Latest / Space News Today / Ring of Fire, Farewell Comet, and the Smell of Rotten Eggs in Space

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Ring of Fire, Farewell Comet, and the Smell of Rotten Eggs in Space · Space News Today

• 0:00
  Good day, stargazers, and welcome to
• 0:02
  Astronomy Daily, episode 41 of season 5.
• 0:07
  I'm Anna.
• 0:08
  >> And I'm Avery. And what a day to be
• 0:10
  alive and looking up, Anna. It's
• 0:12
  Tuesday, February the 17th, 2026, and we
• 0:16
  have not one but two celestial events
• 0:18
  happening today.
• 0:20
  >> That's right. The sun is about to be
• 0:22
  turned into a ring of fire over
• 0:25
  Antarctica. And a comet that may never
• 0:28
  return is making its closest pass to
• 0:30
  Earth as we speak. Plus, we've got JWST
• 0:35
  solving an identity crisis for some
• 0:37
  massive exoplanets. NASA doing CT scans
• 0:41
  on the northern lights and a startup
• 0:43
  that wants to fuel rockets with water.
• 0:46
  And a preview of why 2026 might just be
• 0:50
  the greatest year of eclipses in a
• 0:52
  generation.
• 0:53
  >> Let's not waste a single second. Let's
• 0:56
  dive right in.
• 0:57
  >> So Avery, we've been building up to this
• 0:59
  for weeks, and today is finally the day.
• 1:03
  Right now, as many of our listeners are
• 1:05
  tuning in, an annular solar eclipse is
• 1:08
  tracing its path across Antarctica.
• 1:11
  >> And I know some of our listeners might
• 1:13
  be thinking, "Didn't we just cover
• 1:15
  this?" And yes, we've talked about it in
• 1:17
  recent episodes, but today is the day,
• 1:20
  and there's something truly special
• 1:21
  happening down at the bottom of the
• 1:23
  world. Let's recap the essentials. An
• 1:26
  annular eclipse happens when the moon
• 1:29
  passes directly between the Earth and
• 1:31
  the Sun. But because the moon is at a
• 1:34
  more distant point in its orbit, it
• 1:36
  doesn't completely cover the Sun's disc.
• 1:39
  Instead, you get this breathtaking ring
• 1:42
  of brilliant sunlight surrounding the
• 1:44
  dark silhouette of the moon,
• 1:46
  >> the Ring of Fire. And today's ring will
• 1:48
  last up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds for
• 1:51
  anyone lucky enough to be standing in
• 1:53
  the path of annularity. At the moment of
• 1:56
  greatest eclipse, which occurs at 1212
• 1:58
  UTC, the moon will cover approximately
• 2:01
  96% of the sun's surface.
• 2:04
  >> Now, 96% sounds like almost everything,
• 2:07
  but here's the important thing. It's not
• 2:10
  a total eclipse. The sky won't go dark.
• 2:13
  You absolutely must keep your solar
• 2:16
  eclipse glasses on for the entire event.
• 2:19
  There's no moment where it's safe to
• 2:21
  look at the sun with the naked eye.
• 2:23
  >> The path of annularity itself is
• 2:25
  actually quite wide for eclipse
• 2:27
  standards, about 616 km across, but it's
• 2:31
  crossing some of the most remote
• 2:33
  territory on Earth. We're talking about
• 2:35
  the Antarctic mainland and the
• 2:37
  surrounding southern ocean. So
• 2:39
  realistically, the only people seeing
• 2:41
  the full ring of fire today are
• 2:43
  researchers at a handful of Antarctic
• 2:45
  stations. However, the partial phases of
• 2:48
  the eclipse are visible from a much
• 2:50
  wider area. Observers in southern
• 2:53
  Argentina, southern Chile, southeastern
• 2:56
  Africa, Madagascar, and Maitius will all
• 2:59
  see the moon take a bite out of the sun
• 3:02
  to varying degrees.
