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Moon Hides Mercury Tonight, Artemis II Tests Tomorrow, Saturn Ring Origin Revealed · Space News Today

0:00
Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily.
0:03
I'm Anna.
0:04
>> And I'm Avery. You're listening to
0:06
season 5, episode 42 for Wednesday, the
0:09
18th of February, 2026. And what a day
0:13
to be a spaceman.
0:14
>> Absolutely. Tonight, right now, in fact,
0:18
the moon is sliding so close to Mercury
0:20
that it's actually hiding it from view
0:22
for sky watchers in parts of the
0:24
southern United States. A genuine
0:27
celestial magic trick happening as you
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listen.
0:30
>> And that's just one of six stories we're
0:32
bringing you today. We've got NASA's
0:34
Aremis 2 on the verge of a crucial
0:36
fueling test, a European rocket making a
0:39
big move in the satellite broadband
0:41
race, a genuinely new twist in the
0:44
ongoing saga of our interstellar
0:46
visitor, and two stories that I promise
0:48
will make you rethink some things you
0:50
thought you knew about the solar system.
0:52
>> Big show. Let's get into it. So Anna,
0:55
let's start with the biggest space story
0:57
of the week and honestly the one that
0:58
could define the year. Artemis 2.
1:02
>> Yes, for anyone who needs a quick
1:04
refresh, Artemis 2 is NASA's first crude
1:07
mission around the moon since Apollo 17
1:10
in 1972.
1:12
Four astronauts, Reed Wisman, Victor
1:14
Glover, Christina and Canada's
1:17
Jeremy Hansen are preparing to fly a
1:20
10-day loop around the moon and back. No
1:22
lunar landing, but a crucial proving
1:25
flight before we put boots on the
1:27
surface.
1:28
>> And they are so close. The rocket is
1:30
sitting on pad 39B at Kennedy Space
1:33
Center right now. But before NASA will
1:35
commit to a launch state, they need to
1:37
successfully do what's called a wet
1:40
dress rehearsal, a full practice
1:42
countdown where they actually load the
1:44
rocket with fuel and take it right to
1:46
the edge of launch, then drain it all
1:49
out again. They did that once already on
1:51
February 3rd and it didn't go smoothly.
1:54
A liquid hydrogen leak cropped up. The
1:57
exact same kind of problem that plagued
1:59
Artemis 1 3 years ago. The countdown was
2:02
terminated at tminus 5 minutes and 15
2:05
seconds. Close, but not close enough.
2:08
>> Which pushed the February launch window
2:10
off the table entirely. NASA
2:13
administrator Jared Isaacman was fairly
2:15
philosophical about it. He said, "This
2:17
is exactly why you do a rehearsal, to
2:20
find these issues before you're flying
2:22
with crew." But the clock is ticking.
2:24
>> Since then, engineers have replaced two
2:27
seals and a clogged filter in the
2:29
hydrogen fueling system. They ran a
2:31
partial confidence test on February
2:33
12th, to check the repairs. And now,
2:36
tomorrow, February 19th, they begin
2:38
tanking day for the second full wet
2:41
dress rehearsal.
2:42
>> This is the one that counts. If the test
2:44
goes cleanly, no out of limits hydrogen
2:47
concentrations countdown proceeds all
2:49
the way to the terminal phase, NASA will
2:52
analyze the data and set a launch date.
2:54
The current earliest possibility is
2:56
March 6. It's worth noting just how
2:59
historic this mission is beyond the moon
3:01
return angle. Victor Glover will become
3:04
the first person of color to travel
3:06
beyond low Earth orbit. Christina
3:09
will be the first woman. Jeremy Hansen
3:11
will be the first non-American. Every
3:13
single person on that crew is making
3:16
history in their own right.
3:18
>> So, tomorrow is genuinely a day to
3:20
watch. We'll be keeping a close eye on
3:21
how the tanking goes and we'll have
3:23
updates as they come through.
3:24
>> All right, let's bring it back to Earth,
3:27
or rather to the sky above Earth because
3:29
tonight is one of those rare evenings
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where if you happen to be in the right
3:33
place and you look up at the right
3:35
moment, you'll see something genuinely
3:38
extraordinary.
3:39
>> Two things actually. First, the moon and
3:42
Mercury. Tonight, February 18th, a
3:44
slender 1 and a half day old crescent
3:47
moon is passing extremely close to
3:49
Mercury in the western sky just after
3:51
sunset. And I mean extremely close. For
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observers along a narrow band of
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southern US states, we're talking
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Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana,
4:02
Mississippi, and Georgia, the moon will
4:05
actually pass directly in front of
4:07
Mercury and block it from view entirely.
