TYB
>GERONIMO
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
April 15, 2026
The ISS Transits the Moon
Nope, that is not an alien spaceship landing on the Moon! This is an image of the International Space Station (ISS) as it begins to transit in front of the Moon. The ISS is in low-Earth orbit (LEO) where it wizzes around the Earth every 90 minutes. Orbiting the Earth 16 times per day for 25 years, the ISS has photobombed many familiar celestial objects including Venus, Mars, Saturn, and the Sun. Thousands of experiments led by researchers from over one hundred countries have been conducted on the ISS. Growing protein crystals in low gravity was one of the first experiments onboard the ISS and continues to contribute to new medical treatments. ISS astronauts study plant growth, water recycling, human health, and more to support the Artemis missions which will take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before. Next time you are out and about at night, try to spot the ISS zooming across the sky!
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1u4376C5UI
Sun Controls the Ocean, Solar Watch This Weekend | S0 News and frens
Apr.15.2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vKBF-pgn0k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReYalWDDbWQ (Dutchsinse: 4/14/2026 LARGE Earthquake in the USA M5.7 – East Coast USA / Canada now moving! Be Prepared)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-Z-I-NPlxA (EarthMaster: Aftershocks continue in Nevada from 5.7 Earthquake. Major Coronal hole on the Sun about to face us)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku6Uy_QCjKQ (Yellowstone Supervolcano ‘Lid’ Discovered: Scientists Reveal What Prevents Eruption | WION)
https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/uss-first-operational-coronagraph-l1-transmits-images-of-the-sun-one-million-miles-home
https://earthsky.org/sun/sun-news-activity-solar-flare-cme-aurora-updates/
https://www.ga.com/ga-advances-space-based-weather-intelligence-mission-to-improve-all-domain-tactical-decision-making-and-resilience
https://x.com/StefanBurnsGeo/status/2044239901567398391
https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/products/ocean/tropical/storms/SINLAKU.html
https://meteoagent.com/schumann-resonance-forecast
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquake/news/299988/World-Earthquake-Report-for-Wednesday-15-April-2026.html
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
https://spaceweather.com/
See Comet PanSTARRS glow above a false dawn in stunning new photo
April 14, 2026
Astrophotographer Josh Dury captured a magnificent view of comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) glowing in the predawn sky among the stars of the constellation Pegasus on April 12.
PanSTARRS' bright, central nucleus was photographed rising low over the Mendip Hills nature reserve in Somerset, England, as light pollution created a false dawn in the long-exposure image.
The comet's sweeping tail extends over approximately 10 degrees of sky — roughly the equivalent of your clenched fist held at arm's length — created as reflective material from the nucleus is pushed outward and shaped by charged particles flowing outward from the sun, known as the solar wind.
It was, in some ways, a meeting of the ancients. Dury chose the Mendip Hills as the location of his shoot because of its links to the distant past.
The region was home to the remains of "Cheddar Man", a roughly 10,000-year-old skeleton discovered in 1902 and later became the oldest British individual to have his genome sequenced, according to the University College London.
Comet PanSTARRS meanwhile, has a history that stretches back billions of years to the formation of the solar system. "The story and age of this comet is harrowing," Dury told Space.com.
With an estimated inbound orbital period of around 170,000 years, the comet likely originates from the distant Oort Cloud — a shell of icy objects that surrounds our parent star at a distance ranging between 10,000-100,000 times the Earth-sun divide, according to NASA.
"Its passage from the Oort Cloud makes some of the earliest primitive finds of Britain minuscule through the ravages of time," continued Dury.
The comet is currently bright enough to be seen with the naked eye as a hazy patch of light from a dark sky location, ahead of its close brush with the sun during perihelion on April 19-20. A pair of 10X50 binoculars will help to reveal its glowing nucleus and perhaps a hint of its tail.
Dury was able to reveal the beauty of its tail by capturing 33 separate long-exposure images with his Sony A7S III camera and Sigma 135mm F/1.4 lens, before combining and editing them using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to increase the signal-to-noise ratio.
https://www.space.com/stargazing/astrophotography/see-comet-panstarrs-glow-above-a-false-dawn-in-stunning-new-photo
extra fireballs, meteors, comets, and the like
https://bioengineer.org/subaru-telescope-reveals-composition-changes-in-comet-3i-atlas/
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.25002
https://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/news/26022564.stargazer-spots-comet-panstarrs-great-yarmouth-seafront/
https://www.livescience.com/space/the-moon/there-were-audible-screams-of-delight-why-artemis-ii-sightings-of-meteor-flashes-on-the-moon-have-scientists-giddy
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/how-would-you-use-an-infinite-research-budget-3a8e6cc910b8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at0UMcbzMHI (Angry Astronaut: What is this FIREBALL OUTBREAK? Meteors? UFOs? 3I Atlas connection??)
