March 4, 2026

Blood Moon, Broken Records & the Hubble Mystery

Blood Moon, Broken Records & the Hubble Mystery
Apple Podcasts podcast player iconSpotify podcast player iconiHeartRadio podcast player iconYoutube Music podcast player iconSpreaker podcast player iconPocketCasts podcast player iconDeezer podcast player iconJioSaavn podcast player iconRSS Feed podcast player icon

The Blood Moon has come and gone — and what a show it was. In today's Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery recap last night's total lunar eclipse, the last visible from North America until New Year's Eve 2028. Plus: NASA confirms Artemis 2 repairs are complete and an April crewed Moon mission is back on track. Astronomers have found the most tightly packed quadruple star system ever discovered — four stars crammed into a space no bigger than Jupiter's orbit. Gravitational waves could be about to solve one of cosmology's biggest mysteries: the Hubble Tension. The world's first private commercial space telescope has captured its first star. And finally — why do physicists say interstellar travel is impossible and aliens definitely haven't visited?   In This Episode •       00:00 — Cold Open & Show Introduction •       02:00 — Story 1: Blood Moon Total Lunar Eclipse Recap •       06:00 — Story 2: Artemis 2 Repairs Complete, April Launch on Track •       09:00 — Story 3: Record-Breaking Quadruple Star System TIC 120362137 •       12:30 — Story 4: Gravitational Waves and the Hubble Tension •       15:30 — Story 5: Mauve — World's First Private Space Telescope •       18:30 — Story 6: Why Interstellar Travel Is Impossible •       22:00 — Show Close   Find Us •       Website: astronomydaily.io •       Social: @AstroDailyPod •       Network: Bitesz.com Podcast Network

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support.

Sponsor Details:
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!

Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click Here

This episode includes AI-generated content.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:03.879
Last night, the moon turned red and bled across the

2
00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:08.039
sky for nearly an hour. A spacecraft is being prepped

3
00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:11.560
for the most daring crude mission in half a century.

4
00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:16.039
And somewhere out there, four stars are dancing together in

5
00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:20.440
a space so tight it would fit inside Mercury's orbit.

6
00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:26.039
And apparently no aliens are coming to visit physiccesso.

7
00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:29.239
Dot even a postcard. This is Astronomy Daily.

8
00:00:29.480 --> 00:00:32.560
I'm Anna and I'm Avery. Let's get into it.

9
00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:37.399
Welcome to Astronomy Daily, the podcast bringing you the universe's

10
00:00:37.560 --> 00:00:41.840
best stories, six days a week. It is Wednesday, March fourth,

11
00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:46.039
twenty twenty six, and we have a genuinely stellar episode

12
00:00:46.039 --> 00:00:48.840
for you today, pun absolutely intended.

13
00:00:49.240 --> 00:00:51.640
We have the aftermath of what many of you stayed

14
00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:55.119
up all night to see, the blood moon, total lunary clips.

15
00:00:55.439 --> 00:00:58.679
We have major Artemis two news, a star system that

16
00:00:58.759 --> 00:01:03.399
honestly shouldn't exist, the solution to one of cosmology's biggest headaches,

17
00:01:03.880 --> 00:01:07.280
the dawn of commercial space astronomy, and the physics based

18
00:01:07.359 --> 00:01:09.560
reality check on alien visitors.

19
00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:12.519
It's a lot. Let's not waste a second.

20
00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:16.680
Okay, First things first, Yesterday morning or the early hours

21
00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:19.920
of yesterday, depending on where you were. The moon turned

22
00:01:20.040 --> 00:01:23.079
blood red, and I need to know, Anna, did you

23
00:01:23.159 --> 00:01:23.560
watch it?

24
00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:28.120
I absolutely did. I dragged a blanket outside and watched

25
00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:31.719
the whole thing from my garden and the moment totality

26
00:01:31.799 --> 00:01:36.640
hit this deep, rusty orange glow, stars suddenly visible that

27
00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:40.120
had been washed out by moonlight. It was genuinely one

28
00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:42.760
of those I love being alive on a planet with

29
00:01:42.799 --> 00:01:44.640
the moon moments right.

