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<![CDATA[ Latest from Space.com ]]>
https://www.space.com
- Sat, 17 Jan 2026 16:33:38 +0000
+ Wed, 21 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000en
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+ <![CDATA[ Watch private German rocket attempt history-making launch from Sweden today ]]>
+
A German company will attempt to make spaceflight history today (Jan. 21), and you can watch the action live.
Isar Aerospace plans to launch its Spectrum rocket from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway today, during a window that opens at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT; 9 p.m. local time in Norway). Success would be huge, and not just for Isar: To date, no rocket has ever reached orbit from European soil.
You can watch the attempt live here at Space.com, courtesy of Isar, or directly via the company. Coverage will begin at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT).
Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket lifts off from Andoya Spaceport in Norway on March 30, 2025, on its first flight. Spectrum suffered an anomaly and crashed less than a minute after launch. (Image credit: Isar Aerospace, Brady Kenniston, NASASpaceflight.com)
Today's flight will be the second ever for the two-stage, 95-foot-tall (28 meters) Spectrum. It launched for the first time on March 30 of last year, also from Andøya.
That test flight didn't last long: Spectrum suffered an anomaly less than a minute after liftoff and crashed into the ocean near the pad, generating a fireball that looked particularly dramatic and spectacular against the icy Arctic backdrop.
That outcome was far from surprising; orbital-class rockets rarely succeed on their debut flights. Isar is now ready to take the lessons learned from the first crack and apply them to attempt number two.
"This qualification flight is a deliberate step toward delivering sovereign access to space for Europe and allied nations. Just 10 months after proving that launch vehicles can be designed, built and launched from continental European soil, we're ready to fly again," Isar Aerospace CEO and Co‑founder Daniel Metzler said in a statement on Jan. 16.
"Europe's immediate need for space access is clear," he added. "Rapid iteration is essential to developing space capabilities precisely when they are required."
Though this second launch, which Isar calls "Onward and Upward," is a test flight, it will carry viable payloads (which Spectrum did not do on its debut). Five cubesats and one scientific experiment are going up on the rocket today.
"The insights we gain with this mission will strengthen Europe's space infrastructure, a capability essential for defense readiness and economic resilience," Alexandre Dalloneau, vice president of mission and launch operations at Isar Aerospace, said in the same statement.
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+ https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/isar-aerospace-second-orbital-launch-attempt-andoya-spaceport
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+ wMzRH8TMtkLXmibBf4CbZh
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+ Wed, 21 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000Tue, 20 Jan 2026 20:34:01 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Mysterious polar weather on Jupiter and Saturn could be key to understanding their insides ]]>
+ Scientists may finally know why Jupiter and Saturn have very different weather patterns at their poles, despite having similar sizes and compositions. The discovery could help researchers probe deep into the interiors of these giant gaseous planets.
Observations of the two solar system gas giants have revealed that Jupiter's north pole hosts a central polar vortex surrounded by eight smaller vortices, while Saturn has a single, strangely hexagonal, massive atmospheric whirlpool over its north pole.
While performing complex simulations of these types of vortexes of gas giants, the team behind this research found that the difference between a single vortex configuration and a multi-vortex pattern depended on how "hard" the base of the vortex was, meaning how heavy the gas is in this region (the softer the gas, the lighter it is). This "hardness" is in turn related to the interior composition of the gas giant.
"Our study shows that, depending on the interior properties and the softness of the bottom of the vortex, this will influence the kind of fluid pattern you observe at the surface, research team member Wanying Kang, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said in a statement. "I don't think anyone’s made this connection between the surface fluid pattern and the interior properties of these planets. One possible scenario could be that Saturn has a harder bottom than Jupiter."
Softer than Saturn?
Kang and colleagues were inspired to conduct their simulations after viewing images of Jupiter captured by the Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting the solar system's largest planet since 2016, and by images of Saturn delivered by Cassini over 13 years of observations before it was deliberately plunged into the ringed planet at the end of its mission in 2017.
The Juno images revealed the immense scale of Jupiter's polar storms, which are around 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) wide. For context, that is around half the width of Earth. Cassini's observations of Saturn, meanwhile, showed its single hexagonal vortex is a staggering 18,000 miles (29,000 kilometers) wide.
Astronomers aren't sure why there is such a size discrepancy between the two planets' vortices. "People have spent a lot of time deciphering the differences between Jupiter and Saturn," team leader and MIT scientist Jiaru Shi said. "The planets are about the same size and are both made mostly of hydrogen and helium. It’s unclear why their polar vortices are so different."
The 8 polar vortices seen at the north pole of Jupiter (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/INAF/JIRAM)
To answer this question, the team developed a 2D model of how vortices at the poles of gas giants like Saturn and Jupiter would evolve over time, applying this to a range of different scenarios. This included changing characteristics like the planets' sizes, the speed of their rotation, their internal heating, and the hardness of rotating fluid within their vortices.
After ensuring the fluid in these vortices flowed in random patterns, the scientists were ready to determine how the fluid evolved under specific conditions. This led to the discovery that a single mechanism could determine if a single vortex or multiple vortices developed;the softer the gas rotating at the bottom of the vortex is, the smaller that vortex is. That allows for the formation of multiple vortices, just as is seen at the poles of Jupiter.
If the team is right, then this implies that Jupiter consists of softer, thus lighter, gas, while Saturn seems to be composed of heavier gaseous material.
"What we see from the surface, the fluid pattern on Jupiter and Saturn, may tell us something about the interior, like how soft the bottom is, and that is important because maybe beneath Saturn's surface, the interior is more metal-enriched and has more condensable material, which allows it to provide stronger stratification than Jupiter," Shi concluded. "This would add to our understanding of these gas giants."
The team's research has been accepted for publication in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
]]>
+ https://www.space.com/astronomy/solar-system/mysterious-polar-weather-on-jupiter-and-saturn-could-be-key-to-understanding-their-insides
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+ pwWHpz8w9ubSsZ3dLNsytA
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+ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 22:00:00 +0000Tue, 20 Jan 2026 20:21:49 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Blue Origin launching 6 people to suborbital space on Jan. 22 ]]>
+ Six space tourists will launch to the final frontier on Thursday (Jan. 22), and you can watch the action live.
Blue Origin is scheduled to launch its NS-38 suborbital mission from West Texas on Thursday, during a window that opens at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT; 8:30 a.m. local Texas time).
You can watch it live via Blue Origin. Space.com will carry the feed as well if, as expected, the company makes it available.
As its name suggests, NS-38 will be the 38th flight of New Shepard, Blue Origin's reusable rocket-capsule combo. Sixteen of the vehicle's 37 missions to date have carried people; the others have been uncrewed research flights.
New Shepard flights last 10 to 12 minutes from liftoff to the capsule's parachute-aided touchdown. During this time, passengers get to experience a brief period of weightlessness and see Earth against the blackness of space.
Blue Origin has not revealed how much it charges for a seat aboard New Shepard. Virgin Galactic, the company's chief competitor in the suborbital space tourism industry, has done so; Virgin Galactic tickets are $600,000 apiece.
The passengers for Blue Origin's NS-38 suborbital mission. (Image credit: Blue Origin)
The six people going up on NS-38 are entrepreneur and pilot Tim Drexler; retired obstetrician/gynecologist Linda Edwards; real estate developer and investor Alain Fernandez; entrepreneur and technologist Alberto Gutiérrez; retired U.S. Air Force Col. Jim Hendren, who founded the company Hendren Plastics Inc.; and Laura Stiles, Blue Origin’s director of New Shepard launch operations. You can read more about them all via Blue Origin.
Stiles is a late addition to the manifest. Blue Origin just announced her inclusion today (Jan. 20), explaining that she's replacing a passenger who can no longer fly on Thursday due to illness (but will get to participate in a future mission).
The person who dropped out is presumably Andrew Yaffe, a veteran of the recycling industry who was identified as an NS-38 crewmember in Blue Origin's first update about the mission.
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+ https://www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/blue-origin-ns-38-suborbital-space-tourism-mission
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+ FZM3tAJryDZsiQjUoT9viN
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+ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 20:00:00 +0000Tue, 20 Jan 2026 19:06:43 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ How to make a super-Earth: The universe's most common planets are whittled down by stellar radiation ]]>
+ The secret behind the formation of super-Earth and sub-Neptune exoplanets has been revealed, thanks to a study of four young planets that are evaporating.
Some 350 light-years away, the V1298 Tau system features an infant sun-like star, just 23 million years old, orbited by four planets on compact orbits close to their star, and all of which are seen to transit. Discovered in 2019 by astronomers Erik Petigura of the University of California, Los Angeles and Trevor David of the Flatiron Institute in New York, using data from the Kepler space telescope's K2 mission, the four planets are huge, with radii between five and 10 times that of Earth.
Now, a team of astronomers led by John Livingston from the Astrobiology Center in Tokyo and including Petigura and David, have used "transit timing variations" to measure the mass of each of the four planets. This has allowed the researchers to determine that the planets are very low density and that the atmosphere of each world is photoevaporating into space. This, says Livingston's team, is the key to the formation of super-Earths and sub-Neptunes.
Super-Earths are rocky planets larger and more massive than our own planet. Sub-Neptunes are partially gaseous worlds smaller than Neptune. Together, the two types of planet are the most common classes of world discovered by exoplanet hunters so far. (Planets smaller than Earth may indeed be more common, but they are harder to detect, so we haven't found as many.) What's curious is that our solar system contains neither a super-Earth nor a sub-Neptune, and astronomers don't know why our solar system lacks one of these common planets, or how such worlds form.
This is why the observations of V1298 Tau are such a big step forward. When a planet transits, or passes in front of, its host star, it blocks some of the star's light. The amount of light it blocks tells us the planet's radius. The frequency with which we see that planet transit then tells us its orbital period. The four planets have orbital periods of 8.2, 12.4, 24.1 and 48.7 Earth days, respectively. This is a very compact system — all four planets could easily fit inside the orbit of our solar system's innermost planet, Mercury.
Because the planets are all fairly close, their gravity tugs on each other, sometimes pulling a planet along its orbit a little faster, and sometimes causing it to go a little slower, depending on the respective planets' relative locations. This results in the planets sometimes being a little late or a little early for their scheduled transit. These transit timing variations, or TTVs, can tell researchers the mass of the planets: The greater the variation in the timing of a transit, the more massive the mass of the planet pulling on the transiting world.
With the radii and the masses of the planets known, Livingston's team could then calculate the densities of the planets, and found them to be extremely light.
"The unusually large radii of the young planets led to the hypothesis that they have very low densities, but this had never been measured," said Trevor David in a statement. "By weighing these planets for the first time, we have provided the first observational proof. They are indeed exceptionally puffy, which gives us a crucial, long-awaited benchmark for theories of planet evolution."
Indeed, the planets are some of the least dense known. They all formed with an extended atmosphere, like Neptune, but because they are so close to their star, extreme ultraviolet light and X-rays are heating their atmospheres. This causes the atmosphere of each world to expand and become bloated — so bloated, in fact, that the planets only have a loose grip on their atmosphere. Consequently, the atmosphere on each world is inevitably being stripped into space by the stellar wind of radiation. This process is known as photoevaporation. Livingston's team even looked for the spectral features of these outflows from the planets, but their signal is overpowered by the strong stellar winds.
The photoevaporation will continue for another 100 million years, by which time the planets will have been whittled down. The measurements suggest that all four worlds have a similar-size rocky core. The inner two worlds appear on course to lose their atmospheres altogether and become rocky super-Earths. The outer two planets are currently twice as massive, as their greater distance from their star offers them a little protection, but they too are on track to either lose their atmospheres entirely, or to keep some of it and evolve into mini-Neptunes.
The compact nature of their orbits suggests that this is how peas-in-a-pod systems, such as the worlds of TRAPPIST-1, form — planets of similar size and mass all on regularly spaced, circular orbits.
"What's so exciting is that we're seeing a preview of what will become a very normal planetary system," said Livingston. "The four planets we studied will likely contract into super-Earths and sub-Neptunes — the most common types of planets in our galaxy, but we've never had such a clear picture of them in their formative years."
The findings were reported on Jan. 7 in the journal Nature.
]]>
+ https://www.space.com/astronomy/exoplanets/how-to-make-a-super-earth-the-universes-most-common-planets-are-whittled-down-by-stellar-radiation
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+ bRK3gPminKg3Shy3uVwYBg
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+ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 19:00:00 +0000Tue, 20 Jan 2026 16:54:20 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Total solar eclipse 2030: Everything you need to know about totality in southern Africa and southeast Australia ]]>
+ On Monday, Nov. 25, 2030, a total solar eclipse will sweep across the Southern Hemisphere. Although it will occur almost entirely over the Indian Ocean, totality will nevertheless happen just after sunrise in Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and Lesotho, before being glimpsed close to sunset from southeast Australia.
From remote areas of Queensland, Australia, it will be possible to witness a dramatic sunset eclipse if skies are clear. With spectacular stargazing and safari opportunities available, the 2030 total solar eclipse is bound to be popular and, for eclipse chasers in North America and Europe, rather expensive.
What's special about the Nov. 25, 2030 total solar eclipse?
Namibia is famous for safaris and stargazing. (Image credit: Buena Vista Images/Getty Images)
The Nov. 25, 2030, total solar eclipse presents the opportunity to combine the stunning celestial event with a safari and stargazing. In Namibia, the path of totality is conveniently placed between the giant dunes of Sossusvlei and Deadvlei and the spectacular Etosha National Park.
If you're looking for something extremely remote (and likely more expensive),the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in Botswana would make an excellent option.
There are two important marine mammal colonies in the path of totality. Cape Cross Seal Reserve, the world's largest breeding colony of Cape fur seals, on Namibia's Skeleton Coast, will get 1 minute, 22 seconds of totality, andPoint Labatt Conservation Park (which features the Australian sea lion, one of Australia's most endangered marine mammals), in South Australia, will get 1 minute, 57 seconds of totality.
Path of totality for the Nov. 25, 2030 total solar eclipse
Image 1 of 4
The path of totality for the total solar eclipse on Nov. 25, 2030 (Image credit: Created using MapHub.net. Sources: Esri, Maxar, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, and the GIS user community)
Image 2 of 4
The path of totality for the total solar eclipse on Nov. 25, 2030 (Image credit: Created using MapHub.net. Sources: Esri, Maxar, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, and the GIS user community)
Image 3 of 4
The path of totality for the total solar eclipse on Nov. 25, 2030 (Image credit: Created using MapHub.net. Sources: Esri, Maxar, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, and the GIS user community)
Image 4 of 4
The path of totality for the total solar eclipse on Nov. 25, 2030 (Image credit: Created using MapHub.net. Sources: Esri, Maxar, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, and the GIS user community)
The path of totality for the Nov. 25, 2030, total solar eclipse will span 9,033 miles (14,538 kilometers). The eclipse will begin at sunrise in the Atlantic Ocean; pass over Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and Lesotho; cross the Indian Ocean; and finish as a low eclipse from southeastern South Australia and northwestern New South Wales, Australia. Those in the path of southeast Queensland will see a sunset eclipse, with the small rural town of Surat seeing the eclipsed sun just 2 degrees above the western horizon.
The maximum duration of totality will be 3 minutes, 44 seconds. However, not many observers will experience that because the eclipse takes place north of the remote Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean. The maximum totality on land will be 2 minutes, 32 seconds, from just north of Durban, South Africa. From Australia, the eclipse will be on the wane by the time it hits Streaky Bay in South Australia, just south of Ceduna (the epicenter ofa total solar eclipse in 2002). In total, about 10.6 million people live in the path of totality, according toTime and Date.
The path of totality passes just north of the High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS), a cosmic-ray-hunting telescope in Namibia's Khomas highlands. The same fate befalls theHAKOS Astro Guest Farm, a remote mountainous escape for amateur astronomers. Both get a 99.9% partial solar eclipse. However, that's not the case forTivoli Southern Sky Guest Farm, southeast of Windhoek, which will see totality for 1 minute, 53 seconds.
Where and when can I see the Nov. 25, 2030 total solar eclipse?
The Milky Way behind a rock arch at Spitzkoppe in Namibia. (Image credit: VisualStories/Getty Images)
Here are some of the places eclipse chasers will gather for the total solar eclipse on Nov. 25, 2030:
Location
Totality duration
Time
Sun height
Spitzkoppe, Namibia
1 minute, 53 seconds
7:17 a.m. CAT
14.6 degrees above east
Brandberg Mountain,Damaraland, Namibia
1 minute, 38 seconds (south side of the mountain)
7:17 a.m. CAT
13.6 degrees above east
Windhoek, Namibia
1 minute, 52 seconds
7:19 a.m. CAT
16.7 degrees above east
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Botswana
Up to 2 minutes, 7 seconds
7:21 a.m. CAT
21.3 degrees above east
Afriski Mountain Resort, Lesotho
2 minutes, 11 seconds
7:30 a.m. CAT
31 degrees above east
Schweizer-Reneke, South Africa
1 minute, 57 seconds
7:26 a.m. SAST
26.8 degrees above east
Durban, South Africa
2 minutes, 22 seconds
7:33 a.m. SAST
33.6 degrees above east
Surfers Beach; Streaky Bay, Australia
2 minutes, 1 seconds
6:49 p.m. AEST
17.3 degrees above west
Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, Australia
1 minute, 53 seconds
6:52 p.m. ACDT
13 degrees above west
Cunnamulla, Queensland, Australia
1 minute, 13 seconds
6:24 p.m. AEST
5 degrees above west
What will the weather be like for the Nov. 25, 2030 eclipse?
A time lapse of cloud cover on the path of the 2030 total solar eclipse over southern Africa from Nov. 10 to Dec. 10, 2023. (Image credit: NASA Worldview application (https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov))
There's a saying among eclipse chasers: "Climate is what you expect; weather is what you get." Although you can maximize your chances of finding a clear sky if you're mobile, some regions have higher chances than others.
Inland Namibia is a good bet, with even the capital, Windhoek, having a cloudy day on Nov. 25 only 23% of the time since 2000, according to Timeanddate.com. Between Windhoek and the Skeleton Coast, there's a very low risk of clouds, but that changes dramatically on the coast itself.
Botswana has a very low chance of clouds. In the North West region of South Africa, there's around a 33% chance of a cloudy day. As you approach Durban, however, those odds rise to an alarming 67%. In Australia, Streaky Bay on the southern coast has a 48% chance of clouds, but the odds are about 33% for the rest of the track.
Where to see the partial solar eclipse on Nov. 25, 2030
The HESS telescope in Namibia will get a 99.9% partial solar eclipse. (Image credit: killapooky /550 px/Getty Images)
A partial solar eclipse will be visible from central and southern Africa, the Indian Ocean, Australia and New Zealand. Here's what will be seen from major cities and destinations in the partial eclipse zone:
Location
Percentage of the sun's disk covered
Maseru, Lesotho
98%
Johannesburg, South Africa
97%
Brisbane, Australia
96%
Gaborone, Botswana
95%
Alice Springs, Australia
95%
Mbabane, Eswatini
92%
Maputo, Mozambique
89%
Kerguelen Islands
82%
Sydney, Australia
79%
Perth, Australia
76%
Melbourne, Australia
75%
Cape Town, South Africa
71%
Adelaide, Australia
70%
Heard and McDonald Islands
68%
Luanda, Angola
61%
Hobart, Australia
58%
Antananarivo, Madagascar
41%
Saint-Paul, Reunion
37%
Broome, Australia
36%
Queenstown, New Zealand
33%
Port Louis, Mauritius
31%
Darwin, Australia
29%
After Nov. 25, 2030, when is the next total solar eclipse?
After the total solar eclipse on Nov. 25, 2030, these are the dates and locations for the next total solar eclipses:
Nov. 14, 2031: Pacific Ocean (hybrid-totality) and Panama (hybrid-annularity)
You can find a concise summary of solar eclipses out to 2030 on NASA's eclipse website. Read more about solar and lunar eclipses on EclipseWise.com, a website dedicated to predictions of eclipses, and find beautiful maps on eclipse cartographer Michael Zeiler's EclipseAtlas.com, as well as interactive Google Maps on Xavier Jubier's eclipse website and Timeanddate.com'sEclipse Central hub. You can see climate and weather predictions by meteorologist Jay Anderson on Eclipsophile.com and get photography advice from expert eclipse photographer Alan Dyer at AmazingSky.com.
Bibliography
Bakich, M. and Zeiler, M. (2022). Atlas Of Solar Eclipses 2020-2045.
NASA Worldview application, part of the NASA Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Retrieved Jun. 24, 2025 fromhttps://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov
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+ https://www.space.com/stargazing/solar-eclipses/total-solar-eclipse-2030-everything-you-need-to-know-about-totality-in-southern-africa-and-southeast-australia
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+ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 18:00:00 +0000Mon, 19 Jan 2026 11:38:49 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Northern lights may be visible in 10 states Jan. 20 as Earth's magnetic field 'rings like a bell' after CME impact ]]>
+ Earth is still reverberating from the colossal coronal mass ejection (CME) that struck on Jan. 19, triggering dazzling aurora displays worldwide. And while tonight's show (Jan. 20) may be somewhat more subdued, the solar storm isn't quite over — so keep your camera batteries charged and your aurora alerts on.
Geomagnetic storm intensity is expected to gradually ease through the night, but elevated activity is forecast to persist. According to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, active to minor (G1) geomagnetic storm conditions are likely, meaning auroras may still be visible across northern U.S. states and other high-latitude locations. And with Earth's magnetic field still ringing like a bell from yesterday's impact, brief surges could push the lights farther south than forecast.
While NOAA's latest forecast predicts activity will remain at G1 levels tonight, the U.K. Met Office is slightly more optimistic. In its latest outlook, the agency notes that storm conditions could remain at strong to severe (G3 to G4) levels through Jan. 20, depending on how the CME continues to unfold. If that proves to be the case, auroras could become visible across a much larger portion of the U.S. than the 10 states currently predicted.
Where can I see the northern lights tonight?
Aurora forecast view line for tonight courtesy of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. (Image credit: Inset map: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, graphic made in Canva Pro)
States that could see auroras tonight
Based on the latest NOAA aurora forecast map, the following 10 U.S. states appear fully or partially above the aurora view line:
Alaska
North Dakota
Minnesota
Montana
South Dakota
Wisconsin
Idaho
Washington
Michigan
Maine
Auroras are notoriously unpredictable. While the list above reflects the best data available right now, Earth's magnetic field is still reverberating from last night's geomagnetic beating, and that lingering energy could give auroras an extra push farther south than expected.
The storm has been gradually easing throughout the day, but occasional surges in geomagnetic activity are still possible. So if you're south of the listed states and have clear, dark skies tonight, it's still worth taking a look — you might just catch one last burst.
Northern Hemisphere aurora forecast courtesy of the U.K. Met Office
When is the best time to look for the northern lights tonight?
If the skies are clear, make sure to look for the northern lights as soon as it gets dark tonight, as geomagnetic activity is already elevated following the early arrival of yesterday's CME.
That means the northern lights could appear sooner than expected, so it's worth keeping an eye on the sky throughout the evening.
According to NOAA's 3-day forecast, geomagnetic storm activity is expected to be best at the following times:
1 p.m. - 4 p.m. EST (1800-2100 GMT): Moderate (G2) geomagnetic storming possible
4 p.m. - 7 p.m. EST (2100-0000 GMT): Minor (G1) geomagnetic storming possible
10 p.m. - 1 a.m. EST (Jan. 21)(0300-0600 GMT): Minor (G1 geomagnetic storming possible
How can I see the northern lights from where I live?
If you're in one of the 10 U.S. states where auroras might make an appearance tonight, there are some things you can do to increase your chances of seeing them.
First, start by finding a spot with an unobstructed view toward north, preferably somewhere dark and well away from city lights. The clearer your view of the northern horizon, the better.
Then start scanning the sky with your phone's camera, as these are usually good at picking up faint auroral glows that aren't immediately obvious to the naked eye, helping you identify where activity may be starting.
Dark adaptation is crucial and often overlooked when aurora chasing. If you can, give your eyes at least 30 minutes to fully adjust to the darkness so you can detect subtle auroral features. Keep in mind that even a quick look at a bright light or phone screen can reset the process, forcing you to start over
Finally, dress for the wait. Aurora shows can be unpredictable and if conditions look promising you may find yourself waiting outside for a while. Make sure to wear plenty of layers!
We recommend downloading a space weather app that provides aurora forecasts based on your location. One option I use is "My Aurora Forecast & Alerts," available for both iOS and Android. However, any similar app should work well. I also use the "Space Weather Live" app, which is available on iOS and Android, to get a deeper understanding of whether the current space weather conditions are favorable for aurora sightings.
Editor's Note: If you snap a photo of the northern or southern lights and would like to share it with Space.com's readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
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+ https://www.space.com/stargazing/auroras/northern-lights-may-be-visible-in-10-states-tonight-as-earths-magnetic-field-rings-like-a-bell-after-cme-impact
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+ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 16:55:23 +0000Wed, 21 Jan 2026 09:22:54 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Earth was just hit by the strongest solar radiation storm in over 20 years — here's what it means ]]>
+
A portion of the solar radiation storm captured on Jan. 19. The incoming protons look like a 'snowstorm' on the SOHO spacecraft's LASCO instrument. The bright specks of light in the frame are Venus, Mercury and Mars. (Image credit: ESA/SOHO)
While a severe G4 geomagnetic storm impressed skywatchers with vivid auroras around the world this week, a far less visible, but historically significant, space weather event was also underway.
Solar radiation storms occur when a powerful magnetic eruption on the sun, often involving a coronal mass ejection (CME), accelerates charged particles, mainly protons, to extreme speeds. These particles can reach a significant fraction of the speed of light, allowing them to traverse the roughly 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) between the sun and Earth in tens of minutes or less, according to NOAA. When they arrive, the most energetic protons can penetrate Earth's magnetic defenses and travel along our planet's magnetic field lines toward the polar regions, where they plunge into the upper atmosphere.
NOAA classifies solar radiation storms on a scale from S1 (minor) to S5 (extreme) based on GOES satellite measurements of incoming high-energy protons. The Jan. 19 event reached S4 (severe) levels.
While it may sound dramatic, this type of storm poses no threat to people on the ground, thanks to Earth's thick atmosphere and magnetic field, which absorb the radiation before it reaches the surface.
Notably, this was not a "ground-level event," in which particles are energetic enough to be detected at Earth's surface. As space weather physicist Tamitha Skov explained, this storm had a relatively "soft" particle spectrum — historic in strength, but lacking the extreme energies needed to reach the ground.
A NOAA graphic explaining the severe S4 solar radiation storm event on Jan. 19. (Image credit: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center)
High above the surface, it's a slightly different story.
Severe radiation storms increase exposure risks for astronauts and for airline crews and passengers flying along polar routes, where Earth's magnetic shielding is weaker. Satellites are also vulnerable: energetic particles can interfere with onboard electronics, disrupt sensors, and overwhelm instruments. During this storm, some space weather forecasters reported temporary data dropouts, likely caused by intense proton fluxes degrading spacecraft measurements.
Is a solar radiation storm the same as a geomagnetic storm?
No, they are distinct space weather phenomena with different effects. Solar radiation storms are driven by fast-moving particles from the sun, while geomagnetic storms occur when disturbances in the solar wind interact with Earth's magnetic field.
Geomagnetic storms occur most often when a CME's magnetic field slams into Earth's own, but sometimes also when fast streams of solar wind flow outward from coronal holes. These interactions can trigger auroras and cause disturbances in navigation, radio communications and power systems.
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+ https://www.space.com/astronomy/sun/earth-was-just-hit-by-the-strongest-solar-radiation-storm-in-over-20-years-heres-what-it-means
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+ hqx7giCQxvG83rAQrfFuvF
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+ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 16:00:00 +0000Tue, 20 Jan 2026 16:05:13 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Universal truths: Astronomy's deepest theories quiz ]]>
+ Astronomy isn't just about gazing at stars, it's about understanding the invisible forces that govern everything from planetary motion to the expansion of the universe. Behind every orbit, black hole, and cosmic ripple lies a theory that explains how the universe works.
This quiz dives into the foundational concepts that have revolutionized our understanding of space and time.
Whether you're a student of physics, a space enthusiast, or just curious about how the universe holds itself together, this quiz offers a chance to test your knowledge of the principles that shape reality.
See how well you score below!
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+ https://www.space.com/astronomy/universal-truths-astronomys-deepest-theories-quiz
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+ EYibbxZc6eLUXN6XjWsj4c
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+ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 15:00:00 +0000Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:25:52 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Mars orbiter sees odd etchings in the sand | Space photo of the day for Jan. 20, 2025 ]]>
+ Mars is famous for its volcanoes, canyons and ancient river valleys, but some of its most active geology happens in slow motion, powered by air. Over time, strong gusts can loft sand grains that ping and scrape at exposed surfaces, gradually carving landscapes the way a sandblaster etches metal.
Recently, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express orbiter captured this image of a series of yardangs near the Eumenides Dorsum mountain. The ridges all lean the same way, slanting and curving in from the lower left of the frame, which ESA noted reflects the direction of the prevailing wind in this region.
What is it?
The main view from the Mars Express orbiter spans an area nearly the size of Belgium, turning what might sound like "wind ripples" into something far more dramatic: an organized, tens-of-miles-long pattern of erosion that's been working the same material over and over again.
ESA added that the yardangs likely formed more recently — even on top of this lava-raft terrain — which hints at a long, layered history where volcanic resurfacing came first, and wind erosion arrived later to rework the landscape.
This view was captured by the orbiter's High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), which has been mapping Mars in color and 3D for decades, helping scientists trace processes that shape the planet from the top down.
Where is it?
The image was captured near the northern end of the Eumenides Dorsum mountains, part of the huge, dusty Medusae Fossae Formation, and not far (in planetary terms) from the towering volcanic province of Tharsis.
The grooves, or yardangs, seen along the surface of Mars show which way the wind has been blowing. (Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin)
Why is it amazing?
Mars can look "frozen in time" at first glance, but images like this are a reminder that the planet is still actively changing, just not always through earthquakes and eruptions. Yardangs are evidence of sustained, directional winds strong enough (and consistent enough) to sandblast soft rock over large distances, and that makes them valuable for understanding modern Martian climate and near-surface conditions.
When you can read wind direction straight out of the terrain, you get a real-world check on atmospheric models and a clearer picture of how dust and sand are transported across the planet today.
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+ https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/mars-orbiter-sees-odd-etchings-in-the-sand-space-photo-of-the-day-for-jan-20-2025
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+ SZrn2syBjrpkCydEn7CbRC
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+ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 14:00:00 +0000Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:17:13 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ James Webb Space Telescope discovers young galaxies age rapidly: 'It's like seeing 2-year-old children act like teenagers' ]]>
+ Astronomers have obtained their most detailed look yet at young galaxies in the early universe using the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The conclusion? These cosmic adolescents grew up incredibly fast.
The team behind this research observed 18 galaxies located around 12.5 billion light-years away over a range of wavelengths of light. Existing just over 1 billion years after the Big Bang, these galaxies were in the midst of rapid star formation and were therefore undergoing explosive growth.
The team's most important discovery was the fact that these galaxies seem to have matured faster than previously expected in more than one way — but most strikingly, the galaxies are richer in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, or "metals," as astronomers call them, particularly carbon and oxygen.
"With this sample, we are uniquely poised to study galaxy evolution during a key epoch in the universe that has been hard to image until now," team member Andreas Faisst of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) said in a statement. "Thanks to these exceptional telescopes, we have spatially resolved these galaxies and can observe the stages of star formation as they were happening and their chemical properties when our universe was less than a billion years old."
Galaxies grow up too fast
When the first galaxies in the universe formed, the cosmos was filled with hydrogen and helium and just a smattering of heavier elements. The first stars and their home galaxies were correspondingly metal-poor. These stars forged metals during their lives and then dispersed them throughout their galactic homes in supernova explosions that marked their deaths. These heavy elements became the building blocks of the next generation of stars, which were more metal-rich than their predecessors.
However, this process of enrichment should take longer than 1 billion years, meaning the prematurely mature state of these early galaxies is curious, to say the least.
"It was a surprise to see such chemically mature galaxies," Faisst added. "It's like seeing 2-year-old children act like teenagers. How do metals form in less than 1 billion years?"
Anyone living with human teenagers will tell you they have quite the appetites, and that is also true of these premature cosmic teens. The team found that the supermassive black holes in these galaxies are rapidly feeding, or accreting, surrounding matter. That means these black holes are also growing rapidly.
In addition to their anachronistically metal-rich nature, Faisst and colleagues discovered that many of the galaxies they studied had rotating stellar disks, similar to the spiral arms of our much more mature galaxy, the Milky Way. These features had also developed much earlier than previous models had predicted.
"Now, with this new survey, we can show that some of these galaxies were both structurally and chemically evolved," Faisst said.
The early galaxies DC-873321 and DC-842313, part of a sample of 18 galaxies found to be chemically and structurally mature (Image credit: Robert Hurt (Caltech), Andreas Faisst (Caltech) and the ALPINE-CRISTAL-JWST Survey team)
It wasn't just the galaxies studied by these scientists that were unexpectedly metal-rich. The surrounding gas, the circumgalactic medium, was also similarly enriched.
"The galaxies show very flat gradients in their metal abundances, reaching out to more than 30,000 light-years," team member Wuji Wang of Caltech's Infrared Processing & Analysis Center said in the statement.
The team now intends to match their observations of these galaxies using simulations of galactic growth and metal enrichment.
"The combination of observations and simulations provides a powerful synergy to understand the details of star formation, and dust and metal production mechanisms," Faisst said. "The knowledge of these will ultimately help us understand the formation of the first stars and planets and how our own Milky Way came into being."
The team's research was presented at the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Phoenix on Tuesday (Jan.6), and was published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement.
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+ https://www.space.com/astronomy/galaxies/james-webb-space-telescope-discovers-young-galaxies-age-rapidly-its-like-seeing-2-year-old-children-act-like-teenagers
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+ 3EzGw8boBERQQ3p2b7VwWT
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+ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 13:00:00 +0000Mon, 19 Jan 2026 12:17:04 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Comet Wierzchos buzzes the sun later today: But can you see it? ]]>
+ Solar system comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos) makes its closest approach to the sun today (Jan. 20) during an event known as perihelion, when it will pass a little over half the Earth-sun distance from our parent star, causing it to brighten significantly.
Comet Wierzchos makes its closest flyby at 1:24 p.m.EST (1824 GMT) on Jan. 20, passing the sun at a distance of 52.6 million miles (84.6 million km).
At perihelion, a combination of proximity and the increase in solar radiation is expected to boost the comet's visibility. Heat from the sun vaporizes ice material in the comet's solid nucleus, releasing masses of gas and dust that forms a reflective cocoon, or coma, around the nucleus. Charged particles streaming outward from the sun sweep this material into the comet's characteristic tail.
Sony A7R IV
(Image credit: Sony)
Want to photograph comets? The Sony A7R IV mirrorless camera offers plenty of quality and value for money. Excellent autofocus, premium image quality, a massive 61MP resolution, up to 10FPS shooting and a lightweight design are all features. For a closer look, check out our Sony a7R IV review.
The comet is expected to reach a peak brightness, or magnitude, of around +8.1 in the days following perihelion, according to the Comet Observation Database (COBS) run by the Crni Vrh Observatory in Slovenia (the lower the number, the brighter the object in the night sky). That puts C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos) beyond naked-eye visibility, which allows us to see objects down to a magnitude of approximately +6.5 under dark sky conditions. However, the comet should be visible with the aid of a small backyard telescope, assuming that you're in the right part of the world to see it.
By mid-January, comet Wierzchos will be traveling through the stars of the southerly constellation Microscopium and will be lost from sight below the horizon during the nighttime hours for stargazers in the U.S.
Northern Hemisphere observers will get another chance to see C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos) in the weeks following its close approach to Earth on Feb. 17, when it will pass a little over 93 million miles (1 Astronomical Unit) from our Blue Marble. During this event, known as perigee, the comet will appear low on the southwestern horizon at sunset for stargazers in the U.S. with an estimated magnitude of +8.9. C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos)'s brightness will continue to recede as it rises higher in the evening sky in the following weeks, as it travels away from the warming influence of the sun.
En unos días el cometa C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos) saldrá de la conjunción solar y comenzará a dejarse observar con prismáticos, primero desde el hemisferio sur y más tarde desde el norte. Será el cometa más brillante en este inicio de 2026ℹ️ https://t.co/WC5iEmUFtEImagen: Dídac Mesa pic.twitter.com/7jpHhWRRUkJanuary 16, 2026
C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos) was discovered in March 2024 by astronomers analyzing data collected by the Catalina Sky Survey — a NASA-funded project at the University of Arizona, which continuously scans the night sky for potentially hazardous near-Earth objects.
The wandering body is thought to have originated from the shell of icy material that surrounds the solar system known as the Oort Cloud and was first spotted as it raced sunward at a distance of 8 AU. It has since been observed by the James Webb Space Telescope, which recorded a distinct lack of cobalt in its light fingerprint, suggesting that the element may have been lost prior to being expelled by giant inner solar system planets shortly after its formation.
Editor's Note: If you would like to share your comet images with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
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+ https://www.space.com/astronomy/comets/comet-wierzchos-buzzes-the-sun-later-today-but-can-you-see-it
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+ scbTknZY3nqWs3ASCrri5b
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+ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000Tue, 20 Jan 2026 10:01:34 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Severe G4 geomagnetic storm sparks jaw-dropping northern lights worldwide (photos) ]]>
+ We were expecting a show and boy did it deliver.
Skywatchers around the world were treated to stunning auroras that surged far beyond their usual polar limits, lighting up mid-latitude skies during a severe G4 geomagnetic storm.
