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New Software from the Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast Initiative
Dec 10, 2025
Where were you during 2024’s dazzling solar eclipse?
Eighty-two volunteer teams with the Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast (DEB) Initiative spent the day spread across North America, observing the eclipse with telescopes, collecting a massive dataset of images, and developing software to process it.
Now, the DEB Initiative has released a suite of open resources from that effort, including Python programs and scripts, software installation guides, training materials, and their eclipse-day observation checklist.
These materials are being released to help others make future eclipse observations..
Congratulations to citizen scientists, Castor Fu and Zack Stockbridge, who are co-authors on the materials!
All materials are publicly available on Zenodo, with the full list at:
https://debinitiative.org/main/publications/. The software release anticipates an upcoming paper on the software development, processing and data handling for the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse.
The team continues analyzing their data on the Sun’s corona, and plans to publish their science results in spring 2026.
"The DEB Initiative provided a life changing and priceless opportunity for my middle school students,” said Chris Midden, DEB team leader and recently retired teacher from Unity Point School in Carbondale Illinois.
“They had an opportunity to participate in truly meaningful research giving them the chance to see what real science is all about. They now know first hand that they can be scientists.
I am hopeful that this could be the start of a long scientific career for them."
The DEB Initiative continues carrying out daily solar observations to collect additional data on solar flares while making plans for coronal observations in North Africa for the 2027 total solar eclipse.
You can find more information and volunteer opportunities at debinitiative.org.
https://science.nasa.gov/get-involved/citizen-science/new-software-from-the-dynamic-eclipse-broadcast-initiative/
Station Trio Back on Earth; Expedition 74 Keeps Up Science, Maintains Systems
December 10, 2025
Expedition 73 has ended and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim has returned to Houston and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky have returned to Moscow.
The trio is now readapting to Earth’s gravity after living aboard the International Space Station in weightlessness for 245 days.
Expedition 74 is now underway with veteran NASA astronaut Mike Fincke as commander leading six flight engineers including NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Chris Williams, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Platonov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev.
Fincke spent his Wednesday primarily inside the Tranquility module replacing orbital plumbing components on the waste and hygiene compartment, the station’s restroom.
The veteran astronaut also prepared cargo and life support racks for removal and reinstallation throughout the orbital outpost’s U.S. segment. The rack transfer work will continue into next week.
Cardman processed stem cell samples for stowage in a science freezer ahead of their return to Earth next year for a study demonstrating on-orbit pharmaceutical manufacturing and regenerative medicine.
She also measured air flow throughout the U.S. modules and printed out an updated spacewalking checklist.
Williams exercised for research while pedaling on the Destiny laboratory module’s exercise cycle. He worked out wearing breathing gear and electrodes measuring his aerobic output and cardiovascular health.
Afterward, he powered on a fluorescent research microscope then collected carbon dioxide waste samples from an atmospheric cleaner for analysis.
Yui reviewed the rack removal and replacement steps that he Cardman and Williams will assist Fincke with over the next several days. He then worked inside the Kibo laboratory module servicing an experimental carbon dioxide removal device.
Flight Engineers Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev, who have been aboard the station with Williams since Nov. 27, had a light duty day on Wednesday with some time set aside for photographic inspections and Elektron oxygen generator maintenance.
Flight Engineer Oleg Platonov began his shift on orbital plumbing tasks in the station’s Roscosmos segment.
Next, he assisted Mikaev with the Elektron job then wrapped up his shift installing hardware that enables the European robotic arm to be remotely controlled from Earth.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/12/10/station-trio-back-on-earth-expedition-74-keeps-up-science-maintains-systems/
GLOBE Expands with Landsat Land Cover Comparisons
Dec 10, 2025
The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program has launched a new feature that connects citizen scientists directly to Landsat observations.
Through GLOBE, volunteers around the world collect environmental data in support of Earth system science, including land observations.
GLOBE land cover observations may include photos of the landscape and a classification of the land cover, providing a valuable dataset of ground-truth observations.
As of September, when volunteers submit land cover observations to GLOBE, they will receive an email comparing their findings to Landsat and Sentinel-2 satellite observations of the same location in the same timeframe.
This direct comparison helps bridge the gap between space-based remote sensing and ground-based observations, building on the successful legacy of GLOBE cloud observations that have been matched with satellite data for years.
Why Is GLOBE Including Land Cover?
Land cover classification plays a crucial role in understanding and managing our environment. This information is essential for risk analysis related to natural disasters such as floods, wildfires, and landslides.
It also enables scientists to track the impacts of land use changes over time and create detailed maps of wildlife habitats.
Landsat is a key dataset in many national and global land cover classification products such as the National Land Cover Database (NLCD).
GLOBE land cover allows anyone, from a highschooler to a university professor, to contribute to our understanding of Earth’s changing surface.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/landsat/globe-expands-with-landsat-land-cover-comparisons/
https://observer.globe.gov/do-globe-observer/land-cover
An Unrelenting Tule Fog
Dec 11, 2025
An atmospheric phenomenon occurring over much of California was unmistakable in satellite imagery in late autumn 2025.
Fog stretching some 400 miles (640 kilometers) across the state’s Central Valley appeared day after day for more than two weeks in late November and early December.
Known as tule (TOO-lee) fog, named after a sedge that grows in the area’s marshes, these low clouds tend to form in the valley in colder months when winds are light and soils are moist.
This animation shows a sprawling blanket of white fog filling most or all of the valley from Redding to Bakersfield between November 24 and December 9, 2025.
While the fog mostly remained hemmed in by the Coastal Range and the Sierra Nevada, it sometimes spilled through the Carquinez Strait toward San Francisco Bay.
These images were acquired with the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite and the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP satellites.
The Central Valley is fertile ground for the formation of tule fog, a persistent radiation fog, in late autumn and winter.
It occurs when air near the surface, laden with moisture from evaporation, cools and the water saturates the air. If winds are calm, water droplets accumulate into fog clouds near the ground.
Plenty of water was present in the valley’s soils following a very wet autumn.
Across nearly all of central and southern California, precipitation totals from September through November 2025 were among the top 10 percent on record, California Institute for Water Resources climate scientist Daniel Swain noted on his Weather West blog.
In late November, a very stable high-pressure system developed over the state, which acted like a lid that trapped moist air and confined the fog layer to the valley.
With no major storms moving through to disrupt the stratification, the tule fog endured.
Temperatures have been notably cooler in the valley under the fog layer, in sharp contrast to the rest of the state, which was mostly warmer than normal.
Despite the contrast, however, the ambient air mass has been warmer overall, Swain wrote. This may be due in part to warm ocean water offshore and a low Sierra Nevada snowpack sending less cold air downslope, he added.
The warmer overall temperatures could explain why fog has lingered at a slightly higher level—more like stratus clouds—at certain times and locations, said Swain.
Colder temperatures would be necessary to produce the densest fog near the surface. The somewhat higher cloud in 2025 has differed from past events, when low visibility at ground level has caused major traffic incidents.
Central California has seen long stretches of cold, socked-in days in the past. In 1985, for example, Fresno experienced 16 consecutive days of dense fog, and Sacramento endured 17, according to news reports.
Researchers have found, however, that tule fog has been forming less often in California in recent decades. Foggy days are beneficial for the valley’s fruit and nut trees, which need sufficient rest between growing seasons to be most productive.
