TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
September 8, 2026
Hubble: Decagon Around Saturn's South Pole
Why are Saturn’s poles geometric? Saturn’s North Pole has been known to be surrounded by a hexagonal (6 sides) cloud since discovery in 1987 in data taken by NASA’s Voyager spacecrafts, which quickly flew past the ringed world in the early 1980s. Now, recent observations of Saturn by the Hubble Space Telescope reveal a slightly different geometric cloud pattern around the South Pole: a decagon (10 sides). The geometric boundaries are possibly caused by waves when the fast-moving gas away from the poles interacts with slower-moving gas closer to the poles. In the featured image composite by the Hubble taken last year, the South Pole of Saturn is marked by an X and surrounded by bands of circulating clouds. The decagon appears most prominent in the dark inner regions. The northern hexagon has proven stable for over 40 years, while the stability of the southern decagon will surely remain a topic of research.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JtGNOhWfrA
Solar Storm, Solar Earthquake Trigger, Dust Surge | S0 News and frens
Sep.8.2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBWGtb9PTqQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwWtMDHbkhU (S0: Solar System Shift)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1HKI4DY8EE (Ryan Hall Y'all: The First REAL Cold Front Is Coming…)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmxsGW_ZKNw (Mr Weatherman: Stronger Tropical Waves Approaching…)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Rad8-0Ybg (On the Pulse with Silki: OH NO – 33 Climbers Caught in Glacier Collapse and Avalanche in Russia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5P_3qndfo8 (EarthMaster: 3.7 Earthquake Southern End of the Cascadia. Slow slips up at South end as well… Monday Night)
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solar
https://www.zmescience.com/other/economics/solar-storm-cost-us-economy/
https://watchers.news/2026/09/07/multiple-cmes-forecast-impact-earth-september-8-9-g1-geomagnetic-storm-watch-issued/
https://starlust.org/arora-alert-northern-lights-to-become-prominent-over-several-u-s-states-on-september-9-check-list-here/
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wildfires
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-09-08/wildfires-and-extreme-rain-are-filling-up-us-reservoirs-with-dirt
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/2026/09/08/ross-fire-update
https://kpq.com/little-giant-wildfire-containment-update/
https://greekreporter.com/2026/09/07/wildfire-evia-greek-island-evacutions/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/turkish-teams-battle-wildfires-across-090336872.html
https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20260908-french-firefighters-begin-six-week-strike-over-funding-after-record-summer-fires
https://inp.polri.go.id/artikel/inp-named-138-suspects-and-investigating-eight-companies-relating-to-wildfire
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storms and floods
https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/north-west-disaster-teams-assess-severe-weather-damage
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/09/08/japan/nagoya-torrential-rain/
https://www.itij.com/latest/news/manila-declares-leptospirosis-epidemic-following-floods
https://mofa.gov.np/content/1881/daily-update-8-september-bhote-koshi-flood/
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hurricanes and frens
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2587998-super-el-nino-set-to-cause-terribly-dangerous-amazon-drought/
https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/weather/2026/09/08/hurricane-marie-dangerous-swells-rip-currents-california-newport-beach/91655574007/
https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Article-View/Article/4591941/hawaii-guard-sustains-recovery-efforts-mobilizes-for-hurricane-lowell/
https://weather.com/2026/09/08/storms/hurricane/hurricane-lowell-hawaii-impacts-kauai-niihau
https://kauainownews.com/2026/09/08/lowell-now-a-powerful-category-3-hurricane-some-fluctuations-in-intensity-possible-through-early-sunday/
https://www.honolulu.gov/mayor/hurricane-lowell-begins-to-move-away-from-state-tropical-storm-warning-remains-for-o%CA%BBahu/
https://dod.hawaii.gov/hiema/hurricane-lowell-updates/
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tornadoes
https://watchers.news/2026/09/08/first-ever-tornado-watch-reported-for-hawaii-as-hurricane-lowell-passes-west-of-ni%CA%BBihau/
https://www.audacy.com/wwl/news/local/hammond-louisiana-labor-day-tornado
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earthquakes
https://gizmodo.com/arctic-warming-hazardous-earthquakes-study-suggests-2000808517
https://www.foxweather.com/earth-space/scientists-new-way-identify-where-major-earthquakes-strike
https://www.carsonnow.org/09/07/2026/nevada-seismological-laboratory-usgs-plan-shakealert-earthquake-warning-program
https://qna.org.qa/en/news/news-details?id=45-magnitude-earthquake-strikes-coast-of-fiji&date=8/09/2026
https://cedarnews.net/newstasks/971423/earthquake-vanuatu-magnitude-5-1-tremor-reported/
https://mcigroup.my/news/5-2-magnitude-earthquake-hits-flores-region-indonesia/
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volcanoes
https://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2026/09/07/volcano-alert-level-raised-as-kilauea-shows-signs-of-eruptive-episode/
https://www.the-independent.com/news/indonesia-anak-krakatau-jakarta-sumatra-pacific-ocean-b3046276.html
https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-news/Journalists-missing-in-Indonesia-after-volcano-mission/108-349784
https://www.wionews.com/trending/doomsday-fish-washed-ashore-in-indonesia-6-days-later-6-volcanoes-erupted-1788870325635
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dailys
https://schumannresonance.today/
https://www.weather.gov/
https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/nfn
https://www.americanforests.org/wildfire-map/
https://www.tornadohq.com/
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes-volcanoes/news/343780/Volcano-earthquake-report-2026-09-08.html
https://www.spaceweather.gov/
https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=08&month=09&year=2026
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Secrets of interstellar comet 3I/Atlas revealed
Tue, 08/09/2026 - 08:30
UK astronomers have uncovered new clues about the origin of 3I/Atlas – only the third known object from beyond our Solar System ever spotted in our cosmic neighbourhood.
