Space: the next frontier!
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Joined April 2015
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The Orbital Factory retweeted
After last scheduled obs from May of #2024YR4 by NASA/ESA JWST, the nominal pass is slight away from impacting moon, and the % goes to a 4-5% range which is low but not negibible. 2024 YR4 will not impact the earth following this new data observed
JWST observation of asteroid 2024 YR4 on 11 May was reported to the Minor Planet Center on 3 June. JPL has updated to solution #78. Nominal distance to the Moon 2032-12-22 is 10,700 km (3-sig uncert +/- 74,000 km). Horizons (via Telnet) gives impact risk ~4%. My SOLEX calc.
ALT Uncertainty zone of asteroid 2024 YR4 passing near Earth and Moon 2032-Dec-22 1500 UT. 501 observations 2024-Dec-25 through 2025-May-11, calculated with SOLEX 12.1
The Orbital Factory retweeted
Introducing Starbase, Louisiana – a high-cadence launch site that will enable Starship to open a pathway to the stars for humanity.
Thank you to @LAGovJeffLandry and the great people of Louisiana for all of their support as we work together on this audacious project → spacex.com/sites/starbase-la
The Orbital Factory retweeted
Starbase Louisiana will ultimately have over a dozen launch towers, enabling more than 30 Starship flights per day and making it the biggest launch site on Earth!
SpaceX makes sci-fi real.
Introducing Starbase, Louisiana – a high-cadence launch site that will enable Starship to open a pathway to the stars for humanity.
Thank you to @LAGovJeffLandry and the great people of Louisiana for all of their support as we work together on this audacious project → spacex.com/sites/starbase-la
The Orbital Factory retweeted
Kepler starts commercial optical data relay service spacenews.com/kepler-starts-…
The Orbital Factory retweeted
Astronomers have identified a growing list of exoplanets that resemble Earth in size, composition, and potential habitability. These “Earth-like” worlds orbit distant stars but may share some of the same life-friendly conditions as our home planet.
Some of the most intriguing include Kepler-69c, Kepler-452b, Kepler-186f, and Kepler-438b, all discovered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. Others, like TRAPPIST-1e and Kepler-1649c, sit within their stars’ habitable zones regions where liquid water could exist. Additional candidates such as Kepler-362c, Kepler-220e, and Kepler-344c further expand the list of potential Earth analogues.
While we don’t yet know if these worlds harbour life, each discovery pushes us closer to answering one of humanity’s oldest questions: are we alone in the universe? Upcoming missions like the James Webb Space Telescope are now studying these planets’ atmospheres in search of chemical fingerprints of life.
ALT Astronomers have identified a growing list of exoplanets that resemble Earth in size, composition, and potential habitability. These “Earth-like” worlds orbit distant stars but may share some of the same life-friendly conditions as our home planet. Some of the most intriguing include Kepler-69c, Kepler-452b, Kepler-186f, and Kepler-438b, all discovered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. Others, like TRAPPIST-1e and Kepler-1649c, sit within their stars’ habitable zones regions where liquid water could exist. Additional candidates such as Kepler-362c, Kepler-220e, and Kepler-344c further expand the list of potential Earth analogues. While we don’t yet know if these worlds harbour life, each discovery pushes us closer to answering one of humanity’s oldest questions: are we alone in the universe? Upcoming missions like the James Webb Space Telescope are now studying these planets’ atmospheres in search of chemical fingerprints of life.
The Orbital Factory retweeted
Zooming into Kepler-444—one of the oldest planetary systems ever discovered, dating back over 11 billion years to the dawn of our galaxy. Orbiting dangerously close to its host star lies a scorching lava world, where extreme stellar radiation bakes the surface into glowing rivers of molten rock and fiery magmatic seas. Free of any atmosphere to block the intense heat, this ancient terrestrial world stands as a haunting, hellish reminder of just how extreme and brutal rocky planets can become across deep time.
The Orbital Factory retweeted
🌍🌌 Mission: Kepler-186f. Meet Kepler-186f — the first Earth-sized exoplanet ever discovered orbiting within the habitable zone of another star. Located about 500 light-years away, this distant world circles a cool red dwarf, completing one orbit roughly every 130 days. But here's the crucial distinction: being in the habitable zone doesn't mean it's actually habitable or inhabited — we still don't know if it has an atmosphere, surface water, or any real conditions for life. Imagine standing on a rocky world hundreds of light-years from Earth, beneath the faint glow of an alien red star ✨🔭
The Orbital Factory retweeted
🌌💥 Over 25 years of observations reveal a cosmic explosion still changing before our eyes. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has tracked Kepler’s Supernova Remnant, the expanding remains of a stellar explosion first witnessed in 1604. The blast began when a white dwarf reached a critical limit—likely through interaction with a companion star. Centuries later, its shockwaves are still racing through space. 🔭✨🔥
The Orbital Factory retweeted
Curiosity Rover spotted on the surface of Mars by the orbiting MRO spacecraft.
📸: NASA/JPL/UoA
The Orbital Factory retweeted
The James Webb Space Telescope detected dimethyl sulfide in its atmosphere (on Earth that comes from marine microorganisms).
K2-18b is potentially habitable super-Earth about 2.6 times the size of our planet. It is located 124 light-years from the Solar System.
The Orbital Factory retweeted
Astronomers say they’ve found the strongest evidence yet for life beyond our solar system — on exoplanet K2-18b 🪐
• 124 light years away in the habitable zone of its star
• Detected potential biosignatures that are typically produced by life on Earth
• More data is needed to rule out non-biological explanations or confirm the detection
The Orbital Factory retweeted
The third mission of NASA’s #Artemis programme will mark the first human return to the lunar surface since Apollo 17 in 1972.
ESM-3, the European Service Module 3 built by Airbus under contract to @ESA, will play a critical role in supporting 4 astronauts during their three-week mission aboard the @NASA_Orion spacecraft: from the moment they leave Earth, their journey into lunar orbit, docking with the lunar landing system Starship HLS, and their safe return to Earth.
Learn more in our latest webstory: airbus.com/en/newsroom/stori…
The Orbital Factory retweeted
This is how majority of people in Northern US, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland and Northern Europe countries will witness their night sky today - full of Northern Lights/Aurora due to ongoing Solar Storm!
#solarstorm #aurora