Astronomy and Planetary Science Thread

A video from "The First Dawn" channel concerning the two million year long flood-basalt eruption in what is now northern Siberia that caused the Great Dying (Theend Permian extinction event):


The Siberian Traps volcanic eruptions were one of the most destructive geological events in Earth’s history. Around 252 million years ago, near the end of the Permian Period, the Earth’s crust in what is now northern Asia tore open and released vast quantities of magma onto the surface. These eruptions formed the Siberian Traps, a massive Large Igneous Province built from repeated lava flows that eventually covered millions of square kilometers in layers of basalt more than two kilometers thick.​
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Geological and chemical evidence preserved in rock layers and fossils shows how these eruptions altered the planet’s atmosphere and oceans. The volcanic activity released enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, and sulfur gases, triggering extreme global warming, acid rain, and widespread ocean acidification. These environmental changes coincided with the Permian–Triassic extinction event, often called the “Great Dying,” when roughly 96% of marine species and about 70% of land animals disappeared from the fossil record.​
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The Siberian Traps reveal how a single geological process, sustained over millions of years, can transform the entire planet. In Earth’s deep past, the most devastating disasters were not sudden impacts or explosions, but eruptions that simply refused to stop.​
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#SiberianTraps #PermianExtinction #GreatDying #Volcanism #PrehistoricEarth #MassExtinction #Geology #AncientEarthhttps://www.youtube.com/hashtag/ancientearth
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00:00 Intro
00:58 A Volcano That Refused to Stop
04:13 The World on the Edge
06:22 Phase One: Survivable
08:33 The Turn: Magma Goes Underground
11:36 Six Ways to Kill a Planet
15:31 The Architecture of a Dying World
18:00 What Survived and What It Became
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Galaxy on idle
https://phys.org/news/2026-03-galactic-car-effect-milky.html
Engine of the Sun
https://phys.org/news/2026-03-physicists-sun-magnetic-kilometers-surface.html
plasma physics
https://phys.org/news/2026-03-alice-primordial-plasma-proton-collisions.html
Paths
https://phys.org/news/2026-03-planets-parabolic-flight-reveal-turbulent.html
Fireball over Ohio
https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cewzw221wn5o
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AM9OzHw2acc&pp=ugUHEgVlbi1HQtIHCQnZCgGHKiGM7w%3D%3D


Nebula news
https://phys.org/news/2026-03-hubble-revisits-crab-nebula-track.htmlhttps://phys.org/news/2026-03-hydrogen-shell-nova-persei-planetary.html
Radio transient
https://phys.org/news/2026-03-astronomers-period-radio-transient-unknown.html
Sit and spin
https://phys.org/news/2026-03-clearest-evidence-giant-planets-faster.htmlhttps://phys.org/news/2026-03-hubble-reversal-tiny-comet.html
Black holes
https://phys.org/news/2026-03-distant-galaxy-decades-supermassive-black.html
Space junk
https://phys.org/news/2026-03-limiting-space-junk-threat-mess.html
Fiber on the Moon
https://phys.org/news/2026-03-fiber-optic-cables-moonquakes.html
 
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Brett Davidson said:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/...ical-calculation-machine-reveals-new-secrets/
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Gear driven odometers were probably very common in Roman times, although none have been found. On the other hand, the modern conception of time, as developed in Medieval monasteries, was totally different than that of the Romans. In short, Medieval monks were the initial customers for gear based timekeeping because their entire idle, useless existence was based on maintaining a fixed schedule of prayers. Sleep deprivation and also a tool in maintaining monastic discipline, much like a some modern cults. For this reason, the most superstitious of our European ancestors developed the concept of hours as fixed increments of time, easily measured by mechanical means. To Romans, boundaries, and by extension, distances, were seen as scared, so odometers were a priority. Romans were more concerned by accurate itineraries than maps and Greeks before them used written sailing instructions rather than charts. Moreover, the significance of time for the Romans was in the practical work performed, and while they kept calendars in particular to record sacred days when public business was forbidden, the length of hours varied with the length of days. A Roman summer working hour might be close to 75 modern minutes and a winter working hour might be 45 of our minutes. Aside from complex water clocks, the most complex of which might have relied on sundials for calibration, the Romans really weren’t all that concerned with time keeping. A giant bronze sundial looted from Syracuse, Sicily was mounted in the Roman forum and told the wrong time for centuries, before it was corrected.

