Artemis II – NASA says it's fixed the fuel leak, putting the Moon mission on course for a March launch

The next mission to the Moon could now be weeks away

BY Iain Todd

A previous Artemis II wet dress rehearsal that concluded on 2 February found a leak in the system that provides liquid hydrogen fuel for propulsion of the Space Launch System (the rocket).

But it seems NASA engineers have completed the second wet dress rehearsal with the problem fixed, and the Artemis II crew are preparing to enter a 14-day quarantine ahead of the first potential launch on 6 March.

Prep for a mission to the Moon

NASA's Artemis II mission will see astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen launch to the Moon and back.

The 10-day mission will take the crew to the Moon, further into space than any human has ever travelled before, then slingshot around the Moon and return to Earth.

Part of preparations for the launch of Artemis II include a wet dress rehearsal, where the ground team run through all the steps to launch, but without the astronauts onboard.

The first wet dress rehearsal for Artemis II concluded on 2 February 2026.

Engineers discovered issues with the system providing fuel to the Space Launch System, but also problems with a valve involved in the pressurisation of the Orion crew module hatch, which is where the astronauts will be situated during their journey around the Moon.

The second dress rehearsal concluded on 19 February 2026.

NASA says the ground team successfully fuelled the Space Launch System rocket and demonstrated the launch countdown for Artemis II during the rehearsal at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Engineers loaded over 700,000 gallons of liquid fuel, practiced closing the Orion capsule's hatches and completed two runs of the final phase of the launch countdown.

The Artemis II crew were present, but observing the wet dress rehearsal from the Launch Control Center at Kennedy Space Center.

Previously-known issues around maintaining communications between ground teams seem to have re-surface, however.

NASA says teams experienced a loss of ground communications in the Launch Control Center.

However, backup communications kicked in so the fuelling could continue before engineers restored main communications and isolated what had caused the issue.

While no launch date has been confirmed, the Artemis II crew are preparing to enter quarantine again, having been released from earlier quarantine after issues with the first wet dress rehearsal became apparent.

Quarantine is a standard practice for the crewed Artemis missions, and sees the astronauts isolated in order to ensure they remain fit and healthy for the mission ahead.

NASA's earliest potential launch date for Artemis II is 6 March 2026.

{ https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/ }

24-02-2026 om 22:38 geschreven door peter  

What came before the Big Bang? These are the best theories we have about the origin of the cosmos

We explore the theories about one of the most mind-boggling questions about the Universe.

Even Isaac Newton believed that God created the Universe, some 6,000 years ago.

Later, many scientists, including young Albert Einstein, assumed the Universe itself to be eternal and everlasting.

The beginning of the Universe

But when cosmic expansion was discovered, Belgian cosmologist (and Jesuit priest) Georges Lemaître realised there must have been a beginning – a scientific version of Genesis, so to speak.

Not that everyone immediately agreed.

Well into the 1960s, Fred Hoyle’s steady-state theory was quite popular among iconoclastic scientists as well as lay people.

Hoyle accepted the expansion of the Universe, but he didn’t believe in the Big Bang.

Instead, he assumed that a slow, continuous creation of new matter could keep the average density and the general properties of the Universe constant over time.

The 1964 discovery of the cosmic microwave background was the major nail in the coffin of the steady-state theory.

Ever since, supporting evidence for the Big Bang origin of our Universe has accumulated to a point where there’s hardly any doubt left.

Still, no one has the final answer to the question "what happened before the Big Bang?".

Could there have been a Universe before the Big Bang?

Most scientists simply ignore the question, as it seems to be too hard a nut to crack.

Beginning of time

When astronomers talk about the Big Bang, they usually do not refer to the very beginning of the Universe (time zero), but to the incredibly hot and compact state of the Universe in the first couple of minutes of its existence.

To some extent, this is because no one has a real clue about the true nature of time, let alone about the beginning of time.

British physicist Julian Barbour, for one, has argued that time doesn’t even exist, except as an illusion in our minds.

According to others (including Stephen Hawking), time came into existence together with the Universe, rendering the whole concept of the word ‘before’ meaningless.

Asking what happened before the Big Bang would be like asking what lies north of the North Pole, or what distance is shorter than zero.

Alternative theories

Then again, we simply don’t know whether or not there was time before the Big Bang.

According to the once-popular idea of the cyclic (or oscillatory) Universe, the current expansion of space could one day revert into a contraction, and the resulting Big Crunch could bounce into a new Big Bang, starting the next cycle of an eternal sequence.

For more on this, read our interview with Katie Mack about the end of the Universe.

It’s just one of many hypotheses in which our Universe is not unique, but part of a possibly infinite multiverse, one way or another.

And if the multiverse is also infinite in time, we’re back to the idea that everything has existed forever, conveniently circumnavigating the nagging question of a beginning.

Finally, South African physicist Neil Turok thinks the Big Bang not only spawned our Universe, but also an anti-Universe, composed of anti­­​­matter and running backward in time.

Again, an intriguing idea, but there’s also no chance of confirmation (or rejection!) via observations.

In the end, we have to admit we’re ignorant about the true beginning of the Universe.

And even if we lean towards an eternal multiverse with no real beginning at all, we don’t know why there is something (or, more to the point, why there is everything) instead of nothing.

{ https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/ }

24-02-2026 om 22:20 geschreven door peter  

This moss just survived months in space. Here's why it could one day help humans live on Mars

More spaceflight

• What astronauts eat in space
• How astronauts survive in space
• How will astronauts survive solar storms on Mars?

A study found more than 80% of moss spores survived 9 months outside the International Space Station – and returned to Earth still capable of growing.

This is the first demonstration that moss can withstand long-term exposure to the extreme elements of space, and could have implications for humans' ability to develop ecosystems on barren planets like Mars.

Why moss?

The study was led by Tomomichi Fujita of Hokkaido University, Japan, who was inspired by moss’s ability to survive among the harshest conditions on Earth.

His question was simple: if moss can survive glaciers, deserts and volcanoes, could it also survive space?

"Most living organisms, including humans, cannot survive even briefly in the vacuum of space," says Fujita.

"However, the moss spores retained their vitality after nine months of direct exposure."

The results, he says, suggest that life on Earth contains "intrinsic mechanisms" that can endure conditions far beyond our planet.

Putting moss to the test

Before sending moss to space, the researchers simulated space-like stresses on Physcomitrium patens, a well-studied moss known as spreading earthmoss.

They evaluated three moss structures:

• Protonemata – juvenile moss
• Brood cells – stress-induced stem cells
• Sporophytes – reproductive capsules containing spores

The team exposed them to extreme temperatures, vacuum conditions and intense ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

UV radiation proved the most damaging. Juvenile moss died under high UV exposure or severe temperatures.

Brood cells fared better, but the real champions were the encased spores, which tolerated UV radiation roughly 1,000 times better than the other structures.

The spores also survived freezing at –196°C (–320°F) for over a week and withstood 55°C (131°F) heat for a month.

The researchers suggest the sporophyte’s protective outer casing shields the spore from radiation and physical damage.

This is likely an evolutionary feature dating back 500 million years, when early bryophytes first moved from water onto land.

The ultimate test: a trip beyond Earth

To test these structures under real cosmic conditions, the team launched hundreds of sporophytes to the International Space Station in March 2022.

Astronauts mounted them on the Space Station's exterior, where they endured vacuum, cosmic radiation, microgravity and temperature extremes for 283 days.

In January 2023, the spores returned to Earth.

"We expected almost zero survival," Fujita says. "But the result was the opposite: most of the spores survived.:

More than 80% survived, and of those, all but 11% successfully germinated in the lab.

The team checked chlorophyll levels as well – essential pigments for photosynthesis – and found normal levels across the spores, aside from a 20% drop in chlorophyll a.

But even that reduction did not appear to harm the spores’ overall health.

How long could moss survive in space?

Using their experimental data, the researchers built a model to estimate long-term survival.

Their rough prediction: up to 5,600 days (around 15 years) in space.

This estimate is preliminary, they caution, and more data will be needed to refine it.

Still, the finding underscores the astonishing durability of early land plants, and raises new possibilities for space exploration.

The researchers hope their results will guide future work on how plants interact with extraterrestrial soils and how hardy species like moss might support agricultural systems beyond Earth.

