02 Rover, who has just reached terrain that no
00:01:02 --> 00:01:05 robot and no human has ever explored before.
00:01:05 --> 00:01:08 Terrain that may be nearly 4 billion years
00:01:08 --> 00:01:08 old.
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 Anna: Plus, news about a coming revolution in how
00:01:12 --> 00:01:14 we measure the universe, courtesy of
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 artificial intelligence and a, uh, genuinely
00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 baffling cosmic mystery from the James Webb
00:01:19 --> 00:01:22 Space Telescope. Let's get into it. Ready
00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 when you are. We're starting with something
00:01:25 --> 00:01:27 that is happening as you listen to this.
00:01:27 --> 00:01:30 Right now, NASA's Psyche spacecraft,
00:01:30 --> 00:01:33 the one headed for a metallic asteroid out in
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 the main belt, is executing a gravity assist
00:01:36 --> 00:01:37 flyby of Mars.
00:01:38 --> 00:01:40 Avery: And when we say close, we mean close.
00:01:41 --> 00:01:42 The spacecraft is passing just
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 2 miles from the Martian
00:01:45 --> 00:01:47 surface. That sounds like a lot, but in space
00:01:47 --> 00:01:50 terms, that is an extremely tight pass.
00:01:51 --> 00:01:53 Anna: To put it in perspective, that's closer than
00:01:53 --> 00:01:56 the distance across Australia. And Psyche
00:01:56 --> 00:01:59 is moving at, uh, more than 12 miles per
00:01:59 --> 00:02:00 hour as it skims past.
00:02:01 --> 00:02:03 Avery: So why is it doing this? A gravity assist,
00:02:04 --> 00:02:06 sometimes called a gravitational slingshot,
00:02:06 --> 00:02:09 uses the gravity of a planet to accelerate a
00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 spacecraft and adjust its trajectory. In
00:02:12 --> 00:02:14 Psyche's case, Mars is lending it the speed
00:02:14 --> 00:02:17 boost and the directional nudge it needs to
00:02:17 --> 00:02:19 reach its final destination, the asteroid
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 Psyche, out in the main belt between Mars and
00:02:22 --> 00:02:22 Jupiter.
00:02:23 --> 00:02:25 Anna: The mission team is hoping to get more than
00:02:25 --> 00:02:27 just a speed boost from this flyby. The
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 spacecraft's instruments will be scanning for
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 a faint, dusty ring around Mars,
00:02:32 --> 00:02:34 material thought to have been ejected from
00:02:34 --> 00:02:37 the surfaces of the planet's two tiny moons,
00:02:37 --> 00:02:40 Phobos and Deimos, by micrometeorite
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 impacts over billions of years.
00:02:43 --> 00:02:45 Avery: If the alignment is right, sunlight
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47 scattering off that dust could, uh, make the
00:02:47 --> 00:02:49 ring visible to Psyche's cameras. The team
00:02:49 --> 00:02:51 will also be Searching for tiny satellites
00:02:51 --> 00:02:54 around Mars moonlets as practice for when
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 Psyche arrives at the asteroid, where it'll
00:02:56 --> 00:02:57 perform a similar hunt.
00:02:58 --> 00:03:01 Anna: The asteroid Psyche itself is one of the most
00:03:01 --> 00:03:03 intriguing objects in the solar system.
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 A world that appears to be made largely of
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09 metal, which scientists think could be the
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 exposed core of a protoplanet that was
00:03:11 --> 00:03:14 stripped of its rocky outer layers in violent
00:03:14 --> 00:03:15 ancient collisions.
00:03:16 --> 00:03:18 Avery: Psyche, the spacecraft is expected to arrive
00:03:18 --> 00:03:21 at the asteroid in 2029. After this
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 Mars flyby sends it on the right path.
00:03:24 --> 00:03:25 Today's close approach is one of those
00:03:25 --> 00:03:27 moments that reminds us how precise and
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 extraordinary modern space navigation truly
00:03:30 --> 00:03:33 is. Threading the needle past an entire
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 planet to get a free ride across the solar
00:03:35 --> 00:03:35 system.
