TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
August 28, 2025
Galaxies, Stars, and Dust
This well-composed telescopic field of view covers over a Full Moon on the sky toward the high-flying constellation Pegasus. Of course the brighter stars show diffraction spikes, the commonly seen effect of internal supports in reflecting telescopes, and lie well within our own Milky Way galaxy. The faint but pervasive clouds of interstellar dust ride above the galactic plane and dimly reflect the Milky Way's starlight. Known as galactic cirrus or integrated flux nebulae they are associated with the Milky Way's molecular clouds. In fact, the diffuse cloud cataloged as MBM 54, less than a thousand light-years distant, fills the scene. The galaxy seemingly tangled in the dusty cloud is the striking spiral galaxy NGC 7497. It's some 60 million light-years away, though. Seen almost edge-on near the center of the field, NGC 7497's own spiral arms and dust lanes echo the colors of stars and dust in our own Milky Way.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
kek
Sounding rockets soar over Delmarva following NASA Wallops launch
Aug 28, 2025
WALLOPS ISLAND, VA– Three TOMEX+ mission sounding rockets were successfully from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Aug. 28.
The rockets took off in succession starting at approximately 10:43 p.m., just
This comes after officials delayed the launch window numerous times due to cloudy conditions, as NASA says clear skies are crucial for the instruments onboard.
Short for Turbelent Oxygen Mixing Experiment Plus, TOMEX+ flights look to study a layer of the Earth's atmosphere called the mesosphere by spreading vapor tracers and tracking lights.
NASA expected the rockets and their vapor trails to be visible across the mid-Atlantic region, with many across Delmarva sending photos to WBOC.
https://www.wboc.com/news/sounding-rockets-soar-over-delmarva-following-nasa-wallops-launch/article_a79ae1b1-0906-4464-95ef-f92a544f91f5.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlCo7JNxTYQ
SpaceX launches Starlink 10-11 mission from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
Updated Aug 28. 2025, 5:24 a.m. ET
Launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying 28 Starlink internet satellites into low-Earth orbit. Launch was at 4:12 a.m. EDT Thursday, Aug 28 from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
moar pictures
https://www.floridatoday.com/picture-gallery/tech/science/space/2025/08/28/spacex-launches-starlink-10-11-mission-from-nasa-kennedy-space-center/85846164007/
https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl-10-11
SpaceX Starlink Mission
August 29, 2025 19:05 - 23:05 PT
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is targeted to launch 24 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about five minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app.
This will be the 15th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched USSF-62, OneWeb Launch 20, NROL-145, and 11 Starlink missions.
Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
There is the possibility that residents of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties may hear one or more sonic booms during the launch, but what residents experience will depend on weather and other conditions.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl-17-7
Head and Eye Health, Dragon Reboost Preps, and Emergency Drill Fill Crew Day
August 27, 2025
Preventing space-caused head and eye pressure impacts using specialized medical hardware was the top research theme aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday.
The Expedition 73 residents also continued unpacking a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft and practiced an emergency drill aboard the orbital outpost.
Microgravity pulls a crew member’s body fluids toward the head leading to potential eye structure and vision changes. One common, easily visible symptom is called “puffy face” where an astronaut’s face appears swollen and redder.
Researchers are looking at a unique thigh cuff worn on an astronaut’s leg that may counteract the headward fluid shifts reducing pressure on the head and eyes.
Flight Engineer Kimiya Yui of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) led the thigh cuff study on Wednesday testing the biomedical device on NASA Flight engineer Mike Fincke.
Yui also scanned Fincke’s legs with the Ultrasound 2 device as electrodes on Fincke’s chest measured his cardiac activity.
Doctors on the ground monitored gaining real time insights into astronaut health to learn how to protect crews on longer duration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
NASA Flight Engineers Jonny Kim and Zena Cardman spent their shift focusing on cargo operations inside the SpaceX Dragon.
The duo continued unpacking some of the several tons of gear including human research experiments and life support hardware.
Dragon also delivered an external payload, a reboost kit, or an independent propellant system located in the spacecraft’s trunk that will use two Draco engines to demonstrate the ability to maintain the orbital outpost’s altitude.
On Tuesday, robotics controllers on the ground remotely commanded the Canadarm2 robotic arm to visually inspect the new propellant hardware before Dragon fires its Draco engines in September reboosting the station’s altitude.
All four astronauts also joined the orbiting lab’s three Roscosmos cosmonauts station Commander Sergey Ryzhikov and Flight Engineers Alexey Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov and practiced procedures for a simulated emergency.
The septet reviewed the steps they would use on a computer tablet in unlikely events such as an ammonia leak, a depressurization, or a fire.
The crew also practiced emergency communication and coordination with mission controllers from around the world.
Before the emergency drill, Ryzhikov began his shift testing the performance of electronics hardware in the Zarya module before jogging on the Zvezda service module’s treadmill for a fitness evaluation. Zubritsky set up multispectral imaging gear in a station window and photographed areas of western Africa.
Platonov started his day downloading imagery of Central Asia captured automatically during the crew’s sleep shift.
Afterward, he checked Roscosmos life support systems and collected station air samples to analyze for trace contaminants such as carbon dioxide and ammonia to ensure a safe breathable environment.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/08/27/head-and-eye-health-dragon-reboost-preps-and-emergency-drill-fill-crew-day/
Hail Scars Alberta Farmland
August 28, 2025
Although severe thunderstorms occur less frequently in Canada than in many parts of the United States, southern Alberta is known as “hailstorm alley.”
The region’s climate and geography are conducive to storm development, and the area typically sees dozens of hail events each year that collectively cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
The latest destructive storm to hit the region arrived on August 20, 2025, when a supercell storm raced across southern Alberta.
The storm brought destructive winds gusting as high as 149 kilometers (93 miles) per hour and pummeled the area with hail that some observers reported reached golf ball size.
The pair of images above highlights the long swath of damage visible in satellite imagery in the aftermath of the storm.
The first image (left) shows a mixture of farmland, grasslands, and forests southeast of Calgary on August 19, 2025; the second image (right) shows the same area on August 24, after the storm had battered the landscape.
The images were acquired with the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites, respectively.
The hail scar in the August 24 image measures roughly 15 kilometers wide and 200 kilometers long.
Hail damage like this becomes especially visible to satellites in the mid- to late summer, after vegetation has matured and greened up.
According to news reports, the storm uprooted trees, damaged cars, downed power transmission lines, and flattened crops.
Some farmers in the region have reported extensive damage. Crops commonly grown in the area include wheat, alfalfa, and canola.
Insurers expect to see claims filed as a result of the event in the coming days and weeks, adding to the financial toll that hail has taken on Alberta in recent years.
The latest event adds to the 92 million Canadian dollars ($66 million) in insured losses following an event in July 2025, according to one Canadian trade magazine.
Insured hail damage in Alberta has totaled more than 6 billion Canadian dollars in the past five years, the magazine reported.
