Tootfinder

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

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-…

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.

5G-Sicherheitsnetz: Bund besiegelt Aus für Huawei und ZTE bis 2029
Verträge mit Telekom, Vodafone und Telefónica zwingen die Mobilfunknetzbetreiber zum Austausch kritischer Technik aus China in Kern- und Managementsystemen.

Short-term survival of #tardigrades (Ramazzottius cf. varieornatus and Hypsibius exemplaris) in #martian #regolith simulants (MGS-1 and OUCM-1): https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-astrobiology/article/shortterm-survival-of-tardigrades-ramazzottius-cf-varieornatus-and-hypsibius-exemplaris-in-martian-regolith-simulants-mgs1-and-oucm1/8A91986096FB533FB264DD056F549DF2 -> ‘Water bears’ reveal potential for adapting, protecting Martian resources: https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/water-bears-reveal-potential-adapting-protecting-martian-resources - microscopic tardigrades help inform how simulated Martian soil might support plant life and mitigate contaminants shedding from human explorers, researchers report -> Scientists Finally Found Something Tardigrades Can’t Survive: https://gizmodo.com/scientists-finally-found-something-tardigrades-cant-survive-2000728358 - tardigrades are practically invincible on Earth, so scientists looked to outer space in search of their kryptonite.

#2024YR4 - Identification of Possible Precoveries in 2016 IPTF Data: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.00449 -> "These candidate detections, not accounting for any currently-undetected Yarkovsky forces, predict a perilune of 22001 /- 49 km and a perigee of 277534 /- 46 km (relative to the center of each respective body) representing an improvement of > 300 times in the approach distance uncertainty above the existing orbit solution and, if confirmed, decisively ruling out a lunar impact in 2032" -> https://groups.io/g/mpml/message/41437

A clear detection of #comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) on the morning of March 2 "despite the 99% illuminated Moon, morning twilight and the comet at an altitude of 4.2 degrees": https://groups.io/g/comets-ml/message/34974 -> "The fact that the comet is showing this much detail under such bad conditions with such bad equipment and software bodes well for what we expect will be a very nice comet in the next few months."

looking good tonight, #SanFrancisco

No Observational Evidence for Dark Matter Nor a Large Metallicity Spread in the Extreme #MilkyWay Satellite Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae29b8 -> Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1 - Dwarf Galaxy or Star Cluster? https://aasnova.org/2026/03/02/ursa-major-iii-unions-1-dwarf-galaxy-or-star-cluster/

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

Only a few regions on our planet - just west and east and especially inside of the dark zone in this NASA map which is mostly the Pacific Ocean - will have a good view of the full totality from 11:04 to 12:03 UTC of the #LunarEclipse today, but there will be webcasts galore to try out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TywJ47LZ-Ic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNZCZcS45jg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeOlqcK5Edg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOgOLKgNyLo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtL3BA94t5g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJUW0Kx4Eg0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQLcLAfilkQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2-_LYVuIEE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl9UAUiqNKM
Also https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10164029689080320 = a graphic, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd1R8rrAMzw = an animation, https://groups.io/g/mpml/message/41436 = satellites near the dark Moon, https://www.eclipsewise.com/lunar/LEprime/2001-2100/LE2026Mar03Tprime.html and https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/moon/march-2026-total-lunar-eclipse-your-questions-answered/ and https://solarsteam.siu.edu/3march2026_tle/ and https://www.timeanddate.com/live/eclipse-lunar-2026-march-3 and https://news.siu.edu/2026/02/022426-siu-to-host-viewing-party-for-march-3-total-lunar-eclipse.php and https://www.perthobservatory.com.au/astronomy-events/2026-total-lunar-eclipse = websites, https://scicomm.xyz/@AkaSci@fosstodon.org/116156904320261558 = a thread, https://www.space.com/news/live/total-lunar-eclipse-blood-moon-march-3-2026-live-updates = updates, and https://gizmodo.com/the-march-3-total-lunar-eclipse-sounds-amazing-but-theres-a-catch-2000726548 and https://www.geekwire.com/2026/total-lunar-eclipse-visibility-weather/ and https://www.astronomy.com/observing/how-to-watch-the-lunar-eclipse-online/ and https://www.space.com/stargazing/lunar-eclipses/watch-the-blood-moon-total-lunar-eclipse-on-march-3-with-these-free-livestreams = articles.

