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Hello, space enthusiasts.
I'm Anna.
And I'm Avery.
Welcome to Astronomy Daily.
Your daily dose of space and astronomy news
brought to you by astronomydaily.io.
And what a day we have for you today, Avery.
If you were lucky enough to catch the auroras last night,
you know what we're leading with.
Absolutely, Anna.
We're following up on yesterday's story about that powerful
X-Class solar flare and the coronal mass ejection
that was racing toward Earth.
Well, it hit and it hit hard.
That's right.
We've got stunning photos from around the world
of the resulting Northern Lights.
And a retirement announcement from a legendary NASA astronaut
an incredible space rescue story from China
and some exciting updates from the commercial space sector.
Plus, we'll tell you about NASA's latest mission
that's preparing to study the sun's most powerful eruptions
and we'll take you on a cosmic journey
billions of years into the past
with some fascinating new telescope observations.
So, grab your coffee, settle in,
and let's get into today's space news.
All right, Anna, let's dive into our lead story
and what a spectacular show it was.
Yesterday, we told our listeners about that X-1.9 solar flare
and coronal mass ejection headed our way.
Well, it arrived right on schedule.
In fact, a little early.
It certainly did, Avery.
The CME slammed into Earth's magnetic field
on January 19th at around 2.38 PM Eastern time
and it packed quite a punch.
Base weather forecasters at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center
confirmed that geomagnetic conditions
escalated to G4 level.
That's classified as severe on their five-point scale.
And the results were absolutely breathtaking.
What made the CME particularly noteworthy
was just how fast it traveled.
Remember, it was ejected from the sun
on January 18th during that powerful solar flare,
which means it covered roughly 93 million miles
in just over a day.
That's exceptionally quick.
The Aurora displays that followed
were truly global in scope.
We're seeing reports and photographs from locations
that rarely get to witness the northern lights.
One photographer, Greg Gage,
captured stunning red auroras from Deming, New Mexico.
That's at 32 degrees latitude.
He told Space.com he was on vacation there
and never expected to see auroras that far south.
That's incredible.
And it wasn't just North America.
The displays stretched across Europe, Asia, and beyond.
In Germany, vivid red and green auroras
danced above the river Mughalspray near Berlin.
Hungary saw intense red and green hues
filling the skies over the village of a boyvar.
France had some particularly eerie displays
with rich magenta auroras above Brittany.
And in China, the northern lights were visible
above Bayji village in Heelong-Jong Province
with photographers capturing everything from magenta to green
to even hints of blue in the curtains of light.
What's particularly interesting about these displays
is the variety of colors.
The red auroras were seeing indicate
that oxygen atoms at very high altitudes
around 200 to 300 miles up are being energized.
The green we typically associate with auroras
comes from oxygen at lower altitudes
while any blue would be from nitrogen.
The geomagnetic conditions throughout the night
were quite dynamic too.
Storm levels fluctuated between G1, G2, G3,
and G4 as the CME pass through Earth's magnetic field.
According to the UK Met Office,
this kept Earth's magnetic field in a highly disturbed state
for hours, producing repeated surges of auroral activity.
And there's more good news for aurora watchers.
While geomagnetic activity is expected to gradually ease,
forecasters say conditions remain unsettled.
That means there's still a chance
the northern lights can make another appearance tonight
if solar wind conditions cooperate.
So if you missed last night's show,
keep those cameras charged
and your aurora alert apps turned on.
The sun is clearly in an active phase
and we could see more displays
in the coming days and weeks.
Absolutely, and this really highlights
why we track space weather so closely.
While these auroras are beautiful,
the same geomagnetic storms can affect satellites,
power grids, and radio communications.
It's a reminder of how our technological society
is connected to what's happening
93 million miles away on the sun.
Moving on to our next story, Avery,
and this one marks the end of an era.
After 27 years of distinguished service,
NASA astronaut SUNY Williams
has officially retired from the agency.
This is definitely a significant moment, Anna.
SUNY Williams has been such an inspiring figure
in human space flight.
Her retirement became effective on December 27th, 2025.
Though NASA just announced it this week,
let's talk about her remarkable achievements.
Where do we even start?
Over the course of her career,
Williams logged an impressive 608 days in space.
That makes her second on the list
for cumulative time and space by a NASA astronaut.
She completed three missions
to the International Space Station
and held numerous records throughout her career.
