NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

January 28, 2026

M78: Reflecting Blue in a Sea of Red

In the vast Orion Molecular Cloud complex, several bright blue nebulas are particularly apparent. Pictured here in the center are two of the most prominent reflection nebulas - dust clouds lit by the reflecting light of bright embedded stars. The more famous nebula is M78, in the image center, cataloged over 200 years ago. To its upper left is the lesser known NGC 2071. Astronomers continue to study these reflection nebulas to better understand how interior stars form. The overall red glow is from diffuse hydrogen gas that covers much of the Orion complex that spans much of the constellation of Orion. Nearby in the greater complex, which lies about 1,500 light years away, are the Orion Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula, and Barnard's Loop – partially seen here as the white band on the upper left.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSKs0oDHjhs

Earthquake Swarm, Rare Aurora Stacking | S0 News and frens

Jan.28.2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4hlMx2y1GY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o14caQGCMA (Suspicious 0bservers: THE DISASTER CYCLE - Full Documentary)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXKADnd1E8w (Tamitha Skov: Space Weather Calming Down? Here's What's Next | Space Weather MidWeek 27 January 2026)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOvRkkKOiWo (Stefan Burns: Get Ready for What's Coming, Because There is No Going Back…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vPhbKrNIvU (MrMBB333: Significant change coming to Minnesota in LESS than 48 hours!)

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/solar-1-now-new-designation-swfo-l1

https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/swfo-l1-renamed-solar-1-reaches-final-destination-one-million-miles-earth

https://iol.co.za/news/science/2026-01-20-south-africa-is-currently-experiencing-a-severe-geomagnetic-storm-space-agency-confirms/

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/25801956.northern-lights-reach-far-beyond-nordic-region/

https://www.electronicsmedia.info/2026/01/28/fujitsu-and-thers-develop-ai-based-space-weather-prediction-technology/

https://x.com/bbcworldservice/status/2016519699979485256

https://x.com/MrMBB333/status/2016526427097899247

https://x.com/AstronomyVibes/status/2016440900654915707

https://x.com/SchumannBotDE/status/2016527055626674535

https://x.com/gfndskycolor/status/2016406224984821997

https://www.space.com/live/aurora-forecast-northern-lights-possible-tonight-jan-28

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

https://spaceweather.com/

>>24185694

wrong video link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhN6h4rmpFo

https://news.ssbcrack.com/the-mystery-of-3i-atlas-is-about-to-unfold/

https://www.wionews.com/science/monk-eilmer-of-malmesbury-saw-halley-comet-first-1769586208160

https://bhandaradccb.in/earth-sun-3i-atlas-line-up-once-only-test/

https://usaherald.com/new-study-sheds-light-on-3i-atlas-as-it-continues-to-defy-every-rule-we-know-about-comets/

https://x.com/NRivelato/status/2016495659776389630

https://x.com/Ammar1176708/status/2016312587290317287

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dPSfuXd530 (Danny Jones: "Everyone is WRONG About What 3I/ATLAS Really is…" | Stefan Burns)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwD9ezbakqI (Dobsonian Power: MORE 3I/ATLAS PROBES FOUND ON MARS!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSBnllvupRE (Dobsonian Power: 3I/ATLAS FLEET ON MARS!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpJI87o_KOI (Angry Astronaut: Did 3I Atlas send probes to Mars? WE FOUND SOMETHING!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6We5AzzBmY (Ray's Astrophotography: APOPHIS - Earth’s Safety Depends on a Gravitational Keyhole - What They Don’t Explain)

The Mystery of 3I/ATLAS Is About to Unfold

Last updated: January 28, 2026

The astronomical community is abuzz with anticipation as the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS approaches a pivotal moment in its observational history.

Discovered in July 2025, this rare visitor from beyond our solar system has captivated scientists and the public alike with its enigmatic characteristics.

As data from recent high-precision observations, including those from the Hubble Space Telescope, undergo final analysis, experts predict that key insights into its nature will soon emerge.

This revelation, expected within days, could definitively classify 3I/ATLAS as a natural cosmic wanderer or highlight anomalies that challenge current understanding.

Discovery and Background

Comet 3I/ATLAS was first identified on July 1, 2025, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Chile, operated under NASA’s auspices.

This marks it as the third confirmed interstellar object to traverse our solar system, following 1I/’Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019.

Unlike objects bound to the Sun’s gravity, 3I/ATLAS follows a hyperbolic trajectory, indicating an origin in the vast expanse of interstellar space.

Its velocity exceeds that required to escape solar influence, ensuring it will depart our system permanently after its brief passage.

Initial classifications identified 3I/ATLAS as a comet, distinguished by its nucleus and tail, in contrast to the asteroid-like ‘Oumuamua.

Perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, occurred in late October 2025, followed by a nearest pass to Earth on December 19, 2025, at a safe distance of approximately 170 million kilometers.

These milestones enabled extensive monitoring by global observatories, transforming 3I/ATLAS into one of the most scrutinized comets in astronomical records.

1/2

>>24185781

Scientific Observations

Observations of 3I/ATLAS have yielded a wealth of data on its physical and chemical properties.

Ground-based telescopes, including the Subaru Telescope, captured initial images revealing an “anti-tail”—a dust streak directed toward the Sun, attributed to larger dust particles trailing the comet’s motion.

Further analysis disclosed wobbling jets of gas and a rotation period of approximately seven hours, features akin to those observed in solar system comets.

In December 2025, NASA’s SPHEREx mission conducted infrared spectroscopy, detecting strong emissions of water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, cyanide, and organic molecules, alongside warm dust.

