Astronomy Daily: Latest Space News

Astronomy Daily S05E138 — Weekend Space and Astronomy News Wrap — Saturday, 11 July 2026   China nets a rocket booster from the sea for the first time ever, we remember space pioneer Wally Funk, and we recap the week's four biggest stories: Euclid's 31 ancient quasars, mystery metal spheres on a Queensland beach, JWST's unexplained substance on Titan and Pluto, and New Horizons waking from hibernation at the solar system's edge.   In This Episode •          China's Long March 10B rocket achieves the world's first-ever sea-net booster recovery, on its maiden flight •          Remembering Wally Funk (1939–2026), the oldest woman ever to fly to space •          Euclid space telescope uncovers 31 ancient quasars, including two new distance records •          Mystery metal spheres wash up on a Queensland beach — identified as rocket debris •          JWST finds a mysterious, unidentified substance on both Titan and Pluto •          New Horizons wakes from 321-day hibernation, 5.9 billion miles from Earth •          Skywatching: the Moon, Mars and the Pleiades line up before dawn
 

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S05E137: Euclid uncovers 31 ancient quasars including the two most distant ever observed, Roman Space Telescope reaches a major pre-launch milestone at Kennedy Space Center, China details its plans for a sunward asteroid early-warning network, Hayabusa2 reveals asteroid Torifune is a two-lobed “snowman” contact binary, NASA's GRITSS CubeSat launches to sharpen global positioning precision, and we close with tonight's Moon-free skywatching window. Sources •          Euclid Consortium / ESA — “Euclid discovers the most ancient quasars in the Universe,” Astronomy & Astrophysics, July 6, 2026 •          NASA Science — “NASA's Roman Launch Preparations Proceed,” science.nasa.gov/blogs/roman, July 9, 2026 •          Space.com — “China announces plan to build early-warning system for dangerous asteroids,” July 9, 2026 •          JAXA — “Hayabusa2 captures images of asteroid Torifune,” global.jaxa.jp, July 6, 2026 •          NASA / SatNews — “NASA and ISISPACE Deploy GRITSS CubeSat to Advance Orbital Reference Frame Precision,” July 9, 2026 •          Astronomy.com — “The Sky This Week, July 10–17, 2026”

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Astronomy Daily S05E136 — Thursday, 9 July 2026   An MIT physicist proposes a shoebox-sized satellite that could catch a hidden nuclear weapon in orbit, NASA's New Horizons wakes up after its longest hibernation ever nearly six billion miles from home, an Antarctic telescope catalogues over seven thousand galaxy clusters, Japan's ispace books cargo space on a SpaceX Starship Moon mission, a Falcon 9 booster breaks its own reuse record for a thirty-sixth flight, and we close with tonight's Venus–Regulus conjunction.   In This Episode •          A shoebox-sized satellite that could catch a hidden nuclear weapon in orbit •          New Horizons wakes up after its longest hibernation, 5.9 billion miles from Earth •          An Antarctic telescope catalogues over 7,000 galaxy clusters •          Japan's ispace books cargo space on a SpaceX Starship Moon mission •          SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster B1067 breaks its own reuse record — 36 flights •          Tonight's sky: Venus cosies up to Regulus
 

