Nuclear Satellite Inspections, New Horizons Awakens, and a Cosmic Catalog of Galaxy Clusters

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Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy

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Daily. I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm avery. It's Thursday, July

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9, 2026, and we've got a proper

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mixed bag for you today.

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Anna: We've got nuclear physics hibernating

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spacecraft, a map of thousands of

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galaxy clusters, a moon delivery deal,

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a rocket breaking its own record, and

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we'll finish up looking at the evening sky.

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Avery: Six stories, 16 minutes. Let's get into

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it, Avery.

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Anna: This first one sounds like the plot of a

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thriller novel, but it's a real peer reviewed

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paper that came out this week.

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Avery: It really does. So here's the setup.

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The 1967 Outer Space Treaty

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bans nuclear weapons in orbit.

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118 countries have signed it, including the

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US and Russia. Problem is, there's never been

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an actual way to check whether a satellite is

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quietly breaking that rule.

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Anna: Which matters a lot more than it might have a

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few years ago, because back in February

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2022, Russia launched a

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satellite called Kosmos

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2553 into a very

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strange, very high radiation orbit.

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Weeks later, they invaded Ukraine.

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Avery: Russia says it's just a sensing and

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surveillance satellite. U.S. officials have

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suspected for a while that it might actually

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be testing components for a nuclear anti

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satellite weapon.

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Anna: So how do you check without just taking

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someone's word for it?

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Avery: That's exactly the problem MIT physicist

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Arag denagulian set out to solve, publishing

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his solution in nature on July 8th.

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His idea is a shoebox sized inspector

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satellite, a nine unit cubesat that

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flies up close to a suspect satellite.

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Anna: And it's not looking for the bomb directly,

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is it? It's looking for a signature,

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right?

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Avery: Neutrons. Earth's Van Allen radiation

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belts are full of high energy protons.

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And if there's a nuclear device up there,

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those protons interacting with it produce a

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very specific neutron signal. Dana

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Gulian's modeling shows a single CubeSat

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could confirm a nuclear warhead from about

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4km away in roughly a week of

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watching a constellation of 10 of them would

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do it much faster.

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Anna: Why does this even matter? Beyond the treaty

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paperwork, what actually happens if someone

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detonates a nuclear weapon in orbit?

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Avery: This has actually been tried, believe it or

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not. Back in 1962, the US ran

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a test called Starfish Prime, a, ah,

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1.4 megaton warhead detonated

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in orbit. It pumped so many high energy

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electrons into the Van Allen radiation belts

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that it knocked out several satellites of

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that era just, just from the radiation

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environment it created.

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Anna: So a modern version of that wouldn't just

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take out one target, it could wipe out huge

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swaths of orbit Reconnaissance

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satellites, communications, gps,

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starlink, all of it

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indiscriminately.

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Avery: Yes, which is exactly why Denaghulian is

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up front that this isn't a uh, finished,

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ready to launch system yet. His quote was

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quote, this isn't a completely proven system.

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The purpose of the paper is to show the

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scientific community that it's scientifically

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possible to do this.

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Anna: I really like his line about why physics

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based verification matters, especially

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between countries that don't trust each other

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very much.

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Avery: You can fake intelligence, but you can't fake

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physics. And that's really the heart of it. A

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shoebox satellite that just measures

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neutrons, doesn't care about geopolitics,

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it just tells you what's actually there.

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Anna: A genuinely elegant idea for a

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genuinely unsettling problem.

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Avery: From the very human problem of nuclear

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weapons to a much older, much

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quieter kind of drama.

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NASA's New Horizons spacecraft just woke up.

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Anna: It's been asleep for a while, hasn't it?

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Avery: Its longest hyper mission yet.

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321 days starting back on

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August 7th last year. NASA confirmed on

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July 7th that it's safely woken up in good

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health.

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Anna: And just to put the distance in perspective,

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where actually is New Horizons right now?

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Avery: 5.9 billion miles from Earth.

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9.5 billion kilometers. That's so

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far out that a radio signal traveling at the

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literal speed of light takes 8 hours and

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52 minutes just to get here one way.

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Anna: So mission control says good morning and

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doesn't hear back until almost lunchtime.

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Avery: Pretty much. Mission operations manager Alice

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Bowman said every single weekly status

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beacon through the entire hibernation came

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back green. Everything nominal the whole

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time.

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Anna: What's actually asleep during hibernation

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though? Because it wasn't doing nothing out

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there,

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Avery: Most systems powered down to save energy. But

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the science instruments kept working the

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entire time. The solar wind around

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Pluto or swap. The Pluto

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Energetic Particle Spectrometer and

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and the Venetia Burney student dust counter.

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All quietly gathering ADA the whole way

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through.

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Anna: So now it's awake. What happens?

