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Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily,

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your daily guide to the Universe for Thursday

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the 14th of May, 2026.

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I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm Avery. Big show today, Anna. Uh,

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we've got a rocket about to make history, a

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spacecraft using Mars as a slingshot, and a

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medieval poet who may have accidentally

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written the world's first impact physics

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textbook.

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Anna: Coming up, SpaceX locks in a

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launch date for the most powerful version of

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Starship yet. NASA's Psyche

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probe is just hours away from its dramatic

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Mars flyby. The James Webb Space

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Telescope has delivered its clearest ever

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map of the universe's skeleton.

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Avery: Coming up, a large coronal hole is sending a

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surge of solar wind our way. Good news for

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Aurora watchers in the Southern Hemisphere.

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The Dragon cargo capsule has docked at the

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International Space Station after a week of

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weather delays. And we'll tell you why

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researchers are re reading Dante's Inferno

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through the eyes of a planetary scientist.

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Anna: Stay with us. It's all coming up on

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Astronomy Daily.

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Avery: Let's go.

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Anna: Then let's kick things off with a story that

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has the space community buzzing.

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SpaceX has officially announced the launch

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date for Starship Flight 12, and

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it is just five days away.

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Avery: That's right, May 19 is now the target

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for what may be the most anticipated rocket

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test of the decade. This isn't just any

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starship launch. Flight 12 will be the debut

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of Starship version 3, a thoroughly

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redesigned vehicle that SpaceX says has been

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rebuilt almost from the ground up for full

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and rapid reuse.

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Anna: So what's actually changed? Well, the super

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heavy booster now sports three grid

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fins instead of the original six. Those are

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the lattice like structures that help steer

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it back through the atmosphere. The whole

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vehicle is taller, heavier and more

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capable than its predecessors.

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Avery: The launch window opens at 6:30 in the

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evening Eastern Time. That's 8:30 the next

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morning here in Australia. On May 20th,

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it'll lift off from Starbase in South Texas.

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And um, importantly, this will be the very

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first launch from Starbase's second orbital

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launch pad.

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Anna: Now, because this is a brand new vehicle

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design, SpaceX won't be attempting to catch

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the super heavy booster back at the launch

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tower on this flight. Instead, both

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the booster and the upper stage, known as

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Ship, are targeting water landings. The

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booster aims for the Gulf of Mexico and Ship

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is targeting the Indian Ocean about 65

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minutes after liftoff.

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Avery: As for the payload, ship will carry 22

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dummy Starlink satellites on the same

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suborbital trajectory. And there's a clever

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experiment. The last two of those dummy

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satellites will actually scan Starship's heat

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shield and beam images back to mission

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controllers. They want to test whether they

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can remotely assess heat shield integrity

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from orbit.

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Anna: There's also a single Raptor engine

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relight planned in space, something that'll

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be essential for future operational missions.

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And SpaceX has deliberately removed one

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heat shield tile to measure how adjacent

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tiles behave under re entry stress when

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there's a gap.

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Avery: Full disclosure on the engineering nerves

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here. The previous version of this booster,

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called B18, was actually destroyed

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during ground testing late last year when its

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liquid oxygen tank imploded during a pressure

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test. B19 has had a much smoother

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road, passing three static fire tests in

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the last three months, including a, uh, full

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33 engine full duration burn.

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Anna: We will of course, be watching this one very

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closely. Mark your calendars May

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19th. We'll have full coverage in the next

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episode. Enormous stakes, enormous

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rocket.

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Avery: While everyone's eyes are on Starship next

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week, there's something happening tomorrow

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that deserves just as much attention, at

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least for the science crowd. NASA's Psyche

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spacecraft is about to use Mars as a cosmic

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slingshot.

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Anna: This is one of those elegantly clever

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things about orbital mechanics. The

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Psyche mission is ultimately headed for a

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metal rich asteroid, also called

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Psyche, out in the main asteroid belt

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between Mars and Jupiter. It launched back

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in October 2023, and it's been

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gradually building speed using its solar

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electric propulsion system ever since.

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Avery: But solar electric propulsion is quiet and

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efficient rather than fast. So to get the

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extra kick it needs, the team planned this

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Mars flyby from the very beginning. On

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May 15th. That's tomorrow, Psyche

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will pass just 2,800 miles from the Martian

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surface. That's closer than the orbit of

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Mars own moon, Phobos.

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Anna: And it'll be moving at over

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12,300 miles per hour,

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nearly 20,000 kilometers per hour.

