TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
January 14, 2026
M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy
The Whirlpool Galaxy is a classic spiral galaxy. At only 30 million light years distant and fully 60 thousand light years across, M51, also known as NGC 5194, is one of the brightest and most picturesque galaxies on the sky. The featured deep image is a digital combination of images taken in different colors over 58 hours with a telescope from Lijiang, China. Anyone with a good pair of binoculars, however, can see this Whirlpool toward the constellation of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici). M51 is a spiral galaxy of type Sc and is the dominant member of a whole group of galaxies. Astronomers speculate that M51's spiral structure is primarily due to its gravitational interaction with the smaller galaxy just above it.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://x.com/TheRicanMemes/status/2011426974238196045
The Earth Got Lucky - How Close We Came | S0 News and frens
Jan.14.2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATSQCkno5ek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQjw_zVi1Ok (Stefan Burns: Astronauts were Mind-Blown Aboard the ISS a Few Days Ago! Next Week may be Even Crazier 💥)
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Multiple_spacecraft_track_evolving_solar_storm_to_improve_space_weather_forecasts_999.html
https://spacenews.com/congressional-hearing-highlights-militarys-reliance-on-noaa-data/
https://democrats-science.house.gov/hearings/from-orbit-to-operations-how-weather-satellites-support-the-national-security-mission
https://www.space.com/live/aurora-forecast-northern-lights-possible-tonight-jan-14
https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/press/z0508_00436.html
https://x.com/Astro_Kimiya/status/2010435323973829069
https://x.com/MrMBB333/status/2011449918578388996
https://x.com/NatSolarObs/status/2011220090189201718
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
https://spaceweather.com/
Playing hookie
Bill and Hillary Clinton refuse to testify in House Epstein investigation
Tue 13 Jan 2026 12.48 EST
James Comer said he would move to hold former US president in contempt for not appearing for testimony
Bill and Hillary Clinton announced they would not comply with a subpoena demanding congressional testimony about their relationships to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, while launching an extraordinary attack on Republicans and Donald Trump.
The Republican-led House oversight committee in August subpoenaed the former president and first lady after its chair, James Comer, announced the panel would review the government’s handling of Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died by what was determined to be suicide while awaiting trial in 2019.
In a letter to Comer dated Monday, attorneys for the Clintons called the subpoenas “invalid and legally unenforceable, untethered to a valid legislative purpose, unwarranted because they do not seek pertinent information, and an unprecedented infringement on the separation of powers”.
The demand for testimony “runs afoul of the clearly defined limitations on Congress’ investigative power propounded by the Supreme Court of the United States”, they wrote, adding that “it is clear the subpoenas themselves – and any subsequent attempt to enforce them – are nothing more than a ploy to attempt to embarrass political rivals, as President Trump has directed”.
Bill Clinton’s subpoena commanded him to appear for testimony by Tuesday, and Hillary Clinton by Wednesday. After the former president did not show up, Comer told reporters at the Capitol that he would move to hold him in contempt next week.
“I think it’s important to note that this subpoena was voted on in a bipartisan manner by this committee. This wasn’t something that I just issued as chairman of the committee,” Comer said.
“No one’s accusing Bill Clinton of anything, any wrongdoing. We just have questions, and that’s why the Democrats voted along with Republicans to subpoena Bill Clinton.”
Clinton was known to be friendly with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s, before the financier pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges of solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of prostitution with a minor in Florida.
The former president has denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and survivors of his abuse have not accused Clinton of wrongdoing.
Sara Guerrero, a spokesperson for Democrats on the oversight committee said, “Cooperating with Congress is important and the committee should continue working with President Clinton’s team to obtain any information that might be relevant to our investigation.”
In a separate statement, the Clintons criticized Comer’s handling of the inquiry, saying it had “prevented progress in discovering the facts about the government’s role”.
They noted that the committee had interviewed only two people as part of its investigation – former labor secretary Alexander Acosta and former attorney general William Barr – while declining to question seven former top government officials even though they had been issued subpoenas.
They went on to attack Republicans’ acquiescence to the president’s agenda, including their support of hardline immigration enforcement, the recent killing of a US citizen in Minnesota by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and the president’s pardoning of January 6 insurrectionists.
“Bringing the Republicans’ cruel agenda to a standstill while you work harder to pass a contempt charge against us than you have done on your investigation this past year would be our contribution to fighting the madness,” the Clintons wrote.
Controversy over the government’s handling of the Epstein case erupted last July, when the justice department released a memo declaring the matter closed, which flew in the face of conspiracy theories that Trump and his top officials had expressed sympathy for while campaigning in 2024.
In the months that followed, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers forced a voted on legislation to release all government files related to Epstein, which passed in November over the opposition of Congress’s Republican leaders and Trump.
Though some documents were redacted, Clinton is shown in several photographs that became public when the justice department began releasing batches of files in December, including one of the former president in a hot tub and swimming in a pool.
The department continues to release the Epstein files, even though the legislation required the justice department to release all of the files by 19 December.
