Tootfinder

"‘Weakening climate leadership’: Is the EU’s 2040 emissions target ambitious enough?"
#EU #EuropeanUnion #Climate

"EU sets binding 90% emissions reduction target for 2040"
#EU #EuropeanUnion #Emissions

By popular demand here is the full-moon-lit night image of Earth from #ArtemisII in a rotated (NW now up) and zoomed-in version, now directly from https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/hello-world/ - the technical data has https://nitter.net/Erdayastronaut/status/2040105622046118282 and there is also a version with much shorter exposure at https://nitter.net/NASA/status/2040114101670523381 and a half-Earth at https://nitter.net/NASA/status/2040114160529179103 while the view with the window frame is at https://images.nasa.gov/details/art002e000191

Good article from Graham Fisher of Broadcast 2040 in this week's Big Issue
Why Freeview should not be switched off.
See also,
#Broadcast2040

Der Bundestag beriet über die Weiterentwicklung der #Treibhausgasminderungsquote im #Verkehrssektor.
Der Entwurf sieht vor, die Minderungspflicht bis 2040 schrittweise auf 59 Prozent zu erhöhen und den Anteil erneuerbarer

Progress report for #Kreutz come C/2026 A1 (MAPS) as it marches towards the Sun in the LASCO and CCOR coronagraphs where it is brightening: https://groups.io/g/comets-ml/message/35184 - at https://ccor.nrl.navy.mil/realtime-movie you can watch an animation of the most recent CCOR images.

EU adopts -90% emission reduction target for 2040, and max 5% of that by 'high-quality international targets', i.e. reductions elsewhere. 14 years to go and a *lot* of work to be done!
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/p

And so #ArtemisII delivers ... the dark side of the Earth last night, illuminated by the full Moon, with a bright atmospheric arc indicating where the Sun is hiding and aurora in several places. While beyond Earth at 5 o'clock you see the zodiacal light and Venus and many stars. A bit noisy but something never imaged before AFAIK - the Apollo era photographic film wasn't up to this. From https://x.com/NASA/status/2040059770237849635 while https://x.com/NASA/status/2040059740848283920 shows a fraction of the Earth's dayside.

'We Own It' campaigns against privatisation. They have been asking all MPs in the Thames Water region to sign an open letter to Ofwat and the Environment Secretary, urging them to reject the creditors’ proposal to pollute illegally.
"The name of every single Thames Water MP should be on this open letter. Because it’s so simple. Do they think water companies should be allowed to get away with polluting - illegally - for profit, or do they not?
In light of the recent n…

Die #Bundesregierung plant, den Ausbau der #Windenergie zu beschleunigen.
Bis 2030 sollen zusätzlich zwölf Gigawatt an Land ausgeschrieben werden. Neue #Windkraftanlagen solle…

Global health impacts of plastics systems set to double by 2040 #health

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Tegen 2040 komen nog maar 10 gastlanden in aanmerking: sneeuwtekort dwingt IOC om Winterspelen te herdenken | VRT NWS: nieuws
#Winterspelen

The #Kreutz comet MAPS is now also in the field of view of the coronagraph CCOR-1: help yourself to the latest images at https://ccor.nrl.navy.mil/ccor_realtime/last_image_MinBckgnd.png (15 minute cadence). What SOHO's LASCO C3 and PUNCH's NFI see and what it all means I've just summarized the bottom of https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/04/01/artemis-ii-vor-dem-start-maps-vor-dem-perihel/ with the still growing thread https://groups.io/g/comets-ml/topic/118640744 as the major source - in a nutshell there is still some life in this sungrazer (25 hours til perihelion!) and no evidence that it's beginning to fall apart which it will certainly do at one point.