Notably, signals for water and carbon monoxide were twenty times more intense than anticipated, suggesting the comet had become highly active post-perihelion.

Trajectory studies confirmed mass loss and non-gravitational accelerations consistent with outgassing from an icy nucleus.

A significant observational event transpired on January 22, 2026, when 3I/ATLAS aligned nearly perfectly with the Sun and Earth, achieving a near-opposition geometry.

This configuration, lasting about a week, induced an “opposition surge” in brightness, where sunlight illuminates the comet’s dust from behind, minimizing shadows and enhancing light interference.

The Hubble Space Telescope capitalized on this rare alignment to gather detailed imagery and photometric data.

Speculations and Controversies

While the preponderance of evidence supports 3I/ATLAS as a natural interstellar comet, certain anomalies have fueled debate.

Non-gravitational accelerations observed during its solar proximity, along with unusual light polarization and the anti-tail’s geometry, have prompted speculation about alternative origins.

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has posited that such traits could indicate artificial construction, potentially an extraterrestrial probe, echoing discussions surrounding ‘Oumuamua.

Loeb’s recent analysis suggests ongoing monitoring has revealed new peculiarities, though he acknowledges the official consensus favors a natural explanation.

Countering these views, comprehensive studies, including those from the Breakthrough Listen initiative, found no evidence of technological signals.

A January 12, 2026, announcement confirmed the absence of artificial indicators, attributing observed behaviors to cometary activity.

Nonetheless, recent images from observatories like the Very Large Telescope and Gemini North have reignited discussions, with experts divided on interpretations of the comet’s ethereal tail and dust composition.

The Upcoming Revelation

The focal point of current excitement is the analysis of data from the January 22, 2026, opposition surge observations.

This phenomenon offers a unique opportunity to scrutinize the comet’s dust properties, brightness variations, and color metrics.

Scientists anticipate that these findings will elucidate whether 3I/ATLAS exhibits a typical icy nucleus enveloped in a dusty coma or displays deviations, such as unusually dark dust grains or anomalous surge sharpness.

The forthcoming publication in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society is slated for release in the coming days, potentially resolving lingering questions about its composition and origin.

As one expert noted, 3I/ATLAS is “exotic and wonderful” yet aligns with expectations for an active comet. This disclosure may affirm its natural status or, in the event of unexpected results, prompt further investigation into interstellar phenomena.

Conclusion

As the analysis concludes, the scientific world awaits confirmation of 3I/ATLAS’s true nature.

This interstellar visitor not only enriches our knowledge of cosmic diversity but also underscores the value of advanced observational techniques in unraveling the universe’s mysteries.

Regardless of the outcome, the study of 3I/ATLAS advances our comprehension of objects traversing the interstellar void, bridging our solar system with distant stellar realms.

2/2

https://avi-loeb.medium.com/professor-avi-loeb-has-an-official-youtube-channel-555e76e98d26

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B394heBo0Us

Professor Avi Loeb Has an Official YouTube and Social Media Channels

January 27, 2026

Wonderful news! I have just launched my official YouTube channel at the link:

https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorAviLoeb

as a trusted place to share video essays, discussions, and explanations that reflect my published research, writing, and scientific work, and that I personally approve of.

In recent months, many of you have alerted me to fabricated AI-generated videos circulating online in my name. This new channel is part of my effort to protect scientific integrity and ensure that when you hear from me, it is genuine.

You can also find this content on Spotify at the link:

https://open.spotify.com/show/1zhndXkvSY2b8FdjspFpCd

with other podcast platforms coming soon, as well as at the X/Twitter link:

https://x.com/ProfAviLoeb.

The range of possibilities that we can imagine in our mind is vast, but the actual physical reality manifests only a small subset of these possibilities.

The key to gaining new knowledge is in our ability to imagine what might be out there and then check whether it is indeed out there. As Albert Einstein said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge”.

For example, if we imagine that we are not at the top of the food chain in the Milky Way galaxy, then we would be motivated to invest billions of dollars in the search for the products of extraterrestrial technological civilizations.

This sounds like common sense. But common sense is not always common in academia.

As a matter of fact, the mainstream of the Astronomy community is sidelining this search as speculative and defining the search for the chemical fingerprints of microbes as its highest priority, worthy of investing more than ten billion dollars over the next two decades.

This sentiment ignores the sacred principle in dating: even though low-intelligence dating partners are common, we should aim to find a partner than is smarter than us, because the interaction with that partner will help us grow wiser.

Imagining what lies “outside the box” of familiar objects is not an easy task in today’s academia because groupthink by communities of “experts” triggers ridicule of original thinkers.

Ironically, the groupthink leaders know very well the mistakes they personally made throughout their scientific careers, but they are hiding them from their followers and pretending to be the adults in the room who were always right.

As Nield Bohr said: “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field”.

In August 2025, I visited the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, where the fundamental principles of Quantum Mechanics were developed.

Bohr viewed quantum physics as a new description of physical reality but Einstein resisted this idea because he was trained in the mindset of classical physics. Einstein was wrong about the fundamental nature of quantum physics.

1/2

>>24185806

Making mistakes is inevitable in the process of exploring the unknown. Science is a learning experience. The foundation of science is the humility to learn, not the arrogance of expertise.

The sincerest manifestation of love is the desire to learn as much as possible about the subject of the love. For me personally, science fulfils two needs. The first involves my love of nature, which I manifest through my scientific research.

