tyb
Always look at the necklines.
I have a theory that the suit and tie was created to help cover those up
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
January 5, 2026
The Red Rectangle Nebula from Hubble
How was the unusual Red Rectangle nebula created? At the nebula's center is an aging binary star system that surely powers the nebula but does not, as yet, explain its colors. The unusual shape of the Red Rectangle is likely due to a thick dust torus which pinches the otherwise spherical outflow into tip-touching cone shapes. Because we view the torus edge-on, the boundary edges of the cone shapes seem to form an X. The distinct rungs suggest the outflow occurs in fits and starts. The unusual colors of the nebula are less well understood, however, and speculation holds that they are partly provided by hydrocarbon molecules that may actually be building blocks for organic life. The Red Rectangle nebula lies about 2,300 light years away towards the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros). The nebula is shown here in great detail as a reprocessed image from Hubble Space Telescope. In a few million years, as one of the central stars becomes further depleted of nuclear fuel, the Red Rectangle nebula will likely bloom into a planetary nebula.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Flood Alert, The Sun and Revolution/Uprisings | S0 News and frens
Jan.5.2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNpRYvLsY4w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdVbgfWG58I (Ray's Astrophotography: PLASMA — We Live inside a PLASMA Universe — I Took a PICTURE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMooLkgt63o (Space Videos: CLOSE UP VIEWS OF THE SUN - REPLAY - LUNT 50mm Solar Telescope)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va3DTHiYmaY (Sen4k: Meteor Filmed From Space During the Quadrantid Peak)
https://www.space.com/live/aurora-forecast-northern-lights-possible-tonight-jan-5
https://x.com/SunWeatherMan/status/2008174875907690736
https://x.com/StefanBurnsGeo/status/2008049865419632738
https://x.com/MrMBB333/status/2007984982745334000
https://x.com/TamithaSkov/status/2008056010901254278
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/aurora-dashboard-experimental
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
https://spaceweather.com/
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/comet-3i-atlas-what-scientists-wont-say-why-silence-fueling-alien-speculation-1768298
https://www.tiktok.com/@jf.astrophotography/video/7588917898454928663
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ae3083
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/terrestrial-destruction-begs-extraterrestrial-aspirations-ee5080b56796
https://medium.com/@davidsereda/3i-atlas-sends-the-blueprint-of-giza-the-secret-to-sirius-heliacal-rising-jesus-isa-birth-12ebb0c31223
https://medium.com/@liena.dreams/3i-atlas-lifecycle-six-remarkable-stages-after-perihelium-d219b55f0749
https://thetruthinternational.com/interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-emits-water-after-solar-flyby-no-radio-signals-detected/
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/new-updates/big-revelation-on-comet-3i/atlas-leaves-scientists-stunned-interstellar-object-could-be-14-billion-years-old-older-than-our-sun-what-we-know/articleshow/126343012.cms
https://x.com/JinxedHorizon/status/2008073929601044782
https://x.com/Green_ayceUSA/status/2007994074460983395
https://x.com/terramysteria/status/2008058457086435728
https://x.com/Defence12543/status/2008041449221484938
https://x.com/drew4worldruler/status/2008014699678282096
https://x.com/drew4worldruler/status/2007698295871942827
https://x.com/DaveFagan16/status/2008150367654334616
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXQFMv6FO7o (Chuck's Astrophotography: LIVE: Comet 24P/Schaumasse's CLOSEST Approach to Earth Today)
Comet 3I/ATLAS: What Scientists Won't Say — and Why Silence Is Fueling Alien Speculation
05 January 2026, 10:44 AM GMT
When Comet 3I/ATLAS swept through the Solar System in late 2025, astronomers quickly confirmed one extraordinary fact: it was not from here.
Only the third known interstellar object ever observed, the comet arrived on a hyperbolic trajectory, travelled at extreme speeds and displayed behaviours rarely — if ever — seen in Solar System comets.
What followed was not just scientific excitement, but an explosion of online speculation.
From alien probes to dormant spacecraft theories, the comet's unusual features have prompted a familiar question: if scientists are so careful in their language, what aren't they saying?
An Interstellar Object That Breaks Expectations
Officially designated C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), the object was discovered in July 2025 by the ATLAS survey in Chile.
