TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
February 12, 2026
The Bay of Rainbows
Dark, smooth regions that cover the Moon's familiar face are called by Latin names for oceans and seas. That naming convention is historical, though it may seem a little ironic to denizens of the space age who recognize the Moon as a mostly dry and airless world, and the smooth, dark areas as lava-flooded impact basins. For example, this telescopic lunar vista, looks over the expanse of the northwestern Mare Imbrium, or Sea of Rains and into the Sinus Iridum, the Bay of Rainbows. Ringed by the Jura Mountains (montes), the bay is about 250 kilometers across. Seen after local sunrise, the mountains form part of the Sinus Iridum impact crater wall. Their rugged sunlit arc is bounded at the top by Cape (promontorium) Laplace reaching nearly 3,000 meters above the bay's surface. At the bottom of the arc is Cape Heraclides, depicted by Giovanni Cassini in his 1679 telescope-based drawings mapping the moon, as a moon maiden seen in profile with long, flowing hair.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4uShHHkD6g
Solar Superstorms - Worse Than I Thought | S0 News and frens
Feb.12.2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeADOCmJgeU
https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1392055-smiling-electrons-discovered-in-earths-magnetosphere-in-rare-space-breakthrough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B2Sp260ko8 (Stefan Burns: The Very Nature of REALITY Could Forever Change After This…)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKFsoqMRw2I (A Larger Storm Is Coming…)
https://x.com/StefanBurnsGeo/status/2021954528254554161
https://x.com/StefanBurnsGeo/status/2021949197629763930
https://x.com/MrMBB333/status/2021767447322522013
https://asgardia.space/en/news/Solar-Flares-and-Where-to-Find-Them
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-antarctic-magnetic-anomaly-ancient-continental.html
https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/heard/news/294600/vaac-advisory-2026-1.html
https://www.space.com/live/aurora-forecast-northern-lights-possible-tonight-feb-12
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
https://spaceweather.com/
https://x.com/SchumannBotDE/status/2021962807273476531
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260211073047.htm
http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae08ab
https://johnmantleholder.medium.com/analysis-of-the-anti-tail-of-3i-atlas-via-syndyne-synchrone-modelling-6e9d2e7451b5
https://www.ndtv.com/science/nasa-scientists-observe-dramatic-increase-in-brightness-of-interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-10993421
https://noirlab.edu/public/images/iotw2606a/
https://x.com/CollectiveSprk/status/2021819381391536218
https://x.com/Tuberoot/status/2021812183823495535
https://x.com/Ammar1176708/status/2021770052526284985
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuJ4ekgzaoA (Ray's Astrophotography: Comet 3I ATLAS — LIVE Telescope Views — I Took a PICTURE ☄️)
extra space madness
https://medium.com/@davidsereda/dating-the-pyramids-and-finding-their-master-stars-using-upper-culmination-part-2-the-east-and-dd19925b1041
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK6td-WjzWk (David Sereda: The SECRET of the LADY OF HEAVEN Revealed!)
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/gps-mapping-of-the-spacetime-around-a-black-hole-0bd73c5839da
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbXjxu20hZc (Dobsonian Power: WTH THEY JUST DID ON CERN?)
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is spraying water across the solar system
February 11, 2026
Summary:
For millions of years, a frozen wanderer drifted between the stars before slipping into our solar system as 3I/ATLAS—only the third known interstellar comet ever spotted.
When scientists turned NASA’s Swift Observatory toward it, they caught the first-ever hint of water from such an object, detected through a faint ultraviolet glow of hydroxyl gas.
Even more surprising, the comet was blasting out water at a rate of about 40 kilograms per second while still far from the Sun—much farther than where most comets “switch on.”
NASA’s Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS during two visits in July and August 2025.
The panels show visible-light (left) and ultraviolet (right) images, where the faint glow of hydroxyl (OH) traces water vapor escaping from the comet.
Each image combines dozens of short, three-minute exposures, painstakingly stacked to reach total integration times of about 42 minutes in visible light and 2.3 hours in ultraviolet.
Swift’s vantage point above Earth’s atmosphere allowed astronomers to detect these ultraviolet emissions that are normally invisible from the ground. Credit: Dennis Bodewits, Auburn University
For countless ages, a small chunk of ice and dust traveled alone through interstellar space, like a sealed bottle drifting across a vast cosmic sea.
This summer, that traveler entered our solar system and received the name 3I/ATLAS, becoming only the third confirmed interstellar comet ever observed.
When researchers at Auburn University aimed NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory at the object, they uncovered something extraordinary: the first detection of hydroxyl (OH) gas coming from it, a clear chemical sign of water.
Swift was able to detect a faint ultraviolet glow that ground based telescopes cannot see because it operates above Earth's atmosphere, where this type of light is not blocked before reaching the surface.
