Moon Rocket, Lost Spacecraft, and a Comet That Fell Apart on Camera

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Language: en

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Hey there stargazers, and welcome to


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Astronomy Daily, your daily dose of


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what's happening out there in the


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cosmos. I'm Anna.


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>> And I'm Avery. Today is Saturday, March


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21st, 2026. And honestly, Anna, we've


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got another busy show today.


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>> We really do. A moon rocket has arrived


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at the launchpad for the first time in


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over 50 years, carrying astronauts.


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We've got a pair of weird dying stars


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behaving in ways nobody's ever seen


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before and a comet that basically fell


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apart while Hubble happened to be


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watching accidentally.


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>> Plus, 15 brand new moons in our solar


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system, a growing garbage problem on our


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own moon, and the genuinely dramatic


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spacecraft story. One lost, one found.


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>> It's a big one. Let's get into it.


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>> We're going to start with NASA's Aremis


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2. And this one feels different. After


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months of delays, repairs, and anxious


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waiting, the rocket is finally on the


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pad.


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>> At 11:21 a.m. Eastern time on Friday,


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March 20th, NASA's Space Launch System


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rocket and Orion spacecraft arrived at


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launchpad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in


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Florida. After an 11-hour overnight


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journey from the vehicle assembly


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building, hauled by the giant crawler


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transporter at less than one mile per


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hour,


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>> a 322 ft tall moon rocket creeping


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through the night at jogging pace. And


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honestly, that's exactly how it should


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be.


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>> It really is. And the current target


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launch date is no earlier than


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Wednesday, April 1st, which means we


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could be watching the first humans leave


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Earth's orbit in over 50 years in less


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than 2 weeks.


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>> So, who's on board? The Aremis 2 crew is


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commander Reed Wisman, pilot Victor


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Glover, and mission specialist Christina


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Coach. All from NASA, along with


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Canadian Space Agency mission specialist


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Jeremy Hansen.


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>> And this mission is full of historic


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firsts. Victor Glover will become the


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first person of color to travel beyond


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Earth orbit. Christina Coach will be the


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first woman to do so. And Jeremy Hansen


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will be the first non-American citizen


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to leave Earth orbit.


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>> They'll fly a free return trajectory


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around the moon and back to Earth in


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approximately 10 days. No landing. This


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is a test flight, but it's a crucial


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one.


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>> Now, the road to the pad was not smooth.


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Earlier this year, a helium flow problem


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in the rocket's upper stage forced the


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team to roll the whole stack back to the


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vehicle assembly building that pushed


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the launch from February, then March,


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and now April.


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>> But the team fixed what needed fixing,


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including replacing batteries on the


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flight termination system, and now pad


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teams are moving into final countdown


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preparations.


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>> The last time humans flew beyond Earth


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orbit was Apollo 17 in December 1972.


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That was over 53 years ago. April 1st


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cannot come come soon enough.


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>> We will absolutely be following this


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one. Let's move on.


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>> All right, story 2 is pure stellar


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science and it's one of those


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discoveries that makes you realize how


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much of the universe we still haven't


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seen yet.


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>> Astronomers have found something that


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until now nobody was sure could even


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exist. a pair of brown dwarf stars


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orbiting each other so closely that one


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is actively pulling material from the


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other.


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>> Let's back up slightly. So, what is a


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brown dwarf? So, brown dwarfs are


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sometimes called failed stars. They're


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bigger than giant planets, but not


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massive enough to ignite and sustain


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hydrogen fusion the way our sun does.


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They sort of sit in a strange no man's


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land between planet and star. And we


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know many of them exist in binary pairs.


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But this system designated ZTF J1239


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plus 8347


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is something else entirely. These two


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brown dwarfs are in an incredibly tight


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orbit, completing a full loop around


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each other in 57 minutes.


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>> 57 minutes. For context, our moon takes


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about 27 days to orbit Earth. These two


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are practically on top of each other.


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And because they're so close, the


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gravity of one is pulling material from


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the surface of the other, a process


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called mass transfer. This kind of


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behavior has been seen before in binary


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white dwarfs, the dense remnants of dead


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stars, but never in brown dwarfs. This


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is a first.


