The Anomalously High Abundance of Deuterium in 3I/ATLAS
March 24, 2026
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the Universe, composed of an electron and a proton.
Deuterium includes a neutron in addition to that proton in its nucleus. In the first twenty minutes after the hot Big Bang, a primordial abundance of one deuterium atom per 40,000 hydrogen was generated.
This abundance ratio is similar to the value found in the Sun or Jupiter. Earth has a higher abundance, with about one for every 6,500 hydrogen atoms in seawater being deuterium.
Deuterium can be extracted from seawater inexpensively, making it an abundant fusion fuel that could power human needs for millions of years.
In 1942, during early discussions for the Manhattan Project, Edward Teller asked whether the extreme temperatures of a fission atomic bomb explosion could cause deuterium in the oceans to undergo fusion and burn our planet.
This hypothesized chain reaction was shown to be extremely unlikely by Hans Bethe who calculated that radiative energy losses would far exceed any energy gained from fusion, causing any such reaction to fizzle out.
Deuterium acts as a primary fuel source for nuclear fusion due to its high energy yield and relative ease of reaction.
In fusion experiments, deuterium is commonly used in a mixture with tritium (with two neutrons in addition to the proton in its nucleus), a combination that ignites at the lowest possible temperature compared to other fusion fuels.
The fusion of a deuterium nucleus with a tritium nucleus creates a helium-4 nucleus and a high-energy neutron.
What is the deuterium abundance in the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS?
Recently, two new papers used spectroscopic data from the Webb telescope to deduce exceedingly high fraction of deuterium in two molecules shed by 3I/ATLAS.
They found one deuterium in 100 hydrogen atoms in water (H2O) and one deuterium in 30 hydrogen atoms in the organic molecule of methane (CH4) around 3I/ATLAS.
The first paper on March 6, 2026 (available here) analyzed spectroscopic data on water in the gas plume around 3I/ATLAS, and derived an enrichment at a level of D/H = (0.95 ± 0.06)%, which is more than an order of magnitude higher than all known comets.
In addition, the 12C/13C ratios (141–191 for CO2 and 123–172 for CO) was reported to exceed typical values found in the Solar System and nearby interstellar clouds and protoplanetary disks.
Today, March 24, 2026, a new paper (available here) reported an unexpectedly high D/H = (3.31 ± 0.34)% for the organic molecule of methane (CH4) shed by 3I/ATLAS.
This abundance is three orders of magnitude higher than found in methane on solar system planets and well above the values in comets or meteorites.
In particular, it is a factor of 14 higher than the value measured in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the Rosetta spacecraft.
The authors of both papers suggest that the extremely high D/H ratios of water and methane in 3I/ATLAS are a natural consequence of formation in a cold environment below 30 degrees Kelvin, within a protoplanetary disk about 10–12 billion years ago.
However, as I showed in a recent paper here, the association of 3I/ATLAS with the rare population of old metal-poor stars is untenable because they do not carry a large enough reservoir of heavy elements.
It should also be kept in mind that ancient proto-planetary disks could not have been cooler than the cosmic microwave background at the time they formed, which at a redshift of ~10 had a temperature of 30 degrees Kelvin.
Hence, an important question arises: since deuterium is fusion fuel, might its over-abundance in 3I/ATLAS flag a technological signature?
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/the-anomalously-high-abundance-of-deuterium-in-3i-atlas-fcc677e27657
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/when-will-the-milky-way-collide-with-andromeda-28116fd0815f
https://astrobiology.com/2026/03/unique-water-release-mechanism-uncovered-in-interstellar-comet-3i-atlas
https://www.fox32chicago.com/video/fmc-3e1ghx0xcekxcve0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_BfA9q6N_Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWgsFOa-hh0 (Avi Loeb: We Arrived 13.8 Billion Years Too Late)
https://theskylive.com/c2026c1-info
https://skyandtelescope.org/stargazing-and-observing/venus-meets-uranus-at-dawn/
>>24425382 both LB
HustleBitch
@HustleBitch_
🚨 ARMY VETERAN SOUNDS THE ALARM: “THESE AREN’T METEORS” — SOMETHING ELSE IS ENTERING U.S. AIRSPACE
A 15-year Army veteran who served in Iraq is calling it out… and people are starting to listen.
