TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
May 18, 2026
Unraveling NGC 3169
Spiral galaxy NGC 3169 looks to be unraveling like a ball of cosmic yarn. It lies some 70 million light-years away, south of bright star Regulus toward the faint constellation Sextans. Wound up spiral arms are pulled out into sweeping tidal tails as NGC 3169 (left) and neighboring NGC 3166 interact gravitationally. Eventually the galaxies will merge into one, a common fate even for bright galaxies in the local universe. Drawn out stellar arcs and plumes are clear indications of the ongoing gravitational interactions across the deep and colorful galaxy group photo. The telescopic frame spans about 20 arc minutes or about 400,000 light-years at the group's estimated distance, and includes smaller, bluish NGC 3165 to the right. NGC 3169 is also known to shine across the spectrum from radio to X-rays, harboring an active galactic nucleus that is the site of a supermassive black hole.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cqUenL9M3Y
Do I have to choose one of them or can I bring my own?
Storm Alert, Super Flare Record, Plasma Filaments | S0 News and Monday mornin' frens
May.18.2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRYSejrxfss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TTYtpNHKI0 (Fox Weather: Severe Weather Threat Across The Great Plains And Midwest This Week)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptUYsUQ9B24 (On the Pulse with Silki: BREAKING ! Mass EVACUATIONS triggered by Shallow Earthquake in Guangxi in China -Buildings Collapsed)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENrIauIEKq8 (Max Velocity: A Tornado Outbreak Is Likely Today…)
https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/science-environment/3912945-twin-earthquakes-shake-southwest-china
https://www.miragenews.com/seismologist-cracks-pacific-earthquake-system-1675522/
https://phys.org/news/2026-05-spacecraft-earth-shield-solar-storms.html
https://meteoagent.com/schumann-resonance-forecast
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes-volcanoes/news/302739/Volcano-earthquake-report-for-Monday-18-May-2026.html
https://www.weather.gov/lsx/STLTornado
https://www.tornadohq.com/
https://www.spc.noaa.gov/
https://www.weather.gov/
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
https://spaceweather.com/
Near-Earth Object 2026 JH2 Ranks Zero on the Loeb Scale
May 17, 2026
On May 10, 2026, a new near-Earth object labeled 2026 JH2 (as announced here), was discovered by the Mount Lemmon Survey in Tucson, Arizona.
Subsequently, other observatories confirmed that the object follows an elliptical orbit around the Sun, extending from the vicinity of Earth, with perihelion distance that is only 1% larger than the Earth-Sun separation (AU), and out to 3.83 AU.
2026 JH2 will pass closest to Earth tomorrow May, 18, 2026 at 21:23 UTC, arriving within 109,880 kilometers based on the NASA/JPL database here. This distance is 17.2 times larger than the Earth’s radius and 28.6% of the distance to the Moon.
From the closest vantage point of 2026 JH2, the Earth will occupy an angular diameter of 6.7 degrees, which is 13.4 times larger than the diameter of the Moon when viewed from Earth.
The physical diameter of 2026 JH2 is estimated to be between 15 and 35 meters, roughly the length of a semi-truck or a bowling lane.
At its close approach to Earth, it will brighten up to an apparent magnitude of 11.5, sufficiently bright to be detectable by small telescopes with an aperture larger than 8 centimeters.
Is such a close passage of a Solar System object anomalous?
Near-Earth objects of similar size pass within one third of the Earth-Moon distance approximately once a year based on NASA’s CNEOS catalog here.
All in all, 2026 JH2 should not raise any alarm and be ranked as 0 on the Loeb Classification Scale (as discussed here, here, here and here).
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/near-earth-object-2026-jh2-ranks-zero-on-the-loeb-scale-7677df86150c
extra space objects and stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hll7C4FBDc8 (#moon #johnlenardwalson @nasa @moon @news @malta @USA @Japan @China @Russia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSqxlkIRo64 (Angry Astronaut: I'M SHOCKED! UFO researcher Beatriz Villarroel got thrown under the bus by Avi Loeb!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCGhkuIvcIc (Angry Astronaut: Today, I saw the first Fusion Rocket Engine! IN PERSON! Pulsar Fusion Tour!)