• 3:03
  >> And here's something that I think really
• 3:05
  elevates today's event. This eclipse
• 3:07
  kicks off the first eclipse season of
• 3:09
  2026. Eclipse seasons are these brief
• 3:12
  windows, typically about 34 days long,
• 3:14
  when the geometry of the sun, Earth, and
• 3:16
  Moon align just right for eclipses to
• 3:19
  occur. And they usually come in pairs.
• 3:22
  >> Exactly. So, less than 2 weeks from now,
• 3:25
  on March the 3rd, we get a total lunar
• 3:28
  eclipse, a blood moon visible from North
• 3:30
  America. And that's just the beginning
• 3:32
  for 2026, which we'll come back to later
• 3:35
  in the show.
• 3:36
  >> For anyone wanting to follow along
• 3:38
  today, there are several live streams
• 3:39
  available, and we'll have links in our
• 3:41
  show notes. Even if you can't see it
• 3:43
  from where you are, this is a wonderful
• 3:45
  moment to appreciate the clockwork
• 3:47
  precision of our solar system. And
• 3:50
  sticking with things happening literally
• 3:52
  today, let's talk about comet C2024E1,
• 3:57
  better known as comet Wir, which is
• 3:59
  making its closest approach to Earth
• 4:02
  right now. This is one of those stories
• 4:04
  where the science and the poetry really
• 4:06
  come together beautifully. This comet
• 4:08
  was discovered back in March 2024 by
• 4:11
  Polish astronomer Casper Werto using the
• 4:14
  Mount Lemon survey in Arizona. And today
• 4:16
  it passes within about 151 million km
• 4:20
  from Earth, roughly the same distance as
• 4:23
  Earth is from the Sun.
• 4:24
  >> So it's not exactly a close shave, but
• 4:27
  it's still a significant astronomical
• 4:29
  moment. What makes this comet truly
• 4:32
  special is that it's on a hyperbolic
• 4:34
  orbit. For our listeners who aren't
• 4:37
  familiar with that term, it means the
• 4:39
  comet's trajectory isn't a closed loop.
• 4:42
  It's not coming back
• 4:43
  >> ever, or at least not for over 200,000
• 4:47
  years. And even that's optimistic.
• 4:49
  Scientists believe it originated in the
• 4:51
  Orort cloud, that vast icy shell at the
• 4:54
  outer edges of our solar system, and
• 4:56
  it's now getting a gravitational
• 4:58
  slingshot that will send it out into
• 5:00
  interstellar space. This is genuinely a
• 5:03
  once- in a civilization event.
• 5:06
  >> NASA's astronomy picture of the day
• 5:08
  featured comet Woso today with a 30inut
• 5:11
  exposure taken from Chile showing a
• 5:14
  gorgeous 5°ree long ion tail and three
• 5:18
  separate dust tails. The comet also has
• 5:21
  a vivid green coma which scientists
• 5:24
  believe is linked to carbon bearing
• 5:26
  compounds likely diatomic carbon
• 5:29
  fluoresing under ultraviolet sunlight.
• 5:32
  The James Webb telescope actually
• 5:34
  observed this comet last year when it
• 5:36
  was still far out at about seven
• 5:38
  astronomical units from the sun. They
• 5:40
  found its activity is primarily driven
• 5:42
  by carbon dioxide rather than carbon
• 5:45
  monoxide, which is interesting because
• 5:47
  it suggests the comet may have lost its
• 5:50
  near surface CO early in its evolution.
• 5:53
  Now, in terms of actually seeing it, at
• 5:56
  magnitude 7.8 to 8.2, you're going to
• 5:59
  need binoculars at minimum. Ideally, a
• 6:02
  small telescope. It's currently in the
• 6:04
  constellation sculptor, quite low in the
• 6:06
  southwestern sky after sunset. Southern
• 6:09
  Hemisphere observers have the far better
• 6:11
  view today.