Multiple “meteor” sightings reported across the U.S.
California. Houston. Ohio. Maryland.
But here’s where it gets strange:
Only ONE of those incidents has actual physical proof.
Everything else?
Clips. Lights. Streaks in the sky.
And explanations that don’t line up.
She says she’s seen what real activity looks like in a combat zone when things “pop off” in the sky, and this isn’t it.
Now add timing into the mix:
• War exploding between Israel and Iran
• The U.S. getting pulled back into the middle
• Warnings that Iran isn’t bluffing about what they can do
And suddenly these “meteors” start showing up over multiple states?
That’s not coincidence. That’s a pattern.
Her warning wasn’t emotional, it was direct:
Start asking questions.
Start paying attention.
Because if those aren’t meteors… then what the hell is actually entering U.S. airspace right now?
8:44 AM · Mar 24, 2026
https://x.com/HustleBitch_/status/2036469237095571723
nice, we be integrating
https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/nasas-1st-nuclear-powered-interplanetary-spacecraft-will-send-skyfall-helicopters-to-mars-in-2028
https://starlust.org/nas-as-skyfall-helicopters-to-travel-to-mars-aboard-1st-nuclear-powered-interplanetary-spacecraft/
https://starlust.org/nasa-pauses-gateway-lunar-space-station-for-artemis-shifts-focus-to-20-billion-moon-base/
https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-abandons-its-ambitious-lunar-space-station-in-major-shake-up
https://www.cnet.com/science/space/nasas-ignition-program-skips-lunar-orbiter-goes-straight-for-moon-base/
https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/03/25/nasa-outlines-ambitious-20-billion-plan-for-moon-base/
https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/nasa-rolls-out-new-moon-plan/
https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2036434084017181161
https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2036551549590122706
https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2036526306322514245
Collection of Igntion announcements from yesterday + today
NASA's '1st nuclear powered interplanetary spacecraft' will send Skyfall helicopters to Mars in 2028
March 25, 2026
Skyfall is happening, and it will get to Mars in a totally new way.
Last summer, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Virginia company AeroVironment unveiled their Skyfall mission concept, which would send a fleet of tiny helicopters to explore the skies of Mars.
Today (March 24), NASA announced that it will develop Skyfall for a 2028 launch, and that the mission will journey to the Red Planet on a spacecraft that uses nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) — what NASA is referring to as "the first nuclear powered interplanetary spacecraft."
NEP systems operate like nuclear power plants here on Earth, relying on an onboard fission reactor.
NEP is a fundamentally different technology than radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), which have powered the instruments of NASA deep-space probes like Voyager for decades.
RTGs use the heat of radioactive decay to generate electricity; they are not involved in propulsion.
"Requiring operating temperatures less than nuclear thermal propulsion, the thermal energy produced by the reactor generates electricity, which is then used to power highly efficient electric thrusters," NASA officials wrote in a description of the agency's NEP efforts.
NASA views NEP tech — which can operate at all distances from the sun — as key to its future exploration efforts, from robotic missions to the outer solar system to the operation of a moon base via its Artemis program.
So the centerpiece of the Skyfall mission may not be its fleet of Mars helicopters but rather their interplanetary ride — a spacecraft called Space Reactor-1 (SR-1) Freedom.
"SR-1 Freedom will establish flight-heritage nuclear hardware, set regulatory and launch precedent, and activate the industrial base for future fission power systems across propulsion, surface and long‑duration missions," NASA officials said today in a statement announcing the mission.
"NASA and its U.S. Department of Energy partner will unlock the capabilities required for sustained exploration beyond the moon and eventual journeys to Mars and the outer solar system," they added.
