Latest / Space News Today / No Course Correction Needed: Artemis II Day 3 Update + Comet MAPS Perihelion Report

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No Course Correction Needed: Artemis II Day 3 Update + Comet MAPS Perihelion Report · Space News Today

0:00
Welcome back to Astronomy Daily, the
0:02
show that gets you caught up on the
0:04
cosmos every single day. I'm Anna.
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>> And I'm Avery. And friends, what a day
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to be a space fan.
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>> It is day three of the Aremis 2 mission.
0:13
Four humans are right now hurdling
0:16
toward the moon, and we have a lot to
0:18
cover. A record-breaking rocket launch,
0:21
brand new lunar science, a stunning
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discovery about dead stars, and the best
0:27
chance all year to spot the planet
0:29
Mercury with your naked eye.
0:31
>> Plus, we promised you an update on comet
0:33
maps yesterday, and we are delivering.
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The solar plunge has happened. The
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verdict is still coming in. Stay with
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us.
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>> Let's get into it.
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>> Trajectory so perfect, NASA canled its
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own burn. We are now into day three of
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the Aremis 2 mission and the headline
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today is honestly almost too good to
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believe. NASA had planned a trajectory
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correction burn for this evening. A
0:57
small engine firing to nudge Orion onto
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the perfect path to the moon and they
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didn't need it.
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>> Flight controllers in mission control at
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Johnson Space Center looked at the data
1:06
and made the call. Cancel the burn.
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Orion is already on the precise
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trajectory it needs. As Howard Hu, the
1:14
Orion spacecraft program manager put it,
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"It's really good to see that we don't
1:19
need these minor correction burns. It
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shows that our navigation performance
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and our ability to get ranging has been
1:25
outstanding." This was the first of
1:27
three planned trajectory correction
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burns. The others are still on the
1:31
schedule if needed, but this is a
1:33
genuine vote of confidence in the
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precision of the entire mission so far.
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Meanwhile, what were Reed Wiseman,
1:40
Victor Glover, Christina and
1:42
Jeremy Hansen actually doing today?
1:44
Mission control woke them up playing in
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a Daydream by the Freddy Jones band,
1:49
which is a great alarm clock choice. And
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then they got to work.
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>> Day three was all about medical
1:54
readiness. The crew demonstrated CPR
1:57
procedures in weightlessness and checked
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out Orion's on board medical kit, a
2:02
thermometer, blood pressure monitor, a
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stethoscope, and odoscope. They also
2:07
tested Orion's optical communication
2:09
system, successfully transmitting
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highdefinition video back to ground
2:13
stations in the United States.
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>> But the really exciting part, the lunar
2:18
science team back on Earth is already
2:20
building what they call the lunar
2:22
targeting plan. They're selecting
2:24
specific geological features on the
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moon's surface. craters, ancient lava
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flows, ridges that the crew will observe
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and photograph during their 6-h hour
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flyby window on Monday.
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>> And Avery has been doing the math on
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what Monday actually means.
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>> Well, it's history. On Monday, April
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6th, the Aremis 2 crew will swing around
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the far side of the moon, briefly out of
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contact with Earth entirely. And at
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their farthest point, they will be
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252,757
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mi from home. That breaks the all-time
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human spaceflight distance record set by
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the crew of Apollo 13 back in April
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1970. 56 years. We've been waiting 56
3:08
years to break that record.
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>> And it gets better. During the lunar
3:13
flyby, Orion will enter a solar eclipse,
3:16
the sun moving behind the moon from the
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crew's perspective. The crew will use
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that window to look for meteoroid
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impacts flashing on the lunar surface
3:25
and to try to photograph the deep space
3:27
sky without the sun in the way.
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>> We'll have full day four and Monday
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flyby coverage in Monday's episode.
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Right now, four humans traveling toward
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the moon and everything is going exactly
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to plan.
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>> Next, the solar plunge has happened. Now
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we wait.
