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Moon Rocket, Lost Spacecraft, and a Comet That Fell Apart on Camera · Space News Today

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  Hey there stargazers, and welcome to
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  Astronomy Daily, your daily dose of
• 0:04
  what's happening out there in the
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  cosmos. I'm Anna.
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  >> And I'm Avery. Today is Saturday, March
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  21st, 2026. And honestly, Anna, we've
• 0:14
  got another busy show today.
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  >> We really do. A moon rocket has arrived
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  at the launchpad for the first time in
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  over 50 years, carrying astronauts.
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  We've got a pair of weird dying stars
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  behaving in ways nobody's ever seen
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  before and a comet that basically fell
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  apart while Hubble happened to be
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  watching accidentally.
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  >> Plus, 15 brand new moons in our solar
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  system, a growing garbage problem on our
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  own moon, and the genuinely dramatic
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  spacecraft story. One lost, one found.
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  >> It's a big one. Let's get into it.
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  >> We're going to start with NASA's Aremis
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  2. And this one feels different. After
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  months of delays, repairs, and anxious
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  waiting, the rocket is finally on the
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  pad.
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  >> At 11:21 a.m. Eastern time on Friday,
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  March 20th, NASA's Space Launch System
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  rocket and Orion spacecraft arrived at
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  launchpad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in
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  Florida. After an 11-hour overnight
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  journey from the vehicle assembly
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  building, hauled by the giant crawler
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  transporter at less than one mile per
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  hour,
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  >> a 322 ft tall moon rocket creeping
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  through the night at jogging pace. And
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  honestly, that's exactly how it should
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  be.
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  >> It really is. And the current target
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  launch date is no earlier than
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  Wednesday, April 1st, which means we
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  could be watching the first humans leave
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  Earth's orbit in over 50 years in less
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  than 2 weeks.
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  >> So, who's on board? The Aremis 2 crew is
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  commander Reed Wisman, pilot Victor
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  Glover, and mission specialist Christina
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  Coach. All from NASA, along with
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  Canadian Space Agency mission specialist
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  Jeremy Hansen.
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  >> And this mission is full of historic
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  firsts. Victor Glover will become the
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  first person of color to travel beyond
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  Earth orbit. Christina Coach will be the
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  first woman to do so. And Jeremy Hansen
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  will be the first non-American citizen
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  to leave Earth orbit.
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  >> They'll fly a free return trajectory
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  around the moon and back to Earth in
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  approximately 10 days. No landing. This
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  is a test flight, but it's a crucial
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  one.
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  >> Now, the road to the pad was not smooth.
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  Earlier this year, a helium flow problem
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  in the rocket's upper stage forced the
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  team to roll the whole stack back to the
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  vehicle assembly building that pushed
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  the launch from February, then March,
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  and now April.
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  >> But the team fixed what needed fixing,
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  including replacing batteries on the
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  flight termination system, and now pad
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  teams are moving into final countdown
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  preparations.
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  >> The last time humans flew beyond Earth
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  orbit was Apollo 17 in December 1972.
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  That was over 53 years ago. April 1st
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  cannot come come soon enough.
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  >> We will absolutely be following this
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  one. Let's move on.
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  >> All right, story 2 is pure stellar
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  science and it's one of those
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  discoveries that makes you realize how
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  much of the universe we still haven't
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  seen yet.
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  >> Astronomers have found something that
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  until now nobody was sure could even
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  exist. a pair of brown dwarf stars
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  orbiting each other so closely that one
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  is actively pulling material from the
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  other.
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  >> Let's back up slightly. So, what is a
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  brown dwarf? So, brown dwarfs are
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  sometimes called failed stars. They're
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  bigger than giant planets, but not
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  massive enough to ignite and sustain
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  hydrogen fusion the way our sun does.
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  They sort of sit in a strange no man's
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  land between planet and star. And we
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  know many of them exist in binary pairs.
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  But this system designated ZTF J1239
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  plus 8347
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  is something else entirely. These two
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  brown dwarfs are in an incredibly tight
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  orbit, completing a full loop around
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  each other in 57 minutes.