Northern lights were reported across mid-latitudes, with sightings stretching from Germany to the southwestern United States, including New Mexico, during a night of rapidly fluctuating geomagnetic conditions that fluctuated between G1, G2, G3 and G4 storm levels.
The display was triggered by the arrival of an exceptionally fast coronal mass ejection (CME) that struck Earth's magnetic field at around 2:38 p.m. EST (1938 GMT) on Jan. 19, when geomagnetic conditions first escalated to G4 (severe) storm levels, according to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. The CME had blasted away from the sun just a day earlier, on Jan. 18, during a powerful X1.9 solar flare — giving it remarkably little time to cross the roughly 91 million miles (147 million kilometers) between the sun and Earth.
After the initial shock arrival, the passage of the CME itself kept Earth's magnetic field in a highly disturbed state for hours, producing repeated surges of auroral activity as storm levels rose and fell through the night, according to the U.K. Met Office.
We've gathered up some of the best photos from last night's aurora activity captured by skywatchers around the world.
Photographer Greg Gage sent us these stunning views of the northern lights captured from Deming, New Mexico, at 32° latitude!
Image 1 of 2
Northern lights captured from Deming, New Mexico, on Jan. 19. (Image credit: Greg Gage)
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Northern lights captured from Deming, New Mexico, on Jan. 19. (Image credit: Greg Gage)
"I live in Sistersville, WV and that is usually where I catch aurora. However, I'm on a 2-week 'snowbird' getaway to Deming, NM," Gage told Space.com in an email.
"In WV I am at latitude 40°. The last thing I expected was to catch auroras this far south. But a G4 CME was able to make it this far south. Wow!!"
Northern lights captured from Deming, New Mexico, on Jan. 19. (Image credit: Greg Gage)
Meanwhile, in Germany, the northern lights danced above the river Müggelspree. This stunning photo was captured by photographer Florian Gaertner.
Northern lights from Berlin, Germany. (Image credit: Florian Gaertner/Photothek via Getty Images)
Auroras flooded the skies above the village of Abaujvar, Hungary, with vivid hues of red and green. The beautiful photograph was captured by photographer Robert Nemeti.
Aurora show from Hungary. (Image credit: Robert Nemeti/Anadolu via Getty Images)
In France, photographer Jerome Gilles captured this eerie scene as rich magenta auroras filled the sky above Morbihan, Brittany.
Northern lights above Brittany, France. (Image credit: Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Photographer Chi Shiyong had front row seats to an incredibly colorful display above Beiji Village, Mohe City, Heilongjiang Province, China.
Northern lights above Beiji Village, Mohe City, Heilongjiang Province of China. (Image credit: Chi Shiyong/VCG via Getty Images)
Rich magenta hues fill the sky as distinct pillars also start to take form.
Northern lights above Beiji Village, Mohe City, Heilongjiang Province of China. (Image credit: Chi Shiyong/VCG via Getty Images)
In Germany, photographer Sascha Schuermann captured a dramatic scene unfolding in the skies above North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany.
The northern lights fill the sky above North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany. (Image credit: SASCHA SCHUERMANN / AFP via Getty Images)
Many skywatchers took to X to share their impressive shots of the aurora show.
Photographer Mathieu Rivrin captured a stunning timelapse of the northern lights dancing above the Côte de Granit Rose (the Pink Granite Coast), Brittany, France.
Aurores boréales sur la côte de granit rose - 20 janvier 2026#auroresboreales #bretagne pic.twitter.com/xeOsws6MmFJanuary 20, 2026
Aurora chaser Alex Masse captured a stunning view of tall aurora pillars from Kerwood, Ontario, Canada, at 10:55 p.m. local time.
As good as it got.1055pmKerwood, ON 42.89N#aurora pic.twitter.com/eZZl883GT0January 20, 2026
Amateur astrophotographer Damian shared some remarkable photos captured from Munich, south Germany!
"It was absolutely amazing, really unbelievable and unforgettable," Damian wrote in a post on X.
A little best of todays stunning aurora-show over Munich, South Germany! 😍🤩It was absolutely amazing, really unbelievable and unforgettable.#aurora #Polarlichter #München pic.twitter.com/g2xYDaN4s4January 20, 2026
Storm chaser Wouter van Bernebeek shared a beautiful photo of the northern lights dancing above Nijmegen, Netherlands, at around 10:20 p.m. local time.
Genieten van een intense noorderlichtshow! De kleuren waren opvallend fel: een 'dansende' groene band hing zelfs helemaal richting het zuiden. Ook tof om te zien dat zoveel mensen het #noorderlicht nu een keer zelf konden spotten 🌌Mijn eerste foto rond 22.20u vlakbij Nijmegen: pic.twitter.com/wIU1JpkuzPJanuary 20, 2026
While geomagnetic activity is expected to gradually ease, space weather forecasters say conditions remain unsettled — meaning there's still a chance the northern lights could make another appearance tonight if solar wind conditions cooperate.
So keep those camera batteries charged and aurora alerts switched on, we may not be done just yet.
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+ https://www.space.com/stargazing/auroras/severe-g4-geomagnetic-storm-sparks-jaw-dropping-northern-lights-worldwide-photos
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+ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 10:33:21 +0000Tue, 20 Jan 2026 10:33:22 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ An armada of 6,500 Elite Dangerous players just embarked on a three-month expedition to explore the Milky Way, and there's still time to join them ]]>
+ Humanity is still in the early stages of exploring the cosmos, with Artemis 2 preparing to take us back to the moon and then onwards to Mars. But if NASA's progress is a little pedestrian for you, then "Elite Dangerous" is the game for you.
"Elite Dangerous" is one of the best space exploration games out there, featuring a fully-realised — and intimidatingly large — Milky Way galaxy for players to explore. And that's exactly what they're doing, as over 6500 players have just embarked on Distant Worlds 3 — a community-led journey to the deepest reaches of the galaxy that will last for around 3 months.
The previous two Distant Worlds events set out in 2016 and 2019, respectively, with 1300 players joining the first expedition, and nearly 14,000 pilots signing up for the second voyage. It's not just a rat race to the center of the galaxy, though — the organizers put together special player-run events that include "geology projects, mining goals, mapping surveys, and a science project".
Reddit user TicklesYourElmo posted a video of their flotilla launching off on the expedition, and damn does it look cool to see all those ships jumping to FTL in unison.
I love seeing this kind of immersive, community-led stuff in massively-multiplayer games. Players embracing more than just the cool "oh look, I'm flying a spaceship" side of the game and focusing on the spirit of exploration and discovery that drives real space missions. At the end of Distant Worlds 2, they'd built a whole space station called Explorer's Anchorage at the galactic center, near Sagittarius A*, so I can't wait to see what these brave souls accomplish this time.
For the uninitiated, "Elite Dangerous" is a massive online space game set in a 1:1 scale replica of our galaxy, where players pilot spaceships to explore, trade, and battle it out amongst the stars. The game launched all the way back in 2014 and has evolved significantly since then, with major updates overhauling core systems, adding the ability to land on planets, and even triggering an alien invasion.
"We're very excited to see Commanders from around the world embarking on Distant Worlds 3. It's an enormous player-led activity, and celebrates the incredible community around Elite Dangerous who remain active and passionate about the series," Gauthier Verquerre, Executive Producer on Elite Dangerous, told Space.com in an email.
(Image credit: Frontier Developments)
"As a studio, it's always a very special moment seeing a Distant World expedition depart, as you get such a fantastic mix of newer players and seasoned explorers, and the support which they lend each other is wonderful to see."
The expedition has already set off, but you can probably still catch them if you're quick. Head over to the Distant Worlds 3 website and sign up now. Or if you'd rather stay planetside, check out the time we took a guided tour of the solar system in "Elite Dangerous".
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+ https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-games/an-armada-of-6-500-elite-dangerous-players-just-embarked-on-a-three-month-expedition-to-explore-the-milky-way-and-theres-still-time-to-join-them
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+ RpLgrVe5TRJEohMctWiUfE
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+ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 21:00:00 +0000Mon, 19 Jan 2026 13:04:47 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ How astronomers plan to detect the signatures of alien life in the atmospheres of distant planets ]]>
+ This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
We live in a very exciting time: answers to some of the oldest questions humanity has conceived are within our grasp. One of these is whether Earth is the only place that harbors life.
In the last 30 years, the question of whether the sun is unique in hosting a planetary system has been resoundingly answered: we now know of thousands of exoplanets orbiting other stars.
But can we use telescopes to detect whether any of these distant worlds also harbor life? A promising method is to analyze the gases present in the atmospheres of these planets.
We now know of more than 6,000 exoplanets. With so many now catalogued, there are a number of ways to narrow down which worlds are the most promising for biology. Using the planet's distance from its host star, for example, astronomers can work out its likely temperature.
Earth is the only planet in the solar system with liquid water oceans on its surface, so mild temperatures are a possible requirement for a habitable planet. Whether a planet has the correct temperature for liquid water is strongly influenced by the presence and nature of the planet's atmosphere.
Astonishingly, we can identify molecules present in the atmospheres of exoplanets. Quantum mechanics causes each atmospheric chemical to have its own distinct barcode-like pattern, which it leaves on the light passing through it. By collecting starlight that has been filtered through an exoplanet's atmosphere, telescopes can see the barcodes of the molecules making up that atmosphere.
To take advantage of this, the planet needs to transit – pass in front of – the star from our point of view. This means it only works for a small fraction of known exoplanets.
The strength of the signal depends on the abundance of the molecule in the atmosphere: stronger for the most abundant molecules and gradually weaker as the abundance decreases. This means it is generally easiest to detect the dominant molecules, though this is not always true. Some of the barcodes are intrinsically strong, while others are weak.
For example, Earth's atmosphere is dominated by diatomic nitrogen (N₂), but this molecule has a feeble barcode compared to the much less abundant diatomic oxygen (O₂), ozone (O₃), carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water (H₂O).
Detecting molecules
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large space telescope which collects light at infrared wavelengths. It has been used to probe the atmospheres of a variety of exoplanets.
The detection of molecular imprints in the atmosphere of an exoplanet is not completely straightforward. Different teams of workers can derive different results as a consequence of making slightly different choices in the way they handle the same data. But despite these difficulties, reproducible and robust detections of molecules have been made. Simple molecules with strong barcodes such as methane, carbon dioxide and water have been detected.
An artist's concept of NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory in space. (Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab)
Planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune – so called sub-Neptunes – are the most common type of known exoplanet. It was for one of these planets, K2-18b, that a bold claim of a detection of a biosignature was made in 2025. The analysis detected dimethyl sulphide, with a claimed less-than-once-chance-in-1,000 that this detection was spurious.
On Earth, dimethyl sulphide is produced by phytoplankton in the oceans, but is rapidly broken down in seawater illuminated by sunlight. As K2-18b may be a planet completely covered by a water ocean, the detection of dimethyl sulphide in its atmosphere could imply an ongoing supply of it from microbial marine life there.
Re-examination of the K2-18b dimethyl sulphide detection by other researchers casts doubt on this claim. Most significant was the 2025 demonstration by Arizona State University's Luis Welbanks and colleagues that the choice of molecular barcodes to include in the analysis radically affected the results.
They found that numerous alternatives, not explored in the original paper, provided equally good or better fits to the measured data.
For Earth-sized planets which are presumably rocky, it is quite challenging to detect an atmosphere at all with JWST. However, the future is promising, as a number of planned missions will allow us to learn a lot more about planets which may be similar to the Earth.
An illustration of exoplanet K2-18b with its host star in the distance. (Image credit: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser)
Upcoming missions
With a planned launch in 2026, the European Space Agency's Plato telescope will identify planets far more similar to Earth and suitable for transmission spectroscopy than those we currently know of.
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman space telescope, which is set to launch in 2029, will pioneer coronagraphic techniques that allow starlight to be cancelled out so the very much dimmer planets orbiting nearby stars can be studied directly.
The European Space Agency's Ariel telescope, with a planned launch in 2029, is a dedicated transmission spectroscopy mission, designed to have the capabilities to determine the compositions of exoplanet atmospheres.
NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is currently in the planning stages. This mission will use a coronagraph to study around 25 Earth-like planets, looking for a variety of hallmarks of habitability.
HWO will have broad wavelength coverage from the ultraviolet out to the near-infrared. If a twin of the Earth were orbiting one of HWO's nearby target stars, the telescope would collect the starlight reflected from the planet. This reflected starlight would include the barcode signatures of diatomic oxygen (O₂) and other gases characteristic of our planet’s atmosphere. It would also reveal a signature of starlight being absorbed by photosynthesising plants: the so-called "vegetation red edge".
Earth's surface is divided into land and oceans, which reflect light differently. HWO would be able to reconstruct a low-resolution map of the surface from the changes in the reflected light as continents and oceans rotate in and out of view.
So the future looks very promising. With the spacecraft set to launch in coming years, we might close in on the question of whether Earth is unique in hosting life.
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+ https://www.space.com/astronomy/exoplanets/how-astronomers-plan-to-detect-the-signatures-of-alien-life-in-the-atmospheres-of-distant-planets
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+ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 20:00:00 +0000Fri, 16 Jan 2026 22:08:56 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ What the first medical evacuation from the International Space Station tells us about healthcare in space ]]>
+ This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
To protect the crewmember’s privacy, NASA hasn't yet disclosed details about what happened – and this article won't speculate. But the evacuation raises a question worth exploring: how do astronauts stay healthy in space, and why is this early evacuation so unusual?
Astronauts undergo rigorous medical screening before selection. They are assessed for conditions that might worsen in microgravity, evaluated for psychological resilience, and monitored throughout their careers.
Although modelling suggests a medical emergency could be expected roughly every three years on the ISS, serious issues are remarkably rare in practice.
Every ISS mission includes medical support both in space and on the ground. Each crew has a designated Crew Medical Officer – sometimes a qualified doctor, sometimes someone with extensive training in space medicine procedures. They can perform basic examinations, administer medications, and conduct telemedicine consultations with specialists on Earth.
What health issues do occur in space?
A 2015 study found that medication use on the ISS was relatively low, with roughly ten doses of over-the-counter medication taken per astronaut per week, most of which are for common, manageable conditions, such as:
Skin irritation is the most frequently reported medical issue in spaceflight. A recent systematic review found that space-related dermatoses including dry skin, rashes, hypersensitivity reactions, and impaired wound healing – occur at rates approximately 25 times higher than on Earth. The cold, dry, low-humidity spacecraft environment exacerbates these problems, and hygiene is limited to wet wipes and rinse-less products for months at a time.
Congestion and headaches affect most astronauts, particularly early in a mission. Without gravity pulling fluids downward, blood shifts toward the head, causing a puffy face and stuffy nose – what astronauts call "space sniffles." This can trigger headaches, reduced appetite, and poor sleep.
Sleep disruption is widespread. The ISS orbits Earth every 90 minutes, creating 16 sunrises and sunsets over 24 hours, which disrupts circadian rhythms. Combined with equipment noise, reduced personal space, and the stress of spaceflight, astronauts typically get one to two hours less sleep per night compared to on Earth.
Musculoskeletal injuries are surprisingly common. A NASA study catalogued 219 in-flight injuries across the US space programme, with an incidence of roughly 0.02 per flight day.
Hand injuries were most frequent, mostly small cuts from moving between modules or handling equipment. But exercise, ironically the leading countermeasure designed to protect astronauts' bones and muscles, is now the leading source of injuries on the ISS.
Yet this essential countermeasure carries its own risks. Spacewalks present additional hazards – the study found 0.26 injuries per extravehicular activity, often caused by spacesuit components.
Research continues to make these countermeasures safer and more effective. At Northumbria University, the Aerospace Medicine and Rehabilitation Laboratory works with European Space Agency, NASA, Canadian Space Agency and private spaceflight companies including SpaceX to develop exercise-based interventions to protect astronaut health. The research team are pioneering approaches to maintain physical function during longer missions and accelerate recovery on return to Earth.
Astronaut Sandra Magnus, Expedition 18 flight engineer, exercises on the advanced Resistive Exercise Device (aRED) in the Unity node of the International Space Station. (Image credit: NASA)
Space-specific conditions
Some health issues are unique to spaceflight. Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS) affects up to 70% of astronauts on long-duration missions. The headward fluid shift changes pressure in the eye, leading to optic nerve flattening and vision changes that can persist for years after returning to Earth.
Perhaps most striking was an incident reported in 2020, when a blood clot was discovered in an astronaut's jugular vein during a routine research ultrasound. The astronaut had no symptoms; the clot was found by chance. In what became the ultimate telemedicine case, doctors on Earth guided treatment over more than 90 days.
Blood thinners were administered, additional medication was sent on a resupply vessel, and the astronaut performed their own ultrasound scans with radiologists directing from hundreds of kilometers below. They completed their mission and returned safely at the end of their mission without any health consequences.
The Crew-11 evacuation demonstrates that space agencies prioritize crew safety above all else. As missions move beyond low Earth orbit into deep space, new approaches to medical care will be needed – referred to as Earth Independent Medical Operations, potentially using AI to assist crew medical officers alongside lessons from current missions.
That this is the first expedited medical evacuation in 25 years highlights how effectively space medicine has developed. But it's also a reminder that space remains inherently challenging for human biology, and sometimes there really is no place like home.
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+ https://www.space.com/space-exploration/human-spaceflight/what-the-first-medical-evacuation-from-the-international-space-station-tells-us-about-healthcare-in-space
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+ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 19:00:00 +0000Fri, 16 Jan 2026 22:04:32 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ How to find 4 legendary spacecraft in January's night sky ]]>
+ We live in the age of the spacefaring robot, wherein far-flung probes brave the harsh environment of interplanetary space to beam gorgeous images and invaluable scientific data back to Earth to broaden our understanding of the solar system that we live in.
Celestron NexStar 8SE
(Image credit: Amazon)
We reckon the Celestron NexStar 8SE is the best motorized telescope out there as it's great for astrophotography, deep-space observing and it offers stunning detailed imagery. For a more detailed look, you can check out our Celestron NexStar 8SE review.
The simple, if slightly sad, reality is that these intrepid explorers embark on a one-way trip upon leaving atop their gravity-defying rockets. We'll never again lay eyes on Voyager 1, now so far from home, or see the unique mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope once again catch the light in a scrupulously clean NASA testing facility. They're all consigned to forever reside in space, too small for even the most powerful of telescopes to detect.
What we can do is keep track of where spacecraft are in the night sky as they undertake missions millions, or sometimes billions of miles from Earth, sometimes in the far reaches of the solar system. Read on to discover where to find the patches of night sky containing four famous robotic explorers, each of which has been paired with a bonus skywatching target!
How to find 4 legendary spacecraft in January's night sky.
James Webb Space Telescope
Artist's impression of the James Webb Space Telescope. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Northrop Grumman)
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched on Christmas Day 2021. Its ambitious mission sees it gazing at ancient galaxies to shed light on the evolution of the universe, collecting data on the habitability of alien worlds and discovering how planets and exoplanets come to form.
The apparent trajectory of the James Webb Space Telescope is denoted by a yellow line. (Image credit: Created by Anthony Wood in Canva.)
The JWST tracks a path right-to-left across the eastern horizon in the hours following sunset in January. On Jan. 19 it will be located to the left of the star Nu Orionis in the raised right arm of the hunter represented in the constellation Orion.
Over the next two weeks, the spacecraft will slowly leave Orion and travel towards the bright point of light representing the gas giantJupiter. Along the way, the space telescope will pass close to the magnitude +1.9 star Alhena, which represents one of the feet of the twins portrayed by the constellation Gemini.
The Orion Nebula captured by astrophotographer Joel Martin. (Image credit: Joel Martin)
While you're stargazing, why not take the time to explore one of the JWST's many astronomy targets and one of the most recognizable deep sky objects? Look to the eastern sky after sundown to find the three stars of the Orion's Beltasterism shining in the winter sky. Locate the bottom star, Alnitak and scan the patch of sky 5 degrees. To its lower left — the approximate width of your three middle fingers held at arm's length — until you find three stars arrayed in a line suffused with a milky blur of light — the Orion Nebula.
Europa Clipper
Artist's impression of the Europa Clipper spacecraft. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft launched on Oct. 14, 2024 on a marathon journey that would see it travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) before finally arriving in orbit around the gas giant Jupiter in April 2030. Once there, it will perform 49 close flybys of the planet's icy moon Europa to collect data on the alien world to unravel its secrets and shed light on its habitability.
How to find the Europa Clipper in the night sky. (Image credit: Created by Anthony Wood in Canva)
To find the patch of sky containing Europa Clipper, first locate the kite-like formation of stars of the constellation Libra, which rises above the southeastern horizon around 3 a.m. local time for viewers in the U.S. in mid-January. Remember: it's best to use a trusted website like TimeandDate or a stargazing app like Starry Night or Stellarium to discover exactly when a solar system object will rise and set from your location.
Europa Clipper will be close to the faint magnitude +4.0 star Gamma Librae in the early hours of Jan. 18, before travelling away from Libra towards the formation of stars that represent the claws of the great scorpion in the constellation Scorpius — Acrab, Dschubba and Pi Scorpii.
The gas giant Jupiter. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team)
Turn to the west to find the bright light of Jupiter shining roughly 30 degrees — the width of three fists held at arm's length — above the horizon with the bright stars Castor and Pollux of the constellation Gemini shining above. Jupiter will appear particularly large and bright throughout January in the weeks after reaching its Jan. 10 opposition, when it appeared directly opposite the sun in Earth's sky.
Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer
The ESA/NASA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is slated to arrive at Jupiter one year after the Europa Clipper in July 2031, when it will set to work probing both the gas giant and its large moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. Scientists are hoping that the spacecraft's discoveries will shed light on the enigmatic natures of gas giants that are thought to have formed across the universe, while also collecting data on the oceans harbored by the Jovian moons, which will help reveal whether they could host microbial life.
Artist's impression of the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer spacecraft. (Image credit: ESA/AOES)
On Jan. 19, JUICE will pass through a patch of sky in the constellation Ophiuchus, roughly 10 degrees — the width of one outstretched fist — below the magnitude +2.4 star Sabik, which can be found low on the southeastern horizon in the hours before dawn. The following week will see it journey towards the famous "teapot" asterism in the constellation Sagittarius, which can be spotted peeking above the horizon as the sun rises in late January.
Finder chart showing the position of the JUICE spacecraft in January 2026 (Image credit: Created by Anthony Wood in Canva)
Around this time, you may spot a bright red star shining low on the southeastern horizon in the pre-dawn sky. That bright spec of light is Antares — a red supergiant star nearing the end of its stellar life cycle. The star — which represents the heart of the constellation Scorpius — will eventually consume the remainder of its dwindling fuel reserves, after which it will collapse in on itself in a magnificent supernova, whose brightness will rival that of the rest of our galaxy put together, according to astrophysicists Paul Butterworth and Mike Arida for NASA's "Imagine the Universe!"
Voyager 1
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is both a scientific legend and a robotic ambassador for humanity, having launched in Sept. 1977 carrying one of the two famous Golden Records— a repository of imagery, sounds, music and languages from Earth, with details on how to find us. Having executed successful flybys of Saturn and Jupiter, Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in August 2012 and is now the most distant human-made object from Earth, having travelled 15.75 billion miles (25.35 billion km) from our parent star.
An artist's impression of the Voyager 1 spacecraft. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
To find the region of the sky containing Voyager 1, first locate the constellation Ophiuchus, which rises above the eastern horizon in the hours before dawn in January, before rising to an altitude of around 50 degrees as the sun rises. Next, find the bright magnitude +2.0 and +3.0 stars Rasalhague, Kappa Ophiuchi and Rasalgethi, the latter of which belongs to the nearby constellation of Hercules. Voyager 1 is nestled in the space demarcated by that stellar pyramid.
The location of the Voyager spacecraft in January 2026 (Image credit: Created by Anthony Wood in Canva)
For a bonus target, trace a path 25 degrees above Rasalgethi to find the sideways crown-like shape of the constellation Corona Borealis. This unassuming constellation is comprised largely of faint stellar bodies, but also plays host to the dim magnitude +10.0 star T Croronae Borealis, which explodes in a dramatic nova explosion roughly once every 80 years, making it appear as if a new magnitude +2.0 star — approximately the brightness of the North Star Polaris — has been born in the night sky. T Coronae Borealis — also known as the "Blaze Star" — last went nova in 1946, so astronomers are watching and waiting for its next stellar outburst any day now.
Editor's Note: If you would like to share your astrophotography with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
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+ https://www.space.com/stargazing/how-to-find-4-legendary-spacecraft-in-januarys-night-sky
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+ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 18:00:00 +0000Mon, 19 Jan 2026 17:17:36 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ DJI Mini 5 Pro drone review ]]>
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Key specs
Camera: 50MP 1-inch sensor
Video resolution: Up to 4K
Frame rates: 4K up to 120 FPS, Full HD up to 240 FPS
Battery: 2788mAh / up to 36 minutes flight
Charger type: USB-C cable/battery charging hub
Modes: Cine, Normal, Sport
Video transmission range: 12.4 miles / 20km (FCC), 6.2 miles / 10km (CE/SRRC/MIC)
Dimensions: 6.18x3.74x2.68 in / 157×95×68 mm folded, 10.04x7.13x3.58 in / 255×181×91 mm unfolded
Weight: 8.81 oz / 249.9g
DJI's Mini Pro range of drones has been a huge hit since the launch of the Mini 3 Pro – the first model in the line-up. This was the first sub-250g drone with professional photo and video credentials.
After the 4 Pro, which was little more than an incremental upgrade, we now have the DJI Mini 5 Pro. Not only is this a serious upgrade, but it also sets a new bar for what's possible in the most popular drone category.
There are numerous impressive new features to shout about, not least the 50MP 1-inch sensor in the camera, which can rotate 225 degrees in addition to 90 degrees for portrait capture.
The DJI Mini 5 Pro is a compact folding sub-250 g drone. (Image credit: James Abbott)
There's also forward-facing LiDAR as part of the Omnidirectional Obstacle Avoidance system, and HDR video capture, to name a few notable features. It's safe to say that the Mini 5 Pro is one of the best drones and best DJI drones available, as well as being one of the best camera drones.
Image quality for photos and video is fantastic, thanks to the large sensor that's been magically added to the familiar Mini drone design. It is, however, slightly heavier than other sub-250 g drones at 8.81 oz / 249.9g. Plus, users have reported that some drones actually weigh in at up to 251 g, although aviation authorities seem to be overlooking this slight discrepancy.
One thing you can rely on is that DJI Mini drones look remarkably similar, so there's no mistaking them for any other model or manufacturer. The Mini 5 Pro follows this rigid style with its folding design, where Omnidirectional Collision Avoidance sensors are visible on the airframe. In terms of size, it's pretty much as you'd expect at 6.18x3.74x2.68 in / 157×95×68 mm folded and 10.04x7.13x3.58 in / 255×181×91 mm unfolded.
It's a sub-250g model, like previous versions, and the 5 Pro weighs in officially at 8.81 oz / 249.9g, although some users have reported that the drone weighs as much as 251g when they've weighed it themselves. This hasn't caused any issues with the drone's place in the sub-250g category according to aviation authorities, and the slight weight increase is remarkable given that DJI has managed to cram a 1-inch sensor into the rotating camera.
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The DJI Mini 5 Pro features a folding design. (Image credit: James Abbott)
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Despite the larger sensor, the DJI Mini 5 Pro remains compact. (Image credit: James Abbott)
In terms of overall design and aesthetics, the 5 Pro looks extremely similar to previous models but is differentiated by the darker grey of the airframe and, of course, the bulkier camera to accommodate that larger sensor.
Flight times are advertised as being up to 36 minutes per 2,788 mAh battery, but in real-world flying conditions, flight times are around 20 minutes before Return to Home is initiated when the battery reaches 20% capacity. This is often the case, and the 20-25 minute range is still impressive considering the small size and capacity of the batteries.
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The DJI RC 2 smart controller Fly More Bundle is great value. (Image credit: James Abbott)
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ND filters are essential for mainting correct shutter speeds when capturing video. (Image credit: James Abbott)
As always, there are two controller options: the budget DJI RC-N2, which requires attaching your phone, or you can opt for a smart controller. The DJI RC 2 smart controller features a built-in 5.5-inch FHD display and provides a much more convenient experience if your budget extends a little further. It's well worth it if you can afford it.
DJI Mini 5 Pro: Functionality
Omnidirectional Obstacle Sensing with LiDAR
360° ActiveTrack subject tracking
Rotating camera
The Mini 5 Pro is an impressive performer in the sky, whether taking manual control yourself or using one of the automated flight modes and 360° ActiveTrack. Subject tracking is fantastic, and although this isn't a selfie drone like the DJI Neo 2 or HoverAir X1 Pro/ProMax, it still manages to successfully track people and cars, etc. In complex environments, it even manages to dodge trees and branches, which is thanks to its advanced collision avoidance system.
The Omnidirectional Vision Sensing system includes forward-facing LiDAR alongside fisheye lenses on the front and rear for sensing forward, backward, left, right, and upward. The bottom of the drone is fitted with binocular lenses and a 3D infrared sensor, enabling omnidirectional obstacle sensing. It's highly effective, and the LiDAR is designed to improve obstacle sensing and Return to Home in low-light conditions and at night.
The camera is extremely impressive, and although we'll go into more detail in the next section, the camera can rotate up to 225 degrees and it opens up many creative possibilities for capturing video. The camera also rotates 90 degrees, allowing for both landscape and portrait format capture, with the latter being ideal for social media.
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Omnidirectional collision avoidance uses sensors all over the drone. (Image credit: James Abbott)
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The Fly More Bundles include this useful carry bag. (Image credit: James Abbott)
There are automated flight patterns that allow you to capture cinematic video at the touch of a button, and these include MasterShots and Quickshots. There's also Free Panorama, which offers more manual control over how panoramas are captured. The new 2x 48mm equivalent zoom is claimed to be a vast improvement over older digital zooms, and image quality is certainly good when zooming in.
Advanced Return to Home utilizes Omnidirectional Obstacle Avoidance and LiDAR for a safer and more reliable Return to Home by calculating the most efficient route back to the take-off point. There's even Non-GNSS RTH, where the 5 Pro memorizes the path home when light levels are high enough, so you can get the drone safety home without satellite signals. This wasn't specifically tested, but RTH was always reliable when initiated during flight testing.
With all these features, the Mini 5 Pro takes a little of what the DJI Mavic 4 Pro and DJI Air 3 S have to offer, making it an incredibly advanced sub-250 g model able to take on professional work where a smaller and lighter drone is required.
DJI Mini 5 Pro: Performance
50MP 1-inch sensor
24mm f/1.8 camera
Excellent image quality
A 1-inch sensor in such a small drone is an impressive feat. (Image credit: James Abbott)
The camera offers a 24mm equivalent focal length and has a fixed f/1.8 aperture with focusing from 50cm to infinity. The camera houses a 50MP 1-inch CMOS sensor, and you choose between 12MP and 50MP modes. Shutter speeds available are between 1/8000 and two seconds, while in 12MP mode, you also get two and a half to eight seconds for simulated long exposure.
The image quality produced is excellent when capturing photos and videos, although photos taken in the 50MP mode are on the soft side. You can capture photos in Raw and JPEG when shooting in both 12MP and 50MP modes, although you can achieve better results using Adobe Lightroom's Super Resolution feature to increase the size of Raw files.
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Image quality overall is excellent. (Image credit: James Abbott)
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You can capture photos in Raw and JPEG formats. (Image credit: James Abbott)
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Photos taken in brighter conditions look best. (Image credit: James Abbott)
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The 1-inch sensor is great for photo and video capture. (Image credit: James Abbott)
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12MP photo mode produces sharper images than the 50MP mode. (Image credit: James Abbott)
Video can be captured in Standard (for straight-out-of-camera use), the D-Log M flat color profile for color grading, and HLG for HDR capture with up to 14 stops of dynamic range. This makes it ideal for beginner and professional video capture. And with that fast f/1.8 fixed aperture, ND filters are extremely useful for maintaining a correct shutter speed during video capture.
Video can be captured up to 4K at 120 FPS and 1080p at up to 240 FPS for slow motion capture. 8-bit video is captured in H.264 while 10-bit HLG/D-Log M is captured in H.265 with a maximum bitrate of 130 Mbps. Photos and videos can be saved either on the 42GB of internal storage or on a microSD card inserted into the rear of the drone.
Please note the footage below was shot in 4K, but our video player only plays in HD.
Off-State QuickTransfer allows for remote wake-up via the DJI Fly app within Bluetooth range. The Mini 5 Pro or the controller doesn't need to be switched on, and you can transfer files to your smartphone at up to 100 MB/s via Wi-Fi 6. It's pretty handy if you want to share photos and videos quickly and easily.
DJI Mini 5 Pro: Price
With the ongoing issues with the availability of DJI products in the US, the Mini 5 Pro isn't available in the US, and therefore, no pricing is available. For UK-based drone pilots, several kits are available, with the basic option costing £689. With this kit, you get the DJI RC-N3 controller and a single battery alongside the drone and accessories.
To get the most out of the drone and increase flight times, one of the Fly More Bundles makes sense as they offer three batteries, a battery charging hub and useful ND filters for controlling shutter speeds when capturing video.
The Fly More Bundle, which includes the budget DJI RC-N3 controller, costs £869, while the DJI RC 2 smart controller Fly More Bundle costs just £979. Considering the smart controller kit is only marginally more expensive, this kit represents fantastic value for money.
Should you buy the DJI Mini 5 Pro?
If you're looking for a sub-250g drone and have the budget available, the DJI Mini 5 Pro is worth getting. And as previously mentioned, if you can stretch to the DJI RC 2 Fly More Bundle, you will enjoy fantastic functionality and value for money. The features on offer, including Omnidirectional Vision Sensing, 225-degree camera rotation, 360° ActiveTrack and more, are fantastic.
The 1-inch sensor produces excellent image quality for both photos and videos, although shooting in the high-resolution 50MP mode can produce softer images than 12MP shooting. It's no big deal and you can use Adobe's Super Resolution in Lightroom to increase resolution more effectively if necessary.
If this drone isn't for you
If you'd prefer a larger and more powerful drone with similar features, but two cameras instead of one, look no further than the DJI Air 3S. This drone also has a 1-inch sensor in the main camera and a second telephoto camera with a 70mm equivalent focal length.
The Potensic Atom 2 is an incredibly cost-effective sub-250g drone that is much less expensive than the Mini 5 Pro. Image quality is excellent, and it has all the features most beginners and intermediate pilots will need, but it’s not as feature-heavy as the Mini 5 Pro.
The DJI Mavic 4 Pro is the flagship prosumer model and is the most advanced drone of this type to date. Image quality is exceptional, and the innovative new gimbal design allows for full rotation of the three cameras alongside landscape and portrait format shooting.
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+ https://www.space.com/technology/drones/dji-mini-5-pro-drone-review
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+ PEpJRQJHSYpBxqwVBXfh8j
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+ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 17:56:10 +0000Mon, 19 Jan 2026 17:56:10 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Reborn black hole seen erupting across 1 million light-years of space like a cosmic volcano ]]>
+ Astronomers have discovered a once-dormant supermassive black hole springing back to life in a very dramatic and spectacular fashion, acting as a "cosmic volcano" blasting out an eruption that stretched out for 1 million light-years. The supermassive black hole in question sits at the heart of the galaxy J1007+3540 and has lain dormant for around 100 million years.
The team of scientists behind these observations used the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) in the Netherlands and India's upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) to create radio images of J1007+3540 and its incumbent supermassive black hole. These images revealed this vast black hole jet is in a tug-of-war for dominance with the gravitational force of the rest of the galaxy.
'It's like watching a cosmic volcano erupt again after ages of calm — except this one is big enough to carve out structures stretching nearly a million light-years across space," team leader Shobha Kumari, of Midnapore City College, India, said in a statement.
Supermassive black holes are found at the hearts of all large galaxies, but they are far from all the same. They range in mass from millions to billions of times that of the sun, some are quiet and peaceful, like Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) at the heart of the Milky Way, and others are actively feeding and violent.
These latter supermassive black holes are surrounded by matter in a flattened swirling cloud called an accretion disk that gradually feeds them. The immense gravity of the black hole at the center of such a disk creates powerful tidal forces in this accretion disk, which generate friction, heating it and causing it to glow brightly.
Not all of the matter in accretion disks is destined to become a black hole snack, however. Intense magnetic fields channel charged particles, or plasma, to the poles of active supermassive black holes from where it is blasted out as jets at speeds approaching that of light. These jets also glow brightly, making these central galactic regions, or Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), stand out from vast cosmic distances.
Even among these incredible galactic engines, scientists say J1007+3540 stands out. That is because it shows evidence of turning on and off, restarting after vast quiet periods of time, to begin once again erupting with powerful jets.
Supermassive black hole jet structure
The images collected by the researchers show the structure of the jet from this supermassive black hole, consisting of a bright inner jet and a fainter outer "cocoon" of cooler faded plasma. That indicates to the team a history of repeated eruptive episodes, with the outer sleeve of faint plasma representing the fossil remains of prior blasts.
"This dramatic layering of young jets inside older, exhausted lobes is the signature of an episodic AGN – a galaxy whose central engine keeps turning on and off over cosmic timescales," Kumari said.
This jet debris seems to have been squashed and distorted by its surroundings due to the fact that J1007+3540 sits within a massive galaxy cluster filled with extremely hot gas. The result is an external pressure far greater than is typically experienced by galaxies of this type, known as radio galaxies due to their brightness in the radio region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
"J1007+3540 is one of the clearest and most spectacular examples of episodic AGN with jet-cluster interaction, where the surrounding hot gas bends, compresses, and distorts the jets," team member Sabyasachi Pal, also of Midnapore City College, said in the statement.
