Space

EDIT 2026-01-02T10:29Z: Whoops! The paper that this video is referencing ^[1.1]^ appears to have already been shared in this community ^[2]^ — I didn't notice it before I posted this. I didn't mean to repost it through this video ^[1.1]^. Hopefully the video coverage ^[1]^ adds some context, and isn't just considered spam.

ESA’s Mars Express has been orbiting Mars since December 2003, and it still sends back sensational images, such as these shots of the Martian moon Phobos passing above the red planet’s surface. These images capture Mars and Phobos from June 2025, and ESA released the images in December 2025. The immensely talented Andrea Luck processed the images you see here

The indigenous OTV brings together two significant and unprecedented developments. FGN-TUG-S01, Türkiye’s first-ever orbital transfer vehicle, is powered by the world’s first-ever hybrid rocket engine. Upon successfully entering mission orbit, it will ignite its hybrid engine for the first time as planned. This maneuver will be the first-ever orbital ignition of the hybrid rocket engine in both Turkish and global space history. The indigenous OTV will, thanks to its safe and low-cost hybrid propulsion system, make it possible for satellites to be transported to different orbits, prolonging their mission life.

The first intentional radio broadcast is credited to Reginald Aubrey Fessenden on December 24, 1906. Fessenden transmitted voice and music (a short speech, a violin performance of O Holy Night, and a Bible reading). Prior to this, radio signals were mostly Morse code. This was the first known broadcast meant to be heard by a general audience as sound. And it’s said that ship radio operators in the Atlantic, who heard it, were astonished to hear music and speech over their receivers!

And now, more than a century later, the radio waves that transmitted Fessenden’s broadcast – and many more radio waves since then – are still traveling outward into our Milky Way galaxy. But just how far have our radio waves reached? Radio waves are part of the electromagnetic spectrum, so they travel at the speed of light. And it’s been 119 years since that first radio broadcast.

So the radius of Earth’s radio bubble is 119 light-years, or a sphere with a diameter of 238 light-years across.

😪

The new planet, PSR J2322-2650b, is orbiting a rapidly spinning neutron star, also known as a pulsar. This bizarre, lemon-shaped body, possibly containing diamonds at its core, blurs the line between planets and stars.

Last week, NASA revealed that it lost contact with a vital Martian probe that’s been studying the Red Planet for more than a decade. Despite the mission team’s efforts to restore communication with the orbiter, their latest status report does not bode well.

On Monday, NASA confirmed that it hasn’t received telemetry from the MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft since December 4, but said the team did recover a brief fragment of tracking data from December 6. Analysis of that signal suggests that the orbiter was rotating in an “unexpected manner” and that its orbital trajectory may have changed.

“The team continues to analyze tracking data to understand the most likely scenarios leading to the loss of signal. Efforts to reestablish contact with MAVEN also continue,” the NASA statement reads.

Chinese companies are no longer hiding their intent to clone SpaceX. They’re advertising it.