"Ultimately, we hope this work opens a new frontier toward constructing ecosystems in extraterrestrial environments such as the Moon and Mars," says Fujita.

"I hope that our moss research will serve as a starting point."

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{ https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/ }

24-02-2026 om 22:00 geschreven door peter  

“What I Saw Was Not Our Technology”: A Navy Officer Breaks the Silence on Mysterious Underwater UFOs

From the depths of the ocean, UFOs surface as a Navy officer warns of a threat too real to be ignored.

Written by Ashley Morgan

© Credit: Shutterstock

An extraordinary new investigation, originally published by Popular Mechanics is drawing fresh attention to a string of unexplained encounters between U.S. Navy personnel and unidentified submerged objects (USOs). These sightings—recorded over decades and across multiple oceans—are now being described by former officers as a legitimate threat and part of a global pattern that defies conventional physics.

Unexplained Encounters During Training Missions

In 2014, Lieutenant Ryan Graves, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 pilot stationed off the coast of Virginia Beach, began to detect anomalies during flight training missions. Initially dismissed as radar glitches, the signals reappeared repeatedly—only this time, they were backed by infrared and optical confirmation.

According to Graves, these unidentified objects could hover completely still or accelerate to supersonic speeds. They were seen across all altitudes, always above or near the ocean. Graves reported seeing a particularly strange object: a black or dark gray cube enclosed in a clear sphere, estimated to be 5 to 15 feet in diameter. It passed within 50 feet of one of the jets. That incident, he later explained, “was the turning point.”

When Graves later spoke with pilots stationed on the USS Nimitz and USS Princeton off the West Coast, he discovered that similar sightings had occurred for years.

Craft That Travel Between Air And Sea

The military has since adopted the term unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) to describe objects like those witnessed by Graves. A growing number of them appear to be transmedium—able to travel from air to sea without slowing down, splashing, or generating turbulence. These transitions contradict what we know about aerodynamics and hydrodynamics.

Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, a retired oceanographer and Navy commander, was among the first to review footage of these transmedium encounters, captured in 2015 by jets from the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The craft shown in those videos moved at extraordinary speeds, rotated midair, and left no propulsion trail.

“What I saw was not our technology,” Gallaudet said. “No nation has craft that can move like that.” For him, these phenomena represent a national research priority. He now collaborates with Graves and former Pentagon officials to push for transparency and investigation.

Four Major Incidents Still Unexplained

Several high-profile military encounters continue to raise questions about unidentified submerged objects. In 2004, Navy pilots aboard the USS Nimitz witnessed a Tic Tac–shaped craft that dropped from 80,000 feet to sea level in under one second, with no wings or engines.

In 2013, infrared footage from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico captured a spherical object entering the ocean without a splash, resurfacing, then splitting into two before submerging—defying known flight and fluid dynamics.

A 1990s incident involved a CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter crew near Puerto Rico. As they retrieved a drone, a massive dark object rose from below and pulled it back underwater, leaving the pilot stunned.

In 2019, the USS Omaha recorded a spherical object hovering over the Pacific before it dropped into the water without any visible splash. A sailor later confirmed similar sightings aboard the USS Jackson in 2023.

{ https://dailygalaxy.com/category/news/ }

24-02-2026 om 21:22 geschreven door peter  

Curiosity Rover Navigates Mars’ Spiderweb-Like Formations, Here’s What Scientists Are Finding

Mars’ mysterious ‘spiderwebs’ hold ancient clues, could they be signs of past water flow?

© Credit: Shutterstock

NASA’s Curiosity rover has unveiled an incredible feature on Mars: intricate geological formations resembling giant spiderwebs, known as boxwork ridges, that stretch across the Martian surface. For the past six months, Curiosity has been carefully exploring this region, and its findings are raising some very interesting questions about the possibility of life on Mars long before it became the dry, desert world we see today.

These boxwork formations, with ridges ranging from three to six feet tall, aren’t just a weird visual anomaly. They tell a story about Mars’ watery past. The discovery comes at a time when scientists are trying to piece together the history of water on Mars and how it may have supported life, or at least provided the conditions that could have.

What the Ridges Might Reveal?

Curiosity’s mission on Mars is focused on one big question: Did water ever flow on Mars in a way that might have supported life? According to NASA, Curiosity has been exploring an area of Mount Sharp where these boxwork formations can be found, and the data it’s collecting is helping answer that question in unexpected ways.

“The formations suggest ancient groundwater flowed on this part of the Red Planet later than scientists expected. This possibility raises new questions about how long microbial life could have survived on Mars billions of years ago.”

Curiosity’s detailed exploration of these ridges has added some important evidence.

“Seeing boxwork this far up the mountain suggests the groundwater table had to be pretty high,” said Tina Seeger, one of the scientists leading the investigation. “And that means the water needed for sustaining life could have lasted much longer than we thought looking from orbit.”

This image of boxwork formations was captured by NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Rover Exploration: Navigating the Tight Ridges

But getting to the bottom of this discovery isn’t exactly easy. Curiosity, an SUV-sized rover, is rolling across a landscape with ridges just a few feet wide. For the team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, navigating this terrain is a bit like threading a needle.

“It almost feels like a highway we can drive on. But then we have to go down into the hollows, where you need to be mindful of Curiosity’s wheels slipping or having trouble turning in the sand,” explained Ashley Stroupe, an operations systems engineer.

It’s a constant balancing act to make sure the rover doesn’t get stuck or damaged, all while trying to collect as much data as possible from these fascinating Martian features.

Despite the challenges, the rover has been able to gather rock samples and analyze them with some seriously sophisticated equipment.

What the Boxwork Reveals?

As Curiosity ascends the mountain, it’s uncovering signs of a climate that fluctuated between wet and dry conditions. The boxwork formations themselves are evidence of a time when water was more abundant, even if it wasn’t around in the way we see it on Earth today. By analyzing the mineral content and the structure of the boxwork ridges, scientists are starting to put together a more nuanced timeline of Mars’ climate history.

The minerals that the rover has found in the ridges, such as clay and carbonate, suggest that groundwater may have been active for much longer than researchers initially thought.

“We can’t quite explain yet why the nodules appear where they do.” As Seeger suggested. “Maybe the ridges were cemented by minerals first, and later episodes of groundwater left nodules around them,” hinting at the possibility of multiple wet periods across Mars’ history.

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{ https://dailygalaxy.com/category/space/ }

24-02-2026 om 21:00 geschreven door peter  

By: Mark Mancini

Nutrients, water and living space. Those are some of life's basic needs. Anything that alters their distribution is going to be a key factor in the struggle for survival. Change the waterways, the landscape or the availability of food and an entire ecosystem can be reshaped.

Certain species wield that power to great effect. One of the most fascinating topics in biology is the role of ecosystem engineers. Scientists define these as "organisms that directly or indirectly modulate the availability of resources to other species by causing physical state changes to biotic or abiotic materials."

In simple terms, ecosystem engineers alter their physical surroundings in ways that have major impacts on the livelihood of other organisms. A perfect example would be the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis).

Out in the wild, the big reptiles like to make their own swimming pools. Using their snouts and claws, they create massive trenches known as "gator holes" in the limestone around Florida's Everglades. In short order, these things flood with water. The depressions also tend to remain full of water, even well into the dry season — a time when standing water is scarce.

For other life forms, these gator holes provide badly-needed oases. Frogs and turtles pour into these convenient little ponds, while plants surround their rims, attracting all kinds of insects. So, as unlikely as it sounds, Florida alligators are environmental stewards. They create brand-new homes for their neighbors and — in the process — strengthen the biodiversity of the Everglades.

Other ecosystem engineers leave different marks. Today, we're looking at five that reshape rivers, link ponds together and transform mangrove creeks. Mapmakers of the world, you'll want to keep your erasers handy when these beasties come to town.

Contents

1. Beavers
2. Hippos
3. Muskrats
4. Elephants
5. Burrowing Crabs

5: Beavers

The term "busy as a beaver" is high praise indeed. Beavers are insanely hard-working rodents; a lone individual can cut down up to 200 trees in a single year. Famously, they build sturdy homes — or "lodges" — for themselves out of branches, mud and other materials. They can also make their own large-scale ponds by damming streams.