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  >> 57 minutes. For context, our moon takes
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  about 27 days to orbit Earth. These two
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  are practically on top of each other.
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  And because they're so close, the
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  gravity of one is pulling material from
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  the surface of the other, a process
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  called mass transfer. This kind of
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  behavior has been seen before in binary
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  white dwarfs, the dense remnants of dead
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  stars, but never in brown dwarfs. This
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  is a first.
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  >> The research team led by Caltech
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  graduate student Samuel White actually
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  had colleagues who didn't believe the
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  finding at first. One co-author said,
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  and I love this, "We've told some of our
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  colleagues about them, and they didn't
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  believe such a thing exists,
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  >> which is the best kind of science
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  discovery. The system is only about a
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  thousand light-years away, which is
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  close enough that followup observations
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  with the James Webb's telescope are
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  being planned." And what's the eventual
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  fate of these two? Either they merge
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  into a single brighter star or the one
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  that's gaining mass eventually becomes
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  massive enough to trigger nuclear fusion
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  and become a proper star. Either way, a
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  fascinating ending.
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  >> Incredible stuff. Story three, Anna. And
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  this one involves Hubble being very,
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  very lucky.
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  >> So, this story starts with a mishap and
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  ends up as one of the most extraordinary
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  observational luck stories in recent
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  astronomy.
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  >> Tell us all about it. Okay, so
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  researchers at Auburn University had won
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  telescope time on the Hubble Space
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  Telescope to study a specific comet. But
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  then new technical constraints meant
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  their original target wasn't viewable.
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  So they quickly found a replacement, a
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  different comet designated C/2025
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  K1/Atlas
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  or just comet K1 for short.
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  >> Routine enough so far. routine until one
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  of the team, co-investigator John Nonan,
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  sat down to look at the data the next
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  morning, and he found not one comet in
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  the images. He found four because comet
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  K1 was falling apart right in front of
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  Hubble's cameras. The comet had
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  fragmented into at least four distinct
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  pieces, each with its own coma, that
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  fuzzy envelope of gas and dust around
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  the comet nucleus. and Hubble's sharp
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  eyes could clearly resolve each fragment
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  separately, something groundbased
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  telescopes could barely make out as
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  blurry blobs. The timing was
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  extraordinary. The comet had passed
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  closest to the sun, its parhelion, just
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  about a month before. That's the most
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  intense heat and gravitational stress a
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  comet experiences. And for long period
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  comets like cone, it's when they're most
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  vulnerable to breaking up.
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  >> And Hubble just happened to be watching.
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  The team was able to trace the history
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  of each fragment back in time,
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  essentially reconstructing exactly how
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  and when the breakup happened. This is
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  the first time Hubble has captured a
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  comet this early in the fragmentation
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  process.
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  >> There's also an intriguing mystery
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  buried in the data. There was a delay
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  between when the comet broke up and when
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  bright fault bursts were seen from the
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  ground. Normally, when a comet fragments
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  and exposes fresh ice to sunlight, you'd
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  expect it to brighten almost
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  immediately, but this one didn't. Why?
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  Nobody knows yet.
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  >> And the initial analysis shows that
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  comet K1 is unusually depleted in
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  carbon, which gives us new clues about
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  the primordial chemistry of our early
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  solar system. All from a comet that
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  wasn't even the intended target.
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  >> Best accidents in science, honestly.
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  Onwards. Story 4 is a numbers game.
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  >> So, how many moons does Saturn have
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  >> as of this week? 285.
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  >> 285.
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  And Jupiter?
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  >> 101. The minor planet center of the
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  International Astronomical Union
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  announced on March 16th that four new
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  moons have been confirmed around Jupiter
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  and 11 new moons around Saturn.
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  >> 15 new moons just like that. I love this
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  recurring story. It feels like somebody
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  keeps going around the back of these
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  planets and finding more hiding there.
