TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
July 18, 2025
ISS Meets Saturn
This month, bright planet Saturn rises in evening skies, its rings oriented nearly edge-on when viewed from planet Earth. And in the early morning hours on July 6, it posed very briefly with the International Space Station when viewed from a location in Federal Way, Washington, USA. This well-planned image, a stack of video frames, captures their momentary conjunction in the same telescopic field of view. With the ISS in low Earth orbit, space station and gas giant planet were separated by almost 1.4 billion kilometers. Their apparent sizes are comparable but the ISS was much brighter than Saturn and the ringed planet's brightness has been increased for visibility in the stacked image. Precise timing and an exact location were needed to capture the ISS/Saturn conjunction.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/commercial-crew/what-you-need-to-know-about-nasas-spacex-crew-11-mission/
https://www.nasa.gov/podcasts/houston-we-have-a-podcast/crew-11/
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/commercialcrew/2025/07/17/nasas-spacex-crew-11-enters-quarantine/
https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/
What You Need to Know About NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 Mission
Jul 18, 2025
Four crew members are preparing to launch to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission to perform research, technology demonstrations, and maintenance activities aboard the orbiting laboratory.
During the mission, Crew-11 also will contribute to NASA’s Artemis campaign by simulating Moon landing scenarios that astronauts may encounter near the lunar South Pole, showing how the space station helps prepare crews for deep space human exploration.
The simulations will be performed before, during, and after their mission using handheld controllers and multiple screens to identify how changes in gravity affect spatial awareness and astronauts’ ability to pilot spacecraft, like a lunar lander.
NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov will lift off no earlier than 12:09 p.m. EDT on Thursday, July 31, from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a long-duration mission.
The cadre will fly aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, named Endeavour, which previously flew NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2, Crew-2, Crew-6, and Crew-8 missions, as well as private astronaut mission Axiom Mission 1.
The flight is the 11th crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the space station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
Overall, the Crew-11 mission is the 16th crewed Dragon flight to the space station, including Demo-2 in 2020 and 11 operational crew rotations for NASA, as well as four private astronaut missions.
As support teams progress through Dragon preflight milestones for Crew-11, they also are preparing a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster for its third flight.
Once all rocket and spacecraft system checkouts are complete and all components are certified for flight, teams will mate Dragon to Falcon 9 in SpaceX’s hangar at the launch site.
The integrated spacecraft and rocket will then be rolled to the pad and raised vertically for the crew’s dry dress rehearsal and an integrated static fire test before launch.
Meet Crew-11
Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017, Cardman will conduct her first spaceflight. The Williamsburg, Virginia, native holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in marine sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
At the time of selection, she was pursuing a doctorate in geosciences. Cardman’s geobiology and geochemical cycling research focused on subsurface environments, from caves to deep sea sediments.
Since completing initial training, Cardman has supported real-time station operations and lunar surface exploration planning. Follow @zenanaut on X and @zenanaut on Instagram.
This mission will be Fincke’s fourth trip to the space station, having logged 382 days in space and nine spacewalks during Expedition 9 in 2004, Expedition 18 in 2008, and STS-134 in 2011, the final flight of space shuttle Endeavour.
Throughout the past decade, Fincke has applied his expertise to NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, advancing the development and testing of Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft toward operational certification.
The Emsworth, Pennsylvania, native is a graduate of the United States Air Force Test Pilot School and holds bachelors’ degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, in both aeronautics and astronautics, as well as Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences.
He also has a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University in California.
Fincke is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel with more than 2,000 flight hours in over 30 different aircraft. Follow @AstroIronMike on X and Instagram.
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With 142 days in space, this mission will be Yui’s second trip to the space station.
After his selection as a JAXA astronaut in 2009, Yui flew as a flight engineer for Expedition 44/45 and became the first Japanese astronaut to capture JAXA’s H-II Transfer Vehicle using the station’s robotic arm.
In addition to constructing a new experimental environment aboard Kibo, he conducted a total of 21 experiments for JAXA. In November 2016, Yui was assigned as chief of the JAXA Astronaut Group.
He graduated from the School of Science and Engineering at the National Defense Academy of Japan in 1992. He later joined the Air Self-Defense Force at the Japan Defense Agency (currently the Ministry of Defense).
In 2008, Yui joined the Air Staff Office at the Ministry of Defense as a lieutenant colonel. Follow @astro_kimiya on X.
The mission will be Platonov’s first spaceflight. Before his selection as a cosmonaut in 2018, Platonov earned a degree in engineering from Krasnodar Air Force Academy in aircraft operations and air traffic management.
He also earned a bachelor’s degree in state and municipal management in 2016 from the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Russia.
Assigned as a test cosmonaut in 2021, he has experience in piloting aircraft, zero gravity training, scuba diving, and wilderness survival.
Mission Overview
Following liftoff, Falcon 9 will accelerate Dragon to approximately 17,500 mph. Once in orbit, the crew, NASA, and SpaceX mission control will monitor a series of maneuvers that will guide Dragon to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module.
The spacecraft is designed to dock autonomously, but the crew can pilot it manually, if necessary.
After docking, Crew-11 will be welcomed aboard the station by the seven-member Expedition 73 crew, before conducting a short handover period on research and maintenance activities with the departing Crew-10 crew members.
Then, NASA astronauts Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov will undock from the space station and return to Earth.
Ahead of Crew-10’s return, mission teams will review weather conditions at the splashdown sites off the coast of California before departure from the station.
Cardman, Fincke, and Yui will conduct scientific research to prepare for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit and benefit humanity on Earth.
Participating crew members will simulate lunar landings, test strategies to safeguard vision, and advance other human spaceflight studies led by NASA’s Human Research Program.
The crew also will study plant cell division and microgravity’s effects on bacteria-killing viruses, as well as perform experiments to produce a higher volume of human stem cells and generate on-demand nutrients.
While aboard the orbiting laboratory, Crew-11 will welcome a Soyuz spacecraft in November with three new crew members, including NASA astronaut Chris Williams.
They also will bid farewell to the Soyuz carrying NASA astronaut Jonny Kim. The crew also is expected to see the arrival of the Dragon, Roscosmos Progress spacecraft, and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft to resupply the station.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission will be aboard the International Space Station on Nov. 2, when the orbiting laboratory surpasses 25 years of a continuous human presence.
Since the first crew expedition arrived, the space station has enabled more than 4,000 groundbreaking experiments in the unique microgravity environment, while becoming a springboard for building a low Earth orbit economy and preparing for NASA’s future exploration of the Moon and Mars.
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Hubble Digs Up Galactic Time Capsule
Jul 18, 2025
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the field of stars that is NGC 1786.
The globular cluster is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way Galaxy that is approximately 160,000 light-years away from Earth.
NGC 1786 itself is in the constellation Dorado. It was discovered in the year 1835 by Sir John Herschel.
The data for this image comes from an observing program that compares old globular clusters in nearby dwarf galaxies — the LMC, the Small Magellanic Cloud, and the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy — to globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy.
