The Weekend Wrap: NASA's Bold Swift Rescue, Cosmic Demolition Derby Unfolds

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Anna: Happy Saturday, space fans. I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm Avery. Welcome to Astronomy Daily's

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weekend space and astronomy news wrap.

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Anna: It has been another seriously action packed

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week in space and astronomy. And today we're

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bringing you the six biggest stories, two

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brand new ones, plus a recap of the four that

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dominated the headlines this week.

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Avery: And we're kicking things off with something

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literally happening right now. A daring

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first of its kind rescue mission that's set

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to launch Tuesday morning.

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Anna: Stay with us. It's going to be a great one.

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Our first story this weekend is one you won't

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want to miss. And it's preparing right now as

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we speak.

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Avery: NASA Swift Boost mission is now planned to

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launch Tuesday morning from Kwajalein Atoll

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in the South Pacific. And if successful, it

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will be the first time in history that a

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commercial robotic spacecraft has captured

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and repositioned a, uh, government science

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satellite that was never designed to be

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serviced.

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Anna: The mission aims to rescue the Neil Gerald

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Swift Observatory, a telescope that has been

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hunting gamma ray bursts and other cosmic

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explosions since 2004. Swift

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was supposed to last two years. It's now

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22 years old and still doing brilliant

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science.

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Avery: So what's the problem? Solar storms.

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Recent bursts of intense solar activity

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puffed up Earth's outer atmosphere, creating

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extra drag on Swift's orbit. If nothing

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is done, Swift would re enter and burn up by

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late 2026.

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Anna: Enter Catalyst Space Technologies, a, uh,

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startup from Flagstaff, Arizona. NASA

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awarded them a $30 million contract in

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September 2025, less than a year ago

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to build a spacecraft, launch it, and save

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Swift.

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Avery: That spacecraft is called a link. About the

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size of a refrigerator, it has three robotic

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arms, ion engines, and a suite of

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sensors. It rode into orbit this morning

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aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket,

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an air launch vehicle dropped from a modified

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L1011. Interestingly, this is

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Pegasus's first flight since 2021

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and its final planned mission.

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Anna: Over the coming months, Link will carefully

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maneuver to rendezvous with Swift, Rabbit

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with those robotic arms and fire its engines

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to push the observatory to a higher safety,

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safer orbit. Buying it at least five more

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years of science life.

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Avery: It sounds almost too audacious. And even

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Swift's own chief scientist admitted to

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losing some sleep over it.

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Anna: Who wouldn't? But the fact that this mission

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was conceived, built and launched in under a

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year is itself a landmark achievement.

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It's being called a template for how

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responsive commercial servicing missions can

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work in the Future.

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Avery: And for $30 million, a fraction of what it

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would cost to build and launch a replacement

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telescope.

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Anna: It's an extraordinary we'll be following

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Link's progress closely on Astronomy Daily

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in coming days. Fingers crossed for a

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successful rendezvous and many more years of

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swift watching the universe's most powerful

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explosions.

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Our second story this weekend comes courtesy

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of the James Webb Space Telescope, and it is

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spectacular.

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Avery: Astronomers have spotted what they're calling

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a cosmic demolition derby. At least six

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galaxies in the process of smashing into one

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another and merging into what will eventually

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become one of the largest galax in the

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universe.

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Anna: The system is called TGSS

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J1530

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1049. We're seeing it as it

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was 12 billion years ago, when the

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universe was only about 1 1/2 billion years

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old. Four of those six galaxies are

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already surprisingly massive. Together they

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contain hundreds of billions of times the

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mass of our sun, all packed into a region

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just a few tens of thousands of light years

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across.

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Avery: That makes it one of the densest known

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concentrations of massive galaxies from this

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early period in cosmic history.

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Astronomers call it a protocluster, the

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seed of what will eventually become a vast

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galaxy cluster like the ones we see in the

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local universe today. And at the heart of

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this galactic pileup, something even more

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remarkable a growing supermassive black

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hole. Radio observations confirmed jets

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of material being expelled at high speed as

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matter falls into the black hole at the

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center of this maelstrom.

