Tootfinder

Thermal Stability of Ice at #Shackleton Crater - Implications for Water Ice Detection for the Chang’E-7 Mission: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ae3c86 -> Chinese scientists map ice "treasure map" for Chang'e-7 mission at moon's south pole: https://english.news.cn/20260227/404c567a54394e19a093832fb8d57929/c.html

Qualcomm forms a "coalition" to launch 6G in 2029 and unveils the FastConnect 8800, an "AI-native" Wi-Fi 8-ready NIC that doubles peak speeds over Wi-Fi 7 (Will Sattelberg/9to5Google)
https://9to5google.com/2026/03/01/qualcomm-…

The *other* potentially quite interesting April #comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) has been recovered in morning twilight: https://groups.io/g/comets-ml/message/34973 - it "has brightened nicely since my last observation on February 9 when it was in evening twilight at magnitude 13.3, magnitude calculations on the mornings of February 27/28 found the comet at magnitude 11.1 and 10.7 but I am sure the coma is a lot bigger and not fully reflected in these magnitude measurements."

MeerKAT discovery of a high-redshift strongly-lensed hydroxyl #gigamaser: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.13396 -> MeerKAT discovers record-breaking cosmic laser halfway across the universe: https://www.sarao.ac.za/news/meerkat-discovers-record-breaking-cosmic-laser-halfway-across-the-universe/

As @coreyspowell.bsky.social has written;
NASA is sending the OSIRIS-APEX mission to Apophis.
It is already in the sky and will arrive just after the 2029 flyby.
Trump and those with him tried to illegally shut down OSIRIS-APEX in 2025 May.
Members of Congress intervened to keep it going.
h…

The British press is furious about the hoax of the #planet parade that didn't happen ... generated with https://stirring-fox-7e1fab.netlify.app ;-)

Moon rising and #Venus und #Saturn setting from #Bochum, Germany, today: the 2nd image coincided with 1.0-mag.-Saturn just having become visible to the naked eye, at an elevation of 6 3/4° with a solar depression of 9 3/4°. More pictures in the album https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=dan.fischer.393&set=a.10233358390356655 from image 45.

looking good tonight, #SanFrancisco

Ryzen: AMD will RDNA-3.5-Architektur angeblich bis 2029 durchschleifen
Mainstream-Prozessoren von AMD sollen über Jahre hinweg kein großes GPU-Upgrade erhalten. Intel könnte ab 2028 Nvidia-GPUs integrieren.

Trump revises Greenland plot with scheme to take it by 2029: insider - Raw Story
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-greenland-2675068376/

Wir haben haben ja Zeit. Ausgerechnet dort wo Mehrarbeit notwendig ist fehlt sie. #politik #aufschwung #cdu

"Nicht alles bis Dezember fertig": Kanzleramtschef Frei dämpft Erwartung an schnelle Reformen
Der nächste Bundestag wird 2029 gewählt. Bis dahin will die Koalition große Reformen umsetzen. Die Rente hat Priorität. Nicht nur dieses Vorhaben könnte allerdings bis Ende der Legislaturperiode dauern.

Adobe plans to discontinue its 2D animation software Animate on March 1; enterprise customers can receive support until March 2029, and others until March 2027 (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/02/adobe-animate-is-shutting-down…

Adobe Animate is shutting down as company focuses on AI | TechCrunch
Adobe Animate will be discontinued on March 1, 2026, as Adobe shifts its focus to AI.

"Op plekken waar een warmtenet niet de meest geschikte oplossing is stimuleren en normeren we, per 2029, de uitrol van hybride, slimme warmtepompen."
Nee, in 2029 nog aan de slag met hybride (dus afhankelijk van gas) is geen vooruitgang. Dit houdt juist afhankelijkheid in stand.

dnc: DNC emails (2016)
A network representing the exchange of emails among members of the Democratic National Committee, in the email data leak released by WikiLeaks in 2016.
This network has 2029 nodes and 12085 edges.
Tags: Social, Communication, Unweighted, Multigraph
https://networks.skewed.de/net/dnc

Holy crap that was a big earthquake

Änderungen bei Gesetz - Das kommt ab 2026 auf Raucher in Österreich zu #News #Nachrichten

Comcast extends Mike Cavanagh's contract through January 1, 2029, and grants a ~$35M performance-based stock package; he's set to become co-CEO in January 2026 (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/comcast-…

Comcast Extends Michael Cavanagh Contract Through 2029, Gets $35M Stock Award
Michael Cavanagh, as he's set to assume the role of Comcast's co-CEO on Jan. 2, extended his employment contract with the cable and media conglomerate that runs through Jan. 1, 2029.

earthquake or big truck?

