## **Starcast: March 8, 2026** **Jay Shaffer:** welcome back to the Starcast for the week of March 8th, 2026. I'm your host, Jay Shaffer, and with me is my co-host, Mike Lewinski. How are you doing this morning? **Mike Lewinski:** You know, Jay, I'm suffering a little with that time change, but I'm not going to complain too much. It's a beautiful day here. How are you doing? **Jay Shaffer:** Good. Yeah, that daylight savings time—I'm a proponent of just standard time, because the sun. And the sun moving along the ecliptic. Mike, what's our space weather looking like over the next couple days? ### **Space Weather Update** **Mike Lewinski:** Well, Jay, there are a few sunspots facing the earth right now, but they all have stable magnetic fields and pose no real threat of strong solar flares. Correspondingly, we get a chance: 20% for M class or 1% for X class over the next 48 hours. There was, however, a solar wind that arrived yesterday, March 7th, and that kicked off some minor G1 class geomagnetic storms with Arctic Aurora. More storms are possible again today as that solar wind continues to blow, keeping an eye on the planetary K index at about 4. There are currently no significant equatorial holes on the sun facing the Earth at this time. So what's going on in the night sky this week, Jay? ### **The Night Sky This Week** **Jay Shaffer:** Well, as seen from Earth this month, the bright planet Jupiter will be high and bright in the sky as darkness falls each evening. It'll be visible through several hours before dawn. If you're out around 9 or 10 o'clock at night, look almost straight up, and the brightest thing that you'll probably see is Jupiter. Also, Venus and Saturn pair up this week. They're closest to each other on the evenings of March 7th and 8th—and the 8th, of course, is tonight. But you'll have to get outside soon after sunset to see them. Look for them in the bright western twilight. It looks like two little, probably the first, "stars" that you will see. Sometime after tonight, Saturn will be lost in the sun's glare and slip out of the evening sky. With Saturn disappearing, last month's somewhat overhyped parade of planets will come to a close. The moment of the third quarter moon will fall on 9:38 UTC on March 11th. That's 4:30 a.m. Central Daylight Time; it arrives after midnight local time and sets again around noon. Look for it high in the sky before dawn, which also means you'll be able to get dark sky observing in before midnight. This is also the season to spot the Zodiacal light, sometimes called the false dusk or the false dawn. Zodiacal light appears along the ecliptic plane. But first, here's Mike with Space News. ### **Space News: Tardigrades and Stratospheric Pollution** **Mike Lewinski:** Hey, Jay. We've got a couple fascinating stories this week. First up, researchers are talking about "Tarta-Guardians of the Galaxy." We all know tardigrades, those nearly indestructible water bears. A new study out of Penn State tested how they might handle Martian soil. **Jay Shaffer:** I'm guessing if anything can survive on the Martian surface, it's a tardigrade. **Mike Lewinski:** They can survive the vacuum of space and severe radiation because they can repair their DNA. But with Mars, it's a mixed bag. In simulated dirt, their movement slowed immediately; in some samples, activity dropped to zero within 2 days because the minerals are harsh on living tissue. **Jay Shaffer:** So Mars is even too tough for water bears? **Mike Lewinski:** Well, the team found one trick: if you rinse that Martian soil with water first to wash away toxic salts, the tardigrades bounce right back. This is a massive insight for future Martian greenhouses. The soil's toxicity also acts as a planetary shield, preventing us from accidentally contaminating Mars with earthly microbes. From microscopic bears to massive rockets, we also have an update on our physical footprint in the upper atmosphere. Scientists have published the first direct measurement of space debris pollution in the stratosphere. This shifts the focus to what happens when hardware burns up. In February 2025, a SpaceX Falcon second stage re-entered over the North Atlantic. A research team in Germany using a high-powered LiDAR system caught the smoke from that reentry in real time. They detected a massive spike in lithium vapor at an altitude of 95 kilometers. Natural lithium from meteorites is rare—usually 3 atoms per cubic centimeter. After this single Falcon 9, that count jumped to 31. The entire planet only receives about 80 grams of natural lithium daily, but a single Falcon 9 contains roughly 30 kilograms of it between the alloy and batteries. We're injecting a decade's worth of metallic pollutants in a single afternoon. **Jay Shaffer:** And we're looking at a future with multiple reentries every day. **Mike Lewinski:** Exactly. SpaceX just filed a proposal for up to 1 million satellites to serve as orbital AI data centers. The replenishment cycle would mean hundreds of satellites burning up every week. This vaporized metal stays up there, and we don't fully understand the effects on atmospheric chemistry or Earth's magnetic shield. ### **Navigating the Celestial Grid** **Jay Shaffer:** That brings us to our topic for today: understanding the celestial grid and the geometry of the sky. **Mike Lewinski:** People see stars as a random scatter, but it's really a series of nested disks. If you can visualize the ecliptic and the galactic plane, the sky makes sense. **Jay Shaffer:** The ecliptic is the "main street" of our solar system—the path the sun appears to take. Since planets sit on that same flat plane, if you see something bright that isn't a star, it’s likely a planet on that line. **Mike Lewinski:** Because we're inside that disk, they follow that narrow track. They also exhibit apparent retrograde motion. **Jay Shaffer:** Right—imagine passing a slower car on a track. For a moment, it looks like it's moving backward. **Mike Lewinski:** Exactly. As Earth laps outer planets like Mars or Jupiter, they appear to drift backward against the stars for a few weeks. It's just perspective. **Jay Shaffer:** Then there's the galactic plane—the disk of the Milky Way, tilted about 60 degrees relative to the ecliptic. When we see that dusty band of light, we're looking into the heart of our galaxy. **Mike Lewinski:** Especially looking toward Sagittarius. It’s like being inside a giant dinner plate looking toward the rim. **Jay Shaffer:** For specific addresses, we use coordinates. Beginners use altitude (height from the horizon) and azimuth (direction from North). **Mike Lewinski:** But because Earth spins, those change. That's why we use the equatorial system: declination and right ascension. These stay fixed to the star regardless of your time zone. **Jay Shaffer:** How does someone in their backyard translate that without a computer? **Mike Lewinski:** The planisphere. It’s an analog computer—two plastic disks. You rotate the top disk to align the time with the date. The stars in the window are what's above you. You have to hold it up toward the sky, with North at the bottom if you're facing North. The center pivot is Polaris. I often use star maps illuminated from underneath to protect my night vision. I start with Orion in winter or the Summer Triangle in summer and work my way around. **Jay Shaffer:** Augmented reality apps are also a huge help now. It’s much easier to navigate the night sky than it used to be. ### **Closing** **Jay Shaffer:** We want to thank our listeners. Please comment, like, and subscribe. Check out Wildernessvagabonds.com (Mike’s site) and Skylapsers.com (my site), and our YouTube channels. Our intro music is "Fanfare for Space" by Kevin McLeod. From the Deep Sage 9 Observatory, wishing you all clear skies.