Six Planets Tonight — And a Galaxy-Sized Mystery Solved ⭐

0:00 Speaker 1: Tonight, the night sky puts on a show. The Moon

0:03 Speaker 1: has a date with Jupiter, and six planets are lined

0:06 Speaker 1: up for your viewing pleasure. This is Astronomy Daily. I'm

0:10 Speaker 1: Avery and I'm Anna, Season five, episode forty nine, Thursday,

0:14 Speaker 1: the twenty sixth of February twenty twenty six. Lots to

0:18 Speaker 1: get through today, so let's go.

0:20 Speaker 2: If you've been watching the western sky after sunset this week,

0:23 Speaker 2: you may have noticed something spectacular building. Six of the

0:27 Speaker 2: Solar System's planets are above the horizon simultaneously right now,

0:32 Speaker 2: and tonight is the visual highlight.

0:35 Speaker 1: We've also got a deep dive into some extraordinary new

0:38 Speaker 1: findings about our galaxy's magnetic field, a quick update on

0:42 Speaker 1: Artemis two, the identity of the astronaut at the center

0:45 Speaker 1: of last month's historic ISS medical story, and a brief

0:50 Speaker 1: heads up on a scrubbed military hypersonic launch that we'd

0:53 Speaker 1: been previewing earlier in the week.

0:55 Speaker 2: Big show, let's get into it.

0:57 Speaker 1: So, Avery, I know you've been watching this planet parade

1:00 Speaker 1: build all week, and tonight is the moment we've been

1:03 Speaker 1: waiting for.

1:04 Speaker 2: It really is. As darkness falls this evening, if you

1:07 Speaker 2: head outside and look west, you'll see the Moon sitting

1:11 Speaker 2: right next to Jupiter. It's a stunning pairing, and it's

1:14 Speaker 2: the centerpiece of a six planet alignment that's been building

1:18 Speaker 2: throughout February.

1:19 Speaker 1: Let's break this down. Fix planets above the horizon at once, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,

1:28 Speaker 1: and Neptune. How does that work? Exactly?

1:31 Speaker 2: The planets orbit the Sun and roughly the same flat plane,

1:34 Speaker 2: the Ecliptic, so from Earth they always appear in a

1:37 Speaker 2: band across the sky. When they spread out enough that

1:40 Speaker 2: several are visible simultaneously, we get what astronomers call a

1:44 Speaker 2: planet parade or alignment. Right now, they're nicely spaced across

1:48 Speaker 2: that band.

1:49 Speaker 1: Now, I want to be honest with listeners here, because

1:52 Speaker 1: not all six planets are easy to spot. Some are

1:56 Speaker 1: quite the challenge.

1:57 Speaker 2: Absolutely right, Jupiter is by far the star of the

2:01 Speaker 2: show tonight, pun intended. It's high in the western sky

2:04 Speaker 2: after sunset, unmistakably bright and sitting just below the waxing,

2:08 Speaker 2: gibbous Moon. If you only look once this week, look tonight,

2:12 Speaker 2: look for the Moon, and that blazing point of light

2:15 Speaker 2: right beside it is Jupiter.

2:17 Speaker 1: What about the others?

2:18 Speaker 2: Saturn, and Mercury are visible, but low on the western horizon.

2:22 Speaker 2: And I mean low, they said, not long after the sun,

2:25 Speaker 2: so you've got a fairly tight window. Venus is actually

2:29 Speaker 2: dimmer than you'd expect right now because it's also sitting

2:32 Speaker 2: low in the twilight glare. Urinus needs binoculars, and Neptune

2:37 Speaker 2: really requires a telescope, and you'll need to wait until

2:40 Speaker 2: the Sun is fully below the horizon before even attempting

2:43 Speaker 2: that one.

2:44 Speaker 1: So Jupiter and the Moon for casual observers, extra kit

2:48 Speaker 1: for the dedicated stargazer, exactly.

