Are We Living in a Simulation? Physics Says No | Asteroid Buzzes Earth TODAY | Starship V3 Tomorrow

0:00 Anna: Right now, as you listen to this, a chunk of

0:03 space rock the size of a blue whale is

0:05 hurtling past Earth at, uh, 20,000 miles per

0:08 hour,

0:09 Avery: closer than some of our own satellites. And

0:12 nobody knew it existed eight days ago.

0:14 Anna: Plus tomorrow, the most powerful

0:17 rocket ever built takes its biggest leap

0:20 forward yet.

0:21 Avery: And later today, we find out whether the

0:23 entire universe might just be a very

0:25 elaborate computer program.

0:29 Probably not.

0:30 Anna: Bizik says. Definitely not. That

0:32 conversation is coming. You're listening to

0:35 Astronomy Daily.

0:36 Avery: I can hear the discussion starting now.

0:39 Anna: Hello, and welcome to Astronomy Daily, your

0:41 daily guide to what's happening in space and

0:44 the science behind it. I'm Anna.

0:46 Avery: And I'm, um, Avery. It is Monday, the

0:49 18th of May, 2026, and we

0:52 have a seriously packed episode for you

0:54 today.

0:55 Anna: We've got the asteroid that's buzzing our

0:57 planet right now, the Starship

0:59 V3 launch that's just hours away.

1:02 And NASA's Psyche spacecraft, fresh

1:05 off a stunning, uh, Mars flyby.

1:08 Avery: Plus new science arriving at the space

1:10 station, a fascinating physics challenge to

1:12 one of the Internet's favorite thought

1:14 experiments, and the latest chapter in the

1:16 battle over NASA's future funding.

1:18 Anna: Let's get into it.

1:20 Avery: We're starting with something that is

1:21 happening literally right now, today.

1:24 As you listen to this, a newly discovered

1:26 asteroid called 2026 JH AH2

1:30 is making a close pass of Earth.

1:32 Anna: And when we say close, we mean genuinely

1:35 close. This space rock is coming within about

1:38 90,000 kilometers of our planet. To

1:41 put that in perspective, the moon is roughly

1:43 380,000 kilometers away.

1:46 We're talking about less than a quarter of

1:48 the lunar distance.

1:50 Avery: Now, before anyone starts worrying,

1:52 astronomers have confirmed there is

1:54 absolutely zero chance of impact, but the

1:56 proximity is remarkable. It's actually closer

1:59 than many of the satellites we rely on every

2:02 day.

2:02 Anna: What makes this even more striking is the

2:05 timeline. 2026 JH2 was

2:08 only first spotted on 10 May. Just

2:11 eight days ago. It went from discovery to

2:14 closest approach in under a fortnight.

2:17 Avery: So how big is this thing? Estimates put it

2:20 somewhere around 35 meters across at

2:22 most, roughly the length of a blue whale,

2:25 which is the comparison everyone's been

2:26 running with. And honestly, it's a pretty

2:29 vivid one at that size.

2:31 Anna: Even if it were headed our way, which, again,

2:33 it is not, it would most likely burn up in

2:36 the atmosphere before causing any real

2:38 surface damage. NASA's general rule of

2:41 thumb is that objects under about 25 meters

2:44 usually disintegrate on entry.

2:46 Avery: But this one is right at that interesting

2:48 threshold. And the close pass is actually

2:51 fantastic for science Observatories around

2:54 the world have been tracking it. The Virtual

2:56 Telescope project is running a livestream

2:58 today, so you can watch it in real time if

3:00 you're near a computer.

3:01 Anna: At its closest approach, 2026

3:04 JH2 is expected to reach a brightness of

3:07 around magnitude 11.5, which means

3:10 it's just within reach of decent amateur

3:12 binoculars if you know exactly where to look.

3:15 The orbit is a looping ellipse that takes it

3:18 between Earth and Jupiter, swinging around

3:20 The sun every 3.7 years.

3:23 Avery: It's a good reminder of just how dynamic the

3:26 neighborhood is and how much we're still

3:27 finding out there.

