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• Post #4388458

  The #lunar crash of a Falcon 9 upper stage is expected at 06:35:37.5 UTC +/- a few seconds: https://www.projectpluto.com/25010d.htm#where - find out more in the papers https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.14625 and https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.23904 and https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.00360 while on https://www.youtube.com/live/ZfgrV4nmvcg and https://www.youtube.com/live/UKIIMm6TwT8 live views of the Moon at impact time are planned.

• Post #4388441

  Today, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” published 76 years ago about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast: https://short-stories.co/@raybradbury/there-will-come-soft-rains-6k8vr4xxlnmj = a shortened version of the short story, also summarized in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Will_Come_Soft_Rains_(short_story)#Plot_summary #Bradbury #dystopia #shortstory

• Post #4367905

  The seismic signature of lunar ice: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adz7220 -> By studying how seismic waves travel through frozen soil on Earth, a University of Maryland geophysicist helped develop a better way to detect water ice on the #moon—a critical resource for future astronauts and extended lunar missions: https://cmns.umd.edu/news-events/news/nicholas-schmerr-moonquakes-locate-lunar-ice

• Post #4260629

  First detection of ultra-fast outflows in a quiescent galaxy: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.06844 -> #UFO Sighting in a Dead Galaxy! https://astrobites.org/2026/07/30/ufo-sighting-in-a-dead-galaxy/

• Post #4195476

  The #HabitableWorldsObservatory Technology Development Plan: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.02773 -> How NASA Plans to Build the Habitable Worlds Observatory: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/how-nasa-plans-to-build-the-habitable-worlds-observatory

• Post #4195475

  Heat and Wildfires During the K-Pg Mass Extinction Enhanced by Fine Dust: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026JG009837 -> Dinosaurs were charbroiled after #Chicxulub impact: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/07/dust-cloud-from-dino-killing-asteroid-charbroiled-the-earth/

• Post #4195474

  Quasars Acting as Strong Lenses Found in DESI DR1: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae8014 -> Astronomers discover super-bright #quasar lenses: https://news.osu.edu/astronomers-discover-super-bright-quasar-lenses/

• Post #4195473

  Dynamic electron radiation belt at Mercury controlled by solar wind driving: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-026-02925-3 -> #Mercury has part-time radiation belts: https://news.engin.umich.edu/2026/07/mercury-has-part-time-radiation-belts/ - scientists thought Mercury’s magnetic field was disrupted by the sun too often to trap a radiation belt, but new analysis of MESSENGER data says that’s not always the case.

• Post #4195472

  During commissioning, the #Katalyst team encountered a series of technical issues related to attitude control of the LINK spacecraft to raise the orbit of #Swift: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7487913846473416704/ and https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/07/28/commissioning-update-for-spacecraft-to-boost-nasas-swift/ - over the last 72 hours, the #LINK spacecraft has been in a multi-axis spin, causing a temporary loss of communications and subsequent bus reset.

• Post #4195471

  TDE 2025abcr - A #TidalDisruptionEvent in the Outskirts of a Massive Galaxy: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae77f3 -> NASA’s #Swift Sees ‘Wandering’ Mega #BlackHole Shredding Star: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/swift/nasas-swift-sees-wandering-mega-black-hole-shredding-star/

• Post #4195470

  This ‘miracle’ lens adapter brought the big screen to the home screen, but history had forgotten it – until now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOMCzMHFhto -> https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/cameras/camera-accessories/this-miracle-lens-adapter-brought-the-big-screen-to-the-home-screen-but-history-had-forgotten-it-until-now on the #Delrama #Anamorphic Adapter. #MovieHistory

• Post #4195469

  Artistic visions shape and respond to #Mars missions: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2622471123 -> "decades before humans might actually travel through interplanetary space, artistic visions continue to help nurture those aspirations."

• Post #4195468

  175 years ago #OTD the Prussian photographer Johann Julius Friedrich #Berkowski took the first photograph of a total #SolarEclipse, seen here in 19th century 'processing': more in https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/julius-berkowski/ and https://web.archive.org/web/20150402161350/http://www.astro.uni-jena.de/~schie/20130000_WittmannSchielicke_Parish_Mitt_Gauss-Ges_Nr_50%282013%29_S_37-54.pdf (PDF pages 8-12) and https://time.com/4883424/solar-eclipse-first-...

• Post #4180871

  The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is shocked and dismayed to hear that the UK's iconic #JodrellBank Observatory is at risk of closure amid a slew of catastrophic budget cuts: https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/mass-cuts-and-potential-jodrell-closure-devastating-astronomy - other casualties in the long list of funding cuts include UK withdrawal from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) located in Hawaii, 20 per cent cuts for the UK's Square Kilometre Array Regional Centre and ac...

• Post #4103050

  From 9:15 UTC on https://www.youtube.com/live/4h884umjihw the #Soyuz MS-28 Re-entry and Landing.

• Post #4097423

  "The Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex (MDSCC) in Robledo de Chavela was evacuated on July 24 due to the wildfires. All personnel are safe following the passage of the fire through the area. [...] Mission operations have been transferred seamlessly to the Goldstone Complex (California). This ensures service continuity and uninterrupted support for spacecraft communications." From the thread https://x.com/intaespana/status/2081035181989773598 (or https://nitter.net/intaespana/sta...

