Starship V3 Flight 12: A Giant Leap for SpaceX | Neptune's Moon Mystery Unveiled

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Anna: The world's biggest rocket is sitting on a

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launch pad in South Texas right now. And

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tonight, for the first time ever,

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Avery: it's going to Fly Starship

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version 3 flight 12. And it is

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absolutely the biggest story in spaceflight

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today.

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Anna: We've also got a deep solar system mystery

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wrapped up by the James Webb Space Telescope

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and some genuinely unsettling news about

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what the galaxy may be full of.

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Avery: Not very many Earths.

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Anna: I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm, uh, Avery. This is Astronomy Daily.

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Today's space news from the universe to you.

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Anna: We've been tracking the Starship V3 story for

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a couple of days now. The delays, the wet

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dress rehearsal, the OSHA investigation.

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And today is finally the day. The launch

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window opens at 5:30 this afternoon,

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Texas time, and SpaceX is going for it.

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Avery: This is Flight 12 in the Starship program

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overall, but it's the first flight of the V3

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design, which is by some measures an almost

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entirely new rocket.

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Anna: Elon Musk himself said that nearly every

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part has been redesigned. Compared to V2,

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the rocket now stands

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124.4 meters tall.

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That's just over 400ft, making it

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officially the tallest rocket humanity has

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ever built.

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Avery: And it's not just bigger for the sake of it.

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The big structural change on this version is

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that Starship V3 is designed for in orbit

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refueling for the first time. That's the

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capability that unlocks deep space missions

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to the moon and eventually Mars.

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Anna: ASA is counting on exactly that.

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Starship has been selected as the human

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landing system for the Artemis program. The

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current plan is for a docking test in low

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Earth orbit as early as 2027,

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with a moon surface landing targeted for the

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Artemis 4 mission in 2028.

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Avery: But there's a mountain to climb before any of

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that. SpaceX still hasn't sent Starship into

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full orbit. The program has seen explosions,

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delays, and last week a contractor working at

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Starbase in Texas died in a fall.

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The US Occupational Safety and Health

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Administration has opened an investigation.

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Anna: Today's flight profile is suborbital, similar

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to recent missions. The plan is to deploy

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20 Starlink simulator satellites, attempt

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a single Raptor engine relight in space,

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and test the heat shield by deliberately

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removing one tile to measure

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aerodynamic load on neighboring tiles during

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re entry.

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Avery: That tile experiment is actually quite

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clever. You need to understand the failure

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modes before you can fix them.

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Anna: Weather is sitting around 55%

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favorable right now. Not ideal, but

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workable. And there is a lot riding on this.

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Beyond engineering pride. SpaceX's planned

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IPO, which could value the company at, uh, up

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to $1.75 trillion,

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would be the largest public offering in

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history. Today's test flight is very much in

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the shop window.

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Avery: No pressure, then.

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Anna: None whatsoever. We'll have the result in

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tomorrow's episode. Whatever happens tonight,

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it's a pivotal moment for the program and for

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the future of human spaceflight.

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Avery: Next up, today. Billions of years ago,

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Neptune had a tidy family of moons. Then

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a rogue intruder arrived and tore everything

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apart. New research published in the journal

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Science Advances suggests that one moon

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survived the chaos, and we've known about it

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since 1949.

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Anna: That moon is Nereid, Neptune's third

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largest satellite and one of the strangest

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orbits in the solar system. It swings as

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close as 1.4 million kilometers to

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Neptune and as, uh, far away as 9.6.

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For comparison, our moon is a pretty

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consistent 384,000

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kilometers from Earth.

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Avery: For decades, astronomers have known that

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Nereid's extreme elliptical orbit was

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unusual, but they couldn't agree on why. The

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leading theory was that it was a captured

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object, something that drifted in from the

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outer solar system and got gravitationally

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trapped. But this new study, led by Matthew

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Belyakoff at the California Institute of

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Technology, strongly rules that out.

