Tootfinder

New observations of the #NearEarthAsteroid #2024YR4 with the #Webb Telescope are now also, like the recently discovered precovery positions, firmly excluding a crash into the Moon: https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/planetary-defense/2026/03/05/new-nasa-asteroid-observations-eliminate-chance-of-2032-lunar-impact/ - all the studies (and speculations) about consequences for Earth of such a lunar impact are now merely an exercise. But one day ... ;-)

So there is an upcoming novel about #asteroid #2024YR4 which has just sold its movie rights: #TheLastOrbit eventually figure out that it's not only no risk for Earth anymore (as has been known for a year now, of course) but also not for the Moon. Talk about bad timing ... ;-)

#GlobalWarming Has Accelerated Significantly: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2025GL118804 -> Significant acceleration of global warming since 2015: https://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/significant-acceleration-of-global-warming-since-2015

The third #AAS247 presser https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfDmYXvBbV4 about News from the High-Redshift Universe and Local Analogs dealt with the papers The ALPINE-CRISTAL-JWST Survey: JWST/IFU Optical Observations for 18 Main-sequence Galaxies at z = 4–6 (https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4365/ae0928 with https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/young-galaxies-grow-up-fast and https://public.nrao.edu/news/young-galaxies-grow-up-fast/), A New Population of Point-like, Narrow-line Objects Revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope (https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.12177 with https://showme.missouri.edu/2026/scientists-discover-platypus-galaxies-in-the-early-universe/ and https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/scientists-identify-astronomys-platypus-with-nasas-webb-telescope/; slide), Supermassive Stars Match the Spectral Signatures of JWST's Little Red Dots (https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12618 with https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/scientists-use-jwst-examine-ancient-monster-stars-may-reveal-birth-black-holes) and Discovery of SiC and Iron Dust around AGB Stars in the Very Metal-poor Sextans a Dwarf Galaxy with JWST: Implications for Dust Production at High Redshift & JWST Captures Growth of Aromatic Hydrocarbon Dust Particles in the Extremely Metal-poor Galaxy Sextans A (https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/adf06a / https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.04060 with https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasa-webb-finds-early-universe-analogs-unexpected-talent-for-making-dust/).

Direct detection of an asteroid’s heliocentric deflection - the Didymos system after DART: #DART Mission Changed Orbit of #Asteroid #Didymos Around Sun: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/dart/nasas-dart-mission-changed-orbit-of-asteroid-didymos-around-sun/

RE: https://flipboard.com/@spacecom/space.com-06o8ff5iz/-/a-uaYJjWjASkOFZag4tBuDuQ:a:1693190246-/0
More in https://www.aaas.org/news/fy-2026-rd-appropriations-dashboard, https://scicomm.xyz/@AkaSci@fosstodon.org/115845815382959954, https://www.leonarddavid.com/mars-sample-return-given-the-political-axe/ and https://eos.org/research-and-developments/science-escapes-largest-cuts-in-latest-budget-bills

An anomaly onboard the #Proba3 mission’s Coronagraph spacecraft led to loss of contact between the spacecraft and ground control: https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Work_ongoing_to_restore_contact_with_Proba-3_s_Coronagraph - the root cause of the anomaly is under investigation and mission teams are working hard to recover the situation.

The fourth #AAS247 press conference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZmP4fC07-Q about The Milky Way and Stellar Explosions covered the paper Resolving the Fe K-alpha Doublet of the Galactic Center Molecular Cloud G0.11-0.11 with XRISM (https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.02482), 25 years of observing the Kepler supernova remnant with Chandra (https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2026/kepler/ and https://chandra.si.edu/press/26_releases/press_010626.html and https://www.nasa.gov/missions/chandra/supernova-remnant-video-from-nasas-chandra-is-decades-in-making/) and the paper Where do stars explode in the ISM? -- The distribution of dense gas around evolved massive stars in M33 (https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.17694 with https://public.nrao.edu/news/stars-that-die-off-the-beaten-path/).

Great News for #NASA in the House-Senate FY2026 Appropriations Report / NASA’s science budget won’t be a train wreck after all: https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/great-news-for-nasa-in-the-house-senate-fy2026-appropriations-report/ / https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/nasas-science-budget-wont-be-a-train-wreck-after-all/

Improved measurements of the age of JWST #galaxies at z = 6 − 10: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/546/2/stag089/8426287?login=false -> Do we actually know how old the Universe is? https://astrobites.org/2026/03/05/how_old_is_the_universe/