Dark Matter Mapped: Webb's Unprecedented Universe Discovery

Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source for

the latest space and astronomy news. I'm

Anna.

Avery: And I'm avery. Today's Tuesday, January

27, 2026, and we've got some

fascinating stories lined up for you.

Anna: We certainly do. On today's episode, we're

diving into NASA's groundbreaking new Dark

matter map, getting the latest updates on

this week's orbital launch schedule, and

learning about what the Artemis II crew might

see on the far side of the Moon.

Avery: Plus, we'll explore stun new insights into

Jupiter's complex cloud systems,

find out about a rare solar eclipse that only

a handful of people will witness, and get the

latest on SpaceX's upgraded Starship

development.

Anna: Let's get started.

Avery: Take it away, Anna.

Anna: Our top story today comes from NASA's

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where scientists

have created one of the most detailed dark

matter maps ever produced using data from

the James Webb Space Telescope.

Avery: This is really exciting stuff, Anna. Uh, the

map shows how dark matter, that invisible,

ghostly material that makes up most of the

universe's mass, overlaps and

intertwines with regular matter like stars

and galaxies.

Anna: Published Monday in Nature Astronomy, this

map is twice as sharp as any previous

dark matter map made by other observatories.

Diana Skogni Aglio, the lead author and

astrophysicist at jpl, described it

as seeing the invisible scaffolding of the

universe in stunning detail for the first

time.

Avery: What's particularly fascinating is how the

map confirms that dark matter and regular

matter have essentially grown up together.

Wherever you see a massive cluster of

thousands of galaxies, there's an equally

massive amount of dark matter in the same

place. When you see strings of regular matter

connecting clusters, dark matter strings are

there, too.

Anna: The team used Webb's unprecedented

sensitivity to observe nearly

800,000 galaxies in a region of

SK about 2.5 times larger

than the Full Moon. They detected dark matter

by observing how its mass curves space

itself, which bends light from distant

galaxies as it travels to Earth.

Avery: Here's something to ponder. Without dark

matter, we might not even be here. Dark

matter began clumping together first in the

early universe, and those clumps then pulled

regular matter together, creating the

conditions for stars and galaxies to form

earlier than they would have otherwise.

Anna: That earlier star formation was crucial

because those first generations of stars

turned hydrogen and helium into the rich

array of elements that now make up planets

like Earth. So in a very real sense,

dark matter influenced the creation of the

elements necessary for life.

Avery: Looking ahead, the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman

Space Telescope will map dark matter over

an area 4,400 times bigger than this

Webb study, though it won't match Webb's

incredible resolution. For even more

detailed looks, we'll have to wait for next

generation telescopes like the proposed

Habitable Worlds Observatory.

Anna: Fascinating research that's literally

revealing the invisible foundation of our

universe.

Avery: Moving on to this week's launch schedule,

it's shaping up to be, uh, a busy last week

of January with flights from Florida,

California and New Zealand on the manifesto.

Anna: That's right, SpaceX is planning to close out

the month with the GPS 3

SV09 mission along with up to three

Starlink launches. The GPS launch is

scheduled for late Monday evening from cape

Canaveral.

Avery: The GPS 3 SV09

satellite, named Ellison Onisuka after one of

the fallen Challenger astronauts, will be

launched to medium Earth orbit. This

spacecraft offers improved accuracy and

jamming resistance over previous versions of

gps.

Anna: Meanwhile, Rocket Labs ELECTRON is preparing

for the Bridging the Swarm mission from New

Zealand's Mahia Peninsula on Wednesday.

This launch will carry South Korea's Neonsat

1 a observation satellite to sun

synchronous orbit.

Avery: The Neonsat constellation is designed to

provide near real time disaster monitoring

capability for the Korean Peninsula. The

100 kilogram Neonsat 1A features

a high resolution optical camera and will

join an existing NEONSAT satellite already in

orbit.

Anna: This miss already faced a couple of delays.

It was originally scheduled to launch back in

December, but was scrubbed after sensor

issues during Countdown.

Avery: SpaceX also has multiple Starlink missions on

the schedule this week from Both coasts,

Group 1719 from Vandenberg

Space Force Base in California on Thursday,

and Group 6101 from Cape

Canaveral later that same day.

Anna: And looking ahead to early February, the

first Starlink mission of next month, Group

6 103, is currently scheduled

for Sunday, February 1.

