What's Up? The Space Place

 Hey, Space Placers! September 11, 2026 Six New Planets There are six new planets this week, comprising two warm Jupiters and four cold, giant microlensing planets. These additions bring the archive's total confirmed planet count to  6,366 . Meet our newest members:  HD 715 b ,  HD 278555 b ,   KMT-2025-BLG-0026L b ,  KMT-2025-BLG-0030L b ,  KMT-2025-BLG-2272L b , and OGLE-2016-BLG-0261L b . Click on a planet name to go directly to its System Overview page, or browse the  Planetary Systems  and  Planetary Systems Composite Data  tables. News panel image credit: NASA Fascinating read here. USEFUL EXOPLANET LINKS https://science.nasa.gov/exoplanets/ https://science.nasa.gov/exoplanets/exoplanet-catalog/ https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/ Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers! The galaxy NGC1386, shown in grayscale on the left and zoomed in to the central region on the right. The colors represent star formation in red, black-hole radiation in blue, and shocks in yellow. Image courtesy Peixin Zhu.  Read all about it! Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers! Check it out starting tonight! Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers! From left, NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot, and Reid Wiseman, Artemis II commander, conduct leak checks on their spacesuits inside the crew suit-up room in the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, ahead of the Artemis II test flight. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett IKE and Reid are out of the astronaut flying corps and are in Emeritus status. Read all about it. I was hoping IKE and Reid would be lunar landing mission commanders. Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers! A football floats in microgravity aboard the International Space Station, high above the Earth. Credit: NASA Read all about it. Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers! ISS And Space Shuttle Discovery (L) Over George Mason University Observatory Greg Redfern  A LOT is happening in our skies the next few nights. With our nights in the Northern Hemisphere getting longer enjoy these sky sights. Venus blazes in the West as it gets dark and will grab your attention as it heads to greatest brilliancy September 18, 2026. It will move lower in the sky each night and is currently keeping the star Spica company. The International Space Station is always a treat to see.  Sign up here to spot ISS from your location. Get the lowdown on the tennis court sized BlueBird COMSATS that will be making appearances the next few nights. Be sure to use your smartphone or camera to get pics of these events - just use Auto mode to start and adjust as needed. Clear skies and enjoy the show. Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers! The crew of the star ship Enterprise meets the real Enterprise  NASA Read all about it! Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers! Harrison H. Schmitt, an Apollo 17 astronaut, on his way to take samples on the lunar surface in 1972. Scientists propose sending a lunar mission to sift through about a cubic meter of soil to screen for materials. Credit... NASA (via New York Times) This is for real science in action . Read all about it! Sky Guy in VA

Hey, Space Placers! Artist's concept of the rosette drawn by a star orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The illustration exaggerates the effect for clarity: the actual shift between the star's farthest points (the tips of the rosette) would be less than a milliarcsecond, or less than 10 millionth of a degree. ESO / L. Calçada vis Sky&Telescope.org Fascinating story here. Sky Guy in VA 

Hey, Space Placers! This image was taken by the BepiColombo mission on Jan. 8, 2025 as the spacecraft sped by Mercury for its sixth and final gravity assist at the planet.    (Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab) Full Story here. Sky Guy in VA 

 Hey, Space Placers! An illustration of a rare interaction between dark matter WIMP particles (Image credit: Robert Lea (created with Canva)) Read all about it here. We may have finally gotten a glimpse of Dark Matter but much more work needs to be done to confirm the  result. Sky Guy in VA

Hey, Space Placers!                         Zodiacal Light, Venus & Winter Milky Way at Skyland Shenandoah National Park Greg Redfern Another busy month in our skies.  Enjoy!!! Sky Guy in VA 

 Hey, Space Placers! Turkish Minister of Industry and Technology, Mehmet Fatih Kacır, 3rd from left, signs the Artemis Accords for the  Republic of Türkiye as NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, left, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for  Space and Environment Connor Tomlinson, and Turkish Space Agency President, Yusuf Kıraç, right, look on,  Monday, August 31, 2026, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington.  NASA/Bill Ingalls Turkey is the 71st Artemis Accords Signatory. Full Story here. Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers! Read and hear all about it here! Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers! Nancy Grace Roman , NASA's newest space telescope lifted off into a perfect Florida sky right on time this morning at 7:26 a.m EDT atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket. If you missed it here is the launch replay. Roman achieved a nominal orbit and separated from the second stage and will soon be on its way to L-2, where JWST is located, a million miles from Earth. You can get ink the excitement of the planned nominal five year mission by adopting one of the 300 million pixels on Roman's Wide Field Instrument digital sensor .  I got mine: If all goes well with the engineering and science checkouts of Roman, the public should see the first images taken by Roman in early 2027. Roman will gather a terabyte of data A DAY and there will be an image released to the public each day as well.  Oh, the wonders we will see and the discoveries to be made..... Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers! Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope CREDIT NASA GODDARD Tomorrow is the big day for NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope . Tune in for live coverage starting at 6:20 a.m. EDT. LIGHT.THAT.CANDLE! SKY GUY IN VA

 Hey, COMET LOVERS! Comet 220P McNaught from August 22nd. Credit: Frank Astro  Via Universe Today Check out the comet for yourself and this story. Sky Guy in VA

Hey, Space Placers! CREDIT   SkyandTelescope.org Read all about it here. Sky Guy in CLOUDY VA

Hey, Space Placers! More here. Sky Guy in VA 

 Hey, Space Placers! View larger . | Artist’s representation of a large  black triangular craft  with a red light at each corner.  Observers reported this sighting  over a U.S. military base near Colorado Springs, Colorado, in October 2023. See more of the latest Pentagon UAP files below. Image via  DoD . Read the story. Sky Guy in VA