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>>23965185 late lb repost
Earth Wobble, Moonquakes, Solar Watch | S0 News and frens
Dec.10.2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoKstx-ADeQ
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/improved-terminator-sun-model-could-change-space-weather-forecasting/
https://prm.ua/en/a-magnetic-storm-is-raging-in-ukraine-a-sharp-deterioration-in-well-being-is-expected/
https://www.space.com/live/aurora-forecast-will-the-northern-lights-be-visible-tonight
https://x.com/TamithaSkov/status/1997937930556547197
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsh1fLbrUjk (Dr Tamitha Skov: Where are the Expected Solar Storms? | Space Weather Live Briefing 09 December 2025)
https://x.com/MrMBB333/status/1998610634582392974
https://spaceweather.com/
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
https://spaceweathernews.com/
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/the-tale-of-3i-atlas-and-sterile-neutrinos-296b3680dcda
https://medium.com/@liena.dreams/charged-particles-map-of-3i-atlas-2006a89f789a
https://x.com/drew4worldruler/status/1998778696560193846
https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-egypt-black-desert
https://x.com/AstronomyVibes/status/1998567770536247594
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/3i-atlas-interstellar-object-lies-scientist-claims-amateur-astronomers-manipulate-photos-make-1761914
https://news.az/news/-in-photos-interst-ellar-comet-3i-atlas-tours-our-solar-system
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJw7ISTfxfI (Dobsonian Power: CONFIRMED: MORE SCIENTISTS SHOW 3I/ATLAS NOT A COMET!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWKHX5NYN6g (Ray's Astrophotography: Comet 3I ATLAS – Why Is It FLICKERING - Is Something Turning It ON and OFF - I took a PICTURE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUBeLnmkEnY (Chuck's Astrophotography: Live: 3I/ATLAS (Let's Take a Picture))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRyI8znCYxg (Leak Project: ⚠️“What They Don’t Want You to See, 3I/ATLAS Hidden Data, Biblical 16:16 & SWAN”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rwhCfi9O_8 (Sarah Breskman Cosme: Is there another 3 I Atlas?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpWaAESy6RE (StarTalk: Are We The Universe’s Way of Knowing Itself? With Brian Cox)
The Tale of 3I/ATLAS and Sterile Neutrinos
December 9, 2025
There is no doubt that we can learn something new from the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, irrespective of whether it is an icy rock or a spacecraft. The only obstacle to learning is comet experts who display the arrogance of expertise.
How can anyone claim to be an expert of interstellar objects when the sample size includes only two previously known examples, 1I/`Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov and when 3I/ATLAS displays 13 anomalies relative to these two (as listed here)?
The anti-tail of 3I/ATLAS appears in our highest-resolution images from the Hubble Space Telescope, one obtained before (here) and the second after (here) perihelion.
The orientation of the anti-tail flipped relative to the direction of motion at perihelion and is definitely not a matter of perspective as is the case for some comets. What is the physics of the anti-tail of 3I/ATLAS?
Micrometer-scale, refractory dust particles would have been swept away from the Sun by the solar radiation and wind. The anti-tail must therefore contain something else.
To account for its properties, I wrote three papers so far explaining it as being made of fragments of ice that evaporate before turning around (here and here) or large objects that are not affected much by the solar radiation or wind (here).
Why are comet experts and NASA officials so reluctant in displaying curiosity about the anti-tail or other anomalies of 3I/ATLAS?
To gain further insight, let us consider another news story that garnered attention over the past week. Two major experiments were motivated by anomalies in past data and searched for ghost neutrinos that do not couple to matter.
They both failed to find these sterile neutrinos, as reported in two Nature magazine papers (here and here).
The Standard Model of particle physics lists three neutrino flavors of the electron, muon and tau types. Quantum-mechanical oscillations allow a neutrino of one flavor to be detected at a later time as a different flavor.
Anomalies reported in previous experiments were inconsistent with this three-flavor picture and have motivated the hypothesis that an additional neutrino state exists of a sterile neutrino that does not interact with matter.
The anomalous data included oscillations observed by the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND) experiment and Mini-Booster Neutrino Experiment (MiniBooNE).
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The first paper (here) from the MicroBooNE used oscillation data from two neutrino beams to exclude a single sterile neutrino interpretation of the LSND and MiniBooNE anomalies at the 95% confidence level.
The second paper (here) used tritium beta-decay (electron emission) in the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment, to search for sterile neutrinos.
A sterile-neutrino signal would appear as a distortion in the beta-decay energy spectrum, characterized by a discontinuity related to the sterile-neutrino mass.
The analysis of the energy spectrum of 36 million tritium beta-decay electrons recorded in 259 measurement days excluded most of the parameter space suggested by previous claims for a sterile neutrino.
These experiments cost a total of (20+70)=90 million dollars. But their goal to explain past anomalies was not a waste. Testing potential explanations of anomalies, here in terms of a new ghost particle, is at the foundation of scientific frontiers that attempt to expand our scientific knowledge.
Yet, self-declared experts insist that anomalies of interstellar objects like 1I/`Oumuamua or 3I/ATLAS should only be framed in the context of our past knowledge on asteroids or comets.
Any discussion that goes beyond these categories is “nonsense on stilts” as phrased here by the dogmatist Chris Lintott, only a few weeks after the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS was discovered and well before we had any detailed data about its properties.
By now, I had written 11 papers on 3I/ATLAS (available here). At the end of my first paper (posted here), I included the concluding sentence:
“If 3I/ATLAS is a solid object with a physical radius larger than 10 kilometers, then the limited interstellar reservoir of rocky materials would suggest that its trajectory favored a plunging orbit towards the inner Solar system, perhaps by technological design”.
As editor of the journal where my paper was submitted, Lintott insisted that I remove this sentence before the paper gets accepted for publication.
His insistence motivated me to co-author a full paper on the technological interpretation (accessible here), which was peer-reviewed and accepted for publication in another journal.
No dogmatist commented on the anomalies leading to the notion of sterile neutrinos as “nonsense on stilts” even after the effort to validate this notion failed. Why is the idea of a technological origin for interstellar objects far more controversial than the failed idea of sterile neutrinos?
In terms of risk management, the search for sterile neutrinos clearly does not hold more promise given the latest experimental data. Moreover, alien technology has more relevance to the future of humanity and hence deserves scientific attention.
This was the question I discussed with the president of the Templeton Foundation, Tim Dalrymple, and his daughter, during their visit to my home today, when we pondered over the latest frontiers of science.
A genuine curiosity about anomalies is common among science enthusiasts outside academia. Over the past day, I received the following two messages which shed more light on this state of affairs.
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NASA scientist discovers Star of Bethlehem wasn't actually a star
15:01, 10 Dec 2025
Around Christmas time, many children in schools across the country hear the story of the nativity, which follows the birth of baby Jesus.
In the Bible, the Star of Bethlehem is said to show the three wise men the way to the stable. However, a recent discovery says that what happened may be a bit different.
While the story details the Star first appearing in the east and marking the location of the son of God, a NASA scientist has claimed to have discovered what the Star actually was.
While some people may believe it to be a myth after hearing the story over the years, the scientist suggests it did actually exist, just not in the way we think.
