Chinese food in orbit, hard-working robots, and lightning strikes a rising rocket. As the Earth's northern hemisphere moves through autumn, let's check in on humanity's exploration of space.

Sun An international team found gorgeous images of the photosphere and "small-scale magnetized Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities in the solar photosphere." (previously). Mercury The European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) BepiColombo mission arrived at Mercury. However, that planet closest to the Sun seems to be shrinking faster than previously understood. Venus A new study argues that Venus may have been covered with oceans a long time ago. A moon may once have orbited ancient Venus but spiraled in to its destruction. On Earth's surface In Canada an amateur astronomer identified an impact crater; "[a]fter consultations with the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit, the research team is calling the crater Uhackatik." Wildfires in Spain threatened a NASA observatory. In Chile an observatory started its "Legacy Survey of Space and Time," a decade-long project to "create the most comprehensive, cinematic record of the universe in history." Japan's experimental RV-X rocket lifted off, moved horizontally, then safely landed nearby in a test. RocketLab announced it was offering a portable spaceport, the Global Hypersonic & Orbital Spaceport Technology, or GHOST. Indian company Skyroot hopes to produce one launch vehicle per month. NASA's Office of Inspector General called for upgrades to launch facilities as Artemis missions and private rocketry increase pressure on the system. NASA stated that it won't fly humans on the Boeing Starliner until 2028. The Trump administration issued a national space transportation policy. Demand for space launches might soon exceed rocket capacity. From Earth's surface to orbit German's Isar Aerospace successfully launched a Spectrum rocket from Norway into Earth orbit, the first such mission from a Western European site. Lighting struck a Long March rocket as it ascended, but the craft went on to a successful orbital deployment. Another Long March suffered an anomaly and exploded (archive link). A Taiwanese rocket launch failed (archive). NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope successfully launched, deployed solar panes and heatshield, and is on its way to an L2 point position with plenty of fuel. (previously). A Falcon rocket accomplished two achievements in August: 100 SpaceX missions that year to date, and the 37th mission for booster B1067. Starship's 13th mission reached orbit, deployed Starlink satellites, and returned to Earth. A camera captured the first 15 seconds of Starship's engines firing from close up; cameras on some of those Starlinks looked back at their launch vehicle (another copy). A Google satellite reached orbit, carrying a group of Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) running Gemma AI in a test of orbital data center capacity. In Earth orbit The Tiangong space station now serves more than 200 different meals. Russia's Rassvet satellites are apparently struggling to reach needed altitude. Polish company Orbital Matter is testing out materials 3d printed by its Replicator 2. Kyoto University researchers are using Starlink data to study Earth's thermosphere. NASA and Katalyst conceded defeat in an effort to rescue the failing Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. Swift is still doing its best to track gamma-ray bursts. (previously) A United States Space Force exercise saw one satellite successfully launch, target, and intercept another. Space Force also declared it had placed "space control weapons" in orbit. back down to Earth A NASA astronaut in orbit observed cities changing their lighting technologies. The number of alerts for space debris falling to Earth has increased. The United States Federal Communications Commission granted Reflect Orbital permission to orbit its Eärendil-1 satellite, designed to reflect solar light onto the Earth's night side. Reflect then bought space on a Skyroot launch. SpaceX is struggling to make Starship's heat shield reusable. A petition warned that expanding satellite numbers with orbital data centers would cause Earthly damage, including pollution and ozone layer depletion. More than 40 million years ago it seems that an asteroid struck what is now known as the North Sea. Earth's Moon In 2024 an asteroid struck the moon, "the largest contemporary impact crater found in the Solar System and, according to current models, a once-in-132-year event.' A Falcon 9 rocket stage crashed into the moon (photo). A lunar hole, Marius Hill Pit, may become a habitat for human visitors. NASA's Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration mission (CADRE) will rove the lunar surface to some degree of autonomy. NASA is also considering sending Promise, an engineering model for Perseverance, to the moon. The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) delayed launching its Chang'e 7 (嫦娥七号) lunar mission until 2027. Mars Perseverance set a new record for offworld driving, having notched up 28.10 miles in over 14 years (seen from HiRISE). The rover also took photos of Phobos crossing in front of Earth. Not to be outdone Curiosity came across "honeycomb-like textures called polygonal fractures." Speaking of Martian moons, Japan's Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is due to launch today (previously). Pioneer Labs announced they made their first microbe for a Mars mission. Planetary geological and former NASA program administrator Adriana C. Ocampo Uría called for an international approach to human settlement of Mars; NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman rejected that. To the asteroids Tianwen-2 (天问二号) reached asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa and is scheduled to attempt a sample return. Astronomers were able to image 44 Nysa clearly enough to find it was unusually triple-lobed and had its own tiny moon. China's National Space Administration (CNSA) is considering a two-ship mission to strike and observe a near Earth asteroid. Jupiter The Juno probe marked ten years orbiting and working around Jupiter. Saturn Astronomers working with Hubble imagery discovered a new ten-sided atmospheric shape on Saturn's southern pole. Neptune The large moon Triton may have wrecked preexisting Neptunian moons when it first arrived, leaving tiny moons as orbital wreckage behind. (previously) In the Kuiper belt NASA's New Horizons safely awoke from hibernation mode as it traveled nearly 6 billion miles from Earth. It may become the third human craft to exit the solar system. However, funding cuts threaten two instruments.