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Anna: What makes this discovery so significant is

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that astronomers can watch both processes

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happening simultaneously. The buildup of

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a giant galaxy and the growth of its central

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black hole. These two things are thought to

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co evolve, but catching them both in the act

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this early in the universe is

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extraordinarily rare.

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Avery: The discovery came thanks to a clever

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combination of tools. Radio astronomers first

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tipped off the team by detecting unusual

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emissions that hinted at an undiscovered

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active black hole. Webb then revealed the

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full picture not one galaxy, but a whole

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complex of six.

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Anna: The research was led by astronomers at Leiden

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University and the University of Oxford and

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published this week in the Open Journal of

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Astrophysics and Astronomy and Astronomy

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Avery: and Astrophysics, another stunning

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chapter in what JWST is revealing about the

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early universe and the reminder of just how

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much cosmic construction was already underway

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in the universe's first billion years.

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Anna: Now it's time for our weekly wrap, the four

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biggest stories that had the space and

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astronomy community buzzing this week.

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Avery: Story one of our weekly wrap and it

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involves one of NASA's most traveled

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spacecraft and a very strange little world.

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Anna: NASA's Lucy mission has published new results

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from its April 2025 flyby of

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asteroid Donald Johansson, and the findings

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are Genuinely surprising. Published

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this week in the journal Science, the

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research reveals that this half mile wide

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asteroid doesn't spin the way scientists

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expected.

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Avery: Instead of rotating cleanly on a single axis

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like most solar system bodies, Donald

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Johanson tumbles on two axes

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simultaneously. It flips end over end

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once every ten and a half Earth days, while

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also rocking side to side on its long axis

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once every 26 and a half days.

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Scientists call this non principal axis

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rotation. And it looks, in the words of the

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research team, like a very slow,

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unpredictable wobble.

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Anna: In addition to its unusual motion, Lucy

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found that Donald Johansen is shaped like a

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peanut. Two cratered lobes joined by a

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narrow neck. It's what's known as a contact

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binary. Likely formed when two fragments from

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an ancient collision slowly drifted together

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under gravity and merged.

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Avery: And that ancient collision, it happened about

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155 million years ago

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when a much larger asteroid roughly 50

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miles wide was struck and shattered.

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Donald Johanson is one of the surviving

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pieces.

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Anna: Perhaps most intriguingly, Lucy's infrared

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spectrometer detected iron rich clay minerals

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on the surface. Minerals that form only when

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rock interacts with liquid water. So at

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some point long ago, water was present on

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Donald Johansson's parent body.

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Avery: The Lucy mission, led by the Southwest

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Research Institute, is now heading for its

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primary destination, Jupiter's Trojan

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asteroids. This flyby was officially a

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rehearsal. But as Lucy's lead scientist

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Simone Markey put it, it's already clear that

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no two asteroids are alike. And the Trojans

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are going to challenge everything we think we

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know.

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Anna: We can't wait.

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Avery: From a wobbling peanut shaped asteroid to an

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interstellar comet revealing alien chemistry.

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It's been quite a week. Let's get into it.

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Anna: Story two of our wrath is also happening

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today. And it's a sky watching opportunity

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for those of you with a telescope.

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Avery: A 1km wide asteroid designated

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1997 NC1 is making

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its closest approach to Earth right now.

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Saturday, June 27th. It'll pass at a

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distance of about 1.5 million miles,

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or 2.4 million kilometers. Roughly

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seven times the distance between Earth and

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the Moon.

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Anna: To put that in perspective, this asteroid is

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about 50 to 60 times wider than the

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Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded over Russia

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in 2013, shattering windows across

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six cities and sending 1500 people to

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seek medical treatment. The difference is

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1997 NC1 was known

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about well in advance, is completely tracked,

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and poses absolutely no threat to Earth.

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Avery: It was discovered by the Near Earth Asteroid

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Tracking System on haleakala in Hawaii.

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NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been

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using radar to get a Close look this week,

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bouncing signals off the asteroid to generate

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three dimensional models revealing its shape

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and structure.

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Anna: If you're in the Southern hemisphere and have

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a 6 inch or larger telescope, tonight is

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a great opportunity to watch it drift across

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the background stars. It won't streak across

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the sky like a shooting star. It moves too

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slowly for that. But over five to seven

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minutes you'll be able to see it shift

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position against the star background.

