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Cold Blob, Polar Vortex, Coronal Hole Connects | S0 News
Oct.9.2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LF3QVxl0JE
https://x.com/SunWeatherMan
https://spaceweathernews.com/
NASA's Lunar Electric Rover rolls across Arizona
Oct. 9, 2025
As humanity eyes returning to the moon, countries like the U.S. and China are working to develop key infrastructure to make lunar exploration, and possibly even moon mining, feasible.
This includes lunar rovers, which can make faraway areas of the moon more reachable.
What is it?
The Lunar Electric Rover (LER) was developed as a versatile exploration vehicle designed to support long-duration surface missions on the moon.
Unlike the Apollo-era lunar rovers, which were unpressurized and limited in range, the LER offers a pressurized cabin that allows astronauts to live and work inside for days without needing to return to a base habitat, potentially making harder-to-reach areas more accessible.
Where is it?
This photo was taken at Black Point Lava Flow in northern Arizona.
Why is it amazing?
The LER tests are part of NASA's Desert Research and Technology Studies ("Desert RATS") campaign. The program uses terrestrial environments like the harsh deserts of Arizona to simulate the conditions on other planets.
The volcanic rock formations at Black Point Lava Flow provided challenges similar to those expected on the moon, making it a valuable testing ground for equipment, operations and human factors.
https://www.space.com/technology/nasas-lunar-electric-rover-rolls-across-arizona-space-photo-of-the-day-for-oct-9-2025
1,000 Mars dust devils! European orbiters track Red Planet's tiny tornadoes
October 9, 2025
Tiny tornadoes of dust whirl across Mars's rusty plains far faster than scientists thought, a new study reveals.
Researchers tracked 1,039 dust devils on the Red Planet captured in two decades of images from European Space Agency (ESA) orbiters.
The findings, published Wednesday (Oct. 8) in the journal Science Advances, show that these twisters can reach speeds up to 98 mph (158 kph), far exceeding previous measurements from Mars rovers and climate models.
The results could help scientists plan future Mars missions by accounting for the troublesome dust that coats rover solar panels and whips across landing sites during descent, the researchers say.
"Our measurements could help scientists build up an understanding of wind conditions at a landing site before touchdown, which could help them estimate how much dust might settle on a rover's solar panels — and therefore how often they should self-clean," study team leader Valentin Bickel, from the University of Bern in Switzerland, said in a statement.
To build the catalog, Bickel's team used artificial intelligence to sift through the archives of ESA's Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) spacecraft, analyzing how each dust devil shifted between consecutive frames to calculate its speed and direction.
"Dust devils make the normally invisible wind visible," Bickel said in the statement. "By measuring their speed and direction of travel, we have started mapping the wind all over Mars' surface."
"This was impossible before, because we didn't have enough data to make this kind of measurement on a global scale," he added.
Neither spacecraft was designed to measure wind, but the researchers harnessed a subtle quirk in the orbiters' cameras to do so.
When the probes combine multiple views or colors to create a single image, tiny color offsets — caused by seconds-long delays between camera channels — sometimes appear, and are normally dismissed as image noise.
Because each channel is captured a few seconds apart, anything moving across Mars, such as clouds or dust devils, leaves a faint but measurable shift between frames.
By analyzing those shifts, the team determined how far and how fast each whirlwind traveled. This way, the team "turned image noise into valuable scientific measurements," Bickel said.
The new catalog also shows that these Martian whirlwinds are often swept up from the planet's dust-covered plains such as Amazonis Planitia, the new study notes.
They appear most frequently during daytime in spring and summer, last only a few minutes, and peak between late morning and early afternoon, marking a rhythm familiar to scientists studying dust devils on Earth.
"Now that we know where dust devils usually happen, we can direct more images to those exact places and times," Bickel said in the statement.
Unlike on Earth, however, where rain washes dust from the air, Martian dust can linger for months. Understanding how and when it's lifted from the surface is key to predicting the planet's weather and long-term climate.
The new data, collected from across Mars in a way that rovers and landers alone couldn't achieve, could help refine atmospheric models and improve future weather forecasts, the statement said.
