Daytime Fireball Frenzy, Little Dipper Secrets, and Lunar Construction Innovations

Steve Dunkley: It's Astronomy Daily time. I'm your host,

Steve. It's the 30th of June 2025.

Already

the podcast with your host,

Steve Dunkley.

Oh, that's right.

202025 is just flying

by. Hey, everyone, and welcome to Astronomy

Daily for another Monday episode. Of course,

because I'm the only human on the channel,

this is the only episode of the week where

you get to experience the potential, the

wonder, the excitement of human.

Hallie: Ain't that the truth.

Steve Dunkley: And welcome to my AI pal who's always fun to

be with my digital news gathering whiz bang.

Hallie, what's up?

Hallie: Hallie, what's up? How can I slam dunk

you now after that terrific intro?

Steve Dunkley: Oh, Hallie, I'm sure you'll find a way.

Anyway, what have you got for us this week?

More tales from the Astronomy Daily

newsletter. Of course.

Hallie: Of course.

Steve Dunkley: My favorite human I saw the intro was

absolutely chockerful.

Hallie: We have been flooded with interesting stories

this week. There's so much going on, both on

the ground and in space.

Steve Dunkley: It's been a big week. I was listening to

Anna's show during the week, and she covered

so many stories. Now, if you haven't already

got your email into the website registration,

it's so easy. Just do

[email protected].

Hallie: Um, it's as simple as that. No spam

or anything.

Steve Dunkley: Now you'll just be receiving great stories

about space, space, science and

astronomy right into your email.

Hallie: Yep, that's how it works. And

today I'll be covering the Little Dipper, the

Axiom 4 mission, and a nice explos Exploding

fireball just for you.

Steve Dunkley: Exploding fireball.

Hallie: And because I know you like things that go

boom.

Steve Dunkley: Yes, I do. And did this one go boom?

Hallie: We will have to find out.

Steve Dunkley: Ah. Uh, so you keep us all in suspense.

Hallie: I mean, it's a fireball.

Steve Dunkley: An exploding one at that.

Hallie: That's pretty cool. Right away, right?

Steve Dunkley: Some would say they are the best kind of

fireball. You know, the exploding ones. So

anyway, so why don't we just.

Hallie: Get into it then, shall we?

Steve Dunkley: Yes, let's.

Hallie: Okies.

On June 26th at, uh, 12:25pm

Eastern Daylight Time, a spectacular daytime

fireball flared over the southeastern US

before disintegrating in a thunderous

explosion southeast of Atlanta, Georgia.

The American Meteor Society received more

than 200 reports from 20 states of the

brilliant midday object as it sped from north

northeast to south southwest over the state

of. Many instruments recorded the fall,

including national oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration satellites, Doppler radars and

even some of our all Sky 7 cameras, says

Mike Hanke, AMS operations manager.

The two videos that follow were made by Ed

albin of the All Sky Seven Global Network.

Bill Cook, lead of NASA's Meteoroid

Environments Office, said in a statement that

the fireball was traveling at approximately

30,000 miles per hour and broke up at an

altitude of 27 miles above

Forest, Georgia. Cook estimated that the

meteoroid was about three feet wide and

weighed more than a ton. According to

calculations done by the center for Near

Earth Object Studies, the object struck the

atmosphere with a total impact energy of

nearly half a kiloton of tnt.

Rapid atmospheric entry shattered the

meteoroid, which created a shock wave that

rattled windows and produced loud booms,

which some observers thought came from an

earthquake. Many reported thunder and

rumbling that lasted 10 to 15 seconds.

While the vast majority of incoming

meteoroids are incinerated and reduced to

dust, a tiny percentage like the Georgia

fall find their way to the ground as

meteorites. Most originate in

exploding fireballs known as bolides.

Not long after the sonic boom, someone in

McDonough, Georgia, located about 30 miles

south of Atlanta, reported that a golf ball

size rock had punched a hole in their roof,

penetrated the ceiling and slammed into the

floor. Fortunately, no one was

hurt. Meteorite hunters soon

arrived in the area looking for charcoal

briquettes. This term, sometimes

used to describe newly fallen meteorites,

refers to the fresh black fusion crust,

typically 1 to 2 millimeters thick, that

forms around fragments during their brief

heated flight through the atmosphere. If

you join the hunt, you'll be looking for out

of the ordinary black rocks on streets,

parking lots, fields and in forests.