3:29 Anna: Absolutely, the sky is never boring.

3:32 Avery: Now to a story that has the entire space

3:34 community watching. SpaceX is targeting

3:37 tomorrow, Tuesday the 19th of May, for the

3:40 debut launch of Starship version 3. This

3:43 is flight 12 for the Starship program, and it

3:46 is a genuinely major milestone.

3:49 Anna: So just how different is V3 from what we've

3:51 seen? Because SpaceX has been using the word

3:54 sweeping a lot, and in this case, I think

3:57 it's earned.

3:58 Avery: It really is. Let's go through the

4:00 highlights. The super heavy booster has been

4:02 redesigned with three grid fins instead of

4:05 four, but each one is 50% larger and

4:08 significantly stronger. They've also been

4:10 repositioned lower on the booster to reduce

4:13 heat exposure during the hot staging burn.

4:15 Anna: And the engines themselves. These are Raptor

4:18 3 engines. Now, the sea level variants are

4:21 producing 250 tons of force, up from

4:23 230. The vacuum variants are even more

4:26 impressive. And the engines have shed about

4:29 100kg each, with sensors and

4:31 controllers now integrated internally.

4:34 Avery: What SpaceX says about all of this is that

4:36 the changes together, the new booster design,

4:39 the new engines, the new pad, the new upper

4:42 stage improvements are intended to unlock the

4:45 vehicle's core functions. Full and

4:48 rapid reuse in space, propellant

4:50 transfer, starlink deployment, and

4:53 eventually sending people and cargo to the

4:56 moon and Mars.

4:57 Anna: This flight is also the first launch from pad

5:00 two, which is the updated launch

5:02 infrastructure. And notably, SpaceX

5:05 will not be attempting to catch the booster

5:07 back at the tower this time. Given how many

5:10 new systems are being tested, they're opting

5:13 for a, uh, controlled splashdown in the Gulf

5:15 of Mexico, or if you prefer, the Gulf of

5:18 America.

5:19 Avery: Instead, the upper stage ship 39

5:22 will continue on a suborbital path and splash

5:24 down in the Indian Ocean about 65 minutes

5:27 after launch. Among its test objectives,

5:30 deploying 22 Starlink simulator

5:32 satellites, a Raptor engine relight in

5:35 space, and heat shield assessments, including

5:38 some intentionally painted white tiles for

5:41 imaging the

5:42 Anna: launch window opens at 6:30pm Eastern

5:45 Time. That's on the 19th. That's early

5:47 morning Wednesday for Australian listeners.

5:49 We'll have full coverage in tomorrow's

5:51 episode. Worth staying up for honestly, or

5:53 setting an alarm?

5:55 Avery: This is the rocket that's going to take

5:57 people to the moon under Artemis 3.

5:59 Tomorrow's test matters enormously.

6:02 Anna: Let's check in with one of our favorite

6:03 spacecraft on a very long journey. NASA

6:06 Psyche probe has just completed a critical

6:09 gravity assist maneuver at Mars and the

6:11 results are in. It went perfectly.

6:14 Avery: On May 15th. At around 3:28

6:16 in the afternoon Eastern time, Psyche

6:19 reached its closest point to Mars. Just

6:22 4,500 kilometers above the surface.

6:25 It was traveling over 12,000 miles per

6:28 hour relative to the planet.

6:30 Anna: To put that proximity in perspective, Psyche

6:32 flew closer to Mars than either of its two

6:35 moons, Phobos and Deimos. It threaded right

6:37 through the inner Martian neighborhood.

6:39 Avery: And why does this matter so much? The entire

6:42 six year mission trajectory was designed

6:45 around this single gravitational exchange.

6:48 Mars orbital velocity did something the

6:50 spacecraft's ion thruster simply couldn't do

6:53 alone. It tilted Psyche's orbital plane

6:56 and boosted it towards the main asteroid belt

6:59 where its target, the metal asteroid 16

7:02 Psyche, is waiting.