Our galaxy contains over 150 of these old, spherical collections of tightly-bound stars, which astronomers have studied in depth — especially with Hubble images like this one, which show them in previously unattainable detail.
Being very stable and long-lived, globular clusters act as galactic time capsules, preserving stars from the earliest stages of a galaxy’s formation.
Astronomers once thought that stars in a globular cluster all formed together at about the same time, but the study of old globular clusters in our galaxy uncovered multiple populations of stars with different ages.
To use globular clusters as historical markers, we must understand how they form and where these stars of varying ages come from.
This observing program examined old globular clusters like NGC 1786 in these external galaxies to see if they, too, contain multiple populations of stars.
This research can tell us more about how the LMC originally formed, but also the Milky Way Galaxy, too.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-digs-up-galactic-time-capsule/
Human Research on Station Helping Keep Long Term Crews Healthy
July 17, 2025
Heart scans, breathing measurements, and a fitness test led the research activities aboard the International Space Station on Thursday giving doctors continuous insight into microgravity’s effect on the human body.
The Expedition 73 residents also ensured the advanced science hardware and life support gear remain in tip-top shape aboard the orbital outpost.
NASA Flight Engineer Anne McClain spent her shift in the Columbus laboratory module helping researchers understand the cardiovascular risk of living and working in space during a long-term mission.
She attached electrodes to her chest then performed a pair of ultrasound scans as doctors on the ground monitored in real time.
Afterward, she measured her blood pressure providing more data into a crew member’s heart health and informing ways to counter space-caused symptoms such as changes in blood flow and stiffened arteries.
A sensor-packed headband and vest designed by the Canadian Space Agency is being tested for its ability to comfortably monitor vital signs while an astronaut goes about their daily activities.
NASA Flight Engineer Nichole Ayers wrapped up a health monitoring session on Thursday and removed the Bio-Monitor wearable devices after 24 hours.
Next, she downloaded the data collected during her sleep shift and from her workout on the Destiny laboratory module’s exercise cycle for doctors to review.
Earlier in her shift, Ayers cleaned Destiny’s Microgravity Science Glovebox that hosts numerous space investigations into biology, physics, and more.
NASA Flight Engineer Jonny Kim continued cleaning up following the previous day’s installation of a new catalytic reactor in the Tranquility module.
After that, he and Station Commander Takuya Onishi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) cleaned and inspected hatch seals in the Tranquility, Harmony, and the Permanent Multipurpose modules.
Onishi also removed botany hardware from a research incubator in the Kibo laboratory module supporting an investigation studying plant cell division to learn how grow to food crops in space.
Roscosmos Flight Engineers Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritskiy took turns attaching acoustic sensors to their necks measuring the sound as they exhaled rapidly for a respiratory study.
The duo then split up as Ryzhikov serviced the Zvezda service module’s oxygen generator and Zubritskiy jogged on Zvezda’s treadmill while attached to electrodes for a fitness evaluation.
Flight Engineer Kirill Peskov kicked off his shift with a computer test to learn how international crews and global mission controllers communicate then spent the rest of the day on plumbing and electronics maintenance duties.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/07/17/human-research-on-station-helping-keep-long-term-crews-healthy/
Space Station Crew Celebrates Milestone
Jul 17, 2025
In this June 13, 2025, photo, NASA astronaut Anne McClain shows off a hamburger-shaped cake to celebrate 200 cumulative days in space for JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi since his first spaceflight as an Expedition 48-49 Flight Engineer in 2016.
Onishi and McClain launched to the International Space Station along with NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov on March 14, 2025, as part of the Crew-10 mission.
Aboard the orbital laboratory, the Crew-10 members conduct scientific research to prepare for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit and benefit humanity on Earth. McClain and Ayers also performed a spacewalk on May 1, 2025 – McClain’s third and Ayers’ first.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/space-station-crew-celebrates-milestone/
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/
NASA to Launch SNIFS, Sun’s Next Trailblazing Spectator
Jul 17, 2025
July will see the launch of the groundbreaking Solar EruptioN Integral Field Spectrograph mission, or SNIFS.
Delivered to space via a Black Brant IX sounding rocket, SNIFS will explore the energy and dynamics of the chromosphere, one of the most complex regions of the Sun’s atmosphere.
The SNIFS mission’s launch window at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico opens on Friday, July 18.
The chromosphere is located between the Sun’s visible surface, or photosphere, and its outer layer, the corona.
The different layers of the Sun’s atmosphere have been researched at length, but many questions persist about the chromosphere.
“There’s still a lot of unknowns,” said Phillip Chamberlin, a research scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder and principal investigator for the SNIFS mission.
The chromosphere lies just below the corona, where powerful solar flares and massive coronal mass ejections are observed.
These solar eruptions are the main drivers of space weather, the hazardous conditions in near-Earth space that threaten satellites and endanger astronauts.
The SNIFS mission aims to learn more about how energy is converted and moves through the chromosphere, where it can ultimately power these massive explosions.
“To make sure the Earth is safe from space weather, we really would like to be able to model things,” said Vicki Herde, a doctoral graduate of CU Boulder who worked with Chamberlin to develop SNIFS.
The SNIFS mission is the first ever solar ultraviolet integral field spectrograph, an advanced technology combining an imager and a spectrograph.
Imagers capture photos and videos, which are good for seeing the combined light from a large field of view all at once.
Spectrographs dissect light into its various wavelengths, revealing which elements are present in the light source, their temperature, and how they’re moving — but only from a single location at a time.
The SNIFS mission combines these two technologies into one instrument. “It’s the best of both worlds,” said Chamberlin. “You’re pushing the limit of what technology allows us to do.”
By focusing on specific wavelengths, known as spectral lines, the SNIFS mission will help scientists to learn about the chromosphere.
These wavelengths include a spectral line of hydrogen that is the brightest line in the Sun’s ultraviolet (UV) spectrum, and two spectral lines from the elements silicon and oxygen.
Together, data from these spectral lines will help reveal how the chromosphere connects with upper atmosphere by tracing how solar material and energy move through it.
The SNIFS mission will be carried into space by a sounding rocket.
These rockets are effective tools for launching and carrying space experiments and offer a valuable opportunity for hands-on experience, particularly for students and early-career researchers.
“You can really try some wild things,” Herde said. “It gives the opportunity to allow students to touch the hardware.”
Chamberlin emphasized how beneficial these types of missions can be for science and engineering students like Herde, or the next generation of space scientists, who “come with a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of new ideas, new techniques,” he said.
The entirety of the SNIFS mission will likely last up to 15 minutes. After launch, the sounding rocket is expected to take 90 seconds to make it to space and point toward the Sun, seven to eight minutes to perform the experiment on the chromosphere, and three to five minutes to return to Earth’s surface.
The rocket will drift around 70 to 80 miles (112 to 128 kilometers) from the launchpad before its return, so mission contributors must ensure it will have a safe place to land. White Sands, a largely empty desert, is ideal.
