The Brightest Star Is a Planet — April 22, 2026

0:03 Calaruga Shark media. Welcome to Sleep from space. The Lyrid meteor shower peaks tonight debris from Comet thatcher look toward the star Vega after midnight for up to eighteen meteors per hour. Following the recent successful test flight of NASA's Artemis two mission around the Moon, NASA rolled out the core stage, or the largest section of the agency's Space Launch System rocket that will launch the crude Artemis three mission in twenty twenty seven. The stage departed from the agency's Machud assembly facility in New Orleans On. There are currently twelve astronauts aboard the International Space Station, including Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chubb, and Tracy Caldwell Dyson. They are traveling at over seventeen thousand miles per hour while watching sixteen sunrises every day. Venus continues its rain as the evening star, shining so bright it casts faint shadows on dark nights.

1:11 Mercury peaks above the western horizon briefly after sunset. One of the many asteroids in our neighborhood. Twenty twenty six h y one swings by today at about thirty to fifty feet across it'll pass roughly three times the Moon's distance. No threat, just a cosmic passerby the Sun is putting on a show for solar observers. Lots of active sunspot regions right now, which means the chance of solar flares stays elevated. Aurora watchers in the far North might catch a faint glow on the horizon tonight. Launch coming up tomorrow a Falcon nine from Vandenberg Space Force based California.

1:54 SpaceX is sending up Starlink Internet satellites. This Sleep from Space your AI curated guide to the Cosmos. Sources include NASA and space news from around