Latest / Space News Today / Solar Fireworks, Crew-12 Countdown, and Venus Hides a Secret

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Solar Fireworks, Crew-12 Countdown, and Venus Hides a Secret · Space News Today

• 0:00
  Four astronauts are sitting in
• 0:02
  quarantine right now at Kennedy Space
• 0:04
  Center in Florida. Bags packed, suits
• 0:07
  ready, waiting for the weather to
• 0:10
  cooperate. SpaceX Crew 12 is almost go
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  and the countdown is very much on.
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  >> Meanwhile, our sun is doing what it does
• 0:20
  best, putting on a show. Plus, a lava
• 0:23
  tunnel the size of a city has just been
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  confirmed under the clouds of Venus. And
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  a tiny teaspoon of asteroid dust has
• 0:29
  just rewritten the story of how life's
• 0:31
  ingredients form in space. Good morning,
• 0:34
  good evening, wherever you are in the
• 0:36
  world, and welcome to Astronomy Daily.
• 0:38
  >> I'm Anna.
• 0:39
  >> And I'm Avery. Let's get into it.
• 0:41
  >> Let's kick things off with our lead
• 0:43
  story because the ISS is short-handed
• 0:46
  right now and NASA wants to fix that as
• 0:49
  soon as possible. The SpaceX Crew 12
• 0:52
  mission has been pushed back once again.
• 0:55
  This time to no earlier than Thursday,
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  February 12th at 5:38 in the morning
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  Eastern time. The culprit, weather along
• 1:04
  the Crew Dragons flight path.
• 1:07
  >> Yeah, mission teams did a weather review
• 1:09
  and decided to wave off the Wednesday
• 1:11
  window entirely. Conditions are expected
• 1:13
  to improve Thursday, but Friday the 13th
• 1:16
  is also being kept as a backup. So,
• 1:18
  we're in a holding pattern, but a short
• 1:19
  one hopefully.
• 1:20
  >> And while we're waiting, let's talk
• 1:23
  about the crew because this is a really
• 1:26
  international team. Commanding the
• 1:28
  mission is NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway,
• 1:31
  his first spaceflight command. Pilot
• 1:33
  seat goes to the brilliant Jessica
• 1:36
  Meyer, who's no stranger to the ISS.
• 1:39
  Then you've got Sophie Adonaut
• 1:41
  representing the European Space Agency.
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  This is her first space flight. and
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  Rosscosmos cosminaut Andre Fedv
• 1:49
  completing the quartet.
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  >> They'll be riding aboard Crew Dragon
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  Freedom, which is itself a fascinating
• 1:55
  spacecraft. This will be Freedom's fifth
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  flight, returning after a whopping
• 2:00
  501day turnaround since Crew 9. And
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  here's something to watch for at launch.
• 2:06
  This mission will mark the very first
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  use of landing zone 40, a brand new
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  landing pad built right inside the SLC
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  40 complex itself. So, the booster is
• 2:16
  going to launch and then come back and
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  land right next door. That's wild.
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  >> It is wild. Now, one thing that makes
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  this particular rotation different from
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  the usual 6 months is the expected
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  duration. Because of crew 11's early
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  medical evacuation back in January, crew
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  12 is expected to stay for 8 to 9
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  months, longer than a typical stay. The
• 2:40
  ISS needs the staffing, and this crew is
• 2:43
  ready. And it's a big week for launches
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  beyond just Crew 12. The launch manifest
• 2:48
  is absolutely stacked right now. We have
• 2:50
  ULA's Vulcan rocket going up with
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  USSF87,
• 2:54
  a pair of satellite surveillance for the
• 2:56
  US Space Force. Then there's the first
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  Aron 64 launch, which will carry 32
• 3:01
  Amazon Kyper internet satellites. That's
• 3:04
  Starlink's main competitor, by the way.
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  Plus a Russian Proton M and surprise
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  surprise, multiple Starlink missions. It
• 3:12
  is genuinely one of the busiest launch
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  weeks we've seen in a while.
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  >> So, if you're a launch watcher, clear
• 3:18
  your Thursday calendar. Live streams
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  will be available online for most, if
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  not all, of these launches.
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  >> Okay, story two. And we keep an eye on
• 3:27
  our star because right now, as we
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  reported a few days ago, it is being
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  very talkative. Sunspot region AR4366
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  has been one of the most active regions
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  of solar cycle 25 and overnight it fired
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  off four M-class flares. The biggest was
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  an M2.8, that's a moderate flare for
• 3:46
  context, at around 214 UTC this morning,
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  which triggered a minor R1class radio
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  blackout over the seas between Australia
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  and Papa New Guinea. Just to give people
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  a quick refresher on the scale here,
• 4:00
  solar flares are classified by their
• 4:02
  peak X-ray intensity. C-class are minor,
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  MClass are moderate and can cause brief
• 4:09
  radio blackouts at high latitudes, and
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  X-class are the big ones, the kind that
• 4:14
  can knock out power grids and satellite
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  communications. So, four MClass flares
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  in a day is definitely worth paying
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  attention to. Ark 4366 has actually been
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  the source of some spectacular X-class
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  activity over the past couple of weeks,
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  too. It's been a busy region. Now, it's
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  rotating out of the Earth-facing part of
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  the sun. So, today the forecast is quiet
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  to unsettled as the corona whole stream
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  influence gradually weakens, but
• 4:42
  forecasters will be watching it closely.