The fog typically comes with chilly weather that brings on a dormant period; it also shields trees from direct sunlight that would otherwise warm the plant buds.
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/an-unrelenting-tule-fog/
NASA and USPS discontinue use of Canoo EVs
11.12.2025 - 15:00
Canoo first delivered six of its Lifestyle Delivery Vehicles (LD 190) to the United States Postal Service (USPS) back in 2024, and meanwhile signed a contract with NASA in 2022 to deliver EVs that could shuttle astronauts to the launchpad for Artemis missions to the Moon and Mars.
Amid Canoo’s bankruptcy earlier this year, Canoo CEO Tony Aquila successfully purchased the company’s assets for $4 million – telling a trustee that a ‘principal motivation’ for doing so was his ‘desire to honour [Canoo’s commitment to provide service and support for certain government programs’.
However, it’s unclear whether this ‘service and support’ was ever forthcoming.
TechCrunch reports that both NASA and USPS ‘declined to share whether Aquila ever approached either agency about supporting the vehicles’, and that Aquila did not respond to any requests for comment.
Now, both NASA and USPS have confirmed that they will no longer be using Canoo EVs for their operations.
NASA reportedly told TechCrunch that the vehicles are ‘no longer able to meet our mission requirements’, and that it is now leasing the Boeing ‘Astrovan’ it commissioned from Airstream for its crewed space missions.
USPS on the other hand said that the six Canoo EVs it purchased in 2024 are ‘no longer in use’, stating that they were ‘for evaluation purposes’ and that ‘no further investments are anticipated’.
Canoo was once founded as Evelozcity and in its early years was led by, among others, German automotive executives Ulrich Kranz, Stefan Krause and Karl-Thomas Neumann. Both later left the company.
The plan was to develop four electric vehicles optimised for urban use, based on a specially developed skateboard platform, and to offer them exclusively by subscription.
Financial expert Tony Aquila came on board in 2020 in the course of the SPAC IPO and took over the CEO position in 2021 – Aquila was also one of Canoo’s largest investors.
Under Aquila’s leadership, the former subscription focus was discarded and partnerships to build EVs from other manufacturers on the Canoo platform were also terminated – since this happened shortly after the IPO and was not announced in the IPO prospectus, Canoo was later forced to pay a million-dollar fine.
However, the company was never really able to meet the targeted delivery date for the vehicles, which then led to insolvency and later bankruptcy at the beginning of the year.
https://www.electrive.com/2025/12/11/nasa-and-usps-discontinue-use-of-canoo-evs/
Super-Earth Exoplanet TOI-561 b and Its Star
December 11, 2025
This artist’s concept shows what the ultra-hot super-Earth exoplanet TOI-561 b could look like based on observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and other observatories.
Webb data suggests that the planet is surrounded by a thick atmosphere above a global magma ocean.
TOI-561 b is the innermost of four planets orbiting TOI-561, a 10-billion-year-old G-type star located roughly 280 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Sextans.
Classified as an ultra-short period (USP) planet, TOI-561 b orbits just 0.01 AU from its star (1% the distance between Earth and the Sun, or about one million miles), completing one circuit in less than 11 hours.
Although the star is somewhat smaller and cooler than the Sun, the planet orbits so close that its dayside surface temperature must far exceed the melting temperature of typical rock.
(Planets that orbit this close to their stars are thought to be tidally locked, with a permanent dayside that faces the star at all times, and a permanent nightside in eternal darkness.)
If the planet has a thick atmosphere with winds distributing heat evenly around the planet, the nightside surface will likely also be molten.
This illustration is based on spectroscopic data and other indirect observations. Webb has not captured any images of TOI-561 b.
https://science.nasa.gov/asset/webb/super-earth-exoplanet-toi-561-b-and-its-star-artists-concept/
https://science.nasa.gov/asset/webb/super-earth-exoplanet-toi-561-b-artists-concept/
https://science.nasa.gov/asset/webb/super-earth-exoplanet-toi-561-b-nirspec-emission-spectrum/
NASA announce official date for the longest solar eclipse in 100 years
12:54 11 Dec 2025 GMT
NASA has confirmed the official date for the longest solar eclipse in 100 years and it's coming soon. Brace yourselves because the longest solar eclipse of the century is due to happen in less than two years’ time.
NASA has announced that parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East will all fall under the moon’s shadow during the rare event.
Solar eclipses occur when the moon moves directly between the Sun and Earth, casting a shadow that blocks some or all of the Sun's light from reaching us.
How long will the 2027 eclipse last?
Total solar eclipses vary in duration. The April 2024 eclipse that crossed North America lasted four minutes and 28 seconds, and the one expected in Spain next August will last under two minutes.
Meanwhile, the longest total eclipse ever recorded was seven minutes and 28 seconds on 15 June, 743 B.C in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Kenya and Somalia in Africa, based on NASA's calculations.
Robert Massey, deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society said that the 2027 solar eclipse is 'significant due to its duration.'
According to the US space agency, the upcoming celestial event will last six minutes and 23 seconds on 2 August 2027.
"It’s unusual to have one this long, and requires the combination of the new moon being close enough to the Earth to cover the sun for a longer than usual time," he explained.
"Eclipse durations vary quite a bit – if the moon is further away, then the apparent size of the silhouetted moon is a bit smaller, so it covers the sun for a shorter time."
He added: "Beyond a certain distance, the eclipse is annular, and a bright ring of the solar surface is visible even mid-eclipse."
Where is the 2027 eclipse taking place?
The eclipse will begin in Morocco and southern Spain before advancing through Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Saudi Arabia, NASA stated.
It's then expected to peak in Yemen and along the coast of Somalia, before its maximum duration is recorded in Egypt, specifically in the historic cities of Luxor and Aswan.
"NASA [and others] use data from organisations like the US Naval Observatory and HM Nautical Almanac Office to calculate the precise position of the Moon in the sky, and how far away it is from the Earth," Massey said.
"Interestingly, the change in rotation of the Earth makes a difference here, something we don’t know far into the future, so the precise track of the shadow of the moon is harder to determine in, say, ten thousand years’ time."
He noted: "But we do know how far away the moon is, and when an eclipse will happen."
https://www.uniladtech.com/science/nasa-announce-date-longest-solar-eclipse-in-100-years-312162-20251211
Naval Research Laboratory Scientists Uncover Electric Field Link That Triggers Magnetic Reconnection in Space
12.11.2025
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have identified a previously overlooked electric field mechanism in Earth’s magnetotail that could help predict when disruptive space weather events are about to occur.
When the solar wind, a stream of charged particles from the sun, compresses Earth’s magnetic field, it can generate sharply localized electric fields in the magnetotail, the region of space where Earth’s magnetic field is stretched away from the sun.
NRL researchers have now confirmed that these electric fields cause a distinctive asymmetric motion of particles around the magnetic field causing agyrotropy, a sign that a magnetic reconnection event may be imminent.
“We’ve found that this electric field isn’t just a bystander, it’s a crucial ingredient that sets the stage for reconnection,” DuBois said. “Understanding how it interacts with charged particles can give us a clearer picture of when these powerful space weather events are likely to occur.”