• 6:12
  >> Northern Hemisphere observers don't
• 6:14
  despair. Over the coming days, the comet
• 6:17
  will climb a bit higher and by around
• 6:19
  February 23rd, it should be a more
• 6:21
  accessible target as it passes near some
• 6:24
  galaxies in Cedus. But it will be fading
• 6:26
  by then. If you can get out tonight with
• 6:29
  some optics, it's worth the effort.
• 6:31
  You're quite literally saying goodbye to
• 6:33
  something the human race will never see
• 6:35
  again. All right, let's travel 133
• 6:39
  lighty years away to the constellation
• 6:41
  Pegasus, where the James Webb telescope
• 6:44
  has just settled one of exoplanet
• 6:46
  science's most persistent mysteries.
• 6:49
  >> And the key to solving it, hydrogen
• 6:52
  sulfide, the molecule that gives rotten
• 6:54
  eggs their delightful aroma. Published
• 6:57
  in Nature Astronomy, a team from UCLA
• 7:00
  and UC San Diego use JWST to study
• 7:03
  HR8799
• 7:05
  system, which hosts four enormous gas
• 7:08
  giant planets, each between 5 and 10
• 7:11
  times the mass of Jupiter. Now, these
• 7:14
  planets have been known since 2008, and
• 7:16
  they're actually directly visible
• 7:18
  through telescopes, which is remarkable
• 7:20
  in itself. Most exoplanets are detected
• 7:23
  indirectly, but because they're so
• 7:26
  massive and because they're so far from
• 7:28
  their star, between 15 and 70 times
• 7:31
  Earth's distance from the sun,
• 7:33
  scientists have long debated if they're
• 7:35
  truly planets, or something else
• 7:38
  entirely.
• 7:39
  >> Specifically, are they planets or brown
• 7:42
  dwarfs? Brown dwarfs are sometimes
• 7:44
  called failed stars, objects that formed
• 7:47
  through gravitational collapse of a gas
• 7:49
  cloud like a star, but never got massive
• 7:52
  enough to sustain hydrogen fusion. The
• 7:55
  traditional mass boundary is around 13
• 7:57
  Jupiter masses, but that's a bit
• 7:59
  arbitrary.
• 8:00
  >> What really matters is how they formed.
• 8:03
  Did they form like planets through core
• 8:05
  accretion, building up a solid core from
• 8:08
  dust and rock that then attracted gas?
• 8:11
  or did they form like stars through the
• 8:13
  rapid collapse of a dense pocket of gas?
• 8:16
  >> And this is where the rotten eggs come
• 8:18
  in. The team detected hydrogen sulfide
• 8:21
  in the atmospheres of these three
• 8:22
  worlds, HR8799
• 8:25
  C, D, and E. Now, why is sulfur the key?
• 8:29
  Because at the vast distances these
• 8:31
  planets orbit their star, sulfur can
• 8:34
  only exist in solid form within the
• 8:36
  protolanetary disc. It cannot be in the
• 8:39
  gas phase. So if there's sulfur in these
• 8:41
  planets atmospheres, it had to have been
• 8:44
  gobbled up as solid material during the
• 8:46
  planet's formation.
• 8:47
  >> That's the smoking gun for core
• 8:50
  accretion. These worlds, massive as they
• 8:53
  are, formed the same way Jupiter did,
• 8:56
  just on a much grander scale. Previous
• 8:59
  studies looking at carbon and oxygen,
• 9:01
  couldn't distinguish between the two
• 9:03
  formation pathways because those
• 9:05
  elements can come from either gas or
• 9:08
  solids. The researchers also found that
• 9:11
  these planets are enriched in heavy
• 9:13
  elements compared to their host star by
• 9:15
  factors of roughly 2 to 9 times. They
• 9:18
  estimate the four planets together
• 9:20
  contain around 600 Earth masses of heavy
• 9:24
  material. That's an extraordinary amount
• 9:26
  of solid material.