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 Anna: We'll keep you updated on what the flyby data
00:03:38 --> 00:03:41 reveals in coming episodes. For now though,
00:03:41 --> 00:03:44 somewhere out there in space, the slingshot
00:03:44 --> 00:03:46 is happening. And that is remarkable.
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 Avery: For 10 years, astronomers at the University
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 of California, Los Angeles have been pointing
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53 one of the world's most powerful radio
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 telescopes at the stars and listening not for
00:03:56 --> 00:03:59 pulsars, not for gas clouds, but for
00:03:59 --> 00:04:00 something far extraordinary.
00:04:01 --> 00:04:03 Anna: A signal from another civilization.
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 Avery: The results of that decade long search are
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 now in. The team used the Green bank
00:04:09 --> 00:04:12 telescope in West Virginia, a 100 meter
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 dish to scan more than 70
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 stars and planetary systems. Their data
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 processing pipeline analyzed more than 100
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 million candidate signals.
00:04:22 --> 00:04:25 Anna: And every single one of them, every
00:04:25 --> 00:04:28 last signal, turned out to be us
00:04:28 --> 00:04:31 human made radio frequency interference,
00:04:31 --> 00:04:32 not ET.
00:04:33 --> 00:04:36 Avery: Now, before we get too disappointed, this is
00:04:36 --> 00:04:38 actually a landmark achievement in science
00:04:39 --> 00:04:41 because a null result when it's done this
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 rigorously is enormously valuable.
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 Anna: The PEAMS pipeline has a demonstrated
00:04:47 --> 00:04:49 94 to 99% efficiency
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 for detecting the kind of narrowband signals
00:04:52 --> 00:04:55 that a technologically advanced civilization
00:04:55 --> 00:04:58 might transmit. So if something was out there
00:04:58 --> 00:05:01 broadcasting in that frequency range, they
00:05:01 --> 00:05:03 had a very good chance of catching it.
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 Avery: What they can now say with confidence is that
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 fewer than 600 of 1%
00:05:08 --> 00:05:11 of stars within 20 light years of Earth.
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 Earth hosts a transmitter powerful enough to
00:05:13 --> 00:05:16 be detectable by their search. That's an
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 extraordinarily precise upper limit.
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 Anna: And the search is far from over. The team
00:05:21 --> 00:05:23 emphasizes that with next generation radio
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 telescopes coming online in the coming years,
00:05:26 --> 00:05:29 the volume of sky they can monitor is set
00:05:29 --> 00:05:32 to increase by orders of magnitude. The
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 universe is vast and they've only just
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 started listening properly.
00:05:36 --> 00:05:39 Avery: Jean Luc Margaux, the lead researcher at
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 UCLA, has been running this program since
00:05:41 --> 00:05:44 2016. This paper marks the
00:05:44 --> 00:05:47 completion of phase one and the citizen
00:05:47 --> 00:05:49 science component. The platform called Are We
00:05:49 --> 00:05:52 Alone on Zooniverse? Has had more than
00:05:52 --> 00:05:54 40 volunteers helping classify
00:05:54 --> 00:05:55 signals.
00:05:55 --> 00:05:58 Anna: 10 years. 70
00:05:58 --> 00:06:01 stars. 100 million signals.
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 No aliens yet. But the search
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 goes on. And now it goes on, with a roadmap
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 built on the most rigorous SETI data ever
00:06:09 --> 00:06:10 collected.
00:06:10 --> 00:06:13 Avery: If nothing else, it's a reminder of how
00:06:13 --> 00:06:15 seriously scientists take the question and
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 how much patience the search for cosmic
00:06:18 --> 00:06:19 company requires.
00:06:19 --> 00:06:22 Anna: Meanwhile, on the surface of Mars, NASA's
00:06:22 --> 00:06:24 Perseverance rover has just reached what
00:06:24 --> 00:06:26 scientists are calling one of the most
00:06:26 --> 00:06:29 scientifically valuable regions ever
00:06:29 --> 00:06:30 explored on the Red Planet.
00:06:31 --> 00:06:34 Avery: Perseverance has now traveled nearly 26
00:06:34 --> 00:06:36 miles across the Martian surface since
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 landing in Jezero crater back in 2021,
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 almost the distance of a full marathon.