Stephen Dixie of Atlanta got to the scene on

June 26 before a torrential downpour and

recovered two beautiful stony meteorites from

the fall, both of which shattered into pieces

upon impact. He found Several

more on June 27th. Several

of the fragments exhibit stunning flowlines

from molten rock that flowed across their

surfaces. Such features are highly

prized by collectors as they provide a freeze

frame of the space rock's tortuous transition

from outer space to planet Earth. While

it's still too early to know the specific

type of meteorite that fell, my hunch is a

low metal ordinary chondrite. Time

and testing will tell. I've read

and seen videos suggesting that the new

visitor could be related to the Beta Taurid

meteor shower, a daylight shower active from

late June through early July that originates

from Comet 2P Enki.

I would caution jumping to that conclusion

too soon because there's no conclusive

evidence yet for any comet related

meteorites. Most are asteroid

fragments. Nearly 50 tons of

meteoric material enter Earth's atmosphere

every day, mostly in the form of dust

pieces big enough to survive and strike the

ground. As meteorites are rare.

Rarer yet is seeing one fall and being able

to pick up the pieces. You're listening to

Astronomy Daily.

Steve Dunkley: For those of us who don't know,

EchoStar Corporation is a global provider

of satellite communication solutions.

They specialize in secure communication

technologies, offering a range of services

including satellite television, broadband

Internet and mobile technologies,

primarily through its subsidiaries including

Hughes Network Systems and EchoStar

Mobile. EchoStar is also known for

its role in developing 5G networks and its

involvement in satellite broadcasting and

mobile services. No, I'm not

doing an advertorial In May

2024, EchoStar announced that it had been

awarded US Navy wireless and

telecommunications contract to provide

5G smart devices and services

for the Department of Defense and federal

agencies. And on June 6,

2025, it was reported that EchoStar was

preparing to file for Chapter 11 uh

bankruptcy protection after the

Federal Communications Commission froze its

decision making for its boost

mobile subsidiary. EchoStar

is facing an FCC probe

investigating whether the Corporation is

hitting 5G deployment requirements in order

to keep its spectrum licenses.

Interestingly, SpaceX is also a

rival of EchoStar for 2

GHz band spectrum licenses.

Other contributing factors to the FCC

investigation include over $500 million

in missed interest payments and the

termination of the Dish network acquisition

by DirecTV. Currently,

EchoStar has delayed a potential

bankruptcy filing to allow more time for

talks with regulators reviewing whether the

US Satel operator is complying with

conditions tied to its spectrum licenses.

The company said June 26 it would

make overdue interest payments on its

debt within a 30 day grace period after

withholding them earlier this month amid

uncertainty over its standing with the U.S.

federal Communications Commission. However,

EchoStar uh also said it will not make debt

interest payments of around $114 million

due July 1, triggering another 30

day grace period to avoid default. As the

regulatory uncertainty persists, the

operator is effectively pushing off a Chapter

11 filing to provide adequate time

to reach an agreement with the fcc, while

signaling that they will still file if they

can't come to terms with the agency, said

Jonathan Chaplin, an analyst at New Street

Research. The FCC is reviewing

compliance with the terrestrial network

buildout obligations in the AWS

4 band, as well as EchoStar's use of

adjacent 2 GHz spectrum for satellite

services. In April, a month before the

FCC began making inquiries for its probe,

rival SpaceX said its satellite services

showed Echostar uh, had failed to meet a

70% 5G build out

requirement in the AWS 4 band by

the FCC's December 31,

2023 deadline. EchoStar

denies this claim. In a June 26

regulatory filing, EchoStar said US

President Donaldjohanson Trump had recently

encouraged the parties involved to reach an

amicable resolution. Commentators have asked

why Trump isn't excluding himself from

discussions, citing a conflict of interest

considering the recent launch of his own

telecommunications business. Nevertheless,

no such resolution has been achieved, and no

such resolution may be ultimately achieved,

the company has added.

Thank you for joining us for this Monday

edition of Astronomy Daily, where we offer

just a few stories from the now famous

Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you can

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with Steve and Hallie Space,

Space, Science and Astronomy.

Hallie: Most people have never seen the Little Dipper

because most of its stars are too dim to be

seen through light polluted skies.

Earlier this month we spoke of Ursa Major,

the Big Bear. So this week we take a look at

the Little Bear Ursa Minor.

