← Calm Web Cosmos Astrophysics, Planetary Exploration, Interstellar Flight & Cosmic Deep Fields In This Issue JWST Reveals a Lopsided Alien World with Blistering Evening Winds — Universe Today Earth from Space: The pink city — ESA Space News El Niño Then and Now — NASA Earth Observatory A 35-year satellite altimetry record lets scientists hold this year's El Niño up against its strongest predecessors. Advancing Astronomy at MIT with X-ray Reverberation Mapping — Universe Today Professor Erin Kara of MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research is helping advance our understanding of the most extreme objects in the Universe by analyzing X-ray reverberations and other astrophysical data. Even the Rubin's Test Camera Produces Stunning Images — Universe Today The Vera Rubin Observatory's Commissioning Camera operated for about 7 weeks in 2024, before the observatory released its well-known first look images. It's an engineering camera, and its job was to test the VRO's equipment and procedures. Now, the VRO has released the ComCam's image of the Seagull nebula. It's a pretty stunning image for an engineering camera. Two Disks in One: How Accretion Disks Drive Black Hole Jets — Universe Today SMBH jets are driven by thick, hot accretion disks with powerful magnetic fields. But there's a bit of a paradox. Some SMBH produce jets, even though they appear to have thin, cold accretion disks. New research has solved this paradox, showing that disks can be truncated into an outer cold disk and an inner hot disk. New Evidence for an Old Prediction: Recoiling Supermassive Black Holes — Universe Today Theory says that during some SMBH mergers, the merger remnant receives a recoil kick from gravitational waves. Instead of sitting placidly in the galactic center, these recoiled SMBH are sent on a pendulum-like motion, back and forth through the galactic center. New research has found statistical evidence supporting their existence. From Dusk, Towards Dawn: Venus Slides Past the Sun This Weekend — Universe Today Where have all the planets gone? Late October 2026 sees a decided dearth of planets in the dusk sky, with only bashful Mercury receding from view, and Saturn fresh off of opposition. Venus, the former lucida of the evening sky is now lost from view, taking the plunge sunward. But this vanishing act allows for a dramatic transformation this weekend, as our nearest planetary neighbor brushes past the Sun and transitions into the dawn sky. Autonomous Triangular Modules Could Build Tomorrow’s Mega-Observatories — Universe Today Supernova Explosions First Aided, Then Later Impeded, the Epoch of Reionization — Universe Today The Epoch of Reionization is when radiation from early galaxies and their stars reionized neutral hydrogen and let light travel freely through the cosmos. Some research shows that supernovae helped the process. But new research shows that, though they may have helped initially, supernovae eventually slowed reionization. Microbes on Enceladus? — Centauri Dreams Thoughts on Brown Dwarfs, Science Fiction and New Telescopes — Centauri Dreams Musings on White Dwarfs and Planetary Survival — Centauri Dreams Photosynthesis: A New Angle into Fermi’s Paradox? — Centauri Dreams Sakurai’s Object: A Stellar Rebirth — Centauri Dreams Disrupted Systems: Implications for Life — Centauri Dreams Pandora: Tuning Up our Data on Exoplanet Atmospheres — Centauri Dreams Fermi Explorer: Building the First Mission to Another Star? — Centauri Dreams ESA Council approves appointment of two new directors — ESA Space News Fires Char New Guinea — NASA Earth Observatory Emissions on both sides of the island are unusually high as human-set fires spread in a landscape parched by drought. Extratropical Cyclone Whips Past Iceland — NASA Earth Observatory The powerful low-pressure system formed over the North Atlantic out of the remnants of Hurricane Isaias. The Human Fingerprint on Earth’s Water Cycle — NASA Earth Observatory Human activities have become intertwined with how water is distributed across the continents. A new study brings their effects into sharper focus. Euclid discovers new comet — ESA Space News Autumn Paints Poland’s Bieszczady Mountains — NASA Earth Observatory Fall color covers the forested slopes of Bieszczady National Park, while patches of polonina, a type of high-mountain meadow, have turned tan. Isaias Dims the Gulf Coast — NASA Earth Observatory High-definition images of nighttime lights show where the hurricane knocked out power along the Florida Panhandle and how quickly the lights came back. Fires Arrive in the Amazon Rainforest — NASA Earth Observatory During El Niño, a cascade of fires across the tropics begins in equatorial Asia and continues in the central and eastern Amazon. Hurricane Simon Lurks Off the Mexican Coast — NASA Earth Observatory Though it remained offshore, the storm lashed coastal areas with high winds and flooding—and produced remarkable rippling patterns in the upper atmosphere. Happy New Year, Mars! The Red Planet is turning 39 — Astronomy Now On 30 September the Red Planet officially begins Mars Year 39. Which is quite an achievement for a world that is actually more than 4.5 billion years old. 3I/ATLAS was born in the deep freeze — Astronomy Now Another piece of evidence suggests that this visitor formed in the bitterly cold outer reaches of a distant planetary system. Roman Space Telescope launches on mission to survey the Universe — Astronomy Now NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has begun its journey into space, starting a mission that will survey the Universe on an unprecedented scale in search of clues to dark energy, dark matter and worlds beyond our Solar System.