The Antikythera mechanism was an astronomical calculator, and judging by historical sources, was one of at least two that existed. This particular one was part of a shipwreck containing looted bronze statues, which were either going to wealthy Roman collectors, or less likely, for scrap. The curiosity with this device was obvious but it should be equally obvious that its fate was probably tied to the predatory and destructive nature of the Roman Republic, especially in the first and second centuries BC before the stability and economic recovery under Augustus. The sort of Hellenistic rulers who might have sponsored the development of, or purchased, the Antikythera mechanism were replaced by elected Roman consuls and praetors who would have stolen it and sent it home as booty.
 
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A galaxy next door is transforming, and astronomers can see it happening

The Small Magellanic Cloud or the SMC is one of the Milky Way's closest galactic neighbors – a small, gas-rich galaxy visible to the naked eye from the southern hemisphere, bound to our galaxy by gravity, alongside its companion, the Large Magellanic Cloud or the LMC. All three galaxies have been interacting for hundreds of millions of years. The SMC is also one of the most studied galaxies in the sky. Astronomers have catalogued its stars, mapped its gas and tracked its motion for more than half a century. Yet a basic question about it has remained. The galaxy's stars do not orbit around its center the way stars in most galaxies do, and it has been challenging to explain why.

In a study published in The Astrophysical Journal, University of Arizona astronomers traced the lack of rotation in stars to a direct collision between the SMC and its larger companion, the Large Magellanic Cloud, or the LMC. The findings also raise questions about how scientists use the SMC as a reference point for understanding galaxies across the history of the universe.
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https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1120116
How young galaxies grew magnetic fields faster than expected

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1120403
Asteroid Bennu's rugged surface baffled NASA. We finally know why

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1120284
NJIT physicists trace sun’s magnetic engine, 200,000 kilometers below surface

Physicists report evidence that the solar dynamo — the magnetic engine powering the Sun’s 11-year cycles and eruptive events — operates nearly 200,000 kilometers beneath the Sun’s surface.
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https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1120271
 
Flyaway said:
Prehistoric alien dinosaur planets would be easier to find than modern-day Earth, say scientists

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/prehistoric-dinosaur-planet-easier-find-modern-day-earth
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That doesn't make much sense, our whales, cows and humans produce as much methane as dinosaurs and there can also be worlds totally covered by a bacterial layer that generates methane. I would preferably look for technosignatures of consumer products related to civilization such as alcohol, fertilizers or radioactive isotopes.
 
NMaude said:
A video from "The First Dawn" channel concerning the two million year long flood-basalt eruption in what is now northern Siberia that caused the Great Dying (Theend Permian extinction event):

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Such eruptions could be caused by the impact of a meteorite at the opposite end of the planet, as happened with India-Deccan.

Perhaps it would be possible to trace the possible location of the large crater to confirm the extraterrestrial theory in the case of Siberia as well.
 
Justo Miranda said:
Perhaps it would be possible to trace the possible location of the large crater to confirm the extraterrestrial theory in the case of Siberia as well.
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While that's certainly possible and such a search should be conducted as far as I know the cause of the Siberian flood-basalt eruptions was due to a massive mantle-plume.

On another note:


This video explores the Great Oxidation Event, a pivotal moment around 2.4 billion years ago when Earth’s atmosphere underwent a dramatic transformation. Triggered by the rise of photosynthetic cyanobacteria, oxygen began accumulating in the oceans and air, fundamentally altering the planet’s chemistry. For many anaerobic organisms, oxygen was toxic, leading to a widespread extinction that reshaped early ecosystems.​
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We examine how this shift disrupted methane-rich conditions, weakening the greenhouse effect and contributing to global cooling. Geological evidence, including banded iron formations and isotope signatures, reveals how oxygen reacted with dissolved iron and gradually built up in the atmosphere. This period likely coincided with one of the earliest major ice ages, sometimes called the Huronian glaciation, which further challenged early life.​
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Despite the devastation, some organisms adapted to use oxygen for energy, paving the way for more complex cellular processes. This transformation laid the groundwork for eukaryotic life and, eventually, all complex organisms. The Great Oxidation Event shows how a single biological innovation can reshape an entire planet.​
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#GreatOxidationEvent #EarlyEarth #MassExtinction #Cyanobacteria #Geology #AncientClimate #Evolution
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MyRadar Weather
@MyRadarWX
·

BREAKING: We can confirm that a meteor exploded over Houston just before 4:40 p.m. Central time.

