TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
May 13, 2026
NGC 188: Old Cluster in the New General Catalog
The New General Catalog of star clusters and nebulae really isn't so new. In fact, it was published in 1888 - an effort by J. L. E. Dreyer to consolidate the work of astronomers William, Caroline, and John Herschel along with others into a useful single, complete catalog of astronomical discoveries and measurements. Dreyer's work was largely successful and is still important today, as this famous catalog continues to lend its "NGC" to bright clusters, galaxies, and nebulae. Take for example the star cluster known as NGC 188 (item number 188 in the NGC compilation). It lies about 6,000 light-years distant in the northern constellation Cepheus and represents a galactic or open star cluster. With an age of about 7 billion years, NGC 188 is old for an open cluster. Its old, evolved red giant stars have yellowish hues in this colorful, deep sky view. NGC 188 also enjoys the designation Caldwell 1 in a modern compilation of deep sky objects. Located well above the plane of the Milky Way and seen in the direction of planet Earth's north celestial pole, the ancient stellar group is known to some as the Polarissima Cluster.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AflILDrbPLc
Earth Rotation Glitches Again, Solar/Quake Watch | S0 News and frens of a feather
May.13.2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7NtGsHbu6A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5UMLVfmqkU (Shaun Atwood: Earth Disaster Cycle, Government within the Clown World || With Ben Davidson LIVE!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLnkogEGx5A (Tamitha Skov: Dual Big Eruptions, a Glancing Blow & More to Come | Solar Storm Forecast 12 May 2026)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g0GxfN9tnU (EarthMaster: Global Earthquake activity starting to pick up. Large hole on the Sun is facing us. Tuesday Night)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JqYDVyOgLQ (MrMBB333: This is what happened while MOST of us slept!)
https://watchers.news/2026/05/12/avo-raises-mount-kupreanof-to-yellow-advisory-after-increased-seismicity-and-gas-emissions-alaska/
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/weather/shimmering-silver-sunglint-obscures-hawaii-as-hurricane-approaches-earth-from-space
https://www.gdnonline.com/Details/1394508
https://x.com/StefanBurnsGeo/status/2054357109673021678
https://meteoagent.com/schumann-resonance-forecast
https://www.tornadohq.com/
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquake/news/302227/World-Earthquake-Report-for-Wednesday-13-May-2026.html
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
https://spaceweather.com/
Two spacecraft observed both hemispheres of interstellar comet simultaneously
13-May-2026
The Southwest Research Institute-led Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) instruments aboard ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft and NASA’s Europa Clipper made unique observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS in late 2025.
SwRI leads the UVS instruments on both spacecraft, simultaneously imaging both hemispheres of the comet and detecting the comet’s ultraviolet emissions.
Only the third recognized interstellar object, 3I/ATLAS entered our solar system in July of 2025.
“As the comet passed between Juice and Europa Clipper, we were able to informally coordinate observations between the two spacecraft,” said Dr. Kurt Retherford, the principal investigator of Juice-UVS and Europa-UVS.
“Crucially, we observed hydrogen, oxygen and carbon emissions. These elements are produced when gases escaping the comet’s nucleus break apart into atoms when exposed to sunlight.”
UVS is one of 10 science instruments aboard the Juice spacecraft. The mission has overarching goals of investigating potentially habitable worlds around the gas giant and studying the Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giants in our solar system and beyond.
“Observing the interstellar comet was some exciting bonus science. The resulting rare and unique dataset includes gas emissions and scattered dust,” said SwRI’s Dr. Philippa Molyneux, co-deputy principal investigator for the Juice-UVS instrument.
“This was the first time we’ve had simultaneous direct views of a comet’s coma of escaping gas from two directions. Europa Clipper showed us the night side of the comet, with a great deal of scattered dust, while Juice imaged mostly glowing gas on the day side.”
Comets are composed of water ice, dry ice (i.e., CO2 ice) and other materials. As they approach the Sun, comets heat up, and their components escape into space.
The researchers found higher levels of carbon emissions from 3I/ATLAS than expected early on, especially in comparison to typical comets from our solar system, corroborating similar findings through other observations about the interstellar comet’s origin and composition.
Observing the trends of emissions over several days revealed how the ratios of these molecules changed and how the comet evolved during its journey through our solar system.
“By studying the ratio of water ice and dry ice, we can compare the composition of this interstellar comet to comets native to our solar system,” Molyneux said. “This helps us understand if the solar system where 3I/ATLAS formed is similar to ours or different.”
“I think the coordination with Europa Clipper was a fun and impactful demonstration that showed how the two projects could coordinate observation plans,” Retherford said. “And because SwRI’s team is involved in both missions, it was a special highlight for us in terms of working together.”
Juice is the first large-class mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 program. The spacecraft and science instruments were built by teams from more than 20 European countries, Japan and the United States.