The second is my child-like curiosity. I refuse to surrender to societal pressure and so I never pretend to be the adult in the room. I always wonder what lies behind the corner and imagine the unknown.

One might worry that my approach is risky because zealots who are not practicing science but define themselves as the protectors of science, tend to attack those who think differently — even if those are practicing scientists.

I leave their motivations to their therapists. I prefer to avoid mud-wrestling in order not to get dirty.

But we should also follow the ethical standard of “Truth in advertising” when describing mainstream science. The mainstream of science is abundant with strategic mistakes.

Despite their immense popularity among theoretical physicists, supersymmetry and popular dark matter candidates — such as weakly-interacting massive particles, were not found by CERN’s Large Hadron Collider at a cost of about ten billion dollars.

A new article from January 26, 2026, posted here in Quanta Magazine by Natalie Wolchover, is titled “Is Particle Physics Dead, Dying or Just Hard?”

The article describes the currently grim state-of-affairs in experimental particle physics. But the mainstream landscape in theoretical particle physics is even more disheartening.

Over the past four decades, theoretical particle physics was dominated by an attempt to unify Quantum Mechanics and Einstein’s gravity in the context of String Theory.

Despite the mathematical virtuosity displayed by bright theorists, this program did not yield a unique falsifiable prediction of a new quantum-gravity effect, nor a clear explanation to what lies inside a black hole or at the Big-Bang.

This argues for not herding the community to focus on a single track in mainstream science. When everyone follows the beaten path and it leads nowhere, the entire community loses its way.

But if multiple paths are explored at the same time, there is a better chance of uncovering new knowledge. For that reason, we must hedge our bets and invest billions of dollars in the search for alien technologies in parallel to our search for extraterrestrial microbes.

This would be prudent for two additional reasons. First, science is funded by taxpayers and the public is fascinated with extraterrestrial intelligence.

Second, the implications of finding intelligent aliens rather than microbes are far greater to guiding the future of humanity, as that discovery might unlock new insights about alien science & technology and inspire us to venture into interstellar space in the same way as the extraterrestrials did.

Scientific research is often focused on the known unknowns. But the most transformative discoveries stem from unknown unknowns. These are facets of the Universe that we do not even recognize that we are missing.

Thank you for your interest, and your curiosity. I look forward to exploring these important topics with you.

2/2

NASA’s TESS Reobserves Comet 3I/ATLAS

January 27, 2026

NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) observed the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS during a special observation run from Jan. 15 to 22. Scientists will use the data to study the comet’s activity and rotation.

Using TESS data from Jan. 15 and Jan. 18 to 19, Daniel Muthukrishna, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, compiled a series of images into a short video that shows 3I/ATLAS as a bright moving dot with a tail.

The comet’s brightness is around 11.5 in apparent magnitude, or approximately 100 times fainter than what humans can see with the unaided eye.

All the TESS data from Jan. 15 through 22 are publicly available on the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes as of Tuesday. The initially calibrated measurements from Jan. 15 used for the brightness estimate and the video were posted on Jan. 19.

The TESS spacecraft scans a wide swath of the sky for about a month at a time, looking for variations in the light from distant stars to spot orbiting exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system. This technique also allows TESS to identify and monitor comets and asteroids out to large distances.

The mission’s wide field of view previously happened to observe 3I/ATLAS in May 2025, almost two months before it was discovered. Astronomers looking back at the TESS data were able to identify the faint comet by stacking multiple observations to track its movement.

The recent 3I/ATLAS observations were temporarily interrupted from Jan. 15 to 18 when TESS entered a safe mode following an issue with its solar panels.

https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/3iatlas/2026/01/27/nasas-tess-reobserves-comet-3i-atlas/

https://www.sci.news/astronomy/hubble-near-opposition-alignment-3i-atlas-14515.html

>>24185835

cosmic jams

NASA plane makes fiery belly landing at Texas airport

Updated: 7:56 AM MST Jan 28, 2026

HOUSTON — A NASA aircraft made a "belly" landing at Ellington Airport, southeast of Houston, late Tuesday morning after experiencing a mechanical issue, NASA said.

According to the Houston Airport, the WB-57 aircraft, a high-altitude research plane, slid along Runway 17R–35L without its landing gear deployed, then came to a stop at around 11:30 a.m.

The aircraft sparked fire and smoke as it slid.

Video shows the plane slowly descending toward the runway, then touching down with a jolt, its wings bouncing as yellow fire and white smoke bursts from beneath it.

It steadily slides down the track, the flames bursting and disappearing in a cloud of smoke. The aircraft begins to slow before the video ends.

Houston Airport officials said first responders from a military subcontractor handled the initial response.

"Today, a mechanical issue with one of NASA’s WB-57s resulted in a gear-up landing at Ellington Field. Response to the incident is ongoing, and all crew are safe at this time," NASA said.

NASA said a thorough investigation into what may have caused the crash will be conducted.

The crew is “all safe at this time,” NASA said in a post on X.

No additional details regarding the mechanical issue have been released at this time.

The NASA WB-57 has flown research missions since the 1970s and continues to be an asset for the scientific community, according to the agency’s website.

https://www.koat.com/article/nasa-plane-belly-landing-texas-airport/70171892

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrzlDfK1fa0

https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/28/challenger_40/

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/news/2026/01/26/space-shuttle-challenger-disaster-weather

https://amac.us/newsline/lifestyle/the-space-shuttle-challenger-explodes-73-seconds-after-liftoff-this-day-in-history/

https://www.nasa.gov/challenger-sts-51l-accident/

https://x.com/NASAhistory/status/2016519130770260389

https://x.com/DOWResponse/status/2016288875862192472

https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2016292907888590955

Challenger at 40: The disaster that changed NASA

Wed 28 Jan 2026

Forty years ago, Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds into its flight, killing its crew of seven and exposing the management culture and decision-making process that led NASA to launch on a freezing January day.

