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Love Is in the Stars · Space News Today

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  Happy Valentine's Day everyone. Welcome
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  to Astronomy Daily, the podcast that
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  brings you the latest space and
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  astronomy news every single day. I'm
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  Anna.
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  >> And I'm Avery. And what a day to be
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  talking about the cosmos. The universe
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  has really pulled out all the stops for
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  Valentine's Day this year.
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  >> It really has. We've got astronauts
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  arriving at the space station today. A
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  dying star sending the universe a
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  literal Valentine. possible aurora
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  dancing across the skies tonight and a
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  whole lot more. So, let's get into it.
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  >> Ready when you are.
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  >> Our top story today is a Valentine's Day
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  rendevous, not between sweethearts, but
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  between a Dragon spacecraft and the
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  International Space Station. SpaceX's
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  Crew 12 mission launched yesterday
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  morning at Cape Canaveral at 5:15
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  Eastern time. And as we speak, four
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  astronauts are on their way to dock with
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  the ISS later this afternoon.
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  >> And what a crew it is. Commanding the
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  mission is NASA astronaut Jessica Mir
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  with Jack Hathaway as pilot. They're
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  joined by issa astronaut Sophie Adena,
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  whose mission has been named epsilon,
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  and Rosscosmos cosminaut Andre Fedv.
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  It's a truly international crew.
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  >> This mission has been particularly
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  urgent, Avery. The ISS has been
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  operating with just three crew members,
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  a skeleton crew, since mid January when
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  crew 11 had to make an unexpected early
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  return to Earth due to a medical issue
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  with one of its members. That left NASA
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  astronaut Chris Williams and two Russian
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  cosminauts Sergey Cuts Verskov and
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  Sergey Mikayv holding down the fort on
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  their own. NASA has been clear that
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  seven crew members is really what you
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  need to maximize a science output on a
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  station that costs around $3 billion a
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  year to operate. So, there was real
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  pressure to get this launch done
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  quickly. SpaceX actually had the rocket
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  and spacecraft ready ahead of schedule,
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  but crew training and weather kept
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  pushing the date. They lost two launch
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  windows earlier in the week to bad
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  weather along a flight path before
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  finally getting off the ground
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  yesterday. And in a lovely touch for
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  Valentine's Day, the crew revealed their
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  zero gravity indicator, a handmade
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  crocheted model of Earth with four
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  little satellites representing each crew
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  member, plus a tiny moon for Commander
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  Mir. It was made by Mir's childhood best
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  friend and Hathaway's daughter. That's
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  pretty adorable.
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  >> It really is. Docking is expected at
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  around 3:15 p.m. Eastern time today. So
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  by the time many of you are listening to
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  this, the ISS should be back to its full
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  complement of seven. NASA administrator
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  Jared Isaacman praised the teams, saying
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  they brought crew 11 home early, pulled
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  crew 12 forward, and did it all while
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  preparing for the Aremis 2 moon mission.
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  A busy few weeks at NASA to say the
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  least. And speaking of the Artemis 2
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  rocket, there was a fantastic photo from
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  Kennedy Space Center this week showing
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  the massive SLS Moon rocket photobombing
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  the Crew 12 Falcon 9 on the neighboring
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  launchpad. Two very different rockets
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  side by side representing the present
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  and future of human space flight.
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  >> Now, we've been keeping you updated on
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  this one, but with just 3 days to go,
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  it's time for a final reminder. On
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  Tuesday, February 17th, the first solar
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  eclipse of 2026 will take place, an
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  annular solar eclipse, or also known as
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  a ring of fire eclipse.
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  >> And here's the thing, this one is going
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  to be witnessed by more penguins than
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  people. The path of annularity, where
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  you'd actually see that stunning ring of
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  sunlight around the moon, cuts across a
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  remote stretch of Antarctica and the
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  Southern Ocean. At maximum eclipse, the
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  moon will cover about 96% of the sun's
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  disc, leaving that slim glowing ring
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  visible for up to 2 minutes and 20
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  seconds. But you'd need to be at one of
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  the scientific research stations down in
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  Antarctica, like the French Italian
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  Concordia station or Russia's Mierney
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  station. For the rest of the world,
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  partial phases will be visible from the
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  very southern tips of Chile and
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  Argentina and across parts of southern
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  Africa, including South Africa,
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  Mosambique, and Madagascar. But if
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  you're in Europe, North America, or most
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  of Asia, no dice on this one, I'm
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  afraid.
