Space News Today

Friday SpaceTime 20261113 Series 29 Episode 136 The Milky Way galaxy’s new neighbours Astronomers have discovered two previously hidden companions of our Milky Way galaxy. Moving a step closer to the Zeptoverse After a search lasting some 42 years physicists have found evidence of a particle decay so rare that it is expected to only occur around once in every 10 billion bottom or beauty quark particles. Tasmania’s eye in the sky Sitting on a peak about 70 kilometres north of Hobart, is Tasmania’s most advanced link to the cosmos -- the Greenhill Observatory. The Science Report Claims being born preterm or at a low birthweight linked with poorer cognitive performance. Study shows weight loss rather than a Mediterranean diet the best way to fight inflammation. Urgent action needed to protect Australia’s native bees from global pollinator decline. Using liquid metals, powered by sunlight, to produce clean hydrogen from water. Skeptics guide to multiple Bigfoot spotted in Canada. Our Guests This Week Swift Program Scientist Ilana Harrus from NASA Greenhill Observatory Director Professor Andrew Cole from the University of Tasmania Our regular guests: Alex Zaharov-Reutt from techadvice.life Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics 🌏 Get Our Exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ www.bitesz.com/nordvpn (http://www.bitesz.com/nordvpn) . The discounts and bonuses are incredible! And it’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! ✌ If you’d like to support the podcast and gain access to bonus content by becoming a SpaceTime crew member, you can do just that through The Big Bang editions on Patreon, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Details on the Support page on our website https://www.bitesz.com/show/spacetime/support/ (https://www.bitesz.com/show/spacetime/support/) For more SpaceTime and show links: https://linktr.ee/biteszHQ (https://linktr.ee/biteszHQ) If you love this podcast, please get someone else to listen too. Thank you…

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SpaceX is targeting today for Starship Flight 15, and for the first time it will try to catch both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage back at the launch tower, the ship after more than 22 hours and about 14 orbits. We walk through the plan, the timings for both hemispheres, and the three caveats that matter. Also: ESA's Euclid telescope opens about 1,900 square degrees of sky to the world in its first major data release; Caltech's ASTRA robot assembles the first piece of structure ever built autonomously in orbit; Voyager 1 closes in on one light-day from Earth; and Mars and Jupiter draw to 1.2 degrees apart in the pre-dawn sky. In this episode · Starship Flight 15: targeted for Fri 13 Nov, 4:45 pm CT (22:45 UTC; 9:45 am AEDT Sat). First attempt to catch both booster and ship. · Euclid DR1-Foundation: about 1,900 square degrees and 1.8 petabytes, public from 12 November. Cosmology products follow in mid-2027. · ASTRA: a Caltech/DARPA robot assembles a truss bay in low Earth orbit, a first. · Quick hits: Voyager 1 one light-day on 18 Nov; BepiColombo at Mercury 21 Nov; Hera's Dimorphos close-ups 25 Nov. · Skywatch: Mars and Jupiter 1.2° apart on 16 Nov; Venus and Spica; Leonids 17–18 Nov; Saturn in the evening. Sources · Starship Flight 15 awaits FAA green light — NASASpaceflight — https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/11/starship-flight-15-awaits-faa/ · Starship Flight 15 will try to catch both stages — KeepTrack — https://keeptrack.space/x-report/spacex-brief-2026-11-09 · Euclid DR1 MER Catalog — Caltech/IPAC IRSA — https://www.ipac.caltech.edu/doi/10.26131/IRSA673 · Euclid timeline — ESA — https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/euclid/timeline · ESA Datalabs Euclid Hackathon 2026 — https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esa-datalabs-euclid-hackathon-2026 · NOM4D program demonstrates automated in-space assembly — DARPA — https://www.darpa.mil/news/2026/nom4d-program-demonstrates-automated-in-space-assembly · Caltech robotic space demo successfully builds in space — Caltech — https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/caltech-robotic-space-demo-successfully-builds-in-space · Voyager 1 to reach 1 light-day — EarthSky — https://earthsky.org/space/voyager-1-1-light-day-from-earth-november-17-18-2026/ · What's Up: November 2026 — NASA — https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/skywatching/whats-up-november-2026-skywatching-tips-from-nasa/

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Space Nuts: The M87 Black Hole, a Vanishing Exoplanet and Dragonfly’s Journey to Titan

In this episode of Space Nuts , Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson revisit the Event Horizon Telescope’s landmark image of the black hole in galaxy M87 — and explain how a CSIRO team has now independently confirmed it using artificial intelligence. They then investigate an exoplanet that stopped transiting its star, apparently because the gravity of another planet has tilted its orbit out of view. Finally, Andrew and Fred Watson look ahead to NASA’s Dragonfly mission to Titan, where a flying rotorcraft will explore a moon with methane and ethane lakes. You can even send your name along for the ride. Join Andrew and Fred Watson for black holes, shifting planetary orbits and an extraordinary mission to Saturn’s largest moon.

Key topics

- How a CSIRO team used AI to independently validate the M87 black hole image.

- Why independent confirmation is an essential part of the scientific process.

- How gravitational interactions may have tilted exoplanet TOI 2535b’s orbit, making its transits disappear.