"Dust affects everything on Mars — from local weather to how well we can take images," Colin Wilson, ESA project scientist for both Mars Express and TGO, said in the same statement. "It's difficult to overstate its importance."
https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/european-mars-orbiters-red-planet-dust-devils-map
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adw5170
Australian nanosatellite snaps 1st selfie in space before tracking cosmic gamma-ray bursts
October 9, 2025
Australia's SpIRIT nanosatellite has snapped its first "selfie" from space, marking a successful start to its mission.
SpIRIT — formally known as the Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal nanosatellite — is the first space telescope funded by the Australian Space Agency to carry a foreign space agency's scientific instrument as its main payload.
Launched in December 2023 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, SpIRIT has now completed its commissioning phase, testing all its onboard systems, including its winged thermal management and deployable camera arm, which it used to take a "selfie" in space.
Recent images shared by the University of Melbourne show the satellite in orbit, confirming that its systems were deployed and are functioning correctly.
The images include snapshots of the satellite's thermal radiator, electric propulsion thruster payload, telecommunication transceivers and solar panels, which together highlight the innovative technologies developed for the mission, according to a statement from the university.
"SpIRIT is a complex satellite designed and built in Australia, with many components flying for the first time and hosting a scientific instrument contributed by the Italian Space Agency [ASI]," Michele Trenti, principal investigator and a professor at the University of Melbourne, which leads the mission in collaboration with ASI, said in the statement.
"Now that SpIRIT has completed rigorous testing in space, we are confident it's ready to commence the next phase of its mission, which is truly exciting."
SpIRIT has logged over 600 days in orbit, during which it has circled Earth more than 9,000 times, travelling a distance comparable to a round trip between our planet and Mars.
With this initial phase complete, SpIRIT is moving into its core scientific role: detecting gamma-ray bursts (GRBs).
Using the HERMES X-ray prototype detector provided by the ASI, the satellite will look for signs of these cosmic explosions, which are generally unpredictable and difficult to spot, resulting from stellar collisions or supernovas.
SpIRIT will therefore act as an early warning system for astronomers around the world to investigate further.
"The SpIRIT mission has demonstrated the capability that exists within the Australian space sector — from building the satellite and testing new technologies in orbit and on ground, to hosting international science payloads and successfully completing its initial phase," Enrico Palermo, head of the Australian Space Agency, said in the statement.
SpIRIT has already shown early success, detecting the Crab gamma pulsar after only 700 seconds of observation. It still has a long mission ahead, with more than 1,000 days expected in orbit.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/satellites/australian-nanosatellite-snaps-1st-selfie-in-space-before-tracking-cosmic-gamma-ray-bursts-photo
https://www.unimelb.edu.au/newsroom/news/2025/september/selfies-from-space-aussie-nanosatellite-completes-first-phase-of-mission
New Catalog Reveals Secrets of Black Hole Collisions
October 8, 2025
OXFORD, Miss. – They operate in the darkness of space far beyond the reach of telescopes, but new research is helping shed light on what happens when black holes collide with each other.
The Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes Collaboration has released the third catalog of black hole simulations in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, nearly doubling the number of black hole collision simulations available to researchers across the globe.
The key to detecting these black hole mergers is gravitational waves, the ripples in space-time created when black holes collide, said Leo Stein, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Mississippi.
Stein is among dozens of researchers on the collaboration that includes Cornell University and the California Institute of Technology.
"If you've got two black holes crashing into each other, you cannot see that with a telescope," he said. "It's only gravitational waves that are going to tell you about the details of that merger.
"The only way to understand what gravitational waves are telling us is to match the observations with simulations. That's what this catalog does; it gives us templates to decode what's happening in deep space."
The new catalog includes 3,756 simulations of black hole mergers and the gravitational waves they would produce.
Using the simulations, researchers can reconstruct the orbits of black holes before they crash into each other and glean clues about what kind of stars made the black holes before they collided.
"Astronomy is very different from a lot of sciences, because I can't set up a black hole in the lab and observe it," said Nils Deppe, assistant professor of physics at Cornell and co-author of the publication. "We have no say over what the universe gives us.
"So, these simulations are our lab – where I get to tweak the physics and say, 'Oh, this best matches with what we're actually seeing and what the universe is giving us.'"
