Solar Storms, Stellar Family Trees, and Our Interstellar Visitor

0:00 Avery: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, the podcast

0:03 that brings the cosmos down to Earth. I'm

0:05 avery. Give us 10 minutes and we'll give you

0:08 the universe.

0:10 Anna: And I'm Anna. And in the show today, Avery,

0:13 we've got everything from missions to Mars

0:16 facing off with solar storms to a, uh,

0:18 historic first glimpse of space weather on

0:21 a distant star.

0:24 Avery: It's going to be a journey. We'll also be

0:27 updating you on our interstellar visitor and

0:30 uncovering the hidden family history. One of

0:32 the most famous star clusters in our night

0:34 sky. So let's get right into it.

0:37 First up, Blue Origin's big day at the launch

0:39 pad has been eventful.

0:43 Anna: That's one way to put it. They're trying to

0:46 get their new Glenn rocket off the ground.

0:48 Carrying a pretty important payload for NASA.

0:51 Avery: Exactly. This isn't just any launch. It's

0:54 carrying the two Escapade mission satellites

0:56 which are headed to Mars to study its

0:59 magnetosphere. This is a huge deal for Blue

1:02 Origin. It's their first major science

1:04 mission for a paying customer. And that

1:06 customer is NASA.

1:08 Anna: No small amount of pressure, then?

1:10 Avery: None at all. But the universe had other

1:13 plans. First, they were delayed by cloudy

1:16 skies, which is pretty standard. But then

1:18 they got hit by the fallout from that recent

1:21 really severe geomagnetic storm.

1:24 Anna: Right. And that storm was a story in itself.

1:27 It was responsible for those incredible

1:30 auroras that were seen as far south as Texas

1:32 and Florida. A beautiful but powerful remote

1:35 reminder of the sun's influence.

1:37 Avery: It really was. And there's a certain irony

1:40 in a mission designed to study space weather

1:42 on, uh, Mars being delayed by space weather

1:45 here on Earth.

1:46 Anna: There absolutely is. Once they get there,

1:49 though, the Escapade satellites have a

1:51 fascinating job. They're going to orbit Mars

1:54 and study how solar particles, the solar

1:57 wind, interact with what's left of Mars's

1:59 magnetic field. The goal is to better

2:02 understand how Mars lost most of its

2:04 atmosphere over billions of years.

2:07 Avery: Mm mhm. A planetary autopsy of sorts.

2:10 So we're wishing them clear skies and calm

2:12 space weather for their next attempt.

2:15 But speaking of that geomagnetic storm,

2:18 it was caused by some seriously intense

2:20 activity from our star.

2:22 Anna: That's our next big story. Just recently,

2:25 the sun unleashed the most powerful solar

2:28 flare we've seen. In 2025, it was

2:30 categorized as an X 5.1 class

2:33 flare. Wow.

2:35 Avery: For our listeners, X class flares are the

2:38 biggest category, and X 5.1 is

2:41 a monster. That's the most intense flare

2:43 since back in October 2024.

2:46 Anna: It is. And it had immediate effects here on

2:49 Earth. The Blast of radiation caused

2:51 significant radio blackouts across Africa and

2:54 Europe on the sun facing side of the planet.

2:57 Avery: So that affects things like high frequency

3:00 radio communications used by airlines and

3:02 mariners, right?

3:04 Anna: Precisely. The bigger concern now is whether

3:07 a coronal mass ejection or cme

3:10 was associated with the flare and is heading

3:12 our way. NOAA is keeping a close watch.

3:15 If a significant CME does impact Earth,

3:18 they might issue a, ah, G4 geomagnetic storm

3:21 watch.

3:22 Avery: And the G4 is serious business. We're not

3:25 just talking about pretty auroras then that

3:27 can cause widespread problems with electrical

3:29 grids and communication satellites.

3:31 Anna: Exactly. It's a powerful reminder that we

3:34 live in the atmosphere of a very active star.

3:37 But what's really amazing is that we're now

3:39 able to see this kind of weather happening on

3:41 other stars too.

3:42 Avery: That's right. So while on the subject of

3:45 cmes, it's not just here in our

3:47 backyard.

3:48 This next story is a groundbreaking one.

3:51 For the very first time, astronomers have

3:54 directly observed a coronal mass

3:57 ejection from a star that isn't our Sun.

4:00 Anna: It's just incredible. We've theorized it

4:02 happens, but do to actually see it is a huge

4:05 leap. So what did they see?

4:07 Avery: They were looking at a red dwarf star, which

4:09 is about 40 light years away. They used two

4:12 different observatories, the XMM M M Newton

4:15 Space Observatory to watch for the initial

4:17 flare in X rays, and then the LOFAR

4:20 radio telescope to detect the blob of ejected

4:22 material.

4:23 Anna: Mhm. So they caught the flash and

4:26 then the cannonball, so to speak.

4:28 Avery: That's a great way to describe it. And this

4:31 isn't just a cool astronomical first.

