Avery: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, the podcast
that brings the cosmos down to Earth. I'm
avery. Give us 10 minutes and we'll give you
the universe.
Anna: And I'm Anna. And in the show today, Avery,
we've got everything from missions to Mars
facing off with solar storms to a, uh,
historic first glimpse of space weather on
a distant star.
Avery: It's going to be a journey. We'll also be
updating you on our interstellar visitor and
uncovering the hidden family history. One of
the most famous star clusters in our night
sky. So let's get right into it.
First up, Blue Origin's big day at the launch
pad has been eventful.
Anna: That's one way to put it. They're trying to
get their new Glenn rocket off the ground.
Carrying a pretty important payload for NASA.
Avery: Exactly. This isn't just any launch. It's
carrying the two Escapade mission satellites
which are headed to Mars to study its
magnetosphere. This is a huge deal for Blue
Origin. It's their first major science
mission for a paying customer. And that
customer is NASA.
Anna: No small amount of pressure, then?
Avery: None at all. But the universe had other
plans. First, they were delayed by cloudy
skies, which is pretty standard. But then
they got hit by the fallout from that recent
really severe geomagnetic storm.
Anna: Right. And that storm was a story in itself.
It was responsible for those incredible
auroras that were seen as far south as Texas
and Florida. A beautiful but powerful remote
reminder of the sun's influence.
Avery: It really was. And there's a certain irony
in a mission designed to study space weather
on, uh, Mars being delayed by space weather
here on Earth.
Anna: There absolutely is. Once they get there,
though, the Escapade satellites have a
fascinating job. They're going to orbit Mars
and study how solar particles, the solar
wind, interact with what's left of Mars's
magnetic field. The goal is to better
understand how Mars lost most of its
atmosphere over billions of years.
Avery: Mm mhm. A planetary autopsy of sorts.
So we're wishing them clear skies and calm
space weather for their next attempt.
But speaking of that geomagnetic storm,
it was caused by some seriously intense
activity from our star.
Anna: That's our next big story. Just recently,
the sun unleashed the most powerful solar
flare we've seen. In 2025, it was
categorized as an X 5.1 class
flare. Wow.
Avery: For our listeners, X class flares are the
biggest category, and X 5.1 is
a monster. That's the most intense flare
since back in October 2024.
Anna: It is. And it had immediate effects here on
Earth. The Blast of radiation caused
significant radio blackouts across Africa and
Europe on the sun facing side of the planet.
Avery: So that affects things like high frequency
radio communications used by airlines and
mariners, right?
Anna: Precisely. The bigger concern now is whether
a coronal mass ejection or cme
was associated with the flare and is heading
our way. NOAA is keeping a close watch.
If a significant CME does impact Earth,
they might issue a, ah, G4 geomagnetic storm
watch.
Avery: And the G4 is serious business. We're not
just talking about pretty auroras then that
can cause widespread problems with electrical
grids and communication satellites.
Anna: Exactly. It's a powerful reminder that we
live in the atmosphere of a very active star.
But what's really amazing is that we're now
able to see this kind of weather happening on
other stars too.
Avery: That's right. So while on the subject of
cmes, it's not just here in our
backyard.
This next story is a groundbreaking one.
For the very first time, astronomers have
directly observed a coronal mass
ejection from a star that isn't our Sun.
Anna: It's just incredible. We've theorized it
happens, but do to actually see it is a huge
leap. So what did they see?
Avery: They were looking at a red dwarf star, which
is about 40 light years away. They used two
different observatories, the XMM M M Newton
Space Observatory to watch for the initial
flare in X rays, and then the LOFAR
radio telescope to detect the blob of ejected
material.
Anna: Mhm. So they caught the flash and
then the cannonball, so to speak.
Avery: That's a great way to describe it. And this
isn't just a cool astronomical first.
It has major implications, implications for
the search for extraterrestrial life.
Anna: Because red dwarfs are the most common type
of star, and we've found many
exoplanets orbiting them, um, in the
habitable zone.
Avery: Exactly. But red dwarfs are also known for
being extremely volatile, especially when
they're young. If they are constantly
blasting their orbiting planets with these
powerful CMEs, it could strip away their
atmospheres and make them completely
uninhabitable, even if they're at the right
temperature for liquid water.
Anna: So finding life might be less about the
address and more about how stormy the
neighborhood is. It really refines our
search.
Avery: It certainly does. And it's not just
energy reaching us from other star systems.
Sometimes we get physical visitors.
Anna: Let's talk about our latest interstelli
guest, Comet 3I Atlas.
A new image has come in, and it's looking
more spectacular than ever.
Avery: This is only the Third confirmed interstellar
object we've ever detected. Right after the
mysterious Oumuamua and the more
comet like Borisov.
Anna: That's right. And this new image shows that
its ion tail has grown significantly
longer and has much more defined structure.
It's really starting to put on a show.
Avery: And that, uh, growing tail means it's
becoming more active.
Anna: Exactly. As it gets closer to our sun,
it's heating up. This causes volatile
materials on its surface, things like frozen
carbon dioxide to sublimate, turning
directly from a solid ice into a gas.
That gas and dust is what creates the tail we
see, which gives us.
Avery: A chance to study its composition.
Anna: Mhm. By analyzing the light from that tail,
we can figure out what it's made of. This is
an incredibly rare opportunity. It's like
getting a sample delivered directly from a
distant, unknown planetary system,
telling us about the conditions where it
formed millions or billions of years ago.
A, uh, true cosmic time capsule.
Avery: From a single visitor from afar to a
massive family reunion right in our own
backyard.
Our last story today completely reframes
one of the most recognizable patterns in the
night sky.
Anna: You're talking about the Pleiades. The seven
Sisters?
Avery: I am. But it turns out that famous,
tightly packed little cluster is just the
bright, shiny core of something immensely
bigger. Researchers have discovered what
they're calling the Greater Pleiades Complex.
Anna: That sounds impressive. How much greater are
we talking?
Avery: It's staggering. This stellar network
stretches 2,000 light years across.
It contains thousands of stars that were all
born from the same stellar Nursery about
120 million years ago, along
with the main Pleiades cluster.
Anna: So how did they find them? These sibling
stars are scattered all across the sky.
Avery: Now, it was some brilliant detective work.
They combined massive Data sets from three
sources. NASA's Tess, ESA's
Gaia, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
Gaia tracked stellar motion with incredible
precision so they could find stars moving in
the same general direction.
Anna: Okay, so they're traveling together.
Avery: Right. Then they used test data to measure
the star's rotation periods. The speed
a star spins is a really good indicator of
its age. Younger stars spin faster.
This allowed them to find stars that were the
same age as the Pleiades. And
finally, they confirmed it by checking their
chemical composition. Siblings have the
same stellar DNA, so to speak.
Anna: That is fascinating. So when we look up at
the sky, we're not just seeing random points
of light. We're looking at these vast,
dispersed families drifting through the
galaxy.
Avery: That's the takeaway. It completely changes
our map of the night sky. And this new
method could be used to trace the origins of
other star families. Perhaps one day
we could find the lost siblings of our own
sun. Um.
Anna: What a thought to end on. From solar
flares affecting us right here to finding
the Sun's family tree. That's all the time
we have for today's Astronomy Daily.
Avery: We covered a lot of ground and a lot of
space. We hope you enjoyed the journey. Join
us next time as we continue to explore the
latest news from across the universe. I'm
Avery.
Anna: And I'm Anna. Thanks for listening, Clear
skies. And of course, keep looking
up.