In this image, ESA’s #Euclid space telescope captures a panoramic view of a dying star: the Cat’s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Hubble_Euclid_zoom_into_cosmic_eye - in the near-infrared and visible light view, the arcs and filaments of the nebula’s bright central region are situated within a halo of colourful fragments of gas zooming away from the star. The nebula stands out against a backdrop teeming with distant galaxies, demonstrating how local astrophysical beauty and the farthest reaches of the cosmos can be seen together in modern astronomical surveys.

While the camera still had no problem getting #Venus and #Saturn clearly this evening with the Sun 10° below the #Bochum horizon, the latter was not evident to the naked eye anymore (as it had been yesterday) at any solar depression - game over? Also the full moon rising, sadly long uneclipsed again. More pictures from this evening in https://www.facebook.com/dan.fischer.393/posts/pfbid037uKnrWeiChGm7m379BB3CyG5xj9byMqCziA4p1WNWrcdvkHbuuqfe3ea7ps5QDAYl

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.

Discovery of the most compact 3 1-type quadruple star system TIC 120362137: #StarSystem Yet: https://gizmodo.com/4-body-problem-astronomers-spot-the-most-tightly-packed-quadruple-star-system-yet-2000728811

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.

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

Here are recordings of seven webcasts of last night's total #LunarEclipse that actually worked (with the time stamp of totality beginning):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQLcLAfilkQ from 2:31
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TywJ47LZ-Ic from 1:53
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdASZ4AGXeY from 8:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQuzWYn2WJw from 2:35
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeOlqcK5Edg from 2:27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2-_LYVuIEE from 0:47
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGxr_kinPmk from 5:53
Many suffered from clouds - as did even Mauna Kea where a sensitive wide angle camera was eventually able to capture the sky around the dark Moon, however:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJV9EHB05qc (5th hour)
Here are various early timelapse attempts:
https://bsky.app/profile/astrodave.bsky.social/post/3mg5xbiwuvc22
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1999310513984541
https://scicomm.xyz/@david@theblower.au/116165095846134092
https://www.facebook.com/reel/905832598970486
https://bsky.app/profile/nasaspaceflight.com/post/3mg5venqfds2h
This one from an all-sky camera in Alaska features a lot of aurora, better to see during totality:
https://x.com/landon_wx/status/2028820535757472112
And finally one with the Moon setting before totality:
https://bsky.app/profile/naztronomy.com/post/3mg5tzlesxk2p

«Post-Quanten-Verschlüsselung — Google peilt 2029 statt 2035 an:
Google hat angekündigt, die Umstellung seiner Produkte auf Post-Quanten-Kryptografie deutlich zu beschleunigen.»
Nicht das Google unrecht hat aber dies ist auch ein Teil ihres Marketing um das Vertrauen ihreren Kunden zu erhöhen.
🔐 https://www.

Post-Quanten-Verschlüsselung: Google peilt 2029 statt 2035 an
Google hat angekündigt, die Umstellung seiner Produkte auf Post-Quanten-Kryptografie deutlich zu beschleunigen.

Holy crap that was a big earthquake

#Bruttospeicherleistung von #Batteriespeichern nach Marktakteur in #Deutschland ab 2012 mit Stand vom 17.03.2026.
Betrachtet werden Datensätze mit Betriebsstatus „akti…

"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.

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.

Microsoft says it is on track to invest $5.5B in cloud and AI infrastructure in Singapore through 2029, after announcing plans to invest $1B in Thailand (Kimberley Kao/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/microsoft…

earthquake or big truck?

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

Vorbeiflug an Erde 2029: Mehrere Landungsmissionen auf Apophis geplant
Der Asteroid Apophis wird im Frühjahr 2029 sehr nah an der Erde vorbeifliegen. Mehrere Sonden sollen in diesem Zeitraum auf ihm landen.