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  >> Still, it's a reminder that eclipse
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  season is upon us. And that brings us
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  neatly to our next story. Have you ever
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  noticed that solar eclipses and lunar
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  eclipses seem to arrive in pairs? It's
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  not a coincidence. Every eclipse is part
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  of a predictable pattern during a short
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  window known as an eclipse season.
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  >> That's right. An eclipse season lasts
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  about 31 to 37 days. And there are
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  typically two each year, roughly 6
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  months apart. They occur when the sun
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  passes near one of the lunar nodes, the
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  points where the moon's tilted orbit
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  crosses the plane of Earth's orbit
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  around the sun. During this window, the
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  geometry lines up for eclipses to
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  happen.
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  >> And because the window is long enough to
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  contain both a new moon and a full moon,
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  which are always about 2 weeks apart,
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  you almost always get a pair, a solar
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  eclipse at new moon and the lunar
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  eclipse at full moon, or vice versa. So,
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  the annular solar eclipse on February
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  17th is the opening act. Exactly 14 days
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  later on March 3rd, the same eclipse
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  season delivers a total lunar eclipse, a
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  blood moon with the moon spending nearly
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  an hour fully inside Earth's dark
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  umbrell shadow.
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  >> And that one is much more accessible.
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  Observers in East Asia, Australia, the
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  Pacific, and Western North America will
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  have excellent views of the moon turning
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  that gorgeous coppery color during
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  totality.
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  >> But wait, there's more. The second
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  eclipse season of 2026 arrives in
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  August, and this one is the blockbuster.
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  On August 12th, a total solar eclipse
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  will sweep across Greenland, Iceland,
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  and northern Spain. That's the first
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  total solar eclipse since April 2024.
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  and much of Western Europe and North
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  America will see at least a deep partial
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  eclipse.
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  >> Then 2 weeks after that on August 28th,
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  a partial lunar eclipse rounds out the
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  season. So 2026 really is shaping up to
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  be a remarkable year for eclipse
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  chasers. Four eclipses, two seasons, and
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  some genuinely spectacular events. If
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  you've been meaning to plan an eclipse
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  trip, now's the time. We'll have much
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  more on the March and August eclipses as
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  they get closer, so stay tuned.
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  >> And now for what has to be the most
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  perfectly timed astronomy story of the
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  year. Just in time for Valentine's Day,
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  space has sent us a heart-shaped
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  greeting.
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  >> The star Mirror A, about 300 lighty
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  years from Earth has ejected a cloud of
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  gas and dust that forms a striking
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  heart-shape around it. And this isn't
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  just a pretty picture. It's a genuinely
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  surprising scientific discovery. Mera A
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  is a red giant star, one of the most
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  famous variable stars in the sky. It was
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  first documented all the way back in
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  1596.
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  As a star in the last stages of its
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  life, it's been shedding material into
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  space. But the amount and speed of this
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  particular rejection caught astronomers
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  off guard. The study led by Theo Corey
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  at Sweden's Chalmer's University of
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  Technology found that Mera A ejected
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  roughly seven Earth masses of material
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  in this burst. Using observations from
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  both the very large telescope and the
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  Alma radio array in Chile, the team
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  discovered that gas fills the
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  heart-shaped structure, while dust
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  concentrates along the outer edges,
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  creating a beautiful glowing outline.
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  What's particularly fascinating is that
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  the star appears to be acting like a
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  lighthouse, illuminating its
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  surroundings unevenly. Cory said that
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  they were very surprised to see the
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  structure and that the stars
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  illumination of the surrounding dust
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  varies in unexpected ways. And there's a
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  companion star in this love story, too.
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  Mirror B, a white dwarf star that orbits
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  Mirror A, is already beginning to gather
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  some of the ejected material. The
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  researchers say they'll keep monitoring
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  the expanding cloud because it could
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  eventually affect Mirab though. We've
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  got a cosmic couple exchanging material
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  on Valentine's Day. You couldn't make it
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  up.
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  >> The study has been accepted for
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  publication in the journal Astronomy and
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  Astrophysics and the preprint is already
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  available on archive. A truly heartfelt
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  discovery. Literally. From hearts to
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  head spinners, scientists have been left
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  puzzled by a comet that has done
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  something truly extraordinary. It's
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  flipped its rotation direction.
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  >> Comet 41P Tuttle Jacobini Creack, try
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  saying that three times fast, was
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  observed by NASA's Swift spacecraft back
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  in 2017, slowing its rotation
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  dramatically. It went from spinning once
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  every 20 hours to once every 53 hours in
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  just 60 days.
