JWST Update #2: A New Satellite Is Found at the Third Outer Planet in our Solar System...

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. El Moutamid (SwRI), M. Hedman (University of Idaho)

New Moon Discovered Orbiting Uranus Using NASA’s Webb Telescope (News Release)

Editor’s Note: This post highlights data from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process.

Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a team led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has identified a previously-unknown moon orbiting Uranus, expanding the planet’s known satellite family to 29. The detection was made during a Webb observation on February 2, 2025.

“This object was spotted in a series of 10 40-minute long-exposure images captured by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam),” said Maryame El Moutamid, a lead scientist in SwRI’s Solar System Science and Exploration Division based in Boulder, Colorado. “It’s a small moon but a significant discovery, which is something that even NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft didn’t see during its flyby nearly 40 years ago.”

The newly-discovered moon is estimated to be just six miles (10 kilometers) in diameter, assuming that it has a similar reflectivity (albedo) to Uranus’ other small satellites. That tiny size likely rendered it invisible to Voyager 2 and other telescopes.

“No other planet has as many small inner moons as Uranus, and their complex inter-relationships with the rings hint at a chaotic history that blurs the boundary between a ring system and a system of moons,” said Matthew Tiscareno of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, a member of the research team. “Moreover, the new moon is smaller and much fainter than the smallest of the previously-known inner moons, making it likely that even more complexity remains to be discovered.”

The new moon is the 14th member of the intricate system of small moons orbiting inward of the largest moons Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon. (All of the moons of Uranus are named after characters from Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.)

“It’s located about 35,000 miles (56,000 kilometers) from Uranus’ center, orbiting the planet’s equatorial plane between the orbits of Ophelia (which is just outside of Uranus’ main ring system) and Bianca,” said El Moutamid. “Its nearly-circular orbit suggests it may have formed near its current location.”

A name for the newly-found moon will need to be approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the leading authority in assigning official names and designations to astronomical objects.

“Through this and other programs, Webb is providing a new eye on the outer Solar System. This discovery comes as part of Webb’s General Observer program, which allows scientists worldwide to propose investigations using the telescope’s cutting-edge instruments. The NIRCam instrument’s high resolution and infrared sensitivity make it especially adept at detecting faint, distant objects that were beyond the reach of previous observatories,” said El Moutamid.

“Looking forward, the discovery of this moon underscores how modern astronomy continues to build upon the legacy of missions like Voyager 2, which flew past Uranus on January 24, 1986, and gave humanity its first close-up look at this mysterious world. Now, nearly four decades later, the James Webb Space Telescope is pushing that frontier even farther.”

Source: NASA.Gov

****

JWST Update: A Rocky Alien World May Not Be Potentially Habitable, After All...

NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

Webb Narrows Atmospheric Possibilities for Earth-sized Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 d (News Release - August 13)

The exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 d intrigues astronomers looking for possible habitable worlds beyond our Solar System because it is similar in size to Earth, rocky, and resides in an area around its star where liquid water on its surface is theoretically possible. But according to a new study using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, it does not have an Earth-like atmosphere.

“Ultimately, we want to know if something like the environment we enjoy on Earth can exist elsewhere, and under what conditions. While NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is giving us the ability to explore this question in Earth-sized planets for the first time, at this point we can rule out TRAPPIST-1 d from a list of potential Earth twins or cousins,” said Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb of the University of Chicago and Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (IREx) at Université de Montréal, lead author of the study published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Planet TRAPPIST-1 d

The TRAPPIST-1 system is located 40 light-years away and was revealed as the record-holder for most Earth-sized rocky planets around a single star in 2017, thanks to data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope and other observatories. Due to that star being a dim, relatively cold red dwarf, the “habitable zone” or “Goldilocks zone” – where the planet’s temperature may be just right, such that liquid surface water is possible – lies much closer to the star than in our Solar System. TRAPPIST-1 d, the third planet from the red dwarf star, lies on the cusp of that temperate zone, yet its distance to its star is only 2 percent of Earth’s distance from the Sun.

TRAPPIST-1 d completes an entire orbit around its star, its year, in only four Earth days.

Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument did not detect molecules from TRAPPIST-1 d that are common in Earth’s atmosphere, like water, methane or carbon dioxide. However, Piaulet-Ghorayeb outlined several possibilities for the exoplanet that remain open for follow-up study.

“There are a few potential reasons why we don’t detect an atmosphere around TRAPPIST-1 d. It could have an extremely thin atmosphere that is difficult to detect, somewhat like Mars. Alternatively, it could have very thick, high-altitude clouds that are blocking our detection of specific atmospheric signatures — something more like Venus. Or, it could be a barren rock, with no atmosphere at all,” Piaulet-Ghorayeb said.

The Star TRAPPIST-1

No matter what the case may be for TRAPPIST-1 d, it’s tough being a planet in orbit around a red dwarf star. TRAPPIST-1, the host star of the system, is known to be volatile, often releasing flares of high-energy radiation with the potential to strip off the atmospheres of its small planets, especially those orbiting most closely. Nevertheless, scientists are motivated to seek signs of atmospheres on the TRAPPIST-1 planets because red dwarf stars are the most common stars in our galaxy.

If planets can hold on to an atmosphere here, under waves of harsh stellar radiation, they could, as the saying goes, make it anywhere.

“Webb’s sensitive infrared instruments are allowing us to delve into the atmospheres of these smaller, colder planets for the first time,” said Björn Benneke of IREx at Université de Montréal, a co-author of the study. “We’re really just getting started using Webb to look for atmospheres on Earth-sized planets, and to define the line between planets that can hold onto an atmosphere, and those that cannot.”

The Outer TRAPPIST-1 Planets

Webb observations of the outer TRAPPIST-1 planets are ongoing, which hold both potential and peril. On the one hand, Benneke said, planets e, f, g, and h may have better chances of having atmospheres because they are further away from the energetic eruptions of their host star. However, their distance and colder environment will make atmospheric signatures more difficult to detect, even with Webb’s infrared instruments.

“All hope is not lost for atmospheres around the TRAPPIST-1 planets,” Piaulet-Ghorayeb said. “While we didn’t find a big, bold atmospheric signature at planet d, there is still potential for the outer planets to be holding onto a lot of water and other atmospheric components.”

“As NASA leads the way in searching for life outside our Solar System, one of the most important avenues we can pursue is understanding which planets retain their atmospheres, and why,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has pushed our capabilities for studying exoplanet atmospheres further than ever before, beyond extreme worlds to some rocky planets – allowing us to begin confirming theories about the kind of planets that may be potentially habitable. This important groundwork will position our next missions, like NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory, to answer a universal question: Are we alone?”

Source: NASA.Gov

****


NASA / JPL - Caltech

Europe's Newest Rocket Has Flawlessly Embarked on its Third Flight as Well...

ESA - S. Corvaja

With Ariane 6, Arianespace Successfully Launches Metop-SGA1 Satellite (Press Release - August 13)

On August 12, 2025 at 9:37 p.m. local time in Kourou, French Guiana (00:37 a.m. UTC, 2:37 a.m. CEST, on August 13), Ariane 6 lifted off from Europe's Spaceport carrying EUMETSAT's Metop-SGA1 satellite.

With this second commercial flight, Ariane 6, the new European heavy-lift launcher operated by Arianespace, successfully placed Metop-SGA1 into a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) at an altitude of 800 km. Spacecraft separation occurred 1 hour and 4 minutes after lift-off.

A few minutes after separation, EUMETSAT successfully acquired signals from the satellite.

David Cavaillolès, CEO of Arianespace, declared: "Tonight, Arianespace has successfully launched EUMETSAT's Metop-SGA1 satellite, on board Ariane 6. The first of the next generation of European polar-orbiting weather satellites, Metop-SGA1 notably hosts the Copernicus programme Sentinel-5 atmospheric monitoring mission. This success pinpoints our dedication to ensuring Europe's autonomous and reliable access to space while also supporting an ambitious environmental mission that will provide cutting-edge data for weather and climate monitoring.

"Ariane 6's second commercial launch marks a significant milestone in our journey. We extend our gratitude to EUMETSAT and to all our partners across Europe for their trust and collaboration, driving Arianespace to deliver the utmost excellence."