Last week lawmakers asked a federal judge to appoint a special master to compel the release of all documents related to the late financier.
https://x.com/HillaryClinton/status/2011099228848996494
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/13/bill-hillary-clinton-epstein-investigation
https://usaherald.com/3i-atlas-steps-back-into-focus-as-a-rare-january-22-2026-solar-alignment-opens-a-scientific-window/
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/harvards-avi-loeb-use-rare-3i-atlas-alignment-reveal-interstellar-object-secrets-1770931
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/
https://x.com/chimura_/status/2011229551792357533
https://x.com/ESA_Webb/status/2011040290308833305
https://x.com/dgs99/status/2011434052952154142
https://x.com/UAPWatchers/status/2011429460801646656
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYvCcbOOYEE (Ray's Astrophotography: Comet 3I ATLAS — Did Europa Clipper Pass Through the ION TAIL? | I Took a PICTURE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kush5hWEkoE (That UFO Podcast: Why the CIA Refused to Confirm Records on 3I/ATLAS | Avi Loeb)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ2RH9T0v-I (Dobsonian Power: 3I/ATLAS JET HITS EARTH!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsnnFlif1Fo (The Angry Astronaut: Is 3I Atlas coming back? If so, how? And why??)
3I/ATLAS Steps Back Into Focus As A Rare January 22, 2026 Solar Alignment Opens A Scientific Window
January 13, 2026
KEY OBSERVATIONS
For many observers, the interstellar object known as 3I/ATLAS seemed to fade from relevance after its closest pass by Earth in December 2025.
But according to a new scientific analysis, the object is entering a short-lived geometric alignment that could unlock information humanity has never before obtained from interstellar material.
And the timing matters, because this moment arrives just ahead of 3I/ATLAS’s rare approach toward Jupiter in March 2026, a region already under intense scrutiny by NASA and international space agencies.
A fleeting January alignment may reveal what this interstellar visitor is truly made of, just weeks before it begins a historic approach toward Jupiter and its ocean-bearing moons.
A newly published research note by astrophysicist Avi Loeb, co-authored with Italian astronomer Mauro Barbieri, argues that 3I/ATLAS is about to enter an observational sweet spot that may not repeat for decades.
On January 22, 2026, Earth, the Sun, and 3I/ATLAS will line up with unusual precision. From our vantage point, Earth will pass almost directly between the Sun and the interstellar object.
This geometry, known as a near-opposition alignment, creates a rare lighting condition that allows astronomers to measure how dust around the object reflects sunlight when shadows effectively disappear.
To the average reader, this might sound abstract. In simple terms, it’s like standing directly between a flashlight and a dusty mirror. When the angles line up just right, hidden details suddenly become visible.
This phenomenon is called an “opposition surge.” It’s a brief but measurable jump in brightness that happens when dust grains stop casting shadows on one another and, at extremely small angles, when light waves reinforce each other on the way back to the observer.
The result is a glow that carries clues about the dust itself.
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Why does that matter? Because 3I/ATLAS is not from our solar system.
Discovered on July 1, 2025, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, publicly available orbital data confirm that 3I/ATLAS is traveling on a sharply hyperbolic path.
Its speed relative to the Sun — nearly 58 kilometers per second — far exceeds that of the two previously confirmed interstellar visitors, ‘Oumuamua and Borisov.
According to trajectory data released through NASA’s JPL Horizons system, it did not originate here and will not remain.
Interstellar objects are scientific time capsules. They carry material formed around other stars, under conditions we cannot recreate or sample directly.
Yet until now, astronomers have struggled to study their dust in detail. ‘Oumuamua showed no clear dust at all, and Borisov was never observed under lighting conditions close enough to opposition to trigger a measurable surge.
3I/ATLAS changes that.
For nearly a full week surrounding January 22, 2026, its alignment angle will remain below two degrees — an unusually long window in astronomical terms.
During that time, astronomers can track subtle changes in brightness that reveal whether the dust grains are dark and carbon-rich, bright and icy, tightly packed, or loosely clumped like cosmic lint.
These distinctions matter because they tell scientists where the object formed and how much it has been altered by heat, radiation, or collisions over billions of years.
Dust that is compact and dark suggests heavy processing near stars. Fluffy, reflective grains point to pristine material preserved from interstellar space.
According to Loeb’s analysis, this same dust may also explain one of 3I/ATLAS’s most puzzling features: a prominent anti-tail, a structure that appears to point toward the Sun rather than away from it.
Such behavior challenges conventional comet models and has fueled ongoing debate about the object’s composition and activity.
Importantly, none of this requires speculation about exotic technology or artificial origins. The paper focuses on measurable physics, geometry, and light behavior — grounded observations that can be tested and verified by independent teams worldwide.
The timing adds another layer of relevance. In March 2026, 3I/ATLAS will pass through the broader region of Jupiter’s orbit.
Jupiter is not just a gas giant; it is the gravitational gatekeeper of the outer solar system, surrounded by moons like Europa and Ganymede that are central to NASA’s search for life beyond Earth.
Missions such as Europa Clipper and JUICE are already en route or actively studying that environment.
While there is no evidence that 3I/ATLAS poses any threat or direct interaction risk, its proximity to a region of such intense scientific interest underscores why continued monitoring matters. Interstellar objects do not announce themselves twice.
From a broader perspective, this event highlights how planetary science, astronomy, and planetary defense increasingly overlap. The same observation networks designed to protect Earth from near-Earth objects are now becoming tools for interstellar archaeology.
The alignment window is narrow, the data requirements demanding, and weather alone could disrupt some observations. But even partial datasets, according to the researchers, would meaningfully improve humanity’s understanding of material formed around other stars.
For those who assumed 3I/ATLAS had already told its story, January may prove otherwise. As Earth briefly slips into a cosmic alignment that strips away shadows and amplifies faint signals, scientists are preparing to listen closely.
