Blood Moon, Broken Records & the Hubble Mystery

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Language: en

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Last night, the moon turned red and bled


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across the sky for nearly an hour. A


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spacecraft is being prepped for the most


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daring crude mission in half a century.


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And somewhere out there, four stars are


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dancing together in a space so tight it


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would fit inside Mercury's orbit.


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>> And apparently, no aliens are coming to


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visit. Physics says so.


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>> Not even a postcard. This is Astronomy


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Daily. I'm Anna.


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>> And I'm Avery. Let's get into it.


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>> Welcome to Astronomy Daily, the podcast


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bringing you the universe's best stories


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6 days a week. It is Wednesday, March


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the 4th, 2026, and we have a genuinely


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stellar episode for you today. Pun


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absolutely intended.


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>> We have the aftermath of what many of


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you stayed up all night to see, the


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blood moon total lunar eclipse. We have


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major Artemis 2 news, a star system that


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honestly shouldn't exist, the solution


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to one of cosmologyy's biggest


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headaches, the dawn of commercial space


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astronomy, and the physics-based reality


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check on alien visitors.


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>> It's a lot. Let's not waste a second.


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>> Okay, first things first. Yesterday


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morning, or the early hours of


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yesterday, depending on where you were,


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the moon turned blood red. And I need to


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know, Anna, did you watch it? I


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absolutely did. I dragged a blanket


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outside and watched the whole thing from


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my garden. And the moment totality hit,


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this deep, rusty orange glow, stars


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suddenly visible that had been washed


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out by moonlight, it was genuinely one


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of those I love being alive on a planet


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with a moon moments.


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>> Right? For those who missed it, here's


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what happened. The moon passed


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completely through Earth's shadow.


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That's what makes it a total lunar


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eclipse. And the reason it turns red


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rather than just going dark is this


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beautiful piece of physics. Every


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sunrise and every sunset happening on


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Earth at that moment projects its orange


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and red light through our atmosphere and


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bends it onto the moon's surface. So


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what you're seeing is the light of every


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dawn and dusk on the planet all at once,


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>> which is one of the most romantic


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explanations in all of astronomy.


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Honestly,


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>> totality lasted just under an hour, 59


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minutes to be precise, and it was


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visible across the US, Canada, Mexico,


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and parts of South America in the


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morning hours, and from Australia, New


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Zealand, and Asia after sunset. So,


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pretty much anyone who wanted to see it


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had a shot.


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>> The timing was great for observers in


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the mountain and Pacific time zones in


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North America. They got totality in


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fully dark skies. Eastern time viewers


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had to contend with twilight creeping


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in, but honestly still spectacular.


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>> And here's the bittersweet part. If you


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missed this one, you're going to be


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waiting a while. This was the last total


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lunar eclipse visible from North America


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until New Year's Eve 2028.


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>> So, if you watched it, well done. You


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caught a rare treat. And if you didn't,


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mark your calendars now. New Year's Eve


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2028. Great excuse for a party. We'd


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love to hear from you. Did you get clear


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skies? Drop us a message at Astro Daily


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Pod.


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>> All right, next up, huge news for human


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space flight. NASA has confirmed that


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repairs to the Aremis 2 rocket are


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complete, and an April launch is still


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very much on the table.


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>> This is the one we've all been waiting


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for. Artemis 2 would be the first crude


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mission to fly around the moon in over


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50 years. Not a landing, not yet, but a


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crude flight that will take four


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astronauts further from Earth than any


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humans have ever been. The crew is


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Commander Reed Wisman, pilot Victor


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Glover, mission specialist Christina


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Cotch, who would become the first woman


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to travel to the moon, and Canadian


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Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.


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>> The issue that needed fixing was a


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hydrogen leak that showed up during


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fueling tests. NASA took it seriously,


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worked through it methodically, and


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they're now satisfied it's resolved. The


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vehicle is back in the vehicle assembly


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building at Kennedy Space Center, and


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the teams are working towards an April


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target.


