Hacker News with Generative AI: Space

James Webb Space Telescope's 'little red dots' come into focus (npr.org)
Of all the mysteries that the massive James Webb Space Telescope has seen so far in the early universe, one of the strangest are objects that astronomers now call "little red dots."
The solar system is teeming with 1M 'alien invaders' from Alpha Centauri (space.com)
Satellogic's Open Satellite Feed (marksblogg.com)
Satellogic is a satellite designer, manufacturer and constellation operator. They were founded in 2010 and have offices in Argentina, Uruguay, Spain and the US.
Astronomers discover 'Quipu', the single largest structure in the known universe (livescience.com)
Euclid finds complete Einstein Ring in NGC galaxy (euclid-ec.org)
Gravitational lenses are rare in the sky – galaxies bending the light-paths of light from other galaxies behind them to form distorted or even multiple images. Even rarer is a perfect alignment of the two galaxies with us, the obervers, with the light being bent into a so-called Einstein Ring. And the rarest case was now observed by Euclid: this happening in an extremely nearby NGC galaxy.
China's declassified spy satellite's 22,370-mile reach alarms US (interestingengineering.com)
Chinese scientists have officially disclosed the sophisticated technology behind Ludi Tance 4-01, the world’s first geosynchronous orbit synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite.
Hydrogen cyanide and acetylene detected in a brown dwarf (phys.org)
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers has explored the atmosphere of a nearby brown dwarf binary designated WISE J045853.90+643451.9. As a result, they detected hydrogen cyanide and acetylene in the atmosphere of this binary, marking the first time these two species have been identified in the atmosphere of a brown dwarf.
Ringworlds and Dyson spheres can be stable (arxiv.org)
In his 1856 Adams Prize essay, James Clark Maxwell demonstrated that Saturn's rings cannot be comprised of a uniform rigid body.
NASA Gives 'All Clear' for Asteroid That Seemed to Threaten Earth (nytimes.com)
The odds that the space rock, 2024 YR4, will smash into our planet in 2032 have dropped to nearly zero, leading astronomers to conclude that we are no longer in danger.
EU Officially Begins Work on $11B Starlink Rival IRIS2, Eta 2030 (pcmag.com)
Europe has pledged to spend a whopping $11 billion on its own Starlink-like satellite network.
The odds of a city-killer asteroid impact in 2032 keep rising (arstechnica.com)
An asteroid discovered late last year is continuing to stir public interest as its odds of striking planet Earth less than eight years from now continue to increase.
NASA Downgrades the Risk of 2024 YR4 to Below 1% (universetoday.com)
NASA astronomers have been continuing to monitor the trajectory of asteroid 2024 YR4. The initial calculations suggested a 1.3% probability of an Earth impact event, which temporarily increased to 3.1% as more data came in. However, and with a sigh of relief, recent analysis brings encouraging news: the Earth impact probability has decreased significantly to 0.28%, though calculations now show a 1% chance of lunar impact. Observations will continue with the James Webb Space Telescope so stay tuned.
Gravitational Effects of Small Primordial Black Hole Passing Through Human Body (arxiv.org)
The gravitational effects of a primordial black hole (PBH) passing through the human body are examined, with the goal of determining the minimum mass necessary to produce significant injury or death.
NASA says 'City killer' asteroid now has 3.1% chance of hitting Earth (france24.com)
An asteroid that could level a city now has a 3.1-percent chance of striking Earth in 2032, according to NASA data released on Tuesday, making it the most threatening space rock ever recorded by modern forecasting.
Odds of asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting Earth in 2032 have reached new high (newscientist.com)
NASA has upgraded the risk of asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting Earth in 2032 to 3.1 per cent, or about a 1-in-32 chance, the highest odds yet of collision.
Extreme supersonic winds measured on a planet outside our solar system (phys.org)
Astronomers have discovered extremely powerful winds pummeling the equator of WASP-127b, a giant exoplanet.
Astronomers Amazed by Perfect 'Einstein Ring' Gleaming in Space (sciencealert.com)
Around a galaxy just 590 million light-years away, astronomers have discovered a stunning example of one of the rarest phenomena in our skies: a perfect ring of light.
Record-breaking neutrino is most energetic ever detected (nature.com)
Astrophysicists have observed the most energetic neutrino ever. The particle — which probably came from a distant galaxy — was spotted by the Cubic Kilometre Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT), a collection of light-detecting glass spheres on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea, on 13 February 2023.
Euclid telescope captures Einstein ring revealing warping of space (theguardian.com)
The Euclid space telescope has captured a rare phenomenon called an Einstein ring that reveals the extreme warping of space by a galaxy’s gravity.
Reflect Orbital: Sunlight after dark using a constellation of spatial reflectors (reflectorbital.com)
Reflect Orbital is selling sunlight using a constellation of in-space reflectors.
Newly discovered asteroid now has a slightly higher risk of hitting Earth (cnn.com)
Asteroid's chances of hitting Earth in 2032 just got higher (theguardian.com)
It might not be the world-ending apocalypse foretold in the Netflix drama Don’t Look Up, but astronomers have significantly upped the odds of a direct hit from a giant asteroid currently hurtling towards Earth.
Probability of 2024 YR4 impacting Earth in 2032 is now 2.2% (blogs.esa.int)
The European Space Agency is closely monitoring asteroid 2024 YR4, which has a very small chance of impacting Earth in 2032.
2024YR4 Collision Chance is now 1.9% (wikipedia.org)
Firing the Lorentz Plasma Cannon [video] (youtube.com)
Starlink Profit Growing Rapidly (arstechnica.com)
In the near term, this may be good for Starlink's business. The Financial Times reported that corporate America, in an effort to deepen ties with the Trump Administration, has been "cozying" up to Musk and his business empire. This includes Starlink, with United Airlines accelerating a collaboration for use of the service on its fleet, as well as deals with Oracle and Apple.
What if we're alone? The philosophical paradox of a lifeless cosmos (bigthink.com)
The idea that we might have cosmic neighbors has captivated the human imagination for decades. It’s not just sci-fi enthusiasts who ponder the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) — the general public seems to lean strongly toward the belief that we’re not alone.
Asteroid YR24; now at 1.6% impact probability in 2032 (scientificamerican.com)
In late December astronomers using the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Chile observed a new asteroid near our planet.
Amazon sues WA state over Washington Post request for Kuiper records (geekwire.com)
The company that Jeff Bezos founded has gone to court to keep the newspaper he owns from finding out too much about the inner workings of its business.
JWST shocks the world with colliding neutron star discovery (bigthink.com)
Where do the heaviest elements in the Universe come from? If you were like most astrophysicists during the 20th century, you might’ve said from supernova explosions: stellar cataclysms that occur either within the cores of massive stars or from stellar corpses (white dwarfs) that undergo destructive, energy-releasing events that trigger a rapid succession of nuclear fusion reactions.