June 20, 2026
Cosmic Secrets in Ocean Rocks, Record-Breaking Ariane Launch, and a Salty Pink World Revealed
This weekend's Astronomy Daily wraps up the biggest stories from across the cosmos, starting with two completely fresh discoveries — a 1976 ocean rock that's turned out to hold atomic-scale proof of an ancient neutron star collision, and a record-breaking rocket launch from Europe's Ariane 6. Then we wind back through the week for our four biggest headlines: a new crew for Artemis III, JWST's salty 'Pink Planet' discovery, an update on the daring Swift Observatory rescue mission, and China's Tianwen-2 closing in on its target asteroid. Story 1: A Kilonova's Fingerprint, Found in a 1976 Ocean Rock • A rock sample dredged from the Pacific seafloor in 1976 has been found to contain a few hundred atoms of plutonium radioisotopes. • The plutonium originated from a kilonova — a collision between two neutron stars — that occurred over 100 million years ago. • Stellar debris from the merger settled to Earth and was slowly incorporated into a ferromanganese crust on the ocean floor. • Isotope ratios provide the strongest physical clues yet to what created the elements and roughly when the merger occurred. • Study published 18 June 2026. Story 2: Ariane 6 Smashes Its Own Heaviest-Payload Record • On 17 June 2026, an Ariane 64 rocket launched 36 Amazon Leo satellites from French Guiana (mission VA269 / LE-03). • First flight of new P160C solid boosters — about a metre longer than the previous P120C, holding up to 156 tonnes of propellant each. • Boosters deliver roughly a 10% performance increase, raising Ariane 64's LEO capacity to approximately 22 tonnes. • The mission broke the 13-year record for heaviest payload ever launched by an Ariane rocket, previously held by the 2013 ATV 'Albert Einstein' resupply flight. • Eighth Ariane 6 launch overall; 100th Amazon Leo satellite deployed by Arianespace. Story 3: Artemis III Crew Revealed • NASA announced the Artemis III crew on 9 June 2026 at Johnson Space Center: Commander Randy Bresnik, Pilot Luca Parmitano (ESA), and Mission Specialists Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas, with Bob Hines as backup. • The Artemis II crew (Wiseman, Glover, Koch, Hansen) symbolically passed their lunar baton to the new crew. • Artemis III is a two-week test flight in low Earth orbit to test docking procedures between Orion and commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin. • Targeted for launch as early as late 2027, ahead of a planned lunar surface landing in 2028. • Will be Andre Douglas's first spaceflight. Story 4: JWST Cracks the 'Pink Planet' Mystery • JWST has confirmed salt clouds in the atmosphere of GJ504b, the 'Pink Planet,' located 57 light-years away. • First direct evidence of salt clouds on a cold substellar companion object, a phenomenon theorised 15 years ago. • At approximately 550°F, GJ504b is the coldest companion object ever directly imaged. • Its true nature remains uncertain — it may be a giant planet or a brown dwarf. • Research led by a Northwestern University team. Story 5: The Swift Rescue Mission Heads for the Pacific • NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (orbiting since 2004) faces premature reentry due to orbital decay accelerated by recent solar activity. • Katalyst Space Technologies' LINK robotic servicing spacecraft will attempt to grapple and boost Swift to a safer ~600km orbit. • LINK launches on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, carried by Stargazer, the last flying Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. • Stargazer departed NASA Wallops Flight Facility on 18 June 2026, en route to Kwajalein Atoll via California and Hawai'i. • Launch targeted for 27 June 2026; if successful, it will be the first capture of an unprepared US government satellite by a commercial vehicle. Story 6: Tianwen-2 Closes In on Kamo'oalewa • China's Tianwen-2 spacecraft, launched May 2025, completed orbital insertion at near-Earth asteroid Kamo'oalewa on 7 June 2026. • Amateur radio trackers in Germany detected fine ion-engine course-correction burns between 11–14 June 2026. • Rendezvous and sample collection are expected around 4 July 2026. • Kamo'oalewa is a 40–100 metre quasi-satellite of Earth; its origin (possibly a lunar fragment) remains scientifically debated. • After sample return, Tianwen-2 will travel on to rendezvous with comet 311P/PanSTARRS in 2035.
