Cosmic Fireworks, Mars Meets Uranus, and the Dawn of a New Era in Astronomy

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Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source for

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the latest space and astronomy news. I'm

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Anna.

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Avery: And I'm, um, avery. It's Saturday, July 4,

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2026. Happy Independence Day to everyone

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celebrating today.

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And welcome to our weekend space and

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astronomy news wrap.

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Anna: That means we're doing things a little

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differently today. We've got four of the

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biggest stories from the past five days, plus

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two brand new stories to keep things fresh.

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Avery: And what a week it's been. We've got a rescue

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mission that finally got off the ground, a

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telescope in Chile that just changed the game

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for astronomy. A, ah, geomagnetic storm

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timed perfectly for the holiday weekend, and

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a very close encounter between Mars and

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Uranus happening literally today.

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Anna: Plus, uh, NASA's given us the perfect Fourth

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of July present. Cosmic fireworks

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courtesy of the James Webb Space Telescope.

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Avery: Let's get into it.

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Anna: Let's start with the story we've been

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following all week. And finally some good

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news. The Swift Boost mission has

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finally successfully launched.

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Avery: After weather scrubs and then that software

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navigation issue that aborted Thursday's

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attempt, Catalyst Space's Link

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spacecraft got away clean Early Friday

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morning, 4:36am Eastern Time

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on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL

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rocket release from the Stargazer aircraft

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over Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

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Anna: And there's a bit of history in this launch

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too. That was the very last flight of

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the Pegasus rocket. Full stop. End of an

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era for that vehicle.

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Avery: It really is now. Link isn't just going to

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zip up and grab Swift straight away. It's got

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two to three weeks of careful observation

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ahead of it, sizing up the observatory to

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find the best spot to grapple onto it.

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Anna: Right. Swift, uh, wasn't built to be

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serviced, so this is delicate work. Once

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Link picks its grab point and secures Swift

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with its three robotic arms, it'll fire up

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gentle ion thrusters and spend several months

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slowly raising the pair back to a safe orbit.

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Avery: If it works, it'll be the first time a

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commercial spacecraft has ever captured a

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government satellite that was never designed

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to docking. No pressure, Link.

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Anna: After the week it's had just getting off the

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ground, I, uh, think it's earned a little

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confidence. We'll keep tracking this one as

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it approaches Swift in the coming weeks.

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Avery: Story two is genuinely one of the biggest

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moments in astronomy. This year. The Vera C.

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Rubin Observatory in Chile has officially

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begun its 10 year legacy survey of space and

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time.

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Anna: This has been three decades in the making.

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Rubin sits atop Cerro Pachon and

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it's using the largest digital camera ever

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built. 3200

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megapixels to photograph the entire

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southern sky every few nights.

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Avery: Every single image captures a patch of sky

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about 45 full moons wide, and the

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camera snaps a new one roughly every 40

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seconds. Over 10 years, it's expected

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to catalog around 17 billion

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stars and 20 billion galaxies.

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Anna: And because it's revisiting the same patches

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of sky over and over, it'll build up what

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astronomers are calling a time lapse movie of

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the universe, catching supernovae,

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asteroids, and anything else that moves,

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brightens, or fades practically as it

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happens.

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Avery: One of the project leads called it the end of

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a 30 year wait. And for anyone down here in

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the Southern Hemisphere, it's worth

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remembering. This is very much our sky.

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Anna: Rubin's watching a proud moment for Chile

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and for astronomy generally. This is going to

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keep producing headlines for a decade.

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Next up, if you've been outside the last

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couple of nights, you might already know

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about this one. That x1.1

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solar flare from earlier in the week has

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triggered a, uh, proper geomagnetic storm.

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Avery: NOAA Space Weather Prediction center has

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forecasted G2 to possibly G3

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class storming across July 3rd and into

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today July 4th, thanks to a series of

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coronal mass ejections arriving in close

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succession in the Northern Hemisphere.

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Anna: That's put the aurora view line unusually

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far south parts of Montana, North

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Dakota, Minnesota, even as far as

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Kansas or Maryland if things get feisty.

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Avery: And for us in the Southern Hemisphere, storms

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of this strength can bring the aurora, uh,

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Australis into view, too. Worth keeping an

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eye on the southern horizon tonight if you're

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away from city lights.