"The success of this second commercial launch confirms the performance, reliability and precision of Ariane 6. Once again, the new European heavy-lift launcher meets Europe's needs, ensuring sovereign access to space," said Martin Sion, CEO of ArianeGroup. "The next rockets are well advanced in production thanks to the teams to whom I express my gratitude for their unwavering commitment.

"This demonstrates the ramp up taking place in ArianeGroup's plants and those of our industrial partners."

Phil Evans, Director-General of EUMETSAT, commented: “Extreme weather has cost Europe hundreds of billions of euros and tens of thousands of lives over the past 40 years—storms like Boris, Daniel and Hans, record heatwaves and fierce wildfires are just the latest reminders. The launch of Metop-SGA1 is a major step forward in giving national weather services in our member states sharper tools to save lives, protect property, and build resilience against the climate crisis. These positive impacts will be felt even beyond that and over the Atlantic, as Metop-SGA1 is Europe's first contribution to the Joint Polar System with NOAA.

"This milestone reflects years of teamwork across EUMETSAT, ESA, the EU, CNES, DLR, Airbus, Thales Alenia Space and many others. This is the beginning of an exciting new chapter as we work to ensure the satellite settles into orbit and starts delivering the vital data it was built to provide.”

For this second commercial mission, the Ariane 6 vehicle was in the two-booster Ariane 62 configuration with a short fairing.

Ariane 6 is a program developed within the framework of the European Space Agency (ESA). As prime contractor and design authority for the launcher, ArianeGroup is responsible for development and production alongside its industrial partners. Ariane 6 is marketed and operated by Arianespace.

The Metop-SGA1 (Second Generation A1) satellite will be the first of the next generation of European polar-orbiting weather satellites. Metop-SGA1 will host a total of six atmospheric sounding and imaging instrument missions that will provide optical, infrared and microwave observations-essential data for weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and a wide range of other services and applications. Amongst its hosts, Metop-SGA1 will carry the new Sentinel-5 atmospheric monitoring mission, part of the European Commission's Copernicus programme.

The spacecraft was built by Airbus Defence and Space, under a contract with the European Space Agency, and will be operated throughout its lifetime by EUMETSAT, which will also distribute its data to users.

Source: Arianespace

****


ESA - M. Pédoussaut

ULA's Newest Launch Vehicle Has Successfully Made Its Third Flight to Earth Orbit...

United Launch Alliance

Vulcan Rocket Ushers in New Era of National Security Space Launch (Press Release)

First National Security Space Launch aboard Vulcan rocket delivers USSF-106 spacecraft directly to GEO

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla. – A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket carrying the USSF-106 mission for the United States Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) lifted off on August 12 at 8:56 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This mission marks the first National Security Space Launch aboard the next-generation Vulcan rocket.

“National security begins at liftoff,” said Gary Wentz, ULA vice president of Government and Commercial Programs. “Vulcan did exactly what it was built to do: deliver a critical mission with power, precision and confidence. We are proud to play a role in strengthening the nation’s space capabilities.”

Standing at 202 feet tall and weighing 1.74 million pounds, the Vulcan configuration is enabled by the powerful Centaur V upper stage, which has 2.5 times the energy and 450 times the endurance of its predecessors. Centaur V delivered the USSF-106 spacecraft directly to a geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO).

“Vulcan is a catalyst to supporting national defense in the strategic warfighting domain of space,” said Tory Bruno, ULA president and CEO. “Vulcan is the world’s most capable, high-energy orbital rocket meeting the demand for expanding space competencies. Vulcan provides flexibility to our nation’s decision makers as we combat our adversaries' attempts to disrupt the U.S. in space operations. This launch begins a new era in national space security.”

ULA has served as the launch backbone for our past national security space missions, having successfully launched nearly all of the 132 critical missions to orbit for the U.S. Space Force and National Reconnaissance Office since the company’s founding in 2006. This legacy, built on Atlas V, Delta II and Delta IV rockets, now continues with Vulcan.

