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Space

🚀 Space Pulse · 2026-07-11 22:01 UTC

⚡ TL;DR

JUICE spacecraft has returned the first compositional spectra of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS near perihelion, marking a landmark moment in interstellar object science. A busy week for space news: new exoplanets, a billion citizen-science classifications, elevated solar electron flux, and a packed arXiv.

🚀 LAUNCHES

UPCOMING LAUNCHES

  • SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 is set to carry Starlink Group 17-39, a batch of 24 broadband satellites, with a go-for-launch status targeting July 18, 2026 at 14:00 UTC. [1]
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 is also confirmed go-for-launch for Starlink Group 17-51, another 24-satellite batch, targeting July 23, 2026 at 14:00 UTC. [2]
  • Rocket Lab Electron is manifested for StriX Launch 11, carrying a synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth-imaging firm Synspective, with a target of July 31, 2026 (date TBD). [3]

🔭 DISCOVERIES

INTERSTELLAR COMET 3I/ATLAS OBSERVED UP CLOSE

  • ESA's JUICE spacecraft used its MAJIS spectrometer (0.5-5.56 microns) to observe interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS between November 2-25, 2025, shortly after the comet's perihelion passage. [4]
  • The JUICE/MAJIS observations captured visible-to-infrared spectral data on the comet's near-perihelion activity and composition, the first such detailed look at an interstellar visitor from an operational spacecraft. [4]

NEW EXOPLANETS CONFIRMED

  • NASA's exoplanet catalog now includes Beta Pictoris d, a 2.4-Jupiter-mass giant orbiting the young A-type star Beta Pictoris at 26 AU with an orbital period of 91 years, announced in 2026. [5]
  • TOI-6019 b is confirmed as a roughly half-Jupiter-mass gas giant orbiting a G-type star every 14.5 days at 0.12 AU, announced in 2026. [6]
  • TOI-2147 b, a 0.36-Jupiter-mass planet orbiting an F-type star every 26.2 days at 0.17 AU, has also been added to NASA's exoplanet catalog with a 2026 discovery date. [7]

CLARREO PATHFINDER ACHIEVES FIRST LIGHT

  • NASA's CLARREO Pathfinder calibration instrument, designed to record absolute spectral radiance from orbit, powered on and captured its first detailed spectral measurements in space this summer. [8]

SATELLITE MEGACONSTELLATIONS THREATEN ASTRONOMY

  • A new ESO study warns that current proposals totaling over 1.7 million satellites would have devastating consequences for ground-based astronomy, with the safe upper limit pegged at no more than 100,000 faint objects below naked-eye visibility. [9]

VIKING MISSION MARKS 50 YEARS AT MARS

  • NASA is marking the 50th anniversary of the Viking mission to Mars, which transformed the planet from a featureless telescopic disk into a scientifically explored world, building on three 1960s flybys and the 1971 Mariner 9 orbiter. [10]

CITIZEN SCIENCE HITS ONE BILLION CLASSIFICATIONS

  • The Zooniverse platform, a NASA grantee, has crossed 1 billion volunteer classifications, including light-curve dip identifications and other astronomical data tasks contributed by participants worldwide.

🛰️ MISSIONS

JAXA H3 LAUNCH OF QZS-7 RESCHEDULED

  • JAXA rescheduled the launch of MICHIBIKI No. 7 (QZS-7), Japan's quasi-zenith navigation satellite, aboard the H3 rocket Flight No. 9 (H3 F9), with the revised schedule announced in June 2026.

NASA R5-S9 CUBESAT NOW IN ORBIT

  • NASA's R5-S9 CubeSat (Realizing Rapid, Reduced-cost high-Risk Research project Spacecraft 9), developed at Johnson Space Center, lifted off July 7 at 12:12 a.m. PDT aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base to accelerate low-cost technology testing in orbit.

ESA HIGHLIGHTS AUGUST 2026 TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

  • ESA published a briefing on the August 12, 2026 total solar eclipse, noting its path of totality, Baily's beads phenomenon, and a sunset geometry that will make it especially photogenic, featuring ESA reserve astronaut Sara Garcia Alonso.