Four decades on, the technical facts that led to the destruction of Challenger are clear. Erosion had been noted in the rubber O-rings that sealed the segments of the twin solid rocket boosters (SRBs) mounted to either side of the Shuttle stack's external fuel tank.

The temperature at launch was 36°F (15° colder than any previous launch).

Just after liftoff, the primary and secondary O-rings at the base of the right-hand SRB failed.

The Rogers Commission report, an official investigation into the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, noted: "At 0.678 seconds into the flight, photographic data show a strong puff of gray smoke was spurting from the vicinity of the aft field joint on the right Solid Rocket Booster."

More puffs were visible as the Shuttle accelerated. "The vaporized material streaming from the joint indicated there was not complete sealing action within the joint."

During the flight, the Shuttle experienced several high-altitude wind shear events, all within design limits, but which caused the SRB steering system to be "more active than on any previous flight."

At 58.788 second, a flickering flame was noted on the right SRB, at or near the aft field joint. That plume increased, and from approximately 62 seconds, the control system began to correct for the forces caused by the plume.

This carried on for another nine seconds. At 64.66 seconds, the first visual indication that the flame had breached the External Tank was noted.

At approximately 72 seconds, a series of events happened in rapid succession. The lower strut linking the right SRB to the tank was severed, permitting it to rotate around the upper strut.

A structural failure of the hydrogen tank occurred, releasing large amounts of liquid hydrogen and enveloping the Space Shuttle in a massive explosion.

The Shuttle was traveling at Mach 1.92 at an altitude of 46,000 feet. Its reaction control system ruptured, and the reddish-brown colors of the burning hypergolic fuel were visible on the edge of the main fireball.

The Orbiter broke apart under severe aerodynamic loads, with several sections visible, including the forward fuselage and a mass of umbilical lines ripped from the payload bay.

The crew consisted of Dick Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe.

It was third time lucky for Jarvis after having to make way for US Senator Jake Garn in April 1985 and US Representative Bill Nelson in January 1986. Nelson's flight, STS-61-C, was the mission chronologically before.

In his book Riding Rockets, former astronaut Mike Mullane speculated on the fate of the crew. The cockpit had survived more or less intact, but all electrical power was lost at the moment of breakup.

"The mayhem of breakup lasted only a moment before the equally startling calm of free fall began."

1/2

>>24185968

The Personal Egress Air Packs (PEAPs) for the pilot, Mike Smith, were activated, probably by Judy Resnik or Ellison Onizuka. "Scobee and Smith were test pilots and reacted as they had been trained," wrote Mullane.

"They had faced countless serious emergencies in their flying careers. They knew the situation was perilous, but they were in a cockpit with a control stick, and there was a runway only twenty miles away. They believed they had a chance."

The cockpit, however, was electrically dead. No amount of button mashing or switch flicking could restore control to the blossoming cloud of debris that Challenger had become.

The crew members on the upper deck had window views of the disaster as the cockpit tumbled over its arc.

The three on the mid-deck – Ronald McNair, Christa McAuliffe, and Gregory Jarvis – were in a darkened, tumbling room, with no communication to inform them of events.

Investigators were not able to conclusively state that the crew was unconscious by the time the cockpit hit the ocean surface. At 207 mph and with a deceleration force of more than 200 g, it wasn't survivable.

Unlike Mullane, former Apollo astronaut and chief of the Astronaut Office John Young reckoned that even with the activation of the PEAPs, the crew had only a few seconds of useful consciousness.

Enough time to flick some switches, but not much more. He noted in his book Forever Young that the "PEAPs supplied only unpressurized air that was not all that helpful at the altitude of the breakup."

The managerial and cultural factors behind the disaster are equally well documented. The Rogers Commission stated: "The decision to launch the Challenger was flawed.

Those who made that decision were unaware of the recent history of problems concerning the O-rings and the joint and were unaware of the initial written recommendation of the contractor advising against the launch at temperatures below 53 degrees Fahrenheit and the continuing opposition of the engineers at Thiokol after the management reversed its position.

"They did not have a clear understanding of Rockwell's concern that it was not safe to launch because of ice on the pad. If the decision-makers had known all of the facts, it is highly unlikely that they would have decided to launch 51-L on January 28, 1986."

As John Young put it later, after summarizing the concerns of the Thiokol engineers, worries about the erosion noted on the O-rings, and the decision-making process that led to the launch: "We astronauts would have thought differently."

The Challenger disaster reverberated through NASA in the years after, though not always loudly enough to prevent the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia.

In the chapter "Echoes of Challenger" in their book Comm Check…, Michael Cabbage and William Harwood presented parallels between the last flights of Challenger and Columbia, as presented to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board [PDF].

Has NASA learned from the tragedies? It appears so, judging by the recent Starliner debacle, where caution and safety appeared to win the day in the decision to return the Boeing astronauts in a SpaceX capsule rather than risk a trip in Boeing's CST-100.

However, there is also an argument that the astronauts should never have launched in the first place, considering the faults that were stacking up on the ground.

Today's anniversary is an important reminder for engineers to speak out when something doesn't look right, and for managers to listen.

Further reading

There are many sources of information regarding the Challenger disaster. This article drew on Mike Mullane's Riding Rockets and John Young's Forever Young.