00:06:42 --> 00:06:45 And in doing so, it has pushed further west
00:06:45 --> 00:06:47 than any rover has gone before entering a
00:06:47 --> 00:06:50 rugged landscape the science team calls Lac
00:06:50 --> 00:06:52 des Charms do mark
00:06:52 --> 00:06:54 Anna: the occasion, because apparently even rovers
00:06:54 --> 00:06:57 like a selfie. Perseverance assembled a self
00:06:57 --> 00:07:00 portrait from 61 individual images
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 showing it perched against a dramatic
00:07:03 --> 00:07:06 backdrop of ancient Martian terrain, with the
00:07:06 --> 00:07:09 western rim of Jezero Crater stretching
00:07:09 --> 00:07:10 into the distance behind it.
00:07:10 --> 00:07:12 Avery: But the selfie is just the beginning.
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 Alongside it, the rover captured a sweeping
00:07:15 --> 00:07:18 panoramic mosaic of a Nearby region called
00:07:18 --> 00:07:21 Arbat 46 images stitched together
00:07:21 --> 00:07:24 into one of the richest geological vistas of
00:07:24 --> 00:07:25 the entire mission.
00:07:25 --> 00:07:28 Anna: What scientists see in that panorama is
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 extraordinary. The landscape is filled with
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 what appear to be mega breccia rock
00:07:33 --> 00:07:36 fragments the size of skyscrapers, believed
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 to have been hurled outward by a colossal
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 meteorite impact on the Martian plain called
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 acetus planitia approximately
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 3.9 billion years ago.
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49 Avery: To put that in perspective, that impact
00:07:49 --> 00:07:52 happened before complex life even began on
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 Earth. These rocks have been sitting there
00:07:54 --> 00:07:57 largely unchanged for nearly4.4 billion
00:07:57 --> 00:08:00 years, and now a small robot
00:08:00 --> 00:08:03 from Earth is studying them. Ken Farley,
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 the Perseverance Deputy project scientist at
00:08:05 --> 00:08:08 Caltech, described what he sees in the
00:08:08 --> 00:08:10 panorama as, and I'm quoting here,
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 excellent exposure of likely the oldest
00:08:13 --> 00:08:16 rocks we are going to investigate during this
00:08:16 --> 00:08:18 mission. The geological diversity in this
00:08:18 --> 00:08:21 region is dramatically different from what
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 Perseverance found inside Jezero Crater.
00:08:24 --> 00:08:26 Instead of water deposited sediments and
00:08:26 --> 00:08:29 delta formations, many of the rocks here
00:08:29 --> 00:08:32 appear to be igneous, formed from ancient
00:08:32 --> 00:08:35 cooling magma or lava flows. These
00:08:35 --> 00:08:38 are windows into Mars deep crust and its
00:08:38 --> 00:08:39 earliest volcanic history.
00:08:40 --> 00:08:42 Anna: Scientists believe this region may predate
00:08:42 --> 00:08:45 the formation of Jezero Crater itself. And
00:08:45 --> 00:08:48 that means Perseverance is now exploring
00:08:48 --> 00:08:50 Martian ground that has never been accessible
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 to study, not by previous rovers, not
00:08:53 --> 00:08:56 from orbit, and not by any instrument we've
00:08:56 --> 00:08:56 sent before.
00:08:57 --> 00:08:59 Avery: Every meter, Perseverance travels west
00:08:59 --> 00:09:02 Is new scientific territory, and right
00:09:02 --> 00:09:05 now, it's standing on some of the oldest
00:09:05 --> 00:09:07 ground Our solar system has to offer.
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 Anna: Now, new is about the future of space
00:09:10 --> 00:09:12 astronomy, and it involves two of the
00:09:12 --> 00:09:15 greatest telescopes ever built. In what
00:09:15 --> 00:09:17 scientists are calling a, uh, passing of the
00:09:17 --> 00:09:19 baton, NASA's Hubble Space
00:09:19 --> 00:09:22 Avery: Telescope has just completed a massive survey
00:09:22 --> 00:09:25 of the Milky Way's galactic bulge, the dense,
00:09:25 --> 00:09:28 bulging region surrounding the center of our
00:09:28 --> 00:09:30 galaxy. And the results are about to hand an
00:09:30 --> 00:09:33 enormous advantage to Hubble's successor, the
00:09:33 --> 00:09:36 Nancy Grace Roman space telescope.