What emerges may not only clarify the nature of this single traveler, but also shape how humanity studies the next visitor from the space between stars.
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https://thaihut.org/14-171596-reveals-the-interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-l/
A new series of eight spacecraft images reveals the interstellar comet 3I ATLAS with unprecedented and almost unsettling clarity
14 January 2026
The first image looks almost fake at first glance.
A razor-thin streak of bluish light, sharp as a scalpel, slices across a velvet-black frame crowded with distant stars.
You zoom in, half expecting the pixels to break apart. Instead, the comet hardens – a resolved core, a structured tail, tiny variations in brightness that feel more like a close-up of a scar than of a harmless blur in space.
This is 3I ATLAS, only the third confirmed interstellar comet ever seen, and these eight new spacecraft images catch it in a way no telescope on Earth ever could.
Not as a romantic fuzzy visitor, but as a precise, alien object threading through our neighborhood with indifferent grace.
Somewhere between the second and third frame, the feeling shifts from curiosity to something else.
A comet that doesn’t play by our rules
The first thing astronomers said when they stacked the new images wasn’t “beautiful.” It was “that’s… weird.”
3I ATLAS doesn’t smear across the sensor like a normal comet. Its coma – the glowing envelope of gas and dust – is oddly tight, edged, almost muscular. The tail doesn’t fan out gently; it looks kinked, warped, like it’s wrestling with invisible currents.
From one frame to the next, captured by a spacecraft camera built to stare at the Sun, the object shifts just a fraction of a pixel. That tiny movement, logged over hours, traces a trajectory that doesn’t quite match the easy arcs of homegrown comets.
This one isn’t bound to our star. It’s just cutting through, on a path that never loops back.
A few years ago, nobody had seen a single interstellar comet. Now we’re zooming in so far we can almost count the ripples in its dust.
On a late shift in a control room you’ll never see on a tourist tour, a small team watched the raw data arrive. No fanfare, no soundtrack, just a progress bar grinding its way across a grey console.
The spacecraft – sitting millions of kilometers away, instruments bathed in hard solar light – had spent hours following a barely-there smudge against the glare.
When the eighth frame finished downloading, someone overlaid all eight, compensating for the motion of both the comet and the spacecraft.
The background stars snapped into place. 3I ATLAS, instead of blurring out, sharpened. The noise dropped, the structure popped. The room got very, very quiet.
We’re used to comets like 67P, Rosetta’s dusty rubber duck, or Halley’s fuzzy fan in textbooks. 3I ATLAS looks more like a tiny, streaking shard. It’s as if you pulled the lens cap off just as the stone left the slingshot.
Underneath that strange beauty is a brutal bit of math. 3I ATLAS is moving so fast and on such an open, hyperbolic orbit that it couldn’t have formed here.
Its “eccentricity” – the number that tells you if an orbit is closed or open – is greater than one. That’s escape speed, written into the sky.
By measuring its track across successive spacecraft frames, astronomers refine that orbit to an absurd degree. Each sub-pixel shift tightens the model: where it came from, how close it brushed the Sun, how much it flared as ices vaporized.
That’s the logic hidden inside each pretty picture. The unsettling part is that even with all that precision, we still don’t know which distant system flung it out in the first place.
Yet, the light curve – how its brightness rose and fell in those same images – suggests patches on its surface turning on and off like failing neon. Some regions spit gas when heated, others stay dark.
That patchiness doesn’t quite match most of the comets we’ve dissected from our own Oort Cloud. The shape of the tail hints at grains shaped and charged in unfamiliar ways. The closer we look, the less “standard” this visitor seems.
How spacecraft turned a faint smudge into a hard-edged visitor
There’s a quiet trick behind these eight images: the spacecraft camera was never really meant to hunt interstellar comets. It was designed to babysit the Sun.
To pull 3I ATLAS out of that constant glare, engineers and scientists leaned on a method closer to patient street photography than high drama – steady tracking, repeated exposures, ruthless editing.
First, they predicted exactly where the comet would drift across the field of view, down to fractions of a degree. Then they let the spacecraft stare there, again and again, while 3I ATLAS crawled past at cosmic highway speeds.
Each raw frame, on its own, looked underwhelming. A slightly brighter dot in a sea of static. It’s the stacking – the careful alignment and combination of those faint hints – that turns noise into a crisp, alien contour.
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In practice, the method feels almost handmade. Analysts reject frames where cosmic rays punched the detector, subtract the solar background, and lean on algorithms that learn what counts as a “real” signal versus a glitch.
It’s closer to dusting for fingerprints than snapping a postcard. And like any long exposure, the longer you stare, the more secrets creep into view: the faint halo of the coma, the twist in the tail, the subtlest bend in the comet’s track.
When you scroll through the sequence, 3I ATLAS doesn’t glide smoothly. It jolts, wobbles, seems to shift personality between frames. That’s not just the camera.
That’s the comet reacting – violently – to sunlight and the solar wind. Tiny jets of gas can nudge its spin, fling dust sideways, flick shadows across its own surface.
Those eight images, spaced over hours, freeze these spasms. One frame shows a tail neat and narrow, like a chalk line. The next, a faint secondary plume peels away, as if the comet hiccuped mid-flight.
For researchers, that’s pure gold. Each change whispers about what the surface is made of, how fast it’s spinning, how its crust cracks and vents as it heats.
