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akasci.bsky.social
AkaSci
@akasci.bsky.social
800 followers 790 following 220 posts
SatCom Scientist
Writing occasionally about science, space missions, astronomy, planetary science, satellites, Democracy and human rights.
Mostly at https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci
Posts Replies Media Videos
akasci.bsky.social
On Dec. 27, 2024, NASA’s Juno spacecraft witnessed the most intense eruption ever recorded on Io, Jupiter’s most volcanically active moon. The eruption spanned 65,000 sq km and released > 80 TW of energy.

www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-ju...
More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1159...
#Astronomy
1. A massive hotspot — larger the Earth’s Lake Superior — can be seen just to the right of Io’s south pole in this annotated image taken by the JIRAM infrared imager aboard NASA’s Juno on Dec. 27, 2024, during the spacecraft’s flyby of the Jovian moon. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM 2. Map of IO from angle that is close to that of the images below, with the South Pole in view. And my guess for the scarred area of the eruption near Nemea Planum. 3D-map source: http://terkeptar.elte.hu/vgm/2/?show=globe&id=111&descid=219 3. Images of Io captured in 2024 by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno show significant and visible surface changes (indicated by the arrows) near the Jovian moon’s south pole. These changes occurred between the 66th and 68th perijove, or the point during Juno’s orbit when it is closest to Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Jason Perry
February 1, 2026 at 2:10 PM
akasci.bsky.social
New FCC filing by SpaceX for a constellation of million data center satellites for AI 😮

Even if it could be done, what will this do to #astronomy and #space debris?

Or is this yet another scam and grift scheme?

www.scribd.com/document/990...
More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1159...
Image of the first page of the filing - SpaceX requests authority to launch and operate a constellation of satellites with unprecedented computing capacity to power advanced artificial intelligence (“AI”) models and the applications that rely on them. By directly harnessing near-constant solar power with little operating or maintenance costs, these satellites will achieve transformative cost and energy efficiency while significantly reducing the environmental impact associated with terrestrial data centers. Launching a constellation of a million satellites that operate as orbital data centers is a first step towards becoming a Kardashev II-level civilization—one that can harness the Sun’s full power—while supporting AI-driven applications for billions of people today and ensuring humanity’s multi-planetary future amongst the stars SpaceX is designing its satellite system to accommodate the explosive growth of data demands driven by AI, machine learning, and edge omputing, where processing needs are already beginning to outpace terrestrial capabilities. To deliver the compute capacity required for large- scale AI inference and data center applications serving billions of users globally, SpaceX aims to deploy a system of up to one million satellites to operate within narrow orbital shells spanning up to 50 km each (leaving sufficient room to deconflict against other systems with comparable ambitions). This system will operate between 500 km and 2,000 km altitude ...
January 31, 2026 at 7:44 PM
akasci.bsky.social
Space Oddities!

Researchers used a neural network named AnomalyMatch to search thru ~100 million images from the Hubble Legacy Archive. In 2.5 days, it found more than anomalous 1,300 objects, more than 800 previously unknown.

esahubble.org/news/heic2603/
@cmdr-hadfield.bsky.social
#Astronomy
Researchers discover hundreds of cosmic anomalies with help from AI
A team of astronomers have used a new AI-assisted method to search for rare astronomical objects in the Hubble Legacy Archive. The team sifted through nearly 100 million image cutouts in just two and ...
esahubble.org
January 29, 2026 at 12:05 AM
akasci.bsky.social
The NASA Artemis II SLS stack was rolled out today to launch pad 39B at KSC for testing and wet rehearsals.

Launch on Feb. 6, for a 10-day journey around the Moon and back (no moon landing) with 4 astronauts.

More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1158...
#Space
1. Pic of the SLS rocket exiting the VAB taken from inside the building. Credit: Reid Wiseman 2. SLS on the launch pad this evening
January 18, 2026 at 12:15 AM
Reposted by AkaSci
startswithabang.bsky.social
The four paths forward for US scientists in 2026

If you're feeling hopeless about being a scientist in the United States in 2026, know that there are four good paths that can take you forward.