- Whether the planet may return to view, and if its unseen neighbour could transit its star.

- NASA’s Dragonfly mission, its planned exploration of Titan and how to send your name.

- Titan’s thick atmosphere, icy surface and lakes of liquid methane and ethane.

- How AI is helping scientists make new discoveries.

Timestamps

00:00 - Introduction and the episode’s cosmic stories

01:30 - The 2028 total solar eclipse across Australia

04:30 - CSIRO independently confirms the M87 black hole image

10:00 - Why independent validation matters in science

13:30 - An exoplanet’s transits disappear from view

17:00 - How another planet’s gravity may be tilting its orbit

20:00 - Could the planet return, or might its neighbour become visible?

23:00 - Send your name to Titan aboard NASA’s Dragonfly mission

26:00 - Titan’s methane lakes and the search for unusual forms of life

29:00 - Can AI accelerate the pace of scientific discovery?

33:00 - Closing conversation and Space Nuts details

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Show notes

A hot Jupiter called TOI-2535 b has become the first planet around a single star seen to stop transiting, tipped out of line by an unseen neighbour. Plus: why Uranus and Neptune have scrambled magnetic fields, MeerKAT measuring how cosmic hydrogen clusters, Euclid's first big data release, ESCAPADE heading for Mars, Starship Flight 15's double-catch attempt, the 2026 ozone hole, and a both-hemispheres sky with Mars and Jupiter 1.2 degrees apart. The planet that stopped transiting. TOI-2535 b, an 8.24-day hot Jupiter ~1,000 light-years away, ran up to ~6 hours early or late and its transits shortened and faded over seven years of TESS data until they vanished in 2026. A hidden companion of at least Saturn mass, likely in resonance on a tilted orbit, is making both orbits precess. Transits should return in 30–50 years. Yee, Petigura et al., The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 9 Nov 2026. Ice giants' scrambled magnetic fields. Dynamo models with electrical conductivity rising with depth reproduce Uranus- and Neptune-like fields, and suggest their tilt could shift by tens of degrees within decades. Aurora observations could test for change since Voyager 2. Yan et al., Communications Physics. MeerKLASS hears the cosmic web. Running MeerKAT's 64 dishes as independent telescopes, the MeerKLASS collaboration detected the 21-cm hydrogen power spectrum on cosmological scales at z = 0.42 over ~236 square degrees, signal-to-noise 6.2. MNRAS. Euclid DR1-Foundation. ~1,900 square degrees (about 1,400 in the southern sky), ~1.8 PB of images, catalogues and spectra. Weak-lensing and clustering products follow in mid-2027. Quick hits. ESCAPADE Blue and Gold complete powered Earth flybys, Mars arrival Sept 2027; Starship Flight 15 targeted NET 13 Nov 22:45 UTC; 2026 Antarctic ozone hole seventh largest in 48 years, recovery on track. Skywatch. Mars–Jupiter 1.19° on 16 Nov (pre-dawn, north-favoured); Venus 1.2° from Spica, a 10%-lit crescent; Saturn high in southern evenings; Leonids peak 17–18 Nov; first quarter 17 Nov, full Moon 24 Nov. Sources · UCLA Newsroom — First known 'disappearing planet' — https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/first-known-disappearing-planet-neighbor-wobble-like-top · Yee et al., ApJL 1011 L60 — https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aeb4a4 · arXiv 2611.13343 — https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.13343 · Yan et al., Communications Physics — https://www.nature.com/articles/s42005-026-02841-y · UT Austin Jackson School release — https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/2026/11/wacky-magnetic-fields-of-ice-giants-explained/ · University of Portsmouth — MeerKLASS — https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/news/breakthrough-cosmic-hydrogen-measurement-could-transform-our-view-of-the-universe · MNRAS stag1911 (DOI) — https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1911 · Caltech/IPAC — Euclid DR1 — https://euclid.caltech.edu/page/euclid-dr1 · ESA — DR1 timeline — https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/euclid/dr1-timeline · Berkeley News — ESCAPADE — http://news.berkeley.edu/2026/11/09/berkeleys-escapade-spacecraft-say-goodbye-to-earth-next-stop-mars/ · NextSpaceflight — Starship Flight 15 — https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/details/8403/

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Wednesday SpaceTime 20261111 Series 29 Episode 135

A stellar grave yard at the heart of the Milky Way A new study has shown that the gas orbiting the black hole at the centre of our galaxy is rich in metals from the corpses of dead and dying stars. The mystery of the origin of Earth’s water A new study suggests planet Earth may have formed much of its water during its formation in the protoplanetary disk rather than later from asteroid and comet impacts as often speculated. Rocket Lab to fly from Alaska Rocket Lab is building two new launch pads in Alaska to conduct rapid-response launches and missile-defence testing for the United States military. The Science Report A derivative of vitamin B5 used as a cholesterol-lowering supplement shown to stop psoriasis. Having a spouse with dementia may put you at a higher risk of developing dementia yourself. Northern Australia becomes a lifeboat for the critically endangered Green Sawfish. Smartphone after 10pm linked to teens falling asleep later, waking up later and sleeping less. Alex on Tech messages from the dead.

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