2:51 Speaker 2: And here's something that keeping your diary. We're one week

2:53 Speaker 2: away from the full moon on March third, and this

2:56 Speaker 2: isn't just any full moon. It's a total lunaric LIL,

3:00 Speaker 2: which means we're heading into a blood moon. We'll have

3:03 Speaker 2: full coverage of that next.

3:04 Speaker 1: Week, something to really look forward to. So tonight, get outside,

3:09 Speaker 1: find the Moon and say hello to Jupiter right beside it. Beautiful.

3:14 Speaker 2: Now to the heart of our galaxy. Astronomers using the

3:17 Speaker 2: world's largest radio telescope array have peered deeper into the

3:21 Speaker 2: Milky Way's central molecular zone than ever before, and what

3:26 Speaker 2: they found is extraordinary.

3:28 Speaker 1: The region around Sagittarius, a star. Our galaxy's super massive

3:32 Speaker 1: black hole at the very center is a violent, turbulent environment,

3:37 Speaker 1: and new observations have revealed hidden chemistry swirling through that chaos.

3:42 Speaker 2: What the researchers have done is essentially map the complex

3:46 Speaker 2: molecules in the cloud of gas and dust that surround

3:49 Speaker 2: Sagittarius astar at a level of detail that wasn't previously possible.

3:54 Speaker 2: They're finding chemical signatures that challenge how we've thought about

3:58 Speaker 2: that region of the galaxy.

3:59 Speaker 1: When the lead researchers describe this as just the beginning,

4:03 Speaker 1: that's telling, isn't it. That phrase usually means they've opened

4:07 Speaker 1: a door rather than closed one.

4:09 Speaker 2: Precisely, this is a proof of concept for a new

4:12 Speaker 2: era of galactic center observations. As the arraysed capabilities continue

4:16 Speaker 2: to improve, the resolution and sensitivity will only get better.

4:21 Speaker 2: We're talking about unlocking processes at the very engine room

4:24 Speaker 2: of our galaxy, how molecules form in extreme environments, how

4:28 Speaker 2: the black holes, radiation and gravity shape the surrounding chemistry.

4:33 Speaker 1: And it all feeds into the bigger question of how

4:36 Speaker 1: galaxies like ours evolve over cosmic time.

4:39 Speaker 2: Exactly right, it's one of those stories where the science

4:42 Speaker 2: is genuinely exciting right now, but the best discoveries are

4:45 Speaker 2: still ahead of us.

4:47 Speaker 1: As we've been reporting throughout the week, NASA's Artemis two

4:50 Speaker 1: Space launch System rocket has now been rolled back from

4:53 Speaker 1: launch Pad thirty nine B to the Vehicle assembly building.

4:56 Speaker 2: The Crawler transporter made the journey on Tuesday, a spectacle

5:00 Speaker 2: haular but somewhat sobering sight that six point six million

5:04 Speaker 2: pound vehicle hauling a rocket that was supposed to be

5:07 Speaker 2: heading for the Moon.

5:09 Speaker 1: The issue is with the upper stage, and engineers now

5:12 Speaker 1: need to diagnose and repair whatever's causing the problem in

5:15 Speaker 1: the controlled environment of the VAB rather than on the pad.

5:19 Speaker 1: The current expectation is that the earliest realistic launch opportunity

5:23 Speaker 1: is now early April.

5:25 Speaker 2: Interestingly, President Trump gave a State of the Union address

5:28 Speaker 2: on Monday and gave a shout out to the Space Force,

5:31 Speaker 2: calling it and I quote, my baby, but notably didn't

5:35 Speaker 2: mention the Artemis two crew by name.

5:38 Speaker 1: Make of that what you will. We'll continue to follow

5:40 Speaker 1: this as it develops, but for now, no moonshot in March.

5:44 Speaker 2: Now to a story that first broke last month and

5:47 Speaker 2: which has just had a significant new development. NASA has

5:50 Speaker 2: now identified the astronaut at the center of the first

5:53 Speaker 2: ever medical evacuation from the International Space Station.

