Latest / Space News Today / One Sleep to Splashdown: Artemis II Heads Home + Lunar Science Bombshell

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One Sleep to Splashdown: Artemis II Heads Home + Lunar Science Bombshell · Space News Today

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One more sleep. After 9 days in deep
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space, nine days that took humanity
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further from Earth than we have ever
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been, the Artemis 2 crew is coming home.
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Splashdown is tomorrow and we have the
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full countdown.
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>> Plus, the NASA scientists who literally
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screamed when the astronauts spotted
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something nobody expected to see on the
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moon. We'll tell you what it was and why
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it matters so much for future missions.
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>> A brand new class of star has been
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discovered. Meet Gandalf and Moonsized,
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two cosmic oddballs that have just
0:33
rewritten the stellar rule book.
0:35
>> Mars still very much not welcoming
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visitors. We have the science to prove
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it. And four planets are lining up in
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the April sky for a rare celestial
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parade.
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>> And we close with the most relatable
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space story in years. What happens when
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four astronauts take their iPhones a
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quarter of a million miles from Earth?
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Spoiler, the photos are extraordinary.
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>> Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily,
1:01
season 5, episode 85. I'm Anna
1:04
>> and I'm Avery. It is Thursday, the 9th
1:07
of April, 2026, and we are broadcasting
1:10
from astronomyaily.io
1:12
on the bites.com podcast network.
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>> It has been a big week in space, and it
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is about to get even bigger. Let's go.
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>> I'm ready. It is day nine of the Aremis
1:23
2 mission and right now the Orion
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spacecraft call sign Integrity is
1:28
hurtling back toward Earth at
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extraordinary speed. Tomorrow evening it
1:33
will splash down in the Pacific Ocean
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off the coast of San Diego. And when it
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does, four astronauts will have
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completed the most significant human
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space flight since the Apollo program.
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>> The splashdown is scheduled for around
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8:00 p.m. Eastern time. That's Friday
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morning for us here in Australia and New
1:50
Zealand. And NASA says the weather
1:52
window is looking favorable. The USS
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John P. Murtha, the naval recovery
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vessel, is already on station in the
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Pacific with helicopters and divers
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ready to retrieve the crew.
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>> And Avery, before any of that can
2:05
happen, there's a critical sequence of
2:07
events. The crew module, the part that
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carries the astronauts, has to separate
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from the service module. Then it plunges
2:14
into the atmosphere at around 25,000
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miles an hour. There will be a blackout
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period of several minutes when mission
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control loses all contact as the plasma
2:24
sheath forms around the capsule.
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>> And then parachutes. First the drogue
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shoots to slow them down dramatically.
2:30
Then the main parachutes and Orion drops
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to about 17 mph for a soft ocean
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landing. After 9 days and nearly 700,000
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m of travel.
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>> Now the heat shield. This is the thing
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that has been quietly keeping engineers
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awake at night. After the uncrrewed
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Artemis 1 mission, inspectors found that
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chunks of the heat shield had sheared
2:52
away unevenly during re-entry. NASA and
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Loheed Martin spent 4 years
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investigating and redesigning it. Both
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say they are highly confident it will
3:02
perform perfectly tomorrow, but it will
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be the realworld test. Once safely
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aboard the Murtha, the crew will undergo
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medical evaluations before flying to
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Johnson Space Center in Houston.
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Commander Reed Weisman, pilot Victor
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Glover, mission specialist Christina
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and Canadian Space Agency
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astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
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>> History makers, every single one of
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them. Victor Glover, the first person of
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color to travel to the moon. Christina
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the first woman. Jeremy Hansen,
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the first person from a country other
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than the United States to reach lunar
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distance.
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>> And when they get home, President Trump
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has apparently already promised them a
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White House visit. I'd say they've
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earned it.
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>> We'll of course have the full splashdown
3:44
coverage in tomorrow's episode of
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Astronomy Daily. Set those alarms. Now,
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while all the drama of the homeward
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journey has been unfolding, the science
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team at Johnson Space Center has been
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going absolutely wild over what the crew
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observed during the lunar flyby on
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Monday.
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>> And I do mean wild, Avery. NASA's lunar
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science lead Kelsey Young described, and
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this is a direct quote from the press
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conference, audible screams of delight
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in the science evaluation room.
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>> What were they screaming about? Micro
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meteorite impact flashes. During the
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solar eclipse phase of the flyby, when
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the moon blocked the sun and Orion was
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in darkness, the crew spotted between
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four and six distinct flashes of light
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on the lunar surface. Brief colorless
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pin pricks of light lasting just
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milliseconds. Each one was a tiny rock
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traveling thousands of miles hour
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slamming into the moon. Now, scientists
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had hoped the crew might see one or two
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of these. Apollo astronauts reported a
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handful across all the missions, but to
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see multiple flashes so quickly, so
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clearly, they genuinely weren't
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expecting it.