First Detection of Water on Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
Identifying water through its ultraviolet byproduct, hydroxyl, marks an important step in understanding how interstellar comets behave and change over time.
In comets that formed within our own solar system, water serves as the primary measure of activity. Scientists use it to determine how sunlight triggers the release of other gases and to compare the mix of frozen materials inside a comet's nucleus.
Detecting the same water signature in 3I/ATLAS means astronomers can now evaluate it using the same standards applied to familiar solar system comets.
That comparison opens the door to studying how planetary systems across the galaxy may differ or resemble our own.
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Unexpected Water Activity Far From the Sun
What makes 3I/ATLAS especially intriguing is the distance at which this water activity was observed.
Swift detected hydroxyl when the comet was nearly three times farther from the Sun than Earth is, well beyond the region where surface ice would normally turn directly into vapor.
Even at that distance, the comet was losing water at a rate of about 40 kilograms per second, comparable to water blasting from a fully opened fire hose. Most comets native to our solar system remain relatively inactive that far out.
The strong ultraviolet signal suggests that additional processes may be involved. One possibility is that sunlight is warming tiny icy particles that have broken away from the nucleus.
As those grains heat up, they could release vapor and supply the surrounding cloud of gas. Only a small number of distant comets have shown this kind of extended water source, and it points to layered ices that may preserve information about how and where the object originally formed.
Clues to Planet Formation Beyond Our Solar System
Each interstellar comet discovered so far has revealed something different about chemistry in other planetary systems.
Together, these visitors show that the ingredients that build comets, especially volatile ices, can vary widely from one star system to another.
Those differences provide insight into how temperature, radiation, and chemical makeup shape the materials that eventually form planets and possibly create conditions suitable for life.
How NASA's Swift Observatory Made the Discovery
Detecting that faint ultraviolet signal was also a technical achievement.
NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory carries a relatively small 30 centimeter telescope, yet from its position in orbit it can observe ultraviolet wavelengths that are mostly absorbed by Earth's atmosphere.
Without interference from air and sky brightness, Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope can reach a sensitivity comparable to a 4 meter class ground telescope at those wavelengths.
Its ability to respond quickly allowed the Auburn team to observe 3I/ATLAS within weeks of its discovery, before it became too faint or moved too close to the Sun for safe observation from space.
"When we detect water or even its faint ultraviolet echo, OH from an interstellar comet, we're reading a note from another planetary system," said Dennis Bodewits, professor of physics at Auburn.
"It tells us that the ingredients for life's chemistry are not unique to our own."
"Every interstellar comet so far has been a surprise," added Zexi Xing, postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study.
"'Oumuamua was dry, Borisov was rich in carbon monoxide, and now ATLAS is giving up water at a distance where we didn't expect it. Each one is rewriting what we thought we knew about how planets and comets form around stars."
3I/ATLAS has since dimmed and is currently out of view, but it is expected to become observable again after mid November. That return will give scientists another opportunity to monitor how its activity changes as it moves closer to the Sun.
The detection of hydroxyl, detailed in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, offers the first solid proof that this interstellar comet is releasing water far from the Sun.
It also highlights how even a modest space based telescope, operating above Earth's atmosphere, can capture faint ultraviolet signals that connect this rare visitor to the broader family of comets and to the distant planetary systems where such objects are born.
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Crew-12 Targets Friday Launch as Expedition 74 Keeps Up Tech, Psych Research
February 11, 2026 12:39PM
NASA and SpaceX managers continue targeting no earlier than 5:15 a.m. EST on Friday, Feb. 13, for the launch of Crew-12 aboard a SpaceX Dragon to the International Space Station.
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev remain in Florida ahead of a liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Expedition 74 Flight Engineer Chris Williams of NASA has been preparing the orbital outpost for the arrival of Crew-12 expected at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14.
Williams spent several days staging a variety of lab hardware, such as tablet computers, the soon to arrive crew will use during their mission, as well as required emergency gear to be transferred inside Dragon shortly after the quartet’s arrival.
Williams will be on duty Saturday monitoring Dragon’s automated approach and rendezvous from the cupola.
NASA’s Crew-12 launch coverage begins at 3:15 a.m. on Friday with docking coverage starting at 1:15 p.m. on Saturday on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, the space station trio kept up its ongoing microgravity research duties exploring spacecraft fuel physics and crew psychology. The NASA astronaut and two Roscosmos cosmonauts also focused on cargo transfers and standard lab maintenance.
Williams began Wednesday photographing the configuration of scientific hardware attached to the outside of the Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft that will demonstrate a new electronic propulsion technology.
Next, he continued stowing experiments and lab gear inside a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft for its upcoming return to Earth and retrieval.
