TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
Because of the shutdown there is no APOD
Please enjoy this musical selection
NASA Shutdown Updates and Related
October 2, 2025
Keith’s note: The White House / OMB are taking a stark stance on “imminent” layoffs across the government. They want people gone. Meanwhile NASA’s top leadership is going to receptions in Australia at IAC. Stories below.
Government shutdown live updates, CNBC “We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for [Democrats],” Trump said at the White House on Tuesday, “like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.”
White House says fed layoffs are ‘imminent’, Politco “Layoffs of federal employees are “imminent,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday after the Trump administration announced plans for widespread staff cuts during the government shutdown.
President Donald Trump “has directed his Cabinet, and the Office of Management and Budget is working with agencies across the board to identify where cuts can be made,” Leavitt told reporters Wednesday at the White House after the government shutdown began at midnight.”
The government shutdown is a slow-boil political crisis, CNN “Day One saw the rollout of initial battleground strategies:
The White House adopted a ruthless position, threatening mass firings of federal workers and halting billions of dollars in public funds to humiliate Democratic leaders.”
Trump Doubles Down Amid Government Shutdown as Layoffs Loom:
‘Cry All You Want’, Time “Republicans must use this opportunity of Democrat-forced closure to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud,” Trump stated, before going on to claim that “billions of dollars” could be saved.
The President earlier indicated that Democrats would feel the main brunt of the layoffs, telling reporters in the Oval Office: “We’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected, and they’re Democrats. They’re gonna be Democrats.”
https://nasawatch.com/shutdown/shutdown-update-2/
https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/solicitations/roses-2025/lapse-in-funding-roses-pocs-offline-this-blog-will-not-be-updated-due-dates-will-change-to-tbd-on-nspires/
https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2025/10/01/nasa-houston-johnson-space-center-federal-shutdown.html
https://www.rocketcitynow.com/article/news/local/nasa-suspends-marshall-space-flight-center-tours-amid-shutdown/525-159d90e8-d0e4-44a7-978f-4f33985dcc3c
G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storm Warning 02 Oct
October 02, 2025 05:15 UTC
G3 (Strong) geomagnetic storming is expected through Oct 02/1200 UTC due to sustained high speed streams influences associated with a positive polarity coronal hole located at the center of the solar disk.
A G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storm watch remains in place thereafter.
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/g3-strong-geomagnetic-storm-warning-02-oct
https://www.space.com/stargazing/auroras/northern-lights-may-be-visible-in-these-12-us-states-tonight-oct-2-2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyElEtH6zjk (Solar Storm Still Going, Polar Wobble, Sunspots | S0 News Oct.2.2025)
French meteorite challenges asteroid hazard models
02/10/2025
An international research team including members of the European Space Agency's Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre have published a comprehensive study of an asteroid from discovery in space to the analysis of a recovered meteorite on Earth.
The results highlight the importance of understanding how even small asteroids behave in our planet’s atmosphere.
Asteroid 2023 CX1 became the seventh asteroid ever observed prior to hitting Earth when it was detected on 12 February 2023, seven hours before impact.
It entered the atmosphere over Normandy, France, at 02:59 UTC on 13 February, within just a few tens of metres of the location predicted by ESA’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre (NEOCC).
Roughly 72 cm wide and 650 kg in mass, it exploded at 28 km altitude, releasing nearly all of its energy in an instant.
Thanks to information on the asteroid’s trajectory shared by the NEOCC and others prior to impact, scientists and members of the public were able to witness and record the fireball.
A few days later, members of the Vigie-Ciel project, part of the Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network (FRIPON), recovered a fragment of the object near the city of Rouen and named the meteorite Saint-Pierre-Le-Viger.
Now, an international team of researchers has published an analysis of the object in Nature Astronomy, making it the first meteorite of its type (L-type chondrite) to be studied from discovery in space to the laboratory on Earth.
Led by Auriane Egal (Montreal Planetarium, FRIPON/Vigie-Ciel), the study highlights the importance of understanding how asteroids behave in Earth’s atmosphere.
Unlike most small asteroids, which break up higher in the atmosphere, 2023 CX1 fragmented lower, more suddenly, and generated a spherical shock wave that delivered more energy to the ground than is typical for an object of its size.
