TYB
Fox News
@FoxNews
PETER DOOCY: “Barack Obama said that aliens are real. Have you seen any evidence of non-human visitors to Earth?”
TRUMP: “Well he gave classified information? He's not supposed to be doing that."
…
PETER DOOCY: “So aliens are real?”
TRUMP: “Well, I don't know if they're real or not. I can tell you he gave classified information. He's not supposed to be doing that. He made a big mistake, he took it out of classified information."
"I don't I don't have an opinion on it. I never talk about it, a lot of people do, a lot of people believe it."
Last edited 12:31 PM · Feb 19, 2026
The White House
@WhiteHouse
"Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs)…" - President Donald J. Trump
5:16 PM · Feb 19, 2026
https://x.com/FoxNews/status/2024582712040816655
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116100300268316472
https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2024654469745480105
How many anons are part of those programs, I wonder.
Star Disappears, Cosmic Ray Virus Outbreaks | S0 News and frens
Feb.20.2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRaaq2-BiWE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQj–Kjn0z8
https://space.blog.gov.uk/2026/02/20/uk-backed-space-weather-mission-sets-sail-for-launch-site/
https://www.unh.edu/news/2026/02/shedding-light-space-weather-events-earths-nightside
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/extreme-solar-storms-could-rewrite-the-rules-of-satellite-safety/articleshow/128539737.cms
https://x.com/MrMBB333/status/2024591626916815185
https://x.com/schumannbot/status/2024846531606511967
https://www.space.com/live/aurora-forecast-northern-lights-possible-tonight-feb-20-22
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
https://spaceweather.com/
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
February 20, 2026
B93: A Dark Interstellar Ghost
"A ghost in the Milky Way…” says Christian Bertincourt, the astrophotographer behind this striking image of Barnard 93 (B93). The 93rd entry in Barnard’s Catalogue of Dark Nebulae, B93 lies within the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud (Messier 24), where its darkness stands in stark contrast to bright stars and gas in the background. In some ways, B93 is really like a ghost, because it contains gas and dust that was dispersed by the deaths of stars, like supernovas. B93 appears as a dark void not because it is empty, but because its dust blocks the light emitted by more distant stars and glowing gas. Like other dark nebulas, some gas from B93, if dense and massive enough, will eventually gravitationally condense to form new stars. If so, then once these stars ignite, B93 will transform from a dark ghost into a brilliant cradle of newborn stars.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBmB9UWe6Dk
This Comet Mysteriously Reversed Its Spin After Passing The Sun, But Why?
20 February 2026
A comet whizzing through the Solar System has astonished scientists by doing something they had never seen before.
In early 2017, comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák made its 5.4-year close approach to the Sun, or perihelion.
As it did so, its spin appeared to slow down to a complete halt, before likely starting up again in the opposite direction, according to astronomer David Jewitt of the University of California, Los Angeles.
The reversal itself isn't the crazy part; changes in cometary spin are known to happen sometimes as these icy objects draw near to the Sun. Rather, it's how quickly and dramatically the reversal occurred.
"The previous record for a comet spindown went to 103P/Hartley 2, which slowed its rotation from 17 to 19 hours over 90 days," said astronomer Dennis Bodewits of the University of Maryland, describing the slowdown phase in 2018.
"By contrast, 41P spun down by more than 10 times as much in just 60 days, so both the extent and the rate of this change is something we've never seen before."
The sequence of events is as follows. Observations taken in March 2017 showed that 41P's rotation period was about 20 hours. By May, the rotation had slowed to more than double that length, with one rotation every 53 hours or so.
By December, however, something really weird had happened. The rotation period of the comet had shortened to 14.4 hours – a change, Jewitt believes, that can best be explained if its rotation had slowed to a complete stop sometime around June 2017 and then changed direction.
This is actually fairly easy to explain, in theory. Comets are clumpy agglomerations of rock and ice that spend most of their orbital periods just trucking along. However, as they get closer to the Sun, the ice in their bodies starts to transition directly into gas, a process called sublimation.
Jets and geysers burst forth, spraying vapor out into space. Each of these jets imparts a torque on the cometary nucleus. This is why so many comets change their spin as they go around the Sun, some spinning up to such high speeds that they fall apart completely.