Magnetic reconnection occurs when magnetic field lines break and reconnect, releasing vast amounts of energy that can disrupt satellite operations, GPS, and electrical infrastructure on Earth.
The new study confirms that electric fields created during magnetotail compression distort the natural circular motion of particles, forcing them into elongated paths that may signal reconnection is about to begin.
“When a solar storm hits Earth’s magnetosphere, the magnetotail gets compressed and high-energy plasma can be flung back toward Earth, disrupting satellites and the services they provide,” said Ami M. DuBois, Ph.D., a research physicist at NRL’s Plasma Physics Division.
“Normally, electrons swirl around in circular paths,” DuBois said. “However, when a strong electric field develops across regions in the magnetotail, those paths stretch out and become asymmetric.
This non-circular behavior causes agyrotropy and is thought to be an early warning sign that a reconnection event is coming.”
Using data from NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, DuBois and NRL colleagues in the Plasma Physics Division Chris Crabtree, Ph.D., Emily Lichko, Ph.D., and Gurudas Ganguli, Ph.D., analyzed compressed current sheets in the magnetotail and confirmed that the perpendicular electric field plays a direct role in creating agyrotropy.
Their results demonstrate a strong correlation between the field strength and the level of distortion observed in the electron orbit.
DuBois credited NASA’s MMS mission with enabling the discovery.
“MMS is the first mission with super high time resolution meant to study magnetic reconnection, so we can really resolve the details inside very thin current sheets and study the dynamics around these sharply localized electric fields,” she said.
“As the magnetotail is compressed, the current sheets compress too, that’s what generates this electric field, and it grows as compression increases.
It pops up before reconnection happens, and it affects the waves we see in the plasma, as well as the agyrotropic signatures in particle distributions,” DuBois said.
Existing methods for detecting this agyrotropy don’t account for the electric field’s influence.
By incorporating this effect into new models, the team’s findings could enable scientists to more accurately predict space weather events before they impact satellites and ground-based systems.
DuBois compared the path forward to improvements in terrestrial weather. “Space-weather prediction is heavily model-based.
The more real physics we add, the better the forecasts get, just like when Doppler radar and new science improved hurricane and tornado forecasts on Earth,” she said.
“With the right sensors in the magnetotail, a detector for this agyrotropy signature could trigger alerts so operators might briefly power down vulnerable satellites or adjust operations until the event passes.”
“It’s not just satellites,” DuBois added. “Human spaceflight can be affected as well; for example, the International Space Station could benefit from timely alerts.”
Next, the team plans to turn their agyrotropy indicator into a predictive index by deriving the governing equations and validating them against additional MMS datasets.
This work builds on decades of NRL leadership in plasma physics, uniting long-standing theory and laboratory experiments on compressed boundary layers with today’s space measurements.
“We’re putting together pieces that others have often studied separately: electric fields, waves, and particle signatures into one big-picture understanding,” DuBois said.
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/553877/naval-research-laboratory-scientists-uncover-electric-field-link-triggers-magnetic-reconnection-space
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/sixty-years-ago-when-instruments-were-played-in-space-for-the-first-time-it-was-jingle-bells-all-the-way-180987851/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkJL1lmhj8Q
Sixty Years Ago, When Instruments Were Played in Space for the First Time, It Was ‘Jingle Bells’ All the Way
December 11, 2025 10:28 a.m.
On December 15, 1965, NASA’s mission control watched as four astronauts attempted the first-ever rendezvous between two spacecraft, Gemini 6-A and Gemini 7.
The astronauts had to delicately maneuver their individual spacecraft, both hurtling through space, and match orbits. Gemini 6-A carried astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra, and Gemini 7 carried Frank Borman and Jim Lovell.
Eventually, the two crafts finally matched orbit and circled one another for five hours.
As mission control celebrated in Houston, Gemini 6-A astronauts and Naval Academy graduates Stafford and Schirra held a sign in the window of their craft reading “Beat Army,” meant for West Point alum and Gemini 7 astronaut Borman.
Borman was not the only target of Stafford and Schirra’s jocular antics. The very next day, just before they re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, the pair set their sights on pranking mission control.
“We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, up in a polar orbit. … It’s very low; it looks like he might be going to re-enter pretty soon,” Stafford said over radio transmission, according to NASA’s audio, implying he had seen a Santa Claus-piloted UFO.
“Stand by, One. It looks like he’s trying to signal something.”
Schirra and Stafford then serenaded mission control with a brief instrumental performance of “Jingle Bells,” using a small harmonica and sleigh bells.
“You’re too much,” responded capsule communicator Elliot See in Houston after the prank. In 1967, Stafford and Schirra donated their instruments to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, where they reside today.
The performance was Schirra’s idea, Stafford told Smithsonian magazine’s Owen Edwards in 2005. Stafford and Schirra practiced the song a few times before takeoff, making sure not to tell mission control about their plans.
They brought their instruments up into space along with the rest of their personal items and kept them secure to the walls of their spacecraft using dental floss and Velcro.
“It’s not the best rendition of ‘Jingle Bells’ ever, but it was actually pretty good considering they had limited instrumentation,” says Emily Margolis, curator of contemporary spaceflight at the National Air and Space Museum.
Project Gemini featured many firsts: the first American spacewalk, the first rendezvous between two crewed spacecraft and the first astronauts to spend eight days in space (Gordon Cooper and Pete Conrad of Gemini 5).
Gemini was designed as the “Bridge to the Moon,” connecting the preceding Mercury program, which was the United States’ first human spaceflight program, and Apollo, which would put a man on the moon.
According to Margolis, the Gemini program had to prove that NASA could safely send more people to space for longer periods of time, execute complicated spacecraft maneuvers and demonstrate a spacewalk.
Achieving all this meant that NASA could eventually send people to the moon.
“I think Project Gemini is often overlooked, because it’s not as exciting as going to the moon,” says Margolis. “So, I’m glad to see Gemini getting some love and attention.”
While making history, Gemini’s astronauts found ways to entertain themselves. On Gemini 3, astronaut John Young hid a corned beef sandwich in his spacesuit and brought it up into space for Gemini’s first crewed mission.
It was the “Jingle Bells” jokester Schirra who ordered the sandwich and brought it to Young. Schirra, the only astronaut who flew in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, was well known for practical jokes.
Once, he left an enormous fake urine sample on the desk of astronaut nurse Dee O’Hara.
But this culture of practical jokes was not unique to the Gemini mission—and it certainly was not unique to Schirra, even if he was a frequent prankster. Canadian astronaut and author Chris Hadfield says they happen “all the time.”
“We’re people who have done well in our careers and were highly trained, and we’re living a life of service, which means we’re willing to die on other people’s behalf,” says Hadfield, who was the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station (ISS).
“But we’re just a bunch of people in a remote place, and there are pranks.”
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For example, Hadfield says space is a “wonderful place” to play hide and seek, since the lack of gravity brings new, creative hiding spots. Zero-gravity races, spins and somersaults are also possible, he says.
Up in space, where astronauts complete stressful tasks with high degrees of focus in close quarters, Hadfield says, emotions run close to the surface.
“The stakes are so high, so people laugh more readily and cry more readily,” he says. “So, it’s a great place for music as well.”
Music and culture in space
Music and musical instruments have long been loved by astronauts.
