science | M Thomas Apple Author Page

3I/Atlas coming to a planet near you!

December 19, 2025
MThomas

3I/Atlas. Not a real photo. Also, not aliens. Sorry.

https://www.space.com/news/live/interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-closest-to-earth-flyby-week-dec-18-2025

Discovered on July 1 by the NASA-funded ATLAS telescopes in Chile, 3I/ATLAS is only the third confirmed interstellar object known to have passed through our cosmic neighborhood, following 1I/‘Oumuamua in 2017 and comet 2I/Borisov in 2019. Its trajectory shows that it originated from beyond our solar system and will eventually travel back into interstellar space.

https://www.space.com/astronomy/comets/interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-makes-its-closest-approach-to-earth-on-dec-19-heres-what-you-need-to-know

Of course, Avi Loeb has already claimed (once again) that an interstellar comet is an “alien probe.”

And naturally, other astrophysicists immediately refuted him. Again.

It’s fast. REAL fast. So fast that even as it entered the solar system it was traveling the distance from the Earth to the Sun in only a month, and then it began to pick up even more speed (from the Sun’s gravity, NOT from “jets out the back” or whatever else unscientific SF fans say online).

Of course, we can assume that the aliens’ spaceship will detach from it precisely during its approach to Mars, or during its passage through perihelion when we cannot see it. In this case, it will have to slow down by more than 20 km/s.

And even so, this will not help the aliens much, because the trajectory will remain retrograde relative to the direction of the planets’ rotation around the Sun. So, if the aliens who flew to us billions of years ago have a plan that is a little more complicated than becoming kamikaze pilots, they will have to slow down again, spending a lot of energy on it. And the aliens still need to get that energy from somewhere.

So, most likely, we should not expect any extraterrestrial visitors at the end of the year. And we will not be able to admire the interstellar comet itself. By the time it emerges from behind the Sun, its brightness will already be approximately 11 stellar magnitudes, meaning it will be inaccessible even to small amateur instruments, let alone the naked eye.

So, nah. Sorry.

–> LIVESTREAM from 11 p.m. EST December 19th here: https://www.space.com/astronomy/comets/watch-interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-make-its-closest-approach-to-earth-in-free-livestream-on-dec-18

(FWIW, the last two sentences are NOT supposed to be quotes, but wordpress is quite frankly broken.)

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!

Chinese scientists “create” water from lunar soil

September 4, 2024
MThomas

Using the new method, one metric tonne of lunar soil will be able to produce about 51 to 76 kilograms of water, equivalent to more than a hundred 500-millileter bottles of water, or the daily drinking water consumption of 50 people, the state broadcaster said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/chinese-scientists-use-lunar-soil-produce-water-rcna167951

The soil was from the 2020 expedition, which was the first in 44 years to bring back soil from the Moon.

Considering all of NASA’s problems, it looks like China will have a moon base years before the US does…and probably in prime resource locations as well.

And don’t forget that the hydrogen in the soil can also be used for rocket fuel. It would be a lot easier to launch ships to Mars and beyond without having to deal with Earth’s gravity…

Starliner to Earth: “We have a problem…”

June 17, 2024
MThomas

Starliner, the Boeing spacecraft whose launch was delayed by a helium leak, has now developed four additional helium leaks after docking successfully with the ISS.

They had to delay the docking due to a little problem with thrusters…

Five of the 28 thrusters were not operating but, after troubleshooting, Boeing recovered four of Starliner’s malfunctioning jets and NASA allowed the spacecraft to dock.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/boeing-nasa-delay-starliner-astronaut-return-june-22-rcna157259

So their return to Earth has been delayed so that they can run some more tests.

I sure hope they have built some redundancies to this system. Remember, this is Boeing. QC is not exactly high on their priorities list…

Boeing Starliner delayed. They should delay again.

May 15, 2024
MThomas

A contractor for Nasa urged the space agency to conduct more safety checks before the highly-anticipated first launch of its Starliner rocket – which is set to take off as soon as next week – “before something catastrophic happens”.