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Anna: The team used NASA's James Webb Space

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Telescope to study Nereid in detail, and

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what they found changes the story

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significantly. Their observations are

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consistent with Nereid being an original moon

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of Neptune, one that formed right alongside

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the planet, but was thrown into its wild

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orbit when Neptune captured its largest moon,

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Triton.

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Avery: And Triton's story is quite the tale itself.

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Triton is thought to have originated in the

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Kuiper Belt, the frigid region beyond Neptune

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where objects like Pluto live. At some point,

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Triton was captured by Neptune's gravity, and

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the gravitational chaos of that event

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scattered Neptune's original moons onto

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collision courses with each other. Most were

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destroyed.

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Anna: Neptune's innermost moons are thought to be

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the shattered remnants of those originals,

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rubble that coalesced after Triton's

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arrival. Nereid, according to this new

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research, escaped that fate by being thrown

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into its current extreme orbit. Far

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enough out to survive, but close enough to

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still be bound to Neptune.

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Avery: As Belyakov puts it, it takes a long time to

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do science. This mystery began with Nereid's

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discovery in 1949, and we may finally

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have some answers in 2026. Thanks to Webb.

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The researchers note that this work would

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simply not be possible with any previous

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telescope. It really is a testament to what

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Webb continues to deliver.

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Anna: A survivor of 4 billion years of

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Cosmic chaos. Not a bad story for a

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Thursday.

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Avery: Here's a number that should give you pause.

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In 2005, the European Space

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Agency was tracking around 16,000

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pieces of debris in orbit. By

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2026, that number has grown to more than

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44,000, an increase of roughly

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180%. And that's only what we

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can track.

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Anna: The vast majority of debris is too small

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to track at all. ESA estimates there are

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millions of fragments out there paint flecks,

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bolt fragments, shards from old rocket stages

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moving at orbital velocities. Even something

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tiny can cause catastrophic damage.

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Avery: But new research is drawing attention to a

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consequence that gets less coverage than the

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collision risk. The scientific cost. A

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study looking at NASA's Earth observing

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satellites, specifically Aqua, Terra and

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Aura, found that since 2005,

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this fleet has had to execute avoidance

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maneuvers at least 32 times to dodge

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debris.

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Anna: And those maneuvers aren't free, not in terms

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of fuel and possibly not in terms of data.

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According to records from the Land Data

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Products Evaluations Assessment, some of

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those avoidance burns may have corrupted

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climate data. During the collection window.

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You move the satellite, the instruments point

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somewhere different, and the record has a gap

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or an artifact.

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Avery: These satellites were not designed with this

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level of debris in mind. Aqua, for instance,

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has lasted 18 years longer than its original

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design life. It's been incredibly productive,

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but it only has so much fuel left. Every

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avoidance maneuver burns some of that

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reserve.

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Anna: And as one insurance analyst put it to

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space.com even without collisions,

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space debris has an economic cost. Each

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time a satellite has to maneuver to avoid a

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potential collision, it uses fuel, which is a

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finite and precious resource. The headline

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quote from researchers is blunt Things will

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get worse before they get better.

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Avery: The good news is that two companies have

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announced plans to begin active debris

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removal from orbit in 2027. The

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technology exists. The will and the

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regulation need to catch up quickly.

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Anna: Next on today's agenda. Over the past year

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or so, results from the dark energy

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spectroscopic instrument DESI have

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been causing excitement and consternation

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in equal measure. The data appeared to

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hint that dark energy, the mysterious

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force driving the accelerating expansion of

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the universe, might be evolving over

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time, changing in strength as the

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cosmos ages.

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Avery: Which, if true, would be a genuinely enormous

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deal. The standard cosmological model treats

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dark energy as a fixed cosmological constant.

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If it's changing, the model needs to be

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rebuilt from the ground up.

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Anna: Exactly. But new research published in

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Physical Review D is urging caution.

