🚀 Space Pulse · 2026-07-06 22:01 UTC
SPACE PULSE
Monday, July 7, 2026 — Daily Briefing
⚡ TL;DR
ESA's Euclid telescope has found the two oldest quasars ever observed, dating to when the universe was just 5% its current age — a record-shattering cosmological discovery. Today's edition is dense with big science: Webb's fourth anniversary images, a historic interstellar comet chemistry readout, and JAXA's Hayabusa2 asteroid flyby all land on the same day.
🚀 LAUNCHES
RECENT
LONG MARCH 8A SUCCESS — CASC launched Long March 8A carrying 20 SpaceSail Polar Group 14 satellites for the G60 Ku/Q/V-band LEO constellation operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies; liftoff confirmed July 5 at 13:43 UTC. [1]
UPCOMING
LONG MARCH 10B DEMO — CASC's first-ever test flight of the Long March 10B rocket is scheduled for July 10 at 05:20 UTC; status listed as Go for Launch. [2]
STARLINK GROUP 10-45 — SpaceX is Go for Launch on a Falcon 9 Block 5 carrying 29 Starlink satellites, targeting July 14 at 07:15 UTC. [3]
GLOBALSTAR 2-R MISSION 1 — SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 will loft 9 replacement satellites for Globalstar's 1,410 km, 52-degree-inclined LEO constellation; date currently To Be Determined, window opens July 31. [4]
🔭 DISCOVERIES
EUCLID FINDS UNIVERSE'S OLDEST QUASARS — ESA's Euclid space telescope has discovered 31 ancient quasars, including two confirmed as the oldest ever observed, existing when the universe was only about 5% of its present age. [5] [6]
- The findings, detailed in a new study, push back the observational frontier for supermassive black hole formation to the earliest cosmic epochs. [6] [5]
WEBB FOURTH ANNIVERSARY — NASA released new James Webb Space Telescope images on its fourth science anniversary, revealing a familiar galaxy reshaped by a cosmic collision that is far richer and more complex than previously understood. [7] [8]
- Webb's combined near- and mid-infrared sensitivity cut through obscuring dust to expose structure hidden from prior observatories. [7] [8]
INTERSTELLAR COMET 3I/ATLAS CHEMISTRY — ESO's Very Large Telescope observed the chemical composition of 3I/ATLAS, the brightest interstellar object ever detected, marking the first such chemical fingerprint measurement for a comet formed outside our solar system. [9]
- Early results suggest 3I/ATLAS is older than the Sun, providing a direct sample of chemistry from another stellar system. [9]
HAYABUSA2 FLYS BY ASTEROID TORIFUNE — JAXA confirmed Hayabusa2 successfully conducted a flyby of asteroid Torifune and captured images of the body, announced July 6. [10]
M5.5 SOLAR FLARE — NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded an M5.5-class flare peaking at 17:57 UTC on July 5, originating from active region at location N15W87.
🛰️ MISSIONS
CAPSTONE EXTENDED MISSION COMPLETE — NASA's CAPSTONE spacecraft has completed its extended mission in cislunar space, successfully validating autonomous navigation and communication technologies required for future sustained lunar operations without constant Earth uplink.
- The results directly support NASA's strategy for crewed Artemis missions that must operate independently in the Earth-Moon system.
NASA COMMERCIAL STATIONS PHASE 2 — NASA released a draft Request for Proposals on July 6 seeking industry input on the second phase of its commercial low Earth orbit destinations program, targeting a seamless transition from the International Space Station.
HI-REX SAG REPORT SEMINAR — NASA's X-ray Science Interest Group will hold a seminar on July 10 featuring the High Angular Resolution X-ray Imager (Hi-ReX) Science Analysis Group report on extragalactic and extreme gravity science, presented by Kimberly Weaver of NASA Goddard.
☀️ SPACE WEATHER
ACTIVE CONDITIONS — An M5.5 solar flare peaked July 5 at 17:57 UTC from location N15W87, confirmed at NOAA R2 (Moderate) radio blackout scale; an associated Type II radio emission was detected with estimated CME velocity of 959 km/s.
- A geomagnetic K-index of 4 was recorded at 17:59 UTC on July 5, with an active warning in effect through July 6 at 03:00 UTC.
ELECTRON FLUX ALERT — GOES-19 triggered a new ALTEF3 alert today at 11:49 UTC July 6 as 2 MeV electron integral flux exceeded 1,000 pfu, following a multi-day elevated flux period that began June 26 and saw a peak of 3,793 pfu on June 28.
- Operators of satellites in medium and high Earth orbits should note the sustained energetic electron environment over the past ten days.
📄 RESEARCH
EUCLID ANCIENT QUASAR STUDY — ESA's Euclid team published results identifying 31 of the earliest quasars ever found, with two setting new records for the most distant known, corresponding to a cosmic age of roughly 650 million years; the study demonstrates Euclid's power as a wide-field early-universe survey machine. [5] [6]
WEBB COLLISION GALAXY IMAGING — Webb's fourth-anniversary release documents how a cosmic collision reshaped a previously catalogued galaxy into a far more complex morphology; the paper leverages Webb's unique ability to separate stellar populations and dust structures at multiple infrared wavelengths simultaneously. [7] [8]
3I/ATLAS COMPOSITION ANALYSIS — ESO VLT spectroscopic observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS yielded the first chemical fingerprint of a comet from outside the solar system, with volatile ratios suggesting formation around a star older than our Sun — offering a new constraint on protoplanetary disk chemistry across stellar populations. [9]
HI-REX EXTRAGALACTIC SCIENCE CASE — A NASA-coordinated Science Analysis Group report, to be presented July 10, outlines the science case for the High Angular Resolution X-ray Imager mission concept, focusing on extreme gravity environments and extragalactic targets that require sub-arcsecond X-ray imaging beyond current Chandra capabilities.
That is your Space Pulse for July 7, 2026. Next edition tomorrow at 22:00 UTC.
📎 Sources
- Long March 8A | SpaceSail Polar Group #14 — Launch Library 2
- Long March 10B | Demo Flight — Launch Library 2
- Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-45 — Launch Library 2
- Falcon 9 Block 5 | Globalstar 2-R Mission 1 (x 9) — Launch Library 2
- Euclid discovers the most ancient quasar in the Universe — ESA Top News
- ESA’s Euclid Space Telescope Finds Universe’s Most Ancient Qua… — NASA Science
- NASA Webb Uncovers Unusual Galaxy Shaped by Cosmic Collision — NASA News Releases
- NASA Webb Uncovers Unusual Galaxy Shaped by Cosmic Collision — NASA Science
- Older than the Sun: Astronomers find new clues to the origin o… — ESO
- [release] Hayabusa2 captures images of asteroid Torifune — JAXA Press
Curated from official sources — NASA/ESA/JAXA/ESO/NOAA/arXiv/Launch Library. Informational only.
Serial 20260706-22-v19 · 2026-07-06 22:01 UTC · pulse.uzylab.com