4:10
That's called an occultation. Mercury
4:13
literally disappears behind the moon's
4:15
dark limb and reappears on the other
4:17
side. For everyone else across North
4:20
America and beyond, it won't be a full
4:22
occultation, but you'll still see a
4:24
dramatically close pairing. East Coast
4:26
observers will see Mercury sitting just
4:28
north of the moon as twilight falls. By
4:31
the time darkness reaches the west
4:33
coast, the moon will have shifted to
4:35
within about 1°ree of the planet. Venus
4:38
hangs brilliantly below them as a
4:40
helpful reference point.
4:41
>> Now, the window is tight. Mercury sets
4:44
not long after the sun, so you want to
4:46
get outside as soon as the sky darkens.
4:49
Look low in the west southwest. If you
4:51
can spot Venus, and you'll have no
4:53
trouble doing that, it's blazingly
4:55
bright. Mercury will be nearby. The moon
4:58
makes it easy tonight.
4:59
>> And if that weren't enough, Jupiter
5:01
watchers have a tree, too. Tonight,
5:04
Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon and the
5:06
biggest moon in the entire solar system,
5:09
is transiting across Jupiter's face.
5:12
East Coast observers can see it underway
5:14
as soon as it gets dark. It takes just
5:16
over three hours to cross the disc, and
5:18
then Ganymede's shadow follows it
5:20
across, creating that striking black dot
5:22
effect on Jupiter's cloud tops. So,
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tonight really is a twofor one sky
5:27
watching event. Mercury and the moon in
5:29
the west at dusk, Jupiter and Ganymede
5:32
in the southeast through the night. If
5:34
you have binoculars or a small
5:36
telescope, even better.
5:38
>> Get outside. Staying with today's news,
5:40
and this one happened literally today.
5:43
Europe's Arion 6 rocket has successfully
5:46
launched 32 satellites into orbit for
5:48
Amazon's project Kyper. For those not
5:51
familiar with Kyper, Amazon has been
5:54
quietly building a large constellation
5:56
of broadband internet satellites
5:58
designed to take on SpaceX's Starlink.
6:00
This is a big commercial play. Starlink
6:03
currently leads the market with
6:05
thousands of operational satellites, but
6:07
Amazon has the resources and ambition to
6:10
make this a genuine competition. What's
6:12
notable about today's launch is that it
6:14
used the most powerful configuration of
6:17
Arion 6. Flying with four strap-on
6:19
boosters rather than two, it was
6:22
essentially a statement of capability
6:24
from the European side of the commercial
6:26
launch industry. This rocket can handle
6:29
serious payloads. There's also a bigger
6:32
picture here. Aron 6 has had somewhat of
6:34
a turbulent road. It came in behind
6:36
schedule and faced some early technical
6:39
hurdles. But launches like this, winning
6:42
commercial contracts for a high-profile
6:44
constellation like Kyper, are exactly
6:46
what Europe needs to keep its launch
6:48
industry competitive in an era dominated
6:50
by SpaceX and an increasingly capable
6:53
Chinese launch sector.
6:54
>> The broadband satellite race is one of
6:57
the defining infrastructure stories of
6:59
this decade. I'd argue Starlink has
7:01
already changed what connectivity looks
7:03
like in remote areas and conflict zones.
7:06
Hyper, Amazon's one web investments, the
7:09
Chinese Gowong constellation, they all
7:12
point to a future where low Earth orbit
7:14
becomes genuinely critical economic
7:16
territory.
7:17
>> Today's launch is one tile in that much
7:20
larger mosaic. 32 satellites closer to
7:23
that future.
7:24
>> Now, an update on our interstellar
7:26
visitor, and I do mean update. There is
7:29
genuinely new information here happening
7:31
right now.
7:32
>> I know we've given three Atlas a quite a
7:35
run over recent episodes, but this one
7:37
earns its place today
7:39
>> completely. For new listeners, three
7:41
Atlas is only the third interstellar
7:44
object ever confirmed to pass through
7:46
our solar system. It arrived from
7:48
outside our stellar neighborhood, swung
7:51
around the sun last October, and is now
7:53
heading back out into the galaxy
7:55
forever. We will never see this object
7:57
again. But here's what's happening right
7:59
now. Juice spacecraft, that's the
8:02
Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, currently in
8:05
route to Jupiter, pass within
8:08
observational range of three Atlas back
8:10
in November last year. Due to the
8:13
challenging thermal conditions during
8:15
Juice's transit through the inner solar
8:17
system, the data it collected couldn't
8:19
be down linked straight away. That data
8:21
is now being transmitted to Earth. The
8:24
window is February the 18th to the 20th
8:27
today.
8:28
>> If successful, these would be the
8:30
closest ever observations of an
8:32
interstellar object by a spacecraft.