☀️ SPACE WEATHER

ELEVATED ENERGETIC ELECTRON FLUX CONTINUES

  • NOAA SWPC issued a continued ALTEF3 alert on July 11 at 05:01 UTC: the 2 MeV integral electron flux has exceeded the 1,000 pfu threshold since July 10 at 11:26 UTC, with a peak yesterday of 2,030 pfu, roughly double the alert threshold.
  • This elevated radiation-belt electron environment poses a risk to satellite electronics in medium and high Earth orbits; satellite operators should monitor charging conditions.

G1 GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH IN EFFECT

  • NOAA issued a G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storm watch on July 10 at 19:46 UTC, predicting storm conditions most likely on July 12, with activity returning below G1 on July 13.
  • A previous watch from July 2 had forecast G2 (Moderate) conditions on July 3-4 following an M8.5 solar flare (R2 Moderate radio blackout) that peaked at 23:09 UTC on July 1 from active region S07W25.

📄 RESEARCH

INTERSTELLAR COMET 3I/ATLAS NEAR-PERIHELION COMPOSITION (arXiv 2607.08603)

  • JUICE/MAJIS infrared spectra of 3I/ATLAS just after perihelion reveal details of the comet's outgassing activity and surface composition across 0.5-5.56 microns, providing the first in-situ-style spectral characterization of an interstellar small body. [4]

FERMI-LAT 20 GEV GALACTIC HALO EXCESS: POSSIBLE DARK MATTER SIGNAL (arXiv 2607.08552)

  • Using 15 years of Fermi-LAT data, researchers confirm a spherically symmetric 20 GeV gamma-ray excess in the Galactic halo at pixel level, finding it consistent with annihilation of sub-TeV weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), strengthening the case for dark matter origin over astrophysical backgrounds.

FAST TELESCOPE DETECTS RADIO PULSAR POWERING A TEV HALO (arXiv 2607.08596)

  • FAST's L-band receiver detected micro-Jansky radio pulsations from PSR J2238+5903 in a 3,000-second observation, confirming it as the engine behind the extended TeV source 1LHAASO J2238+5900 and providing a dispersion measure distance anchor for this candidate TeV pulsar halo.

FIRST DETECTION OF PAH PHENALENE IN A PROTO-STELLAR CORE (arXiv 2607.08699)

  • Researchers report the first detection of phenalene (C13H10), a four-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, in the very low luminosity protostellar object MC27/L1521F in Taurus, extending the known PAH inventory beyond the starless core TMC-1 CP and into a forming protostellar environment.

JWST DEEP SPECTROSCOPY OF MAISIE'S GALAXY AT Z GREATER THAN 10 (arXiv 2607.08749)

  • Two deep JWST Cycle 3 NIRSpec G395M programs targeting Maisie's Galaxy, one of the first z greater than 10 sources discovered by JWST, find it to be a relatively typical early-universe galaxy rather than an extreme starburst or AGN, tempering models that required unusually exotic physics to explain the bright high-redshift galaxy population.

SKAO COSMOLOGY BEYOND LAMBDA-CDM (arXiv 2607.08593)

  • A community paper outlines how the Square Kilometre Array Observatory will probe early-universe physics including inflation and primordial gravitational waves, going well beyond what Planck achieved and potentially distinguishing between competing models of the Big Bang epoch.

📎 Sources

  1. Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-39 — Launch Library 2
  2. Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-51 — Launch Library 2
  3. Electron | StriX Launch 11 — Launch Library 2
  4. Near-perihelion activity and composition of 3I/ATLAS from JUIC… — arXiv astro-ph
  5. Beta Pictoris d — NASA Science
  6. TOI-6019 b — NASA Science
  7. TOI-2147 b — NASA Science
  8. NASA Calibration Instrument Records First Measurements in Space — NASA Science
  9. "Beyond the limit": one million satellites and mirrors in spac… — ESO
  10. Viking: 50 Years on Mars — NASA Science

Curated from official sources — NASA/ESA/JAXA/ESO/NOAA/arXiv/Launch Library. Informational only.
Serial 20260711-22-v24 · 2026-07-11 22:01 UTC · pulse.uzylab.com

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