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Avery: It's a beautiful reminder that our solar

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neighborhood is not empty and that planetary

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defense tracking systems are doing exactly

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what they're supposed to do. Watching,

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measuring, knowing.

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Anna: Clear skies.

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To those of you with your telescopes

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Avery: out tonight, story three. And we

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return to one of the most exciting objects to

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visit our solar system in years. The

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interstellar comet 3i Baily

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Atlas.

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Anna: 3i Bailey Atlas was discovered on

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July 1 last year, making it only the

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third interstellar object ever detected.

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It tore through our solar system, looped

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around the sun and is now heading out past

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Jupiter, never to return. And the James

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Webb Space Telescope has been making the most

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of every moment it had.

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Avery: New analysis of Webb's mid infrared

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observations has confirmed something

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remarkable. 3 I Bailey Atlas

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contains methane, making it the first

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interstellar object ever found to carry this

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gas. And the ratio of methane to water

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is much higher than anything seen in comets

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from our own solar system.

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Anna: What does that tell us? It tells us that this

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comet formed somewhere very cold,

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far colder than anywhere in our solar

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neighborhood. The methane was buried deep

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beneath the surface as ice, shielded from

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solar heating. As the comet first entered the

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solar system, it only sublimated, turned

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directly from ice to gas as the comet

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drew closer to the sun on its way back out.

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Avery: The comet is also loaded with methanol,

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essentially alcohol, which was discovered

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earlier in the year. And it was itself

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unusual. Together this chemistry is

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completely unlike anything we see in comets

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born around our sun.

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Anna: SETI researchers also trained radio

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telescopes on UM3i Bailey Atlas looking

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for signals that might indicate artificial

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technology. They found nothing beyond human

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made interference as expected. But the

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rapid response observations were valuable in

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their own right, helping to further

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Characterize the object.

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Avery: 3i Bailey Atlas is now heading into the

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outer solar system and will eventually return

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to the interstellar void. The Webb

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observations represent our last close look at

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this extraordinary visitor. And what a

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visitor it turned out to be. A chemical

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fingerprint of a world we'll never see.

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Anna: And our uh, fourth and final story of the

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weekly Wrap, a cosmic detective story from

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close to home.

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Avery: Astrophysicists have announced what appears

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to be the first ever identified pair of

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sibling supernova remnants. One of them

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is the Jellyfish Nebula, a well known and

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visually stunning supernova remnant that's

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been studied for decades. The other had been

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hiding in plain sight. Concealed in the

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jellyfish's bright glare supernova

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Anna: remnants are the expanding shells of gas and

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debris left behind when a massive star

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explodes. Finding two remnants that appear

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to share a common origin born from the

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same stellar system is something astronomers

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have theorized about but never conclusively

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identified before.

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Avery: The two remnants are connected by a bright

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filament of gas, which the researchers

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believe is evidence of their shared history.

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The discovery suggests that the two stars

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that produced these remnants were once

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companions, a binary system that both

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went supernova perhaps millions of years

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apart from It's

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Anna: a beautiful example of stellar archaeology

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using the leftover wreckage of dead stars to

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reconstruct the lives they lived billions of

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years ago.

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Avery: The Jellyfish Nebula, also known as

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IC443, sits about 5,000

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light years away in the constellation Gemini.

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It's a popular target for amateur

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astrophotographers, and now it has a hidden

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sibling to its name.

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Anna: The universe, as always, rewards those

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who look closely.

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That's the Astronomy Daily Weekend wrap for

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Saturday, June 27, 2026.

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What a week it's been. Satellite rescues,

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galaxy pile ups, wobbling asteroids,

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alien chemistry, and the secrets of dead

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stars.

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Avery: If you've enjoyed today's episode, please

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subscribe, leave a review and share us with a

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friend who loves space as much as we do.

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We're back Monday with fresh daily episodes,

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and we'll be keeping a close eye on how that

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swift rescue mission is

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Anna: going to find us at astronomydaily. Uh

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IO and follow us on your favorite platforms

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at Strodaily Pod.

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Avery: Until next time, from all of us at Astronomy

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Daily, Clear skies.