Meanwhile, scientists at NASA’s Langley Research Center are collaborating with reinsurance companies to improve models of hail risks based on input from satellites.
“With state-of-the-art identification techniques, we can quantify severe storm distribution and frequency with an exceptional level of consistency that’s only granted by satellite measurements,” said Benjamin Scarino, a research scientist at Langley.
“Long-term satellite data records allow us to provide the reinsurance industry, project partners, and the research community with valuable insights into severe storm activity and risk.”
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/154724/hail-scars-alberta-farmland#
Strap In! NASA Aeroshell Material Takes Extended Space Trip
Aug 27, 2025
Components of a NASA technology that could one day help crew and cargo enter harsh planetary environments, like that of Mars, are taking an extended trip to space courtesy of the United States Space Force.
On Aug. 21, several pieces of webbing material, known as Zylon, which comprise the straps of the HIAD (Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator) aeroshell developed by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, launched to low Earth orbit along with other experiments aboard the Space Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle.
This trip will help researchers characterize how the Zylon webbing responds to long-duration exposure to the harsh vacuum of space.
The strap material on the HIAD aeroshell serves two purposes – short strap lengths hold together HIAD’s inflatable rings and longer pieces help to distribute the load more evenly across the cone-shaped structure.
The HIAD aeroshell technology could allow larger spacecraft to safely descend through the atmospheres of celestial bodies like Mars, Venus, and even Saturn’s moon, Titan.
“We’re researching how HIAD technology could help get humans to Mars.
We want to look at the effects of long-term exposure to space – as if the Zylon material is going for a potential six to nine-month mission to Mars,” said Robert Mosher, HIAD materials and processing lead at NASA Langley.
“We want to make sure we know how to protect those structural materials in the long term.”
Flying Zylon material aboard the Space Force’s X-37B mission will help NASA researchers understand what kind of aging might occur to the webbing on a long space journey before it experiences the extreme environments of atmospheric entry, during which it has to retain strength at high temperatures.
Multiple samples are in small canisters on the X-37B. Mosher used two different techniques to put the strap material in the canisters. Some he tightly coiled up, others he stuffed in.
“Typically, we pack a HIAD aeroshell kind of like you pack a parachute, so they’re compressed,” he said. “We wanted to see if there was a difference between tightly coiled material and stuff-packed material like you would normally see on a HIAD.”
Some of the canisters also include tiny temperature and humidity sensors set to collect readings at regular intervals.
When the Space Force returns the samples from the X-37B flight, Mosher will compare them to a set of samples that have remained in canisters here on Earth to look for signs of degradation.
“Getting this chance to have the Zylon material exposed to space for an extended period of time will begin to give us some data on the long-term packing of a HIAD,” Mosher said.
Uninflated HIAD aeroshells can be packed into small spaces within a spacecraft.
This results in a decelerator that can be much larger than the diameter of its launch vehicle and can therefore land much heavier loads and deliver them to higher elevations on a planet or other celestial body.
Rigid aeroshells, the sizes of which are dictated by the diameters of their launch vehicles, typically 4.5 to 5 meters, are capable of landing well-equipped, car-sized rovers on Mars.
By contrast, an inflatable HIAD, with an 18-20m diameter, could land the equivalent of a small, fully furnished ranch house with a car in the garage on Mars.
NASA’s HIAD aeroshell developments build on the success of the agency’s LOFTID (Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator) mission that launched on Nov. 10, 2022, resulting in valuable insights into how this technology performs under the stress of re-entering Earth’s atmosphere after being exposed to space for a short time period.
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/langley/strap-in-nasa-aeroshell-material-takes-extended-space-trip/
https://www.nasa.gov/space-technology-mission-directorate/tdm/
NASA Rovers
Sol 4641: Right Navigation Camera, Cylindrical Projection
August 27, 2025
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took 31 images in Gale Crater using its mast-mounted Right Navigation Camera (Navcam) to create this mosaic.
The seam-corrected mosaic provides a 360-degree cylindrical projection panorama of the Martian surface centered at 216 degrees azimuth (measured clockwise from north).
Curiosity took the images on August 27, 2025, Sol 4641 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission at drive 1944, site number 118.
The local mean solar time for the image exposures was from 3 PM to 4 PM. Each Navcam image has a 45 degree field of view.
https://science.nasa.gov/resource/sol-4641-right-navigation-camera-cylindrical-projection/
Over Soroya Ridge & Onward!
Aug 27, 2025
Perseverance has continued exploring beyond the rim of Jezero crater, spending time last week at Parnasset conducting a mini-campaign on aeolian bedforms.
After wrapping up that work, three separate drives brought Perseverance further southeast to an outcrop named Soroya.
Soroya was first picked out from orbital images as a target of interest because, as can be seen in the above image, it appears as a much lighter color compared to the surroundings.
In previous landscape images from the surface, Mars 2020 scientists have been able to pick out the light-toned Soryoa outcrop, and they noted it forms a ridge-like structure, protruding above the surface.
Soroya was easily identifiable from rover images (below) as Perseverance approached since it indeed rises above the surrounding low-lying terrain.
From Parnasset to Soroya, the team planned a series of drives so that Perseverance would arrive at Soroya in a great workspace, and the plan was successful.
As shown in the first image, we arrived at an area with flat, exposed bedrock – great for proximity science instruments.
The WATSON and SHERLOC ACI cameras plan to acquire many high-resolution images to investigate textures and surface features.
For chemistry, SCAM LIBS and ZCAM multispectral activities will give important contextual data for the outcrop while PIXL will acquire a high-resolution chemical map scan of a dust-cleared part of the bedrock.
While parked, MEDA will continue monitoring environmental conditions and ZCAM will image the surrounding terrain to inform the next drive location. Take a look at where Perseverance is now – where would you explore next?
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/over-soroya-ridge-onward/
NASA Seeks Volunteers to Track Artemis II Mission
Aug 27, 2025
NASA seeks volunteers to passively track the Artemis II Orion spacecraft as the crewed mission travels to the Moon and back to Earth.
The Artemis II test flight, a launch of the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft, will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on an approximately 10-day mission around the Moon.
The mission, targeted for no later than April 2026, will rely on NASA’s Near Space Network and Deep Space Network for primary communications and tracking support throughout its launch, orbit, and reentry.
However, with a growing focus on commercialization, NASA wants to further understand industry’s tracking capabilities.
This collaboration opportunity builds upon a previous request released by NASA’s SCaN (Space Communication and Navigation) Program during the Artemis I mission, where ten volunteers successfully tracked the uncrewed Orion spacecraft in 2022 on its journey thousands of miles beyond the Moon and back.
During the Artemis I mission, participants – ranging from international space agencies, academic institutions, commercial companies, nonprofits, and private citizens – attempted to receive Orion’s signal and use their respective ground antennas to track and measure changes in the radio waves transmitted by Orion.
“By offering this opportunity to the broader aerospace community, we can identify available tracking capabilities outside the government,” said Kevin Coggins, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for SCaN at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“This data will help inform our transition to a commercial-first approach, ultimately strengthening the infrastructure needed to support Artemis missions and our long-term Moon to Mars objectives.”
