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What the Heck Is This Planet? · Space News Today

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily,
• 0:02
  your daily guide to the universe. I'm
• 0:05
  Anna.
• 0:05
  >> And I'm Avery. It is Tuesday, the 3rd of
• 0:08
  March, 2026, and we are season 5,
• 0:11
  episode 53. Anna, quite a lineup today.
• 0:15
  >> We really do have something for
• 0:17
  everyone. We've got an update to that
• 0:19
  major shakeup at NASA, the kind that has
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  the whole space community talking.
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  >> We've got a planet shaped like a lemon.
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  That's not a metaphor. It is literally
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  shaped like a lemon. There is a new
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  approach to one of the biggest unsolved
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  mysteries in all of physics.
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  >> A space probe has snapped its first
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  close-up of an interstellar comet. And
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  we've got your global launch roundup,
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  including a big one from Japan making
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  its third attempt.
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  >> And China is about to debut a new
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  reusable rocket that could shake up the
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  commercial launch industry. Avery, where
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  do we start?
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  >> Let's start at the top with NASA and a
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  decision that's rewriting the Aremis
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  playbook. So Avery, when NASA
• 1:00
  administrator Jared Isaacman stood up at
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  Kennedy Space Center just days ago and
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  said Artemis 3 will not be landing on
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  the moon, it was a significant moment.
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  >> It really was. To understand why, a
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  quick bit of context. Artemis 3 was
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  meant to be humanity's first crude lunar
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  landing since Apollo 17 back in 1972.
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  That's over 50 years, a very long time
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  to wait.
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  >> And now it's not happening. Instead, the
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  mission, now targeting a launch sometime
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  in mid 2027, has been completely
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  redesigned. It will stay in low Earth
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  orbit and focus on testing docking
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  procedures between NASA's Orion capsule
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  and the commercial lunar landers.
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  >> And that's where it gets really
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  interesting because those landers are
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  SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origins Blue
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  Moon. And NASA is now openly keeping
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  both of them in the running rather than
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  committing exclusively to Starship.
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  Isaacman was quite candid about why. He
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  compared the current Artemis cadence to
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  Apollo and found it wanting. Apollo was
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  launching missions every four to 5
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  months. Artemis has been going every
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  couple of years, which means the agency
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  loses what he called muscle memory
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  between flights. Engineers leave.
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  Procedures get rusty.
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  >> And Starship, despite 11 test flights,
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  has yet to reach Earth orbit. It's still
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  technically a suborbital vehicle. And
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  the list of milestones it needs to hit
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  before it could put astronauts on the
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  moon, orbital refueling, rendevous and
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  docking an uncrrewed lunar landing is
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  still very long.
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  >> So the plan now is Artemis 3 in low
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  Earth orbit to test systems, then
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  Artemis 4 as the first real moon landing
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  targeting 2028. And NASA is even talking
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  about two moon landing missions in 2028
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  if they can get the launch cadence up.
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  Ambitious,
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  >> very. And in the meantime, Artemis 2,
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  the crude flyby around the moon with no
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  landing, is still on track for an April
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  launch after being rolled back to the
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  vehicle assembly building for repairs to
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  a helium flow issue.
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  >> A lot happening on the Aremis front. We
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  will absolutely keep you updated. Now,
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  let's go somewhere much, much further
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  away. 750 lightyear, in fact.
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  >> This one genuinely made me do a double
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  take when I read it. Scientists using
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  the James Webb Space Telescope have
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  found an exoplanet unlike anything ever
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  studied, and they are baffled.
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  >> So, let's set the scene. The planet is
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  called PSRJ2322-2650b.
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  It's about the mass of Jupiter, and it
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  orbits its star at a distance of just 1
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  million miles. For comparison, Earth
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  orbits the sun at about 100 million
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  miles. This planet is 100th of that
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  distance away.
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  >> One complete orbit, one full year for
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  this planet, takes just 7.8 hours.