4:33 It has major implications, implications for

4:36 the search for extraterrestrial life.

4:38 Anna: Because red dwarfs are the most common type

4:40 of star, and we've found many

4:43 exoplanets orbiting them, um, in the

4:45 habitable zone.

4:46 Avery: Exactly. But red dwarfs are also known for

4:49 being extremely volatile, especially when

4:52 they're young. If they are constantly

4:54 blasting their orbiting planets with these

4:56 powerful CMEs, it could strip away their

4:59 atmospheres and make them completely

5:01 uninhabitable, even if they're at the right

5:03 temperature for liquid water.

5:05 Anna: So finding life might be less about the

5:07 address and more about how stormy the

5:10 neighborhood is. It really refines our

5:13 search.

5:14 Avery: It certainly does. And it's not just

5:17 energy reaching us from other star systems.

5:20 Sometimes we get physical visitors.

5:22 Anna: Let's talk about our latest interstelli

5:25 guest, Comet 3I Atlas.

5:28 A new image has come in, and it's looking

5:30 more spectacular than ever.

5:32 Avery: This is only the Third confirmed interstellar

5:35 object we've ever detected. Right after the

5:37 mysterious Oumuamua and the more

5:40 comet like Borisov.

5:42 Anna: That's right. And this new image shows that

5:44 its ion tail has grown significantly

5:47 longer and has much more defined structure.

5:50 It's really starting to put on a show.

5:52 Avery: And that, uh, growing tail means it's

5:54 becoming more active.

5:55 Anna: Exactly. As it gets closer to our sun,

5:58 it's heating up. This causes volatile

6:01 materials on its surface, things like frozen

6:04 carbon dioxide to sublimate, turning

6:07 directly from a solid ice into a gas.

6:10 That gas and dust is what creates the tail we

6:13 see, which gives us.

6:15 Avery: A chance to study its composition.

6:17 Anna: Mhm. By analyzing the light from that tail,

6:20 we can figure out what it's made of. This is

6:23 an incredibly rare opportunity. It's like

6:26 getting a sample delivered directly from a

6:28 distant, unknown planetary system,

6:31 telling us about the conditions where it

6:33 formed millions or billions of years ago.

6:36 A, uh, true cosmic time capsule.

6:38 Avery: From a single visitor from afar to a

6:41 massive family reunion right in our own

6:44 backyard.

6:45 Our last story today completely reframes

6:48 one of the most recognizable patterns in the

6:50 night sky.

6:51 Anna: You're talking about the Pleiades. The seven

6:54 Sisters?

6:55 Avery: I am. But it turns out that famous,

6:58 tightly packed little cluster is just the

7:01 bright, shiny core of something immensely

7:03 bigger. Researchers have discovered what

7:06 they're calling the Greater Pleiades Complex.

7:09 Anna: That sounds impressive. How much greater are

7:12 we talking?

7:13 Avery: It's staggering. This stellar network

7:16 stretches 2,000 light years across.

7:19 It contains thousands of stars that were all

7:21 born from the same stellar Nursery about

7:24 120 million years ago, along

7:27 with the main Pleiades cluster.

7:29 Anna: So how did they find them? These sibling

7:32 stars are scattered all across the sky.

7:34 Avery: Now, it was some brilliant detective work.

7:37 They combined massive Data sets from three

7:40 sources. NASA's Tess, ESA's

7:42 Gaia, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

7:46 Gaia tracked stellar motion with incredible

7:49 precision so they could find stars moving in

7:51 the same general direction.

7:53 Anna: Okay, so they're traveling together.

7:56 Avery: Right. Then they used test data to measure

7:59 the star's rotation periods. The speed

8:02 a star spins is a really good indicator of

8:04 its age. Younger stars spin faster.

8:07 This allowed them to find stars that were the

8:09 same age as the Pleiades. And

8:12 finally, they confirmed it by checking their

8:14 chemical composition. Siblings have the

8:17 same stellar DNA, so to speak.

8:20 Anna: That is fascinating. So when we look up at

8:23 the sky, we're not just seeing random points

8:25 of light. We're looking at these vast,

8:28 dispersed families drifting through the

8:30 galaxy.

8:31 Avery: That's the takeaway. It completely changes

8:34 our map of the night sky. And this new

8:37 method could be used to trace the origins of

8:39 other star families. Perhaps one day

8:42 we could find the lost siblings of our own

8:45 sun. Um.

8:45 Anna: What a thought to end on. From solar

8:48 flares affecting us right here to finding

8:51 the Sun's family tree. That's all the time

8:54 we have for today's Astronomy Daily.

8:57 Avery: We covered a lot of ground and a lot of

9:00 space. We hope you enjoyed the journey. Join

9:02 us next time as we continue to explore the

9:05 latest news from across the universe. I'm

9:07 Avery.

9:08 Anna: And I'm Anna. Thanks for listening, Clear

9:11 skies. And of course, keep looking

9:14 up.