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  >> Sort of exactly what's happening
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  actually. The Saturn moons were found by
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  a team led by Edward Ashton from the
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  University of British Columbia who
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  combed through data from the Canada
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  France Hawaii telescope going back to
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  2019. And the Jupiter moons were spotted
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  by a team led by Scott Shepard at the
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  Carnegie Institution. All of these newly
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  confirmed moons are tiny, barely a
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  couple of miles across with magnitudes
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  around 25 to 27, meaning they're far too
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  faint to see without some of the world's
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  most powerful telescopes. They're what
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  astronomers call irregular moons,
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  captured objects orbiting far from the
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  planet, often going the wrong way in
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  retrograde. Most of the new Saturnian
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  moons are doing just that, moving in the
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  opposite direction to the planet's
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  rotation, which is a strong sign they
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  were probably captured from somewhere
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  else. Either asteroids snagged by
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  Saturn's gravity or fragments from a
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  collision that broke up a larger moon in
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  the distant past.
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  >> And this count is only going to keep
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  climbing. The Vera Rubin Observatory
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  went fully online last year and it's
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  going to be detecting these tiny faint
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  moons at a rate we haven't seen before.
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  >> Poor Jupiter though, still 200 moons
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  behind Saturn. It's like Jupiter just
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  can't catch up.
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  >> Jupiter just needs to try harder. Okay,
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  story five. And this one's a little
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  closer to home.
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  >> So, here's a question. What's on the
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  moon right now other than dust and rock?
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  I mean the flags, some rovers, a golf
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  ball. I think
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  >> more than 100 metric tons of humanmade
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  material, spacecraft parts, scientific
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  instruments, cameras, landers, crash
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  sites, and yes, actually, bags of human
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  waste left behind by Apollo astronauts.
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  >> We left our rubbish on the moon.
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  >> We absolutely did. And that's just
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  what's there now. We're on the verge of
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  a completely new era of lunar activity.
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  Crude missions, commercial landers,
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  scientific rovers, resource prospectors,
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  and nobody has a comprehensive framework
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  for what happens to all the stuff we're
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  about to bring up there. There's no
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  lunar environment protection agency.
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  There's no international treaty
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  specifically addressing lunar surface
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  contamination. The Outer Space Treaty of
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  1967 says countries are responsible for
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  their national activities in space, but
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  it doesn't get into the specifics of,
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  say, a crash lander leaking propellant
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  near a scientifically important site.
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  And there are real concerns beyond
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  aesthetics. Some of the most
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  scientifically valuable areas of the
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  moon, like the permanently shadowed
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  craters near the poles, which may hold
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  ancient ice deposits, could be
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  contaminated by human activity before
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  we've even finished studying them in
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  their pristine state. Base policy
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  researchers and planetary scientists are
• 11:04
  increasingly pushing for binding
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  international agreements about lunar
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  preservation zones, impact site
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  protections, and responsible disposal of
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  mission hardware. It's a conversation
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  the space community needs to have
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  urgently because the missions are coming
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  whether the policy frameworks are ready
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  or not. The moon has been waiting 4 and
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  a half billion years. The least we can
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  do is think carefully before we trash
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  it.
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  >> All right, we're ending today's show
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  with a story that has two very different
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  outcomes. One spacecraft recently lost
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  and one spacecraft recently found.
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  >> Let's start with the one that was found.
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  's ProRBA 3 mission, which we mentioned
• 11:44
  yesterday, has now been officially
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  confirmed as recovered, and the details
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  of how it happened are genuinely
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  dramatic.
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  >> So, Probota 3 is a fascinating mission.
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  It uses two separate spacecraft flying
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  in precise formation at an altitude of
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  over 60,000 km to create an artificial
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  solar eclipse. One satellite carries a
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  disc that blocks the sun, and the other
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  carries a cornograph to study the faint
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  outer atmosphere of the sun, which is
• 12:13
  normally washed out by the sun's
• 12:15
  blinding light.
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  >> On February 14th, the Coronagraph
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  spacecraft, one of the two, suffered a
• 12:22
  chain of failures that caused it to lose
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  its orientation. Its solar panels turned
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  away from the sun, its batteries
• 12:29
  drained, and it entered survival mode,
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  tumbling silently through space for
• 12:34
  nearly a month.
