Feb. 23, 2026

NASA Stands Down: Artemis 2 Crew Released as Rocket Heads Back to the Hangar

NASA Stands Down: Artemis 2 Crew Released as Rocket Heads Back to the Hangar
Season 5
🚀 Astronomy Daily — Season 5 | Monday, February 23, 2026 NASA rolls back the Artemis 2 moon rocket, Europa's ocean gets a life-friendly upgrade, SpaceX breaks its own booster reuse record, Rocket Lab launches a hypersonic mission TODAY, Mars dust storms reveal how the Red Planet lost its water, and SIX planets are visible in tonight's sky. IN THIS EPISODE: 🌕 Artemis 2 rollback — the crew is released from quarantine and the moon launch is pushed to April 🌊 Europa's hidden ocean may be receiving nutrients from the surface — big news for the search for life 🛸 SpaceX flies two Falcon 9s in one day and sets a new booster reuse record 🔥 Rocket Lab's HASTE hypersonic test rocket launches TODAY from Wallops, Virginia 🌪️ A Mars dust storm was moving water at unexpectedly high rates — new clues to the Red Planet's past 🌟 Six-planet parade peaks this week + the crescent Moon passes through the Pleiades tonight FOLLOW ASTRONOMY DAILY: 🌐 astronomydaily.io 📱 @AstroDailyPod on all platforms 🎙️ Part of the Bitesz.com Podcast Network

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This episode includes AI-generated content.
WEBVTT

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Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your daily guide to what's happening

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in the cosmos. I'm Anna and I'm Avery.

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It is Monday, February twenty third, twenty twenty six, and

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we have got a jam packed show for you today,

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We really do.

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We're kicking off with some big Artemis news, and I

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mean big. The Moon rocket is on the move again,

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but not in the direction anyone was hoping for.

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We also have a fascinating story about Jupiter's moon Europa,

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a record breaking SpaceX milestone, a launch happening literally today,

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some surprising new science from Mars, and the spectacular skywatching

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event you won't want to miss tonight.

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All that coming right up, Let's get into it.

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We start today with the story that has dominated space

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news over the weekend. NASA's Artemis two moon rocket, the

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one that was sitting on the launch pad at Kennedy

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Space Center ready to send four astronauts around the Moon,

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has been ordered back to the garage.

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That's right. Engineers discovered a problem with helium flown to

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the rocket's upper stage, specifically the interim cryogenic propulsion stage,

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and the issue simply can't be fixed out on the pad.

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The rocket needs to roll back into the vehicle assembly building,

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which is about a four mile journey, and that's expected

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to happen as early as tomorrow, February twenty fourth, weather permitting.

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So what does this mean for the mission timeline? Last

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week we were talking about March six as the launch date.

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March sixth is now officially off the table. The good news,

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if there is good news here, is that NASA says

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the quick decision to begin rollback preparations potentially preserves an

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April launch window, but that's dependent on what they find

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when they get the rocket back inside and how quickly

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the repair work goes.

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And what about the crew read Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Coke,

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and Jeremy Hansen. They had actually entered pre flight quarantine

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at around five in the afternoon on Friday. There were

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days away from heading to Kennedy Space Center.

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Yes, they were released from quarantine on the evening of Saturday,

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February twenty first, and they're all back in Houston now.

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NASA confirmed they'll re enter quarantine approximately two weeks before

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the next targeted launch date. Whenever that's confirmed. NASA has

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also said they'll hold a media event in the coming

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days to give a fuller update on the rollback and

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revised plans.

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It's frustrating news for everyone following the Artemis program, but

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the right call. You don't want helium flow issues on

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a rocket that's about to send four people around the Moon.

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Absolutely not. We'll keep you updated as this develops. April,

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it seems, is the new target.

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From mission delays to genuinely exciting science. New research published

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today is giving a major boost to the idea that

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Jupiter's moon, Europa, could be a habitable world. Scientists have

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found evidence that salty, nutrient rich ice on Europa's surface

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can actually sink down through the Moon's iceshell to reach

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the subsurface ocean below.

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And that's a big deal because one of the long

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standing questions about Europa's habitability has been whether the ocean

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is a closed, isolated system, cut off from any energy

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or chemistry, or whether it gets fed with fresh material

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from outside. This suggests it's the latter.

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Walk us through how it works.

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Europa's surface is bombarded by radiation from Jupiter, which creates oxidants,

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essentially oxygen containing compounds in the ice. The new research

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shows that over time, this irradiated surface ice can become

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dense enough and heavy enough that it literally breaks free

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and sinks downward through the icy shell, transporting those oxidants, salts,

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and potentially life friendly nutrients all the way down to

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the ocean.

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Which is essentially the same kind of chemical delivery system

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that helps sustain life in some of Earth's deep ocean environments.

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Exactly that comparison. It's not proof of life, let's be

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clear about that, but it removes one of the major

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objections to Europa as a candidate for life. The ocean

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isn't just a dark, static body of water. It may

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be actively receiving fresh chemistry from above.

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And of course, NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft is currently on

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its way to Jupiter, due to arrive in twenty thirty.

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Findings like this are going to shape exactly what the

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science team is looking for when he gets there.

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Great timing on that research. Europa remains one of the

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most tantalizing places in the entire Solar System.

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Staying in the realm of big milestones, SpaceX had quite

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a Saturday. The company launched not one, but two Falcon

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nine rockets in a single day, one from California and

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one from Florida, both carrying batches of Starling satellites.

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But the really headline grabbing moment was the second launch.

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The Falcon nine booster that flew from Cape Canaveral set

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a new reuse record for the company. This is a

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that has flown more times than any other Falcon nine

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booster in history.

