Astronomy Daily: Space News Updates

A packed episode today: a live spacewalk is underway at the ISS as we record, asteroid Ryugu has yielded all five DNA building blocks, a solar storm is heading for Earth overnight, Artemis II's moon rocket is about to roll out, and Blue Origin has unveiled an asteroid defence mission concept.   Story 1 — ISS Spacewalk 94: Meir & Williams EVA NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Chris Williams conducted U.S. spacewalk 94 today (March 18), exiting the ISS Quest airlock at approximately 8:00 a.m. EDT for a planned 6.5-hour EVA. The pair installed a modification kit and routed cables to prepare the 2A power channel for a future roll-out solar array (IROSA). It is Meir's fourth spacewalk and Williams' first. A second EVA (spacewalk 95) is planned for approximately April 1 to prep the 3B power channel. •       Source: NASA — nasa.gov •       Watch: NASA+, Amazon Prime, YouTube (search 'NASA spacewalk 94')   Story 2 — Asteroid Ryugu: All Five DNA Building Blocks Found Samples returned from asteroid Ryugu by Japan's Hayabusa-2 mission contain all five canonical nucleobases — adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil — the building blocks of DNA and RNA. The findings, published March 16 in Nature Astronomy, suggest these life-essential compounds are widespread across the solar system and may have been delivered to early Earth by asteroid impacts. •       Source: Nature Astronomy (DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02791-z) •       Lead researcher: Dr. Toshiki Koga, JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology) •       Further reading: phys.org, space.com, gizmodo.com   Story 3 — Aurora Alert: CME Arriving March 19 A coronal mass ejection (CME) produced by an M2.7 solar flare from active region AR4392 on March 16 is forecast to reach Earth on March 19. NOAA has issued a G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storm watch, with potential for isolated G3 (Strong) conditions. Aurora could be visible across northern US states, Canada, and northern Europe overnight March 19–20. The timing coincides with the vernal equinox, enhancing the geomagnetic effect via the Russell-McPherron effect. •       Source: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center — swpc.noaa.gov •       Aurora tracking: SpaceWeatherLive, My Aurora Forecast (apps) •       Further reading: space.com, earthsky.org, watchers.news   Story 4 — Artemis II: Rollout Decision Happening Today NASA's Artemis II SLS rocket is preparing to roll out from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, with the final timing decision being made today (March 18). Engineers completed repairs faster than expected after fixing an electrical harness in the flight termination system. Rollout is expected March 19 or 20, preserving the April 1 launch window. The crew: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch (NASA), and Jeremy Hansen (CSA) — the first crewed mission to lunar space since Apollo 17 in 1972. •       Source: NASA — nasa.gov/artemis, space.com •       Launch window: April 1–6, 2026 (with additional dates available) •       Watch the rollout livestream: NASA YouTube channel   Story 5 — Blue Origin NEO Hunter: Asteroid Defence Blue Origin has partnered with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech to develop the NEO Hunter mission concept — a planetary defence system built on the Blue Ring spacecraft platform. NEO Hunter combines ion beam deflection (firing charged particles to nudge an asteroid off course) and 'Robust Kinetic Disruption' (crashing into the asteroid at up to 22,600 mph), with a dedicated 'Slamcam' satellite documenting any impact. No launch date has been announced. •       Source: Blue Origin (via X / space.com, March 17, 2026) •       Blue Ring platform: modular satellite bus supporting up to 4,000 kg payload •       Partners: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

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Astronomy Daily S05E65 — 17 March 2026 Six stories from the frontiers of space and astronomy, hosted by Anna and Avery.   IN THIS EPISODE: •     🪐 JWST identifies a brand new class of exoplanet — a permanent magma ocean world with a hydrogen sulfide atmosphere 35 light-years from Earth •     📡 RBFLOAT — the brightest fast radio burst ever detected — is pinpointed to a galaxy 130 million light-years away, with a mysterious JWST infrared discovery at the same location •     🧑‍🚀 The first ISS spacewalk of 2026 is happening TOMORROW — NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Chris Williams step outside at 8am EDT, March 18. Watch live on NASA+ •     🌊 Hidden water beneath Mars — new research suggests the Red Planet was habitable far longer than we thought, and Curiosity is investigating strange 'spiderweb' formations that reveal its watery history •     🚀 100 years ago yesterday, Robert Goddard launched the world's first liquid-fuelled rocket. But where is 'Nell' — the original rocket — today? The mystery of space history's greatest missing artefact •     🛸 MIT, MITRE and Sandia publish a Nature paper on a photonic chip that could replace bulky mechanical mirrors on spacecraft — a potential revolution in space communications and LiDAR   SOURCE LINKS: •     JWST / L 98-59 d magma planet (Nature Astronomy, 16 March 2026): phys.org/news/2026-03-class-molten-planet-abundant-sulfur.html •     RBFLOAT fast radio burst papers (Astrophysical Journal Letters): sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260315004348.htm •     ISS Spacewalk 94 — live coverage: NASA+ / NASA YouTube (6:30am EDT, 18 March 2026) •     Mars water research and Curiosity boxwork ridges: sciencedaily.com •     Goddard centennial — collectSPACE: collectspace.com/news/news-031626a-robert-goddard-liquid-fuel-rocket-centennial-where-nell.html •     MIT photonic chip paper (Nature): universetoday.com — March 16, 2026   Find us: astronomydaily.io  |  @AstroDailyPod on Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Tumblr Part of the Bitesz.com Podcast Network