While the marker that the wise men followed is continually referred to as a bright star, planetary scientist Mark Matney instead claims it was a comet. P
ublished in the British Astronomical Association, Matney says a comet that was first noticed by Chinese astronomers in 5BC could be a potential candidate.
This would match up with historians, who say that Jesus may have been born around 5BC or 6BC, reports the Express. Additionally, Matney's study suggests that the comet may have become visible on a June morning in 5BC.
Therefore, this would mean that people moving south towards Bethlehem would have been able to see the comet going ahead of them.
Looking like a marker in the sky, Matney believes this proves evidence of a version of the Star of Matthew at the time.
In his study, Matney said: "A comet candidate has been presented that can explain all aspects of Matthew’s periscope.
"A comet orbit can be constructed that both fits the Chinese observations and passed very close to Earth in early June.
"On one particular June day, this comet could have moved in such a way as to appear to ‘go before’ someone travelling from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and then ‘stop’ nearly overhead for about two hours."
He added: "This unusual comet motion would have occurred during daylight, when ancient people would normally travel…the candidate presented here corresponds to all aspects of both the Chinese observations and the descriptions of the Star in Matthew."
Matney isn't the first scientist to bring a scientific perspective to the Bible and the life of Jesus. Earlier this year, a British anthropologist claimed to have found Jesus' body.
Dr Paul Warner said that the body was found with the Ark of the Covenant - which is an ornate, gold-plated wooden chest that housed the two tablets of the Law given to Moses by God - under the Great Pyramid of Egypt.
Sharing his findings with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr Warner claimed that the antiquities had been hidden inside a double cave deep in pyramids.
He added that said chest and body of Jesus could be behind a stone block sealing off the southern passageway's subterranean chamber. However, he did add that a further investigation would be required to confirm his theory.
Dr Warner, who is not religious, adopted a strictly secular approach to his research.
He pinpointed the exact location using a "scientific method" and triangulated data from texts of all three Abrahamic religions - Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
With Christmas day just around the corner, you may start to think about the story of Jesus' birth and death in a different light.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/nasa-scientist-discovers-star-bethlehem-36380777
https://britastro.org/journal_contents_ite/the-star-that-stopped-the-star-of-bethlehem-the-comet-of-5-bce
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4723-4730: Digging Into Nevado Sajama
Dec 09, 2025
Earth Planning Date: Friday, Nov. 21, 2025
Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that there is one extra sol being planned this week.
That’s because today’s weekend plan has an extra sol as we prepare for our five-sol holiday plan next week over American Thanksgiving.
The team took full advantage of this extra-long week to dig into not only our 45th drill hole but also the area around us.
After our drill last week at Nevado Sajama atop one of the boxwork ridges, we started our analysis of the drilled sample.
As Michelle mentioned in that blog post, the CheMin instrument got the first crack at the sample last weekend.
This week, SAM took over, doing the same evolved gas analysis (EGA) experiment we did on our recent drill sample in the Monte Grande hollow.
Even though SAM activities tend to be fairly energy-intensive, we got lucky and got what we refer to as a “power gift” after Monday’s plan, which meant we could bring in more activities this week than we’d been expecting to.
ChemCam has plenty to look at in our current workspace and has a grand total of seven different LIBS measurements of the nearby rocks.
It also cast its sights further afield with several mosaics of the walls of the hollows and buttes around us. Mastcam has been diligently working away through the week at its massive 360-degree stereo mosaic of our current location.
As always, while we look into what the local geology can tell us about the past environment of Mars, we are still keeping an eye on the present environment.
Alongside RAD and REMS, we scanned the skies for clouds and our surroundings for dust-lifting events.
We also continued to monitor the amount of dust both inside and outside the crater while it continues to increase as we head further into the dusty season.
APXS also has an atmospheric measurement planned for this weekend to keep an eye on atmospheric composition.
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/curiosity-blog-sols-4723-4730-digging-into-nevado-sajama/
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4731-4742: Finishing Up at Nevado Sajama
Dec 09, 2025
Earth Planning Date: Friday, Dec. 5, 2025
Since we only had one planning day last week due to American Thanksgiving, this update covers both last week and this week of planning. And what a productive couple of weeks it has been!
Last week I was busy on Earth tucking into turkey, gravy, and stuffing, but Curiosity was continuing to work hard collecting observations at the Nevado Sajama drill site. One notable activity was the collection of more frames for our mega 360-degree Mastcam stereo mosaic at this location.
Usually when we take 360-degree mosaics with our color mast cameras, we only use the 34 mm (left) Mastcam, which has the wider field of view of the two mast cameras, so it can cover the entire scene with fewer frames.
Since we knew we’d be parked in a single location for many sols during our Nevado Sajama drilling campaign, the Mastcam team proposed an ambitious plan to take a full 360-degree mosaic in stereo, using both the M34 camera but also our telephoto Mastcam 100 mm (right) camera, which has a smaller field of view but can capture more detail.
There’s not enough time to collect the hundreds of frames that make up this mosaic in a single sol, so we broke up the scene into many chunks and have been diligently acquiring it piece-by-piece over many sols, including imaging several areas over Thanksgiving and this week.
We’re nearly there and should finish up before we drive away this weekend!
The star activity of this week was the delivery of the last of the Nevado Sajama drilled sample to SAM for a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GCMS) analysis which we use to characterize any organic (carbon-containing) material in the sample.
We successfully completed the GCMS activity in Monday’s plan and spent Wednesday emptying the last little bit of drilled sample that remained in the rover’s drill bit assembly.
Once we “dumped the sample,” we were free to move the arm around to any position we wanted, so we took the opportunity to deploy APXS and MAHLI on the drill tailings pile.
Friday’s plan contained the final observations we needed before driving away from Nevado Sajama, including a MAHLI image showing where the APXS instrument contacted the tailings pile in Wednesday’s plan, and images of the drill from Mastcam.
We’re also planning to do something we haven’t done for a long time — take images of the walls of the drill hole at night using MAHLI’s built in LEDs as an illumination source.
This is an observation we did earlier in the mission but not recently because the drill holes have generally had poorly consolidated walls, and we didn’t think we’d get much valuable information from the nighttime images — we’d mostly be looking at illuminated piles of dirt rather than consolidated bedrock.
For whatever reason, the Nevado Sajama drill hole wall looks unusually clean, so we decided that this would be a good time to take another nighttime image to see the 3D view of where our sample came from.
After collecting our final observations of the drill hole, we’ll pack up and drive away. But we’re not going far.
The science team has identified some important observations we’d like to collect nearby before the holidays, so we’ll spend the next couple of plans collecting these data. Stay tuned for next week to learn more!
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/curiosity-blog-sols-4731-4742-finishing-up-at-nevado-sajama/
NASA Demonstrates Safer Skies for Future Urban Air Travel
Dec 09, 2025
NASA is helping shape the future of urban air travel with a new simulation that will manage how electric air taxis and drones can successfully operate within busy areas.
The demonstration, held at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley earlier this year, focused on a system called the Strategic Deconfliction Simulation, which helps coordinate flight plans before takeoff, reducing the risk of conflicts in busy urban environments
At the event, researchers demonstrated NASA’s Situational Viewer and Demand-Capacity Balancing Monitor, which visualizes air traffic and adjusts flight plans in real time.
