Space News Today

Friday SpaceTime 20261023 Series 29 Episode 127 NASA’s Perseverance Rover sets a new record NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover has just set a new record for travelling the greatest distance ever achieved on another world. NASA’s SunRISE mission to launch next year NASA has confirmed that its SunRISE heliophysics Mission will launch no earlier than the middle of next year using six satellites to study the Sun’s corona. Adelaide stem cell experiment reaches space Human stem cells from Adelaide University's Center for Cancer Biology have successfully travelled to the edge of space and back as part of a landmark mission for Australian cancer research. The Science Report New research suggests cannabis might make you feel sleepy, but leads to worse sleep quality. A new study claims holding poses like squats or planks can lower blood pressure. A new strategy to design a vaccine for the cancers decimating Tasmanian devil populations. Archaeologists are working on what may be the world’s oldest shipwreck. Skeptics guide…

Sponsor Link: This episode of Space Nuts is brought to you by NordVPN . Protect your online privacy today by visiting www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts (https://www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts) for an exclusive offer! Space Nuts: NASA's Starliner, Retrograde Exoplanets, and the Square Kilometre Array In this thought-provoking episode of Space Nuts , hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson delve into some of the latest developments in space exploration. They kick off with NASA's recent decision to stick with Boeing's Starliner for additional crewed missions, despite its rocky history. The conversation then shifts to the intriguing discovery of the exoplanet GJ 3090B, which is orbiting its star in the opposite direction, raising questions about planet formation and dynamics. Finally, they explore the innovative designs behind the Square Kilometre Array, examining how nature-inspired layouts may enhance its functionality while addressing technical challenges. Join Andrew and Fred Watson as they unravel these cosmic…

Show notes The Milky Way's disc settled in two stages; metal-rich gas around Sgr A*; two mirror-image simulated universes; shadows in the Orion Bar; quick hits on Hera, Uzbekistan and Artemis; Orionid-night skywatch. Sources · IAC — Milky Way's disc formed in two very distinct stages — https://www.iac.es/en/outreach/news/research-iac-reveals-milky-ways-disc-formed-two-very-distinct-stages · Mirabal et al. — ApJL 1010 L38 — https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aeb0a3 · McGill — Gas around Milky Way's central black hole is rich in metals — https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/gas-around-milky-ways-central-black-hole-rich-metals-study-finds-375101 · Ford et al. — AJ (DOI) — http://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ae994d · Ford et al. — arXiv 2605.13995 — https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.13995 · Argonne — Aurora powers two of the largest cosmological simulations — https://www.anl.gov/article/argonnes-aurora-supercomputer-powers-two-of-the-largest-cosmological-simulations-to-date · UDE — New 3D model reveals hidden…

Wednesday SpaceTime 20261021 Series 29 Episode 126 The first star in the universe that glows ghostly green Astronomers have discovered the first star in the universe that glows ghostly green. The star is a white dwarf located some 284 light-years away. A major upgrade for gravitational wave detection The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory LIGO, is undergoing a major upgrade with the application of a new Australian optical coating for their beam splitters. A new era of nuclear-powered space exploration NASA’s Artemis program to return people to the Moon and eventually onto Mars has moved a step closer to a nuclear powered future. The Science Report Claims playing your favourite music can lessen the amount of pain you experience. Boeing to build the US Navy’s new F/A-XX multirole strike fighter jets. A new species of meat-eating dinosaur identified from fossils in a UK museum. Archaeologists unearth a 2,000-year-old section of aqueduct in Jerusalem. Alex on Tech has AI achieved consciousness –…

Show notes The Moon Is Still Shrinking Watters, Banks, Nypaver and Robinson (Planetary Science Journal, 14 Oct 2026) map more than 10,000 young thrust faults — ~8,900 lobate scarps and 2,000+ small mare ridges — with LRO's camera. Together they record about 42–46 m of radial contraction over the last ~400–800 million years, at most ~11 cm per million years. That's less than thermal models predict, pointing to a thick, porous, insulating megaregolith (or a strong elastic lithosphere) that delayed faulting. The ~4 MPa stress matches Apollo shallow-moonquake stress drops, so faults may still be growing today — relevant to siting lunar bases. A Soil Map for Mars University of Sydney PhD student Daniel Irving and Prof. Alex McBratney (Catena 275) classify almost 800 million Martian locations into 10 realms, 100 assemblages and 2,000 forms of 'areths', mapping 92% of the planet. Top candidate for plant growth, Nohibareth (score 0.93; ~72% clay, pH 6.8), covers 0.14% of the surface around Tharsis, Arabia Terra and…

MMX: A Round Trip to Phobos JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration mission launched on schedule on H3 Flight No. 10 at 04:41:03 JST on 20 October 2026 (19:41 UTC 19 Oct; 06:41 AEDT Tue; 15:41 EDT / 12:41 PDT / 20:41 BST Mon). Mars orbit August 2027, Phobos quasi-satellite orbit from September 2027, Idefix rover (CNES/DLR) release early 2029, landing and sampling 2030, and at least 10 g of Phobos returned in 2031 to South Australia. Eleven science instruments including NASA's MEGANE. The aim: settle whether Phobos and Deimos are captured asteroids or debris from a giant impact on Mars. Half a Giant Mirror ESO reports that nearly 500 of the ELT's primary-mirror segments are now at Paranal — more than half of the 931 being made (798 plus 133 spares for continual recoating). Safran Reosc is finishing a segment a day and the last one is in production. The ELT is more than 75% complete, with first observations with scientific instruments planned for late 2030. The Window That Closes Carr, Cen and colleagues (Nature…