The LOFAR image of J1007+3540 annotated with labels indicating its structure (Image credit: LOFAR/Pan-STARRS/S. Kumari et al)
The image of J1007+3540 from LOFAR shows a significantly compressed and distorted lobe to the north of the structure, which represents plasma being shunted sideways by the gas the jet is trying to force its way through. The uGMRT image reveals that the compressed region consists of older particles that have lost much of their energy. That is another clear sign of the influence the cluster is having on this jet.
Further evidence of the way the harsh environment of J1007+3540 is sculpting these jets comes from a long, faint tail stretching out to the southwest of the structure. This tail consists of plasma that has been dragged through the cluster, creating a wispy trail that is millions of years old.
This galaxy and its supermassive black hole are a demonstration of just how AGNs can turn on and off and how the jets they blast out can change over the course of millions of years. Additionally, J1007+3540 is a lesson for astronomers regarding the influence galactic clusters can have on jet structures.
This could ultimately provide scientists with a clearer picture of how galaxies grow and evolve.
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+ https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/reborn-black-hole-seen-erupting-across-1-million-light-years-of-space-like-a-cosmic-volcano
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+ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 17:00:00 +0000Fri, 16 Jan 2026 22:10:49 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ China previews how powerful its new Xuntian space telescope will be ahead of 2027 launch (video) ]]>
+ China is getting close to launching a large space telescope to orbit along with its Tiangong space station, and scientists have just completed a full observation simulation in preparation.
The bus-sized Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST) — also known as Xuntian, or "surveying the heavens" — is being readied for a launch as soon as early 2027. It features a 6.6-foot-wide (2 meters) primary mirror, slightly smaller than that of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Xuntian will, however, be a much more capable sky survey instrument, according to Chinese space officials. It carries a 2.5-billion-pixel camera and boasts a field of view around 300 times larger than the venerable Hubble, surveying the sky from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelengths and delivering high spatial resolution imagery.
As preparations for launch enter the final stages, a collaborative Chinese research team built an end-to-end simulation suite to provide mock observations for both the telescope's optical and other observation systems to replicate expected instrumental and observational conditions and evaluate the telescope's overall performance. The results were published in the journal Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics in early January.
The Chinese Space Station Telescope is expected to make major contributions to a range of fields, including cosmology, the study of galaxies, the evolution of the Milky Way and stars and planets. It could also provide insights into dark matter and dark energy, according to the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), which led the mock observation study.
After launch on a Long March 5B rocket, Xuntian will fly independently in low Earth orbit, but it will co-orbit with the Tiangong space station. As shown in a video published by China Central Television (CCTV), the spacecraft will be able to dock with Tiangong. Astronauts will then be able to conduct extravehicular activities, or spacewalks, to maintain, repair or even upgrade the observatory, as NASA astronauts did with Hubble five times between 1993 and 2009.
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+ https://www.space.com/astronomy/china-previews-how-powerful-its-new-xuntian-space-telescope-will-be-ahead-of-2027-launch-video
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+ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 16:00:00 +0000Fri, 16 Jan 2026 21:08:01 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Northern lights may be visible in 24 states Jan. 19 as a massive CME slams into Earth ]]>
+ Editor's note: Wow, the anticipated geomagnetic storm didn't disappoint last night, with northern lights reported far beyond their usual polar limits. You can see some of the best scenes from that show in our aurora photo roundup. While geomagnetic activity is expected to ease, conditions remain unsettled, and there's still a chance the northern lights could make another appearance tonight, Jan. 20, though likely less intense.
A colossal coronal mass ejection (CME) has struck Earth, triggering severe (G4) geomagnetic storm conditions that could push the northern lights much farther south than usual tonight (Jan. 19–20). The impact, confirmed by NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, is already stirring Earth's magnetic field — setting the stage for a potentially spectacular aurora display across the northern U.S. and possibly beyond.
NOAA confirmed that G4 (severe) geomagnetic storm levels were first reached at 2:38 p.m. EST (1938 GMT) on Jan. 19 following the shock arrival. The storm is ongoing, and NOAA says CMEpassage is expected to continue through the evening, with G4 conditions still possible. That means tonight's aurora prospects are even more promising — if skies are clear and the magnetic field orientation remains favorable.
The CME was launched during a powerful X-class solar flare on Jan. 18 and raced toward Earth at speeds of 620–870 miles per second (1,000–1,400 km/s). Aurora chasers, get those camera batteries charged and your alerts switched on — tonight could be quite the night.
Where can I see the northern lights tonight?
Aurora view line map for tonight courtesy of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. (Image credit: Inset map: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, graphic created in Canva Pro)
States that could see auroras tonight
Based on the latest NOAA aurora forecast map, the following 24 U.S. states appear fully or partially above the aurora view line:
Alaska
Washington
Oregon
Idaho
Montana
North Dakota
Minnesota
South Dakota
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Michigan
New York
Vermont
Maine
New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Nebraska
Iowa
Illinois
Indiana
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Missouri
Colorado
But remember, auroras can be very fickle. The list is based on current forecast data at the time of publication, but if conditions strengthen, northern lights could reach much farther south than expected. Equally, if conditions don't align, we could end up twiddling our thumbs, with no auroras at all.
The CME was released on Jan. 18 and is currently on its way toward Earth. (Image credit: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center)
Whether tonight's CME delivers a dazzling aurora show or ends in disappointment depends largely on its magnetic orientation when it hits Earth.
If the CME's magnetic field is aligned southward — a component known as Bz — it can link up with Earth's magnetic field, allowing solar energy to stream into our atmosphere and fuel geomagnetic storms. But if it's oriented northward, Earth's magnetic field deflects much of that energy, and the show may never materialize.
Some CMEs contain both north- and south-facing fields, which can lead to patchy or fluctuating activity — keeping forecasters and aurora chasers on their toes. We won't know the CME’s true magnetic orientation until it's sampled directly by solar wind satellites like DSCOVR and ACE, positioned about a million miles from Earth.
Northern Hemisphere aurora forecast courtesy of the U.K. Met Office
When is the best time to look for the northern lights tonight?
If skies are clear, make sure to look for the northern lights as soon as it gets dark tonight, as geomagnetic activity is already elevated following the early arrival of today's CME. While the official forecast still shows the strongest (G4) storming between 1 and 4 a.m. EST (0600–0900 GMT) on Jan. 20, severe conditions have already been observed much earlier than anticipated.
That means the northern lights could appear sooner than expected, so it's worth keeping an eye on the sky throughout the evening.
According to NOAA's 3-day forecast, geomagnetic storm activity is expected to be best at the following times:
EST
GMT
Activity
7 p.m. - 10 p.m. (Jan. 19)
0000-0300 (Jan. 20)
Minor (G1) geomagnetic storming possible)
10 p.m. - 1 a.m. (Jan. 20)
0300-0600 (Jan. 20)
Moderate (G2) geomagnetic storming possible
1 a.m. - 4 a.m. (Jan. 20)
0600-0900 (Jan. 20)
Severe (G4) geomagnetic storming possible
4 a.m. - 7 a.m. (Jan. 20)
0900-1200 (Jan. 20)
Moderate (G2) geomagnetic storming possible
7 a.m. - 10 a.m. (Jan. 20)
1200-1500 (Jan. 20)
Strong (G3) geomagnetic storming possible
10 a.m. - 1 p.m. (Jan. 20)
1500-1800 (Jan. 20)
Moderate (G2) geomagnetic storming possible
1 p.m. - 1 a.m. (Jan 21)
1800-0600 (Jan. 21)
Minor (G1) geomagnetic storming possible
How can I see the northern lights from where I live?
If you're in one of the 24 U.S. states where auroras might make an appearance tonight, a little preparation can go a long way toward improving your odds of seeing them.
Start by finding a spot with an unobstructed view toward north, preferably somewhere dark and well away from city lights. The clearer your view of the northern horizon, the better.
Start scanning the sky with your phone's camera as they are usually good at picking up faint auroral glows that aren't immediately obvious to the naked eye, helping you identify where activity may be starting.
Dark adaptation is crucial and often overlooked when aurora chasing. If you can, give your eyes at least 30 minutes to fully adjust to the darkness so you can detect subtle auroral features. Keep in mind that even a quick look at a bright light or phone screen can reset the process, forcing you to start over
Dress for the wait. Aurora shows can be unpredictable and if conditions look promising you may find yourself waiting outside for a while. Make sure to wear plenty of layers!
We recommend downloading a space weather app that provides aurora forecasts based on your location. One option I use is "My Aurora Forecast & Alerts," available for both iOS and Android. However, any similar app should work well. I also use the "Space Weather Live" app, which is available on iOS and Android, to get a deeper understanding of whether the current space weather conditions are favorable for aurora sightings. Want to capture the perfect northern lights photo? Our how to photograph auroras guide can help.
Editor's Note: If you snap a photo of the northern or southern lights and would like to share it with Space.com's readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
This article was updated at 4:14 p.m. EST (2115 GMT) on Jan. 19 to reflect the confirmed arrival of the CME and the onset of G4 geomagnetic storm conditions, as reported by NOAA.
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+ https://www.space.com/stargazing/auroras/northern-lights-may-be-visible-in-24-states-tonight-as-massive-cme-races-toward-earth
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+ <![CDATA[ NASA rolls Artemis 2 moon rocket to launch pad | Space photo of the day for Jan. 19, 2025 ]]>
+ Since the end of the Apollo program in 1972, NASA has been looking for ways to return back to the moon. In 2022, the space agency launched the Artemis 1 moon mission, an uncrewed spacecraft that laid the foundations for the missions coming after it.
Now, three years later, Artemis 2 is slated for launch as the first crewed mission to return to our moon. But to get there, the rocket has to be moved from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center to its designated launch pad.
What is it?
The four-person Artemis 2 crew will fly on the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft. Instead of landing, the team will head on a roughly 10-day trip that loops around the moon and returns to Earth, an intentionally conservative "test flight" designed to validate that Orion and its support systems can keep the astronauts safe and productive in deep space.
The Artemis 2 team iincludes NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen, all of whom will help the mission act as a proving ground for the human factors that can't be fully simulated on Earth, from life support performance to emergency procedures.
According to NASA, the launch of Artemis 2 could be as early as sometime in February, if all goes according to plan.
Where is it?
The VAB is located at Kennedy Space Center, with the launchpad located at Cape, Canaveral.
The stacked Artemis 2 vehicle includes the Orion spacecraft and SLS. (Image credit: Josh Dinner/Space.com)
Why is it amazing?
Rollout is a key inflection point where the momentum shifts from "assembly" to "launch campaign." Once at the pad, the teams begin connecting Orion and SLS to pad infrastructure, from electrical to propellant systems, and then power up and check that the fully integrated vehicle is ready. It's the first time the whole system is exercised end-to-end in the environment and configuration it must survive in on launch day.
A mission's rollout also sets up the wet dress rehearsal, where the teams will load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants, run through countdown operations and practice draining the vehicle, without the astronauts onboard. Wet dress rehearsals are designed to uncover the real-world fueling and timing issues that only show up when you chill miles of plumbing down to super-cold temperatures and try to operate like it's launch day. NASA plans to hold their wet dress rehearsal on February 2nd, if nothing goes awry.
If Artemis 2 performs as intended, it will mark humanity's first crewed voyage into the moon's neighborhood since Apollo, and just as crucially, it will turn Artemis from a successful uncrewed demonstration into a validated system for carrying people back toward lunar exploration.
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+ https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/nasa-rolls-artemis-2-moon-rocket-to-launch-pad-space-photo-of-the-day-for-jan-19-2025
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+ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:00:00 +0000Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:02:53 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Was the Red Planet once blue? New evidence points to an ancient ocean on Mars ]]>
+ Mars may have once possessed an ocean at least as large as Earth's Arctic Ocean, a new study suggests.
Previous research suggested rivers and seas once existed on Mars, raising the question of whether it might have once been capable of supporting life. However, much remains uncertain about how blue the Red Planet once was.
In the new study, researchers analyzed high-resolution images from various cameras on Mars probes, including the European Space Agency (ESA)'s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, ESA's Mars Express, and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
"Together, these instruments act like a geological time machine, helping us reconstruct the planet's past condition," study lead author Ignatius Argadestya, a planetary geologist at the University of Bern in Switzerland, told Space.com.
The scientists investigated the southeast part of a 620-mile (1,000-kilometer) canyon known as Coprates Chasma. This gorge makes up part of the Valles Marineris, the largest canyon system on Mars, which stretches more than 2,485 miles (4,000 km) long along the Red Planet's equator.
The delta deposits that appeared on the images of Mars with the coastline. (Image credit: ESA/ExoMars – TGO/CaSSIS/Ignatius Argadestya)
Specifically, the researchers focused on geological formations known as scarp-faced deposits at the lower end of Coprates Chasma. These resembled fan deltas on Earth — fan-shaped cones of debris and sand that form where rivers pour into oceans. Although wind-sculpted dunes currently cover these former delta structures on Mars, their original shape is still recognizable.
All the scarp-faced deposits the scientists identified occurred at the same range of elevations — a depth of 11,975 to 12,300 feet (3,650 to 3,750 meters) in the Valles Marineris and the northern lowlands. In addition, they all formed about 3.37 billion years ago.
The researchers suggested these scarp-faced deposits are evidence of an ancient shore. All in all, they estimated Mars once possessed an ocean across its northern hemisphere that was at least as large as the Arctic Ocean on Earth.
The delta deposits that appeared on the images of Mars with the coastline. (Image credit: ESA/ExoMars – TGO/CaSSIS/Ignatius Argadestya)
"The most important implication is that Mars may have sustained stable surface water on a planetary scale for longer periods than previously thought," Argadestya said. "Water on Mars may once have formed connected systems across vast distances, rather than existing only in isolated lakes."
The scientists noted they are not the first to speculate about the existence and size of any ocean on Mars. "What our study contributes is a new line of geological evidence that helps constrain where the shoreline may have been and how high the water once reached," Argadestya said.
In the future, the scientists plan to investigate the composition of ancient Martian soils. These could help shed light on what kind of erosion Mars experienced from water, Argadestya noted.
The scientists detailed their findings online Jan. 7 in the journal npj Space Exploration.
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+ https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/was-the-red-planet-once-blue-new-evidence-points-to-an-ancient-ocean-on-mars
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+ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:00:00 +0000Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:02:53 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ This is the sharpest view ever seen of a black hole's dusty disk ]]>
+ The James Webb Space Telescope has delivered its clearest view yet of a supermassive black hole's immediate surroundings, NASA announced Tuesday (Jan. 13).
The snapshots show that the intense infrared glow in active galaxies comes not from powerful outflows, as long assumed, but from a dense disk of gas and dust feeding the black hole, NASA said in a statement.
The findings come from James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb) observations of the Circinus galaxy, a spiral galaxy about 14 million light-years from Earth, where a team led by Enrique Lopez-Rodriguez of the University of South Carolina used specialized techniques to probe the galaxy's dust-shrouded core surrounding its supermassive black hole in unprecedented detail.
In the image above, a close-up inset of the galaxy's core reveals the inner face of a glowing, donut-shaped disk of gas and dust, known as a torus, while darker patches mark a second, more distant ring surrounding the black hole.
"It is the first time a high-contrast mode of Webb has been used to look at an extragalactic source," study co-author Julien Girard, a senior research scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland, said in the statement.
This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows the Circinus galaxy. A close-up of its core from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows the inner face of the hole of the donut-shaped disk of gas disk glowing in infrared light. The outer ring appears as dark spots. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Enrique Lopez-Rodriguez (University of South Carolina), Deepashri Thatte (STScI); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI); Acknowledgment: NSF's NOIRLab, CTIO)
The team observed Circinus twice, in July 2024 and March 2025, using an instrument on Webb that gathers and combines light from the galaxy through a specially designed aperture with seven small hexagonal openings. These openings produce patterns that allowed the research team to isolate the hot dust and map small-scale structures at the galaxy's center that are normally hidden, according to NASA.
"This allows us to see images twice as sharp," study co-author Joel Sanchez-Bermudez of the National University of Mexico said in the statement. "Instead of Webb's 6.5-meter diameter, it's like we are observing this region with a 13-meter space telescope."
The data reveal that about 87 percent of the infrared emission from hot dust originates from the region closest to the black hole, concentrated in a flattened disk aligned with the galaxy's equatorial plane. This structure forms the inner portion of the dusty torus and acts as the primary reservoir funneling material inward to feed the black hole, the study finds.
By contrast, less than 1 percent of the emission comes from a faint arc-shaped structure, dubbed the "North Arc," where hot dust is being swept up in an outflow blasted outward by the black hole's activity. The remaining 12% arises from dust farther from the center, likely heated by the black hole's radiation and a small radio jet, but lying outside the main feeding region, the study notes.
These findings challenge decades-old models that attributed much of the infrared excess near active black holes to dusty outflows. That idea arose largely because earlier telescopes lacked the resolution needed to separate light from the accretion disk, the dusty torus and outflows, blending all of these structures into a single unresolved glow, according to the NASA statement.
Understanding black hole growth is central to understanding galaxy evolution. As black holes feed, they can also release enormous amounts of energy back into their surroundings, which can suppress or trigger star formation and shape a galaxy's overall structure.
By clearly distinguishing material falling inward to feed the black hole from dust being pushed outward in energetic winds, the new Webb observations provide a crucial step toward understanding how supermassive black holes grow and influence their host galaxies, researchers say.
The dusty torus observed in Circinus is thought to be common among active black holes throughout the universe, and the research team says it is eager to apply the new technique validated in this study to explore the immediate environments of other nearby black holes.
"We need a statistical sample of black holes, perhaps a dozen or two dozen, to understand how mass in their accretion disks and their outflows relate to their power," Lopez-Rodriguez said in the statement.
The results were published on Jan. 13 in Nature Communications.
Full-halo CME from the X1.9 flare. The three bright specks of light (left to right) are Venus, Mercury and Mars. (Image credit: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center)
The sun sure has woken up this week, unleashing a powerful X-class solar flare on Jan. 18 that hurled a colossal, fast-moving coronal mass ejection (CME) directly toward Earth. That CME has now arrived, triggering severe (G4) geomagnetic storm conditions far earlier than initially forecast.
The shock wave from the CME struck at 2:38 p.m. EST (1938 GMT) on Jan. 19, according to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, which confirmed that G4 storm levels were reached shortly after impact. The storm is ongoing, and space weather forecasters say CME passage will continue through the evening, keeping the door open for more aurora activity tonight.
Why the CME's impact depends on its magnetic orientation
CME arrivals are notoriously difficult to forecast. Their speed, direction of travel and — most importantly — their magnetic orientation all determine how strongly (if at all) they will interact with Earth's magnetic field.
If the CME's magnetic field is oriented southward, a component known as the Bz, it can more easily link up with Earth's northward-pointing magnetic field, allowing energy to pour into our planet's magnetosphere and trigger geomagnetic storm conditions.
X1.9 solar flare erupts from the sun on Jan. 18. (Image credit: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory)
If the Bz is instead oriented northward, Earth's magnetic field largely deflects the incoming energy, effectively "closing the door," and what looked like a promising space weather event can end up being a bit of a nothing burger.
Some CMEs contain a mixture of southward and northward magnetic fields, which can lead to stop-start or fluctuating geomagnetic activity. These events keep space weather forecasters and aurora chasers very much on their toes.
Even now, after the CME has arrived, we won't fully understand its magnetic orientation until it's sampled in real time by solar wind monitoring spacecraft like DSCOVR and ACE, positioned upstream of Earth.
NASA model of the incoming CME and predicted arrival time. (Image credit: NASA)
What's an X-class solar flare?
Solar flares are ranked in ascending strength from A, B, C and M up to X, with each letter representing a tenfold increase in intensity. X-class flares are the strongest eruptions and the number following the X indicates how powerful the event is. Today's flare was measured at X1.9, putting it in the upper tier of solar outbursts.
The powerful flare from sunspot region AR4341 peaked at 1:09 p.m. EST (1809 GMT), according to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. The eruption triggered strong (R3) radio blackouts across the sunlit side of Earth, with the most severe disruptions concentrated over the Americas.
The X1.9 solar flare triggered radio blackouts across the Americas. (Image credit: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center)
What is a CME and how can it affect Earth?
A CME is a massive expulsion of plasma from the sun that carries a magnetic field. If a CME hits Earth's magnetosphere — the protective magnetic "bubble" generated by our planet — it can trigger a geomagnetic storm.
These geomagnetic storms vary in intensity and are therefore classified on a scale from minor (G1) to extreme (G5). Current forecasts from the U.K. Met Office suggest the incoming CME could produce strong (G3) to severe (G4) geomagnetic storm conditions.
Storms of this magnitude can disrupt satellite operations, degrade GPS navigation and increase atmospheric drag on spacecraft. They can also supercharge auroral activity, potentially pushing the northern lights far beyond their usual high-latitude haunts and into mid-latitude regions near 45° latitude.
Editor's note: This article was updated on Jan. 19 at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT) to reflect that the coronal mass ejection (CME) has arrived and triggered G4 (severe) geomagnetic storm conditions, according to NOAA. Forecasts and visibility potential may continue to evolve as the storm progresses.
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+ https://www.space.com/astronomy/sun/sun-erupts-with-powerful-x-class-flare-as-huge-cme-races-toward-earth-impact-possible-within-24-hours
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+ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 11:00:01 +0000Mon, 19 Jan 2026 21:38:37 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Astronomers discover an enormous iron bar in the famous Ring Nebula: 'We definitely need to know more' ]]>
+ Sometimes, even the most familiar astronomical objects can hold surprises for researchers. Take the well-known Ring Nebula, which astronomers have now discovered harbors a mysterious "bar" of iron atoms.
Also known as Messier 57 (M57), the Ring Nebula is a "planetary nebula" (a misleading name because there are no planets involved) located around 2,000 light-years away. It is the glowing remains of what was once a sun-like star, which ran out of fuel for nuclear fusion and shed its outer layers as its core collapsed to form a dense stellar remnant called a white dwarf.
The iron bar was discovered by a team using the William Herschell Telescope (WHT) located in the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, on La Palma island, Spain, thanks to a new instrument called WEAVE (WHT Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer). The rod-like cloud of iron atoms fits within the inner layer of the oval-shaped nebula, which was first observed in 1779 in the constellation Lyra by astronomer Charles Messier. This bar extends out for around 1,000 times the distance between Pluto and the sun, and the mass of iron in the bar is around the same as the mass of Mars.
"Even though the Ring Nebula has been studied using many different telescopes and instruments, WEAVE has allowed us to observe it in a new way, providing so much more detail than before. By obtaining a spectrum continuously across the whole nebula, we can create images of the nebula at any wavelength and determine its chemical composition at any position," team leader Roger Wesson of the University College London (UCL) said in a statement.
"When we processed the data and scrolled through the images, one thing popped out as clear as anything — this previously unknown 'bar' of ionized iron atoms, in the middle of the familiar and iconic ring."
The Ring Nebula as seen by Hubble (Image credit: NASA)
Equipped with a bundle of hundreds of optical fibers, WEAVE's Large Integral Field Unit (LIFU) mode, the team was able to capture a spectrum covering all wavelengths of visible light across the entire face of the Ring Nebula, something that has not been possible before. It would not have been possible to discover the iron bar without this new approach to imaging the Ring Nebula.
Just how this iron bar formed remains a mystery to Wesson and colleagues. One possibility is that it is related to how the star ejected its outer layers and how this process progressed. Alternatively, the formation of this arc of iron plasma could be the result of the Ring Nebula's doomed star vaporizing an orbiting rocky planet as its outer layers puffed out.
If that is the case, the Ring Nebula could be a portent of what awaits Earth in around 5 billion years when the sun runs out of fuel for nuclear fusion and puffs out to become a red giant."We definitely need to know more — particularly whether any other chemical elements co-exist with the newly-detected iron, as this would probably tell us the right class of model to pursue," team member and UCL astronomer Janet Drew said. "Right now, we are missing this important information."
To discover the mechanism behind the creation of this iron bar, the team is planning a follow-up study with WEAVE and its LIFU mode at greater resolution.
"The discovery of this fascinating, previously unknown structure in a night-sky jewel, beloved by skywatchers across the Northern Hemisphere, demonstrates the amazing capabilities of WEAVE," Scott Trager, WEAVE Project Scientist based at the University of Groningen, said. "We look forward to many more discoveries from this new instrument."
That could include discovering if any other planetary nebulas like the Ring Nebula also contain unexpected structures.
"It would be very surprising if the iron bar in the Ring Nebula is unique," Wesson concluded. "So hopefully, as we observe and analyse more nebulae created in the same way, we will discover more examples of this phenomenon, which will help us to understand where the iron comes from."
About nine minutes later, the Falcon's upper stage reached its preliminary orbit and was on track to deploy its payload approximately an hour after leaving the ground, following a coast period and second burn of its Merlin engine.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 29 Starlink satellites launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)
The launch marked the 24th successful re-flight of the Falcon 9's first stage (B1080). The booster performed a propulsive landing, touching down on its four deployed legs atop the droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets stands on its four landing legs atop the Atlantic Ocean-based droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" after launching 29 Starlink satellites into orbit from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)
The ever-growing Starlink megaconstellation now numbers more than 9,500 active satellites, according to tracker Jonathan McDowell. The network provides internet access to regions around the world where others means of connecting is sparse. The service also supports wifi on airlines and direct cell-to-satellite calls for select providers.
Sunday's launch marked SpaceX's 8th launch of 2026 and 591st Falcon 9 mission since 2010.
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+ https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-starlink-6-100-b1080-ccsfs-asog
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+ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:27:37 +0000Tue, 20 Jan 2026 13:10:38 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown gets a release date, bringing roguelite survival action to the Delta Quadrant ]]>
+ The fever dream continues as Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown now has a confirmed release date. Slated for launch nearly a quarter of a century after the television show went off the air, the roguelite strategy adventure will drop on February 19th, 2026, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
As we reported last year, the game follows the adventures of the Voyager's crew as they attempt to navigate their way home from the Delta Quadrant, some 70,000 light-years from known space. Across the Unknown isn't beholden to the plot of the series, however, allowing players to completely reshape how their journey unfolds. This includes making decisions that can dramatically impact the makeup of the ship itself and change the fates of the crew members onboard.
Across the Unknown promises to incorporate roguelite survival elements, and that every run will vary broadly. Players will be tasked with careful management of the ship's systems and resources as they explore and make critical choices that will determine whether or not Captain Janeway and her crew make it back to the Alpha Quadrant in one piece.
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The game leans heavily into management and strategic choices. In combat, for instance, instead of directly controlling the U.S.S. Voyager, you'll issue orders to your helmsman to try to position yourself alongside vulnerable subsystems of an enemy vessel, or turn your ship to present your strongest shields to your foe. You won't manually fire weapons, but instead give your security officer broad instructions like "target their weapons subsystems."
Those officers are characters drawn directly from the series, including stalwarts like Tuvok and Tom Paris, as well as later additions like former Borg drone Seven of Nine.
Preorders are now available for both the vanilla and deluxe editions of the game (the latter of which includes additional characters, missions, and equipment), and a new demo is now live on PlayStation and Xbox. Expect a Switch 2 demo closer to release, as well as an update to the preexisting Steam demo.
While you wait for the February launch, it's a great time to catch up on some of the best Star Trek Voyager episodes on Paramount+.
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+ https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-games/star-trek-voyager-across-the-unknown-gets-a-release-date-bringing-roguelite-survival-action-to-the-delta-quadrant
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+ Sun, 18 Jan 2026 16:00:00 +0000Fri, 16 Jan 2026 20:29:59 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Does antimatter 'fall up'? ]]>
+ In 1971, astronaut David Scott stood on the lunar surface, holding a hammer and a feather, and in the vacuum of the moon, he let them go. They struck the gray dust at the exact same time. It was a poetic nod to Galileo, who, centuries earlier, disproved the Aristotelian notion that heavy objects "want" to be on the ground more than light ones do.
This wasn't just a parlor trick for the cameras; it was a demonstration of the weak equivalence principle, which is the bedrock of general relativity. It states that all objects, regardless of their mass or internal composition, fall at the exact same rate in a gravitational field. When Einstein was building his masterpiece theory, he didn't try to explain why this happens. He simply assumed it was a fundamental rule and moved on.
But what if there's an astrophysical creature that refuses to play by the rules? What if we dropped something so exotic, it wasn't even on Einstein's radar? We need to talk about antimatter.
To understand the allure of falling antimatter, we have to look at the history of its discovery. In the 1920s, physicist Paul Dirac was trying to force two very different worlds — quantum mechanics (the rules of the very small) and special relativity (the rules of the very fast) — to play together.
Dirac found an equation that worked, but it had a quirk. Just as the square root of 4 can be both 2 and -2, his equation offered two solutions for the energy of a particle: one positive and one negative. This was a problem. Positive energy has a "ground floor" at zero, but negative energy is a basement of a basement with no bottom.
Dirac's solution was what became known as the "Dirac sea." He imagined outer space not as an empty vacuum but as a filled "ocean" of negative energy states. If you kick one of these invisible particles into the positive realm, you leave behind a hole. That hole behaves like a normal particle but with an opposite charge. It was the first time a particle was predicted by pure math before being seen in a lab. We call it antimatter.
Why focus on antimatter to test gravity? Because antimatter is the bridge to the greatest divide in physics. General relativity (gravity) and quantum mechanics (everything else) famously do not get along. They speak different languages and live in different neighborhoods. Because antimatter is a pure product of the quantum world, it is the perfect candidate to test Einstein's theory of gravity.
However, this is a nightmare, for three reasons:
When matter and antimatter touch, they annihilate in a flash of pure energy.
Nature doesn't just hand us antimatter; we have to build it in advanced laboratories.
To overcome these hurdles, scientists at CERN's ALPHA-g experiment had to get creative. First, they made neutral antihydrogen by pairing antiprotons with positrons (anti-electrons). Because these antiatoms are neutral, they aren't pushed around by electricity.
The team caught about a hundred of these antiatoms in a Penning trap, which is a magnetic bottle that holds them in place because, while neutral, they still act like tiny bar magnets. Then, using lasers, the researchers chilled the atoms to near absolute zero to stop them from jiggling.
Then came the moment of truth: They slowly turned down the magnetic field.
If antimatter ignored the weak equivalence principle, the atoms might have drifted upward, repelled by Earth. If Einstein was right, they should tumble downward. The researchers waited for the flash of annihilation as the antiatoms escaped the trap and hit the walls of the container. After they filtered out the noise of stray cosmic rays, the results were clear: Roughly 80% of the antiatoms fell through the bottom of the trap.
Antimatter falls down. It's an anti-climactic (ha ha) result in the best way possible. It means the weak equivalence principle holds firm and Einstein's vision of a universal gravitational response remains unblemished.
However, the case isn't entirely closed. While we know antimatter falls down, we don't yet know if it falls at the exact same acceleration as regular matter does. If there is even a 1% difference in the speed of the fall, it would signal a total revolution in physics — a sign that gravity treats mirror matter differently. But for now, the universe remains a place where hammers, feathers and antihydrogen all race to the floor at the same speed.
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+ https://www.space.com/astronomy/dark-universe/does-antimatter-fall-up
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+ Sun, 18 Jan 2026 15:00:00 +0000Fri, 16 Jan 2026 20:29:43 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ 'Starfleet Academy' isn't the first time that 'Star Trek' tried to go back to school ]]>
+ "Star Trek" is going back to school. The new Trek TV series "Starfleet Academy" is less about exploring the final frontier and more about educating the next generation of explorers, as a group of students from very different backgrounds make their way through the famous San Francisco educational establishment. But although it's taken the famous old franchise 60 years, 13 movies, 12 previous TV shows, and the dawn of the 32nd century to get here, the school is nearly as old as the franchise itself.
The Academy got its first mention in "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the second "Trek" pilot (but the third episode broadcast), when James T Kirk's old classmate, Gary Mitchell, recalled their college days. The Kobayashi Maru, the infamous no-win simulation used to test potential captains, also became a key theme in classic movie "The Wrath of Khan" (1982). But at the start of the 1990s, Starfleet Academy got remarkably close to headlining its own movie.
"Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" (1989) has long been considered one of the worst entries in the movie series, a poorly conceived tale of the USS Enterprise's mission to find God. Literally.
(Image credit: CBS/Paramount)
Its commercial and critical failure — combined with the advancing years of the famous bridge crew and the hefty salaries demanded by William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and the rest — became a good excuse to explore alternative potential avenues for the franchise.
So, with "Trek" due to celebrate its 25th birthday in 1991, Paramount executive Ned Tanen gave producer Harve Bennett (who'd overseen the four previous films) the okay to work on "The Academy Years", a project he already had in development with "Star Trek V" writer David Loughery. If successful, Bennett believed that "The Academy Years" (sometimes referred to as "The First Adventure") could become the launchpad for a new movie or TV franchise.
"'The Academy Years', like 'Star Trek IV', would have reached beyond the ['Star Trek'] cult," Bennett recalled in "The Fifty-Year Mission" by Edward Gross and Mark A Altman. "It would have interested people who had never seen a 'Star Trek' film, which did not exclude the regulars, but it simply said, 'If you don't understand what it's all about, come see how it all began."
(Image credit: Paramount)
This story would effectively be a reboot for the franchise, a coming-of-age story for Kirk, Spock (the first non-human ever to attend the Academy), and McCoy, revealing how the Original Series' holy trinity came to be friends. In other words, "The Academy Years" would have been "Trek"'s answer to "Young Sherlock Holmes" and "Young Indiana Jones".
"In outline form, it was the story of Kirk and Spock meeting for the first time as cadets here on Earth," Loughery explained. "We've got a young Jim Kirk, who's kind of cocky and wild. He's not exactly what you might think starship captain material might be. He's like one of these kids who would rather fly hot planes and chase girls. Spock is this brilliant, arrogant, aloof-to-the-point-of-obnoxiousness genius. It's the mask he's hiding behind to cover his own conflicting human emotions. He's an outcast, he left Vulcan in shame against his father's wishes, and like all adolescents, he's trying to find a place to fit in, but he keeps screwing it up."
McCoy, meanwhile, would have been an older 30-year-old coming to terms with the death of his father, a wound explored in "Star Trek V". Despite their initial (and dramatically inevitable) differences, the trio would have come together to free an alien planet from slavery. Along the way, Kirk would have had a tragic love affair with a woman whose death would go on to shape his attitude to future relationships, much as Vesper Lynd's demise in "Casino Royale" did for James Bond.
(Image credit: CBS/Getty)
The filmmakers also planned to bookend the story with the reminiscences of the older Kirk and Spock — a cunning ruse to get the headline power of Shatner and Nimoy in the movie. Bennett wanted Ethan Hawke to play the young Kirk and John Cusack to play Spock.
"The Academy Years" may have been touted as a 23rd century answer to 1986 Paramount hit "Top Gun", but not everybody was enamored with the prospect of a movie that — seemingly the victim of a smear campaign — had come to be regarded as a spoof, a "Trek"-tinged cross between "Police Academy" and "The Jetsons".
Although Gene Roddenberry no longer had any official behind-the-scenes power, the "Star Trek" creator still held considerable sway with the fanbase. So when "the Great Bird of the Galaxy" made it clear he did not endorse the project, Bennett and co faced an uphill battle to get their movie greenlit. And even though Bennett later claimed that the door would have been left open for the original crew to return in "Star Trek VI" a year or two later, many of the veteran Original Series cast were sceptical.
(Image credit: Paramount Pictures)
The weight of opinion was enough to keep "The Academy Years" grounded in Spacedock, as Paramount opted instead to mark "Trek"'s silver anniversary with Kirk, Spock, and the gang's final adventure in "The Undiscovered Country" (1991). Bennett chose to walk away from the franchise.
But Kirk and Picard's alma mater has never really gone away. While a student, Wesley Crusher came perilously close to expulsion after a stunt-gone-wrong in "The Next Generation" episode "The First Duty" (1992), and William Shatner, Walter Koenig, and George Takei all reprised their roles in a 1997 "Starfleet Academy" PC game.
There was also a series of YA novels featuring various members of the Original Series, "Next Generation", and "Voyager" crews during their Academy days, and a Marvel Comics series featuring "Deep Space Nine"'s Nog studying at the school. In a 2010 interview with TrekMovie, Bennett recalled a mid-'90s meeting with then-Paramount head Sharry Lansing at which the prospect of resurrecting "The Academy Years" was discussed. The comeback was soon nixed, however, when a pilot for another prequel, "Enterprise", was given the nod.
(Image credit: Paramount Pictures)
Until now, the closest we've come to a bona fide Starfleet Academy movie or TV show has been JJ Abrams' 2009 "Star Trek", in which a rebellious James Tiberius Kirk enrolls at the school in an alternative timeline. In contrast to "The Academy Years" version, Spock is an instructor rather than one of Kirk's contemporaries, though our introduction to a young James T — where he steals a vintage car — seems remarkably similar to Loughery's opening scene, in which the future captain of the Enterprise would have crashed a crop duster. "Star Trek: Prodigy" could have sent its young heroes to the Academy, but the showrunners took a different path (via CinemaBlend) because they knew the new "Starfleet Academy" was already on the Paramount+ timetable.
The new 32nd-century-set TV show is, of course, very different from these previous iterations, featuring all-new characters who've grown up in the warp-free era of the Burn. That said, "Starfleet Academy" showrunner and "Trek" overseer Alex Kurtzman may just have put his finger on the reason for the Academy's ongoing appeal.
"These cadets are still figuring it out," he told SFX magazine, "and like all students in college, you go through a remarkable journey of self-discovery over the course of those four years. Oftentimes, what you enter into college thinking you want to do, and what you leave college wanting to do, are two very different things."
The first two episodes of 'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy' stream on Paramount+ from Thursday, January 15.
