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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Astronomy Daily.

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Speaker 2: I'm Anna and I'm Avery. You're listening to Season five,

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episode forty two for Wednesday, the eighteenth of February twenty

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twenty six, And what a day to be a spaceman.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely tonight right now, in fact, the Moon is sliding

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so close to mercury that it's actually hiding it from

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view for skywatchers in parts of the southern United States.

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A genuine celestial magic trick happening as you listen.

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Speaker 3: And that's just one of six stories we're bringing you today.

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We've got NASA's Artemis two on the verge of a

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crucial fueling test, a European rocket making a big move

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in the satellite broadband race, a genuinely new twist in

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the ongoing saga of our interstellar Visitor, and two stories

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that I promise will make you rethink some things you

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thought you knew about the Solar System.

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Speaker 1: Big show, let's get into it, so Anna.

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Speaker 3: Let's start with the biggest space story of the week,

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and honestly the one that could define the Artemis two.

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Speaker 1: Yes, for anyone who needs a quick refresh, Artemis two

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is NASA's first crude mission around the Moon since Apollo

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seventeen in nineteen seventy two. Four astronauts Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover,

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Christina Cock, and Canada's Jeremy Hansen are preparing to fly

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a ten day loop around the Moon and back. No

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lunar landing, but a crucial proving flight before we put

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boots on the surface.

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Speaker 3: And they are so close. The rocket is sitting on

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Path thirty nine B at Kennedy Space Center right now.

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But before NASA will commit to a launch date, they

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need to successfully do what's called a wet dress rehearsal,

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a full practice countdown where they actually load the rocket

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with fuel and take it right to the edge of launch,

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then drain it all out again.

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Speaker 1: They did that once already on February third, and it

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didn't go smoothly. A liquid hydrogen leak cropped up, the

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exact same kind of problem that plagued Artemis one one

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three years ago. The countdown was terminated at T minus

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five minutes and fifteen seconds, close but not close enough.

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Speaker 3: Which pushed the February launch window off the table entirely.

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NASA administrator Jared Isaacman was fairly philosophical about it. He

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said This is exactly why you do a rehearsal to

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find these issues before you're flying with crew. But the

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clock is ticking.

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Speaker 1: Since then, engineers have replaced two seals and a clogged

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filter in the hydrogen fueling system. They ran a partial

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confidence test on February twelfth to check the repairs, and

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now tomorrow, February nineteenth, they begin tanking day for the

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second full wet dress rehearsal.

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Speaker 3: This is the one that counts. If the test goes cleanly,

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no oud of limits, hydrogen concentrations countdown proceeds all the

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way to the terminal phase, NASA will analyze the data

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and set a launch date. The current earliest possibility is

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March six.

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Speaker 1: It's worth noting just how historic mission is beyond the

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Moon return angle, Victor Glover will become the first person

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of color to travel beyond low Earth orbit. Christina Cock

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will be the first woman, Jeremy Hansen will be the

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first non American. Every single person on that crew is

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making history in their own right.

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Speaker 3: So tomorrow is genuinely a day to watch. We'll be

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keeping a close eye on how the tanking goes, and

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we'll have updates as they come through.

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Speaker 1: All right. Let's bring it back to Earth, or rather

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to the sky above Earth, because tonight is one of

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those rare evenings where if you happen to be in

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the right place and you look up at the right moment,

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you'll see something genuinely extraordinary.

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Speaker 3: Two things actually, First, the moon and mercury. Tonight, February eighteenth,

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a slender, one and a half day old crescent moon

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is passing extremely close to Mercury in the western sky

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just after sunset, and I mean extremely close.

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Speaker 1: For observers along a narrow band of southern US states.

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We're talking Arizona and New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia,

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the moon will actually pass directly in front of Mercury

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and block it from view entirely. That's called an occultation.

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Mercury literally disappears behind the moon's dark limb and reappears

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on the other side.