In 1986, the crew of the Russian space station Mir stopped at an older station, Salyut-7, for 50 days to gather 880 pounds of equipment and bring it to the new station, a maneuver Hadfield describes as “super complicated and risky.” Among the equipment brought back to Mir was an acoustic guitar.
“Then, when I was on Mir, on my first spaceflight, that guitar was still there,” says Hadfield, who flew to Mir in 1995. Having heard Mir’s guitar was in bad shape, Hadfield ordered and brought a small collapsible guitar to the station.
While a decorated astronaut, Hadfield might be best known for his musical performances aboard the ISS, which have amassed tens of millions of views. Hadfield famously recorded himself performing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” on board the space station.
He played on a Larrivée Parlor acoustic guitar, a small Canadian instrument the NASA psychological support team sent into space in 2001.
“They just went to the local guitar shop near the Johnson Space Center,” says Hadfield. “I picture the day when five NASA engineers and a psychologist went into a guitar shop.”
As longer and longer missions became possible, NASA became increasingly concerned about the psychological effects of spaceflight. Isolation and confinement can produce feelings of anxiety and depression, as well as tension among a mission’s crew.
To help promote astronauts’ well-being, NASA psychologists sent a guitar to space after Russian psychologists sent one to Mir for the same reason.
Hadfield says instruments are also played during holiday celebrations, particularly aboard the ISS, which observes a variety of national, religious and cultural holidays. Hadfield describes astronauts singing everything from Christmas carols to birthday songs.
Stafford, Schirra and Hadfield are not the only astronaut-musicians to have performed in zero gravity. Ellen Ochoa, astronaut and former director of the Johnson Space Center, is also a passionate classical flautist.
After playing in marching bands, chamber orchestras and solo recitals, Ochoa went on to play her flute in space in 1993, during her first mission.
“It was just something I’d done my whole life that I really, really enjoy doing,” says Ochoa, who was permitted to take her flute to space to record an educational video for NASA.
“We were able to insert a little scene in there about getting to pursue your hobbies in space as well, and so I got to take my flute.”
Ochoa says playing in a musical ensemble, like a band or orchestra, helps develop two skills that are vital for being an astronaut: building excellence in your own role and learning how to work as part of a team.
“It’s not just by playing the loudest. You have to understand what you’re trying to achieve as a group. It’s exactly the same at NASA; teamwork is incredibly important,” says Ochoa.
“People work really hard individually to learn everything about their particular job, but it’s all in support of the mission.”
Bringing space down to Earth
Ochoa says music and the arts can offer people who may not be interested in engineering or physics different angles for learning about space.
She wrote a series of bilingual children’s books for each letter of the STEAM alphabet: science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
“Too often we get trapped in this either-or,” she says, but she emphasizes that the arts and sciences can exist together. “I think it’s much more of an ‘and’ than an ‘or,’ and I would say that’s certainly true for space.”
Back on Earth, music can also help the vast majority of people, who will likely never see space, understand and relate to the experiences of astronauts.
While it’s one thing to describe spaceflight, Hadfield says, it is another thing entirely to feel it. On the ISS, Hadfield worked with his brother on Earth to produce the album Space Sessions: Songs from a Tin Can, the first album of music recorded in space.
“I want to share my experience as best as I can—same as those guys [Stafford and Schirra] with ‘Jingle Bells,’” says Hadfield.
“They were having some fun, but they were also sharing culture that they grew up in at a time of year that made sense, in a way that people found approachable and familiar.”
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AI helps pilot free-flying robot around the International Space Station for 1st time ever
December 11, 2025
Navigating in a microgravity environment is a challenge even for trained human astronauts, but it is even more challenging for autonomous robots, limiting their use in places like a space station.
Now, however, Stanford researchers have used artificial intelligence to steer a free-flying robot aboard the International Space Station (ISS), potentially paving the way for more autonomous space missions in the future.
Working with NASA's cube-shaped Astrobee robot, the Stanford research team demonstrated how a machine-learning system can plan safe routes through the ISS' crowded modules significantly faster than existing methods.
The advances address a long-standing hurdle for space robotics — namely, how to move quickly and safely with limited computing power and minimal human input in one of the most extreme engineering environments possible.
Lead researcher Somrita Banerjee, a Stanford Ph.D. candidate, said that the station's maze of equipment and experiments makes motion planning especially challenging, as algorithms that work well for robots on Earth often bog down when run on the older, radiation-hardened computers certified for spaceflight.
To get around those constraints, Banerjee and her colleagues started with a standard optimization approach, described in a new paper presented earlier this month at the International Conference on Space Robotics, which breaks a complex motion-planning problem into many smaller steps.
They then trained an AI model on thousands of previously computed paths, so the system could begin each new plan with an informed "warm start" instead of calculating from scratch.
"Using a warm start is like planning a road trip by starting with a route that real people have driven before, rather than drawing a straight line across the map," Banerjee said in a Stanford University statement.
"You start with something informed by experience and then optimize from there."
This approach allows for strict safety checks before runs, while cutting actual computation time. In tests on the station, routes generated with the AI warm start were roughly 50% to 60% faster to compute than conventional plans, according to the researchers.
"This is the first time AI has been used to help control a robot on the ISS," Banerjee said. "It shows that robots can move faster and more efficiently without sacrificing safety, which is essential for future missions where humans won't always be able to guide them."
Setting the stage for AI robots on the ISS and beyond
Before the in-orbit trial, the system was first validated at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley using a granite table testbed with a compressed air cushion that allows a robot to glide over it like an air hockey puck, mimicking the microgravity found on the ISS.
In orbit, astronauts performed a brief setup and then left Astrobee to be commanded from the ground in what NASA calls a "crew-minimal" experiment.
Over a four-hour session, mission controllers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston directed Astrobee to fly 18 trajectories, each run twice with and without the AI-generated warm start.
Additional safeguards, including virtual obstacles and the ability to halt a run, were used to avoid collisions.
The team says that similar AI-guided planning could eventually allow robots to handle inspections, logistics and science tasks on future missions to the moon, Mars and beyond, freeing astronauts to focus on higher-priority work.
"As robots travel farther from Earth and as missions become more frequent and lower-cost, we won't always be able to teleoperate them from the ground," Banerjee said.
"Autonomy with built-in guarantees isn't just helpful; it's essential for the future of space robotics."
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/international-space-station/ai-helps-pilot-free-flying-robot-around-the-international-space-station-for-1st-time-ever
https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/12/ai-robot-international-space-station-autonomous-missions
James Webb Space Telescope discovers a hot Jupiter exoplanet leaking twin gas tails that defy explanation
December 11, 2025
Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to discover that a distant "hot Jupiter" planet has two staggeringly long tails composed of helium that currently defy explanation.
The observations represent the first study of gases leaking from a planet beyond the solar system during one of its complete orbits, and help paint the most complete picture of atmospheric escape thus far.
The extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, in question is WASP-121b, also known as "Tylos," located around 858 light-years away.
WASP-121b is an example of an "ultrahot Jupiter," a massive gas giant planet found so close to its parent star that it can complete an orbit in a matter of hours.
As WASP-121b whips around its star once every 30 hours, intense radiation from its stellar parent heats its atmosphere to around 4,200 degrees Fahrenheit (2,300 degrees Celsius).
