Astronomy Daily: Latest Space News

Episode summary
Betelgeuse is being haunted. New VLA and ALMA radio observations show the red supergiant's atmosphere stretches and relaxes in step with the orbit of its hidden companion, Siwarha — a companion too faint to see in radio, caught by the ripples it leaves behind. Also: lithium-fluoride crystals that rode around the Moon on Artemis I, why comets almost certainly didn't deliver life's ingredients to Earth (but did better on Mars), and Virgin Galactic's new spaceship, Apeiron. Plus Swift's final days, Hubble helping Roman, Starship Flight 15, and where to find Betelgeuse tonight from both hemispheres.Show notes
The Ghost in Betelgeuse ·         Matthews (MIT Haystack), Dupree (CfA), Richards (Manchester) and Dent (ESO/ALMA) imaged Betelgeuse at seven frequencies, 22–485 GHz, with the VLA and ALMA between 2021 and 2026. ·         The outer atmosphere has recovered from the 2019–20 Great Dimming (~3,500 K at 22 GHz); a temperature minimum of ~2,220 K sits at ~1.2 stellar radii, matching the infrared 'MOLsphere'. ·         The star's ellipticity tracks the orbital phase of its companion Siwarha: more stretched near greatest elongation (~10% in Oct 2024), rounder near transit and eclipse (<2% in Apr 2026). ·         Caveats: small effect, ~9 epochs, frequency-dependent orientation puzzle, Siwarha's nature contested; preprint posted August 2026. ·         Next: Siwarha re-emerges on the far side of Betelgeuse in late 2027. Crystals That Went Around the Moon ·         Bilski et al. (IFJ PAN, DLR), Radiation Measurements: LiF fluorescent nuclear track detectors from the MARE phantoms on Artemis I reconstructed the cosmic-ray energy-deposition spectrum without destroying the detector. ·         Matched plastic track detectors at intermediate energies; ~30% overestimate for the heaviest ions, attributed to neutron knock-on of lithium nuclei; lithium-7 crystals reduce it. ·         Near the Moon, dose was higher than in low Earth orbit but less than intuition suggests, and more evenly spread through the body. Comets Probably Didn't Seed Life on Earth ·         Anslow et al. (Cambridge), Scientific Reports: rapid decline of the bombardment, comet break-up, atmospheric filtering, impact heating and crater-lake dilution make HCN delivery to early Earth 'exceedingly rare'. ·         Delivery to Mars is about five times more effective (lower impact speeds, thinner atmosphere). ·         Caveat: modelling, focused on HCN; doesn't exclude delivery in tightly packed exoplanet systems. Virgin Galactic's Apeiron Comes Home ·         First Delta-class spaceplane named Apeiron ('boundless') on 28 Oct and flown under mothership Eve from Mesa, Arizona to Spaceport America. ·         Flight tests next; customer flights targeted mid-2027; second ship late 2027; target twice-weekly flights and 500+ missions per vehicle. Quick Hits ·         Swift ended operations 20 Oct; NASA expects re-entry within weeks. ·         Hubble lens image DESI J194.5345+03.5358 released to help calibrate Roman's ~160,000 expected strong lenses (image release, no new paper). ·         Starship Flight 15 targeted for November with a two-stage catch attempt; no official date. Skywatch ·         Betelgeuse rises ~22:33 Sydney, 21:48 LA, 21:46 NY, 20:39 London (Fri 30 Oct); highest before dawn: 49° Sydney, 63° LA, 57° NY, 46° London. US clocks fall back Sun 1 Nov. ·         Saturn at dusk; Mercury's last evening appearance favours the south (~11° at sunset from Sydney). ·         Pre-dawn Mars–Jupiter closing: 6.5° (this weekend), ~4° (5 Nov), ~1.2° (16 Nov). Last quarter Moon 1 Nov 20:28 UTC; Moon past Mars, Jupiter and Regulus 2–3 Nov. ·         Zodiacal light: evening west from the south, pre-dawn east from the north. Solar viewing only with ISO 12312-2 filters. Sources ·         NRAO via Newswise — What Lurks Within the Shadows of Betelgeuse? — https://www.newswise.com/articles/what-lurks-within-the-shadows-of-betelgeuse ·         Matthews et al., arXiv 2608.02847 — https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.02847 ·         Bilski et al., Radiation Measurements (DLR elib record) — https://elib.dlr.de/226596/ ·         Universe Today — Glowing Salt Crystals Tracked Radiation Aboard Artemis I — https://www.universetoday.com/articles/glowing-salt-crystals-tracked-radiation-aboard-artemis-i ·         Anslow et al., Scientific Reports — https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-74214-y ·         Universe Today — Ancient Comets Carried Organic Compounds… — https://www.universetoday.com/articles/ancient-comets-carried-organic-compounds-but-they-didnt-survive-crashing-into-earth ·         Universe Today — Virgin Galactic Flies Next-Gen Space Plane… — https://www.universetoday.com/articles/virgin-galactic-flies-next-gen-space-plane-to-new-home-with-new-name ·         NASA — Swift Mission Ends Ahead of Re-Entry — https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/10/23/nasas-swift-mission-ends-ahead-of-re-entry/ ·         NASA — Hubble Charts Path for Roman with Gravitational Lenses — https://science.nasa.gov/?p=1462412