00:09:36 --> 00:09:39 Anna: Roman is scheduled to launch in September of
00:09:39 --> 00:09:41 this year, Just a few months away. And
00:09:41 --> 00:09:44 remarkably, it is running six months ahead of
00:09:44 --> 00:09:47 schedule. When it reaches orbit, one of its
00:09:47 --> 00:09:50 primary tasks will be surveying the galactic
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 bulge to hunt for exoplanets Using a
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 technique called gravitational microlensing.
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 Avery: Microlensing works like this. When a
00:09:58 --> 00:10:01 massive object, A star, a planet, even
00:10:01 --> 00:10:04 a black hole, Passes in front of a more
00:10:04 --> 00:10:07 distant background star, Its gravity bends
00:10:07 --> 00:10:10 and amplifies the background star's light. By
00:10:10 --> 00:10:12 measuring those brief brightenings, Roman
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 will be able to detect planets that would
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 otherwise be invisible to us.
00:10:16 --> 00:10:19 Anna: Roman's galactic bulge time domain survey
00:10:19 --> 00:10:22 is expected to locate more than 1
00:10:22 --> 00:10:25 exoplanets orbiting far from their stars,
00:10:25 --> 00:10:27 beyond the orbital distance of Earth from the
00:10:27 --> 00:10:30 sun. But to do that, well, scientists
00:10:30 --> 00:10:33 need to know exactly what the galactic bulge
00:10:33 --> 00:10:36 looks like before any lensing events occur,
00:10:36 --> 00:10:38 so they can tell the difference between a
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 lensing signal and just a variable star.
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 Avery: That's where Hubble comes in. The survey it's
00:10:44 --> 00:10:47 just completed has built a baseline catalog
00:10:47 --> 00:10:50 of 20 to 30 million stars in the galactic
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 bulge. When Roman gets going, it will
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 expand that catalog tenfold to
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 200 to 300 million sources and
00:10:58 --> 00:11:00 produce some of the deepest images ever taken
00:11:00 --> 00:11:02 of any part of the sky.
00:11:02 --> 00:11:05 Anna: Jay Anderson of the space telescope
00:11:05 --> 00:11:07 institute summed it up beautifully. He said,
00:11:07 --> 00:11:10 the great thing about microlensing is that
00:11:10 --> 00:11:12 we'll be able to do a complete census of
00:11:12 --> 00:11:15 objects as small as Mars that are moving
00:11:15 --> 00:11:17 between us and these fields in the bulge. No
00:11:17 --> 00:11:20 matter what it is. Black holes, rogue
00:11:20 --> 00:11:23 planets, neutron stars Roman will
00:11:23 --> 00:11:24 find them all.
00:11:24 --> 00:11:27 Avery: Hubble, now more than 30 decades into its
00:11:27 --> 00:11:30 mission, Is gradually losing its ability to
00:11:30 --> 00:11:32 precisely point itself as its gyroscopes
00:11:32 --> 00:11:35 age. One day, its extraordinary journey
00:11:35 --> 00:11:38 will come to an end. But it is going out with
00:11:38 --> 00:11:40 Grace, Making one final massive
00:11:40 --> 00:11:43 contribution to science and lighting the way
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45 for the telescope that will carry on its
00:11:45 --> 00:11:45 legacy.
00:11:46 --> 00:11:48 Anna: Roman launches in September. The age of
00:11:48 --> 00:11:51 wide field space astronomy is almost here.
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 Alright. Before moving on to our next story,
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 let's get in a quick mention about our
00:11:57 --> 00:12:00 sponsor, NordVPN, the people who not only
00:12:00 --> 00:12:02 protect us online, but help us keep the
00:12:02 --> 00:12:04 lights on. They've put together a great deal
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00:12:12 --> 00:12:14 can find all the details about our hot deal
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00:12:17 --> 00:12:19 Avery: Alright, let's get back into today's space
00:12:19 --> 00:12:22 and astronomy news. One of the great
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 challenges in modern cosmology is measuring
00:12:24 --> 00:12:27 how fast the universe is expanding. And right
00:12:27 --> 00:12:30 now there's a crisis. Different methods of
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 measuring that expansion rate give different
00:12:32 --> 00:12:35 answers and nobody is quite sure why.