Responses are due by 5 p.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 27.
NASA’s SCaN Program serves as the management office for the agency’s space communications and navigation systems.
More than 100 NASA and non-NASA missions rely on SCaN’s two networks, the Near Space Network and the Deep Space Network, to support astronauts aboard the International Space Station and future Artemis missions, monitor Earth’s weather, support lunar exploration, and uncover the solar system and beyond.
Artemis II will help confirm the systems and hardware needed for human deep space exploration.
This mission is the first crewed flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign and is another step toward new U.S.-crewed missions on the Moon’s surface that will help the agency prepare to send American astronauts to Mars.
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/commercial-space/nasa-seeks-volunteers-to-track-artemis-ii-mission/
https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/50d4e81f54e34118a8164fb786b554a6/view
https://www.nasa.gov/communicating-with-missions/
Mornin'
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/a-steeply-rising-production-of-cyanide-and-nickel-without-iron-in-the-gas-plume-around-3i-atlas-536e20674303
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.18382
A Steeply-Rising Production of Cyanide and Nickel Without Iron in the Gas Plume Around 3I/ATLAS
August 28, 2025
A new paper on spectroscopic data from the Very Large Telescope (accessible here) reported the surprising detection of nickel without iron in the plume of gas around 3I/ATLAS.
Nickel without iron is a signature of industrial production of nickel alloys. This data constitutes a new anomaly of 3I/ATLAS.
Natural comets generically show iron and nickel simultaneously, as both elements are produced together in the ejecta of supernova explosions.
Is this anomaly another clue for a possible technological origin of 3I/ATLAS?
The paper suggests chemical formation through the nickel carbonyl channel which is an extremely rare and exotic possibility in comets, whereas it is a standard technology for industrial nickel refining.
The inferred mass loss rate of nickel for 3I/ATLAS is about 5 grams per second at a heliocentric distance of 2.8 times the Earth-Sun separation (AU).
It exhibits a dramatic rise with decreasing distance from the sun, with a power-law index of -8.43 (+/-0.79).
The spectroscopic data on the plume surrounding 3I/ATLAS also reveals cyanide (CN), with a mass loss rate of about 20 grams per second at 2.85 AU and an even steeper dependence on heliocentric distance to the power of -9.38 (+/-1.2).
These results add to the chemical anomalies implied by the SPHEREx space observatory (here) and Webb space telescope (here), which revealed that the gas plume around 3I/ATLAS is dominated by mass with 95% of CO2 and only 5% of H2O, very different from an expected water-rich comet.
The idea that the nucleus is much smaller than the 46-kilometer diameter inferred from the 1-micron data collected by SPHEREx, requires a dense coma of dust to reflect nearly all the sunlight from 3I/ATLAS.
In that case, the dust would have been pushed by solar radiation pressure to trail the nucleus, constituting a prominent cometary tail.
However, no cometary tail was observed around 3I/ATLAS in the Hubble Space Telescope image (available here), which extended backward as much as it extended sideways, perpendicular to the direction of the Sun.
If, on the other hand, most of the sunlight is reflected by the surface of the nucleus, then 3I/ATLAS is a million times more massive than the previous interstellar object 2I/Borisov.
We should have detected a million objects of the scale of 2I/Borisov before detecting a 46-kilometer nucleus if 3I/ATLAS was a rock on a random trajectory.
The fine-tuned alignment of the trajectory of 3I/ATLAS with the ecliptic plane of the planets (discussed here) suggests that it may have targeted the inner solar system by technological design, as I suggested in a paper written a few days after 3I/ATLAS was discovered (accessible here).
I am writing this report from Copenhagen, where I was invited to give a lecture at a conference titled “Current Themes in Astrophysics and Particle Physics 2025,” and attended by Nobel laureate David Gross and other leading physicists and astrophysicists.
Copenhagen is well known to physicists as the birthplace of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. When I entered Auditorium A at the Niels Bohr Institute, the room looked familiar.
I remembered a photograph of this auditorium from 1930, which showed at the front row: Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli and Lev Landau who pioneered quantum mechanics.
Niels Bohr debated Albert Einstein about the proper interpretation of quantum mechanics and his view on indeterminism, the irreversibility of quantum measurements, and complementarity — that objects have certain pairs of complementary properties which cannot all be observed or measured simultaneously, prevailed to form the modern understanding of physics.
1/2
As soon as I chose a seat at the center of the wooden bench, I was informed that I just sat where Wolfgang Pauli sat 95 years ago.
But all that I could think about at that moment is how uncomfortable the seating bench is and how much worse the quality of life must have been for these luminaries a century ago.
Nevertheless, I would have happily traded being in the same room 95 years ago, when the excitement of discovery was routine and deviations from traditional thinking was celebrated rather than being ridiculed on social media.
My lecture (accessible here) was split into two parts: black holes and interstellar objects.
The second part was added at the last minute based on a request from members of the audience during the coffee break.
In the spirit of the 1930 photograph marking pathbreaking discussions, I enjoyed the lively exchange on 3I/ATLAS. In the Q&A segment that followed my lecture, excited members of the audience that filled the room with some standing in the back, asked numerous questions about 3I/ATLAS.
David Gross was interested about messaging 3I/ATLAS, why it sheds CO2 if it is technological, and whether there is any evidence for a non-gravitational acceleration.
The conference organizers, Emil Bohr and Johan Samsing noted: “What a wonderful and refreshing talk.” For a rare moment in my 45-year career in physics, I had felt a sense of genuine curiosity and the spirit of an authentic discussion of all possibilities.
This was the spirit that brought me to physics in the first place. Auditorium A delivered what I expected from it. The stiff wooden bench on which we all sat did its job.
It is a metaphor for the stubborn facts that revolutionized our perception of the physical world when quantum mechanics was discovered, and that would revolutionize our mental world when we encounter alien technology.
On October 3, 2025, 3I/ATLAS will pass within 29 million kilometers from and the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter which will be able to image it with a 30 kilometer per pixel resolution.
Such an image could separate the contributions of the nucleus and coma to the reflected sunlight and constrain with greater confidence the size of the nucleus.
David Gross suggested that we should also observe 3I/ATLAS with radio telescopes for any technological radio transmission coming from it. I agree.
This encounter is a blind date of interstellar proportions, and on any blind date my best advice is: “Observe the other side.” We had already revealed our existence by broadcasting radio signals for over a century.
This act might have triggered the visit. If 3I/ATLAS had originated from the inner edge of the Oort Cloud at about 1,000 times the Earth-Sun separation, it would have started its journey 80 years ago when radio transmissions became routine on Earth.
The first nuclear explosion took place on July 16, 1945, exactly 80 years ago.
On the one hand I would be pleased if 3I/ATLAS turned out to be a CO2-rich comet, implying that humanity is not at risk from alien technology, but on the other hand — humanity desperately needs a wake-up call to avoid self-destruction.