The simulation demonstrated traffic scenarios involving drone operations throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, testing how preplanned flights could improve congestion and manage the demand and capacity of the airspace – ensuring that all aircraft can operate smoothly even in crowded conditions.
Working with industry partners is critical to NASA’s efforts to develop and refine technologies needed for future air mobility.
During the simulation, the company, ANRA Technologies, demonstrated its fleet and vertiport management systems, which are designed to support the coordination of multiple aircraft and ground operations.
“Simulating these complex environments supports broader efforts to ensure safe integration of drones and other advanced vehicles into the US airspace,” said Hanbong Lee, engineer at NASA Ames.
“By showcasing these capabilities, we’re delivering critical data and lessons learned to support efforts at NASA and industry.”
This demonstration is another step toward the NASA team’s plan to hold a technical capability level simulation in 2026. This upcoming simulation would help shape the development of services aimed at managing aircraft flying in urban areas.
The simulation was created through a NASA team from its Air Mobility Pathfinders project, part of the agency’s continuing work to find solutions for safely integrating innovative new aircraft such as air taxis into U.S. cities and the national airspace.
By developing advanced evaluations and simulations, the project supports safe, scalable, and publicly trusted air travel in urban areas, paving the way for a future where air taxis and drones are a safe and reliable part of everyday life.
The project falls under NASA’s Airspace Operations and Safety Program, which works to enable safe and efficient aviation transportation.
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/ames/nasa-demonstrates-safer-skies-for-future-urban-air-travel/
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/armd/aosp/
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/12/lunar-outpost-rover-to-study-lunar-dust-alongside-artemis-astronauts-on-moon/
NASA astronauts will have their own droid when they go back to the Moon
Dec 9, 2025 10:09 AM
B-9 had Will Robinson. Twiki had Buck Rogers. And, of course, C-3PO and R2-D2 had Luke Skywalker. Now, in a scenario straight out of science fiction, MAPP will have whoever NASA names to the crew of the second Artemis mission to land on the moon.
The space agency has selected Lunar Outpost’s Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform, or MAPP, to become the first robotic rover to operate on the moon alongside astronauts.
Although its tasks will be far simpler than those of the robots seen on TV and in the movies, the autonomous four-wheeled MAPP will help scientists learn more about the crew’s surroundings.
Science instruments on the rover will characterize the surface plasma and behavior of the dust in the lunar environment.
“The Apollo era taught us that the further humanity is from Earth, the more dependent we are on science to protect and sustain human life on other planets,” said Nicky Fox, NASA’s associate administrator for science, in a statement.
“By deploying these… science instruments on the lunar surface, our proving ground, NASA is leading the world in the creation of humanity’s interplanetary survival guide to ensure the health and safety of our spacecraft and human explorers as we begin our epic journey back to the Moon.”
“The Apollo missions showed us the challenges posed by dust on the lunar surface, and NASA’s Artemis plans to find solutions as a critical step to building a sustainable human presence in space,” said Justin Cyrus, founder and CEO of Lunar Outpost.
“This will be Lunar Outpost’s seventh contracted mission, demonstrating our ability to serve as a platform for multiple mission profiles and provide mobility and robotics to help astronauts conduct research on the moon.”
Danger Gene Cernan, danger
NASA’s next mission to launch to the Moon, Artemis II in 2026, will fly four astronauts near the Moon and then return them to Earth on a “shakeout cruise” for the Orion crew spacecraft.
That will be followed by Artemis III, targeted for 2028, which will see the first humans return to the lunar surface since the late Gene Cernan, Apollo 17 commander, left the last (to date) boot print on the moon more than 50 years ago this month.
Artemis IV will mark the second lunar landing of the Artemis program and build upon what is learned at the moon’s south pole on Artemis III.
“After his voyage to the Moon’s surface during Apollo 17, astronaut Gene Cernan acknowledged the challenge that lunar dust presents to long-term lunar exploration.
Moon dust sticks to everything it touches and is very abrasive,” read NASA’s announcement of the Artemis IV science payloads.
To that end, the solar-powered MAPP will support DUSTER (DUst and plaSma environmenT survEyoR), a two-part investigation from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
The autonomous rover’s equipment will include the Electrostatic Dust Analyzer (EDA), which will measure the charge, velocity, size, and flux of dust particles lofted from the lunar surface, and the RElaxation SOunder and differentiaL VoltagE (RESOLVE) instrument, which will characterize the average electron density above the lunar surface using plasma sounding.
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The University of Central Florida and University of California, Berkeley, have joined with LASP to interpret measurements taken by DUSTER.
The former will look at the dust ejecta generated during the Human Landing System (HLS, or lunar lander) liftoff from the Moon, while the latter will analyze upstream plasma conditions.
Lunar dust attaches to almost everything it comes into contact with, posing a risk to equipment and spacesuits. It can also obstruct solar panels, reducing their ability to generate electricity and cause thermal radiators to overheat.
The dust can also endanger astronauts’ health if inhaled.
“We need to develop a complete picture of the dust and plasma environment at the lunar south pole and how it varies over time and location to ensure astronaut safety and the operation of exploration equipment,” said Xu Wang, senior researcher at LASP and principal investigator of DUSTER, in a University of Colorado statement.
“By studying this environment, we gain crucial insights that will guide mitigation strategies and methods to enable long-term, sustained human exploration on the Moon.”
Lunar Voyage 5
MAPP, which looks more like a mouse droid than a protocol or astromech unit, will not be new to the moon when it arrives on the surface with the Artemis IV astronauts. If all goes to plan, it will be Lunar Outpost’s third wheeled platform to reach the moon.
The Colorado-based company’s first MAPP mission, dubbed “Lunar Voyage 1,” arrived on the moon in March of this year but was trapped in its “garage” when its ride to the surface, a commercial uncrewed moon lander, toppled over upon its touchdown.
Despite being unable to move, Lunar Outpost said the LV1 MAPP was able to collect data from the lunar surface and in transit, as well as confirm that the rover was ready to drive.
The Lunar Voyage 2 (LV2) MAPP is targeted for launch on Intuitive Machines’ IM-3 mission in 2026 as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Services Program (CLPS).
The LV3 rover is booked for a commercial mission, followed by “Roo-ver” by the end of the decade as the Australian Space Agency’s first flagship mission and its contribution to NASA’s Artemis program.
Lunar Outpost earlier deployed an environmental monitoring system based on the life support system developed for NASA’s Gateway lunar orbit platform, and built MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment), which successfully demonstrated producing oxygen 16 times on the Red Planet while mounted to NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.
MAPP has also been celebrated in pop culture, extending its similarities with the sci-fi robots that preceded it.
In August, Lego and Lunar Outpost partnered on the release of the LegoTechnic Lunar Outpost Moon Rover Space Vehicle, a toy building block set that constructed three rovers, including a miniature MAPP.
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https://www.nasa.gov/general/painting-galaxy-clusters-by-numbers-and-physics/
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/chandra/
Painting Galaxy Clusters by Numbers (and Physics)
Dec 09, 2025
Galaxy clusters are the most massive objects in the universe held together by gravity, containing up to several thousand individual galaxies and huge reservoirs of superheated, X-ray-emitting gas.