Die #NullCOZwei GmbH plant ein #Tiefengeothermie-Projekt in #BadBevensen.
Ab 2029 soll ein #Geothermie

Die NullCOZwei GmbH will ganz Bad Bevensen mit Erdwärme versorgen
Das Berliner Unternehmen plant eine zweite Bohrung für die Geothermie. Bereits 2029 könnte die klimaneutrale Anlage in Betrieb gehen.

Why the 'planetary parade' social media meme is utter nonsense - and 28 February a particularly bad day to try to see as many #planets as possible at the same time: https://www.facebook.com/dan.fischer.393/posts/pfbid02smbGM7QrfG7KQLojCxEyVyy3mTVQ94pzydHBNnNwb5139GN7fSj1zWAyShyX34tel goes into the details and shows that 19 February would have been a far better choice. While the question remains: which moron came up with the 28th as 'the' date in the first place ... and why did practically nobody (looking at you, news sites ... and space agencies) bother to check the basic facts?

In the 20-minutes interview #Artemis program was changed. And the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel Annual Report https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-aerospace-safety-advisory-panel-releases-2025-annual-report/ also has something to say.

Pretty City 💕 (although I'm not sure how we have an eastern sunset).
#SanFrancisco

Assessing the Vera #Rubin Observatory's Ability to Discover Asteroid Impactors Before They Collide with Earth: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.16255 -> Can Rubin Spot an Incoming Asteroid in Time? Testing LSST’s Early-Warning Power: https://www.newplanetarium.com/journal/2026-01-29

And now on #ArtemisII Update to discuss "the next steps": https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-invites-media-to-discuss-next-steps-for-artemis-campaign/

Speicherkrise: Playstation 6 könnte bis 2028 oder 2029 verschoben werden
Die Speicherkrise setzt auch Konsolenhersteller unter Druck: Während die Playstation 6 vor einer Verschiebung stehen soll, könnte die Switch 2 teurer werden.

Four timesteps from the final 7 seconds before #Venus vanished behind a distant roof structure today: each image 1/3.2 second at f/2.8 and ISO 400 with maximum digital zoom yielding an equivalent focal length of abou 3 meters, pictures in full resolution and cropped, no further processing. The spectral #dispersion is clearly visible; unfortunately Venus 'hit' the structure from the side, so cutting off the red and leaving only the green/blue upper part as in #AtmosphericalOptics

As reported in http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iau/cbet/005600/CBET005664.txt the main belt #asteroid (44) #Nysa is showing "an unusual, highly concave, possibly bilobate, shape" in #LBT images - and https://groups.io/g/mpml/message/41424 now adds that the observer describes the object on the so far unpublished pictures as a "freaky little space guy" ...

Sandisk and Kioxia announce a five-year extension of their JV manufacturing contract from 2029 to 2034; the new deal involves SanDisk paying Kioxia $1.165B (Ryo Mukano/Nikkei Asia)
https://asia.nikkei.com/business/tech/sem…

Japan's Kioxia extends memory chip JV with Sandisk, receiving $1bn
US partner's access to Yokkaichi plant to last 5 more years through 2034

Yay, in spite of #Mercury having dropped to 1.25 mag. and more clouds than yesterday here it is again, together with low #Venus, 1/2 hour ago this evening from #Bochum, Germany: two images 3 minutes apart, with solar depressions of 8°40' and 9°10', resp., Mercury at 5.3 and 4.8 and Venus at 1.3 and 0.9 degrees elevation, both 1/4 second at f/2.8 and ISO 800. Saturn was also detected again, much higher and way out of the frame.