During the coffee break, the brilliant Alex Lupsasca told me about his recent mathematical discovery of three new symmetries in black hole spacetimes (discussed here).
After laboring to discover them, Alex asked ChatGPT to find these symmetries and was shocked to find out that the latest version of this Artificial Intelligence (AI) system managed to accomplish the same task swiftly.
He later verified with OpenAI that the AI system did not have access to his paper as it was trained on older data. Perhaps super-human intelligence is already among us.
Of course, alien AI might supersede our own digital creations.
If any future interstellar object will end up as technological technology, ranking 10 on the Loeb Scale, we should be filled with gratitude for the Universe endowing us, once again, with a much-needed sense of cosmic modesty.
2/2
U.S. Secret Service: Bringing a HAMMER to Medical Emergencies
Aug 27, 2025
One of the most unique special teams in our agency, Hazardous Agent Mitigation Medical Emergency Response team (HAMMER) provides specialized capabilities found nowhere else in the Secret Service.
Agents and officers on this team are cross-trained to manage the most chaotic scenarios, including extracting personnel from disabled vehicles or breaching hostile areas to provide emergency medical care.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGP2YFFXnQs
https://www.secretservice.gov/careers/special-agent/HAMMER
Who left 100+ piles of cremated human remains in the desert outside Las Vegas?
Updated: Aug 27, 2025 / 06:04 PM PDT
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Federal officials are investigating the discovery of more than 100 piles of cremated human remains left near a dirt road about an hour outside of Las Vegas.
The 8 News Now Investigators first reported the discovery on Monday. The person who found the ashes, who later contacted 8 News Now, said he stumbled on the piles on July 28 in a desert area outside of Searchlight.
Searchlight is a rural community about an hour south of the Las Vegas valley off U.S. 95.
An official with BLM confirms to the 8 News Now Investigators that the piles are human cremains and that the department was actively investigating.
“Cremains,” the word the official provided, is a word for human cremated remains. What are generally referred to as “ashes” are pulverized bone, which are left over after a person is cremated.
There was no personal identifying information alongside any of the piles on Wednesday. Some piles contained pieces of zip ties. Pieces of a broken urn also littered part of the site.
There is no law in Nevada barring a person from scattering ashes on public land. BLM policy allows for a person to scatter cremated remains; however, the policy limits “commercial distribution of cremated remains.”
State law requires funeral operators to preserve the “dignity” of any remains in their care.
“Our loved ones are so connected to us and paying tribute is really the final opportunity we have to memorialize a life,” Kurt Soffe, a Utah-based funeral director, told the 8 News Now Investigators as part of an interview for an unrelated investigation involving a now-shuttered funeral home.
“What we truly strive to do is care for the living while we get the dead where they need to go.” The remains on Wednesday appeared weathered from the rain and sun.
A representative for the Clark County coroner’s office said they were not involved in the investigation as the land falls under federal jurisdiction.
A BLM investigator declined an interview request, citing the ongoing investigation. Tips can be sent to blm_law_enforcement@blm.gov.
There was no evidence that the remains are connected to the recently closed funeral home.
https://www.8newsnow.com/investigators/who-left-100-piles-of-cremated-human-remains-in-the-desert-outside-las-vegas/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akChiC7wBDY
Space angler: Gemini North discovers hidden galaxy cluster
August 28, 2025
We are talking about the galaxy cluster MACS J0060.1-2008 (MACS0060). It is well known for its strong gravitational lensing.
This means that the cluster has sufficient mass to warp space-time around itself and bend light rays from more distant objects.
Astronomers love to use such gravitational lenses in their work. Acting like a giant magnifying glass, they allow us to observe very distant and dim objects that would otherwise escape the attention of telescopes.
However, when researchers analyzed an image of the cluster obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope, they realized that the mass of the cluster determined from the image was too small to explain the strength of its gravitational lensing.
To solve this mystery, they used the GMOS spectrograph mounted on the 8.1-meter Gemini North telescope.
During observations of the area near the region photographed by Hubble, astronomers concluded that MACS0060 is much larger than previously thought.
What used to be considered the whole cluster is actually only a small part of it. As a result, astronomers gave it the unofficial nickname “the anglerfish” — in honor of the deep-sea creature that is often only partially visible, with most of its body remaining hidden.
Additional research will be required to determine the spatial boundaries of the cluster’s mass. But astronomers are already planning to use the gravitational lens they are creating to study galaxies in the early universe.
Earlier, we reported on a structure discovered by astronomers, which connects 14 galaxies like a rope.
https://universemagazine.com/en/space-angler-gemini-north-discovers-hidden-galaxy-cluster/
https://universemagazine.com/en/cosmic-rope-connects-14-galaxies/
https://noirlab.edu/public/images/iotw2535a/
This fungus digests gold — could it be the key to space mining?
28 August 2025
A surprising discovery about gold
Back in 2019, researchers at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, revealed that certain strains of Fusarium oxysporum — a fungus usually known for breaking down plant matter — could metabolise gold particles from its surroundings.
The process is extraordinary because gold is so chemically inert that almost nothing in nature reacts with it.
As lead scientist Dr Tsing Bohu explained, the finding was “unusual and surprising.” Instead of merely coexisting with gold, the fungus incorporates the metal into its own structure, effectively wearing flecks of gold like armour.
This discovery not only raised eyebrows in biology but also caught the attention of an entirely different sector: mining.
Implications for Earth’s mining industry
Gold mining is an industry under pressure. As easily accessible deposits dwindle, companies must dig deeper and use more invasive methods, often at a heavy cost to the environment. Here, the fungus could offer an alternative.
The idea is simple but revolutionary: use fungi as biological gold detectors. By sampling soil for strains of Fusarium oxysporum that metabolise gold, miners could identify hidden deposits with far less disruption.
It’s not unlike how eucalyptus trees have been shown to absorb traces of gold through their roots, offering clues about what lies underground.
For a country like Australia, the world’s second-largest gold producer, such methods could make prospecting more efficient and sustainable.
In an era where public concern over the ecological impact of mining is rising, this kind of eco-friendly approach might not just be desirable — it could be essential.
Space mining : could fungi be the key ?
As remarkable as the Earth-bound applications are, the discovery takes on a whole new dimension when scientists turn their eyes skyward.
With serious discussions underway about asteroid mining, the question is how to extract resources in environments where traditional mining machinery is impractical, if not impossible.
This is where the concept of “metabolic mineralurgy” comes in. Instead of hauling drills and diggers into space, companies could deploy fungi, specially adapted to thrive in harsh extraterrestrial conditions.
These microscopic miners would process ores directly on asteroids, breaking down rock and freeing up metals like gold in the process.
It’s a radical idea, but one that could slash the cost and complexity of space resource extraction.
Rather than designing bulky equipment for zero gravity and extreme temperatures, why not send organisms that can adapt, survive, and do the work for us ?
From soil to stars
What began as a curious discovery in an Australian lab may one day shape the future of mining on Earth and in space.
