astronomy | M Thomas Apple Author Page

October 23, 2026
MThomas

While NASA has successfully landed nine spacecraft on Mars over the past 50 years and China scored a 2021 touchdown, no one has ever reached Phobos or its sidekick Deimos. And no one has managed to fetch samples from Mars, let alone its moons.

https://apnews.com/article/japan-mars-moon-mission-fb51fbbf90374631e8ae658f9ca461

JAXA launched their MMX (Martian Moon Explorer) spacecraft successfully on October 20th. It hopes to arrive next summer.

And return with samples by 2031. Glad they got the initial launch window in time.

Nobody’s ever done this before. Let alone in conjunction with several other countries.

(The image is from another version of the article, but I wanted to post the original AP one bc it has a video clip of the rocket launch.)

“New” planetoid discovered farther than Pluto?

May 5, 2026
MThomas

Artist’s impression. Probably doesn’t have that many track lights behind it.

Just 300 miles or so across, this mini Pluto is thought to be the solar system’s smallest object yet with a clearly detected global atmosphere bound by gravity, said lead researcher Ko Arimatsu of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/atmosphere-icy-world-beyond-pluto-rcna343509

The planetoid, called “(612533) 2002 XV93” (good luck remembering that one), was discovered and tracked by three separate observatories in Japan in 2024.

So why is it being only announced now?

Because scientists are cautious folk. They still want other observers to document this in other countries, to increase the validity of their finding.

The fact that the planetoid has an atmosphere (ridiculously thin, something like five to ten million times thinner than that of the Earth’s) came as a surprise.

So is this the famed “Planet X”? Or “Nibiru”?

No worries. It’s not rogue and won’t destroy the Earth in 3600 years. Sorry.

May the Fourth Be With You, Always…

May 4, 2026
MThomas

Astronomers have discovered 27 new potential planets that orbit two stars, like the fictional desert planet Tatooine from the Star Wars universe…

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/04/scientists-discover-27-potential-new-planets

And now you know what a “Circumbinary planet” means. Happy Star Wars Day!

To go farther than anyone before

April 7, 2026
MThomas

“It is blowing my mind what you can see with the naked eye from the moon right now,” Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen radioed ahead of the flyby. “It is just unbelievable.”

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/apr/06/artemis-ii-astronauts-record-moon-earth-distance?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Just like Apollo 8 in 1968.

History does not repeat, but it sure does rhyme.

And the real reason Class D missions are a complete waste…

March 4, 2026
MThomas

Lunar Trailblazer blazed so hard that NASA completely lost it immediately…

Software that was supposed to point the spacecraft solar panels toward the sun instead pointed them 180 degrees away from the sun.

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/26/nx-s1-5727622/nasa-lunar-trailblazer-moon-new-report-what-went-wrong

It took a year to figure this out.

A year.

To find out that the outsourced company in charge couldn’t even be bothered to test the product. They just happily pocketed $72 million of taxpayer dollars and laughed all the way to the bank.

Another symptom of a nation in decline…

Blood Moon tonight! And..

March 3, 2026
MThomas

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/mar/03/total-lunar-eclipse-tonight-blood-moon-2026-what-time-when-date-march-full-worm-moon-sydney-australia-new-york-america

Lunar eclipse, tonight from 6:30 to 11:00…

Except it still raining here in Japan, and we’ll see nothing.

Rats.

At least we’ll visit JAXA tomorrow…

Geminids, Geminids, Geminids!

December 15, 2025
MThomas

It’s been several months since I last posted…too much work and no play!

Until this past Sunday. Whew.

After a morning lecture about ancient Japanese myths and “deliberately forgotten” kings (maybe), I was grateful to be able to take a quick power nap…

…so that the family could go up a nearby mountain and watch the Geminid meteor shower. (By “mountain,” I mean about 640m/2100ft.)

After a brief lecture/quiz by a staff member at our local culture center, we stayed outside, lying flat on the ground, for over an hour. And, yes, it was cold, despite the sleeping bag and thermal underwear. I saw three shooting stars. Not nearly as many as I’d hoped.

After we got home and took evening baths, the kids went out on our second-floor balcony and found out that the night view was even better at home than on top of a mountain! At least they knew what to look for, thanks to the culture center event.

Although the peak is Sunday night between midnight and 2 a.m., the meteors are still visible to some degree the rest of this week.

And by “meteor,” I mean the size of grains of rice. Look to the eastern sky, just a bit to the northwest of Orion, to find the Twins (Castor and Pollux in Greco-Roman mythology).

For more on the origins of the Geminids, check out the JAXA mission to Phaeton, the parent body asteroid. It’s DESTINY!

Life on Trappist 1e?

September 12, 2025
MThomas

In two separate papers published Monday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers zeroed in on the TRAPPIST-1 system, which consists of seven rocky planets that orbit a single star. Both studies outlined initial results from observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, suggesting that one planet in particular, known as TRAPPIST-1e, may have a nitrogen-rich atmosphere like Earth’s, though follow-up studies are needed to confirm the discovery.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/trappist1e-atmosphere-extraterrestrial-life-planet-earth-conditions-rcna229839

Trappist 1e is in the “Goldilocks zone” in orbit around its star (i.e., not too cold, not too hot, just right). However, the Webb telescope can’t determine whether its atmosphere has any carbon dioxide, hydrogen, or oxygen, only nitrogen. Yet nitrogen is a clear sign that life is possible, because without nitrogen, DNA and other proteins are not possible. Of course, it could be simply a whole lot of microbes. Or even just ammonia.

Closer to home, the Mars rover Perseverance has found evidence of life in the distant past. Maybe. It found evidence that certain rock features may have happened because of microbes.

May.

That’s how science works, folks. A whole lot of maybes.

(I still think we need more catchy names for the Trappists. I mean, come on.

Long time, no…

August 5, 2025
MThomas

Hi, everyone. I haven’t written a blog post in a very long time.

For various reasons.

I’ll see if I can start posting a few entries on recent science events in a few days (for starters, four astronauts finally arrived at the ISS, the first replacements following the Boeing Starliner fiasco).

But for right now, I want to follow up this short post with some analysis I got from our friend ChatGPT…

…about Adam’s Stepsons and Bringer of Light. Stay tuned!

Get ready for the great planetary alignment February 28th!

February 27, 2025
MThomas

The best day to see all seven major planets (yes, you read that right, all seven!) is Friday, February 28th.

The link will describe (and give pictures) of where to find them all in the night sky.

Finding Orion is the key to most of them. Knowing where the Pleiades are helps, too.

The next time this “parade” appears will be 2040, so fingers crossed for clear skies!

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/seven-planet-parade-28-february-2025

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