With a well-placed dam, a beaver family will be able to regulate water flow. On the structure's upstream side, backlogged water may give rise to a standing pond where none previously existed. This not only gives beavers a place to build their lodges, it also affords easy access to surrounding trees. Often, a couple of inches (5 centimeters) or feet (0.6 meters) of water covers the bases of nearby pines and hardwoods that once stood on dry ground. As a result, beavers can swim right up to these trees. They also like to dig canals that branch out of the new ponds, penetrating deeply into the local forests.

These new beaver-created wetlands provide homes for smaller animals like amphibians. Plus, the rodents' dams make great natural filters, blocking excess nitrogen from our creeks and streams.

However, not all the side-effects are positive. When a beaver dam fails, it's liable to flood towns or farms. The aftermath can be expensive: In the southeastern U.S. alone, these floods are responsible for an estimated $22 million in yearly damages to the timber industry. It's not surprising, then, that many people view beavers as pests. If you've got a beaver problem, know that humane solutions are out there.

4: Hippos

Landscaping is child's play for these guys. Put a group of hippos into a floodplain with lots of nice, soft soil and they'll start reconfiguring the turf like crazy. The massive creatures like to plow through the reed beds that ring bodies of water. This creates deep depressions in the underlying soil, which in turn become channels. Also, on hot days, hippos will sometimes relax in the cool comfort of freshwater pools.

However, these don't offer much in the way of food. So when hunger strikes, the hippos leave their little pools to feed elsewhere. All of this coming and going produces what Discover magazine once called "hippo highways."

Worn down into deep, plant-free ravines by wandering hippos, these footpaths can be as much as 16 feet (5 meters) wide and — just like gator holes — they're quick to fill up with water. What's more, hippo highways linking the pools to big rivers can also be established. If the area should flood, these connection points may become an outlet for surging water. They also enable swamplands to expand. And under the right circumstances, the trench-like trails will divert a great deal of sediment from rivers into lagoons or ponds.

So to make a long story short, just by going about their daily business, hippos can carve up and revamp Africa's waterways. Neat. But if hippopotamuses are true blue ecosystem engineers, then how do they affect other organisms?

Well, one 2015 analysis determined that hippo dung is an important source of nutrition for at least some of the fish and insects that share the animal's native range. Don't underestimate the power of poop.

3: Muskrats

Beavers may be the poster children for ecosystem engineers, but other rodents also deserve some acknowledgement for their roles in shaping habitats.

Consider the muskrat. Like beavers, muskrats are known to create dome-shaped lodges out of things like twigs and leaves. But this isn't their only method of building shelters. Muskrats who live alongside rivers, ponds or ditches tend to eschew lodges in favor of deep holes they've burrowed into the banks. The critters begin by diving under the water, where they start working on a tunnel about 6 to 18 inches (15.2 to 45.7 centimeters) below the surface. From there, the muskrats dig farther and farther at an upward slant. Eventually, they produce a warm, dry living chamber that's only accessible through underwater entrances. Not a bad way to keep uninvited guests out.

Such burrows can have big implications for the waterways they're connected to. For one thing, the structures promote erosion, which can cause banks to collapse. This prompts water to race into the afflicted area, disrupting the river flow. Over time, if enough water is re-routed toward the collapsed bank, the river's curvature might change — thanks partly to the rodents. And much to the annoyance of human land developers, when a muskrat burrows into a manmade dam, unwanted drainage often follows.

2: Elephants

It's hard to keep a full belly when you weigh 7 tons (6.35 metric tons). African elephants are larger than life and have appetites to match. On a typical day, an adult will spend 12 to 18 hours eating, devouring as much as 600 pounds' (272 kilograms') worth of food in the process. All that munching is vital to the ecosystem. So are the bowel movements that come later.

Elephant dung is a nutritious fertilizer for the soils of Africa; it's also a vehicle by which many seeds are dispersed. Furthermore, by knocking down trees and eating shrubs, these colossal animals convert forests into grasslands.

A 2009 study revealed even more about the transformative powers that African elephants have over their habitats. Appearing in an issue of the journalBioScience, this study reported on the ecosystem engineers in Botswana's Okavango Delta. Elephants, the co-authors noted, are great at building water channels. The tusked herbivores like to cover the same land routes over and over again, making trails in the process. Sometimes, multiple generations of elephants will re-use the exact same footpaths. As time goes by, the heavy animals can't help but compress the soil, turning their walkways into trenches.

According to study authors, when elephants move back and forth between two bodies of water, their sunken trails become nice conduits. Thus, rivers or ponds that were once isolated can be merged via elephant-made canals.

And that's not the only service that elephant routes provide. In 2010, environmental scientists Roy Sidle and Alan Ziegler published a seven-year study on an Asian elephant trail in northern Thailand. By inspecting both water and sediment levels, they determined that this pathway helped send monsoon runoff directly into the local streams.

1: Burrowing Crabs

It's time to take a break from our own phylum. A number of crustaceans are great diggers, including the so-called fiddler crabs (genus Uca), which shelter in tunnels measuring up to 3 feet (0.9 meters) or more in depth. (The holes are quite a construction project, given the fact that most fiddler species are less than 2 inches (5 centimeters) wide.

And then we've got the "burrowing crabs" of the genus Chasmagnathus. Unrelated to the fiddlers, these guys live in the mangrove swamps, salt marshes and estuaries of eastern Asia. For many years, a South American species formerly known as Chasmognathus granulatus was assigned to this genus, but in 2006, it was reclassified and renamed Neohelice granulata — though, confusingly, some scientists still use the old name.

Often found in the mangrove swamps of Brazil and Argentina, Neohelice granulata is an efficient, deep-digging burrower. Like muskrat holes, the tunnels these small crabs builds are liable to weaken the surrounding turf. On mangrove swamp shorelines, this has the effect of widening tidal creeks, whose mud and clay-based banks are rendered more vulnerable to erosion by the digging invertebrates. And that's just part of the story. Because burrowing crabs have such a pronounced effect on sediment composition, their tunnels can also cause completely new creeks to form within these mangrove systems.

So despite being rather miniscule animals, burrowing crabs can shake up entire waterway networks. Will nature ever cease to amaze us?

{ https://science.howstuffworks.com/ }

24-02-2026 om 18:37 geschreven door peter  

Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS provided scientists with an exceptionally rare opportunity to study the nature of other planetary systems beyond our own. It was first discovered in July of last year, heading straight past the Sun and making its closest approach to our star in late October.

It’s been speeding out of the solar system ever since, releasing copious amounts of carbon dioxide and water vapor that potentially date back billions of years.

But scientists think it’s technically still possible to send a probe and have a closer look, as Space.com reports. It’s admittedly a long shot: the mission would have to launch by 2035 to catch up with 3I/ATLAS by 2085, at which point it will be over 700 times the distance between the Sun and Earth away from us, or over four times the distance NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has covered over the last 48 years.

To gain enough speed, such a probe would have to perform close flybys of the Sun, making use of the Oberth effect to borrow energy from the star’s extreme gravitational field. As former NASA staffer and Space Initiatives chief scientist Marshall Eubanks told Space.com, it’s common for spacecraft to use the effect. However, as detailed in a new yet-to-be-published paper, he and his colleagues proposed performing a major burn during the closest approach to reach massive levels of acceleration — a delta-V, or a change in velocity, of over five miles per second.

Besides reaching potentially record-breaking speeds for any spacecraft, it would also have to endure searing temperatures as it brushes by the Sun.

After its daring solar flyby, the spacecraft would then need to perform several flybys of Venus to speed up even more, not unlike NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. In their paper, the researchers propose using a “refueled Starship Block 3” in low-Earth orbit, referring to SpaceX’s enormous launch platform, which would have “sufficient performance for such a mission.”

But whether it would be worth the effort to careen after 3I/ATLAS for decades remains debatable. The interceptor would also only be able to perform a flyby some 50 years from now due to the difference in velocities, greatly undermining the usefulness of such a major undertaking.

Fortunately, as more powerful space telescopes like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory come online, 3I/ATLAS probably won’t be the last interstellar object to be detected cruising by in the near future.

“We’ll just have to see,” Eubanks told Space.com. “Maybe after, say, ten interstellar objects have been found, 3I will seem commonplace and it won’t seem worthwhile to mount an expedition to chase it.”