Which one is right for you?
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #science #astro #scientists #usa
The four paths forward for US scientists in 2026
US science is worth fighting for, but so are the science projects and scientists denied opportunities. Here are 4 paths all worth exploring.
bigthink.com
January 13, 2026 at 5:15 PM
akasci.bsky.social
NASA has set a target date for the ISS Crew-11’s early return to earth, due to the medical issue with one of the crew members.
Undocking: 5 p.m. EST, Wednesday, Jan. 14.
Splashdown: 3:40 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, off the coast of CA.

www.nasa.gov/blogs/spaces...
NASA, SpaceX Set Target Date for Crew-11’s Return to Earth - NASA
NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 5 p.m. EST, Wednesday, Jan. 14, for the undocking of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission from the International Space Station, pending weather conditions.
www.nasa.gov
January 10, 2026 at 4:34 AM
Reposted by AkaSci
jfoust.bsky.social
NASA is postponing tomorrow's scheduled ISS spacewalk because of "a medical concern" with one astronaut. www.nasa.gov/blogs/spaces...
NASA Postpones Jan. 8 Spacewalk - NASA
NASA is postponing the Thursday, Jan. 8, spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The agency is monitoring a medical concern with a crew member that
www.nasa.gov
January 7, 2026 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by AkaSci
amsat-dl.org
Chang'e-3 lander on the Moon just turned on again 📡〰️calling home and in command lock with groundstation! Sun's elevation at Chang'e-3 landing site in Mare Imbrium is 20°. Landing date was 14th December 2013. #HNY2026
December 31, 2025 at 1:28 PM
akasci.bsky.social
Check out these beautiful macro photographs of Slime Moulds by Barry Webb at www.barrywebbimages.co.uk/Images/Macro...

Additional links -
Fungi: www.barrywebbimages.co.uk/Images/Macro...
Instagram: www.instagram.com/barrywebbima...
Slime mould info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_mo
#Nature
Barry Webb's photograph of glistening Comatricha nigra slime moulds titled "Glistening Slime Mould". It won the people's choice in the macro category of the British Photography Awards 2025 Photographed on an old, rotting fence post in my back garden. I used a spray bottle to create a wet foreground to add a reflection and give the image an extra dimension. These fruiting bodies are around 2.5mm tall. 56 images were focus stacked to create the final image. Camera settings: 2.0 sec, f3.2, ISO 400 Source: https://www.britishphotographyawards.org/2025-shortlist/shortlist/macro/glistening-slime-mould/d4795926-9090-4f80-b07b-e7a743ec9459
December 30, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by AkaSci
nickakerman.bsky.social
Trump: The FBI Informant Who Did Not Bark. A key email from Epstein’s estate, in combination with statements by Trump ally House Speaker Mike Johnson, shows it is highly likely that Trump was an FBI informant in the sex abuse investigation into Epstein. bit.ly/44OKNct
December 28, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by AkaSci
akasci.bsky.social
This is lemon-shaped exoplanet PSR J2322-2650b orbiting a pulsar every 7.75h.

It's atmosphere contains He, C2 and C3, but little H, O or N.

The pulsar contains 1.4 Suns crushed into a 10-20 km sphere, rotates every 3.33 ms and deforms the planet.
More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1157...
#Astronomy
1. This artist’s concept shows what the exoplanet called PSR J2322-2650b (left) may look like as it orbits a rapidly spinning neutron star called a pulsar (right). Gravitational forces from the much heavier pulsar are pulling the Jupiter-mass world into a bizarre lemon shape. Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI) 2. This artist’s concept shows what the exoplanet PSR J2322-2650b may look like. Gravitational forces from the much heavier pulsar it orbits are pulling the Jupiter-mass world into this bizarre lemon shape. Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI) Source: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-observes-exoplanet-whose-composition-defies-explanation/
December 28, 2025 at 1:54 AM
akasci.bsky.social
This is lemon-shaped exoplanet PSR J2322-2650b orbiting a pulsar every 7.75h.

It's atmosphere contains He, C2 and C3, but little H, O or N.

