Bow and Arrow Galaxy Discovered, Hayabusa2’s Daring Asteroid Flyby, and Mars’ Geological Secrets...
Astronomy Daily S05E127 | Monday, June 29, 2026 Hosts: Anna & Avery | astronomydaily.io | @AstroDailyPod In today's episode: RAD-BAARG — The Bow-and-Arrow Galaxy A citizen scientist scanning LOFAR radio telescope data spotted a galaxy like nothing seen in 25 years — RAD-BAARG stretches 1.8 million light-years and shows what may be the clearest radio signature of a giant cosmic bow shock ever observed. Published June 22 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Hayabusa2 Flyby — One Week Away Japan's Hayabusa2# spacecraft is set to fly past asteroid Torifune (2001 CC21) on July 5 at a distance of just 1–10 km — one of the closest asteroid encounters ever attempted. The spacecraft already delivered Ryugu samples to Earth in 2020. Mars Magmatic Systems — Oxford/Nature Astronomy A University of Oxford-led study published June 26 in Nature Astronomy reveals seismic evidence that Mars once hosted vast, Earth-like transcrustal magmatic systems spanning potentially thousands of kilometres — without plate tectonics. Based on NASA InSight seismic data. Skywatching — Strawberry Moon & Mercury Retrograde The full Strawberry Moon peaks at 23:58 UTC tonight in Sagittarius near the Teapot asterism. Mercury also begins retrograde motion today. Southern Hemisphere viewers have good conditions for lunar viewing in winter skies. ESA Juice & 3I/ATLAS — Five New Findings ESA has published early results from Juice's November 2025 observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Key findings: 2,000 kg of water vapour per second at perihelion; comet behaviour resembling solar system comets; novel trajectory data from NavCam; and confirmation of Juice's instrument readiness for the Jupiter mission. NASA Artemis Audit — $5.9 Billion in Cancelled Contracts A NASA Inspector General memo finds the total value of cancelled Artemis programme hardware contracts reached $5.9 billion, reflecting cost increases and timeline extensions prior to programme restructuring. Artemis III lunar landing remains targeted for 2027.
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Kind: captions
Language: en
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Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily.
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I'm Anna.
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>> And I'm Avery. It's Monday, June 29th,
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and the universe has been absolutely
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refusing to take the weekend off.
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>> Tonight is the full strawberry moon, and
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Mercury just went retrograde. So, we
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have the sky watching angle covered, but
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there is so much more.
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>> A galaxy that baffled 25 years of
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professional expertise spotted first by
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a citizen scientist. A Japanese
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spacecraft about to attempt one of the
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closest asteroid flybys in history. And
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new evidence that Mars was geologically
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far more complex than anyone imagined.
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>> Plus, new data from issa's Juice
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spacecraft that reveals what
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interstellar comet 3i Atlas was doing
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just days after it rounded the sun. And
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a candid NASA audit that puts some very
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large numbers on the Aremis program's
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canceled hardware.
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>> It is a packed Monday. Stay with us.
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>> Our first story today is one of those
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discoveries that makes you stop and
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think about the sheer scale of the
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universe and also about who gets to
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discover it.
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>> A citizen scientist, not a professional
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astronomer, not a research institute,
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was the first person to spot one of the
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most unusual radio galaxies ever
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recorded. And the lead researcher who
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followed up the finds says it is unlike
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anything he has seen in 25 years of
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studying these objects. The object is
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called rad bar. That stands for radio
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bow and arrow radio galaxy. And the name
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tells you almost everything because when
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you look at this thing in radio light,
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it genuinely looks like a drawn bow and
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arrow glowing in space. The discovery
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was published on June 22nd in the
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monthly notices of the Royal
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Astronomical Society and it was made by
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an international team working with the
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RAD at home astronomy collaboratory in
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India, a citizen science program that
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gives volunteers access to telescope
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data to look for unusual features that
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professional surveys might miss. The
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volunteer who found it was scanning
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images from the LOFAR radio telescope,
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the Low Frequency Array based in the
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Netherlands, and flagged an asymmetric
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structure that simply didn't look like
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any known radio galaxy. And when the
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scientists looked closer, they saw
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something remarkable. Radbar stretches
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nearly 1.8 million lightyears across.