However, any future interstellar objects should be chased by spacecraft that are already in orbit, Eubanks and his colleagues argued.

“There are better mission architectures, using a probe already in orbit in space, which would intercept an interstellar object around perihelion in much less time, rendering an Oberth unnecessary,” Adam Hibberd, Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software creator and coauthor of the latest paper, told Space.com.

Conveniently, the European Space Agency is already planning to launch its Comet Interceptor mission as soon as late 2028 and “park” it while it awaits its target, opening the door for studying future interstellar visitors.

“I feel quite confident that when we develop the ability to reach these interstellar objects, there will be a strong desire to directly explore at least some of them,” Eubanks told the outlet.

More on 3I/ATLAS: 

• 3I/ATLAS Spraying Material as It Exits the Solar System

{ https://futurism.com/category/space }

24-02-2026 om 18:20 geschreven door peter  

The Curiosity rover has studied a network of Martian “webs” — structures formed by ancient underground water. This raises the question once again of whether life could have existed on the Red Planet.

One of the distinctive features of Mars are geological formations called “boxworks,” which look like giant spider webs from space. They are low ridges stretching for many kilometers, with heights ranging from 1 to 2 meters, with sandy depressions between them.

To explain their shape, scientists have hypothesized that underground water once flowed through large cracks in the bedrock, leaving minerals behind. These minerals then reinforced the areas that became ridges, while other areas that did not have mineral reinforcement were eroded over time.

Martian “highway”

However, until recently, this was only a hypothesis. Although boxwork ridges also exist on Earth, they rarely exceed a few centimeters in height and are usually found in caves or dry sandy environments. To reveal the nature of these formations, it was necessary to examine them closely.

The Curiosity rover was used to solve this problem, which proved to be a real challenge for the team controlling it. They needed to plan the route for the 900-kilogram rover so that it could travel along the tops of ridges whose width was not much greater than the rover’s own width. 

“It almost feels like a highway we can drive on. But then we have to go down into the hollows, where you need to be mindful of Curiosity’s wheels slipping or having trouble turning in the sand,” said Ashley Stroup, an operations systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “There’s always a solution. It just takes trying different paths.”

Water on Mars

Orbital images of the boxwork showed characteristic dark lines. In 2014, it was suggested that there were cracks in the rocks where groundwater seeped in and allowed minerals to concentrate. After examining the ridges up close, Curiosity confirmed that these lines are indeed cracks.

The rover also discovered irregular formations called nodules, which are a clear sign of the presence of underground water in the past. Unexpectedly, these nodules were found not near the central cracks, but along the walls of the ridges and in the depressions between them.

This discovery is particularly important given the geography of the region. Curiosity is climbing the slope of the 5-kilometer-high Mount Sharp. Each layer was formed during different geological eras. The higher Curiosity climbs, the more signs of alternating periods of water drying up and wet periods with rivers and lakes appear in the landscape.

“Seeing boxwork this far up the mountain suggests the groundwater table had to be pretty high,” said Tina Seeger of Rice University in Houston, one of the mission scientists leading the boxwork research. “And that means the water needed for sustaining life could have lasted much longer than we thought looking from orbit.”

Sometime in March, Curiosity will leave the boxwork and begin studying the sulfate layer covering Mount Sharp. It consists of salt minerals formed as a result of water drying up. Studying it will help us learn even more about what the climate of the Red Planet was like billions of years ago.

• According to NASA
• Posted in News, Science

{ https://universemagazine.com/en/articles-en/ }

24-02-2026 om 16:56 geschreven door peter  

What do Obama and Trump’s alien comments actually reveal?

During an interview with podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen released last Saturday (February 14), former president Barack Obama didn’t shy away from the question, when asked whether extraterrestrials exist, he replied simply, “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them.” 

Donald Trump responded to Obama’s comments by suggesting the former president may have revealed classified information, saying Obama “gave classified information — he’s not supposed to be doing that. He made a big mistake.” 

Trump later wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that, due to the tremendous public interest, he would direct the Secretary of War and other relevant departments and agencies to begin identifying and releasing government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and UFOs. 

Concerns about secrecy intensified when a massive public archive from The Black Vault, run by researcher and ufologist John Greenewald Jr., reportedly containing 3.8 million declassified U.S. government files, vanished just one day after Trump ordered the release of all UFO-related documents. 

Critics, however, claim the move to release all files tied to UFOs and extraterrestrial contact is merely a distraction from other political controversies. 

In the video below, Richard Dolan assesses what Obama actually said, why the reaction was wildly overblown, and why Trump’s instinctive response made the issue more interesting. More importantly, Richard examines the deeper structural problem behind UFO disclosure: a labyrinth of federal agencies, special access programs, and private defense contractors that may sit largely beyond presidential reach. This story is really power, secrecy, and what history tells us about how difficult it really is to break through the system. 

In the end, many believe it may be the same old story, with little, if anything, about aliens truly being revealed… but who knows?

  

{ https://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

24-02-2026 om 16:31 geschreven door peter  

24-02-2026 om 15:42 geschreven door peter  

Are aliens real? The question has animated conspiracy theorists for decades and enthralled at least one former president of the United States. In a recent interview, Barack Obama became the first American president to affirm a belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life, but insisted that it was not being stored inside the top-secret Area 51 military base in Nevada.

For Bill Diamond, the president and chief executive of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (Seti) in California, Obama’s beliefs are hardly radical. Seti is the world’s leading research organisation dedicated to the scientific search for life beyond our planet – and Diamond insists that aliens are out there.

“Oh yes,” says the 69-year-old scientist. “I do believe aliens are real. Definitely… It is one of the questions we ask if you want to get a job at Seti. If you don’t believe in aliens, there’s probably no point having a job with us.” Diamond’s job involves overseeing teams of scientists working on various projects and sifting through torrents of data from radio telescopes, searching for patterns that nature alone cannot explain.

Diamond is careful, though, to draw distinctions in what he means by aliens. He is not talking about flying saucers and abductions. “Life is probably very common in the universe,” he says. “It’s when you start talking about complex organisms, intelligence and then, ultimately, technology that it becomes a different matter.

{ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ }

24-02-2026 om 15:15 geschreven door peter  

NASA has reviewed the infamous Starliner incident that saw astronauts Sunita "Suni" Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore stuck on the International Space Station for 278 days longer than intended. According to the new report, the organization places the "anomalies" in the same category as the Challenger and Columbia disasters.

On 5 June 2024, Wilmore and Williams were launched into space for an eight-day-long mission on board the orbiting laboratory. The two US astronauts were flying onboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, the third test of the new vehicle, which was supposed to demonstrate its safety for shuttling astronauts to and from the ISS. But that part didn't go so well.

Before they had docked with the ISS, the crew took over control of the spacecraft for an hour of flight demonstrations. The spacecraft performed well, but the following day saw several troubling anomalies.

"And then we got into day 2. The start of day 2 was the same starting off, and then we did have some failures as we are all aware. We lost an RCS jet, then we lost another one. And then you could tell the thrust, the control, the capability was degraded. The handling qualities were not the same," Wilmore said from the ISS in June 2024.

{ https://www.iflscience.com/ }

24-02-2026 om 14:57 geschreven door peter  

Mystery as UFO vault with 3.8 million files is wiped clean hours after Trump demands alien docs released

• MORE:  Mysterious 'vehicle of unknown origin' hidden at US Navy Base raises questions about secret UFO program

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

Greenewald shared the news online, explaining that some server directories had their permissions, the safeguards on who can access or edit them, and the file ownership logs changed without explanation.

Black Vault has become a go-to resource for anyone wanting to see exactly what the government has quietly made public over the last 80 years.

Greenewald has spent three decades organizing information on hidden programs and little-known incidents that suggest the US has been involved in top secret efforts to recover and take advantage of alien technology.

Troves of declassified files the public can freely search through on the Black Vault detail military base reports, witness testimonies, and even CIA directives since the 1940s and 50s which have been unsealed without widespread public knowledge.

The researcher has also publicly revealed every time a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was returned by the CIA, FBI, and other government organizations with little or no response.

The timing of the potential sabotage came just hours after the president's history-making declaration, ordering the Pentagon to disclose anything 'related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).'