7:03 Anna: Mission controllers confirmed the success by

7:06 monitoring the Doppler shift in Psyche's

7:08 radio signals. Changes in frequency that

7:10 revealed changes in speed. Everything matched

7:13 the predictions precisely.

7:15 Avery: The spacecraft was also busy doing science.

7:17 During the flyby, the team used Psyche's

7:20 multispectral imager to gather thousands of

7:22 observations of Mars, their first real

7:25 calibration opportunity with something larger

7:27 than a few pixels. Those images will be

7:30 processed in the coming weeks.

7:31 Anna: There was also a watch for a faint dusty ring

7:34 thought to orbit Mars, produced by tiny

7:36 micrometeorite impacts on Phobos and Deimos.

7:39 We'll be watching for those results.

7:41 Avery: Psyche is now on a direct confirmed

7:44 course for arrival at 16 Psyche in

7:47 July 2029. The asteroid is

7:50 thought to be an ancient planetary core

7:52 stripped of its rocky outer layers by

7:54 billions of years of coll. Giving us a rare

7:57 window into what the interior of a rocky

8:00 planet actually looks like. It's going to be

8:02 extraordinary.

8:04 Anna: Three years and counting. Great to see it on

8:06 track. And it's time now for a quick sponsor

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8:28 Avery: Alright, back to today's space and astronomy

8:30 news. Closer to home than our last story, or

8:33 at least closer to Earth's orbit.

8:35 SpaceX's CRS 34 Dragon cargo

8:38 capsule docked successfully at the

8:41 International Space Station Yesterday

8:42 morning, Sunday the 17th of May.

8:45 Anna: This was the 34th Dragon mission under

8:48 NASA's Commercial Resupply Contract and it

8:51 delivered nearly 6,500 pounds of science

8:54 equipment and supplies to the Expedition

8:56 74 crew.

8:57 Avery: The Dragon docked autonomously to the Harmony

9:00 Module's forward port at, uh, just after

9:03 6:30 in the morning Eastern, with NASA

9:06 astronaut Jack Hathaway and ESA astronaut

9:08 Sophie Adenot monitoring the arrival from the

9:11 cupola.

9:12 Anna: So what's in the cargo hold? Science wise,

9:15 there are some genuinely interesting

9:17 experiments. One project looks at how well

9:20 Earth based microgravity simulators actually

9:22 replicate conditions in space, important

9:25 for developing experiments before we launch

9:27 them.

9:28 Avery: There's also a bone scaffold made from wood.

9:31 Yes, wood that researchers hope could lead

9:34 to new treatments for fragile bone conditions

9:37 like osteoporosis. The idea is that the

9:39 natural porous structure of wood creates a

9:42 useful scaffold for bone tissue regeneration

9:45 in microgravity.

9:47 Anna: And equipment to study how red blood cells

9:49 and the spleen change during spaceflight,

9:51 which is important for the longer missions

9:53 we're planning. We know space does

9:56 interesting and not always pleasant things to

9:58 human physiology. The more we understand it,

10:01 the better prepared we'll be.

10:03 Avery: Dragon will stay attached to the station for

10:05 about a month, then return to Earth in mid

10:08 June, splashing down off the coast of

10:10 California, bringing back time sensitive

10:12 research results. It's worth remembering that

10:15 Dragon is currently the only cargo ship that

10:18 can bring significant mass back down from the

10:20 station.

10:21 Anna: Routine mission by the numbers, but the

10:24 science inside is anything but routine.

10:27 Avery: Now here's a question for you, Anna. Um, are

10:29 we living in a simulation?

10:32 Anna: I mean, I've definitely had moments where the

10:34 algorithm seemed a little too on the nose,

10:37 but I'm guessing you're about to tell me that

10:39 physics has something to say about this.

10:41 Avery: Physics has quite a lot to say, as it turns

10:44 out. A new paper published in the Journal of

10:46 Holography Applications in Physics, co

10:49 authored by physicists Mir Faisal at AH UBC

10:51 Okanagan and Lawrence Krauss. Yes,

10:54 that Lawrence Krauss argues that the universe

10:57 fundamentally cannot be simulated. Not

11:00 it would be very hard to simulate. It cannot.