And the #ArtemisII stack is back in the VAB, arriving around 1:00 UTC today: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/25/nasa-artemis-ii-rocket-returns-for-repairs/ - while in the assembly building, technicians will troubleshoot the helium flow issue to the rocket’s upper stage, replace batteries on the rocket’s upper stage, core stage, and solid rocket boosters as well as service its flight termination system.

First Resolution of a Main Sequence G-Star #Astrosphere Using Chandra: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.09613 -> Young ‘Sun’ Caught Blowing Bubbles by NASA’s Chandra: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/chandra/young-sun-caught-blowing-bubbles-by-nasas-chandra/

The Vera C. #Rubin Observatory has released its first alerts documenting astronomical events spotted by the observatory: https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2605/ - Rubin issued 800,000 alerts the night of 24 February which called scientists’ attention to new asteroids, exploding stars, and other changes in the night sky; this milestone marks the launch of a system expected to eventually produce up to seven million alerts per night.

A New Method for Probabilistic Spatiotemporal Forecasts of Solar Soft X-Ray “S-Class” (>X10) #Superflares: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025JA034977 -> Scientists Successfully Predict When and Where Dangerous Solar Storms Are Likely to Happen: https://www.ceres-science.com/post/scientists-successfully-predict-when-and-where-dangerous-solar-storms-are-likely-to-happen - breakthrough forecasting method validated by surprise solar eruptions on the far side of the Sun.

Near the end of a sad journey ... the #ArtemisII stack almost back at the VAB after crawling for 9 1/2 hours, from the live feed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCrPD7tfcr0 - see https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/ for updates.

impressive that Clipper could update their website and make it even worse than it was before.

https://mastodon.social/@PlanetariumBochum/116133879381718417
The two genuine images of the annular solar eclipse published so far - everything else is (stupid) fakery: https://www.cieletespace.fr/article/voici-les-seules-vraies-photos-de-l-eclipse-de-soleil-17-fevrier

No, there is no magnificent 'planetary parade' in the evening right now as the internet shouts from everywhere but on the other hand there is also more to see than just Jupiter high in the sky - as I could confirm Wednesday from Bochum, Germany, at 51.5°N, #Venus is already a bright if rather low evening star while #Saturn and #Mercury could still be spotted above her: see https://www.facebook.com/dan.fischer.393/posts/pfbid027a6qUBbjXPf96BtzV89HNTcEA8Z2y9gorSCns8sTzS3nTFUpngTXwagopfUAw6Ngl for more pictures and hard numbers!

ALMA #CentralMolecularZone Exploration Survey (ACES) - Overview: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.20340 and five other papers -> Largest image of its kind shows hidden chemistry at the heart of the Milky Way: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2603/

My hometown beach donated it's sand to Waikiki Beach
https://www.sfgate.com/hawaii/article/waikiki-beach-california-sand-21261111.php

The Type II SN 2025pht in NGC 1637 - A Red Supergiant with Carbon-rich Circumstellar Dust as the First JWST Detection of a #Supernova Progenitor Star: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae04de -> Webb locates former star that exploded as supernova: https://esawebb.org/news/weic2604/ & https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-telescope-locates-former-star-that-exploded-as-supernova/ -
Webb shows star was surrounded by a vast shell of carbon-rich dust.

Formation and Survival of Complex Organic Molecules in the Jovian Circumplanetary Disk: #Jupiter

MUSE Study of Two Giant Low-surface-brightness #Galaxies with Compact Satellites: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae3139 -> Rare Giant Galaxies: https://aasnova.org/2026/02/23/featured-image-rare-giant-galaxies/

Constraining properties of dust formed in #WolfRayet binary WR 112 using mid-infrared and millimeter observations: #dust grains emanating from a massive #BinaryStar system: https://public.nrao.edu/news/a-quintillion-to-one-giant-stars-tiny-dust/

Simultaneous Double Transits of #Phobos and #Deimos as Seen from the Martian Surface - A Millennium Catalogue: #Mars

#CoronaDischarges Glow on Trees Under Thunderstorms: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025GL119591 -> Thunderstorms conjure ghostly coronae in treetops, observed outdoors for the first time: https://news.agu.org/press-release/thunderstorms-conjure-ghostly-coronae-in-treetops-observed-outdoors-for-the-first-time/ - the weak electric discharges may set off ultraviolet sparkles over large swaths of forest under storms, potentially impacting canopy health (this is fringe geophysics but some amateur astronomers are going after corona discharges - esp. in webcam images from mountain sites - with a vengeance, so here goes).