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For scale, our entire Milky Way is about
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100,000 light-years wide. This structure
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is roughly 18 times that.
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>> What makes it so unusual is its shape.
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Most radio galaxies follow a familiar
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template. A super massive black hole at
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the center fires two jets of charged
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particles outward in opposite
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directions, creating a symmetric
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dumbbell-shaped structure. Radar doesn't
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look like that at all. Instead, one of
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the jets appears to have slammed into
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something, a vast front of compressed
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plasma, and lit it up in radite. That
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glowing arc, shaped like the curve of a
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bow, spans nearly 560 kilopar sex in the
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radio data.
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>> On the opposite side, the other jet
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bends and twists into an S-shaped
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structure with a faint offset tail. The
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leading explanation is a bow shock. The
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host galaxy of Radbar appears to be
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falling supersonically into a nearby
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galaxy cluster, plowing through the thin
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hot gas that fills the space between
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galaxies.
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>> And just like a supersonic aircraft
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produces a shock wave in front of it, a
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galaxy moving faster than the speed of
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sound in that gas can compress and heat
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it, creating a giant shock front. The
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radio emmitting plasma from Radbar
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appears to illuminate that shock wave,
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making visible something that
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astronomers have long predicted but
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almost never directly observed in radio
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light.
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>> Lead author Dr. Anand Hot of the
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University of Mumbai said the structure
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is unlike any radio galaxy he has seen
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in 25 years. His co-lead Dr. Pratik
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Dabad of the National Center for Nuclear
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Research in Poland noted that the
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complex multi-halo environment makes
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this especially exciting. We're seeing
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gas flows, infall, and possible shocks
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reshaping radial plasma over millions of
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light years of space. And crucially,
00:04:24.800 --> 00:04:27.030
this discovery came directly from the
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citizen science community. The data came
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from Loar's 2meter sky survey, whose
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third data release covering more than
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80% of the northern sky came out earlier
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this year. Radb shows what might be
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hiding in that massive data set. The
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team is hoping that AI and machine
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learning tools can now be applied to
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find similar systems and the next
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generation square km observatory
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currently under construction will be
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able to survey the sky with even greater
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sensitivity. Brad Bar may turn out to be
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just the beginning.
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>> A triumph for citizen science and a
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reminder that the universe is still
00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:07.430
hiding things from us until an alert
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volunteer spots them from a hillside
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data center. Next up, Japan's Hayabusa 2
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spacecraft has been on an extended
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mission for several years now after it
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already delivered what many considered
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the most scientifically valuable
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asteroid sample ever returned to Earth.
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And next Sunday, July the 5th, it's
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about to attempt something
00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:30.629
extraordinary. A flyby of an asteroid
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called Tory Fune, designated 2001 CC21
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at a closest approach distance of
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somewhere between 1 and 10 km at a speed
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of 5.3 km/s.
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That is roughly 19,000 kmh. And the
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spacecraft's cameras were not designed
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for this kind of encounter. For some
00:05:51.919 --> 00:05:54.870
context, Hayabusa 2 launched in December
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2014, traveled to the asteroid Riu,
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deployed rovers and landers onto its
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surface, fired an impactor to create an
00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:05.430
artificial crater, collected samples
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from below the surface, and returned
00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:10.790
that material to Earth in December 2020.
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5 g of RIU, but an extraordinary 5 g.
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After releasing the sample capsule over
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Australia, the spacecraft still had fuel
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remaining. Rather than decommission it,
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JAXA approved an extended mission now
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called Hayabusa 2 Hash and redirected it
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toward two new targets. Tory Fune is the
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first.
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>> Jaxa Satoshi Tanaka presented the
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mission status at the 35th NASA small
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bodies assessment meeting on June 11th,
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describing the Torifune flyby as one of
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the closest asteroid encounters ever
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attempted by a mission of this class.