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Speaker 3: For everyone else across North America and beyond, it won't

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be a full occultation, but you'll still see a dramatically

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close pairing. East Coast observers will see Mercury sitting just

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north of the moon as twilight falls. By the time

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darkness reaches the west coast, the Moon will have shifted

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to within about one degree of the planet. Venus hangs

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brilliantly below them as a helpful reference point.

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Speaker 1: Now the window is tight. Mercury sets not long after

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the sun, so you want to get outside as soon

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as the sky darkens. Look low in the west southwest

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if you can spot Venus, and you'll have no trouble

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doing that. It's blazingly bright. Mercury will be nearby. The

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moon makes it easy tonight.

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Speaker 3: And if that warn enough, Jupiter watchers have a tree

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two tonight. Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon and the biggest moon

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in the entire Solar System, is transitting across Jupiter's face.

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East coast observers can see it underway as soon as

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it gets dark. It takes just over three hours to

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cross the disk, and then Ganymede's shadow follows it across,

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creating that striking black dot effect on Jupiter's cloud tops.

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Speaker 1: So tonight really is a two for one skywatching event.

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Mercury and the Moon in the west at dusk, Jupiter

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and Ganymede in the southeast through the night. If you

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have binoculars or a small telescope. Even better, get outside,

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staying with today's news, and this one happened literally today.

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Europe's Arion six rocket has successfully launched thirty two satellites

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into orbit for Amazon's Project Kuiper.

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Speaker 3: For those not familiar with Kuyper, Amazon has been quietly

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building a large constellation of broadband Internet satellites designed to

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take on space exist. This is a big commercial play.

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Darlink currently leads the market with thousands of operational satellites,

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but Amazon has the resources and ambition to make this

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a genuine competition.

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Speaker 1: What's notable about today's launch is that it used the

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most powerful configuration of Airon six, flying with four strap

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on boosters rather than two. It was essentially a statement

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of capability from the European side of the commercial launch industry.

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This rocket can handle serious payloads.

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Speaker 3: There's also a bigger picture here. Arion six has had

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somewhat of a turbulent road. It came in behind schedule

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and face some early technical hurdles, but launches like this,

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winning commercial contracts for a high profile constellation like hyper

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are exactly what Europe needs to keep its launch industry

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competitive in an era dominated by SpaceX and an increasingly

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capable Chinese launch sector.

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Speaker 1: The broadband satellite race is one of the defining infrastructure

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stories of this decade. I'd argue Starlink has already changed

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what connectivity looks like in remote areas and conflict zones,

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hyper Amazon's one Web investments, the Chinese Go Wong constellation.

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They all point to a future where low Earth orbit

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becomes genuinely critical economic territory.

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Speaker 3: Today's launch is one tile in that much larger mosaic

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thirty two satellites closer to that future.

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Speaker 1: Now an update on our Interstellar Visitor, and I do

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mean update. There is genuinely new information here happening right now.

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Speaker 3: I know we've given three i at Lists quite a

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run over recent episodes, but this one earns its place today.

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Speaker 1: Completely for new listeners. Three i at Lists is only

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the third interstellar object ever confirmed to pass through our

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Solar System. It arrived from outside our stellar neighborhood, swung

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around the Sun last October, and is now heading back

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out into the galaxy forever. We will never see this

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object again.

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Speaker 3: Here's what's happening right now. Issa's Juice spacecraft. That's the

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Jupiter icy Moons Explore currently en route to Jupiter pass

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with an observational range of three I atlas back in

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November last year. Due to the challenging thermal conditions during

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Juice's transit through the Inner Solar System, the data collected

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couldn't be downlinked straight away. That data is now being

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transmitted to Earth. The window is February eighteenth to the

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twentieth today.

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Speaker 1: If successful, these would be the closest ever observations of

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an interstellar object by a spacecraft. Now, Juice didn't do

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a dedicated flyby, its trajectory is locked in for Jupiter,

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but even opportunistic observations from its suite of cameras, spectrometers,

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and particle detectors could give us a perspective on three

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I at lists that no Earth based telescope can provide.