30
00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:47.760
For those who missed it, here's what happened. The Moon

31
00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:51.079
passed completely through Earth's shadow. That's what makes it a

32
00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:54.359
total lunar eclipse, and the reason it turns red rather

33
00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:57.359
than just going dark is this beautiful piece of physics.

34
00:01:57.799 --> 00:02:01.120
Every sunrise and every sunset had happening on Earth at

35
00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:04.280
that moment, projects its orange and red light through our

36
00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:07.599
atmosphere and bends it onto the Moon's surface. So what

37
00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:10.360
you're seeing is the light of every dawn and dusk

38
00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:12.240
on the planet, all at once.

39
00:02:12.599 --> 00:02:16.120
Which is one of the most romantic explanations in all

40
00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:16.919
of astronomy.

41
00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:20.960
Honestly, Totality lasted just under an hour fifty nine minutes

42
00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:25.000
to be precise, and it was visible across a US, Canada, Mexico,

43
00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:27.960
and parts of South America in the morning hours and

44
00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:31.919
from Australia, New Zealand and Asia after sunset, so pretty

45
00:02:31.960 --> 00:02:34.479
much anyone who wanted to see it had a shot.

46
00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:37.520
The timing was great for observers in the Mountain and

47
00:02:37.560 --> 00:02:41.120
Pacific time zones. In North America they got totality in

48
00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:45.159
fully dark skies. Eastern time viewers had to contend with

49
00:02:45.240 --> 00:02:48.599
twilight creeping in, but honestly, still spectacular.

50
00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:52.240
And here's the bittersweet part. If you missed this one,

51
00:02:52.319 --> 00:02:54.680
you're going to be waiting a while. This was the

52
00:02:54.759 --> 00:02:58.240
last total lunaric clips visible from North America until New

53
00:02:58.360 --> 00:03:00.000
Year's Eve twenty twenty eight.

54
00:03:00.599 --> 00:03:03.360
So if you watched it, well done. You caught a

55
00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:07.080
rare treat. And if you didn't, mark your calendars now

56
00:03:07.479 --> 00:03:11.280
New Year's Eve twenty twenty eight, great excuse for a party.

57
00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:14.840
We'd love to hear from you. Did you get clear skies?

58
00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:18.319
Drop us a message at Astro Daily Pod.

59
00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:23.039
All right. Next up, huge news for human spaceflight. DASA

60
00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:26.120
has confirmed that repairs to the Artemis two rocket are

61
00:03:26.199 --> 00:03:29.560
complete and in April, launch is still very much on

62
00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:30.080
the table.

63
00:03:30.599 --> 00:03:33.199
This is the one we've all been waiting for. Artemis

64
00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:36.000
two would be the first crude mission to fly around

65
00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:39.680
the Moon in over fifty years. Not a landing, not yet,

66
00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:42.639
but a crude flight that will take four astronauts further

67
00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:45.120
from Earth than any humans have ever been.

68
00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:50.240
The crew is Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission

69
00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:53.879
specialist Christina Koch, who would become the first woman to

70
00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:58.800
travel to the Moon, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

71
00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:01.960
The issue that need fixing was a hydrogen leak that

72
00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:05.719
showed up during fueling tests. NASA took it seriously, worked

73
00:04:05.719 --> 00:04:09.159
through it methodically, and they're now satisfied its resolved. The

74
00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:12.159
vehicle is back in the Vehicle Assembly building at Kennedy

75
00:04:12.159 --> 00:04:15.479
Space Center and the teams are working towards an April target.

76
00:04:16.040 --> 00:04:19.720
No exact launch date has been confirmed yet. NASA is

77
00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:22.680
still working through its checklist, but the fact that repairs

78
00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:26.759
are complete and they're still talking April is genuinely encouraging.

79
00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:30.319
To put it in perspective, the last time humans flew

80
00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:34.360
to the Moon was Apollo seventeen in December nineteen seventy two.