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>> No exact launch date has been confirmed


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yet. NASA is still working through its


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checklist, but the fact that repairs are


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complete and they're still talking April


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is genuinely encouraging. To put it in


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perspective, the last time humans flew


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to the moon was Apollo 17 in December


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1972.


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That's 53 years. And if Artemis 2


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launches as planned, we'll be back in


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lunar space before the spring is out.


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>> We'll keep tracking this one closely as


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the launch date firms up. Exciting


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times.


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>> Okay, I need everyone to picture


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something. Take our entire solar system


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from the sun to Mercury. That tiny


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sliver of space, roughly 77 million km.


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Now cram three stars into it. Three


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stars.


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>> That's I mean that's insane. Stars are


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enormous.


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>> They are. And yet astronomers have just


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confirmed a system called TIC120362137


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where exactly that is happening. three


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stars, all bigger and hotter than our


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sun, packed into a volume smaller than


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Mercury's orbit around our star. And


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then, as if that weren't enough, there's


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a fourth star orbiting all three of them


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at a distance comparable to where


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Jupiter sits in our solar system.


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>> So, it's a triple star system with a


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chaperone.


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>> That's genuinely the best way I've heard


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it described. The research was published


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in Nature Communications and led by


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astronomer Tamas Borovitz at the


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University of Seed in Hungary. His team


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used data from NASA's test satellite


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originally designed to hunt for


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exoplanets alongside groundbased


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telescopes in Hungary, Arizona, the


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Czech Republic, and Slovakia. 73 spectra


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from the Fred Whipple Observatory in


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Arizona alone.


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>> How do you even spot something like


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this?


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>> It starts with dips in starlight. The


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stars eclipse each other as they orbit,


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causing tiny periodic drops in


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brightness. What initially looked like a


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simple pair of stars eclipsing every 3.3


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days turned out on closer inspection to


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be hiding a third star, too. And then


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the fourth was teased out using a clever


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algorithm that isolated each star's


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spectral fingerprints individually. This


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system is in the constellation Signis,


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the Swan, and its technical


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classification is a 3 + 1 type


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quadruple. Three inner stars in a tight


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mutual orbit with a fourth outer


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companion. The outer stars orbital


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period is just 1,046 days, the shortest


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ever recorded for this type of system.


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>> And the team was also able to model the


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systems eventual fate. Over billions of


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years, the heavyweight stars will


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exhaust their fuel, swell into giants,


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and shed their outer layers. The whole


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thing will likely end up as a pair of


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white dwarfs orbiting each other. A


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slow, quiet fade into stellar


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retirement.


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>> From cosmic chaos to cosmic peace. I


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find that oddly comforting.


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>> It's a reminder that our own son, lone,


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solitary, planetarily well behaved,


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might actually be the weird one. Most


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stars in the galaxy have at least one


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companion. Some apparently have three.


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>> Right. This next one is for the


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cosmology nerds, but we're going to make


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it make sense for everyone because it is


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genuinely important.


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>> The Hubble tension. It sounds like a


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minor bureaucratic disagreement, but


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it's actually one of the biggest


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unsolved problems in modern physics.


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>> So, here's the setup. We know the


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universe is expanding. The question is


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how fast. And when astronomers use two


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different methods to measure that


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expansion rate called the Hubble


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constant, they get two different answers


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that stubbornly refuse to agree. One


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method uses the early universe, the


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cosmic microwave background, the


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leftover light from shortly after the


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big bang. Other methods use nearby


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cosmic distance markers like Sephiid


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variable stars and type 1A supernova.


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Both methods are solid. Both have been


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refined for decades and they still don't


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match.


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>> The gap between them is only about 8 or


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9% numerically. But that small


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discrepancy is a massive headache


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because it suggests either our


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measurements are wrong or more


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excitingly there's new physics we don't


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understand yet.