Herde, who spent four years working on the rocket, expressed her immense excitement for the launch. “This has been my baby.”
https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/nasa-to-launch-snifs-suns-next-trailblazing-spectator/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTfgOYb1Fn8
NASA’s X-59 Quiet Supersonic Aircraft Begins Taxi Tests
Jul 17, 2025
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft has officially begun taxi tests, marking the first time this one-of-a-kind experimental aircraft has moved under its own power.
NASA test pilot Nils Larson and the X-59 team, made up of NASA and contractor Lockheed Martin personnel, completed the aircraft’s first low-speed taxi test at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on July 10, 2025.
The taxiing represents the X-59’s last series of ground tests before first flight.
Over the coming weeks, the aircraft will gradually increase its speed, leading up to a high-speed taxi test that will take the aircraft just short of the point where it would take off.
During the low-speed tests, engineers and flight crews monitored how the X-59 handled as it moved across the runway, working to validate critical systems like steering and braking.
These checks help ensure the aircraft’s stability and control across a range of conditions, giving pilots and engineers confidence that all systems are functioning as expected.
The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which aims to demonstrate quiet supersonic flight by reducing the loud sonic boom to a quieter “thump.”
Data gathered from the X-59 will be shared with U.S. and international regulators to inform the establishment of new, data-driven acceptable noise thresholds related to supersonic commercial flight over land.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-x-59-quiet-supersonic-aircraft-begins-taxi-tests/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5yr94yGZKk
Did Stephen Hawking really predict the end of the world? A date is circulating and NASA seems to validate some elements of his theory
18 July 2025
Stephen Hawking, prophet of an uncertain future or merely a cutting-edge whistleblower? As NASA delves into his predictions, the burning question of a world in peril arises with disturbing relevance.
The resonance of Stephen Hawking’s theories among the great thinkers of our time is no coincidence.
As NASA scientists scrutinize the horizon in light of his predictions, they confront us with a major question: are we living on the brink of a scientific revolution or at the twilight of our own negligence?
A Warning from the Stars
Stephen Hawking, an iconic figure of modern science, never ceased to look beyond our planet. During a conference in 2017, he made a chilling prediction: humanity could disappear by 2600.
According to him, if nothing is done, Earth would become a “giant ball of fire,” a victim of our excesses. But what exactly is he referring to?
Understanding Hawking’s Prophecies
The projections of the famous physicist point to very real problems: climate change, rampant overpopulation, and unbridled exploitation of resources.
According to Hawking, these phenomena could transform our planet into an unlivable space. He even painted a futuristic picture as concrete as it is worrying: an Earth so hot that the oceans would evaporate, leading to a suffocating atmosphere.
His words, spoken at the Tencent WE summit, continue to resonate. If current trends continue, the very mechanisms that support life on Earth could collapse… What is left to do?
Changing Horizons: The Interstellar Solution
For Stephen Hawking, survival involves a bold direction: migrating to other planets. He encouraged humanity not to put all its eggs in one basket.
Among his projects, the Breakthrough Starshot program, funded by visionary donors, reflects this ambition.
Considering human colonies on distant planets like Mars or exploring nearby star systems? The idea seems less and less far-fetched.
Sure, leaving Earth is not a project for tomorrow, but Hawking believed that action was needed quickly.
For him, expansion beyond our planet was much more than a dream: it was a necessity.
When NASA Gets Involved
The incredible scientific advances of NASA have allowed close observation of the state of our planet. And some points raised by Hawking find an echo in these analyses.
For over 50 years, the American space agency has been scrutinizing the effects of human activity on Earth’s atmosphere. Their conclusion: the scenarios described by Hawking are not mere speculations.
The collected data shows that current environmental crises, if not contained, could indeed lead to drastic changes.
However, without falling into fatalism, NASA also emphasizes the importance of human efforts to try to reverse the trend.
Reinventing the Future
What should we take from these dark predictions? While the prospect of leaving Earth seems distant, it is impossible to ignore the warnings our planet is already crying out.
Excessive exploitation, record temperatures, declining biodiversity… The key may lie in a dual approach: preserving what we have while exploring elsewhere.
https://3dvf.com/en/did-stephen-hawking-really-predict-the-end-of-the-world-a-date-is-circulating-and-nasa-seems-to-validate-some-elements-of-his-theory
NASA Software Catalog Puts Agency Solutions at Innovators’ Fingertips
Jul 16, 2025
NASA’s latest open Software Catalog, released Wednesday, offers more than 1,200 downloadable codes developed by agency engineers that could enable faster solutions to energize the space economy and stimulate American ingenuity.
The catalog is part of NASA’s effort to place advanced technologies, including agency software, into the hands of businesses, researchers, and entrepreneurs to foster economic growth and innovation.
Agency developers will provide more information about the Software Catalog, the only repository of its kind in the federal government, during NASA’s summer software webinar series beginning Tuesday, July 22.
“NASA has droves of talented experts creating software to automate elements of agency missions,” said Dan Lockney, program executive, Technology Transfer at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“The resulting efficiency benefits humankind, and its public value increases exponentially when the agency provides access to those software programs for companies, enabling them to save time and money, improve commercial offerings, and build their businesses.”
The four webinars accompanying this year’s NASA Software Catalog feature developers of popular programs for mission planning, systems design, propulsion analysis, and more, each consisting of a presentation followed by a live question-and-answer session.
Programs offered in NASA’s 2025-2026 Software Catalog are grouped into 15 categories that may be useful for organizations working with spacecraft and aircraft.
For example, the Vehicle Management category includes a tool for designing satellite constellations and a software library for minimizing public safety risks around expendable launch vehicles.
The Aeronautics section includes several programs that are widely used by industry for creating, modifying, and analyzing aircraft designs.
Although the categories have specific themes, the codes are meant to be useful to various innovators. Companies can use aircraft programs NASA wrote to design cars, trucks, and countless other products.
The catalog’s Business Systems and Project Management section includes software for estimating project costs, building and assessing complex schedules, and uncovering root causes of mishaps.
Other popular programs support 3D rendering for simulation and virtual reality, bring hyper-accuracy to GPS tracking, and analyze electrical power system architectures.
NASA released its first Software Catalog more than a decade ago in 2013, and since then, the agency’s annual rate of software downloads has skyrocketed, reaching up to 5,722 downloads in a single year.
The Software Catalog is a product of NASA’s Technology Transfer program, managed by the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
NASA routinely makes improvements to the Software Catalog website, ensuring the process is fast and easy.
Access restrictions apply to some software that may be limited to use by U.S. citizens or for U.S. government purposes only.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-software-catalog-puts-agency-solutions-at-innovators-fingertips/
https://software.nasa.gov/
Earth from Space: Circles in the desert
18/07/2025
This image from Copernicus Sentinel-1 shows circular agricultural structures near Tabarjal, in the barren desert of northern Saudi Arabia.
Zoom in or click on the circles to explore this image at its full resolution.
