March 31, 2026
Artemis II : Go for Launch — Plus Saturn's Rings, The Gigamaser & A Star From The Dawn of Time
Episode 77 of Astronomy Daily, Season 5. Recorded 31 March 2026. Today's episode is our Artemis II launch-eve special — humanity prepares to return to the Moon for the first time in over 53 years. We also cover a record-breaking 'space laser' 8 billion light-years away, the ancient age of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, a star bearing the fingerprint of the universe's first stars, and new simulations supporting the shattered moon origin of Saturn's rings. STORY SOURCES • Artemis II Countdown — NASA.gov: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/03/30/nasas-artemis-ii-launch-mission-countdown-begins/ • Artemis II Mission Guide — NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/artemis-ii-nasa-moon-launch-time-astronauts-how-watch-what-know-rcna255627 • Artemis II Launch Coverage — CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-artemis-ii-moon-launch-astronauts-flight-plan/ • X1.4 Solar Flare — Space.com: https://www.space.com/astronomy/sun/powerful-x-class-solar-flare-triggers-radio-blackout-ahead-of-artemis-2-launch • Solar Flare NASA Statement — NASA Science: https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/solar-cycle-25/2026/03/30/strong-solar-flare-erupts-from-sun-30/ • Gigamaser Discovery — Space.com: https://www.space.com/astronomy/galaxies/record-breaking-space-laser-erupts-from-merging-galaxies-8-billion-light-years-away • Gigamaser — ScienceAlert: https://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-spot-a-record-breaking-space-laser-8-billion-light-years-away • 3I/ATLAS Age — Space.com: https://www.space.com/astronomy/comets/interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-may-be-nearly-12-billion-years-old-so-ancient-its-star-system-may-no-longer-exist • 3I/ATLAS — Live Science: https://www.livescience.com/space/comets/interstellar-messenger-3i-atlas-could-be-nearly-as-old-as-the-universe-itself-james-webb-telescope-observations-reveal • PicII-503 Star — Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/astronomers-discovere-a-rare-primitive-star-that-provides-a-chemical-snapshot-of-the-early-universe-180988454/ • PicII-503 — NOIRLab: https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2607/ • Saturn Rings / Chrysalis — Space.com: https://www.space.com/astronomy/saturn/are-saturns-rings-made-of-a-lost-shattered-moon-new-evidence-arises-for-the-case
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Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!
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This episode includes AI-generated content.
WEBVTT
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Hello, and welcome to Astronomy Daily.
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I'm Anna and I'm Avery. And if you're listening to
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this on the morning of Wednesday, the first of April,
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here in Australia, there is a rocket on a launch
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pad in Florida right now, fully fueled, fully crude, and
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pointed at the Moon.
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This is not an April fool's joke.
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Absolutely not. For the first time in over fifty years,
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human beings are preparing to leave Earth and head toward
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the Moon. And today, on this very special episode seventy
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seven of season five, we are your countdown companion.
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We have six stories for you today, and yes, Artemis
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two is front and center. But we've also got a
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record breaking space laser, a twelve billion year old comet,
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a star born from the ashes of the very first
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stars in the universe, and a new chapter in the
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mystery of Saturn's rings.
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It is, without question, one of the most extraordinary days
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in the history of human spaceflight. Let's go weave again.
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Where the world's attention is today Kennedy's Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida,
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where the countdown clock for NASA's Artemis two mission is ticking.
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At four forty four pm Eastern time yesterday. That's early
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this morning for our Australian listeners. NASA flight controllers started
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the official countdown. Liftoff is targeted at six twenty four
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pm Eastern, which is eight twenty four tomorrow morning AEDT.
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The crew has been in quarantine at the Neil Armstrong
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Operations and Checkout Building following a strict schedule of sleep, nutrition,
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and technical briefings. Commander Read Wiseman told reporters on the weekend,
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and I love this quote. Hey, let's go to the Moon.
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That is the energy we need. Wise men. Leads a
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crew of four Commander Read Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission
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specialist Christina Cock, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Together they
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will become the first humans to travel to the vicinity
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of the Moon since Apollo seventeen in December nineteen seventy two.
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More than fifty three years. And this mission, Artemis two
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won't land on the Moon. It's a ten day test flight.
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The Orion capsule, launched aboard the Massive Space Launch System rocket,
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will perform a Figure eight trajectory out around the Moon,
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coming within about six thousand miles of the lunar surface
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on April sixth, then back to Earth for splashdown in
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the Pacific on approximately April eleven.
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The purpose is to stress test the Orion capsule's life
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support systems with humans on board for the first time.
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Everything they learn paves the way for Artemis three, now
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planned as a low Earth orbit docking test in twenty
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twenty seven and ultimately the first lunar landing since Apollo
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in twenty twenty eight.