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+ https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/starfleet-academy-isnt-the-first-time-that-star-trek-tried-to-go-back-to-school
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+ Sun, 18 Jan 2026 15:00:00 +0000Fri, 16 Jan 2026 21:03:55 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ What is below Earth, since space is present in every direction? ]]>
+ This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
But what is above and below that plane? And why are the planets' orbits aligned like this, in a flat pancake, rather than each one traveling in a completely different plane?
I'm a planetary scientist who works with robotic spacecraft, such as rovers and orbiters. When my colleagues and I send them out to explore our solar system, it's important for us to understand the 3D map of our space neighborhood.
Which way is 'down'?
Earth's gravity has a lot to do with what people think is up and what is down. Things fall down toward the ground, but that direction depends on where you are.
Imagine you're standing somewhere in North America and point downward. If you extend a line from your fingertip all the way through the Earth, that line would point in the direction of "up" to someone on a boat in the southern Indian Ocean.
In the bigger picture, "down" could be defined as being below the plane of the solar system, which is known as the ecliptic. By convention, we say that above the plane is where the planets are seen to orbit counterclockwise around the sun, and from below they are seen to orbit clockwise.
Even more flavors of 'down'
Is there anything special about the direction of down relative to the ecliptic? To answer that, we need to zoom out even farther. Our solar system is centered on the sun, which is just one of about 100 billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Each of these stars, and their associated planets, are all orbiting around the center of the Milky Way, just like the planets orbit their stars, but on a much longer time scale. And just as the planets in our solar system are not in random orbits, stars in the Milky Way orbit the center of the galaxy close to a plane, which is called the galactic plane.
This plane is not oriented the same way as our solar system's ecliptic. In fact, the angle between the two planes is about 60 degrees.
Going another step back, the Milky Way is part of a cluster of galaxies known the the Local Group, and – you can see where this is going – these galaxies mostly fall within another plane, called the supergalactic plane. The supergalactic plane is almost perpendicular to the galactic plane, with an angle between the two planes of about 84.5 degrees.
How these bodies end up traveling paths that are close to the same plane has to do with how they formed in the first place.
A side view of galaxy NGC 4217 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows how all the stars and their planetary systems lie on one plane. (Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgement: R. Schoof)
Collapse of the solar nebula
The material that would ultimately compose the sun and the planets of the solar system started out as a diffuse and very extensive cloud of gas and dust called the solar nebula. Every particle within the solar nebula had a tiny amount of mass. Because any mass exerts gravitational force, these particles were attracted to each other, though only very weakly.
The particles in the solar nebula started out moving very slowly. But over a long time, the mutual attraction these particles felt thanks to gravity caused the cloud to start to draw inward on itself, shrinking.
There would have also been some very slight overall rotation to the solar nebula, maybe thanks to the gravitational tug of a passing star. As the cloud collapsed, this rotation would have increased in speed, just like a spinning figure skater spins faster and faster as they draw their arms in toward their body.
As the cloud continued shrinking, the individual particles grew closer to each other and had more and more interactions affecting their motion, both because of gravity and collisions between them. These interactions caused individual particles in orbits that were tilted far from the direction of the overall rotation of the cloud to reorient their orbits.
For example, if a particle coming down through the orbital plane slammed into a particle coming up through that plane, the interaction would tend to cancel out that vertical motion and reorient their orbits into the plane.
On much bigger scales, similar sorts of interactions are probably what ended up confining most of the stars that make up the Milky Way into the galactic plane, and most of the galaxies that make up the Local Group into the supergalactic plane.
The orientations of the ecliptic, galactic and supergalactic planes all go back to the initial random rotation direction of the clouds they formed from.
So what's below the Earth?
So there's not really anything special about the direction we define as "down" relative to the Earth, other than the fact that there’s not much orbiting the sun in that direction.
If you go far enough in that direction, you'll eventually find other stars with their own planetary systems orbiting in completely different orientations. And if you go even farther, you might encounter other galaxies with their own planes of rotation.
This question highlights one of my favorite aspects of astronomy: It puts everything in perspective. If you asked a hundred people on your street, "Which way is down?" every one of them would point in the same direction. But imagine you asked that question of people all over the Earth, or of intelligent life forms in other planetary systems or even other galaxies. They'd all point in different directions.
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+ https://www.space.com/astronomy/what-is-below-earth-since-space-is-present-in-every-direction
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+ Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:00:00 +0000Fri, 16 Jan 2026 21:03:09 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ New moon of January 2026 brings prime views of Jupiter, Saturn and winter stars tonight ]]>
+ The new moon of January will be at 2:52 p.m. EST (1952 GMT) on Jan. 18, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory.
A new moon is, technically, a conjunction of the sun and moon. The two bodies share the same celestial longitude — if one drew a north-south line from the North Celestial Pole (right near where the Pole Star, Polaris, is located) the sun and moon would both be on it.
At the new phase, you can't see the moon from Earth unless there is a solar eclipse, the illuminated side is facing away from us. On top of that new moons rise and set with the sun; even if one could light up the side of the moon facing Earth it would be lost in the solar glare. Earth-based observers won't (visually) see a new moon until Feb.17, when there will be a solar eclipse visible from the southern Indian Ocean and Antarctica.
New moon skies are dark, especially when compared to nights when the moon is out; even a half-moon (when the moon is at first or last quarter phase) is the second brightest object in the sky after the sun. That means the nights on either side of a new moon are good for observing fainter stars and seeing the naked-eye nebulas and star clusters, particularly if one can watch the sky from a place away from city lights.
Visible planets
On the night of Jan. 18, there will be two planets visible: Saturn and Jupiter. By about 6 p.m., Saturn will be about 37 degrees above the southwestern horizon. In New York City, the sun sets at 4:56 p.m.; the timing and Saturn's location in the sky will be similar for anyplace near 40 degrees north, such as Chicago, Denver, Detroit, or Sacramento. In New York, Saturn sets at 9:48 p.m.
Jupiter, meanwhile, rises at 3:58 p.m.; since the sky darkens completely by about 6 p.m., one will see Jupiter about 21 degrees high in the east. Jupiter is brighter than the surrounding stars; one way to identify Jupiter is look for a rough triangle of "stars" with two of them to the left (north) of a brighter one; the brighter, steadier light is Jupiter. Jupiter is visible almost all night; the planet does not set until 6:49 a.m. (January 19) in New York, and it reaches its highest altitude (called transit) at 11:23 p.m. Jan. 18.
Unfortunately for planet hunters, Mercury, Venus and Mars are all too close to the sun to observe; they will come out of the solar glare in the weeks following the new moon. Mercury will emerge as an "evening star" in February and Venus will do so in March. Mars will emerge into the predawn skies in March.
The new moon on Jan. 18 provides the perfect dark skies for deep sky observations. (Image credit: Starry Night/Chris Vaughan)
For Southern Hemisphere skywatchers, the sky doesn't get dark until 9:30 p.m.; as it is the austral summer, the sun sets late. In Santiago, Chile, for example, sunset isn't until 8:54 p.m. local time on Jan. 18. Santiago is about as far south of the equator — 33 degrees — as Dallas or Charleston, South Carolina is north of it, and is of a similar latitude to cities such as Cape Town and Melbourne, Australia.
From Santiago, Saturn will be 22 degrees high in the west by 10 p.m. The ringed planet sets at 11:54 p.m. Jan. 18. Jupiter, meanwhile, rises at 8:11 p.m. local time, and by 10 p.m. is in the northeastern sky about 18 degrees high.
Stars and constellations
Winter constellations are in full swing for Northern Hemisphere observers in the latter half of January. Two hours after sunset — at about 7 p.m. in New York— some of the brightest constellations have risen — Orion (the Hunter), Gemini (the Twins), Taurus (the Bull), Canis Minor (the Little Dog) and Auriga (the Charioteer). Look low in the southeast to spot the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, the alpha star of Canis Major, the Big Dog.
You can start by identifying Gemini, as this is the constellation Jupiter is in. The two stars to the left (north) of Jupiter are Castor and Pollux, with Pollux being the one closer to the horizon. almost level with Jupiter. If you look down and to the right about four times Jupiter's distance from Pollux, you will see a bright white star; this is Procyon, the brightest star in Canis Minor. Go further to the right (south) and you see Sirius, which is recognizable by its blue-white hue and its brightness.
Directly above Sirius, about a third of the way from the horizon to the zenith (the point directly overhead) is Orion. Orion can be identified by the three stars that make up his belt — early in the night, they will appear to make an almost vertical line. Going up from the horizon, the first star is Alnitak, the second is Alnilam, and the third is Mintaka. Look slightly up and to the left of the belt and one can spot a bright reddish-orange star. This is Betelgeuse (pronounced like beetle-juice), marking one of Orion's shoulders. Above and to the right of Betelgeuse is Bellatrix, his other shoulder. On the right side of Orion's Belt, about the same distance from Mintaka as Betelgeuse is from Alnitak, is a bright blue-white star; this is Rigel.
Orion constellation shining over Odenwald, Germany. (Image credit: davidhajnal/Getty Images)
Since the night will be moonless, just to the right of Orion's Belt and below it, you can, from a dark-sky location away from city lights, trace a group of faint stars that is Orion's sword, and in that group, you might be able to spot the Orion Nebula.
Look above Orion and go two-thirds of the way to the zenith to spot another reddish star, though its color is much less vivid than Betelgeuse. This is Aldebaran, the brightest star in Taurus. Aldebaran is in a group of fainter stars (the shape is a little bit like a U on its side or a backwards C). This is the Hyades, an open star cluster. Look higher still, almost straight up from Aldebaran, to see a tiny cluster of stars that are almost too close together to separate with the naked eye. This is the Pleiades, another open cluster also called the Seven Sisters. In binoculars, it will look like a miniature version of the Big Dipper.
Speaking of which, if you draw a line through Jupiter and Pollux northwards, you'll reach the Big Dipper, a group of stars that is part of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The Dipper will be close to the horizon, with the bowl facing upwards. You can use the two stars at the front of the bowl, Dubhe and Merak (with Merak being the lower one), to find Polaris, the Pole Star.
By 9 p.m. The Big Dipper is almost vertical and in the northeast; the "bowl" faces west (left). The Dipper can now be used to point to other stars besides Polaris. If you draw a line to the right, connecting the stars at the back of the bowl (these will be the two lower in the sky) you'll reach Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, the Lion, which will be almost due east and about 17 degrees high (this will vary depending on one's exact latitude but it will be similar in any mid-Northern latitude city).
For Southern Hemisphere observers, January is when Puppis, Carina and Vela, the three constellations that make up the Argo, the famous ship of Jason and the Argonauts, are prominent, rising in the east by 10 p.m. Though you'll see an "upside down" sky, you can still use Jupiter to orient — Pollux will appear to be directly below the planet, as opposed to being to the left of it, and Procyon is to the right of Jupiter and above it, some 27 degrees high in the northeast. Look up and to the right from Procyon and you will see Sirius, about 51 degrees high. Look to the right (southwards) and still higher — about 59 degrees, or two thirds of the way to the zenith, and one spies Canopus, the alpha Star of Carina, the Ship's Keel. Below Canopus, there is a large "loop" of seven medium-bright stars, the topmost one (closest to Canopus) is called Regor, or Gamma Velorum, the brightest star in Vela, the Sail. Above and to the right of Vela is Puppis, the Poop Deck, another group of seven stars in an elongated shape rather like a peanut. The first four stars form a four-sided diamond shape to the left of and below Canopus; these are relatively faint. Just to the left of Regor is a fifth star, Zeta Puppis (or Naos) and the remaining two are to the left of that about twice as far from Regor as Naos is.
The Crux (left) with the Running Chicken Nebula (IC 2944) in the lower right, captured from Atacama Lodge, Chile, March 18, 2010. (Image credit: VW Pics /Getty Images)
About 13 degrees above the south-southeastern horizon you can see Crux, the Southern Cross, which from the latitude of Santiago is circumpolar — it never sets. At 10 p.m. it is upside down (or nearly so) so the crossbar is closer to the horizon and its brightest star, Acrux, is highest.
If you look southwest and about 54 degrees above the horizon, you can see a bright star in a patch of sky that seems to have few of them; this is Achernar, the end of Eridanus, the River. Achernar is not visible from much of the Northern Hemisphere but the end of the constellation Eridanus is — it starts just to the south of Orion's foot, Rigel, which from the latitude of Santiago is 61 degrees high in the north-northeast, with Orion's Belt below rather than above it.
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+ https://www.space.com/stargazing/new-moon-brings-prime-views-of-jupiter-saturn-and-winter-stars
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+ bqcXHLXx4whjfbaMUnCZnb
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+ Sun, 18 Jan 2026 13:00:00 +0000Fri, 16 Jan 2026 21:02:44 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ Hubble Telescope watches star blast out jet of hot gas 32 light-years long ]]>
+ Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have witnessed an infant star 20 times larger than the sun setting interstellar clouds ablaze. The source of this cosmic conflagration is a stellar jet travelling at an incredible 2.2 million miles per hour (3.5 million kilometers per hour), the fastest outflow of this type ever seen.
This particular outflow is also the longest outflow from a forming star or protostar ever seen by astronomers, stretching out for a staggering 32 light-years. For context, that is around 8 to 10 times as wide as our entire solar system.
The stunning image of this cosmic eruption from Hubble shows two so-called Herbig-Haro (HH) objects designated HH 80 and HH 81, respectively, glowing in neon green and pink. HH 81 is to the upper left of the image, while HH 80 is to the bottom right.
The star illuminating them is IRAS 18162-2048, located around 5,500 light-years away, and the most massive protostar in the entire molecular cloud known as L291.
Protostars like IRAS 18162-2048 are fed by gas that falls to them from the surrounding clouds of gas and dust that originally condensed to form them. This matter can't fall directly to these hungry cosmic infants because it still possesses angular momentum. That means it forms a swirling cloud around the protostar called an accretion disk, which gradually feeds this stellar newborn like a baby bottle.
However, just as human infants are pretty messy, so too are protostars. Powerful magnetic fields channel plasma in accretion disks to the poles of protostars, accelerating it to high-speeds and then blasting it out as jets.
Outbursts from an infant star light up the interstellar clouds HH 80 and HH 81 (Image credit: NASA, ESA, and B. Reipurth (Planetary Science Institute); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America))
HH objects are created when jets of ionized gas, or plasma, are blasted away from protostars at incredible speeds. These jets strike previously ejected gas, creating shockwaves that heat that gas, causing the bright glows demonstrated by HH 80 and HH 81 in this Hubble image.
First observed by Hubble in 1995, HH 80 and HH 81 are striking examples of HH objects not just due to the size and speed of the jet powering them, but also because this is the only jet astronomers have ever seen being driven by a young massive star and not a young low mass star.
This spectacular image of HH 80 and HH 81 and its capability to allow astronomers to study minute changes in the structure of these incredible cosmic bodies, was only possible thanks to the sensitivity and resolution of Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3.
Thus, this image is further evidence that even after 36 years in service, Hubble is still a vital tool for astronomers.
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+ https://www.space.com/astronomy/stars/hubble-telescope-watches-star-blast-out-jet-of-hot-gas-32-light-years-long
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+ cVXxccoyE9LDWVBbV49zVb
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+ Sun, 18 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000Fri, 16 Jan 2026 21:00:42 +0000
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+ <![CDATA[ NASA rolls Artemis 2 rocket to the pad ahead of historic moon launch ]]>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — On Saturday (Jan. 17), the rocket that will launch the Artemis 2 astronauts around the moon rolled to the pad for its historic mission, which could lift off just a few weeks from now.
NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, built to support the agency's Artemis 2 mission and usher in a new era of crewed flights to the moon, headed out from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) here at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Saturday, beginning a 4-mile (6.4 kilometers) trek to Launch Complex-39B (LC-39B).
Engineers have spent the past year and a half stacking the Artemis 2 SLS, which rolled out of the VAB for the first (and hopefully only) time as a fully assembled launch vehicle today. SLS began its journey at 7:04 a.m. EST (1204 GMT), standing on the rocket's Mobile Launch Platform (MLP), whose massive 7.5-foot (2.3 m) treads rolled the rocket from the VAB's High Bay 3 onto the river-rock-covered road leading to the launch pad. The rocket arrived at LC-39B at 6:42 p.m. EST (2342 GMT).
SLS stands 322 feet (98 m) tall and weighs roughly 2,870 tons (2,600 metric tons) when fully fueled. The rocket is powered by two space shuttle-era solid rocket boosters (SRBs) stacked 177 feet (54 m) tall on either side and four RS-25 engines, also originally designed for the space shuttle. Combined, they produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff to deliver the rocket's upper stages and Orion crew capsule to space.
Moving slower than 1 mph (1.6 kph), the massive vehicle's journey from the VAB to LC-39B took nearly 12 hours. Now that it's at the launch pad, NASA will spend the coming weeks performing systems integrations and vehicle checkouts ahead of a fueled launch countdown simulation known as a wet dress rehearsal, and, if all goes according to plan, a launch attempt in early February.
NASA is targeting Feb. 2 for the wet dress rehearsal. Feb. 6 is the earliest possible launch day for Artemis 2, which will fly NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen aboard the Orion spacecraft on a roughly 10-day mission around the moon.
The launch date is largely dependent on how systems checks go once SLS reaches the pad, however, with backup launch opportunities mapped out through Feb. 11 and additional windows in March and April.
Artemis 2 is the second mission of NASA's Artemis program and will be the first to fly a crew aboard Orion. Artemis 1 launched in November 2022, after a checkout campaign that ended up lasting most of the year. After its debut rollout in March 2022, the Artemis 1 SLS wet dress rehearsals and launch attempts were plagued by cryogenic hydrogen leaks, weather delays and other factors that resulted in three trips back to the VAB for maintenance.
NASA officials are hoping to avoid a similar campaign with Artemis 2 and voiced confidence in the rocket's readiness and optimism about a launch in the February window.
When it launches, SLS will deliver Orion to Earth orbit, where the Artemis 2 crew will perform systems checks ahead of a translunar injection burn that puts them on course for the moon. That burn will be completed by SLS' interim cryogenic propulsion stage, which Orion and its service module will detach from to conduct proximity maneuvering tests on their way to lunar space.
A closeup look at the Artemis 2 stack during rollout. (Image credit: NASA)
The Artemis 2 astronauts won't go to lunar orbit. Instead, the mission will fly a "free-return trajectory" that loops the capsule around the moon and slingshots it back to Earth regardless of any anomalies the crew or spacecraft may encounter during the mission. The flight path ensures the safe return of the Artemis 2 crew and Orion, without the possibility of a malfunction stranding them in lunar orbit.
Artemis 2 is the next step in NASA's goal to return astronauts to the lunar surface, where the agency hopes to establish a base in the moon's south polar region. Artemis 3 will be the first mission designed for a lunar landing, but it will proceed only if Artemis 2 is successful.
Artemis 2 will be as much a proving ground of Orion's life support systems as Artemis 1 was for the spacecraft's core design. Any unexpected speed bumps during the upcoming mission may cause further delays for Artemis 3, the expected launch date for which is already beginning to slip past NASA's hopeful 2027 target.
Artemis 2 crew members have been training at KSC, conducting launch-day rehearsals over the past several months in preparation for their mission, and were present to see their SLS rocket roll out for the first time today.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 2:30 a.m. EST on Jan. 18 with the news that the SLS-Orion stack reached the launch pad.
]]>
@@ -21,7 +631,7 @@
t6Lt73HGV5dMgi5TCteKK3
- Sat, 17 Jan 2026 16:33:38 +0000Sun, 18 Jan 2026 07:38:49 +0000
+ Sat, 17 Jan 2026 16:33:38 +0000Tue, 20 Jan 2026 18:06:06 +0000
@@ -262,15 +872,15 @@
- <![CDATA[ Northern lights may be visible in 15 states tonight ]]>
- The northern lights may appear in skies across the northern U.S. tonight (Jan. 16), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center.
Earth is currently being buffeted by a high-speed solar wind stream from a colossal coronal hole on the sun. When this speedy solar wind arrives at Earth, it can impact our magnetosphere enough to cause periods of geomagnetic storming at the minor (G1) to moderate (G2) levels. This, in turn, can lead to impressive aurora displays.
According to NOAA's SWPC, this current speedy solar wind stream could trigger minor (G1) geomagnetic storm conditions with a chance of isolated moderate (G2) storming at times through Jan. 18. If G2 levels are reached, auroras could extend farther south than usual, with possible visibility as far south as parts of the northern U.S., including states like Idaho and New York, as well as Canada and northern Europe.
Where can I see the northern lights tonight?
Possible aurora view line for tonight courtesy of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. (Image credit: Map: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, background image: Daisy Dobrijevic. Graphic created in Canva. )
States that could see auroras tonight
Based on the latest NOAA aurora forecast map, the following 15 U.S. states appear fully or partially above the aurora view line:
Alaska
North Dakota
Minnesota
Montana
Wisconsin
Michigan
South Dakota
Idaho
Maine
Vermont
New Hampshire
Washington
Iowa
Wyoming
New York
But remember, auroras can be very fickle. The list is based on current forecast data at the time of publication, but if conditions strengthen, northern lights could reach much farther south than expected. Equally, if conditions don't align, we could end up twiddling our thumbs, with no auroras at all.
Northern Hemisphere aurora forecast courtesy of the U.K. Met Office
What time should I look for the northern lights tonight?
The northern lights could be visible across 15 U.S. states tonight (Jan. 16-17) as soon as it gets dark, so it's worth keeping an eye on the sky (and your aurora alerts) throughout the evening, especially in areas with clear, dark skies.
According to NOAA's 3-day forecast, geomagnetic storm activity is expected to be best at the following times:
1 a.m. - 7 a.m. EST (0600-1200 GMT): Minor (G1) geomagnetic storm conditions possible.
How can I see the northern lights from where I live?
If you're in one of the 15 U.S. states where auroras might make an appearance tonight, a little preparation can go a long way toward improving your odds of seeing them.
Start by finding a spot with an unobstructed view toward north, preferably somewhere dark and well away from city lights. The clearer your view of the northern horizon, the better.
Start scanning the sky with your phone's camera as they are usually good at picking up faint auroral glows that aren't immediately obvious to the naked eye, helping you identify where activity may be starting.
Dark adaptation is crucial and often overlooked when aurora chasing. If you can, give your eyes at least 30 minutes to fully adjust to the darkness so you can detect subtle auroral features. Keep in mind that even a quick look at a bright light or phone screen can reset the process, forcing you to start over
Dress for the wait. Aurora shows can be unpredictable and if conditions look promising you may find yourself waiting outside for a while. Make sure to wear plenty of layers!
We recommend downloading a space weather app that provides aurora forecasts based on your location. One option I use is "My Aurora Forecast & Alerts," available for both iOS and Android. However, any similar app should work well. I also use the "Space Weather Live" app, which is available on iOS and Android, to get a deeper understanding of whether the current space weather conditions are favorable for aurora sightings.
]]>
+ <![CDATA[ Northern lights may be visible in 15 states Jan. 16-17 ]]>
+ The northern lights may appear in skies across the northern U.S. tonight (Jan. 16), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center.
Earth is currently being buffeted by a high-speed solar wind stream from a colossal coronal hole on the sun. When this speedy solar wind arrives at Earth, it can impact our magnetosphere enough to cause periods of geomagnetic storming at the minor (G1) to moderate (G2) levels. This, in turn, can lead to impressive aurora displays.
According to NOAA's SWPC, this current speedy solar wind stream could trigger minor (G1) geomagnetic storm conditions with a chance of isolated moderate (G2) storming at times through Jan. 18. If G2 levels are reached, auroras could extend farther south than usual, with possible visibility as far south as parts of the northern U.S., including states like Idaho and New York, as well as Canada and northern Europe.
Where can I see the northern lights tonight?
Possible aurora view line for tonight courtesy of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. (Image credit: Map: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, background image: Daisy Dobrijevic. Graphic created in Canva. )
States that could see auroras tonight
Based on the latest NOAA aurora forecast map, the following 15 U.S. states appear fully or partially above the aurora view line:
Alaska
North Dakota
Minnesota
Montana
Wisconsin
Michigan
South Dakota
Idaho
Maine
Vermont
New Hampshire
Washington
Iowa
Wyoming
New York
But remember, auroras can be very fickle. The list is based on current forecast data at the time of publication, but if conditions strengthen, northern lights could reach much farther south than expected. Equally, if conditions don't align, we could end up twiddling our thumbs, with no auroras at all.
Northern Hemisphere aurora forecast courtesy of the U.K. Met Office
What time should I look for the northern lights tonight?
The northern lights could be visible across 15 U.S. states tonight (Jan. 16-17) as soon as it gets dark, so it's worth keeping an eye on the sky (and your aurora alerts) throughout the evening, especially in areas with clear, dark skies.
According to NOAA's 3-day forecast, geomagnetic storm activity is expected to be best at the following times:
1 a.m. - 7 a.m. EST (0600-1200 GMT): Minor (G1) geomagnetic storm conditions possible.
How can I see the northern lights from where I live?
If you're in one of the 15 U.S. states where auroras might make an appearance tonight, a little preparation can go a long way toward improving your odds of seeing them.
Start by finding a spot with an unobstructed view toward north, preferably somewhere dark and well away from city lights. The clearer your view of the northern horizon, the better.
Start scanning the sky with your phone's camera as they are usually good at picking up faint auroral glows that aren't immediately obvious to the naked eye, helping you identify where activity may be starting.
Dark adaptation is crucial and often overlooked when aurora chasing. If you can, give your eyes at least 30 minutes to fully adjust to the darkness so you can detect subtle auroral features. Keep in mind that even a quick look at a bright light or phone screen can reset the process, forcing you to start over
Dress for the wait. Aurora shows can be unpredictable and if conditions look promising you may find yourself waiting outside for a while. Make sure to wear plenty of layers!
We recommend downloading a space weather app that provides aurora forecasts based on your location. One option I use is "My Aurora Forecast & Alerts," available for both iOS and Android. However, any similar app should work well. I also use the "Space Weather Live" app, which is available on iOS and Android, to get a deeper understanding of whether the current space weather conditions are favorable for aurora sightings.
]]>
https://www.space.com/stargazing/auroras/northern-lights-may-be-visible-in-15-states-tonight-jan-16
PWXVqA5fX6sEmBw6aUD8UR
- Fri, 16 Jan 2026 17:00:00 +0000Fri, 16 Jan 2026 16:34:09 +0000
+ Fri, 16 Jan 2026 17:00:00 +0000Mon, 19 Jan 2026 13:47:05 +0000
@@ -320,7 +930,7 @@
<![CDATA[ Hubble Telescope sees baby stars hard at work | Space photo of the day for Jan. 16, 2025 ]]>
- Stars don't start out fully formed. Instead, they begin when clouds of diffuse gas and dust clump together, becoming denser than their surroundings. Gravity does the rest, pulling material inward until a collapsing knot becomes a compact, warming core: a protostar, still feeding on the cloud that created it.
Protostars are messy and dynamic, gulping down material in spurts and fits and ejecting powerful outflows of wind and jets that punch into the surrounding clouds. The result is a constant push-and-pull between growth and disruption as the star accretes from its disk while simultaneously blasting material away, carving cavities and shaping the environment that neighboring stars and planets will inherit.
In places where the starlight leaks out and bounces off dust grains, it can illuminate a cloud in phenomenon known as a reflection nebula, as two dark stripes flank the bright point of the growing star. According to Hubble researchers, the stripes are the signature of a protoplanetary disk and the disk's shadow cast across the larger envelope of material that still surrounds the young star.
A protostar, reflection nebula and young stars dominate this stunning image from the Hubble Space Telescope. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, K. Stapelfeldt (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and D. Watson (University of Rochester); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America))
Why is it amazing?
Regions like NGC 1333 are key for astronomers to better understand the nitty-gritty details of star formation. By mapping these areas in both infrared and visible wavelengths of light, different aspects of this scientific process are revealed. Recent work in the broader NGC 1333 area has used high-resolution observation of protostellar jets to read outbursts like "time stamps," which help astronomers connect bursts of activity to changes in the flow of material, showing that star growth is episodic rather than smooth.
Ultimately, understanding how stars form is inseparable from understanding our own beginnings. Every rocky planet, ocean or atmosphere has begun with the same ingredients: gas, dust, gravity and time. Images like this don't just show how stars can form but also reveal how their dynamics help shape the universe around us.
]]>
+ Stars don't start out fully formed. Instead, they begin when clouds of diffuse gas and dust clump together, becoming denser than their surroundings. Gravity does the rest, pulling material inward until a collapsing knot becomes a compact, warming core: a protostar, still feeding on the cloud that created it.
Protostars are messy and dynamic, gulping down material in spurts and fits and ejecting powerful outflows of wind and jets that punch into the surrounding clouds. The result is a constant push-and-pull between growth and disruption as the star accretes from its disk while simultaneously blasting material away, carving cavities and shaping the environment that neighboring stars and planets will inherit.
In places where the starlight leaks out and bounces off dust grains, it can illuminate a cloud in phenomenon known as a reflection nebula, as two dark stripes flank the bright point of the growing star. According to Hubble researchers, the stripes are the signature of a protoplanetary disk and the disk's shadow cast across the larger envelope of material that still surrounds the young star.
A protostar, reflection nebula and young stars dominate this stunning image from the Hubble Space Telescope. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, K. Stapelfeldt (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and D. Watson (University of Rochester); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America))
Why is it amazing?
Regions like NGC 1333 are key for astronomers to better understand the nitty-gritty details of star formation. By mapping these areas in both infrared and visible wavelengths of light, different aspects of this scientific process are revealed. Recent work in the broader NGC 1333 area has used high-resolution observation of protostellar jets to read outbursts like "time stamps," which help astronomers connect bursts of activity to changes in the flow of material, showing that star growth is episodic rather than smooth.
Ultimately, understanding how stars form is inseparable from understanding our own beginnings. Every rocky planet, ocean or atmosphere has begun with the same ingredients: gas, dust, gravity and time. Images like this don't just show how stars can form but also reveal how their dynamics help shape the universe around us.
]]>
https://www.space.com/astronomy/stars/hubble-telescope-sees-baby-stars-hard-at-work-space-photo-of-the-day-for-jan-16-2025
@@ -357,624 +967,5 @@
-
- <![CDATA[ Say goodbye to Comet 3I/ATLAS! Watch it head for interstellar space in real-time with this free livestream today ]]>
-
Tune in today (Jan. 16) to bid farewell to interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, courtesy of a livestream from the Virtual Telescope Project featuring live views of the enigmatic visitor as it continues its one-way journey out of our solar system.
Friday's livestream will begin at 5 p.m. EST (2100 GMT), with views of 3I/ATLAS being provided by a 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain robotic telescope located at the organization's facility in Manciano, Italy, weather permitting.
"This is a very precious opportunity to personally see, in real-time, the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, one of the most important discoveries of the last decade," said Virtual Telescope Project founder Gianluca Masi in a recent post on the website.
An image of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS captured by a robotic telescope belonging to the Virtual Telescope Project on Jan. 11, 2026. (Image credit: Gianluca Masi, Virtual Telescope Project.)
3I/ATLAS was discovered on July 1, 2025 and was quickly confirmed to be just the third interstellar object to visit our solar system based on an analysis of its trajectory, which proved that it was not gravitationally bound to our parent star. The alien comet made its closest approach to the sun on Oct. 29 during an event called perihelion, prior to which it had brightened more than had been expected by scientists.
The comet was hidden from view in the weeks surrounding perihelion, as it passed on the far side of the sun relative to Earth. 3I/ATLAS later made its closest approach to our Blue Marble on Dec. 19, when it passed 168 million miles (270 million kilometers) from our planet. Its next milestone will involve a much closer pass of Jupiter in March later this year, when it will buzz the gas giant at a distance of approximately 33.4 million miles (53.7 million km).
Following this final planetary flyby, 3I/ATLAS will embark on a silent journey lasting several thousand years as it coasts beyond the orbit of the outermost icy planets, before careening through the icy shell of the Oort cloud to return to the cold embrace of interstellar space.
]]>
- https://www.space.com/astronomy/comets/say-goodbye-to-comet-3i-atlas-watch-it-head-for-interstellar-space-in-real-time-with-this-free-jan-16-livestream
-
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- HGRMAKeLa73RVDaHjCx7dQ
-
- Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:21:51 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ Beneath the ice: Satellites help map Antarctica's subglacial surface like never before ]]>
- One of the least-mapped planetary surfaces in our solar system is closer to home than you might expect: the continent of Antarctica.
While Antarctica's icy surface is fairly well-studied, its subglacial bedrock landscape — located up to 3 miles (4.8 km) beneath the ice — is more difficult to discern. Current methods of mapping require expensive ground-based and airborne surveys, and such activities are few and far between.
To create the most detailed map of Antarctica's subglacial topography yet, a team of researchers led by Helen Ockenden, of the University of Edinburgh and the Institut des Geosciences de l'Environnement in France, applied a modeling technique known as Ice Flow Perturbation Analysis (IFPA). IFPA uses detailed satellite observations of the ice surface and the physics of ice flow to infer the topography that exists below the ice.
"Our IFPA map of Antarctica’s subglacial landscape reveals that an enormous level of detail about the subglacial topography of Antarctica can be inverted from satellite observations of the ice surface, especially when combined with ice thickness observations from geophysical surveys," wrote the team in a new paper on their research.
In creating the map, the researchers discovered previously unknown or poorly resolved geologic features, from steep-sided channels possibly linked to mountain drainage systems to deep valleys reminiscent of U-shaped glacial valleys elsewhere on Earth. These features might provide insight to an ancient, pre-glacial Antarctica.
Maps like these are key to understanding the movement of the ice above across the continent, which ultimately allows researchers to predict how Antarctic ice might contribute to global sea-level rise.
But while this new IFPA map reveals unprecedented details about Antarctica's hidden topography, there is still room for greater precision. The reconstruction resolves features at the mesoscale — about 1.2 to 18.6 miles (2 to 30 km) — meaning that smaller landforms remain beyond its reach.
This composite image demonstrates the higher resolution of the new IFPA maps of Antarctica's subglacial topography (left) compared to a previous map (right). (Image credit: Courtesy of Helen Ockenden)
"Our landscape classification and topographic map therefore serve as important guides toward more focused studies of Antarctica's subglacial landscape, informing where future detailed geophysical surveys should be targeted, as well as the extents and resolutions (e.g., flight-track spacing) required to capture the fine details required for ice flow modeling," the team wrote.
And there's no better time than the present to prepare those future surveys. "The upcoming International Polar Year 2031-2033 presents a timely opportunity for international efforts to integrate expansive observation and modeling approaches to better understand ice sheet and bedrock properties, guided by methods similar to that of Ockenden et al," Duncan Young, of the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, wrote in a "Perspective" piece accompanying the new study.
The team's research was published in the journal Science on Jan. 15.
]]>
- https://www.space.com/astronomy/earth/detailed-mapping-of-antarctica-subglacial-topography
-
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- 9yiQMkVTKS6xnHZYuCAYB4
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- Thu, 15 Jan 2026 23:00:00 +0000Fri, 16 Jan 2026 16:46:08 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ This SETI program is chasing down its final 100 signals. Could one of them be from aliens? ]]>
- Astronomers are using China's powerful FAST radio telescope to chase after 100 intriguing signals detected by the SETI@home project, which is run by SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) scientists.
SETI@home, which ran from 1999 to 2020, had millions of users all around the world donating their CPU time to downloadable software that churned through data collected by the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. In the end, 12 billion candidate narrowband signals were spotted. These signals appeared as "momentary blips of energy at a particular frequency coming from a particular point in the sky," David Anderson, a computer scientist at the University of California, Berkeley and co-founder of the SETI@home project, said in a statement.
FAST, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, has been patiently following up on this century of candidate extraterrestrial signals since July 2025. Although observations and analysis are still ongoing, bitter experience has taught the SETI@home team to expect them all to turn out to be local radio frequency interference (RFI) rather than real extraterrestrial beacons.
But whatever their origin, they represent the culmination of one of the largest citizen science projects ever undertaken. It's taken years to figure out how to properly scrutinize this vast amount of data.
"Until about 2016, we didn't really know what we were going to do with these detections that we'd accumulated," said Anderson. "We hadn't figured out how to do the whole second part of the analysis."
SETI@home found 12 billion narrowband radio signals, which have been whittled down to the final 100 for follow-up observations. (Image credit: Robert Sanders/UC Berkeley.)
"There's no way that you can do a full investigation of every possible signal that you detect, because doing that still requires a person and eyeballs," added Berkeley astronomer Eric Korpela, who co-founded SETI@home along with Anderson and Dan Werthimer, who is an astronomer and electrical engineer also at Berkeley.
Eventually, at the supercomputer facilities of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Germany, algorithms designed to spot RFI sorted the wheat from the chaff, reducing those 12 billion to 1 million, then 1,000. These 1,000 signals then had to be inspected manually, by eye, before being whittled down to 100 that deserved a second look.
Arecibo had been the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, with a 305-meter aperture, until FAST came along in 2016. Because Arecibo collapsed and was destroyed in December 2020, FAST is now the only radio telescope capable of taking on these candidate signals.
The Arecibo radio telescope, where the data for SETI@home was taken. (Image credit: H. Schweiker/WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF.)
"If we don't find ET, what we can say is that we have established a new sensitivity level. If there were a signal above a certain power, we would have found it," said Anderson.
The scale of the project has gone far beyond the dreams of Anderson or anyone on his team when SETI@home began in 1999. They thought they might get 50,000 users if they were lucky. By the end of the first week they had 200,000 users, and within a year they had 2 million.
"I'd say it went way, way beyond our initial expectations," said Anderson.
The data for SETI@home came from piggybacking on Arecibo's regular astronomical observations, and covered billions and billions of stars in the Milky Way.