The discomfort creeps in when you remember this thing is roughly a kilometer across – a flying, outgassing rock – and we caught it with this level of clarity while it barely noticed us.
On a more personal level, there’s an odd relief in hearing that even the professionals nearly missed it. Early on, 3I ATLAS was just another faint alert in a flood of automated detection reports.
Its interstellar nature only became clear once its speed and path were checked, rechecked, then reluctantly accepted. Soyons honnêtes : personne ne vérifie vraiment chaque notification avec un sourire enthousiaste et une tasse de thé à la main.
Those spacecraft images are the opposite of a viral moment. They’re the result of long, sleepy nights, boring test exposures, and calibration frames nobody will ever publish.
One small miscalculation in the predicted path, one wrong assumption about its brightness, and the comet would have slipped just outside the camera’s narrow field.
No dramatic failure, just… nothing. A non-detection that wouldn’t have even made the weekly report.
We’ve all had that moment where a tiny decision – opening an email, saying yes to a late meeting – changes the whole week.
Catching 3I ATLAS with this kind of clarity feels similar. A few extra observations, a slightly bolder schedule tweak, and suddenly the dataset goes from “meh” to historic.
The raw emotion in the team’s internal notes reflects it: relief, disbelief, and a stubborn determination to squeeze every last bit of information out of those eight frames before the comet is gone forever.
One scientist working on the project put it in a way that stuck:
“We’re looking at a rock that started its journey before humans had language, and we’re resolving it down to tiny knots of dust on a laptop screen. If that doesn’t unsettle you at least a little, you’re not really looking.”
That kind of parler vrai resonates because it cuts through the usual aerospace gloss. The emotional core here isn’t just wonder, it’s the slight vertigo of realizing how much is crossing our path, unseen, every single day.
Emotion: The eerie sharpness of 3I ATLAS makes our familiar night sky feel less like a backdrop and more like a busy crossroads.
Knowledge: These spacecraft images aren’t just pretty; they rewrite models of what interstellar debris can look like close up.
Perspective: The comet’s one-way trajectory forces us to think in timescales that shrug at human history.
What this alien shard quietly says about us
These images don’t answer the most tempting question – “Where did it come from, exactly?” – so much as they sharpen the edges of the mystery.
The chemical fingerprints hidden in its light hint at ices and dust shaped in a cold, distant nursery, maybe around a young star that has long since drifted away from us.
But the near-clinical clarity of its profile tells another story: we’re getting frighteningly good at noticing things that never meant to be noticed. A century ago, 3I ATLAS would have flashed past unseen, a silent bullet in the dark.
Today, we not only detect it, we zoom in, model it, argue about the kinks in its tail in video calls spanning three continents. That gap – between what the cosmos throws at us and what we can now read from it – is widening faster than our instincts can follow.
There’s a quiet invitation here, too. If a repurposed solar observatory can spot and dissect a one-off interstellar visitor, what else could we catch if we started watching the sky with the same stubborn patience in other wavelengths, other corners of space?
These eight frames are a proof of concept as much as a scientific prize. They say: this is what happens when we look a little longer than comfort and budgets usually allow.
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Elon Musk Promises to Turn ‘Star Trek’ Into Reality: “Science Fiction Becomes Science Fact”
January 13, 2026
Elon Musk told a crowd at SpaceX’s Texas facility that he wants to turn “Star Trek” into reality. Speaking just days before the new series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres on Paramount+, Musk said his goal is to make science fiction real.
“We want to make Starfleet Academy real, so that it’s not always science fiction—but one day, science fiction turns into science fact,” Musk said to the audience at the SpaceX facility.
During his short presentation, Musk described a future with huge spaceships carrying people to the Moon, other planets, and even distant star systems.
He added, “We have spaceships going through space — big spaceships — with people going to other planets, going to the Moon and ultimately going beyond our star system to other star systems where we may meet aliens or discover long-dead alien civilizations.
I don’t know, but we want to go, and we want to see what’s happening, and we want to have epic, futuristic spaceships with lots of people in them traveling to places we’ve never been to before.”
Musk’s speech took place at a podium labeled “THE ARSENAL OF FREEDOM” while Alice Cooper’s No More Mr. Nice Guy played in the background.
He also welcomed the audience to Starbase, Texas, previously known as Boca Chica Village.
“This is a city — it’s actually legally a city — that, thanks to the hard work of the SpaceX team, we built out of nothing and is now a gigantic rocket manufacturing system,” Musk said.
“For people out there who are curious to see it, we’re actually on a public highway, so you can come and visit and drive down the road and see the epic hardware.”
Before discussing his Star Trek vision, Musk gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other Pentagon leaders a tour of the factory.
He highlighted the manufacturing there as essential for America’s strength, before joking about the public perception of Space Force.
“That’s the goal,” Musk said with a laugh before passing the mic to Hegseth. “And that’s what I think the public thinks of Space Force.”
Musk’s comments continue his pattern of bold statements linking SpaceX’s real-world missions to iconic science fiction, inspiring fans and critics alike with visions of humanity traveling across the stars.
https://www.comicbasics.com/elon-musk-promises-to-turn-star-trek-into-reality-science-fiction-becomes-science-fact/
https://x.com/Acyn/status/2010877269498376611
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF3K8qI4z68
Thousands Advised To Stay Indoors in Oregon, Nevada, California, Georgia
Jan 13, 2026 at 03:55 AM EST
Thousands of residents in communities across parts of Oregon, Nevada, California and Georgia have been urged to stay inside by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because of elevated amounts of fine particle pollution (PM2.5) in the atmosphere.