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Astronomy Daily — S05E135 — Wednesday, July 8, 2026 1. World's First Commercial Nuclear-Powered Satellite Reaches Orbit SpaceX's Transporter-17 rideshare mission carried City Labs' BOHR CubeSat to orbit on July 7, the first commercially built satellite to fly a nuclear-powered payload — a tritium betavoltaic cell that generates electricity continuously, day or night, regardless of sunlight. Key points •      Launched July 7, 2026 at 3:12am EDT from Vandenberg Space Force Base aboard a Falcon 9, part of the 81-payload Transporter-17 rideshare mission. •      BOHR (Betavoltaic Orbital High-Reliability) CubeSat built by City Labs, a Miami/Florida-based company. •      Uses a 'NanoTritium' betavoltaic device — converts beta particles from the radioactive decay of tritium directly into electricity via a semiconductor. •      Power output is tiny (micro-to-milliwatt range) but continuous — unaffected by eclipse periods or solar panel orientation. •      Tritium's 12.3-year half-life means the power source stays effective for two decades before decaying to harmless helium-3. •      FAA authorised the launch after finding public radiation exposure would stay below one millirem under conservative assumptions. 2. New Zealand's Fuel-Free Thruster Passes First Orbital Test Auckland-based Zenno Astronautics has successfully tested its 'Supertorquer' — an attitude-control thruster that uses superconducting magnets to push against Earth's own magnetic field, generating thrust with no propellant at all. Key points •      Zenno Astronautics is a spin-off from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. •      The system, called 'Supertorquer', completed its first in-orbit test in early July 2026. •      Superconducting magnets, powered by solar panels, interact with Earth's magnetic field to generate torque and maintain a satellite's orientation — no propellant is consumed. •      Until recently this kind of superconducting hardware was too large and complex to fit aboard a small satellite; miniaturisation has now made it practical. •      Because it needs no fuel, the technology could in principle keep a satellite maneuvering indefinitely, as long as it has sunlight for power. •      Zenno co-founder/company messaging: 'We are essentially looking to remove all reliance on Earth's resources so that we can build a sustainable industry in space.' 3. Tianwen-2 Arrives at Quasi-Moon Kamo'oalewa — And Upends the 'Piece of the Moon' Theory China's Tianwen-2 sample-return spacecraft has arrived at near-Earth asteroid Kamo'oalewa after a 400-day, 1-billion-kilometre journey, beaming back the first close-up image — just as new JWST data throws serious doubt on the leading theory of where this strange little world came from. Key points •      Tianwen-2 launched May 29, 2025, and reached Kamo'oalewa on July 6, 2026, arriving at a station-keeping distance of about 20 km. •      China National Space Administration (CNSA) publicly announced the arrival July 6, releasing the first close-up image via Xinhua. •      Kamo'oalewa (asteroid 2016 HO3) is one of only seven known 'quasi-satellites' of Earth — it orbits the Sun but stays in a stable dance alongside our planet, and has done so for roughly 100 years, with about 300 more to go. •      The image reveals a small, asymmetrical rock roughly 20-30 metres across. •      Long-standing hypothesis (since 2021): Kamo'oalewa is a fragment blasted off the Moon's far side by the impact that created the Giordano Bruno crater, 1-10 million years ago — based on its reflectance spectrum resembling space-weathered lunar soil. •      New twist: a July 1 JWST preprint (Sharkey et al.) models Kamo'oalewa's albedo (reflectivity) at around 0.59 — far higher than the Moon's ~0.12 — which is incompatible with a lunar origin and points instead toward a rare E-type silicate asteroid. 