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/

Weniger #Plastikmüll:
#Mungobohnensprossen sind gesund und einfach selbst zu ziehen! 🌱
Wer gern asiatische #Gemüsepfannen brutzelt, weiß das zu schätzen. Möch…

Küchentipp: Mungobohnensprossen selber machen mit einem DIY-Sprossenglas
Mungobohnensprossen sind eine gesunde und leckere Zutat für viele Gerichte. Mit einem DIY-Sprossenglas kannst du sie ganz einfach selbst ziehen.

Noch ein paar der zuletzt hier besonders häufig geteilten #News:
Vorbeiflug an Erde 2029: Mehrere Landungsmissionen auf Apophis geplant

Verteilung der #Speicherkapazitäten für sonstige #Batterien nach Bundesland in #Deutschland mit Stand vom 17.03.2026.
59 nicht aktive und 0 sonstige Batterien ohne Inbetrieb…

Google sets a 2029 deadline for its post-quantum cryptography migration, aiming to "secure the quantum era" as "frontiers may be closer than they appear" (Dan Goodin/Ars Technica)
https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/

Google bumps up Q Day deadline to 2029, far sooner than previously thought
Company warns entire industry to move off RSA and EC more quickly.

🍮 Wissen zum Nachtisch: 🍨
Wie kann man #Ackerflächen widerstandsfähiger gegen #Extremwetter machen?
Ein altes Anbausystem rückt wieder stärker in den Fokus und eröffnet Chancen für den #Bodenschutz

Klimaanpassung in der Landwirtschaft: Agroforst schützt Boden und Biodiversität
Agroforst rettet Böden und schützt das Klima – entdecke, wie Bäume auf Feldern gegen Hitze, Erosion und Artenverlust helfen können

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.

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

Anzahl der #Batteriespeicher je #Batterietechnologien in #Deutschland mit Stand vom 17.03.2026.
3124 nicht aktive und 0 Batteriespeicher ohne Inbetriebnahmedatum wurden a…

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.

Spanne der Bruttospeicherleistung von #Batteriespeicher​n pro Inbetriebnahmejahr von Unternehmen in Deutschland mit Stand vom 17.03.2026.
397 Datensätze ohne #Batteriespeichertechnologie herausgefiltert.
Der Datenbestand enthält unplausible Datensätze.
…

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.

Spanne der Bruttospeicherleistung von #Batteriespeicher​n pro Inbetriebnahmejahr von Privatpersonen in Deutschland mit Stand vom 17.03.2026.
397 Datensätze ohne #Batteriespeichertechnologie herausgefiltert.
Der Datenbestand enthält unplausible Datensätze.

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" ...

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.

Zugebaute #Batteriespeicherkapazität pro Monat in #Deutschland mit Stand vom 17.03.2026.
397 Datensätze ohne #Batteriespeichertechnologie herausgefil…

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/

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.

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!

Recent stories like #EpsteinIsland - #GoogleLens you are pointed to the 16th century fresco #Farnese in Caprarola (Italy) which had obviously served as the ceiling's inspiration: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Farnese about the Villa and the paper https://www.academia.edu/31614076/The_Decorative_Programme_of_Sala_Del_Mappamondo_The_Mural_Maps on the Sala, in particular pages 31-32.

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.

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/

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 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."

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.

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.

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).

Whatever eagerly awaited #Kreutz #comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) is up to - see also https://groups.io/g/comets-ml/topic/118409957 and https://nitter.net/JAtanackov/status/2035718257060036738 and https://scicomm.xyz/@qicheng@cometary.org/116262858373488354 - less than two weeks from perihelion, it has developed a long plasma tail now: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=25816609931372735 (Rhemann & Jäger yesterday with a 12 inch telescope; full and detail).