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Show notes
Astronomy Daily S05E216 — A New World in the Crowd (Thursday 29 October 2026). Hosts Anna and Avery. Lead: the Vera C. Rubin Observatory has found its first dwarf-planet candidate. 2026 ED138 lies beyond Pluto, about 46 au from the Sun. Matthew Holman (CfA) found it on 13 October with a search code built with Kevin Napier, and it was announced on 27 October at the DPS meeting in Spokane (MPEC 2026-U85). Rubin caught it 30 times on 20 nights between March and July, and Dark Energy Camera precoveries extend the orbit back to 2016. Only nine known trans-Neptunian objects are intrinsically brighter. Its size is estimated at 600–1,500 km, depending on reflectivity, so it remains a candidate until infrared or occultation measurements pin it down. It hid near the plane of the Milky Way, about 43° south of the celestial equator. Also: JWST's 37-hour phase curve shows the lava world TOI-561 b reflecting about three-quarters of its starlight, possibly through silicate clouds, with University of Sydney co-authors. ESA's Hera resolves Didymos and Dimorphos separately for the first time, with detailed Dimorphos images due 25 November. NASA's Swift is in its final weeks before re-entry, and UVEX passes a key review. Skywatch for Sydney, Los Angeles, New York and London: Mars and Jupiter closing in the pre-dawn sky (1.2° on 16 November), Saturn in the evening, Mercury's last call from the south, the waning Moon through Taurus to Gemini, and the US clock change on 1 November.