Sponsor Link: This episode of Space Nuts is brought to you by NordVPN . Protect your online privacy today by visiting www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts (https://www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts) for an exclusive offer! Space Nuts: The Oort Cloud, Dwarf Planets, and Innovative Lander Designs In this enlightening Q&A episode of Space Nuts , hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson tackle a series of thought-provoking questions from listeners. Kicking off with Gerwin from Wales, they delve into the mysteries of the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt, discussing the potential mass of these distant regions and their influence on our solar system. Bob from Utah presents a unique perspective on dwarf planets, sparking a lively debate on definitions and classifications. Shumo from Oxford challenges the design of lunar landers, proposing a more insect-like approach to enhance stability on uneven terrain. Finally, Steve from the UK poses a fascinating hypothetical about gathering historical scientific greats to solve modern mysteries…

Monday SpaceTime 20261019 Series 29 Episode 125 Sample return mission to the Martian moon Phobos Japan’s Martian Moons eXploration mission is slated to launch today on the first ever sample return mission to the red planet’s largest moon Phobos. The solar system’s life expectancy is far shorter than previously thought A new study warns that the solar system will end much sooner than previously thought thanks to massive gravitational perturbations and resonances causing the planet’s orbits to destabilize as the Sun expands. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission launches to International Space Station NASA’s SpaceX crew 13 have arrived aboard the International Space Station just seven hours and 50 minutes after blasting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The Science Report Claims men with deeper voices might seem to be stronger – but not more attractive to women. Fewer 15 year olds are now identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual compared to two years ago. Sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific expected to…

Show notes Time Lets Go of the Sky On 15 October 2026 the 28th General Conference on Weights and Measures in Versailles adopted Resolution 5: UTC becomes continuous on 20 May 2027, ending leap seconds, with the UTC–UT1 gap allowed to reach one hour. The driver: a growing chance (about 30% by 2035) of a first-ever negative leap second. Resolution 6 starts work on an international lunar reference time scale traceable to UTC; Resolution 4 prepares an optical-clock redefinition of the second for 2030. Earth's rotation (UT1) is still measured — by VLBI, with Australia's AuScope dishes part of the network. The Week That Was WISE 0855's changing water clouds (JWST); Hera's 93-minute braking burn; Artemis II's five lunar impact flashes; UCL questions the chemical evidence for hypernovae; the Arsia Mons cloud needs ice from nothing; the first green star. Also: ZTF J0440+2325, Meteor 2-7, Juno's crumpled magnetodisk, WASP-17 b, two planetary families, and new Magellanic Cloud pulsars from the Parkes archive. Skywatch…

Show notes Episode 206 opens with the first results from ALMA's COMPASS survey: the first detection anywhere in interstellar space of fully deuterated methanol, and methanol masers turning up around more than half of a sample of young Sun-like stars. Then the first star that would look green, Magellanic Cloud pulsars recovered from decades-old Parkes data, a supernova caught days old when the universe was 1.2 billion years old, quick hits on Hera, CRS-35 and MMX, and a both-hemispheres skywatch built around the Orionids. Heavy methanol around a newborn star ALMA's COMPASS programme (11 protostars, 100+ hours, seven A&A papers) reports the first interstellar CD3OD around IRAS 4A2 in Perseus (Belloche, MPIfR) and methanol masers in more than half of its low-mass protostars (Jeong, SNU). Deuterium fraction as a formation clock; current models can't reproduce the pattern. The first green star Warwick's Hollands et al. (RASTI) compute white dwarf colours from spectra: WD J1330+6435 comes out chartreuse thanks to…

Space Nuts: Lunar Magnetism, Exoplanet Signals, and the Evolution of Spacecraft Windows In this captivating episode of Space Nuts , hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson dive into a range of fascinating astronomical topics. The episode kicks off with an exploration of lunar magnetism, as they discuss new findings suggesting that the Moon may have once possessed a primordial magnetic field, stemming from solidified magma beneath its surface. The duo then shifts gears to a groundbreaking discovery of radio signals originating from the exoplanet Beta Pictoris B, revealing the presence of auroras on this distant gas giant. Finally, they examine the evolution of spacecraft windows, highlighting the importance of visibility for astronauts and the advancements in window technology over the decades. Join Andrew and Fred Watson as they unravel these cosmic mysteries with their signature blend of humour and insight. Key topics - The Moon's magnetic history and the implications of recent research on its…

Show notes A cloud on Mars that forms only if textbook-theoretical physics really happens; Webb maps a hot Jupiter's edge angle by angle; multi-planet systems turn out to come in two families tied to their stars; and the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy's original disc is rebuilt from its own debris. Plus Hera's first braking burn, the station's final solar arrays, NASA ADS hands over to SciX, and a both-hemispheres skywatch. The Cloud That Shouldn't Exist Every morning in Mars's southern spring and summer, the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud stretches up to 1,800 km from the 20 km volcano and vanishes within the day. A team led by Jorge Hernández-Bernal (LMD/CNRS/Sorbonne Université) could only reproduce it by adding homogeneous nucleation, in which vapour freezes with no dust seed, at supersaturation more than 100,000 times everyday Earth levels. A model result: sufficient, not yet observed directly. Nature Geoscience, 7 October 2026. A Map Around a Hot Jupiter's Edge Using JWST's NIRISS, NIRSpec and MIRI and the…