"We are, without doubt, the most sensitive narrowband search of large portions of the sky, so we had the best chance of finding something," said Korpela. "So yeah, there's a little disappointment that we didn't see anything."
As the mammoth project nears its end, assuming no real extraterrestrial signals turn up in the final 100 candidates, Korpela looks back on the project not just with pride but as a learning experience for future SETI surveys.
"We have to do a better job of measuring what we're excluding," he said. "Are we throwing out the baby with the bath water? I don't think we know for most SETI searches and that is really a lesson for SETI searches everywhere. In a world where I had the money, I would reanalyze it the right way, meaning I'd fix the mistakes that we made. And we did make some mistakes. These were conscious choices because of how fast computers were in 1999."
Indeed, Korpela wonders whether one day a new project could be launched in the same vein as SETI@home to look over all the data again but with modern crowd-sourced computing power and machine learning in search of anything that was missed the first time around.
"There's still the potential that ET is in that data and we missed it just by a hair."
]]>
- https://www.space.com/space-exploration/search-for-life/this-seti-program-is-chasing-down-its-final-100-signals-could-one-of-them-be-from-aliens
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- dHK4zTYHk2eDfoQrLpZyT3
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- Thu, 15 Jan 2026 22:00:00 +0000Thu, 15 Jan 2026 22:11:38 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ Every 'Avengers: Doomsday' teaser trailer revealed so far ]]>
- "Avengers: Doomsday" won’t strike theaters until Dec. 18, 2026, but that's not stopping Marvel Studios from darn well making sure the world knows about the superhero extravaganza's imminent arrival later this year.
The newest Avengers movie is packed to the gills with nearly every MCU hero and villain imaginable, and over the course of the past month through the holiday period, Marvel Entertainment has unwrapped four "Avengers: Doomsday" teasers featuring glimpses into the upcoming mega-movie and its storyline featuring Steve Rogers, Thor, Professor X, Magneto, Cyclops, Shuri, Namor, and The Thing.
They all exhibit a decidedly dour tone as some harbinger of… well… Doom!, lurks just over the sunset-tinted horizon, and a climactic battle is coming. It's an effective, if not highly stylized, campaign that is setting the stage for what might be this year’s most anticipated movie, though it’s still very early in the game.
Steve Rogers will return
The first of these clue-like sneak peeks shows Chris Evans as Steve Rogers parking his Triumph motorcycle and entering a farmhouse where he unpacks his Captain America suit before cradling an infant child and smiling proudly.
Thor will return
Next up is a grizzled Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder, bending the knee in a forest grove, praying for the strength of the All-Fathers after we see a peek at his adopted daughter, Love.
The X-Men will return
Now we’re all total suckers for Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen as Professor X and Magneto for one last go around, so don’t even try to dismiss this as mere sentimental nostalgia.
The capper is seeing James Marsden strip off his Cyclops goggles to emit a furious blaze of crimson-orange light. Good stuff!
The Wakandans and The Fantastic Four will return
The fourth, and most recent, of these bite-sized teasers stars Leticia Wright’s Shuri, Winston Duke’s M’Baku, Tenoch Huerta’s Namor the Submariner in a sweet new costume with his fellow Talokans, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s The Thing, all congregating in Wakanda.
We can’t wait!
But beware, directors Joe and Anthony Russo insist that these are not exactly teasers or trailers, and are in fact cryptic clues as to the direction of the film's narrative, so carefully dissect and evaluate them at your will!
We're expecting more of these teaser-but-not-teaser trailers to drop over the coming weeks and months, and we'll keep this page updated as and when the next one lands. In the meantime, there's never been a better time to watch all the Marvel movies in order. If you start now, you might finish before Doomsday comes out.
Marvel Studios’ "Avengers: Doomsday" will consume theaters on Dec. 18, 2026. You can watch the rest of the MCU on Disney+.
]]>
- https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/every-avengers-doomsday-teaser-trailer-so-far
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- g5XgaWsofqhsVtqLoKCjbY
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- Thu, 15 Jan 2026 21:00:00 +0000Thu, 15 Jan 2026 19:59:05 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ Cyberthieves hit European Space Agency, stealing hundreds of gigabytes of data ]]>
- The European Space Agency (ESA) is recovering from a string of cyberattacks that leaked hundreds of gigabytes of potentially sensitive data onto dark web forums.
The agency responded by launching a criminal investigation against the unknown hackers. But a leading space cybersecurity researcher warns that many such attacks have previously gone unnoticed and that sensitive data including email credentials of ESA, and also NASA, employees are frequently offered for sale on dark web forums.
ESA got some coal in its stocking this past Christmas. On Boxing Day, reports emerged of a trove of data containing the agency's proprietary software, authorization credentials, access tokens and sensitive project documentation being publicly accessible online. A hacker operating under the code name 888 dumped his cyber loot of more than 200 gigabytes on a dark web forum.
ESA quickly minimized the breach, saying its impact was "limited." But only a week after that statement was made, The Register revealed that a cybercrime group known as Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters stole another 500 gigabytes of data from the agency, claiming the security hole was still unpatched. That batch of data included operational procedures, spacecraft and mission details, subsystems documentation, and proprietary contractor data from ESA partners including SpaceX, Airbus Group, and Thales Alenia Space, according to The Register.
Despite the agency's initially tepid response, ESA representatives said in a press briefing held online on Jan. 8 that the incidents prompted a criminal investigation, which is currently underway.
"ESA is fully cooperating with the authorities," Eric Morel de Westgaver, ESA's director of European, legal and international matters, said in the briefing. "These authorities will manage the communication regarding the case, as those authorities will be in charge of the criminal proceedings."
Cybersecurity researcher Clémence Poirier, of the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich, told Space.com that cyberattacks against space agencies are not isolated incidents. In fact, she said that during her research she frequently encounters email credentials of ESA employees as well as other space agencies being sold online on dark web forums.
"It may be due to a lack of cyber hygiene from ESA staff," Poirier told Space.com. "Threat actors may have obtained credentials through infostealer malware, which can harvest web-browser-stored data, which includes credentials, session cookies, [multi-factor authentication] data, saved credit cards, etc."
Infostealers are an insidious type of malware that can evade detection by anti-virus software. These computer viruses often spread through malicious ads embedded in popular websites or infected links in YouTube video descriptions, according to SpyCloud.
Another source familiar with the space cyber risk environment who didn't wish to be named said that space agencies are a common target of cyber attacks. NASA, especially, is a frequent victim of hackers, with vulnerabilities being disclosed "almost every day" via the crowdsourced cybersecurity platform BugCrowd.
Poirier added that, although the content of the recent leaks "did not seem highly critical," it could be combined in the future with data stolen in subsequent breaches to "reveal strategic information that could enable another cyberattack against a space system."
"We are not there yet, but it's important to keep in mind," she said.
She added that vulnerabilities might exist on the side of ESA's software providers or other third parties the agency purchases services from. ESA's own networks might, too, be hiding unpatched security holes that could allow hackers to access confidential information.
"Data leaks and breaches against space agencies are common," Poirier said. "It can happen to each agency and will happen to each agency in the future considering the rise of cyberattacks against the space sector."
]]>
- https://www.space.com/space-exploration/esa-email-credentials-on-dark-web
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- Av8Z7pVN3xjTKYhJfsJsPF
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- Thu, 15 Jan 2026 20:03:01 +0000Thu, 15 Jan 2026 20:03:02 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ Giraffe in space? Eerie dark nebula takes on an uncanny shape (photo) ]]>
- Astrophotographer Greg Meyer has captured an evocative image of a shadowy nebula drifting through interstellar space, which conjures the image of a cosmic giraffe galloping through a sea of stars.
Meyer's photo reveals the smoke-like mass of LDN 1245 — a vast collection of interstellar dust known as a dark nebula. Dense, opaque knots of material inside these cold clouds absorb and scatter background starlight, blocking the glow of more distant stars in the Milky Way's spiral arms, causing them to appear as dramatic silhouettes hanging in deep space.
LDN 1245 is located in the constellation Cassiopeia. From our perspective on Earth, its tangled filaments resemble a long-necked giraffe at full sprint — an aspect which has seen it nicknamed the 'Giraffe Nebula' by some members of the astrophotography community. The cosmic herbivore has its head extended — as if in preparation to feed — towards a collection of blue-white stars visible to the upper left of Meyer's nebula vista.
ZWO ASI533MC Pro
(Image credit: Amazon)
Want to capture a nebula shining thousands of light-years from Earth? The ZWO ASI533MC Pro camera is the best dedicated astro camera out there, in our opinion. Check out our ZWO ASI533MC Pro review for a more in-depth look.
Dark nebulas are notoriously challenging to capture because they emit little to no light of their own. Meyer imaged LDN 1245 as it lurked in the dark skies over the Starfront Observatory in Rockwood, Texas, gathering 25 hours of exposure time between October 2025 and January 2026.
Meyer captured the data using his Sky Watcher Esprit 120mm telescope and astronomy camera equipped with a series of red green and blue filters, before post-processing the data in PixInsight, Photoshop and Lightroom.
"Along the edges the scene shifts into faint reflection nebulosity," explained Meyer in a post on the astrophotography website Astrobin. "Here the dust becomes visible because it scatters light from nearby stars which often gives a gentle blue tone."
Editor's Note: If you would like to share your astrophotography with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
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- https://www.space.com/stargazing/astrophotography/giraffe-in-space-eerie-dark-nebula-takes-on-an-uncanny-shape-photo
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- sLc9mW9ijA4irp3ioKf6ND
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- Thu, 15 Jan 2026 19:00:00 +0000Thu, 15 Jan 2026 09:50:44 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ How Mars 'punches above its weight' to influence Earth's climate ]]>
- Mars' gravity has a surprisingly large influence on Earth, affecting our planet's tilt and orbit and thereby contributing to climate cycles lasting hundreds of thousands to millions of years, new simulations have shown.
It has long been known that Earth's long-term climate is governed by the Milankovitch cycles, long-term variations in our planet's orbit and tilt governed by the gravitational pull of other planets in the solar system. Venus, which is the closest planet to Earth, and Jupiter, the most massive planet in the solar system, are the main culprits, dragging Earth around over millennia with their gravity. Mars, too, has some effect; previous studies looking at sediment laid down on Earth's ocean floor have suggested the possibility of climate changes resulting from gravitational interactions with Mars. However, the effect of Mars' gravity on Earth had not been quantified until now.
As it turns out, Mars may be "punching above its weight," researchers say. "I knew Mars had some effect on Earth, but I assumed it was tiny," said Stephen Kane of the University of California, Riverside, in a statement. "I'd thought its gravitational influence would be too small to easily observe within Earth's geologic history. I kind of set out to check my own assumptions."
Along with Pam Vervoort of the University of Birmingham in the U.K. and Jonathan Horne, of the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, Kane ran detailed simulations of the solar system that tested the effects that the planets had on Earth.
It is important to note that the Milankovitch cycles are in no way connected to current anthropogenic global warming — rather, the cycles impact Earth's climate over geological timescales. While the cycles can trigger ice ages (defined here as when ice covers the poles for long periods), they also ensure that ice ages don't last forever as conditions change as a consequence of the cycles impacting Earth's orbit and tilt.
Specifically, the Milankovitch cycles control periodic variations in Earth's axial tilt (known as its obliquity), the eccentricity (i.e. how elongated) of Earth's orbit around the sun, and a property referred to as the precession of the equinoxes. This last one governs when Earth reaches perihelion — closest point to the sun — in its orbit. Currently, perihelion takes place in January when it is northern winter and southern summer, but the precession gradually sees perihelion move to later in the year before coming full circle.
One of the strongest Milankovitch cycles has a period of 430,000 years, making Earth's orbit slightly eccentric, or oval-shaped, and is controlled by the gravity of Venus and Jupiter. For this cycle, Kane's instincts were correct — the simulations showed that when Mars was removed, its absence had no effect on this particular cycle.
Yet remove Mars from the solar system in the simulations and the other two notable Milankovitch cycles, with periods of 100,000 years and 2.4 million years, respectively, go away.
"When you remove Mars, those cycles vanish," said Kane. "And if you increase the mass of Mars, they get shorter and shorter because Mars is having a bigger effect."
Mars' gravitational pull, accumulating from repeated oppositions over the aeons, can affect Earth's orbital shape and our planet's axial tilt. (Image credit: NASA)
Kane, Vervoort and Horner also discovered that by changing the mass of Mars in the simulations, they could control the amount of variation in Earth's tilt relative to the ecliptic plane.
"As the mass of Mars was increased in our simulations, the rate of change in Earth's tilt goes down," said Kane. "So increasing the mass of Mars has a kind of stabilizing effect on our tilt."
Many different orbital properties affect Earth's climate. The planet's tilt determines how much sunlight the poles receive. The eccentricity of its orbit governs how close and how far away Earth gets from the sun. And the precession of the equinox controls at what point during the year Earth receives maximum insolation, which when combined with the tilt and eccentricity can alter Earth's climate significantly.
Earth's tilt can vary between 21.5 and 24.5 degrees every 41,000 years. This is relatively stable; by comparison, Mars's tilt is much more chaotic, with variations of up to 90 degrees based on ancient geologic evidence. Until now, it was thought that Earth's stable obliquity was maintained by the presence of our moon. However, Kane's simulations show that Mars' gravity also stabilizes Earth's tilt. This potentially removes the necessity for a large moon to keep an Earth-like planet from wobbling, meaning that perhaps Earth isn't so rare — at least not in this context.
Mars's location in the solar system also enhances its effect on Earth. The closer a planet is to the sun, the more that the sun's gravity dominates rather than the planet's.
"Because Mars is further from the sun, it has a larger gravitational effect on Earth than it would if it was closer," said Kane. "It punches above its weight."
And so, astronomers hunting for habitable exoplanets shouldn't just settle for finding a potential Earth-like planet; they should also look for a modest outer planet that can help stabilize the Earth analog and regulate its climate over long periods.
"When I look at other planetary systems and find an Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone, the planets further out in the system could have an effect on that Earth-like planet's climate," said Kane.
Would Earth's climate be sufficiently stable for complex life to develop without Mars' presence? Perhaps we'll never know the answer to this question, but it's a fascinating 'what if?'.
"Without Mars, Earth's orbit would be missing major climate cycles," said Kane. "What would humans and other animals even look like if Mars weren't there?"
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- https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/how-mars-punches-above-its-weight-to-influence-earths-climate
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- cyLoZ9CoB6X2vvxFxMsQ5e
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- Thu, 15 Jan 2026 16:00:00 +0000Thu, 15 Jan 2026 20:03:27 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ Satellites spy raging bushfires in Australia | Space photo of the day for Jan. 15, 2026 ]]>
- While wildfires happen at different times across the globe, they do all have one thing in common: they can be absolutely devastating.
One of the clearest ways to grasp the full impact these events have is to see them from space, and that's exactly what Europe's Copernicus program is built to do: deliver detailed and frequently updated images of Earth's land and coasts that can be used to influence policies. To do this, the program uses Sentinel satellites, which zip around Earth, capturing various breathtaking, and heartbreaking, views from low Earth orbit.
What is it?
Sentinel-2 consists of a trio (or "constellation") of Earth-observation satellites, each carrying a high-resolution multi-spectral camera that records reflected light in 13 spectral bands. Those bands include visible wavelengths (what we can see) but also near-infrared and short-wave infrared, which are especially helpful for measuring vegetation condition, soil and moisture difference and fire impacts.
On Jan. 9, 2026, a Sentinel-2 satellite captured a devastating scene of the bushfires in Australia, seeing dark burn scars where the fire had already burned through the landscape. According to the Copernicus website, these uncontrolled fires have led to the closure of hundreds of schools and the evacuations of entire communities, resulting in thousands of people living without electricity.
Where is it?
This image was taken from low Earth orbit, showing an area south of Longwood in northern Victoria, Australia.
The uncontrolled bushfires have displaced thousands of people in the state of Victoria. (Image credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery)
Why is it amazing?
Thanks to the Sentinel-2 imagery, analysts can delineate burned area boundaries, estimate how much land has been affected and update those estimates as new images arrive. The Copernicus program notes that Sentinel-2 plays a role in mapping burned areas and assessing damage to support emergency response and recovery planning.
With its near-infrared and short-wave infrared bands, Sentinel-2 can also help highlight changes in vegetation and charred ground, which may be harder to spot with ordinary cameras but can be key in creating standard fire-severity indicators and separating smoke from clouds, along with bare soil from burn scars.
The Earth-scanning satellites can further track the long-term effects of these fires. After the flames go out, the hard work is recovering the landscape: stabilizing soils, protecting waterways, restoring habitats and understanding how nature bounces back. Sentinel-2's repeated scanning can help study the same area over longer periods of time to track regeneration and land-cover change.
The image shows the difference in temperature between the top of a hurricane and the bottom.
The images reveal the storm's incredible power and offer vital insights into how such hurricanes form.
In late November, Hayli Gubbi erupted explosively, sending a towering plume of ash and volcanic gases high into the atmosphere.
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- https://www.space.com/astronomy/earth/satellites-spy-raging-bushfires-in-australia-space-photo-of-the-day-for-jan-15-2026
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- muckSjP8ubhojG3WnnkpbX
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- Thu, 15 Jan 2026 15:00:00 +0000Thu, 15 Jan 2026 15:05:40 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ 'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy' is Hogwarts in space by way of 'Dawson's Creek', and we don't love it ]]>
- "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" has officially docked on Paramount+. It's the latest expansion in a franchise that has more time hops than Doc Brown's delightful DeLorean, but this show might be the most puzzling addition yet.
At some point in time, every Trekkie has imagined what it must be like to be a cadet and learn all the various disciplines required to join the Starfleet. Writer Gaia Violo recognized this as well, envisioning a series following an influx of new cadets set after the events of the divisive "Star Trek: Discovery," while producers Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau put their names behind it as showrunners. In typical Hollywood fashion, though, a spin on the concept just had to be shoehorned in here.
The story starts innocently enough. Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) gets appointed as the chancellor for the Starfleet Academy. Disappointed by the actions from her past, she makes amends by offering orphan Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta) the chance to become a cadet and find his long-lost mother.
(Image credit: Paramount)
Caleb has never dreamed of joining Starfleet, but he reluctantly accepts the opportunity. While he's an outsider and rebel at heart, Caleb makes friends with the likes of Klingon Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané) and Dar-Sha Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard), and rubs a few others the wrong way. It also doesn't take too long for Caleb to demonstrate he might have what it takes to become a Starfleet officer after all, even though that wasn't on his initial bingo card.
Sounds harmless enough, right? Well, it was until someone decided this all needed to play out like a CW teen drama from the 2000s. Think Dawson's Creek in space. There are noticeable sparks between Genesis and Caleb from the get-go, but he kicks off a romance with the Betazoid Tarima Sadal (Zoë Steiner) to add more awkwardness to the proceedings. Blink twice if you're over love triangles on every show and want this trope to disappear for a decade at the very least.
Also, let's not forget the forced and telegraphed tensions between the cadets, because teenagers need to hate each other for arbitrary reasons before they become bosom buddies in the end. Seriously, is Greg Berlanti ghostwriting this?
(Image credit: Paramount)
While "Star Trek" boldly claims to go where no man has gone before, YA drama might be one frontier too far. It isn't like "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" is hiding its influences either, as a poster proves to be an unabashed tribute to "One Tree Hill."
Now, there's nothing wrong with watching 40 minutes of Chad Michael Murray brood and plod through a story that could have been an email, but the problem here is that Tree Hill and Starfleet mix like politics and unity. It's a real square peg in a round hole situation.
The teen drama influences don't stop there, though. While it's got a lot in common with the aforementioned 2000s era coming-of-age dramas, in practice, "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" plays out like Hogwarts in space, and this isn't a compliment.
Ake is the eccentric Dumbledore archetype who sometimes speaks in riddles but wants her cadets to succeed – especially Caleb, aka the Boy Who Lived (and Survived the Cosmos). Channeling their best imitations of Severus Snape, Rubeus Hagrid, and Minerva McGonagall, the faculty members love snark and to openly question if the cadets have what it takes, but while they're harsh and condescending in public, they root for the cadets behind the scenes and know talent when they see it. All that's missing is for Gina Yashere's Lura Thok to take Caleb aside and say, "Yer a wizard, Cally!"
(Image credit: Paramount)
Then consider the Big Bad of the series: Paul Giamatti's half-Klingon, half-Tellarite Nus Braka. The Voldemort practically hisses off him as he wants to divide and conquer, and he even has a special attachment to Caleb and his mother.
He's fuelled by pure hatred and is evil because… um, he's evil?! The way in which Ake speaks about Braka signifies that he's a major deal, and everyone needs to be wary of him. Well, at least he has a nose here, so there's that one difference.
"Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" knows it's going to annoy the hardcore fans, and it overcompensates through various nods and winks to the franchise's history, as well as throwback characters from the past. It tries too hard to convince everyone that it is a "Star Trek" show at its core, but this is the hip, new "Star Trek" of 2026.
(Image credit: Paramount)
Instead, it comes off looking like Steve Buscemi's Lenny Wosniak from the much-memed "30 Rock" scene where he dresses like a teenager and says, "How do you do, fellow kids?" In an attempt to draw in a new generation of viewers, it feels like a show that will appeal to absolutely no one in the process.
Maybe "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" could have worked without the attachment to the famous franchise. By freeing it from expectations and legacy, it could have ventured into whichever direction it wanted and not had everyone befuddled by its bizarre decision to inject YA drama and borrow from the Wizarding World.
Unfortunately, by going down this pothole-ravaged journey, "Starfleet Academy" only gives more ammunition to those who believe all modern "Star Trek" shows – derogatorily known as NuTrek – need to suffer the wrath of Khan, or the Internet (it's the same thing, really). At least we'll always have Strange New Worlds.
"Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" is available to stream on Paramount+.
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- https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/star-trek-starfleet-academy-is-hogwarts-in-space-by-way-of-dawsons-creek-and-we-dont-love-it
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- Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:00 +0000Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:04:37 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ How to watch 'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy' online and from anywhere ]]>
- Hit the holo-books and don’t get caught in the turbolift without a hall pass when Paramount+'s "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" opens the semester to present its promising collection of bright, ambitious cadets all trying to become officers to serve the Federation’s “peacekeeping and humanitarian armada.”
Delivered by showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau, this fresh spinoff of "Star Trek: Discovery" is set in the 32nd century and concerns the lives of six main candidates and the interstellar drama of their education aboard the teaching vessel USS Athena under the command of Captain Nahla Ake and her university staff.
Beyond being “Hogwarts Of The Stars” or “Beverly Hills 90210 In Space,” “Starfleet Academy” is poised to draw in a far younger audience than traditional 'Trek' fare, with compelling characters and a fully invested young cast. Let's get you briefed on how to watch "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" for its flashy debut!
What is the "Starfleet Academy" release date?
Karim Diané as Klingon Jay-Den Kraag in "Starfleet Academy" (Image credit: Paramount+)
"Starfleet Academy" warps exclusively onto Paramount+, the official streaming port of "Star Trek," on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, with a two-episode premiere starting at 12:00 a.m. ET / 9:00 p.m. PT. The show is available worldwide, anywhere that you can subscribe to Paramount+.
Things will kick off with the installments, "Kids These Days" and "The Beta Test." Subsequent episodes, one per week, will drop each Thursday through Thursday, March 12, 2026.
Season 2 has already been greenlit by Paramount+ back in October of 2024.
How to watch "Starfleet Academy"
(Image credit: Paramount)
"Starfleet Academy" lifts off today from Paramount+ in its first 10-episode season that's sure to be loaded with plenty of sci-fi surprises and memorable moments.
If you’re on the fence and haven’t subscribed yet, Paramount has announced that the first episode, "Kids These Days," will also be available to watch for free for a limited time on their official YouTube channel starting Thursday, Jan. 15, one minute after the stated streaming launch.
Out of the country when the show debuts? Not a problem, as you can still watch it on your streaming service of choice using a VPN. You'll be able to connect to the service you've paid for, no matter where you are (on Earth, it won't work in space, sorry).
There are lots of VPN services to choose from, but NordVPN is the one we rate best. On top of being outstanding at unblocking streaming services, it's fast, has top-level security features and comes with a 30-day money back guarantee. Throw in a bargain price and over 8,000 servers across more than 100 countries and it's easy to recommend.VIEW DEAL ON
What is the plot of "Starfleet Academy?"
"Starfleet Academy's" eager young class of cadets (Image credit: Paramount+)
Rolling out of the 32nd century after the cataclysmic event in "Star Trek: Discovery" known as The Burn, we're introduced to the first new class of cadets to enter Starfleet Academy in over 120 years.
Instructed by Chancellor Nahla Ake, Lura Thok, Jett Reno, and other veteran Starfleet instructors aboard the USS Athena traveling campus spaceship, these collegiate candidates experience romantic entanglements, personal challenges, and heated rivalries to achieve technical mastery and become officer material as they resurrect a legendary institution while a villainous threat arises.
"Starfleet Academy" trailer and teasers
The initial "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" full trailer was unwrapped on Oct. 11, 2025, at the Star Trek Universe panel at New York Comic Con, following a fun first look teaser released July 26.
Then, on Jan. 5, 2026, to start the new year, a fresh legacy launch trailer landed showcasing the franchise's big 60th anniversary.
Who are the "Starfleet Academy" cast and creators?
"Starfleet Academy" was created by Gaia Violo, Alex Kurtzman, and Noga Landau, with Kurtzman and Landau serving as the series co-showrunners and executive producers.
Kurtzman is a "Star Trek" veteran, having executive produced 2009's "Star Trek" and its sequel, "Star Trek: Into Darkness," as well as Paramount+'s modern "Star Trek" TV shows including "Star Trek: Discovery," "Star Trek: Picard," "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," and "Star Trek: Section 31."
"Starfleet Academy's" faculty cast includes:
Paul Giamatti as space pirate Nus Braka in "Starfleet Academy" (Image credit: Paramount+)
Paul Giamatti as the Klingon/Tellarite space pirate Nus Braka
Holly Hunter as USS Athena Captain Nahla Ake, Chancellor of Starfleet Academy
Tig Notaro as Jett Reno, the engineering genius from "Star Trek: Discovery"
Robert Picardo as The Doctor first appearing in "Star Trek: Voyager"
Gina Yashere as Lura Thok, a Klingon/Jem’Hadar hybrid and Cadet Master
Stephen Colbert as the voice of Starfleet Academy's Digital Dean of Students
Sandro Rosta as Caleb Mir, an orphan searching for his mother
Karim Diané as Klingon Jay-Den Kraag
Kerrice Brooks as SAM, a Series Acclimation Mil hologram
George Hawkins as Darem Reymi, a proud upper-class Khionian
Bella Sheppard as Genesis Lythe, a Dar-Sha alien studying command
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- https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/how-to-watch-star-trek-starfleet-academy-online-and-from-anywhere
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- 79e3MjJKFRP694UUvpugnA
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- Thu, 15 Jan 2026 13:00:00 +0000Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:03:53 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ 'This is NASA at its finest': Crew-11 astronauts in good shape after smooth medical evacuation and splashdown, agency says ]]>
- The four astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station are doing fine after the first-ever medical evaluation from the orbital lab, NASA says.
The Crew-11 mission was cut short when one of its members experienced a medical issue that required them to return to Earth for diagnosis and treatment not available on the space station. NASA decided to bring the four crewmembers home weeks early, and a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour brought the crew of four home safely in a Pacific Ocean splashdown near San Diego on Thursday (Jan. 15). From the time it was announced, NASA has stressed that the medical issue was never an emergency, and reiterated that following splashdown.
In a post-landing press conference today, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the the crewmember of concern is "doing fine" and that the agency will share more information when appropriate. Isaacman added that the agency's ability to bring the crew home early and recover them safely shows what NASA does best. "While this was the first time we had to return crew slightly ahead of schedule, NASA was ready," Isaacman said. "This is exactly why we train, and this is NASA at its finest."
Issacman and NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Operations Joel Montalbano maintained a positive tone when discussing Crew-11's mission to the International Space Station and the evacuation that brought it to an end.
"This crew was in space just under 170 days. They performed a little less than 900 hours of science experiments on board. Those are hands-on science experiments, and that encompasses about 140 different experiments," Montalbano said.
"It benefits and teaches us for exploration what we're going to use in the Artemis program as we go back to the moon and to Mars."
Isaacman pointed out that traveling to space and back always comes with some uncertainty. "That is the nature of exploration," the NASA Administrator said. "Fundamentally, we're in space to learn. It's why NASA prepares for the unexpected —so we are ready to respond decisively and safely.
"The successful return of Crew-11 is a direct result of that preparation."
Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, left, NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship SHANNON shortly after having landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Long Beach, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Isaacman is an experienced spaceflyer himself, having flown on SpaceX's Inspiration 4, the first all-civilian spaceflight, and Polaris Dawn, which saw the first civilian spacewalk. Both missions were funded privately by Isaacman, a billionaire and entrepreneur who founded the Shift4 payment service before taking charge of NASA.
NASA now looks ahead to the launch of the Crew-12 mission, currently set for Feb. 15. That crew would have overlapped with Crew-11 and relieved them aboard the ISS, were it not for Crew-11's medical evacuation. NASA is also working to launch Artemis 2, the agency's first crewed mission to moon since 1972, as early as Feb. 6. Both missions will launch from pads on Florida's Space Coast.
The ISS is now crewed by just three people: NASA's Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev. It's the first time the space station has been crewed by just three astronauts in nearly two decades.
Video transmission range: 6.2 miles / 10km (FCC), 3.7 miles / 6km (CE/SRRC/MIC)
Dimensions: 167x171x54 mm / 6.57x6.73x2.13 in
Weight: 5.6 oz / 160g
Just a year after the DJI Neo was released, DJI hasn't wasted any time in producing a new and seriously improved version, the DJI Neo 2. It's not often we see a drone model replaced so quickly, but it seems that DJI is keen to dominate the selfie drone market. This includes the impressive HoverAir X1 Pro and ProMax models.
With the new features, which include improved camera performance, Omnidirectional Obstacle Avoidance with combined vision and LiDAR sensors and 49GB of internal storage, up from 20GB in the Neo, to name but a few new features.
The Omnidirectional Obstacle Avoidance is particularly useful because it significantly reduces the risk of crashes when using intelligent tracking modes. The DJI Neo 2 is one of the best camera drones available since it does what it's designed to do incredibly well.
The DJI Neo 2 features a cine whoop style design. (Image credit: James Abbott)
This small and lightweight drone maintains its FPV cinewhoop-style design with built-in propeller guards. This makes it safer to fly close to people and obstacles. It can also be controlled without a phone or controller, with the DJI Fly app, with a DJI RC-N3 controller and with DJI FPV accessories for FPV flight. So, plenty of options to suit a wide range of drone pilots.
What's so impressive about this drone is that it's inexpensive. This makes it ideal for beginners and those looking for a small, fun and easy-to-use drone. So, if you're looking for a drone that can intelligently track you on your adventures, the DJI Neo 2 could be the perfect solution.
The Neo 2 doesn't look drastically different from the Neo, but there are some obvious upgrades. It's safe to say that even the untrained eye could tell that the two drones are related. It maintains the FPV cinewhoop-style design with completely enclosed propellers that both protect them in crashes and keep people safe when the drone is intelligently tracking people.
The main visual and technological differences between the Neo and Neo 2 are the transceiver on the rear that comes with the Neo 2 in the Fly More Bundles. This allows the drone to connect to controllers and goggles.
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The Neo 2 features a simple yet functional design. (Image credit: James Abbott)
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The transceiver allows the Neo 2 to work with controllers and FPV goggles (Image credit: James Abbott)
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The Neo 2 has propeller guards to keep the propellers and people safe. (Image credit: James Abbott)
There's also a display on the front that shows the active flight mode, a LiDAR sensor and a couple of obstacle avoidance sensors. The display is useful because it makes it so much easier to identify the active flight mode when using the drone without the app or a controller. Controls on the side of the drone allow you to scroll through the flight modes.
The drone weighs 5.6 oz / 160g with the transceiver or 5.3 oz / 151g without, which is incredibly lightweight, but has a fixed rather than folding design. It's still compact at just 167x171x54 mm / 6.57x6.73x2.13 in, and you can easily slip it into a backpack, handbag or camera bag. The Fly More Bundles strangely don't include a carry bag.
The DJI Neo 2 sitting next to the DJI RC-N3 controller. (Image credit: James Abbott)
The kit sent for review was the DJI Neo 2 Fly More Combo and includes a DJI RC-N3 controller. This features a telescopic phone holder at the top and allows you to fly the Neo 2 like a camera drone. This will likely be the most popular kit, although the Motion Controller Fly More Bundle with FPV goggles is an attractive option.
DJI Neo 2: Functionality
Excellent flight modes and performance
Omnidirectional Obstacle Sensing
49GB of internal storage
Despite its FPV-style design, the Neo 2, like its predecessor, flies well as a camera drone using the DJI RC-N3 controller. In fact, even the on-screen digital controls for manual flight in the DJI Fly app work well and are useful when you want to keep your carrying weight to a minimum. This, however, is a selfie drone that's designed to capture selfies and track moving subjects, whether you're running, cycling, skiing or walking.
It does a fantastic job of these thanks to its intelligent flight modes, which include Follow, Skiing Follow, Cycling Follow, SelfieShot, Dronie, Helix, Rocket, Circle, Boomerang, Dolly Zoom and Spotlight alongside Manual Control. This is further enhanced by the addition of Omnidirectional Obstacle Avoidance with combined vision and LiDAR sensors. When following you in complex environments, the Neo 2 does a fantastic job of avoiding obstacles and keeping the subject centered in the frame.
You also get Quickshots, which are DJI automated flight patterns for capturing professional-looking video at the touch of a button. These include Dronie, Circle, Rocket, Spotlight, Helix and Boomerang, so there are tons of flight modes to enjoy. All this is great for beginners and people who want to capture themselves on their adventures.
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The three battery charing hub is part of the Fly More Bundles. (Image credit: James Abbott)
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The three-battery charging hub is part of the Fly More Bundles. (Image credit: James Abbott)
The 1606mAh batteries are advertised as being able to last for up to 19 minutes, although in reality, you're looking at around 10 minutes of flight before Return to Home is initiated. This is typical for selfie drones and DJI FPV drones, of which the Neo 2 is one, if you choose the Fly More Bundle that comes with a Motion Controller and goggles, or if you already own compatible accessories.
This is a drone that relies entirely on internal storage since it doesn't have an SD card slot. So the increase in storage to 49GB is a welcome upgrade. The Neo 2 can save up to 105 minutes of 4K/60fps video, up to 175 minutes of 4K/30fps video or 241 minutes of 1080p/60fps video, which should be more than enough storage for most people.
Once photos and videos have been captured, you can connect to the drone via WiFi with your phone to transfer the footage at up to 80 MB/s using the DJI Fly app. This is great for mobile editing and quick sharing, and you can download to a computer using a USB-C cable.
Other potentially useful and interesting features include Gesture Control, where the Neo 2 can be controlled using a range of gestures, and is useful when you don't have a controller. Most people will often have their phone with the DJI Fly app. I've never been a fan of gesture control myself, but I appreciate its usefulness. Then there's voice control, where you say your commands to the DJI Fly app, which then transmits them to the drone.
DJI Neo 2: Performance
12MP 1/2-inch sensor
Photos are only captured in JPEG
Excellent image stabilization
A 1-inch sensor in such a small drone is an impressive feat. (Image credit: James Abbott)
The Neo 2's image quality is good for photos and much better for video, with the former only captured in JPEG format and no Raw option available, which is a shame. It's certainly not designed to be a photography powerhouse like the DJI Mini 5 Pro, but this is to be expected from a selfie drone with great subject tracking capabilities.
The Neo 2 features a 1/2-inch sensor, which allows for the image Rocksteady Electronic Image Stabilization to completely smooth video footage. During testing, the Neo 2 was practically shaken, and although movement could be seen, the Electronic Image Stabilization did an incredible job – truly impressive.
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The DJI Neo 2 has a 12MP 1/2-inch sensor, which takes images in JPEG format. (Image credit: James Abbott)
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The DJI Neo 2 has a 12MP 1/2-inch sensor, which takes images in JPEG format. (Image credit: James Abbott)
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The DJI Neo 2 has a 12MP 1/2-inch sensor, which takes images in JPEG format. (Image credit: James Abbott)
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The DJI Neo 2 has a 12MP 1/2-inch sensor, which takes images in JPEG format. (Image credit: James Abbott)
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The DJI Neo 2 has a 12MP 1/2-inch sensor, which takes images in JPEG format. (Image credit: James Abbott)
The sensor has a 12MP resolution and provides an equivalent focal length of 16.5 mm. The aperture is fixed at f/2.2, while focus is between 70 cm and infinity. ISO can be set between 100 and 12,800. Video can be captured in 4K at up to 60 FPS, 1080p at up to 60 FPS and vertical shooting 2.7K (9:16) 1512×2688 px is available up to 60 FPS.
Please note the footage below was shot in 4K, but our video player only plays in HD.
Video is captured in the Normal/Standard color profile, so it can be used straight out of the camera, and the maximum video bitrate is 80 Mbps. Rocksteady Electronic image Stabilization keeps the video smooth and the horizon straight, producing what is a remarkably impressive effect that’s as good as a mechanical gimbal. This system is ideal for the Neo 2 with its two-axis gimbal that offers a tilt movement so you can adjust the camera angle.
DJI Neo 2: Price
The DJI Neo 2 was released on November 13, 2025, and comes in at a slightly higher price than the DJI Neo. That's really not an issue, though, because the Neo 2 is packed with many more new and advanced features, making it a much more rounded offering.