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It's remarkable when you stop to think about it. In

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the early days of spaceflight, rockets were essentially disposable. You

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launched them once and they've burned up or crashed into

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the ocean. SpaceX has fundamentally changed that equation.

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And every time they set a new record like this,

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it drives down the cost of access to space a

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little bit more. The economics of the Starlink constellation, and

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by extension, a lot of SpaceX's broader ambitions, depend on

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being able to fly the same hardware over and over

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again reliably.

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Any word on how many times this particular booster has flown.

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The specific flight count is still being confirmed, but it's

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enough to break the previous record, and that's the significant part.

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We'll have the exact number in our show notes. It's

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another quiet but important step forward for reusable spaceflight.

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And speaking of launches. One is happening today, right now,

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in fact, or very soon after this episode drops. Rocket

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Lab is launching its HASE rocket from Wallop's flight facility

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in Virginia at three pm Eastern Time this afternoon.

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ASTE stands for Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron and it's

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exactly what it sounds like, a modified version of rocket

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Labs Electron rocket adapted to carry hypersonic test payloads to

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suborbital trajectories at very high speeds.

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This mission is for the Defense Innovation Unit, that's a

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US government agency focused on accelerating the adoption of commercial

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technology for national security. So this is firmly in the

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dual U space commercial rocket technology meeting defense research.

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Hypersonic vehicles, anything traveling at mock five or above are

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one of the hottest areas in both defense and commercial

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aerospace right now. Being able to test technologies at those

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speeds in a relatively affordable, responsive way is exactly what

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HASTE is designed to offer.

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And it's a good reminder that rocket Lab is not

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just the cute little satellite launcher it started out. As

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they're expanding into quite different mission profiles now.

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Very much so we'll be watching the launch this afternoon.

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If you want to follow along, check our social channels

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for updates.

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Ow to Mars and to a story that has real

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implications for how we understand the long term faith of

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the Red planet. New research published this week has found

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that an intense regional dust storm on Mars transported unusually

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high amounts of water vapor through the planet's atmosphere.

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Water on Mars is always a fascinating topic because we

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know Mars once had liquid water, rivers, lakes, possibly even oceans,

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and the big question is where did it all go?

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The leading answer is that Mars lost its water over

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billions of years, partly to space, and dust storms appear

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to be a key mechanism in that process.

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So how does a dust storm move water?

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Great question. When a dust storm kicks up on Mars,

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it heats the atmosphere and lifts dust particles high into

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the sky. Water, ice, and water vapor get caught up

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in this turbulence and lofted to much higher altitudes than

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they'd normally reach. Up high, the water is more exposed

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to ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, which breaks the water

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molecules apart. The hydrogen escapes to space, and the water

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is permanently lost from the planet.

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So every major dust storm is essentially Mars losing a

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little more of its water budget.

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Over geological time scales. Yes, what makes this study significant

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is the quantity involved. The researchers found the storm was

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transporting water at rates much higher than previous models had predicted.

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It suggests we may have been underestimating the role that

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regional dust storms play in Mars's ongoing water loss as

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distinct from the planet wide global storms, and.

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This matters a lot for our thinking about early Mars

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when it was warmer and wetter. Understanding how water was

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lost helps us understand how long Mars might have been

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habitable exactly.

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Every new piece of data about Mars's water history gets

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us closer to understanding whether it had the conditions for

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life and for how long. Really compelling research, and.

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We finished today with something you can literally go outside

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and enjoy. Tonight, Anna tell us about the skies.

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Oh, where to begin? So we are right in the

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peak of an extended six planet parade that's been running

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through late February. Tonight, after sunset, if you look toward

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the western sky, you'll be able to spot Venus low

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on the horizon, bright and unmistakable. Not far from it,

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Mercury and Saturn are also visible, forming a close trio

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in the west, and for those.

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With binoculars or a telescope, Neptune is lurking very close

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to Saturn as well, so it's quite the western horizon spectacle.

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Then as you scan across to the east, Jupiter is

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high and dominant, hard to miss, and Uranus is up

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in the south near the Pleiades star cluster, again needing binoculars,

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but very findable tonight.

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And the moon plays a special role tonight, doesn't it.

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It really does. The waxing crescent Moon is passing right

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through the northern edge of the Pleiades tonight. That's the

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beautiful little star cluster also known as the Seven Sisters.

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Depending on your location, particularly if you're in the northern

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US or Canada, the moon may actually occult that means

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pass in front of several of the Pleiades' stars, causing

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them to disappear and reappear one by one. That window

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runs from roughly ten pm to twelve fifteen am Eastern time.

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That sounds absolutely magical, and even if you miss the occultation,

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the site of the crescent moon nestled among those stars

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is just beautiful.

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It really is. Six planets and a moon in the pleats.

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February is delivering for skywatchers. Get outside tonight if you can, and.

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That is your Astronomy Daily for Monday, February twenty third,

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twenty twenty six. What a show. Artemis setbacks Europa Ocean Science,

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SpaceX records, a live launch, Mars water mystery, and six

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planets waiting for you outside.

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We'll have all of today's stories, links and resources in

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the show notes and on the blog at Astronomy Daily

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dot io. Don't forget to follow us at astro Daily

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Pod across all your social platforms.

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If you enjoy today's episode, please subscribe, leave us a

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review it genuinely helps the show, and tell a fellow

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space fan about us.

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Until tomorrow, keep looking up.

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The universe is waiting clear skies everyone, especially tonightday.

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Starts. The store is the soul, The story is the soul.

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M