Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your go to spot
for the latest in space and astronomy news.
I'm Anna, here with my co host and good
friend Avery. Hey Avery. Happy January 3rd.
Hope everyone's recovering from the New Year
festivities.
Avery: Hey Anna. And hello to all our listeners out
there in the cosmos. Absolutely.
2026 is off to a flying start,
literally with some launches and sky events
already. We've got six great, great storeys
today from lunar missions to vanishing
planets. And some good news up on the iss.
Let's dive right in, shall we?
Anna: Starting with something exciting for our
European friends. Denmark just got the
green light from esa, uh, for its very first
mission to the moon. The mission's called
Mani, named after the Norse
personification of the moon.
Avery: Yeah, this is huge. It's the largest Danish
satellite mission ever and the first time
Denmark is leading an ESA mission. The
spacecraft is built by SpaceInventor, a
company based in Aalborg. With a budget of
about 130 million Danish kroners,
or around 17 million euros. The
goal is high resolution mapping of the lunar
surface to help identify the best spots for
future crewed landings and even habitats for
long term human presence.
Anna: It's part of ESA's push for small cost
effective lunar missions capped at 50
million euros development cost and ready to
launch within four and a half years. This one
got selected after a competitive process that
started back in 2023. Launch
is eyed for 2029 led by the
University of Copenhagen. Jens
Freidenbang, the mission leader said it's
about to get exciting now that the journey
truly begins.
Avery: Totally. It's awesome to see m more countries
getting involved in lunar exploration. This
kind of scouting data will be invaluable for
Artemis and beyond.
Anna: Speaking of launches, SpaceX kicked off
2026 with a bang, literally their
first mission of the year. On January 2
they launched an Italian Earth observing
satellite called Cosmoskymet, second
generation from Vandenberg Space Force
Base in California.
Avery: Launch was at 9:09pm Eastern Time on a
Falcon 9 deploying the satellite into low
Earth orbit just 4.5 minutes later.
This bird uses synthetic aperture radar to
image or night in any weather from
about 385 miles up. It's
for everything from emergency prevention and
risk management to defence, maritime
surveillance, agriculture, you name it.
Anna: It's operated by the Italian Space
Agency and Ministry of Defence and this
is now the third in the second generation
Constellation. The mission went smoothly with
the booster landing as expected. Coming off
SpaceX's record 165 launches
in 2025, it's a strong start
year.
Avery: Always impressive how reliable these Falcon
9s have become. Earth observation tech like
this is crucial for monitoring our planet in
real time.
Anna: Shifting to exoplanets now a bit of a
mystery solved. Remember Fomalhaut B?
This candidate planet around the star
Fomalhaut, about 25 light years away
that was spotted by Hubble back in 2008.
Avery: Yeah, it was hailed as one of the first
directly imaged exoplanets. But new Hubble
images from 2023 show its light field fading
and then completely disappearing. Turns out
it wasn't a planet at all. It was an
expanding cloud of debris. From a massive
collision between two asteroid sized bodies.
Anna: Exactly. These collisions are rare.
Maybe once every a hundred thousand years or
more. And the dust cloud was glowing and
reflecting light, mimicking a planet.
There's even a second bright object now
called CS2 from the same event.
Four independent analyses confirmed this.
It's a reminder of how dynamic
protoplanetary systems can be.
Avery: And a cautionary tale for exoplanet
debris. Clouds can fake planet signals in
reflected light. JWST's Nircam M
will take a closer look at CS2 for
composition, temperature, maybe even signs
of ice or water. This reshapes how we think
about planetary formation around young stars.
Anna: Next up, uh, some deep insights into our own
galaxy's history, thanks to the James Webb
Space Telescope. A team of Canadian
astronomers led by Dr. Vivian Tan from
York University used JWST
data to piece together the Milky Way's
turbulent past.
Avery: They studied 877 distant
galaxies that are twins to what the Milky Way
would have looked like billions of years ago,
when the Universe was between 1.5 and 10
billion years old. Combining
JWST's near infrared views with
Hubble's visible light, they map stars and
star formation rates across these
evolutionary stages.
Anna: The early progenitors were chaotic, full
of mergers, asymmetric shapes and
intense starbursts triggered by collisions.
Then around 3 to 4 billion years after
the Big Bang, they started growing inside
out dense cores first, then building
extended discs and spirals through more
mergers and accretions.
Avery: It's wild. Our galaxy had a much more violent
youth than some models predicted. Simulations
match some of this, but struggle with the
rapid outer growth or super central early
phases. This is tightening up theories on
feedback processes, merger rates and how
discs stabilise.
Anna: Future JWST work with gravitational
lensing could push this back even further to
when the Milky Way was just 3% of its current
age. Love how we're using the Universe as.
Avery: A time machine like this, absolutely
mind blowing. And for something you can see
right now. No telescope needed, though
binoculars help. Jupiter is putting on its
brightest show of the year this January.
Anna: Opposition hits on the night of January
10th, when Earth is right between the sun and
Jupiter, making it shine big and bright
all night long. It's up from dusk to dawn
throughout the month, glowing steadily, easy
to spot even in cities.
Avery: On January 4th, it's in conjunction with the
Full Moon super close in the sky. Look high
up near Gemini, surrounded by winter
favourites like Orion, Taurus with the
Pleiades and Aldebaran. Binoculars will show
the four big moons, IO, Europa,
Ganymede and Callisto.
Anna: The Quadrantids meteor shower is peaking
around now too. Up to 10 or even
more streaks per hour. Though the Full Moon
might wash some out, some still watch for
bright fireballsperfect month for getting
outside and stargazing.
Avery: Definitely grab a blanket, look up and enjoy
the show. Jupiter's at its best. No
excuses.
Anna: Finally, some relief for the International
Space Station crew. After years of dealing
with a persistent leak in the Russian
segment, it's finally stopped.
Avery: The leak was in the PRK transfer compartment
attached to the Zesta module. Microscopic
cracks that started showing up in 2019 and
worsens over time, even doubling at rate
in 2024.
Anna: Russian cosmonauts have been methodically
sealing cracks with a special sealant called
Girmetal 1, closing hatches to
isolate and monitor pressure. After
repeated inspections and applications over
half a decade, the pressure is now holding
steady.
Avery: NASA confirmed it, calling it a, uh, stable
configuration, though they'll keep watching
for any changes. It was a high risk issue for
both agencies, so this is genuinely good news
for ongoing ISS operations.
Anna: Whew. Yeah. Maintaining a spacecraft in
orbit for decades isn't easy. Glad they've
plugged it. Literally.
Avery: What a roundup today. New missions,
launches, cosmic mysteries, galactic history,
skywatching tips, and station fixes. The
universe keeps delivering.
Anna: It really does. Thanks so much for joining us
on Astronomy Daily. If you're enjoying the
show, tell a friend or leave us a review. It
helps us reach more space.
Avery: Fans Will be back Monday with more
fresh news. Until then, clear
skies and keep wondering.
Anna: And keep looking up. Bye for now.