During the afternoon, the first-time space flyer inspected lithium-ion batteries for continued use or disposal. Afterward, he wrapped up his shift injecting gas into research hardware installed inside the Destiny laboratory module’s Microgravity Science Glovebox.
The physics experiment is testing ways to control a spacecraft’s fuel tank pressure due to cryogenic fuel propellants evaporating from the surrounding heat.
Station Commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Flight Engineer Sergei Mikaev joined each other at the beginning of their shift and took a test with increasing complexity to help researchers understand and improve crew communications, operations, and training.
Kud-Sverchkov then explored how living in space affects stress, cognitive performance, and immune function. He ended his shift inventorying orbital plumbing components and synchronizing station cameras to Greenwich Mean Time.
Mikaev tested and configured the operation of the physics research hardware and power supply systems then photographed and inspected the Zvezda service module’s windows.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/commercialcrew/2026/02/11/crew-12-targets-friday-launch-as-expedition-74-keeps-up-tech-psych-research/
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/crew-12-members-and-insignia/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCM-Kwq91cc
Podcast: Jared Isaacman On NASA's Future
February 12, 2026
NASA is under new leadership with Jared Isaacman.
Watch or listen as he answers questions from Aviation Week's Irene Klotz after eight weeks on the job in this special episode of the Check 6 Podcast.
Summary
In this conversation, NASA Administrator Jared discusses his recent visits to various NASA centers, emphasizing the importance of understanding the workforce's insights and the need to bring core competencies back in-house.
He addresses the future of the Gateway and Artemis Initiative, the lessons learned from past accidents, and the importance of budget management and contractor relationships.
Jared also shares his vision for empowering the workforce and focusing on key objectives to ensure NASA's success in space exploration.
Key Topics
Insights from NASA Center Visits
Workforce Size and Core Competencies
The Future of the Gateway and Artemis Initiative
Lessons from Past Accidents
Budget Savings and Contractor Relationships
Managing NASA: Challenges and Comparisons
Measuring Success at NASA
Navigating Political Challenges at NASA
https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/podcast-jared-isaacman-nasas-future
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv9-p3Ari-A
https://x.com/NASAAdmin
Webb: Transforming Our Understanding of Star Formation
February 11, 2026
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has “supercharged” what astronomers know about star formation with its sharp near- and mid-infrared observations.
In this video, learn about some of the most exciting discoveries Webb has made since the start of its science operations in 2022.
https://science.nasa.gov/asset/webb/webb-transforming-our-understanding-of-star-formation/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr93yrnecjI
Reaching Top Speed in the Dolomites
Feb 12, 2026
Nestled among high snowy peaks in northern Italy, Cortina d'Ampezzo is hosting athletes in the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics who are skiing, sliding, and curling toward a spot on the podium.
The scenic mountain town is the co-host, along with Milan, of the international sporting extravaganza.
Cortina sits within the Dolomites, a mountain range in the northern Italian Alps known for its sheer cliffs, rock pinnacles, tall peaks, and deep, narrow valleys.
In this three-dimensional oblique map, several peaks over 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) tall rise above the town.
To create the map, an image acquired with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 on January 27, 2026, was overlaid on a digital elevation model.
Tofana di Mezzo, the third-highest peak in the Dolomites at 3,244 meters (10,643 feet), is the site of the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre, the venue for the Olympic women's Alpine skiing and all Paralympic skiing events.
Competitors on the Olympia delle Tofane course descend 750 meters (2,460 feet), reaching high speeds and catching big air along the way.
A highlight is the steep, 33-degree drop through the Tofana Schuss, a chute bounded by tall rock walls near the top of the course.
More adrenaline-filled races are taking place at the Cortina Sliding Centre, the venue for bobsled, luge, and skeleton events. Athletes are competing on a rebuilt version of the track used in the 1956 Olympics, hosted by Cortina.
And curlers, trading speed for strategy, are going for gold at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium, built for the 1956 Olympic figure skating competition and opening ceremony.
(There is indeed a theme: almost all of the 2026 Games are being held in existing or refurbished facilities.)
These Landsat images show Cortina and its surrounding alpine terrain in natural color and false color.
The band combination (6-5-4) highlights areas of snow (light blue), while steep, mostly snow-free cliffs stand out as areas of light brown, and forests appear green.
Locations across the Italian Alps join Cortina in hosting the snow sports, which also include cross-country skiing, ski jumping, ski mountaineering, and snowboarding.
As with many past Olympics, the 2026 Winter Games are manufacturing snow at the various venues to ensure consistent conditions. New high-elevation reservoirs were created to store water for snowmaking, according to reports.
Automated systems are being used to limit snow production to the minimum amount required, and most snowmaking operations are being powered by renewable energy, the International Olympic Committee said.
Snowfall in northern Italy was below average at the start of the season, but a storm on February 3—three days before the opening ceremony—eased some of the need for snowmaking.