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Anna: Just a reminder, the key thing to watch is

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the BZ component of the interplanetary

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magnetic field. When it swings south,

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that's when the show really gets going.

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Avery: So tonight might just serve up fireworks in

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the sky as well as on the ground. Not a bad

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way to spend Independence Day if you're one

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for celebrating. Story four is a quick recap

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for anyone who missed Friday's episode

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because it's too big a story.

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Not to mention, in a weekly wrap,

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Anna: astronomers led by A team at UH UC Irvine

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have confirmed

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GJ3378b,

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a super Earth orbiting a small red dwarf

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just 25 light years from us, sitting right in

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the star's habitable zone.

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Avery: It's got a minimum mass a bit over twice

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Earth's, and it receives almost the same

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amount of starlight we do. That's about as

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close to an Earth analog as these things get

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in terms of energy balance.

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Anna: The next step is figuring out whether it

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actually has an atmosphere. That's what would

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let scientists start hunting for

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biosignatures or liquid water. But

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even without that confirmation yet, it's a

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genuinely exciting addition to the short list

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of nearby potentially habitable worlds.

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Avery: One of the researchers put it nicely. The

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line between habitability and desolation

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might be thinner than we think.

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We'll be watching for follow up observations

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Anna: now for one of our fresh news stories today.

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And it's got perfect timing. NASA has

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released a brand new James Webb image just

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in time for America's 250th

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birthday.

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Avery: This one shows the FS TAO system about

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450 light years away in Taurus, and

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it is dripping with what NASA itself is

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calling cosmic fireworks. Background

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galaxies bursting into view and the cluster

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of young protostars lighting up the frame.

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Anna: The protostars themselves are only 1 to

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3 million years old babies in star

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terms. One of them, Fstau B, is

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throwing off outflows of gas and dust that

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have carved these striking light blue ridges

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into the surrounding cloud.

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Avery: Those ridges show up because the outflows

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compress the material and it starts

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reflecting light from the nearby protostar.

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Basically, the baby star is redecorating its

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nursery on its way out the door.

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Anna: It's a gorgeous image and a lovely bit of

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cosmic timing from NASA. Infant stars

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asserting their independence released right

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on America's 250th.

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Avery: We'll have the image linked in the show notes

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so you can see it for yourself. It's worth a

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look.

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And in other news today, a ah, genuine sky

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watching event happening right now. Mars and

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Uranus are as close together in our sky as

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they've been in decades.

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Anna: The closest approach is calculated for around

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6am UTC today, July 4,

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when the two planets will be separated by

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only about 6 arcminutes. For comparison,

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that's roughly half the separation between

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Mizar and Alcor in the Big Dipple's handle.

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Avery: Mars is easy. A uh, steady reddish point low

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in the east northeast before dawn, sitting

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between the Pleiades and Hyades star

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clusters. Uranus is the hard part since it's

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about 60 times fainter.

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Anna: The trick is to use Mars as your guide star

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point binoculars or a small scope at Mars,

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then look just above it for a tiny greenish

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dot. That's Uranus.

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Avery: Best viewing is around 3:30-4:00am

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local time wherever you are with a clear

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eastern horizon. And because this is a sky

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events rather than a location specific one,

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it's visible from both hemispheres. So this

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one's for everybody wherever you're

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Anna: listening from a lovely quiet way to

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bookend a day that's going to be full of

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noise and fireworks for a lot of our

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listeners.

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Avery: That wraps up this week's Astronomy Daily

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weekend wrap. A rescue mission finally

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underway, a new era of sky surveying

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begun, an aurora show on offer, a

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promising new world next door, and two fresh

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stories bookending Independence Day with

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fireworks both cosmic and real.

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Anna: Whatever you're doing today, we hope you get

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a clear sky tonight, whether you're watching

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for aurora, hunting down Uranus next to

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Mars, or just enjoying the fireworks down

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here on Earth.

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Avery: I'm, um, Avery.

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Anna: And I'm Anna. Thanks for listening to

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Astronomy Daily. Clear skies, everyone.

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And happy 4th of July to our North American

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listeners. Mhm.

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You stories

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we told.