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Mars's gravity will grab the spacecraft,

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whip it around and send it on its way faster

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and on a tilted trajectory that would have

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been prohibitively expensive to achieve with

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propellant alone.

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Avery: The mission team has been preparing for this

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for months. Back on February 23rd,

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they fired the spacecraft's thrusters for,

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uh, a full 12 hours to fine tune the

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approach. And since May 7th,

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Psyche has been sending back early images.

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First a distant star field, then a

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crescent shaped Mars, growing larger by the

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day.

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Anna: Those images aren't just pretty, they're

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functional. The imaging team is using this

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period to calibrate their cameras and

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practice the techniques they'll need when

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Psyche eventually arrives at the asteroid

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in late 20. It's essentially

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a dress rehearsal.

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Avery: One unique visual because Psyche is

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approaching from Mars's night side, the

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planet currently looks like a crescent, just

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a thin sliver of sunlight on the edge, very

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much like our own crescent Moon. After

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closest approach, mission controllers expect

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to see a near full Mars view. As the

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spacecraft swings around to confirm

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Anna: the flyby was successful, the team will

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monitor radio signals through NASA's Deep

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Space Network. And there's a bonus science

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objective, too. Psyche will use its

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instruments to search for any faint dust

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rings that might surround Mars

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created by micrometeorites striking

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Phobos

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Avery: and Deimos asteroid arrival

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2029 but tomorrow is a big

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milestone. We'll have the results in our next

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episode.

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Anna: Now for something that puts everything, and

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we mean everything, in perspective.

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Astronomers using the James Webb Telescope

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have produced what they're calling the most

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detailed map ever made of the cosmic

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web.

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Avery: The cosmic web is, well, it's the

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universe's skeleton. Imagine the largest

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structure that exists, a vast network of

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dark matter filaments and gas sheets

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interwoven across billions of light years,

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connecting galaxies and galaxy clusters

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together. Between those filaments are

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enormous, almost entirely empty regions

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called voids. That's the cosmic web.

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Anna: And now, for the first time, we have a

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truly detailed map of it, one

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that stretches all the way back to when the

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universe was only about 1 billion years

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old. The research was led by a team at

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the University of California, Riverside,

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using what's known as the Cosmos Web

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Survey, the single largest observing program

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that Webb has ever conducted.

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Avery: The map charts the positions of over

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164,000 galaxies

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plotted across 13.7 billion

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years of cosmic history. Think about that

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A map of 164,000

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galaxies spread across nearly the entire age

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of the universe. Published in the

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Astrophysical Journal.

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Anna: What makes this such a leap forward is

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precision. Webb's infrared instruments can

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detect galaxies that were completely

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invisible to older telescopes and can

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measure their distances with far greater

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accuracy. That's what allows you to place

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each galaxy precisely in its cosmic

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context, rather than just knowing roughly

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where it sits.

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Avery: The lead author, Jose Hatamnia, a

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graduate student at UC Riverside, put it this

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for the first time, scientists can study how

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galaxies evolve within cluster and

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filamentary structures across of

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cosmic time, from the universe's infancy

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right up to the present day.

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Anna: And the images from this map are genuinely

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beautiful. The dense clusters and filaments

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show up as bright yellow in the

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visualizations. The voids are dark,

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great sweeping emptiness between the cosmic

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threads. It really does look like a web.

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Avery: The implications reach well beyond

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aesthetics. Understanding how the cosmic

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web formed and evolved over time is key to

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understanding why galaxies look the way they

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do today, why some are large spirals, others

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are elliptical, others are irregular, and

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how dark matter has shaped the universe we

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live in.

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Anna: One of the most stunning results from the

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cosmos Webb data is that the cosmic web

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appears to have been in place much earlier

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than some models predicted, meaning the

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universe organized itself into this vast

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structure surprisingly quickly after the Big

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Bang.

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Avery: Webb continues to rewrite the textbooks. This

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one is a landmark result.

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Anna: Time now for a quick reminder to check out

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notes.

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Avery: Alright, let's get back to today's space and

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astronomy news.

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Anna: Now for something that Southern Hemisphere

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listeners may want to keep an eye on this

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weekend our sun has been busy and the

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results could mean auroras for sky watchers

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across Australia, New Zealand and southern

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South America.

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Avery: A large coronal hole has rotated into what's

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called a ah, geoffective position, meaning

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it's pointing directly at Earth. Coronal

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holes are regions in the Sun's outer

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atmosphere where the magnetic field opens

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outward into space rather than looping back,

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allowing a fast stream of solar wind to

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escape directly into the solar system.