Hours after saying Barack Obama acted improperly by allegedly sharing classified information when he said that aliens exist, President Trump ordered the Pentagon to declassify all UFO files

Creator of The Black Vault, John Greenewald Jr, wrote on social media that the website containing 3.8 million declassified files was wiped hours after Trump's UFO order

In a statement released on X, Greenewald said he did not 'fully suspect foul play' but noted that he couldn't rule out the possibility because of the suspicious information he had received from the website hosting provider.

'[They] had no idea what happened, and on their side, they said it was a deletion, not corruption,' the researcher posted on Saturday.

In simpler terms, someone or something intentionally removed every single file from the Black Vault's server, deleting all the records released by the CIA and other groups, without fully shutting down the site so alarms wouldn't go off right away.

Until recently, the US government has flat-out denied that UFOs or extraterrestrial beings existed, maintaining for decades that there has never been any physical evidence recovered that proves something non-human has ever landed on Earth.

However, Trump's February 19 order came after he publicly criticized former President Barack Obama for saying in an interview that aliens were real. Trump claimed the 44th president had revealed 'classified information.'

Greenewald has previously filed over 11,000 FOIA requests with the US government to obtain these documents, including some declassified reports that date back to the alleged UFO crash landing at Roswell in 1947.

His investigations have also provided legitimate paper trails, detailing how former administrations and the intelligence community created secret task forces of high-ranking military and scientific officials to research UFO incidents.

These groups include the Majestic 12 (MJ-12), which was allegedly formed after the Roswell crash and worked for over two decades investigating sightings of alien spacecraft, working with non-human technology, and contacting extraterrestrials.

The Black Vault contains millions of pages of declassified information from the CIA and other sources on UFOs, secret government projects, and investigations into high-profile assassinations

The Black Vault's records stretch back to early files detailing the US government's actions following the alleged crash of a UFO in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947

Luckily for The Black Vault, Greenewald revealed that all of the more than 3.8 million files were backed up in secure locations and the site was restored soon after the mysterious wiping took place.

'It is a stark reminder to us all, me included. Keep backups. Keep them in multiple places. And never be intimidated by anything that comes our way, no matter what we expect may have happened,' the researcher wrote on X. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to Greenewald for comment on the incident, which the researcher called a 'very oddly timed server maintenance.'

'In my honest opinion, I feel it was a very odd-timed server maintenance done by the hosting provider, that went awry,' Greenewald posted Saturday.

'They didn't catch it, and when I did, they didn't take blame, and there was no way to fully prove what happened, and by whom. Could I be wrong? Yes. Could it have been foul play? I can't rule it out.'

Data wipes like this can occur in a few ways, often without it being a malicious attack. However, these file wipes can be done intentionally by bad actors.

The most common problem happens when hosting companies perform routine updates or data cleanups.

If a software glitch, human error, or incompatible changes take place, it could accidentally delete files or alter permissions.

Hardware issues, such as failing hard drives, software bugs, or even power outages, could also corrupt or erase data. However, The Black Vault's host allegedly ruled out corruption, pointing to a deliberate erasing of the declassified files.

That leaves the possibility of hackers breaching the server through vulnerabilities, including weak passwords, outdated software, or phishing attacks.

Once in the system, the attackers might delete files to cause chaos, especially if the site deals with sensitive data that some groups might want suppressed. 

Critics of the Trump Administration's promise to release all files tied to UFOs and extraterrestrial contact have claimed the move is merely a stunt to distract the public from other political controversies and nothing about aliens will actually be learned.

Many on social media have pointed to the previous releases of the documents detailing President Kennedy's assassination and the Jeffrey Epstein files both containing heavily redacted information that provided no definitive 'smoking gun.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

23-02-2026 om 23:08 geschreven door peter  

The Strange Story of Kyle Andrew Odom, the Ex-Marine Who Claimed Earth Is Secretly Ruled 

In 2016, Secret Service agents caught this man outside the White House. He was throwing papers and a flash drive over the fence because he believed he had to warn the whole country about aliens from Mars.

30‑year‑old former US Marine Kyle Odom, from Idaho, became wanted for the attempted murder of Pastor Tim Remington in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Witnesses and police said Odom ambushed Remington in the church parking lot after Sunday services, shooting him multiple times in the head, back, hand, and side at close range before fleeing, yet the pastor survived, which his congregation viewed as a “miracle.” (Source)

The day before the shooting, Remington had prayed onstage with US presidential candidate Ted Cruz at a campaign event, which initially led some people to suspect a political motive. Police soon identified Odom as the only suspect and launched a two‑day manhunt.

Two days after the shooting, on a Tuesday evening, Odom appeared unexpectedly at the White House in Washington, D.C., where tourists were taking photos. Secret Service agents saw him throwing items—documents and a flash drive—over the White House fence and detained him.

When they checked his name, they discovered the Idaho arrest warrant for attempted murder, and his arrest in Washington suddenly ended the nationwide search. Investigators then learned that he had driven from northern Idaho to Boise, boarded a flight, and traveled across the country to deliver his message to the US president, even though he was already wanted for the shooting.

At the same time, Odom had mailed or sent a 21‑page or 40‑plus‑page “manifesto” to his parents and several Idaho TV stations, and he also posted on Facebook about aliens from Mars, changing his profile picture to an alien image.

In the manifesto, he introduced himself as a bright, successful person: born and raised in North Idaho, raised in a loving family, joined the Marine Corps after high school, developed a strong interest in science, studied biochemistry at the University of Idaho, won scholarships and awards, and graduated magna cum laude before being invited to Baylor College of Medicine to work on genetics. He insisted that he was “100% sane, 0% crazy,” but the rest of the document clearly showed an increasingly paranoid, delusional state of mind.

Odom wrote that his problems began in spring 2014, during his final semester at the University of Idaho, when he was stressed by a heavy course load and turned to daily meditation to cope. As he practiced more, he believed he was achieving “extreme states of consciousness,” and during one meditation session, he described an out‑of‑body experience: complete darkness, loss of physical awareness, and then a blue light approaching that he interpreted as another being. After this, he felt his classes suddenly became very easy, as if he had tapped into some new power, and he said he performed far beyond what he had before.

Later, Odom accepted a PhD offer in human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston but quickly decided to leave, claiming the work had become too easy after his “awakening.”

He wrote that the day after deciding to leave, his life turned into “a living hell”: he could not sleep, he felt he was being targeted, and he believed people around him—including classmates—were not real humans but aliens trying to provoke him into becoming “the next school shooter.” Feeling persecuted, he left Texas and returned to his hometown of Coeur d’Alene, convinced that unknown forces were manipulating his life.

During flights and everyday situations, Odom began to think that strangers were sending him secret messages and that newspaper headlines carried hidden meanings directed at him. Because he had applied to several government agencies, he initially thought this strange communication might be some covert government contact method.

Once back in Idaho, he received a text message from John Padula, an outreach pastor from the Altar Church, inviting him to attend services. When he went, he immediately felt that something was terribly wrong, as if his life was in danger inside the church, so he left.

Odom then began receiving text messages from Pastor Tim Remington, which in reality were Bible verses and spiritual encouragement, but he interpreted them as threatening communications from a hidden group. He believed the verses referred to “their power,” that Remington was sending coded warnings, and that the word “angels” in one message was somehow linked to helicopters flying over his house, which he saw as a sign that powerful beings were after him.

Around this time, he began experiencing intense involuntary physical sensations, which he described as feeling as though external forces were affecting his body. He also reported hearing music and later voices in his head.

As his symptoms intensified, the inner voice, which he believed came from aliens, told him he would be “sacrificed like Jesus and beheaded.” When a stranger with a religious pamphlet knocked on his door, he became delirious and convinced that his death was imminent.

He fled on a one‑way flight to visit family in Albuquerque but believed that the man sitting next to him was reading his mind and that, at the baggage claim, he was “surrounded” by aliens identified by their constant sniffing, which he thought was a dominance behavior. He came to believe that these beings were everywhere, disguised as humans but truly giant green frog‑like creatures with a snout‑like proboscis on their heads.

Odom wrote that the aliens kept pressuring him to go outside alone, and when he refused out of fear they would kill him, they allegedly threatened his family. To protect his family, he claimed he agreed to do whatever they wanted, and he believed they responded telepathically by telling him to “Go to church,” which he took as a command to return to the Altar Church.