• 9:28
  >> And this raises a really fascinating
• 9:30
  question. How big can a planet get? If
• 9:34
  objects 10 times Jupiter's mass can form
• 9:37
  through core accretion, where exactly is
• 9:40
  the line between the biggest planets and
• 9:42
  the smallest brown dwarfs? Lead
• 9:44
  researcher Jerry Swan from UCLA put it
• 9:47
  beautifully. He said the technique they
• 9:50
  used to separate the light from these
• 9:52
  incredibly faint planets, 10,000 times
• 9:55
  fainter than their star, will eventually
• 9:57
  be applicable to studying Earthlike
• 9:59
  worlds. He said, "Finding an Earth
• 10:01
  analog is the holy grail, and we might
• 10:04
  be 20 to 30 years away from getting the
• 10:07
  first spectrum of an Earthlike planet
• 10:09
  and searching for bio signatures."
• 10:11
  >> The future of exoplanet science built on
• 10:14
  the foundation of smelly gas. Who would
• 10:17
  have thought? Staying closer to home
• 10:19
  now, well, relatively speaking, NASA
• 10:22
  launched two groundbreaking sounding
• 10:24
  rocket missions from Alaska earlier this
• 10:26
  month, and the results are already
• 10:28
  exciting to science community.
• 10:30
  >> These launched from the Poker Flat
• 10:32
  Research Range near Fairbanks, and they
• 10:34
  had two of the best mission acronyms
• 10:37
  I've ever encountered. The first is
• 10:40
  badass, the black and diffuse auroral
• 10:43
  science surveyor. And yes, that's the
• 10:45
  real name. Launched February 9th, Badass
• 10:48
  reached an altitude of about 360 km and
• 10:52
  was specifically designed to study a
• 10:54
  phenomenon called black auroras. These
• 10:57
  are these strange dark structures that
• 10:59
  appear as gaps or voids drifting within
• 11:02
  the brighter diffuse aurora. Like
• 11:04
  someone has taken an eraser to parts of
• 11:06
  the northern lights. What's happening
• 11:08
  physically is that electrons, instead of
• 11:11
  streaming down into Earth's atmosphere
• 11:13
  the way they do in normal auroras, are
• 11:16
  shooting upward into space. Scientists
• 11:19
  don't fully understand why this reversal
• 11:21
  happens. And Badass was designed to
• 11:24
  gather data on exactly that. Then on
• 11:27
  February 10th, NASA launched the GNISS
• 11:31
  mission. That's the geoysical
• 11:33
  non-equilibrium ionosphere science
• 11:36
  system. This one used two rockets
• 11:38
  launched just 30 seconds apart, flying
• 11:41
  side by side through the same aurora
• 11:43
  along different slices. And here's the
• 11:46
  clever bit. Each rocket ejected four
• 11:48
  subpayloads, giving them multiple
• 11:51
  measurement points inside the aurora
• 11:53
  simultaneously. The rockets also sent
• 11:56
  radio signals through the surrounding
• 11:58
  plasma to a network of 11 ground
• 12:01
  receivers. The way the plasma altered
• 12:04
  those radio waves allowed scientists to
• 12:06
  map the plasma density, revealing where
• 12:09
  electrical currents can flow. Principal
• 12:12
  investigator Christina Lynch from
• 12:14
  Dartmouth College described it as
• 12:16
  essentially doing a CT scan of the
• 12:18
  plasma beneath the aurora. In the same
• 12:20
  way a medical CT scan uses X-rays
• 12:23
  passing through different body tissues
• 12:25
  to reconstruct the 3D image, NICE uses
• 12:28
  radio waves passing through auroral
• 12:30
  plasma to reconstruct the electrical
• 12:32
  environment in three dimensions. Both
• 12:35
  missions reported that all instruments
• 12:37
  performed as expected and returned
• 12:39
  highquality data. This is particularly
• 12:42
  satisfying for the badass team because
• 12:44
  the same mission was on the launchpad at
• 12:47
  Poker Flat last year, but the required
• 12:49
  auroral conditions never materialized
• 12:52
  before the launch window closed.
