Notices by AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)

"The administration inserted a photo of Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross into the Epstein files and falsely implied it showed them with victims.

In reality, it’s a publicly available fundraiser photo featuring Jackson and Ross’s own children."

https://bsky.app/profile/meidastouch.com/post/3mag7myutmc2d
#UsPol
1/n

I missed this post from LeoLabs on Dec 18, where they noted that 10s of debris objects were detected from the Starlink 35956 anomaly event of 17 Dec 2025.

They also assessed that the satellite’s initial drop in orbital altitude was likely caused by an internal energetic source (e.g., an explosion) rather than a collision with space debris or another object.

Ed Lu of LeoLabs posted today 100s of debris objects being tracked.

No info on fragment sizes or apogee.

No new word from SpaceX.
2/n

Starlink anomaly at 418 km altitude - loss of comms, venting of the propulsion tank, rapid decay in orbit by ~4 km, and the release of a small number of trackable low relative velocity objects.

Starlink states that there is no risk to the ISS (422.7 - 427.0 km orbit) from the largely intact tumbling satellite which will reenter the atmosphere in a few weeks.

No info on root cause. An explosion? Collision? What about any untrackable debris? Risk to other satellites?

@sundogplanets
1/n

Interesting paper explores the question - "Can LLMs actually discover science, or are they just good at talking about it?"

Good summary in a thread by Alex Prompter on twitter.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.15567
1/n

Happy Birthday to Sir Arthur C. Clarke (Dec 16, 1917 – March 19, 2008), eminent science fiction writer, science writer, futurist and inventor.

Here is a table from his 1962 book — "Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry Into the Limits of the Possible" - of his science and technology predictions from 1970 to 2100.

Did he overestimate our skill level or the will to reach many of these objectives?

#ArthurCClarke
1/n

"In a press conference, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said that staffers at the Fed think that the government could be overestimating the number of jobs created by 60,000 each month. With published figures stating that the U.S. has added an average of 40,000 jobs each month since April, the true numbers could be closer to a loss of 20,000 jobs a month."
😮
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/fed-chair-warns-trump-admin-163052814.html
#UsPol
1/n

"Georgia Democrats scored a major upset in a special election on Tuesday night, flipping a conservative legislative district in the Athens area—the 25th such gain for the party nationwide this year, against zero for the GOP.

Democrat Eric Gisler, defeated Republican Mack “Dutch” Guest IV by a 51-49 margin."

This GA flip is in a district that the GOP drew to drown Democratic voters in Athens into a neighboring red county, Oconee.

https://www.the-downballot.com/p/breaking-georgia-democrats-flip-conservative
1/n

The M8.1 solar flare that erupted from solar region 4299 at 2039 UTC on Saturday 06 December resulted in an earth-directed full-halo coronal mass ejection (CME).

The CME is expected to impact Earth early to midday UTC on Tuesday 09 December, potentially causing periods of G3 (Strong) geomagnetic storming. There is a good possibility of auroras before sunrise in N. America.

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
6/n

Here is a link to a GOES-19 SUVI time-lapse video covering the past 11 hours. One can see eruptions of plasma that loop along the magnetic lines of force; some material falls back to the surface, other escapes into space.
https://helioviewer.org/?movieId=210Y5
8/n

The Sun's surface has been quite active overnight.

Region 4298 emitted an X1.1 flare at 05:01 UTC, 1.3x stronger than the M8.1 flare from region 4299 on 06 Dec. Since region 4298 is towards the eastern edge of the Sun, any associated CME is unlikely to impact earth.

Region 4299 has stayed active and there were two medium-strength flares at 00:10 and 6:54 UTC resp., not reported by SWPC yet.

For GOES-19 SUVI time-lapse videos, see https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/goes-solar-ultraviolet-imager-suvi
7/n

Looks like the anticipated CME either missed us or is running very late. The Geomagnetic Activity Kp index has been hovering around 1.0 over the past 9 hours. However, SWPC is still predicting a Kp index of 6.67 in the next few hours and good viewing tonight.
🤞
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/space-weather-enthusiasts-dashboard
10/n

Chances are excellent for some good aurora viewing tonight in the upper- and mid-latitudes, esp. in the latter half of the night in Canada and northern U.S. states, due to the anticipated passage of the CME from 06 December.

Keep those cameras ready!
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
9/n

The G3 geo-magnetic storm watch has now officially been cancelled. Forecast Kp index value for tonight is just 3 (G0).
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/alerts-watches-and-warnings
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-viewline-tonight-and-tomorrow-night-experimental
11/n

So, either he is lying or he is issuing pardons to criminals with no knowledge of their background.
Auto-pens? Pardons-for-sale?

Let's make sure the electorate is aware of the monumental level of corruption in this White House.
#UsPol
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m7l3qy4lqc2v
1/n

Still from an animation from the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) of the X1.9 solar flare today.

The GIF is at https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/solar-cycle-25/2025/12/01/strong-flare-erupts-from-sun-6/
2/n

Two new active regions on the Sun's surface are now rotating into view.

Region 4294 emitted an M5.9 (R2-Moderate) solar flare on Friday.

Region 4299 emitted a 2x more energetic X1.9 (R3-Strong) solar flare today at 02:49 UTC. This could be part of region 4274 which emitted X class flares and CMEs 2-3 weeks ago.

Solar weather experts will be keeping an eye on these regions as they rotate towards the center in about 6 days.

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/x19-flare-r3-strong-event
Animation at https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/goes/SUVI.php?sat=G19
1/n

The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) is forecasting a G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storm during December 3 and 4.

The coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with the X1.9 flare at 02:49 UT on December 1 from Region 4299 was aimed away from Earth but it is expected to deliver a glancing blow to our planet.

More details and animation of the graphic at https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
3/n

The Sun's region 4299 produced an M8.1 (R2/Moderate) at 2039 UTC today. An hour earlier, it produced an M1.1 (R1/Minor) flare at 1921 UTC.

This is the same region that rotated into view & produced an X1.9 flare on Dec 1 (an X1.9 flare is ~2.3x more energetic than an M8.1). It is now located just above the center of the Sun as seen from Earth. Any associated CME will be directed towards Earth. Geo-mag storms and auroras are likely on Dec 8-9.

https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/goes/SUVI.php?sat=G19
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
5/n

NOAA SWPC is predicting a higher than anticipated G3-level geo-mag storm this evening due to the arrival of a coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS).

This is unrelated to the recent X-class flares off the western edge of the Sun.

Coronal holes are cooler, less dense regions than the surrounding plasma. Their open, magnetic field line structure allows the solar wind to escape more readily into space, resulting in streams of relatively fast solar wind.

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
4/n

As for the green color of comet 3I/ATLAS, it is due to emissions from Diatomic carbon C2 molecules.

Sunlight heats a comet’s ice and organic material to produce quadruple bond C2 molecules, which break apart in ~2 days before they reach the tail. C2 is excited by solar UV radiation and emits mostly in infrared but its triplet state radiates at 518 nm (d3Πg → a3Πu transition below).

https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/pt.6.1.20220110a/full/
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2113315118
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/112252445899850627
#comet
10/n