https://jonathandocallaghan.journoportfolio.comRSS Feed for Jonathan O'Callaghan – Freelance Space JournalistenWed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.newscientist.com/article/2516975-spacexs-1-million-satellites-could-avoid-environmental-checks/The environmental impact of SpaceX's planned gargantuan mega-constellation is still being grappled with, but the FCC isn’t required to study it SpaceX wants to launch many more satellitesCharles Boyer / Alamy Stock Photo SpaceX wants to launch many more satellitesCharles Boyer / Alamy Stock Photo SpaceX wants to launch many more satellites Charles Boyer / Alamy Stock Photo Astronomers are scrambling to work out the environmental impact of a SpaceX application to launch 1 million satellites,...Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.newscientist.com/article/2516975-spacexs-1-million-satellites-could-avoid-environmental-checks/https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/02/24/1132755/anthroposphere-putting-more-stuff-into-space-than-ever/Earth’s a medium-size rock with some water on top, enveloped by gases that keep everything that lives here alive. Just at the edge of that envelope begins a thin but dense layer of human-built, high-tech stuff. People started putting gear up there in 1957, and now it’s a real habit. Telescopes look up and out at the wild universe. Humans live in an orbiting metal bubble. In the last five years, the number of active satellites in space has increased from barely 3,000 to about 14,000—and climbin...Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/02/24/1132755/anthroposphere-putting-more-stuff-into-space-than-ever/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/science/comet-spinning-backwards.htmlIf you were standing on the surface of Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák nine years ago as it was getting closer to the sun, you might have been in for a shock. First, each day on the comet would have gotten drastically longer over a period of weeks, until the object’s rotation stopped dead — and then started going backward.David Jewitt, an astronomer at the University of California, Los Angeles, used images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2017 to study this unusual comet. Like planets, m...Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/science/comet-spinning-backwards.htmlhttps://www.quantamagazine.org/monster-neutrino-could-be-a-messenger-of-ancient-black-holes-20260123/Nearly three years ago, a particle from space slammed into the Mediterranean Sea and lit up the partially complete Cubic Kilometer Neutrino Telescope (KM3NET) detector off the coast of Sicily. The particle was a neutrino, a fundamental component of matter commonly known for its ability to slip through other matter unnoticed. The IceCube observatory in Antarctica, a comparable detector that has been running for more than a decade, has found hundreds of cosmic neutrinos — but none quite like this...Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.quantamagazine.org/monster-neutrino-could-be-a-messenger-of-ancient-black-holes-20260123/https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20251223-mercury-the-planet-that-shouldnt-existFar smaller and closer to the Sun than it should be, Mercury has long baffled astronomers because it defies much of what we know about planet formation. A new space mission arriving in 2026 might solve the mystery.At a cursory glance, Mercury might well be the Solar System's dullest planet. Its barren surface has few notable features, there is no evidence of water in its past and the planet's wispy atmosphere is tenuous at best. The likelihood of life being found amidst its scotched craters is n...Sun, 28 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20251223-mercury-the-planet-that-shouldnt-exist