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  >> And its star is not a normal star. It's
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  a pulsar, a rapidly spinning neutron
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  star. The collapsed core of a long,
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  dead, massive star containing the mass
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  of our entire sun packed into something
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  the size of a city. And the gravity from
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  that pulsar is so extreme that it's
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  literally stretching the planet. Instead
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  of being roughly spherical like Earth or
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  Jupiter, the gravitational tidal forces
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  are pulling it into an elongated shape
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  like a lemon or an American football if
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  you prefer. The lead researcher, Michael
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  Zang, from the University of Chicago,
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  described it as the stretchiest planet
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  we've confirmed the stretchiness of,
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  which is a sentence I never expected to
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  hear in astronomy.
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  >> But the shape is almost the least weird
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  thing about it. When web turned its
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  infrared instruments on this world, the
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  atmosphere came back completely wrong.
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  Instead of water, methane, carbon
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  dioxide, the things you'd normally
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  expect on a gas giant, it's almost
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  entirely helium and carbon.
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  >> Carbon compounds called C2 and C3,
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  specifically molecular carbon. And
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  because the pressure inside the planet
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  is enormous, scientists think that
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  carbon could actually be crystallizing
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  in the deep interior, forming diamonds.
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  The surface temperature is around 3700°
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  F, by the way, which is four times
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  hotter than Venus. So, it's a
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  lemon-shaped diamond cord 3700°
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  mystery world orbiting a zombie star
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  every 8 hours. And nobody can explain
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  how it formed. Zang said the carbon
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  composition rules out every known
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  formation mechanism. It's part of what's
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  called a black widow system, where the
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  pulsar is slowly evaporating its
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  companion. But even that doesn't fully
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  explain what Webb is seeing.
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  >> The team is seriously entertaining the
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  idea that this might be an entirely new
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  class of cosmic object. Not quite a
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  planet, not quite a stellar remnant,
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  something in between with no name yet.
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  >> Only Web could have found this. The
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  pulsar emits mostly gamma rays which are
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  invisible to infrared instruments. So
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  Web could study the planet without the
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  star drowning it out. A pristine
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  spectrum. The researchers called it a
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  perfect observational setup. Remarkable
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  stuff. From the inexplicable to the
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  cosmological, what's next?
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  >> So, the Hubble tension. If you've been
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  listening to astronomy daily for any
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  length of time, you've heard us mention
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  this, but let's quickly recap why it
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  matters so much.
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  >> The Hubble constant is a measure of how
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  fast the universe is expanding.
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  Different methods of measuring it
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  produce different answers. Not wildly
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  different. We're talking about a 10%
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  gap, but in cosmology, that gap is
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  enormous. If the universe's expansion
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  rate isn't consistent, something in our
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  fundamental model of physics is wrong.
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  >> And now, a team from the University of
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  Illinois and the University of Chicago
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  thinks they may have found a new tool
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  that could finally help resolve it. They
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  call it the stochastic siren method.
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  >> And it works like this. Every time two
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  black holes spiral together and collide
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  somewhere in the universe, which is
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  happening constantly across billions of
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  galaxies, they release gravitational
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  waves, ripples in the fabric of spaceime
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  itself. Most of these events are too
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  distant and too faint for us to detect
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  individually.
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  >> But together, all those undetected
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  collisions create a background humle
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  gravitational wave signal washing
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  through everything all the time. And the
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  team realized that by looking for or in
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  this case not finding that background
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  signal in existing data from the LIGO,
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  Virgo and Cogra detectors, they could
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  actually constrain the Hubble constant.
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  Even the non detection is informative.
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  If certain expansion rates were correct,
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  you'd expect to see a background signal
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  by now. You don't. So those slower
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  expansion scenarios can be ruled out.