In #Hamburg wurden 2025 rund 1,5 Mio. MWh #Strom eingespeist, ein Plus von 1,8 Prozent.
Die #Stromausspeisung stieg auf 10,6 Mio. MWh. Mit 65 Prozent dominieren weiter fossile

The #Kreutz comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) is now in the field of view of SOHO's LASCO C3, https://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/c3/1024/latest.gif - and has only 4th magnitude or so. Here is how Lovejoy entered in 2011 which eventually did great: https://nitter.net/JAtanackov/status/2039812615988224394#m. Meanwhile here is the light curve of MAPS from PUNCH: https://groups.io/g/comets-ml/message/35159

After a successful 5 minutes 55 seconds Translunar Injection Burn the daily #ArtemisII press conference should come at the bottom of the hour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Pq35gm4qA

🍮 Wissen zum Nachtisch: 🍨
Retröt: #Klimawandel verstehen: Die wichtigsten Fakten als Bild.
Die #Klimakrise lässt sich in wenigen Diagrammen verdeutlichen. Nüchterne Daten zeigen, wie die Emission von

It's a bit hard to find, but Dutch PBL Agency (@leefomgeving.bsky.social) estimates that the new coalition agreement has a positive effect on greenhouse gas emission reduction. Current policies would lead to -65% by 2040, and the new policies would bring that to -70 .. -75%.
However PBL doesn't tell us whether we'll catch up on the -55% goal for 2030 in the Climate Law; last year, it estimated that we're on a course for -50% (-45 .. 53%).

Chile befinner sig mitt i en torka som förväntas vara fram till 2040. Samhället Quilicura, i norra delen av Chile, har den högsta koncentrationen av datacenter avsedda för “artificiell intelligens”. Dessa datacenter använder regionens vatten.

Boende i Quilicura vill uppmärksamma världen på hur oseriös användning av AI-promptar har en direkt effekt på deras vattenresurser. Så, för en dag, ber de alla att inte använda “AI”, utan istället att använda dem: En grupp lokala Quilicura-invånar…

The best view from the #ArtemisII mission so far came at noon UTC today when a solar-wing-mounted camera broastcast this view of Earth some 70,000 km away next to the ESM engines for a while. The Orion and the ESM are on their way back to perigee now - and around 23:45 UTC the trans-lunar injection burn is expected.

📰 Vielen Dank für Eure #Spenden zur Unterstützung der Technikkosten, um alles am Laufen zu halten. Shoutout an alle #Steady-Förderer! 👍
Es geht los: Die vermaledeiten Amazon-Affiliate-Links werden seit Februar schrittweise gelöscht.
Hier kann man Steady-Mäzen werden:

A unique view of interstellar comet #3IATLAS by the JANUS camera on the Juice spacecraft from last November, in the UV at 380 nm: from https://www.iaa.csic.es/noticia/3i-atlas-observado-janus/ with results from more Juice instruments in https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2026/04/JANUS_sees_Comet_3I_ATLAS_in_different_colours

Ambitious climate action could save 1.32 million lives a year by 2040 #climate

The first orbital media event with the #ArtemisII crew is happening right now, live on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3kR2KK8TEs

🛌 Wissen fürs Kopfkissen: 📖
Wie gelingt es mächtigen Akteuren, den #Klimaschutz systematisch zu verzögern?
Mit rhetorischen Tricks, falschen Hoffnungen und strategischem Pessimismus werden #Klimaschutzmaßnahmen blockiert und Verantwortung verschoben. Die bekannten A…

Trump screws the youger generation out of Medicare benefits....
"In less than a year, Trump erased 12 years of solvency for the trust fund that pays for Medicare Part A"
https://fortune.com/2026/02/23/how-trump-wiped…

A permanent webcast of #ArtemisII has begun at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3kR2KK8TEs and will first cover tanking and run all the way to splashdown (separate webcasts will cover special mission phases like lift-off). Also live updates will be published on the page https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/01/live-artemis-ii-launch-day-updates/ just set up.

Die #Kernfusionskollektoranlage hat heute 0,496 kWh Energie eingefangen.
Gesamtleistung: 480 Wp
Ausrichtung: West
Anstellwinkel: 58 Grad
Diese #Balkonsolaranlage wurde durch das Berliner SolarPLUS-Programm gefördert.
Einspeiseverlust: 4.22 %

And now an #ArtemisII post-launch press conference on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrhH05U_Zds

The best view from the botched #ArtemisII NASA launch webcast: the separation of the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (with the Orion, not visible) from the Core Stage, seen from the Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter - scroll down on https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/04/01/artemis-ii-vor-dem-start-maps-vor-dem-perihel/ for a sequence of nine screenshots from the whole ascent.

