TYB
>>24165596 pb
similar to a chessboard, black and white is a freemason thing.
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
January 24, 2026
Earthset from Orion
Eight billion people are about to disappear in this snapshot from space taken on 2022 November 21. On the sixth day of the Artemis I mission, their home world is setting behind the Moon's bright edge as viewed by an external camera on the outbound Orion spacecraft. Orion was headed for a powered flyby that took it to within 130 kilometers of the lunar surface. Velocity gained in the flyby maneuver was used to reach a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. That orbit is considered distant because it's another 92,000 kilometers beyond the Moon, and retrograde because the spacecraft orbited in the opposite direction of the Moon's orbit around planet Earth. Swinging around the Moon, Orion reached a maximum distance (just over 400,000 kilometers) from Earth on 2022 November 28, exceeding a record set by Apollo 13 for most distant spacecraft designed for human space exploration. The Artemis II mission, carrying 4 astronauts around the moon and back again, is due to launch as early as February 6.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqCBu3poISU
What is the popultaion of New Berlin these days, anybody know?
Double CME, Disaster Dates, Winter Storm | S0 News and frens
Jan.24.2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RY1NzBA2Vc
https://watchers.news/2026/01/24/rare-auroral-glow-detected-within-south-atlantic-anomaly-during-january-19-severe-geomagnetic-storm/
https://www.sfgate.com/weather/article/california-dense-fog-advisory-21311414.php
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/science-news-this-week-the-worlds-oldest-rock-art-giant-freshwater-reservoir-found-off-the-east-coast-and-the-biggest-solar-radiation-storm-in-decades
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIQIzbvxAy0 (Ray's Astrophotography: MAGNETIC POLE REVERSAL ⚠️ It’s NOT Crust Displacement Theory - What They Don't Explain)
https://x.com/SunWeatherMan/status/2014785357594927210
https://x.com/MrMBB333/status/2014895593521611166
https://x.com/MrMBB333/status/2014932294264619385
https://x.com/StefanBurnsGeo/status/2014723124776820762
https://x.com/SchumannBotDE/status/2015077416369000817
https://x.com/fortytooo/status/2015002886669783438
https://x.com/doktornihil/status/2014887429665104264
https://x.com/doktornihil/status/2014864838489505908
https://x.com/ChrisMartzWX/status/2014914554166124677
https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
https://spaceweather.com/
https://www.weather.gov/
Hubble Images of 3I/ATLAS During Its Rare Alignment with the Sun-Earth Axis on January 22, 2026
January 23, 2026
Good news. The rare cosmic alignment between the interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS, the Earth and the Sun, was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope on January 22, 2026.
A new set of six 170 second exposures, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope between 13:10:30 and 13:43:33 UTC on January 22, 2026, were just posted here.
The exposures display brightness maps of the glowing halo surrounding 3I/ATLAS. The glow is elongated by about 100,000 kilometers in the direction of the Sun, a length scale which is about ten times larger than the Earth’s diameter.
In a new paper that I published with Mauro Barbieri here, we alerted astronomers to this “full Moon phase” of 3I/ATLAS when observers from Earth will see it from the direction of the Sun to within an extremely small misalignment angle of just 0.012 radians.
This rare alignment resulted in a brightness surge whose magnitude and growth rate are dictated by the composition and structure of the particles shed by jets of 3I/ATLAS. No new data other than the Hubble images was made public as of yet.
When the Hubble images from the January 22, 2026 alignment were processed by my collaborator Toni Scarmato through the Larson-Sekanina Rotational Gradient filter — which removes the circularly symmetric glow around the nucleus, the residuals showed the system of 4 jets, including a prominent anti-tail directed nearly towards the Sun and Earth, supplemented by three mini-jets.
The mini-jets are equally separated from each other by an angle of 120 degrees, and one of them (labeled by a position angle PA=120 degrees in the above image) is faint, possibly because it is hidden in an unfavorable orientation relative to Earth.
If the anti-tail had been exactly pointed at Earth, it would have been embedded in the circularly symmetric glow around 3I/ATLAS.
However, in the latest paper that I co-authored with Toni Scarmato (available here), we showed that the jet system wobbles periodically every 7.2 hours by +/- 20 degrees around the rotation axis.
This explains why it is unlikely for the anti-tail jet to be aligned to better than 20 degrees with the Sun-Earth axis most of the time.
Among the 18 anomalies of 3I/ATLAS listed here, we still do not know the nature of the anti-tail that allows it to penetrate hundreds of thousands of kilometers through the Solar wind and radiation without being deflected away from the Sun, as often is the case in familiar cometary tails.
Is the anti-tail composed of fragments of ice (as suggested in a paper I published with Eric Keto here), large dust grains (as I suggested here), or massive objects (as I published here)?
The symmetric system of 3 mini-jets that supplement the anti-tail remains a potential technological signature (as discussed here).
As I explained in a new television interview an hour ago (posted here), there is still a lot to learn about 3I/ATLAS. The best is likely yet to come.
