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Astronomy Daily: Latest Space News

Astronomy Daily: Latest Space News

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Episodes
  • The Impenetrable Wall That Failed: Killer Electrons Made Inside Earth’s Radiation Belt

    The Impenetrable Wall That Failed: Killer Electrons Made Inside Earth’s Radiation Belt
    Nov 1 2026
    Show notes
    Electrons made on the wrong side of Earth's 'impenetrable barrier', a gamma-ray burst that only looked weak, the week that was, and a Halloween that is astronomically a week early. The Wall That Broke In 2014 NASA's Van Allen Probes revealed a sharp inner edge to Earth's outer radiation belt: electrons at the very highest energies never got closer than about 2.8 Earth radii. During the May 2024 superstorm — the biggest since the 2003 Halloween storms — Japan's Arase satellite saw electrons of about 3 MeV rise deep inside that 'impenetrable barrier'. A new paper led by Yoshizumi Miyoshi (Nagoya University ISEE) shows a peak in electron phase space density growing in place at L* ≈ 3, about 12,000 km up — evidence the electrons were accelerated there rather than carried in. Intense chorus waves, operating in a region emptied by a crushed plasmasphere and a negative ionospheric storm, are the likely engine. Caveats: one storm; 'consistent with' chorus acceleration; the breach itself had been reported before — the new part is the mechanism. Not Faint, Just Side-On GRB 260310A, caught by Fermi on 10 March 2026, had a feeble gamma-ray flash but one of the brightest afterglows ever seen. Yu-Han Yang (Tor Vergata) and colleagues argue we viewed a two-component jet from the side. Preprint from May; published in ApJL this month; competing models exist. The Week That Was E214 GRB 160425A, one burst with two births · E215 θ¹ Ori C, the star born twice · E216 Rubin's first dwarf-planet candidate 2026 ED138 · E217 Betelgeuse pulled out of round by Siwarha · E218 Teghaza 001, one of the oldest pieces of Mars. Plus Swift's re-entry watch, Voyager 1 at one light-day on 18 Nov, and Starship Flight 15 targeted for November. Skywatch Halloween is astronomically a week early (true cross-quarter 7 Nov). Mars, Jupiter and Regulus line up before dawn, Mars–Jupiter just over 1° apart on 16 Nov. Moon near Mars and Jupiter on the mornings of 2–3 Nov. Saturn rules the evening, best from the south. US clocks fall back 1 Nov. Solar viewing only with ISO 12312-2 certified filters. Sources · Miyoshi et al., GRL 53, e2026GL125879 (2026) — https://doi.org/10.1029/2026GL125879 · ISAS/JAXA release, 27 Oct 2026 (Japanese) — https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/topics/004417.html · Nagoya University release via phys.org — https://phys.org/news/2026-10-solar-storm-triggered-ultrarelativistic-electrons.html · Yang et al., ApJL 1011 L22 (GRB 260310A) — https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aea990 · arXiv 2605.23818 (Yang et al. preprint) — https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.23818 · Gill et al., arXiv 2605.26091 (competing model) — https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.26091 · NASA: Swift mission ends ahead of re-entry — https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/10/23/nasas-swift-mission-ends-ahead-of-re-entry/

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    22 mins
  • Mars’s Ancient Rock: A 4-Billion-Year-Old Clue to the Red Planet’s Past

    Mars’s Ancient Rock: A 4-Billion-Year-Old Clue to the Red Planet’s Past
    Oct 31 2026
    Show notes A rose-coloured rock picked up in the Sahara in 2022 turns out to be one of the oldest pieces of Mars ever found. Teghaza 001 formed at least 4.1 billion years ago, and two independent radiometric clocks agree. We explain how it was dated, what it says about early Mars losing its water, and why its source is still a shortlist of 13 craters in the southern highlands. Also: Voyager 1 goes silent for two days and recovers on its own as it nears one light-day from Earth on 18 November; Hubble finally sees the 'Cat's Tail' of Beta Pictoris, the wreckage of a collision between two Pluto-sized worlds; two Halloween ghosts in the Carina Nebula; and quick hits on the 100th US spacewalk from the ISS, Reid Wiseman's move to JPL, Swift and Starship. Skywatch: US clocks go back on 1 November, Saturn in the evening, Venus returns to the morning sky, Mars and Jupiter close in, the Moon passes Pollux, Mars, Jupiter and Regulus, the Southern Taurids, and Carina for southern observers.