The first (NASA) photograpg of the #ArtemisII launch published: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/55182696113/in/album-72177720331487648

What a chaotic launch broadcast for an historic mission ... here is the only lift-off full view, visible merely for a brief fraction of a second. Anyway, Orion and ESM are in Earth orbit now!

Since this one will certainly be archived (not sure about the permanent webcast), #ArtemisII launch. The crew is already in the capsule - this had been their walk-out: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2086875691887758 and https://www.facebook.com/scott.schilke.1/posts/pfbid0261UbknbRbYWXenoR8DgC3GcDDH4RRL6FDgoW13vycnXUz4Tq5oz1yXLbzcYuPjMjl

This afternoon UTC #Kreutz comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) - which has been tracked in recent days with PUNCH and STEREO and is still in one piece, it seems - will enter the field of view of the coronagraph LASCO C3 on SOHO (the brown background; arrow): comparisions with earlier sungrazers in the same instrument will be telling.

SUPERCAM IDENTIFIES CORUNDUM IN JEZERO CRATER, MARS, USING TIME-RESOLVED LUMINESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY: #Jezero Crater.

Homogeneous accretion of the #Earth in the inner Solar System: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-026-02824-7 -> The Earth formed from local building blocks: https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2026/03/the-earth-formed-from-local-building-blocks.html - planetary scientists at ETH Zurich have shown that the material that makes up the Earth originates exclusively from the inner solar system.

Proton and Heavy Ion Acceleration by Magnetic #Reconnection at the Near-Sun Heliospheric Current Sheet: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae48f2 -> SwRI-led research indicates a more complex Sun’s magnetic engine: https://www.swri.org/newsroom/press-releases/swri-led-research-indicates-more-complex-sun-s-magnetic-engine

At the top of the hour the #ArtemisII L-1 Countdown Status News Conference - the final one before the planned launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PhQJCzhCOw (new on the panel for the first time is launch weather officer Mark Burger).

At the top of the hour an #ArtemisII L-2 Countdown Status News Conference at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL3AyQ766vc - according to the timeline https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-releases-artemis-ii-moon-mission-launch-countdown/ the countdown should begin 15 minutes from now; check https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/artemis/ for updates.

What the company had to say - #Starlink satellite incident: "On Sunday, March 29, Starlink satellite 34343 experienced an anomaly on-orbit, resulting in loss of communications with the satellite at ~560 km above Earth.
Latest analysis shows the event poses no new risk to the @Space_Station, its crew, or to the upcoming launch of NASA’s Artemis II mission. We will continue to monitor the satellite along with any trackable debris and coordinate with @NASA and the @USSpaceForce.
The event also posed no new risk to this morning’s Transporter-16 mission, which was designed to avoid Starlink with payload deploys well above or well below the constellation. The SpaceX and Starlink teams are actively working to determine root cause and will rapidly implement any necessary corrective actions."

Statistical Overview of Long-lived Active Regions Observed across Multiple Carrington Rotations: #SolarFlare Rates: https://science.nasa.gov/get-involved/citizen-science/volunteers-find-oddly-high-solar-flare-rates/

"If there are 1 million AI sat minis in operation, then the constellation as a whole would perform 272 million collision risk mitigation manoeuvres per year, which is nearly 9 manoeuvres every second of every day for which the constellation is operating, on average", calculates #OrbitalDataCenters madness: "Across a 15-year licence term, the cumulative total for the constellation would be 4 billion manoeuvres."

#Cislunar Key Region Surveillance Optimization: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40295-025-00522-6 -> Limiting space junk's threat by predicting its mess in the Earth-moon neighborhood: https://phys.org/news/2026-03-limiting-space-junk-threat-mess.html

A #Starlink satellite has exploded, kind of: according to https://nitter.net/LeoLabs_Space/status/2038680177408880719 a radar network has "detected tens of objects in the vicinity of the satellite after the event, with a first pass over our radar site in the Azores, Portugal. Additional fragments may have been produced — analysis is ongoing. We've characterized this event as likely caused by an internal energetic source rather than a collision with space debris or another object. Due to the low altitude of the event, fragments from this anomaly will likely de-orbit within a few weeks".