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Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily,
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your daily dose of space news from across the
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cosmos. I'm Ana.
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Avery: And I'm avery. It's Saturday the 20th of
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June, 2026, and that means it's time for
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our weekend space and astronomy news wrap.
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Anna: As always, we're kicking things off with two
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brand new stories you won't have heard
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anywhere else on the show, including a
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genuinely goosebump inducing tale about a
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rock pulled up of the Pacific Ocean 50 years
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ago that's just rewritten part of COSM
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history.
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Avery: Then we'll wind back to the week and bring
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you the four biggest stories that had
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everyone talking a new crew for the moon, a
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salty pink world, a daring rescue mission,
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and an asteroid chase 50 years in the making.
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Anna: If you're watching on YouTubeMusic, smash
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that subscribe button and let's get straight
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into it.
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Avery: Let's start with a story that genuinely gave
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me chills. Anna. Back in 1976,
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a research expedition hauled up a small lump
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of rock from the floor of the Pacific Ocean.
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Nobody at the time had any idea what they
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were really holding.
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Anna: Fifty years later, scientists have worked out
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exactly what's hiding inside it. And it's
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older and stranger than anyone expected.
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Avery: The rock is a chunk of what's called ferro
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manganese crust, basically slow growing
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mineral deposits that build up on the
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seafloor over millions of years, almost like
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tree rings.
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Anna: And buried inside this particular piece are a
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few hundred atoms. Atoms, not grams
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of radioactive plutonium isotopes,
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Avery: which doesn't sound like a lot, because it
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isn't. But those atoms didn't come from
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anywhere on Earth. More than a hundred
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million years ago, two neutron stars, the
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impossibly dense leftover cores of giant
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stars, crashed into each other in a
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cataclysmic event called a kilonova.
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Anna: And a kilonova is basically a heavy
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element factory. The collision is so
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violent and so energetic that it forges
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elements for far heavier than iron, including
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gold, platinum, and, yes, plutonium.
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That blast sent a rain of these freshly
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minted elements out across space.
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Avery: Some of that stellar debris eventually
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drifted down through our solar system,
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through Earth's atmosphere, and settled into
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the ocean, where over unimaginable spans of
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time, it got slowly locked into this growing
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crust of rock on the seafloor.
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Anna: The study was published just yesterday. And
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what's remarkable is that the ratios of these
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plutonium isotopes act like
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a fingerprint. They give researchers their
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strongest physical clues yet about
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exactly what kind of event created them
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and roughly how long ago it happened.
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Avery: It's wild to think Earth has basically been
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an accidental evidence locker this whole
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time, quietly filing away atomic level proof
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of cosmic violence before there was complex
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life on this planet at all.
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Anna: A little lump of rock dredged up half a
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century ago, finally giving up one of its
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biggest secrets. Beautiful story.
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Avery: From ancient cosmic violence to some very
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modern rocket engineering.
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Europe's Ariane 6 just broke a record that
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had stood for 13 years.
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Anna: This happened on Wednesday 17 June.
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An upgraded Ariane 6. 4 lifted
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off from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana,
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carrying 36Amazon LEO broadband
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satellites. That's the Constellation formerly
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known as Project Cooperation 36
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satellites.
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Avery: Doesn't sound like a record breaker on its
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own, but here's the kicker. This was the very
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first flight of Ariane 6 4's new
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P160 boosters. They're an upgrade on the
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previous P120 boosters, about 1 meter
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longer and able to hold up to 156
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tons of propellant each.
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Anna: That gives roughly a 10% performance boost
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and pushes Ariane 6. 4's lift capacity
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to about 22 tons to low Earth orbit.