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/hubble-images-of-3i-atlas-during-its-rare-alignment-with-the-sun-earth-axis-on-january-22-2026-7ee2c20a70f0
https://archive.stsci.edu/proposal_search.php?mission=hst&id=18152
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/a-childrens-art-book-inspired-by-3i-atlas-867e6b060d83
https://usaherald.com/nasas-silence-on-3i-atlas-raises-new-transparency-questions-months-after-government-shutdown/
https://www.motorbiscuit.com/scientists-3i-atlas-not-alien-spaceship/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/400024652_3IATLAS_More_Mathematical_Correlations_with_the_Earth's_24-hour_Rotational_Cycle_and_the_Bizarre_Symmetry_of_its_Tripartite_Jet_Structure#fullTextFileContent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O3jKknHD_4 (Dobsonian Power: 3I/ATLAS WITH A UFO!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE0qWa0Ga-E (Stefan Burns: NASA is Hiding Something HUGE from the Public 🔭 New Data on 3I/ATLAS)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPgKFhXgMXM (UFOvni2012: Télescope spatial Hubble a capturé un alignement historique avec le visiteur interstellaire 3I/ATLAS)
https://rumble.com/v74r41s-peter-slattery-and-james-gilliland-3i-atlas-massive-fleets-and-why-we-dont-.html
https://x.com/drew4worldruler/status/2014844846750433356
https://x.com/Kekius_Sage/status/2014576498234315020
https://x.com/StefanBurnsGeo/status/2014775686280430006
https://x.com/kumagayakimura/status/2015027539371270203
https://x.com/BruceConspiracy/status/2014792385361023432
https://x.com/ThamarXOttens/status/2014786396058268134
https://x.com/spaceandtech_/status/2014785146675986804
https://x.com/AndrewBCollins/status/2014705000614650221
https://x.com/CNNBrasil/status/2014857276108980276
chekt and kekt
>Emperor Trump?!
Artemis II Crew Enters Quarantine Ahead of Journey Around Moon
January 23, 2026
The next astronauts to fly around the Moon went into quarantine late Friday.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will ensure that they don’t pick up any illness that could delay their mission by limiting their exposure to others in the days before they lift off.
This period, called the health stabilization program, typically starts about 14 days before launch. Beginning quarantine now preserves flexibility as teams work toward potential opportunities in the February launch period.
At this time, the agency still has not set an official launch date as testing continues for the rocket and spacecraft.
Pending the outcome of the wet dress rehearsal or other operations considerations, the crew can come out of quarantine, and re-enter 14 days before any launch date.
The crew will begin quarantine in Houston, and if testing continues to go well and activities progress toward a possible launch next month, they will fly to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida about six days ahead of launch.
There, the Artemis II crew will live in the astronaut crew quarters inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, before launch day.
During quarantine, the crew can continue regular contact with friends, family, and colleagues who are able to observe quarantine guidelines, and will avoid public places, wear masks, and maintain distance from others they come into contact with as they continue their final training activities.
Those training activities will continue in the days ahead with mission simulations and medical checkouts.
Meanwhile, teams at Kennedy continue to prepare the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft, along with associated ground systems, ahead of launch.
Teams have completed all checkouts of mechanical power systems, cryogenic propellant lines, and engines at Launch Pad 39B.
On Saturday, Jan. 24, the pad perimeter will be cleared of all non-essential personnel for SLS booster servicing planned to begin over the weekend.
On the other side of the country, the NASA and Department of War teams that will work together to retrieve the crew and spacecraft following their return to Earth and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean are performing a final simulation of their activities, called a just-in-time training, at sea.
Those teams will begin making their way to Orion’s splashdown location in the days after launch.
The approximately 10-day Artemis II mission around the Moon is the first crewed flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign.
It will help test the systems and hardware needed to continue sending astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to continue building toward the first crewed missions to Mars.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/01/23/artemis-ii-crew-enters-quarantine-ahead-of-journey-around-moon/
moar Artemis II
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-sets-briefings-for-spacex-crew-12-mission-to-space-station/
https://www.nasa.gov/technology/space-comms/nasa-selects-participants-to-track-artemis-ii-mission/
https://www3.nasa.gov/send-your-name-with-artemis/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15478041/NASA-Artemis-II-mission-graphic.html
https://www.unilad.com/technology/space/nasa-artemis-ii-launch-rocket-moon-mission-236246-20260123
Crew Studies Cardiac Research, Artificial Intelligence as Dragon Boosts Station’s Orbit
January 23, 2026
Cardiac research and artificial intelligence were the main science topics for the Expedition 74 crew on Friday.
The International Space Station also received an orbital boost when the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft fired its engines at the end of the week.
NASA Flight Engineer Chris Williams started his shift inside the Columbus laboratory module setting up the Ultrasound 2 device and attaching electrodes to his chest.
Next he scanned his neck, chest, and leg vessels with the Ultrasound 2 with assistance from doctors on the ground as the electrodes measured his heart’s electrical activity.
Afterward, Williams jogged on the COLBERT treadmill while wearing a heart monitor then worked out on the advanced resistive exercise device as his movements were tracked.
Doctors will use the biomedical data to understand how living and working in space long-term affects the cardiovascular system.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev joined each other in the Zvezda service module and studied using artificial intelligence to boost crew efficiency aboard the orbital outpost.
The duo tested AI-assisted tools to convert speech-to-text and improve data handling and communications between the crew and ground controllers.