5:57 Speaker 1: To recap for anyone who missed the original story, in January,

6:00 Speaker 1: Space Excess Crew eleven mission returned to Earth early. One

6:04 Speaker 1: member of that crew had experienced a medical issue serious

6:07 Speaker 1: enough to warrant cutting the mission short and bringing the

6:10 Speaker 1: entire crew home.

6:12 Speaker 2: That was unprecedented in the entire history of the ISS.

6:16 Speaker 2: We'd never had a medical evacuation at that level before.

6:20 Speaker 1: NASA has now shed more light on what happened, specifically

6:23 Speaker 1: at the request of the astronaut involved, who wanted their

6:26 Speaker 1: identity made public. The crew of Crew eleven included NASA

6:30 Speaker 1: astronauts Mike Fink and Xena Cardman, Jackson astronaut Kmiya Yui,

6:34 Speaker 1: and Ross Cosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platinoff. It turns out it

6:38 Speaker 1: was Mike Fink who needed the medical help. It was

6:41 Speaker 1: explained that he needed some more imaging scans performed, which

6:44 Speaker 1: just couldn't be done with the equipment on board the

6:46 Speaker 1: ISS SO home they came, However, the nature of his

6:50 Speaker 1: ailment still hasn't been revealed.

6:52 Speaker 2: The details emerging give the medical community and space agencies

6:56 Speaker 2: important data for future long duration mission planning. It raises

7:01 Speaker 2: real questions about how we handle health crises in orbit,

7:04 Speaker 2: what protocols are in place, and how they might need

7:06 Speaker 2: to evolve, especially as missions eventually go beyond Low Earth orbit.

7:11 Speaker 1: A deeply human story alongside all the engineering and science.

7:15 Speaker 1: Will link to the full NASA disclosure in the show notes.

7:18 Speaker 2: Right and now for what might be my favorite story

7:21 Speaker 2: of the episode, And honestly, it's one of those pieces

7:24 Speaker 2: of research that just makes you stop and think about

7:26 Speaker 2: how strange and wonderful our galaxy is.

7:29 Speaker 1: Tell me everything.

7:31 Speaker 2: So, a team led by doctor joe Anne Brown at

7:33 Speaker 2: the University of Calgary has produced the most detailed map

7:37 Speaker 2: yet of the Milky Ways magnetic field, and what they

7:40 Speaker 2: found has fundamentally surprised them.

7:43 Speaker 1: Let's back up a second. How do you even map

7:46 Speaker 1: a magnetic field across a galaxy?

7:48 Speaker 2: Great question. The technique is called Faraday rotation. When radio

7:54 Speaker 2: waves travel through space, they interact with electrons and magnetic fields,

7:59 Speaker 2: and that interaction causes them to shift slightly. They rotate.

8:04 Speaker 2: Doctor Brown student Rebecca Booth described it brilliantly. Think of

8:08 Speaker 2: a straw in a glass of water looking bent because

8:12 Speaker 2: of refraction. Faraday rotation is the same concept, but it's

8:16 Speaker 2: electrons and magnetic fields benting radio waves instead of light

8:21 Speaker 2: through water.

8:22 Speaker 1: That's a genuinely beautiful analogy.

8:26 Speaker 2: Isn't it. And by carefully measuring how much those radio

8:30 Speaker 2: waves shift, the team can trace the invisible magnetic lines

8:34 Speaker 2: flowing through the galaxy. Now here's the astonishing finding. If

8:38 Speaker 2: you could look at the Milky Way from above, the

8:41 Speaker 2: overall magnetic field runs clockwise, but in the Sagittarius arm,

8:46 Speaker 2: one of our galaxy spiral arms, it runs counterclockwise, a

8:50 Speaker 2: complete reversal.

8:52 Speaker 1: They must have known about that reversal before, though.

8:55 Speaker 2: Right, they knew about the reversal, Yes, what they didn't

8:59 Speaker 2: understand was how the transition happened, how the field switches direction.

