Heartwarming / Asteroid in Love

• Mira and Ao's relationship could have been more awkward if not for two of these happening on the day after they reunited.
  • Mira, Ao, and Moe have lunch together on the roof, and Mira appreciates Ao's newly-gained composure. Later, as Mira goes downstairs to clean her stained skirt, Ao explains to Moe that whatever "composure" Mira sees in her today isn't really composure. She doesn't speak much because she is no longer comfortable speaking to people, even when it's Mira. Moe consoles her that given their common Goal in Life and childhood promise, any initial awkwardness can be ironed out—and Ao isn't as lacking in words than Mira does.
  • Despite Moe having comforted her somehow, Ao still isn't confident whether her very profound personality change is going to turn Mira off, particularly when Ao herself does have some feelings towards Mira as well. So she calls Mira, intending to tell Mira her feelings to Mira never changed. However, because she can speak, Mira asks Ao to go to the balcony and says the Mercury is bright that night, and tells Ao that she learned a lot about astronomy because of Ao's influence (cue High-Pressure Emotion on Ao's side). They go on to chat about astronomy all night. What happens the next day—Ao having a smiling face when thinking about Mira—shows the call brings out the "dere" from Ao's Dandere.
• In Chapter 7/ Episode 3, Mira gives Misa a banded stone she got from the previous arc as a good luck charm for the latter's college entrance exams. When Misa returns to her room, she quickly builds an altar dedicated to the stone... not for herself, but for Mira and Ao's goal. As Misa vacates her room to Ao in Chapter 31/ Episode 9, Misa gives Ao some instructions on that altar, which implies Misa prays for Mira and Ao's Goal in Life every day.
• Mikage is usually prickly, but her deredere side shows when the club are at JAXA. Despite outside her field of interest, she asks the staff on behalf of Ao and Mari regarding their goals in life, as Ao is too tongue-tied to ask properly and Mari is too busy jotting down the Info Dump on astronauts.
• After Mikage brings Mira to the mineral show in Chapter 15/Episode 5, Mikage mentions she is lacking the drive to study for college entrance exams since she never has any goals—not even career plans, let alone a Goal in Life. Afterwards, Mira gives Mikage something she got from the mineral show as a gift, and when Mikage checks it out at home, it turns out to be a small piece of topaz, which is said to have the power to help the bearer to find their path. (In the manga, Mira also buys small gifts for Ao and Moe, but those are puns on their names)
• In Episode 8, Mai hits it off surprisingly well with Saeki, a fellow test-taker for the Earth Science Olympiad. While the test-takers are competing with each other, Saeki doesn't have a cutthroat attitude toward the event, but instead thinks of it as an event where people who are passionate about the same thing gather.
• After the rest of the club learns that Ao will have to move away as a result of her father's job transfer, the rest of the club^note While Mari doesn't attend the meeting, due to being busy with college entrance exams, she does provide ideas via texts to Mikage, the Newspaper Club, Suzu and Misa put their heads together to find ways to help Ao fulfill her Goal in Life (Ino helpfully clarifies to Eve that it's nothing about farewell parties). Ao asks why they're going so far for her, and Suzu simply says, "Because we like you," a sentiment that the others share.
• In Episode 9, Ao's mother, Shiori, is willing to listen to her daughter and consider her request to stay with Mira rather than move out of town, a request Shiori ultimately grants, since she believes it's important to consider Ao's feelings. Not only that, but while most of Shiori's arguments against Ao's proposal are largely practical, she has one sentimental one- parents don't want to be separated from their children.
• In Episode 10, Yuu Nanami doesn't immediately hit it off with the other members of the Earth Science Club due to her different interests, but she gradually bonds with them over the course of their outing, eventually gladly agreeing to let them call her "Nana."
  • Yuu's being more open and friendly can be contributed by several things, but one of them comes from Endou-sensei. After Yuu starts squeeing over the circumhorizontal arc, Endou reminds Nanami that the latter does enjoy in meteorology, and she should hear herself a bit more.
• In Episode 11, Ao reveals that she managed to get all the way to Ishigaki Island by getting permission from her parents, obtaining an advance on her wages from Suzu, and booking a flight with help from Mari and Mikage, which goes to show how many people are willing to support her.
• In Episode 11, while Nana disapproves of Ao tagging along as an observer to the Shining Star Challenge despite failing the screening, she takes the initiative to tie Teru-Teru Bōzu dolls in hopes that the weather around Ishigaki Island will clear up, enabling Ao and Mira to find an asteroid while they're there.