Hey there! Honestly, I wasn't expecting to feel this amazed on a random Friday, but here we are. One of the findings in this batch genuinely made me say 'that’s awesome!' out loud. That's the kind of thing that makes putting this newsletter together feel worth it.
Here's whats orbiting in today's issue:
🧊 Liquid nitrogen flows on Pluto
💥 Massive star dies without fireworks
🕳️ Runaway black hole reveals ancient collision
✨ Ultra-magnetic star solves quantum mystery
🚀 Artemis III rocket assembly progresses
📸 Image of the Day
Pluto’s northern Sputnik Planitia glacier (in the western or left side of Pluto’s brightheart) is shown here in a color mosaic made from NASA’s New Horizons imagery. The direction of north is shown on the image. The image is ~ 700 x 350 kilometers across. The red box has been added to show most of the region containing dark features attributed to the wetting of the glacier by liquid nitrogen sourced from a “basal melting” process beneath the glacier. | Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/SwRI
🧊 Pluto's Heart-Shaped Glacier Shows Signs of Recent Liquid Activity Read More
Southwest Research Institute scientists led by Alan Stern analyzed NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) New Horizons imagery, discovering evidence of liquid nitrogen activity on Pluto's Sputnik Planitia glacier region.
New Horizons' 2015 flyby revealed city-sized convection cells with dark linear features on the glacier's northern edge, where liquid nitrogen rises through surface cracks rather than falling as rain.
This discovery represents the first evidence of recently flowing liquid on Pluto, suggesting time-variable geological processes continue on the dwarf planet despite extreme cold conditions.
🚀 Upcoming Launches
Starlink Group 17-38 | Falcon 9 Block 5 | 2026-08-08 | 10:00 EST | Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
💥 Astronomers Capture Massive Star's Death From First Explosive Moment Read More
Carnegie Mellon astronomer Brendan O'Connor and University of Maryland fellow Jillian Rastinejad led teams observing supernova SN 2026gzf, capturing a rare X-ray shock breakout event from 500 million light-years away.
Einstein Probe detected soft X-rays in March 2026, triggering observations with DECam's 570-megapixel camera and DESI spectrometer, confirming a broad-lined Type Ic supernova without accompanying gamma-ray burst.
This discovery bridges ordinary supernovae and extreme gamma-ray bursts, demonstrating that massive Wolf-Rayet stars can die through pathways previously unrecognized by astronomers studying stellar explosions.
🕳️ Runaway Supermassive Black Hole Offers Clues to Ancient Merger Read More
Kavli Institute researchers led by Tousif Islam reconstructed the origins of RBH-1, a supermassive black hole traveling at nearly 1,000 km/s detected by both JWST and Hubble Space Telescope.
Numerical relativity simulations indicate two supermassive black holes merged approximately 70 million years ago with mass ratio below 6:1, producing gravitational-wave recoil velocities up to 5,000 km/s.
Islam suggests this confirms Einstein's general relativity predictions, opening new methods to reconstruct ancient galaxy mergers that future LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) observations could complement directly.
📅 Today in Space History
On August 7, 1959, NASA launched the Explorer 6 satellite into a highly elliptical orbit from Cape Canaveral aboard a Thor-Able rocket. Nicknamed the "Paddlewheel" satellite for its distinctive solar panel design, Explorer 6 studied trapped radiation in the Van Allen belts, the geomagnetic field, and cosmic rays. One week later, on August 14, its onboard scanner transmitted the first photograph of Earth ever taken from orbit.
✨ Rare Magnetar May Prove Empty Space Can Bend Light Read More
SARAO (South African Radio Astronomy Observatory) Chief Scientist Fernando Camilo joined an international team studying magnetar 1E 1547.0–5408 to investigate vacuum birefringence, predicted by Heisenberg ninety years ago.
NASA's IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) detected X-ray polarization nearly three times greater than similar sources, while Parkes radio telescope confirmed the magnetar rotates once every two seconds.
According to lead author Rachael Stewart, this first coordinated radio and X-ray polarization measurement could confirm that virtual particles in extreme magnetic fields alter light behavior.
🚀 NASA Accelerates Artemis III Progress Across All Mission Fronts Read More
NASA engineers at Kennedy Space Center joined Orion's crew and service modules on July 30, preparing the spacecraft for astronauts Randy Bresnik, Andre Douglas, Frank Rubio, and ESA's Luca Parmitano.
Teams completed eighth friction stir weld on spacer barrel at Marshall Space Flight Center while achieving nearly 50% reduction in mobile launcher turnaround time through reinforced ground equipment.
NASA reports Artemis III processing outpaces Artemis II timelines, with component reuse accelerating Artemis IV schedule by more than six months ahead of original projections.
❓ Question of the Day
If Pluto has flowing liquid, should we rethink its dwarf planet status?
Send us a reply with your answer!
Really glad you made it to the end. Putting this together is more fun knowing people actually read it. Enjoy your weekend!
Clear skies ahead,
— Zapp