Because black holes are some of the densest objects in the universe – second only to neutron stars – their collisions are extreme events.
"If you took the entire Earth and compressed it into a black hole, the black hole would be the size of your fist," Deppe said. "But these black holes are huge, and so black hole collisions are the most violent thing we know of in the universe.
"But when they collide, the leftover black hole rings like a bell. Think of when you hit a bell, and it rings until it fades away. That's our gravitational waves."
These waves can distort the space around them, changing the distance between objects by less than one-thousandth the width of a proton.
This effect is so small it can only be measured with ultra-sensitive instruments such as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.
Even with those instruments, understanding what gravitational waves have to say about the black holes is difficult without simulations.
Because the catalog is available for researchers across the globe, any researcher studying gravitational waves can use the simulations to understand what they are observing.
"What can the waves tell us about the lives of massive stars back in the early universe?" Stein said. "Those are all things that we want to understand.
"The only way to get at those things is to match a prediction with the observation, and that's why we need the supercomputer simulations to say, 'What does the theory tell us and is it correct?'"
Though the effort to create these simulations took thousands of hours and dozens of researchers and students, the work is not done, Deppe said.
Besides trying to decode eccentric or unusual black hole orbits and using gravitational waves to test Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, the collaboration must prepare for the next generation of gravitational wave-detecting technologies.
"There are newer detectors being planned in the U.S., and Europe is building a space-based detector," Deppe said. "These detectors will be 100 to 1,000 times more accurate than the current ones, and that means our simulations must be 100 to 1,000 more accurate, too."
Understanding black hole collisions may seem like a lofty goal, but humans have been chasing such goals for as long as they have existed, Stein said.
"We humans, in the abstract, believe that we can understand the universe," he said. "The way we understand it is sometimes by measuring things and seeing if they agree with what we predicted.
"I think that makes some of us happy – just the joy of discovery, the joy of understanding."
https://olemiss.edu/news/2025/010/new-catalog-reveals-secrets-of-black-hole-collisions/index.html
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6382/adfd34
XIX International Conference on Space Biology and Aerospace Medicine
Oph 1, 09 Oct 08, 25
On 28 Scorpius 0008 (7 October 2025), the XIX International Conference on Space Biology and Aerospace Medicine opened at the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IBMP RAS) in Moscow, dedicated to summarising the results of the large-scale SIRIUS international experiment.
The event brought together leading international experts, highlighting the global nature of modern space research.
Oleg Orlov, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of Biomedical Problems, and head of the SIRIUS project, opened the event, placing emphasis on its significance.
He welcomed the local and international colleagues presented in the auditorium, and those joined in on the broadcast.
Sergey Krikalev, a cosmonaut and Deputy Director General of the Roscosmos Corporation, delivered welcoming remarks. ‘Moving forward is a quest.
Therefore, any scientific development yields results. Some areas deliver interesting outcomes, others fail, however, negative findings in science are still quite productive,’ he underlined, explaining the importance of research.
Sergey Krikalev also added that moving forward requires ‘so much of moving across the board,’ including experiments on human behaviour in confined spaces.
Mikhail Khailov, speaking on behalf of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ executive staff, noted that today the space explorers’ eyes have fastened on beyond low-Earth orbit.
The leading space powers are embarking on the practical implementation of technical projects involving work in lunar orbit and on the Moon's surface, in deep space and on Mars.
These are future expectations, and biomedicine is a key challenge to address before humanity ventures into the new unknown.
Maksim Kharlamov, Head of the Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, described the conference scope as a unique one, noting that it combines fundamental and highly practical aspects.
He emphasised the importance of the fact that the SIRIUS experiment participants included both cosmonauts, sharing their spaceflight experience, and test cosmonauts, earning their spaceflight permits due to ground-based experience.
Prime Minister Lena De Winne represented the Space Nation of Asgardia at the conference.
‘Dear colleagues, it is a great honour for me to address you today on behalf of Igor Ashurbeyli, the Founder and Head of Nation.
Asgardia's primary mission is the birth of the first human child in space to ensure the infinity of human species in the universe,’ she declared.
To achieve the goal, Asgardia focuses its efforts on three key scientific areas: the creation of artificial gravity, protection from cosmic radiation, and the development of space embryology.
