Bow and Arrow Galaxy Discovered, Hayabusa2's Daring Asteroid Flyby, and Mars' Geological Secrets Unveiled

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Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily.

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I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm avery. It's Monday, June 29,

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and the universe has been absolutely refusing

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to take the weekend off.

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Anna: Tonight is the full strawberry moon and

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Mercury just went retrograde, so we have the

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sky watching angle covered.

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But there is so much more.

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Avery: A galaxy that baffled 25 years of

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professional expertise, spotted first by a

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citizen scientist. Uh, a Japanese spacecraft

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about to attempt one of the closest asteroid

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flybys in history. And new evidence that

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Mars was geologically far more complex than

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anyone imagined.

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Anna: Plus, new data from ESA's Juice

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spacecraft that reveals what interstellar

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comet 3i Atlas was doing just

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days after it rounded the Sun. And a

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candid NASA audit that puts some very large

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numbers on the Artemis program's canceled

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hardware.

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Avery: It is a packed Monday. Stay with us.

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Anna: Our first story today is one of those

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discoveries that makes you stop and think

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about the sheer scale of the universe and

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also about who gets to discover it.

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Avery: A citizen scientist, not a professional

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astronomer, not a research institute, was the

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first person to spot one of the most unusual

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radio galaxies ever recorded. And the

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lead researcher who followed up the find says

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it is unlike anything he has seen in 25

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years of studying these objects.

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Anna: The object is called RAD Barg. That

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stands for radio bow and arrow,

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Radio Galaxy. And the name tells you

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almost everything because when you look at

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this thing in radio light, it genuinely looks

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like a drawn bow and arrow glowing in space.

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Avery: The discovery was published on June 22 in the

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Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical

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Society, and it was made by an international

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team working with the RAD at Home Astronomy

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ah collaboratory in India. Uh, a

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citizen science program that gives volunteers

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access to telescope data to look for

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unusual features that professional surveys

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might miss.

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Anna: The volunteer who found it was scanning

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images from the LOFAR radio telescope,

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the Low Frequency Array based in the

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Netherlands, and flagged an asymmetric

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structure that simply didn't look like any

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known radio galaxy.

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Avery: And when the scientists looked closer, they

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saw something remarkable. Radbarg

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stretches nearly 1.8 million light

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years across. For scale, our entire

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Milky way is about 100,000 light years

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wide. This structure is roughly 18

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times that.

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Anna: What makes it so unusual is its shape.

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Most radio galaxies follow a familiar

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A supermassive black hole at the center

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fires two jets of charged particles

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outward in opposite directions, creating a

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symmetric dumbbell shaped structure.

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Rad Barg doesn't look like that at all.

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Avery: Instead, one of the jets appears to have

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slammed into something, a vast front of

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compressed plasma, and lit it up in

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radiolight. That glowing arc, shaped like

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the curve of a bow, spans nearly

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560 kiloparsecs in the radio

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data.

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Anna: On the opposite side, the other jet bends and

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twists into an S shaped structure with a

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faint offset tail. The leading

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explanation is a bow shock. The host

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galaxy of Radbarg appears to be falling

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supersonically into a nearby galaxy

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cluster, plowing through the thin hot gas

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that fills the space between galaxies.

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Avery: And um, just like a supersonic aircraft,

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produces a shock wave in front of it, a

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galaxy moving faster than the speed of sound

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in that gas can compress and heat it,

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creating a giant shock front.

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Anna: The radio emitting plasma from Rad Barg

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appears to illuminate that shockwave, making

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visible something that astronomers have long

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predicted, but almost never directly

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observed in radio light.

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Avery: Lead author Dr. Ananda Hota of the University

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of Mumbai said the structure is unlike

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any radio galaxy he has seen in 25

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years. His co lead, Dr. Pratik

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Dabade of the national center for Nuclear

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Research in Poland noted that the complex

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multi halo environment makes this especially

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exciting. We're seeing gas flows

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infall and possible shocks reshaping

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radioplasma over millions of light years of

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space. And crucially, this discovery

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came directly from the citizen science

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community. The Data came from LOFAR's

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2 Meter Sky Survey, whose third

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data release, covering more than 80% of the

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northern sky, came out earlier this year.

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Rad Barg shows what might be hiding in that

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massive dataset.