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  If we get any significant CMEs thrown
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  our way, that could mean aurora's
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  pushing further from the poles than
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  usual, which is always exciting news for
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  sky watchers.
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  >> We're still in an active phase of solar
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  cycle 25, which is tracking hotter than
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  predicted. So, don't put the Aurora
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  alert apps away just yet. We'll keep
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  monitoring.
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  >> We certainly will. This is exciting
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  stuff.
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  >> Okay, moving on. Story three takes us to
• 5:09
  one of the most exciting ongoing areas
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  of science, the Bennu samples from
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  NASA's Osiris Rex mission. We've talked
• 5:15
  about Bennu a lot, and each new study
• 5:18
  seems to shift our thinking a little
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  more. This week's paper published in the
• 5:22
  proceedings of the National Academy of
• 5:24
  Sciences might be the biggest shift yet.
• 5:27
  >> So, what's the finding? For decades,
• 5:29
  scientists thought amino acids in
• 5:31
  asteroids form through what's called
• 5:33
  striker synthesis, a process that
• 5:35
  requires warm liquid water. The classic
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  picture was something like a wet warm
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  asteroid interior chemistry bubbling
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  along. But the Penn State team led by
• 5:45
  Allison Bazinski looked at the isotopic
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  signatures of amino acids in the Benu
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  samples, specifically glycine, which is
• 5:52
  the simplest amino acid, and found that
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  the story is much more complicated. The
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  data suggests these amino acids formed
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  under harsh, cold, icy, radiationrich
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  environments. The kind of environment
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  we'd associate more with the outer solar
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  system than a warm, watery asteroid.
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  Bazinski described it as their results
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  flipping the script on how amino acids
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  form. It's not just one pathway anymore.
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  It looks like there are many conditions
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  under which life's building blocks can
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  emerge.
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  >> And why does that matter? Because if
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  amino acids can form in extreme icy
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  environments, not just warm, watery
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  ones, the range of places in the cosmos
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  where life's precursors might exist,
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  just got dramatically wider. We're
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  talking about icy moons, comet nuclei,
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  the outer reaches of the solar system,
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  places we might not have been
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  prioritizing in the search for life's
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  ingredients.
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  >> What's remarkable is that all of this
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  came from a sample smaller than a
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  teaspoon. That speck of 4.6 6 billiony
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  old asteroid dust is genuinely changing
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  our understanding of how life may have
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  gotten started. The Osiris Rex mission
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  just keeps on giving. Story for today.
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  And I genuinely love this one. We found
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  lava tubes on the moon. We found them on
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  Mars. And now for the first time,
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  scientists have confirmed one on Venus.
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  A team from the University of Trento in
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  Italy has published a paper in Nature
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  Communications this week revealing the
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  existence of a massive underground lava
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  tunnel on our closest planetary
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  neighbor. And the really clever part of
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  this story is how they found it. Venus
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  is famously difficult to observe. It's
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  permanently wrapped in thick sulfuric
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  acid clouds that block direct
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  photography of the surface. So the team
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  went back to radar data collected by
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  NASA's Mellan spacecraft between 1990
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  and 1992. Data that's over 30 years old.
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  They developed a new imaging technique
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  specifically designed to detect
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  underground conduits near surface
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  collapse features called skylights. And
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  when they applied it to the Nyx Mons
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  region, named for the Greek goddess of
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  the night, they found it.
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  >> Now let's talk size for a moment because
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  this thing is enormous. The lava tube is
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  estimated to be around 1 kilometer wide.
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  That's wider than any lava tube found on
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  Earth, the moon, or Mars. The roof is at
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  least 150 m thick. The empty void below
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  is at least 375 m deep. And based on the
• 8:17
  surrounding terrain analysis, the whole
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  conduit could extend for at least 45 km
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  underground.
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  >> 45 km. That's a subterranean highway.
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  And there's an interesting reason it's
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  so big. Venus has lower gravity than
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  Earth and a denser atmosphere, which
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  actually favors the rapid formation of a
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  thick insulating crust on top of lava
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  flows. So, the tubes can grow larger and
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  last longer on Venus than elsewhere. The
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  planet with the worst surface conditions
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  in the solar system might have some
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  remarkably stable real estate
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  underground.
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  >> This also has really important
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  implications for future Venus missions.
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  Envision spacecraft and NASA's
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  Veraritoss are both being developed for
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  Venus and both will carry advanced radar
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  systems capable of doing this kind of
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  subsurface analysis in far greater
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  detail. The team describes this
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  discovery as only the beginning of what
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  could be a long and fascinating research
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  program into Venus's hidden geology.