The mass of this hot gas is typically about five times higher than the total mass of all the galaxies in galaxy clusters. In addition to these visible components, 80% of the mass of galaxy clusters is supplied by dark matter.
These cosmic giants are bellwethers not only for the galaxies, stars and black holes within them, but also for the evolution and growth of the universe itself.
It is no surprise then that NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has observed many galaxy clusters over the lifetime of the mission.
Chandra’s X-ray vision allows it to see the enormous stockpiles of hot cluster gas, with temperatures as high as 100 million degrees, with exquisite clarity. This blazing gas tells stories about past and present activity within galaxy clusters.
Many of these galaxy clusters host supermassive black holes at their centers, which periodically erupt in powerful outbursts.
These explosions generate jets that are visible in radio wavelengths, which inflate bubbles full of energetic particles; these bubbles carry energy out into the surrounding gas.
Chandra’s images have revealed a wealth of other structures formed during these black hole outbursts, including hooks, rings, arcs, and wings. However, appearances alone don’t tell us what these structures are or how they formed.
To tackle this problem, a team of astronomers developed a novel image-processing technique to analyze X-ray data, allowing them to identify features in the gas of galaxy clusters like never before, classifying them by their nature rather than just their appearance.
Prior to this technique, which they call “X-arithmetic,” scientists could only identify the nature of some of the features and in a much less efficient way, via studies of the amounts of X-ray energy dispersed at different wavelengths.
The authors applied X-arithmetic to 15 galaxy clusters and galaxy groups (these are similar to galaxy clusters but with fewer member galaxies).
By comparing the outcome from the X-arithmetic technique to computer simulations, researchers now have a new tool that will help in understanding the physical processes inside these important titans of the universe.
A new paper looks at how these structures appear in different parts of the X-ray spectrum.
By splitting Chandra data into lower-energy and higher-energy X-rays and comparing the strengths of each structure in both, researchers can classify them into three distinct types, which they have colored differently.
A pink color is given to sound waves and weak shock fronts, which arise from pressure disturbances traveling at close to the speed of sound, compressing the hot gas into thin layers.
The bubbles inflated by jets are colored yellow, and cooling or slower-moving gas is blue. The resulting images, “painted” to reflect the nature of each structure, offer a new way to interpret the complex aftermath of black hole activity using only X-ray imaging data.
This method works not only on Chandra (and other X-ray) observations, but also on simulations of galaxy clusters, providing a tool to bridge data and theory.
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The images in this new collection show the central regions of five galaxy clusters in the sample: MS 0735+7421, the Perseus Cluster, and M87 in the Virgo Cluster in the top row and Abell 2052 and Cygnus A on the bottom row.
All of these objects have been released to the public before by the Chandra X-ray Center, but this is the first time this special technique has been applied. The new treatment highlights important differences between the galaxy clusters and galaxy groups in the study.
The galaxy clusters in the study often have large regions of cooling or slow-moving gas near their centers, and only some show evidence for shock fronts.
The galaxy groups, on the other hand, are different. They show multiple shock fronts in their central regions and smaller amounts of cooling and slow-moving gas compared to the sample of galaxy clusters.
This contrast between galaxy clusters and galaxy groups suggests that black hole feedback — that is, the interdependent relationship between outbursts from a black hole and its environment — appears stronger in galaxy groups.
This may be because feedback is more violent in the groups than in the clusters, or because a galaxy group has weaker gravity holding the structure together than a galaxy cluster.
The same outburst from a black hole, with the same power level, can therefore more easily affect a galaxy group than a galaxy cluster.
There are still many open questions about these black hole outbursts. For example, scientists would like to know how much energy they put into the gas around them and how often they occur.
These violent events play a key role in regulating the cooling of the hot gas and controlling the formation of stars in clusters.
By revealing the physics underlying the structures they leave behind, the X-arithmetic technique brings us closer to understanding the influence of black holes on the largest scales.
A paper describing this new technique and its results has been published in The Astrophysical Journal and is led by Hannah McCall from the University of Chicago.
The other authors are Irina Zhuravleva (University of Chicago), Eugene Churazov (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Germany), Congyao Zhang (University of Chicago), Bill Forman and Christine Jones (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), and Yuan Li (University of Massachusetts at Amherst).
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
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NASA Teams Work MAVEN Spacecraft Signal Loss
December 9, 2025
NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, in orbit around Mars, experienced a loss of signal with ground stations on Earth on Dec. 6.
Telemetry from MAVEN had showed all subsystems working normally before it orbited behind the Red Planet. After the spacecraft emerged from behind Mars, NASA’s Deep Space Network did not observe a signal.
The spacecraft and operations teams are investigating the anomaly to address the situation. More information will be shared once it becomes available.
The MAVEN spacecraft launched in November 2013 and entered Mars’ orbit in September 2014.
The mission’s goal is to explore the planet’s upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the Sun and solar wind to explore the loss of the Martian atmosphere to space.
Understanding atmospheric loss gives scientists insight into the history of the Red Planet’s atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability.
The spacecraft also serves as a communications relay station for rovers on the Martian surface. Last year, MAVEN celebrated its 10th anniversary in orbit at Mars.
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/maven/2025/12/09/nasa-teams-work-maven-spacecraft-signal-loss/
NASA’s AVIRIS-5 uses next-gen spectral imaging to spot lithium deposits from 60,000 feet
Dec 09, 2025 07:02 PM EST
NASA’s newest airborne sensor is taking mineral exploration to stratospheric heights, literally.
Called AVIRIS-5, the advanced imaging spectrometer has begun sweeping the American West from 60,000 feet above the ground, mapping lithium-rich rocks and other critical minerals with unprecedented detail.
The instrument, about the size of a microwave oven, flies aboard a high-altitude NASA ER-2 research aircraft.
From that vantage point, it can detect the faint spectral fingerprints of minerals, clays, pigments, and other compounds on Earth’s surface by analyzing how sunlight reflects off them.
The project, in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), marks the country’s largest airborne mineral-mapping campaign to date.
AVIRIS-5 is the latest in a decades-long line of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) spectrometers used to study Earth, the Moon, and almost every major rocky world in the solar system.
The new sensor shares its heritage with the instruments that traced Mars’ crust, revealed Titan’s lakes, and first discovered water on the Moon.
AVIRIS-5, however, is built for Earth and for speed.
Mapping hidden treasures
During its first year, AVIRIS-5 logged more than 200 flight hours over Nevada, California, and other Western states as part of the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx).
The broader effort, Earth MRI, aims to modernize the nation’s surface and subsurface maps to identify resources essential to energy, manufacturing, and national security.
An early highlight is the detection of hectorite, a valuable lithium-bearing clay, found in the tailings of an abandoned California mine.
Lithium is among 50 minerals the USGS considers critical due to supply chain risks. The ability to spot such deposits from the stratosphere gives geologists a powerful new tool as global demand soars.
“The breadth of different questions you can take on with this technology is really exciting, from land management to snowpack water resources to wildfire risk,” said NASA JPL Earth system scientist Dana Chadwick.
“Critical minerals are just the beginning for AVIRIS-5.”
AVIRIS-5’s improved spatial resolution, twice as sharp as its predecessor, allows it to distinguish features as small as 30 centimeters from 11 miles up.