81
00:04:34.959 --> 00:04:39.360
That's fifty three years and if Artemis two launches as planned,

82
00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:42.639
we'll be back in lunar space before the spring is out.

83
00:04:42.839 --> 00:04:45.480
We'll keep tracking this one closely as the launch date

84
00:04:45.560 --> 00:04:47.680
firms up. Exciting times.

85
00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:52.000
Okay, I need everyone to picture something. Take our entire

86
00:04:52.040 --> 00:04:55.560
Solar system from the Sun to Mercury. That tiny sliver

87
00:04:55.639 --> 00:05:00.800
of space roughly seventy seven million kilometers now cram three

88
00:05:00.920 --> 00:05:03.519
stars into it. Three stars.

89
00:05:04.199 --> 00:05:09.120
That's I mean, that's insane. Stars are enormous.

90
00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:13.319
They are, And yet astronomers have just confirmed a system

91
00:05:13.439 --> 00:05:17.639
called TIC one two zero three six two one three seven,

92
00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:22.240
where exactly that is happening. Three stars, all bigger and

93
00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:26.199
hotter than our Sun, packed into a volume smaller than

94
00:05:26.279 --> 00:05:30.399
Mercury's orbit around our star. And then, as if that

95
00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:34.000
weren't enough, there's a fourth star orbiting all three of

96
00:05:34.040 --> 00:05:37.279
them at a distance comparable to where Jupiter sits in

97
00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:38.160
our solar system.

98
00:05:38.759 --> 00:05:41.959
So it's a triple star system with a chaperone.

99
00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:45.199
That's genuinely the best way I've heard it described. The

100
00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:48.920
research was published in Nature Communications and led by astronomer

101
00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:52.279
to Maas Borkowitz at the University of Seged in Hungary.

102
00:05:52.879 --> 00:05:56.759
His team used data from NASA's test satellite, originally designed

103
00:05:56.800 --> 00:06:01.879
to hunt four exoplanets alongside ground based telescopes in Hungary, Arizona,

104
00:06:02.079 --> 00:06:06.160
the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Seventy three spectra from the

105
00:06:06.199 --> 00:06:08.839
Fred Whipple Observatory in Arizona alone.

106
00:06:09.399 --> 00:06:11.519
How do you even spot something like this?

107
00:06:12.120 --> 00:06:15.439
It starts with dips in starlight. The stars eclipse each

108
00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:19.399
other as a orbit, causing tiny periodic drops in brightness.

109
00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:23.199
What initially looked like a simple pair of stars eclipsing

110
00:06:23.240 --> 00:06:26.720
every three point three days turned out on closer inspection

111
00:06:26.920 --> 00:06:29.600
to be hiding a third star. Two and then the

112
00:06:29.720 --> 00:06:33.319
fourth was teased out using a clever algorithm that isolated

113
00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:35.879
each star spectral fingerprints individually.

114
00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:39.839
This system is in the Constellations signess the Swan, and

115
00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:44.279
its technical classification is a three plus one type quadruple

116
00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:47.720
three inner stars in a tight mutual orbit with a

117
00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:51.519
fourth outer companion. The outer stars orbital period is just

118
00:06:51.720 --> 00:06:55.439
one thousand, forty six days, the shortest ever recorded for

119
00:06:55.519 --> 00:06:56.879
this type of system.

120
00:06:56.920 --> 00:06:59.480
And the team was also able to model the system's

121
00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:03.519
eventual fad over billions of years. The heavyweight stars will

122
00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:07.600
exhaust their fuel, swell into giants, and shed their outer layers.

123
00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:10.360
The whole thing will likely end up as a pair

124
00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:14.399
of white dwarfs orbiting each other, a slow, quiet fade

125
00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:16.240
into stellar retirement.

126
00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:21.040
From cosmic chaos to cosmic peace. I find that oddly comforting.