Friday SpaceTime 20261016 Series 29 Episode 124 Is dark matter real A new study has raised more questions about the existence of a mysterious substance called Dark Matter which is hypothesized to make up some 80 percent of the mass of the universe. The unique supernova remnant with a corpse in its heart Astronomers have discovered that the only known supernova remnant of its kind in the Milky Way galaxy has an unexpectedly intricate structure including chains of gas knots resembling pearls on a string, each wide enough to fit the solar system multiple times. Another clue in the search for life on Mars NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover has discovered nickel rich rocks in Jezero Crater’s Neretva Vallis region providing yet another clue in the search for life on the red planet. The Science Report Night owls are almost twice as likely as early birds to retire early due to poor health. Warnings that the Wilkes Subglacial Basin contains enough ice to raise sea levels by four metres. The magenta solar panels that let…

Show notes Six months after Artemis II swung around the far side of the Moon, NASA has published what the crew saw, said and sketched — including five faint impact flashes spotted during a 54-minute eclipse. Plus: two UCL papers that take apart the chemical evidence for hypernovae, Juno finds Jupiter's magnetodisk crumpled into ripples, and IISc simulations suggest magnetised white dwarfs could grow well past the Chandrasekhar limit. Skywatch: the crescent Moon meets Antares, Mercury and Venus favour the south, Mars leaves the Beehive, and Vesta at opposition. Artemis II Preliminary Lunar Science Report · Crew: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch (NASA) and Jeremy Hansen (CSA); lunar flyby 6 April 2026. · Five extremely faint impact flashes seen from ~74,000 km during a 54-minute eclipse behind the Moon; impactors estimated at no more than ~5 cm. · Crew-reported colours (blue = titanium-rich volcanic rock, brown = iron, green = glass); terminator observations as a proxy for south-pole lighting. ·…

Wednesday SpaceTime 20261014 Series 29 Episode 123 Surfs up on the Saturnian moon Titan A new study suggests lakes and seas on the Saturnian moon Titan could produce a three metre surf under the right conditions. How planet Earth rock and rolls on its axis Ancient sea-level changes have provided new evidence showing that planet Earth experienced episodes of rapid true polar wander during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Scientists have Glueballs Physicists finally discovered the long elusive glueball, a particle made entirely of elemental particles called gluons. The Science Report New warnings about the deadly dangers of daylight saving time. Claims too much exposure to light during the night may be influencing the shape of your heart. Discovery of the first ever Diplodocus dinosaur fossils outside North America. Warnings that people in the early stages of psychosis may be more vulnerable to AI chatbots. Alex on Tech China’s growing robot army. 🌏 Get Our Exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼…

Show notes Hera Hits the Brakes ESA's Hera spotted its target asteroid for the first time last week and fires its first braking burn on Thursday — 93 minutes of thrust to start stopping at Didymos and Dimorphos, the asteroid pair NASA's DART hit in 2022. Plus: Solar Orbiter traces a solar-wind switchback back to the Sun, Gemini North finds chains of giant knots in the remnant of the supernova of 1181, Webb reads the dust of Mars-sized worlds colliding, and Perseverance becomes the farthest-driving vehicle on another world. In the skywatch: the Moon meets Antares, Venus bows out, Mars and Jupiter rule the northern dawn, and the Orionids are a week away. Hera Hits the Brakes Two years after launch, Hera caught its first glimpse of Didymos from about 236,500 km away — a sub-pixel dot. On Thursday 15 October three hydrazine thrusters fire for 93 minutes (BRM-1), taking a few hundred metres per second off its approach speed; BRM-2 (~31 min) follows on 22 October, then three small transition burns. The first…

Sponsor Link: This episode of Space Nuts is brought to you by NordVPN . Protect your online privacy today by visiting www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts (https://www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts) for an exclusive offer! Space Nuts: Fast-Moving Planets, Photon Pressure, and the Nature of Moons In this engaging Q&A episode of Space Nuts , hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson tackle a series of intriguing listener questions. Kicking off with Ron's query about the implications of living on a super fast-moving planet orbiting Sagittarius A*, they delve into the fascinating world of time dilation and its effects on scientific observations. Next, Jeff from Colorado poses a thought-provoking question regarding photon pressure and its potential influence on the universe's expansion, leading to a discussion on dark energy and cosmic mysteries. Brian from the Gold Coast wonders about the visibility of cosmic microwave background radiation behind black holes, while Bob rounds off the episode with a query on the…

The coldest brown dwarf we know has weather. JWST watched water clouds thicken and thin on WISE 0855, a sunless world seven and a half light-years away — plus a star slowly eating a brown dwarf, ten minutes of X-rays after a half-second burst, a Soviet satellite breaking up over Western Australia, NASA's lunar cave hunt, and Mercury's best evening show of the year for the south. Stories Weather on a World Without a Sun Miles et al. used JWST NIRSpec to take a spectrum of WISE 0855 every 15 minutes for 11 hours. Carbon monoxide and phosphine rise and fall together as convection dredges deep gas upward, while patchy water clouds thicken and thin higher up — the first variable water clouds seen outside the Solar System. Source: University of Arizona release, 9 Oct 2026; arXiv:2609.20664 The Star That Eats Slowly ZTF J0440+2325: a red dwarf drawing gas from a 25-Jupiter-mass brown dwarf on an 87-minute orbit — the first confirmed stable mass transfer from a substellar object onto a star. Householder, Burdge et…