The pulsar contains 1.4 Suns crushed into a 10-20 km sphere, rotates every 3.33 ms and deforms the planet.
More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1157...
#Astronomy
1. This artist’s concept shows what the exoplanet called PSR J2322-2650b (left) may look like as it orbits a rapidly spinning neutron star called a pulsar (right). Gravitational forces from the much heavier pulsar are pulling the Jupiter-mass world into a bizarre lemon shape. Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI) 2. This artist’s concept shows what the exoplanet PSR J2322-2650b may look like. Gravitational forces from the much heavier pulsar it orbits are pulling the Jupiter-mass world into this bizarre lemon shape. Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI) Source: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-observes-exoplanet-whose-composition-defies-explanation/
December 28, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Reposted by AkaSci
just-jack-1.bsky.social
If Trump was 100% guilty before any of the Epstein files were released, now he’s closer to 600%, 700%, even 800% guilty.

MAGA math works both ways.
December 27, 2025 at 5:55 AM
akasci.bsky.social
Join the funny and clever threads on James Bond.
🤣
bsky.app/profile/tren...
December 27, 2025 at 6:02 AM
akasci.bsky.social
Researchers using the JWST have confirmed the first supersonic Runaway Supermassive Black Hole (~7.8 bly away) ejected by and racing away from its host galaxy at 3.43 million km/h, leaving behind a 200,000-light-year-long "contrail" of newborn stars.

More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1157...
#Astronomy
AkaSci 🛰️ (@AkaSci@fosstodon.org)
Attached: 1 image Researchers, using the JWST, have confirmed that a black hole, first detected in 2023 by the same team, is indeed a supersonic Runaway Supermassive Black Hole, ejected by and racing...
fosstodon.org
December 26, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by AkaSci
brianbilston.bsky.social
This is called ‘Twenty Modern-Day Proverbs’.
Twenty Modern-Day Proverbs   Fake news travels fast. Post in haste, regret immediately. Two’s company, three’s a crowdsourcing campaign. AI for an eye, an untruth for a truth. Beware of geeks bearing gifs. Caesar’s Wi-Fi must be above suspicion. A scrolling phone gathers no moss. Share and share and like. Don’t feed the troll that bites you. Empty influencers make the most noise. Every blog has its day. Blessed are the content creators. There’s a time and podcast for everything. Do not judge clickbait by its cover. A WhatsApp a day keeps your mother at bay. All’s well that trends well. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day;
teach a man to phish and you pheed him for a lifetime. Every cloud has a data centre. Spam tomorrow and spam yesterday – and always spam today. The end justifies the memes. Brian Bilston
December 19, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Reposted by AkaSci
philplait.bsky.social
This is precisely how fascism works, by grabbing at and taking away a little more freedom whenever events lend themselves to it. Bit by bit you lose your rights, until you turn around and realize the road you're on has been long, and democracy is well behind you over the horizon.
socialmedialab.ca Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · Dec 19
The admin is wasting no crisis... Sec. Kristi Noem said she is suspending the diversity visa lottery program (DV-1) after the Brown University suspect entered the U.S. through it in 2017.
December 19, 2025 at 5:10 AM
akasci.bsky.social
Starlink failure at 418 km altitude - loss of comms, venting of propulsion tank, rapid orbit decay by ~4 km and release of "a small number of trackable low relative velocity objects" (aka space debris).

ISS not at risk from the tumbling satellite. What about untrackable debris? Risk to other sats?
Tweet from Starlink @Starlink On December 17, Starlink experienced an anomaly on satellite 35956, resulting in loss of communications with the vehicle at 418 km. The anomaly led to venting of the propulsion tank, a rapid decay in semi-major axis by about 4 km, and the release of a small number of trackable low relative velocity objects. SpaceX is coordinating with the @USSpaceForce and @NASA to monitor the objects. The satellite is largely intact, tumbling, and will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and fully demise within weeks. The satellite's current trajectory will place it below the @Space_Station, posing no risk to the orbiting lab or its crew. As the world’s largest satellite constellation operator, we are deeply committed to space safety. We take these events seriously. Our engineers are rapidly working to root cause and mitigate the source of the anomaly and are already in the process of deploying software to our vehicles that increases protections against this type of event. https://x.com/Starlink/status/2001691802911289712
December 19, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Reposted by AkaSci
taniel.bsky.social
A week ago, I wrote that Democrats flipped 21% of all state legislative seats held by the GOP that were in play this year.