4. Jeremy Hansen Steps Back From Active Astronaut Duty Jeremy Hansen, the Canadian Space Agency astronaut who became the first Canadian to fly around the Moon aboard Artemis II in April, announced July 6 that he's stepping back from full-time astronaut service this September. Key points •      Hansen flew as mission specialist on Artemis II in April 2026, alongside NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch — the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years. •      He becomes the first Canadian to travel beyond low Earth orbit / around the Moon. •      Announced via social media and a Canadian Space Agency statement on July 6, 2026. •      Transition takes effect this September, after 32 years of military service and 17 years as a CSA astronaut. •      He will continue serving as a reservist with the Royal Canadian Air Force and says he remains committed to Canada's space program in a new capacity. •      Joined CSA in the 2009 astronaut recruitment campaign after a career as a Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot. 5. Aurora Alert: G1 Geomagnetic Storm Possible July 9 Space weather forecasters are watching a combination of a fast coronal mass ejection and an Earth-facing coronal hole that could combine to produce a minor (G1-class) geomagnetic storm on July 9 — with aurora potentially visible across the northern United States, Canada, and parts of northern Europe. Key points •      A fast CME launched from the Sun on July 5 has a modelled arrival time around 6 UTC on July 9. •      Separately, a coronal hole — a region of open magnetic field letting fast solar wind escape — is rotating into an Earth-facing position and its high-speed stream is expected to arrive around the same time. •      Combined, NOAA/space weather forecasters say these two effects could produce G1 (minor) geomagnetic storm conditions. •      Possible aurora visibility zones: Seattle, Edinburgh, and the northern tier of the United States and Canada. •      Context: last week's monster sunspot active regions have now rotated to the Sun's far side after putting on a dramatic show of flares and prominences as they departed. •      Solar activity has otherwise dropped to low levels — mostly common C-class flares — with active region AR4482 now the main feature on the Earth-facing side of the Sun. 6. Chinese Researchers Model the Best Way to 'Nuke' a Killer Asteroid A new peer-reviewed study models two different ways a nuclear device could be used to deflect a threatening asteroid — a straightforward surface impact detonation, or a 'pre-excavation' approach that digs a crater first before delivering a deeper, more effective blast — and finds the right choice depends heavily on how much warning time we have. Key points •      Published July 7, 2026 in the journal Space: Science & Technology. •      Compares two nuclear deflection modes: (1) 'impact detonation' — a simple, shallow-crater surface blast, and (2) 'pre-excavation detonation' — using a penetrator device to dig a deeper crater first, then detonating a warhead to achieve 'deep detonation' inside the asteroid. •      Researchers modelled launch vehicle energy, impactor spacecraft velocity, and the resulting change in the asteroid's velocity for both modes. •      Both modes were tested against a 'virtual threat asteroid database' assuming warning times ranging from one year to twenty years. •      Headline finding: given enough warning time, the deeper 'pre-excavation' detonation is markedly more efficient at deflecting an asteroid than a simple surface blast — but a straightforward impact detonation may still be the only option when warning time is short. •      Context: no known asteroid currently poses an imminent threat to Earth — Apophis, once considered a risk for its 2029 and 2068 close approaches, has been ruled out as a hazard for the foreseeable future.