In addition, the spin of a smaller comet changes more readily than the spin of a larger one. At roughly a kilometer wide – about the length of 10 football fields laid end to end – 41P is small enough for those gas jets to have an outsized effect.
If the Sun heated it unevenly, or if the distribution of its ice content was lopsided, its rapid reversal is relatively easy to explain mathematically.
Now, there's still a little bit of a question mark. The light-curve measurements taken of 41P can give its spin rate, but not its spin direction.
Jewitt arrived at his conclusions by plotting the lightcurves along with new estimates of the comet's size, calculated from archival Hubble Space Telescope data. He could only make them line up smoothly if the comet's spin had slowed to zero and then flipped.
"The observed, rapid changes are natural consequences of torques from outgassed volatiles acting on the very small nucleus," Jewitt writes in his preprint, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.
If 41P's spin continues evolving at the rate seen in 2017, it could spin itself apart within a few short decades, Jewitt found. We don't know yet if that's the case.
There are no published spin rates from its September 2022 perihelion. The next opportunity to measure its spin rate will be its 2028 perihelion.
Comets are among the more fascinating relics of the early Solar System. They're fragile and change rapidly, but somehow they're still here, 4.5 billion years after the Solar System formed.
The changes displayed by 41P over the course of 2017, and the decades prior, suggest that it may be the remnant of a much larger comet that has been gradually whittled away by its long, slow dance with the Sun.
https://www.sciencealert.com/this-comet-mysteriously-reversed-its-spin-after-passing-the-sun-but-why
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/avi-loeb-reacting-to-trumps-comments-on-aliens-f6680d8a3c65
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.06403
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_a0T0Vi1lU (Dobsonian Power: LIVE TELESCOPE 3I/ATLAS AND MAPS BEFORE IMPACT!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-32ru5CqEo8 (Angry Astronaut: Is Barnard's Star a UFO base? Well, it is getting closer. PATREON EXCLUSIVE UNVEILED!)
https://x.com/drew4worldruler/status/2024605367510979058
https://x.com/spaceandtech_/status/2024865566071333292
Caltech scientist shot to death in front of Los Angeles County home
Updated on: February 19, 2026 / 10:49 PM PST
A 29-year-old man was charged with murder after he allegedly shot and killed a Caltech scientist in front of a Los Angeles County home earlier this week.
The LA County Sheriff's Department said Freddy Snyder, 29, allegedly killed 67-year-old Carl Grillmair in the High Desert city of Llano on Monday morning.
Deputies responded to the 30700 block of 165th Street East and found Grillmair on the porch with a fatal gunshot wound. LA County Fire Department paramedics tried to save Grillmair's life but ultimately pronounced him dead shortly after.
Deputies said Snyder ran away from the home and allegedly carjacked another person nearby.
The LA County District Attorney's Office charged Snyder with murder, carjacking and burglary. His bail is set at $2 million.
A colleague confirmed that Grillmair worked at the California Institute of Technology.
According to his profile on Caltech's website, Grillmair's research focused on dark matter, galactic structure, stellar populations and exoplanets.
"We are shocked," Caltech scientist Sergio Fajardo-Acosta said. "This was so unexpected. Carl was full of life."
Fajardo-Acosta has known Grillmair for 26 years and worked with him at Caltech's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC).
"Carl is irreplaceable because of the ingenuity he injected into his research in astronomy," Fajardo-Acosta said.
Grillmair was awarded the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal.
"He was always ready to teach," Fajardo-Acosta said. "To share his knowledge, he never held anything back."
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/caltech-scientist-shot-to-death-in-front-of-los-angeles-county-home/
https://www.ipac.caltech.edu/science/staff/carl-grillmair
https://web.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/carl/
some moar Artemis to go with your Artemis
NASA Begins Artemis II Launch Pad Ops After Successful Fuel Test
February 19, 2026 11:23PM
NASA successfully fueled its SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and demonstrated the launch countdown for Artemis II on Thursday during a wet dress rehearsal at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Engineers loaded more than 700,000 gallons of liquid propellant into the rocket, sent a closeout crew to the launch pad to demonstrate closing the Orion spacecraft’s hatches, and completed two runs of terminal count — the final phase of the launch countdown.