The GOES East geostationary lightning mapper picked up the infrared flash that accompanied the explosion. A boom was heard across the northern/northwestern Houston metro. There are unconfirmed reports of a meteorite crashing through a woman's home.

The American Meteor Society has reviewed dozens of eyewitness reports, and calculated the most likely path of the meteor. It probably entered the atmosphere somewhere near Magnolia and continued descending toward Monroe, at some point exploding in the process.

The Brenham, Texas fire department was dispatched to reports of a possible explosion near Highway 50 at Wiedeville Rd. Units on scene did not find evidence of an explosion.
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https://twitter.com/x/status/2035526759957864894
View: https://twitter.com/MyRadarWX/status/2035526759957864894


NEW: The American Meteor Society has released an estimated trajectory for the Houston-area meteor, which exploded over the northern metro at 4:39 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

It was likely traveling between 20,000 and 40,000 mph, encountering extreme frictional heating; that triggered its explosion and the subsequent sonic boom that was heard across the area.

After analyzing 105 eyewitness reports from all across Texas, the organization concluded the fireball likely passed from near Stagecoach and south of Magnolia to Conroe.

Preliminary reports DO suggest some meteorites/fragments reached the ground. There is at least one damage report so far.
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https://twitter.com/x/status/2035537015828005011
View: https://x.com/MatthewCappucci/status/2035537015828005011


Dash cam video

https://twitter.com/x/status/2035544627139223691
View: https://twitter.com/Nerdy_Addict/status/2035544627139223691
 
Space: NASA won't give up hope on silent MAVEN Mars probe: 'We're still looking for it' [Mar 20]

Prockter said no signal has been detected by NASA's Deep Space Network since a planned two-week communication blackout ended on Jan. 16. The scheduled pause in communications, caused by a solar conjunction — when the sun aligns between Earth and Mars — prevents signal interference and avoids sending partial or distorted commands that could trigger unintended behavior in the spacecraft. NASA resumed attempts to contact MAVEN after the solar conjunction ended, but those efforts have so far been unsuccessful, Prockter said. "We haven't officially said MAVEN is lost yet. We're still looking for it."
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☄️ CONFIRMED BY NASA: Eyewitnesses in Texas observed a bright fireball Saturday, March 21, at 4:40 p.m. CDT.

Current data indicates that the meteor became visible at 49 miles above Stagecoach, TX northwest of Houston.

It moved southeast at 35,000 mph, breaking apart 29 miles above Bammel, just west of Cypress Station.

The fragmentation of the meteor - which weighed about a ton with a diameter of 3 feet - created a pressure wave that caused booms heard by some in the area. Doppler weather radar also showed meteorites produced between Willowbrook and Northgate Crossing.

Eyewitness accounts supplied by the American Meteor Society
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https://twitter.com/x/status/2035706866940907871
View: https://twitter.com/KBTXRusty/status/2035706866940907871
 
Are Cosmological Models wrong ?!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK-4TViTilU


0:00 Crisis in cosmology and the Hubble constant
1:10 Expansion of the universe in a nutshell
3:02 What's Hubble tension?
5:20 Possible explanation - could it be just an error?
6:40 New observations and studies - oops tension is still there!
8:00 Alternative propositions and models failed
9:10 DESI reports about the weakening of dark energy
10:10 Implications
11:02 Solutions?
12:00 Supernovae that may help
12:50 Conclusions and what's next?
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A rare encounter: How Juice came to observe 3I/ATLAS

No matter how much planning goes into space missions, one must always expect the unexpected. But luck favours the prepared. In July 2025, an unexpected visitor entered our Solar System, interstellar object 3I/ATLAS. ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer – Juice – happened to be in the right place, with the right equipment, at the right time to see it.