SwRI’s UVS instrument team includes additional scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder, the SETI institute, the University of Leicester (U.K.), Imperial College London (U.K.), the University of Liège (Belgium), the Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) and the Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (France). The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center oversees the UVS contribution to ESA through the agency’s Solar System Exploration Program.
The Juice spacecraft was developed by Airbus Defence and Space.
Europa Clipper’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology.
The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1127977
other space objects
https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Fireballs_and_lightning_very_very_frightening_or_not
https://thedebrief.org/clues-to-the-origin-of-falling-space-objects-previously-hidden-in-the-data-are-being-revealed-with-help-from-ai/
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/playing-professor-avi-loeb-on-a-movie-set-about-extraterrestrial-life-80e45f584124
https://krforadio.com/ixp/150/p/whaleback-shipwreck-duluth/
The cell phones on Artemis were cool, we need more of it.
Surprised there isn't anyone out there right now challenging the flat/spherical/stationary/whatever to put it all to bed for good (Maybe there is and I just haven't seen it yet)
Would be nice if someone launched us into orbit so we can see for ourselves.
NASA’s Planet-Hunting TESS Reveals Dazzling Night Sky
May 13, 2026
NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has released its most complete view of the starry sky to date, filling in gaps from previous observations.
Nearly 6,000 colored dots scattered across the image show the locations of either confirmed or candidate exoplanets — worlds beyond our solar system — identified by the mission as of September 2025 at the end of TESS’s second extended mission.
“Over the last eight years, TESS has become a fire hose of exoplanet science,” said Rebekah Hounsell, a TESS associate project scientist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“It’s helped us find planets of all different sizes, from tiny Mercury-like ones to those larger than Jupiter. Some of them are even in the habitable zone, where liquid water might be possible on the surface, an important factor in our search for life beyond Earth.”
The TESS mission scans a wide swath of the sky, called a sector, for about a month at a time using its four cameras.
These long stares allow the spacecraft to track the brightness changes of tens of thousands of stars, looking for variations in their light that might come from orbiting planets.
Researchers assembled an all-sky mosaic made of 96 sectors observed between April 2018, when TESS began its work, and September 2025.
The blue dots in the image mark the locations of nearly 700 confirmed planets, as of September 9. This menagerie includes worlds that may be covered by volcanoes, are being destroyed by their stars, or orbit two stars — experiencing double sunrises and sunsets each day.
The orange dots represent more than 5,000 candidate planets that are awaiting verification.
To date, scientists have confirmed over 6,270 exoplanets using missions like TESS, NASA’s retired Kepler Space Telescope, and other facilities.
Also captured in the mosaic is the bright plane of our Milky Way galaxy, seen as a glowing arc through the center. The bright white ovals in the lower left are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.
These satellite galaxies are located 160,000 and 200,000 light-years away, respectively.
“The more we dig into the large TESS dataset, especially using automated algorithms, the more surprises we find,” said Allison Youngblood, the TESS project scientist at NASA Goddard.
“In addition to planets, TESS has helped us study rivers of young stars, observe dynamic galactic behavior, and monitor asteroids near Earth. As TESS fills in more of the night sky, there’s no knowing what it might see next.”
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/tess/nasas-planet-hunting-tess-reveals-dazzling-night-sky/
extra NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/commercialresupply/2026/05/12/station-hums-with-advanced-research-as-dragon-nears-launch/
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/iss-research/studying-pneumonia-in-space-for-heart-health-on-earth/
https://nasawatch.com/workforce/wallops-is-now-under-ksc-control/
https://www.collectspace.com/news/news-051326a-hidden-mickey-mouse-nasa-artemis-ii-moon-mission.html
https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/usgs-nasa-map-critical-minerals-65000-feet
extra extra NASA
https://www.ans.org/news/article-8027/educator-training-webinar-looks-at-lunar-nuclear-power/
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2026/05/12/nasa-spacex-target-may-13-for-resupply-mission-launch-2/
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/press/rep/release/cruz-cantwell-welcome-nasa-artemis-ii-crew/
https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-langley-engineer-attends-faa-training/
USGS, NASA Map Critical Minerals From 65,000 Feet
May 12, 2026
The U.S. Geological Survey and NASA announced an addition to the world’s largest airborne hyperspectral survey – a digital portrait of critical minerals and geology in the American West, taken from 12 miles up.
“Regaining America’s mineral independence takes a united effort starting with world-leading USGS mineral science and NASA aeronautics.
As of today, the hyperspectral survey from the edge of earth’s atmosphere has covered about 400,000 square miles, giving us a brilliant new picture of the mineral wealth under the western states,” said Andrea Travnicek, assistant secretary of the Interior for Water and Science.
