Fireballs, UFO Files & Rocket Fire — Is The Universe Sending Us Messages?

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Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm Avery. It is Monday 11th

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May 2026 and this is season

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5 episode 99.

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Anna: One episode away from triple digits, Avery.

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And we are not going quietly.

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Avery: Absolutely not.

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Today we have six stories that run the full

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gamut. Mysterious fireballs raining down

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across continents. A rocket breathing fire

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in Texas. A cargo ship about to head

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to the space station. Carbon molecules shaped

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like soccer balls appearing inside a dying

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star. Ever before seen photographs of

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the moon's far side. And brace

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yourself. The biggest government UFO file

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drop in history.

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Anna: That is quite a lineup. Let's get into it.

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Avery: We're going to start with the story that had

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the Internet absolutely buzzing over the

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weekend. And it is one that sits squarely in

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our wheelhouse. On Friday 8

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May 2026, the Pentagon

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released what it called never before seen

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files relating to unidentified anomalous

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phenomena. UAPs that the government

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has been sitting on for decades.

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Anna: UAPs, for anyone who just joined us, is

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the official modern term for what most people

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still call UFOs. And Friday's release

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was genuinely historic.

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Avery: It really was. The Pentagon launched ah, a

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dedicated public portal, war.gov

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UFO and dropped an initial tranche of

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162 files that includes

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120 PDF documents,

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28 videos and 14 high

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resolution images. Everything from internal

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military memos to Apollo mission

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photography to recent infrared sensor

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footage.

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Anna: The program even has an acronym, Persu,

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which stands for Presidential Unsealing and

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Reporting System for UAP Encounters.

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And the files span nearly eight decades

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going back to the late 1940s.

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Avery: Now, before listeners get too excited or too

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skeptical, let's be clear about what the

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files do. And don't say the

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Pentagon was explicit. These are quote,

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unresolved cases, meaning the government was

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unable to make a definitive determination on

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the nature of the observed phenomena. They do

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not prove extraterrestrial contact.

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Anna: They do.

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Avery: They do not suggest a cover up of alien

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visitors.

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Anna: But what they do provide is transparency

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that researchers, scientists and the public

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have been demanding for years. Former

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Pentagon UAP office head Sean

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Kirkpatrick cautioned that without analysis

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and context, the raw files, uh, risk fueling

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speculation. And that's a fair point.

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Context matters enormously with this

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material.

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Avery: What astronomers and UAP researchers are most

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interested in is the ability to now cross

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reference these files with the existing

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scientific data. Radar, infrasound,

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satellite records to build proper analytical

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frameworks around what was actually observed.

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Anna: Some of the more striking clips include a,

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ah, football shaped object observed by an

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infrared sensor near Japan, a, uh, misshapen

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ball of white light recorded over Syria and

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archival Apollo 17 imagery showing

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three lights above the lunar terrain that the

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astronauts theorized were ice chunks.

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Avery: And this is only the beginning. The Pentagon

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says more files will be released on a rolling

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basis every few weeks as they are discovered

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and declassified. This is an ongoing process

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covering tens of millions of records.

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Anna: For our listeners who want to explore the

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files directly, the portal is

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war.gov UFO

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no clearance required.

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Avery: From government secrets to rocket fire

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and what a fire it was on Wednesday

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7 May, SpaceX completed

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a milestone that the entire space industry

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had been watching. The first

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successful full duration full

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thrust static fire of the Super

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Heavy version 3 booster.

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Anna: All 33 Raptor V3 engines

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firing simultaneously for the full

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duration. SpaceX described it simply on

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X as full duration and full

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thrust 33 engine static fire with

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super heavy V3 understated, but

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the footage was anything but.

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Avery: And this matters enormously because previous

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attempts hadn't made it to this point. There

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was a 10 engine partial test in March, a

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UH33 engine attempt on April 15th.

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Both ended early due to issues with ground

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equipment. This one went the distance.

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Anna: The Raptor V3 engines themselves

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are a significant upgrade, each capable

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of delivering around 600,000

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pounds of thrust with improved reliability

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over the previous generation.

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33 of them firing together makes the

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super heavy booster the most powerful

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first stage rocket ever built

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and the full Starship stack.