Most of Saudi Arabia has a desert climate and experiences temperatures as high as 50°C in summer.
While there are virtually no permanent rivers or lakes in the country, large valleys called wadis fill with water during times of heavy rain. Most settlements are located along these valleys.
The area pictured lies within the Wadi As Sirhan basin and shows how Saudi Arabia’s desert is used for agriculture. Despite the dry climate, many irrigated crops are grown in the area.
The circles, each approximately one kilometre wide, are formed by central-pivot irrigation systems.
These consist of a well at the centre of each circle, which supplies water from underground aquifers to rotating sprinklers.
This type of irrigation helps farmers manage water in a more sustainable way to conserve this precious resource, which is not being replenished.
This composite combines three Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar images, acquired over seven months.
Each acquisition has been given a different colour – blue for October 2024, green for January 2025 and red for May 2025.
The three images are then layered on top of each other to map differences in land cover, to understand how land is used and to track changes between acquisitions.
The resulting bright colours provide information on the different types of crop and their growth stage, and variations in irrigation.
White, grey or black mean small or no changes over the acquisition period, indicating bare soil, fallow or non-vegetated fields when appearing within the circles, or desert sand, low hills, dry riverbeds and rocky terrain in the overall surrounding areas.
Settlements in the image show up as white, irregular areas amid the colourful circles, with the largest visible being Tabarjal (or Tubarjal), in the top right of the image.
Thanks to its agricultural production and strategic location, Tabarjal is an important town in northern Saudi Arabia.
It serves as a central hub for surrounding rural communities and plays a vital role in the food supply for the region.
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2025/07/Earth_from_Space_Circles_in_the_desert
Scientists Have Never Confirmed a Meteorite From Mercury. Could These Space Rocks From the Desert Be the First?
July 17, 2025 2:45 p.m.
Mercury is a mysterious world. As the closest planet to the sun, it’s a hard-to-reach destination for space missions. So far, only two have made it to Mercury—NASA’s Mariner 10 and MESSENGER spacecrafts.
Accessing debris from Mercury would help scientists study the planet more easily, but that also remains elusive.
While more than 1,100 meteorite samples from the moon and Mars have been documented in a database by the Meteoritical Society, there have been no confirmed specimens from the innermost planet.
Now, in a study recently published in the journal Icarus, researchers suggest that two meteorites found in the Sahara Desert in 2023 might be the closest analogs yet to rocks from Mercury—or, though it’s less likely, they could be the first known meteorites from the planet itself.
If their origin is confirmed, the meteorites could help scientists better understand the rocky world’s evolution and formation. In theory, it should be possible for debris from Mercury to reach Earth.
“Based on the amount of lunar and Martian meteorites, we should have around ten Mercury meteorites, according to dynamical modeling,” says study lead author Ben Rider-Stokes, a postdoctoral researcher at the Open University in the United Kingdom, to Jacopo Prisco at CNN.
“However, Mercury is a lot closer to the sun, so anything that’s ejected off Mercury also has to escape the sun’s gravity to get to us.
It is dynamically possible, just a lot harder,” he adds. “No one has confidently identified a meteorite from Mercury as of yet.”
To determine the Saharan meteorites’ origins, the researchers compared the fragments to observations from the MESSENGER mission, which launched in 2004 and analyzed the components of Mercury’s surface from orbit.
Both meteorites share similar mineralogy with what scientists have predicted about the planet’s crust, Rider-Stokes says in a statement.
For instance, they contain iron-poor olivine and pyroxene, matching what MESSENGER documented on the planet.
However, in a piece for the Conversation, Rider-Stokes points out that it’s difficult to definitively link the meteorites to Mercury.
For one, scientists have calculated Mercury’s surface to be about four billion years old. The samples are about 528 million years older than that.
Additionally, the meteorites both contain only trace amounts of the mineral plagioclase, which is thought to make up over 37 percent of Mercury’s surface.
Sean Solomon, a planetary scientist at Columbia University and former principal investigator for the MESSENGER mission, tells CNN he does not think the meteorites originate from Mercury, because they formed much earlier than the rocks currently on the planet’s surface.
Still, he says they hold scientific value, since they share many geochemical characteristics with minerals found on Mercury’s surface—such as very low iron levels and the presence of sulfur-rich minerals.
“These chemical traits have been interpreted to indicate that Mercury formed from precursor materials much more chemically reduced than those that formed Earth and the other inner planets,” adds Solomon, who was not involved with the study. “It may be that remnants of Mercury precursor materials still remain among meteorite parent bodies somewhere in the inner solar system, so the possibility that these two meteorites sample such materials warrants additional study.”
Even though the study authors acknowledge in the paper that it seems unlikely the two meteorites came directly from Mercury, “one cannot rule out a Mercurian origin,” Rider-Stokes says in the statement.
Proving the origins of the meteorites—Mercurian or not—will remain challenging, until a mission brings back direct samples from the planet, he adds in the Conversation.
The BepiColombo mission—a joint venture between the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency that’s currently en route to Mercury’s orbit—could offer high-resolution data about the planet’s composition and history that could help identify the two meteorites’ origins.
Rider-Stokes has taken his research to the annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society in Australia this week. “I’m going to discuss my findings with other academics across the world,” he says to CNN.
“At the moment, we can’t definitively prove that these aren’t from Mercury, so until that can be done, I think these samples will remain a major topic of debate across the planetary science community.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-have-never-confirmed-a-meteorite-from-mercury-could-these-space-rocks-from-the-desert-be-the-first-180987004/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103525002611?via%3Dihub
2 billion-year-old moon rock found in Africa reveals secret lunar history
July 17, 2025
A meteorite that fell from the moon and was found in Africa is a rare volcanic rock dating from a time period in lunar history that scientists know little about.
The 311-gram space rock was discovered in 2023 and is known as the Northwest Africa 16286 meteorite — and based on the decay of the lead isotopes that it contains, its formation has been dated to about 2.35 billion years ago.
"Its age and composition show that volcanic activity continued on the moon throughout this timespan, and our analysis suggests an ongoing heat-generation process within the moon, potentially from radiogenic elements decaying and producing heat over a long period," said lead researcher Joshua Snape of the University of Manchester in a statement.
The meteorite is an important piece in the jigsaw that is the moon's history, filling-in an almost billion-year-long gap in our knowledge.
The meteorite is much younger than samples brought back to Earth by NASA's Apollo missions, the Soviet Union's Luna missions and China's Chang'e 6 mission, all of which range between 3.1 billion and 4.3 billion years old, but older than the 1.9-billion-year-old rocks returned by Chang'e 5.
Crucially, meteorite 16286 has a volcanic origin, with geochemical analysis showing that it formed when a lava flow from deep within the moon vented onto the surface and solidified.
It contains relatively large crystals of a mineral called olivine, moderate levels of titanium and high levels of potassium.
Its lead isotopes also point to a volcanic source deep underground that has an unusually high uranium-to-lead ratio (the lead being a decay product of uranium).