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BASA Launch director Charlie Blackwell Thompson reported yesterday that the
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countdown run up has been quote extremely smooth, with only
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very minor ground equipment issues. Weather is currently forecast at
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eighty percent favorable. Some cloud cover and potential high winds
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on the ground are the primary concerns.
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And NASA has confirmed there's a six day launch window
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from April first through April six before the next opportunity
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opens at the end of the month, so there's some
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flexibility if they need it.
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For our Southern Hemisphere listeners. And this is genuinely moving.
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This is the moment our generation has been waiting for.
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The next chapter of human exploration of the Cosmos begins
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Thursday morning, April second, at nine twenty four am Australian
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Eastern time, and if in the US six twenty four
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pm Eastern daylight time on April first, which all translates
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to twenty two to twenty four UTC on April second.
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I hope I got all those conversions right.
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We will be watching every second now. There was a
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dramatic subplot to yesterday's launch preparations. The Sun decided to
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get involved. On Sunday night, a massive X one point
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four class solar flare erupted from an active sunspot region
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designated AR four four zero five. It peaked at just
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after eleven pm Eastern Time and triggered a significant high
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frequency radio blackout across the sunlit side of Earth, including,
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as it happens, parts of Southeast Asia and Northern Australias.
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Class flares are the most powerful category the Sun produces,
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and X one point four is serious business. The flare
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also launched a coronal mass ejection, a massive cloud of
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solar plasma with a possible Earth directed component.
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So NASA had something of an anxious Monday morning, but
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at the L minus two press conference, Associate Administrator Amic
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Kashatria gave everyone the all clear. Quote we're not expecting
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the CME to cause any effects. We're not tracking concerns
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for the mission in general. Artemis two is go for
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April first.
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Noah's Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a G two
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that's moderate geomagnetic storm watch for today, Tuesday, March thirty first,
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with G one minor storm conditions possible through launch day tomorrow.
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And here's the silver lining for our listeners. That geomagnetic
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activity means auroras could be visible at lower latitudes than
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usual tonight under G two conditions, the southern Aurora, the
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Aurora Australis may be visible further north than normal. Southern
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hemisphere Aurora watchers get outside tonight.
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We'll be watching the skies and the launch pad at
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the same time.
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All right, now, let's travel to the other end of
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the universe, because while everyone's been watching the launch pad,
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astronomers have spotted something extraordinary in the deep Cosmos.
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Scientists have discovered the most distant and most powerful natchal
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space laser ever detected. And I know that sounds like
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science fiction, but these things are very much real.
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They're called masers, the microwave equivalent of a laser, where
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a laser amplifies visible light. A maser amplifies microwave radiation.
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When a maser is powerful enough to be seen in
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other galaxies, it gets the name megamazer. And now astronomers
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have found something so powerful they're proposing an entirely new category.
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A gigamaser. The signal comes from a galaxy system designated
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Deep Breath Ha TLSJ one hundred forty two thousand, nine
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hundred thirty five point three minus two thousand, eight hundred
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thirty six, located approximately eight billion light years from Earth.
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The light we're detecting began its journey when the universe
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was barely half its current age.
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It was discovered by the mere Cat Radio Telescope ARRAT
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in South Africa, sixty four linked radio dishes working as
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one instrument. The detection was completely serendipitous. Team leader Tato
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Manamella from the University of Pretoria described it as quote,
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we are seeing the radio equivalent of a laser halfway
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across the universe.
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And the mechanism is spectacular. Two galaxies are colliding. The
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gravitational violence of the merger compresses enormous clouds of gas,
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triggering a burst of new star formation. The intense radiation
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from those newborn stars then excites hydroxyl molecules that's one
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oxygen atom bonded to one hydrogen atom, causing them to
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emit microwaves in a focused, amplified beam.
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The signal is so intense, roughly one hundred thousand times
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the luminosity of a star concentrated into a very narrow
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slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, that it warrants its own
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classification beyond megamser and it wouldn't even be visible without
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a stroke of cosmic luck. A completely unrelated four ground
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galaxy is perfectly aligned between the source and Earth, acting
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as a gravitational lens and amplifying the signal further.
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Bead researcher Monamela said, this is just the beginning. We
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don't want to find just one system. We want to
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find hundreds to thousands. The expectation is that when the
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square kilometer array comes fully online in South Africa, we'll
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start finding these gigamasers across cosmic history.
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The universe is remarkable.
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From one ancient signal to another. Our old friend, the
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interstellar comet three I Atlas, has just revealed a staggering
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secret about its age.
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We've been following three i at Lists since it was
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discovered back in July twenty twenty five, the third known
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interstellar object to pass through our Solar system. It's swung
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around the Sun, caused enormous excitements, and now it's heading
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back out toward Jupiter and beyond.