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>> And now scientists are proposing a third


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completely independent method.


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Gravitational waves. When two massive


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objects like black holes or neutron


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stars spiral together and merge, they


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send ripples through the fabric of


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spaceime itself, these gravitational


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waves carry precise information about


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the distance to the event and how fast


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the universe is expanding at that point.


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>> The beautiful thing is gravitational


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wave detectors like LIGO and Virgo don't


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rely on the same assumptions as the


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other methods. So, if gravitational wave


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measurements can pin down the Hubble


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constant independently, we'll finally


00:09:20.959 --> 00:09:22.870
have a referee in this argument.


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>> We don't have enough events yet to be


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definitive. Gravitational wave astronomy


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is still young. But as detectors improve


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and we observe more mergers, this could


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be the key that unlocks one of


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cosmologyy's greatest mysteries.


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>> Physics still keeping us humble since


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always.


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>> A genuine milestone in the history of


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astronomy this week. The MAV telescope,


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the world's first privatelyowned


00:09:47.839 --> 00:09:50.230
commercial space telescope, has captured


00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:52.470
its first observation, and it's the


00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:55.910
first star. This is a big deal. MAV is


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operated by a London-based startup


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called Blue Skies Space, and it launched


00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:02.870
back in November aboard a Space X ride


00:10:02.880 --> 00:10:05.030
share mission. It's a small satellite


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about the size of a suitcase weighing


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under 19 kg. But what it can do is


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genuinely unique. BAV is designed to


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observe stars in ultraviolet light


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wavelengths that are completely blocked


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by Earth's atmosphere. So you simply


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cannot study them from the ground. The


00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:23.030
last dedicated ultraviolet space


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observatory was the International


00:10:24.880 --> 00:10:27.030
Ultraviolet Explorer which was retired


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back in 1996. So there's been a three


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decade gap in this kind of science.


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>> And the science it's doing matters


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enormously for the search for life. Not


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every star is as well behaved as our


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sun. Many stars, especially the cooler,


00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:44.069
more common red dwarfs, produce intense


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UV flares that could strip the


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atmospheres off nearby planets, making


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them uninhabitable regardless of their


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distance from the star. MAV will survey


00:10:52.959 --> 00:10:54.870
hundreds of stars to figure out which


00:10:54.880 --> 00:10:57.509
ones are genuinely friendly to life. The


00:10:57.519 --> 00:10:59.110
commercial model here is also


00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:01.509
interesting. Data access is provided


00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:03.509
through annual subscriptions to research


00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:05.910
teams, a sort of Netflix for UV


00:11:05.920 --> 00:11:07.990
astronomy data. It's a new way of


00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:10.310
funding space science. And if it works,


00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:12.550
Blue Sky Space plans a whole fleet of


00:11:12.560 --> 00:11:13.269
these.


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>> The first star observed was one of the


00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:17.030
brightest stars in the Ursa Major


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constellation. A calibration target to


00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:20.630
check the instrument is working


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correctly. And it is. First light


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achieved. Science operations underway.


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>> The universe has its first commercial


00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:30.310
telescope. I, for one, welcome our new


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private sector stargazers.


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>> And finally, our lighter closer.


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Although I'd argue there's nothing light


00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:38.069
about the physics involved.


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>> A new piece from the brighter side of


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news has been making the rounds this


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week and it takes a long hard look at


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why despite the vastness of the universe


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and the billions of potentially


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habitable worlds out there, no alien


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civilization has ever shown up on our


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doorstep. And the answer, it turns out,


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isn't conspiracy. It's physics.


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>> Five barriers. That's the argument. Five


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physical constraints that together make


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interstellar contact essentially


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impossible. Shall we run through them?


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>> Let's do it.