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Show notes
Astronomy Daily S05E215 — The Star That Was Born Twice (Tuesday 27 October 2026). Hosts Anna and Avery. Lead: the Orion Nebula's age paradox. Its planet-forming discs and its expanding gas shell both look far younger than its million-year-old stars. Wilhelm, Trani and Portegies Zwart (Leiden / Universidad de Concepción) propose that the nebula's most massive star, θ1 Orionis C1, formed a few hundred thousand years ago when two stars merged, driven by their companion's gravity, suddenly switching on harsher radiation. We cover the caveats and the clean test that could falsify it. Also: WD J1328−1450, a white dwarf with two nested rings of gas that point to two hidden planetary bodies; China's AIMS telescope reads a solar flare's magnetic field directly in the mid-infrared; and a Yale study arguing giant impacts can help rocky planets keep hydrogen atmospheres. Quick hits: NASA's new Competition Model 2.0, Swift's mission formally ended ahead of re-entry, Hera's second braking burn, and the DPS meeting in Spokane. Skywatch: finding the Orion Nebula from Sydney, Los Angeles, New York and London; Saturn in the evening; Mercury's last call in the south; Mars and Jupiter converging before dawn. Sources ·         Wilhelm, Trani & Portegies Zwart, 'A triple-induced merger in θ1 Ori C solves the proplyd lifetime problem and the curiously young shell of M42', A&A, DOI 10.1051/0004-6361/202662018; arXiv 2609.38550 — https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.38550 ·         Leiden University release, 23 Oct 2026 — https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2026/10/leiden-astronomers-explain-the-orion-nebulas-age-paradox ·         Gentile Fusillo, Lagos-Vilches, Koester et al., 'A double debris disc around a white dwarf sculpted by two planetary bodies', Nature Astronomy, 26 Oct 2026, DOI 10.1038/s41550-026-03004-3 — https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-026-03004-3 ·         Deng, Bai, Wei et al., 'Apparent magnetic field decay in a solar flare from Zeeman splitting of the Mg I 12.32-µm line', Nature Astronomy, 23 Oct 2026, DOI 10.1038/s41550-026-03013-2; arXiv 2610.33502 — https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.33502 ·         Modirrousta-Galian & Korenaga, 'Retention of primordial atmospheres through giant impacts', Nature Astronomy, 26 Oct 2026, DOI 10.1038/s41550-026-03006-1 — https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-026-03006-1 ·         NASA Science, 'Faster to Science: A Letter to the Science Community' — https://science.nasa.gov/directorates/smd/faster-to-science-a-letter-to-the-science-community/ ·         NASA Science, 'NASA's Swift Mission Ends Ahead of Re-Entry', 23 Oct 2026 — https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/10/23/nasas-swift-mission-ends-ahead-of-re-entry/ ·         ESA Hera mission updates — https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Hera

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Show notes In 2016, NASA's Swift caught a gamma-ray burst that came in two parts: a 1.7-second spike, four minutes of silence, then a 51-second burst from the same spot. A new Nature Astronomy paper finds that nearly every classification test labels the first part a merger and the second a collapsing star. It was published three days after Swift ended science operations. Also today: a black hole disc in MAXI J0637−430 that puffs up and shades itself at just a fifth of the Eddington limit; JWST finds methane in interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS with a deuterium ratio of 3.18%, the highest ever measured in methane anywhere in the solar system; and NASA's Psyche goes to near-continuous thrust and makes the first in-space measurement of Hall-thruster swirl torque. Quick hits: Hera's second braking burn, Dragonfly's first simulated Titan flight, and 20 years of STEREO. Skywatch for Sydney, Los Angeles, New York and London: the Hunter's Moon, Mars and Jupiter closing before dawn, Saturn in the evening and Mercury's last call.

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Show notes NASA lays out Artemis III day by day: fourteen days in Earth orbit, two rival landers, one Orion. Plus the week that was, Swift's final bow, and Venus changing sides. The Rehearsal NASA's 23 October Artemis update laid out Artemis III day by day: a 14-day low-Earth-orbit mission targeted for summer 2027 in which Orion docks with a Blue Origin Blue Moon Mark 2 test lander on day three (crew enter its cabin) and a SpaceX Starship test lander on day eight. For Artemis IV in 2028, Starship would dock with Orion in Earth orbit and push it to the Moon; Blue Moon would reach lunar orbit on Mark 1-derived transfer stages. Isaacman put Artemis III about 90 days behind on paper. Plus: the National Academies' four science-first landing sites, none at the south pole. The Week That Was MMX launched for Phobos and is in good health; the Moon is still shrinking (>10,000 young thrust faults); the Milky Way's disc formed in two stages; balloons measured GLE 77 through the atmosphere; and The Starry Night as a real 1889 sky. Also: the ELT's mirror, a Valles Marineris marsquake and Roman's science commissioning. Farewell, Swift On 20 October Swift reached 275 km, entered safe mode and was commanded to end operations ahead of re-entry, expected within weeks. No date or location has been published. Skywatch Venus at inferior conjunction (24 Oct, 6.5° from the Sun — do not look); Mercury low in the west for the south; the near-full Moon beside Saturn tonight; full Hunter's Moon 26 Oct 04:11 UTC; Mars and Jupiter closing pre-dawn for the north; UK clocks go back Sunday 25 Oct. Always use ISO 12312-2 certified filters for any solar viewing.

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