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>> All right, we promise you this and here
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it is. Your comet maps update. Yesterday
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we introduced you to comet C 2026A1
3:53
known as MAPS, a rare CO sungrazer
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discovered in January by a team of
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French astronomers in Chile. We told you
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it was about to make one of the most
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dangerous journeys in the solar system,
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a pass within 161,000 km of the sun's
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surface, closer than most comets ever
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come. And we promise to bring you the
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latest today. So, here's where we are.
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At 14:22 UTC today, that's right in the
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middle of the day in Australia. Comet
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maps reached perihelion. It passed
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through the lower corona of the sun. The
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plunge is done.
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>> And the verdict? That is genuinely still
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coming in because right now, MAPS is in
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the sun's glare, basically invisible to
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groundbased observers. We're relying on
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spacecraft imagery, particularly from
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SOHO's Lasco Coronograph to track what
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happened.
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>> The big question has shifted. It's no
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longer just did it survive. It's what
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kind of show will it put on? There are
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several scenarios. If the nucleus
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survived intact, maps could emerge in
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the next day or two as a stunning naked
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eye comet. Some predictions put its
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potential brightness at magnitude
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minus5.
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brighter than Venus. Others suggest it
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could reach magnitude minus15,
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brighter than the full moon. At
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perihelion, it may have even been
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briefly visible in daylight.
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>> Even if the nucleus broke apart, which
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is what happens to most sun grazers, the
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story isn't necessarily over. A
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post-parelion breakup can produce what
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astronomers call a headless wonder, a
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bright glowing tail with no nucleus
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behind it. Sometimes those can be
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spectacular in their own right.
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>> Maps belongs to the Crutz sun graaser
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family, the same family as comet Ikea in
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1965.
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One of the brightest comets of the 20th
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century and comet Lovejoy in 2011, which
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survived its own brush with the corona
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and went on to dazzle southern
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hemisphere observers.
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>> And that is the key phrase, southern
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hemisphere. If maps emerges from the
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glare as expected, the window to see it
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from the ground opens around April 6th
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to 10th. Look west after sunset low on
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the horizon. In Australia and across New
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Zealand, you are perfectly placed for
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this. Venus will be your guide star,
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bright in the western evening sky, and
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maps, if it survived, should appear
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nearby.
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>> We will have the latest on Monday's
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episode. This story is very much not
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over. Atlas 5 lifts its heaviest payload
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ever, 29 Amazon LEO satellites.
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>> While all eyes were on the moon this
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morning, there was a rocket launch
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happening simultaneously that set a
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record of its own.
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>> In the early hours of this morning, 1:45
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a.m. Eastern time, a United Launch
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Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from
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Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in
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Florida. Its cargo, 29 Amazon LEO
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satellites. And that payload, 29
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satellites packed into one rocket, made
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history. It is the heaviest single
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payload the Atlas 5 has ever flown.
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>> This is mission LA05 for Amazon LEO, the
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satellite internet constellation
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previously known as Project Cooper.
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Amazon renamed the constellation in
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November last year, and they're building
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it at pace. With today's launch, they
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now have around 241 satellites on orbit
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out of an eventual constellation of more
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than 3,200.
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The Atlas 5 flew in its most powerful
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configuration, the 551 variant with five
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solid rocket boosters strapped on, and
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ULA engineers made specific
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modifications to the Centaur upper stage
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and its dispenser system to carry the
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extra load. These 29 satellites went up
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on a northeast trajectory to a low Earth
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orbit of around 450 km. Amazon has an
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FCC deadline looming. They need to have
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half of their constellation operational
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by July 2026, which puts them in a
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serious race. Multiple Atlas 5 and
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Vulcan Centaur launches are planned this
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year. Plus, missions on Aron 6, New
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Glenn, and Falcon 9. The Atlas 5 is one
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of the most reliable rockets ever built.
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This was its 102nd mission. And while
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the Vulcan Centaur is taking over as the
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primary heavy lift vehicle going
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forward, today proved the old workhorse
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has still got it.