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>> Commander Wiseman described it
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beautifully in the postflyby debrief. He
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said they had 5 minutes of what he
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called human emotional reaction, just
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staring at the darkened moon during the
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eclipse, and then the impact started
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showing up. And why does this matter
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scientifically? Because knowing the
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frequency and location of micrometeorite
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impacts is critical engineering data.
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When future Artemis crews are living and
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working on the lunar surface, building
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habitats, doing spacew walks, those tiny
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rocks are going to be falling on their
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heads and their equipment. Every data
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point about impact rates helps engineers
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design better protection. The Lunar
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Reconnaissance Orbiter team is right now
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using the crew's sketches and timing
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notes to hunt for fresh craters from
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those specific impacts. They may
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actually be able to see the new craters
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from orbit.
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>> And there's a beautiful human moment
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buried in all of this, too. During the
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flyby, the crew proposed names for two
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previously unnamed craters on the lunar
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far side. They suggested integrity after
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their spacecraft and Carol in honor of
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Commander Wiseman's late wife. Those
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names have been submitted to the
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International Astronomical Union for
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official consideration.
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>> That stopped me in my tracks when I read
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it. History made names written into the
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moon.
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>> Moving now to a story that has
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absolutely nothing to do with Artemis,
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but is just as extraordinary in its own
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way. Astronomers have just identified a
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brand new class of stellar objects and
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they've named them Gandalf and
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moonsized.
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>> I'm immediately interested.
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>> As you should be. So context. When a
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star like our sun runs out of fuel, it
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eventually collapses into what's called
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a white dwarf. An incredibly dense
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Earth-sized remnant. These are common.
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We know them well. But when two white
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dwarfs in a binary system collide and
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merge, the resulting object can be
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strange.
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>> Define strange.
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>> Ultra massive, highly magnetic, rapidly
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rotating, and this is the weird part,
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emitting X-rays even though they're
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completely alone. No companion star, no
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material being pulled in from somewhere
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else, just X-rays from a solo stellar
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remnant. Normally X-ray emissions from
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white dwarfs come from accretion. One
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star stealing material from another. So
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to see it happening in isolation is
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genuinely new. Exactly. And researchers
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at the Institute of Science and
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Technology Austria ISTA have now
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confirmed two of these objects share
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five distinct characteristics. Ultram
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massive, highly magnetic, rapidly
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rotating, companionless, and X-ray
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emmitting. Two is enough to define a
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class. And one of them is surrounded by
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a half ring of ionized gas trapped in
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its own asymmetrical magnetic field,
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hydrogen emission spectra that looked
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like, and I love this description, cat
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ears.
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>> Cat ears. The spectral signature kept
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switching between two peaks in sync with
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the object's 6-minute rotation period.
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Something no one had ever seen in a
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white dwarf before, which is why they
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named it after the Tolken character who
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famously speaks in riddles.
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>> Gandalf, who likes to speak in riddles,
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that is perfect.
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>> And moon size is its companion in this
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new class. A white dwarf so dense that a
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mass equivalent to our entire sun is
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compressed into something roughly the
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size of the moon.
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>> I need a moment to process that.
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>> Take your time. The universe will wait.
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>> So, what does it all mean? Are there
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more of these out there?
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>> Almost certainly. The researchers say
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finding two objects with five
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overlapping features is, and I'm
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paraphrasing here, more than enough to
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start a search. The hunt for more
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Gandalfs and moon sizes is on.
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>> Now to the red planet and a story that
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offers a rather sobering perspective on
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humanity's ambitions there.
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>> New research published this week
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suggests that Mars' surface was never
9:09
really a viable candidate for life. Not
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just now, but potentially at any point
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in its history. Scientists at Universe
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Today have been covering a study that
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consolidates a growing body of evidence.
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radiation bombardment, toxic
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percllorates in the soil, and the near
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total absence of a protective
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atmosphere.
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>> We've known for a long time that Mars is
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hostile. Now, the question has always
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been whether there was a window billions
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of years ago when Mars had liquid water
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in a thicker atmosphere when life could
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have gained a foothold.
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>> And the emerging picture is that even
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then, the surface may have been too
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brutal. The radiation levels alone
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without a magnetic field to deflect
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solar particles would have been
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devastating to any surface biology.
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Whatever life Mars may have had, if any,
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would have needed to be underground
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almost immediately.
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>> Which actually makes missions like
10:00
Aremis even more striking by contrast.
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Earth got it right. We're here. We
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evolved. We survived long enough to send
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four people around the moon on iPhones.
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Mars just didn't make it.
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>> The subsurface is still the focus of
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active scientific interest. There may be
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liquid water deep below the Martian
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crust. There may be microbial life
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sheltering from the surface hellscape.
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But the romantic notion of ancient
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surface life basking under a warm
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Martian sun. The science is increasingly
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against it.