• Post #4024175

  Beyond the merger–quasar–quench paradigm - mergers are neither necessary nor sufficient to #quench central galaxies in illustrisTNG: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/548/3/stag507/8529012?searchresult=1&login=false -> FIU study challenges leading explanation for why galaxies stop forming stars: https://news.fiu.edu/2026/fiu-study-challenges-leading-explanation-for-why-galaxies-stop-forming-stars

• Post #4024173

  Error signals for overcoming the laser power limits of #GravitationalWave detectors: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6382/ae86aa -> New technique enables LIGO to peer farther into the distant universe: https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2026/07/21/new-technique-enables-ligo-peer-farther-distant-universe - thermal imaging could boost future gravitational-wave detectors.

• Post #4021750

  75 years ago the Soviet #SpaceDogs Dezik and Tsygan became the first vertebrates to survive a spaceflight, if only a suborbital one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dezik_and_Tsygan (and see https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2024/06/11/allgemeines-live-blog-ab-dem-11-juni-2024/ for the first vertebrate to reach space but didn't make it back alive two years earlier).

• Post #3906206

  100 years ago #OTD the #planetarium in #Jena (Germany) opened to the public: it's the oldest one in the world srill operating in the same location! Scroll down on https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/07/18/die-leuchtenden-nachtwolken-sind-weiter-aktiv for some news coverage back then and the wider context.

• Post #3899639

  This week the launch services contract was signed for the Heliospheric Pioneer for Solar and Interplanetary Threats Defence - #Henon - mission, ESA’s first stand-alone deep-space CubeSat, confirming that the pioneering spacecraft will fly onboard Ariane 6, alongside ESA’s Plato mission: https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Shaping_the_Future/Deep_space_pioneer_Henon_signs_to_launch_with_Plato

• Post #3872155

  RE: https://scicomm.xyz/@AstroDave/116930089360556295 SpaceX's original webcast of the #Starship 13 test from 22:10 UTC on https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1MKgNNXAZdmxL

• Post #3846686

  A Calibrated Bayesian Search for Potential Chemical Technosignatures in Polluted White Dwarfs: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae742c -> Seeking Technosignatures in Polluted #WhiteDwarfs: https://aasnova.org/2026/07/15/seeking-technosignatures-in-polluted-white-dwarfs/

• Post #3835321

  As reported here 3 weeks ago a third planet of #BetaPictoris was discovered independently with two methods - today both papers have been published formally 'side by side': https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae80a0 and https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae801b -> Faintest planet ever imaged from Earth found after more than 10 years of hide-and-seek / NASA’s Webb Discovers Hidden Planet in Famous Star System: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2609/ /...

• Post #3750849

  Probing the ion-neutral drift velocity toward the L1544 prestellar core - detection of ambipolar diffusion using N2D+ and para-NH2D: https://www.aanda.org/component/article?access=doi&doi=10.1051/0004-6361/202658871 -> Capturing the cosmic ‘drift’ before a star is born: https://www.kyushu-u.ac.jp/en/researches/view/405 - researchers observe the velocity difference between two molecules in a prestellar core, elucidating the process of early #StarFormation.

• Post #3728643

  RE: https://mastodon.social/@PlanetariumBochum/116813523474807512 The #Bochum #sunset on 25 June, with several #sunspot groups - AR 4478 at 10 o'clock: https://bsky.app/profile/vincentledvina.bsky.social/post/3mp4yl543zs2z

• Post #3728262

  35 years ago today a particularly long total #SolarEclipse hit Hawaii and Central and South America - of which astronomers on #MaunaKea made ample use as the legendary #WGBH documentary "Eclipse of th Century" shows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRI5FEQbn7o = https://archive.org/details/EclipseoftheCentury (my favorite scene is in minute 45-46 when astronomers rush out of a telescope control room during totality to marvel at the eclipse with their own eyes). See also https://diary4d...

• Post #3706197

  Sunrise III - Instrument, Mission, Data, and First Results / more papers: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae796b / https://iopscience.iop.org/collections/apjl-260303-220_Focus-on-Sunrise-III -> Oscillations, Flares and Tornados on the Sun: https://www.mps.mpg.de/oscillations-flares-and-tornados-on-the-sun - the #SunriseIII mission offers a completely new view of the Sun; first results have now been published.

• Post #3660796

  AT2019ijn, A Fast-rising, Slow-decaying Blue Optical Transient with Exceptionally Bright Radio Emission: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae732c -> Hidden Jet from a “Missing-Link” #BlackHole Lights Up the Radio Sky: https://public.nrao.edu/news/vla-at2019ijn-relativistic-jet/

• Post #3594146

  In 6 hours - at 6:00 UTC - a webcast (with commentary in Japanese) at https://www.youtube.com/live/tl8CoHvky4I will cover the #Hayabusa2 visit to #asteroid (98943) #Torifune. See also https://x.com/haya2_jaxa/status/2073388791822532727 for unresolved approach images, https://www.monitormyplanet.com/posts/5707 for a prediction of the rotation state during the encounter, https://global.jaxa.jp/press/2026/06/20260609-1_e.html for its importance, https://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/topics/20260703_directi...