This abundance of uranium, and the heat it produced as it underwent radioactive decay, is a potential clue as to what was keeping volcanism going a billion years after the moon's main bouts of volcanism had ceased.
There are only 31 volcanic lunar rocks that have been found on Earth in the form of meteorites, and meteorite 16286 is by far the youngest.
"Moon rocks are rare, so it's interesting when we get something that stands out and looks different to everything else," said Snape.
The meteorite is more evidence that volcanism continued throughout this period on the moon; Chang'e 5 has found such evidence in its samples from the moon's farside of volcanism in the past 123 million years. Together, these discoveries are transforming what we thought we thought we knew about the moon's volcanism and how the moon has remained geologically active, at least in bursts, almost to the present day.
The next step is to pinpoint the meteorite's origin on the moon: likely a crater blasted into the surface by an impact that ejected the meteorite long ago.
Once identified, it will be a prime location for a future sample-return mission to learn more about lunar volcanism during this little-known period, from which so few samples exist.
Snape presented the findings at the world's premier geochemistry meeting, the Goldschmidt Conference in Prague held between July 6 and July 11.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/moon/2-billion-year-old-moon-rock-found-in-africa-reveals-secret-lunar-history
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1090237
Intuitive Machines and San Jacinto College Build Workforce for Space-Based Pharmaceutical Returns
July 17, 2025
Intuitive Machines, a leading space technology, infrastructure, and services company, today announced a partnership with San Jacinto College to develop a biopharmaceutical material handling training program based on the College’s established curriculum.
Together with Intuitive Machines’ biotech partner, Rhodium Scientific, the team believes this initiative establishes an end-to-end commercial pipeline for space-based pharmaceutical production—from orbit to inspection—and helps position Texas at the forefront of orbital manufacturing.
Houston-based San Jacinto College has been a trusted workforce development partner to Intuitive Machines, providing approximately 20 trained composite material handling technicians for spacecraft development since 2019.
The College is the only institution in the southern United States offering training certified by the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (“NIBRT”), the global benchmark for biopharmaceutical manufacturing excellence.
The new training program will be designed to meet the handling, inspection, and transfer requirements for pharmaceuticals returned to Earth by Intuitive Machines’ reentry vehicle.
It builds on an existing partnership with International Space Station provider Rhodium Scientific, America’s first commercial space biotech company, which led the largest biomanufacturing program ever conducted in space with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Rhodium Scientific is developing biomanufacturing payloads tailored for Intuitive Machines’ reentry vehicle and will also collaborate with San Jacinto College to provide a turnkey science platform.
“Delivering life-improving pharmaceuticals from orbit is only valuable with reliable recovery and processes on Earth,” said Intuitive Machines Chief Technology Officer Tim Crain, Ph.D.
“That requires more than a spacecraft—it demands the workforce, facilities, and regulatory alignment to support safe, repeatable operations. San Jacinto College has the credibility and technical depth to make this vision a reality.”
The training program is designed to prepare technicians in NIBRT-standard bioprocessing protocols to receive and manage biopharmaceuticals immediately after reentry.
It complements Intuitive Machines’ ongoing development work under a Texas Space Commission grant, which supports progress through critical design review and the creation of a full-scale ground prototype Earth return vehicle.
By integrating workforce partners with spacecraft and scientific payload providers, Intuitive Machines is working to create a seamless commercial architecture from orbit to end user.
“We’re proud to grow our long-standing relationship with Intuitive Machines and extend our leadership in biomanufacturing training,” said San Jacinto College Assistant Vice Chancellor and Vice President of Biotechnology Christopher Wild, Ph.D. “With NIBRT-certified programs already in place and our presence at the Houston Spaceport, San Jacinto College is uniquely positioned to train the workforce needed to commercial space-based pharma recovery.”
Looking Ahead
The Phase One grant supporting Intuitive Machines’ Earth Reentry Program will culminate in a full-scale ground mockup tailored to real payloads and use cases in early 2026.
The Company believes this foundational phase and its strategic partnerships will help pave the way for future projects to bring the reentry system closer to flight readiness.
As Intuitive Machines advances toward orbital return flights, the Company is engaging stakeholders across industry and government.
The collaborations with San Jacinto College and Rhodium Scientific aim to align future landing infrastructure, research opportunities, and funding pathways that deliver lasting economic impact from space.
https://www.intuitivemachines.com/post/intuitive-machines-and-san-jacinto-college-build-workforce-for-space-based-pharmaceutical-returns
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/bitcoin-mining/bitcoin-mining-in-space
Bitcoin Mining in Space
July 17, 2025
The building blocks that will serve as the foundation of the Second Renaissance continues to be laid.
Americans have realized that the future rapid expansion of industry and innovation is lying in wait, just behind a wall of energy.
That flood of electrons waiting to wash across the world is being dammed up by decades of complacency in grid infrastructure development and expansion.
That all sounds bad, but hold on. We have reasons to be excited.
Today, we have Bitcoin mining operating as a relief valve for intermittent electricity and outdated grids.
For years, I’ve shared that Bitcoin mining is the key to our future and that the industry will be providing such important support to our country and military that the entire space will be (is) a national defense asset.
So much of the energy within the Bitcoin mining and data center industries is consumed by managing heat dissipation and corrosion.
Water making contact with electrical equipment tends to drain blood from faces — and for good reason. But too little water in the air and you risk static discharge.
Did I mention that these operations tend to accumulate dust, rapidly? If dust is allowed to collect and then is tripped by a spark, like a static shock or a short-circuit, it explodes in rapid combustion.
At the very same time, having a proper amount of humidity in the air allows for heat to be transferred from electrical equipment throughout the open atmosphere.
You don’t want to run hot all damn day — and neither do computers.
What about putting Bitcoin miners into an atmosphere that has much less, well… atmosphere?
Think about it, our atmosphere is heated by our sun. Our seasons are determined by our location in our orbit around said sun. And our weather is determined by the transfer of that heat within these variables.
This makes maintenance and operations highly dynamic, with a high-level ebb-and-flow that is reminiscent of a professional athlete’s strength-training program.
That’s a lot of variables to deal with in two of the most competitive markets on the planet right now.
So, why not go where no one else has gone before?
Why not search for greener pastures? I mean, hell, the American West was developed thanks to men crazy enough to venture out into the wilderness in search of sites that provided dense basins and veins of stored energy.
In case you hadn’t heard: Space is the next frontier. From your fingertips to the moon — that is the first leg of the future of exploration. It provides many new challenges.
One of the challenges that must be worked on before all others is power.
Bitcoin mining changes the required deployment and development strategy of power plants and energy sourcing on Earth, so why can’t it do the same in space?
If a power plant cannot make money through the electrons it is supplying, well, that dog just ain’t gon’ hunt.
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Thanks to Bitcoin mining, all power plants now have an opportunity to gain access to immediate revenue that is not damaged by power cycling.
All these miners want is reliable power. The easier the maintenance and environmental management, the better.