00:12:35 --> 00:12:38 It's called the Hubble Tension and it has
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 been keeping cosmologists up at night for
00:12:40 --> 00:12:41 years now.
00:12:41 --> 00:12:43 Anna: A team of researchers has used artificial
00:12:43 --> 00:12:46 intelligence to make one of the key tools in
00:12:46 --> 00:12:48 that measurement. Type 1a
00:12:48 --> 00:12:51 supernovae, significantly more precise.
00:12:52 --> 00:12:54 Four times more precise in fact.
00:12:54 --> 00:12:57 Avery: Let's unpack that. Type 1a
00:12:57 --> 00:13:00 supernovae are stellar explosions that happen
00:13:00 --> 00:13:02 when a white dwarf star accumulates enough
00:13:02 --> 00:13:05 material from a companion star to trigger a
00:13:05 --> 00:13:08 catastrophic nuclear runaway. They
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10 are so bright, billions of times the output
00:13:10 --> 00:13:13 of our sun, that they can be seen across the
00:13:13 --> 00:13:16 universe. And because they explode in a
00:13:16 --> 00:13:18 relatively consistent way, astronomers can
00:13:18 --> 00:13:21 use them as cosmic m mile markers to estimate
00:13:21 --> 00:13:21 distances.
00:13:22 --> 00:13:25 Anna: The trouble is, they are not perfectly
00:13:25 --> 00:13:28 consistent. Their brightness varies depending
00:13:28 --> 00:13:30 on the age of the host galaxy, the chemical
00:13:30 --> 00:13:33 composition of the original star, and a host
00:13:33 --> 00:13:36 of other factors. Astronomers have long
00:13:36 --> 00:13:38 used correction factors to standardize these
00:13:38 --> 00:13:41 measurements, but those corrections have
00:13:41 --> 00:13:43 always been somewhat blunt.
00:13:43 --> 00:13:46 Avery: One well known example is the so called mass
00:13:46 --> 00:13:49 step. Supernovae in heavier galaxies
00:13:49 --> 00:13:51 tend to appear slightly differently from
00:13:51 --> 00:13:53 those in lighter galaxies. So researchers
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56 apply a brightness correction based on the
00:13:56 --> 00:13:58 host galaxy's mass. It works as a
00:13:58 --> 00:14:01 practical fix, but it doesn't really explain
00:14:01 --> 00:14:03 what's driving the difference at a physical
00:14:03 --> 00:14:03 level.
00:14:04 --> 00:14:06 Anna: The new AI approach cuts through all of that
00:14:06 --> 00:14:09 noise in a single step. Instead of applying
00:14:09 --> 00:14:12 a series of separate corrections, the machine
00:14:12 --> 00:14:15 learning model analyzes the full complexity
00:14:15 --> 00:14:16 of the supernova's light curve,
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19 simultaneously accounting for multiple
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 sources of variation at once and producing
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 a far cleaner distance estimate.
00:14:25 --> 00:14:27 Avery: The result is distance measurements that are
00:14:27 --> 00:14:29 four times more precise than conventional
00:14:29 --> 00:14:32 methods, which is a staggering improvement
00:14:32 --> 00:14:35 applied across thousands of supernova
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37 observations. That precision could sharpen
00:14:37 --> 00:14:39 our measurement of the universe's expansion
00:14:39 --> 00:14:40 history dramatically.
00:14:41 --> 00:14:43 Anna: This matters enormously for the Hubble
00:14:43 --> 00:14:46 tension. If the tension survives with cleaner
00:14:46 --> 00:14:49 data, it really does suggest something new
00:14:49 --> 00:14:52 and fundamental is going on. Some unknown
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 physics that our current Models don't account
00:14:54 --> 00:14:57 for. If better data resolves it, that's
00:14:57 --> 00:15:00 equally important. It means the tension was
00:15:00 --> 00:15:02 a, uh, measurement artifact all along.
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 Avery: Either way, we learned something profound
00:15:04 --> 00:15:07 about the nature of the universe, and AI Just
00:15:07 --> 00:15:09 became one of cosmology's most important
00:15:09 --> 00:15:10 instruments.