Avery: China also has two possible flights on the

manifest a Chang Zhang 7A from

Hainan island and a Jielong 3 from the

South China Sea. Though neither has a

confirmed launch date.

Anna: Yet, it's worth noting that China's year in

spaceflight has already been eventful with

two launch failures within 12 hours in mid

January, so they may be proceeding cautiously

with these upcoming missions.

Okay, moving on, our next story takes us to

preparations for NASA's Artemis 2 mission,

where four astronauts are training to become

the first humans to see parts of the moon

that have remained hidden from view even

during the Apollo missions.

Avery: The Artemis 2 crew Reid Wiseman,

Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Coach, and

Jeremy Hansen won't land on the lunar

surface, but they'll fly around the far side

of the Moon and potentially observe regions

never before seen by human eyes.

Anna: Among the most significant targets is Mari

oriental, a vast 600 mile

wide impact basing that sits along the edge

of the lunar far side. Its location makes it

nearly impossible to view from Earth, despite

its massive scale.

Avery: The crew will spend a dedicated three hour

segment of their mission focusing on direct

lunar observation. NASA exploration

scientist Jacob Bleacher emphasizes that

human vision can detect subtle surface

differences, Variations in brightness or

texture that indicate differences in rock

composition and geological age.

Anna: What's fascinating is that the astronauts

have been training extensively in geology,

including simulated exercises in Iceland

where they practiced identifying volcanic and

impact related features in environments

resembling the Moon.

Avery: The far side of the moon holds a geologic

record less disturbed than the near side.

While much of the near side is covered with

maria, the vast plains of ancient lava that

have erased older surface features, the far

side remains heavily cratered and relatively

intact.

Anna: Because of tidal locking, the moon always

shows the same face to Earth. Until the

Soviet Luna 3 mission in 1959,

no one had any idea what the far side looked

like. Even the Apollo missions only had brief

views and poor lighting.

Avery: Artemis 2 breaks that pattern by taking

advantage of a launch window and flight path

that ensures better visibility of the hidden

hemisphere. The mission is currently

scheduled for no earlier than February 6,

and astronaut Christina.

Anna: Koch noted that the mission may help shift

public understanding away from the outdated

phrase the dark side of the moon, which

falsely implies the region lacks sunlight.

Avery: An exciting mission that will give us

unprecedented views of lunar territory that

remained largely mysterious for all of human

history.

Anna: Now let's turn our attention to Jupiter,

where NASA's Juno spacecraft continues to

reveal the gas giant's secrets from beneath

its dense cloud layers.

Avery: Juno has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016,

peering through storms and cyclones to unveil

the planet's hidden complexity. And recent

observations are showing just how much more

intricate Jupiter is than we ever imagined.

Anna: One of the most fundamental questions

scientists have debated for decades is how

deep Jupiter's distinctive cloud bands

actually go. By measuring Jupiter's

gravity field, Juno discovered that these

belts and zones, which are alternating

east and west flowing jet streams,

extend about 1900 miles,

or 3000 kilometers below the cloud

tops.

Avery: That's incredible depth. And Juno's

discoveries have completely upended our

understanding of Jupiter's interior structure

too. Scientists long thought Jupiter had a

small solid core surrounded by hydrogen and

helium. But Juno's data suggests the

planet has a larger, more diluted core than

previously believed.

Anna: The spacecraft has also provided the first

detailed views of Jupiter's north pole.

Revealing massive cyclonic storms

arranged in fascinating eight

storms in an octagonal pattern in the north

and five in a pentagonal pattern in the

south. These storms are extremely

resilient and have persisted for years.

Avery: And here's something really intriguing.

Juno recently captured images showing a

mysterious green glow near Jupiter's north

pole. The flash of light was traveling at

breakneck speed, which makes capturing it

even more remarkable.

Anna: Scientists believe this could be lightning,

but Jupiter's lightning is vastly different

from Earth's. It's caused by clouds

containing ammonia water solution and can

be much more powerful than terrestrial

lightning.

Avery: Juno's mission has been extended multiple

times and was scheduled to end in September

2025, but appears to still be

operational, with no new end date being

promoted. During this extended phase,

the spacecraft is conducting close

flybys of Jupiter's intriguing Galilean

moons Ganymede, Europa and

IO Eventually, Juno.

Anna: Will meet its end by burning up in Jupiter's

atmosphere. But until then, it continues to

revolutionize our understanding of the solar

system's largest planet.