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>> Number one, distance. The nearest star


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to us, Proxima Centauri, is 4.24 lighty


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years away. The Parker Solar Probe, the


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fastest humanmade object ever built,


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would take around 6600 years to reach


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it. And that's our closest neighbor, the


00:12:24.800 --> 00:12:27.269
Milky Way, is 100,000 light-years


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across. Number two, the speed of light.


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This is not an engineering problem. It's


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a law of reality. Einstein's special


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relativity tells us that as you


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accelerate anything with mass toward the


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speed of light, it takes ever more


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energy for ever smaller gains in speed.


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To actually reach light speed would take


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infinite energy. Not a lot of energy,


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infinite.


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>> Number three, propulsion. Even if you


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accept a much lower target, say 1% of


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light speed, you run straight into


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what's called the rocket equation. To


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accelerate, you need fuel. But fuel has


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mass, which means you need more fuel to


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push the fuel, which adds more mass. It


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grows exponentially. The fuel required


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for even a modest interstellar trip


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would be staggering.


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>> Number four, biology. The human body


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evolved on Earth under Earth's magnetic


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field under Earth's gravity. Deep space


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is brutal. Cosmic radiation shreds DNA.


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Microgravity degrades bones and


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cardiovascular systems. And we still


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haven't solved cryogenic preservation.


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Even robots aren't immune. Radiation


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degrades electronics. And over the time


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skills involved, entropy wins.


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>> And number five, and this is my favorite


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one, timing. Our civilization has been


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broadcasting radio signals for about a


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hundred years. That creates a bubble


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roughly 100 lighty years across. The


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Milky Way is a thousand times wider than


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that. The universe is 13.8 billion years


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old. Civilizations might rise, transmit,


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and fall, all before their signals even


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reach anyone capable of receiving them.


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The physicist Richard Feineman


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apparently compared it to fireflies


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blinking on different nights in a dark


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forest. They never overlap.


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>> And what about UFOs? The piece applies


00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:21.509
physics to claims of craft performing


00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:23.750
impossible maneuvers. Instant


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acceleration to extreme speeds, sharp


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turns with no sonic signature. The


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forces involved would be tens of


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thousands of times Earth's gravity.


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Occupants would be pulped. Materials


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would fail. The physics doesn't work.


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>> Now, is this depressing? I actually


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don't think so. The piece ends on


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something beautiful. The same laws of


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physics that prevent easy interstellar


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travel also make the universe stable,


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ordered, and ultimately life friendly.


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Light speed preserves causality. Without


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it, cause and effect would unravel.


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Stable atoms permit chemistry. Stars


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forge the elements that build planets


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and people. We might be alone in our


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cosmic neighborhood, but we're made of


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the same star stuff as every galaxy in


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the observable universe. We're not


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separate from the cosmos. We're the


00:15:13.839 --> 00:15:15.670
universe looking at itself.


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>> I'll take that.


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>> That's Astronomy Daily for Wednesday,


00:15:18.800 --> 00:15:22.470
March I 4th, 2026. Blood moons, crude


00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:25.110
moon missions, cosmic star huddles, the


00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:27.750
universe's expansion mystery, the dawn


00:15:27.760 --> 00:15:30.310
of private space telescopes, and why the


00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:32.790
aliens aren't coming. Honestly, one of


00:15:32.800 --> 00:15:35.110
my favorite episodes in a while. If you


00:15:35.120 --> 00:15:37.030
enjoyed it, please subscribe wherever


00:15:37.040 --> 00:15:38.949
you get your podcasts. Leave us a


00:15:38.959 --> 00:15:41.189
review. It genuinely helps us reach more


00:15:41.199 --> 00:15:43.670
space enthusiasts. And find us on social


00:15:43.680 --> 00:15:46.310
media at Astro Daily Pod.


00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:49.509
>> New episodes every weekday and Saturday.


00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:51.990
We'll see you tomorrow for more from the


00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:52.870
universe.


00:15:52.880 --> 00:15:57.590
>> Blue skies, everyone.


00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:05.350
Stories told


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stories told


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stories