The DJI Neo 2 costs £209 drone only, which means you get one battery and can control the drone with the DJI Fly app. The DJI Neo 2 Fly More Combo costs £349 and includes the drone, three batteries, a battery charging hub and a DJI RC-N3 controller.
If you're feeling a little more adventurous, you could opt for the DJI Neo 2 Motion Fly More Combo, which costs £509. This includes the extra batteries and charging hub alongside a Motion Controller and FPV goggles. All options are reasonably priced.
Should you buy the DJI Neo 2?
Unfortunately, the DJI Neo 2 isn't available in the US through DJI, but you may be able to get your hands on one another way. For those who can get hold of a Neo 2, if you're looking for either a selfie drone, an inexpensive beginner drone or an inexpensive and easy-to-fly FPV drone, the Neo 2 is a great option.
The fact that it can cover all of these bases, as well as having the ability to be used with the intelligent flight modes, drone only, or manually with the DJI Fly app, makes it incredibly versatile.
The new and improved features, alongside the Omnidirectional Obstacle Avoidance, are also positive factors that work in the drone's favour. If you're looking for a camera drone specifically, you might want to consider other models.
If this drone isn't for you
The HoverAir X1 Pro is another selfie drone, but this one has a folding design, which makes it more compact for transportation and storage. Performance is excellent when capturing up to 4K video, and there's a range of useful accessories available.
The Potensic Atom 2 is an affordable sub-250g drone that is a standard camera drone and a great alternative as a more powerful camera drone. It can capture video up to 4K and photos in both JPEG and Raw, with a range of useful features available.
The DJI Mini 5 Pro is the best sub-250g drone available and also offers excellent subject tracking. It's not a selfie drone, but with its advanced subject tracking and excellent image quality, it's a much more versatile option than the Neo 2 in many ways.
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- https://www.space.com/technology/drones/dji-neo-2-drone-review
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- dUix9gbrdAHs4vsq7NFDbV
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- Thu, 15 Jan 2026 11:45:22 +0000Thu, 15 Jan 2026 11:45:23 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ What are 'dark' stars? Scientists think they could explain 3 big mysteries in the universe ]]>
- "Dark stars" could help solve three seemingly disconnected mysteries that emerged at cosmic dawn — mysteries recently discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope. The puzzles include the surprising overabundance of supermassive black holes in the early universe, the unexpected existence of "blue monster" galaxies, and the so-called "little red dots" scientists have been finding. The latter is an entirely new class of cosmic objects in the early universe that appear to have disappeared before the cosmos was around 2 billion years old.
Dark stars are hypothetical objects that are proposed to have existed in the early universe. Rather than being powered by nuclear fusion, as normal stars are, dark stars are thought to have been powered by the annihilation of dark matter particles. "Dark" refers to that source of these stars' energy; they would have, in fact, been incredibly bright.
"Some of the most significant mysteries posed by the [James Webb Space Telescope's] cosmic dawn data are in fact features of the dark star theory," research leader Cosmin Ilie of Colgate University said in a statement.
If dark stars existed, they would have been capable of forming in the universe before ordinary stars could have formed. When ultradense cores of dark matter are exhausted, it is theorized that dark stars could collapse to form the massive "seeds" for supermassive black holes.
These seeds would be much more massive than the black holes formed when even the most massive stars run out of fuel for nuclear fusion. This, coupled with the fact that dark stars could have existed before normal stars, would allow supermassive black holes to form much faster than the standard chain of black hole mergers thought to create supermassive black holes.
That could explain how the JWST has been able to detect a large population of supermassive black holes in the universe less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang.
Those black holes aren't the only unexpected things the JWST has been detecting in the early universe since it began observations in 2022. The $10 billion space telescope has also been spotting extremely bright, ultra-compact and incredibly dense galaxies that lack an abundance of dust. Categorized as "blue monsters," these are galaxies that no cosmological simulation or model of the formation of the earliest galaxies had predicted the existence of prior to the era of the JWST.
The team suggests these blue monsters aren't galaxies at all, but are instead incredibly luminous dark stars that, because of their brightness, are being mistaken for entire galaxies with populations of stars packed into a region no wider than a few hundred light-years.
Little red dots, though much dimmer than blue monsters, are also notable for how compact they are, requiring an almost impossibly dense packing of stars, if they are indeed galaxies. The other puzzling characteristic of little red dots is they emit weakly in ultraviolet light and don't seem to emit X-rays at all.
This team argues the collapse of dark stars that have exhausted their dark matter could result in black holes that are still surrounded by layers of stellar material and that could have the effect of semi-obscuring ultraviolet light and completely obscuring X-ray emissions in a way that the dust haloes of galaxies alone cannot.
For now, dark stars remain purely hypothetical, though some observational evidence is beginning to emerge. Nevertheless, this research represents an intriguing attempt to solve three cosmological puzzles with one mechanism.
"Supermassive dark stars can offer a solution to several pressing puzzles in astronomy and astrophysics, as discussed in depth in this paper," the authors concluded. "To our knowledge, there is no other mechanism that can achieve this simultaneously."
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- https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/what-are-dark-stars-scientists-think-they-could-explain-3-big-mysteries-in-the-universe
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- cs4uKMBdpKVfJ55XvYPruS
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- Thu, 15 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000Thu, 15 Jan 2026 12:29:45 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ SpaceX Crew-11 astronauts return to Earth after 1st-ever medical evacuation of ISS ]]>
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Four astronauts are safely back on Earth after the first-ever medical evacuation of the International Space Station.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying NASA's Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Japan's Kimiya Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego today (Jan. 15) at 3:41 a.m. EST (0841 GMT; 12:41 a.m. California time), about 10.5 hours after undocking from the orbiting lab.
The quartet were supposed to stay in space for another month or so but came home early because one crewmember experienced a medical issue. It was the first time in the history of the International Space Station (ISS) that a mission had been shortened due to astronaut health reasons.
Recovery crews approach SpaceX's Crew-11 Crew Dragon capsule shortly after its return to Earth on Jan. 15, 2026. (Image credit: NASA TV)
A 'medical concern' arises in orbit
Fincke, Cardman, Yui and Platonov launched toward the ISS on Aug. 1, 2025, kicking off SpaceX's Crew-11 mission to the orbiting lab for NASA. Ordinarily, such crew-rotation flights last about six months, ending a few days after their successors arrive at the ISS. But something out of the ordinary happened during Crew-11's home stretch.
On Jan. 7, NASA announced it was canceling a Jan. 8 spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke due to a "medical concern" with an ISS crewmember. A day later, the agency said it was ending Crew-11 early to address that concern.
NASA has not identified the affected astronaut or given details about the health issue, citing privacy concerns. But the agency has said the crewmember is stable, stressing that this is not a crisis situation.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, left, NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship SHANNON shortly after having landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Long Beach, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
"It is not an emergency de-orbit, even though we always retain that capability, and NASA and our partners train for that routinely," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told reporters during a press conference on Jan. 8. Rather, he added, the mission team decided to bring Crew-11 home early because "the capability to diagnose and treat this properly does not live on the International Space Station."
The Crew-11 mission lasted 167 days, with 165 of them spent aboard the ISS. It was the first spaceflight for Cardman and Platonov, the second for Yui and the fourth for Fincke. Yui has now spent a total of 309 days in space, while Fincke's accumulated off-Earth time is 549 days.
"It's so good to be home!" Cardman, Crew-11's commander, said shortly after splashdown. "With deep gratitude to the teams that got us there and back."
Space skeleton crew
Crew-11's departure left just three people on the orbiting lab: NASA's Christopher Williams and cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev, who arrived on Nov. 27 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The trio will likely have the place to themselves for about a month, as Crew-11's successor mission, SpaceX's four-person Crew-12, is currently scheduled to launch on Feb. 15. (NASA has said it might try to accelerate that liftoff a bit, but any change likely wouldn't be a big one.)
NASA officials say they aren't worried about the orbital staffing shortage, which will leave Williams to operate the station's American segment by himself.
"Chris is trained to do every task that we would ask him to do on the vehicle," NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said during the Jan. 8 press conference.
"Of course, we also do a lot of the operations of the vehicle from our various control centers all over the world, including commercial control centers that operate a lot of our research payloads," Kshatriya added. "So, he will have thousands of people looking over his shoulder, like our crews do all the time to help ensure that they continue the groundbreaking science."
By the way, a three-person crew was the standard for nearly a decade on the ISS, which has been staffed continuously by rotating astronaut crews since November 2000. The baseline was doubled to six in 2009, then upped again to seven in 2020.
Speaking of that long history: It's actually quite surprising that it took so long to get a medical evacuation from the station. Statistical analyses suggest we should see such an event once every three years or so, NASA Chief Health and Medical Officer James Polk said during the Jan. 8 briefing.
Support teams raise the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft aboard the recovery ship SHANNON shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov aboard in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Long Beach, Calif., on Jan. 15, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
A Soviet precedent
Crew-11 wasn't the first space mission of any kind to end early due to an astronaut health issue. In November 1985, for example, the Soviet Union brought three cosmonauts down from the Salyut-7 space station ahead of schedule because one of them, 33-year-old Vladimir Vasyutin, had fallen ill.
Vasyutin, the Salyut-7 commander, was hospitalized after his return to Earth. Some researchers speculate that he suffered from a prostate infection, which he may have concealed from mission planners in the leadup to launch.
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- https://www.space.com/space-exploration/international-space-station/spacex-crew-11-astronauts-return-to-earth-after-1st-ever-medical-evacuation-of-iss
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- CnViWWgUQhczmWdTkGv6Fi
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- Thu, 15 Jan 2026 08:50:08 +0000Thu, 15 Jan 2026 11:33:04 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ With Starfleet Academy beaming up to small screens and season four of Strange New Worlds later in the year, 2026 is a big year for Star Trek and you can save 37% on an annual subscription to Paramount Plus ]]>
- 2026 is a huge year for Star Trek with Starfleet Academy and season four of Strange New Worldscoming to Paramount Plus, so now is the time to save 37% on 12 months of one of the best streaming services available.
The arrival of Starfleet Academy on Jan. 15 sees a new Star Trek show all about the training and learning of future generations of ship crew, from pilots to engineers, all set in San Francisco in the 32nd century. Another hit Trek show, Strange New Worlds, will also return later in the year for its fourth season, which is another reason to think about streaming deals and a longer-term subscription when signing up to Paramount Plus. It could also be worth getting a VPN subscription, so you can stream content securely while travelling and using public Wi-Fi, as a VPN can help you access content from back home that may be geo-locked abroad, while offering added online security.
Travelling outside the US and still want access to Paramount Plus? Good news, NordVPN can help you get around those pesky geoblocking restrictions so you can watch the streaming service you've paid for anywhere in the world.View Deal
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is available to stream from January 15. (Image credit: Paramount)
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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season four is coming to Paramount Plus in 2026. (Image credit: Paramount Plus)
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Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is available to stream from January 15. (Image credit: Paramount)
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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season four is coming to Paramount Plus in 2026. (Image credit: Paramount)
Of course, it's not just Starfleet Academy and Strange New Worlds you can stream on Paramount Plus. The entire catalogue of Star Trek content is there to watch on the streaming service, along with other award-winning shows and blockbuster movies, as well as sci-fi hits including the Transformers movies and both seasons of the Halo TV show.
A VPN is worth getting to help you access the content you're subscribed to while travelling, but it's also helpful as it boosts your online security through a number of safety features. With NordVPN, you can get a dedicated IP address, malicious domain and ad blocks and a speedy connection as standard on up to 10 devices simultaneously. If you decide to opt for one of NordVPN's more advanced plans, you can also get scam detection, a data breach scanner, anti-malware protection, 1TB of encrypted storage, $100K in cyber extortion coverage and $1m in identity theft insurance.
Key features: 37% discount on Paramount Plus, 70% discount on NordVPN. New episodes of Starfleet Academy and Strange New World will stream this year, the entire Star Trek library available to watch, access streaming content from back home while travelling, ad blockers, scam protection, a data breach scanner, encrypted storage and more.
Price history: Before today's deal, it would set you back nearly $100 to subscribe to Paramount Plus monthly for a whole year, so it makes sense to get 12 months for under $60 and enjoy both Starfleet Academy and season four of Strange New Worlds later in the year.
Consensus: Paramount Plus is the absolute go-to for Trekkies as the entire Star Trek library of content, from movies to shows, both new and classic, is available on the service. Paramount Plus also boasts award-winning TV shows and movies as part of its content library, even if the options available are slightly more limited compared to its competition.
✅ Buy it if: You're a fan of Star Trek, as Paramount Plus is the only streaming service where you can stream every movie and every TV show from the Star Trek universe.
❌ Don't buy it if: You already have a Paramount Plus subscription.
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- https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/with-starfleet-academy-beaming-up-to-small-screens-save-37-percent-on-an-annual-subscription-to-paramount-plus
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- cwSY3MRbroByiTeQccFbPD
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- Wed, 14 Jan 2026 23:10:55 +0000Wed, 14 Jan 2026 23:10:56 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ James Webb Space Telescope's mysterious 'little red dots' may be black holes in disguise ]]>
- Ancient galaxies colloquially known as "little red dots" have proven a mystery ever since astronomers discovered them three years ago. Now, a new study finds the strange features of little red dots might be explained by supermassive black holes in disguise during their youth.
With the help of NASA's $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers first discovered the mysterious specks of light known as little red dots at the end of 2022. They only existed for a short time in the cosmos, first appearing in the universe less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang and almost completely disappearing after 2 billion years, explained study lead author Vadim Rusakov at the University of Manchester in England. (The universe is currently about 13.8 billion years old.)
The discovery ignited a fierce debate among scientists over the identity of the little red dots. One possible explanation for these ancient bright spots was that they were extraordinarily star-rich galaxies. Another possibility was that little red dots hosted supermassive black holes — light in the galaxies may have emerged from gas that became super-hot as it rushed toward the enormous gravitational pull of these black holes.
A key problem with these possible explanations, however, was that both proposed objects were both too massive to have formed so early in the history of the universe. In addition, supermassive black holes should emit X-rays and radio waves, and scientists have detected neither from little red dots.
In the new study, researchers investigated 12 ancient galaxies to get a better sense of the nature of little red dots. The earliest of these galaxies existed when the universe was only about 840 million years old.
Their analysis suggested that little red dots "are simply too luminous and too compact to be explained by a large number of stars," Rusakov told Space.com. "If they were purely made up of stars, they would be the densest galaxies in the universe."
Instead, the research team's model suggested the most luminous sources of light they examined were as bright as more than 250 billion suns but also less than a third of a light-year across. This is much smaller than a galaxy — the distance from our sun to its nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.25 light-years. The compact sizes of these incredibly bright spots within little red dots suggest they must be supermassive black holes.
The spectrum of radiation emitted from the little red dots suggested that before the JWST detected these rays of light, they got scattered off electrons in dense clouds of ionized gas in the centers of the little red dots. Such cocoons would trap most of the radiation generated near black holes.
"These objects turned out to be supermassive black holes despite missing almost all typical indications of massive black holes," Rusakov said. "They have an almost perfect disguise that removes X-ray and radio emission."
By analyzing the light from the little red dots, the scientists calculated the speed of the light-emitting gas within most of the dots as being about 670,000 miles per hour (1.08 million kilometers per hour). Assuming this gas was orbiting the black holes at the centers of these little red dots, they could deduce the black holes were likely about 100,000 to 10 million times the mass of the sun. This is about 100 times less than previous estimates suggested, and is closer to what researchers would expect from young super-massive black holes early in the history of the cosmos.
"Our results imply, most importantly, that for the first time we are seeing supermassive black holes early in their lifetimes, possibly early enough to understand how they were born—either by continuously growing from smaller black holes or by starting big, as intermediate-mass black holes that formed from collapsing streams of gas," Rusakov said.
Future research may shed light on how these supermassive black holes were born. "If we are lucky, little red dots may still preserve clues from the time when they were formed — whether it’s the gas chemistry or some useful physical property of the black holes and their cocoons that can help to differentiate between different theories," Rusakov said. "This is one of the biggest remaining questions in astrophysics and it seems that we are closer than ever to being able to answer it."
The scientists detailed their findings in the Jan. 15 issue of the journal Nature.
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- https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/james-webb-space-telescopes-mysterious-little-red-dots-may-be-black-holes-in-disguise
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- kpkbThFjedvr6UymaYUCX8
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- Wed, 14 Jan 2026 22:00:00 +0000Thu, 15 Jan 2026 09:47:20 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ Massive supernova explosion may have created a binary black hole ]]>
- Astronomers have observed a strange but powerful supernova explosion that not only marked the death of a massive, highly evolved star, but also may have heralded the birth of a pair of binary black holes.
The team behind this discovery studied the supernova explosion SN 2022esa with the 8.2-meter Subaru telescope located at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii and the Seimei telescope in Japan.
They found the supernova was likely the result of the explosive death of a massive, hot, luminous star at the end of its evolutionary development, known as a "Wolf-Rayet star." This star dwelled in the galaxy 2MFGC 13525, located around 320 million light-years away from Earth.
The scientists discovered that SN the supernova demonstrated a clear and stable period lasting around a month, which led them to theorize that it was the result of periodic eruptions in this system, one each Earth-year before the final explosion.
That kind of stable periodicity is only possible in a binary system, the researchers say, indicating this doomed Wolf-Rayet star was partnered by either a black hole or a massive star that will one day explode to birth a black hole. The end result in both cases is a black hole binary.
"The fates of massive stars, the birth of a black hole, or even a black hole binary, are very important questions in astronomy," team leader Keiichi Maeda of Kyoto University said in a statement. "Our study provides a new direction to understand the whole evolutionary history of massive stars toward the formation of black hole binaries."
The team's findings don't just reveal more about binary black holes and their origins; they also demonstrate the power of teaming two different telescopes with different capabilities. The Seimei telescope brings flexibility and rapid response times to this tag-team, while Subaru provides its high-sensitivity.
As a result, these telescopes are likely to remain teamed for years to come.
"We expect many interesting discoveries on the nature of astronomical transients and explosions like supernova," Maeda said.
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- https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/massive-supernova-explosion-may-have-created-a-binary-black-hole
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- dgkwHV73G3grgB5DAnsCwX
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- Wed, 14 Jan 2026 20:00:00 +0000Wed, 14 Jan 2026 18:19:31 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ 'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy': Robert Picardo and Gina Yashere on embracing the legacy of their roles in latest Trek show (interview) ]]>
- Faces both new and returning will appear in Paramount+'s "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" when it drops on Jan. 15. This young-adult "space university" drama focuses on the exploits of a group of 20-something cadets overseen by stern Starfleet veterans.
Robert Picardo has been a popular fixture in the "Star Trek" universe as the Emergency Medical Hologram, simply called The Doctor. The character was first introduced in "Star Trek: Voyager" in 1995, later seen in 1996's "Star Trek: First Contact," and then voiced by the actor in "Star Trek: Prodigy." Now, he finally makes a return to live-action "Star Trek" after three decades away.
Gina Yashere is making her "Trek" debut in "Starfleet Academy" after co-starring in the CBS comedy "Bob Hearts Abishola." She’ll portray the Klingon/Jem'Hadar hybrid Cadet Master Lura Thok, who serves as Captain Nahla Ake’s (Holly Hunter) Number One on the USS Athena.
Gina Yashere as Lura Thok in "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" (Image credit: Paramount+)
"Initially, what attracted me was the sheer strength of the character," Yashere tells Space.com.
"When I did my audition, I didn't even know it was 'Star Trek.' They sent me a script without any reference on it. It was this 'Full Metal Jacket'- type drill sergeant screaming at some kids. Then I found out later that it was 'Star Trek' and thought, 'Wow, this is bigger than I thought.' My brother is a mad Trekkie, so he nearly had a heart attack when he discovered I was not only going up on 'Star Trek' but to be a Klingon/Jem'Hadar hybrid."
"The character is not just a screamy character," notes Yashere, "It's bringing together two massive legacy tribes. It’s a new hybrid that's never been seen before, so I'm the first of my kind."
Trek fans might be a little confused about Lura Thok's origins, given that the Jem'Hadar are a clone race, and, as a Jem'Hadar warrior famously says in Deep Space Nine, "There are no Jem'Hadar women." We'll have to wait and see how that came about, but it's safe to say that a lot has happened to the Jem'Hadar in the 800+ years since the Dominion War ended.
Robert Picardo returns as The Doctor in "Star Trek" Starfleet Academy" (Image credit: Paramount+)
Picardo’s call back to the final frontier came in March of 2023 via an inquiry through his agents to join a new live-action "Star Trek" series.
"My response was, 'Really?,'" he recalls. "I had no idea what it was, whether it was playing a new character. Then I found out I was playing the same character in the 32nd century, so with 800 years of digital experience. When I had the first Zoom meeting with Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau, they explained to me their vision for the show and specifically my character arc. It just sounded cool. What they wanted to do with me was something that hadn't been done with The Doctor before, later in the season, where he's pushed into a new area or feeling or experience. I said yes and haven’t regretted it for a moment.
"It's wonderful to work with such a young and vibrant, exuberant cast, as well as a few old pros like Gina and Holly Hunter. It's also been a wonderful circle of life experience to revisit this character, because it's the signature character of my career. There's no way around it, so I might as well embrace it again."
"It's hopeful about the future, and we need that optimistic enthusiasm right now."
Robert Picardo
Picardo and Yashere are thrilled for viewers to tune in and welcome "Starfleet Academy" as a member of the 60-year-old "Star Trek" family.
"I hope the fans get a bit of everything," says Yashere. "You've got fresh blood coming into the series. You're attracting a younger audience, but there's still plenty in there for legacy fans of 'Star Trek.' It's still exciting. It's still full of action. It’s still epic. And it's really well written.”
"And it's hopeful about the future, and we need that optimistic enthusiasm right now," Picardo adds. "It's great entry-level 'Star Trek' for anyone, if you've never watched it before or if you're an old fan. It really has something for everyone, and lots of humor as well."
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- https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/star-trek-starfleet-academy-robert-picardo-and-gina-yashere-on-embracing-the-legacy-of-their-roles-in-latest-trek-show-interview
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- Sq79M6at6dy4NK4FfQdihC
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- Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:00:00 +0000Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:55:00 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ Starlink satellites lift off on SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral (video) ]]>
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SpaceX added 29 more Starlink satellites to its low Earth orbit megaconstellation today (Jan. 14).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the broadband internet relay units launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Wednesday. The rocket reached its preliminary orbit about nine minutes after the 1:08 p.m. EST (1808 GMT) liftoff.
The Falcon 9's upper stage was on track to deploy the Starlink satellites (Group 6-98) about an hour into the flight.
The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket touches down on the droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)
Meanwhile, the rocket's first stage (B1085) completed its 13th flight by performing a propulsive landing on the droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas," which was stationed in Atlantic Ocean.
The additional satellites continue to grow the Starlink service's coverage, providing access to the internet in underserved areas. The network has nearly 9,500 active units, according to tracker Jonathan McDowell.
Wednesday's launch was SpaceX's sixth mission of 2026.
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- https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-starlink-6-98-1085-ccsfs-asog
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- wrqNx8xqJMXzRrswKMVoQT
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- Wed, 14 Jan 2026 18:21:34 +0000Wed, 14 Jan 2026 21:42:31 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ NASA X-ray instrument finds black holes act like 'cosmic seesaws' shaping the universe ]]>
- Turns out the expression "you can't have it all" also applies to black holes. Astronomers have discovered that although feeding black holes can produce powerful cosmic winds and blast out high-energy jets, they can't do both at the same time.
Instead, this new research suggests that black holes actually act like "cosmic seesaws," switching between these two distinct outflow modes. Not only does this discovery have implications for how black holes grow, but it could also help us better understand how they influence star formation, and thus how they shape their entire home galaxies.
"We're seeing what could be described as an energetic tug-of-war inside the black hole's accretion flow. When the black hole fires off a high-speed plasma jet, the X-ray wind dies down, and when the wind starts up again, the jet vanishes," team member Jiachen Jiang of the University of Warwick said in a statement. "This tells us something fundamental about how black holes regulate their energy output and interact with their surroundings."
Jiang and colleagues made this discovery while studying the system 4U 1630−472, which contains a black hole with around 10 times the mass of the sun that's actively stripping matter from a companion star. They studied this system with NASA's Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and the MeerKAT radio telescope across a period of three years.
The black hole's stolen matter forms a swirling plate of plasma around it called an accretion disk, which gradually feeds it. But not all of this ex-stellar material is destined to fall into the black hole; some is blasted away at near-light speed, while other material is blown away as black hole winds.
What the team found was this black hole never produced powerful winds and high-energy jets at the same time, even though the accretion disk and the matter stripped from the companion star restocking this disk stayed consistent.
"Our observations provide clear evidence that black hole binary systems switch between powerful jets and energetic winds — never producing both simultaneously — highlighting the complex interplay and competition between different forms of black hole outflows," team member Zuobin Zhang of the University of Oxford said in the statement.
An illustration of a black hole surrounded by an accretion disk and blasting out a high-energy jet (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The way outflow mechanisms seesawed for this black hole suggests a natural mechanism of self-regulation, and that jets and winds compete for the same matter. The researchers also found that though the type of outflow differed, the amount of energy and mass carried away remained consistent. That also implies a roughly steady total rate of outflow.
The team behind this research theorizes that the switch-in-outflow method doesn't hinge on how much matter is falling toward the black hole, but on the configuration of the magnetic fields within the accretion disk.
That means black holes don't just gobble up gas and dust in their host galaxies, but can also manage how this matter is spat back into their cosmic environment. As this gas and dust are the building blocks of new stars, this means these cosmic seesaws play a crucial role in regulating star formation and therefore the growth of galaxies.
The team's research was published on Jan. 5 in the journal Nature Astronomy.
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- https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/nasa-x-ray-instrument-finds-black-holes-act-like-cosmic-seesaws-shaping-the-universe
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- fAViZQjKPjUY3B7YhcingJ
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- Wed, 14 Jan 2026 17:00:00 +0000Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:55:00 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ How Mars' ancient lakes grew shields of ice to stay warm as the Red Planet froze ]]>
- Thin lids of ice could have sheltered lakes on ancient Mars and kept surface water liquid even as the Red Planet's climate became freezing, according to new research that could solve one of the greater paradoxes of Martian history.
The findings are based on data collected by NASA's MarsCuriosityrover in Gale crater and then fed through a climate model.
"If similar patterns emerge across the planet, the results would support the idea that even a quite cold early Mars could sustain year-round liquid water, a key ingredient for environments to be suitable for life," said Rice University's Eleanor Moreland, who led the research, in a statement.
Mars is covered in the relics of a watery past — dried up river and lake beds, channels, deltas and even what look like shorelines to an ancient sea. There is a prodigious amount of evidence that liquid water once ran on the Red Planet's surface, which initially led to a hypothesis that Mars was once warm and wet.
While Mars, four billion years ago, may have been warmer than it is today, maintaining these temperatures would have required a much thicker carbon dioxide atmosphere than what's seen at present. That's especially because back then, the sun was much weaker, shining only three-quarters as bright as it does today. This simple fact has led planetary scientists to question whether Mars really was ever warm, at least for long periods of time. Consequently, the warm and wet paradigm for Mars has gradually been replaced by a picture of a planet that was cold yet somehow still wet.
This is the apparent paradox at the heart of Mars' ancient history. We see evidence for liquid water even when Mars should have been too cold for liquid water.
So, planetary scientists have been looking for ways in which Mars could have supported liquid water while not being very warm.
Moreland teamed up with Sylvia Dee, an Earth climate scientist at Texas' Rice University. Dee had previously developed an Earth climate modeling tool called Proxy System Modeling, which used evidence from tree rings and ice cores to interpret Earth's climate history.
Of course, Mars doesn't have trees, and no ice cores have been obtained, but Moreland, Dee and colleagues were able to adapt the Proxy System Modeling for Mars, using data gathered by Curiosity on rock and mineral records to act as proxies for Mars' ancient climate. The result was the Lake Modeling on Mars with Atmospheric Reconstructions and Simulations, or LakeM2ARS model.
"It was fun to work through the thought experiment of how a lake model designed for Earth could be adapted for another planet, though this process came with a hefty amount of debugging when we had to change, say, gravity," said Dee.
Moreland's team ran 64 different simulations using the LakeM2ARS model, each one simulating a hypothetical lake within the 96-mile-wide (154-kilometer-wide) Gale crater under conditions believed to have existed on Mars 3.6 billion years ago. Each simulation depicted the lake for 30 Martian years, which is equivalent to about 56 Earth years.
In some of the tests, the lake froze solid in winter, but in other cases the lake would develop a thin layer of ice that would thermally insulate the liquid body below, like a natural blanket. In spring and summer the ice lid would melt, and then return the next winter, with the overall volume of liquid water in the lake barely changing. In the simulations, this allowed the lake to remain stable for decades while temperatures dropped to freezing.
"When our new model began showing lakes that could last for decades with only a thin, seasonally disappearing ice layer, it was exciting that we might finally have a physical mechanism that fits what we see on Mars today," said Moreland.
While the results of the modeling do not mean that Mars never had warmer periods during its early history, they do explain how liquid water could have persisted even after those warm periods had ended.
The findings were published in the Dec. 29, 2025 issue of AGU Advances.
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- https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/how-mars-ancient-lakes-grew-shields-of-ice-to-stay-warm-as-the-red-planet-froze
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- YBvPf5oYzftniwTWh4GZvg
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- Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:00:00 +0000Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:55:00 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ Unusual 'ingredients' helped stars form in a galaxy near the Milky Way ]]>
- Some newly found stars in a small galaxy called Sextans A are forming without some of the usual "ingredients" — raising questions about how the early universe evolved.
The astronomers behind a new study of these stars likened the stars' environment to a cosmic kitchen. Usually, stars being "cooked" in these kitchens are made up of essential ingredients like silicon, carbon and iron. Sextans A, however, is missing almost all of those ingredients, creating a situation where something as essential as metaphorical sugar, or flour, is absent from the "kitchen" where the stars form, researchers stated.
"Every discovery in Sextans A reminds us that the early universe was more inventive than we imagined," lead author Martha Boyer, an associate astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, said in a NASA statement. (The institute operates JWST, and coordinates its observations.)
Boyer was part of the team studying these stars, and the environment between them, with the James Webb Space Telescope. Scientists published the work in two studies highlighted in a press conference this week at the American Astronomical Association's annual meeting in Phoenix. One study was published in September 2025 in the peer-reviewed Astrophysical Journal Letters (ApJ), while the other study is awaiting peer review after being published on preprint server arXiv in December.
The ApJ study examined the spectra, or light signatures, of half a dozen stars in Sextans A, which is near our home Milky Way galaxy. Sextans A has a very low metal content, or metallicity, compared to the sun — just 3% to 7%. That's because the galaxy is not massive enough to hold on to heavier elements, like iron and oxygen, produced by old stars and supernovas (the explosions of massive, old stars that run out of fuel to burn).
Using JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument, the scientists honed in on stars, all between one and eight times the mass of the sun, that are late in their lifetimes. These are called asymptomatic giant branch (ASB) stars at the red giant phase of existence, before they explode and collapse into white dwarfs.
Usually, ASB stars produce silicate dust in metal-rich galaxies, said Boyer, who led the ApJ study. "However, at such low metallicity [in the galaxy], we expect these stars to be nearly dust-free," she added. "Instead, Webb revealed a star forging dust grains made almost entirely of iron. This is something we've never seen in stars that are analogs of stars in the early universe."
Astronomers wouldn't expect stars missing those key 'ingredients' to be able to create much dust at all. The JWST revealed that not only are the stars producing dust, but one of them was able to do so using an entirely different chemical "recipe."
Stars in the dwarf galaxy Sextans A, a portion of which was imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope at left, came together in an environment missing essential ingredients for star formation. The entire galaxy is visible at left in a ground-based image from the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. (Image credit: STScI, NASA, ESA, CSA, KPNO, NSF's NOIRLab, AURA, Elizabeth Tarantino (STScI), Phil Massey (Lowell Obs.), George Jacoby (NSF, AURA), Chris Smith (NSF, AURA); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Travis Rector (UAA), Mahdi Zamani (NSF's NOIRLab), Davide De Martin (NSF's NOIRLab))
The second study in arXiv looked at the interstellar medium (the environment between stars) in Sextans A, searching for carbon-bearing molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Models suggest that PAHs would best form in metal-rich galaxies, unlike Sextans A. Yet scientists still found "pockets" of PAHs in the dwarf galaxy.
"Webb shows that PAHs can form and survive even in the most metal-starved galaxies, but only in small, protected islands of dense gas," Arxiv study lead author Elizabeth Tarantino, a postdoctoral researcher at the Space Telescope Science Institute, said in the same statement.
The study authors suggest the PAHs came together where the density of gas, and shielding of dust, gave just enough protection. By association, this would mean that PAHs tend to be difficult to find in metal-poor galaxies because these galaxies often lack such protection.
Astronomers plan to peer at Sextans A again with JWST to search out more PAHs, using high-resolution spectroscopy. The planned observations may give more information about the PAH clump chemistry. But in the meantime, team members stated, the two studies show potential other ways of creating dust than supernovas, and that cosmic environments with low metallicity have more dust than models predicted.
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- https://www.space.com/astronomy/galaxies/unusual-ingredients-helped-stars-form-in-a-galaxy-near-the-milky-way
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- 4vLhsiDeFyi63LL36gkov4
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- Wed, 14 Jan 2026 15:00:00 +0000Tue, 13 Jan 2026 18:49:49 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ ISS astronaut medical evacuation latest news: Crew-11 astronauts safely back on Earth ]]>
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NASA will return four astronauts to Earth early from the International Space Station due to a medical concern with one of the Crew-11 astronauts. Here's the latest news.
NASA is drawing up plans today to return four Crew-11 astronauts to Earth from the International Space Station earlier than planned due to a medical concern with one of the space travelers. We will have the latest updates as events unfold here.
The Crew-11 astronauts are NASA's Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Japan's Kimuya Yui, and Russia's Oleg Platonov. NASA officials canceled a planned Jan. 8 spacewalk by Fincke and Cardman due to the medical concern, but the agency has not said which of the four astronauts suffered the medical issue out of privacy concerns.
The astronaut who suffered the medical issue is in a stable condition, but NASA does want to return them to Earth where they can receive treatment with better care than the conditions on the ISS allow.
The crew of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 on the International Space Station. Clockwise from top left are: NASA's Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, Russia's Oleg Platonov and Japan's Kimiya Yui. (Image credit: NASA)
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced his decision to bring the Crew-11 astronauts home early on their SpaceX Dragon capsule on Thursday (Jan. 8). The agency is now drawing up plans to both undock the Crew-11 Dragon and splashdown off the Florida coast early, while also accelerating the planned launch of a replacement crew on the SpaceX Crew-12 mission.
The departure of the Crew-11 astronauts will leave NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two cosmonauts, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev, on their own on the ISS. Crew-11 launched to the ISS in August 2025, with Williams and crew launching on a Soyuz rocket in November.
Watch this space for more updates on this developing story.
ISS astronaut evacuation won't affect Artemis 2 moon launch
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman discusses the astronaut medical evacuation plan with reporters at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 8, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
NASA's plan to rturn the four Crew-11 astronauts home early from the International Space Station and accelerate the launch of their replacement team, Crew-12, from Florida should not impact the agency's plans to also launch another crew of astronauts to the moon in February.
NASA chief Jared Isaacman said Thursday that NASA's Artemis 2 mission, which will launch four astronauts around the moon, will remain on track to launch in early February. The mission will lift off from the Kennedy Space Center, where SpaceX will also launch the Crew-12 astronauts. The Crew-11 astronauts will also have to splashdown off the Florida coast before then.
"These would be totally separate campaigns at this point," Isaacman said during a Jan. 8 press conference to provide an update on NASA's decision to end Crew-11 early. "There's no reason to believe at this point in time that there'd be any overlap that we have to deconflict for."
Chris Hadfield aboard the International Space Station. (Image credit: NASA)
Former Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield posted his thoughts regarding NASA's recent decision to fly Crew-11 astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) back to Earth due to an ongoing medical issue.
"Big decision by NASA leadership, with multiple domino impacts on operations, but I’m glad to see, as always, crew health and safety come first," Hadfield wrote on X.
Normally, NASA overlaps incoming and outgoing crews aboard the ISS, but with the possibility of evacuating Crew-11 before Crew-12's arrival, Hadfield voiced confidence. "The Station will be more vulnerable until the replacement crew of 4 can launch, but we have deep experience running the place with just 3 astronauts for a while," he wrote.
Former NASA astronaut Ed Lu also weighed in on X. "The afflicted space station astronaut ... is almost certainly feeling they have let down the crew. We were trained to get the mission done. But I do trust NASA to do the right thing here."
It's still unclear when exactly Crew-11 will depart the station, or when and if NASA will determine an earlier launch date for Crew-12.
For the first time in the 25-year history of the International Space Station, we’ve had a serious enough medical emergency in space to bring a crew home early. Big decision by @nasa leadership, with multiple domino impacts on operations, but I’m glad to see, as always, crew… pic.twitter.com/p3ObJh497DJanuary 8, 2026
Not NASA's first medical issue in space
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is pictured attached to the outside of the International Space Station during a spacewalk on Oct. 10, 2017. In August 2020, Vande Hei and Japanese crewmate Akihiko Hoshide had their EVA called off due to a "minor medical issue." (Image credit: NASA)
While NASA's current astronaut medical issue on the International Space Station has led to the first-ever planned medical evacuation of a crew from the orbiting lab, it is far from the first time the space agency has had to deal with a medical concern in orbit.
Dr. James Polk, NASA's chief medical officer, told reporters late Thursday that medical issues we find common on Earth - like a toothache or other mild malady - are the same sort of things that have historically occurred with astronauts. The specific nature of the current issue, and the astronaut who experienced it, are being withheld for privacy reasons, he added.