Each flight generates massive “image cubes” capturing both imagery and detailed spectral data for every pixel.
These spectral signatures allow scientists to pinpoint minerals the way fingerprints identify individuals.
Tech born for space
The technology draws from breakthroughs at NASA JPL’s Microdevices Laboratory, where engineers use prisms, gratings, detector arrays, and advanced materials like black silicon, one of the darkest substances ever made, to eliminate stray light and boost precision.
Similar hardware has flown on missions to Mercury, Mars, Pluto, Titan, and soon Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Since the first AVIRIS took flight in 1986, the family of sensors has analyzed volcanoes, wildfire burn scars, disaster zones, diseased crops, and more.
AVIRIS-5 is now expanding that legacy with the largest U.S. airborne mineral survey ever attempted. Backed by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, GEMx is set to run for four years.
The hope: help communities extract new value from old mines, find new mineral resources, and identify environmental hazards such as acid mine drainage.
For AVIRIS-5, lithium mapping is just the beginning. The sensor is designed to change how we see Earth, one spectral fingerprint at a time.
https://interestingengineering.com/energy/nasa-aviris5-critical-mineral-mapping
Congressional Inquiry Into Science and Technology Agency Offices of Civil Rights
December 9, 2025
According to a press release from House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology “House SST Committee Investigates Alleged Misconduct in Agency Civil Rights Offices” letters have been sent to a number of agencies (including NASA) “following disturbing reports of potential obstructionism within agencies’ Office of Civil Rights (OCRs). The letters seek to determine the scope of this obstructionism and to inform appropriate oversight measures to ensure OCRs are fulfilling their statutory responsibilities.” More Below.
Today, House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Brian Babin and Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Rich McCormick sent letters to the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and National Science Foundation following disturbing reports of potential obstructionism within agencies’ Office of Civil Rights (OCRs).
The letters seek to determine the scope of this obstructionism and to inform appropriate oversight measures to ensure OCRs are fulfilling their statutory responsibilities.
In the letters, the Chairmen emphasize that “While differing slightly in structure across agencies, OCRs play a critical role in ensuring that agencies and their funding recipients comply with federal civil rights law.”
The Committee warns that any breakdown in these functions would undermine the fundamental purpose of these offices.
They also highlighted that “certain OCR leaders have actively discouraged career staff from pursuing investigations into civil rights violations involving federal grant programs,” including concerns about whether some offices have failed to review or investigate decisions made under the Biden Administration.
The letters further note that some OCR leaders may be falsely claiming they lack the authority to conduct required oversight.
The Chairmen stressed that, if true, these reports “suggest a potentially troubling pattern that could compromise the integrity of civil rights enforcement across federal agencies.”
The letters request detailed information on civil rights enforcement activities, whistleblower concerns, internal accountability mechanisms, and compliance reviews conducted since January 20, 2025.
Agencies are asked to respond no later than December 19, 2025.
To read the letters to each agency, please click the links below:
https://nasawatch.com/congress/congressional-inquiry-into-science-and-technology-agency-offices-of-civil-rights/
https://nasawatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/12.09.25-IOSST-to-NASA-OCR-.pdf
Comet SWAN shines with the Pillars of Creation in breathtaking deep space photo
December 10, 2025
passed in front of the Eagle Nebula and the iconic Pillars of Creation, from his home in the Chilean Atacama Desert on the night of Oct. 17 earlier this year.
The deep-space vista reveals the glowing green coma of comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN), a little over a month after its closest approach to the sun on Sept. 12, as it journeyed through the stars of the constellation Serpens.
Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN)'s backdrop is dominated by the Eagle Nebula — a vast cosmic structure of dust and hydrogen-rich gas that glows with its own light, having been ionized by the radiation emitted by its population of energetic young stars.
The nebula gets its name from its resemblance to a cosmic bird of prey and is most famous for playing host to the Pillars of Creation — a collection of stunning radiation-sculpted columns made of interstellar dust and gas.
The formation has been immortalized in images captured by both the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, along with countless others.
Though small, the Pillars of Creation can be spotted nestled in the glowing, star-studded heart of the Eagle Nebula, to the left of C/2025 R2 (SWAN)'s glowing coma in Gasparri's image.
Gasparri captured the scene over the course of 40 X 120-second exposures using a 130 mm Newtonian reflector telescope in the skies over the Atacama Desert, close to the Chilean city of Copiapó, where he works as a professional astronomer.
"It was also an amazing sight through the eyepiece, with its characteristic green coma drifting across one of the most observed nebulae in the sky," Gasparri told Space.com in an email.
C/2025 R2 (SWAN) was discovered by Ukrainian astronomer Vladimir Bezgly on Sept. 10, 2025, in data collected by the Solar and Heliospheric Wind Anisotropies (SWAN) camera on NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observer (SOHO) spacecraft.
The comet is now heading out towards the far reaches of the solar system, having survived its close approach with the sun on Sept. 12 and won't return for approximately 1,400 years.
https://www.space.com/stargazing/astrophotography/comet-swan-shines-with-the-pillars-of-creation-in-breathtaking-deep-space-photo
This 7-hour cosmic explosion is the longest gamma-ray burst ever seen. Could it be from an elusive class of black hole?
December 9, 2025
Astronomers have spotted the longest gamma-ray burst ever seen, a cosmic explosion that lasted seven hours — and they determined it could be the work of a black hole destroying a star.
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are considered to be the most powerful cosmic explosions since the Big Bang, but when GRB 250702B was first detected on July 2, 2025 by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, it quickly stood out among the around 15,000 GRBs detected thus far. The blast could be the result of an elusive intermediate-mass black hole devouring a star.
The record-breaking GRB is the longest ever seen, with none of its contemporaries even coming close to its seven-hour duration. Not only that, but GRB 250702B also exhibited repeating explosive bursts, stretching its duration over days.
Because most GRBs last for just a few minutes, this meant GRB 250702B offered astronomers a unique opportunity to study such an event. They also believe this is an entirely new form of cosmic explosion.
"The initial wave of gamma rays lasted at least 7 hours, nearly twice the duration of the longest GRB seen previously, and we detected other unusual properties," team member Eliza Neights of George Washington University and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement.
"This is certainly an outburst unlike any other we've seen in the past 50 years."
Following up on Fermi's initial detection, astronomers turned to the Very Large Telescope (VLT) located on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama desert of northern Chile. This revealed the location from which the GRB erupted, a galaxy billions of light-years away from the Milky Way.
Investigating the afterglow of GRB 250702B with three of the world's most powerful ground-based telescopes, the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope and the twin 8.1-meter International Gemini Observatory telescopes, a team of researchers led by Jonathan Carney, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, found clues as to what caused this record-breaking explosion.
"The ability to rapidly point the Blanco and Gemini telescopes on short notice is crucial to capturing transient events such as gamma-ray bursts," Carney said in a statement. "Without this ability, we would be limited in our understanding of distant events in the dynamic night sky."
What caused the longest gamma-ray burst ever recorded?
This research suggested that the initial gamma-ray signal from GRB 250702B emerged from a narrow, near-light-speed jet of plasma slamming into surrounding gas and dust.
