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Space

🚀 Space Pulse · 2026-07-31 22:01 UTC

SPACE PULSE

July 31, 2026 | Evening Edition

⚡ TL;DR

A major solar radiation storm struck Earth today with S1-level proton flux, a CME-linked Type II radio burst at 1681 km/s, and a G2 geomagnetic storm watch active for August 2 — the busiest space-weather sequence in weeks.

With Roman's launch a month out, Hayabusa2 breaking flyby records, and a flood of new exoplanet confirmations, the cadence is high and the science is firing on all cylinders.

🚀 LAUNCHES

FALCON HEAVY / NANCY GRACE ROMAN SPACE TELESCOPE

  • SpaceX is "Go for Launch" on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, targeting liftoff on a Falcon Heavy rocket on August 30 at 11:26 UTC from Kennedy Space Center. [1]
  • Roman carries a 300.8-megapixel wide-field near-infrared camera and two science instruments on a 2.4 m primary mirror; on July 27 technicians installed a commemorative memory card bearing 1,350,144 names submitted by the public, including Artemis II and III astronauts. [2] [1]

ARIANE 62 / MTG-I2

  • Arianespace is targeting no earlier than August 27 for the Ariane 62 launch of MTG-I2, the third satellite in EUMETSAT's Meteosat Third Generation series of European weather satellites; exact time is still to be determined. [3]

ISAR SPECTRUM / ONWARD AND UPWARD

  • Isar Aerospace is set for no earlier than August 6 for the second test flight of its Spectrum rocket, carrying five CubeSats including CyBEEsat (TU Berlin) and TriSat-S (University of Maribor) under ESA's Boost! program. [4]

FALCON 9 / STARLINK GROUP 17-53

  • SpaceX is "Go for Launch" on a Falcon 9 Block 5 mission carrying 24 Starlink satellites for Group 17-53, targeting August 4 at 14:00 UTC. [5]

LONG MARCH 8A / UNKNOWN PAYLOAD

  • China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation has a Long March 8A flight marked "Go for Launch" on August 4 at 08:50 UTC; payload details remain to be determined. [6]

🔭 DISCOVERIES

JAMES WEBB / CENTAURUS A

  • NASA's James Webb Space Telescope MIRI instrument imaged Centaurus A on July 6, 2026, revealing dusty mid-infrared structures and hidden activity in this starburst galaxy 11 million light-years from Earth. [7] [8]

EXOPLANET BATCH CONFIRMED

  • NASA's Exoplanet Archive logged at least nine new confirmations today, spanning hot Jupiters to a Neptune-like world: highlights include Gaia23braL b (1.63 Jupiter masses, 12.1-year orbit at 4.847 AU around a K-type star, discovered via Gaia microlensing) and Gliese 48 b (8.11 Earth masses, a Neptune-like world orbiting an M-dwarf every 39.6 days at 0.1752 AU). [9] [10]
  • Other confirmed planets include TOI-4458 b (1.737 Jupiter masses, F-type host, 3.9-day orbit), TOI-2049 b (1.53 Jupiters, F-type, 5.3 days), and NGTS-39 b (1.467 Jupiters, F-type star, notably long 58.2-day orbit at 0.3077 AU).

BETA PICTORIS d

  • ESO astronomers using the Very Large Telescope have directly imaged Beta Pictoris d, a third planet in the Beta Pictoris system; at 100 times fainter than Beta Pictoris b, it ranks among the lightest exoplanets ever directly imaged from the ground, confirmed July 15, 2026.

HAYABUSA2 FLYBY RECORDS

  • JAXA's Hayabusa2 asteroid explorer set a new record for closest approach during a Solar System body flyby mission, and on July 5, 2026, achieved the world's first laser ranging measurement during an asteroid flyby — two separate milestones announced July 30.

ISS EXPEDITION 75 ACTIVITIES

  • Expedition 75 crew closed out July with spacesuit checks ahead of three spacewalks planned for August, while also running combustion research and Earth imagery hardware; bioprinting of living cells and exercise physiology research also continued this week.

HYDRO GNSS OPENS DATA

  • ESA's two-satellite HydroGNSS Scout mission has completed commissioning and is now in full scientific operations as of July 31, with data freely available worldwide for study of Earth's water cycle.

ESA THEMIS WET DRESS REHEARSAL

  • ESA's reusable Themis launch vehicle completed a major wet dress rehearsal on July 30, bringing the prototype one step closer to its first flight.