ULA’s next launch is the third Atlas mission for Amazon’s Project Kuiper, Kuiper 3, which will launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

Source: United Launch Alliance

****


United Launch Alliance


United Launch Alliance


United Launch Alliance

I'm Gettin' Flashbacks of my First Year in College...

So I just found out tonight that AOL will discontinue its dial-up internet service next month...on September 30.

Hmm. I had no idea that AOL's dial-up service for 56k modems (or even AOL itself) was even still around!

Back during my first year at Cal State Long Beach, I used EarthLink to go online when I was at home during the weekend. I only used AOL (via the free CDs that constantly showed up in my mailbox) when that company's Web service was temporarily down. I dormed in college during the 1998-'99 school year.

AOL's latest decision comes almost 8 years after the company discontinued its AOL Instant Messenger service—which I also used throughout my college years.

Another end of an era... Carry on.

Another Otherworldly Discovery by Hubble's Successor...

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hurt (Caltech / IPAC)

NASA’s Webb Finds New Evidence for Planet Around Closest Solar Twin (News Release - August 7)

Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found strong evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the stellar system closest to our own Sun. At just 4 light-years away from Earth, the Alpha Centauri triple star system has long been a compelling target in the search for worlds beyond our Solar System.

Alpha Centauri, located in the far southern sky, is made up of the binary Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, both Sun-like stars, and the faint red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. Alpha Centauri A is the third brightest star in the night sky. While there are three confirmed planets orbiting Proxima Centauri, the presence of other worlds surrounding Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B has proved challenging to confirm.

Now, Webb’s observations from its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) are providing the strongest evidence to date of a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A. The results have been accepted in a series of two papers in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

If confirmed, the planet would be the closest to Earth that orbits in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. However, because the planet candidate is a gas giant, scientists say it would not support life as we know it.

“With this system being so close to us, any exoplanets found would offer our best opportunity to collect data on planetary systems other than our own. Yet, these are incredibly challenging observations to make, even with the world’s most powerful space telescope, because these stars are so bright, close, and move across the sky quickly,” said Charles Beichman, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech’s IPAC astronomy center, co-first author on the new papers. “Webb was designed and optimized to find the most distant galaxies in the Universe. The operations team at the Space Telescope Science Institute had to come up with a custom observing sequence just for this target, and their extra effort paid off spectacularly.”

Several rounds of meticulously-planned observations by Webb, careful analysis by the research team, and extensive computer modeling helped determine that the source seen in Webb’s image is likely to be a planet, and not a background object (like a galaxy), foreground object (a passing asteroid), or other detector or image artifact.

The first observations of the system took place in August 2024, using the coronagraphic mask aboard MIRI to block Alpha Centauri A’s light. While extra brightness from the nearby companion star Alpha Centauri B complicated the analysis, the team was able to subtract out the light from both stars to reveal an object over 10,000 times fainter than Alpha Centauri A, separated from the star by about two times the distance between the Sun and Earth.

While the initial detection was exciting, the research team needed more data to come to a firm conclusion. However, additional observations of the system in February 2025 and April 2025 (using Director’s Discretionary Time) did not reveal any objects like the one identified in August 2024.

“We are faced with the case of a disappearing planet! To investigate this mystery, we used computer models to simulate millions of potential orbits, incorporating the knowledge gained when we saw the planet, as well as when we did not,” said PhD student Aniket Sanghi of Caltech in Pasadena, California. Sanghi is a co-first author on the two papers covering the team’s research.

In these simulations, the team took into account both a 2019 sighting of the potential exoplanet candidate by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, the new data from Webb, and considered orbits that would be gravitationally stable in the presence of Alpha Centauri B, meaning that the planet wouldn’t get flung out of the system.

Researchers say a non-detection in the second and third round of observations with Webb isn’t surprising.

“We found that in half of the possible orbits simulated, the planet moved too close to the star and wouldn’t have been visible to Webb in both February and April 2025,” said Sanghi.

Based on the brightness of the planet in the mid-infrared observations and the orbit simulations, researchers say it could be a gas giant approximately the mass of Saturn orbiting Alpha Centauri A in an elliptical path varying between 1 to 2 times the distance between Sun and Earth.

