Possible volcanic activity on Mars & Swift telescope returns to Earth - Space News (Nov 5, 2026)

Support The Automated Daily directly: 15 free episodes a day, 5 editions, 3 languages, about $4 a day to produce. A coffee keeps it going: theautomateddaily.com/support Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Effortless AI design for presentations, websites, and more with Gamma - https://try.gamma.app/tad - Prezi: Create AI presentations fast - https://try.prezi.com/automated_daily - KrispCall: Agentic Cloud Telephony - https://try.krispcall.com/tad Today's topics: Possible volcanic activity on Mars - Hydrogen chloride detected near fissures around Alba Mons may be escaping from a dormant Martian magma system. The finding suggests Mars could retain volcanic heat and potentially habitable underground environments. [48] Swift telescope returns to Earth - NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory reentered over northern Sumatra after 22 years of studying gamma-ray bursts and other changing cosmic events. Its loss followed an unsuccessful attempt to raise the telescope into a safer orbit. [17] Station power upgrade nears completion - Astronauts Anil Menon and Joshua Kutryk are scheduled to install the International Space Station’s final roll-out solar array. The spacewalk will complete a five-year power upgrade designed to support the station’s remaining operations. [16] Software reveals hidden exoplanet - A new glare-removal method recovered the known giant exoplanet 51 Eridani b from existing James Webb Space Telescope observations. The technique could expose smaller, colder planets hidden in archived telescope data. [125] Hydrogen maps the cosmic web - The MeerKLASS collaboration has detected large-scale clustering of neutral hydrogen, demonstrating a promising way to chart the cosmic web. Future hydrogen surveys could produce enormous three-dimensional maps of the universe. [74] Russian satellite raises security concerns - Russia’s Cosmos 2612 military satellite recently passed unusually close to the commercial imaging satellite X36. An analyst called the maneuver a possible attack rehearsal, although its purpose cannot be determined from orbital data alone. [106] Episode Transcript Possible volcanic activity on Mars We begin at Mars, where observations from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter point to possible volcanic seepage near Alba Mons. The spacecraft detected seasonal increases in hydrogen chloride, a gas associated with volcanic systems on Earth. Researchers then traced the signal to an area containing relatively young fissures and surface changes that may have been left by escaping material. Their leading explanation is that gas from a dormant underground magma system becomes trapped during the Martian winter, then escapes when seasonal ice sealing the cracks disappears. No eruption has been observed, so this is not proof that lava is moving beneath Mars today. Other explanations still need to be tested. Even so, the finding strengthens the case that the planet retains meaningful internal heat. That matters beyond geology. Warm underground systems interacting with water could create small, protected environments with energy and chemistry useful to microorganisms. The fissures around Alba Mons may therefore become compelling targets in the continuing search for habitable places beneath the Martian surface. Swift telescope returns to Earth Back near Earth, NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has reached the end of its mission. The telescope reentered the atmosphere over northern Sumatra on Wednesday after 22 years in orbit. Most of the spacecraft was expected to burn up, and no damage or injuries were reported. Swift was designed for a two-year mission focused on gamma-ray bursts, the immense flashes produced by some of the universe’s most violent events. It remained scientifically productive for roughly a decade longer than that original target, detecting bursts and quickly directing other observatories toward their fading afterglows. It also studied supernovas, feeding black holes, comets and...