What’s Next for Artemis II AVATARs
May 18, 2026
Organ chips from Artemis II's AVATAR investigation have arrived at the laboratory at Emulate, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts for analysis.
The AVATAR (A Virtual Astronaut Tissue Analog Response) investigation uses personalized organ chips made from each astronaut's own cells to study the impacts of space radiation and microgravity on human health.
The chips took a carefully coordinated journey to reach the lab. After Artemis II returned to Earth, the AVATAR hardware and organ chips were first transported to the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, California, where scientists prepared the chips for transport to the laboratory.
When the chips arrived at Emulate, scientists began analyzing the cellular and molecular changes that occurred in each crew member's bone marrow organ chip during exposure to deep space conditions.
They will compare this data to ground control chips that stayed on Earth, as well as to pre- and post-flight blood samples from the astronauts.
Based on prior spaceflight research, scientists expect to see radiation damage due to the deep space environment. The team is also using advanced scientific techniques, including single-cell RNA sequencing, to potentially find unexpected changes.
By comparing the differences in the organ chips to changes identified in astronaut blood samples using similar techniques, researchers will characterize how the organ chips model individual crew responses to spaceflight.
Analysis will take time as scientists work through complex datasets and validate their findings before publishing in peer-reviewed journals.
The team plans to share preliminary findings at conferences and scientific talks as the analysis progresses, giving other researchers early insights that could inform future missions and medical research.
"This first-of-its-kind experiment that traveled to the Moon and back to Earth will help us study how each crew member individually responds to the extreme conditions in space," said Lisa Carnell, Director of NASA's Biological and Physical Sciences Division.
"Organ chips could be a game changer for NASA, enabling us to send future crew members' avatars ahead of them on deep space journeys, so NASA could develop personalized medical kits for each astronaut."
The AVATAR investigation is a demonstration of the power of collaboration between government, industry, and academia.
Government partners included NASA's Biological and Physical Sciences Division, NASA’s Human Research Program, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health.
The commercial and academic partners include organ chip manufacturer Emulate, Harvard's Wyss Institute, and Space Tango, the company that built the custom hardware for AVATAR.
https://science.nasa.gov/biological-physical/whats-next-for-artemis-ii-avatars/
etra Artemis
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/great-balls-of-fire/
https://www.nasa.gov/gallery/moon-base-renderings/
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/artemis-2-moon-astronauts-snap-gorgeous-shot-of-swirling-stars-space-photo-of-the-day-for-may-18-2026
https://x.com/NASAArtemis/status/2055323662794793361
Not a big reveal: Apollo 'UFO' images have been public for decades
May 18, 2026
"A bunch of serious people are suggesting that the Apollo stuff is 'newly declassified,' and that is simply not true."
The Apollo photos really shouldn't have been part of the big UFO drop.
Last Friday (May 8), the Pentagon released its first batch of declassified "UFO files," responding to a directive that President Donald Trump issued in February.
Many of the 158 files focus on recent sightings by advanced U.S. military sensors — a "misshapen and uneven ball of white light" flying over Syria in October 2024, for example, and a small, bright dot cruising through a field of windmills in that same year.
But some of them go back decades — all the way to the 1940s in several cases. (There has apparently been a slight cull or consolidation in the past week; there were 161 files when the drop was first announced.)
The older material includes 14 files related to NASA's human spaceflight programs — two from the Gemini 7 mission to Earth orbit in December 1965, one from Apollo 11 in July 1969, six from Apollo 12 in November of that year, four from Apollo 17 in December 1972 and one from crewed flights to the Skylab space station in 1973 and 1974.
The Apollo 11 file is a "technical crew debriefing," in which astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins discuss a few strange things that they saw and experienced during their historic mission.
Aldrin, for example, states that he saw "what I thought were little flashes inside the cabin" — a phenomenon that he attributes to "some sort of penetration" or perhaps static electricity.
There are crew debriefings from Apollo 17 and Skylab, too, as well as other transcripts and/or audio excerpts from Gemini 7, Apollo 12 and Apollo 17.
