A classic case of irresponsible both-sidesism from the NYT. The story is that Trump and MAGA propagandists are lying about Portland to incite a conflict, not that there are different views of the matter.
AFAIK with Starlink they try active collision avoidance but the number of close inter-satellite approaches has skyrocketed (no pun intended) in recent years ... what if their system fails at a certain stage of deployment and with others deploying like crazy? Sorry, this is Kessler waiting to happen.
"SpaceX" was just a stand-in for all LEO megacon vandals ... yes, they try to mitigate the optical impact (though it doesn't work nearly as good as hoped/promised), but the number of s/c in orbit is raising the collision risk every day. And the s/c going down are an under-studied environm. problem.
Actually there are no "very rich tech bros" behind this crazy project but merely a very small start-up - the true scary story here is that (should they really find enough investors to scale up the thing) just a handful of engineers could damage LEO way beyond of what SpaceX is doing ...
It’s our open day at ISAS. A terrifying prospect, and it’s pouring with rain. But this is a half-scale model of the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft. HALF SCALE. It’s the biggest spacecraft we’ve ever built 😳
Mit dem Beschluss des Nachtragshaushalts 2025 hat die Verbandsversammlung des Regionalverbandes Ruhr den Weg frei gemacht, das #Horizontobservatorium auf der Halde Hoheward im Kreis Recklinghausen bis Ende 2027 zu sanieren: www.rvr.ruhr/service/pres... - dann kann die Anlage wieder betreten werden.
Got clear sky right now? An early chance to welcome comet C/2026 A6 (Lemmon) - currently ~5.5 mag. - in the evening sky! Here's the view from Bochum, Germany, at 20:00 CEST: comet at 14° in azimuth 323° (i.e. NW), Sun 12° below horizon. At 20:20 the Sun will be 15° below, the comet 12.5° above it.
I guess some proof can't hurt: With proper processing of that image and don't just showing the raw version which is super noisy, you can see some familiar stars like Arcturus and the the big dipper. And that streak is turns out to be exactly where Phobos was in the sky...
Last night, the JWST observed Uranus for calibration. Even like that the result is awesome, so here you go with my processed image of that observation! 🔭
Some 'domeshots' from the new Bochum astrophysics planetarium show 'Our Exotic Universe' ... and if you want to know what's going on here: come and watch! Dates & tickets: planetarium-bochum.de/de_DE/progra...