Monday SpaceTime 20261012 Series 29 Episode 122 How ancient black holes and a hidden fifth dimension could explain dark matter A new study claims an ancient hypothetical type of black hole and a hidden fifth dimension of spacetime may help explain the mysterious substance known as dark matter as well as a strange type of ultra-high-energy neutrino detected three years ago. Australia’s new lunar rover revealed The Australian Space Agency ASA has formally unveiled the latest version of its new Roo-ver lunar rover which will travel to the Moon in 2030 aboard an Intuitive Machines lander as part of NASA’s Artemis program. Evidence of activity from the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole Astronomers have discovered a powerful wind blowing from Sagittarius A* the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole. The Science Report The 2026 Nobel Prizes have been awarded in Sweeden. A Russian Bioweapon based on the Plague escapes the lab in Siberia. Scientists in Israel develop an artificial intelligence program that can quite…

Sponsor Link: This episode of Space Nuts is brought to you with the support of NordVPN . To check out our special money-saving deal , visit www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts (https://www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts) Space Nuts: Unraveling the Mysteries of NGC 4698 and Chariklo's Rings In this exciting episode of Space Nuts , hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson explore some truly peculiar cosmic phenomena. They kick off with a deep dive into the strange behaviour of the galaxy NGC 4698, known for its unusual rotational patterns and mysterious bulge, leading to discussions about possible galactic mergers. Next, the duo ventures into the intriguing world of Chariklo, a centaur object with changing rings, as they discuss the latest observations from the James Webb Space Telescope and the implications of its unique ring structure. Join Andrew and Fred Watson as they navigate these captivating astronomical tales with their signature blend of humour and insight. Key topics - The peculiar characteristics of NGC 4698:…

Sponsor Link: This episode of Space Nuts is brought to you by NordVPN. Protect your online privacy today by visiting www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts (https://www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts) for an exclusive offer! Space Nuts: Time Travel, Orbiting Telescopes, and Gold Origins In this Q&A episode of Space Nuts , hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson tackle a range of thought-provoking listener questions. They begin with a fascinating inquiry from Andy, a train driver in the UK, about the implications of time travel at relativistic speeds. What does it mean to age differently when travelling close to the speed of light? The duo then dives into the mechanics of orbiting telescopes, addressing Nick's questions about how these instruments manage their observations while minimising interruptions from Earth. Finally, Ash from Brisbane poses an intriguing question about the origins of gold, prompting a discussion on neutron star collisions and the cosmic processes that create heavy elements. Key topics - Time travel…

Sponsor Link: This episode of Space Nuts is brought to you with the support of NORDVPN. Get your privacy in order today. To check out our special offer and support the show, visit www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts (https://www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts) Space Nuts: Space Force Weapons, Purple Mars, and New Lunar Crater In this episode of Space Nuts , hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson delve into some fascinating and thought-provoking topics. They kick off with the recent revelation about the existence of weapons in orbit around Earth, a significant admission from the United States that raises questions about the future of space security. The conversation shifts to Mars, where stunning new images suggest that we might need to reconsider its nickname as the "Red Planet" due to striking purple hues observed in its southern regions. Finally, the duo discusses a newly discovered crater on the Moon, the largest of its kind in recent history, and what this means for our understanding of lunar impacts and surface…

Show notes We're back after a short break! Today: the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Francis Halzen for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory — a cubic kilometre of Antarctic ice turned into a telescope. Then a Sydney-led team publishes the most distant fast radio burst yet, from a dwarf galaxy just 3 billion years after the big bang; Hubble's archive yields a possible second-generation planet around a white dwarf; and we catch up on Starship's first orbit, Crew-13, Juice's Earth flyby and the end of the LINK/Swift story. Skywatch: zodiacal light at both ends of the day, Mercury above Venus in southern twilight, and Mars in the Beehive for the north. Segment 1 — LEAD: The Telescope Made of Ice · Nobel Prize in Physics 2026 — nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2026 (6 Oct 2026) · Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences press release, 6 Oct 2026 · AIP congratulations release, Newswise, 6 Oct 2026 · University of Wisconsin–Madison / IceCube background (via Interesting Engineering, 6 Oct 2026) Segment 2 — The Most Distant…

Wednesday SpaceTime 20261007 Series 29 Episode 120 NASA adds new science investigations for Moon Base NASA has added payload suites for three new lunar scientific investigations as part of efforts paving the way for humanity’s first Moon Base. The new secrets on the Martian north pole revealed A new study has found that the Martian north pole is less dusty than previously thought. NASA and Boeing provide an update on the troubled Starliner spacecraft NASA has provided an update on Boeing’s trouble plagued Starliner CST-100 spacecraft. The Science Report Every 10% increase in emergency room occupancy leads to a one percent increase in death rates. Scientists unsure about the true threat status of one in three Australian bird species. New evidence suggesting there are hidden chambers in the tomb of Tutankhamun. Kids who own smartphones by the age of 12 more likely to have eating disorder symptoms/ Alex on Tech: New windows updates, and Albanese’s 1984 big brother legislation kills free speech. Become a…

