From Danish Moonshots to Vanishing Planets: Your Daily Space Update

0:00 Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your go to spot

0:02 for the latest in space and astronomy news.

0:05 I'm Anna, here with my co host and good

0:07 friend Avery. Hey Avery. Happy January 3rd.

0:11 Hope everyone's recovering from the New Year

0:13 festivities.

0:14 Avery: Hey Anna. And hello to all our listeners out

0:16 there in the cosmos. Absolutely.

0:19 2026 is off to a flying start,

0:22 literally with some launches and sky events

0:24 already. We've got six great, great storeys

0:27 today from lunar missions to vanishing

0:29 planets. And some good news up on the iss.

0:32 Let's dive right in, shall we?

0:34 Anna: Starting with something exciting for our

0:36 European friends. Denmark just got the

0:39 green light from esa, uh, for its very first

0:42 mission to the moon. The mission's called

0:44 Mani, named after the Norse

0:47 personification of the moon.

0:49 Avery: Yeah, this is huge. It's the largest Danish

0:52 satellite mission ever and the first time

0:54 Denmark is leading an ESA mission. The

0:57 spacecraft is built by SpaceInventor, a

1:00 company based in Aalborg. With a budget of

1:02 about 130 million Danish kroners,

1:05 or around 17 million euros. The

1:08 goal is high resolution mapping of the lunar

1:11 surface to help identify the best spots for

1:13 future crewed landings and even habitats for

1:16 long term human presence.

1:18 Anna: It's part of ESA's push for small cost

1:20 effective lunar missions capped at 50

1:23 million euros development cost and ready to

1:26 launch within four and a half years. This one

1:29 got selected after a competitive process that

1:32 started back in 2023. Launch

1:35 is eyed for 2029 led by the

1:37 University of Copenhagen. Jens

1:40 Freidenbang, the mission leader said it's

1:43 about to get exciting now that the journey

1:45 truly begins.

1:47 Avery: Totally. It's awesome to see m more countries

1:49 getting involved in lunar exploration. This

1:52 kind of scouting data will be invaluable for

1:54 Artemis and beyond.

1:56 Anna: Speaking of launches, SpaceX kicked off

1:59 2026 with a bang, literally their

2:02 first mission of the year. On January 2

2:05 they launched an Italian Earth observing

2:07 satellite called Cosmoskymet, second

2:10 generation from Vandenberg Space Force

2:13 Base in California.

2:15 Avery: Launch was at 9:09pm Eastern Time on a

2:18 Falcon 9 deploying the satellite into low

2:20 Earth orbit just 4.5 minutes later.

2:23 This bird uses synthetic aperture radar to

2:26 image or night in any weather from

2:29 about 385 miles up. It's

2:32 for everything from emergency prevention and

2:34 risk management to defence, maritime

2:37 surveillance, agriculture, you name it.

2:40 Anna: It's operated by the Italian Space

2:42 Agency and Ministry of Defence and this

2:45 is now the third in the second generation

2:47 Constellation. The mission went smoothly with

2:50 the booster landing as expected. Coming off

2:53 SpaceX's record 165 launches

2:56 in 2025, it's a strong start

2:59 year.

3:00 Avery: Always impressive how reliable these Falcon

3:03 9s have become. Earth observation tech like

3:05 this is crucial for monitoring our planet in

3:08 real time.

3:09 Anna: Shifting to exoplanets now a bit of a

3:12 mystery solved. Remember Fomalhaut B?

3:15 This candidate planet around the star

3:17 Fomalhaut, about 25 light years away

3:20 that was spotted by Hubble back in 2008.

3:23 Avery: Yeah, it was hailed as one of the first

3:25 directly imaged exoplanets. But new Hubble

3:28 images from 2023 show its light field fading

3:31 and then completely disappearing. Turns out

3:34 it wasn't a planet at all. It was an

3:36 expanding cloud of debris. From a massive

3:38 collision between two asteroid sized bodies.

3:41 Anna: Exactly. These collisions are rare.

3:44 Maybe once every a hundred thousand years or

3:46 more. And the dust cloud was glowing and

3:49 reflecting light, mimicking a planet.

3:52 There's even a second bright object now

3:54 called CS2 from the same event.

3:57 Four independent analyses confirmed this.

4:00 It's a reminder of how dynamic

4:02 protoplanetary systems can be.

4:04 Avery: And a cautionary tale for exoplanet

4:07 debris. Clouds can fake planet signals in

4:10 reflected light. JWST's Nircam M

4:14 will take a closer look at CS2 for

4:16 composition, temperature, maybe even signs

4:19 of ice or water. This reshapes how we think

4:21 about planetary formation around young stars.