Police pursuit of emu just part of life of a country cop. A video of a flightless bird being chased by a police officer down a road on the New South Wales Central Tablelands goes viral, with the local chief inspector saying it's all part of the life of a country cop.

In his latest Notes on the Crises, Nathan Tankus reflects on the lives and deaths of three great lights of heterodox economics: Robert Skidelsky, Anwar Shaikh and Perry Mehrling. "I keep having whiplash between how reflecting on these three giants highlights how fortunate I've been and the sadness their deaths bring me. How generous people have been with me; how extraordinary my opportunities and life has already been."

Mercedes Streeter in the Autopian: You Won't Believe The Incredible Engineering That Allows Articulated Buses To Bend

Asteroids has always been played on a torus, with a speed of light that is effectively infinite. Here the speed of light is slow enough to matter: by default light takes 2.5 seconds to cross the screen. Everything else follows from taking that seriously.

Fire, Air, Water, Earth, the cycle of the Avatar resumes today with the release of the first three episodes of Avatar: Seven Havens.

Set over two hundred years after the events of The Legend of Korra, the world of avatar is a drastically different than the one we last saw with the swinging jazzy steam punk home of Republic City or even the land confronted with encroaching advances of an imperial Fire Nation in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Avatar: Seven Havens resumes the story after an apocalypse purportedly brought upon the world by Avatar Korra with no explanation given. Set in a protected city in a wasteland, a young Earth bending girl, Pavi, discovers she is the next avatar; a person to be feared and hated. Before (or not) watching the first three episodes now streaming on Paramount+, check out the teaser for the new show here and the trailer for the show here! Animation for the show is by the French studio: La Chouette Compagnie Undoubtedly, Fanfare posts for discussion of the episodes will be forthcoming!

Advocates for Trans Equality has a great slate of candidates running for office. Each of these leaders has demonstrated a deep commitment to the rights and well-being of the transgender community. With 5 federal candidates and dozens of state and local candidates in states as diverse as Massachusetts, California, Utah, Indiana, and Georgia, this list has something for everyone. If you're looking for a little inspiration, or a candidate you can support with some door-knocking or a donation, this list is for you.

Want more? The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund is devoted to electing pro-equality, pro-choice LGBTQ+ leaders to public office at every level. Their massive list lets you filter candidates by office level, state, and party. (Choose Republican and get "There are no candidates at this time. Please check back later.") The Washington Blade has mini-profiles on the LGBTQ candidates running for U.S. House and Senate. Pop quiz: What's the biggest caucus in the House of Representatives? If you guessed the famous Freedom Caucus, or even the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, or the Congressional Black Caucus, guess again:

At the beginning of the 119th Congress, the Congressional Equality Caucus is the largest* caucus in the United States House of Representatives with 191 members, the most the caucus has ever started a Congress with. In the 118th Congress, the Equality Caucus had a peak membership of 195.

(There are 214 Democrats in the House. 191 of them belong to the Equality Caucus.) The mission of the caucus is to work for LGBTQI+ rights. The caucus is chaired by the most senior openly LGBTQ member of Congress and co-chaired by the other openly-LGBTQ members of the House of Representatives. Membership is open to any member of Congress who is willing to advance LGBTQI+ rights. Caucus co-chair Becca Balint talks about what the Equality Caucus can achieve if Democrats take the House, even with a hostile president: Rep. Becca Balint says Dems can slow Trump's anti-trans warfare. But first they must win midterms. LGBTQ Nation, Faefyx Collington This post was inspired by someone who recently received an unwanted check from the government and thought donating to pro-trans rights Democrats would be a fitting use for the money. I hope these links are helpful to any MeFites finding themselves with an unpleasant partisan windfall they'd prefer not to keep. The length of this post was inspired by my admiration for so many wonderful posts by kliuless. This post is dedicated to fabulous MeFite mephron, and also to my personal hero, Montana State Representative Zooey Zephyr. (I have mentioned on MetaFilter that when I'm obsessing about the current horrorshow, I try to steer my thoughts to people who are doing the work to make the world better. Zooey Zephyr is in my thoughts a LOT.) * Some numbers: The Democratic Caucus has 214 members. The Congressional Equality Caucus has 191 members. The New Democrat Coalition has 112 members. The Congressional Progressive Caucus has 99 members (in the House, plus 1 in the Senate). The Congressional Black Caucus has 54 members (in the House, plus 4 in the Senate). The Problem Solvers Caucus has 48 members (26 Democrats). The Freedom Caucus has 31 members (all Republicans; at least 6 will be gone next year).