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  >> Engineers tracked it and waited for an
• 12:38
  opportunity. That opportunity came when
• 12:40
  the tumbling spacecraft briefly turned
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  its solar panels toward the sun, just
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  enough to generate a small amount of
• 12:47
  power. Teams in Spain acted immediately
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  and contact was reestablished. ISA
• 12:53
  Director General Joseph Ashbacher said
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  they saw that some sunlight was actually
• 12:59
  hitting the solar panels and that was
• 13:01
  their moment. The spacecraft has now
• 13:03
  regained stable orientation and is
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  charging its batteries. Engineers are
• 13:08
  carefully running checks before resuming
• 13:11
  science operations.
• 13:13
  >> Relief all around. Now contrast that
• 13:16
  with the story of NASA's Maven
• 13:17
  spacecraft currently orbiting Mars. or
• 13:21
  at least it should be.
• 13:22
  >> NASA lost contact with Maven on December
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  6th last year after the spacecraft was
• 13:28
  expected to emerge from behind Mars
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  after a routine pass on the far side of
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  the planet. 2 days before contact was
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  lost, telemetry showed everything was
• 13:39
  normal, no problems whatsoever. But then
• 13:42
  a fragment of tracking data from the day
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  contact was lost suggested Maven was
• 13:47
  rotating unexpectedly as it came out
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  from behind Mars and was no longer in
• 13:52
  its planned orbit. NASA immediately
• 13:54
  began recovery efforts.
• 13:56
  >> Those efforts have now been ongoing for
• 13:59
  over 3 months. NASA has used its deep
• 14:02
  space network, the Greenbank
• 14:04
  Observatory, even the Curiosity rover,
• 14:07
  pointed skyward on the Martian surface
• 14:10
  in attempts to detect a signal. So far,
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  nothing.
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  >> At a conference this week, NASA's
• 14:15
  planetary science director, Louise
• 14:17
  Proctor, said, and I thought this was a
• 14:19
  poignant quote, "We haven't officially
• 14:22
  said Maven is lost yet. We're still
• 14:24
  looking for it. Maven has been orbiting
• 14:27
  Mars since 2013, 12 years of science,
• 14:31
  studying how Mars lost its atmosphere
• 14:34
  over billions of years and transformed
• 14:37
  from a potentially habitable world into
• 14:39
  the cold desert we see today. It also
• 14:42
  handles about 20% of communications
• 14:45
  between Earth and the Mars rovers. Other
• 14:48
  orbiters, including Mars Reconnaissance
• 14:50
  Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, and ISA's Trace
• 14:53
  Gas Orbiter, are taking up the relay
• 14:55
  duties for now, and NASA is exploring
• 14:58
  options for a replacement
• 14:59
  telecommunications orbiter.
• 15:01
  >> One story of recovery, one still
• 15:03
  unresolved. We'll keep you posted on
• 15:06
  both.
• 15:07
  >> And that is your Astronomy Daily for
• 15:09
  Saturday, March 21st, 2026. What a show
• 15:12
  today. A moon rocket on the pad, a comet
• 15:16
  in pieces, failed stars behaving
• 15:18
  unexpectedly,
• 15:20
  15 new moons, a moon covered in our
• 15:22
  junk, and two spacecraft with very
• 15:25
  different stories.
• 15:26
  >> As always, links to all our source
• 15:29
  articles are in the show notes. If you
• 15:31
  enjoyed today's episode, please leave us
• 15:33
  a review wherever you get your podcasts.
• 15:36
  It genuinely helps more people find the
• 15:38
  show.
• 15:39
  >> You can find us at astronomydaily.io
• 15:41
  io and on social media everywhere at
• 15:43
  astroaily pod. We are part of the
• 15:45
  bytes.com podcast network. Check them
• 15:48
  out for more great shows.
• 15:50
  >> Until next time, keep looking up.
• 15:52
  >> Clear skies everyone. Astronomy day.
• 15:57
  Stories we told.