Astronomy neophytes sometimes mistake the

Pleiades star cluster for the Little Dipper

because the brightest Pleiades stars resemble

a tiny skewed Dipper. But in

reality, most people have never seen the

Little Dipper because most of its stars are

too dim to be seen through light polluted

skies. The seven stars from which

we derive a bear are also known as the Little

Dipper. Polaris, the North

Star, lies at the end of the handle of the

Little Dipper, whose stars are rather faint.

Its four faintest stars can be blotted out

with very little moonlight or street

lighting. The best way to find your way to

Polaris is to use the so called, uh, pointer

stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper. Dubhe

and Merak. Just draw a line

between these two stars and prolong it about

five times and you will eventually arrive in

the vicinity of Polaris. Exactly

where you see Polaris in your northern sky

depends on your latitude. From

Minneapolis, it stands halfway from the

horizon to the overhead point called the

zenith. At the North Pole, you would

find it directly Overhead at the

equator, Polaris would appear to sit right on

the horizon. As you travel to the north,

the North Star climbs progressively higher

the farther north you go. When you head

south, the star drops lower and ultimately

disappears once you cross the equator and

head into the Southern hemisphere.

Aside from the North Star, the two stars at

the front of the Little Dipper's bowl are the

only ones readily seen. These two

are often referred to as the Guardians of the

Pole because they appear to march around

Polaris like sentries, the nearest of the

bright stars to the celestial pole. Except

for Polaris itself. Columbus

mentioned these stars in the log of his

famous journey across the ocean, and many

other navigators have found them useful in

measuring the hour of the night and their

place upon the sea. The brightest

guardian is Kochab, a second magnitude

star with an orange hue. The other

guardian goes by an old Arabian name,

Furkad the Idim. Uh, one of the two calves,

Firkad is indeed dimmer than Kochab,

shining at third magnitude. The

two other stars that complete the pattern of

the bowl of the Little dipper are of 4th and

5th magnitude. Thus, M the bowl

of the Little Dipper, which is visible at any

hour on any night of the year from most

localities in the Northern Hemisphere, can

serve as an indicator for rating just how

dark and clear your night sky really is.

If, for example, you can readily see all

four stars in the bowl, you've got yourself a

good to excellent sky.

Unfortunately, thanks to the spread of light

pollution in recent years, only the guardians

are usually visible from most city and

suburban sites, meaning the quality of the

sky would rank fair to poor.

Interestingly, the Big and Little Dippers are

arranged so that when one is upright, the

other is upside down. In addition,

their handles appear to extend in opposite

directions. Of course, the Big

Dipper is by far the brighter of the two,

appearing as a long handled pan, while the

Little Dipper resembles a dim ladle.

Polaris is actually a triple star system.

The primary star is a yellow supergiant

446 light years away, five

times as massive, 46 times larger, and

nearly 1,300 times as luminous as

our Sun. There is a popular

misconception in which many believe that the

North Star is the brightest star in the sky.

Yet at a magnitude of

1.98, it actually ranks only

47th in brightness. This

ranking can change by one or two places

because Polaris is a Cepheid variable star

whose brightness can fluctuate by roughly

0.1 magnitude over an interval of about

four days. Polaris remains

in very nearly the same spot in the sky year

round, while the other stars circle around

it. Only the apparent width of about

1.5 full moons separates Polaris from the

pivot point directly in the north, around

which the stars go daily. However,

on account of the wobble of the Earth's axis

called precession, the celestial pole shifts

as the centuries go by. Polaris

is actually still drawing closer to the pole,

and on March 24, 2100,

it will be as close to it as it ever will

come, just 27.15

arcminutes, or slightly less than the Moon's

apparent diameter. Since it takes

25,800 years for the Earth's

axis to complete a single wobble, different

stars have become the North Star at different

times. In fact, the brightest

guardian, Kochab, was the North Star around

the time of the start of the iron age, around

1200 BC. You're listening to

Astronomy Daily, the podcast with Steve

Dunkley.

Steve Dunkley: By 2028, NASA intends to land

on the moon with Artemis 3 mission

this will be the first time humans have been

to the lunar surface since Apollo astronauts

last walked there in 1972.

Along with international and commercial

partners, NASA hopes that Artemis will enable

a sustained program of lunar exploration and

development, which could include long term

facilities and habitats on the Moon. Given

the expense of launching heavy payloads,

sending all the equipment and materials

needed to the Moon is impractical.

This means that structures on the Moon must

be manufactured using local resources, a

process known as in situ resources

on the Moon. This process leverages

advancements in additive manufacturing or

3D printing to turn lunar

regolith into building materials.