4:24 Anna: Next up, uh, some deep insights into our own

4:27 galaxy's history, thanks to the James Webb

4:30 Space Telescope. A team of Canadian

4:32 astronomers led by Dr. Vivian Tan from

4:35 York University used JWST

4:38 data to piece together the Milky Way's

4:41 turbulent past.

4:42 Avery: They studied 877 distant

4:45 galaxies that are twins to what the Milky Way

4:48 would have looked like billions of years ago,

4:50 when the Universe was between 1.5 and 10

4:53 billion years old. Combining

4:55 JWST's near infrared views with

4:58 Hubble's visible light, they map stars and

5:00 star formation rates across these

5:02 evolutionary stages.

5:04 Anna: The early progenitors were chaotic, full

5:07 of mergers, asymmetric shapes and

5:09 intense starbursts triggered by collisions.

5:13 Then around 3 to 4 billion years after

5:16 the Big Bang, they started growing inside

5:19 out dense cores first, then building

5:22 extended discs and spirals through more

5:25 mergers and accretions.

5:27 Avery: It's wild. Our galaxy had a much more violent

5:29 youth than some models predicted. Simulations

5:32 match some of this, but struggle with the

5:34 rapid outer growth or super central early

5:37 phases. This is tightening up theories on

5:39 feedback processes, merger rates and how

5:42 discs stabilise.

5:43 Anna: Future JWST work with gravitational

5:46 lensing could push this back even further to

5:49 when the Milky Way was just 3% of its current

5:52 age. Love how we're using the Universe as.

5:55 Avery: A time machine like this, absolutely

5:58 mind blowing. And for something you can see

6:00 right now. No telescope needed, though

6:02 binoculars help. Jupiter is putting on its

6:05 brightest show of the year this January.

6:07 Anna: Opposition hits on the night of January

6:10 10th, when Earth is right between the sun and

6:12 Jupiter, making it shine big and bright

6:15 all night long. It's up from dusk to dawn

6:18 throughout the month, glowing steadily, easy

6:21 to spot even in cities.

6:23 Avery: On January 4th, it's in conjunction with the

6:26 Full Moon super close in the sky. Look high

6:28 up near Gemini, surrounded by winter

6:30 favourites like Orion, Taurus with the

6:33 Pleiades and Aldebaran. Binoculars will show

6:36 the four big moons, IO, Europa,

6:38 Ganymede and Callisto.

6:40 Anna: The Quadrantids meteor shower is peaking

6:43 around now too. Up to 10 or even

6:45 more streaks per hour. Though the Full Moon

6:48 might wash some out, some still watch for

6:51 bright fireballsperfect month for getting

6:53 outside and stargazing.

6:55 Avery: Definitely grab a blanket, look up and enjoy

6:58 the show. Jupiter's at its best. No

7:01 excuses.

7:02 Anna: Finally, some relief for the International

7:04 Space Station crew. After years of dealing

7:07 with a persistent leak in the Russian

7:09 segment, it's finally stopped.

7:12 Avery: The leak was in the PRK transfer compartment

7:14 attached to the Zesta module. Microscopic

7:17 cracks that started showing up in 2019 and

7:20 worsens over time, even doubling at rate

7:23 in 2024.

7:24 Anna: Russian cosmonauts have been methodically

7:26 sealing cracks with a special sealant called

7:29 Girmetal 1, closing hatches to

7:32 isolate and monitor pressure. After

7:34 repeated inspections and applications over

7:37 half a decade, the pressure is now holding

7:39 steady.

7:40 Avery: NASA confirmed it, calling it a, uh, stable

7:43 configuration, though they'll keep watching

7:45 for any changes. It was a high risk issue for

7:48 both agencies, so this is genuinely good news

7:50 for ongoing ISS operations.

7:53 Anna: Whew. Yeah. Maintaining a spacecraft in

7:55 orbit for decades isn't easy. Glad they've

7:58 plugged it. Literally.

8:00 Avery: What a roundup today. New missions,

8:02 launches, cosmic mysteries, galactic history,

8:05 skywatching tips, and station fixes. The

8:08 universe keeps delivering.

8:10 Anna: It really does. Thanks so much for joining us

8:13 on Astronomy Daily. If you're enjoying the

8:15 show, tell a friend or leave us a review. It

8:18 helps us reach more space.

8:19 Avery: Fans Will be back Monday with more

8:22 fresh news. Until then, clear

8:24 skies and keep wondering.

8:27 Anna: And keep looking up. Bye for now.