Solar Flares, Bizarre Hot Jupiters, and NASA’s Soccer Ball Moon Mission

Astronomy Daily S05E130 — Thursday, July 2, 2026 A quick update on Swift's third launch scrub, a solar flare that could spark aurora for July 4th weekend, a hot Jupiter breaking the rules of physics, Amazon Leo's final Atlas V flight, patriotic Chandra imagery, a look back at a third galaxy missing its dark matter, and NASA's cheeky World Cup wager involving the Moon. In This Episode ● Swift/LINK rescue mission scrubbed again, third attempt targeted for today ● X1.1 solar flare triggers G2 geomagnetic storm watch for July 3 ● CoRoT-2 b: the hot Jupiter that isn't tidally locked ● Amazon Leo's 8th and final Atlas V launch — LA-08 ● NASA's Chandra reveals four cosmic images for America's 250th ● Circling back: DF9, the third dark matter-free galaxy ● NASA pledges a soccer ball to the Moon if the US wins the World Cup Links & Sources ● NASA Swift Blog — science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift ● Space.com — Sun unleashes X1.1 flare, CME could spark aurora for July 4 ● Space.com — This weird 'hot Jupiter' exoplanet has a hotspot in the wrong place ● Space.com — Watch Atlas V launch 29 Amazon Leo satellites ● NASA Chandra — Red, White, Blue Universe for US 250th ● Yale News / Keck Observatory — Third time's the charm for a row of faint galaxies without dark matter ● Space.com — NASA will send a soccer ball to the Moon if the US wins the World Cup

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