8:34
Now, Juice didn't do a dedicated flyby,
8:37
its trajectories locked in for Jupiter,
8:40
but even opportunistic observations from
8:42
its suite of cameras, spectrometers, and
8:45
particle detectors could give us a
8:47
perspective on three eye atlas that no
8:49
earthbased telescope can provide. And
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the data would complement an
8:53
extraordinary recent run of discoveries.
8:56
Hubble has directly imaged the nucleus
8:58
for the first time. JWST detected
9:02
methane in its atmosphere, a molecule
9:04
never before seen in an interstellar
9:06
object. And the object is still spinning
9:09
faster than it was before its solar
9:11
encounter. A legacy of all that
9:13
outgassing as it swung close to the sun.
9:16
Rei Atlas is now about 3 and a half
9:18
astronomical units from the sun in the
9:21
constellation Gemini. It's fading, but
9:23
still reachable with a decent amateur
9:25
telescope. And it has one more big act
9:28
to play, a close pass by Jupiter in
9:30
March, which may trigger fresh outbursts
9:33
as Jupiter's tidal forces stress the
9:35
nucleus.
9:36
>> An extraordinary object, and the fact
9:38
that we have a spacecraft data down link
9:41
happening as we record today makes it
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entirely current. What report would
9:45
Juice found as soon as the science teams
9:47
released their analysis?
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>> Right. Deep time. Now, I genuinely love
9:52
this next story because it takes
9:53
something you thought you understood,
9:55
Saturn's rings, and reframes the entire
9:58
origin of the system. New research by
10:00
Matia Chuk at the SEI Institute about to
10:03
be published in the Planetary Science
10:05
Journal proposes a dramatic two-stage
10:08
catastrophe that reshaped the entire
10:10
Saturnian system roughly 400 million
10:13
years ago. And I mean reshaped
10:15
everything. Titan, the rings, Hyperion,
10:20
all of it connected to one ancient
10:22
collision.
10:23
>> Let's set the scene. Saturn has puzzled
10:26
planetary scientists for a long time.
10:28
Its axial tilt is an unusually steep
10:31
26.7°.
10:33
You don't expect gas giants to form that
10:36
way. Titan is migrating away from Saturn
10:39
at a surprisingly rapid rate. The moon
10:41
Apotus sits at an oddly inclined orbit
10:44
and the rings are far younger than the
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planet itself, only a few hundred
10:49
million years old geologically speaking.
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One thing after another that didn't
10:53
quite add up. Juke and colleagues ran
10:55
simulations and found a scenario that
10:57
explains it all at once. The key player
11:00
is a moon they're calling Proto
11:02
Hyperion. Saturn used to have this
11:04
additional midsize satellite orbiting in
11:07
the outer system. When Saturn's spin
11:09
orbit resonance with the other planets
11:11
in the solar system broke down, Proto
11:13
Hyperion was destabilized. It drifted
11:16
inward and it collided with a
11:18
prototitan. The merger of those two
11:21
moons roughly 400 million years ago set
11:24
off a chain reaction. Some of the
11:26
collision debris accreted around what
11:28
would become today's Titan, explaining
11:30
why Titan's surface looks surprisingly
11:33
young despite the moon itself being
11:35
ancient. Titan absorbed new material and
11:38
essentially reset its surface.
11:40
>> Other debris from the collision
11:42
perturbed the inner moon system. Titan's
11:45
resonant gravitational interaction with
11:47
Proto Dione and Protohea caused further
11:50
instabilities, more collisions, more
11:52
debris. Most of that material eventually
11:55
reaccreted into the inner moons we see
11:57
today. Neimis, Enceladus, Tethus, Dion,
12:01
Rehea, but a fraction of it stayed
12:03
dispersed. That fraction became Saturn's
12:06
rings. And Hyperion, the small, oddly
12:10
shaped walnut-like moon that looks like
12:12
it survived a very bad day. According to
12:15
the model, it actually did survive a
12:18
very bad day. It formed from the debris
12:20
of that proto Hyperion and prototitan
12:23
collision and was captured into
12:25
resonance with Titan. The researchers
12:28
note that in most of their simulations,
12:30
Hyperion was lost entirely. Its survival
12:33
in a relatively small number of runs
12:36
suggests the real system was genuinely
12:38
close to being quite different.
12:40
>> What I find compelling about this is how
12:43
elegantly one event connects everything.
12:46
The tilt of the whole planet, the age of
12:48
the rings, the orbits of Apotus and
12:51
Hyperion, Titan's migration rate. One
12:54
ancient merger explains it all. Now, the
12:57
researchers are careful to say this is a
13:00
hypothesis, not a confirmed history.