Friday SpaceTime 20261009 Series 29 Episode 121 The mysterious star cluster discovered hidden deep in Milky Way's disk Astronomers have discovered a strange star cluster hidden in the crowded galactic plane disk region of the Milky Way galaxy some 32,800 light-years away. The truth about Nazi Germany’s infamous nuclear bomb project The Manhattan Project was not just a quest to build a nuclear bomb; it was a quest to build a bomb before Nazi Germany completed theirs. The chronic need for dark skies The Royal Astronomical Society is demanding urgent action to address the damage light pollution is doing to astronomy, human health, biodiversity and the natural environment. The Science Report Kids exposed to adversities in childhood face worse outcomes in life when reaching adulthood. The more ultra-processed foods you eat the higher your risk of heart conditions, diabetes, and cancer. Endangered species of sea cucumber can live for more than 100 years. Study claims albums are more likely than singles to drop out…

Monday SpaceTime 20261005 Series 29 Episode 119 Starship test flight 14 achieves orbit The world’s largest and most powerful rocket SpaceX’s Starship superheavy has successfully achieved orbital insertion during its latest test flight out of Texas. How Earth’s weather changes the planet’s centre of gravity A new study shows that changing seasonal weather patterns like snowfall, monsoons and oceans shift Earth's centre of mass every year. Work about to begin on the world’s first orbital power station The United States is moving forward with plans to build an orbital solar power station to beam energy down to the Earth’s surface . The Science Report The main reason why men are more likely to get cancer than women. The U.S. military follows Israel’s lead and starts deploying high-energy laser weapons. A new study shows that countries with more cats tend to be happier. Scientists have finally created a blue rose. Skeptics guide to common myths Become a supporter of this podcast:…

SpaceTime 20261002 Series 29 Episode 118 A lost galaxy hiding deep inside the Milky Way Astronomers have discovered a group of 20 stars deep inside the Milky Way which may once have been part of another galaxy. NASA to launch a far infrared space telescope NASA has announced a new mission using a far infrared space telescope to explore the history and evolution of the universe. NASA discovers a huge new crater on the Moon NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft has discovered a huge new asteroid impact crater on the Moon. SkyWatch October The Alpha Centauri star system, The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, and no less than three meteor showers are among the highlights of the October night skies on Skywatch. Our Guest This Week Nina Lanza from the Los Alamos National Laboratory Justin Maki from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena California. Our regular guests: Alex Zaharov-Reutt from techadvice.life Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics 🌏 Get Our Exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼…

SpaceTime 20260928 Series 29 Episode 116 Discovery of the Milky Way's first microblazar Astronomers have discovered their first ever microblazar in the Milky Way and observations suggest it’s generating the fastest particles ever detected in the galaxy. Early Mars rocks reveal at least three separate water episodes A new study shows the region of the red planet now being explored by NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover has undergone at least three separate interactions with Martian liquid water. Starship about to launch on its first orbital flight The countdown is underway for today’s first orbital test flight for SpaceX’s Starship superheavy. The world’s largest and most powerful rocket will undertake six orbits during the mission aiming for an altitude of around 275 kilometres. The Science Report A new study claims they type of sleep you’re getting is influencing your risk of disease. 12 hundred genetic variants linked to personality may also influence health, wealth, work and love life. The Antarctic OZONE hole…

SpaceTime 20260930 Series 29 Episode 117 NASA names Dragonfly’s landing site on Titan NASA has identified the landing site where its Dragonfly rotocopter will first touchdown on the surface of the Saturnian Moon Titan. New clues about the Moon’s ancient magnetic field from the far side A new study claims that just like the present day Earth, the Moon once had a geodynamo driven magnetic field. Why galaxies in the early universe are so weird A new study suggests that the first galaxies in the universe looked a bit weird because their stars generated weaker stellar winds compared to those we see today. The Science Report A common chemical in plastics linked to the development of autism and ADHD. Recent slowing of Antarctic ice sheet loss caused by issues thousands of kilometres away. Study shows Shakespeare’s works are more complicated than most other European plays. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-with-stuart-gary--2458531/support…

Sponsor Link: This episode of Space Nuts is brought to you with the support of NordVPN .. To check out special money saving deal , visit www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts (https://www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts) Space Nuts: Q&A on Radial Velocity, Dark Matter, and Angular Momentum In this engaging Q&A episode of Space Nuts, hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson tackle a variety of intriguing listener questions, ranging from the complexities of radial velocity in exoplanet detection to the mysteries of dark matter and angular momentum in black holes. Join them as they explore these cosmic conundrums with their characteristic wit and expertise. Key topics - Hussein from Yemen asks about the radial velocity method for detecting exoplanets, prompting a discussion on how astronomers can isolate individual planets from the combined gravitational effects of multiple bodies. - Martin from Maryland raises a thought-provoking question on the potential to harness dark energy for space flight, leading to an exploration of…

SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 115 A comet older than the Sun Astronomers have found new clues about the origin of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS suggesting it’s more than twice as old as the Sun and solar system. The nearby “Super Earth” that might be a candidate for life Astronomers have taken a closer look at a nearby exoplanet finding it may be more Earth-like than previously thought. A new way to study the birth of the universe Scientists have discovered a new way to create quark gluon plasma – the first matter in the universe. The Science Report The number of women testing positive for gonorrhoea doubles over the past decade. New study shows people taking medicinal marijuana are far worse drivers. The growing problem of human pollution now present over the entire planet. The discovery of a half-billion-year-old fossil has rewritten the origin story of starfish Skeptics guide to the four flavours of aliens Our Guest This Week Professor Bill Collins from Curtin University Our regular guests: Alex Zaharov-Reutt…

Perseverance drove to the edge of an ancient Martian lake expecting a beach and found the inside of a volcano — rock that water has been through at least three separate times. Europe's Jupiter probe comes home on Monday night and crosses Australia in a fully dark sky. Two teams, using two completely different techniques, both find something hiding inside the most famous planetary system we have ever photographed — and an Australian instrument is in the middle of one of them. Plus: heavy water in an interstellar comet, and what it says about the star that made it. In this episode · LEAD — Three floods at the crater's edge. Candice Bedford (Purdue) and colleagues publish in Communications Earth & Environment: the Margin Unit at Jezero is igneous, not sedimentary, and records at least three distinct episodes of water — CO₂-rich groundwater making carbonate ridges, then silica associated with the lake, then a later hot-water event leaving fluorite veins. Habitability context, not a biosignature. · Juice returns.…

Perseverance drove to the edge of an ancient Martian lake expecting a beach and found the inside of a volcano — rock that water has been through at least three separate times. Europe's Jupiter probe comes home on Monday night and crosses Australia in a fully dark sky. Two teams, using two completely different techniques, both find something hiding inside the most famous planetary system we have ever photographed — and an Australian instrument is in the middle of one of them. Plus: heavy water in an interstellar comet, and what it says about the star that made it. In this episode · LEAD — Three floods at the crater's edge. Candice Bedford (Purdue) and colleagues publish in Communications Earth & Environment: the Margin Unit at Jezero is igneous, not sedimentary, and records at least three distinct episodes of water — CO₂-rich groundwater making carbonate ridges, then silica associated with the lake, then a later hot-water event leaving fluorite veins. Habitability context, not a biosignature. · Juice returns.…

SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 114 United States Space Force confirms it has weapons in orbit The United States Space Force confirms it has weapons in orbit to protect America’s assets in space. Why a moon could not survive in orbit around Venus A new study claims a moon could not survive in orbit around Venus because of the planet’s unusually slow rotation. Water discovered near the galaxy’s Supermassive black hole New observations of the star IRS 3, located near Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole, suggest it’s emitting huge amounts of gas and dust, forming an exceptionally large stellar envelope containing water molecules. The Science Report A new study has shown that air pollution isn’t just bad for your lungs, it’s bad for your eyes as well. The new high-tech sponge made from plant fibres that can mop up an oil spills. Palaeontologists find that Tyrannosaurus rex had around the same body temperatures as humans. A new study shows 93 per cent of Australia’s first nations population died in the first…

SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 113 New evidence of superflares on the Sun A new study has found that a giant sunspot observed back in 1947 had the potential to trigger a massive solar super flare. How Gondwana changes life on Planet Earth A new study has rewritten the evolution of one of planet Earth’s greatest ancient land masses, the super continent of Gondwana. The incredibly shrinking planet Mercury A new study suggests that the planet Mercury may have shrunk by as much as 30 percent since its creation. The Science Report Studies warn that a third of the world’s population are exposed to second hand smoke. New figures show deradicalization programs have failed. A new study has found that 2025 was one of the driest years in the past three decades. It was in this month in 1936, that the world’s the last known Tasmanian Tiger died at the Hobart Zoo. Skeptics guide to the Nazi’s hollow Earth conspiracy. Our Guest This Week Professor Bill Collins from Curtin University Our regular guests: Alex Zaharov-Reutt from…

Space Nuts: Q&A on BepiColombo, Neutrinos, and Time Dilation In this Q&A edition of Space Nuts , hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson dive into a series of intriguing listener questions that span topics from the nuances of orbital velocity to the enigmatic world of neutrinos and the complexities of time dilation. Join them as they unravel these cosmic queries with their signature blend of insight and humour. Key topics - Larry from Nebraska asks about the BepiColombo mission and the relationship between gravitational assists and orbital velocity, prompting a discussion on how spacecraft navigate the solar system. - Eduardo explores the nature of neutrinos, questioning whether they are affected by gravity and whether they can be trapped by black holes. - Shumo presents a thought-provoking idea about using high-energy gamma rays or neutrinos as interstellar beacons, leading to a discussion on the potential for advanced civilisations to communicate through unconventional means. - Colin from Adelaide…

SHOW NOTES Black hole jets follow one universal rule Adelle Goodwin (Curtin University / ICRAR, Forrest Research Foundation Fellow) and Andrew Mummery (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) show that supermassive black holes launch their outflows at the same critical accretion rate as stellar-mass black holes — about 2% of the Eddington limit — making accretion-outflow coupling scale-invariant across seven orders of magnitude in mass. Nature Astronomy, 17 September 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02951-1 JWST's Little Red Dots are black hole seeds caught mid-growth Sunmyon Chon, Shingo Hirano, Tomoaki Ishiyama, Seok-Jun Chang and Volker Springel ran fully cosmological radiation-hydrodynamic simulations on Japan's ATERUI III supercomputer and produced heavy black hole seeds of about a million solar masses, whose optically thick discs generate exactly the broad hydrogen emission seen in Little Red Dots. Nature 657, 621-625, 16 September 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10985-8 Earth's centre of mass moves about…