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What makes it so challenging is the
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geometry. At that speed and that
00:06:51.039 --> 00:06:53.189
distance, the window of observation is
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extremely short. The spacecraft will
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sweep past in a matter of seconds. The
00:06:57.919 --> 00:07:00.150
navigation cameras have to be precisely
00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:02.469
aimed. The timing has to be right and
00:07:02.479 --> 00:07:04.390
the whole sequence has to execute
00:07:04.400 --> 00:07:06.710
autonomously because there is no time
00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:08.710
for ground control corrections.
00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:12.629
>> Toriune is roughly 450 m wide, a
00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:15.670
midsized near-Earth asteroid. Scientists
00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:18.309
believe it may be an L-type asteroid
00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:20.550
potentially containing calcium aluminum
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inclusions, some of the oldest primitive
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material in the solar system. But that
00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:27.350
classification is uncertain and the
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flyby data will help pin it down. After
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Tarifan, Hayabusa 2 continues on a long
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arc toward its second target, asteroid
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1998 KY26,
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a fast spinning microsteroid just 30 m
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across with which it will rendevous in
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July 2031. That will be the first ever
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close encounter with an asteroid of that
00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:57.270
size. But for now, next Sunday, July
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5th, one of the closest asteroid flybys
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ever attempted. A spacecraft that was
00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:04.629
never designed to do this, doing it
00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:07.830
anyway. IUSA 2 has already exceeded its
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mission objectives once. It is about to
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do it again.
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>> Mars is often described as a dead
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planet. No plate tectonics, no active
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volcanism, a frozen core, a thin
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atmosphere. And for a long time,
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scientists assumed its geological
00:08:23.599 --> 00:08:26.070
history was correspondingly simple.
00:08:26.080 --> 00:08:28.790
Isolated volcanoes, simple basaltic
00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:31.749
crust. Nothing like the complex churning
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geology that made Earth habitable. A new
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study published on June 26th in the
00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:39.750
journal Nature Astronomy suggests that
00:08:39.760 --> 00:08:42.149
picture is fundamentally wrong.
00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:43.750
Researchers from the University of
00:08:43.760 --> 00:08:45.590
Oxford in collaboration with the
00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:48.150
University of Bristol have found seismic
00:08:48.160 --> 00:08:51.030
evidence that Mars once hosted enormous
00:08:51.040 --> 00:08:53.910
Earthlike magmatic systems spread across
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potentially hundreds or even thousands
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of kilometers of its northern
00:08:57.519 --> 00:08:58.550
hemisphere.
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>> The key is a boundary layer about 24 km
00:09:02.160 --> 00:09:05.030
below the Martian surface. Scientists
00:09:05.040 --> 00:09:07.670
already knew this boundary existed. What
00:09:07.680 --> 00:09:10.310
they didn't know was what it meant. The
00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:13.030
new analysis based on seismic data from
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NASA's insight mission which recorded
00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:18.470
Mars quakes and meteoroid impacts before
00:09:18.480 --> 00:09:21.269
being retired suggests this boundary
00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:24.389
marks a zone of meltd depleted rock.
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Rock that is already had magma extracted
00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:27.910
from it.
00:09:27.920 --> 00:09:29.750
>> That's a signature of what geologists
00:09:29.760 --> 00:09:32.870
call transcrustal magnetism. A process
00:09:32.880 --> 00:09:35.430
where molten rock rises from the mantle,
00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:38.070
pools within the crust, differentiates,
00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:40.870
gets mixed and reprocessed, and slowly
00:09:40.880 --> 00:09:43.430
builds up complex crustal material over
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millions of years. On Earth, this
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process is driven by plate tectonics.
00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:50.710
The key finding here is that Mars
00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:52.790
appears to have done it without plate
00:09:52.800 --> 00:09:53.829
tectonics.