Read also:

• This Man Says NASA Asked for Help After Astronauts Encountered Orbs Containing 125-Foot Winged Angelic Beings That Smiled at Them
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• This Man Claimed that in 1994 he Met a Blue, Crocodile-Eyed ‘Alien’ in a Military Uniform

At the church, he noticed a smell like “reptile and vinegar” and concluded that whoever he was dealing with was an extraterrestrial species. He admitted that he was hearing voices more often and seeing hallucinations that he intellectually knew were not real, yet he still insisted these were caused by telepathic aliens, not by any mental illness.

A strong adult-themed element ran through his delusions. He described these alleged Martian beings as “hypersexual” and claimed that both male and female entities acted out inappropriate fantasies within his mind.

In one episode, he described being in a grocery store bakery surrounded by older men whom he believed were aliens who mentally stimulated him and instructed him to imagine inappropriate acts. These experiences, along with persistent voices and visions, severely affected his mental health and led him to attempt to take his own life twice.

In one incident, he described trying to harm himself inside his car but later said the perceived entities intervened before he could follow through. Afterward, he admitted himself to a local Veterans Affairs hospital for help. The article notes that it was not immediately confirmed what treatment he received.

After being discharged from the hospital, Odom returned to the Altar Church, where he later said he had a face-to-face meeting with Pastor Remington around August of the year before the shooting. According to Odom’s account, he believed the pastor revealed what he described as a “true” alien form during their conversation. He wrote that the pastor’s appearance seemed to change, with his facial features looking different and his eyes appearing unusual.

Odom later claimed he became convinced that members of the church were involved in a plot against him. He left the church and did not return for some time. In his writings, he described ongoing fears that he was being followed or harassed, including when he attempted to resume his studies.

Odom tried to rebuild his life by studying pharmacology at North Idaho College and said he began to feel some recovery. However, he believed that the aliens followed him into every class, interfered with his ability to study, and harassed him during tests, making it impossible to succeed.

In his view, they targeted him specifically because of his intelligence and his knowledge of genetics, fearing he might spark a “scientific revolution” that would expose them. He wrote that they had trouble controlling his mind because he was “too smart,” so they decided to remove him from society altogether.

After the repeated suicide attempts and ongoing torment, Odom concluded that the only remaining option was to “take action” against the beings he believed were ruining his life. He wrote that his life had been destroyed by “an intelligent species of amphibian‑humanoid from Mars” and said Remington and Pastor Padula were either these aliens themselves or their puppets.

The manifesto did not clearly explain why he chose that specific Sunday to attack, but he openly admitted that he had plotted to shoot Remington. On the day of the attack, he later boasted on Facebook that he had shot the pastor 12 times and claimed no normal human could survive, using this to support his belief that Remington was not human.

In the same manifesto and social‑media posts, Odom expanded his theory into a global conspiracy. He said the world was secretly ruled by an ancient Martian civilization that had infiltrated all levels of human society, and that Pastor Remington was one of them and the reason his life was ruined.

He claimed these Martians are “ubiquitous,” living as both blue‑collar workers and powerful leaders, controlling governments, militaries, and corporations while monitoring every “wild” human like animals in a zoo; he said our freedom is only a carefully crafted illusion. He put together a list of “noteworthy Martians” that included about 50 members of the US Congress from both parties and dozens of Israeli leaders, “every prime minister since 1948,” and he said this list was far from complete.

Part of the manifesto was addressed directly to US President Barack Obama. Odom began by thanking him for his sacrifice to the country, then claimed that aliens were controlling and humiliating the president, boasting to Odom about what they supposedly did to him. He urged Obama to stop letting them humiliate him and framed himself as someone taking a stand to end this nonsense, asking if there could be a better legacy than exposing the Martians. He said his “last resort” was to act to bring all of this to the public’s attention, insisted he was a good and innocent person, and added that the “people” he killed were not what others thought.

After sending his manifesto to family and media and posting online that the world is ruled by an ancient civilization from Mars, Odom traveled to Washington, D.C., to get his information into the president’s hands. When he was arrested at the White House fence, authorities found he had been throwing documents and a flash drive—likely containing the same manifesto—over the fence, and police in Idaho said this document heightened their concern about him during the manhunt.

Not long before his arrest, he had written on Facebook that he was being chased, was sending his story to major news organizations, and had no time left. His capture ended any immediate threat he might pose to the many people he had identified as “Martians” in Congress and elsewhere.

In November 2017, the legal outcome of his actions was decided. In the Idaho state court, then‑32‑year‑old Kyle Odom pleaded guilty to an enhanced aggravated battery charge for shooting Pastor Tim Remington and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, with a requirement that he serve at least 10 years before being eligible for parole.

Remington testified that being shot in the head, hand, and side left him with memory lapses and ongoing health problems that affected every part of his life, yet in court, he publicly forgave Odom, called him the real victim, and said he wished him no harm and would remain his friend despite the attack. (Source)

At sentencing, Odom told the court he was deeply remorseful and explained that, at the time of the shooting, he believed his delusions were real, including the idea that Martians were interfering in his life and controlling people around him. He said he felt like he was dreaming and could not wake up, and that he still sometimes felt that way, emphasizing how lost in his own hallucinations he had been. The judge ordered him to pay more than $216,000 in restitution to cover Remington’s medical expenses, with the possibility of more as new bills came in, reflecting the serious long‑term damage caused by the attack.

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{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

23-02-2026 om 22:52 geschreven door peter  

Impact-formed glass provides evidence of cosmic collision in Brazil about 6 million years ago

by José Tadeu Arantes, FAPESP

For the first time in Brazil, researchers have identified a field of tektites. These are natural glasses formed by the high-energy impact of extraterrestrial bodies against Earth's surface. These structures, named geraisites in honor of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, where they were first discovered, constitute a new strewn field. This expands the incomplete record of impacts in South America.

The discovery was described in an article published in the journal Geology by a team led by Álvaro Penteado Crósta, a geologist and senior professor at the Institute of Geosciences at the State University of Campinas (IG-UNICAMP). Crósta collaborated with researchers from Brazil, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia.

Until now, only five large tektite fields had been recognized on the planet: in Australasia, Central Europe, the Ivory Coast, North America, and Belize. The Brazilian field now joins this select group.

Where geraisites are found in Brazil

The geraisites were initially located in three municipalities in northern Minas Gerais—Taiobeiras, Curral de Dentro, and São João do Paraíso—in a strip about 90 kilometers long. Since the article was submitted, new occurrences have been recorded in the Brazilian states of Bahia and, more recently, Piauí. According to Crósta, this expands the known area to more than 900 kilometers in length.

"This growth in the area of occurrence is entirely consistent with what is observed in other tektite fields around the world. The size of the field depends directly on the energy of the impact, among other factors," the researcher explains.

By July 2025, the authors had collected approximately 500 specimens, a number that has since grown to over 600 with the most recent findings. The fragments range in size from less than 1 gram to 85.4 grams and reach about 5 centimeters on the longest axis. Their shapes are typical of aerodynamic tektites: spherical, ellipsoidal, drop-shaped, discoid, dumbbell-shaped, or twisted.

Although they appear black and opaque at first, they become translucent under intense light and display a grayish-green color. This color is distinct from that of European moldavites, which have been used in jewelry since the Middle Ages due to their characteristic intense green color. Their dark surfaces are marked by many small cavities.

"These small cavities are traces of gas bubbles that escaped during the rapid cooling of the molten material as it traveled through the atmosphere, a process also observed in volcanic lava but especially characteristic of tektites," says Crósta.

Geochemical fingerprint of geraisites

Geochemical analyses show that geraisites have a high silica (SiO₂) content ranging from 70.3% to 73.7%. The combined content of sodium (Na₂O) and potassium (K₂O) oxides ranges from 5.86% to 8.01%, which is slightly higher than in other tektite fields. Small variations in trace elements, such as chromium (10–48 parts per million) and nickel (9–63 ppm), were identified, indicating that the original material was neither pure nor homogeneous. The presence of rare inclusions of lechatelierite, a form of glassy silica produced at extreme temperatures, further supports an impact origin.