"If confirmed, the potential planet seen in the Webb image of Alpha Centauri A would mark a new milestone for exoplanet imaging efforts," Sanghi says. "Of all the directly-imaged planets, this would be the closest to its star seen so far. It's also the most similar in temperature and age to the giant planets in our Solar System, and nearest to our home, Earth," he says. "Its very existence in a system of two closely-separated stars would challenge our understanding of how planets form, survive and evolve in chaotic environments."

If confirmed by additional observations, the team’s results could transform the future of exoplanet science.

“This would become a touchstone object for exoplanet science, with multiple opportunities for detailed characterization by Webb and other observatories,” said Beichman.

For example, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch by May 2027 and potentially as early as fall 2026, is equipped with dedicated hardware that will test new technologies to observe binary systems like Alpha Centauri in search of other worlds. Roman’s visible light data would complement Webb’s infrared observations, yielding unique insights on the size and reflectivity of the planet.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our Solar System, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our Universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

Source: NASA.Gov

****


NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, DSS, A. Sanghi (Caltech), C. Beichman (NExScI, NASA / JPL - Caltech), D. Mawet (Caltech); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

Webb's Predecessor Takes an Image of Galactic Visitor 3I/ATLAS...

NASA, ESA, David Jewitt (UCLA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

As NASA Missions Study Interstellar Comet, Hubble Makes Size Estimate (News Release)

A team of astronomers has taken the sharpest-ever picture of the unexpected interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS using the crisp vision of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble is one of many missions across NASA’s fleet of space telescopes slated to observe this comet, together providing more information about its size and physical properties. While the comet poses no threat to Earth, NASA’s space telescopes help support the agency's ongoing mission to find, track and better understand near-Earth objects.

Hubble’s observations allow astronomers to more accurately estimate the size of the comet’s solid, icy nucleus. The upper limit on the diameter of the nucleus is 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers), though it could be as small as 1,000 feet (320 meters) across, researchers report. Though the Hubble images put tighter constraints on the size of the nucleus compared to previous ground-based estimates, the solid heart of the comet presently cannot be seen directly, even by Hubble.

Observations from other NASA missions including the James Webb Space Telescope, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, as well as NASA’s partnership with the W.M. Keck Observatory, will help further refine our knowledge about the comet, including its chemical makeup.

Hubble also captured a dust plume ejected from the Sun-warmed side of the comet, and the hint of a dust tail streaming away from the nucleus. Hubble’s data yields a dust-loss rate consistent with comets that are first detected around 300 million miles from the Sun. This behavior is much like the signature of previously-seen Sun-bound comets originating within our Solar System.

The big difference is that this interstellar visitor originated in some other solar system elsewhere in our Milky Way galaxy.

3I/ATLAS is traveling through our Solar System at a staggering 130,000 miles (209,000 kilometers) per hour, the highest velocity ever recorded for a solar system visitor. This breathtaking sprint is evidence that the comet has been drifting through interstellar space for many billions of years. The gravitational slingshot effect from innumerable stars and nebulae that the comet passed added momentum, ratcheting up its speed.

The longer that 3I/ATLAS was out in space, the higher its speed grew.

“No one knows where the comet came from. It’s like glimpsing a rifle bullet for a thousandth of a second. You can't project that back with any accuracy to figure out where it started on its path,” said David Jewitt of the University of California, Los Angeles, science team leader for the Hubble observations.

The paper will be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. It is already available on Astro-ph.

New Evidence for Population of Wandering Space Relics

“This latest interstellar tourist is one of a previously undetected population of objects bursting onto the scene that will gradually emerge,” said Jewitt. “This is now possible because we have powerful sky survey capabilities that we didn't have before. We've crossed a threshold."

This comet was discovered by the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on July 1, 2025, at a distance of 420 million miles from the Sun. ATLAS is an asteroid impact early warning system developed by the University of Hawai’i.

In the meantime, other NASA missions will provide new insight into this third interstellar interloper, helping refine our understanding of these objects for the benefit of all. 3I/ATLAS should remain visible to ground-based telescopes through September, after which it will pass too close to the Sun to observe, and is expected to reappear on the other side of the Sun by early December.

