October 28, 2026
The new dwarf planet candidate joins thousands of known objects in an area of the solar system beyond Neptune known as the Kuiper Belt. And the scientists say there may be more of them.
The Vera C Rubin Observatory (in Chile) which enabled astrophysicists from Harvard to spot “2026 ED138” will be featured in an upcoming documentary in mid-December. Probably too early to confirm the finding, but still, I hope they keep finding more. The Kuiper Belt is out there. WAY out there…
October 23, 2026
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.)
September 19, 2026
When we think about colonizing Mars, we usually imagine advanced spacesuits, dome cities, and massive terraforming projects.
Beyond Spacesuits: How Genetic Engineering Could Make Us Martian
Wish I had seen this writing prompt this past June! I could have written…
Well, probably something very similar to this. Only without the obvious use of AI.
Just think, though…this would be the beginning of a new species of human, the first in several hundreds of thousands of years.
Homo Martis?
August 28, 2026
Lunar eclipses occur when Earth moves between the sun and the moon and its shadow is cast on to the lunar surface. In Thursday night’s event 96% of the moon will be darkened by the Earth’s shadow at its peak moment. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/aug/27/lunar-eclipse-north-south-america
WordPress has gotten really wonky with the “quotation” formatting, so I hope this one works…
Anyway, I will of course still blog about science in addition to family history and other things I find interesting.
Remembering when I took a writing workshop online a few years ago, and they told me to choose only one genre in order to not confuse readers.
And I still think, nah. I think readers are smart enough to enjoy good writing when they see it. To me, the mark of a good writer is one who can wend and weave between multiple genres. Why limit yourself?
If you don’t like science writing, fine. If you don’t like history, fine. If you don’t like science fiction, fine. If you don’t like random thoughts about life, the universe, and everything…well, then, what on earth are you doing reading my blog? :p
Anyway, enjoy the eclipse if you are able to see it. I’ll keep on writing!
(Also, I really don’t care for this “AI can monetize your blog” BS. I’m not doing this for money. I just like to write. I hope you like reading it!)
June 16, 2026
“In the mission’s first five years, it’s expected to unveil more than 100,000 distant worlds, hundreds of millions of stars, and billions of galaxies,” [Julie McEnery, senior project scientist] said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/nasa-roman-space-telescope-launch-fastest-ever-rcna349773
It should be ready for launch in August, to be parked at the L2 Lagrange space near James Webb ((which has been there since 2021).
Two decades in the making. Yet “under budget and ahead of schedule”? Really?
I’m all for discovering tens of thousands of possibly inhabited worlds and learning more about dark energy and dark matter. But I’d also like to see a little more practical tech from NASA. How will this help us settle the solar system and figure out how to visit other systems?
February 17, 2026
February 21, 2025
Hi, everyone. I know I haven’t posted in a while now (about three months).
Things happened. I’ll see if I can deal with that in a post this weekend before returning to regularly blogging about astronomy and etc.
Winter is still here! (In the northern hemisphere.) Going on walks and hiking in 3C windy weather only makes hot chocolate taste that much better…
☕️
June 16, 2024
This is how I’ve been feeling the past couple of weeks…
Just too hot. And too busy. And tired.
And my favorite baseball teams keep losing.
At least for Father’s Day my wife got me nice food and drink. Maybe that’ll help get my mojo back…
(The image is of my youngest daughter’s art bag from last year. She has also complained of not being able to write much lately…)
April 8, 2024
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:
Things scientists can view thanks to an eclipse:
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!
March 13, 2024
Water molecules have been detected in asteroid samples returned to Earth, but this marks the first time that the molecules have been discovered on the surface of an asteroid in space. The team studied four silicate-rich asteroids using data from the now-retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy(SOFIA).
https://www.popsci.com/science/water-asteroid-space/
The asteroids in question are Iris (124 miles / 200 km in diameter) and Massalia (84 miles / 135 km). Both are in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Iris is about the size of the US state of Maryland, while Massalia is roughly the size of Connecticut.
Note that the same observatory also found water on the Moon, about a “12-ounce bottle” worth. Not nearly enough for a settlement, but where there’s surface water (albeit trapped in soil on the surface), there’s likely to be more underneath.
(See also https://www.swri.org/press-release/swri-scientists-identify-water-molecules-asteroids-the-first-time — the PopSci linked article above essentially plagiarised almost its entire text. Bad scientist, bad.)
Original article here: Arrendono et al. (2024) Detection of molecular H20 on nominally anhydrous asteroids. Planet. Sci. J. 5. 37 doi 10.3847/PSJ/ad18b8 – good luck trying to read it!
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