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Combined with those 36 satellites, it added
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up to the HEAV heaviest payload ever launched
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by an Arian rocket, beating a record that had
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stood in 2013 when an Ariane
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5 delivered the ATV cargo vehicle
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Albert Einstein to the International Space
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Station. The satellites were deployed into
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orbit about 465km
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up over the course of just under two hours.
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And Arianespace confirmed every single one
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separated successfully.
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Avery: This was also the 8th Ariane 6 launch overall
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and the hundredth Amazon LEO satellite lofted
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by Arianespace specifically out of a planned
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18 launch contract with Amazon. It's
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a solid milestone for a rocket that, let's be
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honest, had a famously bumpy road to its
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2024 debut.
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Anna: And it matters. Beyond the bragging rights,
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Amazon's been racing against an FCC
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deadline to get half its Constellation up by
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the end of July, competing for SkySpace
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against SpaceX's Starlink, which already
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has more than 10,000 satellites in orbit.
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Avery: Whichever side of the satellite mega
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constellation debate you sit on, Watching
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Europe's flagship rocket flex some genuinely
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upgraded muscle is fun to see.
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Anna: And that brings us to the part of the show
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you've been waiting for. Our uh, look back at
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the four biggest stories that shaped the week
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in space and astronomy. We've got updates
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on a couple of these too, so even if you
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caught them earlier in the week, stick
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around. There's fresh detail in each one.
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Avery: Story number three, and for my money, the
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biggest human spaceflight Story of the Week
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On Tuesday, NASA finally named the crew for
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Artemis 3.
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Anna: At a ceremony in Houston, NASA
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Administrator Jared Isaacman introduced the
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four astronauts who will fly this critical
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test mission Commander Randy Bresnik,
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ESA pilot Luca Parmitano, and
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mission specialists Frank Rubio and Andre
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Douglas. Bob Hines will train alongside them
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as backup crew.
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Avery: And here's the bit that got me towards the
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end of the ceremony, the Artemis 2 crew, Reed
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Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Cook and
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Jeremy Hansen physically handed over the
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baton they carried around the moon and back
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in April, passing it to Bresnik's crew as a
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symbol of the relay continuing toward the
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lunar surface.
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Anna: Now. Important distinction here. Artemis
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3 isn't the landing mission itself. It's a
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two week test flight that stays in low Earth
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orbit, designed to test rendezvous and
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docking procedures between the Orion
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spacecraft and the commercial landers being
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built by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
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Avery: Think of it as the Artemis program's
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equivalent of Apollo 9, proving the hardware
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works together before anyone attempts an
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actual landing. It's currently targeted for
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as early as late 2027, with the lunar
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surface landing itself still aimed at
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2028.
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Anna: A couple of nice personal notes. This will be
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Andre Douglas's first ever spaceflight after
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serving as backup crew on Artemis 2, and
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Luca Parmitano is a fan favorite in Europe.
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Some of you will remember him from a 2013
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spacewalk where his helmet began filling with
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water. A genuinely dangerous moment he
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handled with real composure.
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Avery: A strong, experienced crew for what NASA
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itself is calling one of the most complex
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missions it's ever undert. We'll be watching
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this one closely.
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Anna: Story four takes us 57 light years
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away to a strange little world astronomers
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have nicknamed the pink planet.
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GJ504b was first
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directly imaged back in 2013 and
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stood out immediately for its odd magenta
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color. This week, a Northwestern University
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led team using JWST
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confirmed something theorized about objects
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like this for future 15 years. Its atmosphere
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is wrapped in salty clouds unlike
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anything seen on a substellar object before.
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Avery: This is the first direct evidence of salt
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clouds in the atmosphere of a cold companion
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object, and GJ504B earns
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that description. At around 550 degrees
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Fahrenheit, it's actually the coldest object
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of its kind ever directly imaged.
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Anna: And that raises a genuinely open question.