Researchers seek to use the new technology to speed up and increase the accuracy of crew documentation benefitting operations aboard spacecraft.
Kud-Sverchkov also serviced the Elektron oxygen generator inside Zvezda, collected air samples from the station’s Roscosmos segment for analysis, and cleaned ventilation fans inside the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft.
Mikaev deactivated physics research gear that enables observations of crystallization, plasma behavior, and radiation effects then inventoried computer and electronics gear to wrap his work shift.
On Friday, Jan. 23, SpaceX’s Dragon fired its thrusters for 26 minutes, 11 seconds, boosting the International Space Station’s orbit.
The two Draco engines, which are located in the spacecraft’s trunk and use an independent propellant system, increased the station’s altitude by 3.1 miles at apogee, or highest point of station’s orbit, and 2.3 miles at perigee, or lowest point of station’s orbit, placing the station in an orbit of 269 x 255 miles.
This Dragon spacecraft, which is supporting SpaceX’s 33rd commercial resupply mission for NASA, arrived at the orbital complex on Aug. 25 and previously performed five reboosts of the station on Sept. 3, Sept. 26, and Oct. 14, Nov. 7, and Dec. 29.
This is the final planned reboost for this Dragon spacecraft before it returns to Earth with critical research and cargo and splashes down off the coast of California.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2026/01/23/crew-studies-cardiac-research-artificial-intelligence-as-dragon-boosts-stations-orbit/
https://x.com/Space_Station
I was just thinking about this.
IIRC not only were they wandering alone way offcourse until their death, something was also turning them gay.
Red, Green Light Show
Jan 23, 2026
A green and red aurora streams across Earth’s horizon above the city lights of Europe in this Jan. 19, 2026, photograph, which looks north across Italy toward Germany.
The International Space Station was orbiting 262 miles above the Mediterranean Sea at approximately 10:02 p.m. local time when the image was captured.
Also known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), auroras are colorful, dynamic, and often visually delicate displays of an intricate dance of particles and magnetism between the Sun and Earth called space weather.
When energetic particles from space collide with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, they can cause the colorful glow that we call auroras.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/red-green-light-show/
NASA Finds Lunar Regolith Limits Meteorites as Source of Earth’s Water
Jan 23, 2026
A new NASA study of its Apollo lunar soils clarifies the Moon’s record of meteorite impacts and timing of water delivery. These findings place upper bounds on how much water meteorites could have supplied later in Earth’s history.
Research has previously shown that meteorites may have been a significant source of Earth’s water as they bombarded our planet early in the solar system’s development.
In a paper published Tuesday in the Proceedings to the National Academy of Sciences, researchers led by Tony Gargano, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), both in Houston, used a novel method for analyzing the dusty debris that covers the Moon’s surface called regolith.
They learned that even under generous assumptions, meteorite delivery since about four billion years ago could only have supplied a small fraction of Earth’s water.
The Moon serves as an ancient archive of the impact history the Earth-Moon system has experienced over billions of years. Where Earth’s dynamic crust and weather erase such records, lunar samples preserve them.
The records don’t come without challenge, though. Traditional methods of studying regolith have relied on analyzing metal-loving elements.
These elements can get muddied by repeated impacts on the Moon, making it harder to untangle and reconstruct what the original meteoroids contained.
Enter triple oxygen isotopes, high precision “fingerprints” that take advantage of the fact that oxygen, the dominant element by mass in rocks, is unaffected by impact or other external forces.
The isotopes offer a clearer understanding of the composition of meteorites that impacted the Earth-Moon system.
The oxygen-isotope measurements revealed that at least ~1% by mass of the regolith contained material from carbon-rich meteorites that were partially vaporized when they hit the Moon.
Using the known properties of such meteorites allowed the team to calculate the amount of water that would have been carried within.
“The lunar regolith is one of the rare places we can still interpret a time-integrated record of what was hitting Earth’s neighborhood for billions of years,” said Gargano.
“The oxygen-isotope fingerprint lets us pull an impactor signal out of a mixture that’s been melted, vaporized, and reworked countless times.”
The findings have implications for our understanding of water sources on Earth and the Moon.
When scaled up by roughly 20 times to account for the substantially higher rate of impacts on Earth, the cumulative water shown in the model made up only a small percent of the water in Earth’s oceans.
That makes it difficult to reconcile the hypothesis that late delivery of water-rich meteorites was the dominant source of Earth’s water.
“Our results don’t say meteorites delivered no water,” added co-author Justin Simon, a planetary scientist at NASA Johnson’s Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division.
“They say the Moon’s long-term record makes it very hard for late meteorite delivery to be the dominant source of Earth’s oceans.”
For the Moon, the implied delivery since about 4 billion years ago is tiny on an Earth-ocean scale but is not insignificant for the Moon.
The Moon’s accessible water inventory is concentrated in small, permanently shadowed regions at the North and South Poles.
These are some of the coldest spots in the solar system and introduce unique opportunities for scientific discovery and potential resources for lunar exploration when NASA lands astronauts on the Moon through Artemis III and beyond.
The samples analyzed for this study came from parts of the Moon near the equator on the side of the Moon facing Earth, where all six Apollo missions landed.
The rocks and dust collected more than 50 years ago continue to reveal new insights but are constrained to a small portion of the Moon.