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Scientists at the Tata Institute of

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Fundamental Research in Mumbai have found

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something a small but simple significant

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mismatch between two Key data sets

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used to measure dark energy's

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supernova brightness data and baryon

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acoustic oscillations, which are essentially

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ripples in the distribution of galaxies

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across the universe.

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Avery: And the mismatch matters because the DESI

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results that pointed to evolving dark energy

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relied on combining those two datasets. If

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they aren't mutually consistent, if there's a

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small but real discrepancy in what they're

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measuring, then the apparent signal of

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evolving dark energy could be a systematic

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artifact rather than a genuine physical

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phenomenon.

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Anna: The researchers traced the mismatch back to a

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potential violation of what's called the

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cosmic distance duality relation,

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a fundamental geometric relationship

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that underpins how we calculate distances in

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the universe. If that relation is being

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violated, or if there are subtle calibration

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errors in the datasets, then the apparent

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evolution of dark energy may simply

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disappear.

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Avery: What does this mean in practical terms?

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Anna: It means we don't know yet. This paper

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doesn't prove dark energy is constant. It

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just raises a serious methodological

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flag. Science is working exactly as

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it should. Extraordinary claims get

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extraordinary scrutiny. More data from

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DECE's third release and from ESA's Euclid

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mission should help clarify things later this

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year.

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Avery: The universe remains stubbornly mysterious,

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which is

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Anna: honestly what keeps us in a job.

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Avery: Now, here's a question that sounds simple but

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turns out to be extraordinarily complex.

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What's the most efficient way to get from

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Earth to the Moon?

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Anna: I mean, you point the rocket at

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Avery: it, you'd think, right? But no, because in

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spaceflight, the most direct path is almost

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never the most efficient one. And the new

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study, published in the journal

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Astrodynamics, has found the trajectory to

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the Moon that is better than any route

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previously described in the scientific

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literature.

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Anna: How much better?

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Avery: The new route uses 58.8 meters per

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second less fuel, what engineers call Delta V

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compared to the previous, best known path.

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That might sound tiny. But consider the total

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fuel budget for an Earth to Moon transfer is

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around 3,343 meters per second.

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Shave nearly 60 off that, and you've made a

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real difference. Every meter per second saved

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is, as the researchers put it, a massive

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amount of fuel consumption.

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Anna: So how did they find it?

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Avery: The team from the universities of Colimbra,

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Porto and Evora in Portugal and the

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University of so Paulo in Brazil used a

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mathematical approach called the theory of

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functional connections. It dramatically

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reduces the computing power needed to

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simulate trajectories, which let them test

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around 30 million different routes. Previous

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studies had managed around 280,000.

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Anna: That's an enormous leap in the search

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Avery: space, and it paid off. The most efficient

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route they found is counterintuitive. Instead

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of heading more or less directly toward the

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Moon, the spacecraft first swings toward a

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point called the L1 Lagrange point, the

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gravitational balance point between Earth and

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the moon. About 85% of the way there,

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it enters a stable orbital pathway around

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L1, then departs on an unstable pathway

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that transitions it, uh, into lunar orbit.

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Anna: Essentially using the Moon's own gravity

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as part of the propulsion system.

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Avery: Exactly. The team also notes that the L1

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point maintains constant line of sight with

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Earth, which means communication is

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uninterrupted throughout the journey. And

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crucially, this method can be adapted. You

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could use it for any planet, moon system, or

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any orbital transfer problem. As the

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researchers say, the systematic analysis they

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developed could be adopted much more widely

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going forward.

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Anna: Small savings Scaled across dozens of

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future Artemis missions, that adds up to a

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Avery: lot of rocket fuel and a lot of money.

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Anna: Speaking of money, here's a way you can save

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heaps and secure your online life. Simply do

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Just look for the link in the show notes.

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Avery: Stay safe online and away from prying eyes.

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Get NordVPN.