Its speed — exceeding 221,000 km/h — and trajectory confirmed it was not gravitationally bound to the Sun, meaning it originated beyond our Solar System.
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Physically, it appears comet-like: a nucleus estimated between 440 metres and 5.6 kilometres wide, composed largely of ice, gas and rock. Yet its behaviour has repeatedly defied standard models.
Among the most striking anomalies was the detection of X-ray emissions — the first time an interstellar object has been observed glowing in X-rays.
Data from Hubble, XRISM and XMM-Newton showed the effect was caused by interactions between the comet's gases and the solar wind, a rare but natural process.
The Green Glow and the 'Anti-Tail'
Adding to the intrigue was a vivid green glow observed in late November, linked to emissions from diatomic carbon and cyanogen.
The comet also brightened far more rapidly than predicted, reaching magnitude 11 — four times brighter than initial models suggested.
Perhaps most visually unsettling was the absence of a traditional ion tail. Instead, observers documented a pronounced 'anti-tail' — a stream of dust pointing toward the Sun.
Astronomers later explained this as a geometric effect caused by Earth crossing the comet's orbital plane, rather than propulsion or artificial control.
What Scientists Actually Found
Despite repeated assurances that 3I/ATLAS behaves like a natural comet, researchers still conducted targeted searches for artificial signals.
Using the 100-metre Green Bank Telescope, the 'Breakthrough Listen' project scanned the object for technosignatures across a wide range of radio frequencies.
The result was complete radio silence. All detected signals were traced back to human-made interference, not the comet itself. Researchers stressed that this outcome was expected — but that failing to look would have been scientifically irresponsible.
'Looking is what science does,' NASA officials and astronomers reiterated, emphasising that ruling out extraordinary explanations strengthens confidence in natural ones.
How Uncertainty Becomes Speculation
Where public confusion arises is not from what scientists say — but from what they cannot yet conclude.
Some questions remain unresolved: why the comet is unusually rich in carbon dioxide, why water signatures are faint, and why its jets appear unusually symmetrical in some observations.
Figures such as Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb have openly argued that rare anomalies deserve scrutiny, even while acknowledging that the probability of alien technology continues to shrink as data accumulates.
Online, however, that scientific caution is often reframed as concealment.
Viral TikTok videos and posts compare the comet's shape to ancient petroglyphs or suggest its alignment is 'too precise' to be accidental — claims astronomers say misunderstand both geometry and observational bias.
What Scientists Confirm to be True
Across institutions, the consensus remains consistent: 3I/ATLAS is an interstellar comet behaving in ways that stretch existing models, not evidence of extraterrestrial engineering.
Its importance lies elsewhere — offering a rare, fleeting sample of material formed around another star, and a reminder of how much remains unknown about planetary systems beyond our own.
As 3I/ATLAS exits the Solar System for good, scientists continue to analyse months of data. The silence that fuels speculation is not a refusal to speak — but an insistence on letting evidence, not imagination, lead the conclusion.
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Uh Oh. If @NASAWatch and @NASAAdmin agree on something …
January 4, 2026
After 30 years this was bound to happen. Time for me to retire?
NASA Watch @NASAWatch: Whenever #Artemis II happens it will be the first time billions will see humans leave Earth to visit another world.
Yes, there are delays but when it happens let’s all applaud this new chapter in human exploration. @NASA @ExplorersClub @rookisaacman
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman @NASAAdmin: I couldn’t agree more. This is what we do at NASA. Artemis II is the first step in America’s grand return to the Moon, and we will be very transparent about technical readiness and timelines after rollout.
Preparations for Artemis II will rightly command the majority of our attention, but the missions that follow across human exploration, science, and aeronautics will be ambitious and inspiring. We are just getting started.
https://nasawatch.com/artemis/uh-oh-if-nasawatch-and-nasaadmin-agree-on-something/
https://x.com/NASAWatch/status/2007843342663750060
https://astrobiology.com/2026/01/tricorder-tech-for-everyone-nasas-stella-open-science-instrument.html
https://nasawatch.com/astrobiology/tricorder-tech-for-everyone-nasas-stella-open-science-instrument/
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025CN000284
https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/stella/
Tricorder Tech For Everyone: NASA’s STELLA Open Science Instrument
January 4, 2026
scan me harder, daddy!