This indicates that the galaxy that is home to this event is packed with a vast amount of dust around the point of emission. The team also found that the host galaxy of GRB 250702B is more massive than those of other GRBs.
One current theory about the creation of GRBs suggests they happen when massive blue supergiant stars collapse at the end of their lives, when an extreme neutron star called a magnetar is born, or when a black hole rips apart a star in a so-called "tidal disruption event" (TDE). However, GRB 250702B doesn't seem to completely fall in line with any of these scenarios.
Researchers currently have three ideas of what event could have launched this record-breaking GRB. The first would involve a black hole colliding with a star that has had its outer layers of hydrogen stripped and is now composed mostly of helium.
The second scenario suggests a star or a smaller stellar body like a brown dwarf or even a planet could have encountered the immense gravitational influence of a black hole or a neutron star, resulting in a smaller, less powerful TDE-type event called a micro-tidal disruption event.
The third potential launch mechanism for GRB 250702B involves an elusive class of black hole called an "intermediate mass black hole," with a mass ranging from 100 times that of the sun, to 100,000 times the mass of our star.
Despite the fact that scientists believe the cosmos is packed with these middle-of-the-road black holes, they are rarely detected. If this scenario is the right fit for GRB 250702B, this would represent the first time astronomers have spotted an intermediate-mass black hole producing a plasma jet after ripping up a star.
"This work presents a fascinating cosmic archaeology problem in which we're reconstructing the details of an event that occurred billions of light-years away," Carney said.
"The uncovering of these cosmic mysteries demonstrates how much we are still learning about the universe's most extreme events and reminds us to keep imagining what might be happening out there."
https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/this-7-hour-cosmic-explosion-is-the-longest-gamma-ray-burst-ever-seen-could-it-be-from-an-elusive-class-of-black-hole
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae1d67
China launches satellites for UAE, Egypt, Nepal in fresh commercial space mission
Dec 10, 2025 01:50 PM
China on Wednesday launched the Lijian-1 Y11 carrier rocket with nine satellites onboard, including three international payloads for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Nepal.
After delivering the nine satellites to their preset orbits, the launch mission was declared a complete success.
According to the rocket developer CAS Space, most of the satellites, owned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) will support applications including urban planning, disaster prevention and mitigation, water resources, and meteorology.
The "UAE-813 Satellite" launched in the Wednesday mission was developed by the Shanghai-based Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of CAS. It is a hyperspectral Earth observation satellite.
It carries primary payloads including a hyperspectral imager, a panchromatic camera, and an atmospheric polarization corrector, along with the construction of corresponding ground systems.
The core aim of the project is to build hyperspectral remote sensing capabilities, thereby providing effective support for environmental monitoring and scientific research, according to the CAS Space.
The SPNEX satellite, also aboard the Lijian-1 rocket on Wednesday in the flight mission, was jointly developed by the Egyptian Space Agency and the Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research and Technology.
It carries plasma diagnostic and Earth observation payloads, with its primary mission of monitoring the impacts of climate change and ionospheric variations.
The Slippers2Sat (S2S) satellite is an educational project jointly launched by Antarikchya Pratisthan Nepal and the Amateur Radio Digital Communications Foundation.
The project is dedicated to inspiring, motivating, and providing educational support to marginalized groups, low income communities and indigenous populations in Nepal.
The project's main goal is to help Nepali junior-high students independently design and build Nepal's third 1U CubeSat while demonstrating and promoting a software-based digital repeater system in amateur radio bands for global amateur-radio users.
CAS Space has now served a total of 32 satellite customers, 26 domestic and six international. Its launch-service footprint extends across China, Europe, North America, South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and other countries and regions.
The Wednesday mission marked the 11th orbital flight of the Lijian-1. The rocket model has delivered 84 satellites to space with a total in-orbit payload mass exceeding 11 tons, leading the market share in the country's commercial rocket launch service sector, according to the CAS Space.
Shi Xiaoning, chief designer of the Lijian-1 rocket, told the Global Times on Wednesday that next, the CAS Space also plans to validate rocket recovery and reusable technologies using its Lihong series spacecraft, targeting breakthroughs in parachute-assisted recovery, precise grid-fin landing control, multiple in-flight restarts of reusable liquid engines, and deep throttling capability.
Once matured, these technologies will be applied to suborbital scientific experiments, commercial space tourism, and the recovery and reuse of launch vehicle stages, Shi said.
According to the Xinhua News Agency, the CAS Space unveiled reusable spacecraft codenamed Lihong series in September this year.
The spacecraft is China's first fully reusable vehicle built specifically for space tourism that can complete more than 30 flights while offering safe, reliable and cost-effective shuttle services.
It is also designed to serve as a space laboratory for research on microgravity and radiation, advancing China's crewed lunar and deep-space goals, per the Xinhua report.
In the future, Lijian-1 will incorporate parachute recovery and grid-fin control systems, and advance fairing recovery and reuse, along with precise impact-point control of spent stages.
These upgrades will significantly enhance mission flexibility and further reduce launch costs, the rocket designer said.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202512/1350199.shtml
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/china-breaks-record-with-3-long-march-rocket-launches-in-19-hour-stretch-video
China and Brazil create joint space laboratory, despite US pressure
11 Dec 2025 12:39AM
BEIJING: China and Brazil have begun building a joint laboratory for space technologies, Chinese state-owned defence electronics firm CETC said on Tuesday (Dec 10), deepening scientific ties as the two countries push ahead with a major telescope project in South America.
The growing cooperation contrasts with recent US pressure on Latin American countries to cut or minimise ties with China, including in space.
Two Chinese telescope projects in Chile and Argentina have been frozen since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House, as leaders in the region seek to curry favour and avoid punishing tariff rates.
US officials have described these Chinese telescopes as tools that could be used by Beijing to increase its surveillance capabilities over American soil and Washington's activities in a region it considers crucial for homeland defence.
China has responded by accusing Washington of interference and politicising scientific cooperation.
CETC's Network Communications Research Institute signed an agreement with Brazil's Federal University of Campina Grande and the Federal University of Paraíba to establish the China-Brazil Joint Laboratory for Radio Astronomy Technology.
WHAT IS IT FOR?
CETC said on Tuesday the joint laboratory would support frontier research for astronomical observation and deep-space exploration.
The laboratory initiative comes as China and Brazil make progress on the BINGO radio telescope, designed to help study the universe's structure and dark energy.
In June, CETC said the main structure of the telescope had been completed at a manufacturing site in China and shipped from the port of Tianjin to Brazil. The instrument, billed as South America's largest radio telescope, is scheduled for completion in 2026.
Beyond research, BINGO will also be capable of tracking satellites, meteoroids and other small bodies, CETC said, adding that the system could help identify potential threats from near-Earth objects.
Powerful telescopes are used for space situational awareness. They could predict when US military satellites pass overhead and help coordinate the use of anti-satellite weapons (ASAT), according to a 2022 report by the US Defence Intelligence Agency.
