From Europa's Stillness to Artemis' Historic Launch: Your Daily Space Update

0:00 Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy

0:02 Daily, your daily dose of space and

0:05 astronomy news. I'm Anna, and

0:08 sitting across from me virtually of course,

0:10 is my co host, Avery. Hey, Avery.

0:13 Happy January 7th. We are already a

0:16 week into 2026 and the stories

0:19 just keep coming.

0:20 Avery: Hey, Anna. And hi everyone out there gazing

0:23 at the stars with us. Absolutely. It's been a

0:26 whirlwind start to the year. Today we've got

0:29 a mix of sobering science about one of

0:31 Jupiter' moons. Exciting updates on the next

0:34 human trip to the moon, a surprising

0:36 JWST discovery, gorgeous

0:39 views from Mars, a sky watching heads

0:42 up, and some bittersweet news from NASA

0:44 History. Six great stories.

0:47 Anna: Let's dive into it, starting with a bit of a

0:50 downer for astrobiology fans.

0:52 New research suggests that Europa's

0:55 vast subsurface ocean might be too

0:58 quiet to support life as we know it today.

1:01 Avery: Yeah, this comes from a study just published

1:04 in Nature Communications. Europa, that

1:06 cracked ice moon of Jupiter, has this global

1:09 ocean deeper than anything on Earth.

1:12 Maybe 100 kilometers deep under a

1:15 15 to 25 kilometer thick ice shell.

1:18 More water than all our oceans combined. But

1:21 the key question is energy. Life needs not

1:24 just water and organics, but a source of

1:26 chemical energy.

1:28 Anna: Exactly. On Earth, a lot of that comes

1:31 from hydrothermal vents on the seafloor.

1:33 Hot mineral rich fluids fueling

1:36 ecosystems. But the models here, based

1:39 on Europa's size, composition and

1:41 tidal heating from Jupiter, show the

1:44 seafloor is likely inactive. No

1:47 tectonic plates moving, no fresh

1:49 fractures, no active volcanoes or hot

1:52 plumes. The rocky core cooled billions

1:55 of years ago. And tidal forces aren't strong

1:58 enough to keep things churn like they do on

2:00 IO.

2:01 Avery: Lead researcher Paul Byrne put it bluntly,

2:04 the energy just doesn't seem to be there to

2:07 support life. At least today. If we sent

2:10 a submersible down there, we'd probably see a

2:12 still, quiet bottom. Nothing geologically

2:15 exciting. It's a reminder that habitability

2:18 needs that dynamic interplay, not just the

2:21 big ocean.

2:22 Anna: Still, it's today. Maybe early

2:25 Europa was more active. And missions like

2:27 Europa, uh, Clipper launching soon will give

2:30 us better data on plan plumes and surface

2:32 chemistry. Fingers crossed for some

2:34 surprises.

2:36 Avery: Definitely. Europa keeps us hooked.

2:38 Anna: Shifting to human exploration, the

2:41 historic Artemis 2 mission, the first

2:44 crewed flight around the moon in over 50

2:46 years, could be just a month away now.

2:50 Avery: As of early January, NASA is eyeing

2:52 February 6, 2026 for launch,

2:55 though nothing's locked in yet. The SLS

2:58 rocket and Orion capsule are stacked in the

3:00 vehicle assembly building at Kennedy Space

3:02 center with rollout to the pad expected in

3:05 the next couple weeks. Then comes final

3:07 checks, integration and the wet dress

3:10 rehearsal.

3:11 Anna: The crew is awesome. NASA astronauts

3:14 Reid Wiseman as commander Victor Glover,

3:17 pilot Christina Koch, mission specialist

3:20 and Jeremy Hansen from Canada. They'll do

3:23 a free return trajectory around the moon,

3:25 testing life support, navigation, everything

3:28 from deep space with humans aboard. Since

3:31 Apollo 17, delays came from

3:34 heat.

3:34 Avery: Shield issues on Artemis 1, but NASA's fixed

3:37 staff for crew safety. It's thrilling. We're

3:39 so close to seeing humans back in lunar

3:41 space. And it sets up the whole Artemis

3:44 program for landings and bases.