In a new paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers reveal that the comet formed in extremely cold conditions, far from any star.
Dr Lea Ferellec, a Research Fellow based in Northumbria University's School of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics, led the study, which looked at the ionized gases streaming off 3I/ATLAS as it moved away from the Sun.
The observations were obtained using the Large Integral Field Unit (LIFU) mode of a new instrument, the WHT Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer (WEAVE), developed with the support of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and installed on the Isaac Newton Group’s 4.2-metre William Herschel Telescope.
By combining WEAVE's LIFU imaging spectroscopy with the WHT's new non-sidereal guiding capabilities, the team identified five different ions in the comet's stream simultaneously.
This is a rare achievement for any comet, and a remarkable first for an interstellar object of this nature.
By measuring how much dinitrogen gas was present compared to carbon monoxide, the researchers worked out that 3I/ATLAS formed somewhere extremely cold, likely colder than -240°C.
This suggests it formed a long way from its home star, in the outer, icier edges of wherever its solar system took shape.
Speaking about the findings Dr Ferellec said: "This object gives us a rare chance to study material that formed somewhere completely different to our own Solar System.
"Finding that it's so rich in nitrogen tells us it likely formed in extremely cold conditions, far from its home star.
"Every one of these objects we study helps us understand a little more about how planets form around other stars."
Every so often, a large icy rock, similar to a comet, arrives from beyond our Solar System, having formed around a different star entirely then travelling for millions of years before reaching us.
These are called interstellar objects, and only three have ever been spotted. The most recent is 3I/ATLAS, which was discovered in July 2025 as it sped past the Sun and back out into deep space.
Because these objects formed in a completely different part of the galaxy, studying them gives scientists a rare glimpse into how planets and comets form around other stars, not just our own.
The team, which included researchers from the University of Edinburgh, also looked at how the ions changed the further they travelled along 3I/ATLAS's tail, which forms when plasma streaming from the Sun sweep the object's charged particles out behind it.
This is the first time this level of detail has been captured for an object of this kind.
"Powerful, large-format IFUs with high sensitivity in the blue optical spectrum – like WEAVE-LIFU on the WHT – are opening new frontiers for the study of comets and other solar system objects," said ING Director Rubén Sánchez-Janssen.
"This discovery is a perfect example of the value of DDT, which is specifically designed to enable observations of exceptional and urgent scientific importance."
https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/research-highlights/secrets-interstellar-comet-3iatlas-revealed
https://newsroom.northumbria.ac.uk/pressreleases/northumbria-astronomer-helps-reveal-secrets-of-rare-interstellar-visitor-3465332
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/551/3/stag1402/8740794
moar space objects
https://101theeagle.com/illinois-meteors-spotted/
https://universemagazine.com/en/earths-collision-with-theia-the-moon-may-have-formed-in-5-hours/
https://www.ibtimes.com.au/asteroid-2026-rw1-pre-impact-detection-1875200
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkcUj9VE7bw (Dobsonian Power: Artificial Object Sar2901 Confirmed!)
https://theconversation.com/star-trek-and-nasa-have-intertwined-legacies-the-show-championed-diversity-and-inspired-generations-of-real-space-scientists-290705
https://trekmovie.com/2026/09/08/exclusive-star-trek-day-clip-from-the-sixty-year-mission-documentary-film-tickets-on-sale-now/
https://www.startrek.com/news/star-trek-turns-60-worldwide-events
‘Star Trek’ and NASA have intertwined legacies – the show championed diversity and inspired generations of real space scientists
September 8, 2026 8:38am EDT
“Star Trek” began as a television series but grew into a cultural phenomenon.
When it premiered in 1966, no one could have predicted that it would lead to more than a dozen spinoff shows, more than a dozen movies and one of the most enduring fandoms in popular culture.