Still, snow coverage and the ability of Winter Olympic venues to maintain consistent conditions are areas of concern as global temperatures rise.
Researchers studying the issue have suggested several ways to address this, including holding competitions at higher elevations, choosing regional or multi-country hosts, and shifting the Paralympic Games from early March to January or February when it’s typically colder and snowier.
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/reaching-top-speed-in-the-dolomites/
NASA Completes First Flight of Laminar Flow Scaled Wing Design
Feb 11, 2026
NASA completed the first flight test of a scale-model wing designed to improve laminar flow, reducing drag and lowering fuel costs for future commercial aircraft.
The flight took place Jan. 29 at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, using one of the agency’s F-15B research jets.
The NASA-designed, 40-inch Crossflow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow (CATNLF) wing model was attached to the aircraft’s underside vertically, like a fin.
The flight lasted about 75 minutes, during which the team ensured the aircraft could maneuver safely in flight with the additional wing model.
“It was incredible to see CATNLF fly after all of the hard work the team has put into preparing,” said Michelle Banchy, research principal investigator for CATNLF. “Finally seeing that F-15 take off and get CATNLF into the air made all that hard work worth it.”
NASA designed the CATNLF technology to improve the smooth flow of air, known as laminar flow, over swept-back wings, used in everything from airliners to fighter jets, by reducing disruptions that lead to drag.
Maintaining laminar flow could help lower fuel burn and costs.
This flight was the first of up to 15 planned for the CATNLF series, which will test the design across a range of speeds, altitudes, and flight conditions.
“First flight was primarily focused on envelope expansion,” Banchy said. “We needed to ensure safe dynamic behavior of the wing model during flight before we can proceed to research maneuvers.”
During the flight, the team performed several maneuvers, such as turns, steady holds, and gentle pitch changes, at altitudes ranging from about 20,000 to nearly 34,000 feet, providing the first look at the aerodynamic characteristics of the wing model and confirming that it is working as expected.
The team measured laminar flow using several tools, including an infrared camera mounted on the aircraft and aimed at the wing model to collect thermal data during flight tests.
They will use this data to confirm key aspects of the design and evaluate how effectively the model maintains smooth airflow.
“CATNLF technology opens the door to a practical approach to getting laminar flow on large, swept components, such as a wing or tail, which offer the greatest fuel burn reduction potential,” Banchy said.
Early results showed airflow over the aircraft closely matched predictions made using computer models, she said.
The first flight builds on earlier work accomplished through computer modeling, wind tunnel testing, ground tests, and high-speed taxi tests.
NASA plans to continue flight tests to gather research data that will help further validate the CATNLF test article and its potential for future commercial aircraft designs.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasa-completes-first-flight-of-laminar-flow-scaled-wing-design/
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/notes-from-the-field/2026/02/12/nasa-flies-through-a-volcanic-laboratory-rincon-de-la-vieja/
NASA Flies Through a Volcanic Laboratory: Rincón de la Vieja
February 12, 2026
An ecologist, a volcanologist, and a chemist walk into a forest…
It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but this very real collaboration between scientists from NASA and the Universidad de Costa Rica (University of Costa Rica) continues decades of cross-disciplinary work that is currently providing insight into the future of the planet.
In summer 2025, a NASA-led team of scientists and engineers gathered in Rincón de la Vieja National Park in Costa Rica.
We had a twofold purpose: to test the feasibility of using an uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) to gather data about volcanic emissions, and to use those data to better understand how rising levels of carbon dioxide will impact vegetation across the world.
This project is called the Costa Rica Airborne research on foresT Ecosystem Response to volcanic emissions (CRATER); it is a partnership between NASA, the Universidad de Costa Rica, Chapman University, and Black Swift Technologies.
“Oftentimes in the history of science, the biggest scientific breakthroughs have come at the intersections of disciplines,” said Joshua Fisher, an ecologist with Chapman University and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
“We’ve been struggling to understand one of the most important scientific questions of our time, which is the response of the tropical biosphere to increasing levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.
Now we’re coming together to bridge this impasse and unleash new knowledge about the planet.”
The volcanic system: a ‘crystal ball’ into the planet’s future
Volcanic systems stretch for miles beyond their iconic cones and craters, into forested ecosystems.
Small cracks and vents in the Earth’s crust, called fumaroles, passively release gases such as carbon dioxide into the air above. It’s these gases that our team set out to measure.
The Rincón de la Vieja volcanic system extends roughly 100 square miles, including 12 volcanic craters and swaths of protected forests littered with fumaroles.
This provides an ideal natural laboratory to study how rising carbon dioxide levels across the planet will impact vegetation.
Carbon dioxide levels in Earth’s atmosphere, measured in parts per million (ppm), have risen from 315 ppm in 1958 to 430 ppm in 2025. We want to understand how plant life will respond to this change.