Go behind the scenes of NASA's Artemis 2 moon mission with NOVA's 'Return to the Moon' documentary tonight (interview)
April 15, 2026
In the wake of NASA's triumphant Artemis 2 mission to the moon, which safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean to return its four-astronaut crew home last week , NOVA is launching a new documentary to reveal an inside look of the historic spaceflight.
Directed by British filmmaker Tim Lambert ("Guns, Germs and Steel," "Alien Worlds"), the new documentary "Return to the Moon" will air on PBS stations tonight (April 15) at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central) to offer a captivating behind-the-scenes examination of NASA’s Artemis program and its engineering challenges as the endeavor moved from 2022’s uncrewed Artemis 1 mission and its unexpected Orion heat shield concerns, to April 1's liftoff of Artemis 2.
"We wanted to somehow do justice to the extraordinary ambition of the Artemis program and try to chart and chronicle the mission from beginning to end, from soup to nuts, or design to splashdown if that’s more appropriate," Lambert tells Space.com.
"To be an observational documentary eye and follow what’s going on. It's difficult doing that with NASA because it's hard getting access to all the things you need access to.
Everything has to go through protocol and export control and then it’s just a matter of finding the right moments and piecing bits together."
"Return to the Moon" targets the design and manufacture of NASA's massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with an attention to detail that delivers the titanic core stage right into your living room.
We're also treated to an in-depth look at Artemis 1’s Orion capsule, the post-flight investigation into its partially compromised shielding tiles, the abandonment of the first mission’s double dip skip-entry maneuver, and the remaining risks as Artemis 2's liftoff arrived.
“When we started, we wanted to get very close to the astronauts and the whole idea that we’re heading toward the first woman and the first person of color on the moon and it seemed like a diversity project when we were back in the Biden days,” he explains.
"That's sort of downplayed now in the Trump days. NOVA's executives were more interested in the idea of the engineering, and we realized this is kind of a science and engineering show.
"So that nudged us more towards talking to engineers and see behind the scenes, and in a way it's a very good thing.
The astronauts are the rock stars of the project, but the real heart of the story, the question marks about the architecture of Artemis, are all connected to engineering ultimately.
That's what slowed this whole process up, not the astronauts. And that was a moment for us, to read the Inspector General's report in May of 2024. No one really had any sense of how serious the capsule issue was and how bad the damage was."
Lambert is old enough to remember the Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969. As a kid his parents dragged him out of bed to witness that event live on TV.
"They landed on the moon at night time here in England," he recalls. "We were woken up and told it was really important. I became an Apollo nut after that even though I was only six or seven.
Like every other kid I wanted to be an astronaut. So for me it's like, 'Wow, we're certainly going back there.' We wonder why it took so long, but now we're here. It feels like a new age of inspiration.
Whether Artemis and its huge ambitions can deliver or not remains to be seen. Not to plant a flag and pick up some rocks, but to actually put down a moon base is like science fiction.
That to me is the inspiration, and I hope we get a little of that across in the film."
https://www.space.com/entertainment/go-behind-the-scenes-of-nasas-artemis-2-moon-mission-with-novas-return-to-the-moon-documentary-wednesday-night-interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67wy3EedKWs
other Artemis II
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/a-hug-for-home-away-from-home/
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/artemis-ii-crew-returns-to-houston/
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/august-clawson-artemis-ii-photos/
https://www.wvtm13.com/article/artemis-ii-nasa-sadie-dog-christina-koch/71016508
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGxz4LQfRpo (Melodysheep: ARTEMIS II: A Visual Masterpiece. 8K Cinematic Supercut)
Expedition 74 Opens Cygnus XL and Unpacks Advanced Science Gear
April 14, 2026 1:04PM
The hatches are open between Northrop Grumman’s second Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft and the International Space Station following its robotic capture and installation on Monday.