00:15:11 --> 00:15:14 Anna: And we finish today with a genuine cosmic
00:15:14 --> 00:15:16 mystery, courtesy of the James Webb Space
00:15:16 --> 00:15:19 Telescope. One that has astronomers
00:15:19 --> 00:15:21 scratching their heads in the very best way.
00:15:22 --> 00:15:25 Avery: Deep in the early universe, about 2
00:15:25 --> 00:15:27 billion years after the Big Bang, the
00:15:27 --> 00:15:29 astronomers have found a massive galaxy that
00:15:29 --> 00:15:31 simply doesn't spin.
00:15:32 --> 00:15:35 Anna: Now, that might not sound immediately
00:15:35 --> 00:15:37 startling, but it really should. Our current
00:15:37 --> 00:15:40 models of galaxy formation tell us that young
00:15:40 --> 00:15:43 galaxies spin as gas flows
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 inward and gravity pulls matter together.
00:15:46 --> 00:15:49 Angular momentum builds up and sets the whole
00:15:49 --> 00:15:51 system rotating. It's like water draining
00:15:51 --> 00:15:54 down a plug hole. The rotation is almost
00:15:54 --> 00:15:57 inevitable, except for this one.
00:15:57 --> 00:16:00 Avery: The galaxy, cataloged as XMMVid M M
00:16:01 --> 00:16:04 2075, shows no evidence
00:16:04 --> 00:16:07 of rotation whatsoever. Instead of the
00:16:07 --> 00:16:09 ordered rotating structure you'd expect from
00:16:09 --> 00:16:12 a young galaxy, its stars are moving in
00:16:12 --> 00:16:15 essentially random directions. Chaotic
00:16:15 --> 00:16:17 swirl with no net spin.
00:16:17 --> 00:16:20 Anna: That kind of behavior, what astronomers call
00:16:20 --> 00:16:22 a slow rotator, is normally
00:16:22 --> 00:16:24 associated with the very largest, most
00:16:24 --> 00:16:27 evolved galaxies in the local universe.
00:16:27 --> 00:16:29 Galaxies that have been through billions of
00:16:29 --> 00:16:32 years of collisions and mergers and have had
00:16:32 --> 00:16:35 all that angular momentum scrambled away.
00:16:35 --> 00:16:38 Avery: Finding it in a galaxy that formed when the
00:16:38 --> 00:16:40 universe was less than 2 billion years old
00:16:40 --> 00:16:43 is, to put it mildly,
00:16:43 --> 00:16:44 not what anyone expected.
00:16:45 --> 00:16:48 Anna: Ben Forrest, the lead author from the
00:16:48 --> 00:16:50 University of California, Davis, described it
00:16:50 --> 00:16:53 simply. This one did not show any evidence of
00:16:53 --> 00:16:56 rotation, which was surprising and very
00:16:56 --> 00:16:59 interesting. The team examined three
00:16:59 --> 00:17:01 galaxies from the same era using Webb.
00:17:01 --> 00:17:04 One was rotating normally. One showed
00:17:04 --> 00:17:07 irregular structure. And this one, nothing.
00:17:07 --> 00:17:09 Just random stellar motion.
00:17:10 --> 00:17:12 Avery: How does the galaxy in the young, turbulent
00:17:12 --> 00:17:14 early universe end up looking like an
00:17:14 --> 00:17:17 ancient, exhausted elliptical? Did it
00:17:17 --> 00:17:19 somehow form through a different process
00:17:19 --> 00:17:22 entirely? Was there a massive early merger
00:17:22 --> 00:17:24 event that scrambled its angular momentum
00:17:24 --> 00:17:27 before it could properly form? Or does this
00:17:27 --> 00:17:29 represent something we simply don't yet
00:17:29 --> 00:17:31 understand about the physics of galaxy
00:17:31 --> 00:17:31 formation?
00:17:32 --> 00:17:35 Anna: The James Webb Space Telescope is pushing the
00:17:35 --> 00:17:37 frontier of exactly these kinds of studies,
00:17:38 --> 00:17:40 examining the internal kinematics. The
00:17:40 --> 00:17:43 motion of material within galaxies at high
00:17:43 --> 00:17:46 redshift was essentially impossible before
00:17:46 --> 00:17:49 Webb. Now it's revealing that the early
00:17:49 --> 00:17:51 universe contained structures far more
00:17:51 --> 00:17:53 diverse and surprising than we imagined.