Astronomers have confirmed the youngest planet ever found - Elias 2-24 b, less than a million years old, sitting inside a gap it is carving in its own birth disc 450 light-years away. Plus: the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter finds a 222-metre crater that was not there in 2024, a 178-year-old space weather record gets corrected by seven years, and Sakurai's Object - a star that came back from the dead - has become six times hotter in thirty years. SOURCES Newfound 'Baby' Planet Smashes Record for Youngest Known World NASA Science, 16 September 2026 - https://science.nasa.gov/universe/newfound-baby-planet-smashes-record-for-youngest-known-world/ Elias 2-24 b discovery paper Bernardi, Cieza et al., The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 16 September 2026, DOI 10.3847/2041-8213/ae9bb6 - https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae9bb6 ALMA Observations of Elias 2-24: A Protoplanetary Disk with Multiple Gaps (background) Cieza et al., ApJL 851 L23, 2017, DOI 10.3847/2041-8213/aa9b7b - https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aa9b7b…

SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 112 BepiColumbo on final approach to Mercury The BepiColumbo spacecraft Mercury Transfer Module has successfully separated from the main spacecraft, marking a major milestone in its eight year journey to the nearest plant to the Sun. Mercury’s crust formed by extreme volcanism A new study has shown that the planet Mercury’s crust was formed by extreme volcanism. First orbital launch success from European soil For the first time in history, a space launch from continental Europe has successfully reached orbit. The Science Report People with lung cancer more likely to have larger quantities of microplastics in their lungs. A genetically modified pig kidney keeps a patient with kidney failure dialysis free for nine months. Palaeontologists discover the fossilized remains of a peculiar new species of Jurassic squid. Scientists have discovered the first Denisovan radius bones at a fossil dig site in Southwest China. Skeptics guide to the regrets of the dead. Our Guests This Week Dr…

Sponsor Link: This episode of Space Nuts is brought to you with the support of NordVPN. your first stop for online privavcy. To check out our special offer with a 30 day money back guarantee, visit www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts (https://https//www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts) Space Nuts: Venus’s Missing Moon, Satellite Pollution, and Space Force Uniform Controvers y Space Nuts covers three very different space stories in this episode, ranging from planetary science to the consequences of satellite reentry and a controversial military uniform design. Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson also field listener questions on orbital mechanics, neutrinos, alien communication, and time dilation. The discussion is broad, but the main thread is clear: how real-world physics shapes everything from Venus’s history to the future of spaceflight and even the look of space-age uniforms. Key topics Venus is Earth-like in size, mass, and gravity, but unlike Earth it has no moon, and the episode explores whether it may once have had…

First starlight from Roman, a shorter fuse on the Solar System, weapons in orbit, and a globular cluster hiding behind the dust Roman opens its eye — and finds it has twice as long to look NASA has activated the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera built around eighteen detectors, with a field of view at least a hundred times larger than Hubble's infrared field — a patch of sky bigger than the full Moon in a single exposure, at Hubble-comparable sharpness. The instrument reached its operating temperature of −143 °C on 11 September; detectors and the calibration system came up across the 11th and 12th; the element wheel turned in microgravity for the first time on the 12th; the focus mechanism was verified on the 13th. Roman then took its first starlight image — deliberately out of focus, and exactly as intended: a baseline diagnostic that proves the optical path is clear and every detector is live. Sharp science images are expected by early 2027. The…

SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 111 27 new Trans Neptunian Objects discovered in the outer solar system The first ever joint observation of Trans Neptunian objects by NASA’s Hubble and Webb space telescopes has discovered 27 new worlds in the dark outer reaches of the solar system. A decagon discovered at Saturn's south pole New observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have revealed a giant, evolving, 10-sided decagon atmospheric structure encircling Saturn's south pole. LINK’s failed rescue mission scopes its target but can’t save it The LINK spacecraft which was meant to rescue NASA's doomed Swift Gamma Ray space Telescope (https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nasa-swift-telescope-falling-earth.html) has now reached to within 15 kilometres of Swift and has even managed to take some images of the stricken observatory. The Science Report The latest data on HIV and sexually transmitted diseases in Australia paints a mixed picture. Climate change forcing a decline in global sea weed forests. Asian elephants shown to…

SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 110 Lunar far side rocks rewriting history A new study claims the timing and intensity of asteroid bombardment across the lunar surface declined gradually, rather than being a short, intense burst of impacts as previously thought. The crystals that might have made Snow Ball Earth worse A new study claims planet Earth may have been pushed deeper into a global deep freeze known as snowball Earth by something as ordinary as salt. Meteor strike reported off the Western Australian coast The European Space Agency’s Near Earth Objects co-ordination centre has reported a meteor impact in the Indian Ocean off the coast of north western Australia. The Science Report Warnings of a ten percent chase that AI could cause human extinction within the next decade. The world enters a new era of artificial general intelligence with the release of GPT-6 Astra. A new study has shown that Psychiatrists agree on a diagnosis in only 55% of cases. The 2026 Ig Nobels handed out in Switzerland showing what…