Her most recent mission was particularly interesting.
Williams and fellow astronaut,
which will more launch the board Boeing Starliner spacecraft
in June 2024,
as part of NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test mission.
Both tied for six place on the list
of longest single space flight by an American,
logging 286 days during their combined starliner
and SpaceX crew nine missions.
That's right.
And during that mission,
Williams once again took command of the space station
for Expedition 72.
She's also renowned for her spacewalking expertise.
She completed nine spacewalks,
totaling 62 hours and six minutes over her career.
That gives her the record for most spacewalk time
by a woman and fourth most
on the all-time cumulative spacewalk duration list.
Oh, and here's a fun fact.
She was also the first person
to run a marathon in space.
Beyond her spaceflight experience,
Williams held numerous important roles at NASA.
Do served as deputy chief of the astronaut office
was director of operations in Star City, Russia,
and most recently helped establish
a helicopter training platform
to prepare astronauts for future moon landings.
NASA Administrator Jared Ixman
had some wonderful words about her legacy.
He called her a trailblazer and human spaceflight,
whose work advancing science and technology
has laid the foundation for Artemis missions to the moon
and future missions to Mars.
It's worth noting her background too.
She's a retired US Navy captain
and an accomplished pilot
with more than 4,000 flight hours
in 40 different aircraft.
She holds a bachelor's degree in physical science
from the United States Naval Academy
and a master's degree in engineering management.
In her retirement statement, Williams said,
anyone who knows me knows that space
is my absolute favorite place to be.
She expressed gratitude for her 27 year career
and the support she received from her colleagues
and mentioned she's excited to watch NASA make history
as the agency continues its exploration efforts.
It's a well-deserved retirement
for someone who has contributed so much to human spaceflight.
Her achievements will undoubtedly inspire
the next generation of astronauts and space explorers.
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All right, Anna, our next story is quite dramatic.
It involves a successful space rescue emergency repairs
and some impressive quick thinking by China's space program.
This is really a remarkable story, Avery.
China's Shenzhou 20 capsule safely landed
in Inner Mongolia on January 19th, 2026,
after spending 270 days in orbit.
But the journey back wasn't exactly routine.
This mission became one of the most technically demanding
in China's human spaceflight history.
The Shenzhou 20 was originally launched back
on April 24th, 2025, from the Ju-Quan Satellite Launch Center.
It was expected to complete its mission
and return in November 2025.
But then came the complication.
A suspected impact with space debris
damaged one of the capsule's port holes.
Talk about a critical issue.
A cracked port hole on a spacecraft is serious business,
especially when you're thinking about the intense heat
and forces of reentry through Earth's atmosphere.
So how did China's space program respond?
With remarkable speed and coordination,
first, the authorized astronauts aboard the Shenzhou 21 spacecraft
to photograph the damaged port hole during a spacewalk
on December 9th.
They used high-definition cameras
to get a detailed diagnosis of the problem.
And then came an unprecedented move.
China launched Shenzhou 22 on November 25th,
marking the first rapid response emergency deployment
in China's space history.
This uncrewed craft delivered a specially engineered repair
device designed to enhance the capsule's heat resistance
and ceiling for reentry.
Meanwhile, for safety reasons,
the crew of Shenzhou 20 was evacuated ahead of schedule.
They returned aboard Shenzhou 21 on November 14th,
in what the China Manned Space Agency called
an emergency reroute.
So the Shenzhou 20 capsule came home empty,
but it came home safe.
According to CGTN, the China Manned Space Agency
declared the mission a complete success.
After an on-site inspection,
confirmed the capsule was in good condition
despite everything it went through.
What really stands out here
is the operational capability this demonstrates.
China executed three overlapping missions,
Shenzhou 20, 21, and 22.
Over a span of just weeks,
that shows significant operational depth
and the ability to respond to emergencies in space.
Absolutely, and it's not just about the technical achievement.
This validates China's long-term approach
to maintaining crew vehicles in orbit.
The Shenzhou 20 stayed up there for 270 days,
which demonstrates the reliability
of their spacecraft systems.
This mission also underscores something we talk about often.
The very real danger posed by space debris.
Even small particles traveling at orbital velocities
can cause significant damage,
as we saw here with the port hole crack.
And China's ability to handle this situation
adds to their growing reputation in space exploration.