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Astronomy Daily S05E134 — Tuesday, 7 July 2026   Mysterious metal spheres wash up on a Queensland beach and turn out to be re-entered rocket debris, Hayabusa2 beams home stunning close-ups of asteroid Torifune, new VLT chemistry reveals interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS may be one of the oldest objects ever studied, TESS finds its first exoplanet using Einstein's gravitational microlensing, JWST spots six galaxies merging into one twelve billion years ago, and New Horizons charts the solar wind's fade at the true edge of the solar system.   In This Episode •          Mystery metal spheres wash up on a Queensland beach — identified as rocket debris •          Hayabusa2's flyby of asteroid Torifune returns stunning new images •          3I/ATLAS's ancient birthplace revealed by new VLT chemical fingerprint study •          TESS discovers its first exoplanet using gravitational microlensing •          JWST spots a rare six-galaxy mega-merger, 12 billion years in the past •          New Horizons tracks the solar wind's slowdown at the solar system's edge

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Today on Astronomy Daily: Japan's Hayabusa2 pulls off a nail-biting high-speed asteroid flyby, James Webb finds the same unexplained chemical mystery on Titan AND Pluto, a neutrino detector may have caught the universe's oldest supernova echo, a wild new theory tries to solve the black hole information paradox, we wrap up the weekend's aurora action, and we look at when NASA's New Horizons might finally cross into interstellar space.
Monday, July 6, 2026 1. Hayabusa2's Flyby of Asteroid Torifune •        JAXA's Hayabusa2 spacecraft flew within ~800 metres of near-Earth asteroid (98943) Torifune on July 5, 2026, at a relative speed of about 5.25 km/s (~18,000 km/h). •        This is an extended-mission flyby, not a sample return — Hayabusa2 already delivered Ryugu samples to Earth in December 2020. •        Purpose: engineering demonstration of high-precision navigation relevant to planetary defense (asteroid deflection technology). •        Torifune is roughly 450 metres across. Next stop for Hayabusa2: rendezvous with asteroid 1998 KY26 in 2031. •        Source: JAXA/ISAS, Nikkei Asia, phys.org (July 5, 2026). 2. Mystery Molecule Found on Both Titan and Pluto •        James Webb Space Telescope data reveals an unexplained absorption feature at ~5.11 micrometres on the surfaces of Titan (Saturn's largest moon) and Pluto. •        Evidence points to a surface origin rather than atmospheric origin, based on limb-vs-disc-center comparison on Titan. •        Candidate compounds include allenes, but no confirmed identification yet. •        Pluto's absorption line is roughly three times broader than Titan's at the same central wavelength. •        Study led by Dr. Bruno Bézard's team (Paris Observatory); posted to arXiv June 11, 2026 — not yet peer-reviewed. 3. Super-Kamiokande's Hint of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background •        Super-Kamiokande collaboration presented results at Neutrino 2026 (UC Irvine) after analyzing ~5,000 days of data. •        Found a statistically significant excess of events between 13.3–81.3 MeV — consistent with the long-predicted Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background (DSNB). •        Significance: 2.6-sigma (~99.5% confidence) — below the 5-sigma discovery threshold, so described as an 'indication,' not a confirmed detection. •        If confirmed, DSNB would offer a new way to study the cosmic history of core-collapse supernovae via neutrinos rather than light. 4. A Theoretical Fix for the Black Hole Information Paradox •        New theoretical study proposes black holes stop evaporating just before vanishing completely, leaving a stable Planck-scale remnant (~9×10⁻⁴¹ kg). •        Mechanism: a repulsive force from spacetime torsion in a 7-dimensional Einstein-Cartan model, active at extreme (Planckian) densities. •        Proposal: quantum information is preserved via long-lived 'vibrations' in the remnant's internal torsion field. •        This is a theoretical/mathematical proposal, not an observational result. Researchers: Pinčák, Pigazzini, Pudlák, Bartoš. 5. Weekend Geomagnetic Storm / Aurora Wrap-Up •        X1.1 solar flare (June 30) and associated CME triggered a G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm around July 3–4, 2026. •        Aurora borealis visible as far south as Utah, Colorado, and Nevada in the continental US. •        NOAA SWPC reports conditions easing to unsettled/G1 levels through July 6 as CME effects wane. 6. Forecasting New Horizons' Crossing Into Interstellar Space •        SwRI researchers (lead: Dr. Jonathan Gasser) combined solar wind forecasting with heliosphere models to predict New Horizons' termination shock crossing. •        Forecast window: 2029–2040, with possible multiple crossings as the heliosphere expands/contracts with the solar cycle. •        New Horizons is currently ~66 AU from the Sun. Voyager 2 crossed its termination shock at 84 AU in 2007, with a 46% solar wind speed drop. •        New Horizons would become only the third spacecraft (after Voyager 1 and 2) to cross this boundary. •        Two papers: Advances in Space Research and The Astrophysical Journal (SwRI, 2026).

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Astronomy Daily — S05E132 — Weekend Space and Astronomy News Wrap — Saturday, July 4, 2026 It's the Fourth of July weekend edition of Astronomy Daily! This week's wrap covers the successful launch of the Swift rescue mission after a week of delays, the historic start of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's decade-long sky survey, an aurora-triggering geomagnetic storm timed for the holiday weekend, a promising nearby habitable-zone super-Earth, a brand new James Webb 'cosmic fireworks' image released for America's 250th birthday, and a rare ultra-close conjunction between Mars and Uranus visible before dawn today. In this episode: •          Swift Boost mission: LINK spacecraft launches successfully on the final flight of Pegasus XL •          Vera C. Rubin Observatory begins its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time from Chile •          G2–G3 geomagnetic storm watch brings aurora chances for the July 4 weekend •          Recap: GJ 3378 b, a potentially habitable super-Earth just 25 light-years away •          JWST releases new 'cosmic fireworks' image of the FS Tau star system for America 250 •          Mars and Uranus in an extremely close conjunction, visible before dawn today Links & sources: •          science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift — Swift Boost mission updates •          rubinobservatory.org — Vera C. Rubin Observatory LSST •          swpc.noaa.gov — NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center aurora forecasts •          science.nasa.gov/missions/webb — James Webb Space Telescope FS Tau image release •          space.com/stargazing — Mars-Uranus conjunction viewing guide