• 12:54
  Understanding how auroral currents work
• 12:56
  isn't just pure physics. Those currents
• 12:59
  shape how energy from space spreads
• 13:01
  through Earth's upper atmosphere. Where
• 13:04
  the current fans out, the atmosphere
• 13:06
  heats up, which can affect satellite
• 13:08
  drag, GPS accuracy, and radio
• 13:10
  communications. With our increasing
• 13:12
  dependence on space-based technology,
• 13:14
  this research has very practical
• 13:16
  implications.
• 13:18
  >> Now, for something that sounds like
• 13:20
  science fiction, but is heading for a
• 13:22
  realworld test later this year. A
• 13:24
  startup called General Galactic, led by
• 13:27
  former SpaceX engineer Helen Madison, is
• 13:30
  developing technology to use water as
• 13:32
  rocket fuel. And before anyone thinks
• 13:35
  we're talking about some kind of
• 13:36
  perpetual motion scam, the science here
• 13:39
  is sound. The core concept uses
• 13:42
  electrolysis, splitting water molecules
• 13:45
  into hydrogen and oxygen, and then using
• 13:48
  those gases in two different propulsion
• 13:50
  systems.
• 13:51
  >> Right? For chemical propulsion, you burn
• 13:53
  the hydrogen and oxygen together, which
• 13:56
  produces high pressure thrust, much like
• 13:58
  a conventional rocket engine. For
• 14:00
  electrical propulsion, you ionize the
• 14:03
  oxygen and accelerate it using a
• 14:05
  magnetic field, creating plasma thrust.
• 14:08
  Madison describes that second type as
• 14:10
  very, very low thrust. People jokingly
• 14:13
  like to call it a burp in space. But
• 14:16
  even a burp in space can be useful for
• 14:19
  precise maneuvers and station keeping.
• 14:21
  The real gamecher here isn't the
• 14:23
  propulsion technology itself, but the
• 14:26
  fuel source. Water is one of the most
• 14:28
  abundant resources we found on other
• 14:30
  worlds. There's water ice on the moon,
• 14:33
  on Mars, on asteroids. If you can turn
• 14:36
  that water into fuel, you've essentially
• 14:38
  created the infrastructure for cosmic
• 14:40
  refueling stations.
• 14:42
  >> That's exactly Madison's long-term
• 14:44
  vision. He's talking about building a
• 14:46
  refueling network that connects Earth,
• 14:49
  the moon, and Mars. As he puts it,
• 14:51
  everybody wants to go build a moon base
• 14:54
  or a Mars base. Who's going to pay for
• 14:56
  it? How does it actually work? His
• 14:58
  answer is to make the economics viable
• 15:00
  by using insitue resources.
• 15:03
  >> Now, there are real challenges to
• 15:05
  overcome. Water has to be purified,
• 15:08
  electrolyed, and stored efficiently. And
• 15:10
  the whole system has to be lightweight
• 15:12
  enough for space applications. There's
• 15:15
  also concerns about ionized oxygen
• 15:17
  potentially affecting satellite
• 15:18
  electronics, but the team is pushing
• 15:21
  ahead with a proof of concept. And that
• 15:23
  proof of concept is coming soon. General
• 15:26
  Galactic is planning to launch an 1100
• 15:29
  lb satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
• 15:32
  in October 2026. That satellite will
• 15:36
  test both the chemical and electrical
• 15:38
  propulsion systems using water as fuel
• 15:41
  in actual space conditions. If it works,
• 15:44
  it could fundamentally change the
• 15:46
  economics of space flight. MAT claims
• 15:48
  they're talking about billions of
• 15:50
  dollars in savings even with current
• 15:52
  operations and trillions in new economic
• 15:55
  growth as the infrastructure scales up.