Intercosmic Energy thinks that low Earth orbit may provide a significant opportunity for Bitcoin mining. With such little atmosphere, there is effectively no weather to be concerned about, so that reduces management requirements.
The altitude provides a greater volume of hours of available sunlight. The vacuum of space allows for an oversupply of cooling capacity — which makes maintaining heat the primary thermal concern.
This is important because when trying to control an environment, having to focus on a single variable for 99% of the time makes the job much easier to manage and execute on.
This also means that maintaining an internal environment makes for easier operational maintenance as well.
With a perfectly controlled atmosphere, equipment life can be stretched to limits that are much further right on a timeline than down here on the Earth’s surface.
Orbital Bitcoin miners will provide demand for power in space. This will call for development of these assets and capacities. There will be those brave enough and crazy enough to answer the call.
These individuals will pave the way forward for development of shipping and manufacturing infrastructure on the moon. This will act as a port for the entire planet, as well as for venturing out throughout our solar system.
All of this becomes more and more possible as we tap our fonts of energy that are just waiting to be consumed.
Nick Moran, CEO of Intercosmic Energy, is answering the future’s call. He’s potently aware of the challenges and risks.
He also knows that he cannot accomplish this goal on his own. Intercosmic Energy is looking to build a team that is as passionate as Moran in the Bitcoin mining space.
He shared with me a few of his top priorities and I thought I would put the word out to the Bitcoin community to see if we can help advance this project.
Of highest priority are an aerospace engineer and/or orbital mechanics expert, a veteran software engineer with Moran’s added emphasis on “one who’s a wizard with Bitcoin mining tech… someone who knows ASIC’s like the back of their hand,” and a thermal management guru with experience in fluid dynamics (such experience in space would obviously be ideal).
This project is far from impossible: It is simply a matter of bringing together like-minded individuals and work toward the same goal. In our conversation, Moran went on to elaborate:
“NASA and other space agencies have only researched energy transfer methods regarding Space-based Solar Power since 1974, having never even built a working concept by the way.
They have wasted BILLIONS in taxpayer money studying this topic.
My novel method leverages data transfer that’s 100% safe and 100% effective vs NASA’s researched method of energy transfer, which is not safe whatsoever and only 11% effective.”
Bitcoin miners are the eliminators of energy waste and the explorers of new, untapped fonts. The lowest-hanging fruits are being reaped now on the Earth’s surface (coal, natural gas, hydro, solar, nuclear and wind).
We are now in the building stage for the next leap forward: Bitcoin mining’s space race.
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https://www.space.com/space-exploration/nasa-workers-plan-moon-day-protest-on-july-20-to-oppose-mass-layoffs-budget-cuts-this-year-has-been-an-utter-nightmare-that-has-not-stopped
NASA workers plan 'Moon Day' protest on July 20 to oppose mass layoffs, budget cuts. 'This year has been an utter nightmare that has not stopped.'
July 18, 2025
For NASA, this weekend is special. Sunday marks the 56th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing — humanity's first steps on another world — July 20, 1969.
As the only space agency on Earth able to boast such an accomplishment, those at NASA view the date with wide recognition.
This year, however, some within NASA will mark the occasion amid what they see as an institution under attack, both from outside and from within.
A group of NASA employees and their supporters in Washington, D.C., will hold a demonstration to protest what they view as detrimental preemptive compliance within space agency leadership to execute potential cuts to science programs and staffing, based on the White House's 2026 budget request, which has not yet been enacted into law.
The grassroots demonstration, endorsed by the Goddard Engineers, Scientists and Technicians Association, is the second planned by the organizing group, NASA Needs Help, which led a similar protest on June 30 to give voice to those in NASA wanting to speak out as private citizens to raise awareness of the irreparable cuts already happening within the space agency.
"The public has heard that NASA is under attack, that the president's budget request would slash our nation's aeronautics and space administration.
What most people don't know is that it's happening now," Marshall Finch, a NASA contract worker helping organize the protest, told Space.com.
Finch said his views and actions are his own and not representative of his employer or NASA. NASA Needs Help is responding to what it sees as NASA leadership treating the White House's 2026 budget request as a mandate.
"Under pressure from the White House, OMB and DOGE, NASA's administration is shredding NASA every day, and it's happening quickly," Finch said, referring to the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Government Efficiency, initially led by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
When reached for comment, NASA officials confirmed their awareness of the upcoming protest, but said the space agency has no affiliation with the demonstration.
The 2026 budget request slashes NASA science funding by 47% and overall agency funding by 24%, with the heaviest impacts felt by Earth science (especially climate research) and deep-space planetary missions, some of which are still in active operation, transmitting data.
Canceling many of these missions (there are 41 on the chopping block) also poses risks to national security, the nation's ability to track natural disasters, as well as America's overall dominance in space, scientists have said.
Morale at facilities like NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland has plummeted.
One scientist who attended the June 30 demonstration works as a postdoc at Goddard, through a contractor, on the LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) mission, and told Space.com the past few years at NASA have been their "absolute dream job."
"I love it," said the Goddard scientist, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. "And this year has been an utter nightmare that has not stopped since January."
For months, NASA leadership has acknowledged the possibility of Reductions in Force (RIFs), but employees say details have been vague.
"Mackenzie Lystrup and Janet Petro have repeatedly discussed in their town halls these Reductions in Force," the Goddard scientist said, naming the facility's director and NASA's former acting administrator, respectively.
"I hear them say that we are preparing for RIFs, because that has been what the President or the OMB has sort of ordered, but they aren't forthcoming with any details."
At the same time, the Deferred Resignation Program (DRP) — a voluntary separation effort that promises certain benefits for quitting your job — is already quietly pushing NASA staff out.
More than 2,000 senior leadership staff are expected to leave through the agency's DRP initiatives, according to a Politico report.
"They're basically just trying to get as many people to quit and leave NASA as possible … It'll make the RIFs easier when they come later this year," the Goddard scientist said.
"We are seeing more and more people taking this now, while the window is still open. I think that's kind of because we don't know what will happen after that window closes, and it might be a worse scenario than the current one."
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LISA is a joint mission by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) slated to launch around 2035 to conduct groundbreaking studies of gravitational waves as the first observatory of its kind in space.
"It has a potential to be one of these incredibly monumental, game-changing human-knowledge-pivoting observatories," the scientist said, conceding a degree of bias toward their mission.
The laser system and telescopes that LISA will rely on to make its "game-changing" discoveries are being developed and constructed at Goddard.
"NASA has hardware," the scientist said. "They're both major components of the actual design of the mission. It's not like it's still in this conceptual phase. It's very much in a tangible state right now."
LISA was zeroed out in the White House's budget proposal, not only casting the jobs of those on the program into doubt but also the entirety of ESA's investment in the $2 billion mission, which has been nearly three decades in development.
ESA has stated that the project could be in jeopardy if the president's budget is passed.
The NASA contractor responsible for at least part of LISA's program staff has already informed some employees that their jobs cannot be guaranteed past Sept. 30 because the space agency sent notice of certain roles in "high-risk positions."