The ability of fungi to digest gold challenges long-held assumptions about one of the most chemically resistant elements known to science.
On Earth, it could make prospecting cheaper and cleaner. In space, it might just provide the breakthrough needed to unlock the riches of asteroids and other celestial bodies.
And who knows? The first space miners may not be humans in bulky suits, but tiny fungi with a taste for gold.
https://dixiesunnews.com/articles/this-fungus-digests-gold-could-it-be-the-key-to-space-mining/
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_investigates_complex_heart_of_a_cosmic_butterfly
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/542/2/1287/8241385
Webb investigates complex heart of a cosmic butterfly
27/08/2025
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has revealed new details in the core of the Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302.
From the dense, dusty torus that surrounds the star hidden at the centre of the nebula to its outflowing jets, the Webb observations reveal many new discoveries that paint a never-before-seen portrait of a dynamic and structured planetary nebula.
The Butterfly Nebula, located about 3400 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius, is one of the best-studied planetary nebulas in our galaxy.
This stunning nebula was previously imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Now, Webb has captured a new view of this nebula.
Planetary nebulas are among the most beautiful and most elusive creatures in the cosmic zoo.
These nebulas form when stars with masses between about 0.8 and 8 times the mass of the Sun shed most of their mass at the end of their lives. The planetary nebula phase is fleeting, lasting only about 20 000 years.
Contrary to the name, planetary nebulas have nothing to do with planets: the naming confusion began several hundred years ago, when astronomers reported that these nebulas appeared round, like planets.
The name stuck, even though many planetary nebulas aren’t round at all – and the Butterfly Nebula is a prime example of the fantastic shapes that these nebulas can take.
The Butterfly Nebula is a bipolar nebula, meaning that it has two lobes that spread in opposite directions, forming the ‘wings’ of the butterfly. A dark band of dusty gas poses as the butterfly’s ‘body’.
This band is actually a doughnut-shaped torus that we see from the side, hiding the nebula’s central star – the ancient core of a Sun-like star that energises the nebula and causes it to glow.
The dusty doughnut may be responsible for the nebula’s insectoid shape by preventing gas from flowing outward from the star equally in all directions.
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This new Webb image zooms in on the centre of the Butterfly Nebula and its dusty torus, providing an unprecedented view of its complex structure. The image uses data from Webb’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) working in integral field unit mode.
This mode combines a camera and a spectrograph to take images at many different wavelengths simultaneously, revealing how an object’s appearance changes with wavelength.
The research team supplemented the Webb observations with data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a powerful network of radio dishes.
Researchers analysing these Webb data identified nearly 200 spectral lines, each of which holds information about the atoms and molecules in the nebula. These lines reveal nested and interconnected structures traced by different chemical species.
The research team has pinpointed the location of the Butterfly Nebula’s central star, which heats a previously undetected dust cloud around it, making the latter shine brightly at the mid-infrared wavelengths that MIRI is sensitive to.
The location of the nebula’s central star has remained elusive until now, because this enshrouding dust renders it invisible at optical wavelengths.
Previous searches for the star lacked the combination of infrared sensitivity and resolution necessary to spot its obscuring warm dust cloud. With a temperature of 220 000 Kelvin, this is one of the hottest known central stars in a planetary nebula in our galaxy.
This blazing stellar engine is responsible for the nebula’s gorgeous glow, but its full power may be channelled by the dense band of dusty gas that surrounds it: the torus.
The new Webb data show that the torus is composed of crystalline silicates like quartz as well as irregularly shaped dust grains.
The dust grains have sizes on the order of a millionth of a metre – large, as far as cosmic dust is considered – indicating that they have been growing for a long time.
Outside the torus, the emission from different atoms and molecules takes on a multilayered structure.
The ions that require the largest amount of energy to form are concentrated close to the centre, while those that require less energy are found farther from the central star.
Iron and nickel are particularly interesting, tracing a pair of jets that blast outward from the star in opposite directions.
Intriguingly, the team also spotted light emitted by carbon-based molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. They form flat, ring-like structures, much like the honeycomb shapes found in beehives.
On Earth, we often find PAHs in smoke from campfires, car exhaust, or burnt toast. Given the location of the PAHs, the research team suspects that these molecules form when a ‘bubble’ of wind from the central star bursts into the gas that surrounds it.
This may be the first-ever evidence of PAHs forming in a oxygen-rich planetary nebula, providing an important glimpse into the details of how these molecules form.
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Izaña-2 joins the laser game to track space debris
28/08/2025
In Tenerife, Spain, stands a unique duo: ESA’s Izaña-1 and Izaña-2 laser-ranging stations.
Together, they form an optical technology testbed of the European Space Agency that takes the monitoring of space debris and satellites to a new level while maturing new technologies for commercialisation.
Space debris is a threat to satellites and is rapidly becoming a daily concern for satellite operators.
The Space Safety Programme, part of ESA Operations, managed from ESOC in Germany, helps develop new technologies to detect and track debris, and to prevent collisions in orbit in new and innovative ways.
One of these efforts takes place at the Izaña station in Tenerife.
There, ESA and partner companies are testing how to deliver precise orbit data on demand with laser-based technologies.
The Izaña-2 station was recently finalised by the German company DiGOS and is now in use.
To perform space debris laser ranging, Izaña-2 operates as a laser transmitter, emitting high-power laser pulses towards objects in space. Izaña-1 then acts as the receiver of the few photons that are reflected back.
The precision of the laser technology enables highly accurate data for precise orbit determination, which in turn is crucial for actionable collision avoidance systems and sustainable space traffic management.
With the OMLET (Orbital Maintenance via Laser momEntum Transfer) project, ESA combines different development streams and possibilities for automation to support European industry with getting two innovative services market-ready: on-demand ephemeris provision and laser-based collision avoidance services for end users such as satellite operators.
A future goal is to achieve collision avoidance by laser momentum transfer, where instead of the operational satellite, the piece of debris will be moved out of the way.
This involves altering the orbit of a piece of space debris slightly by applying a small force to the object through laser illumination.
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2025/08/Izana-2_joins_the_laser_game_to_track_space_debris
Why are our solar system planets tilted? These warped exoplanet-forming disks may offer clues
August 27, 2025
The origin of the differing tilts in the orbits of the planets in our solar system may have been revealed through the discovery of subtle warps spotted in many planet-forming disks around young stars.
A major observing program with ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array), called exoALMA, has surveyed 15 planet-forming, or protoplanetary, disks in detail.
In particular, astronomers led by Andrew Winter of Queen Mary University of London measured the Doppler shift of carbon monoxide gas in each of the disks.
The Doppler shift can tell us a gas' velocity and direction of travel, while carbon monoxide is an excellent proxy for other contents of the disks because it has a strong signal at the submillimeter radio wavelengths that ALMA observes at.
The Doppler shift measurements show that the tilt of a disk can vary by between half a degree and two degrees. "Our results suggest that protoplanetary disks are slightly warped," said Winter in a statement.