As of January 13 at 3 a.m. Eastern time, PM2.5 reached an "unhealthy" level across all four states, according to the EPA's AirNow map.
AirNow uses the Air Quality Index (AQI)—a standardized scale that categorizes air quality from "good" to "hazardous"—to monitor, record and communicate air quality conditions across the United States.
Why Does This Matter?
According to the EPA, "unhealthy" levels of PM2.5 can affect all members of the public. However, those in sensitive groups—including the elderly, children and individuals with certain health conditions—may experience more severe health effects.
PM2.5 is considered one of the most dangerous forms of air pollution, according to the EPA, as the particles are so small (less than 2.5 micrometers in size) they can be unknowingly inhaled and penetrate deep into the lungs or bloodstream.
This has the potential to trigger or worsen cardiac or respiratory issues, such as asthma, or cause symptoms such as coughing; throat, eye, and nose irritation; shortness of breath; and chest tightness.
"Numerous studies link particle levels to increased hospital admissions and emergency room visits—and even to death from heart or lung diseases. Both long- and short-term particle exposures have been linked to health problems," the EPA warns.
Long-term exposure to particle pollution has been related to issues such as reduced lung function and conditions that include chronic bronchitis. Short-term exposure has the potential to increase "susceptibility to respiratory infections," according to the EPA.
EPA Advice for People in Areas With 'Unhealthy' Air Quality
The EPA advises people in sensitive groups to avoid any long or intense outdoor activities and to move them indoors whenever possible. Everyone else is urged to reduce prolonged or strenuous outdoor activities, such as choosing a walk instead of a run.
This is because more intense activity causes people to breathe harder, increasing the likelihood of inhaling fine particulate pollution deeply into the lungs, which can lead to short‑term or long‑term health problems.
When particle pollution is elevated, it can also affect the quality of air indoors, too. The EPA suggests that people in affected areas use air filters or cleaners to reduce levels and reduce the use of candles, wood-burning stoves or indoor open fires.
Those in affected areas should closely monitor the AirNow map for any updates.
What Causes 'Unhealthy' Air Quality?
In this case, the EPA hasn't released any information to confirm what's causing the unhealthy air quality across Oregon, Nevada, California and Georgia.
However, PM2.5 can come from a variety of sources, including dust from unpaved roads or construction sites, smoke from wildfires or smokestacks, or emissions released into the atmosphere from vehicles or industrial power plants.
https://www.newsweek.com/thousands-advised-stay-indoors-oregon-nevada-california-georgia-11349277
Might be bullshit, not sure yet.
Brought it here just in case it turns out to be a something
U.S. Department of Energy and NASA to Develop Lunar Surface Reactor by 2030
January 13, 2026
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) today announced a renewed commitment to their longstanding partnership to support the research and development of a fission surface power system for use on the Moon and future NASA missions to Mars.
A recently signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the agencies solidifies this collaboration and advances President Trump’s vision of American space superiority by deploying nuclear reactors on the Moon and in orbit, including the development of a lunar surface reactor by 2030.
This effort ensures that the United States leads the world in space exploration and commerce.
“History shows that when American science and innovation come together, from the Manhattan Project to the Apollo Mission, our nation leads the world to reach new frontiers once thought impossible,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.
“This agreement continues that legacy. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and his America First Space Policy, the Department is proud to work with NASA and the commercial space industry on what will be one of the greatest technical achievements in the history of nuclear energy and space exploration.”
“Under President Trump’s national space policy, America is committed to returning to the Moon, building the infrastructure to stay, and making the investments required for the next giant leap to Mars and beyond,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.
“Achieving this future requires harnessing nuclear power. This agreement enables closer collaboration between NASA and the Department of Energy to deliver the capabilities necessary to usher in the Golden Age of space exploration and discovery.”
DOE and NASA anticipate deploying a fission surface power system capable of producing safe, efficient, and plentiful electrical power that will be able to operate for years without the need to refuel.
The deployment of a lunar surface reactor will enable future sustained lunar missions by providing continuous and abundant power, regardless of sunlight or temperature.
The agencies’ joint effort to develop, fuel, authorize, and ready a lunar surface reactor for launch builds upon more than 50 years of successful collaboration in support of space exploration, technology development, and the strengthening of our national security.
https://www.energy.gov/articles/us-department-energy-and-nasa-develop-lunar-surface-reactor-2030
https://x.com/SecretaryWright/status/2011195991870095705
NASA to Provide Live Coverage of Crew-11 Return, Splashdown
Jan 13, 2026
NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 5:05 p.m. EST, Wednesday, Jan. 14, for the undocking of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission from the International Space Station, pending weather conditions.
On Jan. 8, NASA announced its decision to return the agency’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission to Earth from the space station earlier than originally planned as teams monitor a medical concern with a crew member currently living and working aboard the orbital laboratory, who is stable.
Due to medical privacy, it is not appropriate for NASA to share more details about the crew member.
NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov are targeted to splash down off the coast of California at 3:41 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 15.
Mission managers continue monitoring conditions in the recovery area, as undocking of the SpaceX Dragon depends on spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, sea states, and other factors.