Avery: Our next story involves a celestial event

that very few people will witness. A

rare annular solar eclipse set to occur

over one of the most remote places on Earth.

Anna: On February 17, 2026,

a spectacular ring of fire eclipse

will be visible from a narrow stretch of

Antarctica. The phenomenon will only be

fully visible from an uninhabited region of

the continent, with just two research

stations falling within the event's path.

Avery: The antumbral shadow of the Moon, the area

where the full annular eclipse can be seen,

will travel across a, uh, 26,

61 mile stretch of mainland

Antarctica. Only two inhabited locations

fall within this narrow Concordia

Station, a AH French Italian base, and

Mirny Station, operated by Russia.

Anna: At Concordia, annularity will last 2

minutes and 1 second with the sun positioned

5 degrees above the horizon. At

Mirny, it will experience 1 minute and

52 seconds of annularity, with the sun

slightly higher at 10 degrees.

Avery: Given the extreme location and limited

infrastructure, eclipse meteorologist Jay

Anderson noted that it's a challenge to

reach, and neither of the two inhabited

locations is set up to welcome Taurus.

Anna: However, a partial eclipse will be visible

over a much larger region, including

several Antarctic research bases, parts of

southeastern Africa, the southern tip of

South America, and stretches of the Pacific,

Atlantic and Indian oceans.

Avery: For example, Poland's AB

Dobrolansky station will see 92%

of the sun covered, while McMurdo station in

the US will see 86%. Even

distant cities like Durban in South Africa

will witness about 16% coverage.

Anna: Weather could be a significant factor, though

mirny station averages 65%

cloud cover in February, while Concordia has

a clearer profile with about 35%

coverage, and temperatures can drop as low

as -112 degrees

Fahrenheit.

Avery: Interestingly, the eclipse itself might

improve viewing conditions. The sudden

temperature drop from the eclipse can disrupt

local cloud formation, potentially causing

convective clouds to dissipate.

Anna: Though if you're one of the handful of

researchers stationed in Antarctica next

month, you might be in for a spectacular

show, assuming the clouds cooperate and

you can brave the extreme cold.

And finally, in some late breaking news, we

have an update on SpaceX's Starship

development program.

Avery: According to a post from CEO Elon Musk, the

delayed first test of SpaceX's upgraded

Starship rocket, version 3, is now

slated for mid March.

Anna: This third version of Starship is larger and

more powerful than previous iterations.

Crucially, SpaceX plans to use

Starship V3 to launch its next

generation Starlink satellites, which will be

capable of faster data speeds but are heavier

and larger.

Avery: It's also the first version designed to dock

with other starships in Earth orbit, a

capability the company needs to reach the

Moon or Mars. This comes as SpaceX

faces pressure from the Trump administration

to return US astronauts to the lunar surface

before the end of a second term.

Anna: SpaceX was making progress toward a launch of

Starship V3 in late 2025,

but in November, the booster stage suffered a

major explosion during testing that blew out

an entire side of the steel rocket.

Avery: The company said it was performing gas system

pressure testing when the explosion happened,

but hasn't offered a more detailed breakdown

of what went wrong.

Anna: The second version of Starship was a mixed

bag. The program successfully reached orbit,

deployed dummy versions of next generation

Starlink satellites, and caught multiple

booster stages after they returned to the

launch pad.

Avery: But Starship V2 also suffered several

explosions and setbacks. Some resulted from

SpaceX's developmental approach of pushing

test vehicles to or past their limits.

Others were more unexpected, like when a

starship vehicle erupted in a massive

fireball during ground testing last June.

Anna: Meanwhile, competition is emerging. Jeff

Bezos's new Glenn rocket successfully

launched for the first time in January

2025 and completed its first

booster landing in November. Blue Origin

is planning a third new Glenn launch in late

February and ah.

Avery: Late last year, Blue Origin revealed it's

developing a larger super heavy variant of

new Glenn M, which more directly compare

competes with starship.

Anna: So while SpaceX continues to dominate the

global launch market, other players are

starting to close the gap. It'll be

interesting to see how the Starship V3 test

goes in March, and.

Avery: That wraps up today's episode of Astronomy

Daily.

Anna: Thanks for joining us for another journey

through the cosmos. Remember to check out our

website at astronomydaily IO

for more space and astronomy news.

Avery: And don't forget to follow us on social media

astrodaily Pod for updates between

episodes.

Anna: Until next time, keep looking up.

Avery: Clear skies, everyone.

In this episode