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In today's episode of Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery cover six remarkable stories spanning an interstellar farewell, a stunning pre-dawn sky show, a potential new Martian mineral, ghost particles from long-dead stars, a revolutionary new framework for detecting alien life, and the astonishing possibility of habitable moons drifting starless through the galaxy.   Stories Covered in S05E64 1. 3I/ATLAS: The Interstellar Comet's Jupiter Farewell: Today marks the closest approach of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS to Jupiter before it leaves our solar system forever. New ALMA data reveals the comet carries extraordinary levels of methanol — a chemical fingerprint from another solar system entirely.   2. Mercury, Mars & the Moon: Tonight and tomorrow morning, Mercury and Mars gather close to a crescent Moon in the pre-dawn sky. Southern Hemisphere observers have the best view. This week also brings the March equinox (March 20) and heightened aurora activity.   3. A New Mineral on Mars?: Scientists may have discovered a previously unknown mineral hidden in Mars's ancient sulfate deposits. Found by combining laboratory experiments with orbital spectroscopy, the potential discovery could shed new light on Mars's ancient watery past.   4. Ghost Particles from Dead Stars: Japan's upgraded Super-Kamiokande detector may detect the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background for the first time in 2026 — a faint signal from every supernova across cosmic history, including stars that exploded before Earth was born.   5. Life, But Not As We Know It: A new framework called Assembly Theory, published today in Universe Today, offers a way to detect alien life that bears no resemblance to life on Earth. Rather than searching for specific biosignature gases, it asks how complex the atmospheric chemistry is — and is designed for the upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory.   6. Starless Moons: Moons orbiting free-floating planets — worlds ejected from their home solar systems — could sustain liquid water oceans for up to 4.3 billion years, powered by tidal heating and insulated by hydrogen atmospheres. No star required.   Astronomy Daily is part of the Bitesz.com Podcast Network. New episodes every weekday. Website: astronomydaily.io Twitter/X: @AstroDailyPod Instagram: @AstroDailyPod TikTok: @AstroDailyPod

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Episode: S05E63  |  Date: Saturday, 14 March 2026 Hosted by Anna & Avery  |  Astronomy Daily Podcast Network — Bitesz.com   From galactic migrations to Pi Day planets, Episode 63 covers six stories that span the breadth of the solar system and beyond. Our Sun turns out to have hitched a ride outward from the Milky Way's interior billions of years ago — and brought thousands of stellar companions with it. China has named a leading candidate for its first crewed Moon landing. Russia is dusting off the legacy of the legendary Soviet Venera programme with an ambitious 2036 return to Venus. NASA's nuclear-powered Titan drone is now being physically built. China's Mars sample return mission is constructing actual spacecraft. And in honour of Pi Day, we visit the exoplanet whose year lasts almost exactly 3.14 days.   Story 1: The Sun Was Part of a Galactic Migration of Solar Twins A new study in Astronomy & Astrophysics by researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan has built the largest-ever catalogue of solar twins — 6,594 Sun-like stars. Using ESA's Gaia satellite, they found a clustering of stars aged 4–6 billion years, suggesting the Sun migrated outward from the Milky Way's inner regions billions of years ago, possibly when the galactic bar was still forming and its 'corotation barrier' was weak enough to allow mass stellar movement. This migration may have placed Earth in a calmer, more life-friendly region of the Galaxy.   •      Journal: Astronomy & Astrophysics (March 2026) •      Lead researchers: Daisuke Taniguchi (Tokyo Metropolitan University) & Takuji Tsujimoto (NAOJ) •      Data source: ESA Gaia satellite — catalogue of ~2 billion stars •      Key finding: Sun likely formed ~10,000 light-years closer to the Galactic Centre than its current position   Story 2: China Eyes Rimae Bode for Its First Crewed Moon Landing A study published in Nature Astronomy (9 March 2026) proposes Rimae Bode — a volcanic region near Sinus Aestuum on the lunar near side — as a prime candidate for China's first crewed lunar landing, targeted for 2030. The site contains five distinct terrain types including pyroclastic deposits, mare basalts, rille systems and highland material. Researcher Jun Huang (China University of Geosciences, Wuhan) described it as a 'geological museum.' Four specific landing spots within the region have been proposed.   •      Journal: Nature Astronomy (March 2026) •      Lead researcher: Jun Huang, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan •      Site: Rimae Bode, near Sinus Aestuum, lunar near side •      Oldest volcanic activity in region: ~3.2–3.7 billion years ago •      China's crewed lunar landing target: 2030   Story 3: Russia Plans Venera-D Mission to Venus in 2036 Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov confirmed on 10 March 2026 that Russia plans to launch the Venera-D mission — comprising a lander, atmospheric balloon, and orbiter — to Venus in 2036. The mission would extend the legacy of the Soviet Venera programme (1961–1983), which remains the only national programme to have successfully landed on Venus. Scientific goals include searching for microbial life in Venus's clouds and studying the planet's atmosphere.   •      Mission: Venera-D (lander + balloon + orbiter) •      Planned launch: 2036 •      Agency: Roscosmos •      Heritage: Soviet Venera programme — 16 missions, 1961–1983 •      Science goal: Search for biosignatures in Venusian cloud layers (48–60 km altitude) •      Source: TASS, citing Razvedchik Journal interview with Denis Manturov   Story 4: NASA Begins Building Dragonfly — Nuclear-Powered Drone for Titan NASA and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) officially began integration and testing of the Dragonfly rotorcraft on 10 March 2026. The car-sized, nuclear-powered octocopter is designed to fly across the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, targeting a 2028 launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy and arriving at Titan in 2034. It will explore diverse terrain including organic dunes and the Selk impact crater, studying prebiotic chemistry relevant to the origins of life.   •      Mission: Dragonfly | Agency: NASA / Johns Hopkins APL •      Launch: No earlier than summer 2028 (SpaceX Falcon Heavy) •      Arrival: Titan, 2034 | Mission duration: ~3.3 years •      Power: Radioisotope thermoelectric generator (nuclear) •      Range: >108 miles (175 km) across Titan's surface •      Quote: "This milestone essentially marks the birth of our flight system." — Elizabeth Turtle, PI   Story 5: China's Tianwen-3 Mars Sample Return Enters Construction Phase China's Tianwen-3 mission chief designer Liu Jizhong announced on 12 March 2026 that the mission has achieved key technology breakthroughs and is entering flight model development — building the actual spacecraft. Two Long March 5 rockets will launch in late 2028, carrying a lander/ascent vehicle and an orbiter/return spacecraft respectively. The goal is to return at least 500 grams of Martian samples to Earth by 2031 — what would be humanity's first Mars sample return.   •      Mission: Tianwen-3 | Agency: CNSA •      Launch: Late 2028 (two Long March 5 rockets) •      Sample return: Earth, targeted 2031 •      Sample target: Minimum 500 grams of Martian rock and soil •      Landing site candidates: 19 remaining (narrowing to 3 by end of 2026) •      Primary science goal: Search for biosignatures / signs of past life on Mars •      Note: NASA's Mars Sample Return was effectively cancelled in early 2026   Story 6 (Pi Day Special): K2-315b — The Exoplanet with a 3.14-Day Year In honour of Pi Day (3/14), NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day features K2-315b — an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting a cool red dwarf star approximately 185 light-years away. Its orbital period of almost exactly 3.14159 days makes it one of the most mathematically charming exoplanet discoveries on record. Discovered using Kepler K2 mission data and announced in 2020, the planet orbits so close to its star that its surface is extremely hot and definitely uninhabitable — but delightfully pi-shaped in its year length.   •      Exoplanet: K2-315b •      Distance: ~185 light-years •      Host star: Cool red dwarf (M-type) •      Orbital period: 3.14159 days •      Discovery: Kepler K2 mission data, announced 2020 •      Surface: Extremely hot — far too close to its star for habitability •      Today's NASA APOD (14 March 2026): astronomydaily.io for link

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It’s a bumper Friday edition of Astronomy Daily. NASA gives Artemis II the official green light to launch on April 1st, marking the first crewed lunar mission in over 53 years. Astronomers witness the birth of a magnetar for the very first time, confirming a decade-old theory and demonstrating Einstein’s general relativity in a supernova. A star 11,000 light-years away shows evidence of two planets catastrophically colliding in real time. A bus-sized asteroid buzzed past Earth last night closer than the Moon, discovered just five days ago. A fast solar wind stream from a coronal hole could bring auroras to higher latitudes tonight. And scientists may have identified the source of the most energetic neutrino ever recorded. 