"This would be quite a change in how we understand these objects and has many consequences for how planets form."
The idealized view of a planet-forming disk is of a swirling torus of gas and dust that is perfectly flat and neatly arranged. The existence of the warps, however, suggests that planet-forming disks are anything but orderly.
Instead, it seems that they exhibit a degree of disorder, but the cause of this disorder remains uncertain. Could an unseen companion star's gravity be creating tidal forces that pull on different parts of the disk differently?
Or perhaps is it simply the result of chaotic mixing of material in the disk that leads to pockets of dust and gas interacting with each other?
Whatever the cause, there are some commonalities between the disks, principally that the rate at which material is being drawn from the disk onto the young star, helping it grow, seems to be connected to the differing properties of the warps.
This implies that there is some kind of dynamical connection between the very inner sanctum of a disk, and the outer part where the warps are found and planets are forming.
Winter's team has even demonstrated in simulations that the warps could be responsible for spiral patterns seen in some planet-forming disks, or temperature fluctuations of up to 10 degrees Celsius between different parts of a disk.
The warps also mimic the tilts of the orbits of the planets in our solar system. Relative to the sun's equator, Earth's orbit is tilted by 7.25 degrees; Mars' orbital inclination is 5.65 degrees; Jupiter's is 5.51 degrees; and so on.
"These modest alignments may be a common outcome of star and planet formation," said Winter. The warps may also have an impact on how planets form and find their final orbits in planet-forming disks.
Armed with the knowledge that disks have these slight warps, theorists have a new variable to input into their simulations of how planets are assembled, to gain new insights into how our Earth and the other planets of the solar system came to be.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/solar-system/why-are-our-solar-system-planets-tilted-these-warped-exoplanet-forming-disks-may-offer-clues
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adf113
'A remarkable discovery': Astronomers find 1st exoplanet in multi-ring disk around star
August 27, 2025
Astronomers have discovered a hungry baby planet gobbling up material around an infant star located around 430 light-years from Earth. The planet has been given the suitably cute name WISPIT 2b.
WISPIT 2b is estimated to be a gas giant around the size of Jupiter and around just 5 million years old. If this seems ancient, remember our solar system is around 4.6 billion years old.
The extrasolar planet, or "exoplanet," is carving a channel in the planet-forming disk of gas and dust, or "protoplanetary disk," around its young parent star WISPIT 2 like a cosmic Pac-Man as it gathers material.
The exoplanet is the first confirmed detection of a planet in a multi-ringed protoplanetary disk, a disk that contains multiple gaps and channels, almost akin to a vinyl record.
Imaged using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) located in the Atacama Desert in Chile, WISPIT 2b is also just the second young planet confirmed around a star that is essentially analogous to a young sun.
This makes the study of WISPIT 2b and its home protoplanetary disk, which is as wide as around 380 times the distance between Earth and the sun, the ideal laboratory to study interactions between planets and disks and the subsequent evolution of such systems.
"Discovering this planet was an amazing experience - we were incredibly lucky," team leader and Leiden University researcher Richelle van Capelleveen said in a statement.
"WISPIT 2, a young version of our sun, is located in a little-studied group of young stars, and we did not expect to find such a spectacular system. This system will likely be a benchmark for years to come.”
The team captured an infrared image of the planet sitting in a gap in the disk as they conducted an investigation designed to discover if gas giants on wide orbits are more common around young or old stars.
This was possible because the infant planet is still hot and glowing following its formation.
"We used these really short snapshot observations of many young stars - only a few minutes per object - to determine if we could see a little dot of light next to them that is caused by a planet," said Christian Ginski, lecturer at the School of Natural Sciences, University of Galway.
"However, in the case of this star, we instead detected a completely unexpected and exceptionally beautiful multi-ringed dust disk.
“When we saw this multi-ringed disk for the first time, we knew we had to try and see if we could detect a planet within it, so we quickly asked for follow-up observations."
A separate crew of researchers from the University of Arizona imaged WISPIT 2b in optical light. These observations revealed that WISPIT 2b is still gathering matter.
"Capturing an image of these forming planets has proven extremely challenging, and it gives us a real chance to understand why the many thousands of older exoplanet systems out there look so diverse and so different from our own solar system," Ginski added.
"I think many of our colleagues who study planet formation will take a close look at this system in the years to come."
Ginski added that the team was fortunate to have these incredible young researchers on the case of WISPIT 2b, adding that this will be the first of many breakthroughs to come from the next generation of astrophysicists.
"The planet is a remarkable discovery. I could hardly believe it was a real detection when Dr. Ginski first showed me the image," team member and University of Galway MSc student Jake Byrne said.
"It's a big one - that's sure to spark discussion within the research community and advance our understanding of planet formation."
https://www.space.com/astronomy/exoplanets/a-remarkable-discovery-astronomers-find-1st-exoplanet-in-multi-ring-disk-around-star
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adf721
https://phys.org/news/2025-08-chemists-high-energy-compound-fuel.html
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.5c04066?ref=pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkQRUvu3US4
Chemists create new high-energy compound to fuel space flight
August 27, 2025
University at Albany chemists have created a new high-energy compound that could revolutionize rocket fuel and make space flights more efficient. Upon ignition, the compound releases more energy relative to its weight and volume compared to current fuels.
In a rocket, this would mean less fuel required to power the same flight duration or payload and more room for mission-critical supplies. Their study is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
"In rocket ships, space is at a premium," said Assistant Professor of Chemistry Michael Yeung, whose lab led the work. "Every inch must be packed efficiently, and everything onboard needs to be as light as possible.
Creating more efficient fuel using our new compound would mean less space is needed for fuel storage, freeing up room for equipment, including instruments used for research. On the return voyage, this could mean more space is available to bring samples home."
The newly synthesized compound, manganese diboride (MnB2), is over 20% more energetic by weight and about 150% more energetic by volume compared to the aluminum currently used in solid rocket boosters.
Despite being highly energetic, it is also very safe and will only combust when it meets an ignition agent like kerosene.
The underlying boron-based structure is also versatile; related research in the Yeung lab has demonstrated its potential to help build more durable catalytic converters for cars and serve as a catalyst for breaking down plastics.
It takes heat to make heat
Manganese diboride belongs to a class of chemical compounds thought to have unusual properties, yet exploring what exactly these properties entail has been limited by an inability to actually produce the compound.
"Diborides first started getting attention in the 1960s," said UAlbany Ph.D. student Joseph Doane, who works with Yeung. "Since these initial looks, new technologies are allowing us to actually synthesize chemical compounds that were once only hypothesized to exist.
"Knowing what we do about the elements on the periodic table, we suspected that manganese diboride would be structurally asymmetrical and unstable—factors which together would make it highly energetic—but until recently, we couldn't test it because it couldn't be made.
Successfully synthesizing pure manganese diboride is an exciting achievement in and of itself. And now, we can test it experimentally and discover new ways to put it to use."
