Supercharged auroras possible from sun's colossal 'hole' | Parker Solar Probe beams 1st detailed message after sun flyby | Space debris crashes into Kenya village
Created for znamenski.spacecom@blogger.com | Web Version
A massive coronal hole has formed in the sun's atmosphere, unleashing a powerful stream of solar wind toward Earth. Nearby, a second, slightly smaller coronal hole is also directing solar wind our way. There is a great chance of strong northern lights, especially at high latitudes this weekend. Recent solar activity has prompted the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center to issue a minor G1 geomagnetic storm warning for Jan. 4 and Jan. 5.
On New Year's Day, NASA's Parker Solar Probe added to the festive cheer by sending home more good news about its record-breaking closest-ever approach to the sun. "The data that will come down from the spacecraft will be fresh information about a place that we, as humanity, have never been."
Officials with the Kenya Space Agency Nairobia report that a a large metallic ring roughly 8 feet (2.5 meters) in diameter and weighing some 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) fell from the sky on Dec. 30, crashing "red-hot" into Mukuku village in the country's south. An early review by Inside Outer Space of the Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS) Reentry Database suggested a possible link to an incoming rocket body associated with an Atlas Centaur launch back in 2004.
Four bright planets are conveniently placed for viewing in January's evening sky. By far, the most brilliant is Venus, which dominates the southwest sky for several hours after sundown. Saturn, always a favorite for viewers with telescopes because of its famous ring system, is not far away. Here's what else to see.
NASA wants to Mars samples to Earth, but budget problems and technical woes have the mission caught between a rock and the Red Planet. The space agency plans to have a new plan in place before the new Trump adminstration takes charge later this month.
Astronomers have discovered a rare group of five dwarf galaxies located relatively close to Earth; these galaxies exist in a near-perfect alignment, resembling a string of cosmic pearls in the sky. "This discovery poses a challenge to the Lambda Cold Dark Matter model, which may struggle to account for the formation of such small, aligned groups of galaxies in isolated environments," one astronomer says.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to take off on Friday at 8:27 p.m. EST (0127 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The flight will launch the Thuraya 4 spacecraft to geosynchronous orbit on behalf of Space42, a satellite and space services company based in the United Arab Emirates. You can watch the launch live at SpaceX.com or via the company's X account.
(La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association)
Here's something you don't see every parade. NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, the first aircraft to achieve powered flight on another planet, is now the first drone to fly on a parade float — in the form of a flower-covered replica. The floral-but-flight-worthy display was just one of the highlights aboard "Rover Rendezvous," a float in the Tournament of Roses Parade held in celebration of New Year's Day in Pasadena, California on Wednesday (Jan. 1)
Want to dive into the Alien universe? Arriving for the New Year from Survios in cooperation with 20th Century Games, this tactical sci-fi survival release for PlayStation VR2, PCVR via Steam, and Meta Quest 3 (Feb. 13, 2025) and was highly anticipated as an enveloping "Alien: Isolation"-type adventure all wrapped up nicely in a next-generation virtual reality environment. Critical reviews have been mixed, but mostly positive.