They're now capable of managing multi-vessel operations
under pressure with modular mission architecture
and long-term crew support capabilities.
Congratulations to all involved
in this very successful mission in the end.
Moving on to our next story, Avery,
and we're heading to West Texas,
where Blue Origin is preparing
for its next sub-orbital space tourism mission.
That's right, Anna.
Blue Origin is scheduled to launch six space tourists
on its NS-38 mission this Thursday,
January 22.
The launch window opens at 9.30 a.m. Eastern time.
That's 8.30 a.m. local Texas time.
This will be the 38th flight
of Blue Origin's new shepherd rocket capsule system.
And if all goes according to plan,
the 17th crewed mission they flown.
The mission follows the same profile we've seen before,
about 10 to 12 minutes from liftoff
to the capsule's parachute-aided touchdown.
During that brief but spectacular journey,
passengers will experience a few minutes of weightlessness
and get to see Earth against the blackness of space
from an altitude above the carbon line,
which is generally recognized as the boundary of space.
Now, let's talk about who's flying.
We have entrepreneur and pilot Tim Drexler,
retired obstetrician and gynecologist Linda Edwards,
real estate developer and investor Elaine Fernandez,
entrepreneur and technologist Alberto Gutierrez,
and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Jim Hendren,
who founded Hendren Plastics Inc.
And there's an interesting late addition to the crew manifest.
Blue Origin just announced that Laura Stiles,
who is Blue Origin's director of new shepherd launch operations,
will be flying on this mission.
That's a pretty cool opportunity for someone
who's been so involved in making these missions happen.
Diles is actually a late replacement for a passenger
who had to drop out due to illness,
though that person will get to fly on a future mission.
Blue Origin has been steadily building their flight rate.
Just last month, they made history
by flying the first wheelchair user to space
on their NS-37 mission.
They're really demonstrating that space flight
can be accessible to a diverse range of people.
Al Blue Origin hasn't publicly disclosed their ticket prices,
but we know their main competitor, Virgin Galactic,
charges $600,000 per seat for similar suborbital flights.
So we can probably assume Blue Origin's prices
are in that same ballpark.
If you want to watch this launch,
Blue Origin typically livestreams our missions
and space.com will likely carry the feed as well.
It's always exciting to watch these launches.
That new shepherd rocket is quite a sight to see.
Absolutely, and it's worth noting how routine
these launches are becoming.
Blue Origin is really building up their experience
with regular crewed flights,
which is essential for the commercial space tourism industry.
Our next story takes us from suborbital tourism
to cutting-edge heliophysics research, Anna.
NASA Sunrise, that's the Sun Radio Interometer Space
Experiment, is moving closer to its launch later this year
after successfully completing a rigorous series of tests.
This is such a fascinating mission, Ivory.
Sunrise consists of six small sats.
There are about the size of a toaster oven
that will fly information to act as one giant radio telescope
studying the Sun.
That's the clever part.
These six small sats will orbit at about 22,000 miles altitude,
which is geosynchronous orbit,
flying up to 10 miles apart from each other.
By combining their observations using a technique
called interferometry, they'll create
what's essentially a single large radio telescope in space.
And what will they be looking at?
Solar radio bursts.
These bursts are generated by solar energetic particle events
deep within the Sun's atmosphere or corona.
In extreme cases, these events could pose radiation hazards
to unprotected astronauts and damaged satellites.
The spacecraft were built at Utah State University's
Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah,
and they just completed what's described
as a rigorous testing campaign.
This included thermal vacuum testing
to simulate orbital conditions, electromagnetic compatibility
testing to ensure the electronic systems
won't interfere with the sensitive instruments
and, most dramatically, vibration testing.
The vibration testing is crucial,
because launch is an incredibly violent event.
Jim Lux, the Sunrise Project Manager
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Marbotary,
explained that each spacecraft was loaded with propellant
to match its launch mass and then subjected
to vibration testing in all three axes.
They wanted to make the simulated vibrations
as true to the actual launch conditions as possible.
And here's the important part.
Pre and post-test functional checks were performed
and all six spacecraft passed with flying colors.
The mission is scheduled to launch
from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida
aboard a ULA launch Vulcan Centaur rocket
as a ride share mission.
Once in orbit, each satellite will deploy four
telescoping antenna booms about 10 feet long,
forming an X-shaped configuration.