This unique vantage point offered a fleeting opportunity. What followed was a race against time.
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View: https://youtu.be/AYF1LEiBS3k
 
More moons for Jupiter and Saturn! New totals here

On March 16, 2026, the Minor Planet Center announced an additional 11 moons for Saturn, bringing its total to a whopping 285. Plus, Jupiter’s moon count has finally cracked 100, with the addition of four newly discovered moons. Jupiter’s grand total now stands at 101.
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ESA’s Mars orbiters watch solar superstorm hit the Red Planet [Mar. 5]

In May 2024, Earth was hit by the biggest solar storm recorded in over 20 years. It sent our planet’s atmosphere into overdrive, triggering shimmering auroras that were seen as far south as Mexico.

This storm also hit Mars. Fortunately, ESA’s two Mars Orbiters – Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) – were in the right place at the right time, with a radiation monitor aboard TGO picking up a dose equivalent to 200 ‘normal’ days in just 64 hours.

A new study published today in Nature Communications now reveals in greater depth how this intense, stormy activity affected the Red Planet.

“The impact was remarkable: Mars’s upper atmosphere was flooded by electrons,” says ESA Research Fellow Jacob Parrott, lead author of the study. “It was the biggest response to a solar storm we’ve ever seen at Mars.”

The superstorm caused a dramatic increase in electrons in two distinct layers of Mars’s atmosphere at altitudes of around 110 and 130 km, with numbers rising by 45% and a whopping 278%, respectively. This is the most electrons we’ve ever seen in this layer of martian atmosphere.

“The storm also caused computer errors for both orbiters – a typical peril of space weather, as the particles involved are so energetic and hard to predict,” adds Jacob. “Luckily, the spacecraft were designed with this in mind, and built with radiation-resistant components and specific systems for detecting and fixing these errors. They recovered fast.”

Pioneering a new technique
To investigate the superstorm’s impact on Mars, Jacob and colleagues used a technique currently being pioneered by ESA known as radio occultation.

First, Mars Express beamed a radio signal to TGO at the very moment it was disappearing over the martian horizon. As TGO vanished, the radio signal was bent (‘refracted’) by the various layers of Mars’s atmosphere before being picked up by the orbiter, allowing scientists to glean more about each layer. The researchers also used observations from NASA’s MAVEN mission to confirm the electron densities.

“This technique has actually been used for decades to explore the Solar System, but using signals beamed from a spacecraft to Earth,” says Colin Wilson, ESA project scientist for Mars Express and TGO, and co-author of the study. “It’s only in the past five years or so that we’ve started using it at Mars between two spacecraft, such as Mars Express and TGO, which usually use those radios to beam data between orbiters and rovers. It’s great to see it in action.”

ESA uses orbiter-to-orbiter radio occultation routinely at Earth, and plans to use it more regularly in future planetary missions.

Different worlds, different weather
The superstorm was experienced very differently at Earth and Mars, highlighting the differences between the two worlds.

At Earth, the response of the upper atmosphere was more muted, thanks to the shielding effect of Earth’s magnetic field. As well as deflecting a lot of solar storm particles away from Earth, the magnetic field also diverted some towards Earth’s poles, where they caused the sky to light up with auroras.

While their differences can make it tricky to compare planets directly, understanding how solar activity impacts the residents of the Solar System – in other words, space weather forecasting – is hugely important. At Earth, solar storms can be dangerous and damaging for astronauts and equipment up in space, and can disrupt our satellites and systems (power, radio, navigation) further down.

However, studying space weather is difficult as the Sun throws out radiation and material erratically, making targeted measurements largely opportunistic. “Fortunately, we were able to use this new technique with Mars Express and TGO just 10 minutes after a large solar flare hit Mars. Currently we’re only performing two observations per week at Mars, so the timing was extremely lucky,” adds Jacob.

Jacob and colleagues captured the aftermath of three solar events – all part of the same storm, but different in terms of what they throw out into space, and how they do it: one flare of radiation, one burst of high-energy particles, and an eruption of material known as a coronal mass ejection (CME).

Together, these events sent fast-moving, energetic, magnetised plasma and X-rays flooding towards Mars. When this barrage of material hit the planet’s upper atmosphere it collided with neutral atoms and stripped away their electrons, causing the region to fill up with electrons and charged particles.