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Avery: That's the booster plus the ship upper stage

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on top is over 400ft tall,

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taller than the Saturn V, designed to carry

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more than 100 tons to low Earth orbit and

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fully reusable.

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Anna: The ship upper stage for Flight 12

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already cleared its own static fire earlier,

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so both halves of the vehicle have now passed

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their pre flight tests. SpaceX is

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targeting 15 May for the 12th

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Starship test flight, a suborbital mission

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designed to further refine the vehicle's

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capabilities.

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Avery: For context, Starship is central to NASA's

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Artemis program. It is the planned human

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landing system that would carry astronauts to

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the lunar surface. It's also SpaceX's

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primary vehicle for their long term Mars

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ambitions.

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Anna: So May 15th is absolutely one to

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watch. We'll have full coverage here on

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Astronomy Daily as that date approaches.

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Avery: While Starship is preparing for its next

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flight, another SpaceX vehicle is heading to

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orbit tomorrow. NASA and SpaceX are uh,

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targeting 7:16pm Eastern Time on

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Tuesday 12 May for the launch of

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CRS 34, the 34th

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SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services mission

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to the International Space Station.

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Anna: A Dragon Cargo Spacecraft will ride a Falcon

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9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40

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at Cape Canaveral, carrying approximately

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6,500 pounds of cargo. If all goes

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to plan, Dragon is scheduled to dock

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autonomously to the station's Harmony module

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at around 9:50am Eastern on, um, Thursday

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the 14th.

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Avery: Now, the payload on this one is genuinely

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interesting. Among the scientific

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investigations heading up is something called

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the Laplace Experiment, which studies how

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dust aggregates grow in prototypes

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protoplanetary disks that's directly relevant

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to understanding how planets form.

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Anna: There's also an instrument called Story

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Storm Time O ring Current

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Imaging Evolution, which will monitor charged

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particles in Earth's magnetosphere. These are

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the particles that can affect satellites and

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power grids during solar storm events. So

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better monitoring has real practical value.

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Avery: And then there's one that I find really

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charming and a wooden bone scaffold.

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Researchers are testing whether a wooden

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scaffold structure can support the

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development of new treatments for

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osteoporosis in microgravity. Base

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medicine is endlessly inventive.

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Anna: You can watch the Launch live on NASA,

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Amazon Prime, YouTubeMusic and NASA's own

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website. Coverage begins at 7pm Eastern

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tomorrow, Tuesday the 12th. And while I'm

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giving a plug to things worth checking out,

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Avery: Now for a story that is equal parts beautiful

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and scientifically profound. The James

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Webb Space Telescope has delivered stunning

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new images and data from a planetary nebula

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called TOC 1, located more than

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10,000 light years away in the southern

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constellation era. And what it found there

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will keep astrophysicists busy for years.

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Anna: The story begins 15 years ago in

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2010, when a team led by Professor Yan

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Kami at Western University in Canada made

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a remarkable discovery. Using NASA's

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Spitzer telescope, they found buckyballs

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inside Talk 1, that is molecules of

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Buckminster fullerene, named after the

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architect Buckminster Fuller, who designed

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geodesic domes because the molecules share

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exactly the same structural geometry.

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Geometry.

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Avery: Each buckyball molecule is made of 60

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carbon atoms arranged in a perfect pattern of

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hexagons and pentagons, like a hollow soccer

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ball. At the molecular scale, they were first

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synthesized in a Laboratory in 1985,

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a breakthrough that earned the 1996 Nobel

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Prize in Chemistry. Finding them in space

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was extraordinary, but

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Anna: Spitzer's resolution wasn't sharp enough to

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show where the buckyballs actually were

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within the nebula. Now JWST

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has returned with its mid infrared instrument

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miri, and the result is breathtaking.

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The new image reveals delicate rays,

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wispy filaments, shimmering shells of gas,

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and at the heart of the nebula, a feature

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that looks unmistakably like an upside down

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Avery: question mark, which the researchers found

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rather appropriate given how many questions

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the data raised.

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Anna: The key scientific finding is the

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buckyballs are not scattered randomly

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throughout the nebula. They are concentrated

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in a thin spherical shell immediately

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surrounding this central white dwarf, the

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stellar remnant at the heart of TC1.