"One of the decisive criteria for classifying the material as a tektite was its very low water content, as measured by infrared spectroscopy: between 71 and 107 ppm. For comparison, volcanic glasses, such as obsidian, usually contain from 700 ppm to 2% water, whereas tektites are notoriously much drier," Crósta points out.

Dating based on the ratio of argon isotopes (⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar) indicates that the event occurred approximately 6.3 million years ago, at the end of the Miocene epoch. Three groups of very similar ages were obtained (6.78 ± 0.02 Ma, 6.40 ± 0.02 Ma, and 6.33 ± 0.02 Ma), which is consistent with a single impact event.

"The age of 6.3 million years should be interpreted as a maximum age since some of the argon may have been inherited from the ancient rocks targeted by the impact," the researcher comments.

Hunt for the missing crater

To date, no associated crater has been identified. According to Crósta, this is not unusual; only three of the six large classical tektite fields have known craters. In the case of the largest field, located in Australasia, the crater is believed to be oceanic. In Brazil, isotopic geochemistry indicates that the molten material originated in Archean continental crust between 3.0 and 3.3 billion years old. This directs the search to the São Francisco craton, an ancient and geologically stable portion of the continental crust and one of the oldest regions of the South American continent.

"The isotopic signature indicates a very ancient continental, granitic source rock. This greatly reduces the universe of candidate areas," says Crósta. In the future, aerogeophysical methods such as magnetic and gravimetric surveys may reveal circular anomalies associated with a buried or eroded crater.

Modeling the impact and its scale

While it is not yet possible to accurately estimate the size of the impacting body, researchers consider it unlikely that it was small. The large amount of molten material and the wide area of dispersion indicate a significant impact event, albeit smaller than the event responsible for the Australasia field, which extends for thousands of kilometers.

The team is currently working on a mathematical model of impacts to estimate parameters such as the energy released, the velocity, the angle of entry, and the volume of molten rock. They are doing this as new data on the spatial distribution of geraisites becomes available. The discovery of the geraisites fills an important gap in the record of impacts in South America. Only about nine large impact structures are known there, and almost all of them are much older and located in Brazil. This discovery also reinforces the idea that tektites may be more common than previously thought, but often go unnoticed or are mistaken for ordinary glass.

To combat sensationalist interpretations of cosmic impacts, Crósta manages the @defesaplanetaria Instagram profile with undergraduate students. The profile is dedicated to scientific dissemination and differentiating real risks from irresponsible speculation about meteorites and asteroids. Impacts were frequent during the formation of the solar system when a large amount of debris was scattered and planetary orbits were undefined. Large bodies migrated from one position to another, projecting smaller bodies in various directions. However, today, with the system stabilized, impacts are incomparably less frequent.

"Understanding these processes is essential to separating science from speculation," the researcher concludes.

{ https://phys.org/space-news/ }

23-02-2026 om 22:35 geschreven door peter  

NASA’s Perseverance rover can now determine its location on the Red Planet independently, using its own “brain” and cameras. This saved it from having to “call” Earth every time to find out where it was. Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have essentially created a local navigation system for it that operates in real time.

Imagine you find yourself in the middle of a vast desert with no landmarks or maps, and you are only allowed one phone call per day to ask, “Where am I?” This is how JPL robotics expert Vandi Verma describes the many years of work done by rovers.

Blind navigation

Until recently, Perseverance, which has been exploring Jezero Crater for five years, relied on a combination of data: it analyzed images from its own cameras, measured wheel slip in dust, and cross-referenced satellite photos sent from Earth. However, due to the enormous distance of approximately 225 million kilometers, the signal took too long to arrive, so it took an entire Martian day to correct the route. If the rover was unsure of its position, it would simply stop and wait for “permission” from Earth. Over time, navigation errors accumulated and could reach more than 35 meters. 

Space Google Maps

To solve this problem, engineers led by Jeremy Nash and Vandy Verma developed the Mars Global Localization system. It’s a kind of “space Google Maps” for the Mars rover.

How does it work? Perseverance is now taking pictures of the surrounding area, and a built-in algorithm compares them with detailed maps obtained from orbital spacecraft such as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in just two minutes. The system automatically finds common features in the landscape — rocks, craters, sand dunes — and determines the rover’s coordinates with an accuracy of 25 cm. Human intervention in this process is no longer necessary.

Breakthrough that has been decades in the making

Development of the technology began in 2023. Archival images from 264 rover stops were used to test the algorithm — the system never made a mistake. In early February 2024, the function was successfully applied in practice for the first time in real conditions on Mars.

“We have given the Mars rover a new ability. This has been an open problem in robotics for decades, and it is incredibly exciting to finally see it solved in space,” said Jeremy Nash.

This update came shortly after Perseverance learned to plan routes using generative artificial intelligence. The AI independently assesses the terrain for hazards — boulders, steep slopes — and plots a safe route.

The future of autonomous missions

Now that the rover knows its exact location online, it can move much faster and cover greater distances every day. As scientists note, it was uncertainty about coordinates, rather than the dangers of the landscape, that was the main limitation on its travels. 

This technology opens up a new era in the exploration of the Solar System. According to Vandy Verma, this algorithm is universal: “It can be used by almost any other rover that moves quickly and far.” This means that future missions to Mars and other planets will be able to work more efficiently, spending their time on real scientific discoveries rather than waiting for instructions from Earth.

Earlier, we explained what GPS is and how it has changed the world.

• According to NASA

• Posted in News, Tech

{ https://universemagazine.com/en/news-en/science-en/ {

23-02-2026 om 22:16 geschreven door peter  

Astronomers working with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have published a spectacular new image. It shows the galaxy NGC 5134.

NGC 5134 is located 65 million light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Virgo. This is a gigantic figure by human standards — we see the galaxy as it was at the time of the extinction of the dinosaurs. But by cosmological standards, NGC 5134 is quite close to us. And thanks to this relative proximity, JWST was able to see many details of its spiral structure.

JWST conducts observations in the near and mid-infrared range. The main source of “near” infrared waves are stars and star clusters scattered throughout the spiral arms of the galaxy. As for “medium” waves, they are emitted by warm dust, which saturates the gas clouds filling the galaxy. Dust particles consist of complex organic molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. They form flat ring-shaped structures, very similar to honeycombs in beehives. On Earth, they are found in smoke from fires, car exhaust fumes, or, say, burnt toast.

By combining the data collected by JWST, astronomers were able to obtain a portrait of the life cycle of a galaxy. The gas clouds stretching along the spiral arms of NGC 5134 are sites of star formation. Each star that forms gradually depletes the available gas reserves. They are partially replenished in the process of the death of old stars. The largest stars, whose mass exceeds that of the Sun by more than eight times, do so in spectacular ways, as a result of catastrophic supernova explosions, ejecting their matter hundreds of light years away.

Stars similar to the Sun also return some of their material, although not as spectacularly. They become red giants, after which they shed their atmosphere into space, forming planetary nebulae. In the future, this ejected material may become part of a new generation of stars. The same fate awaits our Sun in the future.

• According to Esawebb

• Posted in News, Science

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{ https://universemagazine.com/en/news-en/science-en/ }

23-02-2026 om 22:05 geschreven door peter  

Everyone knows that there are volcanoes on Mars. Everyone knows that there are glaciers on Mars. But now scientists suggest that, at least on some volcanoes on the red planet, glaciers may be hidden under a layer of ash.

Prevalence of glaciers on Mars

When we think of ice on Mars, we usually mean the poles, where it can be seen with probes and even ground-based telescopes. But the poles are difficult to reach, and even more so because of restrictions on research there due to potential biological contamination. Scientists had long hoped to find water closer to the equator, which would make it more accessible to human explorers. There are parts of Mars’ mid-latitudes that look like glaciers covered with thick layers of dust and rocks.

So, do these formations really conceal large reserves of water near the place where humans may first set foot on the Red Planet? Perhaps, yes, according to a new article by M.A. de Pablo and his co-authors, recently published in the journal Icarus.

The key may be a small volcanic peninsula in Antarctica. Known as Deception Island, this volcano covered part of the surrounding huge glaciers with ash and dust from a series of eruptions in the 1960s and 1970s. The authors believe they have found a volcano with a similar history on Mars, known as Hecates Tholus. 

