Two hours until the scheduled lift-off of the Nancy Grace #Roman Space Telescope at 13:26 CEST. This will be a fabulous telescope, similar to #ESAEuclid but different enough for these two missions to complement each other.
We are keeping our fingers crossed for a launch hopefully as flawless as that of our #Euclid 3 years ago.
#NASA #ESA #space #astronomy #telescopes
This gorgeous star trail image, captured by Chilean astrophotographer Osvaldo Castillo at our Paranal Observatory, is today's Astronomy Picture of the Day! 🥳
apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260828.ht…
#astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography #astrophysics #space #science
A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.apod.nasa.gov
A hypnotising view of Paranal in #Chile!Yet the sky is not revolving around the tip of one of our Auxiliary Telescopes. This illusion is caused by the almost perfect alignment with the southern celestial pole, around which stars seem to trail due to Earth's rotation.
Capturing these circular star trails is no easy task: a slight misalignment can completely ruin the outcome! 😲
Read more: eso.org/public/images/potw2546…
📷 O. Castillo/ESO
#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science
Happy birthday to mathematician and NASA scientist Katherine Johnson (née Coleman; August 26, 1918 – February 24, 2020). One of the first Black women employed as a NASA scientist (and its predecessor NACA), she was known for her mastery of complex manual calculations of orbital mechanics and played a pivotal role in the success of the US crewed spaceflights from the beginning. 🧵
minouette.etsy.com/listing/130…
#linocut #printmaking #sciart #womenInStEM #BlackInSTEM #histsci #physics #space #mastoArt
Image of Arp 18, also known as NGC 4088, from the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies by Halton Arp (1966).
In the original catalog, it was in the category: Spiral galaxies - Detached segments. NGC 4088 is an asymmetric spiral galaxy, located about 40 million light years away.
Source: ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Ar…
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.
planetary.org/space-images/ear… #space #science #tech #history
On August 23, 1966, Lunar Orbiter 1 took the first photo of Earth as seen from lunar orbit. While a remarkable image at the time, the full resolution of…The Planetary Society
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.
lpi.usra.edu/features/lunarOrb… #space #science #history #tech
A bubbling Betelgeuse ⭐️ 🫧
Taken with ALMA, this is one of the most detailed views yet of the surface of the iconic star Betelgeuse.
The star's surface is uneven and lumpy, with peaks and troughs originating from giant bubbles of hot gas rising from deep within the star to its surface.
1/2
📷 ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/W. Dent et al.
Reuse and recycle.
It has been a little more than a month since China recovered an orbital-class rocket booster for the first time. A second launch operator accomplished a similar feat Tuesday in another sign of China’s growing launch capability.After years of development, these Chinese launch companies made their first attempts to land their new rocket boosters last December. A company named LandSpace was first when it launched the first test flight of its new Zhuque-3 rocket. The rocket successfully reached orbit but missed its landing. Later that month, CASC’s Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology launched a new rocket named the Long March 12A with similar results.
Then, a third rocket, the Long March 10B from another CASC division, became the first to achieve a successful booster recovery July 10. The Long March 10B’s first stage was caught by a net recovery mechanism on an offshore platform in the South China Sea. Now, 40 days later, LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 has flown again, this time on a flight punctuated by a picture-perfect landing of its first-stage booster in northwestern China.
“This mission marks China’s first-ever successful recovery attempt of the first stage of an orbital-class launch vehicle using landing legs, and China’s first successful booster recovery on land,” LandSpace said in a statement. “It is a pivotal flight test for Zhuque-3 as it transitions from the technological demonstration and verification phase toward the engineering application phase of reusability.”
With the benefits of reuse, LandSpace says its medium-lift rocket will be optimized for deploying Chinese satellite mega-constellations, such as those for broadband connectivity. Chinese officials project the country’s two largest constellations, Guowang and Qianfan, will require 700 to 800 rocket launches over the next seven to 10 years.
arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/…
We will put the booster back into service for another flight as soon as possible."Stephen Clark (Ars Technica)
Something something reusablility....
In the two years since it made a largely successful debut, Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket has launched eight missions, all of which reached orbit safely. The large, expendable rocket has a capacity of more than 20 metric tons to low-Earth orbit. And to the credit of European rocket scientists and planners, the Ariane 6 has had a substantially smoother rollout than comparable vehicles in the United States—Blue Origin’s New Glenn and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rockets—both of which have had significant growing pains.On Thursday, European Spaceflight reported that “Block 3” upgrades for the Ariane 6 rocket have been shelved by the European Space Agency. A key element of the “Block 3” evolution of Ariane 6 was the lightweight ICARUS upper stage, which would have used carbon-composite structures. The cancellation of this upgrade has implications for some of the European Space Agency’s science missions, including a probe to Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus.