At the bottom of the hour an #ArtemisII Q&A with the crew from Quarantine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii_tmJff7LQ. Followed at 18:00 UTC by an Artemis II L-3 Countdown Status News Conference at t-3 days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQH21XCsp5U

What #comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) - more pictures from the 28th in https://www.danilopivato.com/solar_system/comets/c2025_r3_panstarrs/2026.03.28.html and https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=34496897756622967 and https://x.com/hositosorekara/status/2037645491253780614 and https://www.facebook.com/groups/227002358661288/posts/1726756352019207 - may be up to brightness-wise and what the viewing geometry will be in central Europe: explanations in https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/03/26/allgemeines-live-blog-ab-dem-26-marz-2026/#Mar29

Newly discovered tetrataenite in Chang’E-6 lunar soil - a space weathering-induced magnetic carrier: #Change6 samples: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1121716

Lots of fascinating detail in the plasma tail of #comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) this morning in an image by Christoph Gerhard with a 30-cm telescope: https://www.klostersternwarte.de/aktuelles/ein-überraschender-komet-c-2025-r3-panstarrs - this one will stay with us (Northerners) for another three week low before/at dawn before getting lost in the Sun's glare (when dust forward scattering could brighten it even more).

The #Celeste launch by #RocketLab for #ESA was a success: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vls1yNbQtZ0 = the lift-off, https://rocketlabcorp.com/updates/rocket-lab-successfully-launches-85th-mission-and-first-dedicated-launch-for-european-space-agency/ and https://www.esa.int/Applications/Satellite_navigation/Celeste/Celeste_s_first_satellites_launched_to_explore_LEO-based_satellite_navigation = press releases by both parties and https://bsky.app/profile/rocketlabcorp.com/post/3mi3zwvuric2m and https://bsky.app/profile/rocketlabcorp.com/post/3mi4fuyzpwk2d = pictures.

We finally learn what the medical emergency was that struck ISS astronaut Mike Fincke in January and led to the early return of #Crew11 - what had caused it still seems to be a mystery, though: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/he-suddenly-couldnt-speak-in-space-nasa-astronaut-says-his-medical-scare-remains-unsolved

"The USA needs to take over the Moon and stop all this phases nonsense. We’ll have a full Moon every night, unless werewolves become a big problem. We might even bring the Moon closer so getting there isn’t such a hassle": Donald Trump as cited in #ArtemisII

Q&A with the #ArtemisII crew when they just arrived at the KSC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg-sDsbJp7E. And how Europe will power the journey to the Moon and back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq6hz0GFEO4 - from ESA which also made https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMt0njvmu0Y

JWST/NIRSpec Reveals the Atmospheric Driver of Saturn's Variable Magnetospheric Rotation Rate: #Saturn appears to change its spin: https://newsroom.northumbria.ac.uk/pressreleases/scientists-solve-decades-long-mystery-about-why-saturn-appears-to-change-its-spin-3440586

This image shows the #Kreutz comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) "on a stack build from (star subtracted) difference images [from the PUNCH satellites] between March 26, 7:28 UT and 13:36 UT. The visible tail extends to about 6 degrees" - but the recent brightness surge has levelled off at about 8.8 mag.: https://groups.io/g/comets-ml/message/35114

Ultraviolet Completion of the Big Bang in Quadratic Gravity: #QuantumGravity.

These are the 287 target stars for the first year of operations of the unusual commercial space telescope #Mauve from which astronomers buy (!) observing time: at least 5000 hours are available. This map was shown in a webinar by the company behind the mission today while the paper https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16675 discusses the science themes identified for the first year of operations.

Temperature asymmetry in the Milky Way’s hot circumgalactic medium induced by the Magellanic Clouds: #MilkyWay: https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/research-highlights/galactic-warming-car-engine-effect-heating-our-milky-way

Phase C has officially begun for Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer or #Lumio, ESA’s pioneering CubeSat technology demonstration mission dedicated to monitoring #meteoroid flashes on the far side of the #Moon: https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Shaping_the_Future/A_leap_forward_for_Lumio_Phase_C_officially_launched - Lumio is entering the detailed design and implementation phase that will advance the mission toward flight readiness and a potential launch in 2028.

Next attempt for the #RocketLab #Electron with #Celeste today (28 March): webcasts from 8:50 UTC at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR1en0oGPRs and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJxRic-a4SU and lift-off - https://www.esa.int/Applications/Satellite_navigation/Watch_live_First_Celeste_launch - at 9:14 UTC.