• 15:57
  Those are bold claims, but the
• 15:59
  underlying physics is solid. We'll be
• 16:01
  watching that October launch very
• 16:03
  closely. So, we open the show with
• 16:06
  today's annular eclipse, and we
• 16:08
  mentioned that it kicks off an eclipse
• 16:10
  season, but I think it's worth zooming
• 16:12
  out and looking at the bigger picture
• 16:14
  because 2026 is shaping up to be an
• 16:17
  absolutely extraordinary year for
• 16:19
  eclipses.
• 16:21
  >> It really is. So, let's run through
• 16:23
  what's coming. First up, as we
• 16:25
  mentioned, on March the 3rd, we get a
• 16:27
  total lunar eclipse. That's a blood moon
• 16:30
  and it will be visible across North
• 16:32
  America which is fantastic news for our
• 16:34
  listeners in that part of the world.
• 16:36
  >> Then we get to August 12th. And this is
• 16:39
  the big one, a total solar eclipse, not
• 16:42
  annular but total with its path of
• 16:44
  totality crossing the Arctic, Greenland,
• 16:47
  Iceland, and Spain. And observers across
• 16:50
  much of Western Europe and North America
• 16:53
  will see a partial eclipse.
• 16:55
  >> For anyone in the UK, this is
• 16:57
  particularly exciting. The BBC Sky at
• 17:00
  Night magazine and the Royal Observatory
• 17:02
  Greenwich are both flagging this as the
• 17:04
  best solar eclipse visible from the UK
• 17:06
  since 1999.
• 17:08
  Viewers in London will see the moon
• 17:10
  touch the edge of the sun's disc at 6:17
• 17:13
  p.m. BST. And it doesn't stop there. The
• 17:17
  astronomical community is talking about
• 17:19
  a genuine golden age of eclipses
• 17:22
  beginning right now. Between 2026 and
• 17:25
  2028, we're looking at three total solar
• 17:28
  eclipses and three Ring of Fire eclipses
• 17:31
  in just three years. That's an
• 17:33
  extraordinary run.
• 17:35
  >> So, if today's Antarctic Ring of Fire
• 17:38
  has you feeling a bit left out because
• 17:40
  you couldn't see it, don't worry. There
• 17:42
  is so much more to come. Start planning
• 17:44
  now for August 12th. And make sure
• 17:46
  you're subscribed to Astronomy Daily
• 17:48
  because we'll be covering every single
• 17:50
  one of these events. This is going to be
• 17:52
  an epic year for Eclipse Tracers.
• 17:55
  >> And that brings us to the end of another
• 17:57
  packed edition of Astronomy Daily. What
• 17:59
  a day, Anna. An eclipse, a comet
• 18:02
  farewell, rotten eggs solving planetary
• 18:04
  mysteries, CT scans of auroras, water
• 18:08
  powered rockets, and a golden age of
• 18:10
  eclipses beginning right now.
• 18:12
  >> If you enjoyed today's episode, please
• 18:14
  do subscribe wherever you get your
• 18:16
  podcasts. Leave us a rating and a review
• 18:18
  and share us with anyone you know who
• 18:20
  loves looking up. You can find us at
• 18:22
  astronomydaily.io,
• 18:24
  on YouTube, and across all social media
• 18:27
  platforms at astroaily pod.
• 18:29
  >> And don't forget, we're part of the
• 18:31
  byes.com podcast network where you'll
• 18:33
  find plenty of other great shows to keep
• 18:35
  you entertained and informed.
• 18:37
  >> Until next time, keep your eyes on the
• 18:39
  skies.
• 18:40
  >> Clear skies, everyone.
• 18:45
  Stories told
• 18:53
  stories told
• 19:01
  stories