NASA and SpaceX will select a specific splashdown time and location closer to the Crew-11 spacecraft undocking.
NASA’s live coverage of return and related activities will stream on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel.
Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.
NASA’s coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to changed based on real-time operations):
Wednesday, Jan. 14
3 p.m. – Hatch closure coverage begins on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and YouTube.
3:30 p.m. – Hatch closing
4:45 p.m. – Undocking coverage begins on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and YouTube.
5:05 p.m. – Undocking
Following the conclusion of undocking coverage, NASA will distribute audio-only communications between Crew-11, the space station, and flight controllers during Dragon’s transit away from the orbital complex.
Thursday, Jan. 15
2:15 a.m. – Return coverage begins on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and YouTube.
2:51 a.m. – Deorbit burn
3:41 a.m. – Splashdown
5:45 a.m. – NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will lead a Return to Earth news conference streaming live on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel.
To participate virtually in the news conference, media must contact the NASA Johnson newsroom for call details by 5 p.m. CST, Jan. 14, at: jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov or 281-483-5111.
To ask questions, media must dial in no later than 10 minutes before the start of the call. The agency’s media credentialing policy is available online.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-provide-live-coverage-of-crew-11-return-splashdown/
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/commercialcrew/2026/01/13/nasas-spacex-crew-11-go-for-undocking-on-wednesday/
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/commercial-space/commercial-crew-program/
https://www.youtube.com/live/X0398ExPsK8
Only On 10: NASA administrator Jared Isaacman talks about future of NASA during visit to NASA Langley Research Center
Updated: Jan 13, 2026 / 08:46 PM EST
HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) — A new era is coming as we return to the moon with Artemis II, and who better to talk about that than NASA’s newest administrator, Jared Issacman, in which he discusses the future for NASA Langley, Wallops Flight Facility and NASA itself.
“I think you’re talking about tripling down, essentially, on the expertise,” Issacman said. “As far as I’m concerned, Langley should evolve to become our hypersonics center of excellence, so we already have a number of unique test capabilities here.
“I think you want to talk about concentrating resources, modernizing and building new facilities, especially in the area of hypersonics as we start to blur the lines between in and out of our atmosphere.”
Noting the new facilities being built now, Issacman was asked if he sees more of that, or perhaps modernizing current buildings.
“You know, we were truly the pioneers, in air and space, and now, 60 years later, capabilities have evolved [and there’s a] greater understanding,” he said.
“The infrastructure we needed in the 1960s might be very different than the infrastructure we have today. So I’d say across all of NASA, one of my biggest priorities is making sure we are concentrating our resources on the needle movers.”
Issacman was also asked about his thoughts about the Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore and its future. He also paid a visit there.
“I’m grateful for the investments that are going into it,” Issacman said. “We … desperately need launch complex capability. If we look at it purely from a national security perspective, we’ve got, kind of, two facilities, in the United States that we can launch, kind of, medium and heavy lift rockets from.
That’s not enough. That is way too concentrated right now. This is a nation that, in order to ensure our leadership in the high ground of space, is going to need to ensure we have access to the high ground of space.”
Issacman, asked about how he plans to get the next generation inspired about space and weather, said that “some moments are probably more captivating than others.
I have no doubt. You know, an Artemis 3. When astronauts are bouncing around on the moon, there’s going to be no shortage of kids dressing up as astronauts for Halloween.”
Space exploration and research of hypersonic aircraft will continue at NASA Langley to inspire the next generation.
https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/only-on-10-nasa-administrator-jared-isaacman-talks-about-future-of-nasa-during-visit-to-nasa-langley-research-center/
https://www.wavy.com/video/full-interview-with-nasa-administrator-jared-isaacman/11424797/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcjVzYRWPJw
NASA's Curious Universe Podcast - Artemis II: Meet the Moonbound Astronauts
Jan 13, 2026
NASA is going back to the Moon, and Curious Universe is bringing podcast listeners along for the Artemis II journey.
Releasing weekly, this five-part companion podcast shares exclusive astronaut interviews and immersive field recordings from unique locations across the agency, revealing the incredible teamwork, passion, and problem-solving fueling humanity’s return to the Moon, and beyond.
This year, four NASA astronauts will fly around the Moon and back for the first time since the Apollo program. Their mission is called Artemis II.
It’s a key test flight that will set the stage for Artemis III, when humans land on the lunar South Pole for the first time and set up a long-term presence there.
In this episode, meet your intrepid Artemis II crew: commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.
https://www.nasa.gov/podcasts/curious-universe/artemis-ii-meet-the-astronauts/
NASA Back for Seconds with New Food System Design Challenge
Jan 13, 2026
NASA is getting ready to send four astronauts around the Moon with Artemis II, laying the foundation for sustainable missions to the lunar surface and paving the way for human exploration on Mars.
As the agency considers deep space endeavors that could last months or years, it must develop ways to feed astronauts beyond sending supplies from Earth.
That is why NASA is launching the Deep Space Food Challenge:
Mars to Table, a new global competition inviting chefs, innovators, culinary experts, higher-education students, and citizen scientists to design a complete, Earth-independent food system for long-duration space missions.
“In the future, exploration missions will grow in both duration and distance from Earth.
This will make the critical question of feeding our astronauts more complex, requiring innovative solutions to allow for long-term human exploration of space,” said Greg Stover, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Missions Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“Opening the door to ideas from beyond the agency strengthens NASA’s ability to operate farther from Earth with greater independence.”