When a planet undergoes this type of heating, it causes gases of lighter elements like hydrogen and helium to flow into space, a slow atmospheric escape lasting millions of years that alters the planet's size, composition, and how it will evolve.
Previously, scientists had caught glimpses of atmospheric escape as exoplanets passed in front of their parent stars, an event called a "transit."
But this left a gap in our understanding of this process because scientists couldn't be sure if planetary atmospheres continued to leak outside of those few hours when the planets were observed during a transit.
These new observations, made using the JWST's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) over around 37 consecutive hours, therefore represent the first most comprehensive continuous observation ever made of the presence of helium on a planet and how it leaks during a complete orbit.
"We were incredibly surprised to see how long the helium escape lasted," team leader Romain Allart, of the University of Montreal, said in a statement.
"This discovery reveals the complexity of the physical processes that sculpt exoplanetary atmospheres and their interaction with their stellar environment. We are only beginning to discover the true complexity of these worlds.
A tale of two tails
Helium is one of the most important tracers of atmospheric escape from exoplanets, and the incredible sensitivity of the JWST allows the element to be observed at vast distances.
Tracking the light absorbed by helium atoms, the researchers found that the envelope of gas around WASP-121b stretches out far beyond this hot Jupiter.
The helium signal lasted for over half the orbit of the planet, making this the longest continuous detection of atmospheric escape yet.
The most remarkable thing about this investigation is the fact that the helium leaking from WASP-121b forms two distinct tails, one of which is pushed back behind the exoplanet by radiation and stellar winds from its parent star.
The other tail leads the planet in its orbit, likely pulled forward toward the star by its gravity.
Combined, the helium tails are 100 times as long as WASP-121b is wide, and three times the distance between the hot Jupiter and its star. And the dual tails are something that scientists can't explain with current models.
"Very often, new observations reveal the limitations of our numerical models and push us to explore new physical mechanisms to further our understanding of these distant worlds," team member Vincent Bourrier, of the Department of Astronomy at the Faculty of Science of the University of Geneva, said.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/exoplanets/james-webb-space-telescope-discovers-a-hot-jupiter-exoplanet-leaking-twin-gas-tails-that-defy-explanation
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-66628-5
Scientists map of old Mars river basins for the 1st time. These could be great places to search for ancient life
December 11, 2025
For the first time, scientists have mapped vast, continent-scale river drainage systems on Mars — ancient networks that may also be among the most promising places to search for signs of past life.
Billions of years ago, before the Red Planet became the frigid desert it is today, water sculpted its surface on a massive scale.
For decades, Mars has tempted scientists with whispered clues of that watery past, long-dry rivers that carved valleys and spilled through crater rims into deep canyons, hinting at a world that once looked far more like Earth.
But although scientists had cataloged thousands of these ancient waterways, they didn't know how they fit together, or whether Mars once hosted large, integrated river systems similar to those that support some of Earth's most biodiverse environments.
"We've known for a long time that there were rivers on Mars," Timothy Goudge, an assistant professor in the department of geological sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a statement.
"But we really didn't know the extent to which the rivers were organized in large drainage systems at the global scale."
Stitching together Mars' watery past
In a new study, Goudge and his colleagues have now compiled decades of orbital observations and previously published maps of valleys, lakebeds and outlet canyons, drawing on datasets from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which has mapped more than 90% of the planet.
The team then traced how these features once connected, revealing which belonged to cohesive, basin-spanning drainage networks.
"We did the simplest thing that could be done — we just mapped them and pieced them together," Abdallah Zaki, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Earth and planetary sciences at the University of Austin, who led the new study, said in the same statement.
In regions where impact craters or billions of years of erosion had distorted the ancient landscape, the researchers inferred how rivers once flowed by examining topography and the orientations of surrounding valleys, the study notes.
Their results suggest that early Mars was a patchwork of isolated watersheds, but that a small number of mega-basins acted as planetary conveyor belts, transporting nutrients and potential biosignatures across immense distances.
The team identified 16 major drainage basins, each spanning at least 38,610 square miles (100,000 square kilometers), the same minimum size used to define large river basins on Earth.
Together, these networks once covered about 1.5 million square miles (4 million square kilometers), or roughly 5% of Mars' ancient terrain.
That fraction is also likely conservative, the researchers note, as impact events and wind erosion have erased much of the planet's original fluvial landscape.
On Earth, tectonics build mountain ranges and deep lowlands that guide and connect river systems. Without that process, Mars ended up with just 16 major basins compared with Earth's roughly 91.
Despite their small footprint, those few Martian basins may be among the most scientifically valuable places yet to explore, scientists say.
When the researchers estimated how much sediment ancient rivers carried, they found that the 16 large basins transported nearly half of all river-eroded sediment on Mars, suggesting they had an outsized influence on Mars' geologic evolution.
One basin alone, feeding into one of the largest canyons on Mars called Ma'adim Vallis, accounted for roughly 15 percent of the total.
On Earth, large-scale river systems are biodiversity hotspots, where water flows through diverse rock types and creates long-lived, chemically rich environments. Mars' mega-basins may have played a similar role when liquid water was abundant.
And if life ever gained a foothold on the Red Planet, the team says these ancient river highways — which once carried nearly half the sediment Mars' rivers ever moved — may be the places where evidence of it still lingers.
"The longer the distance, the more you have water interacting with rocks, so there's a higher chance of chemical reactions that could be translated into signs of life," Zaki said in the statement.
The new megabasin map could thus serve as a powerful roadmap for future Mars missions, especially those searching for chemical traces of life or planning sample-return campaigns, the researchers say.
"It's a really important thing to think about for future missions and where you might go to look for life," Goudge said in the statement.
This research is described in a paper published Nov. 24 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/scientists-map-of-old-mars-river-basins-for-the-1st-time-these-could-be-great-places-to-search-for-ancient-life
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2514527122
https://www.space.com/astronomy/exoplanets/astronomers-discover-images-of-a-tatooine-like-exoplanet-with-a-bizarre-orbit-hidden-in-10-year-old-data
https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025/12/rare-image-of-tatooine-like-planet-is-closest-to-its-twin-stars-yet?fj=1
Astronomers discover images of rare Tatooine-like exoplanet with a strange 300-year orbit: 'Exactly how it works is still uncertain'
December 11, 2025
Astronomers have discovered a planet beyond the solar system that orbits its twin parent stars closer than any ever seen before in a binary.
The twin stars in the sky over the newly-found extrasolar planet, or "exoplanet," likely bear a resemblance to the twin stars over Tatooine, the home planet of Luke Skywalker, when viewers first meet the young hero at the beginning of Star Wars: A New Hope.
This exoplanet is six times closer to its parent stars than any previously directly imaged binary system exoplanet, yet despite this relative proximity, it still has a year that lasts 300 times as long as an Earth year.
The discovery of this planet, designated HD 143811 AB b (referring to the fact that it orbits the stars HD 143811 A and HD 143811 B in the system HD 143811 AB), and located 446 light-years away from Earth, is an exciting find for scientists. That is because planets are very rarely detected around binary stars, meaning HD 143811 AB b offers a rare chance to study how stars and planets orbit together, while also investigating planet formation mechanisms.
"Of the 6,000 exoplanets that we know of, only a very small fraction of them orbit binaries," team member and exoplanet imaging expert Jason Wang of Northwestern University said in a statement.