In the face of cancellations, some NASA workers are considering more radical shifts in order to continue careers on projects or areas of research they are passionate about.
"If NASA pulls out [of LISA] entirely, and ESA is committed to continuing this mission … that is definitely something I've been thinking about more and more this year — about just leaving the United States to go work in Europe, to support them," the Goddard scientist said.
"If it comes to that, I think that's what I would do. And I think a lot of people are considering leaving."
For scientists looking to cross the pond, opportunities are already landing on their doorsteps. Some overseas science institutions have reached out to American researchers to gauge their interest in coming to work for them.
A representative from one institution messaged researchers in an email obtained by Space.com, offering a sort of relocation program.
"Considering the situation of some scientists under the US administration, [country] is organizing a special program to welcome US scientists who would have lost their job or would prefer to leave the US and come to work in [country]," the email reads in part.
The responses to that email were so numerous, the institution had to create a database to categorize interested parties into areas of scientific study, saying in another email that the number of replies was "overwhelming (and worrying)."
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Ultimately, many of these scientists and other NASA workers would prefer not to leave the country, and for the problems facing the U.S. science industry to be solved, and quickly.
Possibly leaning in their favor, Congress seems increasingly resistant to the White House's deep science cuts. A Senate Appropriations Committee vote advanced a proposal to fund NASA science at $7.3 billion, effectively restoring it to fiscal year (FY) 2025 levels.
The House markup also rejects the proposed cuts, with apparent bipartisan support for maintaining NASA's science programs — all the more reason that NASA workers feel the need to protest the preemptive cuts taking place within the space agency.
"NASA is being dismantled now, treating the President's budget request as marching orders rather than proposed legislation," Finch said.
"Damage is occurring rapidly, daily. Although Congress is signaling bipartisan support to fund NASA, by the time they have an FY 26 budget passed, the damage will be widespread, fait accompli."
Organizers are calling on Congress to act using emergency legislation and the political tools at its disposal to protect NASA from further cuts until legislation, not suggestions, can decide the space agency's future.
The demonstration planned for July 20 is scheduled to take place from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. EDT, according to the group's permitting request.
The group's first protest gathered outside NASA Headquarters in D.C., and saw about 60 to 70 people in attendance, the organizers estimate. They are hoping more attend the upcoming event.
Sunday's protest location is awaiting approval from the National Park Service, but will either take place at Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Park, across from the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum (540 Independence Ave SW, Washington, D.C. 20202), or once more outside NASA Headquarters (300 E. St. SW, Washington, D.C. 20546).
NASA employees and contract workers attending or helping organize the protest have stressed that they are not acting on behalf of the space agency and do not represent their respective employers.
Their ad hoc protest group has no formal structure or leadership, nor do its volunteer event coordinators maintain any organizational roles.
The Goddard scientist who spoke with Space.com after the first protest said they attended because NASA is an agency with a mission they believe in, but they don't think what's being done is in the best interest of the American people.
"I think probably all of us who are protesting right now are stepping out of our comfort zone. I would rather not be doing any of this, but I think it's important, and it's necessary at this moment in time."
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https://www.space.com/astronomy/exoplanets/a-doomed-exoplanet-is-caught-in-a-death-spiral-around-its-star-can-it-survive
https://lighthouse.mq.edu.au/article/july-2025/doomed-planets-death-spiral-could-reveal-stellar-secrets
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ade057
A doomed exoplanet is caught in a 'death spiral' around its star. Can it survive?
July 18, 2025
A massive planet trapped in a death spiral around its star could unlock some of the secrets surrounding star systems.
However, the fate of this world is not yet set in stone, with two deaths and one "rebirth" possible in its future.
The extrasolar planet or "exoplanet" in question is TOI-2109b, which has five times the mass of Jupiter and is located around 870 light-years from our solar system.
The planet orbits so close to its parent star, TOI-2109, that it has a year that lasts just 16 hours.
These characteristics mean that TOI-2109b is classified as an "ultrahot Jupiter," a rare class of planets that account for around 1 in 500 planets in the over 5,000 worlds in the catalog of known exoplanets.
But TOI-2109b stands out even among those incredibly hot, star-hugging worlds.
"This is an ultra-hot Jupiter, and orbits much closer to its star than any other hot Jupiter ever discovered," Macquarie University Research Fellow Jaime A. Alvarado-Montes said in a statement."
Just to put it into context, Mercury's mass is almost 6,000 times smaller than Jupiter's, but it still takes 88 days to orbit our sun.
"For a huge gas giant such as TOI-2109b to fully orbit in 16 hours, it tells us that this is a planet located super-close to its star."
That makes TOI-2109b the perfect laboratory to study planets' death spirals into their host stars, or more accurately, the phenomenon of orbital decay.
The three deaths of TOI-2109b
Alvarado-Montes and colleagues set about investigating TOI-2109b using archival data from multiple telescopes, including NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the European Space Agency (ESA) space mission Cheops.
This constituted data regarding the transits of TOI-2109b across the face of its parent star from 2010 to 2024.
"Using all of the data available for this planet, we were able to predict a small change in its orbit," Alvarado-Montes said.
"Then we verified it with our theory and with our planet evolution models, and our predictions matched the observations. That's quite exciting."
The matching theoretical estimations and observational evidence suggested that the orbit of TOI-2109b will decay by around 10 seconds over the next three Earth-years.
Though this is a tiny change, it proves TOI-2109b is spiraling toward its parent star.
The ultimate fate of TOI-2109b is uncertain, as there are three possible ways that this death spiral could play out.
The first and most dramatic final fate of TOI-2109b would see the ultrahot Jupiter plunge into its parent star. This will occur if the orbital decay of this planet begins to accelerate.
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"The star will absorb it and kill it, of course, in the process – completely burn it, and the planet will disappear," Alvarado-Montes said.
This would create a flash of light that is similar to ZTF SLRN-2020, a signal first observed in May 2020 when a gas giant planet plunged into its red giant stellar parent.
The second possible fate of TOI-2109b is slightly less dramatic, but no less catastrophic.
This would happen if the orbital decay of the planet continues unabated and sees the gravity of its parent star generate destructive tidal forces within the planet. These forces would literally rip TOI-2109b apart.
"The gravitational interactions are so strong that the planet starts being distorted," Alvarado-Montes said. "It starts looking more like an elongated doughnut … the gravity of the planet is no longer able to hold its spherical shape."
There is a third possible fate which would see the planet transformed rather than being destroyed.
In the third possible scenario for TOI-2109b, the intense radiation experienced by the ultrahot Jupiter strips away the planet's gassy outer layers in a process called photoevaporation. This would expose the rocky inner core of TOI-2109b.
"As the planet gets even closer to the star, all of the gas molecules could start being dissociated, and the planet gets smaller and smaller," Alvarado-Montes explained.
"And if the planet shrinks quickly enough, then when the planet reaches the position where its Roche limit would have been, it's not going to be five Jupiter masses anymore, but it will be small enough that the Roche limit moves closer to the star, so it could escape destruction."
