Notices by Corey S Powell (coreyspowell@mastodon.social)

The Hubble telescope has spotted an enormous, 10-sized geometric cloud pattern encircling Saturn's south pole.

And this Saturn decagon seems to be new, taking shape as we watch. Weird winds are wiggling on the ringed planet!

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-tracks-new-decagon-encircling-saturns-south-pole/ #space #science #nature #art

Something weird showed up in the data from the LZ dark-matter detector in South Dakota.

It's a single event. It could be an error. But it's an intriguing, anomalous signal with no obvious physical observation...and "weird" can be the gateway to big discoveries.

https://news.ucsb.edu/2026/022780/lz-sees-surprising-result-search-dark-matter #science #nature #tech

The historic first Earthrise photo from the Moon was received 60 years ago today. It was shot on film, developed onboard the Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft, scanned, transmitted home...and then meticulously restored decades later.

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/features/lunarOrbiter/ #space #science #history #tech

A lot of planning went into the first robotic lunar Earthrise photo in 1966. Humans saw the same view just two years later...and then another year after that, Armstrong & Aldrin set their boots on lunar soil.

https://www.planetary.org/space-images/earthrise-from-lunar-orbiter-1 #space #science #tech #history

I needed something spectacular, and here it is: a view of the August 12 solar eclipse as seen from South Korea's Danuri satellite, in orbit around the Moon.

That's the limb of the Moon in the foreground, and the lunar shadow sweeping across Greenland.

https://www.mt.co.kr/amp/tech/2026/08/13/2026081314245392530

Very exciting! First clear detection of an atmosphere around an Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star.

This is a big step forward in figuring out if "potentially habitable" planets are actually habitable & if red dwarf stars could sustain life.

https://www.science.org/content/article/astronomers-spot-first-atmosphere-around-potentially-habitable-alien-world #space #science #nature #life

NASA & Katalyst Space are attempting to rescue the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a powerful gamma-ray telescope that's on a death-spiral toward Earth.

A booster spacecraft, called Link, is now on its way. It will attempt to grab Swift & lift it to safety. If successful, the same technique could be applied to the Hubble telescope.

https://spacenews.com/pegasus-launches-swift-reboost-mission/ #space #science #technology

If you could see our planet's inner magnetism, it would look like this geodynamo simulation. Turbulence in the outer core (red/blue) influences the resulting field (orange).

Abrupt changes down there lead to noticeable "jerks" in the magnetic field that we experience up top.

https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Swarm/Swarm_helps_explain_Earth_s_magnetic_jerks #space #science #technology #esa

I'm flat-out amazed that we can monitor the currents of molten metal in Earth's outer core, 2200 kilometers underground--but we can. Lately, part of that flow has reversed direction, for reasons unknown.

There's a whole other dynamic world inside the world we see.

https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Swarm/Insights_into_Earth_s_molten_outer_core_from_space #space #science #tech

Some accounts attribute the name "telescope" to Prince Frederico Cesi, head of the Lincean Academy, who hosted the banquet. More likely, he was the one who announced Demisiani's idea to the room.

(Below is a diagram of the telescope design sent to Cesi in 1609. Why, what else did you think it was.)

https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/teleskopos-how-the-telescope-got-its-name/ #science #tech #history

The word "telescope" was coined at the Lincean Academy in Rome on April 14, 1611, at a dinner party honoring Galileo. But Galileo did not name it!

The telescope was named by Greek poet/priest/mathematician Giovanni Demisiani. He called it "teleskopos"--far-seeing.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24009629?seq=4 #science #history #technology

Dutch lensmaker Hans Lippershey is generally credited as the inventor of the telescope. (That's his patent application, below.) He had a different name for the device: He called it a "kijker," meaning "looker" in Dutch.

In a different reality, there is a Hubble Space Kijker.

https://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/timeline/people/lippershey.html

ESA's long-running Mars Express orbiter captured an exceptional view of clouds & atmospheric haze on Mars. A lot of weather happening in that thin air.

(Processing by Andrea Luck.)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrealuck/55274343929/ #space #science #astronomy

Some magical new images of Mars have just come in from our interplanetary robots.

The Psyche probe, en route to a metal asteroid, got this startling view of crescent Mars during its flyby. (Processing by Kevin Gill.)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmgill/55271374755/ #space #science #nature

We live at an extraordinary moment in science history: We're the first generation able to see a meaningful map of the entire visible universe.

This view across billions of light years is based on JWST data, as part of the COSMOS-Web survey.

https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2026/05/11/astronomers-produce-most-detailed-map-cosmic-web #space #science #nature

It is ON! Japan & Europe are collaborating on Ramses, a mission to asteroid Apophis as it makes a rare, unusually close pass by the Earth in April 2029.

The Ramses spacecraft will study Apophis & see how it changes under the pull of Earth's gravity.

https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Planetary_Defence/Ramses_ESA_s_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis #space #science #nature #tech

For your weekend enjoyment, here's a beautiful, expansive new view of the Sombrero Galaxy, courtesy of the 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera on the Blanco Telescope in Chile.

The galaxy's dark "brim" is a ring of dust and cold gas encircling a vast ball of stars.

https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2612/ #space #science #nature

Zoom in, and the Sombrero Galaxy looks like a starry hat.

Switch to infrared vision (via JWST) and you can make most of the stars disappear, revealing the galaxy's unusually smooth, dusty ring -- less a hat than an enormous space Aerobie.

https://esawebb.org/news/weic2427/ #space #science #astronomy

This story is amazing.

Giant octopuses of the Cretaceous were up to 19 meters (60 feet) long.

They were the apex ocean predators of their day, eating up plesiosaurs and mosasaurs.

And they were apparently quite intelligent.

Sorry we missed you!

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aea6285 #science #nature #history

One is Pluto's moon Charon.
One is Earth's moon, the Moon (aka Luna)

A little shift in perspective, and even the most familiar objects in space look surprising and new.

#space #science #artemis #nature