Mars to Table builds on NASA’s first Deep Space Food Challenge by seeking to integrate multiple food production and preparation methods into a holistic, self-sustaining system designed for use on Mars.
This new challenge is open now until July 31 to the global public and carries a prize purse of up to $750,000.
“Future crews on the Moon and Mars will need food systems that are nutritious, sustainable, and fully independent from Earth,” said Jarah Meador, program executive for NASA’s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program at NASA Headquarters.
“Food will play a pivotal role in the overall health and happiness of future deep space explorers. The Mars to Table Challenge is about bringing all those pieces together into one comprehensive design.”
Solvers are tasked with creating a complete meal plan suitable for astronauts living on Mars, using a NASA-created mission scenario as their guide.
Each team will design a full food system concept, including a detailed operations plan and system design layout that supports a surface mission.
Teams must consider every detail – from nutritional balance and taste to safety, usability, and integration with NASA’s Environmental Control and Life Support Systems.
Participants in the Mars to Table Challenge are also encouraged to address food security on Earth.
Innovative growth systems designed for space could make fresh food production possible in harsh, remote, or resource-limited areas, such as research stations located at Earth’s poles or in rural areas with limited access to traditional supply chains.
“This challenge isn’t just about feeding astronauts; it’s about feeding people anywhere,” said Jennifer Edmunson, acting program manager for NASA’s Centennial Challenges at NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
“Novel meals that are compact, shelf-stable, and nutrient-rich could expand culinary options for groups like military personnel or disaster relief responders. By solving for Mars and future planetary expeditions, we can also find solutions for Earth.”
NASA’s Centennial Challenges have a 20-year legacy of engaging the public to solve complex problems that benefit NASA’s broader initiatives. Past challenges have spurred advances in robotics, additive manufacturing, power and energy, textiles, chemistry, and biology.
Mars to Table is a collaborative, cross-program Centennial Challenge with support from NASA’s Division of Biological and Physical Sciences, Heliophysics Division, Planetary Science Program, Human Research Program, and Mars Campaign Office.
Subject matter experts at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and Kennedy Space Center in Florida support the challenge. This challenge is part of the Prizes, Challenges and Crowdsourcing program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
NASA has partnered with the Methuselah Foundation and contracted Floor23 Digital to support the administration and management of this challenge.
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/nasa-back-for-seconds-with-new-food-system-design-challenge/
https://deepspacefood.org/marstotable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_TVAxQPxPw
Hubble Observes Stars Flaring to Life in Orion
Jan 14, 2026
Just-forming stars, called protostars, dazzle a cloudy landscape in the Orion Molecular Cloud complex (OMC).
These three new images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope were taken as part of an effort to learn more about the envelopes of gas and dust surrounding the protostars, as well as the outflow cavities where stellar winds and jets from the developing stars have carved away at the surrounding gas and dust.
Scientists used these Hubble observations as part of a broader survey to study protostellar envelopes, or the gas and dust around the developing star.
Researchers found no evidence that the outflow cavities were growing as the protostar moved through the later stages of star formation.
They also found that the decreasing accretion of mass onto the protostars over time and the low rate of star formation in the cool, molecular clouds cannot be explained by the progressive clearing out of the envelopes.
The OMC lies within the “sword” of the constellation Orion, roughly 1,300 light-years away.
This Hubble image shows a small group of young stars amidst molecular clouds of gas and dust. Near the center of the image, concealed behind the dusty clouds, lies the protostar HOPS 181.
The long, curved arc in the top left of the image is shaped by the outflow of material coming from the protostar, likely from the jets of particles shot out at high speeds from the protostar’s magnetic poles.
The light of nearby stars reflects off and is scattered by dust grains that fill the image, giving the region its soft glow.
The bright star in the lower right quadrant called CVSO 188 might seem like the diva in this image, but HOPS 310, located just to the left of center behind the dust, is the true hidden star.
This protostar is responsible for the large cavity with bright walls that has been carved into the surrounding cloud of gas and dust by its jets and stellar winds. Running diagonally to the top right is one of the bipolar jets of the protostar.
These jets consist of particles launched at high speeds from the protostar’s magnetic poles. Some background galaxies are visible in the upper right of the image.
The bright protostar to the left in this Hubble image is located within the Orion Molecular Clouds.
Its stellar winds — ejected, fast-flowing particles that are spurred by the star’s magnetic field — have carved a large cavity in the surrounding cloud.
In the top right, background stars speckle the image.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-observes-stars-flaring-to-life-in-orion/
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/hubble-news/hubble-social-media/stellar-construction-zones/
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/fire-on-ice-the-arctics-changing-fire-regime/
Fire on Ice: The Arctic’s Changing Fire Regime
Jan 14, 2026
The number of wildland fires burning in the Arctic is on the rise, according to NASA researchers. Moreover, these blazes are burning larger, hotter, and longer than they did in previous decades.
These trends are closely tied to the region’s rapidly changing climate. The Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the global average, a shift that directly impacts rain and snow in the region and decreases soil moisture, both of which make the landscape more flammable. Lightning, the primary ignition source of Arctic fires, is also occurring farther north. These findings are detailed in a report published in 2025 by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), a working group of the Arctic Council.