Due to weather, NASA now is targeting early Wednesday, Feb. 25, to roll the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft for #ArtemisII off the launch pad and back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/23/nasa-targets-artemis-ii-rollback-on-wednesday/ - cold temperatures and high winds are expected Tuesday, and rolling on Feb. 25, gives teams enough time to complete preparations at the launch pad that were limited today by high winds in the area.

NASA is taking steps to potentially roll back the #ArtemisII rocket and Orion spacecraft to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after overnight Feb. 21 observing interrupted flow of helium to the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/21/nasa-troubleshooting-artemis-ii-rocket-upper-stage-issue-preparing-to-roll-back/ - the upper stage uses helium to maintain the proper environmental conditions for the stage’s engine and to pressurize liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant tanks; the systems worked during NASA’s Artemis II wet dress rehearsals, but teams were not able to properly flow helium during normal operations and reconfigurations following the wet dress rehearsal that concluded Feb. 19.

The only genuine image of the 2026 annular #SolarEclipse I've seen so far - and at an extremely short wavelength of only 17 nanometers, from the Proba 2 satellite: https://proba2.sidc.be/Eclipse17February2026 (which sees the solar corona in emission, so the Sun doesn't have a sharply defined edge).

A the press conference #ArtemisII launch after the WDR went so well - see also https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/19/nasa-begins-artemis-ii-launch-pad-ops-after-successful-fuel-test/ issued just after it had ended - but this will not be confirmed before the Flight Readiness Review late next week.

"The most recent orbital computations make it increasingly likely that the object [the new #Kreutz comet MAPS] is a fragment of one of the comets observed by Ammianus Marcellinus in AD 363, thereby strengthening evidence in support of the contact-binary hypothesis of the Kreutz system," writes Zdenek Sekanina in https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.17626: "In this context, the comet is the only second-generation fragment of Aristotle's comet that we are aware of to appear after the 12th century. It does not look like a major fragment, but rather like an outlying fragment of a much larger sungrazer."

"The #ArtemisII wet dress rehearsal ended today at 10:16 p.m., concluding as planned at T-29 seconds in the countdown."

JWST Discovers the Vertical Structure of #Uranus' Ionosphere: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025GL119304 -> Webb maps the mysterious upper atmosphere of Uranus: https://esawebb.org/news/weic2602/ - Webb provides the first vertical view of the planet’s ionosphere, revealing auroras shaped by its tilted magnetic field.

"After running through terminal count for the #ArtemisII wet dress rehearsal, the launch team paused the clock at T-33 seconds in the countdown," says https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/19/live-artemis-ii-wet-dress-rehearsal-coverage/: "Teams are now reconfiguring and replenishing the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen systems, in order to recycle back to the T-10 minute mark and perform another run of terminal count. [...] The entire recycle process lasts approximately 60 to 90 minutes."

Measurement of a lithium plume from the uncontrolled #reentry of a Falcon 9: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-03154-8 -> SpaceX rocket fireball linked to plume of polluting lithium: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpd8z4eqlxno

45 minutes til the simulated #ArtemisII launch, and according to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KYhqePsm38 and https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/19/live-artemis-ii-wet-dress-rehearsal-coverage/ the 2ns wet dress rehearsal is going to plan. How the outcome will be reported: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-provide-coverage-of-artemis-ii-wet-dress-rehearsal/

Juno's high-spatial-resolution ultraviolet observations of Ganymede's auroral patches - constraints on the magnetospheric source region: #Ganymede and Earth: https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/news/university-of-liege-scientists-reveal-similarities

#Starliner Propulsion System Anomalies during the Crewed Flight Test - Investigation Report: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/nasa-report-with-redactions-021926.pdf -> Agency leaders are discussing the findings of investigations into the 2024 crewed test flight of Boeing Starliner to the International Space Station: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geneWmI9ZMY -> NASA Releases Report on Starliner Crewed Flight Test Investigation: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-releases-report-on-starliner-crewed-flight-test-investigation/

HOLISMOKES XIX - SN 2025wny at z=2, the first strongly lensed superluminous supernova / XX - Lens models of binary lens galaxies with five images of Supernova Winny: #supernova: https://www.tum.de/en/news-and-events/all-news/press-releases/details/measuring-the-expansion-of-the-universe-with-cosmic-fireworks - measuring the expansion of the universe with cosmic fireworks.