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Anna: All right, on to our next story. And this

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one will surprise many. If you've ever

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looked up at the night sky and felt reassured

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that the galaxy must be full of

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Earth's worlds with oceans,

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atmospheres and the potential for life,

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new research from the European Geosciences

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Union conference in Vienna may give you

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pause.

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Avery: That's not the most comforting preamble.

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Anna: Preliminary results presented by Shawn

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Jordan, a postdoctoral researcher at ETH

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Zurich, suggest that our galaxy may be

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filled with a far greater number of Venus

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like worlds than true Earth analogs,

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and that this might simply be how rocky

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planet formation works.

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Avery: Walk us through the science.

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Anna: When a rocky planet forms, it goes through

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what's called a magma ocean phase.

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Essentially the entire surface is molten.

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As it cools, the atmosphere it develops

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heavily depends on its chemistry and its

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distance from its star. Dourdan and

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colleagues argue that it's actually quite

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straightforward to end up with a carbon

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dioxide dominated atmosphere, thick,

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hot, crushing Venus style. After

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that cooling phase, getting to an Earth like

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nitrogen oxygen atmosphere is harder,

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Avery: meaning a, uh, Venus outcome might be the

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path of least resistance.

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Anna: That's the implication. And there's a

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philosophical reframe buried in here too.

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Jordan suggests that Venus may not have gone

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wrong. It may simply have been born that way.

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A planet that came out of its magma ocean

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phase looking exactly like Venus does today

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without ever having oceans or a temperate

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climate.

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Avery: How many exovenus candidates are we actually

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talking about?

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Anna: At least a few dozen rocky exoplanets are

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considered potential Venus analogues, though

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none have been confirmed as such. We don't

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yet have the atmospheric characterization

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tools to be certain. The challenge is that a

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Venus like atmosphere, although sulfuric

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acid clouds, looks very similar to a, uh,

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featureless atmosphere in our current

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observations.

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Avery: There's a telling phrase in the coverage of

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this research that our own Venus has been

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described as criminally underexplored.

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Only one mission has sent a lander since the

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Soviet program in the 80s.

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Anna: That's the awkward irony. We're looking for

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Venus twins across the galaxy while

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barely understanding the one we have next

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door. ESA's Envision mission and

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NASA's DaVinci program are, uh, both in

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development, and they can't come soon enough.

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Our nearest twin, the cautionary tale,

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deserves a much closer look from a

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habitable

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Avery: paradise candidate to the galaxy's most

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common world. Quite the motion.

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Anna: Science rarely flatters our assumptions

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before we

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Avery: head out, A quick look at the sky for our

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Southern Hemisphere listeners, particularly

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in Australia and New Zealand, this week

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Anna: is a beautiful time to watch the evening sky.

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Jupiter is blazing brightly in the west after

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sunset, and the waxing moon is sliding past

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it over the next couple of nights. Tonight

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they're particularly close together, making

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for a stunning naked eye pairing.

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Avery: No equipment needed, just step outside about

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30 to 45 minutes after sunset, look west

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and you'll see the moon and the brightest

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star near it. That's Jupiter. It's one of

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those simple, wonderful reminders that the

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solar system is right there every clear

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night.

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Anna: Cloud free skies to all of you.

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Avery: That is Astronomy Daily for Thursday, May

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21, 2026. Six stories from the

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launch pad in Texas to the farthest reaches

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of Neptune's

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Anna: battered moon and the starship. Result.

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Whatever it is, we'll have it for you

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tomorrow.

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Avery: If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment

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00:16:30.860 --> 00:16:32.740
to subscribe and leave a rating. Wherever you

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00:16:32.740 --> 00:16:34.780
get your podcasts, it genuinely makes a

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difference.

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Anna: You can find us at astronomydaily

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IO and on socials

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astrodaily pod. We're part of the

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bytes.com podcast network.

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Avery: Until tomorrow, keep looking up Clear

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Skies Astronomy Day

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Anna: stories.