NASA has just authored a paper on a new way for people with a wide variety of interests to use – and build – sensor technology that is a preview of the devices we will use to explore other planets.
The paper is online here: Science and Technology Education for Land / Life Assessment (STELLA): Democratizing Remote Sensing Science With Low-Cost Open-Source Instruments for Research and Education (open access).
If we aspire to mount astrobiology expeditions to new worlds and then embrace the task of characterizing and quantifying whatever life forms we find, the ability to map and understand whatever metabolic and genomic systems are in operation is important.
On our home world, plants – using photosynthesis to derive energy from our local star – drive the entire life support system that supports Earth’s ecosystems – and therefore, us.
Other inhabited worlds that we’ll one day explore will likely have a similarly complex, inter-related ways of supporting its own ecosystems and all of the life forms that comprise them.
Not only do we need to know how alien biota function, but also how it evolved – what differences and similarities they may have with the origin and evolution of life on Earth.
Increasing in situ capabilities like this can allow much more preliminary analysis to be done on site – or back on Earth.
As we begin to expand our search for life to other worlds we are going to need to be economical in terms of the equipment we send and how we relay new knowledge back to Earth.
Sample return missions are difficult – even when worlds are close to one another.
Doing in situ examination and documentation is going to be very important as we explore other worlds. Not only does it reduce the logistics of sending things back home but it allows data to be sent back at the speed of light.
It also allows the astronaut/droid teams to engage in empirical exploration – learning from what they found so as to refine and perfect their continued searching.
As we continue to explore a world, a collection of data will be amassed that is processed so as to form a nascent catalog of life forms.
As they are identified and named that catalog- contained within an AI will be increasingly able to identify and differentiate successive life forms as they are encountered – and do so quickly and on the spot in situ – thus amplifying the ability of human explorers and their robotic companions to understand a new world’s biota.
How will we develop these instruments – sensors, tricorders, scanners, smartphones – call them what you will is now underway at NASA.
There is a vibrant citizen science / open science / DIY / “hacker” community in America and around the world that seeks to make interesting things out of ordinary materials.
Cellphones outperform what we would have called a “super computer” just a generation ago – and they are in everyone’s pocket. Electronic parts can be bought online and how-to instructions are openly available online – globally.
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NASA has a cool project called Science and Technology Education for Land/Life Assessment (STELLA) that “uses spectrometers that can be built with low-cost components and 3D printed housings to introduce NASA Earth observation technologies and provide authentic hands-on learning experiences for remote sensing education.
STELLA instruments help engage students in the quantitative aspects of satellite data, provide insight into the scientific process, and encourage analytical thinking.”
NASA’s STELLA program located at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and is funded by the NASA Science Mission Directorate.
It is working in this arena of DIY citizen science – often amongst those younger people who comprise what is often called the Artemis Generation – the future researchers who will explore other worlds – in person.
This paper describes the project in great detail.
You can learn all about the program here at Science and Technology Education for Land/Life Assessment (STELLA).
This is the sort of thing you’d expect students to be working while learning how to use their tricorders on Away Team missions at Starfleet Academy. Just sayin’ 😉
Here is the new paper that goes into depth about STELLA Science and Technology Education for Land / Life Assessment (STELLA): Democratizing Remote Sensing Science With Low-Cost Open-Source Instruments for Research and Education, Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists – AGU – (open access)
STELLA (short for NASA’s Science and Technology Education for Land / Life Assessment) is a handheld, do-it-yourself gadget that can scan, record, and analyze features of the environment, such as plant health.
An example STELLA is shown here during testing at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. In this test experiment, the two plants were given different amounts of water.
STELLA readings were taken regularly to monitor and compare the plants’ relative health. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Sophia Rentschler
Abstract: NASA scientists and engineers, in collaboration with university researchers, have developed low-cost lightweight remote sensing instruments that anyone can build and use to bring remote sensing science to communities beyond traditional professional scientists.
Built from commercially available components, these Science and Technology Education for Land/Life Assessment (STELLA) instruments measure light spectra over 18 channels in the visible and near-infrared range to permit detailed observation of natural and built surfaces and evaluation of vegetation reflectance characteristics.