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In the words of the PhD student who mapped

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them, buckyballs arranged like one giant

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buckyball.

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Avery: Why they gather in that specific formation is

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now one of the central mysteries the team is

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working to solve. And there's another puzzle.

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The infrared signals the buckyballs produce

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don't match current theoretical models.

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Something about their formation or behavior

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in this extreme environment isn't fully

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understood yet.

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Anna: TC1 is what remains after a, uh, star similar

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to our sun exhausted its fuel and shed its

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outer layers. That process sculpted the

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intricate structures JWST is now

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revealing because buckyballs have also been

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found in meteorites that have landed on

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Earth. Understanding how they form in

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environments like TC1 gives researchers

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clues about how organic chemistry, the

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chemistry relevant to life, spreads across

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galaxies.

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Avery: The image itself was processed by Kaitlyn

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Beecroft, a, uh, secondary school science

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teacher and amateur astronomer who met

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Professor Cammy at outreach events. Her skill

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at drawing detail from raw telescope data is

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remarkable. It's a lovely reminder that

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extraordinary science doesn't always happen

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only inside institutions.

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Anna: This next story is a beautiful combination of

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science and artistry, and it began with a

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direct message on social media. Just weeks

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before the Artemis II launch window,

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astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy had an

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idea. What if he could get the Artemis 2

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astronauts to photograph the Moon the same

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way he photographs the moon?

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Avery: So McCarthy slid into the DMs of Commander

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Reid Wiseman, and remarkably, Wiseman

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was immediately on board. The two developed a

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detailed photographic plan with NASA's lunar

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photography team, who were already training

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the crew on camera techniques for the

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mission.

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Anna: McCarthy's signature technique is image

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stacking, combining multiple exposures to

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dramatically reduce noise and reveal subtle

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color variations that a single image simply

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cannot capture. Those color differences

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across the Moon's surface indicate different

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mineral compositions. Run enough stacked

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images through processing, and you get rich

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maps of the lunar geology in browns,

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blues and reds, Colors that are really there,

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but too subtle for the human eye to detect

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unaided.

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Avery: The key advantage Wiseman had over any ground

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based astrophotographer, including McCarthy

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himself, was the absence of Earth's

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atmosphere. No distortion, no light

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pollution, no interference. The raw data

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quality from lunar orbit was in a completely

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different league.

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Anna: The result is a set of images showing the far

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side of the moon in greater detail and color

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fidelity than has ever been achieved before.

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NASA has now released the full archive from

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the Artemis 2 mission. Over 12,000

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photographs taken by the crew during their 10

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day journey. McCarthy's processed versions of

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Wiseman's lunar far side shots stand out

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as some of the most stunning in the entire

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collection.

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Avery: McCarthy described his approach beautifully.

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He said, I don't want to show you something

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the way your eyes see it. I want to show you

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something as if you had superhuman vision.

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The camera becomes cyborg eyes for our

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vision. And looking at these images, that's

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exactly what it feels like.

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Anna: For, uh, our listeners interested in

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exploring the full Artemis 2 archive, NASA

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has made all 12,217

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photographs publicly available. The link is

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in today's show notes.

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Avery: And we close today with something that has

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been building across the news landscape for

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the past few weeks. A story about rocks

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falling from the sky and the growing

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scientific alarm about why there seem to be

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so many more of them than usual.

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Anna: The American Meteor Society, the ams,

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has published a detailed analysis of fireball

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activity in the first quarter of 2026.

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And their conclusion is direct. The data

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warrants serious investigation.

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Avery: Now let's be precise about what's being

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observed because the statistics here are sub

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subtle but striking. The total number of

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fireball events in Q1 2026 around

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2046 is only marginally

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above comparable periods in previous years.

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The anomaly is not in the raw count, it's in

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the size and intensity of the events.

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Anna: Bike Henke, operations manager at the

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ams, put it this after years of

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stable baseline activity, something appears

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to have shifted. The signal is consistent

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across multiple metrics. The events getting

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flagged are the largest, loudest and most

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widely witnessed fireballs. Not the small

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routine ones, those look normal. The big

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ones are happening far more frequently than

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expected.

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Avery: March 2026 was particularly dramatic.