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Astronomy Daily S05E131 — Friday, July 3, 2026   1. Swift Rescue Mission — Grounded Mid-Flight •    Katalyst Space Technologies' LINK spacecraft was set to launch aboard a Pegasus XL rocket, air-launched from Northrop Grumman's Stargazer aircraft over Kwajalein Atoll. •    Thursday's attempt (July 2) got airborne after two prior weather scrubs, but was aborted mid-flight when engineers spotted an unexplained warning. •    No new launch date has been set. Swift faces uncontrolled reentry by October 2026 without a successful reboost. 2. Solar Storm Watch — G2 Geomagnetic Storm Active Today •    X1.1 flare (June 30) plus 10 M-class flares in 24 hours from sunspot region AR4479. •    NOAA SWPC G2 (moderate) geomagnetic storm watch in effect for July 3, easing July 4. •    Aurora borealis potential as far south as Idaho/New York (US); aurora australis potential for Tasmania and southern NZ/VIC under clear, dark skies. 3. TESS's First Microlensing Exoplanet — Gaia23bra b •    Super-Jupiter (~1.63 Jupiter masses) orbiting an orange dwarf ~40,000 light-years away, discovered via gravitational microlensing — a first for TESS. •    Originally flagged by ESA's Gaia mission in 2023; confirmed using archival TESS data. •    Published July 1, 2026 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, led by Mallory Harris (University of New Mexico). 4. GJ 3378b — Revised Habitable-Zone Super-Earth, 25 Light-Years Away •    UC Irvine team revised the planet's mass down to 2.3 Earth masses (rocky super-Earth, not mini-Neptune) and orbital period to 21.45 days. •    Receives ~90% of the stellar radiation Earth receives from the Sun — squarely in the habitable zone. •    Atmosphere unknown; planet does not transit, so JWST transit spectroscopy isn't possible. Published in The Astrophysical Journal, led by Paul Robertson (UC Irvine). 5. ESO Study: 1.7 Million Planned Satellites 'Devastating' for Astronomy •    Study led by ESO astronomer Olivier Hainaut, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. •    Modelled impact of proposed constellations (SpaceX ~1M for space data centres, Reflect Orbital 50,000 mirror satellites) on ESO's VLT and the Vera Rubin Observatory. •    Recommends a hard cap of 100,000 satellites, all fainter than naked-eye visibility. Decision pending from the US FCC. 6. JWST Solves the WD 1856b Mystery •    Gas giant (4–11 Jupiter masses) orbits a white dwarf every 34 hours, blocking 56% of its star's light during transit. •    New JWST atmospheric data shows the planet is ~240K hotter than expected — evidence it migrated inward 3–5.5 billion years after the star's death, rather than surviving the red giant phase in place. •    Published July 1, 2026 in Nature, led by Ryan MacDonald with Northwestern's Christopher O'Connor.

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Astronomy Daily S05E130 — Thursday, July 2, 2026   A quick update on Swift's third launch scrub, a solar flare that could spark aurora for July 4th weekend, a hot Jupiter breaking the rules of physics, Amazon Leo's final Atlas V flight, patriotic Chandra imagery, a look back at a third galaxy missing its dark matter, and NASA's cheeky World Cup wager involving the Moon.   In This Episode ●        Swift/LINK rescue mission scrubbed again, third attempt targeted for today ●        X1.1 solar flare triggers G2 geomagnetic storm watch for July 3 ●        CoRoT-2 b: the hot Jupiter that isn't tidally locked ●        Amazon Leo's 8th and final Atlas V launch — LA-08 ●        NASA's Chandra reveals four cosmic images for America's 250th ●        Circling back: DF9, the third dark matter-free galaxy ●        NASA pledges a soccer ball to the Moon if the US wins the World Cup   Links & Sources ●        NASA Swift Blog — science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift ●        Space.com — Sun unleashes X1.1 flare, CME could spark aurora for July 4 ●        Space.com — This weird 'hot Jupiter' exoplanet has a hotspot in the wrong place ●        Space.com — Watch Atlas V launch 29 Amazon Leo satellites ●        NASA Chandra — Red, White, Blue Universe for US 250th ●        Yale News / Keck Observatory — Third time's the charm for a row of faint galaxies without dark matter ●        Space.com — NASA will send a soccer ball to the Moon if the US wins the World Cup

