Space Stories: Watching a Newborn Planet, Investigating a Cosmic Fossil, and TRACERS to Study Magnetic Fields

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Yol Gezer from Pixabay.

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—European Southern Observatory: “Astronomers Witness Newborn Planet Sculpting the Dust Around It“

Astronomers may have caught a still-forming planet in action, carving out an intricate pattern in the gas and dust that surrounds its young host star. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), they observed a planetary disc with prominent spiral arms, finding clear signs of a planet nestled in its inner regions. This is the first time astronomers have detected a planet candidate embedded inside a disc spiral. “We will never witness the formation of Earth, but here, around a young star 440 light-years away, we may be watching a planet come into existence in real time,” says Francesco Maio, a doctoral researcher at the University of Florence, Italy, and lead author of this study, published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

—Space.com: “Astronomers Discover a Cosmic ‘Fossil’ at the Edge of Our Solar System. Is this Bad News for ‘Planet 9’?“

Astronomers have discovered a massive new solar system body located beyond the orbit of Pluto. The weird elongated orbit of the object suggests that if “Planet Nine” exists, it is much further from the sun than thought, or it has been ejected from our planetary system altogether. The strange orbit of the object, designated 2023 KQ14 and nicknamed “Ammonite,” classifies it as a “sednoid.” Sednoids are bodies beyond the orbit of the ice giant Neptune, known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), characterized by a highly eccentric (non-circular) orbit and a distant closest approach to the sun or “perihelion.”

—Southwest Research Institute: “TRACERS Mission Prepares for Launch“

NASA’s Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) mission, a collaborative effort led by the University of Iowa (UI) with substantial contributions from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), has entered its final integration phase. NASA is set to launch TRACERS’ two satellites into low Earth orbit on July 22, 2025, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The TRACERS mission will explore the dynamic interactions between the Sun’s and Earth’s magnetic fields.

Space Stories: NASA Aircraft Assist with Texas Flood, Chinese Satellites Do Something New, and Venus May be Probed by the UK

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Photorama from Pixabay.

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—NASA “NASA Aircraft, Sensor Technology, Aid in Texas Flood Recovery Efforts“

In response to recent flooding near Kerrville, Texas, NASA deployed two aircraft to assist state and local authorities in ongoing recovery operations. The aircraft are part of the response from NASA’s Disasters Response Coordination System, which is activated to support emergency response for the flooding and is working closely with the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the humanitarian groups Save the Children and GiveDirectly.

—Newsweek: “China Appears to Pull Off Satellite Feat That NASA Has Never Achieved“

Two remote-controlled Chinese satellites appear to have docked in high orbit to allow refueling and servicing for the first time. The achievement, which has yet to be matched by the U.S, involved autonomous spacecraft Shijian-21 and Shijian-25, completing the task in geostationary orbit earlier this month. Geostationary orbits occur at 22,236 miles above the surface, and are typically used for communications satellites so that they can move with the rotation of the Earth. However, the high orbit and need for satellites to maintain speeds with the Earth’s rotation makes docking extremely difficult.

—Royal Astronomical Society: “Life on Venus? UK Probe Could Reveal the Answer“

The answer to whether tiny bacterial lifeforms really do exist in the clouds of Venus could be revealed once-and-for-all by a UK-backed mission. Over the past five years researchers have detected the presence of two potential biomarkers – the gases phosphine and ammonia – which on Earth can only be produced by biological activity and industrial processes. Their existence in the Venusian clouds cannot easily be explained by known atmospheric or geological phenomena, so Cardiff University’s Professor Jane Greaves and her team are plotting a way to get to the bottom of it. Revealing a new mission concept at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting 2025 in Durham, they plan to search and map phosphine, ammonia, and other gases rich in hydrogen that shouldn’t be on Venus.

Space Stories: Mystery on Saturn, an Interstellar Visitor, and Hunting a Rogue Planet

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Saturn as captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on February 9, 2004 (NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—New Scientist: “Did Something Just Hit Saturn? Astronomers Are Racing to Find Out“

Something may have just hit Saturn – and, if so, an amateur astronomer could hold the key to confirming the event, which would be the first ever recorded on the gas giant. About seven asteroids or comets are estimated to impact Saturn every year, but no such event has ever been caught on camera. Now, NASA employee and amateur astronomer Mario Rana has recorded images that appear to show just that.