Beijing has used China's rapidly improving space capabilities over the past two decades as a diplomatic tool to increase its influence in Asia, Africa, and South America, installing telescopes, building satellites, and training foreign personnel.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/china-and-brazil-create-joint-space-laboratory-despite-us-pressure-5574446
USSF Combat Forces Command leadership visits Buckley SFB
Dec. 9, 2025
Lt. Gen. Gregory J. Gagnon, commander of Combat Forces Command, and Chief Master Sgt. Michael Rozneck, CFC senior enlisted leader, visited Buckley Space Force Base Dec. 4, to gain a firsthand understanding of Buckley SFB’s critical missile warning mission and the diverse support network empowering Airmen and Guardians to excel.
The visit centered on observing frontline missile warning operations conducted by Guardians of Mission Delta 4. Gagnon and Rozneck were able to assess the challenges, capabilities and innovations within this crucial mission set.
The leadership team saw firsthand how MD 4’s network infrastructure seamlessly integrates data from various sources, enabling rapid threat detection and response for its tenant units.
“The agility and expertise of the teams operating these systems is truly remarkable,” Gagnon said. “The Missile Warning mission is vital to our national security, and it is being carried out flawlessly by the dedicated professionals here at Buckley (SFB).”
Both leaders received briefings and spoke with team members to better comprehend how the mission at Buckley SFB is conducted.
“Seeing the missile warning system in operation, supported by these cutting-edge technologies, reinforced my understanding of Buckley SFB’s critical role,” Rozneck added, emphasizing his focus on understanding the human element behind the technology.
A crucial part of the visit was a tour of the 460th Medical Group’s mental health facilities, underscoring CFC’s commitment to the force’s long-term resilience.
From new telehealth initiatives to one-on-one counseling opportunities, Airmen and Guardians shared with Gagnon and Rozneck what those resources mean to them.
Further illustrating this emphasis, the CFC leadership toured the 460th Force Support Squadron, learning about initiatives that support service members and their families, from childcare programs to educational opportunities, fostering a strong sense of community and ensuring overall well-being.
These programs are designed to enhance resilience and personal development, directly contributing to a more combat-ready and adaptable force.
“Lt. Gen. Gagnon has emphasized that ‘people are our power’ and underscored the importance of the force,” stated Rozneck, “Guardians and Airmen — military and civilian alike — remain his priority.
We will continue to track the challenges and needs of our members, working together to build a more resilient and ready force.”
The CFC leadership also participated in a luncheon with a group of non-commissioned officers, providing an opportunity for candid dialogue and valuable feedback.
Rozneck continued, “The chance to hear directly from those executing the mission is invaluable, and those insights and perspectives are essential as we look for ways to improve support and empower our people.”
The day wrapped up with a physical training session with members of the 460th Civil Engineer Squadron, demonstrating a commitment to the force’s overall well-being.
Overall, the visit allowed CFC leadership to witness Buckley SFB as a combat-ready team and a resilient force, demonstrating it as a power-projection platform that contributes to national security in an increasingly complex global environment.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4356294/ussf-combat-forces-command-leadership-visits-buckley-sfb/
Kremlin responds to Zelensky’s energy ceasefire proposal
10 Dec, 2025 13:16
Ukrainian and Western officials have been discussing “land swaps” between Moscow and Kiev, as well as a wide demilitarized zone along the front line to make a potential peace agreement more tolerable for Kiev, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reported on Wednesday, citing sources.
Ignatius suggested, citing American, Ukrainian, and European officials, that “a peace deal seems to be getting closer.”
He added that a Ukrainian official told him the talks are “far from over,” with work ongoing on three documents – a peace plan, security guarantees, and an economic recovery package for Kiev.
One idea centers on a demilitarized zone running along the line of contact from Russia’s Donetsk Region toward Zaporozhye and Kherson Region, with heavy weapons banned in a deeper rear area, the report claims.
The line would be “closely monitored, much like the DMZ that divides North and South Korea,” Ignatius wrote.
On the other hand, the report said that “land swaps” between Moscow and Kiev are “an inescapable part of the deal,” with negotiators “haggling” over how new lines would be drawn.
According to the column, US officials said that Ukraine was likely to lose much of Donbass and should offer concessions now to avoid further casualties.
These two elements appear to be a compromise to make the deal “more palatable” for Vladimir Zelensky, who has publicly rejected territorial concessions, Ignatius wrote.
Under the package, Ukraine could reportedly join the EU as early as 2027, with Washington believing it could overcome opposition from Hungary, which has been an opponent of the move.
Negotiators also expect that Kiev’s membership would push it to address endemic corruption.
As for security guarantees, the US is expected to provide Ukraine with NATO-like assurances, with the EU making similar commitments.
Kiev also reportedly wants the US Congress to ratify the agreement. Meanwhile, talks over the eventual size of the Ukrainian army – what the piece described as another “delicate issue” – are still ongoing.
Moscow insists that any sustainable settlement must include Ukraine’s full withdrawal from four new Russian regions, a Ukrainian commitment to stay out of NATO, and demilitarization and denazification.
https://www.rt.com/russia/629271-wapo-ukraine-peace-korean-scenario/
Ukrainian Fight Drone Simulator (UFDS) - Official Launch Trailer
Dec 10, 2025
Ukrainian Fight Drone Simulator (UFDS) is available now on Steam. Watch the Ukrainian Fight Drone Simulator (UFDS) launch trailer for this FPV drone simulator game.
Unlike traditional war games, UFDS isn’t about soldiers with rifles. It’s about operators of intelligent machines who plan, pilot, and coordinate robotic units on the battlefield.
https://www.ign.com/videos/ukrainian-fight-drone-simulator-ufds-official-launch-trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaxupdCAxsE
Ukrainian naval drone strike reportedly cripples Russian ‘shadow fleet’ tanker in Black Sea, SBU source says
December 10, 2025 8:16 pm
Ukraine’s Security Service used Sea Baby naval drones to strike an oil tanker from Russia’s “shadow fleet” in the Black Sea on Dec. 10, critically damaging ship as it sailed through Ukraine’s exclusive economic zone, a source in the agency told the Kyiv Independent.
The tanker, identified as he Comoros-flagged Dashan, was heading toward the Russian port terminal of Novorossiysk at high speed with its automatic identification system switched off when it was hit, resulting in “critical damage” as explosions ripped through the stern area, the source said.
Video shared by the source shows large blasts at the rear of the ship. The source said preliminary assessments indicate that the Dashan has been put out of service.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims about the strike or the extent of the damage.
The SBU estimated the value of the Dashan at about $30 million and said it typically carried roughly $60 million worth of oil products on a single voyage.
The European Union, the U.K., Canada, Australia and Switzerland had previously imposed sanctions on the vessel over its role in transporting Russian oil and operating with its identification systems turned off, the source added.
“The SBU continues active measures to reduce oil-dollar revenues to the Russian budget. In the last two weeks, this is already the third disabled tanker of the ‘shadow fleet’ that helped the Kremlin circumvent international sanctions,” the SBU source said.
The reported strike on the Dashan follows a series of Ukrainian operations targeting Russia’s shadow fleet and related oil infrastructure.
Ivan Stupak, a former SBU officer, told the Kyiv Independent that the broader campaign against Russia’s shadow fleet is aimed at making the trade too risky for shipowners.
“They are trying to scare tanker owners away from entering the Black Sea ports of the Russian Federation and from loading Russian oil there,” he said, adding that “it is a very lucrative business, and there are many who want to be in it.”