☀️ SPACE WEATHER

ACTIVE SOLAR RADIATION STORM IN PROGRESS

  • NOAA/SWPC confirmed an S1 Minor solar radiation storm on July 31 at 13:36 UTC: proton flux at 10 MeV exceeded 10 particle flux units (pfu), with an active warning in effect through the end of the day.
  • A preceding S1 proton event at 10 MeV ran from July 30 18:45 UTC to July 31 07:15 UTC, peaking at 18 pfu at 20:55 UTC July 30; a separate brief 100 MeV event also occurred July 30 peaking at 1 pfu.

CME AND RADIO BURSTS DRIVING THE STORM

  • On July 30, NOAA recorded two Type II radio emission alerts in rapid succession — velocities of 853 km/s and 1681 km/s — along with a Type IV continuum emission, all beginning between 16:27 and 16:45 UTC, signaling an energetic CME launch from the Sun.
  • A 10 cm radio burst peaked at 190 sfu on July 30 at 16:43 UTC, lasting 17 minutes, well above the background Penticton flux of 143 sfu.

G2 GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH FOR AUGUST 2

  • NOAA issued a Geomagnetic Storm Watch on July 31 at 11:05 UTC predicting up to G2 Moderate conditions on August 2; August 1 and July 31 itself are expected to remain below G1.

RECENT GEOMAGNETIC CONTEXT

  • A G1 Minor storm occurred July 23, with K-index reaching 5 at 20:07 UTC and an extended K5 warning active through July 24 06:00 UTC; a separate K6 (G2) warning was also briefly issued for July 23.

📄 RESEARCH

KILOMETRE-SCALE JOVIAN MOON CHARACTERIZED FOR JUICE

  • Researchers report multi-instrument observations of the kilometre-sized irregular Jovian satellite Kale (or similar target), characterizing it as a relic early Solar System planetesimal and flagging it as a candidate for a potential ESA JUICE spacecraft flyby; irregular moons are extremely difficult to study due to Jupiter's glare and their small size.

BINARY NEUTRON STARS WITH NEXT-GEN GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTORS

  • A new arXiv paper estimates the number of binary neutron star multi-messenger detections achievable with the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer, projecting crucial new constraints on neutron star matter equations of state and the Hubble constant from the coming observatory generation.

HAYABUSA2 CONTEXT: SOLAR ENERGETIC PARTICLES AND CME SHOCKS

  • A timely review paper surveys solar energetic particle acceleration from a few keV to several GeV, tracing emission from both solar flares and CME-driven shocks — directly relevant to interpreting this week's S1 proton event.

VIEWING-ANGLE DIVERSITY IN CORE-COLLAPSE SUPERNOVAE

  • Numerical models show that the same core-collapse supernova explosion in a binary system can appear dramatically different depending on viewing angle, because circumstellar material shaped by pre-explosion binary mass transfer redistributes asymmetrically around the progenitor.

OMEGA_m CONSISTENCY TEST ACROSS COSMOLOGICAL PROBES

  • A new paper separates the matter density parameter Omega_m into independent measurements from cosmic structure growth, geometry, and the early Universe, testing whether the standard Lambda-CDM model is internally consistent; emerging discrepancies in these sub-measurements could point to new physics.

3D CME RECONSTRUCTION WITH POLARIZATION

  • The new PRICM3 framework uses polarized white-light coronagraph data to reconstruct the three-dimensional structure of coronal mass ejections beyond the limitations of traditional two-dimensional Thomson-scattering techniques — useful for improving space-weather forecasting of events like today's storm.

Space Pulse is published daily. All data sourced from NASA, ESA, JAXA, NOAA SWPC, ESO, and arXiv astro-ph. Next edition: August 1, 2026.

📎 Sources

  1. Falcon Heavy | Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope — Launch Library 2
  2. NASA’s Roman Telescope to Carry 1.35 Million Names to Deep Space — NASA News Releases
  3. Ariane 62 | MTG-I2 — Launch Library 2
  4. Spectrum | Onward and Upward — Launch Library 2
  5. Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-53 — Launch Library 2
  6. Long March 8A | Unknown Payload — Launch Library 2
  7. Starburst Galaxy Centaurus A — NASA Science
  8. Starburst Galaxy Centaurus A — NASA News Releases
  9. Gaia23braL b — NASA Science
  10. Gliese 48 b — NASA Science

Curated from official sources — NASA/ESA/JAXA/ESO/NOAA/arXiv/Launch Library. Informational only.
Serial 20260731-22-v44 · 2026-07-31 22:01 UTC · pulse.uzylab.com

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