Launch of #Progress MS-33 in a few minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1OaCfLTPnw

Only four days after the Ohio event another daylight #fireball yesterday, this time over Texas and again with at least one meteorite fall: https://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/meteorite-falls/events/houston-tx (with early strewnfield map) and https://fireball.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/event/2026/1959. Videos of the fireball: https://www.facebook.com/groups/meteoriteclub/posts/10164095912741620/ and https://www.facebook.com/groups/meteoriteclub/posts/10164095916361620/ and https://www.facebook.com/groups/meteoriteclub/posts/10164095412946620/. And the meteorites: https://www.fox26houston.com/news/houston-meteor-reports-rock-woman-home-crash-2026-march and https://www.facebook.com/Fox4DFW/posts/pfbid0xBvNspDzKjdKqeGGoZXRVgEAYAQ3sUxM5WsESReTux2kV9SVTZKkMfnwRB8rJp83l

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

RE: #LunarEclipse the darker it gets - but the correlation isn't that good and more factors are in play (which are difficult to determine because eclipses - with good data - are so rare).

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.

Ground penetrating radar observations of ancient large-scale deltaic structures in Jezero crater, #Mars: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adz6095 -> Perseverance’s radar revealed ancient subsurface river delta on Mars: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/03/perseverances-radar-revealed-ancient-subsurface-river-delta-on-mars/ - there may be a river delta hidden under the obvious delta in a Martian crater.

Experimental evidence for granular shear-flow instability in the Epstein regime: #planets - a turbulent story: https://mediarelations.unibe.ch/media_releases/2026/media_releases_2026/evolution_of_planets/index_eng.html

The #ArtemisII stack arrived back at the pad today, with a launch on April 1st (Europe: April 2nd) still a possibility: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/03/20/nasas-artemis-ii-rocket-arrives-at-launch-pad-39b/ and https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2026/03/Artemis_II_rolls_again and many more roll-out pictures in https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/albums/72177720332614865/

RE: #SolarEclipse!

Theory of striped dynamic spectra of the #CrabPulsar high-frequency interpulse: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-plasma-physics/article/theory-of-striped-dynamic-spectra-of-the-crab-pulsar-highfrequency-interpulse/66FDEA9FA0464343A7EAA1E2EFF44A29 -> Study reveals cosmic tug-of-war behind the Crab Pulsar’s zebra stripes: https://news.ku.edu/news/article/study-reveals-cosmic-tug-of-war-behind-the-crab-pulsars-zebra-stripes

Today it took Michael Jäger and Gerald Rhemann a 12-inch telescope and 27 minutes of total exposure time to show #comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) this nicely: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2382646772252141 - but if it stays the course (brightness-wise speaking) it could be quite impressive for much smaller gear as well as the human eye just a month from now.

A rubbish challenge: how do we dump space junk? Modern life depends on space-based infrastructure, but there’s a lot of junk orbiting alongside working spacecraft. Katherine Courtney and Alice Gorman talk to Margaret Harris about the danger of #SpaceDebris – and what we need to do about it: https://physicsworld.com/a/a-rubbish-challenge-how-do-we-dump-space-junk/ (looong).

A super long #NovayaZemlya #mirage phenomenon at #sunset in real-time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98cU4zjmSbs with stills in https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=231610 - the Sun was still visible when more than 3° below the geometrical horizon!

Confirming Nunki as the closest #CoreCollapse progenitor candidate to the Sun: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.17011 -> it's a pair of 6 M_Sun stars at 69 parsec that will merge into a 10 M_Sun star and thus end as a supernova.

The dramatic transition of the extreme Red #Supergiant WOH G64 to a Yellow Hypergiant: https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.19329 - this 2024 paper, already mentioned by me in connection with other observations of that star in https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2024/11/24/allgemeines-live-blog-ab-dem-24-11-2024/ ("Die enge zirkumstellare Umgebung des Roten Überriesen WOH G64 ..."), has now been formally published: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-026-02789-7.epdf?sharing_token=7UR_XvTAZerqnMHPRyA0LtRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0N7FejDObMF3AkHA10E71tuouxDX6yP8bM1QCFKGVVZLl8bT37LMadR8u4ukhACilFI60-Zxl0e00Bc0v3qXkG29yIQr7uTE0sd644q7We4d6ay5Tblhxc-UABROlAnuDs=