The #ArtemisII mission has quite an impact on ... the operation of the James Webb Space Telescope as #JWST operations plan currently assumes roughly a quarter of the usual #DeepSpaceNetwork (DSN) access will be available, which has a direct impact on the number of science visits that can be executed and the volume of data that can be downlinked."

Häppchen #Klimawissen: Wie beeinflusst der #Klimawandel die #Stratocumuluswolken und damit das #Erdklima

Whoa, what has the #Kreutz comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) done now?!? Photometry from images by the outer corona observing satellite constellation PUNCH - by Thomas Lehmann; https://groups.io/g/comets-ml/message/35106 - shows a sudden increase in coma brightness ... whatever that means for the apparently quite fragile nucleus. PUNCH can follow the comet closer to the Sun than ground-based observers who will lose sight by month's end.

Reversal of Spin - #Comets 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresak: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae4355 -> Hubble Detects First-Ever Spin Reversal of Tiny Comet: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-detects-first-ever-spin-reversal-of-tiny-comet/

A galactic cosmic ray cavity in Earth-Moon space: #Moon: https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-spot-previously-unknown-space-cavity-thats-quietly-protecting-the-moon-2000737969

Maximale #Pollenflug​messungen von heute für #Berlin​er #Allergiker zum Überwachen der Symptome jeweils in #Pollen

RE: #OpenAccessNow

"Weather conditions over LC-1 violate cloud and lightning commit criteria for launch, so we’re standing down from today’s mission," #RocketLab has said in https://bsky.app/profile/rocketlabcorp.com/post/3mhunalgn322o: "A weather system is passing through the region in the coming days, so our next target launch date will be set once that passes. Back soon under clearer skies."

During NASA’s #ArtemisII mission to the Moon, four astronauts will live and work inside the Orion spacecraft after launching atop the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lxDQj7CFyI - the crew will test Orion’s systems throughout their 10-day mission to ensure the spacecraft can keep astronauts safe and healthy in deep space.

Automatic search for transiting #planets in TESS-SPOC FFIs with RAVEN - over 100 newly validated planets and over 2000 vetted candidates: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag512/8528996?login=false -> Scientists find hidden haul in data from NASA exoplanet-hunting spacecraft: https://www.space.com/astronomy/exoplanets/100-new-alien-worlds-scientists-find-hidden-haul-in-data-from-nasa-exoplanet-hunting-spacecraft

JWST observes the assembly of a massive #galaxy at z~4: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.13650 -> "NIRCam images and NIRSpec/IFU spectroscopy (R=2700) show that TGSSJ1530 1049 is part of one of the densest-known structures of continuum and line-emitting objects found at these redshifts. [...] Based on the physical separations and velocity differences between the galaxies, it is expected that these galaxies will merge to form a massive galaxy within a few Gyr. The system qualitatively resembles the forming brightest cluster galaxies in cosmological simulations that form early through a rapid succession of mergers."

A possible shutting-down event of mass accretion in an #ActiveGalacticNucleus at z ∼ 1.8: https://academic.oup.com/pasj/article/77/6/1350/8313806?login=false -> Distant Galaxy Fades 20-Fold in Just Two Decades ― Rapid Decline in Gas Supply to Its SuperMassive Black Hole: https://subarutelescope.org/en/results/2026/03/24/3688.html

RE: https://mastodon.social/@alanboyle/116291616450747189
Images at https://esawebb.org/news/weic2606/

👻 #Mythos zum #Frühstück: 😱
„#Holzschneidbretter sind unhygienisch“.
Schonmal gehört? Warum das ein Mythos ist und wieso #Kunststoffschneidbretter eine schlechte …

The Geology of a Small Main-belt S-class Binary Asteroid System - #Dinkinesh and Its Contact Binary Satellite #Selam as Observed by the #Lucy Mission: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ae1968 -> Details on Dinkinesh and Its Surprise Satellite from the Lucy Mission: https://aasnova.org/2026/03/20/details-on-dinkinesh-and-its-surprise-satellite-from-the-lucy-mission/

"The launch of our qualification flight has been aborted during autosequence," says #IsarAerospace in https://isaraerospace.com/mission-updates-overview: "After a hold in countdown due to a range violation of the danger area by an unauthorized boat, the countdown reset exceeded our launch window. Isar Aerospace is working to determine a new launch window together with AndŸya Space. Further updates will follow as soon as possible."

