Tootfinder

Press releases about the successful #Smile launch: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Smile/Smile_lifts_off_on_quest_to_reveal_Earth_s_invisible_shield_against_the_solar_wind and https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-plays-leading-role-as-landmark-mission-launches-to-unlock-secrets-of-earths-magnetic-shield and https://le.ac.uk/news/2026/may/landmark-mission-launches-earth-magnetic-shield-smile and https://www.avio.com/press-release/avio-successfully-launches-the-smile-satellite-with-vega-c- and https://cnes.fr/evenements/vv29-lancement-de-vega-c-satellite-smile - and two photos from https://x.com/EuropeSpacePort/status/2056591274384257239 and https://bsky.app/profile/transport.esa.int/post/3mm6s5d5nxk2d

To better "see" Precambrian basement geology, an airborne geophysical survey is currently being carried out over eastern North Dakota! USGS with North Dakota Geological Survey NDGS.
Part of the national Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI)
https://www.

Media Alert: Low-level flights to image geology of eastern North Dakota
RESTON, Va. – The U.S. Geological Survey plans low-level airplane flights over eastern North Dakota and small nearby areas of Minnesota and South Dakota to image geology using airborne geophysical technology. The survey will begin in early June and will continue into the fall, weather and other flight restrictions permitting.

NASA has selected a mission concept to research how space weather and dynamics within Earth’s atmosphere influence the space environment and help improve prediction capabilities for impacts on crucial technology, such as GPS and low Earth orbit satellites, as well as astronauts in space: #DAPHNE (Dynamic Atmosphere-Ionosphere Explorer) mission will enter Phase B of development, which includes planning and design for flight and mission operations

A NASA research mission to study the Earth's magnetic tail - a #HamSCI 2026 talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SlVnbRKSKg (CINEMA is a NASA mission of 9 spacecraft in Low-Earth Orbit, recently approved - https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-selects-two-heliophysics-missions-for-continued-development/ - to move into development, to study the Earth's magnetic tail by detecting particles that are accelerated to the poles. MOVIE is its conjugate Citizen Science initiative, part of which includes building out ground instruments to compliment the main mission, expected to include All-Sky Cameras, Magnetometers, and various Radio Receivers to probe the coinciding ionospheric conditions). Also a talk about the SoFIE CubeSat Mission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imB7_NXQeHQ

The Trump Administration wants to eliminate decades-old rules that have prevented roads from being built in wilderness areas.
Would it make it easier to fight devastating wildfires, as some argue?
Or would it lead to renewed commercial logging in places like the Los Padres National Forest?
https://

Earth Focus | The Fight to Protect Los Padres National Forest
Will the Trump Administration’s rollback of public lands protections jeopardize Los Padres National

Widespread Impact-Induced Crustal Permeability on the Early Earth: #Impact history of early Earth created conditions conducive to life: https://www.swri.org/newsroom/press-releases/impact-history-of-early-earth-created-conditions-conducive-life

Der #Palmkohl ist als Community-Anregung der Neuling auf meinem #Balkon. Er wird natürlich nicht so riesig wachsen, wie bei @… im Garten, aber der schießt ganz schön …

Disclosed CVEs: 3.5× Spike After Claude Mythos | Epoch AI
https://epoch.ai/data-insights/cve-severity-spike
Disclosure of serious cyber vulnerabilities spiked around the release of Claude Mythos Preview
Severe cybersecurity vulnerability disclosures (CVEs) spiked in …

The video #Megaconstellation threat to astronomy (and more) is linked in the sidebar of the ESO release but deserves a separate shout-out. Also learned that the actual paper has just been formally published in https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf/forth/aa60006-26.pdf - and see https://gizmodo.com/eso-study-finds-that-no-more-than-100000-satellites-should-orbit-earth-2000780091 for an article.