Image (Credit): “Comet 12P/Pons−Brooks Taking a Final Bow” submitted by Dan Bartlett and 2025 winner in the Planets, Comets and Asteroids category of the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2025. (Dan Bartlett)
It is that time of year for photographers to submit up to 10 of their best photos to the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2026 competition. Submissions can be made from January 5th to March 2nd. The top prize is worth £10,000, with lesser amounts for category winners, , runners-up, and highly commended entries.
With all the talk about the current set of astronauts returning early from the International Space Station (ISS) due to medical issues as well as last year’s issue with Chinese astronauts stuck on their station, it is hard to keep track of who is in space these days.
Hence, you may want to stay up to date on those floating in space by using this website – https://whoisinspace.com/. As of today, there are 10 humans in space – 6 on the ISS (3 from the US, 3 from Russia, and 1 from Japan) and 3 on China’s Tiangong space station.
As shown in the image above, the site also gives some stats on the crews, such as the mission that brought them to the station as well as each person total amount of time in space.
Just think of it as a Who’s Who listing for low Earth orbit.
Image (Credit): Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket as it launched from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on November 13, 2025. (Blue Origin)
This week’s image comes from Scientific American magazine’s best space photos of 2025. It shows Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket lifting off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on November 13, 2025. It was carrying NASA’s twin Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) spacecraft, which are destined for Mars. The two identical spacecraft will investigate how the solar wind interacts with Mars’ magnetic environment and how this interaction drives the planet’s atmospheric escape.
“NASA is postponing the Thursday, Jan. 8, spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The agency is monitoring a medical concern with a crew member that arose Wednesday afternoon aboard the orbital complex. Due to medical privacy, it is not appropriate for NASA to share more details about the crew member. The situation is stable. NASA will share additional details, including a new date for the upcoming spacewalk, later.”
–Statement on NASA’s website regarding a spacewalk that was to take place tomorrow outside the International Space Station (ISS). The planned spacewalk, which was to fix a solar array and last for six and a half hours, involved astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman. It would have been Cardman’s first and Fincke’s tenth spacewalk.
Update: The four astronauts that are part of Crew-11 on the ISS will be returning to Earth earlier than planned because of health issues. According to NBC News, the matter relates to a single astronaut with a medical condition who is currently in stable condition.
Image (Credit): The space shuttle orbiter Enterprise lifted by crane into the Structural Dynamic Test Facility at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for vibration testing in July 1978. (NASA)
Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.
With NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman in place, the agency is spearheading a major infrastructure modernization initiative, starting with the demolition of historic testing facilities at Marshall Space Flight Center. The space agency will tear down the Dynamic Test Stand and the Propulsion and Structural Test Facility, known as the T-Tower, beginning Jan. 10. The move marks the first phase of removing 25 outdated structures at the Alabama center.
Most planets orbit comfortably around their stars, but some worlds are not so lucky. Astronomers have discovered a number of these rogue planets, which float through the Milky Way untethered to a solar system. Now, for the first time, they’ve directly measured the mass of one of these worlds, finding that it’s around Saturn’s mass. The planet might’ve been flung far from its star through a past gravitational interaction. But such encounters are surprising for a planet with such a hefty mass.
The giant planet Jupiter has nearly 100 known moons, yet none have captured the interest and imagination of astronomers and space scientists quite like Europa, an ice-shrouded world that is thought to possess a vast ocean of liquid salt water. For decades, scientists have wondered whether that ocean could harbor the right conditions for life, placing Europa near the top of the list of solar system bodies to explore. A new study led by Paul Byrne, an associate professor of Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences, throws cold water on the idea that Europa could support life at the seafloor. Using calculations that consider the moon’s size, the makeup of its rocky core, and the gravitational forces from Jupiter, Byrne and a team of scientists conclude that Europa likely lacks the tectonic motion, warm hydrothermal vents, or any other sort of underwater geologic activity that would presumably be a prerequisite for life.
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