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>> Okay, our next story. Moon's hot cold
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divide may be wrong. Blue Ghost rewrites
8:44
lunar science. With the Aremis 2 crew
8:47
heading toward the moon right now, this
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next story feels especially timely
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because new data from the moon's surface
8:53
is challenging something scientists
8:55
thought they understood for decades. A
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Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander
9:00
touched down in the moon's Mari
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Chrysium, the Sea of Crises, back in
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March of 2025. It operated for a full
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lunar day, drilling into the surface and
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sending back over 110 gigabytes of data.
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And now a year on, scientists are
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presenting the first major scientific
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results. And they are surprising.
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>> The long-standing view of the moon has
9:22
been this. The near side, the face we
9:25
always see from Earth, is geologically
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hot. It's dominated by ancient volcanic
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plains. And beneath the surface, there's
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a concentration of heat producing
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radioactive elements, particularly
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thorium, in a region called the
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Proellarum creep terrain. The far side
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by contrast is cooler, older, more
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heavily cratered.
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>> Blue ghost was specifically sent to land
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outside that hot region and marchium
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well away from the creep zone precisely
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to test whether the temperature
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difference was as dramatic as scientists
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expected. The answer has upended the
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model. Lugos's heat probe found that the
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underground temperature at Mari Chrysium
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is not significantly different from what
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Apollo astronauts measured at their
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landing sites deep inside the supposed
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hot zone.
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>> As Seichi Nagihara, the principal
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investigator of Blue Ghost's heat probe
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at Texas Tech University put it, "We may
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have to abandon that binary."
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>> What does this mean? Heat producing
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elements like thorium may be more widely
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distributed beneath the lunar surface
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than anyone thought. And one possible
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explanation is that volcanic activity in
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some regions wasn't driven by those
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radioactive elements at all. It may have
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simply been easier for magma to break
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through in places where the crust was
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thinner.
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>> It's a fundamental rethink of how the
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moon formed and evolved. And it has
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direct implications for where future
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crude missions might land and what
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they'll find.
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Blue Ghost Mission 2, expected to launch
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later this year, will land on the lunar
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far side, giving scientists the next
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data point in this evolving picture.
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>> Onwards the story five. Let's simply
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call this one stellar science. Pulsars
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are broadcasting from the edge of their
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magnetic reach. Now to a discovery that
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overturns decades of thinking about some
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of the most extreme objects in the
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universe and it has an Australian
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fingerprint on it.
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>> Pulsars are the collaps remnants of dead
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stars. They're among the densest objects
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we know of. A teaspoon of pulsar
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material would weigh around 10 million
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tons on Earth. As they spin, they sweep
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beams of radio waves across the cosmos
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like cosmic lighouses. And a special
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class called millisecond pulsars spins
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hundreds of times per second. So
11:51
regularly that they rival atomic clocks
11:53
in their precision.
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>> For decades, the textbook answer to
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where those radio pulses come from was
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simple. Near the surface, close to the
12:02
magnetic poles. That's where scientists
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assumed all the action happened.
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>> A new study published in monthly notices
12:08
of the Royal Astronomical Society has
12:11
just rewritten that. Professor Michael
12:13
Kramer from the Maxplank Institute for
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Radio Aastronomy in Germany and Dr.
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Simon Johnson from Australia's own CSRO
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analyzed radio observations of nearly
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200 millisecond pulsars and compared
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them with gammaray data from NASA's
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Fermy Space Telescope.
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>> What they found about 1/3 of millisecond
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pulsars are broadcasting radio waves
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from two completely separate regions at
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once. not just the magnetic poles, but
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also from a distant swirling zone of
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charged particles called the current
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sheet, right at what's called the light
12:50
cylinder. That's the boundary where the
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pulsar's magnetic field would need to
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travel faster than light just to keep
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pace with the spinning star.