Still, there is a record of medical concerns on the ISS, including ones that led to delays for spacewalks or other tasks.
In August 2020, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and his crewmate Akhiko Hoshide had their planned spacewalk called off days before the event due to a minor medical issue that remained undisclosed. And in 2008, European Space Agency astronaut Hans Schlegel was replaced on his ISS spacwalk by NASA astronaut Stanley Love due to a medical concern.
As we await updates from NASA on when it will perform the medical evacuation of four Crew-11 astronauts from the International Space Station, there are some details we can glean of the nature of the medical issue concerning one of the astronauts.
Dr. James Polk, NASA's chief medical officer, has said the medical issue is not an injury to the astronaut afflicted, but rather something related to the prolonged exposure to weighlessness by astronauts living and working on the International Space Station.
"It's mostly having a medical issue in the difficult areas of microgravity and the suite of hardware that we operate in," Polk said.
NASA officials have also said the issue was not connected with the Crew-11 astronauts' work at the time to prepare for a planned spacewalk scheduled for Jan. 8, which was subsequently cancelled.
The months-long missions on the ISS can have lasting effects on the human body, forcing astronauts to readapt to live on Earth when they return, including rebuilding the muscle mass and bone density lost in space. At least one astronaut suffered a blood clot in orbit due to deep vein thrombisis at the two-month mark of a planned six-month mission. Physicians on Earth were able to devise a treatment for the astronaut to implement in space to address the issue and complete the mission's full duration.
Crew-11 tests suits, begins packing for medical evac
The four astronauts of NASA's Crew-11 mission on the International Space Station don't have a landing date yet for their medical evacuation from due to a medical concern with one of the crew, but they're already preparing to leave, NASA says.
"No departure date has been announced, though the crew has begun checking the fit and operability of their Dragon pressure suits," NASA wrote in update today. "Fit verification is necessary because the spine lengthens and body fluids shift toward the head in microgravity, affecting torso and limb dimensions. The quartet also tested the suits' audio and video communication systems."
(Image credit: NASA)
The Dragon pressure suits are the same black and white SpaceX spacesuits worn by Crew-11 astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, Kimiya Yui and Oleg Platanov during their launch in August 2025. Cardman will command the Dragon flight home with Fincke as pilot. Kimuya and Platanov will serve as mission specialists.
The astronauts have also begun packing for their trip home.
"The foursome began collecting their personal items and packing them for stowage aboard the spacecraft," NASA wrote in the update.
Cardman spent time today flushing water from and powerfing down two NASA spacesuits on the ISS. She and Fincke were supposed to use the suits during a spacewalk on Jan. 8 and another one next week. Both spacewalks werte canceled due to the medical issue with one of the Crew-11 astronauts.
Yui and Platanov spent time on final science experiments of their mission, including one by Platanov studying how the inner lining of blood vessels work to keep blood flowing in space, in order to avoid the formation of blood clots.
Next Crew-11 landing update tomorrow
Hey, Space Fans, NASA continues to study the return options for the four Crew-11 astronauts and we are awaiting the agency's next update on its landing plans, though it does appear that the medical evacuation of the crew from the International Space Station is not imminent for Saturday. If that changes, we'll definitely post an update here.
In the meantime, we'll pause our updates for the day and join you again on Saturday when we anticipate the next update on NASA's plans to return the Crew-11 astronauts to Earth.
NASA planning on Jan. 15 return of Crew-11 astronauts
Crew-11 astronauts will undock from the dorsal port of the ISS Harmony module aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour on Jan. 14. (Image credit: NASA)
The crew will deorbit aboard Endeavour, with splashdown expected early Jan. 15, off the coast of California, "depending on weather and recovery conditions," according to a post from the space station's account on X.
.@NASA and @SpaceX target undocking Crew-11 from the International Space Station no earlier than 5pm ET on Jan. 14, with splashdown off California targeted for early Jan. 15 depending on weather and recovery conditions. https://t.co/Y89iIj3jEYJanuary 10, 2026
SpaceX prepares for Crew-11 medical evacuation
(Image credit: NASA)
SpaceX says it's Dragon spacecraft at the International Space Station is ready to return its four Crew-11 astronauts home in an unprecedented medical evacuation on Jan. 14 and 15.
"Dragon and Crew-11 are targeted t undock from the space station no earlier than Wednesday, January 14," SpaceX wrote in a mission update on X late yesterday.
Dragon and Crew-11 are targeted to undock from the space station no earlier than Wednesday, January 14 https://t.co/L6ThXkTHbaJanuary 10, 2026
The SpaceX statement came on the heels of NASA's announcement that the Crew-11 astronauts were scheduled to undock from the space station on Jan. 14 and splashdown off the coast of California early on Jan. 15.
Splashdown is now set for 3:40 a.m. EST (0740 GMT) on Thursday, Jan. 15, NASA officials said.
The Crew-11 Dragon spacecraft will return NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke to Earth alongside Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platanov.
NASA decided to evacuate the crew, which make up four of the seven astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station, on Jan. 8 after an apparently serious medical concern arose with one of the four Crew-11 astronauts. The astronaut is stable, but NASA officials opted for a "controlled medical evacuation" in order to provide astronaut better treatment on the ground, NASA chief Jared Isaacman has said.
NASA Timeline revealed for Crew-11 medical evacuation
NASA announced the undocking date late Friday, as well as a detailed timline of events for the ISS departure and landing. Here's a look at the timeline as it stands now:
Wednesday, Jan. 14 - all times in EST
3 p.m. - Hatch closure coverage begins on NASA TV and streaming platforms
3:30 p.m. - SpaceX Dragon hatch and ISS hatch closed for undocking
There will be a break here between hatch closure coverage and undocking views.
4:45 p.m. - Undocking coverage begins
5 p.m. - Undocking and initial ISS departure
There will be a break here in coverage between undocking and landing.
Thursday, Jan. 15 - all times in EST
2:15 a.m - Landing coverage begins on NASA TV and streaming platforms
2:50 a.m. - Dragon Deorbit burn
3:40 a.m. - Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off California coast
5:45 a.m. - Post-landing return to Earth press conference
This current timeline could change as NASA and SpaceX monitor weather at the splashdown site.
"Mission managers continue monitoring conditions in the recovery area, as undocking of the SpaceX Dragon depends on spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, sea states, and other factors," NASA wrote in an update. "NASA and SpaceX will select a specific splashdown time and location closer to the Crew-11 spacecraft undocking."
Crew-11 early return will leave skeleton crew on ISS
NASA's medical evacuation of Crew-11 astronauts Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui and Oleg Platanov will leave NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev behind on the station as caretakers until four more astronaus on Crew-12 can arrive.
While NASA and SpaceX are working to accelerate the launch of Crew-12's astronauts, the reduced crew size on the station could last at least a month of more. Crew-12 was scheduled to launch sometime in February.
Japan's Crew-11 astronaut takes photo farewell of ISS
(Image credit: NASA/JAXA)
Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui is saying some farewells to the Japan-built section of the International Space Station as he and his Crew-11 crewmates prepare for their medical evacuation from the orbiting lab on Jan. 14.
Yui shared a photo on Fridaythat he took from a window on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo module, the largest science laboratory on the space station, showing the module's airlock and experiment platform. The space station's main truss and two giant solar arrays can be seen, as well as the blue arc of the Earth below.
"Today was a very busy day as well, so I was working quite late.," Yui wrote. "I hadn't taken the photos to introduce to everyone, so I just shot them from the window of 'Kibo' a little while ago. Since I'll soon have to bid farewell to this view as well, I want to burn it firmly into my eyes, and even more so, into my heart."
Yui is on his second trip to the ISS with the Crew-11 mission. He's been taking spectacular photos of Earth and space from the station, as well as videos like the one here shared by Space.com writer Anthony Wood:
Yui will return to Earh on Jan. 15 in the wee hours of the morning with Crew-11 crewmates Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman (both of NASA) and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platanov, with their SpaceX Dragon capsule splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.
How to watch Crew-11's medical evac from ISS
When NASA and SpaceX return the Crew-11 astronauts to Earth in a medical evacuation of the Internatinal Space Station, the space agency will broadcast it live and you'll have a variety of options to watch it online.
NASA's Crew-11 astronuats - commander Zena Cardman, pilot Mike Fincke (both of NASA, and mission specialists Kimiya Yui of Japan and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platanov - will return to Earth on Jan. 15 after undocking a day earlier due to a medical concern that arose Jan. 7 with one of the astronauts.
NASA will livestream the undocking on Jan. 14 starting at about 3 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) on NASA TV, as well as its NASA+ streaming service. Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Hulu, Netflix and Roku. You can also follow it live on the agency's social media channels like Facebook, Twitch, X and YouTube. All the links are on NASA's Ways to Watch page here.Space.com will also provide a livestream simulcast of NASA's broadcast.
The landing livestreams will begin early Jan. 15 at 2:15 a.m. EST (0615 GMT), with splashdown set for 3:40 a.m. EST (0740 GMT).
This will be our last update of the day, barring any new update from NASA. We'll be back on Sunday to more on the packing and other preparations of the crew ahead of their unplanned departure from the ISS.
Thanks for tuning in.
New commander to take charge soon
The seven-member Expedition 74 crew poses for a festive portrait aboard the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory module. In the front row, from left, are Kimiya Yui of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Mike Fincke of NASA, and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos. In the back are, Zena Cardman of NASA, Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos, Chris Williams of NASA, and Sergei Mikaev of Roscosmos. (Image credit: NASA)
We begin today with news that NASA and its international partners have arranged for an accelerated change of command ceremony on the ISS. That ceremony, which was to occur many weeks from now, will now occur on Monday, Jan. 12, at 2:35 p.m. EST (1835 GMT). You'll be able to watch it live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA. Joining Fincke on the trip to Earth will be Crew-11 commander Zena Cardman of NASA and mission specialists Kimiya Yui of Japan and Oleg Platonaov of Russia. NASA called for their early return after a medical issue arose with one of the four on Jan. 7.
So why does this command change involve the Crew-11 medical evacuation? It's because the current commander of the International Space Station's joint Expedition 74 mission is Crew-11 pilot Mike Fincke, a veteran ISS astronaut who will now return to Earth early.
Fincke will hand over control of the ISS to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, who arrived at the station in November with fellow cosmonaut Sergei Mikaev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams.
NASA, SpaceX: Weather looks favorable for Crew-11 return
NASA and SpaceX continue to track weather conditions in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, where a Dragon capsule is expected to splashdown with the four Crew-11 astronauts on Jan. 15 to complete their medical evacuation from the International Space Station.
So far, it seems like the weather does look good for the earlier than planned landing.
"NASA and SpaceX are reviewing weather conditions in the splashdown zones, which currently are favorable for return," NASA wrote in a mission update today.
The Crew-11 Dragon capsule, called Endeavour, will splash down in the Pacific at about 3:40 a.m. EST (0740 GMT) on Thursday, Jan. 14. It will be 12:40 a.m. local time, with the splashdown and recovery occuring in darkness.
SpaceX's recovery crews typically aims to collect the Dragon capsule and extract its crew within an hour or so of splashdown. But good weather and sea conditions are key for a smooth recovery.
SpaceX details 11-hour return to Earth for Crew-11 astronauts
Crew-11 commander Zena Cardman, pilot Mike Fincke (both of NASA) and mission specialists Kimiya Yui of Japan and Oleg Platonov of Russia will return to Earth on the Dragon Endeavour capsule on Thursday, Jan. 15, but their journey begins a half day earlier on Jan. 14, when they'll undock from the ISS.
"After performing a series of departure burns to move away from the space station, Dragon will conduct multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison the trunk, and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown off the coast of California approximately 11 hours later on Thursday, January 15," SpaceX wrote in an updated mission overview. Splashdown is currently scheduled for 3:40 a.m. EST (0740 GMT) off the southern coast of California.
NASA officials have said the weather forecast currently looks favorable for the return to Earth, but both NASA and SpaceX will continue to monitor conditions since the splashdown is currently scheduled to occur in darkness. Weather conditions and rough seas can influence whether SpaceX and NASA commit to undock from the ISS and target a specific splashdown site.
While 11 hours seems like a long time for a medical evacuation from the ISS, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on Jan. 8 that aside from the early departure from the space station (Crew-11 was expected to last another month or so), Crew-11's return to Earth would follow SpaceX's normal undocking and reentry procedures.
The astronaut who suffered the medical issue (NASA is not naming the astronut due to medical privacy concerns) is in a stable condition and should not require special assistance or measures for the trip home, NASA has said.
SpaceX splashdown options for Crew-11 astronauts
While NASA and SpaceX are poised to return the four Crew-11 astronauts to Earth in the wee hours of Thursday, Jan. 15, the weather will ultimately determine exactly where the SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying the crew will splash down off the coast of Southern California.
NASA said today that the weather looks favorable for a 3:40 a.m. ET splashdown off the California coast, but that the space agency and SpaceX willmake a final decision closer to landing day (likely around undocking on Jan. 14) on which landing zone to target.
"NASA will share more details about its coverage plans in the coming days," NASA officials wrote in an update.
In 2025, SpaceX switched exclusively to Pacific splashdowns for its Dragon capsules to avoid any debris from its expendable "trunk" from falling over populated areas. But there is more than one drop zone available to choose from.
In the past, SpaceX has reserved splashdown sites off the coast of San Diego, Oceanside and Los Angeles in Southern California, and we expect the same for the upcoming Crew-11 Dragon return.
This will be our final update of today for SpaceX and NASA's Crew-11 astronaut medival evacuation from the International Space Station. We'll be back Monday morning, Jan. 12, for the next update.
Thanks for joining us and we'll see you tomorrow.
Crew-11 pilot to hand control of station over today
NASA astronaut Mike Fincke working with the ISS' microgravity science glovebox. (Image credit: NASA)
To prepare for that departure, Crew-11 pilot Mike Fincke of NASA, who has been commanding the joint Expedition 74 crew on the ISS, will officially relinquish his command in a change-of-command ceremony that will shift control of the orbting lab over to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov.
The ceremony is scheduled for 2:35 p.m. EST (1835 GMT) today, Jan. 12, and will be webcast live on NASA TV, NASA+ and the space agnecy's streaming service and social media platforms.
Fincke and Crew-11 commander Zena Cardman of NASA, Japan's Kimiya Yui and Russia's Oleg Platonov will undock their SpaceX Dragon capsule from the ISS on Wednesday, Jan. 14 and return to earth early Jan. 15 due to a medical issue with one of the astronauts that occurred on Jan. 7. It is the first-ever medical evacuation of astronauts from the ISS.
The four Crew-11 astronauts will leave behind Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, his fellow cosmonaut Sergei Mikaev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams, who will remain aboard the ISS to complete the remained of a six-month mission that began in late November.
Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui captures stunning view of aurora ahead of ISS departure
As members of Crew-11 continue to wrap up their time aboard the ISS, they are still taking the little moments to appreciate their orbital home for the past several months, and savoring views of Earth from space while they can.
Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui posted a video to X over the weekend, showing a dazzling view of auroras spreading like a tall blanket over the darkened Earth below. "Knowing that I would soon return, the sun must have tried its best, as I was able to capture a very beautiful aurora," a translation of his post says.
A change of command ceremony aboard the ISS is scheduled today at 2:35 p.m. EST (1835 GMT), and will be webcast live on NASA TV, NASA+ and the space agency's streaming service and social media platforms.
Watch NASA Crew-11 astronaut hand over control of the ISS today
NASA astronaut Mike Fincke. (Image credit: NASA/Mike Fincke)
NASA astronaut Mike Fincke will hand command of the International Space Station's current Expedition 74 mission over to cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov today (Jan. 12) during a ceremony that starts at 2:35 p.m. EST (1935 GMT). You can watch it live via NASA+, Amazon Prime, and NASA's YouTube channel.
Fincke is one of the four astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-11 mission, which will head back to Earth on Wednesday (Jan. 14). Crew-11 was supposed to stay at the ISS for another month but is coming home early due to a medical issue with one of its astronauts. NASA has not revealed the identity of that crewmember, citing privacy concerns.
The other Crew-11 astronauts are NASA's Zena Cardman, Japan's Kimiya Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.
Crew-11 pilot hands ISS control over in heartfelt ceremony
NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, pilot of the Crew-11 mission, officially relinquished command of the International Space Station's Expedition 74 mission today in a heartfelt ceremony that ended it a 7-astronaut group hug.
Fincke turned control of the ISS over to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchov during the ceremony, and even handed a golden key to the station over to its new chief.
"We're leaving you all with a lot of work, but also with a lot of knowledge knowing that you guys are really going to do super well," Fincke said to Kud-Sverchkov.
The ceremony came just two days before Fincke and three other Crew-11 astronauts will depart the ISS in a "controlled medical evacuation" due to a medical concern with one of the astronauts. NASA called for the early departure - the first of its kind on the ISS - on Jan. 8 after one of the astronauts experienced a medical issue the day before.
The Crew-11 SpaceX Dragon capsule will undock from the ISS on Jan. 14 to return Fincke to Earth alongside Crew-11 commander Zena Cardman of NASA, and mission specialists Kimiya Yui of Japan and Oleg Platonov of Russia. NASA is not identifying which astronaut suffered the medical issue out of privacy concerns.
The Crew-11 astronauts are scheduled to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California early on Thursday, Jan. 15. They arrived at the ISS in August 2025.
Crew-11 astronauts pack Dragon for ISS departure
The four astronauts of NASA's Crew-11 SpaceX Dragon mission to the International Space Station ended their day today with work to pack up their spacecraft for their planned medical evacuation from the orbiting lab on Jan. 14.
The Crew-11 astronauts moved their personal items and other gear into the Dragon ahead of their planned undocking on Wednesday, a move that came hours after Crew-11 pilot Mike Fincke, who had been serving as ISS commander, turned control over to a Russian crewmate.
"At the end of Monday’s shift, the foursome retrieved computer tablets from inside Dragon and reviewed the steps they will use while departing the station and reentering Earth’s atmosphere," NASA wrote in an afternoon update.
The Crew-11 astronauts, which in addition to Fincke include commander Zena Cardman and mission specialists Kimiya Yui of Japan and Oleg Platonov of Russia, will undock from the ISS on Jan. 14 and land early on Jan. 15 following a medical issue with one of the astronauts that occured on Jan. 7, NASA has said. It is the first-ever medical evacuation of the ISS.
With the Crew-11 astronauts at the end of their day, this will be our final post of today. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you tomorrow the latest on their return to Earth.
Crew-11 astronauts prepare for ISS medical evacuation
Good morning. We are currently one day away from planned medical evacuation of Crew-11 astronauts from the International Space Station, which is currently scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 14 at 5:05 p.m. EST (2105 GMT).
Yesterday, Crew-11 pilot Mike Fincke - who was commanding the station's Expedition 74 crew - handed control over to Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchov ahead of his departure with Crew-11 commander Zena Cardman and mission specialists Kimiya Yui and Okeg Platonov.
Today, the astronauts are expected to complete their packing up of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule that will return them to Earth this week. After undocking on Jan. 14, they will spend 11 hours in transit for a splashdown off the coast of Southern California in the wee hours of Thursday, Jan. 14.
Splashdown is currently scheduled for 3:40 a.m. EST (0740 GMT) on Thursday.
Crew-11 saves time for some last-minute science as they prepare their departure
The astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-11 mission pose in the SpaceX spacesuits aboard the International Space Station ahead of their planned Jan. 14, 2026 undocking. (Image credit: NASA)
After yesterday's change of command ceremony, astronauts aboard the International Space Station began preparing their SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for departure. Amid the prep, however, there is still time for science.
An update describes NASA astronaut Zena Cardman using the station's Ultrasound 2 instrument to image NASA astronaut Chris Williams' arteries and collected blood pressure measurements. The two also conducted an ocular examination on one of Cardman's eyes, to assess how her retina, cornea, and lens have been affected by microgravity.
NASA is still targeting Wednesday (Jan. 14) at 5 p.m. EST (2200) for Crew-11's undocking from the ISS. They are expected to splash down off the U.S. Pacific Coast aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour about 11 hours later.
"The time I have left in space is also running out."
(Image credit: NASA/Kimiya Yui)
Crew-11 astronauts are winding down their last 24 hours aboard the International Space Station. Tomorrow (Jan. 14) at around 3:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT), NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov and Japan's Kimiya Yui will close the hatch on their SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour and prepare to undock from the ISS.
As they pack and prepare, each are savoring their last views of Earth from space, like this one from Yui posted on X, featuring Japan's HTV-X cargo vehicle docked with the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module.
"The time I have left in space is also running out," a translation of Yui's post reads. "Today, my hero 'HTV-X'-kun guided me through the night sky of Earth & space."
Crew-11 astronauts are 'go' for Jan. 14 medical evacuation from ISS
(Image credit: NASA)
The four astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) are officially "go" to return to Earth on Wednesday (Jan. 14).
Mission managers gave the go-ahead for undocking today (Jan. 13), NASA officials announced in an update. NASA's Zena Cardman will command Crew-11's SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, named Endeavour, while fellow agency astronaut Mike Fincke will serve as pilot. The other two crewmembers, Japan's Kimiya Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, are mission specialists.
Crew-11 arrived at the ISS in early August and was supposed to remain there until mid-February. However, a medical issue arose last week with one of the four crewmembers — NASA has not announced which one, citing privacy concerns — prompting the first-ever medical evacuation from the orbiting lab.
Undocking is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. EST (2205 GMT) on Wednesday, with splashdown expected less than 11 hours later. And it looks like Mother Nature will cooperate with this plan.
"Weather is looking excellent for Dragon’s parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of California at 3:41 a.m. [EST] on Thursday," NASA officials wrote in the update.
Crew-11 astronauts to depart ISS today
(Image credit: NASA)
Good morning. Undocking day has come for NASA's four Crew-11 astronauts as they prepare for their unprecedented medical evacuation from the International Space Station.
The Crew-11 astronauts -- NASA's Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, along with Kimiya Yui of Japan and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov -- will depart the ISS today aboard their SpaceX Dragon capsule Endeavour. Undocking is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. EST (2305 GMT), with hatches between Dragon and the ISS to be closed around 3:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT). A NASA livestream will begin at 3 p.m. EST (2030 GMT).
If you're just joining us, here's a brief recap of what happened on the ISS:
Last week, on Wednesday, Jan. 7, one of the four Crew-11 astronauts suffered a medical issue that prompted NASA to end their mission about a month early and evacuate the team from the ISS. NASA is keeping the identity of the afflicted astronaut confidential for medical privacy concerns.
The issue led NASA to cancel two planned spacewalks for Crew-11 astronauts Zena Cardman and MIke Fincke, with NASA chief Jared Isaacman announcing the medical evacuation plan on Jan 8. The Crew-11 astronauts arrived at the ISS in August 2025 and still had at least a month left of their mission.
The departure of Crew-11 will leave the ISS with a skeleton crew of three people -- Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchov, Sergey Kud-Sverchov and NASA astronaut Chris Williams - who arrived at the ISS in November.
After undocking, the Crew-11 astronauts will spend about 11 hours in orbit before their planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the Southern California coast at about 3:40 a.m. EST (0840 GMT).
JAXA's Crew-11 astronaut says photo farewells to space
As the four astronauts of NASA's Crew-11 mission prepare to leave the ISS for their medical evacuation today, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, a mission specialist, is sharing a series of photo and video farewells to the orbiting lab.
Yui and Crew-11 astronauts Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke and Oleg Platonov will undock their SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from the International Space Station today at 5:05 p.m. EST (2305 GMT) for a planned splashdown early tomorrow at 3:40 a.m. EST (0840 GMT).
"The day has finally arrived for our departure to Earth," Yui wrote in one social media post. "I haven't had a chance to photograph daytime Japan recently, but at the very last moment, we passed over the Pacific side of Japan. Mount Fuji bid us farewell, adorned with a touch of crimson makeup from the setting sun. This is my final glimpse of Mount Fuji from space and daytime Japan! Thank you for the magnificent view!"
In other, he marveled at the awesome site of the Andromeda Galaxy from space.
"While gazing at the light from when the history of the genus Homo began, I thought about humanity 2.5 million years from now. If we can act while considering the next generations, it will surely become an unimaginably wonderful era!" he wrote.
Yui managed to share one final timelapse video of Earth from space, but promised to share more after Crew-11 returns to Earth.
"Please enjoy this packed nightscape full of highlights like the aurora, North America, moonrise, Central America, South America, the Milky Way, swarming satellites, sunrise, and more! he wrote. "Even after returning to Earth, I'll post the videos and photos I couldn't cover."
And finally, he bid one final photo farewell to Japan's Kibo laboratory on the ISS, the largest module on the space station.
"After this, I'll be busy with preparations for returning, so this will be my last post from space. I've also said goodbye to "Kibo"-kun.," he wrote. "The days I worked here were, I think, the most shining moments in my life. I am truly grateful to everyone for all the support you gave me."
How to watch NASA's Crew-11 undocking from the ISS
With NASA's Crew-11 astronauts on track to depart the International Space Station in the next few hours, here is a guide on how you'll be able to watch the events unfold throughout the afternoon and overnight.
The first major event will be the closure of hatches between the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft returning the Crew-11 astronauts to Earth and the ISS. NASA's livestream for the event will begin at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT), with hatch closure itself scheduled for 3:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT).
The hatch closure livestream could be a rather straightforward affair, with live video showing views of the astronauts entering the Dragon capsule, shutting the hatch and reporting down to Mission Control. In the past, some ISS crews have had a brief farewell message before entering their spacecraft, trading hugs and handshakes with the crewmates remaining behind on the station.
Undocking - Livestream begins @ 4:45 pm ET
The next major event is undocking itself.
The Crew-11 Dragon capsule is scheduled to depart the ISS at 5:05 p.m. EST (2205 GMT), with NASA's livestream beginning at about 4:45 p.m. EST (2145 GMT).
During undocking, you can expect to see live video of the Dragon spacecraft separating from the International Space Station, views inside the spacecraft of the astronauts in their SpaceX pressure suits and views of the ISS from the Dragon capsule.
NASA typically shows live views of the event through a departure burn by the Dragon capsule that puts it on a path back to Earth.
Splashdown - livestream begins at 2:15 a.m. ET
The Crew-11 Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to splashdown about 11 hours after undocking, with a NASA livestream beginning on Thursday, Jan. 15, at 2:15 a.m. EST (0715 GMT). Splashdown itself is expected to occur at 3:41 a.m. EST (0841 GMT).
Because splashdown is occuring at night, it may be difficult to see the spacecraft actually splash down in the Pacific Ocean. NASA's livestream will begin near the time of a deorbit burn, which will place the Dragon capsule on course for splashdown.
NASA recovery teams and aircraft will track the spacecraft's reentry and the live video may show infrared views of that reentry and the capsule under its parachutes ahead of splashdown.
Typically, NASA and SpaceX aim to recover the capsule and help the crew out of a Dragon capsule within about an hour of splashdown.
Post splashdown press conference - livestream @ 5:45 a.m.
NASA will end its splashdown operations with a post-landing press conference, where officials - possibly even NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman - will discuss the results of the landing and the current state of the crew.
That crew status is of specific interest for Crew-11 because the astronauts' return to Earth is coming at least a month or so earlier than planned as a "controlled medical evacuation" from the ISS due to an unspecified medical issue with one of the four astronauts. NASA will not specify the nature of that medical issue or which astronaut is experiencing it due to medical privacy concerns.
NASA spokesman Rob Navias said during live commentary that the crew is running a bit behind schedule so far, so the hatch closure timing and the undocking it self may occur later than planned.
"We do believe we'll be able to undock within the one-hour window," Navias said.
Crew-11 astronauts 'feeling great' ahead of ISS departure
Crew-11 commander Zena Cardman (foreground) and pilot Mike Fincke prepare for hatch closure while performing checklists ahead of hatch closures with the International Space Station on Jan. 14, 2026. (Image credit: NASA TV)
NASA spokesperson Rob Navias reports that the four Crew-11 astronauts departing the International Space Station today are "feeling great" and "ready to come home" for their earlier -than-planned undocking from the station following NASA's call for a "controlled medical evacuation" last week.
The astronauts are stowing some final items inside their SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour. Some are suited up in their SpaceX pressure suits ahead of hatch closure and undocking, Navias said.
Crew-11 commander Zena Cardman and pilot Mike Fincke are two of the astronauts in their suits already. Live camera views shows them in their Dragon seats and running through departure checklists.
All Crew-11 astronauts suited for undocking
(Image credit: NASA TV)
All four astronauts are now wearing their SpaceX pressure suits as hatch closure activities continue.
In live video, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov can be seen in their suits woring on tasks, but not yet in their seats.
Hatches closed between ISS and Crew-11 Dragon
NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, commander of Crew-11, reports the hatches are now closed between their spacecraft and the International Space Station.
"Dragon hatch is closed," Cardman said to Mission Control and SpaceX's flight control team in Hawthorne, California.
"SpaceX copies, hatch is closed," flight controller said.
The hatch door on Dragon was closed at 3:29 p.m. EST (2029 GMT), NASA's Rob Navias said.
"So, the first step on the road home for Crew-11 now complete," Navias said.
New undocking time for Crew-11 at ISS
NASA and SpaceX have set a new undocking time after the Crew-11 and ISS astronauts fell a bit behind schedule. The two spacecraft will now undock at 5:20 p.m. EST (2220 GMT), about 15 minutes later than initially planned.
"We caught up some of our time," NASA spacecraft communicator Matt Dunne told the Crew-11 astronauts from Mission Control in Houston.
The command for undocking will be given at 5:15 p.m. EST (2015 GMT), and it will take about five minutes fo the two spacecraft to physically separate, NASA's Rob Navias said.
Crew-11 astronauts to perform suit leak checks
With hatch closure now complete, the four Crew-11 astronauts are preparing to pressurize their SpaceX pressure suits for a series of leak checks to ensure they are ready for undocking.
"Initiate suit leak check," SpaceX's flight control lead radioed the crew.
The four astronauts will pressurize their black and white pressure suits, check them for leaks, and if they are airtight as expected, flight controller will give the astronauts a go for final undocking.
Crew-11 suit leak checks complete, comm checks underway
SpaceX reports all suit checks are complete for the four Crew-11 astroanuts on the Dragon spacecraft Endeavour.
A series of Dragon-to-ground communications checks are underway for each of the astronauts and should be complete shortly.
NASA livestream for Crew-11 undocking resumes @ 4:45 pm ET
NASA has paused its live coverage of the Crew-11 undocking operations after a successful hatch closure at the International Space Station.
The next milestone will be undocking itself, which is scheduled for 5:20 p.m. EST (2220 GMT).
NASA's undocking webcast will resume at 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) and you'll be able to watch it live at the top of this page.
Here's a full replay of the hatch closure operations by the Crew-11 astronauts, including live views of commander Zena Cardman and pilot Mike Fincke inside the Dragon capsule amid final checks. Hatches were closed at 3:29 pm EST (2029 GMT), with a successful set of spacesuit leak checks and communications checks with the astronauts.
We'll be back at 4:45 pm ET with NASA's undocking livestream.
The livestream, which you can see at the top of this page, will cover the planned 5:20 p.m. EST (2220 GMT) undocking of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft carrying four astronauts on NASA's Crew-11 mission to begin an 11-hour journey back to Earth.
The undocking was originally scheduled for 5:05 p.m. EST, but was delayed slightly due to delays leading up to the hatch closure between the Dragon and ISS.
Inside the Dragon spacecraft, Crew-11 commander Zena Cardman, pilot Mike Fincke, and mission specialists Kimiya Yui of Japan and Oleg Platonov of Russia are suited up in thir SpaceX pressure suits ahead of today's planned undocking. Splashdown remains set for about 3:41 a.m. EST (0841 GMT) on Thursday morning, Jan. 15, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California.
Crew-11 Dragon undocks from the International Space Station
(Image credit: NASA TV)
The Crew-11 mission's Crew Dragon capsule, named Endeavour, undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) today (Jan. 14) at 5:20 p.m. EST (2220 GMT).
Endeavour is carrying NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan's Kimiya Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov back down to Earth. If all goes to plan, the quartet will splash down off the California coast on Thursday (Jan. 15) at 3:41 a.m. EST (0841 GMT).
Their return is happening about a month ahead of schedule; NASA decided to end Crew-11 early to deal with a medical issue experienced by one of the astronauts on orbit. The agency has not revealed the identity of the astronaut or the nature of the issue.
Crew-11 Dragon spacecraft backing away from ISS
SpaceX's Crew-11 Dragon spacecraft Endeavour is slowing pulling away from the International Space Station after a successful undocking at 5:20 p.m. EST (2220 GMT) for today's Crew-11 medical evacuation.
The spacecraft has already backed far enough away that it has exited a so-called "keep-out sphere," a safety zone around the ISS and is continuing away to leave another larger zone called the "approach ellipsoid," an area around the space station in which joint rendzvous and departure operations are performed.
You can follow SpaceX's Dragon flight via NASA's livestream on this page, as well as the Dragon flight tracker on SpaceX's website here.
Here is a replay of the undocking from minutes ago.
NASA Crew-11 splashdown livestream resumes at 2:15 am ET
The SpaceX Crew-11 Dragon capsule undocks from the International Space Station. (Image credit: NASA TV)
Crew-11 astronauts Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui and Oleg Platonov will spend about 10.5 hours orbiting Earth before beginning their splashdown run.
NASA's livestream will return at 2:15 a.m. EST (0715 GMT) ahead of a deorbit burn manuever that will place the astronauts on track for a planned 3:41 a.m. EST (0841 GMT) splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California.
Our live coverage will now pause for a few hours. We will resume live updates once NASA's coverage resumes. You will be able to watch the splashdown live on this page.
NASA begins SpaceX Crew-11 landing coverage, polls 'go' for splashdown
A map showing the reentry track of SpaceX's Crew-11 mission ahead of the mission's planned splashdown near San Diego on Jan. 15, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)
Crew-11 astronauts Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui and Oleg Platonov are expected to splashdown at 3:41 a.m. EST (0841 GMT) in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego off the coast of Southern California after a deorbit burn maneuver scheduled for about an hour earlier.
We will continue live updates throughout NASA's and SpaceX's coverage today. Watch the splashdown live on Space.com.
Crew-11 Dragon starts deorbit engine burn
(Image credit: NASA)
Crew-11's Crew Dragon capsule, named Endeavour, began its deorbit burn on schedule today (Jan. 15) at 2:51 a.m. EST (0751 GMT). The 13.5-minute-long burn will set Endeavour up for its splashdown, which is expected to take place off the coast of San Diego at 3:41 a.m. EST (0841 GMT).
Crew-11 Dragon ends deorbit engine burn
(Image credit: NASA)
The Crew-11 Dragon capsule, called Endeavour, completed its 13.5-minute deorbit burn today (Jan. 15) as planned, shutting its engines off at 3:04 a.m. EST (0804 GMT). The maneuver put the spacecraft on target to splash down off the California coast, which is expected to take place at 3:41 a.m. EST (0841 GMT).
SpaceX anticipates 'pristine' weather for Crew-11 Dragon spacecraft splashdown
A map showing the trajectory of SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule during its reentry on Jan. 15, 2025. (Image credit: NASA/SpaceX)
"We have a nominal vehicle status. We're tracking an on target arrival to San Diego with pristine weather conditions for splashdown. Recovery Team is on site and ready to support," mission controller reported during SpaceX's livestream today.
Watch the splashdown live on Space.com as we provide live updates throughout reentry and splashdown.
SpaceX Crew-11 spacecraft enters communication blackout during reentry
A map showing the trajectory of SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule during its reentry on Jan. 15, 2025. (Image credit: NASA/SpaceX)
The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA's Crew-11 astronauts has entered an expected period of communication blackout as it enters Earth's atmosphere today.
Communications between the Crew-11 spacecraft and Earth will be blocked for about seven minutes as the heat and friction of reentry create plasma around the craft, blocking communications.
"Plasma is beginning to build up on the exterior of the capsule, as we expect. This happens with every spacecraft reentry for Dragon," SpaceX commentator Kate Tice said during the company's livestream. "During this time, no vehicle telemetry is received by Mission Control or the recovery team, and no external commanding of the vehicle or voice communication is possible."
Watch the splashdown live on Space.com as we provide live updates throughout reentry and splashdown.
SpaceX Crew-11 Dragon spacecraft seen from the ground during reentry
SpaceX's Crew-11 Dragon spacecraft during its reentry on Jan. 15, 2025. (Image credit: NASA/SpaceX)
NASA's Crew-11 mission astronauts have reentered Earth's atmosphere during the first-ever medical evacuation from the International Space Station.
Ground crews have re-established communications with the spacecraft, which remains on a nominal trajectory.
Watch the splashdown live on Space.com as we provide live updates throughout reentry and splashdown.
SpaceX Crew-11 Dragon spacecraft deploys parachutes after reentry
SpaceX's Crew-11 Dragon spacecraft during its reentry on Jan. 15, 2025. (Image credit: NASA/SpaceX)
NASA's Crew-11 Dragon spacecraft has successfully deployed its parachutes just minutes ahead of landing in the Pacific Ocean.
Watch the splashdown live on Space.com as we provide live updates throughout reentry and splashdown.
Splashdown! SpaceX Crew-11 Dragon spacecraft lands in 1st-ever medical evacuation
SpaceX's Crew-11 Dragon spacecraft during its reentry on Jan. 15, 2025. (Image credit: NASA/SpaceX)
SpaceX's Crew-11 Dragon spacecraft has successfully landed in the Pacific Ocean to end NASA's first-ever medical evacuation from the International Space Station.