Samples delivered through Artemis will open the door for a new generation of discoveries for decades to come.
“I’m part of the next generation of Apollo scientists —people who didn’t fly the missions, but who were trained on the samples and the questions Apollo made possible,” said Gargano.
“The value of the Moon is that it gives us ground truth: real, physical material we can measure in the lab and use to anchor what we infer from orbital data and telescopes.
I can’t wait to see what the Artemis samples have to teach us and the next generation about our place in the solar system.”
https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/astromaterials/nasa-finds-lunar-regolith-limits-meteorites-as-source-of-earths-water/
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/roman-space-telescope/journey-to-center-of-milky-way-with-upcoming-nasa-roman-core-survey/
Journey to Center of Milky Way With Upcoming NASA Roman Core Survey
Jan 23, 2026
At the heart of our own galaxy, there is a dense thicket of stars with a supermassive black hole at the very center.
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will provide the deepest-ever view of this zone, revealing stars, planets, and unique objects that resist definition.
Based on the input of astronomers from across the globe, the Roman Space Telescope will spend three-quarters of its five-year primary mission conducting three revolutionary surveys of unprecedented scale.
Their combined results will transform all areas of astronomy and answer longstanding questions about dark matter, dark energy, and planets outside of our solar system, called exoplanets.
That last theme will be addressed by the Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey, which will peer into the center of our galaxy to study the stars and exoplanets that make up the densely populated region around the center of the Milky Way, known as the galactic bulge.
The survey will observe six patches of the galactic bulge, one pinpointing the center and five nearby, every 12 minutes during 438 days of total observing time. The observations will be separated into six “seasons” spread out over five years.
Spending so much time focusing on a relatively small area of the sky, the mission will be able to track changes in the motion and light of hundreds of millions of stars, and any planets that orbit them, over long periods — the “time-domain” aspect of the survey.
“This survey will be the highest precision, highest cadence, longest continuous observing baseline survey of our galactic bulge, where the highest density of stars in our galaxy reside,” said Jessie Christiansen of Caltech/IPAC, who served as co-chair of the committee that defined the Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey.
Exoplanet microlensing
Roman will use a method called microlensing to search for exoplanets, a technique that has so far identified just over 200 exoplanets, compared to more than 4,000 discovered with the transit method, out of the greater than 6,000 currently confirmed.
With this survey, scientists expect to see over 1,000 new planets orbiting other stars just using microlensing alone. This would increase the number of exoplanets identified using this method by more than fivefold.
A microlensing event is when light from a distant star in the background is warped slightly by a foreground object, like a star and its planet.
This warping of light is called gravitational lensing, with the gravity from the star and planet bending the fabric of space that light is traveling through and focusing it like a magnifying glass.
While the transit method is very good at identifying exoplanets that orbit close to their star, the microlensing method can discover exoplanets that orbit farther away from their star, and in planetary systems farther from Earth than ever studied before.
Roman will be versatile enough to see exoplanets dwelling from the inner edge of the habitable zone out to great distances from their stars, with a wide range of masses from planets smaller than Mars to the size of gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn.
It may even discover “rogue planets” without host stars that either formed alone or were ejected from their host systems long ago.
1/2
“For the first time, we will have a big picture understanding of Earth and our solar system within the broader context of the exoplanet population of the Milky Way galaxy,” Christiansen said.
“We still don’t know how common Earth-like planets are, and the Roman Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey will provide us with this answer.”
This survey will create a census of exoplanets for scientists to draw statistical conclusions from, revealing common patterns found in exoplanets and furthering our understanding of planetary formation and habitability.
One survey; lots of science
Because of the immense amount of observing time and subsequent data produced, the Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey will advance not only the field of exoplanet microlensing, but other areas of astronomy, too.
“There is an incredibly rich diversity of science that can be done with a high-precision, high-cadence survey like this one,” said Dan Huber of the University of Hawaii, the other survey co-chair.
The core survey was optimized not only for microlensing, but also to observe changes in brightness from small, fast blips to long-term trends.
This property allows astronomers to discover and characterize transiting planets, red giant stars, stellar-mass black holes and other stellar remnants, and eclipsing binaries, and can lead to a deeper understanding about the physics of star formation and evolution.
“The stars in the bulge and center of our galaxy are unique and not yet well understood,” Huber said. “The data from this survey will allow us to measure how old these stars are and how they fit into the formation history of our Milky Way galaxy.”
Roman’s observing strategy in the Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey, as well as the High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey and the High-Latitude Wide-Area Survey, will allow astronomers to maximize scientific output, all with one telescope.
Abundance of data to explore
Roman will observe hundreds of millions of stars every 12 minutes during the survey period, providing an unprecedented volume of data for astronomers to parse through.
The Roman Science Support Center at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California, will be responsible for the high-level science data processing for the Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey, including exoplanet microlensing and general community outreach for Roman exoplanet science.
The Science Support Center’s monitoring of these stars has been automated to detect microlensing and variable events within the data.
This helps scientists understand features like how frequently a star’s brightness is changing, or if there are planets lurking near the lensed stars, or other sources of variability.
The number of stars and frequency of the observations make the Roman data an ideal dataset for finding such sources.