Tracking the Evolution of Plasma Instabilities from the Prominence–Corona Transition Region into Interplanetary Space with Total Solar Eclipse and PSP/WISPR White Light Images: #corona: https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2026/02/17/eclipse-research-suns-corona/

Detection of a giant #flare displaying quasi-periodic pulsations from a pre-main-sequence M star by the Next Generation Transit Survey: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/482/4/5553/5224549?login=false -> Weathering a Stellar Temper Tantrum - How space weather complicates exoplanet habitability: https://astrobites.org/2026/02/16/stellar-temper-tantrum/

A Physics Informed Neural Network for Deriving MHD State Vectors from Global Active Regions Observations: #SpaceWeather: https://www.swri.org/newsroom/press-releases/new-research-takes-first-step-toward-advance-warnings-of-space-weather

The #LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey - VII. Third Data Release: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.15949 -> Largest Ever Radio Sky Survey Maps the Universe in Unprecedented Detail: https://www.ru.nl/en/research/research-news/largest-ever-radio-sky-survey-maps-the-universe-in-unprecedented-detail (see the ALT text for what the three sample images show).

Caltech astrophysicist fatally shot on porch of his rural SoCal home: #Grillmair was a specialist for #TidalStreams of #galaxies as his publications (as first author) listed in https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/search/q= first_author:"Grillmair"&sort=date desc, bibcode desc&p_=0 show.

Candidate Dark Galaxy-2 - Validation and Analysis of an Almost Dark #Galaxy in the Perseus Cluster: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adddab/meta -> NASA’s Hubble Identifies One of Darkest Known Galaxies: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-identifies-one-of-darkest-known-galaxies/

Cenozoic evolution of earth’s strongest geoid low illuminates mantle dynamics beneath #Antarctica: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-28606-1 -> Beneath Antarctica - the deep-time story behind Earth’s largest “gravity low”: https://www.ipgp.fr/en/news-and-agenda/news/beneath-antarctica-the-deep-time-story-behind-earths-largest-gravity-low/ -> Antarctica’s ‘Gravity Hole’ Has Been Quietly Growing Stronger: https://gizmodo.com/antarcticas-gravity-hole-has-been-quietly-growing-stronger-2000722955 - scientists aren't fully sure what this means for Antarctica's future, however.

An animation of the antumbra from space during yesterday's #SolarEclipse: https://scicomm.xyz/@AstroDave/116087138815117726 - see also https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=881466661392738 and https://bsky.app/profile/youstorm.bsky.social/post/3mf4vgedthc2p for animations from another position.

JWST Reveals a Candidate #JellyfishGalaxy at z = 1.156: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae3824 -> Scientists observe distant jellyfish galaxy for first time: https://uwaterloo.ca/news/media/scientists-observe-distant-jellyfish-galaxy-first-time - new astronomical find is 8.5 billion years old and reshapes our understanding of early cosmic evolution.

ALMA and JWST Identification of Faint Dusty Star-forming Galaxies up to z ∼ 8 and Their Connection with Other Galaxy Populations: #galaxies almost 13 billion years old, helping to revise the history of the universe: https://www.umass.edu/news/article/international-team-astronomers-led-umass-amherst-may-have-just-found-one-missing-links

The #SolsrEclipse live from South Africa: https://www.youtube.com/live/DfwhUn3OKIs

The #SolarEclipse today from space: https://mastodon.social/@PlanetariumBochum/116087072853257668 - images of the ring from the ground aren't in yet; I've heard that Mirny was clouded out but that they wanted to get someting at Concordia.

RE: #SolarEclipse!

Now live on #Crew12 Arrival & Welcome Remarks.

