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--- transportation:space [2026/10/03 18:07] – [Terraform] timb
+++ transportation:space [2026/11/10 21:02] (current) – [Neptune] timb
@@ Line 965: / Line 965: @@
 https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/06/arecibo_telescope_failure_analysis/
+== Zinc creep in the cable spelter sockets brought down the 57 year old Arecibo telescope in 2020, a failure sequence that began with Hurricane Maria three years earlier and the first documented case of long term zinc creep in over a century of use. ==
+Make Tech Easier Editorial - Oct 30, 2026
+Long-term zinc creep in the cable spelter sockets was the root cause of the 2020 collapse of the National Science Foundation’s 57-year-old telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, according to a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which also draws lessons learned for other unique, critical science facilities.
+The failure sequence began with Hurricane Maria, over three years before the collapse, the report says.
+The telescope’s main platform hung over the 305-metre reflector dish on a set of cables. Each cable ended in a socket filled with zinc, and the zinc held the cable in place. The report says the zinc gradually lost its hold on the cables and allowed several of them to pull out. The platform then fell into the reflector.
+https://maketecheasier.com/arecibo-zinc-creep-collapse/
 ===== Balloon (Space) =====
@@ Line 6333: / Line 6349: @@
 https://www.engadget.com/science/space/webb-telescope-images-an-aging-binary-star-system-in-the-center-of-a-four-layered-cosmic-dust-shell-140000485.html
+== Software squeezes more data out of Webb Telescope for imaging exoplanets ==
+Software optimizes a physical model of the telescope to reduce noise.
+John Timmer – Nov 5, 2026 11:59 AM
+With a huge and still-growing catalog of exoplanets, researchers are eager to take the next steps: trying to infer what conditions are like on them, either by imaging them directly or by capturing the light that has passed through their atmosphere. Both are substantial challenges, given the presence of stars that are far, far brighter than light that has come to us via the planet.
+While telescopes can be fitted with devices called coronagraphs that block out much of a star’s light, there are limits to their effectiveness, caused by noise from subtle variations in the telescope’s configuration and pointing between observations. Now, researchers have developed a new software package that optimizes a physical model of the telescope in a way that allows us to better model these differences, producing low-noise imaging of exoplanets.
+https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/11/getting-software-to-help-block-out-a-star-so-we-can-see-exoplanets/
@@ Line 6690: / Line 6718: @@
 https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-just-did-something-its-never-done-before-and-astronomers-are-thrilled-2000620073
+== I think I found a planet nobody knew existed. I used Claude Code to find it. ==
+u/This_Cell_1829 - 6 October 2026
+Built with Claude
+Last month I was going through data from NASA's TESS telescope with Claude Code when one star started looking weird.
+r/ClaudeAI - I think I found a planet nobody knew existed. I used Claude Code to find it.
+It's about 116 light-years away, and every 3.18 days it gets about 0.05% dimmer for roughly two hours.
+I first saw it in data from late 2025. So I went backwards.
+The same dip is there in completely separate TESS observations from 2020.
+Then 2018.
+If it's a planet, it's about 1.4× the size of Earth.
+To be clear: this is still a planet candidate, not a confirmed planet.
+https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1wzw8zd/i_think_i_found_a_planet_nobody_knew_existed_i/
@@ Line 9758: / Line 9810: @@
 </blockquote>
+==== Volcano ====
+== Orbiter Detects Signs of Possible Volcanic Activity on Mars ==
+Posted by EditorDavid on Monday November 09, 2026 04:34AM
+Futurism reports:
+<blockquote>
+While many scientists have long held that Mars is "geologically dead" inside, new research is adding to the growing body of evidence to the contrary.
+As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Science Advances, an international team of researchers examined data collected by the European and Russian ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter in 2021, which found that Mars is slowly belching hydrogen chloride gas. The researchers suggest this gas is being released from hot magma deep beneath its surface after discovering intriguing new fissures along a massive volcano, indicating the planet may be geologically active after all — or at least it was until relatively recently.