All Roman observations will be made publicly available after a short processing period. The mission is scheduled to launch no later than May 2027, with the team on track for launch in fall 2026.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California; Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California; the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore; and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions.
The primary industrial partners are BAE Systems Inc. in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.
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January's full Wolf Moon leaps past the Eiffel Tower in stunning photo of Paris skyline
January 24, 2026
Photographer Martin Giraud captured a breathtaking view of January's full "Wolf Moon" rising over the Paris skyline on the evening of Jan. 3 as it passed behind the iconic iron silhouette of the Eiffel Tower and the dome of the Sacré-Cœur Basilica.
Giraud's composite shot presented the moon as it broke free of the horizon to track a path through the pastel-colored sunset sky, as an atmospheric effect called Rayleigh scattering bestowed its disk with a stunning orange-yellow hue.
The moon's outsized profiles appear subtly warped by their proximity to the horizon and the dark silhouettes of lunar maria (seas) can be picked out darkening its surface, where ancient lava once flowed into impact basins billions of years ago.
"Before the new year, I noticed on my planning app that the first full moon of the year, also a supermoon, would align perfectly with the Eiffel Tower and the Sacré-Cœur Basilica from a spot I had previously scouted," Giraud told Space.com in an email.
"Despite the cold and the snow in the morning, the weather forecast for Paris announced a completely cloudless sky, so I decided to give it a try."
Giraud used a Canon 6D camera with a Samyang telephoto lens with an ISO of 100 to snap the individual frames used in the creation of his composite photo. "This image was taken with a 150–600mm lens at 500mm," Giraud continued.
"The Eiffel Tower was 6.3 km [3.9 miles] away from my position, and the Sacré-Cœur Basilica 11.1 km [6.8 miles] away, which explains why the Moon appears so large in the frame."
January's full moon is often referred to as the "Wolf Moon" which references the packs of predators that can sometimes be heard howling in the scarcity of winter.
It occurred close to perigee — the point in its monthly orbit when it is closest to Earth — giving rise to an impressive supermoon, which can be up to 14% larger than the smallest moon of the year.
Feeling inspired to try your hand at astrophotography? Then be sure to read our guide bursting with handy tips on how to photograph Earth's natural satellite, along with our picks of the best cameras and lenses for capturing the majesty of the night sky.
https://www.space.com/stargazing/astrophotography/januarys-full-wolf-moon-leaps-past-the-eiffel-tower-in-stunning-photo-of-paris-skyline
A mystery object is holding this 120 million-mile-wide cloud of vaporized metal together
January 23, 2026
A tremendously large cloud that blocked the light from a distant star has been found to consist of swirling winds of vaporized metal. Even more curious, the cloud appears to be strangely bound to a mystery body that could be a massive planet or a low-mass star.
Astronomers were first tipped off to the existence of this metallic cloud in September 2024 when a sun-like star, designated J0705+0612 and located around 3,000 light-years away, became 40 times dimmer than usual.
This dimming lasted for nine months, before the star returned to its original brightness in May 2025.
That dramatic darkening captured the interest of Johns Hopkins astronomer Nadia Zakamska, as astronomers don't typically witness such events.
"Stars like the sun don’t just stop shining for no reason, so dramatic dimming events like this are very rare," Zakamska said in a statement.
Zakamska and colleagues followed up on this event using the Gemini South telescope, located on Cerro Pachón in Chile, the Apache Point Observatory 3.5-meter telescope, and the 6.5-meter Magellan Telescopes.
They combined these fresh observations of J0705+0612 with archival data, finding that the star had been temporarily covered, or occulted, by a vast, slow-moving cloud of gas and dust.
The team estimated that this cloud is around 120 million miles (200 million kilometers) wide, or around 15,000 times as wide as the diameter of Earth.
It is estimated to have been around 1.2 billion miles (2 billion km) away from J0705+0612 when it caused the dimming of the star. That is around 13 times the distance between Earth and the sun.
Low-mass star or high-mass planet?
The researchers also discovered that this cloud is gravitationally bound to another object, one that also orbits the star J0705+0612.
That body must be massive enough to exert a strong enough gravitational influence to hold the cloud together, implying it has at least several times the mass of Jupiter, though it could be much more massive than this.
That means, the big question is: what is the nature of this mystery object?
If the object is a star, then this cloud is a circumsecondary disk, a cloud of gas and dust that orbits the less massive star in a binary system.
If the unknown body is a planet, then the cloud is a circumplanetary disk. The observation of a cloud of either type occulting a star is extremely rare.
To determine the composition of this cloud, the researchers turned to Gemini South's Gemini High-resolution Optical SpecTrograph (GHOST), watching for two hours as the cloud sat in front of J0705+0612.
"When I started observing the occultation with spectroscopy, I was hoping to unveil something about the chemical composition of the cloud, as no such measurements had been done before," Zakamska said. "But the result exceeded all my expectations."
The team discovered that the cloud was rich in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, which astronomers somewhat confusingly refer to as "metals."
These winds of gaseous metals, including iron and calcium, were mapped in three-dimensions, marking the first time astronomers have measured the internal gas motions of a disk orbiting a secondary object such as a planet or low-mass star.
"The sensitivity of GHOST allowed us to not only detect the gas in this cloud, but to actually measure how it is moving," Zakamska said. "That's something we’ve never been able to do before in a system like this."