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  Combined with existing measurements from
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  individual black hole mergers, the team
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  produced a new, more precise estimate of
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  the expansion rate, one that sets right
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  in the contested zone where the Hubble
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  tension actually bites.
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  >> The research is published in Physical
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  Review Letters. Daniel Holtz from
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  Chicago put it well, saying, "It's not
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  every day you come up with an entirely
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  new tool for cosmology." And as
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  gravitational wave detectors become more
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  sensitive over the next decade, this
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  method will only get sharper.
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  >> The gravitational wave background itself
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  is expected to be directly detected
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  within about 6 years. When that happens,
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  this technique becomes even more
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  powerful. We might actually be within
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  reach of solving one of the deepest
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  puzzles in physics. Exciting times. From
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  the vast and theoretical to the
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  relatively local, we had a visitor in
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  our solar system and we've got a new
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  photo.
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  >> So, three/Atlas has been quite the
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  recurring character on the show and with
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  good reason. This is only the third
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  confirmed interstellar object ever
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  detected passing through our solar
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  system. And it's by far the most studied
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  because we had more warning than with
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  the previous two. And now, issa's Juice
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  spacecraft, the Jupiter Icy Moons
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  Explorer, currently in route to Jupiter,
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  has captured its first detailed image of
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  the comet. And what it's showing is a
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  bright glowing coma surrounding the
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  nucleus with a sweeping tail already
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  developing. Juice was actually well
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  positioned to get an early look at this
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  object, which makes it a brilliant
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  opportunistic observation. The
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  spacecraft was designed to study
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  Jupiter's moons, but its cameras are
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  perfectly capable of turning onto a
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  bright comet.
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  >> What makes Three Atlas so scientifically
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  exciting is what it can tell us about
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  chemistry beyond our solar system.
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  Interstellar objects carry the
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  fingerprints of wherever they formed.
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  Previous NASA observations already
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  revealed the coma and a flare up as it
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  was heading outward, and the composition
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  data has been trickling in. And now we
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  have Juice's optical imagery to add to
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  that picture. Every instrument, every
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  telescope, every spacecraft that can
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  contribute data is doing so. This is
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  coordinated solar system science at its
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  best.
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  >> 3IE Atlas is now heading back out into
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  the solar system, so the window for
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  observations is narrowing, but the data
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  already collected will be keeping
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  researchers busy for years. Now, let's
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  check in on what's flying this week. It
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  is a busy week at launch sites around
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  the globe. Five missions on the schedule
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  and there are some real standout moments
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  to watch for. The international
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  highlight is Japan. Space 1, a
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  commercial startup backed by Canon
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  Electronics and IHI Aerospace is
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  attempting its third launch of the
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  Chyros rocket from Spaceport Key on the
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  Key Peninsula. The window opens
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  Wednesday the 4th of March.
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  >> Now, the first two Chyros flights did
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  not go well. Flight one in March 2024
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  was terminated by the autonomous flight
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  termination system due to first stage
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  underperformance. Flight two in December
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  2024 was lost because a sensor failure
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  caused loss of control during the first
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  stage burn.
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  >> Third time lucky hopefully. This flight
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  is targeting suns synchronous orbit and
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  is carrying five small payloads from a
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  range of customers including satellites
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  from Taiwan and a micro satellite from a
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  Japanese high school. Lovely to see that
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  kind of diversity.
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  >> On the SpaceX side, there are four
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  Falcon 9 missions this week launching
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  from both Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg.
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  The standout is a Vandenberg launch on
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  Wednesday where booster B1071 will be
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  flying for its 32nd mission. And that
• 11:53
  landing will mark SpaceX's 600th Falcon
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  booster recovery attempt. 600.
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  >> The numbers just keep getting bigger and
• 12:01
  more mind-boggling. A booster that's
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  flown 32 times is extraordinary by any
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  standard. This week's Falcon 9 missions
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  will also push SpaceX to its 30th launch
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  of 2026. Overall, the cadence is
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  relentless.
