Episode
A Milky Way Fossil Unearthed, Extreme Weather on a Roasted Planet, and a Space Telescope's Last Chance
- Published
- Jun 18, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1269
- Processing state
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- http://astronomydaily.io
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Summary
A landmark episode packed with discoveries at the cutting edge of space and astronomy. Webb and Hubble redefine a category of stellar object, JWST delivers unprecedented chemistry data from an extreme exoplanet, a 21-year-old NASA observatory faces a daring robotic rescue, a multi-telescope image reveals an ancient galactic supernova, China's Tianwen-2 zeroes in on a possible fragment of our own Moon, and astronomers detect the chemical fingerprint of a planet swallowed by its star. Story 1: Webb & Hubble Rewrite History: Terzan 5 Is a 'Bulge Fossil Fragment' Using the James Webb Space Telescope and archival data from Hubble spanning 12 years, researchers have definitively reclassified Terzan 5 — a stellar system 22,000 light-years away in Sagittarius — from a globular cluster to an entirely new class of object: a 'bulge fossil fragment.' Four distinct generations of stars have been identified within Terzan 5, formed 12.5 billion, 4.7 billion, 3.8 billion, and 2.5 billion years ago. Unlike a typical globular cluster with a single ancient stellar population, Terzan 5 repeatedly formed new stars by retaining the gas and heavy elements expelled by its own supernovae. Astronomers believe Terzan 5 is a surviving relic of the primordial clumps that merged to form the Milky Way's central bulge billions of years ago — a living fossil of galaxy formation. Results were presented at the 248th American Astronomical Society meeting and published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Source: NASA / ESA / STScI press release, 16–17 June 2026 Story 2: JWST Catches the 'Roasted Exoplanet' HD 80606 b in the Act Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope's MIRI instrument have observed the extreme exoplanet HD 80606 b experiencing a temperature increase of 1,100°F (600°C) during its…