—Astronomy.com: “Astronomers Race to Learn More About Third Interstellar Visitor“

Astronomers have spotted an object from outside our solar system bolting toward the Sun at around 150,000 mph (240,000 km/h). The big, frozen ball of ice and dust presents a rare chance to study an object that formed around an alien solar system, and potentially much earlier in the Milky Way’s history. The object named 3I/ATLAS — “3I” because it’s the third interstellar object detected so far, and “ATLAS” in honor of the system of telescopes that revealed it, the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System. Because the object is also showing tentative signs of cometary activity, it has also been designated C/2025 N1 (ATLAS).

—Universe Today: “Old Hubble Space Telescope Photos Unlock the Secret of a Rogue Planet“

Astronomers have achieved a first in exoplanet hunting by using the Hubble Space Telescope images to investigate a mysterious event that could reveal the existence of a “rogue planet” drifting through space without a host star. The discovery centers on a brief astronomical phenomenon with the catchy name OGLE-2023-BLG-0524, detected in May 2023 by ground-based telescopes. The event lasted just eight hours and was caused by gravitational microlensing, an effect predicted by Einstein where a massive object acts like a magnifying glass in space, briefly brightening the light from a more distant object as it passes in front.

Space Stories: New Stars in the Heavens, Moon Budget Passes Senate, and Lunar Trailblazer Needs to Call Home

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Stingray nebula (Hen-1357), the youngest known planetary nebula. (Matt Bobrowsky, Orbital Sciences Corporation and NASA)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Live Science: “2 ‘New Stars’ Have Exploded into the Night Sky in Recent Weeks — and Both are Visible to the Naked Eye“

A second “new star” has unexpectedly appeared in the night sky, less than two weeks after a near-identical point of light first burst into view without warning. The first nova, dubbed V462 Lupi, was initially spotted June 12 shining in the Lupus constellation, after its progenitor star suddenly became more than 3 million times brighter than normal. Then, on June 25, multiple astronomers detected another nova, dubbed V572 Velorum, within the Vela constellation, according to EarthSky.org. Astronomers normally expect to see a classical nova once a year at most, and more than one of these explosions shining simultaneously is almost unheard of.

—TechCrunch: “Congress Just Greenlit a NASA Moon Plan Opposed by Musk and Isaacman“

Legacy aerospace giants scored a win Tuesday when the U.S. Senate passed President Trump’s budget reconciliation bill that earmarks billions more for NASA’s flagship Artemis program. The $10 billion addition to the Artemis architecture, which includes funding for additional Space Launch System rockets and an orbiting station around the moon called Gateway, is a rebuke to critics who wished to see alternative technologies used instead. Among those critics are SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who Musk proposed as the next NASA administrator.

—The Register: “NASA Gives Lunar Trailblazer a Few More Weeks to Pick Up the Phone“

NASA has extended recovery efforts for its stricken Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft to mid-July, but is warning that if the probe remains silent, the mission could end. Contact with the small satellite was lost the day after its launch on February 26. Controllers were initially able to receive engineering data from the vehicle, but the telemetry indicated power system issues, and the spacecraft eventually fell silent.

Space Stories: Mysterious Signal Solved, Trusting AI in Astronomy, and a New Particle Detected on the Moon

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Anjana Daksh from Pixabay.

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Phys.org: “Mysterious Fast Radio Burst Turns Out to be From Long-dead NASA Satellite“

A team of astronomers and astrophysicists affiliated with several institutions in Australia has found that a mysterious fast radio burst (FRB) detected last year originated not from a distant source, but from one circling the planet—a long-dead satellite. The team has posted a paper outlining their findings on the arXiv preprint server…The findings could lead to the development of new tools for studying signals coming from space, whether near or far, and possibly new ways to monitor the movement of dead satellites.

—Futurism: “Nobel Prize Winner Warns About Astronomers Using AI to Make Discoveries“

A team of astronomers say they’ve gleaned the mysterious traits of our galaxy’s black hole by probing it with an AI model. But a pretty big name on the field is throwing a little bit of cold water on their work. Just a little bit. Reinhard Genzel, a Nobel laureate and an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute, expressed some skepticism regarding the team’s use of AI, and the quality of the data they fed into the model. “I’m very sympathetic and interested in what they’re doing,” Genzel told Live Science. “But artificial intelligence is not a miracle cure.”

—Swedish Institute of Space Physics: “Swedish-built Instrument Discovers New Type of Particle on the Lunar Surface“

A space instrument, built by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), has for the first time detected negative hydrogen ions on the surface of the Moon – a type of particle never seen there before. The discovery was recently published in the scientific journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment.