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Speaker 1: Tonight, the night sky puts on a show. The Moon

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has a date with Jupiter, and six planets are lined

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up for your viewing pleasure. This is Astronomy Daily. I'm

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Avery and I'm Anna, Season five, episode forty nine, Thursday,

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the twenty sixth of February twenty twenty six. Lots to

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get through today, so let's go.

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Speaker 2: If you've been watching the western sky after sunset this week,

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you may have noticed something spectacular building. Six of the

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Solar System's planets are above the horizon simultaneously right now,

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and tonight is the visual highlight.

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Speaker 1: We've also got a deep dive into some extraordinary new

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findings about our galaxy's magnetic field, a quick update on

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Artemis two, the identity of the astronaut at the center

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of last month's historic ISS medical story, and a brief

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heads up on a scrubbed military hypersonic launch that we'd

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been previewing earlier in the week.

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Speaker 2: Big show, let's get into it.

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Speaker 1: So, Avery, I know you've been watching this planet parade

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build all week, and tonight is the moment we've been

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waiting for.

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Speaker 2: It really is. As darkness falls this evening, if you

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head outside and look west, you'll see the Moon sitting

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right next to Jupiter. It's a stunning pairing, and it's

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the centerpiece of a six planet alignment that's been building

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throughout February.

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Speaker 1: Let's break this down. Fix planets above the horizon at once, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,

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and Neptune. How does that work? Exactly?

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Speaker 2: The planets orbit the Sun and roughly the same flat plane,

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the Ecliptic, so from Earth they always appear in a

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band across the sky. When they spread out enough that

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several are visible simultaneously, we get what astronomers call a

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planet parade or alignment. Right now, they're nicely spaced across

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that band.

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Speaker 1: Now, I want to be honest with listeners here, because

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not all six planets are easy to spot. Some are

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quite the challenge.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely right, Jupiter is by far the star of the

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show tonight, pun intended. It's high in the western sky

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after sunset, unmistakably bright and sitting just below the waxing,

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gibbous Moon. If you only look once this week, look tonight,

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look for the Moon, and that blazing point of light

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right beside it is Jupiter.

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Speaker 1: What about the others?

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Speaker 2: Saturn, and Mercury are visible, but low on the western horizon.

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And I mean low, they said, not long after the sun,

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so you've got a fairly tight window. Venus is actually

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dimmer than you'd expect right now because it's also sitting

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low in the twilight glare. Urinus needs binoculars, and Neptune

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really requires a telescope, and you'll need to wait until

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the Sun is fully below the horizon before even attempting

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that one.

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Speaker 1: So Jupiter and the Moon for casual observers, extra kit

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for the dedicated stargazer, exactly.

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Speaker 2: And here's something that keeping your diary. We're one week

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away from the full moon on March third, and this

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isn't just any full moon. It's a total lunaric LIL,

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which means we're heading into a blood moon. We'll have

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full coverage of that next.

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Speaker 1: Week, something to really look forward to. So tonight, get outside,

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find the Moon and say hello to Jupiter right beside it. Beautiful.

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Speaker 2: Now to the heart of our galaxy. Astronomers using the

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world's largest radio telescope array have peered deeper into the

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Milky Way's central molecular zone than ever before, and what

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they found is extraordinary.

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Speaker 1: The region around Sagittarius, a star. Our galaxy's super massive

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black hole at the very center is a violent, turbulent environment,

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and new observations have revealed hidden chemistry swirling through that chaos.

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Speaker 2: What the researchers have done is essentially map the complex

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molecules in the cloud of gas and dust that surround

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Sagittarius astar at a level of detail that wasn't previously possible.

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They're finding chemical signatures that challenge how we've thought about

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that region of the galaxy.

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Speaker 1: When the lead researchers describe this as just the beginning,

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that's telling, isn't it. That phrase usually means they've opened

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a door rather than closed one.

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Speaker 2: Precisely, this is a proof of concept for a new

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era of galactic center observations. As the arraysed capabilities continue

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to improve, the resolution and sensitivity will only get better.

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We're talking about unlocking processes at the very engine room

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of our galaxy, how molecules form in extreme environments, how

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the black holes, radiation and gravity shape the surrounding chemistry.

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Speaker 1: And it all feeds into the bigger question of how

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galaxies like ours evolve over cosmic time.

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Speaker 2: Exactly right, it's one of those stories where the science

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is genuinely exciting right now, but the best discoveries are

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still ahead of us.

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Speaker 1: As we've been reporting throughout the week, NASA's Artemis two

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Space launch System rocket has now been rolled back from

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launch Pad thirty nine B to the Vehicle assembly building.

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Speaker 2: The Crawler transporter made the journey on Tuesday, a spectacle

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haular but somewhat sobering sight that six point six million

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pound vehicle hauling a rocket that was supposed to be

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heading for the Moon.

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Speaker 1: The issue is with the upper stage, and engineers now

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need to diagnose and repair whatever's causing the problem in

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the controlled environment of the VAB rather than on the pad.

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The current expectation is that the earliest realistic launch opportunity

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is now early April.

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Speaker 2: Interestingly, President Trump gave a State of the Union address

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on Monday and gave a shout out to the Space Force,

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calling it and I quote, my baby, but notably didn't

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mention the Artemis two crew by name.

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Speaker 1: Make of that what you will. We'll continue to follow

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this as it develops, but for now, no moonshot in March.

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Speaker 2: Now to a story that first broke last month and

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which has just had a significant new development. NASA has

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now identified the astronaut at the center of the first

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ever medical evacuation from the International Space Station.

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Speaker 1: To recap for anyone who missed the original story, in January,

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Space Excess Crew eleven mission returned to Earth early. One

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member of that crew had experienced a medical issue serious

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enough to warrant cutting the mission short and bringing the

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entire crew home.