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>> The research team led by Caltech


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graduate student Samuel White actually


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had colleagues who didn't believe the


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finding at first. One co-author said,


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and I love this, "We've told some of our


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colleagues about them, and they didn't


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believe such a thing exists,


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>> which is the best kind of science


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discovery. The system is only about a


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thousand light-years away, which is


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close enough that followup observations


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with the James Webb's telescope are


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being planned." And what's the eventual


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fate of these two? Either they merge


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into a single brighter star or the one


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that's gaining mass eventually becomes


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massive enough to trigger nuclear fusion


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and become a proper star. Either way, a


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fascinating ending.


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>> Incredible stuff. Story three, Anna. And


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this one involves Hubble being very,


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very lucky.


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>> So, this story starts with a mishap and


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ends up as one of the most extraordinary


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observational luck stories in recent


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astronomy.


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>> Tell us all about it. Okay, so


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researchers at Auburn University had won


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telescope time on the Hubble Space


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Telescope to study a specific comet. But


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then new technical constraints meant


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their original target wasn't viewable.


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So they quickly found a replacement, a


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different comet designated C/2025


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K1/Atlas


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or just comet K1 for short.


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>> Routine enough so far. routine until one


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of the team, co-investigator John Nonan,


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sat down to look at the data the next


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morning, and he found not one comet in


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the images. He found four because comet


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K1 was falling apart right in front of


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Hubble's cameras. The comet had


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fragmented into at least four distinct


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pieces, each with its own coma, that


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fuzzy envelope of gas and dust around


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the comet nucleus. and Hubble's sharp


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eyes could clearly resolve each fragment


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separately, something groundbased


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telescopes could barely make out as


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blurry blobs. The timing was


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extraordinary. The comet had passed


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closest to the sun, its parhelion, just


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about a month before. That's the most


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intense heat and gravitational stress a


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comet experiences. And for long period


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comets like cone, it's when they're most


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vulnerable to breaking up.


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>> And Hubble just happened to be watching.


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The team was able to trace the history


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of each fragment back in time,


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essentially reconstructing exactly how


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and when the breakup happened. This is


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the first time Hubble has captured a


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comet this early in the fragmentation


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process.


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>> There's also an intriguing mystery


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buried in the data. There was a delay


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between when the comet broke up and when


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bright fault bursts were seen from the


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ground. Normally, when a comet fragments


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and exposes fresh ice to sunlight, you'd


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expect it to brighten almost


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immediately, but this one didn't. Why?


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Nobody knows yet.


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>> And the initial analysis shows that


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comet K1 is unusually depleted in


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carbon, which gives us new clues about


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the primordial chemistry of our early


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solar system. All from a comet that


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wasn't even the intended target.


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>> Best accidents in science, honestly.


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Onwards. Story 4 is a numbers game.


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>> So, how many moons does Saturn have


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>> as of this week? 285.


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>> 285.


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And Jupiter?


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>> 101. The minor planet center of the


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International Astronomical Union


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announced on March 16th that four new


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moons have been confirmed around Jupiter


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and 11 new moons around Saturn.


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>> 15 new moons just like that. I love this


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recurring story. It feels like somebody


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keeps going around the back of these


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planets and finding more hiding there.


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>> Sort of exactly what's happening


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actually. The Saturn moons were found by


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a team led by Edward Ashton from the


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University of British Columbia who


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combed through data from the Canada


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France Hawaii telescope going back to


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2019. And the Jupiter moons were spotted


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by a team led by Scott Shepard at the


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Carnegie Institution. All of these newly


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confirmed moons are tiny, barely a


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couple of miles across with magnitudes


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around 25 to 27, meaning they're far too


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faint to see without some of the world's


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most powerful telescopes. They're what


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astronomers call irregular moons,


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captured objects orbiting far from the


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planet, often going the wrong way in


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retrograde. Most of the new Saturnian


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moons are doing just that, moving in the


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opposite direction to the planet's


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rotation, which is a strong sign they


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were probably captured from somewhere


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else. Either asteroids snagged by


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Saturn's gravity or fragments from a


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collision that broke up a larger moon in


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the distant past.


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>> And this count is only going to keep


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climbing. The Vera Rubin Observatory


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went fully online last year and it's


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going to be detecting these tiny faint


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moons at a rate we haven't seen before.


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>> Poor Jupiter though, still 200 moons


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behind Saturn. It's like Jupiter just


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can't catch up.


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>> Jupiter just needs to try harder. Okay,


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story five. And this one's a little


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closer to home.


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>> So, here's a question. What's on the


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moon right now other than dust and rock?


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I mean the flags, some rovers, a golf


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ball. I think


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>> more than 100 metric tons of humanmade


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material, spacecraft parts, scientific


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instruments, cameras, landers, crash


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sites, and yes, actually, bags of human


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waste left behind by Apollo astronauts.