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/nasa-contractor-boeing-starliner-launch-b2542947.html

It was supposed to launch last week, but someone spotted a valve problem — *minutes* before the countdown procedure was about to start.

They’d better check for door plugs while they’re at it.

Boeing does not give a rat’s ass about whoever uses their products. They‘re only interest in paying dividends to stockholders. And of course paying the CEO’s ridiculously high salary.

NASA is trusting the future of space travel to people like Musk and companies like Boeing. Using taxpayer money to reward greed and incompetence.

We can do better than this.

Venus used to have as much water as Earth. What happened?

May 7, 2024
MThomas

Over time, that water has nearly all been lost. Figuring out how, when and why Venus lost its water helps planetary scientists like me understand what makes a planet habitable — or what can make a habitable planet transform into an uninhabitable world.
https://theconversation.com/venus-is-losing-water-faster-than-previously-thought-heres-what-that-could-mean-for-the-early-planets-habitability-229342

The process in which Venus lost most of its water is called “hydrodynamic escape.” When Venus got too hot, the hydrogen in its atmosphere left. (The linked article explains this using a metaphor of having too many blankets on your bed.)

However, Venus is still losing hydrogen, even though there is too little of it for hydrodynamic escape to work. So, logically, there must be another process at work: “HCO⁺ dissociative recombination,” in which individually positively charged atoms of hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen in the atmosphere react with negatively charged electrons. The process was first examined on Mars, and based on a reexamination of results from previous missions (Pioneer Venus 1 and Pioneer Venus 2), the same research group thinks it’s time to try it on Venus…perhaps a first step to seeing whether Venus had life at some point.

Can you say “Catch-22” in space?

April 30, 2024
MThomas

Japanese space company Astroscale Holdings Inc has unveiled what it calls the world’s first publicly released close-up image taken of space debris, hailing it as progress toward understanding the challenges posed by trash orbiting Earth.
https://japantoday.com/category/tech/update1-japan-startup-reveals-world%27s-first-close-up-space-debris-image?

Hmm.🤔 what will happen to the rocket and the satellite that took this picture?

Well, hello, Voyager 1! The venerable spacecraft is once again making sense

April 23, 2024
MThomas

NASA says it is once again able to get meaningful information back from the Voyager 1 probe, after months of troubleshooting a glitch that had this venerable spacecraft sending home messages that made no sense.
https://www.npr.org/2024/04/23/1246392066/nasa-voyager-1-spacecraft-talks-back

Hmm. Just a short while ago, Voyager’s days were numbered.

I guess these things were built to last… (also built when NASA got a lot more funding…)

WASP-76b is a hellish planet – but with “glory”

April 11, 2024
MThomas

There are many words that could be used to describe WASP-76b — hellish, scorching, turbulent, chaotic, and even violent. This is a planet outside the solar system that sits so close to its star it gets hot enough to vaporize lead. So, as you can imagine, until now, “glorious” wasn’t one of those words.
https://www.space.com/hellish-exoplanet-rainbow-glory-effect-cheops

This planet (located in the constellation Pisces) seems to have a rainbow effect of concentric rings…despite being so hot that iron falls from the sky.

Get ready for the 2024 totality, North Americans!

April 8, 2024
MThomas

Researchers will fly rockets into the path of the eclipse, stand in zoos watching animals, send radio signals across the globe, and peer into space with massive cameras.

And you don’t need to be a scientist to take part.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68742516

If you’re lucky enough to have no clouds or rain, that is.

Things the eclipse affects:

Radio waves
Animal behavior
The birds and the bees (seriously; read about what tortoises did last time)

Things scientists can view thanks to an eclipse:

The solar wind (plasma on the surface of the Sun)
Coronal mass ejections (which interfere with satellites)
Dust rings around the Sun and possibly even new asteroids

The East Coast of North America, where most of my relatives live, is currently 13 hours behind me in Japan. So the event will be long over by the time I wake up.

Hope to see video of it on the morning news show tomorrow!

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