"This robot is more dangerous than it looks ..."

https://www.satyress.com/
3/n

From Bert Hubert:'s article:

"It’s certainly possible to use AI to produce enormous reports and docs at record speed. Then other people can use AI to summarize them so they can understand it. That is not progress, even if no information were lost or hallucinated in the process.

People have long observed that writing and productive thinking are intimately connected. “Writing is thinking.” Another favorite: “If you’re thinking without writing, you only think you’re thinking.”"

2/n

Some not-so-good news from the NASA Swift Boost Mission.

Over the weekend, Katalyst’s LINK servicing spacecraft experienced issues with attitude control, causing the spacecraft to spin and resulting in sporadic communications.

Preliminary diagnosis: two of LINK’s three reaction wheels currently are not operable, and there is some loss of functionality in its cold gas thruster system.

Mitigation and fixes in progress.
🙁
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/07/28/commissioning-update-for-spacecraft-to-boost-nasas-swift/
https://www.katalystspace.com/mission/link
@nprofile1q...
18/n

Using data from NASA’s Hubble and ground-based telescopes at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory and Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory, spanning over 10 years, scientists at the Center for Astrophysics (CfA) detected the wake left by Siwarha as it ploughs through the outer atmosphere of Betelgeuse.

The wake causes changes in the star’s spectrum and in the speed and direction of gases in the outer atmosphere.

(Artist’s concept below.)
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasa-hubble-helps-detect-wake-of-betelgeuses-elusive-companion-star/
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.00470
4/n

A team led by NASA Ames had also imaged Betelgeuse in Dec 2024 using the 8.1 m Gemini North telescope in Hawaii and compared it with images from 2020.

They too detected Betelgeuse B but with a lower 1.5σ confidence level.

The name Betelgeuse means “Hand of the Giant,” with “Elgeuse” being a historical Arabic name of the Orion
constellation. Given that α Ori B orbits the hand of the giant, the authors suggested its name be Siwarha, or “Her Bracelet.”

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adeaaf
3/n

In the graphic below, the image in the middle inset was taken in Jan 2019 with the SPHERE instrument at ESO’s VLT, and shows Betelgeuse itself.

The image in the inset on the left was taken in Dec 2024, when the companion was predicted to be furthest apart from Betelgeuse as seen from Earth. In this inset, Betelgeuse has been removed and replaced by a circle, revealing a source (marked with a crosshair) consistent with being Betelgeuse B.

https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2611a/
2/n

@nprofile1q...
"The image in the middle inset in this image was taken in January 2019 with the SPHERE instrument at ESO’s VLT, and shows Betelgeuse itself.

The image in the inset on the left was taken in December 2024, when the companion was predicted to be furthest apart from Betelgeuse as seen from Earth. In this inset Betelgeuse has been removed, revealing a source (marked with a crosshair) consistent with being Betelgeuse B."
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2611a/

The ESA Cebreros ground station is operational and online. It is currently tracking SOLO, the ESA Solar Orbiter spacecraft.

https://estracknow.esa.int/#/2026-07;station=CEB
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Orbiter
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter
#ClimateChange #Climate
17/n