1/2
That statement features a wealth of other exploration news and updates.
For example, NASA also announced today that it's pausing its long-planned Gateway moon-orbiting space station to focus on building a base on the lunar surface — and some of Gateway's hardware will go into the construction of that outpost.
That statement doesn't reveal many details about the planned Skyfall mission, but NASA revealed some during a webcast presentation today.
For example, Skyfall will feature three little helicopters, which will be similar to Ingenuity, the NASA rotorcraft that landed on the Red Planet with the Perseverance rover in February 2021.
Ingenuity became the first helicopter ever to operate on a world beyond Earth, making a whopping 72 flights between April 2021 and January 2024.
Whereas Ingenuity was a technology demonstrator, however, the Skyfall fleet will have concrete tasks. Chief among them is scout: If all goes to plan, the little choppers will help NASA assess the potential of their target area (wherever that happens to be) to support human exploration.
The Skyfall helicopters will carry cameras and ground-penetrating radar to scout a future landing site, to understand the slopes and hazards for human-scale landers," Steve Sinacore, the program executive for NASA's Space Reactors Office, said during the briefing.
"They will also map and characterize the subsurface water ice to find out where the water ice deposits are, along with the size, depth and other important characteristics," he added.
If goes according to plan, the mission will launch in December 2028 and arrive at Mars about a year later.
And that might not be the end of the line for SR-1 Freedom; NASA may decide to keep flying the spacecraft out into the solar system after it deploys the Skyfall choppers, according to Sinacore.
The mission architecture, like much of NASA's exploration portfolio, is not yet finalized.
2/2
the chances of anything coming from Mars is a million to one, he said…
until the wheels fall off?
UFO mania
@maniaUFO
Curiosity wheels taken yesterday, showing the damages caused during the 13 years it has been on the Red Planet…😮
Fun fact: the rover would be able to drive perfectly fine even if the inner 2/3 of the wheel rim totally breaks off.
There is enough toque in the wheel motors to pull the entire rover up a vertical wall if only one of them was operating. It could drive fine if the wheels were square.
11:13 AM · Mar 24, 2026
https://x.com/maniaUFO/status/2036506666624303469
https://mars.nasa.gov/raw_images/1568753/
NASA PC-12 Aircraft Makes Move to Support Flight Research Across Agency
Mar 24, 2026
A NASA Pilatus PC-12 aircraft will now be based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, in order to support flight research efforts across the agency.
The PC-12 was acquired in 2022 by NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland for use in advanced technology development.
The PC-12 will continue to support research at NASA Glenn while also helping expand flight research capability by supporting other agency efforts.
“NASA Armstrong is proficient in supporting a deployed aircraft concept, where our aircraft goes to another part of the country or world to complete a specific mission,” said Darren Cole, capabilities manager for the Flight Demonstrations and Capabilities project at NASA Armstrong. “That’s exactly what we are going to do with the PC-12, to continue a wide range of flight research.”
Over four years of service at Glenn, the PC-12 has proven a valuable research asset, with contributions such as supporting a communications relay experiment with the International Space Station.
Using a portable laser terminal, the PC-12 sent a 4K video stream relayed through a ground network and a satellite to the space station, which was able to send information back. The system helped effectively penetrate cloud coverage.
The aircraft also was used to study surveillance systems that could help handle the air traffic demands of future air taxis flying in cities.
From its new home at NASA Armstrong, the plane will support a variety of agency, industry, and academic research, including continued technology development research led by Glenn and conducted in conjunction with Glenn’s Aerospace Communications Facility.
A NASA T-34 aircraft from Glenn also arrived at Armstrong in February to be evaluated for use.
The T-34 can allow NASA pilots to either conduct flight research or train to fly the PC-12 when that larger aircraft is undergoing maintenance or modifications.
“The T-34’s design allows for future pod-mounted flight research efforts,” Cole said. “This could include ideas in development by researchers within NASA or through external partnerships — to get something quickly into the air for flight testing at a low cost.”