Arianespace hasn’t publicly disclosed the cost of an Ariane 6 launch, but it is likely somewhere in the range of 80 million to 100 million euros. The rocket has a number of European customers but also a major US corporation, Amazon, which contracted for 18 launches to get its Amazon Leo constellation into space. Three Amazon flights have occurred so far, all this year.
That may sound like a commercial success, but Europe is likely losing money on each of those private missions.
Europe invested about 3.6 billion euros in the development of the Ariane 6 rocket and its launch site in French Guiana, but that’s not the end of it. The European Space Agency’s director general, Josef Aschbacher, has publicly confirmed that, based on nine flights a year, the European governments involved with the space agency will still need to subsidize each launch with between 32 million and 38 million euros per flight.
If we amortize the development costs with the ongoing subsidy, European taxpayers have put more than 100 million euros into each launch before the customer pays the rocket’s operator, Arianespace, anything.
arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/…
Arianespace hasn’t publicly disclosed the cost for an Ariane 6 launch.Eric Berger (Ars Technica)
In der neuen Folge erzählt Karl von Baumringen, die Ungeheuerliches enthalten: Den Hinweis auf Ereignisse, die viele Jahrhunderte zurückliegen. Irgendwas muss die Atmosphäre mit geladenen Teilchen bombardiert haben - viel stärker, als alles, was wir kennen:
➡️ astrogeo.de/kosmische-spuren-i…
Für diese Miyake-Ereignisse gibt es keine eindeutigen historischen Aufzeichnungen. Aber würde sich eines wiederholen, wären die Folgen dramatisch.
📸 : CC0 Gabriel Jimenez / Unsplash
Kosmische Spuren in uralten Bäumen: Was sind Miyake-Ereignisse?
Karl Urban
Autor
Franziska Konitzer
Moderatorin
Joana Rettig
LektoratIrgendwann zu Beginn der 2010er Jahre steht die Doktorandin Fusa Miyake zum ersten Mal vor einer sehr alten Baumscheibe. Es ist eine Scheibe aus dem Stamm einer Japanischen Zeder, die 2000 Jahre lang auf der Insel Yakushima im Süden Japans gewachsen war. Die Aufgabe der jungen Physikerin: Sie soll die einzelnen Wachstumsringe des Baumes untersuchen, um mehr über die Sonnenaktivität im achten Jahrhundert herauszufinden, die dort chemische Spuren hinterlassen hat.
In gewisser Weise erreicht Miyake wenige Jahre später ihr Ziel, allerdings deutlich spektakulärer als sie oder ihr Doktorvater das erwartetet hatten. Zum Ende ihrer Doktorarbeit publiziert sie eine Studie im renommierten Magazin „Nature“ und berichtet: Der Gehalt an Kohlenstoff-14 war im achten Jahrhundert Jahr für Jahr unauffällig, stieg aber plötzlich innerhalb nur eines Jahres an. Im Jahr 774 muss die Menge des radioaktiven Nuklids in der Atmosphäre ganz plötzlich stark zugenommen haben. Warum – das ist damals noch völlig unklar.
Karl erzählt in dieser Folge von einem rätselhaften Phänomen, das wenig später den Namen der japanischen Physikerin erhält. Miyake-Ereignisse beschäftigten schon bald Astrophysiker weltweit, als klar wurde: Es handelt sich um ein global nachweisbares Phänomen, in uralten Bäumen genauso wie im Gletschereis der Antarktis. Dessen Ursprung liegt höchstwahrscheinlich nicht auf der Erde.
Hinzu kommt: Es blieb nicht bei einem einzelnen Ereignis im Jahr 774. Bis heute fanden Forschende neun derartige Ereignisse aus den letzten 14.000 Jahren, sieben gelten als sicher. Nur in unserer modernen Welt fehlt jegliche Erinnerung daran. Denn das letzte Miyake-Ereignis fand man in Baumringen aus dem Jahr 993.
Was den Zustrom der radioaktiven Nuklide ausgelöst hatte, ist lange unklar. Im Gespräch sind Supernova-Explosionen oder sogar exotische Gammablitze irgendwo in der Nachbarschaft des Planetensystems. Schon bald rückt auch die Sonne in den Fokus der Forschung. Was auch immer die Ursache war: Die Spuren der Miyake-Ereignisse haben bereits etliche Disziplinen beeinflusst. Dank ihnen gelang es, die Radiokarbonmethode zur Altersdatierung deutlich zu verbessern. Vereinzelt konnten sogar Jahrtausende zurückliegende Ereignisse aus der Geschichte aufs Jahr genau datiert werden.