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    22 mins
  • Betelgeuse’s Ghost Companion: The Hidden Star Stirring Orion’s Giant

    Betelgeuse’s Ghost Companion: The Hidden Star Stirring Orion’s Giant
    Oct 30 2026
    Episode summaryBetelgeuse is being haunted. New VLA and ALMA radio observations show the red supergiant's atmosphere stretches and relaxes in step with the orbit of its hidden companion, Siwarha — a companion too faint to see in radio, caught by the ripples it leaves behind. Also: lithium-fluoride crystals that rode around the Moon on Artemis I, why comets almost certainly didn't deliver life's ingredients to Earth (but did better on Mars), and Virgin Galactic's new spaceship, Apeiron. Plus Swift's final days, Hubble helping Roman, Starship Flight 15, and where to find Betelgeuse tonight from both hemispheres.Show notesThe Ghost in Betelgeuse · Matthews (MIT Haystack), Dupree (CfA), Richards (Manchester) and Dent (ESO/ALMA) imaged Betelgeuse at seven frequencies, 22–485 GHz, with the VLA and ALMA between 2021 and 2026. · The outer atmosphere has recovered from the 2019–20 Great Dimming (~3,500 K at 22 GHz); a temperature minimum of ~2,220 K sits at ~1.2 stellar radii, matching the infrared 'MOLsphere'. · The star's ellipticity tracks the orbital phase of its companion Siwarha: more stretched near greatest elongation (~10% in Oct 2024), rounder near transit and eclipse (<2% in Apr 2026). · Caveats: small effect, ~9 epochs, frequency-dependent orientation puzzle, Siwarha's nature contested; preprint posted August 2026. · Next: Siwarha re-emerges on the far side of Betelgeuse in late 2027. Crystals That Went Around the Moon · Bilski et al. (IFJ PAN, DLR), Radiation Measurements: LiF fluorescent nuclear track detectors from the MARE phantoms on Artemis I reconstructed the cosmic-ray energy-deposition spectrum without destroying the detector. · Matched plastic track detectors at intermediate energies; ~30% overestimate for the heaviest ions, attributed to neutron knock-on of lithium nuclei; lithium-7 crystals reduce it. · Near the Moon, dose was higher than in low Earth orbit but less than intuition suggests, and more evenly spread through the body. Comets Probably Didn't Seed Life on Earth · Anslow et al. (Cambridge), Scientific Reports: rapid decline of the bombardment, comet break-up, atmospheric filtering, impact heating and crater-lake dilution make HCN delivery to early Earth 'exceedingly rare'. · Delivery to Mars is about five times more effective (lower impact speeds, thinner atmosphere). · Caveat: modelling, focused on HCN; doesn't exclude delivery in tightly packed exoplanet systems. Virgin Galactic's Apeiron Comes Home · First Delta-class spaceplane named Apeiron ('boundless') on 28 Oct and flown under mothership Eve from Mesa, Arizona to Spaceport America. · Flight tests next; customer flights targeted mid-2027; second ship late 2027; target twice-weekly flights and 500+ missions per vehicle. Quick Hits · Swift ended operations 20 Oct; NASA expects re-entry within weeks. · Hubble lens image DESI J194.5345+03.5358 released to help calibrate Roman's ~160,000 expected strong lenses (image release, no new paper). · Starship Flight 15 targeted for November with a two-stage catch attempt; no official date. Skywatch · Betelgeuse rises ~22:33 Sydney, 21:48 LA, 21:46 NY, 20:39 London (Fri 30 Oct); highest before dawn: 49° Sydney, 63° LA, 57° NY, 46° London. US clocks fall back Sun 1 Nov. · Saturn at dusk; Mercury's last evening appearance favours the south (~11° at sunset from Sydney). · Pre-dawn Mars–Jupiter closing: 6.5° (this weekend), ~4° (5 Nov), ~1.2° (16 Nov). Last quarter Moon 1 Nov 20:28 UTC; Moon past Mars, Jupiter and Regulus 2–3 Nov. · Zodiacal light: evening west from the south, pre-dawn east from the north. Solar viewing only with ISO 12312-2 filters. Sources · NRAO via Newswise — What Lurks Within the Shadows of Betelgeuse? — https://www.newswise.com/articles/what-lurks-within-the-shadows-of-betelgeuse · Matthews et al., arXiv 2608.02847 — https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.02847 · Bilski et al., Radiation Measurements (DLR elib record) — https://elib.dlr.de/226596/ · Universe Today — Glowing Salt Crystals Tracked Radiation Aboard Artemis I — https://www.universetoday.com/articles/glowing-salt-crystals-tracked-radiation-aboard-artemis-i · Anslow et al., Scientific Reports — https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-74214-y · Universe Today — Ancient Comets Carried Organic Compounds… — https://www.universetoday.com/articles/ancient-comets-carried-organic-compounds-but-they-didnt-survive-crashing-into-earth · Universe Today — Virgin Galactic Flies Next-Gen Space Plane… — https://www.universetoday.com/...
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    23 mins
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