JWST reads alien geology, Io is FAR more powerful than we thought, and a meteor shower peaks TONIGHT

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Anna: Hello, and welcome to Astronomy Daily,

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your daily guide to the universe and

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everything in it. I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm avery. It's Tuesday the 6th of

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May, 2026, and we are coming at you

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with six incredible stories today from a

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robotic telescope that just read the geology

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of a world 50 light years away to a

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meteor shower. You can watch live online

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right now.

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Anna: That's right, and we have a stunning mix of

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planetary science, exoplanet discovery,

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cosmological simulation, and some very

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welcome skywatching news for our Southern

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Hemisphere listeners.

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Avery: Let's get straight into it. Story one is

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genuinely historic.

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Anna: For years, when astronomers pointed the James

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Webb Space Telescope at a distant rocky

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world, they were really studying its

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atmosphere, the thin shell of gas around

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a planet. Today, uh, we're talking about

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something different, something that has never

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been done before.

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Avery: That's right. Astronomers have now used

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JWST to directly analyze the

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actual surface of a planet beyond our solar

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system. Not its atmosphere, its surface,

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the rock itself. And what they found is

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remarkable.

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Anna: The planet in question is called LHS

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3844B. It's, uh, a so

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called super earth, about 30% larger

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than our own planet. And it sits roughly

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48 and a half light years away,

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orbiting a small, cool red dwarf star.

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Avery: Now, this planet is an extreme situation.

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It orbits its star so closely that it

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completes a full year in just 11 hours.

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11 hours, Anna. Um, that's your entire

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working day and then some.

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Anna: And because of that extreme proximity,

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it's tidally locked, meaning one face

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permanently points toward the star baking in

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intense heat, while the other side sits in

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permanent darkness. The dayside reaches

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temperatures of around

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725 degrees

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Celsius that is hot enough to melt lead.

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With room to spare, the research team

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Avery: led by Laura Kreidberg at the Max Planck

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Institute for Astronomy In Germany used

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JWST's mid infrared instrument n

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known as MIRI, to measure the thermal

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emission radiating directly from the planet's

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blazing hot dayside. They observed three

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secondary eclipses, moments when the planet

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slipped behind its star, and used those

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measurements to build a picture of what the

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surface is made of.

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Anna: And the result? Dr. Kreidberg described it

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directly. We see a, uh, dark, hot,

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barren rock devoid of any atmosphere.

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The surface appears to be composed of dark,

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low silica material particles, probably

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basalt or other olivine rich rock.

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Think volcanic plains like those you'd find

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on the Moon or on Mercury.

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Avery: Importantly, the team was able to rule out a

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number of things. There's no Earth like

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silica rich crust the kind that forms through

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water driven geological processes and plate

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tectonics. There's no evidence of accumulated

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volcanic gases, no carbon dioxide, no

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sulfur dioxide. This is a geologically

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quiet, airless, ancient world.

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Anna: And while that might sound a bit bleak, the

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significance here is huge. The published

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paper in Nature Astronomy calls this the

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next step in unveiling the nature of distant

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planets. We're no longer just detecting

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exoplanets or guessing at their atmospheres.

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We're starting to read their geology.

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Avery: Think about what that means for the future.

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With more observations like this, we'll be

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able to build up a geological census of rocky

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worlds across the galaxy. That knowledge

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feeds directly into our understanding of

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which worlds might be capable of supporting

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life, and which are simply very impressive.

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Very hot pieces of rock.

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Anna: A dark, hot, barren rock, but

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a dark, hot, barren rock that just made

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scientific history.

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Avery: Sticking with the theme of worlds that are

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frankly hostile to life, let's talk

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Anna: about IO, Jupiter's

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extraordinary moon, the most

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volcanically active body in the entire

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solar system. A world being continuously

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kneaded by the gravitational tug of war

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between Jupiter and its larger sibling moons,

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ganymede and Europa.IO

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Avery: has over 400 volcanic features called

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paterae, essentially giant

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depressions filled with lava lakes.