9:04 Speaker 2: And this is where the new data delivered a genuine

9:07 Speaker 2: moment of discovery. Doctor Brown describes it perfectly. She says,

9:12 Speaker 2: one day her student Anna brought in the new data,

9:15 Speaker 2: and Brown's reaction was, and I'm quoting here, OMG, the

9:19 Speaker 2: reversal's diagonal.

9:21 Speaker 1: I love that and OMG moment in astrophysics.

9:25 Speaker 2: It's wonderful. The reversal doesn't happen in a flat, clean

9:29 Speaker 2: plane as previously assumed. It runs diagonally through the galaxy

9:34 Speaker 2: in three dimensions. That changes everything about how we model

9:38 Speaker 2: the magnetic structure. The team has now built a new

9:41 Speaker 2: three D model to explain it.

9:43 Speaker 1: And why does it matter? Why does the galaxy's magnetic

9:46 Speaker 1: field matter at all?

9:48 Speaker 2: Well, as doctor Brown puts it, without a magnetic field,

9:52 Speaker 2: the galaxy would collapse in on itself due to gravity.

9:55 Speaker 2: The magnetic field is essentially one of the forces holding

9:59 Speaker 2: the whole structure and balance. Understanding how it's shaped and

10:03 Speaker 2: how it's evolved over billions of years tells us something

10:06 Speaker 2: profound about how galaxies like ours come to exist and persist.

10:11 Speaker 1: Absolutely mind expanding. We'll have the research details and links

10:15 Speaker 1: in the show notes.

10:16 Speaker 2: And finally, a quick update on a launch we'd been

10:19 Speaker 2: previewing earlier in the week. Rocket Lab's Haste suborbital rocket

10:24 Speaker 2: was due to lift off from Wallops Island, Virginia on Tuesday,

10:27 Speaker 2: but the mission was scrubbed due to out of bounds

10:30 Speaker 2: launch commit criteria.

10:32 Speaker 1: No new launch date has been announced yet, but just

10:34 Speaker 1: to give listeners the full picture on what this mission

10:37 Speaker 1: actually is, because it's genuinely fascinating.

10:40 Speaker 2: It really is. The mission is called That's not a knife,

10:44 Speaker 2: and yes, that is a deliberate crocodile done d reference

10:47 Speaker 2: and it's carrying a scramjet powered hypersonic demonstrator called dart AE,

10:53 Speaker 2: built by the Australian company Hypersonics.

10:56 Speaker 1: A scramjet being the key technology here.

10:59 Speaker 2: Exactly a scramjet supersonic combustion ramjet ingests air flowing through

11:05 Speaker 2: it faster than the speed of sound and burns fuel

11:08 Speaker 2: in that airstream. What makes hypersonics version particularly interesting is

11:13 Speaker 2: that it runs on hydrogen rather than kerosene, making it

11:17 Speaker 2: essentially zero carbon dioxide emissions at hypersonic speeds. The dart

11:21 Speaker 2: AE is designed to validate advanced propulsion materials and guidance

11:26 Speaker 2: systems for the US Defense Innovation.

11:29 Speaker 1: Unit, and HASTE itself is Rocket Labs workhorse electron rocket

11:33 Speaker 1: adapted for suborbital hypersonic testing.

11:37 Speaker 2: Correct, this would have been the seventh HASTE flight. The

11:40 Speaker 2: mission will fly, just not this week. We'll update you

11:44 Speaker 2: when a new data is confirmed.

11:45 Speaker 1: That's everything for Series five, episode forty nine. An enormous

11:50 Speaker 1: thank you for joining us today.

11:52 Speaker 2: Lots to look at both in the sky and in

11:54 Speaker 2: the science. Don't forget Moon and Jupiter tonight, get outside

11:58 Speaker 2: if you can.

11:59 Speaker 1: You enjoyed today's episode, please do subscribe, leave us a review,

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12:20 Speaker 2: We'll be back tomorrow with more from the universe.

12:23 Speaker 1: Until then, keep looking up blear skies everyone, Sunny

12:27 Speaker 2: Day, star Starz