The Artemis II crew also observed part of the test from the Launch Control Center at NASA Kennedy.
During the test, teams closely monitored liquid hydrogen fueling operations, which proved challenging during previous tests.
Hydrogen gas concentrations remained under allowable limits, giving engineers confidence in new seals installed in an interface used to route fuel to the rocket.
Early in fueling operations, teams experienced a loss of ground communications in the Launch Control Center.
Operators temporarily moved to backup communication methods to maintain safe propellant loading activities before normal communications channels were restored. Engineers isolated the equipment that caused the issue.
A rundown of wet dress rehearsal operations is available on the Artemis blog.
While engineers review data from the test, the Artemis II crew is preparing to enter quarantine late Friday, Feb. 20, in Houston.
Although NASA has not set a formal launch date, beginning the roughly 14-day quarantine to limit the crew’s exposure to illness before launch preserves flexibility in the March launch window.
NASA will discuss the wet dress rehearsal during a news conference at 11 a.m. EST Friday on the agency’s YouTube channel.
Over the next several days, technicians will use cranes to set up temporary access platforms on the mobile launcher.
The platforms will allow them to reach the upper left and right segments of the SLS solid rocket boosters and core stage intertank to service the flight termination system and retest it to meet Eastern Range safety requirements.
The platforms were developed based on lessons learned during Artemis I and enable NASA to complete end-to-end testing of the safety system while at the launch pad rather than rolling back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy for retesting.
The closeout crew also will practice closeout operations once more, adding to the team’s proficiency.
As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, Artemis will pave the way for new U.S. crewed missions on the lunar surface in preparation to send the first astronauts to Mars.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/19/nasa-begins-artemis-ii-launch-pad-ops-after-successful-fuel-test/
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/19/live-artemis-ii-wet-dress-rehearsal-coverage/
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/artemis-ii-crew-trains-on-t-38/
https://www.c-span.org/event/news-conference/nasa-news-conference-on-artemis-ii-dress-rehearsal/440552
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rayK1pwhzEs
NASA Releases Report on Starliner Crewed Flight Test Investigation
Feb 19, 2026
At a news conference on Thursday, NASA released a report of findings from the Program Investigation Team examining the Boeing CST-100 Starliner Crewed Flight Test as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
“The Boeing Starliner spacecraft has faced challenges throughout its uncrewed and most recent crewed missions. While Boeing built Starliner, NASA accepted it and launched two astronauts to space.
The technical difficulties encountered during docking with the International Space Station were very apparent,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.
“To undertake missions that change the world, we must be transparent about both our successes and our shortcomings. We have to own our mistakes and ensure they never happen again.
Beyond technical issues, it is clear that NASA permitted overarching programmatic objectives of having two providers capable of transporting astronauts to-and-from orbit, influence engineering and operational decisions, especially during and immediately after the mission.
We are correcting those mistakes. Today, we are formally declaring a Type A mishap and ensuring leadership accountability so situations like this never reoccur.
We look forward to working with Boeing as both organizations implement corrective actions and return Starliner to flight only when ready.”
Starliner launched June 5, 2024, on its first crewed test flight to the International Space Station.
Originally planned as an eight-to-14-day mission, the flight was extended to 93 days after propulsion system anomalies were identified while the spacecraft was in orbit.
After reviewing flight data and conducting ground test at White Sands Test Facility, NASA decided to return the spacecraft without NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
Starliner returned from the space station in September 2024, landing at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. Wilmore and Williams later returned safely to Earth aboard the agency’s SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission in March 2025.
In February 2025, NASA chartered an independent Program Investigation Team to investigate the technical, organizational, and cultural contributors to the test flight issues.
This report was completed in November 2025. NASA and Boeing have been working together since Starliner returned 18 months ago to identify and address the challenges encountered during the mission, and the technical root cause work continues.
Investigators identified an interplay of combined hardware failures, qualification gaps, leadership missteps, and cultural breakdowns that created risk conditions inconsistent with NASA’s human spaceflight safety standards. NASA will accept this as the final report.