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Anna: This particular coronal hole is both large

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and positioned right at the solar equator,

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which means the high speed solar wind stream

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it produces is aimed squarely in our

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direction. That stream is expected to begin

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reaching Earth on Friday, which is tomorrow.

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Avery: Our time base weather forecasters have

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issued a uh, G2 moderate geomagnetic

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storm watch for Friday the 15th.

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G2 conditions are significant enough to push

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aurora visibility well beyond the polar

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circles. For Southern Hemisphere observers,

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that means southern Australia, Tasmania and

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New Zealand could all be in play.

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Anna: There's also a separate, slightly earlier

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event to watch, a coronal mass

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ejection. A blob of solar plasma was

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launched on May 10 during an M

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M5.7 flare from Active

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Region 4436. That CME

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may deliver a, uh, glancing blow today or

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tomorrow, potentially adding some extra

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activity before the main solar wind stream

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arrives.

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Avery: So what should you do if you want to catch

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the show? Tonight and Friday night are your

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best windows? Get away from city lights, find

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the clear southern horizon and check the

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Bureau of Meteorology's Space Weather Alert

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page or apps like space weather live for

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real time, KP Index updates. If it hits

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KP5 or above, look south.

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Anna: Clear skies and fingers crossed.

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For those of you hoping to see the Southern

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lights this weekend, now for

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Avery: something a little different. What if one of

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the greatest works of medieval literature was

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also accidentally a, uh, reasonably accurate

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description of a planetary impact event?

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Anna: That is the argument being put forward by

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Timothy Burberry, a professor at Marshall

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University in West Virginia, in research

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presented at the European Geosciences Union

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General assembly in Vienna earlier this

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month. And once you hear it, it's

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genuinely hard to unthink.

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Avery: So, the basics. Dante Alighetti wrote

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the Divine Comedy in the early 1300s.

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That's the 1300s. The inferno is the

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first part of that work. And it describes

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Hell as an inverted conical pit beneath

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Jerusalem. Nine concentric circles

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descending downward to a frozen core where

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Satan is trapped.

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Anna: Now, for seven centuries, readers have

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interpreted this as spiritual allegory,

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pure and simple. Satan fell from

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heaven and was imprisoned at the Earth's

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center. Mount Purgatory was created on

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the opposite side of the globe from the

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displaced Earth. Vivid imagery,

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profound theology, end of story.

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Avery: Or so everyone thought. Burberry's

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argument is that if you strip away the

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religious symbolism and look at what Dante is

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actually describing as a physical event,

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it maps remarkably well onto the structure of

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a complex impact crater.

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Anna: In his interpretation, Satan acts as

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a high velocity impactor, an

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asteroid sized object striking the southern

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hemisphere at tremendous speed,

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drilling through the crust to the Earth's

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core. The nine circles of Hell. They

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closely resemble the concentric terraced

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rings that large impacts create as

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shockwaves propagate outward, the same

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structures you see in major impact basins

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on the Moon and Venus.

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Avery: The specific comparison Burberry makes is to

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the Chicxulub impact, The asteroid strike

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66 million years ago that ended the age of

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the dinosaurs and left the 150

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kilometer crater beneath what is now the Gulf

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of Mexico. Chicxulub is one of the best

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studied complex impact structures on Earth.

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And its internal geometry, peak

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rings, terraced walls, central basin,

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mirrors what Dante described.

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Anna: Mount Purgatory rising on the opposite

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side of the globe. That would be the central

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peak, or in some large impacts, an

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antipodal feature, a mountain created by

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the focused seismic energy of the impact

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converging on the far side of the planet.

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Avery: It's a real phenomenon now, and, um,

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this is important. Burberry is not claiming

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that Dante had secret knowledge of impact

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physics. He's proposing something more

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interesting than that, that Dante

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intuitively applied the best physics

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available to him in the 14th century to think

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through what a catastrophic fall from heaven

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would look like as a real physical event. And

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in doing so, he stumbled into something that

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looks a lot like what we now know about

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impact craters.

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Anna: The research was presented under the flag of

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what Burberry calls literary

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geomythology, the idea that ancient

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texts and myths sometimes preserve

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intuitions about natural phenomena long

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before science has the tools to formally

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describe them. The nine Circles of Hell

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as Multi Ring Impact Basin

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Satan as Oblong Asteroid

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it's quite a thought.

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Avery: The Divine Comedy simultaneously one of

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history's greatest literary achievements, and

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apparently a geophysical thought

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experiment.