Source: NASA.Gov

****

On This Day in 2005: My First Skydive!

Today marks 20 years since I went skydiving for the very first time! The jump took place at Skydive San Diego from an altitude of 13,000 feet...which was also the same altitude when I leaped out of another aircraft above Skydive Perris nine months later. I went on to skydive three more times—in 2013 with the HALO jump in Tennessee (at an altitude of 29,190 feet), in 2014 at Skydive Elsinore for my 35th birthday (at an altitude of 12,500 feet) and in 2018 at GoJump Oceanside for birthday #39 (once again at an altitude of 13,000 feet).

Will I go skydiving again, you ask? Hm. If my finances weren't dogshit right now, yes!

The Latest Update on America's Next Great Observatory...

NASA / Sophia Roberts

NASA Installs Key ‘Sunblock’ Shield on Roman Space Telescope (News Release - July 31)

Technicians have successfully installed two sunshields onto NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s inner segment. Along with the observatory’s Solar Array Sun Shield and Deployable Aperture Cover, the panels (together called the Lower Instrument Sun Shade), will play a critical role in keeping Roman’s instruments cool and stable as the mission explores the infrared universe.

The team is on track to join Roman’s outer and inner assemblies this fall to complete the full observatory, which can then undergo further prelaunch testing.

“This shield is like an extremely strong sunblock for Roman’s sensitive instruments, protecting them from heat and light from the Sun that would otherwise overwhelm our ability to detect faint signals from space,” said Matthew Stephens, an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The sunshade, which was designed and engineered at NASA Goddard, is essentially an extension of Roman’s solar panels, except without solar cells. Each sunshade flap is roughly the size of a garage door — about 7 by 7 feet (2.1 by 2.1 meters) — and 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) thick.

“They’re basically giant aluminum sandwiches, with metal sheets as thin as a credit card on the top and bottom and the central portion made up of a honeycomb structure,” said Conrad Mason, an aerospace engineer at NASA Goddard.

This design makes the panels lightweight yet stiff, and the material helps limit heat transfer from the side facing the Sun to the back—no small feat considering that the front will be hot enough to boil water (up to 216° Fahrenheit, or 102° Celsius) while the back will be much colder than Antarctica’s harshest winter (-211° Fahrenheit, or -135° Celsius). A specialized polymer film blanket will wrap around each panel to temper the heat, with 17 layers on the Sun side and one on the shaded side.

The sunshade will be stowed and gently deploy around an hour after launch.

“The deploying mechanisms have dampers that work like soft-close hinges for drawers or cabinets, so the panels won’t slam open and rattle the observatory,” Stephens said. “They each take about two minutes to move into their final positions. This is the very first system that Roman will deploy in space after the spacecraft separates from the launch vehicle.”

Now completely assembled, Roman’s inner segment is slated to undergo a 70-day thermal vacuum test next. Engineers and scientists will test the full functionality of the spacecraft, telescope and instruments under simulated space conditions. Following the test, the sunshade will be temporarily removed while the team joins Roman’s outer and inner assemblies, and then reattached to complete the observatory.

The mission remains on track for launch no later than May 2027 with the team aiming for as early as fall 2026.

Source: NASA.Gov

Lakers Update: The Luka Era Is Officially Here!

ESPN

Earlier today, 5-time NBA All-Star Luka Dončić officially solidified his place with the Los Angeles Lakers when he signed a 3-year contract extension worth $165 million. Dončić can become a free agent in 2028...which will mark his 10th year in the league and allow him to seek a 5-year deal worth $418 million with the Lakers. This financial windfall is dependent on Dončić declining a player option for the 2028-29 season, though.

So with Luka's future with the Lakers now secured, it remains to be seen what other moves the Lakers will make before NBA training camp starts on October 1st. And before I forget— Welcome to the Lake Show, Jake LaRavia and Marcus Smart! (I already blogged about Deandre Ayton's arrival to L.A. a month ago.)

The Lakers still have ways to go before they can match up with the defending champs, the Oklahoma City Thunder, but Luka securing his spot as the successor to LeBron James once the 22-year veteran retires (or leaves the Lakers for another team before the 2026-27 season) is a start! Happy Saturday.