The simplest of the STELLA instruments, the STELLA-Q, can be quickly assembled by connecting the components with inexpensive cables, at a total cost of approximately $200 in 2025.
The STELLA-1 supports additional sensors to measure surface temperature and ambient air parameters, and can be assembled by anyone who can solder, following step-by-step, wire-by-wire instructions.
The open-source software for these instruments is written in a freely available variant of the Python programming language for ease of understanding. The data are recorded in plain text to a micro-SD card for ease of access and analysis.
These inexpensive, accessible instruments make hands-on immersive remote sensing education widely available and can enable new areas of scientific research at spatial and temporal resolutions not practical with the necessarily smaller numbers of expensive instruments.
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January full moon wows skywatchers with a striking 'Wolf Supermoon'
January 5, 2026
The January full moon soared through the winter sky on Jan. 3, putting on an awe-inspiring display as it flooded the night with reflected sunlight to kick off a new year of spectacular lunar milestones.
Read on to see jaw-dropping images of the first full moon and supermoon of 2026.
January's moon — often known as the "Wolf Moon" in reference to the packs of famished carnivores that can be heard howling this time of year — turned full as it sat close to its minimal distance to Earth in its 27-day orbit, giving rise to an enchanting supermoon.
A supermoon can appear up to 30% brighter and 14% larger than the smallest moon of the year, presenting a gorgeous sight to the naked eye and an unmissable target for photographers attempting to capture the fully-lit face of Earth's closest cosmic companion.
Experienced photographers seized the opportunity to line up impressive compositions as the Wolf Moon prowled low over the eastern horizon on the nights surrounding Jan. 3, before tracking it as the lunar disk leapt high overhead to hunt the stars through the night sky.
The January full Wolf Supermoon in photos
cont.
https://www.space.com/stargazing/january-full-moon-2026-wows-skywatchers-with-a-striking-wolf-supermoon-photos
The 2026 'Super Bowl of Astronomy' starts today — here's what's happening
January 5, 2026
From distant exoplanets and the universe's first galaxies to the next generation of space telescopes, astronomy's biggest annual gathering is set to deliver a week of discoveries, debates and conversations that will shape the future of astronomy.
Thousands of astronomers, students, educators and space scientists are gathering in Phoenix, Arizona, this week as the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS 247) kicks off Monday — launching what many in the field consider the Super Bowl of astronomy. Running from Jan. 4–8 at the Phoenix Convention Center, the conference will feature panels, presentations and workshops covering everything from exoplanets and galaxy evolution to the future of flagship space telescopes.
Exoplanet research is expected to be a major focus, with sessions organized by NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program Analysis Group examining the latest discoveries and debating priorities for future missions.
Discussions around the proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory are likely to draw particular attention, as researchers explore how next-generation space telescopes could detect and characterize potential Earth-like planets around other stars beyond our solar system and identify biosignatures, or signs of life, in their atmospheres.
Cosmic origins and galaxy evolution will also be featured prominently throughout the week.
Several sessions will showcase new results from surveys that combine data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, offering fresh insights into how galaxies formed and evolved in the early universe.
Other talks will dive into the nature of brown dwarfs, faint dwarf galaxies and the structure of the Milky Way's outskirts, highlighting how recent findings are reshaping long-standing theories.
Meanwhile, NASA's Program Analysis Groups (PAGs) — including those focused on cosmic origins, physics of the cosmos and exoplanet exploration — are meeting to brainstorm science goals, mission concepts and future priorities.
Looking ahead, astronomy's next major observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, will be the subject of a dedicated Town Hall meeting on the status of the mission and next steps, as well as several other breakout sessions.
As Roman edges closer to launch — currently planned for no earlier than September 2026 — scientists are refining how the mission's wide-field capabilities can complement JWST and ground-based observatories, particularly in studies of dark energy, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics.
Beyond the science itself, AAS 247 underscores the increasingly collaborative nature of modern astronomy.