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Is is GJ504B really a
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planet? Or is its mass actually large enough
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to make it a brown dwarf? The line between
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giant planet and failed star gets blurry
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out at the cold end of the scale, and this
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object sits right on that boundary.
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Avery: Either way, it's, uh, a gorgeous
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demonstration of just how much chemistry
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JWST can now tease out of worlds
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we can't visit, can't sample, and can
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only study through the faintest whispers of
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infrared light. Salt clouds on an
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alien world? Try saying that without smiling.
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Next up, story five is an update on a daring
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rescue mission we first told you about
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earlier this week. And it's now properly
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underway.
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Anna: NASA's Neil Jarrell Swift Observatory
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has been watching gamma ray bursts from orbit
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since 2004, but its orbit has been
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decaying faster than expected, thanks to drag
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from recent high solar activity. And without
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help, it could re enter and burn up by later
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this year.
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Avery: The fix is a robotic servicing spacecraft
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called Link, built by Catalyst Space
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Technologies, designed to rendezvous with
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Swift, grapple onto fixtures that were only
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ever meant to be used on the ground before
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its original 2004 launch, and boost
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it up to a Safer orbit around 600
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km high.
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Anna: And here's the fresh development. On
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Thursday, 18 June, Northrop
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Grumman's Stargazer aircraft, the very last
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flying Lockheed L1011
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Tristar, departed NASA, NASA's Wallops
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Flight Facility in Virginia carrying Link
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tucked inside a, uh, Pegasus XL
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rocket. It's now routing via California
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and Hawaii toward Kwajalein Atoll in
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the Marshall Islands.
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Avery: Launch is targeted for June 27th.
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Stargazer will carry Pegasus to around
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40,000ft. Drop it and the rocket
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will fire Link into orbit in about 10
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minutes. That's the easy part.
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Anna: The hard part comes after Link has to
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chase down and successfully grab a satellite
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that was never designed to be captured. If it
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works, it'll be the first time a commercial
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vehicle has captured an unprepared US
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Government satellite and the first capture of
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a science satellite never built for it.
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Avery: High stakes, fast turnaround. This whole
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mission went from concept to launch pad in
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under a year. One NASA astrophysics
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director put it bluntly. Nobody thought
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they'd get this far. We'll bring you the
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result the moment it happens.
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Anna: And our final story of the week takes us to a
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tiny, strange little asteroid that's been
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quietly tagging along with Earth for
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centuries.
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Avery: China's Tianwen 2 spacecraft launched
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all the way back in May last year on a
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mission to collect a sample from near Earth
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asteroid Kamo Aloa, a, uh, quasi
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satellite only 40 to 100 meters across
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that loops around a in lockstep with our own
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planet.
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Anna: According to mission design and amateur radio
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trackers, since China's space agency has gone
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fairly quiet on official updates
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Tianwen 2 completed its orbital
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insertion at the asteroid on June 7.
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Avery: Since then, observers in Germany using a 20
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meter dish have picked up a series of much
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smaller course Correction Burns between June
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11th and 14th, almost certainly using
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the spacecraft's ion engines to fine tune its
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position ahead of the main event.
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Anna: That main event rendezvous and the actual
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sample collection is now expected around July
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4th. Kamala Loa is scientifically
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fascinating because some researchers think it
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may be a fragment blasted off the moon by an
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ancient impact, though a study published just
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this month complicates that picture somewhat
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based on how its surface has weathered.
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Avery: Whatever its true origin. After sample
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collection, Tianwen 2 will head home with its
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haul before swinging back out to chase down a
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Comet in the2030s, a patient
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decade spanning mission finally closing in on
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its first big milestone.
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Anna: And that wraps up our weekend space and
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astronomy news wrap from ancient ocean rocks
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to record breaking rockets, a new moon crew,
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a salty pink world, a daring rescue,
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and a patient asteroid chase.
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Avery: If you enjoyed today's episode, the best
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thing you can do is share it with a fellow
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space nerd. And we'll see you back here
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Monday for more from across the cosmos.