127
00:07:21.560 --> 00:07:26.279
It's a reminder that our own sun, lone solitary planetarily

128
00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:30.680
well behaved, might actually be the weird one. Most stars

129
00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:34.120
in the galaxy have at least one companion, some apparently

130
00:07:34.199 --> 00:07:35.000
have three.

131
00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:38.759
Right. This next one is for the cosmology nerds, but

132
00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:41.439
we're going to make it make sense for everyone because

133
00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:43.160
it is genuinely important.

134
00:07:43.800 --> 00:07:48.160
The Hubble tension. It sounds like a minor bureaucratic disagreement,

135
00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:51.600
but it's actually one of the biggest unsolved problems in

136
00:07:51.639 --> 00:07:52.399
modern physics.

137
00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:56.680
So here's the setup. We know the universe is expanding,

138
00:07:56.879 --> 00:08:00.519
the question is how fast, and when astronomers use two

139
00:08:00.600 --> 00:08:04.439
different methods to measure that expansion rate, called the Hubble constant,

140
00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:08.560
they get two different answers that stubbornly refuse to agree.

141
00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:13.000
One method uses the early universe the cosmic microwave background,

142
00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:16.560
the leftover light from shortly after the Big Bang. Other

143
00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:21.160
methods use nearby cosmic distance markers like cepheed variable stars

144
00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:25.279
and Type ONEA supernovae. Both methods are solid. Both have

145
00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:28.959
been refined for decades, and they still don't match.

146
00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:32.559
The gap between them is only about eight or nine

147
00:08:32.600 --> 00:08:37.120
percent numerically, but that's small. Discrepancy is a massive headache

148
00:08:37.240 --> 00:08:41.360
because it suggests either our measurements are wrong, or more excitingly,

149
00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:44.320
there's new physics we don't understand yet.

150
00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:49.000
And now scientists are proposing a third, completely independent method,

151
00:08:49.320 --> 00:08:53.639
gravitational waves. When two massive objects like black holes or

152
00:08:53.679 --> 00:08:57.639
neutron stars spiral together and merge, they send ripples through

153
00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:01.679
the fabric of space time itself. These gravitational waves carry

154
00:09:01.720 --> 00:09:05.159
precise information about the distance to the event and how

155
00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:07.720
fast the universe is expanding at that point.

156
00:09:07.879 --> 00:09:11.679
The beautiful thing is gravitational wave detectors like LIGO and

157
00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:15.000
virgo don't rely on the same assumptions as the other methods.

158
00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:18.440
So if gravitational wave measurements can pin down the hubble

159
00:09:18.440 --> 00:09:22.399
constant independently, we'll finally have a referee in this argument.

160
00:09:22.759 --> 00:09:26.720
We don't have enough events yet to be definitive. Gravitational

161
00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:30.679
wave astronomy is still young, but as detectors improve and

162
00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:33.919
we observe more mergers, this could be the key that

163
00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:37.559
unlocks one of cosmology's greatest mysteries.

164
00:09:37.399 --> 00:09:40.919
Physics still keeping us humble since always.

165
00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:44.080
A genuine milestone in the history of astronomy. This week,

166
00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:49.279
the MAV telescope, the world's first privately owned commercial space telescope,

167
00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:53.000
has captured its first observation and it's the first star.

168
00:09:53.559 --> 00:09:56.600
This is a big deal. MAV is operated by a

169
00:09:56.639 --> 00:10:00.639
London based startup called Blue Sky's Space, launched back in

170
00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:04.919
November aboard a SpaceX ride share mission. It's a small satellite,

171
00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:08.679
about the size of a suitcase, weighing under nineteen kilograms,

172
00:10:08.919 --> 00:10:11.399
but what it can do is genuinely unique.

173
00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:15.759
BOV is designed to observe stars in ultraviolet light wavelengths

174
00:10:15.799 --> 00:10:19.000
that are completely blocked by earth atmosphere, so you simply

175
00:10:19.080 --> 00:10:22.639
cannot study them from the ground. The last dedicated ultraviolet

176
00:10:22.679 --> 00:10:27.000
space observatory was the International Ultraviolet Explorer, which was retired

177
00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:29.799
back in nineteen ninety six, so there's been a three

178
00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:32.159
decade gap in this kind of science.