As a result, NASA is taking corrective actions to address the findings of the report, in an effort to ensure the lessons learned contribute to crew and mission safety of future Starliner flights and all NASA programs.
Due to the loss of the spacecraft’s maneuverability as the crew approached the space station and the associated financial damages incurred, NASA has classified the test flight as a Type A mishap.
While there were no injuries and the mission regained control prior to docking, this highest-level classification designation recognizes there was potential for a significant mishap.
NASA will continue to work closely with Boeing to fully understand and solve the technical challenges with the Starliner vehicle alongside incorporating the investigative recommendations before flying the next mission.
For the full report, which includes redactions in coordination with our commercial partner to protect proprietary and privacy-sensitive material is available online.
A 508-compliant version of the report is forthcoming, and will be posted on this page. NASA will update with an editor’s note when complete.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-releases-report-on-starliner-crewed-flight-test-investigation/
https://nasawatch.com/ask-the-administrator/a-message-from-administrator-jared-isaacman-starliner/
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/human-spaceflight/we-almost-did-have-a-really-terrible-day-nasa-now-says-boeings-1st-starliner-astronaut-flight-was-a-type-a-mishap
https://www.heise.de/en/news/Starliner-failure-is-among-NASA-s-most-serious-incidents-11183477.html
https://interestingengineering.com/space/boeing-starliner-flight-classified-top-mishap-nasa
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/nasa-report-with-redactions-021926.pdf
https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2024558806135689354
https://x.com/jaykeegan/status/2024576524028989565
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geneWmI9ZMY
Thursday Packed With Human Research as Station’s Orbit is Boosted
February 19, 2026 1:36PM
Relaxation, exercise, and biomedical studies were the key research objectives for the Expedition 74 crew on Thursday as NASA and its partners investigate ways to keep astronauts healthy on long-term missions.
The International Space Station is also orbiting higher after the docked Progress 93 cargo craft fired its thrusters on Wednesday.
Flight Engineers Jessica Meir of NASA and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) kicked off Thursday exploring how to reduce stress and improve sleep while living and working aboard a spacecraft.
The duo, right after waking up, first filled out a questionnaire documenting stress and emotions experienced off the Earth. Next, the two astronauts collected their saliva samples so researchers can analyze a crew member’s stress and immunity levels.
The RelaxPro study sponsored by ESA explores using non-invasive relaxation and meditation techniques aboard a spacecraft to improve astronaut health and promote mission success.
The NASA and ESA astronauts then joined each other in the afternoon and reviewed setting up hardware for the ARED (advanced resistive exercise device) Kinematics exercise study that takes place in the Tranquility module.
They watched a video explaining the precise positioning of four cameras to capture a crew member’s workout, calibrating the cameras, setting up a video monitor, and configuring a computer for data acquisition.
Doctors are exploring the forces an astronaut’s muscles and bones experience when working out in weightlessness to maintain fitness and health during a long-term spaceflight.
NASA Flight Engineer Jack Hathaway began his shift organizing blood sampling hardware then retrieving biomedical samples from a science freezer for scientific processing. Afterward, Hathaway transferred food packs into the Harmony module and staged them for future crew usage.
During the second half of his shift, he loaded cargo into a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft for return to Earth then joined Meir for a call to mission controllers discussing their experience flying the Dragon crew spacecraft as it docked to the orbital outpost on Feb. 14.
NASA Flight Engineer Chris Williams partnered with Meir twice on Thursday during two short biomedical sessions. He first assisted her as she drew her blood sample, spun it in a centrifuge, then stowed it in a science freezer to analyze her bone health.
Toward the end of the crew’s shift, Meir imaged William’s eyes using medical imaging hardware as doctors on the ground remotely monitored to see how microgravity is affecting his retina, optic nerve, and cornea.
Williams also worked in the Kibo laboratory module uninstalling the Solid Combustion Experiment Module following the completion of its scientific objectives, including improving spacecraft fire safety and observing how solid fuels burn in microgravity.
Roscosmos Flight Engineer Andrey Fedyaev, who is beginning his second spaceflight, worked on a pair of investigations on Thursday using advanced technology.