The study suggests that certain types of asteroid, even when small, can survive deep into the atmosphere and prove potentially hazardous if they break up over urban areas.
stronomers at ESA’s NEOCC are co-authors on the study:
“We coordinated observations of asteroid 2023 CX1 during the seven hours between discovery and impact and used them to accurately predict its impact location, which enabled people to witness the fireball and recover the meteorite,” says ESA astronomer Marco Micheli.
“Later, we used these and other observations to precisely calculate the object’s pre-impact trajectory and help researchers trace it back to a likely parent body in the main asteroid belt.”
“We have confirmed the existence of a new population of asteroids linked to L-type chondrites, capable of fragmenting abruptly in the atmosphere and releasing almost all their energy at once.
Such asteroids must be accounted for in planetary defence strategies,” explains Auriane Egal.
ESA’s upcoming Flyeye asteroid survey telescopes will scan the sky every night in an effort to spot incoming space rocks like 2023 CX1 earlier and more often.
The first Flyeye is expected to enter operation next year.
https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Planetary_Defence/French_meteorite_challenges_asteroid_hazard_models
https://x.com/KadeF96/status/1624967147708420103
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02659-8
https://nasawatch.com/shuttle-news/senators-cruz-and-cornyn-want-to-chop-up-space-shuttle-discovery/
https://keeptheshuttle.org/
Senators Cruz and Cornyn Want To Chop Up Space Shuttle Discovery
October 1, 2025
I just got an update from KeepTheShuttle. OMB wants NASA and the Smithsonian to figure out how to cut Space Shuttle Discovery apart into pieces to move it.
As you will recall that option was ruled out when Space Shuttle Endeavour was moved to Los Angeles on the now-defunct 747 carrier and then moved through the streets where utilities were moved and trees were cut down.
Every effort was taken to preserve the integrity of this historic space ship. Now Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn are only interested in snagging a tourist attraction – not a precious historic relic that deserves to be preserved – and certainly not chopped up like a leftover exhibit from a state fair and tossed on a flatbed. Full statement below.
The KeepTheShuttle team is disappointed to report that the White House’s Office of Management & Budget has asked the Smithsonian and NASA to explore cutting up the Space Shuttle Discovery to enable moving the shuttle to Houston.
This development is unprecedented and alarming. NASA did not design the shuttle orbiters to be disassembled, and complicating factors include the shuttle’s aluminum frame, ~24,000 delicate ceramic tiles that coat the shuttle’s underside (the black part), and ~2,000 thermal insulation fabric blankets that coat the rest of the shuttle (the white part). Disassembling Discovery would cause significant and irreparable damage to these and other portions of the shuttle.
Discovery also holds particular value, as the shuttle was specially preserved to serve as a future reference for researchers. To quote Dennis Jenkins, who was the director of NASA’s program to retire the shuttle fleet:
“We spent a lot of time and money to preserve Discovery in as near to flight condition as we could to put it in the national collection, so that any future engineer or historian has a reference vehicle to look at, measure or do whatever they need”.
The process that the White House is now asking the Smithsonian and NASA to explore would permanently ruin this work and significantly hamper the ability of future generations to study and learn from Discovery.
The letter also references that NASA and the Smithsonian are in agreement that the cost to move Discovery to Houston would, at minimum, be between $120 million and $150 million, exclusive of the cost of building a new exhibit in Houston.
This number significantly exceeds the $85 million authorized for the relocation and a new exhibit by the OBBBA, and indicates that additional taxpayer funding will be necessary.
An appropriation for the original $85 million is currently in question, as numerous members of Congress, including Senators Kelly, Warner, Kaine and Durbin, are actively pushing to exclude the relocation from the FY 2026 budget.
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KeepTheShuttle will continue to work with our allies in Congress to block funding and preserve the Smithsonian’s legal ownership of Discovery.
We are also working with allies such as the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to block other potential means of taking the shuttle to Houston.
As always, please feel free to reach out to Joe Stief at joe-at -keeptheshuttle.org / 202-681-8299 if you have any questions or would like to discuss a story.
