Tipsy Comet: Interstellar Visitor Loaded With Alcohol

episode

Space News Today not yet transcribed

▲ 0

Transcript

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet Upvotes decide what gets transcribed next — 0 so far. Sign in to upvote

More from Space News Today

From Comet Closures to Space Station Shifts: Your Daily Astronomy Update 10 min · 20 Dec 2025

All episodes from Space News Today →

Report any issue

Source

Recorded12 Mar 2026

Publisherfeed.podbean.com ↗

Handlerec:16876658

Show notes

In today's episode of Astronomy Daily — S05E61, Thursday 12 March 2026 — Anna and Avery cover six of the biggest stories in space and astronomy from the past 24 hours. Stories in this episode: • 3I/ATLAS, our third confirmed interstellar visitor, has been found to be extraordinarily rich in methanol — a type of alcohol — with ALMA observations revealing methanol-to-hydrogen cyanide ratios far beyond almost any known solar system comet. The findings offer a chemical fingerprint of a distant planetary system, and the comet makes its closest pass to Jupiter on March 16. • Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket successfully returned to flight on March 11, completing its seventh mission — 'Stairway to Seven' — after an 11-month stand-down following two mishaps in 2025. The mission also validated key Block II upgrade systems ahead of the next-generation rocket's debut on Flight 8. • NASA held its Artemis II Flight Readiness Review today at Kennedy Space Center, a critical milestone ahead of a potential April launch. The SLS/Orion stack is being prepared for its second rollout after a helium flow issue was repaired in the Vehicle Assembly Building. • A landmark helioseismology study from the University of Birmingham and Yale, drawing on 40 years of data from the Birmingham Solar-Oscillations Network, reveals that the Sun's internal structure shifts measurably between solar cycle minima — with implications for space weather forecasting. • NASA's Van Allen Probe A reentered Earth's atmosphere on March 11, eight years earlier than expected, with the current active solar cycle responsible for accelerating its orbital decay. Most of the 600kg spacecraft burned up over the eastern Pacific. • Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have discovered a third gas cloud — G2t — orbiting Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole. Its near-identical orbit to the previously known G1 and G2 clouds suggests all three likely originated from the same binary star system. Find full episodes, transcripts and more at astronomydaily.io. Follow us @AstroDailyPod on all major platforms. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss) . Sponsor Details: Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN . To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit You'll be glad you did! Become a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click Here (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates--5648921/support) This episode includes AI-generated content. Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/32154123?utm_source=youtube

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.