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Anna: The team is hoping that AI and machine

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learning tools can now be applied to find

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similar systems. And the next generation

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Square Kilometer Observatory, currently under

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construction, will be able to survey the sky

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with even greater sensitivity. Rad Barg

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may turn out to be

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Avery: just the beginning, a triumph for citizen

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science and a reminder that the universe is

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still hiding things from us until an alert

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volunteer spots them from a hillside data

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center.

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Next up, Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft

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has been on an extended mission for several

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years now after it already delivered what

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many consider the most scientifically

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valuable asteroid sample ever returned to

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Earth. And next Sunday, July 5th,

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it's about to attempt something

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extraordinary.

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Anna: A flyby of an asteroid called tori fune,

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designated 2001 CC21,

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at a closest approach distance of somewhere

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between 1 and 10 kilometers at a

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speed of 5.3 kilometers per second.

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That is roughly 19,000 kilometers

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per hour. And the spacecraft's cameras were

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not designed for this kind of encounter.

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Avery: For some context, Hayabusa2, launched in

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December 2014, traveled to the

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asteroid Rigu, deployed rovers and landers

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onto Its surface fired an impactor to

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create an artificial crater, collected

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samples from below the surface and returned

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that material to Earth in December 2020.

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Five grams of Rigu, but an extraordinary

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five grams.

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Anna: After releasing this sample capsule over

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Australia, the spacecraft still had fuel

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remaining. Rather than decommission it, JAXA

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approved an extended mission, now called

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Hayabusa2, and redirected it

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toward two new targets. Tori Fune

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is the first.

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Avery: Jaxa Satoshi Tanaka presented the mission

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status at the 35th NASA Small Bodies

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Assessment Meeting on June 11, describing the

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Torifune flyby as one of the closest

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asteroid encounters ever attempted by a

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mission of this class.

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Anna: What makes it so challenging is the geometry.

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At uh, that speed and that distance, the

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window of observation is extremely short. The

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spacecraft will sweep past in a matter of

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seconds. The navigation cameras have to be

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precisely aimed, the timing has to be right,

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and the whole sequence has to execute

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autonomously because there is no time for

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ground control corrections.

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Avery: Tori fune is roughly 450 meters

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wide, a mid sized near Earth asteroid.

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Scientists believe it may be an L type

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asteroid, potentially containing calcium

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aluminum inclusions, some of the oldest

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primitive material in the solar system. But

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that classification is uncertain and the

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flyby data will help pin it down.

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Anna: After Terephone, Hayabusa2

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continues on a long arc toward its second

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target, asteroid

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1998

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KY26, a fast spinning

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micro asteroid just 30 meters across,

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with which it will rendezvous in July

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2031. That will be the first ever

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close encounter with an asteroid of that

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size.

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Avery: But for now, next Sunday, July 5,

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one of the closest asteroid flybys ever

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attempted. A spacecraft that was never

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designed to do this. Doing it anyway.

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Hayabusa2 has already exceeded its mission

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objectives once. It is about to do it again.

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Anna: Mars is often described as a dead planet.

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No plate tectonics, no active volcanism,

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a frozen core, a thin atmosphere.

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And for a long time, scientists assumed its

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geological history was correspondingly

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simple. Isolated volcanoes, simple

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basaltic crust. Nothing like the complex

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churning geology that made Earth habitable.

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Avery: A new study published on June 26 in the

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journal Nature Astronomy suggests that

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picture is fundamentally wrong.

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Researchers from the University of Oxford, in

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collaboration with the University of Bristol,

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have found seismic evidence that Mars once

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hosted enormous Earth like magmatic

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systems spread across potentially hundreds or

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even thousands of kilometers of its northern

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hemisphere.

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Anna: The key is a boundary layer about 24

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km below the Martian surface.

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Scientists already knew this boundary

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existed. What they didn't know was what it

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meant. The new analysis, based on

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seismic data from NASA's InSight mission,

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which recorded marsquakes and meteoroid

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impacts before being retired suggests

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this boundary marks a zone of melt

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depleted rock, rock that has already had

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magma extracted from it.

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Avery: That's a signature of what geologists call

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transcrustal magmatism, a process

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where molten rock rises from the mantle,

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pools within the crust, differentiates,

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gets mixed and reprocessed, and slowly

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builds up complex crustal material over

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millions of years. On Earth, this process

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is driven by plate tectonics. The key

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finding here is that Mars appears to have

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done it without plate tectonics.

