June 17, 2026
Six small satellites developed by universities and other organizations carried by the vehicle also were believed to be successfully separated, JAXA said.
https://apnews.com/article/japan-jaxa-h3-rocket-launch-9c64f2c59b9212d612902e74823b77b5
“Believed to be” successful. Very Japanese.
It’s a start. A late, very much delayed start. But at least it worked (finally).
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?
May 25, 2026
Li Jiaying, a 43-year-old police officer and mother of three, serves as the payload scientist in the three-member crew who made their way to China’s Tiangong space station on Sunday night.
Congratulations to her!
But is it really important that she is a “mother of three”? I never see anything about male astronauts being a “father of three.”
Presumably she got sent into space because she qualified for the job, not because she has three children. Sexist reporting like this has to stop.
May 5, 2026
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.
April 2, 2026
Live up dates of the Artemis II mission to “cislunar space” (it will not actually land on the Moon but will take four astronauts farther away from Earth than anyone else so far).
March 3, 2026
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…
February 17, 2026
December 15, 2025
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!
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…
☕️
November 14, 2024
The planet Uranus and its five biggest moons may not be the dead sterile worlds that scientists have long thought.
Instead, they may have oceans, and the moons may even be capable of supporting life, scientists say.
Cue the jokes in five…four…three…
“So, you mean there really is life in…ah…”
Note that this is not from new data. It’s a re-analysis of what Voyager 2 sent back decades ago. Basically, it just had a bad day, with magnetic storms screwing up the scan.
Still…
There could be moons there that could have the conditions that are necessary for life, they might have oceans that below the surface that could be teeming with fish!
I think this is a bit of an exaggeration…
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