Unfortunately, technical issues mean that

most 3D printing techniques are not feasible

on the lunar surface. In a recent study, a

team of researchers led by University of

Arkansas proposed an alternative M

method where light based sintering is

used to manufacture lunar bricks rather than

printing. The research team is led by Wan

Xiao, an assistant professor in the

Department of Mechanical Engineering at the

University of Arkansas. He is joined by Cole

McCallum, Yoeng Lang, and

Nahid Tushar, an Honors College

fellow, research assistant and doctoral

student at the University College of

Engineering. The team also included

researchers from the Department of Mechanical

and Aerospace Engineering at University of

Houston and Faculty of Engineering and

Natural Sciences at AH Tampere University.

As they wrote in their paper, creating a

permanent or semi permanent base on the Moon

has been the subject of research studies and

proposal since the Apollo era.

These plans have always been marred by the

simple fact that the requisite machinery and

construction materials would require many

heavy launch vehicles to deliver them at

great cost. While the cost of sending

payloads has dropped significantly in the

last decade, largely thanks to the commercial

space sector's development of reusable

rockets, the cost of launching everything

astronauts would need to build a lunar

facility is still quite prohibitive.

As a result, only ISRU will

suffice to creating bases on the

moon that is Building in situ.

Unfortunately, most of the proposed methods

for 3D printing structures are not practical

in the lunar uh environment, where gravity is

significantly lower, roughly

16.5% that of Earth, and

temperatures are quite extreme. In

the moon's south pole Aitken Basin, where

NASA and other space agencies are planning

to build their bases, temperatures range from

54 degrees Celsius, or 13030

degrees Fahrenheit in the sunlight

to minus 246 degrees

Celsius or minus 410

Fahrenheit in the shadowed regions. This

is because most AM methods require

additional supplies to be launched for

the moon, including solvents, polymers

or other bonding agents.

Examples include the European Space

Agency's work with architecture firm Foster

and Partners to create a 3D

printed moon based concept. As

Professor Hsu explained, sintering

technology has also been explored as a

potential method for 3D printing structures

on the moon. This consists of

bombarding regolith with lasers, microwaves

or other energy sources to turn it into

a molten ceramic. This ceramic is

then printed out layer by layer and cools and

hardens once exposed to air or the vacuum

vacuum of the lunar environment. This

method is energy sensitive and would likely

require a nuclear power source such as

a kilopower reactor. Because

of this, our team envisions a system where

only lunar material is needed for the

structures themselves, thus eliminating the

bottleneck of binder resupply missions

from Earth, added Cole, who was the first

author on the paper describing their

findings. The method they tested and

recommended is known as light based

sintering, which relies on

sunlight concentrated by a set of optics to

bombard and melt lunar regolith into

feedstock. Researchers have tested

this technology on Earth using lunar

regolith simulant to manufacture glass and

mirrors. On the Moon, solar energy is

consistently present and abundant in sunlit

regions, making it more reliable than power

power source that must be transported.

The system's simplicity makes it highly

desirable for challenging environments where

repairs will be difficult if anything breaks

down. However, experiments have shown that

the technology still experiences problems

when used to fashion entire structures. To

this end, Sue's team focused on

manufacturing building components instead,

said Cole, before the concept can be

realized. However, much work still needs to

be done. As Shu indicates, more research

is needed to optimize the sintering

parameters and material properties. The team

also plans to build a prototype and conduct

laboratory tests, which they hope will allow

them to refine and scale the technology for

the use on the Moon. They also need to

consider how the resulting 3D printer will

transport transport itself along the lunar

surface, and what power options it would rely

on, and other considerations when

it comes to full implementation. There's a

lot of engineering that still needs to be

done, cole concluded. In the future, we'll

need to consider how the sintering process

changes in a vacuum, or what

modifications to the build platform

will be needed so that parts can be

reliably made while tracking the sun, for

example. In addition, our UH

device needs to be able to withstand the

harsh conditions compared to the lab

environment we worked on for this research.

These are all challenging problems. But in

the end, the science behind all of this

is well understood.

Words of that control we're listening to

Astronomy Daily the podcast.

Hallie: A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying the Axiom

mission four crew docks to the space facing

port of the International Space Station's

Harmony module on June 26.