For the first experiment, Fedyaev wore virtual reality goggles and responded to visual and audio signals to test his sense of balance and orientation in space.
For the second experiment, he tested artificial intelligence-assisted tools to convert speech-to-text for improved documentation for data and communications with ground controllers.
Station Commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov assisted Fedyaev with the advanced human research studies. Kud-Sverchkov also trained to perform procedures and use medical hardware in case of a medical emergency board the orbital outpost.
Finally, the two-time station resident downloaded radiation data the station is exposed to while orbiting Earth for analysis.
Roscosmos Flight Engineer Sergei Mikaev primarily spent Thursday on lab upkeep activities focusing most of his time on locating and inventorying hardware throughout the station’s Roscosmos segment.
Mikaev also checked the Elektron oxygen generator’s water tanks for air bubbles to ensure the life support device’s continuous operation.
The Roscosmos Progress 93 spacecraft fired its thrusters for 10 minutes, 55 seconds to reboost the station ahead of the launch of the Progress 94 resupply spacecraft.
The maneuver raised the station’s altitude by 2 miles at perigee, placing the space station in an orbit of 269.2 x 255 statute miles.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2026/02/19/thursday-packed-with-human-research-as-stations-orbit-is-boosted/
https://www.ndtv.com/science/nasa-captures-dazzling-green-auroras-from-international-space-station-11070733
https://x.com/NASA_Johnson/status/2024135995306684612
NASA Investigates How People Respond to Air Taxi Noise
Feb 19, 2026
New kinds of aircraft taking to the skies could mean unfamiliar sounds overhead — and where you’re hearing them might matter, according to new NASA research.
NASA aeronautics has worked for years to enable new air transportation options for people and goods, and to find ways to make sure they can be safely and effectively integrated into U.S. communities.
That’s why the agency continues to study how people respond to aircraft noise. In this case, NASA’s work focused on air taxis, shorthand for a variety of aircraft intended to carry people short distances for everything from personal travel to medical treatment.
Researchers investigated whether residents in loud cities would respond differently to air taxi sounds than those in quieter suburban settings.
From late August through September 2025, 359 participants in the Los Angeles, New York City, and Dallas-Fort Worth areas took part in NASA’s Varied Advanced Air Mobility Noise and Geographic Area Response Difference (VANGARD) test.
Researchers played 67 unique sounds simulating aircraft, including NASA-owned industry concept designs. To ensure unbiased feedback, the research team withheld aircraft manufacturer names. Participants were also not shown images of the aircraft they were hearing.
Initial results reveal that residents living in noisy areas reported being more bothered by the air taxi sounds than those in quieter areas.
The VANGARD team members are currently analyzing the data to better understand these findings, but so far, they’re hypothesizing that people in loud environments may simply be more sensitive to additional noise.
“With air taxis coming soon, we need to understand how people will react to a variety of future aircraft sounds,” said Sidd Krishnamurthy, lead researcher at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
“This test filled a critical gap, and its results will improve how we predict human reactions to noise, guiding the design and operation of future aircraft.”
During the study, participants listened to individual aircraft flyover sounds and rated their annoyance levels. The participants also provided their zip codes, allowing the researchers to sort their locations into high and low background noise levels.
“We wanted to know if people in low or high background noise zones would be more annoyed by the air taxi sounds, and to what extent, even without their usual background sounds present during the test,” Krishnamurthy said.
Most participants listened from their home locations, with their own audio devices. But to complement that testing, a control group of 20 people listened in-person at NASA Langley in June, using tablets and headphones with fixed audio settings.
Results showed that the control group responded similarly to those who tested from home.
Many factors influence how humans respond to aircraft noise. This study was not designed to answer every question — for example, it did not look at the potential effects of high background noise masking air taxi noise — but it provided the VANGARD team with initial insights.
The results from this study, and any follow-on efforts, will guide the design and operation of future advanced air mobility aircraft to help designers and regulators determine how and where these aircraft may fly.
This research was led under the Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology project and contributes to NASA’s advanced air mobility research. The project falls under the Advanced Air Vehicles Program within NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasa-investigates-how-people-respond-to-air-taxi-noise/