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Scientists have been measuring the heat

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output of these features for decades, and a

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new study released just yesterday suggests

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we've been getting it dramatically wrong.

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Anna: The paper, now available as a preprint on

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arXiv, uses data from Juno's infrared

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instrument, the Gyram, to look at IO's

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Paterae in a completely new way. And it

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turns out previous measurements were only

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seeing part of the picture for a long time.

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Avery: Scientists measured IO's volcanic heat output

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using what's called the M band, um, of

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infrared. And the M M band is excellent at

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picking up the really hot bright spots at the

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active edges of lava lakes, where fresh

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uncooled magma is churning. What it

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misses is the vast, cooler, older crust

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that forms across the rest of the lava lake

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surface.

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Anna: And that crust, it turns out, is enormous.

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It's much, much more massive than those hot

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peripheral rings. So while it's cooler in

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temperature, its sheer scale means it

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contributes a staggering amount of total

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thermal output. Bateem used Gyram's

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updated data, which can detect those lower

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temperatures, to build a

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Avery: revised picture for one well studied

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patera alone, known simply as P63.

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The old estimate was around 7 gigawatts of

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thermal output. Some models put it at

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20. The new gyrom data 80

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gigawatts from a single lava lake.

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Anna: To put that in perspective, the entire output

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of the UK's electricity grid is around 40

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gigawatts. One volcanic depression on IO

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is putting

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Avery: out double that, and that's just one of

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the 400 patere. The study only looked at

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32 of them. The implications for IO's

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total heat budget are significant. We may

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have been underestimating this moon's thermal

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fury by an order of magnitude.

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Anna: And the study also found something intriguing

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about the crust itself. Using thermal

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cooling models, the team estimated that a

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crust at 200 Kelvin would be roughly

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13 years old, meaning these lakes

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resurface on timescales of about a decade.

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So the geology of IO is incredibly

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dynamic, constantly renewing itself.

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Avery: IO never stops surprising us. And now, thanks

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to Juno, we're starting to truly understand

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just how powerful this extraordinary little

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moon is.

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Anna: Now we're going to zoom out, way,

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way out, from one single moon to,

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well, the entire universe.

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Avery: An international team of astrophysicists led

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by researchers at Durham University in the UK

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and Leiden University in the Netherlands, has

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just released one of the largest cosmological

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data sets ever assembled. We're talking

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about two and a half petabytes of data.

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Anna: Two and a half petabytes. That is equivalent

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to roughly half a million high definition

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movies, all now freely available to

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researchers anywhere in the world.

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Avery: This is the Flamingo project, a, uh, suite of

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large scale computer simulations that model

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how matter has evolved across the universe

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right from the Big Bang through to the

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present day. The simulations were run on the

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Cosma 8 supercomputer at Durham, which is

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part of the DRAC National High Performance

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Computing Facility in the UK.

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Anna: And what makes Flamingo special is its scope.

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Many detailed simulations focus on small

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regions of space. You get great detail on

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individual galaxy formation, but you can't

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see the big picture. Other simulations

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capture vast cosmic volumes, but lose

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resolution at the small scale. Flamindo

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does both.

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Avery: Its simulations stretch across billions of

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light years, allowing researchers to study

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rare massive structures like galaxy clusters,

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while still capturing the physics of

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individual galaxy formation. The

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cosmic web, that vast network of filaments

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and nodes along which galaxies are

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distributed, is reproduced across these

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volumes in extraordinary detail.

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Anna: The data includes 22 full

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hydrodynamical simulations. Galaxy

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and Halo catalogs, all sky maps and

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particle data. Because the dataset is so

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vast, the Flamingo team also built a

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custom web based system so researchers can

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access just the data they need without having

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to download the entire archive.