“The results improve our understanding of Mars by revealing how solar storms deposit energy and particles into Mars’s atmosphere – important as we know the planet has lost both huge amounts of water and most of its atmosphere to space, most likely driven by the continual wind of particles streaming out from the Sun,” says Colin.

“But there’s another side to it: the structure and contents of a planet’s atmosphere influence how radio signals travel through space. If Mars’s upper atmosphere is packed full of electrons, this could block the signals we use to explore the planet’s surface via radar, making it a key consideration in our mission planning – and impacting our ability to investigate other worlds.”
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NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Snaps Photos of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS [Nov. 19]

In mid-September, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft captured images of the intriguing interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. The third interstellar object ever detected by astronomers as it passed through our solar system, 3I/ATLAS was discovered on July 1 by the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey telescope. At the time, the comet was headed inward from the outer solar system.

Lucy’s high-resolution, black-and-white imager, L’LORRI, captured a series of photos between Sept. 15–17, as the comet was zooming toward Mars. Lucy was 240 million miles away from 3I/ATLAS, well beyond the orbit of Mars, on its way to explore eight asteroids out of two swarms of asteroids that share an orbit with Jupiter, collectively known as the Jupiter Trojan asteroids.

To obtain these images, Lucy had to point its instruments inward toward the comet and the Sun. The mission’s engineers kept the spacecraft’s components from overheating by carefully orienting Lucy so that its body shielded sensitive instruments. Still, while pointing this close to the Sun some stray sunlight scattered off the spacecraft into the camera, creating a faint arc of fuzzy blobs beneath the comet in the above image.

The Lucy team coordinated its observations with astronomers from the Las Cumbres Observatory in Cerro Tololo, Chile, who imaged the comet at the same time as Lucy. The observers in Chile were separated from Lucy by 390 million miles and were viewing the comet from different angles than Lucy. Now, by comparing data from Lucy and Las Cumbres, scientists are working to understand both the three-dimensional structure of the comet and how the comet’s dust scatters sunlight, a rare opportunity to compare ancient dust from a distant solar system to that from our own.

Before capturing images of 3I/ATLAS, Lucy had already flown by and analyzed three asteroids: Dinkinesh, its satellite Selam, and Donaldjohanson. The spacecraft will reach its first Trojan target, Eurybates, on Aug. 12, 2027.

Overall, nearly 20 NASA science teams are working together to track and study this rare, interstellar comet as it passes through our solar system.
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NASA Space Alerts

@NASASpaceAlerts
#MeteorSighting: A fireball was observed by witnesses in the western U.S. on Sunday night, March 22. The meteor was first spotted above the California town of Chowchilla. It traveled south at 35,000 mph before disintegrating above Calflax. This fireball does not appear to be related to other recent bright meteors.

https://go.nasa.gov/4btbPd1

Eyewitness accounts supplied by the American Meteor Society
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https://twitter.com/x/status/2036156689305448683
View: https://twitter.com/NASASpaceAlerts/status/2036156689305448683
 
 
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This time Exobiology
HELivikbgAA68W9

It the ORIGINAL study by Carl Sagan and E.e. Salpeter
about possible life in Jupiter Atmosphere
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19760019038/downloads/19760019038.pdf
 
First ever brown-dwarf pair is turning into something else, from Anton Petrov:


Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about a strange brown dwarf binary that's transforming in real time
Links:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...le/10.3847/2041-8213/ae486e/pdf&v=9KokmWYL3no
https://keckobservatory.org/brown-dwarf/https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...eckobservatory.org/brown-dwarf/&v=9KokmWYL3no
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/articl...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...mnras/article/542/2/656/8155088&v=9KokmWYL3no
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158...
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...com/articles/s41586-024-08064-x&v=9KokmWYL3no
Previous videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1blDSD3giU
• Never Before Seen Brown Dwarf Binary Found...

• Super Massive Brown Dwarfs That Should Be ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12Tf5Ed5Ie8&t=161s
#browndwarf #astronomy #milkyway
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0:00 Brown dwarf updates - strange new binary
1:15 What is a brown dwarf though?
2:40 Strange binary 1000 light years away
4:55 Implications on star evolution
6:10 Is this more common than we thought?
7:47 4 objects?
8:35 Paradigm shift in understanding brown dwarfs - conclusions
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