The UFO file drop also features photos captured on the lunar surface during those latter two missions, with the Pentagon highlighting supposedly mysterious features.
For example, one Apollo 17 photo "contains three 'dots' in a triangular formation in the lower right quadrant of the lunar sky that is clearly visible upon magnification of the image," its description reads.
Another, captured during Apollo 12, "features five highlighted areas of interest, labeled 'Area 1' through 'Area 5,' above the horizon, in which unidentified phenomena are visible."
These photos and transcripts got a lot of attention shortly after last Friday's drop, with outlets like CBS News and Fortune discussing the material. Some of these stories used verbs like "reveal," which is a bit misleading, because this old NASA material has been publicly available for decades.
A number of folks have pointed this out. "Every single image released today from Apollo has simply added yellow boxes to images that have otherwise been public for half a century," astrophysicist Grant Tremblay noted on X on May 8.
"I am making no comment on aliens or UAP here, and am happy to see the release. But a bunch of serious people are suggesting that the Apollo stuff is 'newly declassified,' and that is simply not true," he added in another X post on that same day. (UAP, short for "unidentified anomalous phenomena," is the U.S. government's preferred term for UFOs these days.)
In a May 9 X post, Tremblay guided followers to the Project Apollo Archive on Flickr, inviting them to see the photos in bulk there. Such a perusal will reveal that many Apollo images sport "film defects," he added, highlighting a likely cause of the lunar "UFOs."
Graphic designer Jason Major, a space fan and veteran processor of space imagery, made a similar point. "This is dumb. There are blue spots, specks, scratches, flares, and bits of crud in almost ALL of the Apollo photos.
They were TAKEN WITH FILM CAMERAS IN SPACE — not to mention chemically developed and then scanned by various methods over the course of six decades," Major wrote in a May 8 X post about the Pentagon UFO-file drop.
This isn't to say that you should ignore the files or dismiss folks who are interested in them; some UAP observations are genuinely mysterious, and keeping an open mind is generally a good thing.
But keep a little perspective, too, and know that people have been poring over the Apollo material for longer than most of us have been alive.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/search-for-life/not-a-big-reveal-apollo-ufo-images-have-been-public-for-decades
extra space
https://spacedaily.com/in-1982-the-soviet-union-landed-a-probe-on-the-surface-of-venus-that-survived-127-minutes-in-heat-that-melts-lead-and-pressure-dense-enough-to-crush-a-submarine-long-enough-to-scan-back-two/
https://spacedaily.com/sd-the-galileo-spacecraft-was-deliberately-crashed-into-jupiter-in-2003-because-mission-planners-feared-its-plutonium-powered-hull-might-contaminate-europas-hidden-ocean-and-the-engineers-who-designed/
https://indiandefencereview.com/us-military-hypersonic-mach-5-haste-test-flights/
https://defence-blog.com/japan-reveals-sweeping-military-space-buildup/
extra extra space
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202605/1361275.shtml
https://www.esa.int/Education/Educational_Satellites/Testing_GIFTS_for_space
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2026/05/Vega-C_with_Smile_inside_its_mobile_hangar_on_the_launch_pad
https://www.uniladtech.com/science/space/scientists-detect-blue-flashes-deep-space-946807-20260518
Japan reveals sweeping military space buildup
May 18, 2026
Key Points
Japan's Ministry of Defense released a May 2026 briefing confirming a Space Operations Group expansion to 880 personnel and a fiscal 2026 space budget of approximately $1 billion.
Japan's defense space spending has surged from 79 billion yen in fiscal 2022 to 540 billion yen in fiscal 2025, with SDA satellite launch and laser ranging equipment planned for fiscal 2026.
Japan’s Ministry of Defense has released a comprehensive briefing document outlining its space domain defense buildup, revealing a sweeping expansion of military space capabilities that includes a dedicated Space Operations Group growing to 880 personnel, a space defense budget that has surged more than threefold since 2022, and an ambitious program to field satellites capable of tracking hypersonic glide vehicles and disrupting adversary command and control systems in orbit.