00:09:53.839 --> 00:09:57.350
>> Bead author Dr. Tobbery Mai Champion put
00:09:57.360 --> 00:10:00.150
it clearly. Traditionally, complex
00:10:00.160 --> 00:10:02.710
silicarrich crust was thought to require
00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:05.590
plate tectonics and subduction. This
00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:08.310
study suggests Mars can build complex
00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:10.949
crust through longived transcrustal
00:10:10.959 --> 00:10:13.750
magmatic systems where mantle derived
00:10:13.760 --> 00:10:16.710
magma is stored, differentiated, mixed,
00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:19.430
and assimilated within the crust. Plate
00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:21.829
recycling is not the only route.
00:10:21.839 --> 00:10:24.230
>> Professor John Wade of Oxford added a
00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:26.389
striking application. If Mars could
00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:28.630
develop this kind of complex crust
00:10:28.640 --> 00:10:31.110
without plate tectonics, then maybe the
00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:33.190
conditions needed for habitability can
00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:35.750
emerge on more planets than we realized,
00:10:35.760 --> 00:10:37.350
including those we've previously
00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:39.350
dismissed because of their apparent lack
00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:41.910
of tectonic activity. There are also
00:10:41.920 --> 00:10:44.550
more practical implications. Systems
00:10:44.560 --> 00:10:46.389
like these on Earth are known to
00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:48.389
generate large mineral and metal
00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:51.430
deposits. The study suggests Mars may
00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:53.910
hold significantly more near surface
00:10:53.920 --> 00:10:56.790
mineral wealth than previously assumed.
00:10:56.800 --> 00:10:58.870
Something that could matter greatly for
00:10:58.880 --> 00:11:01.190
any future human presence on the red
00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:01.829
planet.
00:11:01.839 --> 00:11:04.630
>> Mars is not a simple geologically boring
00:11:04.640 --> 00:11:06.550
world. It just did its geology
00:11:06.560 --> 00:11:08.710
differently. And the universe, it turns
00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:10.949
out, has more than one way to build a
00:11:10.959 --> 00:11:13.350
complex planet. Time for your sky
00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:15.030
watching update. And tonight is
00:11:15.040 --> 00:11:17.030
genuinely worth stepping out for because
00:11:17.040 --> 00:11:19.110
the full strawberry moon reaches its
00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:22.870
peak at 2358 UTC. That's just before
00:11:22.880 --> 00:11:25.030
midnight in universal time, which means
00:11:25.040 --> 00:11:26.949
most of our listeners will see it at its
00:11:26.959 --> 00:11:29.030
fullest either late tonight or early
00:11:29.040 --> 00:11:30.870
tomorrow morning, depending on your time
00:11:30.880 --> 00:11:31.509
zone.
00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:33.990
>> The strawberry moon gets its name from
00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:36.389
early Native American traditions. It
00:11:36.399 --> 00:11:38.230
marked the time of year when wild
00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:40.870
strawberries began to ripen. It's also
00:11:40.880 --> 00:11:42.870
been called the rose moon and the
00:11:42.880 --> 00:11:44.870
honeymoon. giving us the phrase
00:11:44.880 --> 00:11:47.509
honeymoon since June was historically
00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:49.430
considered an auspicious time for
00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:50.230
weddings.
00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:52.470
>> Tonight, the moon rises in Sagittarius
00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:55.190
near the well-known teapot asterism. For
00:11:55.200 --> 00:11:57.030
observers across Australia and New
00:11:57.040 --> 00:11:59.190
Zealand, the teapot will be reasonably
00:11:59.200 --> 00:12:01.030
wellplaced in the northern sky after
00:12:01.040 --> 00:12:03.110
dark. The moon will be brilliantly
00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:05.670
bright, so fainter stars will wash out,
00:12:05.680 --> 00:12:07.590
but the bright stars of Sagittarius
00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:09.670
should still be visible around it. One
00:12:09.680 --> 00:12:11.190
thing to note for our southern
00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:13.750
hemisphere listeners, in winter, the
00:12:13.760 --> 00:12:16.310
full moon rises higher in the sky for
00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:18.550
you, which actually gives you better
00:12:18.560 --> 00:12:20.389
viewing conditions for this kind of
00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:22.470
event than our friends in the northern
00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:24.629
hemisphere get during their summer full
00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:25.350
moons.