The Rogers Commission report is also an invaluable source, as are Charles Perrow's Normal Accidents and David Harland and Ralph Lorenz's Space System Failures.

2/2

NASA’s TESS Satellite Temporarily Sidelined Due to Command Error: What Went Wrong?

January 28, 2026 at 09:15

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was recently knocked offline after an unexpected command error caused the spacecraft to enter “safe mode.”

This mishap, which occurred due to the spacecraft’s solar panels being misaligned with the Sun, left TESS unable to recharge its batteries, prompting a series of recovery efforts.

While the situation has now been resolved, the incident raises important questions about the vulnerabilities of space missions to human error.

The Register reported on this event, shedding light on the technical details of the problem and how NASA plans to address the issue moving forward.

The Solar Panel Misalignment That Took TESS Offline

NASA’s TESS satellite, which is tasked with hunting exoplanets, found itself temporarily sidelined after a command error caused the spacecraft’s solar panels to shift away from the Sun.

This misalignment had serious consequences. The panels were unable to charge the spacecraft’s batteries, leading to a low power condition that triggered TESS’s automatic transition to safe mode.

In safe mode, all non-essential systems are turned off to conserve power, and the spacecraft awaits further instructions from ground controllers.

NASA engineers quickly worked to resolve the issue, but this was not the first time that spacecraft have been impacted by errors in commands sent from Earth.

This event is reminiscent of past space mission failures, such as the unfortunate loss of communication with Viking 1 in 1982, which was caused by a faulty command, and the catastrophic series of events that nearly destroyed the SOHO probe in 1998.

However, TESS’s safe mode performed as intended, protecting the spacecraft from permanent damage. According to The Register, a spokesperson from NASA noted, “The mission is reviewing and updating procedures to prevent this command error from happening in the future,” signaling a commitment to improving protocols that protect valuable space assets.

Safeguards in Space: Why TESS Didn’t End Like SOHO or Viking 1

Unlike the disastrous outcomes of previous space mission errors, TESS was fortunate enough to have safeguards in place. The spacecraft’s automatic safe mode kicked in when the power situation became critical.

The safe mode is designed to preserve the spacecraft’s core functions, such as attitude control, and ensure it can be reactivated once engineers identify and address the issue.

TESS’s ability to recover so quickly demonstrates the importance of such fail-safes. It’s a stark contrast to the fate of missions like Viking 1, which ended in failure after a similar error left the spacecraft unable to communicate with Earth.

Similarly, the SOHO mission also faced a disastrous sequence of failures when a missed step during routine calibration disabled its safe mode, leaving the spacecraft tumbling in space.

The SOHO probe was eventually recovered after a multi-year effort, but only due to the dedication and teamwork of NASA and ESA engineers.

TESS’s successful recovery is a testament to how far space mission technology has come. However, the incident also emphasizes the need for continued vigilance in mission planning.

The risk of human error remains a significant challenge, and the consequences of such errors can be costly in terms of both time and resources.

The Need for Robust Operational Procedures

While TESS’s safe mode worked as intended, this incident highlights the vulnerabilities inherent in complex space missions.

The command error that caused the solar panel misalignment occurred because there were no specific “guardrails” to prevent the situation from unfolding.

A spokesperson from NASA confirmed that the mission team was reviewing the entire process to ensure better safeguards moving forward.

The goal is to prevent such errors from occurring in the future and to refine the operational procedures that govern spacecraft behavior.

As spacecraft missions become more complex and sophisticated, ensuring that operational protocols are flawless becomes increasingly important. A single mistake can result in mission delays, costly repairs, or even mission termination.

With TESS, the misalignment of solar panels was a manageable issue, but future missions could face far more challenging scenarios.

The lessons learned from this error will likely shape NASA’s approach to spacecraft command and control for years to come.

https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/01/nasas-tess-satellite-temporarily-sidelined-due-to-command-error-what-went-wrong/

https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/27/nasa_tess_error/

OPM Launches US Tech Force to Implement President Trump's Vision for Technology Leadership

January 28, 2026

WASHINGTON, DC — The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM), in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the General Services Administration (GSA), the White House Office of Science Technology and Policy (OSTP), and agency leaders across the administration, today announced the establishment of the United States Tech Force (Tech Force)– a new, cross-government program to recruit top technologists to modernize the federal government.

President Trump has made clear that securing America’s leadership in AI is the paramount national challenge of this generation.

The president’s AI Action Plan focuses on unleashing private sector innovation while also recognizing the federal government must have the technical talent to lead in technology modernization.

Tech Force is a critical aspect of this directive – a government-wide effort to surge teams of top engineers, data scientists, and technology leaders to tackle the government’s most complex and large-scale challenges and deliver on the president’s vision.

In collaboration with leading private-sector technology companies, participants will receive world-class technical training and work closely with senior managers sourced directly from industry.

“This is a clarion call,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said. “If you want to help your country lead in the age of rapid technological advancement, we need you.

Tech Force offers the chance to build and lead projects of national importance, while creating powerful career opportunities in both public service and the private sector.

I am grateful to President Trump for prioritizing America’s technology leadership and empowering a cross-government effort to close our nation’s critical talent gaps.”

Tech Force’s success will be driven by agency leaders who will empower technologists to work on the most mission-critical projects at the Departments of State, Treasury, War, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security in addition to the Small Business Association, Internal Revenue Service, Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, OPM, GSA, and others.