"Of those, we only have a direct image of a handful of them, meaning we can have an image of the binary and the planet itself.
Imaging both the planet and the binary is interesting because it’s the only type of planetary system where we can trace both the orbit of the binary star and the planet in the sky at the same time.
"We're excited to keep watching it in the future as they move, so we can see how the three bodies move across the sky."
A new discovery from decade-old data
This exoplanet may be new to astronomers, but it isn't actually a new observation.
Wang and colleagues discovered HD 143811 AB b in archival data collected almost 10 years ago by the Gemini South telescope and its Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) instrument.
GPI captured images of exoplanets by blocking out the overwhelming glare of their parent stars using a coronagraph, an instrument that acts almost like the artificial equivalent of an eclipse.
The instrument then used adaptive optics to sharpen the images of these faint planets around their bright stars.
GPI operated from 2014 to 2022, when it was removed from Gemini South and transferred to the University of Notre Dame in Indiana to undergo a major upgrade of the whole system called GPI 2.0.
Next year, once upgrades are completed, GPI 2.0 will be moved to the Gemini North telescope atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
This discovery came about when Wang and colleagues decided to revisit the GPI data ahead of its new life as GPI 2.0. "I didn’t think we’d find any new planets," Wang said.
"But I thought we should do our due diligence and check carefully anyway."
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"During the instrument's lifetime, we observed more than 500 stars and found only one new planet," Wang said. "It would have been nice to have seen more, but it did tell us something about just how rare exoplanets are."
Team member Nathalie Jones of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) assessed GPI data gathered over three years between 2016 and 2019, cross-referencing it with data collected by the W.M. Keck Observatory. This led to a tantalizing discovery, a faint object following the motion of a star.
"Stars don't stand still in a galaxy; they move around," Wang explained. "We look for objects and then revisit them later to see if they have moved elsewhere.
If a planet is bound to a star, then it will move with the star. Sometimes, when we revisit a 'planet,' we find it's not moving with its star, then we know it was just a photobombing star passing through.
If they are both moving together, then that's a sign that it’s an orbiting planet."
Astronomers can determine the difference between light coming directly from a star and light being reflected by a planet, meaning they can also look at data and compare it to what it would look like if a mystery object is indeed a planet.
These tests allowed Jones to determine that HD 143811 AB b is indeed a planet that was first captured by GPI in 2016 but was subsequently missed by astronomers.
This conclusion was also arrived at by an independent team of astronomers from the University of Exeter in the UK.
Astronomers were also able to learn a lot more about HD 143811 AB b, discovering that this planet is a whopper, at around six times the size of Jupiter.
The planet was also determined to be around 13 million years old, which may sound ancient until you consider the Earth is 4.6 billion years old.
"That sounds like a long time ago, but it's 50 million years after dinosaurs went extinct," Wang said. "That's relatively young in universe speak, so it still retains some of the heat from when it formed."
It isn't just the planet that is relatively close to its binary stellar parents; these stars are also quite close together, taking just 18 Earth days to orbit each other.
Yet, despite its proximity to the stars compared to other planets found in binary systems, HD 143811 AB b still takes 300 Earth-years to complete just one orbit.
What the team doesn't yet understand is quite how this planet formed around its binary stars.
"Exactly how it works is still uncertain," Wang said. "Because we have only detected a few dozen planets like this, we don’t have enough data yet to put the picture together."
Answering this question could require the team to further study HD 143811 AB.
"I'm asking for more telescope time, so we can continue looking at this planet," Jones said.
"We want to track the planet and monitor its orbit, as well as the orbit of the binary stars, so we can learn more about the interactions between binary stars and planets."
In the meantime, Jones intends to continue hunting through archival data to discover more planets. "There are a couple of suspicious objects, but what they are, exactly, remains to be seen," Jones concluded.
The team's research was published on Thursday (Dec. 11) in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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U.S. Space Command signage unveiling ceremony bringing Hegseth to Redstone Arsenal
12.11.25
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is set to visit Redstone Arsenal on Friday to attend the unveiling ceremony of the U.S. Space Command's new signage on the Huntsville military base.
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink will accompany Hegseth for the event scheduled at 2:30 p.m.
Additional details on Hegseth's visit will be made available soon.
The unveiling ceremony marks a significant milestone in the process of relocating Space Command out of Colorado, following multiple evaluations and years of struggling with the Biden administration to move the headquarters to Huntsville.
https://1819news.com/news/item/u-s-space-command-signage-unveling-ceremony-bringing-hegseth-to-redstone-arsenal
SpaceX’s Musk, Blue Origin’s Bezos, and OpenAI’s Altman Eye Space Data Centers
Dec 10, 2025 8:13 PM EST
Key Points
Global data center spending may reach $6.7 trillion by 2030, mainly in the US.
Tech titans are considering orbital data centers for efficiency, cooling, and space solutions.
Space-related stocks surged as interest in space-based data centers grows among industry leaders.
A study from management consulting firm McKinsey says that global spending on data centers could eclipse $6.7 trillion between now and 2030, with most of that spending taking place in the United States, where over 4,000 data centers are already operating or under construction.
The boom has thrust tech names like chipmakers Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and Broadcom to new records.
And hyperscalers like Google parent Alphabet, social giant Meta, and OpenAI investor Microsoft have also seen a nice bump.
But the boom has faced its match in a myriad of problems; whether it’s shortfalls in available electricity or water, or even shortages available computer components like memory or storage. As a result, some AI proponents are fixing their eyes on the stars.
Entire data centers could soon be launched into orbit, thanks to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Amazon Founder and Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The three, along with a number of others, have taken up the one-time fringe concept — investing resources in the effort to bring it to fruition.
Last week, the WSJ reported that Altman had conversations with one rocket maker as part of an effort which could see the CEO of the firm behind ChatGPT build a competitor to Elon Musk’s SpaceX for the purpose of developing data centers in space.
In a separate report published Wednesday, the WSJ added more color to the new ‘AI space race.’ It said that Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin have been looking into the viability of “orbital AI data centers” too, underscoring the newfound interest in this technologically complex concept.
Despite never being done before, there are believed to be benefits to launching data centers into orbit. For one, solar panels in space would be far more efficient than on Earth.
Second, the frigid conditions in space would offer ‘free’ cooling for the energy-intensive computers. And finally, there’s ample space in orbit, eliminating the need to acquire real estate or procure the necessary zoning.
On the other hand, there are problems with theoretical orbital data centers, particularly in terms of cost, redundancy, and networking. First, these efforts would be an expensive undertaking.
Then, in the event that something onboard the technologically complicated data centers were to fail, it would be exceedingly difficult to fix.
Finally, latency — the time it takes to access the server or send commands — could be a problem, especially if the data centers were moved beyond Earth’s orbit.
However, with tech giants having spent over $600 billion on hyperscale data centers and Bank of America projecting that spending to continue growing into 2026 and beyond, perhaps some of the problems on the ground could work out to be cost-efficient opportunities in the stars — if the idea works.
In response to the report, several space-related stocks surged on Wednesday, reacting to some of the recent commentary. Among them were Firefly Aerospace (+9.5%), Voyager Technologies (+7.9%), Rocket Lab (+7.6%), and Karman Holdings (+5.5%).