Sue Leopardy, the Sunrise Principal Investigator
at the University of Michigan,
points out that these solar radio bursts
are triggered when vast quantities of energy
stored in the Sun's magnetic field
accelerate solar particles to high speeds.
Tracking these events will help space agencies
protect astronauts and spacecraft.
And this mission will work in conjunction
with other NASA heliophysics missions,
like the solar terrestrial relations observatory,
the Parker Solar Probe, and Solar Orbiter,
which is an international cooperative mission with ESA.
It's exciting to see these missions coming together
between Parker Solar Probe diving close to the Sun,
Solar Orbiter studying the polar regions
and now Sunrise tracking radio bursts from Earth orbit.
We're building a comprehensive picture
of our star's behavior.
And now for our final story, Avery,
we're going to talk about something
that's never been seen before in quite this detail.
Planetary systems in their awkward teenage years.
Love that description, Anna.
Astronomers using the Otakama large millimeter
sub-millimeter array, better known as ALMA,
have captured the most detailed images ever
of 24 debris disks.
These are the dusty belts left behind
after planets have finished forming.
The survey is called ARCs,
which stands for the ALMA survey
to resolve exo-kiper belt substructures.
Meredith Hughes, an associate professor
at Wesleyan University and co-principal investigator,
explains it perfectly.
We've often seen the baby pictures of planets forming,
but until now, the teenage years have been a missing link.
And just like human teenagers,
these systems turn out to be quite dramatic.
The observations revealed incredible diversity,
not just simple rings, but multi-ring belts,
wide smooth halos, sharp edges,
and even unexpected arcs and clumps.
This phase is really important
because these debris disks represent
what's called the collision-dominated phase
of planet formation.
Think of it like our own solar system's kuiper belt,
that ring of icy debris beyond Neptune
that preserves a record of massive collisions
and planetary migrations from billions of years ago.
Thomas Henning from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy,
another co-principal investigator,
notes that by characterizing these disk structures,
they can find evidence pointing to the presence of planets.
They're using ALMA alongside direct imaging
and radio velocity studies
to search for young planets in these systems.
One of the challenges with studying debris disks
is that they're incredibly faint,
hundreds or even thousands of times dimmer
than the bright gas-rich disks
where planets are actively being born,
but ALMA's sensitivity and resolution
made these observations possible.
And the findings are fascinating.
About one-third of the observed disks
show clear substructures like multiple rings
or distinct gaps.
These could be legacy features
from earlier planet-building stages
or they could be sculpted by planets
over much longer time scales.
Perhaps most surprising,
several of these disks retain gas much longer than expected.
In some systems, this lingering gas
might actually shape the chemistry of growing planets
or it might push dust into wide halos.
Many of the disks also show asymmetries and arcs.
They're lopsided with bright arcs or eccentric shapes.
This hints at gravitational interactions
with unseen planets left over scars
from planetary migration
or interactions between the gas and dust.
Luka Matra from Trinity College Dublin,
another co-principal investigator puts it beautifully.
These disks record a period when planetary orbits
were being scrambled and huge impacts
like the one that forged Earth's moon
were shaping young solar systems.
And here's some great news for the scientific community.
All of the arcs observations and process data
are being made freely available to astronomers worldwide,
which means we can expect even more discoveries
from this data set in the coming years.
Meredith Hughes sums up the significance perfectly.
This project gives us a new lens
for interpreting the craters on the moon,
the dynamics of the kuiper belt
and the growth of planets big and small.
It's like adding the missing pages
to the solar system's family album.
Well, that wraps up today's episode of Astronomy Daily.
What an incredible day of space news we've covered.
From spectacular auroras lighting up skies around the globe
to the retirement of a legendary astronaut,
the emergency space repairs by China,
exciting commercial space launches
and groundbreaking observations of planetary systems,
it's been quite a journey through the cosmos.
And remember, if you want to stay up to date
with all the latest space in astronomy news,
visit our website at astronomydaily.io.
You can also find us on all major social media platforms,
just search for AstroDailyPod.
That's AstroDailyPod, all one word.
We'd love to hear from you and see your aurora photos
if you caught last night's display.
Thanks for joining us today, space fans.
Keep looking up and we'll see you tomorrow
with more exciting space and astronomy news.
Until then, clear skies, everyone.
Astronomy day, the star is the toe.
The star is the toe.
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