Agency leaders will partner closely with Tech Force leadership, which includes individuals from OPM, OMB, GSA, and OSTP, in addition to the Chief AI Officer, the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, the Special Advisor to the President for AI & Crypto, the White House Office of Public Liaison, US DOGE Service (USDS), and the National Science Foundation.

This unprecedented cross-government coordination will ensure the federal government possesses the best talent to modernize and strengthen its technology systems.

“GSA is proud to partner with OPM and the Trump Administration to answer the president’s call to fast-track AI adoption across the federal government,” FAS Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum said.

“Tech Force will be a true force multiplier, creating a pathway to bring in top private-sector talent to help drive a new era of American AI leadership inside the federal government and deliver for the American taxpayers.”

“Tech Force is America’s elite corps for the AI revolution, mobilizing the nation’s best minds to lead on digital frontlines, defend our global edge and secure our future in technological leadership,” US Federal CIO Gregory Barbaccia said.

“It is a call to service for our nation’s best technologists to join a mission-critical corps that will ensure our competitiveness, modernize our government infrastructure and lead the world in innovation from education to medicine.”

OPM is proud to announce the initial private sector partners for Tech Force: Adobe, Amazon Web Services, AMD, Anduril, Apple, Box, C3.ai, Coinbase, Databricks, Dell Technologies, Docusign, Google Public Sector, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, Oracle, Palantir, Robinhood, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, Snowflake, Synopsys, Uber, Workday, xAI, and Zoom.

OPM welcomes the opportunity to expand this list of partners over time.

In addition, Tech Force is partnering with NobleReach Foundation – a nonpartisan talent platform that brings together America’s best and brightest across industry, academia, and government via initiatives such as its NobleReach Scholars Program – to recruit technologists and support the program.

https://www.opm.gov/news/news-releases/opm-launches-us-tech-force-to-implement-president-trumps-vision-for-technology-leadership/

https://aviationweek.com/space/budget-policy-regulation/nasa-join-white-house-tech-force-program

https://techforce.gov/

Crew Studies Robotics and Virtual Reality Advancing Space Tech

January 27, 2026

Robotics and virtual reality filled the science schedule aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday as the Expedition 74 crew promoted education and explored human research.

The orbital trio also inspected safety equipment, worked on cargo swaps, and conducted Earth observations.

Students from the Asia-Pacific region are preparing for a robotics challenge that will see their codes uplinked to the orbital outpost to control the cube-shaped, free-flying Astrobee robotic helpers inside the Kibo laboratory module.

The object of the challenge is to command an Astrobee to locate hidden objects inside Kibo promoting science, technology, engineering, and math subjects on the ground.

NASA Flight Engineer Chris Williams reviewed preparations and powered on the Astrobee in advance of the robotics challenge that will take place on Wednesday.

Williams then spent the rest of his shift inspecting fire suppression and emergency breathing gear throughout the space station’s U.S. segment.

He checked the equipment for damage, corrosion, and leaks and ensured the safety hardware was stowed in the proper configurations and locations.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev took turns wearing virtual reality goggles and responding to visual and audio cues inside the Nauka science module on Tuesday.

They also wore electrodes on their face and head and tested their how their balance and spatial orientation are adapting to microgravity.

Results from the Virtual investigation may help crews adjust quicker to weightlessness and prepare for the return to Earth’s gravity after a long-term mission.

Kud-Sverchkov earlier pointed a camera out windows on the Zvezda service module and photographed landmarks from the Swiss Alps to Kazakhstan’s Lake Balkhash.

Mikaev swapped a variety of cargo in and out of the Progress 92 cargo craft docked to the orbital outpost’s Poisk module.

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2026/01/27/crew-studies-robotics-and-virtual-reality-advancing-space-tech/

>>24186058

Snow Buries the U.S. Interior and East

Jan 28, 2026

A potent winter storm left a wide band of snow stretching from the U.S. Southwest to New England in late January 2026.

The heavy snow, along with bitterly cold temperatures, sleet, and ice, created treacherous travel conditions, toppled power lines, and caused widespread school closures, according to news reports.

On the afternoon of January 26, the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the Suomi NPP satellite observed new snow covering a large swath of the country.

The left image is natural color, while the false-color image on the right uses a combination of visible and infrared light (bands M11-I2-I1) to distinguish snow (blue) from clouds (white).

Preliminary National Weather Service data indicate snow accumulations of up to 12 inches (30 centimeters) in parts of Oklahoma between the mornings of January 23 and January 26, with higher accumulation across the Midwest and in New England.

Totals of around 20 inches were reported in several Northeast states.

Some locations were digging out from record daily accumulations, including 5.1 inches in St. Louis, Missouri, on January 24, and 11.2 inches in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on January 25.

Several inches of snow and sleet also fell in parts of North Texas, a rare occurrence for the area. With temperatures remaining below freezing in many places, the snow and ice may stick around.

NASA’s Disasters Response Coordination System has been activated to support agencies responding to the winter storm.

The team will be posting maps and data products on its open-access mapping portal as new information becomes available.

https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/snow-buries-the-u-s-interior-and-east/

https://gis.earthdata.nasa.gov/portal/home/group.html?sortField=modified&sortOrder=desc&id=bc13447766a8447ea40dc8bfbc51f44a#content

NASA Testing Advances Space Nuclear Propulsion Capabilities

Jan 27, 2026

Nuclear propulsion and power technologies could unlock new frontiers in missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

NASA has reached an important milestone advancing nuclear propulsion that could benefit future deep space missions by completing a cold-flow test campaign of the first flight reactor engineering development unit since the 1960s.