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A landmark day in space news: the Vera Rubin Observatory officially begins its ten-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time, NASA reveals it may send a spare nuclear-powered Mars rover to the Moon's south pole, Blue Origin shows off its rebuilt launch pad a month after the New Glenn explosion, Rocket Lab strikes an $8 billion deal to acquire Iridium, a brief Swift/LINK scrub update, and scientists hold the first-ever summit on sending humans to Titan. 1. Rubin Observatory Begins Its Ten-Year Cosmic Movie The NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory officially began the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) on June 30, 2026, following a months-long commissioning process after handover from construction to operations last October. Rubin's 8.4-metre Simonyi Survey Telescope, fitted with the largest digital camera ever built (3,200 megapixels), will scan the entire southern sky every few nights for the next decade, producing a new image roughly every 40 seconds. Each area of sky will be revisited around 800 times over the survey's ten years, generating up to 7 million nightly alerts and around 10 terabytes of data per night. The final dataset is expected to contain billions of objects. Source: NOIRLab / SLAC / Rubin Observatory press release, June 30, 2026   2. Swift/LINK: Scrubbed, Retargeted for Tonight The launch of Katalyst Space's LINK servicing spacecraft — riding the final Pegasus XL rocket to rendezvous with NASA's Swift Observatory — was scrubbed Tuesday, June 30, due to unfavourable weather over Kwajalein Atoll. The next attempt is targeted for July 1 at 9:43 p.m. local Kwajalein time (5:43 a.m. EDT). Source: NASA Science blog, June 30, 2026   3. NASA's Moon Base Update: PROMISE Rover & New Lander Contracts NASA awarded roughly $590 million across Astrobotic, Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines for four new CLPS lander missions targeted for late 2028, delivering science and technology demonstration payloads to the Moon. NASA is also considering repurposing an engineering development unit of its Mars Perseverance/Curiosity rovers as a new lunar rover named PROMISE (Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration), powered by a radioisotope generator for operation in permanently shadowed polar craters. Source: NASA news release and briefing, June 30, 2026   4. Blue Origin Reveals Its Rebuilt Launch Pad One month after a New Glenn rocket exploded during a static-fire test at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 36A on May 28, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp announced the company will rebuild the pad in a new 'horizontal/vertical hybrid' configuration rather than recreating the original. Reconstruction has begun, with Blue Origin targeting a return to flight before the end of 2026. Early analysis points to the aft section of the first stage as the source of the anomaly, though the investigation continues. Source: Blue Origin company statement / SpaceNews / CNBC, June 30, 2026   5. Rocket Lab's $8 Billion Bid for Iridium Rocket Lab announced a definitive agreement to acquire satellite communications operator Iridium Communications in a cash-and-stock deal valued at approximately $8 billion — $54 per share, a 24.1% premium. The deal combines Rocket Lab's launch and satellite manufacturing business with Iridium's 66-satellite L-band constellation and 2.5 million-plus subscriber base, aiming to create a vertically integrated space company. The transaction is expected to close in mid-2027. Source: Rocket Lab / Iridium joint announcement, June 29, 2026   6. Mapping Humanity's Next Giant Leap — to Titan The first-ever Humans to Titan Summit was held June 11–12 in Boulder, Colorado, gathering planetary scientists and engineers to explore the concept of a future crewed mission to Saturn's largest moon. Organised by Amanda Hendrix of the Planetary Science Institute and hosted by the Southwest Research Institute, the summit addressed spacesuits, habitats, transportation and Titan's extreme cold, ahead of NASA's robotic Dragonfly mission, targeted to launch no earlier than 2028. Source: Space.com / Leonard David, June 30, 2026

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This episode includes AI-generated content.