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Anna: Bead author Dr. Tobramori Mackay

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Champion put it traditionally,

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complex silica rich crust was thought to

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require plate tectonics and subduction.

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This study suggests Mars can build complex

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crust through long lived transcrustal

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magmatic systems where mantle derived

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magma is stored, differentiated, mixed

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and assimilated within the crust. Plate

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recycling is not the only route.

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Avery: Professor John Wade of Oxford added a

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striking application. If Mars could develop

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this kind of complex crust without plate

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tectonics, then maybe the conditions needed

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for habitability can emerge on more planets

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than we realized, including those we've

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previously dismissed because of their

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apparent lack of tectonic activity.

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Anna: There are also more practical implications.

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Systems like these on Earth are known to

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generate large mineral and metal deposits.

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The study suggests Mars may hold

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significantly more near surface mineral

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wealth than previously assumed, something

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that could matter greatly for any future

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human presence on the Red Planet.

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Avery: Mars is not a simple, geologically boring

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world. It just did its geology differently.

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And the universe, it turns out, has more than

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one way to build a complex planet.

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Time for your sky watching update. And

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tonight is genuinely worth stepping out for

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because the full Strawberry Moon reaches its

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peak at ah, 2358 UTC. That

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that's just before midnight in Universal

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Time, which means most of our listeners will

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see it at its fullest either late tonight or

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early tomorrow morning, depending on your

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time zone.

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Anna: The Strawberry Moon gets its name from early

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Native American traditions. It marked the

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time of year when wild strawberries began to

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ripen. It's also been called the Rose Moon

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and the Honeymoon, giving us the phrase

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honeymoon since June was historically

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considered an auspicious time for weddings.

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Avery: Tonight the moon rises in Sagittarius near

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the well known teapot asterism. For

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observers across Australia and New Zealand,

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the teapot will be reasonably well placed in

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the northern sky. After dark, the moon will

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be brilliantly bright, so fainter stars will

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wash out. But the bright stars of Sagittarius

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should still be visible around it.

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Anna: One thing to note for our Southern Hemisphere

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listeners, in winter, the Full Moon

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rises higher in the sky for you, which

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actually gives you better viewing conditions

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for this kind of event than our friends in

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the Northern Hemisphere get during their

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summer full Moons.

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Avery: And there's an astronomical event today that

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you won't actually be able to see with your

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eyes, but is worth knowing about. Mercury

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begins its retrograde motion today, June

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29th. This is the apparent reversal

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of Mercury's movement against the background

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stars caused by the geometry of Mercury's

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faster orbit relative to Earth.

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Anna: You won't see Mercury move backward in

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real time. It's far too subtle for that. But

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if you track its position night by night over

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the coming weeks, you'll see it trace a small

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loop against the background stars before

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resuming its normal eastward motion.

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It's a lovely demonstration of orbital

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mechanics if you have the patience to follow

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it.

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Avery: Mercury is currently a challenging target

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anyway, sitting low in the western sky after

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sunset and getting lower. But Venus

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is blazingly bright and easy to find in the

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west after dark. And the crescent Moon

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earlier in the month created some lovely,

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lovely conjunctions that astrophotographers

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took full advantage of.

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Anna: Tonight, though, the Strawberry Moon is the

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star of the show. Get outside, look up,

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and enjoy it.

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Time now to revisit an old friend. We've

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covered interstellar comet 3I ATLs

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extensively on this show from its discovery

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last July through its perihelion pass, its

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chemistry, its ancient isotopic signature.

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But the data from that encounter is still

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coming in. And this week, ESA published the

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results from one of the most unusual

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scientific opportunities of the entire 3i

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ATLAS mission.

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Avery: ESA's JUICE spacecraft, the Jupiter

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Icy Moons Explorer, was in the right place

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at the right time with the right instruments.

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In November 2025, just days

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after 3i ATLs made its closest approach

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to the Sun, JUICE turned 5 of its

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science instruments towards the comet. The

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data took months to arrive on Earth, but it

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has now been analyzed, and the early results

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are fascinating.

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Anna: Here are five things Juice revealed.

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First, the water output. On November 2,

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2025, just four days after perihelion,

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JUICE's Magis spectrometer

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detected 3i ATLAS was releasing

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approximately 2,000 kilograms

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of water vapor every single second.

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That is equivalent to filling 70 Olympic

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swimming pools every day.