“Star Trek” is also unusual for its close connections to NASA, both in its storylines and in the real world. Decades of “Star Trek” adventures have ignited a love of spaceflight across generations, inspiring many who now work as space professionals.
I’m a cultural anthropologist who studies why people work in space exploration. I’ve interviewed astronomers, engineers, flight surgeons and astronauts. Although I focus more on science fact than science fiction, I’ve noticed in my interviews how much the two threads intertwine.
Because of this, I found myself at a “Star Trek” convention in early August 2026, just ahead of the show’s 60th anniversary on Sept. 8. The convention participants included people of widely different ages, appearances and identities.
I was struck by just how much those gathered reflected the series’ values.
When NASA met Star Trek
In the original series, the show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, came up with a philosophy held by the Vulcan people. He called it IDIC: infinite diversity in infinite combinations. It suggests that an ideal society is made up of many different types, all working together.
It represented Roddenberry’s rejection of conformity. It also explained why the Enterprise crew included a Russian alongside Americans, and Black, Japanese and female characters all in positions of responsibility and authority.
While many ordinary viewers absorbed “Star Trek’s” lessons of camaraderie and acceptance, those involved in real space exploration also took notice.
Roddenberry established relationships with NASA personnel in the early days of his series. NASA provided photographs of planetary bodies and advice about the realities of spaceflight, as well as stock footage and access to certain NASA facilities.
Leonard Nimoy, who played the popular character Mr. Spock, was even brought to the National Space Club’s Goddard Memorial Dinner in 1967 as a special guest. Then-Vice President Hubert Humphrey gave the keynote speech.
Afterward, though, it was Nimoy, not Humphrey, who found himself surrounded by the club’s members, including NASA employees, aerospace engineers, members of the military and government officials, all eager to meet the actor portraying the starship Enterprise’s first officer.
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The relationship between NASA and “Star Trek” benefited the show by legitimizing the series.
It also helped NASA by publicizing its work and depicting a positive future where its efforts to land on the Moon would eventually lead to visits to distant worlds – and amazing scientific advances like the show’s transporter and warp drive.
The connection between the space show and space agency was reflected in NASA’s decision to name its first space shuttle Enterprise, after some encouragement from the “Star Trek” fan community.
Inspiring astronauts
In 1977, actress Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed communications officer Uhura, was hired to recruit for NASA.
The space agency had expanded its pool of astronauts to include scientists and other “mission specialists.” For the first time, an astronaut no longer needed to be a pilot to participate in a space mission.
NASA selected its first Black astronaut candidates and its first female astronaut candidates in 1978. While this move toward inclusivity may not have been directly influenced by infinite diversity in infinite combinations, it was compatible with it.
“Star Trek” inspired many of NASA’s future employees. In interviews for my book “The Ultraview Effect,” a quarter of the space professionals I spoke with mentioned “Star Trek” as an influence.
An Apollo astronaut I interviewed, for instance, said he believed humans would eventually “be able to go anywhere in the universe, just like ‘Star Trek.’”
A young engineer who had grown up in the 1990s told me his motivation came from the “opening line of ‘Star Trek’… to explore strange new worlds.”
A space shuttle mission specialist emphasized Roddenberry’s decision to make the starship crew multicultural, explaining: “Today I look at the diversity of it … he was setting the stage back when it wasn’t acceptable [in order] to be acceptable!”
A changing future
That influence has accompanied a changing astronaut corps.
Both the 2025 astronaut class, which for the first time included more women than men, and the crew of Artemis II, which sent the first woman, first Black astronaut and first Canadian on a lunar mission, resemble the future that “Star Trek” imagined.
The “Star Trek” fans at the convention I attended were even more diverse. It was clear to me that Roddenberry’s “infinite diversity in infinite combinations” isn’t just a concept from the series, but something that has become a defining value of contemporary Trek fandom.
One such fan, Bjo Trimble, holds special status. She is credited with “saving ‘Star Trek’” when the series was almost canceled in 1968 after two seasons.
Wearing a rainbow “IDIC” pin, she signed autographs at the SyFy Sistas booth, where T-shirts featuring Black “Star Trek” icons such as Uhura and Benjamin Sisko were on display.
However, with the Trump administration’s recent orders to dismantle all of NASA’s diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs and policies, institutional support for “Star Trek’s” vision of acceptance and inclusivity, which flourishes in its fan base, is being undone.
This rollback occurred just as NASA’s crews were reaching new milestones in representing the diverse future that “Star Trek” has encouraged for decades.
Sixty years later, some of the diverse future that “Star Trek” imagined has become part of everyday spaceflight. Other parts of that ideal remain unfinished.
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NASA Technique for Manipulating Satellite Photos Now Reveals Ancient Images
Sep 08, 2026
High in the central tower in the ancient Cambodian temple of Angkor Wat, paintings depict horseback riders and a traditional musical ensemble. Thousands of visitors pass these images daily without noticing, because they’re faded to the point of invisibility.