“Fire has always been a part of boreal and Arctic landscapes, but now it's starting to act in more extreme ways that mimic what we've seen in the temperate and the tropical areas,” said Jessica McCarty, Deputy Earth Science Division Chief at NASA’s Ames Research Center and an Arctic fire specialist. McCarty, the report’s lead author, worked as part of an international team for AMAP.
But it’s not just the number of fires that concerns scientists; it’s how hot they burn.
“It's the intensity that worries us the most because it has the most profound impact on how ecosystems are changing,” said Tatiana Loboda, chair of the Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland.
Arctic ecosystems: How are there fires in the Arctic?
The word ‘Arctic’ often conjures images of glaciers, snow, and a frozen ocean. So how can such a place catch fire?
Officially, the Arctic refers to the region north of 66.5 degrees north, though many Arctic researchers study 60 degrees north and above.
While much of the area is covered in snow and ice, the Arctic also boasts a diverse range of ecosystems that change as they extend toward the pole.
It begins with boreal forests, which are primarily made up of coniferous trees like spruce, fir, and pine. As these forests thin to the north, they give way to shrublands, then to grassland tundra, and eventually to rock, ice, and polar bears.
Much of the vegetation is covered in snow during the winter, which thaws in the spring. Exposed, the vegetation dries out in the sunlight. When given an ignition source like a lightning strike, it can quickly become fuel for a fire.
What is changing?
According to the 2025 AMAP report, an increasingly flammable landscape combined with more lightning strikes is leading to larger, more frequent, and more intense fires than the landscape is adapted for.
“There is variability year to year, but across the decades we are averaging about double the burned area in the North American Arctic compared to the mid-20th century,” said Brendan Rogers, senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center.
Low-intensity fires, which the Arctic is accustomed to, leave most of the forest standing, which allows the understory and upper soil layers to recover quickly.
In contrast, intense fires kill off trees and can trigger a process known as secondary succession, in which new species replace those that died.
These fires also burn deep into the carbon-rich soil, change the area’s hydrology, and accelerate snowmelt. In addition, the smoke and habitat damage from massive, hot fires pose significant health risks to human communities and local wildlife.
The mid-2010s ushered in a novel fire regime. For instance, Greenland saw significant wildfires in 2015, 2017, and in 2019.
Researchers also began observing fires consistently springing up in the Arctic as early as late March, much earlier in the year than historical records show, and burning well after the first snow.
“It’s concerning how frequently these fires burn the same place,” Loboda said. “A lot of areas now burn two, three, or even five times during a very short period.
It’s an immense impact: It’s happening across the tundra and the boreal regions, and these areas can’t recover.”
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Peat, permafrost, and zombie fires
What makes Arctic ecosystems, and by extension Arctic fire, unique compared to much of the world is what is happening below ground: specifically in the peat and permafrost.
Peat is old—thousands and thousands of years old.
When glaciers retreated at the end of the last ice age, they left behind deposits of old trees, grasses, and other organic matter that have partially decomposed to form carbon-rich soil.
Over time, layers of deposits built up into peat, which is now a primary ingredient in soil across the Arctic.
When intense fires burn into deep peat deposits, they can create a phenomenon called a holdover fire, more commonly known as a zombie fire, in which remnants of fire stay alive throughout the winter.
These fires appear extinguished on the surface but continue to smolder underground through the winter, bursting back to life when spring brings drier conditions.
Permafrost—ground that remains frozen year-round—can be even older. Some permafrost predates the human species, Homo sapiens, remaining continuously frozen for more than 400,000 years.
This age is what makes these frozen layers so significant: They’ve been storing ancient organic matter, and the carbon within it, for millennia.
When organisms die and decompose, that process naturally releases carbon dioxide and methane. In the Arctic, permafrost keeps these organisms literally frozen, which effectively freezes them in time.
NASA scientist and permafrost expert Clayton Elder describes seeing this effect in the Permafrost Tunnel in Fairbanks, Alaska. “You can walk into the tunnel and see grass embedded in the wall,” Elder said.
“It’s still green, but when you carbon date it, it’s 40,000 years old.” But as the Arctic warms, thaws, and burns, the carbon stored in peat and permafrost releases into the atmosphere.
That matters, because what’s locked below the surface is enormous. Together, Arctic peat and permafrost store twice as much carbon as the entirety of Earth’s atmosphere.
According to McCarty, this thawing will lead to global change.
“This is old ice— ice that is part of our hydrologic system and formed a homeostasis of climate that we as a species grew up in,” McCarty said.
“There will be changes that we can't predict: humanity has not experienced the climate the planet is heading towards. It will be interesting to model; there are so many different ways it could go.”
What’s next?
To address the challenges of the Arctic, scientists are finding new applications of existing data and developing new technologies.
“NASA satellites form the real backbone of what we understand,” said Rogers. “These satellites have given us a 25-year record of wildfire data, which is invaluable.
They are critical for our understanding of how these fire regimes are changing and for thinking through anything in the solution space.”
New satellites and artificial intelligence developments are advancing understanding of ignition sources, fuel availability and flammability, and fire behavior.
All of these data are important for monitoring fires and modeling future fire behavior, as well as evaluating the vulnerability of boreal and Arctic ecosystems to increasing levels of fire.
“One of our conclusions is that the observations need to be more targeted,” McCarty said. “We know some of what is happening, but we need to better understand why, and how to monitor these isolated areas.
This means we’ll need satellites and field campaigns that are thinking about this more complex fire landscape. What happens in the Arctic will impact the rest of the planet.”
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