Gas-depleted #planet formation occurred in the four-planet system around the red dwarf LHS 1903: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.11271 -> Astronomers discover unique ‘inside out’ planetary system / CHEOPS detects a new planetary "disorder": https://warwick.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/astronomers-discover-inside-out-planetary-system/ / https://mediarelations.unibe.ch/media_releases/2026/media_releases_2026/cheops_detects_a_new_planetary_disorder/index_eng.html

It seems likely that a bright #fireball on the morning of the 12th dropped #meteorites in #Bavaria, says the Czech analysis https://meteor.asu.cas.cz/cz/post/bolid_2026_02_12/ based on data from special cameras: the body came in slowly and at a very shallow angle, so the potential strewnfield is huge and thus a systematic search not viable, and one can only hope for discoveries by chance.

While preparing #ArtemisII for flight, NASA engineers are reviewing data after a confidence test Feb. 12, in which operators partially filled the SLS (Space Launch System) core stage liquid hydrogen tank to assess newly replaced seals in an area used to fill the rocket with propellant: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/13/following-confidence-test-nasa-continues-artemis-ii-data-review/ - during the test, "teams encountered an issue with ground support equipment that reduced the flow of liquid hydrogen into the rocket. [...] Engineers will examine findings before setting a timeline for the next test, a second wet dress rehearsal this month. March remains the earliest potential launch window for Artemis II."

An optical transient candidate of ≲ 2-second duration captured by wide-field video observations: #transient candidate (TMG20200322) with a duration of ≲ 2 s by wide-field video observations in the direction of the Earth's shadow. TMG20200322 was detected in just two consecutive images of 1-second exposure time, with its shape becoming elongated in the second frame.

When your CV includes "sucked into a black hole, fused with crystalline extraterrestrial organisms, and emerged mutated" you're good enough for the big screen, again ... #SpaceGodzilla returns in 2027: https://sffgazette.com/sci_fi/movies/godzilla-x-kong-supernova-test-screening-leak-reveals-movies-main-villain-cameos-and-more-a9685

And now on #Ariane flight VA267 - of the first Ariane 6 with 4 boosters.

Prospects for #Comet C/2026 A1 MAPS - a comet with a narrow tail in the evening twilight, with uncertain but potentially high brightness? https://hdr-astrophotography.com -> Tail simulations for comet MAPS: https://groups.io/g/comets-ml/message/34888 - in order not to depend on a single prediction, i have simulated different scenarii.

The nature of ASASSN-24fw’s #occultation - modelling the event as dimming by optically thick rings around a substellar companion: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/546/3/staf2251/8471205?login=false -> Unseen planet or brown dwarf may have hidden 'rare' fading star: https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/research-highlights/unseen-planet-or-brown-dwarf-may-have-hidden-rare-fading-star

ReveaLLAGN 1 - JWST Emission-Line Spectra Reveal Low-Luminosity #AGN with UV-Deficient SEDs and Warm Molecular Gas: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.16977 -> James Webb Space Telescope uncovers secret supermassive black holes that escape traditional detection: https://www.space.com/astronomy/james-webb-space-telescope/james-webb-space-telescope-uncovers-secret-supermassive-black-holes-that-escape-traditional-detection

A fast powerful X-ray transient from possible tidal disruption of a white dwarf: #WhiteDdwarf: https://english.news.cn/20260212/bb2ae2bbd6944d1dbc8164a22ae38cfd/c.html

A surprisingly large asymmetric ejection from #Mira A: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.03159 -> Well-known star has become a heart-shaped cosmic lighthouse: https://www.chalmers.se/en/current/news/see-heart-shaped-cosmic-lighthouse/

The recording of the independent webcast #Vulcan launch - in which they are discussing the SRB nozzle malfunction from t 2:25 onwards (i.e. starting at 1:13:30), eventually showing lots of different angles on the debris falling from the rocket. ULA hasn't said yet whether the payload has reached the proper orbit, by the way.

RE: #Mengzhou abort test - see also https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/02/04/allgemeines-live-blog-ab-dem-4-februar-2026/#Feb12 for more visuals, links zu video clips and articles.

Booster separation during the #Vulcan launch ... but as ULA is just confirming in https://x.com/ulalaunch/status/2021893224907083949 and e.g. https://bsky.app/profile/derek.space/post/3menpvsm7wk2u and https://bsky.app/profile/gewoonlukas.bsky.social/post/3menp65czzc2c had already noted one of the boosters had suffered some anomaly - which however didn't affect the mission.