+</blockquote>
+https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/11/09/0516221/orbiter-detects-signs-of-possible-volcanic-activity-on-mars
@@ Line 10852: / Line 10921: @@
 https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/01/06/2022236/neptune-is-much-less-blue-than-depictions
+== Something Beyond Neptune Is Going the Wrong Way Around the Sun. It May Not Be From Here ==
+Scientists believe a close encounter with Neptune may have sent the object into its backward orbit around the Sun.
+Passant Rabie - November 10, 2026, 9:40 am ET
+Deep in the outer reaches of the solar system, an unusual object is moving against the flow of cosmic traffic, cutting across the Sun’s orbital plane at a remarkably steep angle. Scientists aren’t sure exactly how it got there; either it was tossed into its unique trajectory by Neptune or it’s an interstellar visitor from another star system.
+The Rubin Observatory in Chile first spotted the object beyond the orbit of Neptune at a distance of approximately 3 billion miles (4.8 billion kilometers). While most planets, asteroids, and comets orbit the Sun in a relatively flat plane, this newly discovered object follows a retrograde path defined by a highly inclined orbit.
+It’s not yet clear whether this object, temporarily designated R631, is a rocky body or a volatile-rich comet, or how it ended up in this backward trajectory around the Sun.
+https://gizmodo.com/something-beyond-neptune-is-going-the-wrong-way-around-the-sun-it-may-not-be-from-here-2000837621
@@ Line 11939: / Line 12022: @@
 https://gizmodo.com/4-body-problem-astronomers-spot-the-most-tightly-packed-quadruple-star-system-yet-2000728811
+==  Astronomers Discover the First Green Star ==
+Posted by BeauHD on Saturday October 17, 2026 12:00AM
+Astronomers have identified what may be the first genuinely green star, a white dwarf called WD J1330+6435 located about 326 light-years from Earth. Space.com reports:
+<blockquote>
+The researchers found that some dead star white dwarfs can go a little green around the gills after snacking on orbiting planets. An example of this is WD J1330+6435, a cool white dwarf located around 326 light-years away, which has been accreting rocky material from a planetary companion. This has enriched its atmosphere with calcium, lithium, and sodium, and the team's model suggests this would have led WD J1330+6435 to adopt a green hue.
+[...] The researchers think that no other star, living or dead, has ever been credibly reported as green. That makes WD J1330+6435 the first known genuinely green star. "The traces of sodium in the atmosphere of this white dwarf absorb the orange part of the spectrum, leaving behind a ghostly green glow," Hollands said. "Imagine standing on a planet and looking up at a green star. It feels like something out of science fiction."
+</blockquote>
+https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/17/0011226/astronomers-discover-the-first-green-star
@@ Line 12232: / Line 12329: @@
 https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-found-the-suns-missing-silver-hiding-in-plain-sight-2000787743
+== The Sun’s Death Could Tear Apart the Outer Solar System Much Sooner Than Thought ==
+“The Sun’s death is not an event the planets will quietly survive—it is the trigger for their orbital undoing.”
+Gayoung Lee - October 14, 2026, 10:05 am ET
+Our Sun is just like any other star. That is, eventually the Sun will run out of fuel and effectively collapse—taking out, presumably, most things in our neighborhood. That won’t pose a problem for those of us alive right now, but for those of you who still care: Scientists think the doomsday for outer planets might come earlier than expected.
+New calculations indicate that, once the Sun transforms into a white dwarf some 7 to 8 billion years from now, the outer solar system has roughly 1 billion years left—much lower than previous estimates ranging from 100 billion to a whopping 1 quintillion years, according to a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The latter number was so large as it assumed the Sun would lose its mass in a relatively smooth manner, Konstantin Batygin, the study’s first author, explained to Gizmodo. In reality, the Sun’s death will likely be bumpier, which introduces more chaos to the equation.
+“What we’ve shown is that this timeline [of 1 quintillion years] gets front-run by the Sun’s own death,” said Batygin, an astrophyscist at the California Institute of Technology. “Because planetary dynamics is chaotic—exhibiting sensitive dependence on initial conditions—no single simulation tells you what will happen, only what could happen.”
+https://gizmodo.com/the-suns-death-could-tear-apart-the-outer-solar-system-much-sooner-than-thought-2000825606