The Expedition 74 crew is now beginning to unload some of the new science and crew supplies delivered on Monday.
NASA flight engineers Chris Williams and Jack Hathaway were the first crew members to enter Cygnus XL on Tuesday after a series of pressure and leak checks inside the spacecraft.
They were joined soon after by flight engineers Jessica Meir of NASA and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) transferring time critical research samples stowed in Cygnus’ portable science freezers for preservation in the station’s MELFI science freezers and the MERLIN incubators.
Among the several tons of cargo Cygnus XL delivered Monday are over 2,300 pounds of new research hardware and science experiments.
The crew will soon begin exploring blood stem cells to treat cancers and blood disorders, study ways to protect astronaut gut health, observe proteins suspended in water to advance pharmaceutical production, and install a quantum physics module to expand the abilities of the Cold Atom Lab.
Other gear delivered aboard Cygnus XL include an advanced exercise system from ESA, new eye-imaging hardware, oxygen and nitrogen tanks to recharge spacesuits, and more.
Meanwhile, the Roscosmos Progress 93 resupply ship is nearing the end of its stay after seven months docked to the Zvezda service module’s aft port.
Cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, station commander and flight engineer, spent the day packing trash and obsolete equipment inside Progress before its departure later this month.
The duo also configured the spacecraft’s docking hardware for the upcoming undocking activities.
Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev kicked off his shift collecting air samples inside Cygnus XL shortly after Williams and Hathaway opened the spacecraft’s hatch to protect the station’s environment.
Fedyaev then spent the rest of his shift maintaining the Roscosmos segment’s orbital plumbing and ventilation systems.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2026/04/14/expedition-74-opens-cygnus-xl-and-unpacks-advanced-science-gear/
extra NASA
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/contours-of-the-james-bay-lowlands/
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/curiosity-blog-sols-4859-4866-one-small-crater-and-thousands-of-polygons/
https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/news/blog/historical-data-action-western-europes-storm-century
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/landsat/honoring-alex-goetz-a-landsat-legend/
https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/73-moon-landings-nasas-moon-base-users-guide-reveals-the-agencys-most-ambitious-space-project-will-be-fraught-with-challenges
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/moon-base-architecture-users-guide.pdf
extra extra NASA
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/science/nothing-stops-her-autistic-girl-finished-primary-school-at-5-earned-a-masters-at-11-now-aims-for-nasa-to-help-colonise-mars/articleshow/130285511.cms
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/chandra/nasa-finds-young-stars-dim-in-x-rays-surprisingly-quickly/
https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-receives-7-nominations-for-the-30th-annual-webby-awards/
https://www.nasa.gov/aeronautics/aeronautics-stem/2025-2026-dwu-winners/
73 moon landings? NASA's 'Moon Base User's Guide' reveals the agency's 'most ambitious space project' will be fraught with challenges
April 15, 2026
NASA has released a 'Moon Base User's Guide' that reveals the major gaps the agency and its partners must fill in to land and live on the moon.
NASA has published a "Moon Base User's Guide" detailing the many challenges the agency will need to overcome for it to complete 73 planned moon landings and build a permanent lunar base.
The document, published April 6, is a bare-bones nine-page list of what NASA needs to achieve the "near-impossible" space plans announced March 24 at the agency's "Ignition" event.
NASA wants a torrent of robotic and uncrewed lunar missions — landing on the moon 21 times within the next three years alone — to lay the groundwork for its $20 billion moon base and prepare for the first crewed missions in 2028.
The space agency has also said it will launch a nuclear-powered "Freedom" spacecraft to Mars by 2028.
Although the splashdown of Artemis II's crewed lunar flyby last week demonstrated that NASA can still fly humans to the moon, the Moon Base User's Guide clearly highlights lots of gaps in NASA's current capabilities.
These limitations include aspects of landing systems, habitation systems and power systems — basically, everything humans need to land and live on the moon.
If it sounds fanciful, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman seems to agree, telling attendees at the 2026 Space Symposium in Colorado Springs on April 14 that NASA does its best when it is "undertaking and achieving the near impossible," Space.com reported.
"We want to land lots of stuff, and it's okay if some of it breaks," he added. "We're going to learn."
The Moon Base User's Guide is part of a larger shake-up to American space plans. In recent years, NASA has struggled to get astronauts back to the moon and thereby set the stage for sending humans to Mars.