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Speaker 2: That was unprecedented in the entire history of the ISS.

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We'd never had a medical evacuation at that level before.

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Speaker 1: NASA has now shed more light on what happened, specifically

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at the request of the astronaut involved, who wanted their

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identity made public. The crew of Crew eleven included NASA

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astronauts Mike Fink and Xena Cardman, Jackson astronaut Kmiya Yui,

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and Ross Cosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platinoff. It turns out it

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was Mike Fink who needed the medical help. It was

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explained that he needed some more imaging scans performed, which

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just couldn't be done with the equipment on board the

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ISS SO home they came, However, the nature of his

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ailment still hasn't been revealed.

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Speaker 2: The details emerging give the medical community and space agencies

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important data for future long duration mission planning. It raises

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real questions about how we handle health crises in orbit,

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what protocols are in place, and how they might need

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to evolve, especially as missions eventually go beyond Low Earth orbit.

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Speaker 1: A deeply human story alongside all the engineering and science.

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Will link to the full NASA disclosure in the show notes.

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Speaker 2: Right and now for what might be my favorite story

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of the episode, And honestly, it's one of those pieces

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of research that just makes you stop and think about

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how strange and wonderful our galaxy is.

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Speaker 1: Tell me everything.

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Speaker 2: So, a team led by doctor joe Anne Brown at

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the University of Calgary has produced the most detailed map

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yet of the Milky Ways magnetic field, and what they

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found has fundamentally surprised them.

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Speaker 1: Let's back up a second. How do you even map

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a magnetic field across a galaxy?

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Speaker 2: Great question. The technique is called Faraday rotation. When radio

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waves travel through space, they interact with electrons and magnetic fields,

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and that interaction causes them to shift slightly. They rotate.

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Doctor Brown student Rebecca Booth described it brilliantly. Think of

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a straw in a glass of water looking bent because

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of refraction. Faraday rotation is the same concept, but it's

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electrons and magnetic fields benting radio waves instead of light

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through water.

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Speaker 1: That's a genuinely beautiful analogy.

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Speaker 2: Isn't it. And by carefully measuring how much those radio

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waves shift, the team can trace the invisible magnetic lines

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flowing through the galaxy. Now here's the astonishing finding. If

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you could look at the Milky Way from above, the

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overall magnetic field runs clockwise, but in the Sagittarius arm,

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one of our galaxy spiral arms, it runs counterclockwise, a

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complete reversal.

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Speaker 1: They must have known about that reversal before, though.

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Speaker 2: Right, they knew about the reversal, Yes, what they didn't

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understand was how the transition happened, how the field switches direction.

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And this is where the new data delivered a genuine

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moment of discovery. Doctor Brown describes it perfectly. She says,

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one day her student Anna brought in the new data,

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and Brown's reaction was, and I'm quoting here, OMG, the

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reversal's diagonal.

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Speaker 1: I love that and OMG moment in astrophysics.

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Speaker 2: It's wonderful. The reversal doesn't happen in a flat, clean

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plane as previously assumed. It runs diagonally through the galaxy

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in three dimensions. That changes everything about how we model

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the magnetic structure. The team has now built a new

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three D model to explain it.

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Speaker 1: And why does it matter? Why does the galaxy's magnetic

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field matter at all?

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Speaker 2: Well, as doctor Brown puts it, without a magnetic field,

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the galaxy would collapse in on itself due to gravity.

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The magnetic field is essentially one of the forces holding

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the whole structure and balance. Understanding how it's shaped and

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how it's evolved over billions of years tells us something

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profound about how galaxies like ours come to exist and persist.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely mind expanding. We'll have the research details and links

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in the show notes.

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Speaker 2: And finally, a quick update on a launch we'd been

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previewing earlier in the week. Rocket Lab's Haste suborbital rocket

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was due to lift off from Wallops Island, Virginia on Tuesday,

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but the mission was scrubbed due to out of bounds

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launch commit criteria.

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Speaker 1: No new launch date has been announced yet, but just

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to give listeners the full picture on what this mission

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actually is, because it's genuinely fascinating.

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Speaker 2: It really is. The mission is called That's not a knife,

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and yes, that is a deliberate crocodile done d reference

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and it's carrying a scramjet powered hypersonic demonstrator called dart AE,

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built by the Australian company Hypersonics.

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Speaker 1: A scramjet being the key technology here.

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Speaker 2: Exactly a scramjet supersonic combustion ramjet ingests air flowing through

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it faster than the speed of sound and burns fuel

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in that airstream. What makes hypersonics version particularly interesting is

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that it runs on hydrogen rather than kerosene, making it

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essentially zero carbon dioxide emissions at hypersonic speeds. The dart

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AE is designed to validate advanced propulsion materials and guidance

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systems for the US Defense Innovation.

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Speaker 1: Unit, and HASTE itself is Rocket Labs workhorse electron rocket

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adapted for suborbital hypersonic testing.

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Speaker 2: Correct, this would have been the seventh HASTE flight. The

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mission will fly, just not this week. We'll update you

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when a new data is confirmed.

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Speaker 1: That's everything for Series five, episode forty nine. An enormous

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thank you for joining us today.

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Speaker 2: Lots to look at both in the sky and in

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the science. Don't forget Moon and Jupiter tonight, get outside

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if you can.

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Speaker 1: You enjoyed today's episode, please do subscribe, leave us a review,

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and share us with a friend who loves space. We

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are Astronomy Daily, part of the Bytes dot com podcast network.

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Find us on all major podcast platforms at Astronomy Daily

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and on social media at astro Daily Pod.

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Speaker 2: We'll be back tomorrow with more from the universe.

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Speaker 1: Until then, keep looking up blear skies everyone, Sunny

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Speaker 2: Day, star Starz