Synthesizing manganese diboride requires extreme heat generated using a tool called an "arc melter." The first step involves pressing manganese and boron powders together into a pellet, which is placed in a small, reinforced glass chamber.
The arc melter trains a narrow electrical current on the pellet, heating it to a scorching 3,000°C (over 5,000°F). The molten material is then rapidly cooled to lock the structure in place.
At the atomic level, this process forces a central manganese atom to bond to too many other atoms, making for an overly crowded structure packed tight like a coiled spring.
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3…2…1… Deformation
When exploring new chemical compounds, being able to physically produce the compound is critical. You also need to be able to define its molecular structure, in order to better understand why it behaves the way it does.
UAlbany Ph.D. student Gregory John, who works with computational chemist Alan Chen, built computer models to visualize manganese diboride's molecular structure.
These models revealed something critical: a subtle skew, known as "deformation," which gives the compound its high potential energy.
"Our model of the manganese diboride compound looks like a cross section of an ice cream sandwich, where the outer cookies are made of a lattice structure comprised of interlocking hexagons," said John.
"When you look closely, you can see that the hexagons aren't perfectly symmetrical; they're all a little skewed. This is what we call 'deformation.'
By measuring the degree of deformation, we can use that measure as a proxy to determine the amount of energy stored in the material. That skew is where the energy is stored."
Here's another way to picture it.
"Imagine a flat trampoline; there's no energy there when it's flat," said Yeung.
"If I put a gigantic weight in the center of the trampoline, it will stretch. That stretch represents energy being stored by the trampoline, which it will release when the object is removed.
When our compound ignites, it's like removing the weight from the trampoline and the energy is released."
New materials need new compounds
"There's this consensus among chemists that boron-based compounds should have unusual properties that make them behave unlike any other existing compounds," said Associate Professor of Chemistry Alan Chen.
"There's an ongoing quest to figure out what those properties and behaviors are. This sort of pursuit is at the heart of materials chemistry, where creating harder, stronger more extreme materials requires forging brand-new chemicals.
This is what the Yeung lab is doing—with findings that could improve rocket fuel, catalytic converters and even processes for recycling plastics.
"This study is also a great example of the scientific process, where researchers pursue interesting chemical properties even when they're not certain what specific applications might emerge. Sometimes, present case included, the results are serendipitous."
Yeung's interest in boron compounds started when he was a grad student at the University of California, Los Angeles. His project was aiming to discover compounds harder than diamond.
"I distinctly remember the first time I made a compound related to manganese diboride," Yeung said. "There I was, holding this new material that was supposed to be super hard. Instead, it started to get hot and changed into a pretty orange color.
I thought, 'Why is it orange? Why is it glowing? It shouldn't be glowing!' That's when I realized how energetic boron compounds can be. I put a pin in it to explore in the future, and that's exactly what we are working on now."
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First CCA Takes Flight: General Atomics Drone Is First to Fly
Aug. 27, 2025
The first Collaborative Combat Aircraft made its first flight Aug. 27, achieving a major milestone as the Air Force seeks to integrate autonomous, uncrewed aircraft into manned flying formations.
General Atomics’ YFQ-42A took off from a California test location, the Air Force said. Sources previously told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the aircraft would fly from Gray Butte Airport, owned by GA and near Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
The Air Force did not provide an update on the other CCA in development, the YFQ-44A under development by Anduril Industries, a venture-backed startup from Silicon Valley that is seeking to shake up defense acquisition.
In a statement, an Anduril spokesperson said that “Flight testing for Anduril’s YFQ-44A will begin soon.”
The General Atomics entry is based on GA’s “Gambit” concept, an adaptable series of uncrewed aircraft that share a common engine and chassis.
The firm first unveiled the Gambit concept in 2022, and was selected, along with Anduril, to compete in the first CCA fly-off in spring 2024, going from contract to first flight in less than two years.
“This milestone showcases what’s possible when innovative acquisition meets motivated industry,” said Secretary of the Air Force Troy E. Meink in the Air Force statement.
“In record time, CCA went from concept to flight—proving we can deliver combat capability at speed when we clear barriers and align around the warfighter.”
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin shared video of the first flight on social media.
“What a great moment for the U.S. Air Force and for GA-ASI,” said GA-Aeronautical Systems Inc. president David R. Alexander in a statement.
“It’s been our collaboration that enabled us to build and fly the YFQ-42A in just over a year. It’s an incredible achievement and I salute the Air Force for its vision and I salute our development team for delivering yet another historic first for our company.”
The highly anticipated first flight had been hinted for weeks. Both GA and Anduril’s drone prototypes started ground testing in May.
The two CCA constitute the “increment 1” of the CCA program, which senior Air Force leaders have said will be iterative and include at least three stages.
Increment 1 focuses on air superiority, providing fire support to crewed aircfaft. The aim is for pilots flying F-22 and F-35 combat jets to direct CCA to fire missiles at hostile targets, creating additional complexity for opposing forces.
Pilots have said they want the ability to carry and fire more missiles than the F-22 or F-35 can carry internally; carrying weapons externally compromises the jets’ stealth characteristics.
The CCA program seeks to generate “affordable mass” by adding aircraft and firepower at a lower cost and risk than can be accomplished with crewed aircraft that have to carry life support systems.
Brig. Gen. Jason Voorheis, program executive officer for fighters and advanced aircraft, has said the Air Force could fund both Increment 1 CCAs into production, but has guaranteed no minimum amount of work to either contractor.
The Air Force said in a release that a production decision is expected in fiscal 2026, which starts Oct. 1.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/cca-general-atomics-drone-first-flight/
https://twitter.com/OfficialCSAF/status/1960810993912832032
The Orgy Dome got hit hard
https://www.ladbible.com/news/us-news/burning-man-orgy-dome-destroyed-storm-nevada-733255-20250827
Kablammo
Russian oil supply to EU restored after Ukrainian attacks – authorities
28 Aug, 2025 11:27
Russian oil deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia through the key Druzhba pipeline have been restored after disruptions caused by Ukrainian strikes, authorities in both nations have confirmed.
The pipeline has been repeatedly targeted in recent weeks, with Bratislava and Budapest lashing out at Kiev. Moscow has described the attacks as “terrorism.”
The successful repair was confirmed by Slovak Economy Minister Denisa Sakova on Wednesday. “I hope that the operation remains stable and that there will be no more attacks on energy infrastructure,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
Hungarian oil group MOL, which operates refineries in Hungary and Slovakia, confirmed that crude was arriving in both countries, though it gave no details about volumes or schedules.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto earlier said that while the pipeline had sustained “severe damage” from Ukraine’s latest missile and drone strike, he was informed by Moscow that “a temporary solution was found, so oil deliveries to Hungary can resume tomorrow in test mode at lower volumes.”
Both Hungary and Slovakia – which have been frequent critics of the EU support for Kiev – have denounced the Ukrainian attacks on the Druzhba pipeline, which spans more than 4,000 kilometers and is a critical energy lifeline for both countries.
