Solar Flares, Bizarre Hot Jupiters, and NASA's Soccer Ball Moon Mission

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Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm

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Anna.

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Avery: And I'm avery. It's Thursday, July 2,

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2026, and we've got a properly mixed bag for

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you today.

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Anna: A solar flare that could light up the sky for

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the Fourth of July weekend. A planet that's

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breaking all the hot Jupiter rules, and

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NASA making a very cheeky promise

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involving a soccer ball and the moon.

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Avery: Plus, we're circling back on a story that

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quietly reshaped how we think about dark

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matter. Let's get into it.

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Anna: Quick update on the Swift rescue mission,

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because if you were with us yesterday, you'll

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remember this one just won't lift off.

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Avery: Right, Catalyst Link spacecraft

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riding the very last Pegasus XL rocket

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has now been scrubbed twice for weather.

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First, it slipped from June 30 to July 1.

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Then from July 1 to today, targeting

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5O9 Eastern.

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Anna: So as of when, we're recording, it's a real

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nail biter. Swift is still up there, still

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safe for now. And Link is still waiting for

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its shot at making history as the first

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commercial spacecraft to grapple an uncrewed

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government satellite.

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Avery: We'll keep tracking it and give you the real

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result the moment we have it. For now.

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Patience, Pegasus.

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Now for something the sun actually delivered

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on. On June 30, Sunspot

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Region AR479 let loose an x

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1.1 flare, the most powerful class there

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is.

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Anna: It triggered strong radio blackouts across

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the daylight side of Earth, and it launched a

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full halo coronal mass ejection heading our

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way.

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Avery: NOAA Space Weather Prediction center has

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issued a G2 moderate geomagnetic

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storm watch for July 3, meaning

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Aurora could be visible much further from the

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poles than usual.

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Anna: For our friends in the Northern Hemisphere,

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that could mean lights as far south as New

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York, Wisconsin and Washington State,

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just in time for July 4th fireworks.

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Avery: And for us down, um, under, it's the opposite

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season. Deep winter darkness, which is

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honestly prime Aurora australis viewing

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weather. If the geometry cooperates.

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Anna: Solar activity remains elevated too, with a

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slight chance of further X class flares from

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three separate active regions. Keep your

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cameras charged.

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Avery: Next up, time for a proper mystery. Meet

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Corot 2B, a gas giant three and a

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half times the mass of Jupiter orbiting its

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star in just 41 hours.

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Anna: Hot Jupiters like this are almost always

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tidally locked. One side permanently cooking

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in starlight, the other in permanent night.

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With a hotspot that shifts in a predictable

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direction thanks to eastward winds.

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Avery: Coro2b has had astronomers scratching their

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heads for eight years because its hotspot is

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on the Wrong side entirely. Now, new research

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led by Aurora Caselli at the NASA

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Exoplanet Science Institute has cracked.

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Anna: It turns out this planet just isn't

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tidally locked. Its day is about three

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Earth days long, almost double the length of

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its year, which is only around one and a half

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days.

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Avery: So by the time it finishes spinning once,

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it's already lapped its own star nearly

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twice. That's genuinely bizarre for a

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planet this close to its host.

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Anna: As Caselli put it, a, uh, one size fits all

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model just doesn't work. Even for planets

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we've studied for years. There goes another

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tidy theory.

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Avery: Our next story today takes us up to Florida,

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where United Launch alliance sent another

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29Amazon Leo broadband satellites

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into orbit in the small hours of this

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morning. Liftoff at 1224 Eastern from

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Cape Canaveral.

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Anna: This one carries some history with it. It's

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the eighth and final Atlas V5 flight

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dedicated to Amazon Leo. From here, the

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constellation shifts over to Ula's newer

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Vulcan Centaur rocket launch.

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Avery: Amazon's building toward more than 3,000

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satellites for its Low Earth orbit Internet

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network. Competing head on with SpaceX's

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Starlink, this launch pushes the total in

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orbit past the 390 mark.