"Splashdown of Crew-11 after 167 days in space. Dragon and NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui of JAXA and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov are back on Earth," SpaceX commentators announced.
Watch the recovery live on Space.com as we provide live updates.
SpaceX begins recovery operations of Crew-11 astronauts
SpaceX personnel begin recovery operations on the Crew-11 Dragon spacecraft after splashdown on Jan. 15, 2025. (Image credit: NASA/SpaceX)
SpaceX has begun recovery operations of the NASA Crew-11 Endeavour spacecraft and the four astronauts inside.
"We're now going to follow the final part of the crew's journey as the Dragon spacecraft is lifted out of the water and placed on the recovery boat," SpaceX's Kate Tice said during today's livestream.
Watch the recovery live on Space.com as we provide live updates.
The Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft is safely aboard SpaceX's recovery vessel Shannon. The four crewmembers will egress the capsule shortly.
Watch the recovery live on Space.com as we provide live updates.
SpaceX Crew-11 astronauts leave spacecraft after 1st-ever medical evacuation
NASA astronaut and Crew-11 commander Zena Cardman exits the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft after returning to Earth on Jan. 15, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/SpaceX)
The four astronauts of the SpaceX Crew-11 mission have exited their Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft following successful reentry and NASA's first-ever medical evacuation from the International Space Station.
SpaceX recovery personnel opened the hatch at 4:19 a.m. ET (0919 GMT) on Jan. 15, 2026 to end the Crew-11 mission after 167 days, 165 of which were spent on the ISS. The astronauts were then helped onto a gurney and taken for a routine medical check.
"Standard procedure for any returns on Dragon, as well as any of our crewmembers returning," SpaceX commentators said during the company's livestream today.
Watch the recovery live on Space.com as we continue to provide live updates.
'They are home.' SpaceX Crew-11 astronauts safely back on Earth after 1st-ever medical evacuation
JAXA astronaut and Crew-11 mission specialist Kimiya Yui exits the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft after returning to Earth on Jan. 15, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/SpaceX)
SpaceX has ended it's live coverage of the reentry, splashdown and recovery of the the NASA Crew-11 mission. The mission was cut short in what was NASA's first-ever medical evacuation from the International Space Station.
"Great news for Crew-11. They are home," SpaceX's Kate Tice said during the company's livestream. After initial medical checkouts on SpaceX's recovery ship Shannon, the crew will be flown to a local hospital for a more thorough evaluation before being flown to Houston to be reunited with their families.
Crew-11 astronauts in good health after splashdown
Support teams raise the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft aboard the recovery ship SHANNON shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov aboard in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Long Beach, Calif., on Jan. 15, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
NASA is holding a post-splashdown press conference after today's predawn splashdown of four Crew-11 astronauts off the coast of San Diego, California to end the first-ever medical evacuation of the International Space Station. You can watch that at the top of this page, and on YouTube.
"The crew member of concern is doing fine," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said during the briefing.
Joel Montalbano, NASA's ISS program manager, said the astronauts are being taken to a hospital in San Diego and will remain there for the next day for post splashdown medical checks. On Friday, the four will then fly to Houston, Texas, bringing Crew-11 commander Zena Cardman and pilot Mike Fincke home. Mission specialists Kimiya Yui of Japan and Oleg Platonov of Russia will then head back to their home countries and space agencies.
Crew-11 astronauts headed to hospital for medical checks
Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, left, NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship SHANNON shortly after having landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Long Beach, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The four Crew-11 astronauts are in good spirits after their successul splashdown and will return to Houston after a day's stay at a San Diego hospital in California, NASA officials said.
Joel Montalbano, of NASA said in a press conference that NASA flight surgeons will work along side medical experts at a San Diego hospital and use their equipment during the post splashdown medical checks, as well as the early treatment for the astronaut of concern.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that while Crew-11's early return was a medical evacuation, the fact that NASA took a week to plan the return out showed that the situation was stable and not an urgent emergency.
Here is a replay of the NASA press conference:
NASA and SpaceX have the ability to return astronauts to Earth in a matter of hours, with an agreement in place with the U.S. military to reach a Dragon capsule anywhere on Earth within 24 hours, Montalbano said, adding that the Dragon capsule itself can loiter in orbit for up to five days after leaving the ISS.
"This was NASA at its finest," Isaacman added.
NASA will now turn its attention to the planned launch of Crew-11's replacement team, Crew-12, which is currently scheduled to lift off no earlier than Feb. 15. Before then, NASA hopes to launch four astronauts around the moon on the Artemis 2 mission.
With NASA's press conferenc now concluded, this will end our live coverage of the Crew-11 astronaut's return to Earth for the day. The Crew-11 astronauts are expected to return to Houston on Friday, and will hold their own post landing press conference in the days ahead.
Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you on the next mission.
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- https://www.space.com/news/live/astronaut-medical-evacuation-on-iss-jan-14-2026
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- dhs9Kxyo9gARpG7pYCyL9h
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- Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:25:37 +0000Thu, 15 Jan 2026 12:32:17 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ Satellite sees snowy Greenland peaks from space | Space photo of the day for Jan. 14, 2026 ]]>
- Tucked into the Arctic, Greenland's mountains do far more than provide stunning scenery. They steer winds and weather, shape regional climate patterns, and help dictate how the Greenland ice sheet moves by funneling ice into fast-flowing outlet glaciers and directing meltwater toward the coast. Those outlet glaciers matter globally because they are among the main pathways by which ice from the interior can reach the ocean, contributing to sea-level rise.
Europe's Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, which consists of three Earth-observing satellites, recently took an image of southeast Greenland, capturing a landscape that's equal parts rock, ice and shadow. In the image, steep mountains throw long, inky silhouettes across bright glacial ice near the Helheim Glacier, one of the major outlets that drains Greenland's vast interior ice toward the ocean.
What is it?
The Sentinel-2 satellites are designed to capture wide-swath, high-resolution imagery in 13 spectral bands, making the mission especially useful for tracking changes to land, coasts, snow and ice over time. The satellites are part of the Copernicus program, led by the European Union (EU), with collaborations from partners like the European Space Agency (ESA). The goal of the program is environmental monitoring, using data collected by the Sentinel satellites as well as other missions and sensors.
Where is it?
This image was taken from low Earth orbit above Helheim Glacier.
The Sentinel-2 satellite pair captures the dynamics of the Helheim Glacier. (Image credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery)
Why is it amazing?
This picture is beautiful in the way only the Arctic can be — sharp, minimalist and impossibly vast — but it’s also a snapshot of how terrain controls Greenland's ice. Outlet glaciers behave like icy rivers, and the mountains around them act like the banks, narrowing and guiding flow as ice drains seaward. When conditions change — from warming air, shifting snowfall, or warmer ocean waters reaching glacier fronts — these fast-moving outlets can respond dramatically, affecting how quickly Greenland loses ice.
With the sun lower in the sky in late October, long shadows exaggerate ridgelines and valleys, making it easier to see the topographic complexity that influences where ice thickens, where it fractures and where meltwater can route toward the coast.
The image shows the difference in temperature between the top of a hurricane and the bottom.
The images reveal the storm's incredible power and offer vital insights into how such hurricanes form.
In late November, Hayli Gubbi erupted explosively, sending a towering plume of ash and volcanic gases high into the atmosphere.
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- https://www.space.com/astronomy/earth/satellite-sees-snowy-greenland-peaks-from-space-space-photo-of-the-day-for-jan-14-2026
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- o5FHBnmpaTJnsmuGqfhF2n
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- Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:00:00 +0000Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:05:21 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ The universe should be packed with tiny galaxies — so where are they? ]]>
- Where are the smallest galaxies? A recent study suggests that there may not be as nearly as many of them in the early universe as there should be, which has big implications for the story of how our universe grew up.
For years, astronomers have looked back into the deep history of the cosmos and assumed that if they just looked hard enough, they would find a nearly infinite supply of tiny, dim galaxies huddling in the darkness. They figured that, the smaller the galaxy, the more of them there should be.
But a new study led by Xuheng Ma, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin, suggests that our cosmic census might be missing something. In the study, which was recently posted to the preprint database arXiv, Ma and colleagues present evidence that the reason we don't see as many of these tiny galaxies as we predicted is that they might be disappearing. Their results suggest that we may have to rethink how our universe emerged from the "cosmic dark ages."
To find these elusive runts of the galactic litter, the team turned to a behemoth called Abell 2744. This massive cluster of galaxies is a swarming hive of dark matter and stars that's so heavy, it literally warps the fabric of space-time. This effect, called gravitational lensing, acts like a natural telescope, where gravity bends light from more distant objects, stretching and brightening them so they're visible to our instruments.
Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST) UNCOVER program, the team looked through this lens to see galaxies from the dawn of time, specifically from a period known as the Epoch of Reionization (roughly 12 billion to 13 billion years ago).
This was a transformative era. The first stars and galaxies were flooding the universe with ultraviolet light and stripping electrons from hydrogen atoms in the surrounding soup of gas. Astronomers have long suspected that the tiniest, faintest galaxies were the primary engines driving this change. They were the "little engines that could," providing the bulk of the radiation needed to clear the cosmic fog.
But then, the data threw us a curveball. Usually, when researchers count galaxies of different brightnesses, they use a tool called a luminosity function, which is essentially a cosmic bar chart showing how many bright galaxies versus dim galaxies exist. For study after study throughout the universe, the chart just kept going in one direction: there are more small, faint galaxies than bigger, brighter ones.
But Ma and his team, using sophisticated gravitational lens models, found something different. Instead of continuing to climb, the numbers peaked and then started to drop off.
This trend, called faint-end suppression, means that below a certain brightness, the population of galaxies starts to thin out. There aren't as many small galaxies as older theories predicted.
So, why are these little guys missing? It's likely a case of cosmic bullying. In the early universe, the intense radiation from the first big stars could have heated up the surrounding gas so much that small, low-mass galaxies couldn't hold on to it, the new study proposes; the galaxies literally couldn't eat enough gas to form new stars. Without stars, they would have stayed dark. Essentially, they would have become ghosts.
The results depend heavily on our understanding of the gravitational lens (the Abell 2744 cluster). If the team's map of the dark matter in that cluster is even slightly off, their calculations of how many distant galaxies are hidden there could be wrong. But the analysis in this paper suggests that the turnover is real and that the tiny galaxies are being suppressed.
The Abell 2744 galaxy cluster shows clear signs of gravitational lensing. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble)
This leaves us with a bit of a pickle. If these ultrafaint galaxies are missing, they can't be the ones doing all the heavy lifting during the epoch of reionization, that crucial phase in the history of the universe where bright, energetic sources transform the gas of the cosmos from a cold, neutral soup into the hot, ionized plasma that it is today. We might need to look back at the slightly bigger, more established galaxies to explain how the universe became transparent.
Next, we'll need more clusters and more lenses to see if this trend holds up across the entire sky. With more data from JWST and upcoming surveys, we'll find out if this is a local quirk or a fundamental rule of the cosmos. For now, the early universe looks a little emptier — and a lot more interesting — than we thought.
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- https://www.space.com/astronomy/galaxies/the-universe-should-be-packed-with-tiny-galaxies-so-where-are-they
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- BYxMWiNpSNEUFBjTxA2g3F
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- Wed, 14 Jan 2026 13:00:00 +0000Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:05:21 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ Crew-11 astronauts undock in 1st-ever medical evacuation from the International Space Station (video) ]]>
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Four astronauts aboard the International Space Station are returning to Earth today (Jan. 14), more than a month earlier than originally planned.
NASA made the decision to cut SpaceX's Crew-11 mission short due to an undisclosed medical concern with one of the astronauts; the crew was scheduled to spend a six-month stint on the International Space Station (ISS) and return in late February, but they're now on their way home. Crew-11's Crew Dragon capsule, named Endeavour, undocked at 5:20 p.m. EST (2220 GMT).
The Crew-11 astronauts now face a roughly 11-hour deorbit trajectory, with an expected splashdown on Thursday (Jan. 15) at 3:41 a.m. EST (0841 GMT), off the coast of California, in the Pacific Ocean. You can watch that action, as well as a post-landing press conference scheduled for Thursday at 5:45 a.m. EST (1045 GMT), on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel, as well as here on Space.com.
SpaceX's Crew-11 Crew Dragon capsule, named Endeavour, is seen shortly after undocking from the International Space Station on Jan. 14, 2026. (Image credit: NASA TV)
NASA mission managers polled "go" on Tuesday (Jan. 13) to proceed with Crew-11's undocking, saying in a statement, "Weather is looking excellent for Dragon's parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of California."
The Crew-11 mission launched to the ISS on Aug. 1, 2025, carrying NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan's Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. The quartet wasn't scheduled to depart until the astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-12 arrived to take their place. But concerns about a medical situation leading up to a planned Jan. 8 spacewalk, or EVA, quickly escalated to NASA's decision of returning the crew early.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced the mission's end during a press conference the same day as the canceled EVA, and crews aboard the ISS began their preparations to leave — including a change of command ceremony during which Fincke transferred the symbolic key to the ISS to Roscosmos' Sergey Kud-Sverchov.
With its departure ahead of Crew-12's arrival, Crew-11 leaves behind a skeleton crew of three aboard the ISS: Kud-Sverchov and fellow cosmonaut Sergei Mikaev, as well as NASA astronaut Chris Williams. Crew-12 is currently scheduled to launch no earlier than Feb. 15.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 5:50 p.m. ET on Jan. 14 with news of undocking.
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- https://www.space.com/space-exploration/international-space-station/watch-crew-11-astronauts-undock-in-1st-ever-medical-evacuation-from-the-international-space-station-today
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- YzgyqUBgtB5kSRnm7jJ385
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- Wed, 14 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000Wed, 14 Jan 2026 22:58:00 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ The US really wants a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030. 'Achieving this future requires harnessing nuclear power,' NASA chief says ]]>
- NASA is serious about setting up a nuclear power plant on the moon by 2030.
For a few years now, the agency has been working to develop a nuclear reactor that could power one or more bases on the lunar surface, which NASA wants to establish via its Artemis program.
This past December, President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling to begin construction of such a base by 2030 — and for a nuclear reactor to be ready to launch toward the lunar surface by that same year.
And on Tuesday (Jan. 13), NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding that reaffirms their commitment to meet that ambitious deadline.
"Under President Trump’s national space policy, America is committed to returning to the moon, building the infrastructure to stay and making the investments required for the next giant leap to Mars and beyond,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Achieving this future requires harnessing nuclear power," he added. "This agreement enables closer collaboration between NASA and the Department of Energy to deliver the capabilities necessary to usher in the Golden Age of space exploration and discovery."
Nuclear power makes sense for crewed outposts in deep-space locales such as the moon and Mars, many exploration advocates say. Fission systems can generate electricity continuously for years without the need to refuel, and they aren't affected by changing weather or sunlight conditions.
Artist's impression of two astronauts working on the moon during Artemis lunar operations. (Image credit: NASA)
NASA and DOE have worked together on space nuclear energy systems for more than half a century: Over the decades, many of the agency's deep-space robotic explorers, such as its Cassini Saturn orbiter and Curiosity and Perseverance Mars rovers, have used radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) as a power source.
"History shows that when American science and innovation come together, from the Manhattan Project to the Apollo mission, our nation leads the world to reach new frontiers once thought impossible," U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in the same statement. "This agreement continues that legacy."
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- https://www.space.com/astronomy/moon/the-us-really-wants-a-nuclear-reactor-on-the-moon-by-2030-achieving-this-future-requires-harnessing-nuclear-power-nasa-chief-says
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- rhUzhrD3rbxNuw8FAJbh59
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- Tue, 13 Jan 2026 23:01:35 +0000Tue, 13 Jan 2026 23:01:35 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ What time is SpaceX Crew-11's medical evacuation from the ISS on Jan. 14? ]]>
- On Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 14), SpaceX's Crew-11 mission will perform the first-ever medical evacuation from the International Space Station (ISS).
The quartet — NASA's Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Kimiya Yui of Japan and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov — are cutting their planned six-month mission short by about a month due to a medical concern affecting one of them. NASA has not revealed that astronaut's identity or the nature of the medical issue, citing privacy concerns.
Read on for details about Crew-11's first-of-its-kind return to Earth.
What time will Crew-11 leave the ISS?
Current plans call for Crew-11's Crew Dragon capsule, named Endeavour, to depart the space station on Wednesday (Jan. 14) at 5:05 p.m. EST (2205 GMT).
The hatches between Endeavour and the ISS will close about 90 minutes before that, at 3:30 p.m. EST (1930 GMT), if all goes according to plan.
What time is Crew-11's return to Earth?
Crew-11's journey home to Earth will be relatively brief. Endeavour is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Thursday (Jan. 15) at 3:41 a.m. EST (0841 GMT), 51 minutes after conducting a deorbit engine burn.
The above schedule is not set in stone, however. "Mission managers continue monitoring conditions in the recovery area, as undocking of the SpaceX Dragon depends on spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, sea states and other factors," NASA officials wrote in a statement on Jan. 9.
If the schedule changes, we'll let you know.
Can I watch Crew-11's return to Earth?
Yes, you can watch Crew-11's undocking and splashdown, as well as a few other activities related to the astronauts' return to Earth.
According to NASA's Jan. 9 update, the agency will cover hatch-closing on Wednesday (Jan. 14) beginning at 3:00 p.m. EST (2000 GMT). NASA's livestream will return at 4:45 p.m. EST (2145 GMT) that same day for undocking.
Splashdown coverage will start Thursday (Jan. 15) at 2:15 a.m. EST (0715 GMT), which will allow us to follow the de-orbit burn at 2:50 a.m. EST (0750 GMT) and splashdown 51 minutes later. A return-to-Earth press conference is scheduled for 5:45 a.m. EST (1045 GMT) on that same day, and NASA will apparently webcast that as well.
These events will air on NASA+, and the agency will likely stream them via its YouTube channel as well. In addition, SpaceX will provide its own webcast, which will begin 15 minutes before undocking on Wednesday and resume roughly an hour before splashdown on Thursday. SpaceX's feed will be available on its website and its X account.
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- https://www.space.com/space-exploration/international-space-station/what-time-is-spacex-crew-11s-medical-evacuation-from-the-iss-on-jan-14
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- pdwv7fLdCfynBz9dsXzpwV
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- Tue, 13 Jan 2026 22:00:00 +0000Tue, 13 Jan 2026 19:55:34 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ 'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy': Paul Giamatti and Holly Hunter on beaming into the storied sci-fi franchise (interview) ]]>
- Paul Giamatti ("Sideways," "John Adams") and Holly Hunter ("Raising Arizona," "The Piano") — two of the most acclaimed and award-winning actors of our generation — may seem like unlikely choices to be streaking across the final frontier in the 32nd century, but their roles in Paramount+'s new "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" offered myriad challenges and rewards for the esteemed Hollywood pair.
To find their "Starfleet Academy" characters' pulse, Giamatti’s Klingon/Tellarite space pirate Nus Braka and Hunter's USS Athena captain and Starfleet Academy chancellor, they both fearlessly plunged into the parts with unbridled enthusiasm.
"I felt pretty alive right away, it was right there on the page," Giamatti tells Space.com. "Certainly getting into all of that gear. The first time they put me in all of that gear, I thought, 'Ooh, I get this guy. This guy has had a life. Look at all the stuff I'm wearing. All the stuff of where he's been and who he is.' Getting myself fully suited up, I was really like, 'Oh, I see. I’m ready to go!'"
Paul Giamatti as the villainous Nus Braka in "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" (Image credit: Paramount+)
Hunter found her Captain Nahla Ake by leaning into the character’s calm humanity.
"What was really interesting, it was when I read the script and saw that Nahla has a lot of speeches, because she's captain, and so there’s orientation and exposition for the characters but also for the cadets and also for the audience," she explained.
"I wanted the first ship-wide speech I delivered on the bridge to have intimacy. I wanted it to be not a speech. I wanted it to be a conversation with the cadets, who are not in the room. So it was like a 32nd century thing that I wanted to figure out. How to make it not formal, how to bridge the gap between me, the crew, and the cadets who were not present. I just wanted no formality between me and them."
Giamatti and Hunter’s familiarity and personal connections with "Star Trek," especially in its 60th anniversary year, also helped ground them in the production for an enjoyable overall experience.
"I started watching as a child when 'The Original Series' was in syndication in the early '70s," Giamatti shares. "I began watching with my father, who thought it would be a good idea for me to watch this because I would enjoy it. So I've had a lifelong relationship to it. Being a part of this very special sort of world, being allowed into it felt like a lovely sort of privilege. But it didn't feel stodgy. It felt really warm and welcoming. It was a lovely atmosphere the whole time. Everything about it was wonderful for me."
Holly Hunter as Captain Nahla Ake in "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" (Image credit: Paramount+)
Likewise, for Hunter, the absence of narrative restrictions in this legendary sci-fi universe allowed for a refreshing sense of ease while filming.
"There’s nothing punitive about the boundaries of 'Star Trek,'" she notes. "You can do this, you can't do this. No, that’s where we don't go. There was none of that. It felt like a playground, a little bit of a sandbox. 'Here we are, you guys go have some fun.' And it was really easy to have fun with Paul. The scripts just offered so many opportunities for mischief and good times."
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- https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/star-trek-starfleet-academy-paul-giamatti-and-holly-hunter-on-beaming-into-the-storied-sci-fi-franchise-interview
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- kN6KNvJNzwmhELQaRr49oC
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- Tue, 13 Jan 2026 21:00:00 +0000Wed, 14 Jan 2026 20:21:39 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ 'Death by a thousand cuts': James Webb Space Telescope figures out how black hole murdered Pablo's Galaxy ]]>
- Astronomers have discovered that a young galaxy was gradually starved by its central supermassive black hole, in what was effectively a cosmic "death by a thousand cuts."
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) studied this unfortunate galaxy, known as GS-10578 or by the slightly snappier nickname "Pablo's Galaxy" in honor of the first astronomer to study it in detail. The light from Pablo's Galaxy has taken around 11 billion years to reach us, meaning the JWST and ALMA allow astronomers to see it as it was just 3 billion years after the Big Bang. For such an early galaxy, it is exceptionally massive, containing as much mass as around 200 billion suns.
The majority of the stars in Pablo's Galaxy seem to have formed between 12.5 billion and 11.5 billion years ago. However, this galaxy seems to have stopped forming stars and has exhausted its supply of star-forming cold gas despite its relatively young age. As astronomers define the cessation of star formation and the transition into quiescence as the "death" of a galaxy, that means Pablo's Galaxy "lived fast and died young."
The team behind this study first released results concerning Pablo's Galaxy back in Sept. 2024, using the JWST alone, finding that the supermassive black hole at its heart is pushing away huge amounts of gas at speeds as great as 2.2 million miles per hour (3.5 million km/h). That's fast enough to allow this star-forming matter to escape the gravitational influence of Pablo's Galaxy entirely.
Adding ALMA, an array of 66 radio telescopes located in the Atacama Desert region of northern Chile, the researchers observed Pablo's Galaxy for a further seven hours searching for carbon monoxide, which they could use as a way to trace cold hydrogen gas, the stuff that forms stars. However, this search turned up empty-handed.
But this in itself was telling.
"What surprised us was how much you can learn by not seeing something," team member Jan Scholtz from Cambridge University in the UK said in a statement. "Even with one of ALMA's deepest observations of this kind of galaxy, there was essentially no cold gas left. It points to a slow starvation rather than a single dramatic death blow."
Meanwhile, a further 6.5 hours of observations with the JWST revealed that Pablo's Galaxy is losing about 60 suns' worth of mass in gas each year. At that rate, the galaxy's fuel for star formation could have been exhausted in a timescale of between 16 million and 220 million years. If that seems like an incredibly long period of time, consider that scientists normally estimate that it takes as long as a billion years to exhaust their fuel for star-formation in a galaxy such as this.
"The galaxy looks like a calm, rotating disc," team co-leader Francesco D'Eugenio of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology said. "That tells us it didn't suffer a major, disruptive merger with another galaxy. Yet it stopped forming stars 400 million years ago, while the black hole is yet again active.
The team reconstructed the star formation history of Pablo's Galaxy, finding that fresh gas has been prevented by the black hole pushing gas outward from falling back into the galaxy. This prevents allowing the "fuel tanks" for star birth from being refilled. They also discovered that the supermassive black hole in this young galaxy didn't push away all of its gas at once, but has been experiencing repeated cycles of gas expulsion.
"So the current black hole activity and the outburst of gas we observed didn't cause the shutdown; instead, repeated episodes likely kept the fuel from coming back," D'Eugenio added.
The team's findings could help to explain why the JWST has been discovering lots of old-looking galaxies in the early universe.
"You don't need a single cataclysm to stop a galaxy forming stars, just keep the fresh fuel from coming in. Before Webb, these were unheard of," Scholtz said. "Now we know they're more common than we thought — and this starvation effect may be why they live fast and die young."
With the effectiveness of the ALMA/JWST telescope tag-team established, astronomers hope that further observations of Pablo's Galaxy can reveal more about the mechanism used by the supermassive black hole to prematurely starve this galaxy to death.
The team's research was published on Tuesday (Nov. 25) in the journal Nature Astronomy.
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- https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/death-by-a-thousand-cuts-james-webb-space-telescope-figures-out-how-black-hole-murdered-pablos-galaxy
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- bdBugk7GfMr9uKJ7kBaz2g
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- Tue, 13 Jan 2026 20:00:00 +0000Tue, 13 Jan 2026 22:33:25 +0000
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- <![CDATA[ Viruses may be more powerful in the International Space Station's microgravity environment ]]>
- The International Space Station (ISS) is a closed ecosystem, and the biology inside it — including its microbial residents — don't necessarily behave the same way on our home planet.
To better understand how microbes may act differently in space, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied bacteriophages — viruses that infect bacteria, also called phages — in identical settings both on the ISS and on Earth. Their results, published recently in the journal PLOS Biology,suggest that microgravity can delay infections, reshape evolution of both phages and bacteria and even reveal genetic combinations that may help the performance against disease-linked bacteria on Earth.
"Studying phage–bacteria systems in space isn't just a curiosity for astrobiology; it's a practical way to understand and anticipate how microbial ecosystems behave in spacecraft and to mine new solutions for phage therapy and microbiome engineering back home." Dr. Phil Huss, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the study's lead authors, told Space.com.
Bacteriophage basics
Bacteriophages, or phages, are the most abundant biological entities on the planet, with experts estimating around 1031 or ten nonillion bacteriophages on Earth. Not surprisingly, bacteriophages, a name meaning to "eaters of bacteria," are found everywhere, shaping the microbial ecosystems in oceans, soils and even our bodies. But one place where phages may have the most human impact is as a possible treatment against antibiotic resistant bacteria and other bacterial infections.
These phages work as tiny "delivery systems" wrapped in proteins. But unlike a delivery person giving a delicious pizza, some phages (like the T7 phage used in this study) infect bacteria by attaching to a specific surface feature on the cell — often a molecule embedded in the bacterial cell's outer membranes — and injecting its genetic material. Once inside, the phage hijacks the bacteria's machinery to make many copies of itself. Finally, it explodes the bacterial cell and releases a new wave of phage particles that can infect nearby bacteria.
This specific attack process by the phage then kicks off an evolutionary arms race between phages and bacteria, as bacteria can evolve resistance to these attacks by changing or hiding the phage's "landing pad" found on the cell's surface.
And things only get more complicated when microgravity gets involved.
A diagram showing the full lytic cycle of some phages. (Image credit: University of Barcelona, CC BY 3.0 )
A virus-bacteria showdown in orbit
To study how microgravity affects this process, the researchers used a bacteriophage called T7 and its bacterial prey, Escherichia coli, or what is more commonly known as E. coli. To isolate the effects of microgravity as cleanly as possible, the team prepared two identical sets of sample tubes of the bacteria, unshaken, and incubated at the same temperature for one, two or four hours, and a longer period of 23 days. One set of tubes went to the ISS in 2020, carried by Northrop Grumman's NG-13 Cygnus spacecraft while the other stayed below on Earth.
"The experiment had to work within strict NASA constraints: sealed cryovials had to pass biocompatibility and leak testing, withstand multiple freeze–thaw cycles, and remain safe to handle on orbit," Huss explained. "The sample size is much lower than what we are used to terrestrially and designing an experiment around this is challenging!"
The team also varied the starting ratios of phage to E. coli so that some samples having more phage would be expected to be infected quickly while others would take longer and show stronger dynamics.
Because the two experiments couldn't run in perfect parallel, the team recorded the exact incubation times on the ISS and then matched them on Earth afterward, a common workaround for many ISS biological experiments.
Microgravity slows down interactions
Under typical Earth lab conditions, the T7 phages can infect and kill E. coli cells in well under an hour, given the life cycle of the phage. But in the system's completely sealed and shake-free setup, which mimicked the conditions of microgravity, the system moved more slowly overall.
On Earth, the control group showed a surge in bacterial infections between two and four hours, but in microgravity, the surge didn't appear at any of the shorter incubation periods, suggesting that the phages' infection process had slowed down. Yet, the longer incubation vials told a different story, as after 23 days in orbit, the infection process was successful with fewer E. coli found in the vials.
So why do the researchers think the slowdown happened?
"We hypothesize that reduced fluid mixing in microgravity, because there's no gravity-driven convection, lowers the encounter rate between phage and bacteria, and that microgravity-induced stress on the host may alter receptor expression or intracellular processes, further slowing productive infection," Huss added.
In other words, in microgravity, phages and bacteria don't bump into each other as often and the bacteria may have evolved to be more resistant to phage attacks that make infection harder, so the entire cycle starts later than it does on Earth.
A structural model of bacteriophage T7 at atomic scale. (Image credit: Dr. Victor Padilla-Sanchez, PhD, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Microgravity mutations
After 23 days, the team analyzed the genetic make-up of the phages and saw mutations across its genome, but with microgravity-specific mutations, especially in genes tied to structure and host interaction. These mutations changed how the phage infects the bacteria.
"To me one of the most striking findings was not just that mutations appeared across the phage genome, but that microgravity pushed evolution into corners of the phage we still don't fully understand," Huss said.
Based on their findings, microgravity may not just change how fast infection happens but also which of a virus's genes matter most when it comes to successfully infecting a bacterial host.
"We're just beginning to scratch the surface," Dr. Srivatsan Raman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, another lead author on the study, told Space.com. "We just have to do more experiments with more complex conditions."
The phages weren't the only ones to change, as the bacteria seemed to evolve too. The E. coli exposed to the phages accumulated many more mutations than bacteria without phage threats, consistent with selection pressure that drives evolutionary arms races.
Some of the most notable changes hit genes linked to the outer membranes, potentially altering phage attachment while helping bacteria survive stress.
"Microgravity doesn't just slow things down, it qualitatively reshapes phage–host coevolution, from infection dynamics to the specific genes and mutations that matter," Huss noted.
Microgravity as a way forward for Earth-based medicine?
Using a technique called deep mutational scanning, the team scanned for over 1,600 mutation variants in the phage genome, finding that the "winning" mutations in microgravity differed sharply from those on Earth.
"Our results support microgravity as a distinct selection environment that reveals different parts of the fitness landscape than we can capture terrestrially," said Huss.
The researchers used these mutations to create altered phages which they tested on uropathogenic E. coli — strains of E. coli associated with urinary tract infections — that were more resistant to the T7 phages' attacks. The results showed that these altered viruses could kill the resistant bacteria.
"What we found in the study was that phage mutants that were enriched in microgravity could treat uropathic bacteria and kill them. So, which tells us that there's something about the microgravity condition that makes it relevant for treating pathogens on Earth," Raman said.
This has big implications for possible future treatments of bacterial diseases here on Earth, from salmonella poisoning to pneumonia to sepsis. But conducting the further testing required to get there may be tricky.
"Running these experiments on the ISS, that's not trivial," Raman added. "I mean, that takes years of planning, and there's just a lot of logistical challenges to get through. To run these experiments, pulling them off in a routine manner would actually be a little challenging to execute."
An image of E. coli bacteria under the microscope. (Image credit: NIAID)
What about the future of spaceflight?
Zooming from the microscopic to the macroscopic, these results suggest that space microbes won't stay static but instead adapt and evolve in microgravity-specific ways.
"What our data makes clear is that microbes can adapt rapidly and in unexpected ways in microgravity," Huss added. "In principle, those same pressures could enrich traits we worry about on Earth, including drug resistance or altered virulence. This is a plausible evolutionary trajectory that future experiments should actively test by monitoring antibiotic susceptibility, stress responses, and competitive interactions over time."
Could these adaptations truly be a threat for humans on long-term space missions? Possibly, but for Raman, more testing is needed before that conclusion could be reached.
"Pathogens evolve all the time," Raman said. "I think we ought to do more studies to see if bacteria can evolve towards mutations that might make them more pathogenic under microgravity conditions. Those are not experiments that we've actually done in this study.
"But bacteria are very resilient and they evolve all the time. So I wouldn't rule out the possibility, but again, one has to do these rigorous experiments to ask: can a bacteria become a pathogen under ISS conditions?"
One such area of future space research could be looking at the human microbiome, as it's still not well understood how the microbiome evolves in the conditions of space.
For humans on Earth, the results of this study are more positive, as microgravity could help scientists to develop phages that can kill off more resistant bacteria.
"The real power of these space-derived fitness landscapes is that they don't stand alone. They can be merged with the rich terrestrial datasets we already have to sharpen engineering strategies for therapeutic use cases. That's arguably the most immediately actionable takeaway," said Huss.
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- https://www.space.com/space-exploration/international-space-station/viruses-may-be-more-powerful-in-the-international-space-stations-microgravity-environment
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- <![CDATA[ Astronomers watch 2 supermassive black holes caught in a twisted dance with never-before-seen jet behavior ]]>
- Astronomers have used the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) to observe a violent cosmic dance between a suspected pair of supermassive black holes at the heart of a distant galaxy. The evidence for this tryst between cosmic monsters lies in the twisted properties of the jets that erupt around the black holes.
The supermassive black hole pair, or binary, lurks at the heart of the quasar OJ287, located at the center of a galaxy around 1.6 billion light-years away from Earth. Using a level of resolution that would be able to spot a tennis ball on the surface of the moon, the team spotted two shockwaves flowing down the jet of OJ287. The shocks, interestingly, were seen traveling at different speeds. And as they travel, passing through strong magnetic fields, these shockwaves appear to produce a phenomenon never seen before.
This is just the latest major black hole breakthrough delivered by the EHT, which in April 2017 captured the first-ever image of a black hole, the supermassive black hole M87*, released to the public in 2019. The network of telescopes followed this up with an image of Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way's own supermassive black hole, which the public got to see in 2022.
Since then, the EHT has continued to make waves in black hole science.
"This result shows that the EHT is not only useful for producing spectacular images, but can also be used to understand the physics that govern black hole jets," EHT team member Mariafelicia De Laurentis said in a statement. "Distinguishing observationally between what is due to geometry and what is instead the result of real physical processes is a key step in comparing theoretical models with observations."
Snapshots of a black hole jet
The team captured two snapshots of the OJ287 system on April 5, 2017, and then on April 10 in the same year. These revealed substantial changes in both the structure and polarization of the OJ287 that occurred over the course of just five Earth days. That is the shortest interval over which such changes have been observed in a black hole jet.
These changes are thought to be the result of shocks interacting with instabilities in velocity called Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities. They result in a highly twisted structure within a jet, with three distinct polarized components: two slower and rotating in opposite directions to one another, one faster and rotating counterclockwise. This represented the first direct confirmation of a helical magnetic field with the jet of a black hole.
"We are spatially resolving the individual shock components and observing their interaction with Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities," team member Ilje Cho of the Korea Institute for Astronomy and Space Science said. "This is the first time we have directly observed this interaction between shocks and instabilities in a black hole jet."
A diagram showing the helical structure of instabilities in the jet of OJ287 (Image credit: EHT Collaboration / E. Traianou)
"These observed variations in the jet are usually interpreted in terms of a precession effect of the jet itself. However, precession models would expect the jet components to move ballistically along the jet," EHT team member Rocco Lico of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) said. "Our observations, however, indicate non-ballistic motions of these components, calling into question the precession hypothesis as the sole explanation for the observed morphology of the source." The rapid motions measured by the team suggested the kinetic energy of the particles exceeds the magnetic energy within the internal regions of the jet. This favors the development of Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities, which arise due to the difference in velocity at the surface between the jet, which moves at speeds approaching light-speed, and the much slower surrounding matter. These instabilities can cause helix-shaped distortions that manifest as a "twisted" structure, just like that which the EHT spotted in the OJ287 jet.
The twisted structure of the jet observed in OJ287, the high degree of polarization of the three components, and the evolution of their polarization angles, indicate a complex interaction between Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities and shocks in a jet permeated by a helical magnetic field.
"These rotations in opposite directions are the smoking gun," research team leader José L. Gómez of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-Csic said in the statement. "When the shock wave components interact with the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, they illuminate different phases of the helical structure of the magnetic field, producing the polarization oscillations we observe."
A GIF showing how the polarization of OJ287's jet changed over time (Image credit: EHT/E. Traianou Collaboration.)
The team's model proposes that the Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities generate filamentary structures that interact with propagating shocks in the jet.
"These interactions compress the magnetic field and amplify the emission in specific regions of the jet, explaining the observed features in both total intensity and polarized light, as well as the rapid variations in polarization angles and the apparent non-ballistic motions observed, despite the presence of a globally rectilinear jet," Lico said. "For the first time, high-resolution EHT data allow us to directly visualize these structures, providing concrete evidence of the interaction between jet instabilities, shocks, and helical magnetic fields."
OJ287 was the ideal candidate to make these observations because the dancing supermassive black holes in this pair are well known for their periodic outbursts, making it a unique laboratory to study black hole physics.