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>> And it makes the search for life
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elsewhere feel even more precious and
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the protection of life here feel even
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more urgent. Well said. On to something
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a little more uplifting, at least
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visually.
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>> Skywatching time. And this month's night
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sky is offering up a genuinely lovely
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alignment. Four planets are currently
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visible together in April skies.
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Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and Neptune.
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>> Now, Neptune you'll need binoculars or
11:03
small telescope for. It's not naked eye
11:05
under any practical conditions. But
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Mercury, Mars, and Saturn are all
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available to the unaded eye. if you know
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where and when to look.
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>> For our southern hemisphere listeners in
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Australia and New Zealand, the best
11:18
viewing window is the eastern sky in the
11:20
hours before dawn. Mercury is the
11:22
trickiest. It's always close to the sun,
11:25
but right now it's at a reasonable
11:27
elongation and worth hunting for. Mars
11:29
has been a reliable presence in our
11:31
skies for months now. And Saturn is that
11:34
beautiful, steady, golden glow that
11:36
never twinkles the way stars do. If you
11:38
grab even a modest pair of binoculars
11:40
and point them at Saturn, you can make
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out the ring system. It never gets old.
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>> This is a great time to get kids outside
11:47
and look up. Four planets at once.
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Artemis 2 coming home tomorrow. The
11:53
timing couldn't be better for a bit of
11:55
genuine wonder.
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>> Clear skies permitting. Check the
11:58
Starwalk app or your local astronomy
12:00
society for specific viewing times from
12:02
your location. Links as always in our
12:04
show notes. And we close today with
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perhaps the most delightfully human
12:09
story of the entire Aremis 2 mission.
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>> You know, amongst all the orbital
12:14
mechanics and the heat shield
12:15
engineering and the science about
12:17
micromedorite impacts, there's this
12:20
other story quietly running alongside it
12:22
all. The four Artemis 2 astronauts
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brought their iPhones. not to make
12:27
calls. There's no signal 252,000
12:31
miles from Earth. But NASA administrator
12:33
Jared Isaacman made a deliberate
12:36
decision to allow the crew to bring
12:38
iPhone 17 Pro Maxes on board as personal
12:41
cameras. The idea was simple. Give the
12:44
crew the tools to capture their own
12:47
story.
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>> And they have. Christina Coach and
12:50
Commander Weissman use the iPhone's
12:52
front camera, the selfie camera, to take
12:55
what are being described as genuinely
12:57
the greatest selfies in human history.
13:00
Their faces softly lit from inside the
13:02
cabin and behind them, suspended in the
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black of space, our entire planet, a
13:08
pale blue crescent from a quarter of a
13:11
million miles away. The EXIF data from
13:14
the images shows they kept the camera on
13:16
default settings. No special filters, no
13:20
complicated exposures. Just point the
13:22
phone at the window, press the button.
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And then there's Reed Whitesman during
13:26
the lunar flyby turning off all the
13:28
cabin lights so there's no reflection on
13:30
the windows, zooming his iPhone 17 to 8x
13:34
and photographing Chbashef crater on the
13:37
far side of the moon. A place that had
13:39
never been photographed by a human
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holding a camera in their hands before.
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>> You could argue Apple should just retire
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the shot on iPhone ad campaign. Now it
13:49
has been definitively won. The crew has
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reportedly shot more images on their
13:54
phones than through the professional
13:56
Nikon cameras, and NASA says everything
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captured will be made publicly available
14:01
within 6 months. So, there's a lot more
14:03
to come.
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>> There's something quietly extraordinary
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about this story. We're in an era of
14:10
such technological sophistication,
14:12
orbital mechanics, deep space
14:15
navigation, radiation shielding, and yet
14:18
one of the most resonant moments of the
14:20
entire mission is four humans far from
14:24
home pulling out their phones to take
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pictures of each other.
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>> Because that's what people do. That's
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what we've always done. We go somewhere
14:32
extraordinary. We look at each other. We
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press the button. That's humanity right
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there.
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>> And that is Astronomy Daily for
14:40
Thursday, the 9th of April, 2026. We'll
14:43
be back tomorrow with everything you
14:45
need for Artemis 2 splashdown day. Set
14:47
your alarms.
14:49
>> You can find us on all major podcast
14:51
platforms. Search astronomy Daily or
14:54
head to astronomyaily.io.
14:56
We are on X and Instagram as Astro Daily
15:00
Pod on Tik Tok, YouTube, and Tumblr. If
15:03
today's episode gave you something to
15:05
think about, or if the Gandalf story
15:07
made you look up at the sky a little
15:08
differently, share it with someone.
15:10
That's how we grow.
15:11
>> From all of us at the
15:12
>> byes.com podcast network, clear skies
15:16
and we'll see you tomorrow.
15:17
>> Goodbye. Astronomy day.
15:21
Stories be told.
15:29
Stories to tell.