Republicans, meanwhile, had flipped none.

This KY seat was one of just a couple left before the end of 2025.

boltsmag.org/legislative-...
In 2025, Democrats Flipped 21 Percent of GOP-Held Legislative Seats - Bolts
At the start of Donald Trump’s first presidency, in 2017, large Democratic victories in New Jersey and Virginia, paired with overperformances in special elections, foreshadowed the blue wave of the......
boltsmag.org
December 17, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Reposted by AkaSci
akasci.bsky.social
Chances are excellent for some good aurora viewing tonight in the upper- and mid-latitudes, esp. in the latter half of the night in Canada and northern U.S. states, due to the anticipated passage of the CME from 06 December.

Keep those cameras handy!
www.swpc.noaa.gov
#Astronomy
1. Map of aurora viewline tonight 2. Table of Kp Index for the next 3 days
December 8, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by AkaSci
propublica.org
NEW: In a five-part series, “Sick in a Hospital Town,” ProPublica’s @gingerthompson.bsky.social pursues the question:

Why are people in Albany, Georgia, so sick when its most powerful institution is a hospital?

Start with Part 1 here:
Sick in a Hospital Town, Part 1: The Business of Care
Welcome to Albany, Georgia, where one hospital dominates the political and economic landscape. The story of Phoebe Putney Memorial is the story of American health care.
projects.propublica.org
December 7, 2025 at 1:00 PM
akasci.bsky.social
Time, on avg, runs 477 μs/day (4.4 seconds/25y) faster on Mars relative to Earth, according to physicists at NIST, thanks to Einstein's theory of general relativity and the gravitational effects from its celestial neighbors.
www.nist.gov/news-events/...
fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1156...
#Astronomy
1. Pic of an Omega Marstimer Watch with Mars background. The watch features Mars-specific functions that were developed in partnership with ESA. The watch was rigorously tested at ESA ESTEC to ensure it was ready for space missions. We doubt it takes the effect of gravity on time into account, but it could. Price: $7,000 https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Branding_and_Partnerships/Testing_time_for_Mars https://www.omegawatches.com/en-us/watches/speedmaster/instruments/x-33-marstimer/product 2. Figure 1 from the paper shows plots of the clock-rate offsets between a clock on Mars compared to clocks on the Earth and the Moon for ∼40 yr starting from MJD 52275 (2003 January 1). Note that time on the Moon is a steady 56 μs/day faster than time on Earth.
December 7, 2025 at 12:49 PM
akasci.bsky.social
The M8.1 solar flare that erupted from region 4299 at 2039 UTC yesterday resulted in an earth-directed full-halo coronal mass ejection (CME).

The CME is expected to impact Earth early to midday UTC on Tue 09 December, with G3 (Strong) geomagnetic storming and auroras.
www.swpc.noaa.gov
#Astronomy
December 7, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Reposted by AkaSci
spectrum.ieee.org
Vint Cerf says there are 7 phases of the #Internet, and we’re right in the middle right now. What’s coming next?

spectrum.ieee.org/history-of-i...
December 6, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by AkaSci
spacemarschall.net
1st quarter-final of ✨ #planetaryScience image of 2025✨
This round features Mars 🧪⚛️

🗳️ Voting ends on Monday, Dec. 9, at 3 p.m. UTC/4 p.m. CET/10 a.m. EST/7 a.m. PST/midnight JST.

Here are the four quarter finalists 🔽
Bracket for "BSky Planetary Science Image of 2025" contest, featuring small icons of 16 images grouped into four quarter-finals. There are semi-finalists and finalist placeholders against a lunar surface backdrop.
December 6, 2025 at 12:01 PM