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Avery: First, health and safety data comes down

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first. Then the team starts retrieving nearly

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a year's worth of stored science data. In

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about three weeks, the onboard Alice

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ultraviolet spectrograph will start studying

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hydrogen gas out in the heliosphere while

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swap Pepsi and the dust counter keep

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measuring as engineers run instrument

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checkouts.

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Anna: This spacecraft's had quite a Life already.

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Avery: Launched January 26,

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2006. Fastest human made object

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ever launched at the time. Blue pass, Pluto

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in 2015 gave us our first close look at

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the Kuiper Belt object arrokoth in

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2019. And now it's pressing on toward

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the true edge of the solar system's

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heliosphere.

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Anna: And it's running on updated Autonomy software

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now too, to cope with the growing distance.

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Avery: Exactly accounting for the slow decline in

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power from its plutonium generator and the

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ever lengthening delay in talking to Earth,

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NASA HM expects it to keep returning good

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data well into the2030s.

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Anna: Nine hours for a single good morning

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message. That's the kind of patience this

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mission runs on.

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Alright, moving on. This next one's been

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making the rounds this week and it's a

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genuinely enormous data set. A new

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catalog of more than 7,000 galaxy

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clusters built from five years of

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Avery: data from the South Pole telescope,

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specifically its SPT3G

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camera out at the Amundsen uh, Scott South

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Pole Station in Antarctica. An Argonne

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National Laboratory led team put it together.

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Anna: How much is the sky are we actually talking

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about here?

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Avery: About 4%, 1600

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square degrees out. Out of that patch they

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identified 8892

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candidate clusters and confirmed

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7190 of them.

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Around 1800 of those date back more than

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7.8 billion years.

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Anna: How do you even spot a galaxy cluster? From a

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telescope in Antarctica pointed at the sky?

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Rather than say an optical telescope looking

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at galaxies directly, they used something

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called

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Avery: the Sunyaev Zel Dutch effect. Light from

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the cosmic microwave background. The

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afterglow of the Big Bang passes through a

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galaxy cluster on its way to us. And high

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energy particles in the cluster subtly

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distort that light. It leaves behind a faint

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shadow like signature that the telescope can

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pick up.

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Anna: And then they double checked those detections

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with something else.

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Avery: Optical confirmation came from the Dark

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Energy Survey. And here's the bit that

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surprised even the researchers. The data

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showed a marked increase in dust related

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emission from these cluster environments.

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Further back in time, that's a new window

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into how star formation activity evolved in

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and around these massive structures.

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Anna: Why do galaxy clusters matter so much to

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cosmologists?

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Avery: Specifically, they're the largest

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gravitationally bound structures in the

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universe. Hundreds to thousands of

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galaxies held together with hot gas and

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huge amounts of dark matter. Because of

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that scale, they're one of the best tools we

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have for testing ideas about dark matter and

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dark energy.

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Anna: Sebastian Bouquet from the SPT

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collaboration put it nicely, didn't he?

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Avery: He did. Quote with the

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SPT3G cluster sample we will

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probe the evolution of cosmic structure

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formation over the past 10 billion years.

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And this is really just a start. Future work

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will refine the cluster mass measurements and

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upcoming surveys from the Vera Rubin

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Observatory and Europe's Euclid Miss should

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confirm M even more distant clusters in the

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same patch of Sky.

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Anna: Nearly 9,000 candidate structures,

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each one holding thousands of galaxies.

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And that's only 4% of the sky.

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Avery: From cosmology back down to Earth. Well,

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down to the moon, really. And the business of

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getting there.

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Anna: This is the Ispace and Starship story.

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Avery: That's the one. Tokyo based lunar transport

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company ispace announced on July 8 that

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it's bought 500 kilograms, around

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1100 pounds of cargo space

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aboard a future starship mission targeting a

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moon landing no earlier than 2030.

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Anna: What did that actually cost them?

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Avery: Um, around US$50

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million, which works out to roughly

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$100,000 per kilogram to the lunar

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surface.

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Anna: That's ispace's new business, isn't it?

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Not just landing their own stuff, but

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carrying other people's payloads too.

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Avery: Exactly right. They're calling it their Lunar

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Access Integrator Service. Think of it as a

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shared ride bus to the moon. They'll

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aggregate smaller payloads from governments,

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research institutions and commercial

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customers, which is a different business, to

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their existing dedicated lander service,

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which they describe as a more of a taxi.

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Anna: And once Starship actually lands, how

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does the cargo get to where it needs to go?

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Avery: That's where ispace's own mobile cargo system

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comes in. A rover they're developing that can

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carry payloads a few kilometers from the

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landing site to their final destination.

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Anna: CEO Takeshi Hakamada had a good line about

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why this matters.

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Avery: For the bigger picture, Quote, high

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capacity, relatively low cost lunar

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transport, such as that provided by Starship,

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is essential for realizing a sustainable

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lunar economy that Ispace aims to create.