00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:27.190
>> And there's an astronomical event today
00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:29.110
that you won't actually be able to see
00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:30.949
with your eyes, but is worth knowing
00:12:30.959 --> 00:12:33.590
about. Mercury begins its retrograde
00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:36.310
motion today, June 29th. This is the
00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:38.790
apparent reversal of Mercury's movement
00:12:38.800 --> 00:12:41.110
against the background stars caused by
00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:43.750
the geometry of Mercury's faster orbit
00:12:43.760 --> 00:12:46.629
relative to Earth. You won't see Mercury
00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:49.509
move backward in real time. It's far too
00:12:49.519 --> 00:12:51.750
subtle for that. But if you track its
00:12:51.760 --> 00:12:53.910
position night by night over the coming
00:12:53.920 --> 00:12:56.710
weeks, you'll see it trace a small loop
00:12:56.720 --> 00:12:59.110
against the background stars before
00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:01.829
resuming its normal eastward motion.
00:13:01.839 --> 00:13:04.150
It's a lovely demonstration of orbital
00:13:04.160 --> 00:13:06.230
mechanics. if you have the patience to
00:13:06.240 --> 00:13:07.190
follow it.
00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:09.509
>> Mercury is currently a challenging
00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:11.590
target anyway, sitting low in the
00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:13.910
western sky after sunset and getting
00:13:13.920 --> 00:13:17.269
lower. But Venus is blazingly bright and
00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:19.509
easy to find in the west after dark. And
00:13:19.519 --> 00:13:21.430
the crescent moon earlier in the month
00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:23.509
created some lovely conjunctions that
00:13:23.519 --> 00:13:25.590
astrophotographers took full advantage
00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:28.470
of. Tonight though, the strawberry moon
00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:31.430
is the star of the show. Get outside,
00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:34.310
look up, and enjoy it. Time now to
00:13:34.320 --> 00:13:36.550
revisit an old friend. We've covered
00:13:36.560 --> 00:13:39.269
interstellar comet 3iatls
00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:41.509
extensively on this show. From its
00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:43.269
discovery last July through its
00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:45.990
parhelion pass, its chemistry, its
00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:48.470
ancient isotopic signature. But the data
00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:50.949
from that encounter is still coming in.
00:13:50.959 --> 00:13:52.710
And this week, issa published the
00:13:52.720 --> 00:13:54.550
results from one of the most unusual
00:13:54.560 --> 00:13:56.949
scientific opportunities of the entire
00:13:56.959 --> 00:13:59.990
3i ATLS mission. issa's Juice
00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:02.470
spacecraft, the Jupiter Icy Moons
00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:04.870
Explorer, was in the right place at the
00:14:04.880 --> 00:14:07.350
right time with the right instruments.
00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:11.189
In November 2025, just days after 3i
00:14:11.199 --> 00:14:13.430
ATLS made its closest approach to the
00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:16.069
sun, Juice turned five of its science
00:14:16.079 --> 00:14:18.710
instruments towards the comet. The data
00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:21.030
took months to arrive on Earth, but it
00:14:21.040 --> 00:14:23.110
has now been analyzed, and the early
00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:25.350
results are fascinating.
00:14:25.360 --> 00:14:28.150
>> Here are five things Juice revealed.
00:14:28.160 --> 00:14:30.470
First, the water output. On November
00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:33.350
2nd, 2025, just 4 days after
00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:37.030
parahhelion, Juice's Majis spectrometer
00:14:37.040 --> 00:14:39.750
detected 3ATLS was releasing
00:14:39.760 --> 00:14:43.829
approximately 2,000 kg of water vapor
00:14:43.839 --> 00:14:46.230
every single second. That is equivalent
00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:48.870
to filling 70 Olympic swimming pools
00:14:48.880 --> 00:14:51.670
every day. Second, despite its
00:14:51.680 --> 00:14:55.110
interstellar origin, 3IIA ATLS behaved
00:14:55.120 --> 00:14:57.350
like a typical solar system comet during
00:14:57.360 --> 00:14:59.910
its close approach to the sun. Juice's
00:14:59.920 --> 00:15:02.710
Janus camera showed a coma and activity
00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:04.389
consistent with what you would expect
00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:06.629
from a comet formed right here in our
00:15:06.639 --> 00:15:09.350
own system. The universe appears to make
00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:11.990
comets using broadly similar rules.