Story 1: Artemis II — Green Light for April 1 Launch NASA completed its Flight Readiness Review on 12 March 2026, with all mission teams voting unanimously ‘go’ for launch. The Space Launch System and Orion capsule will roll out to Launch Complex 39B on 19 March, with the primary launch window opening on 1 April at 6:24pm ET. Backup windows exist on 2–6 April and 30 April. The crew of four — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen — will fly a 10-day figure-eight loop around the Moon. It will be the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The previously planned Moon landing on Artemis III has been moved to Artemis IV, though NASA’s 2028 goal for a lunar landing remains unchanged. •       NASA Artemis II Mission Page: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/ •       CNN coverage of FRR outcome: https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/12/science/nasa-artemis-2-launch-date-risk-assessment 
Story 2: First-Ever Observed Birth of a Magnetar Astronomers have for the first time directly observed the birth of a magnetar — a highly magnetized, rapidly spinning neutron star — confirming it as the power source behind some of the universe’s brightest stellar explosions. The discovery, published in Nature on 11 March 2026, centres on superluminous supernova SN 2024afav, located approximately one billion light-years from Earth. Graduate student Joseph Farah at UC Santa Barbara, working with Las Cumbres Observatory’s global telescope network, detected a distinctive ‘chirp’ pattern in the supernova’s fading light — four oscillations with shortening intervals. This pattern is explained by a wobbling accretion disc around the newborn magnetar, driven by Lense-Thirring precession — a general relativistic effect. The finding confirms a 2010 theory by UC Berkeley physicist Dan Kasen, and marks the first time general relativity has been required to explain supernova mechanics. •       Berkeley News: https://news.berkeley.edu/2026/03/11/astronomers-capture-birth-of-a-magnetar-confirming-link-to-some-of-universes-brightest-exploding-stars/ •       Space.com: https://www.space.com/astronomy/stars/astronomers-witness-colossal-supernova-explosion-create-one-of-the-most-magnetic-stars-in-the-universe-for-the-first-time 
Story 3: Two Planets Caught Colliding 11,000 Light-Years Away Researchers at the University of Washington have published evidence of a catastrophic planetary collision observed in real time around star Gaia20ehk, located approximately 11,000 light-years from Earth near the constellation Puppis. The star began flickering erratically from 2016, before its light output went ‘completely bonkers’ around 2021 — the signature of a massive debris cloud from two colliding worlds passing in front of the star. The debris orbits at roughly one astronomical unit from the star — the same as Earth’s distance from the Sun — and may eventually coalesce into new planetary bodies resembling an Earth-Moon system. The paper was published 11 March in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. •       University of Washington: https://www.washington.edu/news/2026/03/11/uw-astronomers-spot-planet-collision-evidence/ •       ScienceDaily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260311213429.htm 
Story 4: Asteroid 2026 EG1 Flies Past Earth A bus-sized asteroid designated 2026 EG1 made its closest approach to Earth at 11:27pm EDT on 12 March 2026, passing just 197,466 miles away — closer than the Moon. Estimated at 32–72 feet (10–22 metres) across and travelling at over 21,500 mph, it posed no threat. Notably, the asteroid was only discovered on 8 March — five days before its flyby — highlighting the ongoing challenge of detecting small near-Earth objects with short warning times. NASA’s Vera Rubin Observatory has already catalogued over 2,000 previously unknown solar system bodies since beginning operations. •       Space.com: https://www.space.com/stargazing/bus-sized-asteroid-will-fly-past-earth-tonight-mere-days-after-being-discovered-heres-what-to-expect-march-12-2026 
Story 5: Solar Wind & Aurora Alert A fast-moving stream of solar wind from a large coronal hole on the Sun is expected to reach Earth on 13 March 2026, potentially triggering G1 (minor) geomagnetic storm conditions. Auroras may be visible from higher latitudes including Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands, Reykjavik, northern Scandinavia, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Hobart (Tasmania) during local nighttime hours. The Moon is a waning crescent at approximately 34% illumination, making for reasonably dark skies. Observers can check real-time aurora forecasting at spaceweather.com or SpaceWeatherLive. •       EarthSky solar wind update: https://earthsky.org/sun/sun-news-activity-solar-flare-cme-aurora-updates/ •       Real-time aurora forecasts: https://spaceweatherlive.com/ 
Story 6: KM3NeT & the Record-Breaking Neutrino Scientists working with the KM3NeT neutrino detector on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea off Sicily believe they may have identified the source of the most energetic neutrino ever recorded. Detected three years ago, the particle had energy levels exceeding anything previously observed of its kind. Researchers now believe a population of blazars — galaxies with supermassive black holes firing particle jets directly towards Earth — is the most likely source. Blazars are among the most violent and energetic phenomena in the observable universe. The finding represents a significant step in multi-messenger astronomy. •       Universe Today: https://www.universetoday.com/

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