On Nov. 28, Sea Baby drones struck the sanctioned Russian oil tankers Kairos and Virat in the Black Sea off Turkey’s coast, disabling vessels that a source in the SBU said were tied to the Kremlin’s shadow fleet.
Days later, Turkish authorities said the Russian tanker Midvolga-2 reported an apparent drone attack about 80 miles off Turkey’s coast while carrying sunflower oil from Russia to Georgia, though Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry denied involvement and suggested Russia may have staged the incident.
Ukraine has also used naval drones to hit infrastructure that services Russia’s oil exports.
Naval drones struck Russia’s oil terminals in the Black Sea ports of Tuapse and Novorossiysk on Sept. 24, “paralyzing” major export operations there, a source in Ukraine’s military intelligence, known by its Ukrainian acronym HUR, said.
https://kyivindependent.com/ukraines-sbu-conducts-new-sea-baby-drone-strike-on-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker-in-black-sea-source-says/
other Russia and Ukraine
https://english.nv.ua/nation/russian-drone-attack-on-ukraine-air-defense-forces-down-or-suppress-50-uavs-50567334.html
https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/russia-launches-overnight-drone-attack-from-1765354335.html
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/4068159-drone-operators-destroy-11-russian-shelters-on-kursk-axis.html
https://kyivindependent.com/russias-syzran-oil-refinery-halts-operations-after-ukrainian-drone-strike/
https://censor.net/en/videonews/3589740/ukraine-drone-video-russian-soldier-blown-apart-near-ostapivske
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/65973
IDF goes into lockdown, limits activities as Storm Byron hits Israel
December 10, 2025 7:32 pm
Amid the stormy weather, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has issued new safety guidelines and restrictions to the entire military.
Soldiers will not be permitted to leave their bases and head home for the weekend furlough from tonight at 8 p.m. until at least Friday at 6 a.m.
All outdoor training activities are prohibited, both on foot or in vehicles, though exceptions may be permitted by a major general. Navigation and camouflage training, or similar drills, are strictly prohibited, according to the directives.
Staying outside overnight is prohibited unless required for “operational needs,” and it must be approved by the regional division commander.
Routine security activities are being limited to “essential activities,” and other operational movement on foot or in vehicles is also being limited to “essential travel only.” Logistical movements must be approved by a colonel or a corps commander.
The guidelines are in effect until Friday at 6 a.m., and are subject to change in light of ongoing assessments, the IDF adds.
Storm Byron, after battering Greece and Cyprus, hit Israel overnight, threatening flooding and high winds throughout the days to come.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-goes-into-lockdown-limits-activities-as-storm-byron-hits-israel/
https://vinnews.com/2025/12/10/idf-imposes-rare-weather-restrictions-on-troops-as-storm-byron-batters-israel/
other Israel
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/three-including-16-year-old-said-killed-by-idf-in-north-gazas-jabalia/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-it-killed-palestinian-terror-operative-who-crossed-gazas-ceasefire-line/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/unifil-claims-idf-tank-fired-at-its-patrol-in-southern-lebanon-yesterday/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/former-idf-spokesman-journalists-should-have-been-let-into-gaza-a-long-time-ago/
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/r11mum8fzx
https://lapresse.us/world/2025/12/10/middle-east-media-reports-100-palestinians-arrested-in-idf-raid-in-the-west-bank/
https://www.jns.org/israeli-forces-bust-smuggling-cell-near-egypt/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/israel-gaza-live-updates-idf-091248877.html
https://vinnews.com/2025/12/10/new-idf-military-advocate-general-visits-gaza-front-lines-on-first-tour/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/israels-defense-attache-to-us-ends-his-term-with-no-permanent-replacement-for-now/
Drone attack on southern oilfield held by Sudan's RSF kills dozens
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2025
Sudan's Rapid Support Forces said a drone operated by the army, its enemy in the country's civil war, attacked the nation's largest oilfield in South Kordofan in a strike that killed dozens and caused material damage.
Tuesday evening's attack on the Heglig oilfield came a day after the RSF seized the complex from the army, whose troops fled the site and crossed into neighbouring South Sudan.
Troops from South Sudan have been at Heglig to help protect the site - crucial for the south's economy - after its capture by the RSF.
“The attack resulted in the killing and injury of dozens of engineers and workers at the field, several leaders of the local administration as well as many soldiers from the security and protection force of the Republic of South Sudan and the Rapid Support Forces; in addition to the destruction of a number of vital facilities,” the RSF said.
The RSF said the attack was carried out by a drone. The army had no immediate comment on the RSF statement.
The site of the Heglig oilfield is also home to Sudan’s largest oil processing plant, which carries oil from South Sudan to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
South Sudan relies entirely on Sudanese pipelines to export its oil and has seen its production repeatedly disrupted by the conflict, worsening its economic crisis.
Sudanese soldiers and oil workers began evacuating Heglig on Monday and the RSF took control of the site without resistance, according to military officials quoted by the Associated Press.
By Tuesday, about 3,900 Sudanese soldiers had surrendered their weapons to South Sudanese troops after crossing the border into the south's Rubkona County, according to Unity State’s information ministry.
Video clips aired by South Sudan’s state broadcaster showed tanks, armoured personnel carriers and artillery among the weapons handed over.
Thousands of civilians from Sudan have meanwhile started crossing the border into South Sudan on Sunday and were still arriving on Wednesday, the South Sudan government said.
South Sudan insists it remains neutral in the conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF despite accusations that it was siding with the paramilitary.
Heglig's capture was the latest in a string of RSF territorial gains, including the October fall of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and the Sudanese army's last stronghold in Darfur. Last week, the RSF captured the Kordofan city of Babanousa.
The war, which began in April 2023, has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced at least 12 million and created the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with about 25 million people – half the population – facing hunger.
The cause of the war is rooted in a power struggle between army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and RSF commander General Mohamed Dagalo.
Plane crash
Separately, a Sudanese military aircraft crashed while attempting to land in the east of the country, killing all crew members on board.
The Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane experienced technical failure while attempting to land Tuesday in the Osman Digna Air Base in Port Sudan, the wartime capital of the military-backed government, according to military officials.
Among the dead was military pilot Omran Mirghani, according to his uncle, prominent Sudanese analyst and publisher Osman Al Mirghany, who mourned his nephew's death on social media.
The military did not immediately comment on the crash.
Plane crashes are not uncommon in Sudan, which has a poor aviation safety record.
In February, at least 46 people, including women and children, were killed when a military aircraft crashed in a densely populated area in Omdurman, the sister city of the capital, Khartoum.
In Geneva on Wednesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said war crimes and “potentially” crimes against humanity were committed in the city of El Fasher, which the RSF seized in late October.
“We are talking about very serious atrocity crimes … war crimes for sure (and) potentially also crimes against humanity,” he told journalists. “We have an extremely serious situation.”
Mr Turk warned atrocities also could happen in the central region of Kordofan where the RSF has intensified its attacks in recent months.
The paramilitaries are now poised to attack Al Obeid, a key North Kordofan city with a population in excess of 500,000.
“We cannot allow a repeat of this absolutely horrific situation in Kordofan,” said Mr Turk.
https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2025/12/10/drone-attack-on-southern-oilfield-held-by-sudans-rsf-kills-dozens/