Hecates Tholus. is an ancient shield volcano on Mars that shares many of the same features as the volcano on Deception Island. And since we know that there is ice beneath the debris in Antarctica, this could mean that similar features may be found beneath the debris around Hecates Tholus.

Evidence of a glacier near Hecates Tholus

There is some compelling evidence on Mars that suggests the presence of glacial ice, rather than just loose rock or even rock cemented together with a small amount of ice. First and foremost, there are the crevasses. Any researcher will tell you how absurdly dangerous these features are on Earth, but the key characteristic on Deception Island is their visibility from space, especially near the so-called “headwalls” of the glacier — steep, almost vertical cliffs at the upper end of the glacier.

Such features are visible from space on Hecates Tholus, and such clear, visible fractures would not be noticeable if there were simply rock beneath them. In particular, these fractures mean that the solid ice core is still moving beneath the surface of volcanic debris.

Another direct piece of evidence is the presence of bergschrunds. These are distinct, deep cracks that form at the top of a glacier. Technically, all bergschrunds are a type of crack, although they are significantly larger and are formed by a very specific process compared to ordinary cracks. This process consists of separating movable ice from frozen ice. Some examples of bergschrunds near Hecates Tholus reach lengths of 600 m and are clear evidence that, at least at a certain point in time, there was active ice movement.

The final proof is the bulldozer effect, or, more precisely, the presence of “push moraines” at the bottom of the valleys of both Deception Island and Hecates Tholus. When glaciers move, they act like bulldozers, pushing huge rocks in front of them and leaving hilly terrain behind. Similar formations, such as those seen on Deception Island, are again visible around the volcano, indicating that a glacier once actively existed in this area.

Overview and context of Hecates Tholus, Mars (left) and the terrestrial analog, Deception Island (right).

Credit: Icarus (2026).

DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2026.116966

How to find hidden glaciers?

So if these glaciers really exist, how have they managed to survive for millions of years without evaporating? The authors propose a two-stage process. Initially, when cracks formed, some of the water actually sublimated, but these holes were then covered with dust, protecting the newly exposed water from further sublimation. Ultimately, this led to the formation of shallow “troughs,” which we actually see on Mars instead of real cracks.

One obvious question for people who closely follow Mars exploration is: why didn’t SHARAD see anything there? If there is a subsurface glacier at the equator, then the ground-penetrating radar on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter would undoubtedly be able to detect a signal from it. The physics of SHARAD radar does not work well on the steep slopes of volcanoes, making it difficult to obtain a clear image of what lies beneath the dust and debris. In order to truly understand the situation better, we will need samples from the surface, both from robots and from humans.

Fraser talks about the restriction of exploration missions to the Martian South Pole.

Avoid contamination

If there really are huge glaciers on Mars hidden beneath the dome of Hecate, there may be many others hidden beneath other massive volcanoes. Article IX of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty requires that exploration of other bodies in the Solar System be conducted in such a way as to avoid “harmful contamination” of celestial bodies. Many interpreted this article as a requirement for researchers to avoid the Martian poles, where there is evidence of large amounts of water. If it turns out that there is water all over Mars, hidden under volcanic debris, does that mean that these areas are now also off-limits to researchers?

Only time will tell the answer to this question — we may never know if there is water around these volcanoes unless we send researchers there — everything we can do remotely is limited. There are some proposals for missions that could resolve this question, such as FlyRADAR, but we will have to wait for the final word on whether Martian volcanoes are covered by glaciers — and perhaps look at the deceptive volcano on our own planet in the meantime.

• According to phys.org

• Posted in News, Science

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23-02-2026 om 21:53 geschreven door peter  

Could it be We've Recieved Alien Signals in the Past and Didn't Notice? Not Bloody Likely, According to New Study

By Matthew Williams  

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

23-02-2026 om 21:38 geschreven door peter  

Not AGAIN! NASA's Artemis II moon mission is delayed for a second time after several last–minute issues are spotted on the SLS rocket – as furious fans call for SpaceX to step in

• READ MORE: The 5 worst–case scenarios for Artemis II, revealed 

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

NASA's Artemis II moon mission has been delayed for a second time after several last–minute issues were spotted on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

After successfully completing the second wet dress rehearsal last Thursday, hopes had been high that the historic moon mission would launch in March.

However, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman now says the March launch window is 'out of consideration'.

That means Artemis II will not take its crew – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen – around the moon until April 1 at the very earliest.

Mr Isaacman says that the reason for the delay is an 'interruption in helium flow in the SLS interim cryogenic propulsion stage'.

The system worked during both wet dress rehearsals, but engineers were unable to get helium flow through the vehicle during routine maintenance on Saturday night.

Now, as the long–awaited moon mission is pushed back once again, some frustrated fans have called for Elon Musk's SpaceX to step in with assistance.

Taking to X, one fan vented: 'Time to scrap the 1960s tech and innovate to build next gen space launch vehicles and to stay on par with SpaceX.' 

NASA's Artemis II moon mission has been delayed for the second time, as last–minute technical issues are found in the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket 

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said that the issue had been caused by an 'interruption in helium flow in the SLS interim cryogenic propulsion stage'

Fed–up space enthusiasts have taken to social media to vent their irritation over the persistent delays.

One commenter wrote: 'At this rate, the Chinese will soundly beat us to the Moon.'

Others explicitly suggested that SpaceX should be called on to lend assistance or even replace the SLS rocket altogether.

On X, which is owned by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, one commenter wrote: '@SpaceX Those guys need a ride to the moon, please help them.'

Another asked: 'When will NASA stop the financial haemorrhaging and turn this program over to SpaceX?'

'Can we get out of this contract and save money with SpaceX,' suggested another.

In particular, a number of space fans suggested that the experimental Starship rocket could make a viable replacement.

Mr Isaacman (left) says that the setback will 'almost assuredly' affect the intended March launch date, ruling out the Artemis II launch until April 

Mr Isaacman says the systems performed well during both wet dress rehearsals, but unexpectedly failed during a 'routine operation'  

On X, frustrated space fans have called for Elon Musk's SpaceX to provide assistance to the Artemis II programme

'I beginning to think that the SpaceX Starship will be launching astronauts to space before the Artemis program,' one commenter suggested.

While one added: 'Time to replace SLS with Falcon Heavy. Might even actually do it faster with Starship.'

For context, SpaceX has been contracted by NASA to provide a modified version of Starship for the lunar landing during the Artemis III mission.

In April 2021, NASA awarded Elon Musk's company a $2.9 billion contract to provide the first crewed lunar lander, but SpaceX is widely expected to miss the 2027 target date.

Last year, acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy threatened to open up the contract to other countries due to persistent delays, saying at the time: 'The problem is, they're behind.'

However, NASA's immediate problems are the ongoing delays afflicting the problem–plagued SLS rocket.

Mr Isaacman says that the source of the problem could be located in one of the filers or quick–disconnect 'umbilicals' that pass gases between the ground and the rocket.

Alternatively, he says that the issue could have been caused by a 'failed check valve onboard the vehicle, which would be consistent with Artemis I'

Angry commenters lamented the costs of the SLS rocket and its persistent delays, arguing that the mission should be turned over to SpaceX

One commenter asked why America could 'get out of this contract' in order to save money with SpaceX

The SLS rocket will now need to roll back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Launch Centre for repairs, meaning that another wet dress rehearsal is almost certain 

After problems with the helium system were discovered overnight, NASA has now made the disappointing decision to roll SLS back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Centre.

While the agency has a limited capacity to fix issues at the launch tower, more serious problems need to be addressed in the VAB, which gives engineers better access to the vehicle.

The vibrations caused by rolling the rocket in or out of the VAB risk loosening or disturbing seals and valves, meaning that one or two more wet dress rehearsals are almost certain.

After the success of the second wet dress rehearsal, the Artemis II crew entered quarantine in Houston, Texas, on Friday night.

During quarantine, the crew limit their exposure to other people so that they can stay in good health for the flight.

This procedure usually starts 14 days out from the launch date, but NASA has not said whether the crew will be able to leave quarantine before the April launch date.

Writing on X, Mr Isaacman added: 'I understand people are disappointed by this development. That disappointment is felt most by the team at NASA, who have been working tirelessly to prepare for this great endeavor.'

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23-02-2026 om 20:36 geschreven door peter