Mapping the speed and direction of winds within the cloud revealed to the team that it is moving separately from its host star, further confirming that it is bound to a secondary object sitting in the outer limits of this planetary system.
The team suggests that this cloud may have been created when two planets orbiting J0705+0612 slammed into each other, spraying out dust, rocks, and other debris.
This kind of event is common in chaotic and young planetary systems, but is unusual for a system like this one, which is estimated to be around 2 billion years old.
"This event shows us that even in mature planetary systems, dramatic, large-scale collisions can still occur," Zakamska said. "It's a vivid reminder that the universe is far from static — it’s an ongoing story of creation, destruction, and transformation."
https://www.space.com/astronomy/stars/a-mystery-object-is-holding-this-120-million-mile-wide-cloud-of-vaporized-metal-together
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae1fd9
Chinese "space roses" sprout via historic suborbital mission
2026-01-24 17:07:15
In a novel fusion of spaceflight and agriculture, a batch of precious rose seeds from Henan Province in central China has returned from a journey to the edge of space, marking a fresh advance in the country's space breeding program.
The seeds, from the famed rose-growing region of Nanyang, were transported on the return capsule of the Lihong-1 Y1 suborbital vehicle, a commercial recoverable spacecraft designed for space tourism, according to a report by China Media Group on Friday.
This vehicle, developed by commercial Chinese aerospace enterprise CAS Space, successfully completed its inaugural test flight from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Jan. 12.
The capsule was later safely recovered having used a parachute, while its biological payload was formally delivered on Friday.
The flower seeds spent 300 seconds in space, where they were exposed to cosmic radiation that can induce gene mutations, said Shi Xiaoning, chief designer and project commander of Lihong-1 Y1.
Carefully selected and artificially crossbred by a coalition of institutions including Nanyang Vocational College of Agriculture, Nanyang Academy of Forestry and Henan Agricultural University, these seeds represent a reservoir of premium genetic material, according to the report.
Their brief exposure to the intense cosmic radiation and microgravity environment beyond the Karman line, at an altitude of about 120 kilometers, was designed to induce valuable genetic mutations.
Researchers aim to cultivate new rose varieties featuring enhanced disease resistance, extended flowering periods and unique colors, the report noted.
Space mutagenesis breeding, which acts as a bridge between space technology and modern agriculture, offers advantages such as a higher mutation rate and a potentially shorter breeding cycle.
The successful recovery of these Nanyang rose seeds provides a replicable model for similar experiments on flowers, grains and vegetables, thereby contributing to national seed security and agricultural modernization, the report revealed.
The "space seeds" have now been sent to the national rose germplasm bank in Nanyang for systematic cultivation, selection and observation. Their growth will be closely monitored, as scientists work to unlock genetic potential imprinted via the stars.
Lihong-1 Y1 was designed to serve as a low-cost, flexible suborbital lab, capable of providing over 300 seconds of exposure to a stable, high-quality microgravity environment for scientific payloads.
In addition to the rose seeds, the onboard payload also included microgravity laser additive manufacturing equipment developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Mechanics.
The spacecraft will be developed for multiple reuse purposes. Its deputy chief designer, Wang Yingcheng, said that extensive tests are now underway to add crew-life-support and high-reliability escape technologies, which will boost low-cost suborbital scientific experiment capabilities and commercial space tourism possibilities.
https://english.news.cn/20260124/dd38c54e20b943048a5a0650de5ce82f/c.html
Vandenberg Announces New Strategic Plan
Jan. 23, 2026
U.S. Space Force Col. James T. Horne III, Space Launch Delta 30 commander, has unveiled a new strategic plan outlining priorities for 2026 and beyond, as the installation prepares for continued growth in space launch, test operations and national security missions.
Vandenberg is a critical hub for national defense and U.S. space operations. As one of only two major strategic space launch bases in the country, it supports national security objectives and hosts all three U.S. Space Force Field Commands, serving as a central node for command, control, and training of space forces.
Additionally, Vandenberg is home to over 54 mission partners and supports vital operations like orbital tracking, advanced testing, and homeland defense.
To meet the needs to the U.S. Space Force, the plan is built around three core pillars, Mission, People and Future, and is designed to guide the base through an era of increased operational demand and technological change.
Vandenberg closed out 2025 by marking a historic launch tempo. The base oversaw 71 space launch and missile tests, the highest launch rate since the 1970s.
The new strategy seeks to build on that momentum while addressing challenges tied to capacity, infrastructure and workforce readiness.
At the center of the plan is a focus on mission.
“We must expand our capacity for full-spectrum operations as launch demand continues to rise,” Horne said.
“Our commitment to our mission will ensure reliable access to space for warfighters, mission partners and commercial customers in alignment with national space policy and the U.S. Space Force Commercial Space Strategy.”
Key mission priorities include streamlining operations, improving efficiency across the spaceport and strengthening the resilience and security of critical infrastructure.
The plan also reinforces Vandenberg’s efforts to build a ‘Spaceport of the Future’ by expanding spaceport throughput, enhancing launch and test range support, growing airfield operations and hardening base infrastructure.