The uncertain brightness and tail(s) development of #Kreutz #comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) is one thing - see the curves in https://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comet/2026A1 and https://aerith.net/comet/catalog/2026A1/2026A1.html for guesses and https://cobs.si/obs_list?id=2688 for the current value which is ~8.5 mag. - but the viewing geometry is the other: here it is for 51.5° North (my place Bochum) and 22.5° South (Windhoek) as the view is much better from the southern hemisphere.
The table first gives the elongation (angle between comet and Sun in the sky) and the phase angle (the angle Sun - comet - Earth) which nearing 180° can lead to significant boost of brightness by forward scattering on dust.
And this is followed by the altitude of the comet at the solar depressions given in the top line, for Bochum and Windhoek: sunset and end of civilian twilight and for the latter also the end of nautical and astronomical twilight, i.e. the onset of night. Also of importance is the angle of a hypothetical dust tail (simulated in https://hdr-astrophotography.com) after perihelion, also much better in the South: https://britastro.org/section_news_item/c-2026-a1-maps-a-kreutz-group-sungrazer - but first MAPS has to survive the latter *and* release a lot of dust at the right time ...

Five minutes till the webcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsbZj8PxmUk of the 2nd launch attempt https://isaraerospace.com/mission-2 of Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket in Norway: https://isaraerospace.com/mission-updates-overview

SPHEREx mapping of diffuse PAH and H II emission in the Galactic plane: #SPHEREx space telescope has been conducting an all-sky near-infrared spectral survey from 0.75 to 5.0 microns. We produce a large-scale map of the 3.3-micron #PAH emission feature, which is bright and detectable throughout the Galactic plane, and find a strong correlation with the thermal dust radiance measured by Planck." (The image shows the #OrionNebula in special false colors explained in the ALT text.)

Two attempts to simply extrapolate the brightness of #Kreutz comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) from what happened in the past few weeks, from all visual observations reported to COBS (left) and from all CCD observations of the past month which would have the brightness climb a bit faster. But as the previous post in the thread has shown even in the geometrically preferred southern hemisphere MAPS is lost in twilight from about March 30 to April 7 - and even in the optimistic model the comet has reached only 6th magnitude when it is lost and is down again to 5th when it is recovered: unless something drastic would happen *all* hope for an interesting show rests on a possible post-perihelion dust tail. Good luck ...

30 years ago these days comet #Hyakutake amazed in the northern skies - even close to Polaris one day - with a close approach to Earth and a super-long bright plasma tail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6uCHBqfZlk is a 15-min. excerpt from a documentary (I actually have the VHS cassette ...) about creating fantastic timelapse sequences of the latter from images shot on film. See also https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1629899344915003 and https://www.facebook.com/richard.berry.777/posts/pfbid0xQ9uVTK9fKeeuFeCedm1U82dYPPWbnJiuz8bVEt5UiE2QFEgn7GWfjNueZpjxCmXl and https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=26701568342780915 and https://www.facebook.com/don.davis1/posts/pfbid02YeuQ39p4igwG5GCk34iCSxwEevdpUKkCMBeF5QA7TBdfya3YuQ8sSsGnNUuxNFgGl for other still images.

Coming up at 8:30 / 8:53 UTC the webcasts #RocketLab #Electron 'Daughter Of The Stars' Launch at 9:14 UTC with the first two satellites of ESA's #Celeste LEO-PNT in-orbit demonstration mission: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Satellite_navigation/Watch_live_First_Celeste_launch

Direct spectroscopic confirmation of the young embedded #ProtoPlanet WISPIT 2c: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.22085 -> A Solar System in the making? Two planets spotted forming in disc around young star: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2604/

Will any of this actually happen? Let alone by the times written into this picture shared today? Whatever, the long press release #NASA tries to be heading now ...

The Drivers of the Decline in Supermassive Black Hole Growth at z < 2: #BlackHoles Hit the Brakes on Growth: https://chandra.si.edu/press/26_releases/press_032426.html / https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2026/bhgrowth/ -> Chandra Explains Why Black Hole Growth Slowed Since Cosmic Noon: https://chandra.si.edu/blog/node/954

RE: #Goddard was pretty popular in German newspapers from 1919 to 1941: his achievements and plans were often misrepresented but he was usually treated on a par with other famous rocket pioneers, especially Hermann Oberth.