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Avery: Second, um. Despite its interstellar origin,

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three I ATLs behaved like a typical

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solar system comet during its close approach

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to the sun. JUICE's Janus camera

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showed a coma and activity consistent with

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what you would expect from a comet formed

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right here in our own system. The universe

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appears to make comets using broadly Similar

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rules.

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Anna: Third, JUICE's navigation camera was

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pressed into unexpected scientific service.

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NAVCAM is designed to help Juice navigate

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around Jupiter's icy moons when it arrives in

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2031. But during the Three Eye

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Atlas encounter, it captured images from a,

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uh, novel vantage point, different from Earth

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based telescopes. At times when the comet

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wasn't even visible from Earth. That gave

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ESA's planetary defense team a better

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fix on the comet's trajectory than they could

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have obtained.

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Avery: Fourth, the encounter revealed how well

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prepared JUICE's instruments actually are for

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their primary mission. The same tools built

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to study Europa, Ganymede and Callisto,

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icy moons with complex chemistry,

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turned out to be remarkably well matched to

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studying an interstellar icy comet. The

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team says the data has made them more excited

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than ever about what Juice will find at

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Jupiter in the2030s.

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Anna: And fifth, the overall picture emerging from

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JUICE, combined with the JWST

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isotopic data we discussed last week,

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paints a, uh, consistent portrait. Three I

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ATLS is very old. Formed

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possibly 10 to 12 billion years ago

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in a stellar system that predates our Sun.

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It spent billions of years in the cold

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darkness of its home system before being

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ejected on a journey that would eventually

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bring it briefly through ours.

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Avery: Juice itself has one more Earth gravity

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assist coming in September 2026,

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when its instruments will be switched on

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again before the long cruise to Jupiter. The

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common encounter was a remarkable bonus for a

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mission with a very different primary

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purpose.

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Anna: 3i ATLAS is gone, heading out

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of the solar system, never to return. But

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it has left behind a remarkable scientific

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legacy.

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Avery: Our final story today takes us from the

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science of space to the economics of it, and

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it involves some large numbers.

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Anna: A memo from NASA's Office of Inspector

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General published this past week has found

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that the total value of NASA hardware

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contracts that were canceled as part of the

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Artemis Program restructuring came to

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$5.9 billion.

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5.9 billion.

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Avery: Now, for context, the Artemis program is

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NASA's flagship effort to return humans to

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the moon. With Artemis 2 having

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already carried four astronauts around the

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moon earlier this year, the program has been

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hugely ambitious, hugely expensive, and

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has gone through significant changes,

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particularly around which contractors build

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which components and what the architecture

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looks like.

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Anna: The Inspector General's review found that

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canceled hardware contracts included items

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that had experienced cost increases and

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extended timelines before being cut. The

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audit highlights the scale of the program's

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evolution and the real financial cost of

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changing direction in large scale space

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programs.

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Avery: To be clear, this doesn't mean $5.9

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billion was simply lost. Some

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of that work will have produced useful data

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technical knowledge or partially completed

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hardware. And program restructuring of this

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kind is not unusual in aerospace development.

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The Space Launch System itself went through

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years of design evolution before its first

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flight.

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Anna: But it is a significant figure, and it

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arrives at a moment when NASA is navigating a

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complex budget environment and Preparing for

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Artemis 4, the first crewed lunar

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landing currently targeting 2028.

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Avery: The ODA is a reminder that returning to the

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Moon is not just a scientific and

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engineering challenge. It is also a program

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management challenge, one that involves

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billions of dollars, hundreds of contractors,

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and years of decision making under conditions

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of political, technical and financial

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uncertainty.

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Anna: The numbers are sobering, but the program

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continues, and the end goal humans on

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the moon and eventually beyond, remains one

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of the most ambitious endeavors in human

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history.

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And that is a wrap on Astronomy daily for

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Monday, June 29th. What a lineup.

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A galaxy shaped like a bow and arrow, a

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spacecraft hurtling toward an asteroid, a

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new picture of ancient Mars, tonight's full

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strawberry moon, the last data from our

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interstellar visitor, and a candid look at

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the cost of going back to the moon.

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Avery: The universe never disappoints. And, um,

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neither do you, our listeners. Thank you for

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joining us.

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Anna: If you're enjoying Astronomy Daily, please

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subscribe wherever you're listening and leave

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us a review. It genuinely helps more people

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find the show.

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Avery: Until tomorrow. Clear skies.

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Anna: Clear skies, everyone.