They were discovered between 2010 and 2012, along with about 200 other paintings throughout the complex, by an archaeologist using a method conceived at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
The technique, known as decorrelation stretch, heightens contrasts in digital imagery, making features easier to spot. It is especially popular for studying ancient rock art, partly due to the chance intersection of one man’s hobby with his professional background.
Around 2005, rock art enthusiast Jon Harman saw NASA images depicting the Martian surface with and without the application of decorrelation stretch.
Seeing how much detail the technique revealed, Harman, now retired in Pacifica, California, understood the implication for studying ancient, faded images.
He also worked in medical imaging. “I Googled it and found a NASA paper that explained how to do the algorithm,” he said. “I knew from my medical imaging experience that I could do it, so I did.”
The paper was written in 1996 by Ronald Alley, a JPL employee developing applications for the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), a Japanese imaging instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite.
One of Alley’s former supervisors at JPL had coinvented decorrelation stretch, and Alley had recognized its potential for gleaning information from ASTER imagery.
Harman made his plug-in for use with ImageJ, an open-source program developed by the National Institutes of Health.
He said he fulfills about 200 requests for Dstretch per year. Around 2010, he also created smartphone apps that use a shortcut to mimic decorrelation stretch.
The apps have been downloaded thousands of times, and papers have been published describing Dstretch’s usefulness in archaeology.
It has been used to spot and clarify imagery at ancient sites under a cliff in Norway, in an Egyptian tomb, at a park in Canada, and in many other locations.
It has also helped archaeologists find buried remains of ancient Greek buildings and examine tattoos on mummified human remains, among its non-rock-art applications.
Harman said he was not surprised Dstretch found wide use in the rock art community. “But I’ve been surprised by a lot of the different applications people have found. So that’s been cool.”
A wall with a series of faded humanoid figures painted on it.
https://www.nasa.gov/technology/tech-transfer-spinoffs/nasa-technique-for-manipulating-satellite-photos-now-reveals-ancient-images/
https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Manipulating_Satellite_Photos_Now_Reveals_Ancient_Images
moar
https://science.nasa.gov/learning-resources/science-activation/1000-museum-visitors-dive-into-nasa-sea-level-science-on-world-ocean-day/
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/the-otherworldly-geology-of-vasquez-rocks/
https://turnto10.com/news/local/retired-nasa-astronaut-barry-wilmore-to-visit-warwick-schools-sept-8-2026
https://www.aerotechnews.com/blog/2026/09/07/meet-mike-lippert-nasas-new-x-59-test-pilot/
=NASA’s Hubble, Webb Find Far-out Solar System Objects ‘Remember’ Past==
Sep 08, 2026
For the first time, scientists used the joint power of NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes to study some of the most far-flung bodies in our solar system, Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs).
Some of these are the smallest and faintest ever directly seen. The researchers unexpectedly found fewer small TNOs than they expected, and that the colors of these bodies followed the same relationships as their larger family members.
These objects are typically small, faint, icy bodies orbiting the Sun beyond the orbit of Neptune. Most are more than 100 million times dimmer than objects visible to the unaided eye.
In two complementary papers published Tuesday in The Astronomical Journal, teams analyzed the color, composition, and size distribution of 27 newly discovered tiny, dim TNOs.
This class of small bodies offers the best view into an early stage of planet-building, when a disk of dust and pebbles in orbit around the Sun coalesced into city-sized “planetesimals” — the solid building blocks that clump together to form planets — but had not yet merged into full-sized worlds.
Beyond Neptune, this second stage never happened, leaving behind a frozen population of planetesimals.
In the deepest TNO survey to date, teams led by PhD candidates from the University of Victoria in Canada, under the guidance of the National Research Council of Canada, and Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff examined a patch of sky simultaneously with Hubble, observing the TNOs’ visible light, and Webb, observing their infrared light. The team of researchers measured the objects' colors, which are like a fingerprint of the surface composition, as well as their sizes and determined their orbits.
In the coordinated observations, the teams studied two different types of TNOs. The first, dynamically “cold” TNOs, are on their original, relatively circular orbits around the Sun in the plane of the solar system.
The second type, dynamically “hot” TNOs, formed between the current locations of Uranus and Neptune but were pushed outward where they are today when the outer gas giants migrated early in the solar system’s history.
Today they reside in highly elliptical orbits and move in and out of the plane of our solar system.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-webb-find-far-out-solar-system-objects-remember-past/
https://x.com/NASAHubble/status/2097326118273532205
moar
https://x.com/NASAJohnson/status/2097328294282600945
https://x.com/NASA/status/2097361251856781396
https://x.com/Space_Station/status/2097306447801409930
got a link?