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But new analysis using data the James Web Space Telescope
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has given scientists a remarkable new insight. By examining the
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isotopic composition of gases out gassing from the comet, specifically
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the ratio of carbon twelve to carbon thirteen, and the
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deuterium content of its water. Researchers now believe three i
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at Lists may be between ten and twelve billion years old.
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Let that sink in our Sun is four point six
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billion years old. Earth is four point five billion years old.
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This comet may have formed nearly three times earlier than
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that in the very earliest epoch of the Milky Way's history,
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when the galaxy was first igniting with star formation.
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The chemical signature tells the story. Three idsh Atls's water
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contains more deuterium, a heavier form of hydrogen, than any
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comet previously studied. Its carbon isotope ratios are also markedly
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different from anything in our Solar system. These signatures point
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to formation in an extremely cold environment around thirty kelvin
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that's minus two hundred and forty three degrees celsius in
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the early metal poor protoplanetary disk of some ancient, long
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vanished star.
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And here's the haunting part. The star that gave birth
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to this comment. The star it originally orbited almost certainly
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no longer exists. It would have burned through its nuclear
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fuel and dyed billions of years ago. Three I slash
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Atls has been drifting through interstellar space alone for longer
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than our planet has existed.
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Researcher Romaine Maggiola of the Royal Belgian Institute for Space
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Aeronomy put it beautifully. He said, if three I dash
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ATLS is indeed as old as this study suggests, the
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large amounts of volatile molecules it contains indicate that rich
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prebiotic chemistry may have already been occurring in star forming
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reas engens very early in the history of our galaxy.
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A comet as a time capsule from the dawn of
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the Milky Way. We may never get another chance to
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study one like this in Staying.
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With the theme of ancient messengers, astronomers have found a
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star in our own cosmic backyard that preserves the chemical
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fingerprint of the very first stars that ever existed.
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The star is called Pictor II five oh three, and
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it lives in an ultra faint dwarf galaxy called Pictor two,
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about one hundred and fifty thousand light years from Earth,
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which in cosmic terms is practically next door. The galaxy
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itself is more than ten billion years old.
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Pictori five o three is what astronomers call a second
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generation star, meaning it formed from the debris of the
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very first stars in the universe. Those first stars, made
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almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, burned hot and fast,
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and exploded in supernovae, scattering the first heavier elements into
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the cosmos. Pictori five oh three formed from that debris.
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The evidence is unmistakable. The star contains less iron than
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any other star ever measured outside the Milky Way, less
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than a forty thousandth the iron content of our Sun,
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and it's enormously rich in carbon. That specific chemical signature
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is the hallmark of material enriched by the first generation
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of stellar explosions.
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The discovery, published in Nature Astronomy in March, was led
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by Annie Ruth Cheaty, a Brinson Prize fellow at Stanford University.
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It used the dark energy camera at the Victor M.
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Blanco four meter telescope at Saro Tolo Interamerican Observatory in Chile.
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So this is beautifully a Southern hemisphere discovery.
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MIT astrophysicist Anna Frable, who was not involved in study,
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told Science News, it's a fantastic discovery. I know how
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hard it is to find these stars. They are so
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so rare.
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What's making this particularly significant is that Pictor II five
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O three is the first unambiguous example of a second
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generation star found inside an ultra faint dwarf galaxy like
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Pictor two, which matters because it validates the theory that
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many of the most primitive stars we see in the
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Milky Ways halo were originally formed in tiny, ancient dwarf
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galaxies like Pictor two, which eventually merged with our own
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galaxy over cosmic time.
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As NSF program director Chris Davis put it, discoveries like
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this are cosmic archaeology, uncovering rare stellar fossils that preserve
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the fingerprints of the universe's first stars. I love that
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phrase cosmic archaeology.
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And we close today with Saturn, because who doesn't love
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Saturn and a fresh new chapter in one of planetary
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science's best mysteries, Where did those magnificent rings come from?
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Saturn's rings are one of the most iconic sites in
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the Solar System. But here's a thing. They're surprisingly young.
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Saturn itself is over four and a half billion years old,
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but its rings appear to be only somewhere between one
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hundred million and a few hundred million years old. The
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question has always been why are they so young?
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New research presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
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in Texas this month adds compelling new weight to what's
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become the leading hypothesis that the rings were created when
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Saturn destroyed one of its own moons.
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The hypothetical moon has been named Chrysalis, a beautiful name
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because it transformed into something else entirely. The scenario, led
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by Ye Feijao of the University of California, Santa Cruz,
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goes like this, Sometime between one hundred and two hundred
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million years ago, the orbit of Chrysalis became gravitationally destabilized,
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sending it on a fatal trajectory towards Saturn.
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Saturn's tidal forces then went to work. The simulations show
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that the planet would have preferentially stripped away the Moon's
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