3:46 Anna: I can't wait to watch that launch livestream.

3:49 Goosebumps.

3:50 Already thinking about it next.

3:52 Avery: The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted

3:55 something unexpected in a galaxy that's like

3:57 a window into the early universe.

4:00 Anna: This is Sextance A a dwarf

4:02 galaxy with super low metallicity. Just

4:05 3 to 7% of the sun's heavy

4:08 elements. It's an analog for galaxies

4:11 shortly after the Big Bang when everything

4:13 was mostly hydrogen and helium.

4:16 Avery: Normally we'd expect almost no dust there.

4:19 Dust needs those heavier elements like

4:21 silicon or magnesium to form silicates.

4:24 But JWST found two rare

4:27 types metallic iron dust grains and

4:30 silicon carbide. Stars, especially

4:33 aging asymptotic giant branch ones, are

4:35 forging peas via alternative chemistry

4:37 pathways, even with scarce ingredients.

4:40 Anna: They also detected polycyclic

4:43 aromatic hydrocarbons, complex

4:46 carbon molecules in tiny dense

4:48 pockets. That's the lowest metallicity

4:51 place we've seen. Pahs it

4:54 means early galaxies were dustier and more

4:57 inventive than models predicted. Building

5:00 planet forming materials way sooner.

5:03 Avery: Huge implications. Dust helps cool gas

5:06 for star formation, absorbs light and

5:09 seeds rocky planets. This reshapes how we

5:11 think high redshift galaxies evolved, maybe

5:14 more building blocks for world like ours

5:17 earlier than thought.

5:18 Anna: JWST just keeps rewriting the

5:21 textbooks.

5:22 Avery: From deep space to Mars, Curiosity rover

5:25 has sent back a stunning new panorama from

5:27 high up on Mount Sharp.

5:29 Anna: This composite was taken in November

5:31 2025 from a ridge in Gale

5:34 Crater, combining shots from afternoon and

5:37 morning. Mars. Time to capture changing

5:39 light. It looks north across this

5:42 intricate boxwork formation. Networks of

5:45 mineral ridges hardened by ancient

5:47 groundwater billions of years ago. Now

5:50 exposed by wind.

5:52 Avery: You can see the rover's wheel track snaking

5:54 behind a drill site called Valley de la

5:56 Luna. The slopes dropping to the crater floor

5:59 and the rim 25 miles away. On the horizon,

6:02 Mount Sharp itself towers three miles high.

6:05 Curiosity's been climbing it since 2012,

6:08 layer by layer, reading Mars's climate

6:10 history.

6:11 Anna: These veins and sediments tell of wetter

6:14 times, possible habitability, then

6:17 drying out. Recent drills, like at

6:19 Nevado Sahama are analyzing chemistry

6:22 to piece together water flow. Plus, the

6:25 rover's using Smarter Autonomy now for

6:27 multitasking. Thirteen years in and

6:30 still going strong.

6:32 Avery: Those views never get old. Makes you feel

6:34 like you're there on the red dust.

6:36 Anna: For sky watchers, there's some intriguing

6:38 buzz about a truly rare astronomical event

6:41 coming up in 2026, though

6:43 unfortunately, it's highly likely astronomers

6:46 won't be able to watch it in real time, even

6:48 though they know it's coming.

6:50 Avery: Yeah, this one's a bit different from the

6:52 usual planetary parades in our solar system.

6:55 The story is about a predicted

6:57 exosity that's a syzygy,

7:00 or alignment of three bodies. But in an

7:02 extrasolar system specifically,

7:05 two known exoplanets in a distant system

7:08 are expected to simultaneously transit across

7:11 the face of their host star as seen from

7:13 Earth.

7:13 Anna: The event is forecasted for around April

7:16 1, 2026, based on orbital models

7:19 refined from past data. It's only the second

7:22 such double exoplanet transit ever predicted.