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Anna: I'm Anna.
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Avery: And I'm Avery. Clear Skies, everyone.
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Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily,
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your daily dose of space news from across the
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cosmos. I'm Ana.
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Avery: And I'm avery. It's Saturday the 20th of
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June, 2026, and that means it's time for
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our weekend space and astronomy news wrap.
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Anna: As always, we're kicking things off with two
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brand new stories you won't have heard
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anywhere else on the show, including a
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genuinely goosebump inducing tale about a
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rock pulled up of the Pacific Ocean 50 years
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ago that's just rewritten part of COSM
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history.
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Avery: Then we'll wind back to the week and bring
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you the four biggest stories that had
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everyone talking a new crew for the moon, a
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salty pink world, a daring rescue mission,
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and an asteroid chase 50 years in the making.
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Anna: If you're watching on YouTubeMusic, smash
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that subscribe button and let's get straight
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into it.
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Avery: Let's start with a story that genuinely gave
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me chills. Anna. Back in 1976,
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a research expedition hauled up a small lump
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of rock from the floor of the Pacific Ocean.
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Nobody at the time had any idea what they
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were really holding.
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Anna: Fifty years later, scientists have worked out
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exactly what's hiding inside it. And it's
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older and stranger than anyone expected.
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Avery: The rock is a chunk of what's called ferro
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manganese crust, basically slow growing
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mineral deposits that build up on the
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seafloor over millions of years, almost like
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tree rings.
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Anna: And buried inside this particular piece are a
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few hundred atoms. Atoms, not grams
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of radioactive plutonium isotopes,
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Avery: which doesn't sound like a lot, because it
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isn't. But those atoms didn't come from
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anywhere on Earth. More than a hundred
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million years ago, two neutron stars, the
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impossibly dense leftover cores of giant
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stars, crashed into each other in a
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cataclysmic event called a kilonova.
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Anna: And a kilonova is basically a heavy
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element factory. The collision is so
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violent and so energetic that it forges
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elements for far heavier than iron, including
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gold, platinum, and, yes, plutonium.
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That blast sent a rain of these freshly
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minted elements out across space.
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Avery: Some of that stellar debris eventually
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drifted down through our solar system,
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through Earth's atmosphere, and settled into
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the ocean, where over unimaginable spans of
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time, it got slowly locked into this growing
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crust of rock on the seafloor.
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Anna: The study was published just yesterday. And
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what's remarkable is that the ratios of these
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plutonium isotopes act like
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a fingerprint. They give researchers their
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strongest physical clues yet about
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exactly what kind of event created them
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and roughly how long ago it happened.
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Avery: It's wild to think Earth has basically been
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an accidental evidence locker this whole
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time, quietly filing away atomic level proof
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of cosmic violence before there was complex
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life on this planet at all.
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Anna: A little lump of rock dredged up half a
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century ago, finally giving up one of its
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biggest secrets. Beautiful story.
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Avery: From ancient cosmic violence to some very
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modern rocket engineering.
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Europe's Ariane 6 just broke a record that
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had stood for 13 years.
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Anna: This happened on Wednesday 17 June.
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An upgraded Ariane 6. 4 lifted
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off from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana,
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carrying 36Amazon LEO broadband
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satellites. That's the Constellation formerly
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known as Project Cooperation 36
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satellites.
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Avery: Doesn't sound like a record breaker on its
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own, but here's the kicker. This was the very
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first flight of Ariane 6 4's new
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P160 boosters. They're an upgrade on the
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previous P120 boosters, about 1 meter
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longer and able to hold up to 156
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tons of propellant each.
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Anna: That gives roughly a 10% performance boost
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and pushes Ariane 6. 4's lift capacity
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to about 22 tons to low Earth orbit.