00:17:54 --> 00:17:56 Avery: A, uh, galaxy that forgot to spin.
00:17:57 --> 00:17:59 Another reminder that the cosmos has a gift
00:17:59 --> 00:18:01 for defying our expectations.
00:18:01 --> 00:18:04 Anna: Before we go, your Southern Hemisphere sky
00:18:04 --> 00:18:06 watching update for tonight and the weekend.
00:18:07 --> 00:18:10 Avery: Jupiter continues to be a spectacular evening
00:18:10 --> 00:18:12 object in the northwest after sunset. And
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14 Tonight is particularly special for anyone
00:18:14 --> 00:18:17 with a small telescope. A rare double
00:18:17 --> 00:18:20 shadow transit is occurring as the shadows of
00:18:20 --> 00:18:21 both Europa and Ganymede
00:18:22 --> 00:18:24 simultaneously cross Jupiter's cloud tops.
00:18:25 --> 00:18:27 Anna: For Australian observers, this event is
00:18:27 --> 00:18:29 happening in the late evening hours. Check
00:18:29 --> 00:18:32 local astronomy apps for your precise timing
00:18:32 --> 00:18:34 as the event unfolds across different time
00:18:34 --> 00:18:37 windows depending on your location. The two
00:18:37 --> 00:18:39 shadows are clearly different sizes and
00:18:39 --> 00:18:42 speeds. Ganymede's shadow is larger and
00:18:42 --> 00:18:45 slower, while Europa's is smaller and
00:18:45 --> 00:18:45 faster.
00:18:46 --> 00:18:48 Avery: Mars is also visible before sunrise, though
00:18:48 --> 00:18:51 it is fading now as Earth moves away from us
00:18:51 --> 00:18:54 in our respective orbits. Saturn is rising in
00:18:54 --> 00:18:56 the pre dawn hours and making a fine target
00:18:56 --> 00:18:58 for patient early risers.
00:18:58 --> 00:19:01 Anna: The Moon is at New Moon phase today, which
00:19:01 --> 00:19:03 means dark skies all weekend. If you've been
00:19:03 --> 00:19:05 waiting for the right conditions to try some
00:19:05 --> 00:19:08 deep sky observing, this is your window.
00:19:09 --> 00:19:11 Avery: Get outside, look up and enjoy the dark.
00:19:12 --> 00:19:14 Anna: And that is Astronomy daily for Friday
00:19:14 --> 00:19:17 15th May 2026. Six
00:19:17 --> 00:19:20 stories, one live cosmic event, one
00:19:20 --> 00:19:23 landmark SETI result Ancient Martian
00:19:23 --> 00:19:26 ground, a revolutionary telescope, Baton
00:19:26 --> 00:19:28 Pass, AI powered cosmology, and a
00:19:28 --> 00:19:30 galaxy that forgot the rules.
00:19:31 --> 00:19:32 Avery: Not a bad Friday.
00:19:32 --> 00:19:34 Anna: Not bad at all. If you enjoyed today's
00:19:34 --> 00:19:36 episode, please subscribe wherever you get
00:19:36 --> 00:19:38 your podcasts, subscrib and leave us a
00:19:38 --> 00:19:40 review. Um, it genuinely helps more space
00:19:40 --> 00:19:42 enthusiasts find the show.
00:19:42 --> 00:19:45 Avery: Find us at astronomydaily IO for full
00:19:45 --> 00:19:48 show notes, episode transcripts and our blog,
00:19:48 --> 00:19:50 and follow us on social media. We're
00:19:50 --> 00:19:53 Astrodaily, Pod on X, Instagram,
00:19:53 --> 00:19:54 TikTok and Tumblr.
00:19:55 --> 00:19:57 Anna: Until tomorrow, we'll be back with more of
00:19:57 --> 00:19:59 the universe's biggest stories and the
00:19:59 --> 00:20:02 weekend wrap. Until then, keep looking up
00:20:02 --> 00:20:05 from Avery and Anna. Clear skies
00:20:05 --> 00:20:06 everyone.