Our Awesome Universe

Twisted Humor Involving Aliens

Posted on June 19, 2026 by onespaceman2000

The same White House that promised to share information on UFOs and potential alien visits is now spreading disinformation on non-citizens. Just go to aliens.gov and check it our for yourself.

When you go to the site you are hit with language like this:

Millions arrived under the cover of darkness and embedded themselves directly into our society.

Countless presidents, congressmen, and senior officials knew exactly what was happening.

But what you really have is a government page connected to ICE where you can turn in your neighbors. It sounds more like a twisted government playing off of the recent film Disclosure Day while generally insulting those Americans who were hoping this government could shed some light on UFOs.

Wired magazine also highlighted the flawed information on the website, noting:

One of the first things visitors to the site see is a counter labeled “encounters,” ostensibly indicating how many undocumented immigrants federal agents have arrested since Trump took office. The counter is fake. The starting number—3,129,580—is hand-typed into the website, and its upward motion is generated by a timer initiated by the visitor’s own browser, according to a WIRED analysis of the site’s code. The figure does not correspond to any enforcement total published by immigration authorities and is roughly seven times larger than the actual ICE arrest count since January 2025.

So again, what we have is a government promising transparency about UFO records only to mislead the public with a bait-and-switch page providing false information.

Is anyone really surprised that the public does not trust the government on such matters?

Pic of the Week: Galaxy M83

Posted on June 18, 2026June 17, 2026 by onespaceman2000

^{Image (Credit): Galaxy M83 shown in both X-ray and Optical Light. (X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/AURA/STScI, Hubble Heritage Team, W. Blair (STScI/Johns Hopkins University) and R. O’Connell (University of Virginia); Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/A. Jubett, L. Frattare and P. Edmonds)}

This week’s image is from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. It shows galaxy Messier 83 (M83), which is located approximately 15 million light-years from Earth. It is part of a study analyzing Chandra data from 2000 to 2014.

NASA provides more information on a recent study involving supernova remnants being studied by astronomers:

In the composite image, Messier 83, or M83, is shown to have a spiral structure, viewed straight on. At the center is a brilliant white and yellow pool of light. From that light, spiral arms of hot pink cloud corkscrew out in wide, sweeping arches. The galaxy is covered in a faint grey haze, and flecked with red, green, blue, white, and yellow dots.

Over a 14-year period from 2000 to 2014, astronomers pointed NASA’s X-ray observatory at the M83 galaxy. They discovered that about half of the X-ray sources believed to be supernova remnants, the aftermath of stellar explosions, were exhibiting dramatic changes in brightness. This result was entirely unexpected.

Those changes in brightness are highlighted in the timelapse videos. In each video, a series of static images flashes by, focused on one of the two X-ray sources once believed to be supernova remnants. In the videos, the X-ray sources appear as bright blue blobs with glowing cores. But in each image, taken months or years apart, the shapes change, as does the intensity of the blue color, and the brightness of the core. By presenting the substantively different images of the same objects one after another in quick succession, short timelapse videos are created.

The most likely explanation for the changes in brightness is that the team has uncovered a population of stellar survivors, stars that lived through an orbiting partner’s destruction in a supernova explosion. Material is being pulled from the surviving star onto the black hole or neutron star that formed in the supernova, a process known to cause rapid changes in X-ray brightness.

Go to the NASA link for images of two supernova remnants within galaxy M83.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Is Taking Names

Posted on June 17, 2026 by onespaceman2000

^{Image (Credit): Artist’s rending of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. (NASA)}

If you want to be part of a NASA mission, you have until July 12th to get your name to NASA so it can be added to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

All of the submitted names will be uploaded to an secure digital card that will be attached to the space telescope. These names (and maybe yours) will then be stationed about one million miles away from Earth. As of this moment, NASA already has 145,949 names.

It is not the same as having an exoplanet named after you, but your name will be attached to the observatory that will be finding and analyzing exoplanets and more.

The current schedule calls for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to be launched on August 30th.

Go to this link to provide your name and learn more about the space telescope’s upcoming mission.

Space Stories: New Lunar Lander on Display, Caltech Approves a Radio Telescope, and Missing Galactic Dark Matter

Posted on June 16, 2026June 16, 2026 by onespaceman2000

^I^{mage (Credit): Astrobotic Technology’s Griffin-1 lunar lander. (Astrobotic Technology)}

Here are some recent space-related stories.

—Satnews: “Pittsburgh’s Moonshot: Astrobotic Unveils Griffin-1 Lander Ahead of Historic NASA ‘Moon Base II’ Mission“

Emerging as a powerful symbol of regional industrial pride and the rapid privatization of deep-space logistics, Astrobotic Technology has officially unveiled its massive Griffin-1 lunar lander. The vehicle, which has been formally designated by NASA as the primary infrastructure vehicle for the Moon Base II task order under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, represents a critical stepping stone toward establishing a permanent, self-sustaining human presence on the lunar surface. Unlike smaller, first-generation commercial scouts, the Griffin platform is an “infrastructure-class” logistics vehicle engineered to transport heavy industrial cargo. Boasting a massive 625 to 650-kilogram payload capacity, the stout aluminum isogrid lander is designed to ferry bulky machinery, scientific sensor arrays, and alternative energy installations directly to the rugged, hazardous terrain of the lunar south pole.

—Newser: “Giant Nevada Project Could Transform Astronomy“

Caltech has approved the final design for the Deep Synoptic Array, a $200 million radio telescope project that will blanket a chunk of desert with 1,650 dishes over roughly 120 square miles—an array designed to scan the sky about 100 times faster than any existing telescope. Backed in part by Schmidt Sciences, the philanthropic effort of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy, the project is slated to be finished by 2029 and will be powered by a supercomputer that turns torrents of radio signals into sharp images on the fly.

—W.M. Keck Observatory: “Astronomers Discover Third Galaxy Without Dark Matter“

Astronomers using W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island, have discovered the third known galaxy apparently lacking dark matter, part of a strange linear structure that may have formed during a violent collision between galaxies. The discovery strengthens evidence for a rare and previously unseen process in which ordinary matter becomes separated from dark matter, offering astronomers a powerful new way to study one of the universe’s greatest mysteries.

Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.

A Day in Astronomy: Dogs in Space

Posted on June 15, 2026 by onespaceman2000

^{Image (Credit): Laika in a training capsule prior to her mission. (Sputnik / Alamy)}

On this day in 1960, the Soviet Union sent two dogs into space on a sub-orbital flight – Otvazhnaya and Malyok. Both returned from the trip safely.

Between 1951 and 1966, it is estimated that the Soviets sent 48 dogs into space on both sub-orbital and orbital flights, while China sent only two dogs into space on sub-orbital flights. The United States did not send any dogs into space. Of the 48 Soviet dogs, 20 died in space. Both Chinese dogs survived.

Little Otvazhnaya, which means “brave” in Russian, flew on the most missions of any of the dogs. She flew on five sub-orbital missions between July 1959 and September 1960.

The most famous Soviet space dog, Laika (pictured above), was the first dog to fly on an orbital flight on November 3, 1957. She did not survive the mission.

One of the Russian canine cosmonauts has a link to the Kennedy family. Strelka, one of the first dogs to orbit the Earth and survive, had six puppies, including one named Pushinka, or “Fluffy.” Pushinka was presented as a gift to President John F. Kennedy’s family in 1961.