The T-34 from Glenn joins another already housed at NASA Armstrong, part of a fleet that has recently grown with new assets, including two F-15s. These help Armstrong remain the agency’s home base for breakthrough flight research and test projects.
The aircraft are supported through NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasa-pc-12-aircraft-makes-move-to-support-flight-research-across-agency/
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/armd/
ask Rubio to put in a work order, please
NASA X-Ray Mission Gets Fresh Look at 2,000-Year-Old Supernova
Mar 24, 2026
NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission has taken a new observation of a supernova, RCW 86, helping fill in a fuller picture of what other telescopes have observed.
When astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory previously targeted RCW 86, they discovered that a large “cavity” region around the system led the supernova to expand more rapidly than expected.
The low-density cavity region could have led to RCW 86’s unique shape as well. Now, IXPE has observed the outer rim of this supernova, where its expansion is suspected to have halted at the edge of the “cavity,” creating the reflected shock effect highlighted in purple.
The full image combines IXPE’s data with legacy observations from two other X-ray telescopes: NASA’s Chandra and the ESA (European Space Agency) XMM-Newton telescope.
The yellow represents low-energy X-rays, while blue shows high-energy X-rays detected by Chandra and XMM-Newton.
The starfield in the image comes from the National Science Foundation’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab).
More about IXPE
The IXPE mission, which continues to provide unprecedented data enabling groundbreaking discoveries about celestial objects across the universe, is a joint NASA and Italian Space Agency mission with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries.
It is led by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. BAE Systems, Inc., headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, manages spacecraft operations together with the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder. Learn more about IXPE’s ongoing mission here:
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasa-x-ray-mission-gets-fresh-look-at-2000-year-old-supernova/
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/imaging-x-ray-polarimetry-explorer-ixpe/
extra
Reminders of Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/reminders-of-where-weve-been-where-were-going/
Kona Storms Flood Oʻahu
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/kona-storms-flood-o%CA%BBahu/
NASA Awards Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowships for 2026
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasa-awards-astrophysics-postdoctoral-fellowships-for-2026/
1 week away! NASA gearing up to launch Artemis 2 astronauts around the moon on April 1
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/1-week-away-nasa-gearing-up-to-launch-artemis-2-astronauts-around-the-moon-on-april-1
NASA cancels Northrop Grumman, Lanteris space station in multibillion-dollar expansion
March 25, 2026//
NASA announced on Tuesday it has canceled plans to deploy a space station in lunar orbit and will instead use components from the project to build a $20 billion base on the moon’s surface, while also planning to send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars.
U.S. space agency chief Jared Isaacman, an appointee of President Donald Trump who took charge at NASA in December, announced an unprecedented array of changes to the Artemis moon program that would expand humanity’s footprint in space, as the U.S. pushes to return to the moon before China sends its astronauts there around 2030.
The plans for the moon base included an aim to send more robotic landers, deploy a fleet of drones and lay the groundwork for using nuclear power on the lunar surface in the next few years.
“This revised step-by-step approach to learn, build muscle memory, bring down risk, and gain confidence is exactly how NASA achieved the near impossible in the 1960s,” Isaacman said, referring to the U.S. Apollo program.
NUCLEAR-POWERED MARS MISSION
NASA also disclosed plans to launch a spacecraft called Space Reactor 1 Freedom to Mars before the end of 2028 in a mission it said would demonstrate advanced nuclear electric propulsion in deep space.
NASA called this a major step forward in bringing nuclear power and propulsion from the laboratory to space. NASA said the spacecraft, once it reaches Earth’s planetary neighbor, will deploy helicopters for exploring Mars.
The Lunar Gateway station, largely already built with contractors Northrop Grumman and Intuitive Machines subsidiary Lanteris Space Systems, was meant to be a space station in a lunar orbit.
“It should not really surprise anyone that we are pausing Gateway in its current form and focusing on infrastructure that supports sustained operations on the lunar surface,” Isaacman told a crowd of foreign delegates, companies and members of Congress at a day-long event at NASA’s headquarters in Washington.