The second pillar centers on people and improving quality of life for the workforce and their families. Mission success depends on a healthy, supported and empowered workforce.
The plan aims to invest in education, training and professional development for Guardians, Airmen and civilians, making Vandenberg a ‘base of choice.’
The final pillar focuses on preparing Vandenberg for the future through the deliberate pursuit of the Spaceport 2036 vision.
“The energy at Vandenberg today is fueled by record-breaking operations and the pursuit of our Spaceport 2036 Vision,” said Horne.
“As we confront the challenge of surging launch rates, we require innovative solutions, increased resources, and strong partnerships to modernize infrastructure, maximize capacity, and shape national policy.”
The plan acknowledges that much of the base’s existing infrastructure was designed for a different era and must evolve to meet modern demands. To address this, Space Launch Delta 30 plans to modernize base support functions and aggressively pursue automation.
Data-driven decision making and innovative technologies are expected to help transition space launch from a labor-intensive process to a highly automated and routine execution.
The 2026 strategic plan positions Vandenberg Space Force Base to sustain its role as a vital national security spaceport while adapting to rapid growth and change.
Together, the three pillars of Mission, People and Future are intended to ensure Vandenberg remains a competitive, resilient and innovative launch and test range.
Horne emphasized that long-term planning, resilience and adaptability are essential in maintaining a strategic advantage.
https://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4388521/vandenberg-announces-new-strategic-plan/
Space Force probably needs twice as many guardians, vice chief says
January 23, 2026 02:22 PM ET
The number of operational U.S. military satellites has nearly doubled since the Space Force was created in 2019. Now its leaders want to double the size of the service itself.
The Space Force, which consists of about 10,000 guardians and 5,000 civilians, is adding about 500 troops a year—but that’s not enough, Gen. Shawn Bratton, the vice chief of space operations, during an Intelligence and National Security Alliance event late Wednesday evening.
“We’ve got to pick up the pace. We need to grow on the military side, probably around 1,000 a year, something like that, for the next decade,” Bratton said. “I think we really need to double the size.”
That’s because the newest branch of the service has seen the number of satellites under its control grow from 225 at its founding to 515 today, according to the American Enterprise Institute’s global space data navigator, while its budget has grown from $15 billion in 2020 to $39.9 billion in 2026—which includes a big bump from reconciliation funds.
Bratton said he needs more personnel to handle the growth.
“I'm super optimistic about ‘27 and we'll see how that comes out. It's less about budget though,” he said. “Do I have enough operators to fly all that stuff?
Do I have enough infrastructure to base it somewhere? Do I have enough intelligence squadrons to develop the intelligence to make operators useful at their job?”
Some of the new personnel are working with the Pentagon’s combatant commands, where the Space Force has been catching up with its elder siblings in establishing service components to help the warfighting commanders.
This week, the service and U.S. Southern Command held a ceremony designating the new Space Forces-Southern, which followed the creation of components in Indo-Pacific Command, Central Command, Africa Command, and European Command.
It also established subordinate units focused on Japan and Korea.
Service officials also have aspirations to stand up a Space Force Special Operations component command, although Congress and defense experts have expressed skepticism over the plans.
Earlier this month, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine noted that space operations and U.S. Space Command played a role in the recent special operations mission to capture Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro.
“We do a lot with the special ops community,” Bratton said during a question-and-answer session. “They understand what they need, and they know how to ask for it, and they have a pretty good understanding of what our capabilities are.”
Bratton was asked about a longstanding cultural divide between the service’s operators and acquisition experts, a situation that has provoked actions by both Congress and service leaders.
The vice chief, a career operator, highlighted recent statements by Gen. Chance Saltzman, the chief of space operations, and called reforms to the officer training program a much-needed improvement.
“This is just by sheer force of will, the CSO driving the service to deliver this,” Bratton said.
“The operators have to be involved in acquisitions, not just understand it, have to be involved in it. The acquirers have to have operational experience.”
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2026/01/space-force-probably-needs-twice-many-guardians-vice-chief-says/410910/
105 Guardians selected for Regional Space Advisor program
Jan. 22, 2026
The United States Space Force recently completed its first Regional Space Advisor selection board, held Oct. 14-17, 2025.
The board reviewed officers in the grades of O-3 to O-5 fit to be Regional Space Advisors, Guardian leaders deliberately developed to enhance USSF capabilities, evolve and expand partnerships to strengthen relationships, secure common interests, and promote shared values in space.
In the CY25 board, the Space Force selected over 100 Guardians, 51 for the Regional Space Advisor Academics Course, and 54 awarded constructive credit for prior international affairs/security cooperation work experience.
“The RSA program is important as RSAs are the only international affairs workforce in the USSF,” said Maj. Joseph Babitsky, Headquarters Space Force, Global Partnerships Division Regional Space Advisor program manager.
“While other services have Foreign Area Officer career fields, until now, the USSF has not had its own international affairs or security cooperation workforce.”
While not a separate career field as with the other services, USSF RSAs will be expected to serve as the Space Force’s contribution to the larger IA/SC community across the joint force.
RSAs will complete extensive training through the Defense Security Cooperation University and RSAAC, currently under development by the National Security Space Institute and will begin training RSAs in 2026.