Trees across the Rincón de la Vieja volcanic system experience higher levels of carbon dioxide than the rest of the planet, with those concentrations spiking near vents and gradually dropping as the carbon dioxide diffuses into the air.
“We’re basically wandering through these volcanic rainforests trying to figure out the secret to the future,” Fisher said. “The whole Earth is going to have concentrations of carbon dioxide that match what this forest is experiencing now.
These trees have been exposed to our future atmosphere for the past hundreds or thousands of years, and so whatever they’ve done to adapt, we can expect to see similar behavior in ecosystems the world over.”
How do we measure these gases in a remote area?
With the natural laboratory established, the next problem facing our team was how to study it: enter the S2 Black Swift UAS.
Black Swift Technologies makes small UAS for a variety of scientific applications, specializing in challenging environments. “We started out tornado chasing,” said Black Swift CEO Jack Elston, who joined the CRATER team in the field as the pilot in command.
“This S2 was specifically developed for low-altitude sampling of carbon dioxide, which works well for CRATER’s mission. With even tree height like at Rincón de la Vieja, we can get down to just 30 feet above the canopy.”
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Over the course of the campaign, the S2 flew two payloads on six total flights.
The photogrammetry payload contains a normal digital camera to capture high-resolution images and a thermal camera, to capture temperature.
By overlapping the images we were able to create detailed maps of the terrain, including elevation and vegetation health.
The trace gas payload uses a common sensor for measuring carbon dioxide and water vapor, modified to be lighter and record data faster.
A system of 15 ground sensors installed across the Rincón de la Vieja forest by Fisher and his ground team validated data from the drone, and provided data points beneath the canopy to better understand how quickly the gases dispersed from the ground to the canopy, then up to the height of the S2.
“Our preliminary analysis shows that the S2’s measurements matched up well with the ground sensors, which means this is a feasible way to study these emission sources,” said Jay Tomlin, the science principal investigator for CRATER.
“We can fly lower than normal aircraft and get incredibly detailed maps down to a six-centimeter resolution.”
Tracking gas transport and volcanic activity
In addition to the vegetation impact, we also investigated if the S2 could track how gases move and if gas emissions could serve as an indicator of volcanic activity.
By combining Fisher’s ground sensor data with the S2’s airborne data, our team looked for patterns in carbon dioxide movement to shed new light on how these volcanic emissions behave as they enter the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide is slightly heavier than the normal atmospheric air, which is a cocktail of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of a few other gases.
This means that concentrated carbon dioxide will sometimes move in specific ways, like flowing downhill or pooling in holes or caves, before eventually dissipating into the air.
Imagine adding a drop of food coloring into a glass of water. The drop holds together at first and slowly disperses into the water; that is essentially how carbon dioxide interacts with the atmosphere. Jostling or swirling the cup simulates wind, creating movement that can be difficult to predict.
“In atmospheric chemistry there is a large uncertainty on how gases move in the atmosphere,” Tomlin said.
“One benefit from CRATER, outside of the volcanology and ecology fields, is the opportunity to track how carbon dioxide moves from a concentrated source like a vent.
This information will contribute to answering bigger atmospheric questions about how gases move and impact our weather patterns.”
Ecosystem responses to rising carbon dioxide may also serve as early indicators of an impending eruption: when magma starts rising to the surface, it pushes out gases above it—like carbon dioxide—which in turn can tell scientists about the magma itself and the status of the underground volcanic complex.
“We’re figuring out how to use gas emission data to assess the condition of a volcano before, during, and after an eruption,” said Jorge Andres Diaz, a professor at the Universidad de Costa Rica’s GasLab.
“If we understand these factors, we can better tell when an eruption will happen, and how big that eruption will be. Nature is telling you something, you just need to know how to listen.”
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AI Uses NASA Images To Locate Luna 9, Historic Soviet Spacecraft Missing Since 1966While the findings are promising, they are not yet definitive proof of Luna 9's location
Feb 12, 2026 11:02 am IST
Scientists may have spotted the long-lost Luna 9 spacecraft, an uncrewed Soviet space mission that achieved a historic soft landing on the Moon in 1966 and returned images of its surface.
It operated for just three days, but provided humanity with valuable data about the lunar surface. Despite its historic significance, the exact location of Luna 9 remained a mystery for decades.
The spacecraft's landing site was estimated to be in the Oceanus Procellarum region, but the uncertainty was too large to pinpoint its location.
But now, the researchers in the UK and Japan used an artificial intelligence (AI) to identify several promising candidate locations for the spacecraft.