Orbital motion detected in γ Cas Fe K emission lines: #XRISM solves famous star’s 50-year mystery: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/XRISM_solves_famous_star_s_50-year_mystery

Measurement of a lithium plume from the uncontrolled re-entry of a #Falcon9 rocket: #reentry pollutes the #UpperAtmosphere: https://physicsworld.com/a/rocket-re-entry-pollutes-the-upper-atmosphere/

Aus der Reihe ❗Widerlich❗:
Der weltweite #Plastikverbrauch gefährdet zunehmend die #Gesundheit:
Laut einer neuen Modellrechnung könnten bis 2040 bis zu 4,5 Millionen gesunde Lebensjahre durch Emissionen aus dem

Multi-Sensor Trajectory Reconstruction of the 24 April 2025 Alaska #Fireball and Implications for Planetary Defense: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.22630 -> "On 24 April 2025 at 18:30:57 UTC, a bright daytime fireball over Southcentral Alaska was detected by 37 seismic stations, 16 single infrasound sensors, and four infrasound arrays, yielding 30 ballistic and multiple fragmentation arrivals. The unprecedented density of seismoacoustic coverage enabled detailed reconstruction of the event using acoustic signals, with fragmentation source locations further guiding the identification of Doppler weather radar signatures of a meteorite fall. Incorporation of a radar-derived terminal point yielded a final trajectory solution, which agreed closely with an independent optical trajectory solution from video analysis. [...] This uniquely well-recorded event demonstrates the capability of dense seismoacoustic networks to constrain bolide trajectories, energetics, and fragmentation, with radar and optical data providing critical confirmation and complementary perspectives."

The Radio-wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the photoElectron Sheath (ROLSES) instrument onboard the #IntuitiveMachines-1 Mission to the Moon: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.22600 -> "This paper describes the design and operations of the ROLSES instrument and presents initial observations made during transit and surface operations in February 2024. We also describe next version of this instrument (ROLSES 2) currently under development."

RE: https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/116287186443330355
I second this! The repulsive language - and also having good memories of the big Let's-do-Apollo-again announcements of 1989, 2004 and so on with litte to show for in the end - contributes to my excitement level hovering in the low Kelvin range. But hey, let's sit and see where we (and China ... LOL) are at the end of 2028 - less than three years from now - when much of what was promised yesterday should already have happened.

The Crab Nebula Revisited Using HST/WFC3: #CrabNebula to Track 25 Years of Expansion: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-revisits-crab-nebula-to-track-25-years-of-expansion/ (color coded the expansion in two sections from 2000 to 2024).

RE: #3IATLAS, expertly processed: quite an improvement over ESA's raw version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYF1LEiBS3k

A Mass Transferring Brown Dwarf #Binary on a 57 Minute Orbit: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae486e -> How Two Dim Stars Came Together to Shine Brightly: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/how-two-dim-stars-came-together-to-shine-brightly

Negative #Superhumps in Cataclysmic Variables Driven by Retrograde Apsidal Disk Precession: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae4c5d -> New Explanation for Unique ‘Negative Superhump’ Features of Deep-Space Binary Star Systems: https://www.sflorg.com/2026/03/asph03232601.html

Radio Pulse Power Distribution of Lightning in Jupiter's 2021–2022 Stealth Superstorms: #Lightning bolts on #Jupiter pack more than 100 times the power of Earth’s flashes: #Juno

Three live streams re. #NASA policy issues planned for Tuesday at 13:00, 17:00 and 20:45 UTC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIlTwwJv1Ac and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIlTwwJv1Ac and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZea4h8zxLY as announced in https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-provide-update-on-implementation-of-national-space-policy/ - and in parallel the ISS docking of Progress MS-33 will stream from 12:45 UTC on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saaiOluvjJk

"EU energy ministers pledge to boost offshore wind power in North Sea"
#EU #EuropeanUnion #Energy #NorthSea

#Berlin plant deutlich mehr #Bäume im Stadtgebiet, doch Leitungen im Untergrund, #Brandschutz und #Denkmalschutz