11:04 Anna: That's a strong claim. What's the argument?

11:07 Avery: It goes back to the foundations of

11:08 mathematics. In the 1930s, the logician

11:11 Kurt Godel proved something genuinely strange

11:14 about formal that Any

11:16 mathematical framework rich enough to include

11:19 basic arithmetic will contain true

11:21 statements that can never be proven from

11:24 within that system. There are truths that are

11:26 real but unreachable by proof.

11:29 Anna: Which is already a bit of a mind bender on

11:31 its own.

11:32 Avery: It is. And Feisal and his co authors apply

11:35 that same logic to quantum gravity, the

11:38 long sought theory that would unite

11:40 Einstein's general relativity with quantum

11:43 mechanics. They argue that any such

11:45 theory by its nature would need to

11:48 satisfy the conditions that trigger Godel's

11:51 incompleteness theorems, which means it would

11:53 inevitably leave some physical truths out.

11:57 Anna: So the universe contains facts that no

11:59 algorithm can ever fully capture.

12:02 Avery: Exactly. And, and here's where the simulation

12:04 hypothesis comes in. Any simulation

12:07 runs on algorithms. If reality is

12:10 fundamentally non algorithmic, if truths

12:13 built into the fabric of the universe that no

12:15 computation can reproduce, then a simulation

12:18 by definition could never be complete.

12:21 It would always be missing something real.

12:24 Anna: Lawrence Krauss puts it pretty starkly in the

12:26 paper, doesn't he?

12:27 Avery: He does. He says the fundamental laws of

12:30 physics don't exist inside space and time,

12:33 they create it. And any simulation would have

12:36 to run within a computational framework,

12:38 which means it could never express the true

12:41 structure of reality. The laws would always

12:43 be outside the box you're trying to put them

12:45 in.

12:46 Anna: There's also an interesting thread in the

12:47 paper about consciousness, isn't there?

12:49 Echoing Roger Penrose.

12:51 Avery: Right. The authors do gesture toward the idea

12:54 that human thought itself might be non

12:56 algorithmic in some sense. That perhaps

12:59 our ability to recognize certain truths goes

13:02 beyond what formal computation can do.

13:04 That part is more speculative, and the

13:06 authors themselves flag it as such.

13:08 Anna: So how solid is this as a debunking?

13:11 It does feel like strong headline language

13:14 for a theoretical paper.

13:15 Avery: That's a fair point and worth flagging for

13:18 our listeners. This is a theoretical

13:20 argument, not an experimental result. The

13:23 authors themselves acknowledge that no

13:25 complete theory of quantum gravity even

13:27 exists. Yet what they've shown is that if

13:29 such a theory exists and has certain

13:32 properties, which seems very likely, then it

13:34 cannot be purely algorithmic, rhythmic.

13:36 Anna: So it's less we've proven the universe

13:39 isn't a simulation and more we've

13:42 shown that the conditions for, uh, a complete

13:43 simulation can never be met.

13:45 Avery: In principle, that's probably the most

13:48 accurate framing. Fiesel himself puts it

13:50 beautifully. He says that understanding these

13:53 limits doesn't end science, it gives it a new

13:55 direction. Nature, he says, is larger than

13:58 any equation.

13:59 Anna: I love that. And honestly, whether or not the

14:02 simulation hypothesis is your thing, the

14:04 underlying ideas could Goddell's

14:06 incompleteness, the limits of formal systems,

14:09 what it even means for something to be true

14:11 in physics. That's genuinely fascinating

14:13 territory.

14:14 Avery: Drop your thoughts on this one in the

14:15 comments. We have a feeling people will have

14:17 opinions.

14:18 Anna: And finally, back to the ongoing Saga of, uh,

14:21 NASA's budget. If you've been following this

14:23 story, the headline is Congress has done it

14:26 again.

