Supernova catalog challenges dark energy & Tonight's Venus and crescent moon - Space News (Sep 13, 2026)

Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Consensus: AI for Research. Get a free month - https://get.consensus.app/automated_daily - SurveyMonkey, Using AI to surface insights faster and reduce manual analysis time - https://get.surveymonkey.com/tad - Prezi: Create AI presentations fast - https://try.prezi.com/automated_daily Support The Automated Daily directly: Buy me a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/theautomateddaily Today's topics: Supernova catalog challenges dark energy - Astronomers have assembled a new catalog of nearly 3,000 exploding white dwarf stars, and the results may force a rethink of how dark energy drives the universe's accelerating expansion, challenging some of the standard models in cosmology.[3] Keywords: supernova catalog, dark energy, cosmic expansion, white dwarf, Universe Today. Tonight's Venus and crescent moon - At sunset tonight, Venus will shine next to a thin crescent moon, creating a bright and easily visible pairing in the western sky for skywatchers with clear horizons.[7] Keywords: Venus, crescent moon, conjunction, night sky, stargazing. Comet NEOWISE over Adriatic Sea - NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day features Comet NEOWISE rising over the Adriatic Sea, showcasing the comet's striking tail against twilight skies and reminding us how dynamic our solar system can be.[2] Keywords: Comet NEOWISE, NASA APOD, Adriatic Sea, comet tail, astrophotography. Blue Snowball nebula observing highlight - Observers are encouraged to hunt down the Blue Snowball Nebula, NGC 7662, in Andromeda, where modest telescopes and higher magnification can reveal its ring-like structure and distinct cyan glow.[12] Keywords: Blue Snowball Nebula, NGC 7662, planetary nebula, Andromeda, deep-sky observing. ESA FLEX and Sentinel-3C launch - The European Space Agency is preparing to launch the FLEX fluorescence mission together with the Sentinel-3C satellite on a Vega-C rocket, a tandem flight that will track plant health and Earth’s oceans and land surfaces to improve our understanding of the carbon and water cycles.[13][18] Keywords: ESA, FLEX, Sentinel-3C, Vega-C launch, Earth observation, plant fluorescence. Episode Transcript Supernova catalog challenges dark energy Our first story today comes from the realm of cosmology, where a new supernova survey is raising fresh questions about dark energy, the mysterious force that appears to be accelerating the expansion of the universe.[3] Astronomers have compiled what they describe as the most comprehensive catalog so far of exploding white dwarf stars, the kind of supernovae that are used as "standard candles" to measure cosmic distances.[3] With close to 3,000 of these events now in a single data set, researchers can look for subtle patterns in how the universe’s expansion has changed over billions of years, and some of those patterns may not line up perfectly with our simplest dark energy models.[3] In practical terms, this work does not suddenly overturn the idea that dark energy exists, but it does suggest that the details could be more complex than a simple, constant push uniformly stretching space forever.[3] If dark energy’s effect has varied over time, or behaves differently than expected in certain environments, that would ripple through our estimates of the age of the universe and the way structures like galaxies and clusters grew.[3] The new catalog gives scientists a much richer set of supernovae to test competing theories, which is why this result is drawing attention: it hints that even our broad-brush picture of the cosmos might still have some major revisions ahead.[3] For now, it is a reminder that the story of dark energy is far from settled, and that every new explosion mapped in the sky is another data point in a much larger cosmic puzzle.[3] Tonight's Venus and crescent moon From the large-scale universe, we turn to something more immediate and visual: NASA’s latest Astronomy Picture of the Day, which today highlights Comet NEOWISE rising over the Adriatic Sea.[2] The image captures the comet’s luminous tail lifting above a dark horizon, with the twilight colors of Earth’s atmosphere blending into the deeper blues of the night sky.[2] Comet NEOWISE was one of the most photogenic comets of recent years, visible to the naked eye for many observers when it swung through the inner solar system, and photographers around the world rushed to document its passage.[2] Astronomy Picture of the Day, or APOD, serves as a daily reminder that serious science and visual beauty often go hand in hand, and this particular choice revisits a moment when many non-astronomers looked up and noticed a comet for the first time.[2] While NEOWISE itself is now far from Earth, images like this continue to be used to illustrate how comets carry dust and gas from the outer solar system, material that can tell us about the early conditions in which planets formed.[2] For listeners, even if you cannot see a comet like NEOWISE tonight, today’s