TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
February 17, 2026 (Happy 17th and Fire Horsey day!)
Tails of Comet Wierzchoś
Some comets are regular guests of our solar neighborhood; others come by only once, never to return. We won’t have another chance to see Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś), which is currently making its way through the inner Solar System. The hyperbolic orbit of this comet indicates that it will likely become an interstellar traveler. Comet Wierzchoś is today near its closest approach to the Earth, passing roughly the same distance from the Earth as is the Sun. The featured 30-minute exposure was taken last week in Chile and shows a 5-degree long ion tail as well as three shorter dust tails. The green hue of the coma comes from the breakdown of dicarbon molecules by sunlight, but that process does not last long enough to also tinge the tails. On the far right lies a spiral galaxy far in the distance: NGC 300.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bHHg4w8Bzc
So Many Novae, Space Weather | S0 News and frens
Feb.17.2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08xaw0rTrr4
https://watchers.news/2026/02/16/g2-moderate-geomagnetic-storm-in-progress-auroras-possible-from-new-york-to-washington-state/
https://www.timesnownews.com/technology-science/g2-geomagnetic-storm-alert-solar-storm-hits-earth-auroras-may-be-visible-today-what-it-means-article-153626024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox2jYHfw_A4 (The Secrets of the Universe: Don't Miss These Astronomy Events in February 2026 | Solar Eclipse | Planet Parade)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIvWfCTU10I (Cambridge University: Easter, Ramadan and the Moon)
https://x.com/SchumannBotDE/status/2023774685360443556
https://x.com/TamithaSkov/status/2023594951506866278
https://x.com/MrMBB333/status/2023503712061423776
https://x.com/MrMBB333/status/2023470002616283623
https://x.com/Kennedy_Weather/status/2023736795481903210
https://x.com/StefanBurnsGeo/status/2023668922059276544
https://x.com/StefanBurnsGeo/status/2023749732443513265
https://gcn.nasa.gov/circulars/43768
https://www.spaceweather.gov/news/g2-geomagnetic-storm-alert
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-viewline-tonight-and-tomorrow-night-experimental
https://www.spaceweather.gov/
https://spaceweather.com/
IceCube Neutrino Observatory
@uw_icecube
🥉🚨 Bronze alert - IceCube observation of a high-energy neutrino candidate event at 2026/02/17 05:55:24 UTC
Find out more at: https://gcn.nasa.gov/circulars/43768.
4:18 AM · Feb 17, 2026
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/earths-big-threat-after-3i-atlas-nasa-warns-15000-city-killer-asteroids-still-undetected-1779685
https://gulfnews.com/uae/uae-reveals-hope-probe-captured-alien-comet-3iatlas-in-never-before-seen-moment-1.500446424
https://www.coasttocoastam.com/article/newly-visible-city-size-green-comet-will-soon-be-ejected-into-interstellar-space-just-like-3iatlas/
https://www.space.com/stargazing/comet-c-2024-e1-wierzchos-makes-its-closest-approach-to-earth-tomorrow-heres-what-you-need-to-know
https://theskylive.com/c2024e1-info
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/survivorship-bias-in-the-detection-and-characterization-of-interstellar-objects-0b1905fc83d8
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/missing-elements-in-the-cosmic-jigsaw-puzzle-42b4a52a8b7e
https://x.com/Soc_AstroCaribe/status/2023570188939952398
https://x.com/mkbroussard17/status/2023505718511567349
https://x.com/drew4worldruler/status/2023161090364915791
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoPmmap-Tzg (Ray's Astrophotography: Great Comet 2026 May IMPACT the SUN, Comet 3I ATLAS is VERY BRIGHT – I took a PICTURE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXoo72XXOH8 (Mudfossil University: Claims That 3I Atlas is Not Simply A Rock In Space and May Be Unfriendly)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wrq_hFsJVI (Dobsonian Power: LIVE TELESCOPE 3I/ATLAS AND MAPS BEFORE IMPACT!)
Earth's Big Threat After 3I/ATLAS? NASA Warns 15,000 'City-Killer' Asteroids Still Undetected in 'Blind Spot' Space
17 February 2026, 12:12 PM GMT
The name 3I/ATLAS might be the sort of designation that briefly lights up science feeds, but the quieter fear NASA officials are trying to drag into the open is far less cinematic: the rocks we have not found, drifting through a stubborn 'blind spot' where our telescopes struggle to look.
What makes it unsettling is not the Hollywood-sized apocalypse, but the more plausible, more political nightmare of a regional strike catastrophic for a city, yet easy to ignore until it is suddenly not.
On Feb. 16, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Phoenix, Dr. Kelly Fast NASA's acting Planetary Defense Officer put a number on that unease.
Roughly 15,000 near-Earth objects measuring at least 140 metres across remain undiscovered, she warned, and NASA has only reached about '40 percent' of its detection goal for objects of that size.
Big, civilisation-altering asteroids are largely tracked already; tiny debris hits Earth frequently and usually burns up; it is the middle category that is nasty precisely because it sits in the gap between complacency and panic.
1/2
3I/ATLAS and the Blind-Spot Problem We Don't Like Admitting
Here is the part that does not sit comfortably with our fondness for technological reassurance: even powerful telescopes cannot reliably spot what they cannot sensibly see.
Many near-Earth asteroids spend much of their time on trajectories interior to Earth's orbit, effectively hiding in the sun's glare. Ground-based observatories have only short windows at twilight to hunt them without being blinded.