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Anna: Who knew Wrapping up our main stories

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today with an update to a mission we've been

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following this week. After not one but

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two weather scrubs, the SpaceX Dragon

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cargo capsule for NASA's CRS

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34 mission has successfully docked with

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the International Space Station.

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Avery: The launch finally got off the ground from

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Cape Canaveral on Wednesday evening. After

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scrubs on both Tuesday and Wednesday due to

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weather, Dragon arrived at the ISS today,

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May 14, docking autonomously to the

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forward port of the Harmony Module.

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Anna: On board about 6,500

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pounds, roughly 2,950

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kilograms of science experiments,

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supplies and hardware for the expedition's

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74 crew. BASA astronaut Jack

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Hathaway and ESA astronaut Sophie

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Adenow were on duty to monitor Dragon's

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approach and docking.

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Avery: Now, some of that cargo is genuinely

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fascinating. One investigation, called Green

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Bone, involves a scaffold made from wood that

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researchers believe could be used to help

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grow bone cells in microgravity. The

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goal is to develop new treatments for bone

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fragility conditions, particularly

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osteoporosis Wood derived growing

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bone in space.

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Anna: There's also the ODESSI study, which is

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testing how accurately Earth based simulators

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can replicate actual microgravity

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conditions. Scientists will compare

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bacteria behavior in true space

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conditions against results from ground based

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labs, and if the data differs, it

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could mean some of our ground based

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conclusions about microgravity biology

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need to be revised.

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Avery: And a third investigation is looking at how

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red blood cells and the spleen change

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in the space environment, crucial data for

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protecting the health of astronauts on long

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duration missions to the moon and eventually

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Mars.

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Anna: This Dragon capsule known as

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C209 is actually making its

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sixth flight to the ISS. That's a record for

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a SpaceX cargo craft and a sign of just

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how reliably reusable these vehicles have

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become. It's expected to stay at the station

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for about a month before returning to Earth

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with completed experiments splashing down off

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the coast of California in mid June.

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Avery: Despite the weather delays, CRS 34

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is on its way. Science is being done.

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Good news all round.

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Anna: Time now for your Sky Watcher's Corner, our

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weekly guide to what's worth looking for in

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the night sky. And this week, Avery, we've

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got a very timely one.

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Avery: We do. As we mentioned in story four,

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there is a real chance of aurora activity

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this weekend for the Southern Hemisphere

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observers with a, uh, G2

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geomagnetic storm watch in effect from Friday

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the 15th. The Southern Lights, the

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Aurora Australis could be visible from

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southern Australia, Tasmania and New

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Zealand.

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Anna: The best viewing is away from city light

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pollution with a clear, unobstructed southern

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Horizon. Check the KP index. If it

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reaches 5 or higher, you're in business.

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Apps like Space Weather Live and my Aurora

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Forecast give real time updates. Bundle up,

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be patient and look south.

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Avery: And while you're out there Friday evening,

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remember that just hours earlier, NASA's

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Psyche spacecraft will have completed its

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Mars flyby, slingshotting around the red

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planet on its way to a metal asteroid.

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Mars itself is in the pre dawn sky this week

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near Saturn. Early risers can catch both

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as the sky lightens before sunrise.

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Anna: A weekend of space events right on our

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doorstep. Don't miss it.

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Avery: That's everything from us for this Thursday

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edition of Astronomy Daily. What a show.

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Starship V3 on the launch pad.

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Psyche swinging past Mars. The

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universe's skeleton mapped in unprecedented

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detail. Aurora alerts for the Southern

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Hemisphere. Dante moonlighting as an

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impact physicist and Dragon safely

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at the station.

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Anna: Before we go, a quick trivia. The

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Chicxulub impact crater, the one that helped

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end the dinosaurs 66 million years ago,

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is buried beneath the Gulf of Mexico and the

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Yucatan peninsula. At roughly

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150km across, it's one of the

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largest confirmed impact structures on Earth.

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And now possibly in medieval Italian

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poetry.

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Avery: Links to everything we've covered today are

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in the show Notes. Find us at astronomydaily

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00:20:27.980 --> 00:20:30.380
IO and follow us on social media

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00:20:30.620 --> 00:20:33.460
astrodaily pod. And if you enjoy the

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00:20:33.460 --> 00:20:35.660
show, please leave us a rating and a review.

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00:20:35.820 --> 00:20:38.220
It genuinely helps new listeners find us.

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Anna: From all of us here at Astronomy Daily, keep

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looking up clear skies and we'll see you

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tomorrow.

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Avery: I saw every day

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the stories be told.

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Stories.