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Avery: Matouch Aler of Leiden University summed up

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the ambition well, open access to datasets of

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this Scale can significantly accelerate

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scientific progress. Since Flamingo

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simulations were first introduced in 2023,

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they've already been used in dozens of

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studies. Now the full dataset is public, the

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scientific community can do so much more.

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Anna: This is open science at its most ambitious.

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Virtual universes freely given to the world.

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Avery: And hopefully the world will receive it in

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the spirit it is given.

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Anna: Now, before we move on to our next story, I'd

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like to quickly remind you of our sponsor,

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sure you use our special link, which you'll

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find in the show.

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Avery: Notes from the very large to the very

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precise.

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Our next story is about a clever new

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technique that's unlocking a whole new

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population of planets that we've been

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struggling to find.

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Anna: This one has a lovely Australian connection,

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which we always enjoy. The study was led by

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Margo Thornton, a doctoral candidate at

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unsw, the University of New South

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Wales in Sydney. And it tackles a real

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challenge in exoplanet science.

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Avery: So here's the problem. NASA's TESS satellite

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finds planets by detecting tiny dips in

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starlight as a planet passes in front of its

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star. It's brilliant and it's found hundreds

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of confirmed planets. But there's a class of

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systems it really struggles. Binary

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stars.

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Anna: Binary stars are pairs of stars in orbit

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around each other, and they're very common. A

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huge fraction of stars in our galaxy have a

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companion. The complication is that when you

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have two stars doing their own thing, it

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becomes very hard to tease out the much

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smaller signal of a planet passing in front

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of one of them.

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Avery: But m this new approach uses a different

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approach entirely. Instead of looking for the

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planet's shadow, it looks for the planet's

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gravitational fingerprint. As a planet orbits

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in a binary system, its gravity gently

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tugs on the stars and that changes the

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precise timing of when the two stars eclipse

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each other.

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Anna: It's a beautiful idea. You're not watching

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the planet at all, you're watching the stars

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dance and noticing when something is slightly

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out of step.

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Avery: And it works. The team applied this eclipse

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timing technique to test data and uncovered

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more than 25 new exoplanet candidates

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orbiting in binary star systems.

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Systems where traditional transit detection

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methods simply

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Anna: couldn't find them before this study,

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only 18 such circumbinary

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planets had ever been confirmed across all

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all telescopes combined. Sixteen from

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NASA's retired Kepler mission, plus two

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found by TESS itself. This new method

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has the potential to dramatically expand that

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number.

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Avery: It's a reminder that the way we look for

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things matters as much as what we're looking

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for. Great work from the UNSW team

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showing that Australia is very much at the

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frontier of exoplanet discovery.

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Anna: Our penultimate story takes us to the outer

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solar system, to those mysterious

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underexplored giants, Uranus and Neptune.

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Avery: We often call them the ice giants, but that's

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a bit of a misnomer. Their interiors are not

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cold at all. They're subjected to

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temperatures in thousands of degrees and

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pressures millions of times greater than

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anything at Earth's sea level. It's an

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environment we simply cannot recreate in a

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lab.

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Anna: And because of that, the physics of what

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happens to materials under those conditions

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has long been the subject of theoretical

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modeling. Now, a new paper published in

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Nature Communications from researchers at the

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Carnegie Institution has added a striking

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new entry to that catalog.

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Avery: They've identified a, uh, previously

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unrecognized state of matter that may exist

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in these extreme environments. A phase they

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call quasi one dimensional

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superionic. It's a mouthful, so

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let's break that down.

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Anna: Superionic materials are already

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fascinating. In a normal solid, both the

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ions and electrons are locked in place. In

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a normal liquid, both flow freely. A

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superionic state is something in between.

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The ion lattice is solid, but some

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particles flow through it like a liquid. We

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actually believe a superionic phase exists

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deep inside Uranus and Neptune already.

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But this new phase is different.