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  To put that in context, the previous
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  record for a cometary spinown was held
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  by comet Hartley 2, which slowed from 17
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  to 19 hours over 90 days. So, comet 41P
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  changed its spin rate 10 times more
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  dramatically in 2/3 the time. It's
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  unprecedented.
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  >> But that's not even the stranger part.
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  New analysis of Hubble Space Telescope
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  images by astronomer David Jwitt at UCLA
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  has revealed that after slowing down,
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  the comet's rotation appeared to
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  actually reverse. It started spinning
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  the other way. The culprit appears to be
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  the comet's own outging. As comets
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  approach the sun, they heat up and
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  release jets of gas. When that gas
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  escapes unevenly from the surface, what
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  scientists call anisotropic outgassing,
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  it creates a torque on the nucleus,
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  gradually changing and eventually
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  reversing its spin.
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  >> Jed estimates that the nucleus is less
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  than 0.7 km in radius, making it
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  particularly susceptible to these
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  forces. And here's the sobering
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  implication. The lifetime of the nucleus
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  to rotational instability is just a few
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  decades, which is incredibly short
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  compared to the thousands of years it's
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  been in its current orbit. So, while the
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  comet's orbit might be stable for
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  millennia, its physical integrity is
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  much more fragile, it raises the
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  question of whether comets might not
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  last as long as we previously thought,
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  with their own internal forces
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  eventually tearing them apart. The paper
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  is available as a preprint on archive
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  for anyone who wants to dig into the
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  details.
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  >> And finally, here's something for
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  everyone to look forward to later this
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  month. A rare six planet parade is
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  building in the evening sky. And the
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  best part, it's happening at a perfectly
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  civilized hour. Throughout February, six
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  planets are lining up across the sky in
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  what astronomers call a planetary
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  alignment. The parade features Mercury,
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  Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and
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  Neptune, and the show peaks on February
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  28th. Now, four of those, Mercury,
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  Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, will be
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  visible to the naked eye. Uranus, and
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  Neptune, will require binoculars or a
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  telescope. The best time to look is
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  about 30 minutes after your local
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  sunset, low in the western sky. You'll
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  want a clear, unobstructed horizon.
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  Mercury might be the trickiest to spot
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  because of its low position near the
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  horizon, but Venus and Jupiter should be
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  unmistakable. They're the brightest
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  objects in the evening sky after the
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  moon. Now, this isn't quite as rare as
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  the seven planet alignment we saw in
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  February last year, which included all
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  the classical planets plus Uranus and
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  Neptune. That one won't happen again
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  until 2040. But groupings of six planets
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  are still pretty special. As astronomer
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  Greg Brown from the Royal Observatory
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  Greenwich has pointed out, while groups
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  of three or four planets appearing
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  together are relatively common, the more
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  planets involved, the more orbital
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  geometry has to cooperate. So, a six
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  planet parade is definitely worth
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  stepping outside for.
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  >> Mark your calendars for February 28th
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  and maybe start scoping out a good
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  western facing spot with a low horizon.
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  We'll remind you as the day gets closer.
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  Before we go, one more little
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  Valentine's Day treat. If you're in the
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  northern United States or southern
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  Canada tonight, you might want to step
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  outside after dark and look north. NOAA
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  forecasters are predicting possible G1
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  minor geomagnetic storming this weekend
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  driven by the combined effects of a
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  coronal hole high-speed solar wind
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  stream and a coronal mass ejection from
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  earlier this week. So, there's a chance,
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  no guarantees, but a chance to see the
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  northern lights tonight and into Sunday.
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  States like Michigan and Maine, and of
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  course, our friends in Canada and
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  Northern Europe have the best odds. What
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  could be more romantic than watching the
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  aurora dance across the sky on
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  Valentine's Day?
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  >> Imagine telling your date, "I arranged
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  the northern lights just for you."
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  Smooth move.
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  >> Very smooth. Well, that's all for
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  today's show. Whether you're spending
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  Valentine's Day stargazing, watching a
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  spacecraft dock with the space station,
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  or just enjoying the cosmic love story
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  of Mera A and its heart-shaped nebula,
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  we hope the universe gives you something
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  to smile about today. Don't forget to
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  subscribe to Astronomy Daily wherever
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  you get your podcasts. And you can find
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  us online at astronomydaily.io
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  and on social media at astroaily pod. If
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  you enjoyed today's episode, please
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  leave us a rating and review. It really
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  helps others find the show.
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  >> Until next time, keep looking up and
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  happy Valentine's Day from all of us at
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  Astronomy Daily.
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  >> Clear skies, everyone. Astronomy day.
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  Stories told
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  stories told
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  stories