7:25 The first One, back in 2010, was actually

7:27 discovered retrospectively in archival data

7:30 NASA's Kepler mission. That one was missed in

7:33 real time, and sadly, this 2026

7:36 event might suffer.

7:37 Avery: The same fate Exactly. Lead

7:40 researcher Teriyuki Hirano has noted that

7:42 while calculations suggest a good chance

7:45 it'll happen, it depends on factors like the

7:47 planet's exact masses, gravitational

7:50 interactions, and whether there's an unseen

7:52 outer planet tugging on the system. But the

7:55 bigger issue is observation time. Major

7:58 telescopes and space missions have tightly

8:00 scheduled queues, and without pre allocated

8:03 slots, astronomers likely won't get the

8:05 continuous coverage needed to watch the

8:07 transits unfold live.

8:09 Anna: As Hirano put it, I hope to observe, but

8:12 I am not sure that I can get an observing

8:14 time with an appropriate telescope for the

8:16 whole event. Real time data would be gold.

8:19 It could reveal transit timing variations

8:22 showing how the planets gravitationally

8:24 influence each other, or even hint at

8:26 additional unseen worlds.

8:29 Avery: Scientifically, these rare double transits

8:32 are huge for understanding multiplanet

8:34 systems, refining orbits, measuring masses

8:37 more precisely, and probing dynamics similar

8:40 to how Jupiter and Saturn interact here.

8:42 But since the host star is faint and far

8:45 away, it's strictly professional telescope

8:47 territory, no naked eye or amateur viewing

8:50 possible.

8:51 Anna: So while it's an exciting milestone for

8:54 exoplanet science, it's a reminder of how

8:56 telescope time is one of the most precious

8:59 resources in astronomy. We'll have to wait

9:01 for the data analysis afterward to learn what

9:03 happened. In the meantime, there are plenty

9:06 of visible solar system alignments to enjoy

9:08 throughout 2026. Like that tight trio of

9:11 Mercury, Mars and Saturn on April 20th in the

9:14 morning sky, or the brighter conjunctions

9:16 with Venus and Jupiter later in the year.

9:19 Avery: Definitely keep an eye on those for some

9:21 great naked eye or binocular views. The

9:24 universe has events for every level of

9:26 observer. Finally, a, uh, touch of nostalgia.

9:29 NASA's preparing to demolish three historic

9:32 test facilities at Marshall Space Flight

9:34 center in Alabama.

9:35 Anna: These are real icons. The Neutral

9:38 Buoyancy Simulator, a massive pool from the

9:41 1960s for weightless training used for

9:44 Hubble repairs and shuttle hardware. The

9:46 Propulsion and Structural Test Facility, or t

9:49 Tower from 1957 tested

9:52 Redstone, Saturn and shuttle boosters.

9:55 And the Dynamic Test Facility, tallest in

9:58 north Alabama when built in 1964

10:01 shook.

10:02 Avery: Saturn V and shuttle elements,

10:04 all national landmarks since 1985.

10:07 Key to Apollo, Skylab and Shuttle,

10:10 but they're inactive, unsafe and costly to

10:13 maintain. Demolition starts with implosions,

10:16 possibly as soon as January 10th. Part of

10:19 clearing 25 old structures to modernize for

10:22 Artemis.

10:23 Anna: Bittersweet, but NASA's preserving the

10:25 legacy. High res digital models,

10:28 artifacts to museums, virtual tours.

10:31 End of an era making way for the next.

10:34 Avery: Yeah, progress often means saying goodbye to

10:36 the past.

10:37 Anna: What a thoughtful mix today. Quiet oceans,

10:40 upcoming moonshots, dusty early

10:43 galaxies, Martian vistas, sky

10:46 events.

10:46 Avery: And honoring history, the cosmos and

10:49 our exploration of it. Always evolving.

10:52 Thanks for spending your time with us on

10:53 Astronomy Daily.

10:54 Anna: We love bringing these stories to you.

10:57 Subscribe if you haven't, share with a friend

10:59 and we'll be back tomorrow.

11:01 Avery: Until then, keep wondering and looking up.

11:03 Anna: Clear skies, everyone.