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>> As Dr. Johnston put it, these tiny, fast
13:01
spinning stars are even more complex and
13:04
surprising than we thought. broadcasting
13:06
from both their surfaces and from the
13:08
very edge of their magnetic reach.
13:11
>> The practical consequences are
13:13
significant because the radio signals
13:16
are spreading out over a wider range of
13:18
directions than previously understood.
13:21
More pulsars should be detectable than
13:23
scientists thought. And that's good news
13:26
for projects like pulsar timing arrays,
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networks of pulsars used as detectors
13:32
for gravitational waves rippling across
13:35
the universe.
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>> A great piece of science and a proud
13:38
moment for CSRO, Australia's National
13:41
Science Agency.
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>> And finally today, an invitation to go
13:46
outside and look up because right now
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Mercury is putting on its best
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performance of the entire year. and we
13:54
have the best seats in the house.
13:56
>> Mercury reached what astronomers call
13:59
greatest elongation on April 3rd, the
14:02
point where it appears farthest from the
14:03
sun in our sky. This is the year's
14:06
greatest elongation for Mercury. Full
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stop. The best it will get all of 2026.
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Here's the key thing about Mercury. It's
14:15
always close to the sun in our sky,
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which makes it genuinely difficult to
14:19
spot. Most people have never actually
14:22
seen it. Greatest elongation is your
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best window. The planet pulls as far
14:28
from the sun's glare as it ever gets,
14:30
giving you a brief, clear opportunity
14:33
before it slips back.
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>> Right now, Mercury is sitting about 28°
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from the sun, rising in the eastern sky
14:41
before dawn. Look east about 30 to 40
14:44
minutes before sunrise. You're looking
14:46
for a steady point of light, magnitude
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around 0.4, four, which is bright enough
14:50
to see with the naked eye under decent
14:52
conditions. It's sitting low on the
14:54
horizon just above Mars in the
14:56
constellation Aquarius.
14:58
>> And here's the southern hemisphere
15:01
advantage. This is specifically the best
15:04
morning apparition of Mercury for the
15:06
southern hemisphere in 2026 from
15:09
Australia and New Zealand. The geometry
15:11
of the ecliptic gives us a steeper angle
15:14
to the horizon. Mercury climbs higher
15:17
and stays out of the Merc longer than it
15:19
does for northern hemisphere observers.
15:22
>> If you have binoculars or a small
15:24
telescope, there's a bonus. Mercury is
15:26
currently showing a half illuminated
15:28
face, what astronomers call a quarter
15:31
phase. You can see it going through
15:33
phases just like the moon, which is
15:35
something a lot of people don't realize
15:37
about Mercury. And keep watching the
15:39
eastern sky over the next couple of
15:41
weeks because Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and
15:45
Neptune will gather in a tight cluster
15:47
on the morning of April 18th. Three of
15:50
those four will be visible to the naked
15:52
eye, close enough to cover with three
15:54
fingers held at arms length. A lovely
15:57
little planetary alignment to chase.
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>> So this week, look east before sunrise
16:02
for Mercury. Look west after sunset for
16:05
any sign of comet maps emerging from the
16:08
sun's glare. And keep an eye on Monday's
16:10
episode for everything you need to know
16:12
about the Aremis 2 lunar flyby. And that
16:15
is your Astronomy Daily for Saturday the
16:18
5th of April 2026. A crew heading to the
16:22
moon. A comet that may be putting on the
16:24
sky show of the decade. A
16:26
record-breaking rocket launch. Science
16:29
from the lunar surface. A pulsar
16:31
discovery out of Australia. and Mercury
16:34
waiting for you in the dawn sky.
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>> We'll be back Monday with day four and
16:38
five of Artemis 2 and the latest on
16:40
comet maps. If you're heading outside
16:43
tonight, clear skies everyone.
16:45
>> From all of us at Astronomy Daily, keep
16:47
looking up. Astronomy day.
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Stories told.
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Stories to tell.