As stated in the USSF’s International Partnership Strategy, “our greatest asymmetric strategic advantage is the global network of allies and partners and like-minded nations who remain committed to security and stability in space.”
Guardians with an enhanced understanding of the international security environment, as well as the programs and mechanisms available to strengthen partnerships in the space domain, are vital to the success of the Space Force.
According to the selection memo, RSAs will serve in specific RSA-designated assignments based on the needs of the USSF.
They will help build partnerships with military, civil, and commercial organizations in partner nations to actualize CSO Planning Guidance to “Expand Cooperation to Enhance Prosperity and Security” in the space domain.
Space Force Doctrine Document 1 states that, “mission success and the ability to prevail against our strategic competitors is unattainable without robust foreign partnerships,” and RSAs are charged with ensuring that the USSF will achieve strength through partnerships.
“Guardians trained as RSAs are expected to represent the service and the nation on the international stage in assignments that utilize their unique skills, such as serving as a liaison officer or exchange officer to an allied nation, at the Pentagon creating international affairs policy, and integrating our allies and partners into our acquisitions processes, to name a few types of the billets RSAs are currently filling,” Babitsky said.
The USSF conducted the selection process through a central board run by the Enterprise Talent Management Office, which included a panel of five colonels, one from each Space Force specialty code, as well as a brigadier general board president.
Guardians submitted applications through MyVector for consideration and panel members scored applicants on their fitness for the program.
“The RSA program was only open for O-3 to O-5 applicants this year, but Headquarters Space Force Global Partnerships Division, which manages the program, is exploring the possibility of opening it up to senior non-commissioned officers and civilians as the scope of the program and international affairs workforce requirements increase,” Babitsky said.
The list of selectees can be found on myFSS (CAC required). For more information on the RSA program, please see Space Force Instruction 16-116; Regional Space Advisor Program.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4385410/105-guardians-selected-for-regional-space-advisor-program/
https://static.e-publishing.af.mil/production/1/ussf_csro/publication/spfi16-116/spfi16-116.pdf
Two-day Russia-US-Ukraine talks end with ‘some results’ – TASS
24 Jan, 2026 13:19
The three-way meeting between Russia, Ukraine, and the US has concluded in Abu Dhabi after two days of talks, according to media reports, with sources describing them as “constructive.”
The Russian delegation was seen returning to their hotel after Saturday’s meeting, RIA Novosti reported, sharing footage from the scene.
No immediate continuation of the trilateral contacts is expected, according to TASS. The meeting has yielded “some results,” an anonymous source told the news agency.
However, a new round of the three-way talks could be hosted by the United Arab Emirates as soon as next week, Axios reporter Barak Ravid wrote on X, citing sources.
Ukrainian officials described the two-day negotiations as “positive,” he added.
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky confirmed that a follow-up meeting could happen in the UAE in the near future.
The discussions were focused on “possible parameters to end the conflict,” he said in a statement, welcoming “the recognition of the need for American monitoring and oversight” to resolve the hostilities.
The meeting is the first-ever in the trilateral format since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. No comments were immediately forthcoming from any of the participants after the talks concluded.
The Russian team was led by presidential aide Yury Ushakov and Admiral Igor Kostyukov, the head of the country’s military intelligence. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said ahead of the discussions that the delegation would focus on security matters.
All three sides had indicated that territorial issues remain the biggest obstacle to a peace deal.
Moscow has long demanded Kiev withdraw its troops from parts of formerly Ukrainian regions incorporated into Russia that it still has under its control, as well as recognizing the new borders.
Ukraine, however, has repeatedly ruled out making any such concessions.
https://www.rt.com/news/631461-russia-us-ukraine-talks/
Ukrainian UAV kills Russian paramedics – governor
24 Jan, 2026 12:50
Three medical personnel were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on an ambulance in Russia’s Kherson Region, Governor Vladimir Saldo has reported.
In a post on his Telegram channel on Saturday, the official wrote that the vehicle was struck as it approached the city of Golaya Pristan.
“The crew of three was trying to reach a seriously ill person in a zone where enemy drones are hunting for any vehicles around the clock,” the governor of Kherson Region stated.
While the paramedics’ fate remained unknown for some time, Saldo said in another Telegram post later in the day that all three had perished in the attack.
He described the drone strike as “yet another war crime by the Kiev regime’s militants and a crime against humanity.”
“You can’t call this anything other than the murder of civilians who were saving lives and caring for the sick in the most dangerous area,” the governor added.
A massive Ukrainian drone attack on a New Year’s Eve party in Russia’s Kherson Region late on December 31, 2025, claimed the lives of 29 people; dozens more were injured.
According to Russia’s Investigative Committee, the café and hotel in the Black Sea village of Khorly, where about 100 revelers had gathered, were targeted by multiple kamikaze UAVs, including at least one with incendiary charges.
The venue was quickly engulfed by the flames, trapping the victims inside. The Russian authorities condemned the strike as a “terrorist act” and launched an investigation.
In Zaporozhye Region, which, along with Kherson Region as well as the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, joined Russia following referendums in 2022, a hospital sustained a drone attack, Governor Evgeny Balitsky said on Friday.
The building suffered minor damage with no casualties reported, according to the official.
https://www.rt.com/russia/631460-three-killed-uav-attack-ambulance-kherson-region/