Behind-the-scenes of Luka signing his extension. pic.twitter.com/qMNwHOLsWj

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) August 2, 2025

The Latest Update on America's Newest Jupiter-bound Orbiter...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA’s Europa Clipper Radar Instrument Proves Itself at Mars (News Release)

The agency’s largest interplanetary probe tested its radar during a Mars flyby. The results include a detailed image and bode well for the mission at Jupiter’s moon Europa.

As it soared past Mars in March, NASA’s Europa Clipper conducted a critical radar test that had been impossible to accomplish on Earth. Now that mission scientists have studied the full stream of data, they can declare success: The radar performed just as expected, bouncing and receiving signals off the region around Mars’ equator without a hitch.

Called REASON (Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface), the radar instrument will “see” into Europa’s icy shell, which may have pockets of water inside. The radar may even be able to detect the ocean beneath the shell of Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon.

“We got everything out of the flyby that we dreamed,” said Don Blankenship, principal investigator of the radar instrument, of the University of Texas at Austin. “The goal was to determine the radar’s readiness for the Europa mission, and it worked. Every part of the instrument proved itself to do exactly what we intended.”

The radar will help scientists understand how the ice may capture materials from the ocean and transfer them to the surface of the moon. Above ground, the instrument will help to study elements of Europa’s topography, such as ridges, so scientists can examine how they relate to features that REASON images beneath the surface.

Limits of Earth

Europa Clipper has an unusual radar setup for an interplanetary spacecraft: REASON uses two pairs of slender antennas that jut out from the solar arrays, spanning a distance of about 58 feet (17.6 meters). Those arrays themselves are huge — from tip to tip, the size of a basketball court — so that they can catch as much light as possible at Europa, which gets about 1/25th the sunlight as Earth.

The instrument team conducted all of the testing that was possible prior to the spacecraft’s launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 14, 2024. During development, engineers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California even took the work outdoors, using open-air towers on a plateau above JPL to stretch out and test engineering models of the instrument’s spindly high-frequency and more compact very-high-frequency antennas.

But once the actual flight hardware was built, it needed to be kept sterile and could only be tested in an enclosed area. Engineers used the giant High Bay 1 clean room at JPL, where the spacecraft was assembled, to test the instrument piece by piece. To test the “echo,” or the bounceback of REASON’s signals, however, they would have needed a chamber about 250 feet (76 meters) long — nearly three-quarters the length of a football field.

Enter Mars

The mission’s primary goal in flying by Mars on March 1, less than five months after launch, was to use the planet’s gravitational pull to reshape the spacecraft’s trajectory. But it also presented opportunities to calibrate the spacecraft’s infrared camera and perform a dry run of the radar instrument over terrain that NASA scientists have been studying for decades.

As Europa Clipper zipped by the volcanic plains of the Red Planet — starting at 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) down to 550 miles (884 kilometers) above the surface — REASON sent and received radio waves for about 40 minutes. In comparison, at Europa the instrument will operate as close as 16 miles (25 kilometers) from the moon’s surface.

All told, engineers were able to collect 60 gigabytes of rich data from the instrument. Almost immediately, they could tell that REASON was working well. The flight team scheduled the full dataset to download, starting in mid-May.

Scientists relished the opportunity over the next couple of months to examine the information in detail and compare notes.

“The engineers were excited that their test worked so perfectly,” said JPL’s Trina Ray, Europa Clipper deputy science manager. “All of us who had worked so hard to make this test happen — and the scientists seeing the data for the first time — were ecstatic, saying, ‘Oh, look at this! Oh, look at that!’ Now, the science team is getting a head start on learning how to process the data and understand the instrument’s behavior compared to models. They are exercising those muscles just like they will out at Europa.”

Europa Clipper’s total journey to reach the icy moon will be about 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) and includes one more gravity assist — using Earth — in 2026. The spacecraft is currently about 280 million miles (450 million kilometers) from Earth.

Source: NASA.Gov

****


NASA / JPL - Caltech


NASA / JPL - Caltech / UT - Austin