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Anna: It's also worth noting the clock is ticking.

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The FCC requires Amazon to have half that

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constellation flying by the end of this

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month. So expect the launch pace to stay

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brisk.

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Avery: Our next story is for all patriotic

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Americans. Well, sort of. With

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America's 250th birthday coming up on the

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4th of July, NASA's Chandra X Ray

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Observatory has given the country a rather

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spectacular gift.

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Anna: Four new composite images, each

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rendered in red, white and blue.

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Combining Chandra's X ray vision with light

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from Hubble Webb and ground based telescopes,

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Avery: the lineup includes the Cassiopeia, a

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supernova remnant, the star

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forming nebula NGC

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3603, the

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spiral galaxy Messier 94,

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and the galaxy cluster

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ZWCL

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0024

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1652, where Hubble

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has mapped out dark matter's fingerprints.

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Anna: And it's not just visual. Chandra's team

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also released three new sonifications,

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turning the X ray data into sound so you can

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genuinely listen to a supernova remnant.

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Avery: A lovely patriotic little reminder that the

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universe doesn't know about borders. But it

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sure looks good in the right color scheme.

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Anna: Now, a bit of a different segment. A couple

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of weeks back, a genuinely strange discovery

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came out of Yale and the Keck Observatory and

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it's stuck with us. So we wanted to circle

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back and make sure you'd heard it too.

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Avery: Back in Mid June, astronomers confirmed a

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third galaxy that appears to have essentially

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zero dark matter. It's called

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DF9. Sitting alongside two previous

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oddballs, DF2 and DF4.

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Anna: All three line up in a tight, straight

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trail of galaxies. And that alignment is the

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real kicker. It suggests they didn't form the

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normal way. Tucked inside a dark matter halo.

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Avery: The leading idea is a bullet dwarf collision,

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a violent high speed crash between galaxies

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billions of years ago that literally stripped

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the ordinary gas away from its dark matter,

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letting new galaxies form from that gas

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alone.

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Anna: Using the Keck Observatory's Cosmic Web

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Imager, the team led by Yale's Michael Keim

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measured DF9's mass by tracking how its

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stars move. And the total came out almost

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exactly matching the visible matter. No room

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left over for anything invisible.

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Avery: It's a big deal because it's some of the

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clearest evidence yet that dark matter

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behaves like an actual physical substance,

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one that can genuinely be separated from

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ordinary matter in the right violent

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circumstances.

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Anna: So if this one slipped past you when it first

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broke, now you're all caught up, and it's a

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great excuse to look up DF2, DF4 and

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DF9 together.

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Next clear night. Well, with a very big

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telescope, let's

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Avery: finish on something completely different.

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NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has made a

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promise. If the United states wins the

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2026 FIFA World Cup, NASA will

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send a soccer ball to the moon.

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Anna: This is not a joke. Apparently, Isaacman

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made the pledge alongside Carlos Garcia

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galan, who runs NASA's moon base program,

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during a briefing about lunar lander plans.

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Avery: The plan is to one up Apollo 14 astronaut

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Alan Shepard, who famously smuggled a golf

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club and a couple of balls to the moon back

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in 1971 for a very short round

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of lunar golf.

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Anna: NASA's already sent an official World cup

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ball to the space station so astronauts could

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test their zero gravity footwork. This would

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be the away leg, Garcia.

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Avery: Galan says the ball is light enough that

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finding room on a future lander payload won't

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be a problem. So really, it's all down to

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Team USA now.

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Anna: No pressure.

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Avery: And, um, that's a wrap for today's episode.

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Anna: If swift's launch finally goes ahead

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overnight, we'll bring you the result first

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thing tomorrow. Until then, clear skies,

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everyone.

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Avery: And keep an eye out for Aurora this weekend.

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You might just catch a show.

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Anna: We'll do it all again tomorrow. Bye.

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Stories,

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Love.

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Avery: Story, soul.