As part of the Vera Rubin survey project, tests and metrics should be used to hone the plan. Those metrics are now being used on a simulation of the sky survey. Try the homepage, https://sorcha.space . For papers describing these… Read More »Rubin Sim Given
The American Astronomical Society (AAS) will hold its biannual (Summer) meeting in Anchorage, Alaska this week. Even though this “general” meeting includes the sub-meetings of the Laboratory Astrophysics Division and Solar Physics Division, there’s still relevant content here for the… Read More »Summer AAS Meeting 2025 (Anchorage)
In Earth and Planetary Science Letters for 15 June (volume 660): Cassata, W. S. A refined isotopic composition of cometary xenon and implications for the accretion of comets and carbonaceous chondrites on Earth Art 119307 .2025 119307 Comets did not fill… Read More »Note, Paper: Comet Not Wet
The White House 2026 budget request that covers NASA has been released… and it’s as bad as other White House actions on science would indicate. There hasn’t been carnage to this level since the ’80s abandonment of planetary exploration. The… Read More »FY2026 NASA Budget Request- Regress
The June issue of Astronomical Journal (vol. 169 #6) brings us: B. T. Bolin, C. Fremling, M. Belyakov, et al. Keck and Gemini Characterization of Hayabusa2# Rendezvous Target 1998 KY26 303 adccbe(The DES Collaboration) Photometry of Outer Solar System Objects… Read More »Note, Paper: Eyes on Target
The journal Astronomy & Astrophysics is a bit light for May (vol. 698): Rojas, J. Duprat, J. Dartois, E. et al. Light element isotopic heterogeneities in organic residues that formed by the ion irradiation of ices A34 202451601 Kenworthy, M.… Read More »Note, Paper: A&A Explains Grains
Generally, the papers in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta are too in-the-weeds and shoegazey for this blog (…or would that be cho-gazey?). Except now- for 1 Jun 2025 (vol.398): Serra, C. Grauby, O. Ferry, D. et al. Experimental investigations of mineral-organic… Read More »Note, Paper: SSSB Seed Detail
Time for another batch of papers from Planetary Science Journal (still vol. 6): Schang, K. Dove, A. Effects of Particle Shape and Size on Granular Mechanics in Vacuum and Microgravity Environments 88 adbgebÄtuk, M. Two Possible Orbital Histories of… Read More »Note, Paper: Mote Papers
Last week was the American Astronomical Society‘s DDA sub-meeting. The DDA (Division on Dynamical Astronomy) covered “particles” (discrete objects, from dust all the way up to individual stars) as they behave under physical laws (mostly gravity, but also impacts, etc.)… Read More »56th AAS-DDA Meeting
A small-body paper made a Nature group journal, Nature Astronomy: Beck, P. Quirico, E. Poch, O. et al. On the darkness of Ryugu and other dark small bodies s41550-025-02557-z The carbonaceous asteroids (those in the C-complex) resemble the carbonaceous-chondrite meteorites.… Read More »Note, Paper: Black of Night