An Australian-led team has rebuilt thirty years of supernova observations into one consistent catalogue — and it adds fresh weight to the idea that dark energy is not constant. We also ask whether the young Sun swallowed a super-Earth, find out why a quiet Sun is bad news at thirty-five thousand feet, and watch JWST run the most sensitive exomoon search ever attempted. Plus a Crew-13 update and a skywatch with a live aurora alert for both hemispheres. In this episode · Two thousand, eight hundred and eighty-four Type Ia supernovae, rebuilt from Pantheon+ and the Dark Energy Survey's full five-year sample into a single internally consistent catalogue by Ryan Camilleri and Professor Tamara Davis at the University of Queensland, with ANU, Swinburne and international colleagues. · On their own the supernovae give a matter density of 0.310 for flat ΛCDM. Combined with the CMB and baryon acoustic oscillations, a tension appears under constant dark energy — and eases when dark energy is allowed to evolve.…

Sponsor Link: This episode of Space Nuts is brought to with the support of NordVPN. To grab our special NordVPN deal, simply visit www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts (https://www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts) ....take control of your online privacy because no-one else is going to do it for you! Space Nuts: Q&A on Mitsubishi's Role in Telescope Manufacturing, Jupiter's Storms, and Gravitational Waves In this Q&A episode of Space Nuts , hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson tackle a range of fascinating listener questions, from the involvement of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in telescope manufacturing to the mysteries of Jupiter’s storms and the nature of gravitational waves. Join them as they delve into these cosmic queries with their signature wit and expertise. Key topics - Thomas from Canberra asks about Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and their role in the manufacturing of telescope hardware at Siding Spring Observatory. Fred Watson explains the engineering behind the Anglo-Australian Telescope and the significance…

Today's episode — The Weekend Wrap, Saturday 12 September 2026: OUR LEAD: A SMALLER MERCURY Mercury has been contracting for four and a half billion years as its huge iron core cools, and it writes the record on its own surface — in long lobe-fronted cliffs called lobate scarps, where one slab of crust has ridden up over another. Add up all that shortening and you get the total contraction. The trouble was that the surface record always gave a smaller number than thermal models predicted. New work led by Gaku Nishiyama at the German Aerospace Center in Berlin, published in Geophysical Research Letters and released by the American Geophysical Union on 10 September, explains the gap — and the explanation is beautifully simple. Impact debris buries the cliffs. Using MESSENGER imagery reworked with stereophotogrammetry, the team showed that the rougher the terrain, the fewer shortening structures you can find per unit area. Since faults don't know what the surface above them looks like, that correlation isn't…

Today's episode — S05E191, Friday September 11, 2026: Main story: A population-synthesis study published in Nature Astronomy on 10 September argues that magnetars make up roughly half of all neutron stars, not the one-in-a-hundred implied by the catalogues. Celsa Pardo-Araujo and Nanda Rea (Institute of Space Sciences, ICE-CSIC, Barcelona) with Michele Ronchi (ASTRON) and Vanessa Graber (Royal Holloway) modelled the whole isolated-neutron-star population as one family rather than four separate classes, evolving spin-down, magneto-thermal decay and Galactic dynamics together, then filtering the simulated population the way real surveys filter the sky. Of the 24 known neutron stars younger than 2,000 years, magnetars and central compact objects are about 59%; the derived birth fraction averages ~50% (40–70% or 30–50% depending on the assumed birth-field distribution, which peaks at 1–2.5 × 10^14 gauss). Two consequences: the Galactic core-collapse supernova rate has to be higher than assumed, around two per…

SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 109 Witnessing the birth of a comet More than 5 billion kilometres from Earth, an ancient icy object is slowly awakening as a distant frozen world known as a Centaur transforming into an active comet. New mysteries about the moons of Neptune A new study has revealed that three of Neptune's inner moons may be the shattered remains of ancient icy worlds. NASA’s Roman Space Telescope blasts off bound for orbit beyond the Moon NASA’s next great flagship cosmic observatory the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has successfully launched into space bound for orbit on the dark side of the Earth beyond the Moon. The Science Report Scientists have found a link between flavour chemicals in some vapes and pregnancy problems. A new study shows flight attendants and pilots have the highest risk of death from radiation-related cancers. A growing plant disease spreading across parts of Western Australia is linked to a loss of habitat. Scientists claim they’re working on a tent that can supply its…

Today's episode — S05E190, Thursday September 10, 2026: Main story: 109 fast radio bursts have been used to measure how much galactic feedback has smoothed out the matter in the universe. A fast radio burst lasts about a millisecond, and on its way to us it is dispersed — low radio frequencies slowed more than high ones by free electrons along the path, exactly the way a prism separates white light. The size of that delay counts the ordinary matter the burst passed through. Writing in Nature Astronomy on 8 September, a team led by Kritti Sharma at Caltech, with Vikram Ravi, Liam Connor and Elisabeth Krause (University of Arizona), used 109 bursts localised to host galaxies out to redshift ~0.3 — most of them from Caltech's DSA-110 — to constrain the suppression of matter clustering by feedback, and the gas fractions of groups and clusters between 10^13 and 10^15 solar masses. They find more gas retained than the X-ray picture implies: gas fractions about 1.9σ above stacked eROSITA measurements, and slightly…