Letter from the Smithsonian to Congressional Authorizing & Appropriating Committees:
“The Smithsonian has been asked by OMB to work with NASA to prepare to move the Discovery space shuttle to Houston, TX, within the 18 months specified in the reconciliation bill signed into law on July 4, 2025.
The bill does not specifically mention Discovery as the designated vehicle for relocation, and its terms could include any number of space vehicles, but the administration is interpreting the law as sufficiently specific to move forward with the transfer of Discovery.
The Smithsonian and NASA have been asked to begin by verifying the actual costs associated with the move.
While an engineering study will be necessary due to the size and weight of the space vehicle, both NASA and the Smithsonian believe that Discovery will have to undergo significant disassembly to be moved.
Discovery is the most intact shuttle orbiter of the NASA program, and we remain concerned that disassembling the vehicle will destroy its historical value.
NASA and Smithsonian agree that the minimal cost estimate to move Discovery is in the range of $120 million to $150 million, not taking into account the costs associated with building a new facility in Texas. NASA has cost estimates for each phase of a move.
As we have previously shared, NASA transferred “all rights, title, interest and ownership” of the shuttle to the Smithsonian.
We remain concerned about the unprecedented nature of a removal of an object from the national collection, and that we would be causing damage to the most intact orbiter from the space shuttle program.
In particular, irreparable damage to the shuttle tiles will occur in disassembly, which were critical to the shuttle’s unique reusability.
Viewing and preserving this artifact at the Smithsonian allows scholars and the public to appreciate the story of how Americans were the first to develop a reusable system to transport humans to space, laying the groundwork to move humans back to the Moon and on to Mars.”
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le kek
Comet 3I/ATLAS Is About To Pass Near Mars – Our Robotic Explorers Are Ready For Our Closest View Yet
October 2, 2025
Comet 3I/ATLAS, the third known interstellar visitor to the Solar System, will get closest to one particular planet in the Solar System. Bad news: it is not Earth, so we can’t get the best view of this object.
Still, of all the planets of the Solar System, it is passing near Mars, where humanity has placed the largest number of spacecraft. Most of them are ready to turn away from the Red Planet and towards this interstellar interloper.
On October 3, Comet 3I/ATLAS will be almost 29 million kilometers (18.006 million miles) from Mars.
The European Space Agency will have both Mars Express and the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter look at the comet during this close approach.
NASA’s spacecraft and rovers will also try to catch a glimpse of this object as it passes near Mars.
The comet is still pretty faint, so the odds are stacked against the rovers’ observations; this is unsurprising, given that the rovers were not designed to look at the night sky.
It is a fervently exciting time to study this object. There have only been three known interstellar objects (out of the thousands that are currently within the Solar System), and 3I/ATLAS is wildly different from the previous two:
1I/’Oumuamua, discovered in 2017, and Comet 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019.
This latest one moves faster than the other two, almost twice as fast. It’s crossing the Solar System at 58 kilometers per second (about 130,000 mph).
It appears to be larger, and astronomers believe it might come from a different region of the Milky Way. Its orbit suggests that it comes from the thick disk of the Milky Way, unlike the other two, which are from the thin disk, the region where we reside.
The comet will be difficult to study from Earth in the coming weeks, as it will appear very close to the Sun. The object is currently on the opposite side of our star. Still, the fleet of explorers we have across the Solar System will try to see it.
Another European mission, JUICE, which is traveling to study the icy moons of Jupiter, will study Comet 3I/ATLAS on November 2, just days after the comet's closest pass to the Sun – so at the peak of its activity – as well as weeks later.
The comet is a treasure trove of insight into another solar system. Similarities to our backyard comets or puzzling behaviors, such as the recent change in color, help us build a more complete picture of the extraordinary lives of comets across the galaxy.
https://www.iflscience.com/comet-3iatlas-is-about-to-pass-near-mars-our-robotic-explorers-are-ready-for-our-closest-view-yet-81019
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:p5h5ai6lj6bc53b7mmvy3rf2/post/3m2543furfc2m
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/
>“You know who would like free benefits? Hard working Americans who work their butts off every day who are living paycheck to paycheck"
Amen, sister