As a pre-show you can also watch the #Proton-M launch of an Electron weather satellite at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwiBFPB0Vgs - lift-off planned for 8:52 UTC i.e. in a few minutes.

Disappearance of a massive star in the Andromeda Galaxy due to formation of a black hole: #BlackHole in Andromeda galaxy: https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/astronomers-witness-vanishing-star-collapse-into-a-black-hole-in-andromeda-galaxy

Spectral evidence for magmatic differentiation within a martian plumbing system: #Mars’ “Young” Volcanoes Were More Complex Than Scientists Once Thought: https://www.geosociety.org/GSA/News/pr/2026/GSA News Release 26-08.aspx

The risk of a hothouse Earth trajectory: #Climate May Go from Greenhouse to Hothouse: https://eos.org/articles/earths-climate-may-go-from-greenhouse-to-hothouse - uncertainty in climate models could mean Earth systems are perilously close to their tipping points, scientists warn.

And all 32 #AmazonLeo satellites have been deployed by the first #Ariane 64: good news for Arianespace and Amazon but probably bad news for astronomy as the previous satellites of this #megaconstellation have proven to be brighter than they should be. As this diagram from the recent paper "Brightness Characterization and Modeling for Amazon Leo Satellites" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.07708 - shows they are almost always brighter than the informally established 7 mag. limit. And there are no indications that the design of the 32 added to the constellation today had been modified to make them dimmer ... while the next Ariane launch will carry more of them.

PSR J0952-0607 - Tightening a Record-high #NeutronStar Mass: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae28c5 -> interview with the first author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFNqf19QewY

The first #Ariane 64 flight is well underway (and has just reached the target orbit)- here is the booster separation from an onboard cam, see https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/02/04/allgemeines-live-blog-ab-dem-4-februar-2026/#Feb12 (scroll down ... a lot) for more timesteps from the webcast.

Black Holes as Telescopes - Discovering Supermassive Binaries through Quasiperiodic Lensed Starlight: #BlackHole binaries: https://www.aei.mpg.de/1407139/new-method-could-reveal-hidden-supermassive-black-hole-binaries - bright flashes of lensed starlight guide the way.

The launch of #Crew12 is planned for 10:15 UTC today: webcasts from NASA and ESA at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCM-Kwq91cc and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_5RWX-GsQo from 8:15 UTC plus the ESA Launch Kit at https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/HRE/EPSILON_LaunchKit_EN.pdf and updates on https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/commercialcrew/ and the latest timelines at https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Watch_live_Crew-12_launch_and_docking_updated and https://www.spacex.com/launches/crew12 and https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-sets-coverage-for-agencys-spacex-crew-12-launch-docking/

On Feb. 11, NASA’s Neil Gehrels #Swift Observatory temporarily suspended most science operations in an effort to reduce atmospheric drag and slow the spacecraft’s orbital decay: https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/02/11/nasas-swift-mission-transitions-ops-to-prep-for-orbit-boost/ - halting these activities will enable controllers to keep the spacecraft in an orientation that minimizes drag effects, extending its time in orbit in anticipation of a reboost mission.

Mantle heterogeneity influenced Earth’s ancient magnetic field: #MagneticField for hundreds of millions of years: https://www.earth.com/news/deep-heat-has-guided-earths-magnetic-field-for-hundreds-of-millions-of-years/

The should be a #Vulcan launch at 9:22 UTC today, with the webcast at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFw6xy2zGCo beginning in 1/2 hour - see https://www.ulalaunch.com/missions/next-launch/vulcan-ussf-87 for what it's about as well es updates.

#Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos) and #Galaxy NGC 55
Date: 11 02 2026 UT 18:39
Location: Farm Tivoli, #Namibia
Telescope: ASA Astrograph 12" f3.6
Camera: ZWO ASI 6200 MM Pro
Mount: ASA DDM 85
Exp.Time: LRGB 10/2/2/2 min.
Gerald Rhemann and Michael Jäger

Jupiter-like uniform metal enrichment in a system of multiple giant #exoplanets: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.08227 -> How big can a planet be? With very large gas giants, it can be hard to tell: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1115679