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Over 40 major fireball events were recorded

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that month alone. The biggest single event

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was on March 8th. A slow long duration

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fireball over France, Germany, Switzerland,

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Belgium and the Netherlands that generated

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3,229 witness reports.

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3,229 people

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reporting the same fireball.

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Anna: Then there was the March 9th fireball seen by

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282 people along the eastern US

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seaboard. A seven ton asteroid fragment that

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exploded over Ohio with the Force of a

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sonic boom heard across multiple states.

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And on March 21, a fragment crashed through

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the roof of a home in north Houston,

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ricocheted around a bedroom and landed

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intact. Three confirmed meteorite recoveries

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in under two weeks, when the global average

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is roughly 10 per year.

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Avery: The sonic boom data's particularly telling.

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In the first quarter of 2026, 30 out

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of 38 fireball events with 50 or more witness

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reports produced confirmed sonic booms.

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That's 79%. Sonic booms

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mean large, fast, dense objects penetrating

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deep into the atmosphere. That's not camera

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bias or reporting enthusiasm. That's physics.

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Anna: Researchers have identified two suspicious

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clust in the trajectory data. The most

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prominent is from the anthelion sporadic

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source, a region of space directly opposite

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the sun where objects approaching Earth from

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behind are penetrating the inner solar

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system. Activity from this specific slice of

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sky has roughly doubled in 2026.

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Nearly 10 major events traced back to a

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single 1,000 square degree patch.

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Avery: There's also an unusual cluster of meteors

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arriving on steeply inclined, almost vertical

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orbits, which is characteristic of objects

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traveling on trajector. Quite different from

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the flat plane of the solar system. Both

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clusters are being studied closely.

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Anna: What doesn't explain this? The ams, um, has

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been thorough in ruling out the easy answers.

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It's not a new meteor shower. Anthelion

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objects don't form those. It's not seasonal

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variation. There is a known fireball season

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around the March equinox, but the spike in

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2026 is roughly double what that seasonal

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effect would predict. It's not reporting bias

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from smartphones and doorbell cameras. Those

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would boost numbers across the board. Not

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specifically at the large fireball end.

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Avery: And it's not extraterrestrial. The recovered

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fragments from Ohio and Germany have been

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identified as achondritic HED

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meteorites, one of the most common categories

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of space rock. Ordinary meteors, Just

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more of them than there should be.

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Anna: The AMS is calling for expanded automated all

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sky camera networks that can independently

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calculate a, uh, rock's mass, velocity and

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orbit the moment it strikes the atmosphere.

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Better cross referencing with radar and

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infrasound data and systematic analysis

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of recovered fragments to build a more

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complete picture of where these objects are

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coming from.

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Avery: One thing worth mentioning for our Southern

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Hemisphere listeners, including many of you

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in Australia and New Zealand. The antelion

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source sits opposite the sun, which means

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it's observable from both hemispheres

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depending on time of year. The phenomenon is

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global, not just the Northern Hemisphere

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event. Keep your eyes on the sky.

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Anna: That is a remarkable episode to land so close

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to our hundredth unexplained fireballs, the

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biggest rocket fire in history, a cargo

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mission to the space station, molecular

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soccer balls inside a dying star, the moon as

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you've never seen it, and the government

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finally opening its UFO filing cabinet.

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Avery: Episode 100 is gonna have a lot to live up

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to. Thank you for joining us today on

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00:18:12.210 --> 00:18:14.570
Astronomy Daily. If you enjoyed today's show,

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00:18:14.570 --> 00:18:16.730
please subscribe, leave a review, and share

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00:18:16.730 --> 00:18:19.220
it with a fellow space enthusiast. You can

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00:18:19.220 --> 00:18:21.180
find us on all major platforms through

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00:18:21.180 --> 00:18:23.580
astronomydaily.IO or search

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00:18:23.580 --> 00:18:25.580
astronomy Daily. Wherever you get your

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00:18:25.580 --> 00:18:26.300
podcasts.

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00:18:26.540 --> 00:18:28.860
Anna: Until next time, keep your eyes on the sky.

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Avery: And importantly, your mind's open to what's

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out there.

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Anna: Weir Skies, everyone.

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The stories.

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Were told.