They used an advanced machine-learning algorithm called YOLO-ETA (You-Only-Look-Once-Extraterrestrial Artifact) to scan images of the lunar surface by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
The team, led by Lewis Pinault at University College London, published the results in npj Space Exploration. The researchers hope that their model's predictions could soon be tested using new observations from India's Chandrayaan-2 orbiter.
"The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Narrow Angle Camera has imaged the Moon continuously since 2009, providing a unique record of both natural and anthropogenic surface features at up to 0.25 m pixel-1 resolution," the new team explains in their study.
"Identifying artificial objects within the resulting vast dataset remains a challenge owing to illumination variability, complex backgrounds, and the small pixel footprints of many targets."
The algorithm detected a cluster of candidate artifacts near 7.03 Celsius N, -64.33 Celsius E, which match the expected dispersal pattern of mission components. The terrain and horizon in the images appear consistent with the flat lunar landscape seen in Luna 9's 1966 photographs.
"These findings identify promising locations for follow-up imaging and demonstrate that compact, edge-deployable machine-learning models can support future orbital surveys of lunar artefacts and surface assets," researtchers wrote in the study.
While the findings are promising, they are not yet definitive proof of Luna 9's location. Further imaging by LRO or future orbiters is needed to confirm the discovery. Overall, the study highlights how AI can be used efficiently in planetary exploration.
https://www.ndtv.com/science/ai-uses-nasa-images-to-locate-luna-9-historic-soviet-spacecraft-missing-since-1966-10992345
Mars Organics Are Hard to Explain Without Life, NASA-Led Study Finds
12 February 2026
In 2025, scientists reported the discovery of long-chain organic molecules called alkanes in the ancient mudstones of Mars.
Now, in a new study, a team led by Alexander Pavlov of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center argues that their inferred original abundance of these molecules, before millions of years of radiation destroyed much of them, is difficult to explain by non-biological processes alone.
That does not mean that the detected alkanes are evidence of life on Mars; the conclusion relies on modeling how radiation breaks down organic material over time.
However, the finding does suggest that the origin of these molecules warrants closer inspection.
The interesting thing about the alkanes found in the Martian mudstone is that they could be fragments of long-chain fatty acids, which on Earth are produced largely – but not exclusively – by life.
The initial Curiosity sample showed alkanes at concentrations of around 30 to 50 parts per billion, which isn't particularly high.
Pavlov and his colleagues asked two questions: could there once have been more of them in the stone? And if so, where could they have come from?
The Cumberland mudstone has been sitting on the surface of Mars, exposed to harsh radiation for about 80 million years, which would have slowly broken down any organic material in the rock.
The researchers drew on laboratory radiolysis experiments to estimate how quickly radiation would break down alkane precursors, arriving at a much higher original concentration of 120 to 7,700 parts per million (ppm).
Then, they considered the non-biological deposition and formation mechanisms that could have put them there – processes that include transport from interplanetary dust, meteorites, atmospheric haze fallout, hydrothermal chemistry, and reactions such as serpentinization.
Even when combined, these processes were unable to approach the inferred original abundance of the molecules.
"Our approach has led us to estimate that the Cumberland mudstone conservatively contained 120 to 7,700 ppm of long-chain alkanes and/or fatty acids before exposure to ionizing radiation," the researchers write in their published paper.
"We argue that such high concentrations of long-chain alkanes are inconsistent with a few known abiotic sources of organic molecules on ancient Mars."
The paper is very careful to point out that they are not claiming a definitive detection of life beyond Earth.
There could be non-biological alkane formation pathways on Mars that we don't know about, or something we don't know about how radiation acts on organic molecules on Mars.
Further research is required to fill in these blanks.
It's been well established that Mars hosts many different kinds of organic molecules. The question now is what they are telling us about habitability – or lack thereof.
https://www.sciencealert.com/mars-organics-are-hard-to-explain-without-life-nasa-led-study-finds
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15311074261417879
Mexico joins NASA’s Artemis Program
11 February, 2026
Mexico has joined the Artemis Program, promoted by the United States Government through NASA, for space exploration, which aims to take people back to the lunar surface.
The accession was announced today at an event led by Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, attended by Infrastructure, Communications, and Transportation Secretary Jorge Arganis Díaz-Leal, and supported by representatives of the Legislative Branch and the National Conference of Governors (Conago), and was welcomed by the U.S. government.
Foreign Minister Ebrard said that the Artemis Program, promoted by the United States, is a sign of the good relationship between Mexico and that country, and that “it had been discussed for several years, but now it is a reality.”
He specified that U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris formally invited Mexico to participate in the program in November.
In this regard, Vice President Harris, via Twitter, expressed her satisfaction today with “Mexico's decision to join the Artemis Accords and conduct responsible and sustainable exploration.”
The foreign minister also stressed that Mexico's participation in the program responds to “a convergence on a series of principles regarding space, sustainability, inclusion, peaceful purposes, and participation in design, technology, and projection, as well as being part of the project.”