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Combined with those 36 satellites, it added
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up to the HEAV heaviest payload ever launched
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by an Arian rocket, beating a record that had
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stood in 2013 when an Ariane
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5 delivered the ATV cargo vehicle
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Albert Einstein to the International Space
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Station. The satellites were deployed into
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orbit about 465km
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up over the course of just under two hours.
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And Arianespace confirmed every single one
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separated successfully.
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Avery: This was also the 8th Ariane 6 launch overall
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and the hundredth Amazon LEO satellite lofted
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by Arianespace specifically out of a planned
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18 launch contract with Amazon. It's
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a solid milestone for a rocket that, let's be
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honest, had a famously bumpy road to its
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2024 debut.
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Anna: And it matters. Beyond the bragging rights,
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Amazon's been racing against an FCC
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deadline to get half its Constellation up by
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the end of July, competing for SkySpace
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against SpaceX's Starlink, which already
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has more than 10,000 satellites in orbit.
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Avery: Whichever side of the satellite mega
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constellation debate you sit on, Watching
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Europe's flagship rocket flex some genuinely
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upgraded muscle is fun to see.
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Anna: And that brings us to the part of the show
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you've been waiting for. Our uh, look back at
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the four biggest stories that shaped the week
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in space and astronomy. We've got updates
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on a couple of these too, so even if you
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caught them earlier in the week, stick
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around. There's fresh detail in each one.
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Avery: Story number three, and for my money, the
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biggest human spaceflight Story of the Week
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On Tuesday, NASA finally named the crew for
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Artemis 3.
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Anna: At a ceremony in Houston, NASA
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Administrator Jared Isaacman introduced the
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four astronauts who will fly this critical
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test mission Commander Randy Bresnik,
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ESA pilot Luca Parmitano, and
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mission specialists Frank Rubio and Andre
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Douglas. Bob Hines will train alongside them
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as backup crew.
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Avery: And here's the bit that got me towards the
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end of the ceremony, the Artemis 2 crew, Reed
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Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Cook and
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Jeremy Hansen physically handed over the
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baton they carried around the moon and back
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in April, passing it to Bresnik's crew as a
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symbol of the relay continuing toward the
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lunar surface.
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Anna: Now. Important distinction here. Artemis
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3 isn't the landing mission itself. It's a
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two week test flight that stays in low Earth
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orbit, designed to test rendezvous and
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docking procedures between the Orion
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spacecraft and the commercial landers being
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built by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
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Avery: Think of it as the Artemis program's
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equivalent of Apollo 9, proving the hardware
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works together before anyone attempts an
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actual landing. It's currently targeted for
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as early as late 2027, with the lunar
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surface landing itself still aimed at
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2028.
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Anna: A couple of nice personal notes. This will be
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Andre Douglas's first ever spaceflight after
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serving as backup crew on Artemis 2, and
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Luca Parmitano is a fan favorite in Europe.
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Some of you will remember him from a 2013
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spacewalk where his helmet began filling with
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water. A genuinely dangerous moment he
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handled with real composure.
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Avery: A strong, experienced crew for what NASA
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itself is calling one of the most complex
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missions it's ever undert. We'll be watching
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this one closely.
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Anna: Story four takes us 57 light years
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away to a strange little world astronomers
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have nicknamed the pink planet.
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GJ504b was first
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directly imaged back in 2013 and
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stood out immediately for its odd magenta
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color. This week, a Northwestern University
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led team using JWST
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confirmed something theorized about objects
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like this for future 15 years. Its atmosphere
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is wrapped in salty clouds unlike
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anything seen on a substellar object before.
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Avery: This is the first direct evidence of salt
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clouds in the atmosphere of a cold companion
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object, and GJ504B earns
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that description. At around 550 degrees
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Fahrenheit, it's actually the coldest object
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of its kind ever directly imaged.
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Anna: And that raises a genuinely open question.
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Is is GJ504B really a
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planet? Or is its mass actually large enough
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to make it a brown dwarf? The line between
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giant planet and failed star gets blurry
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out at the cold end of the scale, and this
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object sits right on that boundary.