Sessions will highlight how skilled amateur astronomers are contributing to frontline research, while workshops and networking events aim to support early-career scientists navigating an evolving research landscape.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/the-2026-super-bowl-of-astronomy-starts-today-heres-whats-happening
https://aas.org/meetings/aas247
https://submissions.mirasmart.com/AAS247/Itinerary/EventsAAG.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/c/AASPressOffice
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/search-for-life/how-did-life-begin-on-earth-new-experiments-support-rna-world-hypothesis
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2516418122
How did life begin on Earth? New experiments support 'RNA world' hypothesis
January 5, 2026
RNA, which is one of life's most crucial molecules dealing with the synthesis of proteins, could be common in the universe, according to a new experiment that shows how RNA could easily have formed on Earth 4.3 billion years ago.
RNA (short for ribonucleic acid) is a simpler cousin of DNA, which is the molecule that contains the genetic information for our cellular biology. RNA comes in a trio of guises.
There is messenger RNA (mRNA) that is produced from DNA and contains the genetic instructions for forming proteins. Then there's ribosomal RNA (rRNA) that creates ribosomes vital for producing proteins, and finally transfer RNA (tRNA) that does the actual synthesizing of the proteins from mRNA.
Because it is a simpler molecule than DNA, RNA is thought to have formed first, and thanks to its ability to carry genetic information and create other molecules, RNA has even been heralded as a possible main player in the story of the origin of life on Earth in a hypothesis colloquially known as "RNA world."
In this scenario, the first single-celled lifeforms would have used RNA rather than DNA for self-replicating and copying their genetic information.
Understanding how RNA formed has, however, been challenging. What prompted RNA's ingredients to come together just so and undergo the correct series of chemical reactions? On the face of it, the odds of RNA forming just by chance seem astronomical.
So chemists look for pathways that could inevitably lead to the formation of molecules like RNA. One pathway is known as the six-step Discontinuous Synthesis Model (DSM).
However, one of the stumbling blocks on this pathway is borate, which is a family of common compounds found in seawater.
Borates are oxyanions; if ions are atoms or molecules that have a positive electrical charge, then anions have an overall negative electrical charge.
Further, borates contain atoms of both boron and oxygen. The problem is that it had been thought that borates hinder some of the reactions on the chemical pathway to RNA.
Now, a team of biochemists led by Yuta Hirakawa of Tohoku University in Japan and the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Florida say that chemists have been getting it wrong and that borates are actually beneficial to the formation of RNA.
Hirakawa's team performed experiments in which they added the ingredients of RNA — the five-carbon sugar ribose, phosphates and the four nucleobases used by RNA (adenine, guanine, cytosine and uracil) — to a mixture that also included borates and basalt.
They then heated the mixture and allowed it to dry out, mimicking conditions that they argue would have been common around underground aquifers on the early Earth.
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What they found was that RNA had formed in the mixture.
Furthermore, the borates hadn't hindered anything at all, but actually supported some of the steps in the DSM model, such as stabilizing the ribose molecules that can often be unstable and break down, and facilitating the production of phosphates.
These findings have also been bolstered by new discoveries about the sample of material brought to Earth from the asteroid Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission.
In particular, with the recent announcement of the discovery or ribose in the Bennu sample, all the ingredients of RNA have now been identified in the 120 grams (4.2 ounces) of dirt and stones that OSIRIS-REx delivered to Earth from Bennu.
Hirakawa's team envisage that the impact of a 500-kilometer-wide (310 miles) protoplanet, similar in size to the asteroid Vesta and loaded with RNA's ingredients, could have brought RNA's building blocks to our planet en masse.
They estimate that this impact, and the production of RNA, would have taken place 4.3 billion years ago, 200 million years after Earth's birth and 200 million years before the oldest evidence for life on Earth yet found, in isotopes of carbon found in 4.1-billion-year-old deposits of the mineral zircon.
Previously, RNA had only been formed in a laboratory through human intervention to deliberately trigger chemical reactions.
Hirakawa's team argue that their research is the first time that RNA has been produced in the lab without humans getting involved, although critics argue that even the act of putting all the building blocks of RNA together in a test tube is a human intervention.
Impacts with large asteroids also occurred in the early days of Mars' history, meaning that the building blocks of RNA would also have been delivered to the Red Planet.
Intriguingly, borates have also been detected on Mars, meaning everything should have been in place to produce RNA there too. Although RNA is not life, RNA is essential to almost all life that we know of.
If RNA did form on Earth quickly, geologically speaking, then it could have provided a shortcut to the first simple organisms to arise on our planet.
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