Notices by Corey S Powell (coreyspowell@mastodon.social), page 3

Something big is happening 3,000 kilometers underground, where Earth's inner ocean of molten, magnetic iron generates the global magnetic field.

The strong parts of the field near the poles are changing, too, getting weaker over Canada and stronger over Siberia.

https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Swarm/Swarm_reveals_growing_weak_spot_in_Earth_s_magnetic_field #science #nature

Wild! A meteorite may have struck the windshield of a 737 flying over Colorado, according to early reports.

Whatever the object was, it cut a pilot's arm but did not seriously damage the plane.

https://avbrief.com/united-max-hit-by-falling-object-at-36000-feet/ #science #tech #technology #space

China's Tianwen-2 is on its way to Kamoʻoalewa, an asteroid that currently doubles as a "quasi-moon" of Earth. The spacecraft will collect samples & bring them back home.

On its outward trajectory, Tianwen-2 looked back and got this lovely view of our planet.

https://english.news.cn/20251001/ef35fcb0ed1649c787045fd51547149b/c.html #space #science #nature

Astronomers have detected a dark blob of...something, billions of light years away. It's as massive as a million Suns & it emits no detectable radiation.

It might be a clump of dark matter, revealing new details about the structure of the invisible universe.

https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/astronomers-find-mystery-dark-object-distant-universe #space #science #nature

If you need a blast of beauty (and who doesn't?) I highly recommend browsing the new Astronomy Photographer of the Year winners. They're spectacular -- and neither of these shots even made it to #1.

https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/astronomy-photographer-year/galleries/overall-winners-2025 #space #science #nature #art #photography

The largest optical telescope in the world is taking shape on Cerro Armazones in Chile.

Photographer Boris Häußler set up carefully timed shots to capture the Extremely Large Telescope (yes, that is its real name!) silhouetted in front of the Sun & Moon at various milestones.

https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2537a/ #space #science #technology #tech

In another part of the world, meanwhile, people doggedly pursue beauty, knowledge & a deeper connection to the universe: A short thread.

A new study of the Butterfly Nebula shows it blowing out mineral crystals & carbon molecules--the raw material for future Earthlike planets.

https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/research-highlights/cosmic-butterfly-reveals-clues-earths-creation #space #science #nature

Transcript of the Herschel letter:

Last week I came across a remarkable archival document by astronomer William Herschel. He describes his telescopes as time machines, capable of "penetrating into time" as much as 1,910,000 years into the past.

His specific numbers were off, but his insight was spot on. In the year 1800!

#space #science #history #nature

I'm looking away from our world for a moment.

I'm looking at the little dot in this image.

It's a newborn planet, 5 times the mass of Jupiter, carving a path through the disk of dust around its star. This is the first time we've seen the process clearly.

We are watching a new planet come into the cosmos.

https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2534a/ #space #science #nature

Fifteen years of radio observations yielded this amazing view down the throat of a black hole.

We're looking into a jet of plasma shooting out from a supermassive black hole, called PKS 1424+240. The lines depict intense magnetic fields threaded through the jet.

https://www.mpg.de/25171297/eye-of-sauron-in-deep-space?c=2249 #space #science #nature

NASA's new PUNCH mission is a constellation of 4 small satellites that collectively provide an unprecedented view of giant eruptions breaking free from the Sun.

This first-release video compresses about 6 days of observations.

https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/punch/2025/06/10/nasas-punch-releases-its-first-images-of-huge-eruptions-from-sun/ #space #science #nature #nasa

In the spirit of poet Wallace Stevens, here are 6 ways of looking at the Andromeda Galaxy.

This composite combines data from multiple ground & space observatories to skip across the electromagnetic spectrum & reveal our neighbor galaxy in all its glory.

https://chandra.cfa.harvard.edu/photo/2025/m31/ #space #science #nature #poetry

We have now seen three interstellar objects passing through the solar system--and each of them is distinctly different.

Comet 3I/ATLAS is by far the biggest, fastest & oldest. It's probably older than our solar system, making it the most ancient object we've ever seen up close.

https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/third-interstellar-object-3i-atlas/ #space #science #astronomy #nature

The game show "Let's Make a Deal" offers useful lessons in how to evaluate claims about alien life.

It also shows how cutting basic research undermines our ability to make extraordinary new discoveries.

My latest Invisible Universe column:

https://invisibleuniverse.substack.com/p/monty-hall-and-the-meaning-of-life #science #nature #math #aliens #space

For reference: The amount of money in the planned tax cuts would fully fund Green Bank for the next 500,000 years (yes, really). Money is not the real point.

Interstellar clouds are brewing rich organic chemistry. Astronomers just detected a complex molecule called cyanocoronene (C₂₄H₁₁CN) floating between the stars in Taurus.

We don't know if life is common in the universe. But prebiotic chemistry sure is.

https://public.nrao.edu/news/cosmic-chemistry-breakthrough-largest-aromatic-molecule-found-in-deep-space/ #science #space #technology

This discovery comes from the NSF's Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. Its funding is set to be gutted, effectively scrapping the telescope, in the 2026 budget.

Jobs lost. Science lost. All to save a whopping...$7 million.

https://greenbankobservatory.org/about/telescopes/gbt/ #science #trump #tech

New observations from the Very Large Telescope in Chile may have caught a Jupiter-like planet at its moment of birth around another star.

The universe just keeps on building more cool things.

https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2523a/ #space #science #nature

Nature presents us with 80 "octaves" of light, of which humans can see exactly 1.

Bringing the other 79 octaves into view has taken two centuries of effort, but it has transformed our ability to sense our place in the cosmic order.

My new essay in Aeon magazine:

https://aeon.co/essays/william-herschels-sensors-let-us-see-the-invisible-universe #space #science #nature #tech