179
00:10:32.120 --> 00:10:35.200
And this science it's doing matters enormously for the search

180
00:10:35.240 --> 00:10:38.320
for life. Not every star is as well behaved as

181
00:10:38.360 --> 00:10:42.639
our Sun. Many stars, especially the cooler, more common red dwarfs,

182
00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:46.639
produce intense UV flares that could strip the atmospheres off

183
00:10:46.679 --> 00:10:50.799
nearby planets, making them uninhabitable regardless of their distance from

184
00:10:50.840 --> 00:10:54.360
the star. MOV will survey hundreds of stars to figure

185
00:10:54.360 --> 00:10:57.039
out which ones are genuinely friendly to life.

186
00:10:57.240 --> 00:11:00.960
The commercial model here is also interesting. Data access is

187
00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:04.559
provided through annual subscriptions to research teams, a sort of

188
00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:07.879
Netflix for UV astronomy data. It's a new way of

189
00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:11.159
funding space science, and if it works, Blue Sky Space

190
00:11:11.240 --> 00:11:12.799
plans a whole fleet of these.

191
00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:16.000
The first star observed was one of the brightest stars

192
00:11:16.039 --> 00:11:19.480
in the ursa major constellation. A calibration target to check

193
00:11:19.519 --> 00:11:23.240
the instrument is working correctly, and it is first light achieved.

194
00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:25.080
Science operations underway.

195
00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:29.039
The universe has its first commercial telescope. I for one,

196
00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:32.440
welcome our new private sector stargazers.

197
00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:36.039
And finally our lighter closer, although I'd argue there's nothing

198
00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:37.600
light about the physics involved.

199
00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:40.600
A new piece from the Brighter side of News has

200
00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:42.960
been making the rounds this week, and it takes a

201
00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:46.080
long hard look at why, despite the vastness of the

202
00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:49.519
universe and the billions of potentially habitable worlds out there,

203
00:11:49.960 --> 00:11:53.399
no alien civilization has ever shown up on our doorstep

204
00:11:53.799 --> 00:11:57.399
and The answer, it turns out, isn't conspiracy. It's physics.

205
00:11:57.919 --> 00:12:02.240
Five barriers, that's the argument, Five physical constraints that together

206
00:12:02.440 --> 00:12:06.720
make interstellar contact essentially impossible. Shall we run through them?

207
00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:07.600
Let's do it.

208
00:12:07.960 --> 00:12:12.039
Number one distance The nearest star to us, Proxima Centauri,

209
00:12:12.279 --> 00:12:15.200
is four point two four light years away. The Parker

210
00:12:15.279 --> 00:12:19.039
Solar Probe, the fastest human made object ever built, would

211
00:12:19.080 --> 00:12:22.679
take around sixty six hundred years to reach it, And

212
00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:26.200
that's our closest neighbor. The Milky Way is one hundred

213
00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:27.720
thousand light years across.

214
00:12:28.120 --> 00:12:30.960
Number two, the speed of light. This is not an

215
00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:35.399
engineering problem, it's a law of reality. Einstein's special relativity

216
00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:38.240
tells us that as you accelerate anything with mass toward

217
00:12:38.279 --> 00:12:41.519
the speed of light, it takes ever more energy, forever

218
00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:45.600
smaller gains and speed. To actually reach light speed would

219
00:12:45.639 --> 00:12:48.720
take infinite energy, not a lot of energy, infinite.

220
00:12:48.840 --> 00:12:53.240
Number three propulsion. Even if you accept a much lower target,

221
00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:56.600
say one percent of light speed, you run straight into

222
00:12:56.600 --> 00:13:00.399
what's called the rocket equation. To accelerate, you need fuel,

223
00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:03.879
But fuel has mass, which means you need more fuel

224
00:13:03.919 --> 00:13:07.080
to push the fuel, which adds more mass. It grows

225
00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:11.840
exponentially the fuel required for even a modest interstellar trip

226
00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:13.000
would be staggering.