Microcap space-oriented firms also got a boost, including Sidus Space (+42%) and Momentus (+16.5%), while the small cap Satellogic Inc (+8.5%) also got a leg up.
None of these firms are directly related to the aforementioned names, but the possibility of the AI boom boiling over into the already red hot space trade is reason enough for investors to load up preemptively — even if it’s ultimately years before a single data center might blast off.
The surge comes amid a prolonged rally in space names, especially recent IPOs. Fueling some of the excitements are murmurs that Musk’s SpaceX will pursue one of the largest public offerings of all time late next year.
https://www.thestreet.com/technology/spacexs-musk-blue-origins-bezos-and-openais-altman-eye-space-data-centers
https://rollingout.com/2025/12/11/why-tom-cruise-kept-distance-from-trump/
Reason why Tom Cruise avoided Trump for space movie
Dec 11, 2025 11:18 am
Hollywood’s most daring action star may have turned down a shortcut to the cosmos, reportedly refusing to seek assistance from President Donald Trump’s administration for what could have been cinema’s most ambitious production yet.
Tom Cruise allegedly declined to request federal government support for a groundbreaking film project that would send him and director Doug Liman to the International Space Station.
The decision appears rooted in the actor’s longstanding commitment to maintaining political neutrality, a strategy that has served him well throughout his decades-long career.
Political calculations behind Cruise decision
Industry insiders familiar with the project suggest Cruise deliberately avoided approaching the Trump administration despite the complex federal coordination required for such an unprecedented undertaking.
The nature of filming aboard the International Space Station would necessitate extensive NASA involvement and government permissions, creating a scenario where political connections could prove invaluable.
Sources indicate the actor weighed the potential benefits against the risk of alienating portions of his fan base. Cruise has carefully cultivated an apolitical public image for years, avoiding partisan statements or associations that might divide audiences.
Seeking a favor from any administration, particularly one as polarizing as Trump’s, could undermine that carefully maintained neutrality.
This reluctance extends beyond the space film project. Reports emerged that Cruise turned down a Kennedy Center honor offered by President Trump, citing scheduling conflicts as the reason.
The pattern suggests a deliberate strategy of distancing himself from political entanglements regardless of potential advantages.
The ambitious space film vision
The project first captured public attention in 2020 when NASA expressed enthusiasm about collaborating with the actor.
Jim Bridenstine, who served as NASA administrator during the Trump presidency, publicly championed the idea through social media channels.
He framed the initiative as an opportunity to inspire future generations of scientists and engineers through popular entertainment.
Bridenstine’s post celebrating the collaboration has since disappeared from digital platforms, and he has departed from the space agency.
Current NASA insiders report no ongoing discussions about the film project, suggesting the loss of administrative support created significant obstacles.
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The original vision called for Cruise and Liman to capture footage aboard the International Space Station with backing from both NASA and SpaceX.
Such an endeavor would represent a quantum leap in filmmaking, taking method acting and practical effects to literally astronomical heights.
Practical challenges compound political concerns
Beyond political considerations, the project faces substantial logistical hurdles.
Universal Pictures reportedly showed interest, but ensuring the safety and feasibility of sending a then 58-year-old performer into orbit for a feature film production raised serious concerns.
Space travel, even for trained astronauts, involves rigorous preparation and significant physical demands.
Adapting that process for a commercial film shoot while maintaining safety standards and insurance coverage presents complications that extend far beyond typical production challenges.
The technical requirements for filming in microgravity, managing equipment in space, and coordinating with International Space Station operations would require unprecedented cooperation between entertainment and aerospace industries.
Without strong federal support and institutional backing, these obstacles become nearly insurmountable.
Maintaining the Cruise brand
The actor’s reluctance to seek political favors reflects broader concerns about celebrity political engagement in an increasingly divided cultural landscape.
Many entertainment figures face criticism regardless of their political stances, with some losing audience segments based on perceived allegiances.
Cruise’s approach prioritizes universal appeal over expedient solutions. His films consistently perform well across demographic groups, suggesting his strategy of political neutrality serves commercial interests effectively.
Taking a visible favor from any administration could jeopardize that carefully balanced positioning.
The space film project remains officially unconfirmed, leaving its future status uncertain. Whether Cruise will find alternative paths to realize this vision or abandon the concept entirely remains unclear.
For now, the actor appears content to keep his feet on Earth and his politics to himself, even if that means sacrificing opportunities that could redefine cinema’s boundaries.
In Hollywood’s current climate, sometimes what you don’t do matters as much as what you accomplish.
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SPACEFOREUR-AF team competes in Guardian Arena for the first time
Dec. 11, 2025
United States Space Forces Europe-Space Forces Africa (SPACEFOREUR-AF) Guardians and Airmen, assigned to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, compete in the third annual Guardian Arena at Patrick Space Force Base, Dec. 8-9.
Guardian Arena is a United States Space Force event that challenges competitors’ problem-solving skills, knowledge and physical strength.
It provides an opportunity for teams to put their skills to the test while exercising the Guardian spirit and strengthening camaraderie.
This year marks the first time that SPACEFOREUR-AF traveled to the continental United States to compete.
“Our team has been putting in a lot of hours outside the duty day to be ready to represent,” Capt. Kaileb Williamson said. “It has been a distinct pleasure to coach our team, named “KILL CHAIN,” and I am proud of all we accomplished.”
This year's competition included teams from across the Space Force assessing their endurance in a variety of physically and mentally demanding scenarios.
“One of the great things about Guardian Arena is it showcases our community and how we adapt to difficult problems as a team,” Capt. TJ Fumagalli said.
“It has been a total force effort with Airman and Guardian teammates from across the component."
Fumagalli discussed how a new and growing Space Force component is presented with unique and challenging tasks, making it critical that teams stationed overseas work in unity with the utmost level of trust and discipline.
"These are attributes we were able to showcase in Guardian Arena,” Fumagalli said.
Competitors and spectators filled the event, contributing to a strong sense of pride across the Space Force.
“It’s a great way to amplify the Guardian Spirit,” Chief Master Sgt. Alex Birkle said. “Our team showed up strong during the regional tryouts back in August and I am so proud of how they performed in the December finals.
The event highlighted the importance of readiness and adaptability when facing complex challenges, skills vital to Guardians who continue to lay the foundation for the Space Force our nation needs now and into the future.
“At the end of the day, the Warrior Ethos, camaraderie, and readiness of the United States Space Force is inspirational and drives fear in our competitors,” Birkle said.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4357243/spaceforeur-af-team-competes-in-guardian-arena-for-the-first-time/
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4356850/guardian-arena-highlights-readiness-team-performance-in-two-day-competition/
Russia unveils first test batches of cancer vaccine
11 Dec, 2025 09:18
Russian scientists have produced the first three test batches of a newly developed cancer vaccine at the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow, the center’s director, Alexander Gintsburg, has said.
The breakthrough drug is an AI-assisted, mRNA-based vaccine designed to target malignant tumors using the patient’s own genetic data.
Reports on the readiness of the vaccine first emerged in September. Preclinical studies showed the drug could shrink tumors and slow their growth by 60-80%, depending on patient characteristics.
The vaccine was initially expected to be used in patients with colorectal cancer.
“Most importantly, our leading oncology center – the Herzen Institute, headed by academician [Andrey] Kaprin – has obtained the full set of approvals needed to use the technology, from diagnostics and mRNA production to administering it to patients,” Gintsburg said.
