Tootfinder

NASA has just provided the timeline for the return of #Crew11: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2026/01/09/nasa-spacex-set-target-date-for-crew-11s-return-to-earth/ - Wednesday, Jan. 14, 20:30 UTC Hatch closing, 22:00 Undocking, Thursday, Jan. 15, 7:50 Deorbit burn, 8:40 UTC Splashdown.

As NASA moves closer to launch of the #Artemis II test flight, the agency soon will roll its #SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft to the launch pad for the first time at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin final integration, testing, and launch rehearsals: #VehicleAssemblyBuilding to Launch Pad 39B.

The 39 satellites of the Twilight mission are now in orbit, after the launch at 13:44 UTC: see https://www.spacex.com/launches/twilight for the deployment timeline (Pandora should be the last of the three space observatories, at 16:12 UTC).

Search for light sterile neutrinos with two #neutrino beams at MicroBooNE: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09757-7 -> No evidence of sterile neutrinos: https://mediarelations.unibe.ch/media_releases/2025/media_releases_2025/sterile_neutrinos/index_eng.html

A Thick Volatile Atmosphere on the Ultrahot #SuperEarth TOI-561 b: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae0a4c -> NASA’s Webb Detects Thick Atmosphere Around Broiling Lava World: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-detects-thick-atmosphere-around-broiling-lava-world/

Observation of deuteron and antideuteron formation from resonance-decay #nucleons / „So entstehen leichte Atomkerne“: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09775-5 / https://www.weltderphysik.de/gebiet/teilchen/experimente/teilchenbeschleuniger/cern-lhc/alice-raetsel-der-teilchenphysik-geloest/ -> Decades-old mystery in particle physics solved: https://www.tum.de/en/news-and-events/all-news/press-releases/details/decades-old-mystery-in-particle-physics-solved

RE: #Megaconstellation Close Conjunctions: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.09643 -> thread https://scicomm.xyz/@sundogplanets@mastodon.social/115698651442317843

Multispacecraft Measurements of the Evolving Geometry of the Solar #Alfvén Surface over Half a Solar Cycle: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae0e5c -> Astronomers Create First Map of the Sun's Outer Boundary: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/astronomers-create-first-map-suns-outer-boundary

Icy or rocky? Convective or stable? New interior models of #Uranus and Neptune: https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/12/aa56911-25/aa56911-25.html -> Uranus and Neptune Might Be Rock Giants: https://www.news.uzh.ch/en/articles/media/2025/Uranus-Neptune.html - the composition of Uranus and Neptune, the two outer most planets, might be more rocky and less icy than previously thought.

Assessing the metal and rare earth element mining potential of undifferentiated #asteroids through the study of carbonaceous chondrites: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/545/1/staf1902/8317164?login=false -> Mining asteroids for water and metals explored: https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/research-highlights/mining-asteroids-water-and-metals-explored