There is a suggestion that the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex may be operating again in 1 week:

https://bsky.app/profile/hicommander.bsky.social/post/3mssy4hmqkc2s

For those familiar:

Has there been any public update about the status of MDSCC in the last two weeks?

All I can find is that the antennas are all still offline, but I would like to know what the damage assessment found.

(For those who do not understand this post: This is NASA-speak.)

The Guardian: July was hottest month ever recorded in US as heatwaves scorched country

Scientists have made clear that the elevated heat in the US was being amplified by the human-caused climate crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/10/july-hottest-month-ever-recorded-heatwaves

#heatwaves #USwx #climate #climateemergency

Keep voting, #Minnesota.

QT Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty @hennepinatty.bsky.social
2026 August 10

Our office is fully prepared to protect and defend your right to vote.

Any reports of threats, harassment, or intimidation directed at voters or election workers will be reviewed and, if appropriate, prosecuted.
https://bsky.app/profile/hennepinatty.bsky.social/post/3msqxdqlcyk22

Derek Lowe has written about how dangerous the group calling themselves "Four Thieves Vinegar" are: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/anarchist-drugs-again

Apparently, they are now telling people to manage heart attacks by eating double-base gunpowder instead of rushing to hospital.

They need to be shut down.

Twice in the last two days; I have encountered versions of the following scam:

"American healthcare is a disaster, so you should buy our collection of dangerous DIY medication instructions."

I really do not like that particular variety of ghoulish fraud.

(And, no, you should not eat milkweed.)

Yet again, USA:

Require that Congress do its job, #ImpeachRFKJr, #ImpeachTrump, and remove them both from government before they kill even more people than they already have.

And get the kids their shots.

A new study provides evidence that liquid nitrogen is rising to #Pluto’s surface through cracks in the northern edge of the Sputnik Planitia, part of the massive heart-shaped glacier on the dwarf planet’s surface. This is the first evidence of liquid recently flowing on Pluto. Computer models led by Dr. Orkan Umurhan (SETI Institute) show that nitrogen ice at the base of Pluto’s kilometers-deep Sputnik glacier can melt, forming liquid nitrogen.

Learn more: https://www.swri.org/newsroom/press-releases/swri-study-finds-evidence-of-liquid-recently-flowing-pluto-s-surface

#science

That should have been "We threw out >99.9% of the results as nonviable".

The final result was 16 viable phages out of 700,000 sequences.

This is just random mutagenesis with extra steps.

https://www.aip.org/fyi/physics-phds-are-leaving-the-us-at-a-record-high-rate

Three Galaxy Pairs
Image Credit & Copyright: Rafael Sampaio

Explanation: Each of these pairs of galaxies is different. The two galaxies at the top are likely not interacting, at least presently. However, the top galaxy with the blue stripe, NGC 4650A, is a polar ring galaxy and may be the result of a past galaxy collision. The two galaxies in the middle of the featured image appear like they could be interacting gravitationally -- but their relative speeds make this unlikely. Of these two, the larger galaxy, NGC 4650, is a spiral galaxy with a bright bar of stars across its center. The two galaxies at the bottom are actively interacting. Possibly in a billion years or so, NGC 4622A and NGC 4622B will merge and become one single galaxy. All of these galaxies are likely members of the larger Centaurus Galaxy Cluster.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260810.html #apod

If you are worried about the #ESAEuclid satellite losing power during the upcoming #solareclipse, worry no more: all telescopes at Lagrange Point 2 (#Euclid and #JWST, formerly also #ESAGaia) have orbits designed to be free of solar eclipses. They simply are never in locations where the Moon could eclipse the sun.

#astronomy #space #ESA

A Messier Moment for Tempel 2
Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett

Explanation: Which of these is not a comet? You guessed it - the one on the right is a globular star cluster. The diffuse greenish coma of periodic comet 10P/Tempel 2 is at left in the frame. In fact the globular star cluster is Messier 30, also known as M30, or the 30th entry in astronomer Charles Messier's catalog of things which are not comets. The well-known 18th century astronomer kept a list of objects he observed, now his famous Messier Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters, which did not move from night to night against the background stars and so were not the comets he was hunting for. So the famous comet hunter would get the correct answer too, even though his telescope would show both 10P/Tempel 2 and distant star cluster as similar looking faint and fuzzy objects in his field of view. Recorded on July 29, this modern telescopic image captures periodic comet Tempel 2 as it briefly swept close on the sky to M30. While the periodic comet's faint, narrow, orbital dust trail seems to pierce the globular star cluster, Tempel 2 was a mere 3.5 light-minutes away. Messier 30 is some 28,000 light-years distant.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260808.html #apod

Rubin's COSMOS field
Image Credit & Copyright: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA
Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)

Explanation: There are more than half a million galaxies in the central panel of this image from the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. This is the COSMOS field, a patch of sky several times larger than the full moon, first observed by Hubble. It has also been observed by Webb and other telescopes because it contains comparatively few bright stars from our own galaxy, offering a relatively unimpeded view of other galaxies outside the Milky Way. The outer panels, numbered 1-10, show zoomed-in views of the corresponding small regions highlighted in the central panel. The variety of galaxy shapes and sizes is astonishing. Some of them are so far away that their light has traveled for billions of years before reaching Earth. Rubin will come back every couple of days to the COSMOS field as part of its ten-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time. It will allow a dynamic view of the COSMOS field and how the sky changes over time.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260807.html #apod

💪

The Guardian: How clean air clubs are protecting Americans from wildfire smoke

Mutual aid groups that started giving out PPEs during Covid are now loaning air purifiers and distributing masks to fume-addled communities

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/09/us-wildfire-smoke-clean-air-clubs

#wildfires #airfiltering #ppe #smoke

When the science outreach organization outlasts the software it was named after.

I am reminded that K-12 teachers are setting up their schedules for fall classes.

If you should want a scientist to talk with your students, Skype A Scientist can help arrange that:

https://www.skypeascientist.com/

I've just sent around my first email newsletter in a while, with the short story "Five Alarm Morning" (about mad scientist roommates) included. With the attached doodle as a cover.

Missed out? You can sign up here: https://rznicolet.us4.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=4615d2ce75fd375e82b3ebca0&id=6a0611dca9

Also, because MailChimp is silly, I can't auto-send an email in response to a human signing up without paying them money... but my subscriber numbers are low enough that I can send a personal note instead, bonus stories included.

Thanks go to Clair Patterson.

Because he realized just how much lead contamination there was everywhere when it was impossible to get negative controls to measure the age of the Earth and Moon.

QT Jacqueline Antonovich @jackiantonovich.bsky.social
2026 August 9

My youngest, randomly, "Wait, does unleaded gas mean that there used to be...leaded gas?"

Me: "Yup! When I first started driving, they still had leaded gas."

Youngest, "How was that even a thing? Are you ok??"
https://bsky.app/profile/jackiantonovich.bsky.social/post/3msnvyoodj22l

AST SpaceMobile continues to lose money, because there are not many people who want to pay a steep premium for satellite service to their phones.

I continue to wonder what happens to their satellites once the company goes bankrupt.