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Avery: Either way, it's, uh, a gorgeous
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demonstration of just how much chemistry
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JWST can now tease out of worlds
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we can't visit, can't sample, and can
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only study through the faintest whispers of
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infrared light. Salt clouds on an
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alien world? Try saying that without smiling.
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Next up, story five is an update on a daring
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rescue mission we first told you about
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earlier this week. And it's now properly
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underway.
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Anna: NASA's Neil Jarrell Swift Observatory
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has been watching gamma ray bursts from orbit
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since 2004, but its orbit has been
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decaying faster than expected, thanks to drag
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from recent high solar activity. And without
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help, it could re enter and burn up by later
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this year.
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Avery: The fix is a robotic servicing spacecraft
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called Link, built by Catalyst Space
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Technologies, designed to rendezvous with
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Swift, grapple onto fixtures that were only
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ever meant to be used on the ground before
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its original 2004 launch, and boost
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it up to a Safer orbit around 600
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km high.
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Anna: And here's the fresh development. On
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Thursday, 18 June, Northrop
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Grumman's Stargazer aircraft, the very last
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flying Lockheed L1011
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Tristar, departed NASA, NASA's Wallops
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Flight Facility in Virginia carrying Link
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tucked inside a, uh, Pegasus XL
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rocket. It's now routing via California
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and Hawaii toward Kwajalein Atoll in
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the Marshall Islands.
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Avery: Launch is targeted for June 27th.
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Stargazer will carry Pegasus to around
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40,000ft. Drop it and the rocket
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will fire Link into orbit in about 10
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minutes. That's the easy part.
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Anna: The hard part comes after Link has to
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chase down and successfully grab a satellite
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that was never designed to be captured. If it
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works, it'll be the first time a commercial
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vehicle has captured an unprepared US
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Government satellite and the first capture of
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a science satellite never built for it.
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Avery: High stakes, fast turnaround. This whole
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mission went from concept to launch pad in
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under a year. One NASA astrophysics
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director put it bluntly. Nobody thought
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they'd get this far. We'll bring you the
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result the moment it happens.
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Anna: And our final story of the week takes us to a
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tiny, strange little asteroid that's been
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quietly tagging along with Earth for
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centuries.
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Avery: China's Tianwen 2 spacecraft launched
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all the way back in May last year on a
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mission to collect a sample from near Earth
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asteroid Kamo Aloa, a, uh, quasi
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satellite only 40 to 100 meters across
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that loops around a in lockstep with our own
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planet.
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Anna: According to mission design and amateur radio
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trackers, since China's space agency has gone
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fairly quiet on official updates
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Tianwen 2 completed its orbital
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insertion at the asteroid on June 7.
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Avery: Since then, observers in Germany using a 20
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meter dish have picked up a series of much
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smaller course Correction Burns between June
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11th and 14th, almost certainly using
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the spacecraft's ion engines to fine tune its
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position ahead of the main event.
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Anna: That main event rendezvous and the actual
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sample collection is now expected around July
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4th. Kamala Loa is scientifically
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fascinating because some researchers think it
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may be a fragment blasted off the moon by an
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ancient impact, though a study published just
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this month complicates that picture somewhat
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based on how its surface has weathered.
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Avery: Whatever its true origin. After sample
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collection, Tianwen 2 will head home with its
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haul before swinging back out to chase down a
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Comet in the2030s, a patient
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decade spanning mission finally closing in on
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its first big milestone.
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Anna: And that wraps up our weekend space and
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astronomy news wrap from ancient ocean rocks
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to record breaking rockets, a new moon crew,
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a salty pink world, a daring rescue,
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and a patient asteroid chase.
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Avery: If you enjoyed today's episode, the best
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thing you can do is share it with a fellow
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space nerd. And we'll see you back here
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Monday for more from across the cosmos.
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Anna: I'm Anna.
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Avery: And I'm Avery. Clear Skies, everyone.