Mehr bei AstroGeo
- Folge 77: Asteroseismologie: Schwingende Sterne und innere Geheimnisse
- Folge 79: Fehlende Neutrinos: Als die Sonne kaputt war
- Folge 101: Tödliche Sterne: Wenn Explosionen ein Massensterben auslösen
- Folge 141: Fingerabdruck der Sonne: Wie Helium entdeckt wurde
Weiterführende Links
- WP: Yakushima
- WP: Japanische Zeder / Sicheltanne
- WP: Fusa Miyake
- WP: Miyake-Ereignis
- WP: Solar Proton Event
- WP: Supernova
- WP: Gammastrahlenausbruch
- WP: Dendrochronologie
- WP: Radiokarbonmethode
- WP: Sonnenaktivität
- WP: Carrington-Ereignis
- WP: EK Draconis
- DLF: Sonnen-Ausbruch – Der unberechenbare Stern (Sendung von Karl)
Quellen
- Fachartikel: Miyake et al.: A signature of cosmic-ray increase in AD 774–775 from tree rings in Japan, Nature (2012)
- Fachartikel: Miyake et al.: Another rapid event in the carbon-14 content of tree rings, Nature Communications (2013)
- Fachartikel: Miyake et al.: Lengths of Schwabe cycles in the seventh and eighth centuries indicated by precise measurement of carbon-14 content in tree rings, Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics (2013)
- Fachartikel: Dee & Pope: Anchoring historical sequences using a new source of astrochronological tie-points, Isotope Research (2016)
- Fachartikel: Büntgen et al.: Multi-proxy dating of Iceland’s major pre-settlement Katla eruption to 822/3 CE, Geology (2017)
- Fachartikel: Miyake et al.: Large 14C excursion in 5480 BC indicates an abnormal sun in the mid-Holocene, PNAS (2017)
- Fachartikel: Pearson et al.: Annual radiocarbon record indicates 16th century BCE date for the Thera eruption, Science Advances (2018)
- Fachartikel: Kuitems et al.: Evidence for European presence in the Americas in ad 1021, Nature (2022)
- Fachartikel: Namekata et al.: Probable detection of an eruptive filament from a superflare on a solar-type star, Nature Astronomy (2022)
- Fachartikel: Cliver et al.: Extreme solar events, Living Reviews in Solar Physics (2022)
- Fachartikel: Usoskin et al.: Extreme Solar Events: Setting up a Paradigm, Space Science Reviews (2023)
- Fachartikel: Maczkowski et al.: Absolute dating of the European Neolithic using the 5259 BC rapid 14C excursion, Nature Communications, 2024
- Fachartikel: Vasilyev et al.: Sun-like stars produce superflares roughly once per century, Science (2024)
- Fachartikel: Golumbenko et al.: New SOCOL:14C-Ex model reveals that the Late-Glacial radiocarbon spike in 12350 BC was caused by the record-strong extreme solar storm, Earth Planet (2025)
- Fachartikel: Namekata et al.: Discovery of multi-temperature coronal mass ejection signatures from a young solar analogue, Nature Astronomy (2025)
Episodenbild: CC0 Gabriel Jimenez / Unsplash
Gabriel Jimenez (@gabrielj_photography) | Unsplash Photo Community
See 103 of the best free to download photos, images, and wallpapers by Gabriel Jimenez on Unsplash.Gabriel Jimenez (unsplash.com)
The mission to rescue NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has failed; the observatory will probably burn up in Earth's atmosphere later this year.
This was a high-risk effort, and will aid future rescue missions. A bitter disappointment all the same.
nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-upd… #space #science #tech
Due to an ongoing commercial spacecraft attitude control issue, NASA and Katalyst Space announced Wednesday the LINK spacecraft will not capture or boost anLauren E. Low (NASA)
stefanbohacek.online/@voyagers… voyagers@stefanbohacek.online - Voyager 1 is 25.61 billion km/15.92 billion miles away from Earth and will reach 1 light-day from Earth in 90 days, 18 hours: eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-syste…
Voyager 2 is 21.43 billion km/13.31 billion miles away from Earth: eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-syste…
#Voyager1 #Voyager2 #voyager #nasa #space
Attached: 2 images Voyager 1 is 25.61 billion km/15.92 billion miles away from Earth and will reach 1 light-day from Earth in 90 days, 18 hours: https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/#/sc_voyager_1/distance?to=earth Voyager 2 is 21.Voyagers (Stefan's Personal Mastodon Server)
Ukraine strikes Russian missile and space industry facility: Details revealed
Which facilities were targeted?
newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/ukrain…
#WarOfAggression #Ukraine #missile #SpaceIndustry #factory #drone #occupied #warfare #army #war #Russia #space #DeepStrike #WarCriminal #invaders #occupiers
#перемогаYкраїни
Authorities in Samara confirmed that facilities belonging to the Progress rocket and space enterprise were damaged following the strike on August 15.RBC-Ukraine
One for the record books 🏅
Our Very Large Telescope Interferometer has discovered the fastest known star in our galaxy. Named S301, it orbits Sagittarius A* — the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way — reaching speeds of 25 000 kilometres per second, over 8% the speed of light.
📷 ESO/GRAVITY collaboration
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@MuhammadFreeSoftware
No, its news. Truth. If you'd like relief from the drum beat of fascism and climate collapse so you can eat lunch with the kids without feeling like you need to.organize a response, follow the #hashtags #bloomscrolling or #caturday or #threeGoodThings or #space #getFediHired #haiku
If you need help following a hashtag ask me, or later ask the very helpful @FediTips
Monorail habe ich auch noch von damals. Mein Sohn findet es genauso klasse wie ich.
#dachboden #Lego #Space #fedieltern
How Old is the Universe? #space #universe
youtube.com/shorts/OD080CO3NPM
Earth is just one planet in one solar system in one galaxy inside the whole of the universe. How long has this universe existed, anyway?We asked Britannica e...Encyclopaedia Britannica (YouTube)
Thank you for sharing this inspiring photo. ❤️
We need more shout outs to the #womeninSTEM #womenintech!
For reference, here's the high resolution photo in #WikimediaCommons:
#Brussels has signalled it is monitoring unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) and has hinted at improving capabilities, according to documents seen by Euronews.
The #European Commission seems to have been monitoring unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) under the radar since at least 2023, according to a document from the Commission's defence department seen by Euronews, which pertains to sky and #space #observations in #Malaysia.
euronews.com/my-europe/2026/08…
Brussels has signalled it is monitoring unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) and has hinted at improving capabilities, according to documents seen by Euronews. #EuropeNewsMarta Pacheco (euronews)
A giant made of many 📡
These are just a few of the 66 antennas that make up the international observatory ALMA, in which ESO is a partner.
They work together rather than as separate telescopes, allowing astronomers to study some of the coldest material in the Universe — including clouds of gas and dust where stars are born and discs where planets take shape — in great detail.
Find out how: eso.org/public/images/potw2633…
📷 A. Russell/ESO
Heute wollte ich eigentlich eine Animation von der SoFi erstellen, da fällt mir durch Zufall in einem der Summenbilder ein Kondensstreifen auf. Kurz im entsprechendem Video nachgesehen und das hier gefunden:
[zvideo]https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/attach/ce26c235-7d7e-4e88-80c8-06178442c0af[/zvideo]
Falls das Video nicht funktioniert, hier noch der Direktlink: home.faulskemper.de/bilder/ast… (Edit: Link aus kompatibilitätsgründen auf eine H.264-Version geändert)
Das ist Flug „BOX192“, eine AeroLogic/DHL Boeing 777-F von Leipzig nach Nottingham in 36.000 ft Höhe zwischen Wesel und Xanten in 49 km Entfernung.
#astronomie #astronomy #solareclipse2026 #solareclipse #sonnenfinsternis2026 #sonnenfinsternis #sofi #sofi2026 #mywork #space
And one off the big boy camera. Just snuck 'em in before heading off to dinner.
A chance discovery in the solar eclipse videos: This is Flight “BOX192,” a DHL Boeing 777-F flying from Leipzig to Nottingham at an altitude of 36,000 ft, between Wesel and Xanten (Germany), in 49 km distance.
#solareclipse2026 #eclipse2026 #eclipse #astronomy #aviation #boeing777 #space #mywork
Student paper now online ! Outreach version in production...
Context. Galaxy clusters are extreme environments where interactions with the hot intracluster medium drive rapid galaxy evolution. These processes can result in the formation of optically dark gas clouds, as previously observed in Virgo and other clusters.