The May 2026 briefing, titled “Strengthening Defense Capabilities in the Space Domain,” presents the most detailed public picture yet of how Japan is restructuring its Self-Defense Forces around space as a contested operational environment rather than a benign support domain.
The document confirms that Japan’s defense space budget reached approximately 174 billion yen in fiscal year 2026 on a contract basis, part of a broader trajectory that saw space spending jump from roughly 79 billion yen ($497 million) in fiscal 2022 to 540 billion yen ($3.4 billion) in fiscal 2025 before the current year’s allocation, according to the Ministry of Defense budget charts included in the briefing.
The organizational centerpiece of the buildup is the Space Operations Group, a new command structure within the Air Self-Defense Force that the Ministry plans to formally establish with approximately 880 personnel by the end of fiscal year 2026.
The force has grown from an initial 20-person Space Operations Squadron established in 2020 to approximately 670 people at the end of fiscal 2025, with the restructuring renaming the Air Self-Defense Force itself as the Aerospace Self-Defense Force in fiscal 2026.
The Space Operations Group will be organized around three Space Operations Squadrons, a Space Support Unit, and a Space Intelligence Group, providing dedicated command structures for space situational awareness operations, satellite interference monitoring, space support functions, and intelligence collection and analysis from space-based sensors.
The threat picture driving this expansion is detailed explicitly in the briefing’s opening slides.
China’s military satellite fleet has grown approximately sixfold since 2012, according to Military Balance 2024 data cited in the document, reaching 237 satellites across all categories by 2024 compared with just 40 in 2012.
The briefing catalogs the full range of anti-satellite attack methods that Japan assesses as threatening its space assets and those of its allies, covering physical co-orbital weapons, electronic jamming, high-power microwave directed energy, ground-based laser dazzling, cyber attacks against ground control facilities, and anti-satellite missiles. Space debris, now exceeding 30,000 tracked objects according to NASA figures cited in the document, adds a non-intentional but compounding threat to satellite survivability.
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The satellite capability development program outlined in the briefing covers four distinct mission areas.
For rapid and accurate situational awareness, Japan is developing a constellation of information-gathering satellites beginning operations in fiscal 2026, with QPS Research Institute developing small satellites capable of processing imagery data onboard and transmitting via optical communications links, IHI Aerospace and JAXA using the HTV-X cargo spacecraft to demonstrate infrared sensors for hypersonic glide vehicle detection and tracking, and NTT Data developing tactical AI satellites that integrate information from multiple satellite sources and provide two-way tactical communications with ground equipment starting in fiscal 2027.
For mission assurance, the briefing describes three additional programs: Canon Electronics developing a multi-orbit observation satellite capable of monitoring satellites from low Earth orbit through geostationary orbit, Astroscale demonstrating rendezvous and proximity operations at geostationary altitude alongside optical communication data transmission between satellites, and Space One developing an enhanced Kairos small launch vehicle with methane engine capability and rapidly configurable sensor payloads to provide responsive launch access.
The space situational awareness infrastructure already fielded or under development includes an SSA operations system operational since March 2023, SSA radars that began operation in March 2025, satellite interference monitoring equipment operational since March 2024, and laser ranging equipment planned for fiscal 2026. A Space Domain Awareness satellite is scheduled for launch in fiscal 2026, completing a ground and space sensor architecture that gives Japan independent visibility into the orbital environment surrounding its assets.
Japan’s cooperation with the United States in space is deepening alongside the domestic buildup.
The briefing notes that the U.S. Space Forces Japan was newly established at Yokota Air Base in December 2024, creating a dedicated American space force presence in Japan for the first time and deepening interoperability between Japanese and American space domain awareness systems.
Japan joined the Combined Space Operations initiative in 2023, a multilateral framework now comprising ten nations including the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom, that coordinates space security policy at the chiefs of staff level.
The two countries confirmed cooperation on developing a low Earth orbit constellation for hypersonic glide vehicle detection and tracking at their March 2025 defense ministerial meeting, extending collaboration that already covers protected anti-jam tactical satellite communications through the PATS framework.