Repurposing Lunar Gateway to create a base on the moon’s surface – a difficult undertaking – leaves uncertain the future roles of Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency in the Artemis program, three key NASA partners that had agreed to provide components for the orbital station.
“Despite some of the very real hardware and schedule challenges, we can repurpose equipment and international partner commitments to support surface and other program objectives,” Isaacman said.
European Space Agency chief Josef Aschbacher, who attended the event, told Reuters he will study the new plans and continue talking to NASA about them.
Lunar Gateway was designed to serve as both a research platform and a transfer station that astronauts would use to board the moon landers before descending to the lunar surface. NASA’s current plans call for landing astronauts on the moon’s surface in 2028.
The changes made by Isaacman in recent weeks on the flagship U.S. moon program are reshaping billions of dollars’ worth of contracts under the Artemis umbrella, sending companies scrambling to accommodate the extra U.S. urgency as China makes progress toward its own planned 2030 moon landing.
LUNAR LANDER PROJECTS BEHIND SCHEDULE
Central to the Artemis program is its astronaut lunar lander program, with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin both racing to develop moon landers for NASA.
The two companies, each targeting an initial crewed landing on the moon in 2028, have fallen behind schedule.
Isaacman and other senior NASA officials on Tuesday made little mention of the two companies’ plans to accelerate development of their landers to meet a 2028 astronaut landing deadline.
But NASA’s acting associate administrator Lori Glaze suggested the companies want to dock with the Orion astronaut capsule in a different orbit between Earth and the moon than planned, before ferrying the astronauts to the surface.
Glaze said “SpaceX has been considering alternatives of their current Starship design” for the moon lander, “while implementing a more streamlined approach to try and speed things up and pull things forward.”
NASA’s inspector general this month said SpaceX, tapped in 2021 for the first astronaut moon lander under the program, is two years behind schedule, while the company and Blue Origin face a list of complex engineering challenges before they can fly humans.
But as part of the agency’s Artemis shakeup, Glaze said it would use whichever lander is ready first instead of sticking to a pre-determined order of mission assignments.
The Artemis program, begun in 2017 during Trump’s first term as president, envisions regular lunar missions as NASA’s long-awaited follow-up to its first moon missions in the Apollo program that ended in 1972.
https://virginiabusiness.com/nasa-opens-artemis-moon-base-nuclear-mars-spacecraft/
NASA Research Proposes Technology to Seek Earth-Like Exoplanets
March 25, 2026
The Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets concept combines an orbiting starshade with a large ground-based telescope to image planets outside our solar system.
As NASA seeks to understand the mysteries of the universe, the agency is advancing technologies to locate and explore Earth-like planets far beyond our solar system.
A key element of this research involves observing reflected light from exoplanets, which can reveal indicators of Earth-like features such as water and oxygen.
However, detecting this faint reflected light with current telescope technology remains a significant challenge due to the overwhelming brightness of nearby stars and other celestial objects.
NASA’s Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets (HOEE) concept presents a potential solution by combining an orbiting starshade with a large ground-based telescope to suppress starlight and enable direct imaging of exoplanets.
To read more about recent research on this concept, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/nasa-research-proposes-technology-to-seek-earth-like-exoplanets/
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-research-proposes-technology-to-seek-earth-like-exoplanets/
U.S. Office of Space Commerce publishes framework for certifying ‘novel’ space operations
March 25, 2026
NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce today proposed a new method of certifying on-orbit operations, ranging from spacecraft servicing to debris removal, that don’t neatly fit into existing regulations.
Currently, spacecraft operators must secure multiple approvals from various agencies, from an FAA license for launch and reentry to a Federal Communications Commission license for radiofrequency communications.
As a result, “often this is a ‘no’ by default” for experimental activities “due to unclear regulations,” said OSC Director Taylor Jordan during remarks at SATShow Week here.