Add the awkward fact that a large fraction are dark, carbon-rich bodies that reflect little sunlight, and you begin to understand why 'unknown asteroids' are the real risk: they are not announcing themselves with a handy reflective sheen.
The stakes are not abstract. A 140-metre 'city-killer' impact carries the kind of energy that can wipe out a major urban area. Science magazine describes it as roughly 300 million tons of TNT.
That is not 'end of the world' territory, which is precisely why it is politically treacherous: it is 'only' an event that could shred one region, one economy, one country's sense of normality, while the rest of the planet scrolls on.
3I/ATLAS, DART and the Uncomfortable Gap Between Tests and Reality
NASA can point to a genuine success story: the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART. In September 2022, the spacecraft deliberately slammed into the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos at roughly 14,000 miles per hour to prove that deflection is possible.
It worked. The impact measurably changed Dimorphos' motion — an engineering triumph and, for once, a rare piece of good news in the planetary-defence file.
And yet Dr. Nancy Chabot of Johns Hopkins University, who led the DART mission, underlined the less flattering reality in Phoenix: there is no equivalent spacecraft sitting ready to launch if a genuine threat appears.
If that sounds maddening, it should. A one-off demonstration is not a standing capability, and 'no immediate launch option' is a polite way of saying we are still improvising.
Chabot also flagged the bigger structural issue: preparedness needs sustained investment, not occasional bursts of attention when a dramatic object swings by.
That last point landed harder because we've just had a recent reminder of how jittery the system can get. Asteroid 2024 YR4 passed close to Earth on Dec. 25, 2024; early projections raised collision fears for 2032 before later analysis ruled out an Earth impact.
The episode, scientists argued, exposed monitoring gaps — less a near-miss thriller than a case study in how quickly uncertainty fills the space where detection should be.
NASA's answer is, essentially, to stop relying on luck and twilight.
The Near-Earth Object Surveyor, an infrared space telescope designed first and foremost for planetary defence, has a planned launch in September 2027, with the aim of finding nearly all near-Earth asteroids at least 140 metres in size.
Infrared matters because asteroids, dark or shiny, 'glow' thermally: you can detect what you cannot easily see in reflected sunlight, and you can estimate their size more accurately.
After 3I/ATLAS, the temptation will be to chase the next headline object and forget the dull, methodical work. NASA's own messaging in Phoenix was a nudge in the opposite direction: the real menace is the unglamorous inventory we still have not taken.
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if you listen closely you can hear the shuffle of lefties flocking
Dave Chappelle was CLONED AND REPLACED. His cousin speaks out
Sep 15, 2025
Dave Chappelle was CLONED AND REPLACED. His first cousin tells the truth about it in this phone interview
He mentions "synthetic robotoids" somehwere after the halfway mark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_nIv91_-cE
NASA Eyes Next Wet Dress Rehearsal for Artemis II
February 16, 2026 3:26PM
NASA is targeting Thursday, Feb. 19, as the tanking day for the second wet dress rehearsal ahead of the agency’s Artemis II test flight.
Over the weekend, teams replaced a filter in ground support equipment that was suspected of reducing the flow of liquid hydrogen during a Feb. 12 partial fueling test.
The test provided enough data to allow engineers to plan toward a second wet dress rehearsal this week. Engineers have reconnected the line with the new filter and are reestablishing proper environmental conditions.
The wet dress rehearsal will run the launch team as well as supporting teams through a full range of operations, including loading cryogenic liquid propellant into the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s tanks, conducting a launch countdown, demonstrating the ability to recycle the countdown clock, and draining the tanks to practice scrub procedures.
Launch controllers will arrive to their consoles in the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:40 p.m. EST on Feb. 17 to begin the nearly 50-hour countdown.
The simulated launch time is 8:30 p.m., Feb. 19, with a four-hour window for the test. While the Artemis II crew is not participating in the test, a team of personnel will go to the launch pad to practice Orion closeout operations, including closing the spacecraft’s hatches.
During the rehearsal, the team will execute a detailed countdown sequence. Operators will conduct two runs of the last ten minutes of the countdown, known as terminal count.
They will pause at T-1 minute and 30 seconds for up to three minutes, then resume until T-33 seconds before launch and pause again.
After that, they will recycle the clock back to T-10 minutes and conduct a second terminal countdown to just inside of T-30 seconds before ending the sequence.
This process simulates real-world conditions, including scenarios where a launch might be scrubbed due to technical or weather issues.
While NASA will not set a formal launch date until after a successful rehearsal and data reviews, the agency has been evaluating in recent weeks if the there are additional days that would be suitable for launch and found an extra opportunity the first week of March.
However, managers have determined March 6 is the earliest opportunity for launch that allows for a second wet dress rehearsal, sufficient time for data review, and time to transition the launch pad, rocket, and spacecraft to launch operations.
A 24/7 live stream of the rocket at the pad remains online. During the upcoming wet dress rehearsal, NASA will provide a separate feed with additional camera views on the day of fueling and share updates via the agency’s Artemis blog.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/16/nasa-eyes-next-wet-dress-rehearsal-for-artemis-ii/
https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/02/17/nasa-to-attempt-second-full-fueling-test-of-its-space-launch-system-rocket/
https://www.nasa.gov/podcasts/curious-universe/artemis-ii-the-ground-teams-powering-nasas-moon-mission/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCrPD7tfcr0