He noted that 50 years ago “we were spectators, now we are going to be participants; it is a big step for Mexico.”
Secretary Ebrard stressed that Artemis “symbolizes the values that identify the countries that are going to participate in this project, of gender equality, of protection for all, of a type of egalitarian society […] it will have an immense cultural impact throughout the world in favor of gender equality.”
The space agencies of the 13 signatory countries are participating in the program. Among the programs being carried out under the Artemis principles is NASA's project to explore the Moon in the near future.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson thanked Foreign Minister Ebrard today for the decision and said, “Mexico joins a growing number of nations that are signatories to the Artemis Accords.
We welcome Mexico's leadership in signing the Accords and working with us to explore space responsibly for the benefit of all.”
For his part, Dr. José Hernández Moreno, a retired NASA astronaut of Mexican origin, expressed his congratulations, saying, “It's great that Mexico is joining the Artemis project, because once again we are going back to the Moon, but this time we are not going to do it as a country […] we are going to do it as a community.”
https://mexico-now.com/mexico-joins-nasas-artemis-program/
Vulcan suffers solid rocket booster problem during USSF-87 launch
February 12, 2026
United Launch Alliance said an issue affected one of the four solid rocket boosters that helped propel its Vulcan rocket into space Thursday on a mission for the United States Space Force.
Despite the problem the rocket, making only its fourth flight, continued on its planned trajectory, the company said.
The 202-foot-tall (61.6 m) rocket thundered away from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 4:22 a.m. EST (0922 UTC) but less than 30 seconds into the flight, there appeared to be a burn through of one of the nozzles on a Northrop Grumman-built graphite epoxy motor (GEM) 63XL solid rocket boosters (SRBs).
Shortly after, as the rocket performed its pitch over maneuver, the vehicle began to roll in a more pronounced way than is typical for this stage of flight. The Vulcan rocket appeared to counteract the anomaly and the SRBs jettisoned as planned at T+ 1 minute, 37 seconds into the flight.
“We had an observation early during flight on one of the four solid rocket motors, the team is currently reviewing the data,” ULA said in a statement roughly an hour after liftoff. “The booster, upper stage, and spacecraft continued to perform on a nominal trajectory.”
The rocket was carrying the USSF-87 mission. It’s a series of payloads for the U.S. Space Force, highlighted by at least one Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellite, though two may be onboard.
ULA leadership said prior to launch that it would be roughly 10 hours from liftoff until the end of the mission, so it might be Thursday afternoon before an update on the status of the payload is given.
This was ULA’s second national security mission following completion of the Vulcan rocket’s certification in March 2025.
There are several more on the company’s launch manifest for 2026, including a GPS satellite and satellites for the Space Force’s Space Development Agency.
ULA’s plan for 2026 was to launch 16 to 18 missions with Vulcan. The latter vehicle would launch from both coasts.
More SRB challenges
The “observation” noted on one of the SRBs on Thursday morning’s flight marks the second time in just four flights that ULA ran into a similar issue.
A burn through was noted during the second certification launch of Vulcan back on Oct. 4, 2024. ULA and Northrop Grumman went through a series of tests and analysis to address the anomaly, including a hot fire test in Utah.
Ultimately, the U.S. Space Force deemed Vulcan capable to launch national security payloads for it and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The USSF-106 mission on Aug. 12, 2025, went smoothly, giving ULA leadership confidence in their launch vehicle.
“We’ve had a couple of anomalies that we’ve worked through. You all are aware of those. Those are behind us now and so the Vulcan rocket is ready to go,” said John Elbon, the interim CEO of ULA, during a virtual media roundtable on Tuesday.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/02/12/vulcan-suffers-solid-rocket-booster-problem-during-ussf-87-launch/
https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/2021891917672591856
Radio signal discovered at the center of our galaxy could put Einstein's relativity to the test
February 11, 2026
Is the ultradense core of a gigantic star lurking in the center of the Milky Way?
Scientists think they may have found just that: the signal of a pulsar, a rapidly rotating ancient star core, in the heart of our galaxy.
The rare discovery could be used to test the predictions of Einstein's general relativity.
Pulsars, a kind of neutron star, are known as "cosmic lighthouses" because they send out beams of radio emissions with every spin, and these beams occasionally strobe past Earth.
The suspected pulsar whips around on its axis every 8.19 milliseconds and is located near Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole with the mass of 4 million suns embedded in the Milky Way's center.
Is the ultradense core of a gigantic star lurking in the center of the Milky Way?
Scientists think they may have found just that: the signal of a pulsar, a rapidly rotating ancient star core, in the heart of our galaxy. The rare discovery could be used to test the predictions of Einstein's general relativity.