00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:14.870
>> Third, Juice's navigation camera was
00:15:14.880 --> 00:15:17.350
pressed into unexpected scientific
00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:19.990
service. NAVCAM is designed to help
00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:22.470
Juice navigate around Jupiter's icy
00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:25.430
moons when it arrives in 2031. But
00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:28.389
during the threeey atlas encounter, it
00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:30.629
captured images from a novel vantage
00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:32.629
point different from Earth-based
00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:34.949
telescopes at times when the comet
00:15:34.959 --> 00:15:37.829
wasn't even visible from Earth that gave
00:15:37.839 --> 00:15:40.790
ESA's planetary defense team a better
00:15:40.800 --> 00:15:43.110
fix on the comet's trajectory than they
00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:45.269
could have obtained otherwise. Fourth,
00:15:45.279 --> 00:15:47.590
the encounter revealed how well-prepared
00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:49.670
Juice's instruments actually are for
00:15:49.680 --> 00:15:52.069
their primary mission. The same tools
00:15:52.079 --> 00:15:54.470
built to study Europa, Ganymede, and
00:15:54.480 --> 00:15:56.949
Kalisto, icy moons with complex
00:15:56.959 --> 00:15:59.430
chemistry, turned out to be remarkably
00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:01.829
well matched to studying an interstellar
00:16:01.839 --> 00:16:04.470
icy comet. The team says the data has
00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:06.470
made them more excited than ever about
00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:08.870
what Juice will find at Jupiter in the
00:16:08.880 --> 00:16:12.389
2030s. And fifth, the overall picture
00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:14.550
emerging from juice combined with the
00:16:14.560 --> 00:16:17.509
JWST isotopic data we discussed last
00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:20.710
week paints a consistent portrait. 3i
00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:24.710
ATLS is very old, formed possibly 10 to
00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:27.509
12 billion years ago in a stellar system
00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:30.550
that predates our sun. It spent billions
00:16:30.560 --> 00:16:32.790
of years in the cold darkness of its
00:16:32.800 --> 00:16:35.269
home system before being ejected on a
00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:37.110
journey that would eventually bring it
00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:40.310
briefly through ours. Juice itself has
00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:42.710
one more Earth gravity assist coming in
00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:45.829
September 2026 when its instruments will
00:16:45.839 --> 00:16:47.670
be switched on again before the long
00:16:47.680 --> 00:16:50.389
cruise to Jupiter. The common encounter
00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:52.629
was a remarkable bonus for a mission
00:16:52.639 --> 00:16:55.670
with a very different primary purpose.
00:16:55.680 --> 00:16:58.629
>> 3IIA ATLS is gone heading out of the
00:16:58.639 --> 00:17:01.590
solar system never to return. But it is
00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:03.670
left behind a remarkable scientific
00:17:03.680 --> 00:17:06.390
legacy. Our final story today takes us
00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:08.230
from the science of space to the
00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:10.710
economics of it, and it involves some
00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:12.069
large numbers.
00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:14.230
>> A memo from NASA's Office of Inspector
00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:16.230
General published this past week has
00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:18.150
found that the total value of NASA
00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:20.309
hardware contracts that were cancelled
00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:21.990
as part of the Aremis program
00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:26.949
restructuring came to 5.9 billion.
