Astronomy Daily: The Latest Space News

Astronomy Daily · S05E146 · “Postcards from Mars” · Tuesday 21 July 2026 NASA’s Psyche probe phones home from its Mars flyby — data and a spellbinding month-long time-lapse — as Europe’s Plato planet-hunter clears its final test. From the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting: a CubeSat that could give us hours of solar-storm warning, and a new way to forecast the Sun’s next active spell. Plus the first pieces of the giant ngVLA radio array, and a Southern Hemisphere meteor shower to catch this week.

Story notes & sources 1 · Psyche phones home NASA’s Psyche spacecraft (launched 2023; arriving metal asteroid 16 Psyche in 2029) used a 15 May Mars gravity assist to test its instruments. The neutron spectrometer detected the anticipated count-rate enhancement near closest approach; the gamma-ray/neutron spectrometer, magnetometer and imager all performed well. Data and a month-long Mars time-lapse were released this week. ●        NASA/JPL — “Psyche Mission Delivers Mars Flyby Data, Time-lapse Video” (17 Jul 2026) ●        Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — LLNL-built gamma-ray sensor’s first planetary measurements (17 Jul 2026) 2 · Plato clears its final exam ESA’s Plato — 26 cameras hunting Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars — passed electromagnetic compatibility testing in the Maxwell chamber at ESTEC, its last major qualification hurdle. It’s bound for Sun-Earth L2 aboard an Ariane 6 (current target 2027). ●        ESA — “Plato’s electronics ready for space” (20 Jul 2026) 3 · HENON space-weather CubeSat Presented at NAM 2026: HENON, a deep-space CubeSat that would sit ~15 million km upstream of Earth (10× farther than L1), potentially extending severe geomagnetic-storm warning from ~15 minutes to 2–3 hours. It carries the UK-built MAGIC magnetometer (Imperial College London) plus instruments from the Czech Republic and Finland, paving the way for a future European early-warning mission. ●        Royal Astronomical Society / NAM 2026 — “From 15 minutes to 3 hours” (20 Jul 2026) 4 · The Sun’s “sleep” precursor Also at NAM 2026: a newly identified precursor in the solar cycle’s declining phase that could help predict the next maximum’s sunspot number. After the Sun’s active phase “switches off,” storms weaken and track a 27-day (solar-rotation) rhythm — pointing to co-rotating fast-wind streams rather than coronal mass ejections. ●        Royal Astronomical Society / NAM 2026 — “How the Sun goes to ‘sleep’…” (20 Jul 2026) 5 · Building the ngVLA The US National Science Foundation, NSF NRAO and the US Naval Observatory are partnering on a pathfinder for the next-generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) — the ~266-antenna successor to the iconic VLA. The focus is very long baseline interferometry for ultra-sharp imaging and for maintaining the International Celestial Reference Frame. Construction/early operations are expected before the end of the decade. ●        NSF NRAO / US Naval Observatory — ngVLA pathfinder partnership (17 Jul 2026) 6 · Skywatch: Southern Delta Aquariids Active mid-July to late August, peaking 29–30 July, with a radiant near Skat (δ Aquarii) — high overhead for Southern Hemisphere observers. ~15–20 faint, graceful meteors/hour under dark skies; suspected parent comet 96P/Machholz. A near-full Buck Moon spoils the peak, so the moon-free pre-dawn hours this week are the best window. Bright, slow Alpha Capricornid fireballs join in toward month’s end. ●        Scientific American / EarthSky / American Meteor Society — Delta Aquariids 2026 
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Astronomy Daily S05E145 — “Arrival” — Monday, 20 July 2026. On the 57th anniversary of Apollo 11, we cover a first-of-its-kind launch, a Mars flyby science haul, a four-billion-year-old Martian record, a habitable-zone world with a likely atmosphere, shrimp feeding in simulated microgravity, and the new science of listening to black holes ring. In This Episode (01:30) India goes private in orbit —  Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 aces its debut “Mission Aagaman,” making India the third nation with a private orbital launch capability. Plus a Starship Flight 13 update (NET 23–24 July). (05:30) Psyche’s Mars gift —  NASA/JPL releases the science haul from Psyche’s 15 May Mars gravity assist, including the magnetometer’s first measurement of another body. (08:30) Mars keeps the receipts —  Perseverance examines the “Broom Point member” on Jezero’s rim — some of the oldest terrain any rover has studied, recording ~4 billion years of impacts. (11:30) A world holding its breath —  A Science paper detects escaping helium at LHS 1140b, pointing to a replenished, substantial atmosphere on a habitable-zone super-Earth. (A different planet from Friday’s story!) (15:00) Space shrimp —  Okayama University of Science shows crustaceans can feed under simulated microgravity — a step toward closed-loop space food systems. (17:30) The bells of spacetime —  A major review shows black-hole “spectroscopy” — reading ringdown gravitational waves — is becoming a real test of Einstein, ahead of the Einstein Telescope, Cosmic Explorer and LISA. (20:30) Skywatch —  A coronal-hole solar wind stream brings a chance of minor aurora australis for far-southern latitudes around 21–22 July. Story Sources ●        Vikram-1 / Mission Aagaman — Space.com; Skyroot Aerospace; ESA/Manorama coverage (18 July 2026). ●        Psyche Mars flyby data — NASA/JPL release (17 July 2026). ●        Perseverance “Broom Point member” — Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, Imperial College London-led. ●        LHS 1140b helium escape — Science, Harvard-led (16 July 2026); Magellan Clay telescope. ●        Space shrimp — Microgravity Science and Technology; Okayama University of Science Space Aquaculture Project. ●        Black-hole spectroscopy — Classical and Quantum Gravity review (Birmingham / Johns Hopkins / Lisbon). ●        Skywatch — EarthSky Sun news; UK Met Office & Australian BOM space weather (19 July 2026). Astronomy Daily is part of the Bitesz.com Podcast Network. Web: astronomydaily.io — Social: @AstroDailyPod