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>> We left our rubbish on the moon.


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>> We absolutely did. And that's just


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what's there now. We're on the verge of


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a completely new era of lunar activity.


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Crude missions, commercial landers,


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scientific rovers, resource prospectors,


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and nobody has a comprehensive framework


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for what happens to all the stuff we're


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about to bring up there. There's no


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lunar environment protection agency.


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There's no international treaty


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specifically addressing lunar surface


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contamination. The Outer Space Treaty of


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1967 says countries are responsible for


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their national activities in space, but


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it doesn't get into the specifics of,


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say, a crash lander leaking propellant


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near a scientifically important site.


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And there are real concerns beyond


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aesthetics. Some of the most


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scientifically valuable areas of the


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moon, like the permanently shadowed


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craters near the poles, which may hold


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ancient ice deposits, could be


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contaminated by human activity before


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we've even finished studying them in


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their pristine state. Base policy


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researchers and planetary scientists are


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increasingly pushing for binding


00:11:06.079 --> 00:11:08.069
international agreements about lunar


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preservation zones, impact site


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protections, and responsible disposal of


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mission hardware. It's a conversation


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the space community needs to have


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urgently because the missions are coming


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whether the policy frameworks are ready


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or not. The moon has been waiting 4 and


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a half billion years. The least we can


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do is think carefully before we trash


00:11:28.640 --> 00:11:29.430
it.


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>> All right, we're ending today's show


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with a story that has two very different


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outcomes. One spacecraft recently lost


00:11:36.640 --> 00:11:39.750
and one spacecraft recently found.


00:11:39.760 --> 00:11:42.550
>> Let's start with the one that was found.


00:11:42.560 --> 00:11:44.630
's ProRBA 3 mission, which we mentioned


00:11:44.640 --> 00:11:46.870
yesterday, has now been officially


00:11:46.880 --> 00:11:49.110
confirmed as recovered, and the details


00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:51.110
of how it happened are genuinely


00:11:51.120 --> 00:11:52.310
dramatic.


00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:55.350
>> So, Probota 3 is a fascinating mission.


00:11:55.360 --> 00:11:57.750
It uses two separate spacecraft flying


00:11:57.760 --> 00:12:00.230
in precise formation at an altitude of


00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:03.990
over 60,000 km to create an artificial


00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:06.710
solar eclipse. One satellite carries a


00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:09.269
disc that blocks the sun, and the other


00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:11.509
carries a cornograph to study the faint


00:12:11.519 --> 00:12:13.590
outer atmosphere of the sun, which is


00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:15.509
normally washed out by the sun's


00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:16.629
blinding light.


00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:19.430
>> On February 14th, the Coronagraph


00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:22.230
spacecraft, one of the two, suffered a


00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:24.629
chain of failures that caused it to lose


00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:27.509
its orientation. Its solar panels turned


00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:29.670
away from the sun, its batteries


00:12:29.680 --> 00:12:32.550
drained, and it entered survival mode,


00:12:32.560 --> 00:12:34.870
tumbling silently through space for


00:12:34.880 --> 00:12:36.470
nearly a month.


00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:38.629
>> Engineers tracked it and waited for an


00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:40.790
opportunity. That opportunity came when


00:12:40.800 --> 00:12:43.110
the tumbling spacecraft briefly turned


00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:45.430
its solar panels toward the sun, just


00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:47.430
enough to generate a small amount of


00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:50.310
power. Teams in Spain acted immediately


00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:53.350
and contact was reestablished. ISA


00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:56.389
Director General Joseph Ashbacher said


00:12:56.399 --> 00:12:59.110
they saw that some sunlight was actually


00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:01.430
hitting the solar panels and that was


00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:03.829
their moment. The spacecraft has now


00:13:03.839 --> 00:13:06.550
regained stable orientation and is


00:13:06.560 --> 00:13:08.949
charging its batteries. Engineers are


00:13:08.959 --> 00:13:11.509
carefully running checks before resuming


00:13:11.519 --> 00:13:13.350
science operations.


00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:16.069
>> Relief all around. Now contrast that


00:13:16.079 --> 00:13:17.910
with the story of NASA's Maven


00:13:17.920 --> 00:13:21.110
spacecraft currently orbiting Mars. or


00:13:21.120 --> 00:13:22.870
at least it should be.