00:17:26.959 --> 00:17:31.029
5.9 billion. Now, for context, the
00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:33.990
Aremis program is NASA's flagship effort
00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:36.630
to return humans to the moon. With
00:17:36.640 --> 00:17:39.270
Artemis 2 having already carried four
00:17:39.280 --> 00:17:41.590
astronauts around the moon earlier this
00:17:41.600 --> 00:17:44.150
year, the program has been hugely
00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:46.870
ambitious, hugely expensive, and has
00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:49.190
gone through significant changes,
00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:51.750
particularly around which contractors
00:17:51.760 --> 00:17:54.070
build which components and what the
00:17:54.080 --> 00:17:56.470
architecture looks like. The inspector
00:17:56.480 --> 00:17:58.470
general's review found that canceled
00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:00.630
hardware contracts included items that
00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:02.789
had experienced cost increases and
00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:05.750
extended timelines before being cut. The
00:18:05.760 --> 00:18:07.669
audit highlights the scale of the
00:18:07.679 --> 00:18:09.990
program's evolution and the real
00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:12.390
financial cost of changing direction in
00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:14.549
large scale space programs.
00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:17.430
>> To be clear, this doesn't mean $5.9
00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:20.630
billion was simply lost. Some of that
00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:22.710
work will have produced useful data,
00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:24.710
technical knowledge or partially
00:18:24.720 --> 00:18:26.870
completed hardware. And program
00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:28.870
restructuring of this kind is not
00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:31.510
unusual in aerospace development. The
00:18:31.520 --> 00:18:33.830
space launch system itself went through
00:18:33.840 --> 00:18:35.909
years of design evolution before its
00:18:35.919 --> 00:18:36.789
first flight,
00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:39.430
>> but it is a significant figure and it
00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:41.270
arrives at a moment when NASA is
00:18:41.280 --> 00:18:43.990
navigating a complex budget environment
00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:46.950
and preparing for Artemis 4, the first
00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:49.590
crude lunar landing currently targeting
00:18:49.600 --> 00:18:50.789
2028.
00:18:50.799 --> 00:18:52.950
>> The audit is a reminder that returning
00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:55.750
to the moon is not just a scientific and
00:18:55.760 --> 00:18:58.230
engineering challenge. It is also a
00:18:58.240 --> 00:19:00.470
program management challenge, one that
00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:02.549
involves billions of dollars, hundreds
00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:04.470
of contractors, and years of
00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:06.230
decision-making under conditions of
00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:08.470
political, technical, and financial
00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:09.510
uncertainty.
00:19:09.520 --> 00:19:11.590
>> The numbers are sobering, but the
00:19:11.600 --> 00:19:14.150
program continues, and the end goal,
00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:16.950
humans on the moon and eventually beyond
00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:18.870
remains one of the most ambitious
00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:21.750
endeavors in human history. And that is
00:19:21.760 --> 00:19:24.070
a wrap on Astronomy Daily for Monday,
00:19:24.080 --> 00:19:27.270
June 29th. What a lineup. A galaxy
00:19:27.280 --> 00:19:29.270
shaped like a bow and arrow. A
00:19:29.280 --> 00:19:31.029
spacecraft h hurtling toward an
00:19:31.039 --> 00:19:34.150
asteroid. A new picture of ancient Mars.
00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:36.870
Tonight's full strawberry moon. The last
00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:39.350
data from our interstellar visitor. And
00:19:39.360 --> 00:19:41.669
a candid look at the cost of going back
00:19:41.679 --> 00:19:42.710
to the moon.
00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:45.110
>> The universe never disappoints, and
00:19:45.120 --> 00:19:47.270
neither do you, our listeners. Thank you
00:19:47.280 --> 00:19:48.310
for joining us.
00:19:48.320 --> 00:19:50.310
>> If you're enjoying Astronomy Daily,
00:19:50.320 --> 00:19:51.750
please subscribe wherever you're
00:19:51.760 --> 00:19:53.750
listening and leave us a review. It
00:19:53.760 --> 00:19:55.590
genuinely helps more people find the
00:19:55.600 --> 00:19:56.230
show.
00:19:56.240 --> 00:19:58.310
>> Until tomorrow, clear skies.
00:19:58.320 --> 00:20:02.870
>> Clear skies, everyone.
00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:10.870
>> Stories told
00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:14.679
stories told.