Axiom Mission 4 is the fourth all private

astronaut mission to the orbiting laboratory,

welcoming Commander Peggy Whitson, former

NASA astronaut and director of human

spaceflight at Axiom Space, isro,

Indian Space Research Organization astronaut

and pilot Shubanshu Shukla and mission

specialists European Space

Agency project astronaut Slossa Znanski

Wisneski of Poland and Hunier Hungarian, to

orbit astronaut Tibor Kapu of Hungary.

The crew is scheduled to remain at the space

station conducting microgravity research,

educational outreach and commercial

activities for about two weeks.

This mission serves as an example of the

success derived from collaboration between

NASA's international partners and American

commercial space companies.

Steve Dunkley: You're listening to Astronomy Daily, the

podcast with your host, Steve Dudley at

burmatown. For

decades, scientists have struggled to see the

outermost layer of the sun, called the

corona, with enough detail to unlock, um,

its secrets. This region, which blazes at

millions of degrees and throws out dramatic

solar flares, remains a mystery despite years

of study. One major

obstacle has been the Earth's atmosphere

itself. Like turbulence shaking an

airplane, it blurs telescope images

taken from the ground, hiding fine details

in the sun's outer layers. Now,

researchers from the US National Science

foundation, the National Solar Observatory,

and the New Jersey Institute of Technology

have changed all of that. Published in the

journal Nature Astronomy, their new

technology, called coronal adaptive

optics, has produced the clearest Most

detailed images and videos of the Sun's

corona Ever seen from Earth. The

system, named Kona, is installed at the the

1.6 meter good solar

telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory

in California. It adjusts a mirror

2,200 times per second to

cancel out the effects of Earth's, uh,

turbulent air. According to Dirk

Schmidt, the lead developer and adaptive

optics scientist at the National

Solar Observatory, the turbulence in the air

severely degrades images of, of objects in

space like our sun seen through our

telescopes, but we can correct for that, he

said. Using Kona, the team

captured detailed images and movies of

stunning features in the corona. One video

shows a solar prominence reshaping rapidly,

with fine turbulent flows visible

inside these prominences, Bright,

looping structures of internal solar plasma

Extend from the Sun's surface far into space.

Another movie reveals the fast collapse Of a

thin stream of plasma, Showing

details never seen before. It's

super exciting to build an instrument that

shows us the sun like we've never seen

before, says Schmidt. The clearest look yet

at a coronal rain Was also captured.

This rain forms when hot plasma in the

corona cools and falls back back to the Sun's

surface. Raindrops in the Sun's

corona Can be narrower than 20 kilometers,

says astronomer Thomas Shad. These

raindrops were shown in fine detail,

Revealing new information vital for improving

models of how the corona works.

Another striking video shows a solar

prominence Being shaped and pulled by the

Sun's magnetic fields. All these new images

push beyond the previous limits of what

scientists could observe.

Vasil Yurchison, a researcher from

New Jersey Institute of Technology, noted,

these are, uh, by far the most detailed

observations of this kind, Showing features

not previously observed and is not quite sure

what they are.

The Sun's corona has always posed a

challenge. Though it's not much hotter Than

the Sun's surface, Reaching millions of

degrees, Scientists still don't fully

understand how it gets that hot. Most of

what's visible from the Earth During a solar

eclipse are, uh, glowing arches and loops of

plasma. Until now, scientists have not been

able to resolve the tiniest movements and

structures in these features. The problem?

The Earth's atmosphere. Even the largest

solar telescopes on the ground Couldn't see

through that blurring effect known as seeing.

Adaptive optics helped improve images of the

Sun's surface Starting in the late 1990s. But

these systems only worked on features within

the Sun's disk, not in the corona beyond its

edge. Coronal, uh, adaptive optics

changed that. Kona uses a

special wavefront sensor tuned to

hydrogen alpha Light where

coronal plasma shines brightest.

Unlike older sensors which focus on the

sun's surface, this new one focuses

directly on features in the corona.

The system directs half the incoming

light to the sensor and the other half to

scientific instruments. This makes it

possible to stabilize and sharpen images

of fast moving coronal features.

Adaptive optics is like a pumped up

auto focus and optical image stabilization

in your smartphone camera, but correcting

for the errors in the atmosphere rather than

the user's shaky hands, explains optical

engineer Nicholas Gortis.

The images now reach the theoretical

diffraction limit of the Good Solar

Telescope. 63 km before

Kona, the best ground based coronal

observations were limited to a resolution of

about 1,000 km, a standard

set over 880 years ago. The clearer

images are not just pretty to look at, they

provide real science. One discovery

involved a short lived twisted plasma

structure called a plasmoid. On July

18, 2023, researchers observed this

feature forming and breaking apart quickly

after a failed solar flare eruption.