The international satellite capability comparison included in the briefing is notable for its candor about where Japan currently lags.
China leads all nations in reconnaissance satellite numbers with 167 as of 2024, according to Military Balance data cited in the document, while the United States leads in early warning satellites with 46.
Japan lists its own commercial satellite constellation beginning operations in fiscal 2026 as its primary near-term solution to the gap, alongside the longer-term development of tactical AI satellites and multi-orbit observation platforms.
Russia and India round out the comparison, with both nations operating multiple satellite categories but at smaller scale than either the United States or China.
The scale and speed of Japan’s space military buildup is without precedent in the country’s postwar defense history.
A force that did not formally exist six years ago will reach 880 personnel by the end of this year, operating a growing architecture of space situational awareness sensors, satellite interference monitoring equipment, and intelligence collection satellites, all integrated into an increasingly capable allied network centered on American space forces.
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Russia strikes Ukraine in retaliation for Moscow drone raid – MOD
18 May, 2026 09:57 | Updated 18 May, 2026 11:00
Russian forces have carried out a large-scale missile and drone strike against military-related targets in Ukraine in response to “terrorist attacks” Kiev launched over the weekend, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.
On Sunday, Moscow and its suburbs came under what appeared to be the largest Ukrainian drone raid in more than a year, which left at least three people, including an Indian national, killed and over a dozen wounded.
Kiev launched some 130 UAVs at the Russian capital, according to Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Monday that the overnight bombardment focused on Ukrainian defense industry facilities; fuel, energy and transport infrastructure; as well as naval ports and military airfields.
Land- and sea-based precision weapons and drones were deployed during the attack, the ministry said.
The objective of the strike has been achieved. All designated targets were hit,” it stressed.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky praised his military and intelligence services for the attack on Moscow, in which three civilians were killed. It “sent a clear signal that one shouldn’t mess with Ukraine,” he claimed.
Zelensky also suggested that the raid meant that the conflict was moving to Russian territory, neglecting the steady advance by Moscow’s forces in Donbass and along other parts of the frontline.
Ukrainian drone raids deep inside Russia have intensified since mid-March, with Kiev launching hundreds of fixed-wing UAVs on an almost daily basis against residential neighborhoods, civilian infrastructure, and industrial facilities far from the front.
Russian officials have described the aerial incursions as “terrorist attacks” meant to compensate for the setbacks the Ukrainian military has been suffering on the battlefield.
Russia has responded with long-range missile and drone strikes targeting Ukraine’s military, energy, and other dual-use infrastructure, and has said the operations are aimed solely at assets supporting Kiev’s war effort and not at civilian targets.
https://www.rt.com/russia/640123-ukraine-strike-terrorist-moscow/
extra RT
https://www.rt.com/russia/640145-russian-nuclear-exercise-ally/
https://www.rt.com/russia/640115-colombian-mercenary-ukraine-interview/
Drones target key Russian refinery deep inside Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
May 18, 2026, 04:57 AM
Explosions rocked the Russian city of Kstovo in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast amid what local residents described as a drone strike, Russian Telegram channel Astra reported on May 18.
Smoke plumes were spotted rising above the city. The Nizhny Novgorod airport temporarily suspended its operations.
The UAVs were likely targeting the local oil refinery or oil pumping station, according to the Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova+.
Kstovo is home to, among others, the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez oil refinery. Ukrainian forces earlier struck the facility in April. The town also hosts the Starolikeevo pumping station, part of the Transneft pipeline network.
The Gorky oil pumping station is also located near Kstovo. It was the target of an SBU drone strike on April 23 which damaged three oil storage tanks.
https://english.nv.ua/nation/explosions-rock-kstovo-amid-drone-attack-video-50608873.html
https://twitter.com/tweetsNV/status/2056327549760733226
other Russia and Ukraine
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/russia-ukraine-war/article/russian-drone-hit-chinese-cargo-ship-overnight-in-black-sea-ukraine/
https://www.marineinsight.com/ukraine-launches-largest-drone-attack-on-moscow-causing-fires-damages-deaths-of-civilians/