50 years of spotting southern right whales off Great Australian Bight. From Western Australia's capital to South Australia's far west coast, scientists have collated 50 years' worth of data on the southern right whale to track changes to breeding cycles.

"Once places of brutal violence and genocide, they are now sites of conscience." (slTheNarwhal)

Almost 40K residential school records will be destroyed. Not all survivors think they should be She Died in a Resident School and Was Buried in Secret You Can't Beat the Truth: A Hereditary Chief Shares What His Grandfather Taught Him About Reconciliation Under Carney, Canada is Cooling on Reconciliation

Roll your own horrible (and downloadable) fonts with Bastardica.

New York Progressives' Influence on the New Deal - "Franklin D. Roosevelt tapped New Yorkers to play key roles in his administration and shape the federal programs that brought economic relief and physical transformation to the entire country."[1] (previously)

• The Revolution of '28: Al Smith, American Progressivism, and the Coming of the New Deal (begins 13:45) - "Dr. Robert Chiles discusses [2018] book on former four-term governor Al Smith."
• The Happy Warrior's Legacy - "How Al Smith's Albany became Roosevelt's Washington.

When Assemblyman Smith saw reports of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, he understood immediately what he was looking at. The fire, and the deaths weren't just an accident. They were the predictable result of an economic system that treated employees — those young immigrant women, hoping to build better lives — as inputs to a production process; with no concession to their employees' dignity or lives.

Al Smith's conscience had been formed in the immigrant Catholic parishes of lower Manhattan, in a Church that had told the world, twenty years before — in words it had itself not used in many years — that what happened that March day in Manhattan was wrong. That it was a sin.

That Church was Pope Leo XIII's Church. The words were Rerum Novarum.[2,3]

The intellectual tradition spurred by Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical manifested in G.K. Chesterton's distributism, to Jacques Maritain's personalism, and Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker. These were movements of thought and conscience and direct service: enormously important, but operating at the level of ideas and personal witness.

Al Smith is not usually discussed alongside G. K. Chesterton and Dorothy Day, but he belongs in their company. Where they applied Pope Leo XIII's principles to economics and philosophy and works of mercy, Smith applied them to workmen's compensation law, factory safety codes, public housing, and the hours women and children could be required to work. From encyclical to intellectual, from intellectual to activist, from activist to legislator — each stage spoke with conviction: human dignity is not mere sentiment, but a structural demand that the state exists, in part, to enforce.

• Al Smith - "After being approached by Frances Perkins, an activist, to improve labor practices, Smith sought to improve the conditions of factory workers... Their findings led to thirty-eight new laws regulating labor in New York State, and gave each of them a reputation as leading progressive reformers working on behalf of the working class. In the process, they changed Tammany's reputation from mere corruption to progressive endeavors to help the workers."
• Heather Cox Richardson: "Frances Perkins, and all those who worked with her, transformed the horror of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire into the heart of our nation's basic social safety net. 'There is always a large horizon... There is much to be done,' Perkins said. 'It is up to you to contribute some small part to a program of human betterment for all time.'"

But she was not done. In 1919, over the fervent objections of men, Governor Smith appointed Perkins to the New York State Industrial Commission to help weed out the corruption that was weakening the new laws. She continued to be one of his closest advisers on labor issues. In 1929, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt replaced Smith as New York governor, he appointed Perkins to oversee the state's labor department as the Depression worsened. When President Herbert Hoover claimed that unemployment was ending, Perkins made national news when she repeatedly called him out with figures proving the opposite and said his "misleading statements" were "cruel and irresponsible." She began to work with leaders from other states to figure out how to protect workers and promote employment by working together.

In 1933, after the people had rejected Hoover's plan to let the Depression burn itself out, President-elect Roosevelt asked Perkins to serve as Secretary of Labor in his administration. She accepted only on the condition that he back her goals: unemployment insurance, health insurance, old-age insurance, a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, and abolition of child labor. She later recalled: "I remember he looked so startled, and he said, 'Well, do you think it can be done?'"

She promised to find out.

Once in office, Perkins was a driving force behind the administration's massive investment in public works projects to get people back to work. She urged the government to spend $3.3 billion on schools, roads, housing, and post offices. Those projects employed more than a million people in 1934.

In 1935, FDR signed the Social Security Act, providing ordinary Americans with unemployment insurance; aid to homeless, dependent, and neglected children; funds to promote maternal and child welfare; and public health services.

In 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established a minimum wage and maximum hours. It banned child labor.