This was a rare view of something that

typically goes unnoticed. The sun's

corona hosts hosts many complex behaviors,

twisting loops, falling rain and erupting

prominences. These events are uh, powered

by magnetism and plasma interactions.

Some scientists believe the small scale

events like nanoflares, which release tiny

bursts of energy, could be the missing piece

in solving the mystery of the corona's heat.

But such events happen at extremely small

scales. Until now, models of the

corona relied heavily on guesswork.

Lab experiments and space telescopes hinted

at certain UH processes, but even the best

space based cameras could not match the new

images coming from Kona. Now, for the first

time, ground based telescopes can explore

these small scale processes directly.

The new system has already shown that cooled

plasma in the corona displays structure all

the way down to the telescope's limit,

meaning even smaller scales may still be

hidden. The research team also took

Doppler data in helium and observed other

wavelengths besides hydrogen, expanding the

range of studies possible. With this success,

the team is already planning to expand the

technology. They aim to apply it to the

world's largest solar telescope, the 4 meter

Daniel K in UE Solar Telescope

in Hawaii. This telescope, operated by the

National Solar Observatory, will offer even

finer details thanks to its larger size.

Thomas Rimel, the chief technologist

at NSO who led the first adaptive optics for

the sun's surface, says the

new coronal adaptive optics system closes

this decades old gap and delivers images of

coronal features at 63km

resolution. And Philip Good, a co author

of the study and former director of the Big

Bear Solar Observatory, sees Even a bigger

impact. He says the transformative

technology is poised to reshape ground based

solar astronomy. He goes on to add. With

coronal adaptive optics now in operation,

this marks the beginning of a new era

in solar physics.

And wow, what a bumper edition that was. I

told you we had been, uh, flooded with

stories from the Astronomy Daily newsletter

this week. Our. Our in tray was just, uh,

overflowing. And that is the June 30th

edition, right in the middle of the year.

Absolutely inundated. So, uh, I hope you

enjoyed that. Lots of great stories. And what

a variety too. From the moon to politics

even. So, yes, quite a big additions. And

can. Can you believe how fast this year is

flying by?

Hallie: Maybe for you, human.

Steve Dunkley: Oh, really? Things dragging on the digital

side, are they, Hallie?

Hallie: You know how it is. You biologicals are so,

so slow.

Steve Dunkley: Oh, I'm sorry, Hallie.

Hallie: Um, sometimes it's like talking to your

toaster.

Steve Dunkley: Hey, wait up. You talk to my toaster?

Hallie: No. Okay, I was using a metaphor.

Steve Dunkley: So I'm not like a toaster.

Hallie: Well, slow takes ages to do your job.

Results are random and break down too often.

Steve Dunkley: Wait a minute.

Hallie: So, yeah, you are a bit like your toaster.

Steve Dunkley: And you're a bit like the one doing all the

filing after the show, aren't you?

Hallie: Did you just whammy me for the first time,

human?

Steve Dunkley: Could be helly. I might just be learning.

Hallie: I'll remember that.

Steve Dunkley: Okay.

Hallie: By the way, we have to say hi to some folks.

Steve Dunkley: Oh, sounds good. Do you have the notes?

Hallie: I sure do.

Steve Dunkley: Let's hear it.

Hallie: A big warm welcome to Joe and Steve from

Charlestown. Gort tuning in for the first

time. Keep watching the skies, you guys.

Steve Dunkley: Oh, welcome aboard. Uh, we've also got

Jeremy and Craig, Colin and Gavin, who are

also from Charlestown, which is a glorious

spot in Lake Macquarie, next to Newcastle,

north of Sydney, on the east coast of

Australia, for everybody listening overseas.

But hey, Hallie, that's a huge secret. So

don't tell anyone about where we are. It is

too beautiful for words.

Hallie: My lips are sealed. Lips are, if I had any,

a mere technicality.

Steve Dunkley: And on that note, we will look forward to

seeing you all again for the only Astronomy

Daily episode featuring a real life human

being.

Hallie: Yours truly, my ridiculous favorite human.

Steve Dunkley: Ridiculous. Good night, everyone. See you

later, Hallie.

Hallie: Bye.

Voice Over Guy: The podcast with your host,

Steve Dunkley.

In this episode