00:13:22.880 --> 00:13:25.829
>> NASA lost contact with Maven on December


00:13:25.839 --> 00:13:28.870
6th last year after the spacecraft was


00:13:28.880 --> 00:13:31.590
expected to emerge from behind Mars


00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:34.230
after a routine pass on the far side of


00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:36.949
the planet. 2 days before contact was


00:13:36.959 --> 00:13:39.509
lost, telemetry showed everything was


00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:42.790
normal, no problems whatsoever. But then


00:13:42.800 --> 00:13:44.949
a fragment of tracking data from the day


00:13:44.959 --> 00:13:47.509
contact was lost suggested Maven was


00:13:47.519 --> 00:13:49.829
rotating unexpectedly as it came out


00:13:49.839 --> 00:13:52.310
from behind Mars and was no longer in


00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:54.790
its planned orbit. NASA immediately


00:13:54.800 --> 00:13:56.629
began recovery efforts.


00:13:56.639 --> 00:13:59.030
>> Those efforts have now been ongoing for


00:13:59.040 --> 00:14:02.230
over 3 months. NASA has used its deep


00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:04.310
space network, the Greenbank


00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:07.430
Observatory, even the Curiosity rover,


00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:09.990
pointed skyward on the Martian surface


00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:13.110
in attempts to detect a signal. So far,


00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:14.150
nothing.


00:14:14.160 --> 00:14:15.910
>> At a conference this week, NASA's


00:14:15.920 --> 00:14:17.829
planetary science director, Louise


00:14:17.839 --> 00:14:19.829
Proctor, said, and I thought this was a


00:14:19.839 --> 00:14:22.230
poignant quote, "We haven't officially


00:14:22.240 --> 00:14:24.629
said Maven is lost yet. We're still


00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:27.189
looking for it. Maven has been orbiting


00:14:27.199 --> 00:14:31.430
Mars since 2013, 12 years of science,


00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:34.150
studying how Mars lost its atmosphere


00:14:34.160 --> 00:14:37.110
over billions of years and transformed


00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:39.750
from a potentially habitable world into


00:14:39.760 --> 00:14:42.790
the cold desert we see today. It also


00:14:42.800 --> 00:14:45.670
handles about 20% of communications


00:14:45.680 --> 00:14:48.550
between Earth and the Mars rovers. Other


00:14:48.560 --> 00:14:50.710
orbiters, including Mars Reconnaissance


00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:53.430
Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, and ISA's Trace


00:14:53.440 --> 00:14:55.670
Gas Orbiter, are taking up the relay


00:14:55.680 --> 00:14:57.990
duties for now, and NASA is exploring


00:14:58.000 --> 00:14:59.350
options for a replacement


00:14:59.360 --> 00:15:01.430
telecommunications orbiter.


00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:03.910
>> One story of recovery, one still


00:15:03.920 --> 00:15:06.389
unresolved. We'll keep you posted on


00:15:06.399 --> 00:15:07.269
both.


00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:09.189
>> And that is your Astronomy Daily for


00:15:09.199 --> 00:15:12.870
Saturday, March 21st, 2026. What a show


00:15:12.880 --> 00:15:15.990
today. A moon rocket on the pad, a comet


00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:18.550
in pieces, failed stars behaving


00:15:18.560 --> 00:15:20.069
unexpectedly,


00:15:20.079 --> 00:15:22.870
15 new moons, a moon covered in our


00:15:22.880 --> 00:15:25.509
junk, and two spacecraft with very


00:15:25.519 --> 00:15:26.870
different stories.


00:15:26.880 --> 00:15:29.189
>> As always, links to all our source


00:15:29.199 --> 00:15:31.350
articles are in the show notes. If you


00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:33.509
enjoyed today's episode, please leave us


00:15:33.519 --> 00:15:36.069
a review wherever you get your podcasts.


00:15:36.079 --> 00:15:38.230
It genuinely helps more people find the


00:15:38.240 --> 00:15:39.030
show.


00:15:39.040 --> 00:15:41.430
>> You can find us at astronomydaily.io


00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:43.670
io and on social media everywhere at


00:15:43.680 --> 00:15:45.910
astroaily pod. We are part of the


00:15:45.920 --> 00:15:48.230
bytes.com podcast network. Check them


00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:50.150
out for more great shows.


00:15:50.160 --> 00:15:52.710
>> Until next time, keep looking up.


00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:57.269
>> Clear skies everyone. Astronomy day.


00:15:57.279 --> 00:16:01.079
Stories we told.