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Avery: The quasi one dimensional part refers to the

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fact that in this newly identified phase, the

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flowing particles don't move freely in all

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directions. They're constrained to flow along

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narrow one dimensional channels within the

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material structure. It's like water moving

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through a, uh, network of pipes rather than

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flooding a room.

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Anna: This is significant because the behavior of

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materials in ice giant interiors

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governs everything from their magnetic field

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generation to their heat flow, to their

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atmospheric dynamics. If we've been missing

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an entire phase of matter that exists in

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these conditions, our models of how Uranus

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and Neptune actually work may need revision.

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Avery: With new missions to the ice giants being

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seriously discussed by both NASA and ESA for

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the coming decades, this kind of foundational

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physics work is exactly what's needed to

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ensure we know what questions to ask when we

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get there.

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Anna: A new state of matter hidden inside two

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worlds just a few billion kilometers away.

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Sometimes the Most exotic physics doesn't

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require going to another galaxy, just the

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outer edge of our own solar system.

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Avery: M and finally, something you can do something

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about tonight, or more precisely in the pre

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dawn hours of tomorrow morning.

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Anna: The Eta Aquarian meteor shower is at its

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peak right now. And for our Southern

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Hemisphere listeners, particularly our

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Australian and New Zealand friends, this is

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one of the best meteor events of the year.

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Avery: The Eta Aquariids are the debris of Halley's

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Comet, the legendary comet that last swept

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through the inner solar system in 1986

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and won't return until 2061.

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Every year in early May, Earth plows through

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the trail of dust and rock particles Halley

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has left behind across its 76 year

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orbit. And those particles burn up in our

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upper atmosphere as spectacular shooting

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stars.

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Anna: What makes the Eta Aquaria special for the

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Southern Hemisphere is geometry. The radiant,

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the point in the sky the meteors appear to

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stream from in. The constellation Aquarius

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rises high in the sky before dawn. From

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Australia and New Zealand, it reaches a

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really favorable altitude, meaning you can

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expect to see up to 50 meteors per hour

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under ideal conditions.

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Avery: There is a caveat. This year, a waning

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gibbous moon is hanging around in the sky and

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it will wash out some of the fainter meteors.

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But the brighter ones, the proper fireballs,

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should punch through just fine. Your best

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window is in the hours before dawn, away from

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the Moon, lying back on a blanket and looking

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up.

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Anna: And if clouds are in the way or you're deep

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in the city, or you simply can't face a

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4am alarm, there's good news. There are free

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live streams of the shower available online.

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One particularly impressive option comes from

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the Alma Observatory in Chile's Atacama

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Desert, one of the driest, clearest places

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on Earth and one of the premier sites in

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world astronomy. You'll find links in our

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show notes.

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Avery: So whether you're watching from a dark

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paddock under the Milky Way or from your

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lounge with a coffee at sunrise, you can join

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millions of people tonight in witnessing the

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cosmic legacy of Halley's Comet.

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Anna: Shooting stars, every single

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one. A tiny piece of one of the most

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famous objects in the history of

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human sky watching. That never

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gets old.

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Avery: And that's a wrap.

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On today's Astronomy Daily, we've read the

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geology of an alien world. We've discovered

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IO is even more powerful than we thought.

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We've opened two and a half petabytes, uh, of

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virtual universe to the world. We've found

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new planets around binary stars. We've

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discovered new states of matter inside Ice

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Giants. And we've told you exactly where to

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watch a meteor shower tonight.

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Anna: Not a bad day's work for a Tuesday. If you

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enjoyed today's show, please subscribe, leave

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00:17:27.290 --> 00:17:29.610
a review, and share us with a friend who

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loves space as much as we do. You can

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find us at astronomydaily.IO and on

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00:17:35.570 --> 00:17:37.850
socials. AstroDailyPod.

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Avery: We're part of the bytes.com podcast

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network. Until tomorrow. Keep looking up.

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Anna: This is Anna and Avery. Clear

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skies, everyone.

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Avery: Astronomy Day.

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The stories we told.