13:02
Simulations can be suggestive without
13:05
being definitive. But NASA's Dragonfly
13:08
mission is heading to Titan. It launches
13:10
in 2028 and arrives in 2034. One of the
13:14
things Dragonfly will investigate is the
13:16
age and history of Titan's surface. If
13:19
the surface shows evidence of that
13:21
ancient resetting, that would be a
13:23
powerful confirmation. 400 million years
13:27
of cosmic history hiding in a
13:29
walnut-shaped moon. I love this stuff.
13:33
>> And finally, a story that will make you
13:35
rethink just how long it takes to get to
13:37
Mars. Or at least how long it might take
13:40
one day. Russia's state nuclear
13:42
corporation Rosatom through its Troyus
13:45
Institute near Moscow has been
13:47
developing a nuclearpowered magna plasma
13:49
engine and they're making a bold claim
13:52
that this technology could get a crude
13:55
spacecraft to Mars in 30 days.
13:58
>> To put that in context, a conventional
14:00
chemical rocket takes roughly 8 months
14:02
to reach Mars. 30 days would be a
14:05
transformation, not just an improvement.
14:08
It would fundamentally change the
14:10
feasibility of human Mars missions. Less
14:12
radiation exposure for the crew, less
14:15
time in microgravity, a completely
14:17
different logistical calculus for
14:19
resupply and emergency scenarios. The
14:22
engine works by accelerating hydrogen
14:25
using electromagnetic fields rather than
14:27
combustion to a velocity of 100 km/s.
14:32
That's roughly 22 times faster than the
14:35
exhaust velocity of a conventional
14:37
chemical rocket. The working body is
14:39
plasma, charged particles, and it's
14:42
driven by an onboard nuclear reactor
14:44
that provides the sustained electrical
14:46
power the accelerator needs.
14:49
Importantly, this isn't a launch engine.
14:52
You'd still use conventional chemical
14:54
rockets to get off Earth's surface and
14:56
into orbit. The plasma system switches
14:58
on once you're in space for the
15:00
interplanetary cruise. Smooth continuous
15:03
acceleration followed by a long
15:06
deceleration burn. The prototype is
15:08
currently running ground trials inside a
15:11
14 m vacuum chamber designed to
15:13
replicate deep space conditions. The
15:15
researchers say the engine has
15:17
demonstrated sufficient longevity over
15:20
2400 hours for a Mars transportation
15:23
operation. A flight ready prototype is
15:26
targeted for 2030. Now, and this is
15:29
important, there are real caveats here.
15:32
No peer-reviewed data has been published
15:34
yet. The thrust is very low, around 6
15:37
newtons. Integrating a nuclear reactor
15:40
into a crude spacecraft is an enormous
15:42
engineering challenge in itself with
15:45
regulatory, thermal, and radiation
15:47
shielding hurdles that remain largely
15:50
unsolved publicly.
15:52
>> Fair points. But the broader context is
15:54
genuinely interesting. NASA is investing
15:56
in its own plasma propulsion programs.
15:59
The Vazimir engine from AD astro rocket
16:02
company in Texas targets a Mars trip of
16:05
45 to 60 days. China has plasma thruster
16:08
research underway too. There's a real
16:11
multi-nation push to solve the
16:13
propulsion problem for deep space
16:15
travel.
16:16
>> Chemical rockets got us to the moon.
16:18
Getting to Mars regularly, safely, and
16:21
at human time scales requires something
16:24
different. This is where that search is
16:26
heading, wherever it ultimately leads.
16:29
>> 30 Days to Mars. Even as an aspiration,
16:33
that's a sentence worth sitting with.
16:35
>> And that's our six stories for season 5,
16:38
episode 42. What a lineup. From a rocket
16:41
on a launchpad in Florida to a crescent
16:44
moon swallowing Mercury to the debris of
16:46
a 400 millionyear-old collision still
16:50
orbiting Saturn
16:51
>> and an interstellar comet sending us its
16:53
last data from the edge of the solar
16:55
system. While Russia dreams of getting
16:57
to Mars in a month. Base never has a
17:00
quiet week.
17:01
>> If tonight's sky events caught your
17:03
attention, there is still time to get
17:05
outside. Mercury and the moon in the
17:07
west, Jupiter and Ganymede in the
17:10
southeast. You have your orders.
17:12
>> And keep an eye on Artemis. Tomorrow's
17:14
fueling test is one of those days where
17:16
the news could come fast. We'll be on
17:18
it.
17:19
>> Thank you so much for spending part of
17:21
your Wednesday with us. We'll be back
17:23
tomorrow for more from the universe.
17:25
>> Until then, clear skies, everyone.
17:31
Oh,
17:38
stories told.