Condolences to family, friends, and coworkers of Yannick Mellier, top scientist for the Euclid mission: https://www.euclid-ec.org/yannick-mellier-1958-2025/Yannick Mellier, 1958-2025 It’s easy to forget these are not merely glass-and-carbon-fiber machines. These are the works of people, living, breathing people. It takes the… Read More »Sweeping the Heavens, Meeting the Heavens (Yannick Mellier)
Congratulations to the Vera Rubin Observatory staff, all around, for being named a runner-up for Science magazine’s Breakthrough of the Year, after the boom in renewable energy (i. e., Swanson’s Law): vol. 390 #6779, 18 DecScience’s 2025 Breakthrough of the… Read More »Vera Rubin Up Next For Uprate
Interesting presser from the University of Canterbury, a partner institution with the Vera Rubin Observatory: https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/news-and-events/news/2025/kiwi-team-lead–out-of-this-world–study-of-new-comet17 Dec 2025 Kiwi team lead ‘out of this world’ study of new comet A little human interest and behind-the-scenes for our field. Read about… Read More »ATLAS Staff And Handling
Now posted by the European Southern Observatory (ESO): https://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann25011/16 Dec 2025, New SOXS instrument ready to observe fleeting cosmic events The SOXS instrument– Son of X-Shooter- has been installed on the La Silla telescope in Chile, and has taken test… Read More »ESO SOXS Now On
Now posted on Nature (vol. 648): -, 11 December 2025 Asteroids, antibiotics and ants: a year of remarkable science p. 539-542d41586-025-03807-w Yes, we’re approaching New Year’s, and it’s time for the retrospectives. Here’s an editorial on behalf of the prestigious… Read More »2025 Hindsight Time
Just out from the Science media family: Science vol. 390 #6778, December 2025Robin George Andrews, 11 Dec 2025 Planet Protector science.zolm8st Sarah Crespi, Elah Feder, Robin George Andrews 11 Dec 2025 Hunting asteroids from space, and talking to pollinators with… Read More »NEO Surveyor We Cover
This week will bring us the Galileo at 30 meeting, a retrospective of the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Jovian system: https://www.kiss.caltech.edu/special_events/2025_Galileo_at_30.html Monday marks 30 years since the orbit insertion maneuver. Let’s not forget, aside from the Jovian system,… Read More »Happy Gali-versary (Galileo at 30)
Starting roughly, oh… now, but peaking the night of Dec. 13-14 is the Geminid meteor shower. You know, the Geminids- fragments of, not a comet, but asteroid (3200) Phaethon? This asteroidal shower has an interesting origin story- or would that… Read More »Geminid Meteor Shower This Month
Courtesy of AstroBites– https://astrobites.org/2025/12/01/book-review-space-hazards-asteroids-solar-flares-and-cosmic-threats/ Dr. Ryan French, formerly writing on the Sun alone, now expands to other flareups that may affect Earth: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/space-hazards-asteroids-solar-flares-and-cosmic-threats-facing-earth-dr-ryan-french?variant=43731356090402 Admittedly, NEOs have to share time with X-class solar flares, gamma-ray bursts, etc. So the 240 pages… Read More »“Space Hazards” (Ryan French) Review
The Vera Rubin Observatory is organizing a themed meeting this week: https://sites.google.com/view/lsstlatam2025/home This meeting is to coordinate and promote data users in Latin America, and I don’t mean just Chile. https://sites.google.com/view/lsstlatam2025/program Opening Remarks9:30 – 10:00 Rubin Plenary: Robert Blum (Rubin,… Read More »LSST@LATAM Meeting