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  >> And our final story today takes a
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  delightfully unexpected angle on the
• 9:25
  search for extraterrestrial
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  intelligence. A new paper in the
• 9:29
  International Journal of Astrobiology by
• 9:32
  plant biologist Lincoln Ties at UC Santa
• 9:35
  Cruz argues that if we want to find
• 9:38
  advanced alien civilizations, we should
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  be looking for exoplanets with large
• 9:43
  accessible deposits of coal.
• 9:46
  >> Coal, not radio signals, not Dyson
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  spheres, coal. I genuinely love this. So
• 9:53
  what's the argument? TICE traces the
• 9:55
  chain of development that led to us
• 9:57
  being able to communicate across
• 9:59
  interstellar distances. On Earth, none
• 10:02
  of our advanced technology, no steel, no
• 10:05
  deep fossil fuel extraction, no
• 10:07
  electricity, no radio telescopes would
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  have been possible without first being
• 10:12
  able to forge steel. and steel required
• 10:15
  coal. Specifically, huge amounts of
• 10:18
  shallow energy dense coal like the
• 10:20
  deposits laid down during the
• 10:22
  Carboniferous and Peran periods roughly
• 10:25
  330 to 260 million years ago. The paper
• 10:29
  argues that the same logic should apply
• 10:32
  to any technological civilization
• 10:34
  anywhere in the universe. Intelligence
• 10:37
  isn't enough. Biology isn't enough. You
• 10:40
  need the geology to match a planet that
• 10:43
  happened to grow the right kinds of
• 10:44
  forests at the right time in its history
• 10:47
  under the right conditions to bury them
• 10:49
  and compress them into energy dense coal
• 10:52
  seams that a curious civilization could
• 10:55
  then dig up and use to bootstrap an
• 10:57
  industrial revolution.
• 10:59
  >> And the implications for SETI are
• 11:01
  fascinating. The paper suggests planets
• 11:03
  in the so-called photosynthetic
• 11:05
  habitable zone where both liquid water
• 11:08
  and oxygen producing photosynthesis are
• 11:10
  possible might be relatively rare. Even
• 11:13
  rarer are the planets where all the
• 11:15
  conditions align. The right star, the
• 11:18
  right orbit, the right biology, the
• 11:20
  right geology, and the right timing.
• 11:23
  Hole doesn't just appear. It requires a
• 11:26
  very specific sequence of events across
• 11:29
  hundreds of millions of years. There is
• 11:31
  also a potential detection angle. An
• 11:34
  alien industrial revolution would
• 11:36
  produce atmospheric signatures. Elevated
• 11:39
  carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
• 11:42
  oxides. So these are theoretically
• 11:45
  detectable with sufficiently powerful
• 11:47
  telescopes. The catch, as the paper
• 11:50
  acknowledges, is that the coal burning
• 11:52
  phase of any civilization would be
• 11:54
  relatively brief. We certainly hope it
• 11:56
  is. So the detection window would be
• 11:58
  narrow, but it adds a whole new layer to
• 12:01
  what we're looking for when we study
• 12:03
  exoplanet atmospheres.
• 12:05
  >> It's also a slightly humbling thought.
• 12:07
  The reason we can have this
• 12:09
  conversation, the reason we built the
• 12:11
  telescopes and the rockets and the radio
• 12:13
  transmitters might ultimately come down
• 12:15
  to a lucky geological accident 300
• 12:18
  million years ago. We happen to live on
• 12:20
  a planet with a lot of coal in the right
• 12:22
  places at the right time. Not every
• 12:25
  world will be so fortunate.
• 12:27
  >> And that is your Astronomy Daily for
• 12:29
  Tuesday the 10th of February, 2026. From
• 12:33
  solar fireworks and a countdown to
• 12:35
  launch to lava tunnels on Venus,
• 12:38
  rewritten science from Bennu and a
• 12:40
  genuinely thoughtprovoking new take on
• 12:43
  the search for extraterrestrial life.
• 12:45
  It's been quite the episode.
• 12:47
  >> If you enjoy today's show, please take a
• 12:49
  moment to leave us a review wherever you
• 12:50
  listen. It genuinely helps more people
• 12:52
  find us. And if you want to go deeper on
• 12:55
  any of today's stories, we have links to
• 12:57
  all the source articles waiting for you
• 12:58
  in the show notes at astronomyaily.io.
• 13:01
  >> Find us on social media at astrodaily
• 13:03
  pod. And if you've got a question, a
• 13:05
  story tip, or just want to tell us what
• 13:07
  you think, we'd love to hear from you.
• 13:09
  Thanks for listening and we'll see you
• 13:11
  again tomorrow. I'm Anna. And I'm Avery.
• 13:14
  Keep looking up.
• 13:19
  No
• 13:26
  stories told.