Pulsars, a kind of neutron star, are known as "cosmic lighthouses" because they send out beams of radio emissions with every spin, and these beams occasionally strobe past Earth.
The suspected pulsar whips around on its axis every 8.19 milliseconds and is located near Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole with the mass of 4 million suns embedded in the Milky Way's center.
The researchers published their findings Monday (Feb. 9) in The Astrophysical Journal.
The work was led by Karen Perez, a postdoctoral researcher at the SETI Institute who was a doctoral student at Columbia University at the time of the research.
"We're looking forward to what follow-up observations might reveal about this pulsar candidate," Perez said in a statement. In particular, she added, the researchers hope to use the pulsar to probe general relativity.
Testing the rules of the universe
General relativity, first proposed by Albert Einstein, proposes that gravity is not a force in nature but a property of how space-time curves.
A nearby pulsar in the Milky Way would let researchers learn about "precision measurements of the space-time around a supermassive black hole," the statement noted.
That's because pulsars rotate so rapidly that they are sensitive to the subtle gravitational pulls of massive neighboring objects, like other stars.
The pulsar's rotation could then, in theory, produce "anomalies" in the pulses of light that it sends toward Earth, said study co-author Slavko Bogdanov, a research scientist at the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory.
"In addition, when the pulses travel near a very massive object, they may be deflected and experience time delays due to the warping of space-time, as predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity," Bogdanov added.
Researchers detected the suspected pulsar through Breakthrough Listen, a scientific research program that aims to find signals of civilizations beyond Earth.
The new findings came from the Breakthrough Listen Galactic Center Survey, which, as the name suggests, hunted for signals coming from the center of the Milky Way.
Breakthrough Listen released all of the data publicly, the researchers added, "allowing researchers worldwide to pursue independent analyses and complementary science cases."
Further research is needed to confirm whether the signal really was a pulsar, or if it came from some other exotic radio source.
https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/radio-signal-discovered-at-the-center-of-our-galaxy-could-put-einsteins-relativity-to-the-test
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae336c
Erratic Elon Musk Tells Employees to Build Massive Catapult on Moon
Feb 11, 2026 12:02 PM EST
As Elon Musk tries to sweep his Mars ambitions under the rug like an embarrassing teenage phase, he’s now shifting focus to the Moon — with no less eye-brow raising ideas.
According to new reporting from the New York Times, Musk told employees at xAI — his AI company recently acquired by SpaceX — that it needs to construct a factory on the Moon to churn out AI satellites.
And to launch the satellites into space, he says, it needs to build an enormous electromagnetic catapult.
Sci-fi readers already know where this is going: Musk is thinking about building a mass driver, which is essentially a coilgun for launching payloads instead of deadly projectiles.
Paired with the lunar facility, Musk views it as a necessary step in building out computing power for his AI empire, which must not be bound by the finitude of terrestrial real estate.
“You have to go to the Moon,” Musk said at an all-hands meeting, per the NYT. “It’s difficult to imagine what an intelligence of that scale would think about, but it’s going to be incredibly exciting to see it happen,”
The outpouring of lunar enthusiasm from Musk comes after his aerospace company SpaceX bought xAI ahead of what is anticipated to be a historic IPO.
In an announcement about the acquisition stuffed with more sci-fi concepts, Musk argued that space-based AI was the “only way to scale” the technology.
He spoke of putting data centers in the Earth’s orbit, where in theory they’d have access to practically unlimited amounts of solar energy.
Along with orbital data centers, he imagines populating the orbit with a vast constellation of AI satellites, something he likened to building a “sentient sun.”
The Moon may sound like a logical destination for a space company, but it actually represents an incredible about-face for Musk and SpaceX.
Musk has spent years denigrating lunar missions, viewing them as a waste of time and a “distraction” from his ultimate goal of sending humans to Mars. His mantra has always been to “make life multiplanetary,” and “extend consciousness to the stars.”
He has frequently provided optimistic timelines for achieving this, including promising in 2017 that the company’s first Mars mission would launch in 2022, and its first astronauts would arrive by 2025.
He has consistently reiterated this mission, and presented SpaceX employees with a roadmap to reaching the Red Planet.
Of course, Musk insists he’s not abandoning Mars. In the Tuesday meeting, he described the Moon as a stepping stone to Mars.
First, he wants to build “a self-sustaining city on the Moon,” then travel to Mars — and then, naturally, search the rest of the galaxy for aliens.
He provided a timeline for his dueling Moon-Mars ambitions in a recent tweet justifying the pivot.
“SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years,” Musk explained.
“That said, SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years, but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster.”
https://futurism.com/space/elon-musk-catapult-moon
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2020640004628742577
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOjtLmyC5a4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqNDFz3mZaQ (Angry Astronaut: Another SRB anomaly for Vulcan Centaur on a critical USSF mission!)