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Speaker 3: And the data would complement an extraordinary recent run of discoveries.

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Hubble has directly imaged the nucleus for the first time.

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JWST detected methane in its atmosphere, a molecule never before

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seen in an interstellar object, and the object is still

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spinning faster than it was before its solar encounter, a

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legacy of all that outgassing as it's swung close to

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the Sun.

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Speaker 1: Three I atlass is now about three and a half

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astronomical units from the Sun in the constellation Gemini. It's fading,

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but still reachable with a decent amateur telescope, and it

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has one more big act to play, a close pass

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by Jupiter in March, which may trigger fresh outbursts as

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Jupiter's tidal forces stress the nucleus.

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Speaker 4: An extraordinary object, and the fact that we have a

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spacecraft data downlink happening as we record today makes it

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entirely current. What report would Juce found as soon as

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the science teams release their analysis.

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Speaker 1: Right deep time now. I genuinely love this next story

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because it takes something you thought you understood Saturn's rings

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and reframes the entire origin of the system.

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Speaker 3: New research by mattia Chuk at the SETI Intitude, about

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to be published in the Planetary Science Journal, proposes a

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dramatic two stage catastrophe that reshaped the entire Saturturnian system

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roughly four hundred million years ago, and I mean reshaped everything. Titan,

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the rings, Iapetus, Hyperion, all of it connected to one

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ancient collision.

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Speaker 1: Let's set the scene. Saturn has puzzled planetary scientists for

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a long time. Its axial tilt is an unusually steep

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twenty six point seven degrees. You don't expect gas giants

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to form that way. Titan is migrating away from Saturn

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at a surprisingly rapid rate. The moon Iapetus sits at

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an oddly inclined orbit, and the rings are far younger

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than the planet itself, only a few hundred million years old.

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Geologically speaking, one thing after another that didn't quite add up.

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Speaker 3: Juke and colleagues ran simulations and found the scenario that

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explains it all at once. The key player is a

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moon they're calling Proto Hyperion. Saturn used to have this

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additional mid sized satellite orbiting in the Outer System. When

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saturn Spin orbit resonance with the other planets in the

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Solar System broke down, Proto Hyperion was destabilized, it drifted inward,

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and it collided with a Proto Titan.

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Speaker 1: The merger of those two moons roughly four hundred million

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years ago set off a chain reaction. Some of the

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collision debris accreted around what would become today's Titan, explaining

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why Titan's surface looks surprisingly young despite the moon itself,

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being ancient, Titan absorbed new material and essentially reset its surface.

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Speaker 3: Other debris from the collision perturbed the inner moon system.

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Titan's resonant gravitational interaction with Protodone and Proto Rhea caused

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further instabilities, more collisions, more debris. Most of that material

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eventually reaccreted into the inner moons we see today mimis Enceladus.

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Test this Dione Rhea, but a fraction of it stayed dispersed.

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That fraction became Saturn's.

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Speaker 1: Rings and Hyperion, the small, oddly shaped, walnut like moon

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that looks like it survived a very bad day. According

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to the model, it actually did survive a very bad day.

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It formed from the debris of that Proto Hyperion and

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Prototitan collision and was captured into resonance with Titan. The

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researchers note that in most of their simulations, Hyperion was

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lost entirely. Its survival in a relatively small number of

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runs suggests the real system was genuinely close to being

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quite different.

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Speaker 3: What I find compelling about this is how elegantly one

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event connects everything. The tilt of the whole planet, the

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age of the rings, the orbits of Iapetus and Hyperion.

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Titan's migration rate one ancient merger explains it all.

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Speaker 1: Now, the researchers are careful to say this is a hypothesis,

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not a confirmed history. Simulations can be suggestive without being definitive.

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But NASA's Dragonfly mission is heading to Titan. It launches

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in twenty twenty eight and arrives in twenty thirty four.