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Anna: Now, I have to ask, ispace's track record

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on actual landings hasn't been perfect.

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Avery: No, it hasn't. They flown two lunar lander

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missions on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets in

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2023 and 2025, and

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both reached lunar orbit successfully, but

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crashed during landing. They're now

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developing a, uh, new lander design called

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ultra, with three missions planned between

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2028 and 2030, including

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one under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload

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Service program.

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Anna: So rather than betting everything on getting

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their own landings right, they're also

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building a second business on somebody else's

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rocket.

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Avery: Precisely. And SpaceX seems keen on it too.

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Their VP of Commercial Sales, Stephanie

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Bednarig, said this gives, quote, a VALU

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pathway for smaller payloads to secure a ride

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to the moon today. Worth milling. This isn't

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exclusive either. NASA's using Starship for

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the crewed Artemis lander and the US company

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AstroLabe has separately booked starship

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cargo space as well.

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Anna: Two failed landings hasn't slowed them down

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one bit. If anything, they're doubling down

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on the moon, just letting someone else do the

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heavy lifting this time. Right, quick one

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now, but a satisfying one if you like your

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rockets to keep proving a point.

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Avery: SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 out of Cape

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Canaveral early this morning, July 9,

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5:25am M Eastern Time, carrying

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29 Starlink satellites.

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Anna: And the headline isn't really the satellites,

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Avery: no, it's the booster tail number.

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B1067 flew for the

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36th time today, breaking its own company

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record, which was 35 flights.

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Anna: For comparison, where does that sit against

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the all time record for any reusable orbital

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vehicle?

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Avery: Still behind NASA's space shuttle Discovery,

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which flew 39 times across its career.

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But B1067 is closing the gap,

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and it's doing it on a much faster turnaround

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cadence than Discovery ever could.

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Anna: What happened to the booster after

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separation?

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Avery: About eight and a half minutes after liftoff,

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it landed on the drone ship, a shortfall of

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gravitas out in the Atlantic. The upper

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stage carried on and deployed those 29

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Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit around

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63 and a half minutes after launch.

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Anna: This is launch number 80 for Falcon 9 this

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year already, isn't it?

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Avery: It is, and SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell

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has said they're targeting somewhere around

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140 to 145

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Falcon 9 launches this year. SpaceX now

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has more than 10,700 active

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Starlink satellites in orbit. About 80%

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of this year's flights have gone toward

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building that constellation out.

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Anna: 36 trips to space and back for the exact

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same piece of hardware. Reusable rockets have

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gone from a wild idea a decade ago to a

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company quietly breaking its own record on an

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ordinary Thursday morning.

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Avery: And to close things out, something that

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doesn't need a spacecraft, a, uh, peer

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reviewed paper or a rocket. Just clear

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skies and about 10 minutes after sunset.

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Anna: This is tonight's sky, isn't it, July 9th?

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Avery: That's right. Venus is putting on a lovely

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little show, sitting close to Regulus, the

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brightest star in the constellation Leo, low

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in the evening sky after sunset.

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Anna: And Venus is easy to find regardless because

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it's so bright.

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Avery: It's the brightest point of light in the sky

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after the Moon. So this pairing is genuinely

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a, uh, naked eye, no equipment needed kind of

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moment. Look west after sunset and you can't

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really miss it.

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Anna: So of course, Venus and Regulus aren't

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actually anywhere near each other in real

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terms, not remotely.

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Avery: Regulus is a proper star about 79

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light years away. Venus is right here in our

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own solar system. It's purely a trick of

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perspective. From where we're standing, they

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line up and look like neighbors.

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Anna: And there's more to come this month, too.

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Avery: There is. Venus goes on to meet a slender

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crescent moon on July 17. So if you

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enjoy this one, pencil that date in as well.

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Anna: And for our listeners south of the

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Avery: equator, Venus and Leo are still catchable

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low in the western sky after sunset. For

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Southern Hemisphere viewers, too. Well worth

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a look if you want an easy win with the

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family. No telescope required.

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Anna: Sometimes the best story of the day really is

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just look up right there. Tonight.

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Avery: That's today's edition of Astronomy Daily.

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Nuclear physics A Ah, spacecraft waking up

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nine hours from home, thousands of galaxy

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clusters, a moon delivery deal, a record

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breaking rocket, and a couple of bright dots

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in tonight's sky.

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Anna: If you enjoyed today's episode, please hit

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subscribe wherever you're listening and leave

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us a review. It genuinely helps new listeners

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find the show.

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Avery: Show and here's today's did you know for you,

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New Horizons radio signal takes almost

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nine hours to reach Earth, which means by the

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time mission control hears all systems green,

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the spacecraft has already been fine for the

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better part of a working day.

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Anna: I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm Avery. We'll see you next time on

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Astronomy Daily.

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Anna: Love.