• 12:17
  >> And we're watching the Chyros launch
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  particularly closely. Japan's commercial
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  launch sector has been growing and the
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  successful Chyros flight would be a
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  significant milestone for the country's
• 12:27
  private space industry. Fingers crossed.
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  Now, speaking of new rockets,
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  >> and we close today's episode with a look
• 12:35
  further ahead to the end of March when
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  China's commercial space sector is about
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  to make a significant move. CAS Space, a
• 12:44
  commercial offshoot of the Chinese
• 12:46
  Academy of Sciences, is preparing to
• 12:48
  debut its new Kinetic 2 rocket. Launch
• 12:51
  is targeted for late March from the Geio
• 12:54
  Quan satellite launch center out in the
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  Gobi Desert.
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  >> The Kinetic 2 is a 53 m tall rocket
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  powered by three YF102 engines running
• 13:04
  on kerosene and liquid oxygen, a similar
• 13:07
  propellant combination to SpaceX's
• 13:10
  Falcon 9. And like Falcon 9, it's
• 13:13
  designed to be reusable.
• 13:15
  >> It can carry up to 12,000 kg to low
• 13:18
  Earth orbit or around 7,800 kg to a 500
• 13:21
  km suns synchronous orbit. That's a
• 13:24
  meaningful capability. It puts it in a
• 13:26
  similar class to Falcon 9 in terms of
• 13:28
  payload.
• 13:29
  >> For its debut mission, it's carrying the
• 13:32
  Ching Xiao 1, a prototype cargo
• 13:35
  spacecraft designed to eventually
• 13:37
  resupply China's Tangong space station.
• 13:40
  Think of it as China's equivalent of
• 13:42
  testing a Dragon capsule, a first step
• 13:44
  toward a regular, affordable resupply
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  system. And Caspay has ambitious plans.
• 13:50
  They're aiming for at least four Kinetic
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  2 launches in 2026 alone, including
• 13:55
  missions to deploy satellites into mega
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  constellations, directly competing with
• 14:00
  Starlink in the global broadband market.
• 14:03
  It's worth noting that CAS Space's
• 14:06
  smaller solid fuel rocket, the Kinetic
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  1, has already flown 11 successful
• 14:11
  missions and has eight more planned for
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  this year. So, this is not a firsttime
• 14:16
  player. They have operational
• 14:17
  experience. The broader picture is that
• 14:20
  the global commercial launch industry is
• 14:22
  genuinely becoming competitive in a way
• 14:24
  it never was before. SpaceX still leads,
• 14:28
  but you now have serious players from
• 14:30
  China, Japan, Europe, and beyond, all
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  developing capable, affordable rockets.
• 14:36
  It's a fascinating time to be watching
• 14:38
  this space. Pun absolutely intended.
• 14:41
  >> And on that note, it's time to wrap up
• 14:44
  episode 53.
• 14:45
  >> Really already?
• 14:47
  >> Yes. That is a wrap on Astronomy Daily
• 14:50
  season 5, episode 53. What a week it's
• 14:53
  shaping up to be. From NASA's lunar
• 14:55
  reset to lemon planets to cosmic
• 14:58
  background hums to a brand new reusable
• 15:01
  rocket on the launchpad.
• 15:02
  >> If you've enjoyed today's episode, we
• 15:04
  would love it if you leave us a review
• 15:06
  wherever you listen. It really does make
• 15:08
  a difference in helping new listeners
• 15:10
  find the show.
• 15:11
  >> You can find full show notes, blog
• 15:13
  posts, and more over at astronomyaily.io
• 15:17
  and follow us on social media at
• 15:19
  astroaily pod for daily space updates.
• 15:22
  Until next time, keep looking up. The
• 15:24
  universe has no shortage of surprises.
• 15:27
  >> Clear skies, everyone. Goodbye.
• 15:30
  >> Day
• 15:32
  stories told.