“Nuclear propulsion has multiple benefits including speed and endurance that could enable complex deep space missions,” said Greg Stover acting associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“By shortening travel times and expanding mission capabilities, this technology will lay the foundation to explore farther into our solar system than ever before.

Information from the cold-flow test series is instrumental in understanding the operational characteristics and fluid flow performance of nuclear reactors.”

Teams at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, conducted more than 100 tests on the engineering development unit over several months in 2025.

The 44-inch by 72-inch unit, built by BWX Technologies of Richmond, Virginia, is a full-scale, non-nuclear, flight-like development test article the size of a 100-gallon drum that simulates propellant flow throughout the reactor across a range of operational conditions.

The cold-flow tests at NASA Marshall are the culmination of a multi-year activity for the agency and its industry partners.

Key test objectives included simulating operational fluid-dynamic responses, gathering critical information for design of the flight instrumentation and control system, providing crucial validation of analytical tools, and serving as a pathfinder for manufacturing, assembly, and integration of near-term flight-capable nuclear propulsion systems.

Other benefits to space travel include increasing the science payload capacity and higher power for instrumentation and communication.

Test engineers were able to demonstrate that the reactor design is not susceptible to destructive flow-induced oscillations, vibrations or pressure waves that occur when a moving fluid interacts with a structure in a way that makes the system shake.

“We’re doing more than proving a new technology,” said Jason Turpin, manager of the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office at NASA Marshall.

“This test series generated some of the most detailed flow responses for a flight-like space reactor design in more than 50 years and is a key steppingstone toward developing a flight-capable system.

Each milestone brings us closer to expanding what’s possible for the future of human spaceflight, exploration, and science.”

The Space Nuclear Propulsion Office is part of NASA’s Technology Demonstration Missions Program within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/tech-demo-missions-program/space-nuclear-propulsion-snp/nasa-testing-advances-space-nuclear-propulsion-capabilities/

https://www.nasa.gov/space-technology-mission-directorate/

>>24186106

NASA Launches Its Most Powerful, Efficient Supercomputer

Jan 27, 2026

NASA is announcing the availability of its newest supercomputer, Athena, an advanced system designed to support a new generation of missions and research projects.

The newest member of the agency’s High-End Computing Capability project expands the resources available to help scientists and engineers tackle some of the most complex challenges in space, aeronautics, and science.

Housed in the agency’s Modular Supercomputing Facility at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, Athena delivers more computing power than any other NASA system, surpassing the capabilities of its predecessors, Aitken and Pleiades, in power and efficiency.

The new system, which was rolled out in January to existing users after a beta testing period, delivers over 20 petaflops of peak performance – a measurement of the number of calculations it can make per second – while reducing the agency’s supercomputing utility costs.

“Exploration has always driven NASA to the edge of what’s computationally possible,” said Kevin Murphy, chief science data officer and lead for the agency’s High-End Computing Capability portfolio at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“Now with Athena, NASA will expand its efforts to provide tailored computing resources that meet the evolving needs of its missions.”

Supercomputers like Athena are critical to missions and research across the agency, providing the computational power necessary to simulate rocket launches, design next-generation aircraft, and train large-scale artificial intelligence foundation models capable of analyzing massive datasets to uncover new scientific insights.

The supercomputer is available to NASA researchers and external scientist and researchers supporting NASA programs who can apply for time to use the system.

The name Athena was selected through a contest held in March 2025 among the agency’s High-End Computing Capability workforce, which chose the name of the Greek goddess of wisdom and warfare because she is the half-sister of Artemis.

Managed by NASA’s Office of the Chief Science Data Officer, the High-End Computing Capability portfolio supports a flexible, hybrid computing approach that combines supercomputers with access to other tools, such as commercial cloud platforms.

This strategy enables NASA teams to choose the most effective computing environment for their research, whether running complex simulations, developing and deploying AI models, or performing large-scale data analysis.

The project’s capabilities will continue to expand as the agency invests in advanced supercomputing to meet the growing complexity of its missions.

As exploration pushes further into the universe, the ability to compute quickly, efficiently, and intelligently will be more important than ever. With Athena, NASA is laying the digital foundation for the next era of discovery.

https://www.nasa.gov/technology/computing/nasa-launches-its-most-powerful-efficient-supercomputer/

https://www.nas.nasa.gov/hecc/

Discovery Alert: An Ice-Cold Earth?

Jan 27, 2026

The Discovery

A candidate planet that might be remarkably similar to Earth, HD 137010 b, has one potentially big difference: It could be colder than perpetually frozen Mars.

Key Facts

Scientists continue to mine data gathered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, retired in 2018, and continue to turn up surprises.

A new paper reveals the latest: a possible rocky planet slightly larger than Earth, orbiting a Sun-like star about 146 light-years away.

The orbital period of the planet — listed as a “candidate” pending further confirmation — is likely to be similar to Earth’s, around one year.

Planet HD 137010 b also might fall just within the outer edge of its star’s “habitable zone,” the orbital distance that could allow liquid water to form on the planet’s surface under a suitable atmosphere.

Planets orbiting other stars are known as “exoplanets.”

And this could turn out to be the first exoplanet with Earth-like properties that, from our vantage point, crosses the face of a Sun-like star that is near enough and bright enough for meaningful follow-up observations.

Details

Now the bad news. The amount of heat and light such a planet would receive from its star is less than a third of what Earth receives from the Sun. Although of a stellar type similar to our Sun, the star, HD 137010, is cooler and dimmer.

That could mean a planetary surface temperature no higher than minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 68 degrees Celsius). By comparison, the average surface temperature on Mars runs about minus 85 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 65 degrees Celsius).