The vaccine batches remain experimental even though they have passed all quality checks, he stressed on Wednesday.
Unlike conventional vaccines that prevent infection and severe illness, mRNA cancer vaccines are not designed to stop disease transmission.
Traditional vaccines are given to healthy people, while oncology vaccines are a new class of therapies used to treat advanced-stage cancer.
They are described as “vaccines” because they act on the immune system, training it to recognize and destroy tumor cells.
The new vaccine is a personalized treatment built to target malignant tumors using the patient’s own genetic information.
Developed with the help of artificial intelligence, the mRNA platform allows each dose to be tailored to an individual’s cancer profile, potentially offering a more precise and effective therapy.
The Gamaleya Institute is known internationally for developing Sputnik V, Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine.
Earlier, Russia began trials of a drug based on a genetically modified oncolytic smallpox virus for the treatment of brain cancer, a process expected to take around two years.
Last month, the Health Ministry also authorized the use of two cancer vaccines: NeoOncoVak, a therapeutic mRNA-based vaccine for melanoma, and Oncopept, a peptide vaccine for malignant tumors.
Both are made individually for patients using genetic analysis of the tumor and other biomaterials, and have narrowly targeted therapeutic indications.
https://www.rt.com/russia/629304-cancer-vaccine-tests/
Dozens of Ukrainian kamikaze drones intercepted en route to Moscow – MOD
11 Dec, 2025 09:40
Russian air defenses intercepted overnight 32 Ukrainian long-range kamikaze drones that were headed toward Moscow, according to the military.
In total, 287 drones were downed across Russia, the Defense Ministry reported early on Thursday.
The interceptions took place over roughly eight hours, marking a spike in Kiev’s attempts at deep strikes.
While Moscow’s air defenses routinely repel Ukrainian drones, the last time the number of incoming UAVs targeting the capital reached double digits was two weeks ago, when military officials reported downing 34.
Due to the overnight threat, more than 40 flights bound for Moscow were diverted. Normal air traffic resumed Thursday morning.
A senior Russian diplomat linked the surge in Ukrainian attacks to growing US pressure on Vladimir Zelensky to accept a peace deal with Russia that would require concessions that Kiev has so far refused to make.
Several European NATO states, meanwhile, back Zelensky’s uncompromising stance. US President Donald Trump said this week that the Ukrainian leader “has to be realistic” about the situation and “start accepting things” his administration is offering.
Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik, who heads the Foreign Ministry’s mission investigating alleged Ukrainian crimes, described the drone assault as “a symbolic lunge by the Zelensky dictatorship for the benefit of Western officials.”
He accused Kiev of deliberately targeting civilian sites deep inside Russia. Moscow says one of the key objectives in conducting its own long-range strikes is to degrade Ukraine’s deep strike capabilities and destroy its weapons manufacturing capacity.
https://www.rt.com/russia/629301-ukrainian-drones-target-moscow/
Russian forces liberate key Donbass city – MOD (VIDEO)
11 Dec, 2025 14:44
Russian forces have liberated the Donbass city of Seversk, the Defense Ministry in Moscow reported on Thursday.
The former Ukrainian stronghold, located inside Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic, is now fully clear of enemy troops, the ministry said.
The fighting for Seversk has gone on since 2022 with varying degrees of intensity.
Russian troops will now have an open path to the regional cities of Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, both major hubs for the Ukrainian military, according to Igor Kimakovsky, an adviser to the head of the DPR.
The announcement was made by the chief of Russia’s General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, during a high-level meeting with President Vladimir Putin on the status of Moscow’s military operation.
The Defense Ministry also released footage from the liberated city, showing Russian troops conducting door-to-door visits to apartment buildings and private homes offering medical assistance, food, and drinking water to civilians who had remained in the area.
Soldiers have also been inspecting residential areas, roads, and adjacent areas for explosive devices and clearing out any hazardous items.
Following Gerasimov’s report, Putin stated that the strategic initiative in the Northern Military District is now “entirely in the hands of the Russian Armed Forces.”
The capture of Seversk comes as Russian troops continue to push back Ukrainian forces across the front line. Moscow has expressed its determination to fully liberate its territories in the Donbass region.
Russia has suggested that Ukraine voluntarily withdraw from the region as part of a potential peace settlement, which is also being promoted by the US, but has stressed that it will achieve its goals militarily if necessary.
Kiev has rejected any territorial concessions.
https://www.rt.com/russia/629329-russia-liberates-seversk-donbass/
https://www.rt.com/russia/629330-russian-troops-aid-civilians-seversk/
South Korea, Japan protest over China, Russia aircraft incursions
Dec 10, 2025
South Korea and Japan reacted furiously on Wednesday after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols around the two countries, with both Seoul and Tokyo scrambling jets.
South Korea said it had lodged a protest with representatives of China and Russia, while Japan said it had conveyed its "serious concerns" over national security.
According to Tokyo, two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers on Tuesday flew from the Sea of Japan to rendezvous with two Chinese H-6 bombers in the East China Sea, then conducted a joint flight around the country.
The incident comes as Japan is locked in a dispute with China over comments Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made about Taiwan.
The bombers' joint flights were "clearly intended as a show of force against our nation", defence minister Shinjiro Koizumi wrote on X Wednesday.
Top government spokesman Minoru Kihara said that Tokyo had "conveyed to both China and Russia our serious concerns over our national security through diplomatic channels".
Seoul said Tuesday the Russian and Chinese warplanes entered its air defence zone and that a complaint had been lodged with the defence attaches of both countries in the South Korean capital.
"Our military will continue to respond actively to the activities of neighbouring countries' aircraft within the KADIZ in compliance with international law," said Lee Kwang-suk, director general of the International Policy Bureau at Seoul's defence ministry, referring to the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone.
South Korea also said it deployed "fighter jets to take tactical measures in preparation for any contingencies" in response to the Chinese and Russian incursion into the KADIZ.
The planes were spotted before they entered the air defence identification zone, defined as a broader area in which countries police aircraft for security reasons but which does not constitute their airspace.
Japan's defence ministry also scrambled fighter jets to intercept the warplanes.
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'Routine exercise' -
Beijing later Tuesday confirmed it had organised drills with Russia's military according to "annual cooperation plans".
Moscow also described it as a routine exercise, saying it lasted eight hours and that some foreign fighter jets followed the Russian and Chinese aircraft.
Since 2019 China and Russia have regularly flown military aircraft into South Korea's air defence zone without prior notice, citing joint exercises.
In November last year Seoul scrambled jets as five Chinese and six Russian military planes flew through its air defence zone.
Similar incidents occurred in June and December 2023, and in May and November 2022.
Meanwhile Tokyo said Monday it had scrambled jets in response to repeated takeoff and landing exercises involving fighter jets and military helicopters from China's Liaoning aircraft carrier as it cruised in international waters near Japan.
It also summoned Beijing's ambassador after military aircraft from the Liaoning locked radar onto Japanese jets, the latest incident in the row ignited by Takaichi's comments backing Taiwan.
Takaichi suggested last month that Japan would intervene militarily in any Chinese attack on the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as its own and has not ruled out seizing by force.
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/South_Korea_Japan_protest_over_China_Russia_aircraft_incursions_999.html