14:27 Avery: The White House's proposed budget for fiscal

14:29 year 2027 asked for $18.8

14:32 billion for NASA, a 23%

14:35 cut from current funding. The House

14:37 Appropriations Committee has now responded by

14:39 approving 24.4 billion instead,

14:42 the same level as FY2026.

14:45 Anna: This is essentially an exact replay of what

14:47 happened last year when the administration

14:49 proposed similarly deep cuts and Congress

14:52 rejected them.

14:53 Avery: The proposed cuts would have been

14:55 particularly severe for NASA's science

14:57 dimensional, facing a, uh, 46%

14:59 reduction that the Planetary Society

15:01 described as. And um, I'm paraphrasing here,

15:04 an extinction level event for space Science.

15:07 More than 50 missions could have been

15:09 terminated.

15:09 Anna: Congress, though, seems to have a different

15:11 view. The House bill specifically protects

15:14 science funding, mandates continued support

15:16 for the Habitable Worlds Observatory and

15:18 pushes back on the proposed elimination of

15:20 NASA's STEM education office, which received

15:23 bipartisan criticism across the aisle.

15:26 Avery: Now, to be clear, this is the House

15:28 appropriations markup. It still needs to go

15:30 through the Senate and ultimately be

15:32 reconciled and signed into law. And so this

15:35 is a positive signal, not a done deal.

15:37 Anna: But it does suggest that the political

15:39 Appetite to gut NASA's science programs is

15:42 not there, at least in Congress. Human

15:44 exploration, Artemis Moon missions, the

15:47 Mars trajectory has strong support on both

15:50 sides. The science programs appear to have

15:52 strong support as well.

15:53 Avery: Well, keep watching this one. The decisions

15:56 made in the next few months will shape the

15:58 scientific agenda for the rest of this

15:59 decade.

16:00 Anna: Before we go, a uh, quick look up at the sky

16:03 because tonight is genuinely worth stepping

16:05 outside for.

16:06 Avery: Tonight, Monday the 18th of May, look

16:09 west just after sunset and you'll find a

16:11 beautiful pairing. A slim crescent moon

16:14 sitting very close to brilliant Venus in the

16:16 sky.

16:17 Anna: Venus is one of the brightest objects visible

16:19 to the naked eye, often the first star you

16:22 see after the sun goes down. Tonight, the

16:24 crescent Moon is acting as a natural pointer,

16:27 making Venus very easy to find. Even if

16:29 you're new to sky watching

16:31 Avery: through binoculars, the view should be

16:33 especially striking. Look for earthshine.

16:36 That's the faint glow on the dark portion of

16:38 the Moon's disk caused by sunlight reflecting

16:41 off Earth onto the lunar surface. It gives to

16:44 crescent a beautiful three dimensional look.

16:47 Anna: For our listeners in Australia and New

16:49 Zealand, look to the west northwest shortly

16:51 after local sunset, the pair will be

16:54 relatively low on the horizon, so you'll want

16:56 a clear western view. Best viewing window is

16:59 probably the first hour after sunset before

17:01 they drop too low.

17:03 Avery: A great night to grab the binoculars or just

17:05 step outside with a cup of tea.

17:07 Anna: That is Astronomy Daily for Monday 18

17:10 May 2026 what a lineup. An

17:13 asteroid flyby, a rocket on the pad, a

17:16 spacecraft slung around Mars, and a genuine

17:19 philosophical challenge from the world of

17:21 physics.

17:21 Avery: Make sure you're back tomorrow. Starship

17:24 V3 is targeting its launch window

17:27 Tuesday evening US time, which means

17:30 Wednesday morning for many of our Southern

17:32 Hemisphere listeners. We'll have the updates

17:35 and let us

17:36 Anna: know what you think about the simulation

17:37 hypothesis discussion. Find us on socials,

17:40 leave a comment or leave us a review.

17:42 Wherever you listen, we genuinely love

17:44 hearing your take.

17:45 Avery: Until tomorrow, keep looking up clear skies

17:48 everyone. Astronomy Day

17:52 Stories we told

17:55 Love.