“This hyperspectral survey is one of the latest tools for a USGS mission that started in 1879: mapping the mineral resources of the United States.
NASA flies the highest of all our cutting-edge Earth MRI surveys which together show where to look for the minerals needed to drive the U.S. economy and national security,” said USGS Director Ned Mamula.
“The 60-year partnership between the USGS and NASA has benefitted both the space program through USGS mapping the moon for Apollo and Artemis missions and had terrestrial benefits such as Landsat and these hyperspectral flights.”
The hyperspectral survey is part of the USGS’s Earth Mapping Resources Initiative, called Earth MRI, and is part of the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx), a NASA-USGS partnership.
Earth MRI works with the geological surveys of Colorado and 44 other states, educational institutions and industry to map critical minerals in the ground and in mine waste.
Earth MRI data yields other applications resulting from greater knowledge of the nation’s geology, such as detailed data on water availability and hazards like landslides.
The survey flights conducted by NASA’s ER-2 high-altitude plane from Colorado Springs started April 1 and will continue until May 20, weather permitting.
The aircraft carries instruments that measure dozens to hundreds of wavelengths of light—including ultraviolet, short-wave infrared and thermal infrared—reflecting off the Earth's surface.
These measurements capture 'spectral fingerprints' that scientists at the USGS analyze to identify minerals.
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Illustrating the importance of minerals to technology, the ER-2 is itself primarily constructed from aluminum, nickel and titanium, all of which appear on the 2025 List of Critical Minerals maintained by the USGS.
The United States relied on imported sources for all the titanium it used last year, and at least 75% percent of the aluminum and 41% of the nickel, according to the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026.
The last step in the process is ground-truthing – examining rocks in prospective areas detected from the edge of space. Field measurements further refine the airborne data.
Using backpack-mounted spectrometers, they measure the same areas from the ground to account for atmospheric conditions and confirm mineral identifications.
Last month, USGS geologist Erik Tharalson investigated an anomaly located by a previous flight in the hyperspectral survey that could be related to a porphyry copper deposit, a potential source of critical minerals.
"It’s a large outcrop of volcanic rocks, but the minerals in it would be easy to miss. That’s why the hyperspectral survey is so critically important,” Tharalson said.
USGS and NASA are continuing airborne imaging from California to the Rocky Mountain front range and partnering with academic and commercial groups on targeted surveys of legacy mine sites.
Hyperspectral mapping is part of Earth MRI’s broader effort to collect and analyze geologic samples and to acquire geophysical and geochemical data that together provide a national-scale picture of mineral resources.
“The Earth MRI hyperspectral campaign highlights the importance of continued investment in modern geoscience data collection across the western United States.
Colorado’s complex geology makes the Rocky Mountain region an ideal area for advanced airborne mapping and remote sensing work.
The information collected through these efforts can improve our understanding of critical mineral resources, water systems, and geologic hazards while supporting future geologic mapping and scientific research.
Through AASG, state geological surveys look forward to continued collaboration with federal partners to help maximize the scientific and public value of these efforts,” said Colorado Geological Survey Director Matt Morgan, who is president of the American Association of State Geologists.
Earth MRI data is made publicly available in keeping with longstanding USGS Fundamental Science Practices and Executive Order 14303 Restoring Gold Standard Science which emphasizes the importance of scientific peer review and open communication.
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few moar space weather peeps
This Wasn't on my 2026 Bingo Card…
May 13, 2026
After a swarm of earthquakes struck deep under the Bismarck Sea, an underwater volcano only known to have erupted once before has suddenly strung to life and even from a depth of 1300 meters (4300 ft) below the surface of the ocean, it's blasting an ash column 2700 meters (9000 ft) up into the atmosphere, indicating this is a major underwater volcanic eruption.
In the Bismarck Sea there is a long history of volcanoes experiencing slope collapse, leading to major underwater landslides that generate deadly tsunamis that strike surrounding island slopes.
With the Central Bismarck Sea Volcano currently erupting profusely and with the earthquake activity, the risk of a sudden deadly tsunami occurring is greatly increased. Geophysicist Stefan Burns reports…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFmSKtBiYIk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXUcdpnljSA (Dobsonian Power: ASTRONAUT DESCRIBING SEEING THOUSANDS OF UFO'S!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyq_zgJmwsk (Ray's Astro: Is 3I:ATLAS Natural… Or Something Else? | New Evidence & Pictures)
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/mars-2020-perseverance/perseverance-rover/nasas-perseverance-rover-snaps-selfie-in-mars-western-frontier/
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/perseverance-stuns-in-new-selfie/
extra x3 NASA
https://www.streetinsider.com/PRNewswire/Antarctic+Microbes+Put+Survival+to+the+Test+in+Space/26483937.html
https://www.al.com/news/huntsville/2026/05/nasa-administrator-to-attend-ribbon-cutting-at-space-rocket-center.html
https://starlust.org/james-webb-space-telescope-provides-never-seen-before-map-of-the-universe/
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae5bac
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Snaps Selfie in Mars’ Western Frontier
May 12, 2026
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover recently took a self-portrait against a sweeping backdrop of ancient Martian terrain at a location the science team calls “Lac de Charmes.”