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Astronomy Daily — The Weekend Space and Astronomy News Wrap | Saturday 18 July 2026 | S05E144 Anna and Avery wrap the biggest week in space news this year: brand-new research warning that extreme solar storms may hit harder than our models assume, and the delightful news that South African rooibos tea seeds are headed for the International Space Station — plus the four stories that defined the week, from the first atmosphere ever found on a rocky habitable-zone world to Starship's dramatic T-0 abort and Monday's retry. Story Sources •       Solar storms underestimated — Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10757-4); phys.org; Space.com •       Rooibos in Space — South African Rooibos Council / MaxIQ Space / SANSA announcement; phys.org; News24 •       LHS 1140 b atmosphere — Science; Space.com (as covered S05E143) •       Starship Flight 13 — SpaceX / Space.com launch coverage (arc across S05E139–E143; retry NET 20 July) •       Omega Centauri black hole — Hubble/JWST astrometry study (as covered S05E141) •       Pluto landslides & Charon tectonics — New Horizons imagery studies (as covered S05E142) Visit astronomydaily.io for our full archive. Follow @AstroDailyPod. Astronomy Daily is part of the Bitesz.com Podcast Network.

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Astronomy Daily — S05E143 | Friday 17 July 2026 | "A World With Air" Anna and Avery bring you a genuine milestone: the first atmosphere ever detected on a rocky planet in the habitable zone of another star. Plus Starship's last-second launch abort, the New Jersey bedroom meteorite carrying life's ingredients, the earliest galaxy-building ever seen, metallic dunes on Mars, and a Moon–Venus meeting in tonight's sky. In this episode 01:45 — A world with air. Astronomers detect helium escaping from LHS 1140 b, a super-Earth 48 light-years away — the first confirmed atmosphere on a rocky, habitable-zone exoplanet. Published in Science. 07:00 — Starship Flight 13 aborts at T-0. Several Raptor engines failed to ignite at the moment of launch; two engines will be replaced, with a retry expected early next week. 10:15 — The Hillsborough meteorite. The rock that crashed through a New Jersey bedroom in July 2024 is a rare, ultra-pristine CM1/2 carbonaceous chondrite laced with amino acids and salts — evidence for the delivery of life's ingredients to early Earth. Published in Science Advances. 14:00 — Galaxies growing up fast. Durham University astronomers using JWST find the most distant nuclear disk ever seen — a star-forming core structure more than nine billion years back in time. Published in MNRAS. 17:00 — Metallic waves on Mars. ESA's Mars Express images the frost-tipped mega-dunes of Kaiser Crater. 19:00 — Southern skywatch. The crescent Moon meets Venus and Regulus tonight; dark-sky weekend for the Milky Way core; one month until the 12 August total solar eclipse. Sources LHS 1140 b atmosphere — Science (Cherubim et al.); coverage via Space.com, ScienceAlert, Harvard FAS. Starship Flight 13 abort — SpaceNews, Space.com, CNN live coverage. Hillsborough meteorite — Science Advances; SETI Institute release; coverage via Space.com, CNN, Popular Science, Smithsonian. Durham nuclear disk — Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; Durham University release; Phys.org. Kaiser Crater dunes — ESA Mars Express image release, 15 July 2026. Astronomy Daily is part of the Bitesz.com Podcast Network. Visit astronomydaily.io for every episode, and find us on all platforms @AstroDailyPod.

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Anna and Avery kick off with a decade-long game of cosmic hide-and-seek that has finally ended: Beta Pictoris d, the faintest exoplanet ever directly imaged from Earth, found lurking in more than ten years of archival images — and orbiting a star in the southern constellation Pictor. Then it's the completion of VLASS, the sharpest radio map of the whole sky ever made, arriving just as the Rubin Observatory's optical survey switches on. The James Webb Space Telescope has caught a supermassive black hole feeding itself in the Centaurus Cluster — the missing link in a decades-old mystery. A Pluto system double bill follows: the first landslides ever identified on Pluto, and evidence written in Charon's mountains that the big moon once spun more than ten times faster than it does today — both delivered by New Horizons data from 2015. Finally, SpaceX's latest FCC filing reveals Starlink satellites made over 355,000 collision-avoidance manoeuvres in the past year — nearly one dodge per satellite per week — and experts are warning about where the trend leads. Plus dark-sky Southern Hemisphere stargazing and a Starship Flight 13 launch reminder. Chapters •       00:00 — Intro & billboard •       01:30 — Beta Pictoris d: the faintest exoplanet ever imaged from Earth •       05:30 — VLASS complete: the sharpest radio map of the sky •       08:45 — JWST reveals how supermassive black holes feed •       12:15 — Pluto has landslides (Pluto double, part 1) •       15:00 — Charon's slowing spin (Pluto double, part 2) •       17:45 — Starlink's 355,000 collision dodges in a year •       20:45 — Southern Hemisphere skywatch + Starship Flight 13 reminder •       22:30 — Outro Story sources •       Beta Pictoris d: ESO release eso2609 (eso.org) · The Astrophysical Journal Letters · space.com · phys.org •       VLASS completion: NRAO release (public.nrao.edu/news/vlass-observations-complete) · phys.org •       JWST / NGC 4696: Université de Montréal · The Astrophysical Journal Letters · phys.org / EurekAlert •       Pluto landslides: Icarus (Discenza et al. 2026) · phys.org · Discover Magazine · Science News •       Charon despinning: Nature Communications (Chen et al. 2026, DOI 10.1038/s41467-026-75069-7) · phys.org · Gizmodo •       Starlink manoeuvres: SpaceX semiannual FCC constellation status report, via space.com Boilerplate Astronomy Daily is part of the Bitesz.com Podcast Network. Show notes, links and the full back catalogue at astronomydaily.io. Follow @AstroDailyPod on X, Instagram, TikTok and Tumblr. New episodes every day.

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