“OSC needs to change that through our mission authorization work,” Jordan said. “We’re working on a framework that allows the government to say ‘yes’ to innovative space activities that don’t fit into [a] traditional process.”
OSC today issued a proposal creating “an opt-in Space Commerce Certification” for “‘novel activities’ such as in-space manufacturing, orbital computing, satellite servicing, lunar operations and commercial inhabitable stations,” all of which “fall outside of the existing legislative authorities.”
Under this framework, OSC would oversee coordinating communication and approvals from the relevant agencies. Applications would be evaluated based on “a light-touch set of requirements,” with a 120-day review timeline.
Additionally, FAA and FCC “may choose to incorporate a Space Commerce Certification into their regulatory processes,” the proposal reads.
However, depending on the specific mission, the OSC certification may not entirely replace these other approvals: “For example, where an activity is subject to an existing licensing or authorization requirement, such as a requirement for a license from FCC for earth or space station communications, such requirement remains applicable and controlling, and participation in Space Commerce Certification would not relieve an operator of the obligation to obtain and comply with such authorizations.”
The OSC proposal stems from an August executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at reducing regulation of commercial space activities.
“We’re creating a process for which the Office of Space Commerce can be your belly button for the U.S. government,” Jordan said. “We aim to streamline regulations, have interagency conversations and approvals.”
https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/u-s-office-of-space-commerce-publishes-framework-for-certifying-novel-space-operations/
https://space.commerce.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Space-Commerce-Certification-OSC-Proposal-March-2026.pdf
NASA astronaut shares a photo of a bizarre tentacled object growing on the International Space Station – as disturbed fans quip 'kill it with fire!'
Updated: 10:11 EDT, 25 March 2026
A NASA astronaut has shared a photo of a bizarre tentacled object growing on the International Space Station (ISS).
Don Pettit snapped the photo during Expedition 72, which took place from 23 September 2024 until 18 April 2025.
The unusual object almost looks like an egg, with black tentacles erupting from the base.
Responding to the astronaut on X (formerly Twitter), one user said: 'Kill it with fire!!!'
Another wrote: 'Bro I genuinely thought this was some kind of egg hatching.'
And one joked: 'Looks like a mimic hatching out of an egg,' in reference to the 2017 film, Prey.
While the object undeniably looks strange, there's actually a rather mundane explanation – it's a potato.
'Spudnik–1, an orbiting potato on @Space_Station!' Mr Pettit explained.
On X, Mr Pettit explained how the potato ended up on the ISS.
'I flew potatoes on Expedition 72 for my space garden, an activity I did in my off–duty time,' he said.
'This is an early purple potato, complete with spot of hook Velcro to anchor it in my improvised grow light terrarium.'
'Potatoes are one of the most efficient plants based on edible nutrition to total plant mass (including roots).
'Recognized by Andy Weir in his book/movie "The Martian," potatoes will have a place in future exploration of space.
'So I thought it good to get started now!'
In response to the photo, one fan asked Mr Pettit how it compared to growing potatoes on Earth.
The astronaut responded: 'The roots would grow in all directions absent gravity, and all plants I have ever grown in space have grown far slower than they would have on Earth.'
His post has garnered huge interest, with almost 100,000 views at the time of writing.
'someone needs to figure out a zero–g fryer asap,' one X user joked.
Another added: 'Nice Velcro docking adaptor!'
And one quipped: 'I hope you brought actual fertiliser this time,' in reference to The Martian, in which the lead character is forced to grow potatoes in his own waste.
To date, astronauts have grown a huge range of fruits, vegetables, and even flowers on the ISS.
'Our team at Kennedy Space Center envisions planting more produce in the future, such as tomatoes and peppers,' NASA explained.
'Foods like berries, certain beans and other antioxidant–rich foods would have the added benefit of providing some space radiation protection for crew members who eat them.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15678139/NASA-tentacled-object-International-Space-Station.html
https://x.com/astro_Pettit/status/2035090957570281813
I picture the lights going out and Batman swooping in to capture him