Assembled from 61 individual images, the selfie shows Perseverance training its mast on a rocky outcrop on which it had just made a circular abrasion patch, with the western rim of Jezero Crater stretching into the background.
The selfie was captured on March 11, the 1,797th Martian day, or sol, of the mission, during the rover’s deepest push west beyond the crater.
Perseverance is in its fifth science campaign, known as the Northern Rim Campaign, of its mission on the Red Planet. The Lac de Charmes region represents some of the most scientifically compelling terrain the rover has visited.
“We took this image when the rover was in the ‘Wild West’ beyond the Jezero Crater rim — the farthest west we have been since we landed at Jezero a little over five years ago,” said Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
“We had just abraded and analyzed the ‘Arethusa’ outcrop, and the rover was sitting in a spot that provided a great view of both the Jezero Rim and the local terrain outside of the crater.”
During abrading, the rover grinds down a portion of the rock’s surface, allowing the science team to analyze what’s inside.
The technique enabled the team to determine that the Arethusa outcrop is composed of igneous minerals that likely predate the formation of Jezero Crater. Igneous rocks with large mineral crystals form underground as molten rock cools and solidifies.
Perseverance acquired the selfie — its sixth since landing on Mars in 2021 — using the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) camera mounted at the end of its robotic arm, which made 62 precision movements over approximately one hour to build the composite image (learn more about how selfies are made).
Significant science
Along with the selfie, Perseverance used Mastcam-Z, located on its mast, to capture a mosaic of the “Arbot” area in Lac de Charmes on April 5, or Sol 1882.
Made of 46 images, the panorama offers one of the richest geological vistas of the mission, revealing a windswept landscape of diverse rock textures.
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The image provides the team a clear road map for investigating the ridgeline and the area’s ancient rock variety, including what appear to be megabreccia — large fragments (some the size of skyscrapers) hurled by a massive meteorite impact that occurred on the plain called Isidis Planitia about 3.9 billion years ago.
“What I see in this image is excellent exposure of likely the oldest rocks we are going to investigate during this mission,” said Ken Farley, Perseverance’s deputy project scientist at Caltech in Pasadena.
“There is a sharp ridgeline visible in the mosaic whose jagged, angular texture contrasts starkly with the rounded boulders in the foreground.
We also see a feature that may be a volcanic dike, a vertical intrusion of magma that hardened in place and was left standing as the softer surrounding material eroded away over billions of years.”
The rock color in the mosaic offers less information to the science team than the distinctive textures, which help them differentiate the rock types.
Unlike Jezero Crater’s river delta, which is composed of sedimentary rock, some rocks here appear to be extrusive igneous rocks (molten rock that reached the surface as lava flows) and impactites (rocks created or modified by a meteorite impact) believed to have formed before the crater about 4 billion years ago, offering a window into the planet’s deep early crust.
New ballgame, near-marathon distance
“The rover’s study of these really ancient rocks is a whole new ballgame,” said Stack Morgan.
“These rocks — especially if they’re from deep in the crust — could give us insights applicable to the entire planet, like whether there was a magma ocean on Mars and what initial conditions eventually made it a habitable planet.”
After studying Arethusa, Perseverance drove northwest to the Arbot area, where it has been analyzing other rocky outcrops.
When the team is satisfied with the work accomplished there, the rover will drive south to “Gardevarri,” a site with a notably clear exposure of olivine-bearing rocks.
Formed in cooling magma, these types of rocks contain information that can help scientists better understand Mars’ volcanic history and provide context for large-scale geological processes.
From there, the rover is expected to head southeast toward a region the team is calling “Singing Canyon” for more insights into the planet’s early crust.
After more than five years of surface operations, Perseverance has abraded 62 rocks, collected 27 rock cores in its sample tubes (25 sealed, 2 unsealed), and traveled almost 26 miles (42 kilometers) — in other words, just shy of a marathon (26.2 miles, or 42.195 kilometers).
“Having the benefit of four previous rover missions, the Perseverance team has always known our mission was a marathon and not a sprint,” said acting Perseverance project manager Steve Lee at JPL.
“We’ve almost reached marathon distance. Our selfie may show that the rover is a bit dusty, but its beauty is more than skin deep. Perseverance is in great shape as we continue our explorations and extend into ultramarathon drive distances.”
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Perhaps.
Minus the sensationalism, him and the others help me follow along with the daily shizzle and that helps me a lot.