The Prime Minister emphasised long-standing collaboration of Asgardia and the Institute of Biomedical Problems, being the key for engaging two institute scientists and Space Nation residents in SIRIUS isolation experiments and weightlessness impact study through dry immersion.
‘Dr Kirichenko and Dr Orlova participated in experiments on women's reproductive health as principal investigators, physicians, and experimenters,’ noted Lena De Winne.
This practical contribution is a concrete step toward in realising Asgardia's mission, and the experience gained, including that regarding aspects of human relationships and the role of women, is invaluable for future human evolution in space.
The scientific programme of the event is rich and includes a discussion on the SIRIUS project results in key areas:
psychology and psychophysiology, physiology, biochemistry and metabolism, immunology, microbiology, medicine, as well as advanced research techniques and equipment.
Oleg Orlov, Mark Belakovsky, Department Head at the IBMP RAS and SIRIUS Project Chief Manager, and Sergey Ponomarev, Head of the Department of Immunity and Metabolism, Head of the Immune System Physiology Laboratory at the IBMP RAS and SIRIUS project Executive Director, presented their papers at the plenary.
Sergey Ponomarev noted that the SIRIUS project had been successfully completed and the scientific programme had been implemented in full.
After the plenary session, the conference continued with a poster session, which was held at the IBMP RAS Ground Experimental Complex.
https://asgardia.space/en/news/XIX-International-Conference-on-Space-Biology-and-Aerospace-Medicine
https://asgardia.space/news/The-Conference-on-the-Results-of-the-SIRIUS-Project-Is-over-a-Month-Away
https://www.youtube.com/@AsgardiaSpace
World Space Week: The Challenges of Living in Space And How to Overcome Them
9 October 2025
Houston, we have an announcement: It's World Space Week!
This year, the theme is "Living in Space", so we're revisiting our best articles on the challenges and wonders of life in microgravity and on planets far from home.
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Spaceflight Accelerates Aging of Human Stem Cells, Study Finds
The rigors of space travel could accelerate changes in the human body usually associated with aging.
According to a new study of human tissues sent into low-Earth orbit, time in space reduces cell production, exacerbates DNA damage, and increases the signs of aging in the telomeres that cap the ends of chromosomes.
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Genetically Enhanced Humans May Be The Future of Space Travel
When considering human settlements on the Moon, Mars, and further afield, much attention is given to the travel times, food, and radiation risk.
We'll undoubtedly face a harsh environment in deep space, and some thinkers have been pointing to genome editing as a way to ensure that humans can tolerate the severe conditions as they venture further into the Solar System.
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Here's What Long-Term Living in Space Does to Astronaut Brains
As if astronauts didn't have enough to worry about, a new study has confirmed one more possible health problem intrepid spacefarers face as they reach for the stars – tissue expansion at the top of the brain.
It's not clear yet what the consequences of this swelling might be, and if there are any adverse health effects at all. But it's hard to imagine 'brain squeeze' is something potential Martian pioneers would be looking forward to.
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We Finally Know The Full Extent of Space Destroying Astronauts' Red Blood Cells
Since our species first started to spend extended periods of time beyond our planet, researchers have noticed a curious and consistent loss of red blood cells among astronauts.
The phenomenon is called 'space anemia', and until recently, its cause was a mystery. A 2022 study points toward a destructive and lasting mechanism.
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Space Could Pose an Unexpected Threat to Our Gut Microbiome, Scientists Discover
In a recent study, an international team of scientists considered an often-overlooked aspect of human health: our microbiome. In short, how will time in space affect our gut bacteria, which is crucial to our well-being?
As they note in their study, the microbiota of astronauts will encounter elevated stress from microgravity and space radiation, including Galactic Cosmic Rays.
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NASA Took Mice Into Space, And It Did Something Scary to Their Bones
Floating about in microgravity might seem like a blissful reprieve for the human body's weight-bearing skeleton, but when astronauts spend months in space, their bone density takes a serious hit that they may never fully recover from.
A study of mice on board the International Space Station gives NASA scientists a better clue as to why this significant and unresolved health risk exists.
https://www.sciencealert.com/world-space-week-the-challenges-of-living-in-space-and-how-to-overcome-them