The success of Artemis II notwithstanding, the Artemis program is over budget (costing more than $100 billion thus far) and behind schedule, with NASA originally targeting a crewed moon landing in 2024.
Isaacman, who has been in his post since December 2025, is attempting to ramp up lunar activities to realize NASA's goals for the moon and Mars.
This overhaul includes scrapping work on humanity's first lunar space station, the lunar Gateway, to focus on establishing a presence on the lunar surface.
To achieve this, the Artemis program has been retooled to add a second crewed lunar landing mission in 2028, as well as ramping up launches and landings.
The guide was followed by an April 14 White House memorandum stating that "NASA will, within 30 days of this memorandum, initiate a program to develop a mid-power space reactor with a lunar fission surface power (FSP) variant ready for launch by 2030, and an option for a space variant for a nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) demonstration."
The backdrop for this shake-up, aside from Artemis's spiraling costs and delays, is the new space race.
China is threatening to overtake the U.S. as the leader in space exploration, with plans to land its own astronauts on the moon before 2030. And both nations are eyeing the same hydrogen-fuel-rich lunar south pole landing sites.
1/2
How to build a moon base
NASA's planned 73 moon landings will occur across three phases, according to the Moon Base User's Guide and previous Ignition documents.
It's unclear how many of these will be crewed, but NASA has said that it's starting with a rapid series of robotic and early uncrewed missions, while moon crew rotations are expected to be routine by Phase 3.
Phase 1 will comprise 25 launches and 21 landings to establish frequent and reliable access to the lunar surface. This phase is scheduled to be completed by 2029, according to NASA's Building the Moon Base plans, published March 24.
Phase 2, which is planned for between 2029 and 2032, will consist of a further 27 launches and 24 landings and will establish the initial moon base infrastructure and semiannual crewed missions.
Phase 3, from 2032 until an undisclosed future date, will then have another 29 launches and 28 landings to establish uncrewed cargo return technology and a continuous human presence on the moon.
Of course, this is considerably easier said than done. NASA famously landed humans on the moon as part of the Apollo missions more than 50 years ago.
However, building a base on the moon's south pole comes with many more challenges, starting with establishing the basics, like a consistent power source.
"The Moon Base elements and development will occur in the lunar South Pole region, which has an incredibly different lighting environment than the equatorial maria and highlands visited by Apollo," NASA wrote in the document.
"At the Moon Base, the Sun will remain low on the horizon, casting dramatic shadows that hinder solar electricity generation and subject systems to prolonged periods of extreme cold and dark."
NASA needs precise knowledge of lighting conditions and solar array performance to develop suitable solar power options, which will also need to be robust enough to survive contact with razor-sharp, electrified lunar dust.
The document also noted that NASA requires detailed knowledge of the lunar environment and systems that can operate there to use its radioisotope thermal generators — nuclear batteries that generate heat and electricity.
NASA's long-term plans for power also include building a nuclear reactor on the moon.
Simply landing on the moon as frequently as NASA plans also presents hurdles.
For example, the document notes that NASA needs to develop precision landing systems that can accurately measure the altitude of low-visibility terrain, as well as hazard avoidance systems.
Some of the power and landing gaps were flagged as architecture-driven technology gaps and will require "entirely new technologies or significant advancement in performance" of current technologies, according to the guide.
There are also unknowns barely mentioned in the document, such as the human body's response to long-term stays in the lunar environment.
These include the impacts of lunar dust, microgravity and cancer-causing cosmic rays, alongside logistical challenges related to life support, exercise and nutrition.
NASA writes that it is working on filling in the many technological and data gaps highlighted in the document. It also highlights "Mars-forward" considerations, which are the things NASA needs to develop with the moon program to achieve its ultimate aim of landing humans on Mars.
The Mars considerations included data on astronaut health in deep space and the development of nuclear power systems on the lunar surface.
These nuclear systems will be useful for building similar systems on Mars and benefit the development of NASA's planned nuclear-powered spacecraft, according to the document.
Only time will tell if NASA can achieve its ambitious plans, but recent history is not on the space agency's side.
Only two days after Artemis II's historic launch on April 1, the White House released a budget plan calling for a 23% cut in NASA's budget, amounting to around $5.6 billion.
And while NASA has said it will build its moon base on a $20 billion budget, the average estimated cost of a single Space Launch System rocket is $2.5 billion.
2/2