Planet HD 137010 b also will need follow-up observations to be promoted from “candidate” to “confirmed.”

Exoplanet scientists use a variety of techniques to identify planets, and this discovery comes from a single “transit” — only one instance of the planet crossing its star’s face in a kind of miniature eclipse — detected during Kepler’s second mission, known as K2. Even with just one transit, the study’s authors were able to estimate the candidate planet’s orbital period.

They tracked the time it took for the planet’s shadow to move across the star’s face — in this case 10 hours, while Earth takes about 13 — then compared it to orbital models of the system itself.

Still, though the precision of that single detection is much higher than most transits captured by space-based telescopes, astronomers need to see these transits repeat regularly in order to confirm that they are caused by a real planet.

And capturing more transits is going to be tricky. The planet’s orbital distance, so similar to Earth’s, means such transits happen far less often than for planets in tighter orbits around their stars (it’s a big reason why exoplanets with Earth-like orbits are so hard to detect in the first place).

With luck, confirmation could come from further observation by the successor to Kepler/K2, NASA’s TESS (the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), the still-functioning workhorse for planetary detection, or from the European Space Agency’s CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite).

Otherwise, gathering further data on planet HD 137010 b might have to wait for the next generation of space telescopes.

Fun Facts

Despite the possibility of a frigid climate, HD 137010 b also could turn out to be a temperate or even a watery world, say the authors of the paper on this exoplanet. It would just need an atmosphere richer in carbon dioxide than our own.

The science team, based on modeling of the planet’s possible atmospheres, gives it a 40% chance of falling within the “conservative” habitable zone around the star, and a 51% chance of falling within the broader “optimistic” habitable zone.

On the other hand, the authors of the study say the planet has about a 50-50 chance of falling beyond the habitable zone entirely.

The Discoverers

An international science team published a paper on the discovery, “A Cool Earth-sized Planet Candidate Transiting a Tenth Magnitude K-dwarf From K2,” in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on Jan. 27, 2026.

The team was led by astrophysics Ph.D. student Alexander Venner of the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia, now a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany.

https://science.nasa.gov/universe/exoplanets/discovery-alert-an-ice-cold-earth/

NASA’s Juno Measures Thickness of Europa’s Ice Shell

Jan 27, 2026

Results from the solar-powered spacecraft provide a new measurement of the thickness of the ice shell encasing the Jovian moon’s ocean.

Data from NASA’s Juno mission has provided new insights into the thickness and subsurface structure of the icy shell encasing Jupiter’s moon Europa.

Using the spacecraft’s Microwave Radiometer (MWR), mission scientists determined that the shell averages about 18 miles (29 kilometers) thick in the region observed during Juno’s 2022 flyby of Europa.

The Juno measurement is the first to discriminate between thin and thick shell models that have suggested the ice shell is anywhere from less than half a mile to tens of miles thick.

Slightly smaller than Earth’s moon, Europa is one of the solar system’s highest-priority science targets for investigating habitability. Evidence suggests that the ingredients for life may exist in the saltwater ocean that lies beneath its ice shell.

Uncovering a variety of characteristics of the ice shell, including its thickness, provides crucial pieces of the puzzle for understanding the moon’s internal workings and the potential for the existence of a habitable environment.

The new estimate on the ice thickness in the near-surface icy crust was published on Dec. 17 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Catching waves

Although the MWR instrument was designed to investigate Jupiter’s atmosphere below the cloud tops, the novel instrument has proven valuable for studying the gas giant’s icy and volcanic moons as well.

On Sept. 29, 2022, Juno came within about 220 miles (360 kilometers) of Europa’s frozen surface. During the flyby, MWR collected data on about half the moon’s surface, peering beneath the ice to measure its temperatures at various depths.

“The 18-mile estimate relates to the cold, rigid, conductive outer-layer of a pure water ice shell,” said Steve Levin, Juno project scientist and co-investigator from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages the mission.

“If an inner, slightly warmer convective layer also exists, which is possible, the total ice shell thickness would be even greater. If the ice shell contains a modest amount of dissolved salt, as suggested by some models, then our estimate of the shell thickness would be reduced by about 3 miles.”

The thick shell, as suggested by the MWR data, implies a longer route that oxygen and nutrients would have to travel to connect Europa’s surface with its subsurface ocean. Understanding this process may be relevant to future studies of Europa’s habitability.

Cracks, pores

The MWR data also provides new insights into the makeup of the ice just below Europa’s surface.

The instrument revealed the presence of “scatterers” — irregularities in the near-surface ice such as cracks, pores, and voids that scatter the instrument’s microwaves reflecting off the ice (similar to how visible light is scattered in ice cubes).

These scatterers are estimated to be no bigger than a few inches in diameter and appear to extend to depths of hundreds of feet below Europa’s surface.

The small size and shallow depth of these features, as modeled in this study, suggest they are unlikely to be a significant pathway for oxygen and nutrients to travel from Europa’s surface to its salty ocean.

“How thick the ice shell is and the existence of cracks or pores within the ice shell are part of the complex puzzle for understanding Europa’s potential habitability,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

“They provide critical context for NASA’s Europa Clipper and the ESA (European Space Agency) Juice (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) spacecraft — both of which are on their way to the Jovian system.”

Europa Clipper will arrive there in 2030, while Juice will arrive the year after.

Juno will carry out its 81st flyby of Jupiter on Feb. 25. 

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/juno/nasas-juno-measures-thickness-of-europas-ice-shell/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02718-0