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One of the things Dragonfly will investigate is the age

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and history of Titan's surface. If the surface shows evidence

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of that ancient resetting, that would be a powerful confirmation.

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Speaker 3: Four hundred million years of cosmic history hiding in a

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walnut shaped moon. I love the stuff.

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Speaker 1: And finally a story that will make you rethink just

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how long it takes to get to Mars, or at

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least how long it might take one day.

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Speaker 3: Russia State Nuclear Corporation rose Adam, through its Troyice Institute

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near Moscow, has been developing a nuclear powered magna plasma engine,

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and they're making a bold claim that this technology could

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get a crude spacecraft to Mars in thirty days.

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Speaker 1: To put that in context, a can ventional chemical rocket

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takes roughly eight months to reach Mars thirty days would

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be a transformation, not just an improvement. It would fundamentally

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change the feasibility of human Mars missions. Less radiation exposure

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for the crew, less time, and microgravity, a completely different

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logistical calculus for resupply and emergency scenarios.

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Speaker 3: The engine works by accelerating hydrogen using electromagnetic fields rather

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than combustion, to a velocity of one hundred kilometers per second.

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That's roughly twenty two times faster than the exhaust velocity

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of a conventional chemical rocket. The working body is plasma

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charged particles, and it's driven by an onboard nuclear reactor

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that provides the sustained electrical power the accelerator needs.

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Speaker 1: Importantly, this isn't a launch engine. You'd still use conventional

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chemical rockets to get off Earth surface and into orbit.

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The plasma system switches on once you're in se for

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the interplanetary cruise, smooth continuous acceleration followed by a long

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deceleration burn.

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Speaker 3: The prototype is currently running ground trials inside a fourteen

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meters vacuum chamber designed to replicate deep space conditions. The

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researchers say the engine has demonstrated sufficient longevity over twenty

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four hundred hours for a Mars transportation operation. A flight

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ready prototype is targeted for twenty thirty.

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Speaker 1: Now, and this is important. There are real caveats here.

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No peer reviewed data has been published yet. The thrust

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is very low, around six newtons. Integrating a nuclear reactor

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into a crude spacecraft is an enormous engineering challenge in itself,

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with regulatory, thermal and radiation shielding hurdles that remain largely

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unsolved publicly.

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Speaker 3: Fare points, but the broader context is genuinely interesting. NASA

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is investing in its own plasma propulsion programs. The Vasi

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mer engine from ad Astra Rocket Company in Texas targets

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a Mars trip of forty five to sixty days. China

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has plasma thrust or research under way.

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Speaker 4: Two.

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Speaker 3: There's a real multi nation push to solve the propulsion

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problem for deep space travel.

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Speaker 1: Chemical rockets got us to the Moon. Getting to Mars regularly,

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safely and at human timescales requires something different. This is

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where that search is heading, wherever it ultimately leads.

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Speaker 3: Thirty days to Mars, even as an aspiration. That's a

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sentence worth sitting with.

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Speaker 1: And that's our six stories for Season five, Episode forty two.

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What a lineup from a rocket on a launch pad

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in Florida to a crescent moon swallowing Mercury to the

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debris of a four hundred million year old collision still

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orbiting Saturn, and.

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Speaker 3: An interstellar comment sending us its last data from the

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edge of the Solar System while Russia dreams of getting

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to Mars in a month. Base never has a quiet week.

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Speaker 1: If tonight's sky events caught your attention, there is still

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time to get outside Mercury and the Moon in the west,

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Jupiter and Ganymede in the southeast. You have your orders

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and keep.

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Speaker 3: An eye on Artemis. Tomorrow's fueling test is one of

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those days where the news could come fast. We'll be

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on it.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for spending part of your Wednesday

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with us. We'll be back tomorrow for more from the universe.

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Speaker 3: Until then, clear sky is everyone, Sunny day

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Speaker 4: Star is, Star is