Aims. We investigate the distribution and properties of neutral hydrogen (HI) in two large adjoining regions of the Virgo cluster to understand how the cluster environment influences galaxy transformation. Specifically, we examine the gas content of both star-forming and quiescent populations and search for evidence of gas-loss driven evolution.
Methods. We cataloged the 21cm HI Widefield Arecibo Virgo Extragalactic Survey (WAVES) South data using visual and automatic source extraction methods. By combining these results with an optically selected sample, we compared the HI properties of WAVES South with the previously studied VC1 region. To probe gas reservoirs below the nominal detection limit, we performed a stacking analysis of radio spectra across the WAVES South, VC1 and VC2 footprints.
Results. We detected 56 HI sources with a median root mean square (rms) noise of 0.8 mJy, including 50 galaxies, two gas clouds (one being optically dark), and the ALFALFA Virgo 7 complex. Our results reveal a significantly lower detection fraction in WAVES South compared to the VC1 region. Stacking showed no new HI detection at a 0.080 mJy rms with a maximum of 157 stacked objects from WAVES South, VC1, and VC2.
Conclusions. The lower HI detection fraction suggests that WAVES South is a more dynamically relaxed and evolved environment than the VC1 region. The presence of residual HI in a small subset of early-type galaxies supports a model of dwarf irregular to dwarf elliptical transformation via environmental stripping. Finally, we note a possible evolutionary link between optically dark clouds and recently discovered "blue blobs."
I’m in Spain. I came here to see the solar eclipse that happened yesterday. It was absolutely one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen in my life.
Suddenly, it got dark and cold everywhere. The wind picked up. For a moment, you felt very small, and there was this strange sense of… awe, almost even fear. And that’s despite the fact that I understand the science behind a solar eclipse.
So if I, a person living in the 21st century, can feel something like that, I can only imagine what ancient people must have felt when they saw the Sun suddenly disappear from the sky.
It was an absolutely incredible experience, and I would recommend it to everyone if you ever get the chance to see one.
I’m attaching a photo showing the Sun’s corona and the very first ray of sunlight appearing from behind the Moon.
#solareclipse #zaćmieniesłońca #eclipse2026 #astrofotografia #totalsolareclipse #zaćmienie #eclipsephotography #astronomia #diamondring #fotografia #solarcorona #kosmos #astrophotography #słońce #totality #fotografiapodróżnicza #astronomy #hiszpania #space #solareclipse2026 #niebo #eclipse #spain #zjawiskaastronomiczne #sun #photography
Wir haben noch etwas ganz Anderes zur #Sonnenfinsternis:
Amerikanische Astronominnen nutzten eine Sonnenfinsternis vor knapp 150 Jahren als einmalige Chance: für die Forschung, für Egotrips und als Boost für die Frauenbewegung:
➡️ riffreporter.de/de/wissen/sonn… 🌞 ♀️
von @SusanneWedlich @riffreporter
#sofi2026 #sonnenfinsternis2026 #space #weltraum #astrodon
Sonnenfinsternisforschung von 1878 diente auch persönlichen Ambitionen und dem Kampf für Frauenrechte. Heute geht es in Teamarbeit primär um die Forschung.Susanne Wedlich (RiffReporter)
Die am. Astronautin Mae Jemison ist #StarTrek Fan. LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge) wurde darauf aufmerksam. Er lud Jemison zu einem Gastauftritt ein. Sie war die 1. echte Astronautin in der #SciFi Serie (1993).
A rescue mission for the rescue mission !
LINK, the servicing spacecraft developed by contractor Katalyst Space Technologies, experienced issues with attitude control in late July that caused it to spin uncontrollably. The loss of attitude control jeopardized the mission’s ability to capture NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and boost it to a higher orbit. Thankfully, the company may have found a fix.Katalyst Space uploaded a flight software update for LINK, which is designed to stabilize the spacecraft so that it can continue its approach toward Swift, the space agency shared in an update. The team of engineers will continue to monitor the spacecraft’s performance as they begin a series of burns and maneuvers in the coming days to align LINK’s orbit with Swift.
gizmodo.com/nasas-plan-to-save…
Help is still on the way.Passant Rabie (Gizmodo)
This... is Hoag's object -- one of my honorable mentions in this week's podcast episode. STUNNIN.
You can find out why it didn't win my gold star on this week's episode: starrytimepodcast.podbean.com/…
📷: science.nasa.gov/image-detail/…
#astronomy #astrodon #space #science #serpens #HoagsObject #astrophotography #hubble #
A nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars pinwheels about the yellow nucleus of an unusual galaxy known as Hoag's Object in this image by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.Faith Vowler (NASA Science)