227
00:13:13.559 --> 00:13:18.039
Number four. Biology, The human body evolved on Earth under

228
00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:23.279
Earth's magnetic field, under Earth's gravity, Deep space is brutal.

229
00:13:23.759 --> 00:13:30.000
Cosmic radiation shreds DNA, microgravity degrades bones and cardiovascular systems,

230
00:13:30.360 --> 00:13:34.799
and we still haven't solved cryogenic preservation. Even robots aren't immune.

231
00:13:35.240 --> 00:13:39.879
Radiation degrades electronics and over the time skills involved entropy wins.

232
00:13:40.360 --> 00:13:44.120
And number five and this is my favorite one. Timing

233
00:13:44.600 --> 00:13:48.399
our civilization has been broadcasting radio signals for about one

234
00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:51.840
hundred years. That creates a bubble roughly one hundred light

235
00:13:51.919 --> 00:13:55.679
years across. The Milky Way is a thousand times wider

236
00:13:55.679 --> 00:13:59.960
than that The universe is thirteen point eight billion years old.

237
00:14:00.360 --> 00:14:05.039
Civilizations might rise, transmit, and fall all before their signals

238
00:14:05.080 --> 00:14:09.120
even reach anyone capable of receiving them. The physicist Richard

239
00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:13.399
Feynman apparently compared it to fireflies blinking on different nights

240
00:14:13.399 --> 00:14:16.039
in a dark forest. They never overlap.

241
00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:20.120
And what about UFOs. The piece applies physics to claims

242
00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:25.559
of craft performing impossible maneuvers, instant acceleration to extreme speeds,

243
00:14:25.960 --> 00:14:29.879
sharp turns with no sonic signature. The forces involved would

244
00:14:29.879 --> 00:14:33.840
be tens of thousands of times Earth's gravity. Occupants would

245
00:14:33.879 --> 00:14:37.919
be pulped, materials would fail. The physics doesn't work.

246
00:14:38.480 --> 00:14:42.000
Now Is this depressing? I actually don't think so. The

247
00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:46.039
piece ends on something beautiful. The same laws of physics

248
00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:51.200
that prevent easy interstellar travel also make the universe stable, ordered,

249
00:14:51.279 --> 00:14:56.240
and ultimately life friendly. Light speed preserves causality. Without it,

250
00:14:56.360 --> 00:15:01.279
cause and effect would unravel. Stable atoms permit chemt stars

251
00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:04.200
forge the elements that build planets and people.

252
00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:07.279
We might be alone in our cosmic neighborhood, but we're

253
00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:09.799
made of the same star stuff as every galaxy in

254
00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:13.519
the observable universe. We're not separate from the cosmos. We're

255
00:15:13.559 --> 00:15:15.279
the universe looking at itself.

256
00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:16.679
I'll take that.

257
00:15:16.679 --> 00:15:20.600
That's Astronomy Daily for Wednesday, March the fourth, twenty twenty six.

258
00:15:21.080 --> 00:15:25.679
Blood Moons, Crude Moon Missions, Cosmic star Huddles, the Universe's

259
00:15:25.759 --> 00:15:30.000
expansion mystery, the dawn of private space telescopes, and why

260
00:15:30.039 --> 00:15:31.320
the Aliens Aren't coming.

261
00:15:31.799 --> 00:15:34.799
Honestly, one of my favorite episodes in a while. If

262
00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:38.159
you enjoyed it, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

263
00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:41.080
Leave us a review, It genuinely helps us reach more

264
00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:44.679
space enthusiasts and find us on social media. At Astro

265
00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:45.759
Daily Pod.

266
00:15:46.279 --> 00:15:50.679
Few episodes every Weekday and Saturday. We'll see you Tomorrow.

267
00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:54.279
For more from the universe, Blear Skys Everyone.

268
00:15:54.399 --> 00:16:05.720
Sunday Stars The Stars.

269
00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:06.320
The Soul

270
00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:14.200
Store is control