In this vein, Szijjarto said the raids jeopardize Hungary’s energy security and that it was “outrageous that some Hungarian politicians and media defend the Ukrainians who attacked the pipeline, and the European Commission keeps on claiming there is ‘no supply risk’.”
Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar said that the strikes not only ran directly against his country’s interests but also harmed Ukraine itself, as Kiev is dependent on diesel fuel supply from Slovakia.
According to a letter shared by Hungarian officials, US President Donald Trump said he was also “very angry” about the attacks.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the assaults on energy infrastructure “are classified as terrorist acts,” adding that “all strikes on civilian infrastructure, especially energy facilities, should be condemned by everyone.”
https://www.rt.com/news/623626-russian-oil-druzhba-restored-ukraine-attacks/
WATCH Russian naval drone take out Ukrainian warship
28 Aug, 2025 16:20
The Russian Defense Ministry has released UAV footage of a naval drone strike on the Ukrainian reconnaissance ship Simferopol.
Kiev confirmed to the media on Thursday that the vessel had been hit.
The Simferopol was struck by a “Russian high-speed unmanned boat at the mouth of the Danube River,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
“As a result of the attack, the Ukrainian Navy ship sank,” it added.
The ministry also published aerial footage taken from a UAV showing the moment of impact.
The video, taken on a thermal camera, shows a vessel in the mouth of the river light up in a fireball. Two other ships can be seen in the vicinity.
A Ukrainian Navy spokesperson has confirmed the strike in a comment to the Kiev Independent. “Efforts to address the aftermath of the attack are ongoing.
The majority of the crew are safe, and the search for several missing sailors continues,” the spokesperson said, adding that at least one member of the crew had been killed, and several others injured.
The attack marked the first successful use of a Russian naval drone against a Ukrainian vessel, TASS noted, citing drone experts.
Ukraine’s navy has not played a large role in the conflict, but Moscow has previously accused Kiev of using civilian ships as launching platforms for its sea drones.
https://www.rt.com/russia/623641-watch-naval-drone-sink-ukrainian-warship/
https://www.rt.com/russia/623631-russian-forces-sink-ukrainian-warship/
Moscow confirms hypersonic missile strikes on Ukraine
28 Aug, 2025 12:58
Russia launched long-range strikes on Ukrainian military targets using a variety of weapons, including hypersonic air-launched Kinzhal missiles, the Defense Ministry in Moscow reported Thursday.
The operation hit several weapons plants and airfields, the MOS claimed, confirming earlier reports of an attack from Kiev.
Ukraine’s military claimed it intercepted most of the incoming drones and missiles but acknowledged successful Russian strikes at 13 locations, as additional damage caused by debris from downed weapons.
One of the attacks was apparently captured on CCTV, with footage circulating online showing two missiles hitting the same location in central Kiev.
Some reports identified the site as the office of defense company Ukrspecsystems on Zhilyanskaya Street, which police cordoned off Thursday.
Founded in 2014, Ukrspecsystems manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles, including the long-range PD-2, which has reportedly been used in kamikaze drone attacks deep inside Russian territory, including Moscow.
Igor Zinkevich, a Lviv city council member, claimed that Russia also hit a plant in Kiev operated by the Turkish military firm Bayraktar, adding that the attack was the fourth of its kind in six months.
Last week, Ukrainian media reported the production launch of a cruise missile dubbed Flamingo, with an estimated range of 3,000 kilometers and a payload of up to 1,000 kilograms.
Images of the weapon showed close resemblance to the FP-5, a system unveiled earlier this year by the British-UAE defense firm Milanion Group at an arms expo in Abu Dhabi.
Earlier in August, Russia’s Federal Security Service said it carried out an operation with the military that targeted Ukraine’s Sapsan ballistic missile program, claiming to have infiltrated the project and caused “colossal” damage through subsequent strikes.
Moscow has repeatedly accused Western nations of turning Ukraine into a proxy force by supplying weapons and funds, while arguing that Kiev’s war effort is unsustainable and serves foreign rather than Ukrainian interests.
https://www.rt.com/russia/623629-kiev-kinzhal-missile-strikes/
https://twitter.com/CaolanReports/status/1960957133387915448
Young Ukrainians rushing to leave the country – border official
28 Aug, 2025 15:58
Young men are leaving Ukraine in large numbers after Kiev lifted its travel ban on males aged 18 to 22, a border official announced on Thursday.
Earlier this month, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky ordered authorities to allow men in the age group to leave, marking a significant shift in the application of martial law.
Males aged 18 to 60 were barred from travelling abroad beginning in February 2022. Only women, children, and men either below conscription age or formally removed from the military register had been permitted to leave, with limited exceptions.
State Border Guard Service spokesman Andrey Demchenko said that young people had already begun departing after the travel ban was lifted.
Large numbers were reportedly heading toward the borders with Poland and Hungary, causing traffic jams that have been widely publicized on social media.
He confirmed that the first applicants had already completed the necessary paperwork at checkpoints and left the country.
Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced the regulation on Tuesday, saying it would apply to all men in the age group, including those already abroad.
It took effect on Thursday, requiring those crossing the border to present a passport and military ID.
Kiev’s general mobilization, which mandates all able-bodied men aged 25 to 60 be available to serve in the armed forces, has failed to make up for ongoing battlefield losses and has reportedly led Ukrainian commanders to voice concerns over persistent manpower shortages.
Ukrainian officials say nearly 400,000 servicemen have deserted, and many do not plan to return.
Recruiters have resorted to using force to fill the ranks. Videos of forced conscription posted on social media have fueled public anger.
Many men have tried to flee across rivers or remote terrain, with border guards intercepting thousands and sometimes resorting to the use of firearms.
https://www.rt.com/russia/623634-young-ukrainians-fleeing-abroad/
https://t.me/Rubicon_A/46064
Emergency Crews Battle Forest Fire Near ‘Putin’s Palace’ After Ukrainian Drone Attack
August 28, 2025
Emergency crews were battling a forest fire in the southern Krasnodar region on Thursday after a Ukrainian drone crashed in a wooded area near the Black Sea resort town of Gelendzhik.
Authorities in Krasnodar said debris from a drone downed by air defense systems sparked fires in three separate spots near the village of Krinitsa, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) east of the mansion widely known as “Putin’s Palace.”
By Thursday afternoon, the fire had spread to 17 hectares (42 acres), requiring more than 100 emergency personnel, 27 vehicles and a Beriev Be-200 firefighting aircraft. Emergency officials said a boat brought 23 vacationers trapped by smoke to safety.
Separately, a blaze caused by a drone strike on the Afipsky oil refinery was extinguished around 8:20 a.m. local time.
The refinery, which processes around 6 million metric tons of crude annually, has been targeted multiple times since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, most recently in early August.
No injuries or deaths were reported in either of the drone attacks.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down 18 of the 102 drones Ukraine launched overnight at the Krasnodar region.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/08/28/emergency-crews-battle-forest-fire-near-putins-palace-after-ukrainian-drone-attack-a90373