Our Awesome Universe

More Satellites Planned by Iran

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

Just as we deal with more and more satellites from SpaceX, Amazon, Europe, and the Chinese, creating an increasing amount of orbital pollution, we now have to contemplate Iran adding thousands more satellites to this number.

According to the Tehran Times, Iran is looking to create its own internet satellite system similar to Starlink. Hassan Salarieh, the head of the Iranian Space Agency, stated:

To develop satellite constellations to offer ‘wideband’ services in low Earth orbit (LEO) requires a large number of satellites. Based on the altitude of the orbit and the type of design, sometimes it would be necessary to inject several thousand satellites into the orbit to achieve full coverage.

This is the same country that shut down its entire internet system recently to thwart protesters, only to find that the US was smuggling Starlink terminals into Iran. So one can only assume the government will be keeping close tabs on any internet service, be it ground-based or satellite-based.

Whatever the case, the continued proliferation of such systems will only put greater strains on Earth-based astronomy.

Space Stories: NASA Probes the Northern Lights, India Announces New Telescopes, and Titan May Be a Moon Merger

Posted on February 16, 2026 by onespaceman2000

^{Image (Credit): The northern lights from October 2013 as captured by Astronaut Mike Hopkins aboard the International Space Station. (NASA)}

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Space.com “NASA Launches Twin Rocket Missions from Alaska to Study Mysterious Black Auroras“

NASA launched two rockets from Alaska this week to learn more about the electrical “circuitry” within auroras, the colorful light shows that occur when solar wind collides with Earth’s atmosphere. The missions saw two suborbital sounding rockets launch from the Poker Flat Research Range near Fairbanks, Alaska loaded with scientific equipment that will fly into the atmosphere for a short period of time to gather data. The destination for the rockets in both missions was the northern lights, or aurora borealis.

—Physics World “India Announces Three New Telescopes in the Himalayan Desert“

India has unveiled plans to build two new optical-infrared telescopes and a dedicated solar telescope in the Himalayan desert region of Ladakh. The three new facilities, expected to cost INR 35bn (about £284m), were announced by the Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 1 February.

—SETI Institute: “Saturn’s Moon Titan Could Have Formed in a Merger of Two Old Moons“

Recent research suggests that Saturn’s bright rings and its largest moon, Titan, may have both originated in collisions among its moons. While Cassini’s 13-year mission expanded our understanding of Saturn, the discoveries of its young rings and Titan’s rapidly shifting orbit raised new questions. Now, a study led by SETI Institute scientist Matija Ćuk proposes an explanation linking the formation of the moons and rings, centering on the possibility that Titan is the product of a moon merger.

Space Quote: An Odd Solar System

Posted on February 15, 2026 by onespaceman2000

^{Credit: Image by AstroGraphix_Visuals from Pixabay}

“The paradigm of planet formation is that we have rocky inner planets very close to the stars, like in our solar system…This is the first time in which we have a rocky planet so far away from its host star, and after these gas-rich planets.”

-Statement by Thomas Wilson, an assistant professor in the department of physics at the University of Warwick in England, as quoted by KLS.com. He was referring to the findings in his recent paper about a solar system 116 light-years away with four exoplanets orbiting a red dwarf star – an inner rocky exoplanet, two gaseous exoplanets second and third from the parent star, and a final rocky exoplanet. Of course, that’s what we had here until 2006 when some wise guy decided to make Pluto a dwarf planet. It’s all in the definition.

Carnegie Astronomy Lecture Series

Posted on February 14, 2026February 15, 2026 by onespaceman2000

^{Image (Credit): Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. (Carnegie Science)}

If you are stuck inside with the winter weather and looking for something to do, you can either head to sunny California to attend the March Carnegie Astronomy Lectures Series at The Huntington in San Marino or watch them on YouTube. This will be a series of four lectures.

On March 2nd, the first lecture of the series is titled “Ultraviolet Suspects: Using Galaxies to Shed Light on the Early Universe.” It is a free event, but you do need to register.

Here is a little more about this upcoming lecture:

One of the universe’s last phase changes, reionization, took place within the first billion years of its cosmic history. Today, astronomers can use the ultraviolet signals from distant galaxies to investigate the “who,” “when,” and “how” of that critical period. In this talk, Carnegie Science Observatories postdoc Tony Pahl will present his research on the high-energy radiation leaking from galaxies, which leverages data collected with a combination of instruments, including NASA’s JWST, the Keck Observatory telescopes in Hawaii, and Carnegie’s own twin Magellan telescopes at our Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.

The other March astronomy lectures are:

March 16: Planetary Habitability: The Origin of Water
March 30: Shining a Light on Dark Matter
April 13: How To Look Inside An Exoplanet

Information on the upcoming March Astronomy Lecture Series will be posted on the Carnegie Science site.

You can also watch a variety of earlier lectures at the Carnegie Science YouTube link.

Launch of Crew-12 to ISS Goes Without a Hitch

Posted on February 13, 2026February 15, 2026 by onespaceman2000

^{Image (Credit): NASA’s Crew-12 launches toward the ISS via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on February 13, 2026. (NASA)}

The International Space Station’s (ISS) Crew-12 is safely on its way. As NASA Administrator Isaacman noted:

With Crew-12 safely on orbit, America and our international partners once again demonstrated the professionalism, preparation, and teamwork required for human spaceflight.

The launch carried NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. The four crew members should climb aboard the ISS tomorrow afternoon.

This crew replaces Crew-11, which left the space station earlier than expected last month due to a medical emergency.