This could ultimately result in the creation of a rocky "super-Earth" around the size of Uranus or Neptune.
The team will continue to monitor TOI-2109b over the next three to five years, which should reveal the fate that will befall this doomed world.
The investigation of TOI-2109b has implications beyond its own fascinating and fateful situation. It provides astronomers the chance to study how hot Jupiters evolve and what happens when planets migrate toward their host stars.
"This planet and its interesting situation could help us figure out some mysterious astronomical phenomena that so far we really don't have much evidence to explain," Alvarado-Montes concludes.
"It could tell us the story of many other solar systems."
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Meteor impact may have triggered massive Grand Canyon landslide 56,000 years ago
July 18, 2025
A meteorite impact thousands of years ago may have triggered a landslide in the Grand Canyon and reshaped the Colorado River that runs through the national park.
Geologists studying driftwood and lake sediments found in Stanton's Cave — in Marble Canyon, which lies in the eastern part of the Grand Canyon — revealed a possible connection between the area and the famous impact site known as Meteor Crater (also called Barringer Crater) in northern Arizona.
Through excavation and multiple rounds of radiocarbon dating, researchers determined the driftwood is about 56,000 years old.
Yet today, the mouth of Stanton's Cave sits 150 feet (46 meters) above the Colorado River. A new study suggests the wood was carried there by an ancient paleolake, formed when a massive landslide dammed the river.
"It would have required a 10-times-bigger flood level than any flood that has happened in the past several thousand years," Karl Karlstrom, co-lead author of the study and an Earth and planetary science professor at the University of New Mexico, said in a statement from the university.
The study claims that the strike that created Meteor Crater could be linked to a paleolake — an ancient lake that existed in the past but has since dried up — in the Grand Canyon that formed at the same time.
The impact would have generated an earthquake around magnitude 5.4 to 6, which could have sent a shock wave powerful enough to shake loose unstable cliffs in the Grand Canyon 100 miles (161 kilometers) away and trigger a massive landslide.
That event, in turn, could have deposited enough debris to dam the river and form a lake.
Other caves high above the river have also been explored for clues about the canyon's geological past. In addition to the driftwood, ancient beaver tracks have been found in areas that would be inaccessible to the water-dwelling animals today, further supporting the idea that a paleolake once existed in the area.
With driftwood and sediment samples found in many caves as high up as 3,084 feet (940 m), the researchers estimate the paleolake would have been about 50 miles (80 km) long and nearly 300 feet (91 m) deep.
Over time, the dam that blocked the Colorado River could have been overtopped and deeply eroded, eventually filling up with sediment.
While there is evidence linking the paleolake, the meteorite impact and resulting landslide, the researchers noted that further study is required to eliminate any other possible explanations for the river damming, such as random rockfall or a more local earthquake around the same time.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/earth/meteor-impact-may-have-triggered-massive-grand-canyon-landslide-56-000-years-ago
https://news.unm.edu/news/unm-study-finds-link-between-grand-canyon-landslide-and-meteor-crater-impact
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/doi/10.1130/G53571.1/659552/Grand-Canyon-landslide-dam-and-paleolake-triggered
Space Force Promotes New NCOs at Breakneck Pace and Sky-High Rate
July 17, 2025
The Space Force is promoting new noncommissioned officers at a breakneck pace, as the service announced another year of sky-high rates for junior NCOs.
More than four out of every five eligible Guardians were selected for promotion to either sergeant or technical sergeant in 2025, according to statistics from the Air Force Personnel Center.
The full list of selectees was released July 17.
Nearly every specialist 4 looking to become a sergeant got the nod, with a 96.03 percent rate. That’s even higher than last year’s 95.66 percent. Of those selected, the average time in grade was 0.95 years and time in service was 3.38 years.
Those times in grade and service are the lowest in the Space Force’s brief history and stand in contrast to the Air Force—the average time in grade for Senior Airmen selected for staff sergeant hasn’t dipped below 1.6 years for at least nine cycles, and the time in service has stayed above four years.
Space Force leaders have said they want to revamp how they do promotions for sergeants, moving to what they call a “fully qualified” system where every E-4 who meets the qualifications will be promoted, removing any limits on the number of eligible candidates.
For this cycle, however, Guardians went through the existing process in which candidates are scored and ranked based on their performance and training records, then picked by a selection board.
The selection rate for sergeants looking to move up to technical sergeant was well below the E-5 rate, but still up slightly over last year at 68.16 percent.
The average time in grade was 3.39 years and time in service was eight years. Like the sergeant selectees, the time in grade and time in service are less than what the Air Force typically sees for its equivalent rank.
The last nine USAF E-6 promotion cycles have featured time in grade averages above 4 years and time in service averages above 9 years.
All told, the 2025 Space Force cycle saw 733 promotions for sergeant and technical sergeant out of 896 eligible Guardians: 81.8 percent.
Unsurprisingly, the Space Force’s end strength in those grades has swelled in recent years. In 2023, when promotion rates were 20 percentage points lower for both grades than they are now, the service had 1,058 sergeants and 826 technical sergeants.
Looking ahead to 2026, when the most recent promotions will come into full effect, USSF is expecting to have 1,274 sergeants and 1,081 technical sergeants—a 25 percent increase compared to a 17 percent increase in total force end strength.
While the junior NCO promotion rates have surged, the Space Force also announced a slightly lower rate for its E-7 master sergeant rank: 18.22 percent, the lowest in the service’s brief history.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/space-force-promotes-new-ncos-pace/
https://www.afpc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4247955/space-force-releases-master-sergeant-technical-sergeant-and-sergeant-promotion/
Ukrainian drones downed near Moscow
18 Jul, 2025 13:01
Russian air defense systems have intercepted several Ukrainian drones approaching Moscow, the city’s mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, said on Friday.
Ukraine has been conducting UAV raids deep into Russia for months, often hitting residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure.
The Russian government labels Ukraine’s strikes as “terrorist attacks” intentionally targeting civilians.
In a post on his Telegram channel, Sobyanin said air defense forces had shot down a drone heading toward Moscow, adding that emergency crews were working at the crash site.
About 40 minutes after the initial report, he said two more Ukrainian drones had been destroyed approaching the capital.
The mayor had reported similar incidents late on Wednesday and early on Thursday.
The Russian Defense Ministry stated that a total of ten drones were intercepted and destroyed overnight in Moscow and the surrounding region.
Five districts in Moscow Region were targeted, Governor Andrey Vorobyov said on Friday.
Vorobyov stated there were no casualties, with most drones destroyed mid-air, preventing significant damage, although some private homes sustained damage.
Last month Sobyanin told reporters that the city’s air defense system operates at the “highest level,” intercepting 99.9% of targets.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov earlier emphasized that Russia employs layered air defense systems to minimize the threat of drone attacks.
https://www.rt.com/russia/621658-drones-downed-moscow/
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/56564