• HCR: "Perkins recognized that the central purpose of government was not to protect property; it was to protect the communities of people who lived in the nation. She recognized that children, the elderly, women, and disabled Americans, all of whom contributed to society whether or not that contribution was recognized with a paycheck, were as valuable to the survival of a community as male workers and the wealthy men who employed them."

"The people are what matter to government," she said, "and a government should aim to give all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life."

A majority of Americans of both parties liked the new system, but the reworking of the government shocked those who had previously dominated the country. As soon as the Social Security Act passed, opponents set out to destroy it along with the rest of the new system. A coalition of Republican businessmen who hated both business regulation and the taxes that paid for social programs, racists who opposed the idea of equal rights for racial and ethnic minorities, and religious traditionalists—especially Southern Baptists—who opposed the recognition of women's equal rights, joined together to fight against the New Deal.[4,5]

• FDR and Al Smith: An Unlikely Political Alliance - "As other senators brushed by, Perkins raised her eyes to Roosevelt's and told him about the fifty-four-hour bill, explaining how it would improve the lives of working women and would help, in some small way, to ease the exploitation of industrial workers. The young senator did not attempt to disguise his utter lack of interest. 'No, no,' he said as he waved her way. 'More important things. Can't do it now. Can't do it now. Much more important things.' He rushed away, head in the air, leaving Frances Perkins to wonder how this man Roosevelt could be so 'absurd'—a favorite word of hers."
• Frances Perkins - "When Roosevelt tapped her as labor secretary in 1933, Perkins drew on the New York State experience as the model for new federal programs. She put every ounce of her formidable energy into weaving a safety net for a Depression-scarred society, securing a remarkable array of benefits for American workers. Frances Perkins had large ambitions—not for herself, but for the world in which she lived. Her vision found concrete expression in such landmark reforms as the Wagner Act, which gave workers the right to organize unions and bargain collectively, and the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established for the first time a minimum wage and a maximum workweek for men and women. Perkins also chaired the Committee on Economic Security, which developed and drafted the legislation that became the Social Security Act in 1935." (Frances Perkins: The Woman Behind the New Deal; oh and Robert F. Wagner ;)

of course, new york progressives -- like AOC and mamdani -- are lighting the way once again! also btw... The Reconstruction Papers - "The PDF is free to the public."

For nearly a century, the conservative movement's white whale was the government the New Deal and the Great Society had built. Republicans chipped away at it but feared the political ramifications of going too far. Now, Donald Trump and men in his inner circle like Russell Vought have come promising to do what their predecessors could not, and kill the beast outright. In its place they intend to leave a fascist, personalist, but otherwise greatly diminished state.[6] If they are going to shoot their shot, then liberals need to be ready to shoot ours. The Reconstruction Papers is a guide to what that shot should look like. The aim is not to go back to normal, or repair the damage, but to offer bold plans of action for political liberals who manage to retake power from the fascists, as soon as 2029.

HCR: We're Watching MAGA Collapse - "[I]n the two years between this election and the next one, we get to decide what the major issues for the American government are going to be. What do we want to see happen? Like what are our top things? And the people who best articulate those for us are going to be the people that we get behind in the 2028 election... What do we want the government to do? [I]n the long term as you're watching MAGA collapse... also think about what comes next because this is going to be so important going forward. We're not just saying what we don't want but we're also saying what we do want."

A Gender War Explodes in Utah Over the Courts, Abortion and Representation [ungated] - "When Republicans tried to repeal a law that voters passed banning gerrymandering, they found an opposition that flew in the face of Utah women's 'tradwives' imagery."

How to Become an Ex-Tradwife [ungated] - "What happens when a trad influencer leaves her husband, questions her beliefs, stops selling anti-feminism T-shirts — and still needs to make a living online?" These Conservatives Want to Be Working Moms. The Manosphere Disapproves [ungated] - "At a conservative center for women leaders, interns told stories about their lives. One said a male classmate told her, 'I don't know if women should be lawyers.'" also btw, from wired... She's 28, Loves God and Her Family, and Might Be the Reason You Can't Have Kids [ungated] - "No IVF. No surrogacy. No polygenic tests. Emma Waters is leading a national fight against fertility tech—with her hot husband's permission, of course."

Ancient sheep virus found hiding in medieval parchment.

In a study published in Science Advances, researchers pin the virus' emergence to about 5000 years ago, roughly the same time people started to intensively shear sheep for wool. "I was so jealous when I saw this paper," says Floris Breman, an evolutionary biologist at the Belgian national health agency Sciensano, because he wished he could have made the discovery. "It's very important because it shows us how viruses arrive in a population." The peek into the pathogen's past came from an unusual source: dozens of medieval books and legal documents written on parchment, which is made from specially treated animal skins. "It turns out parchment is an extremely good preserver of this type of biological data," says University of Leicester historian Joanna Story, a co-author of the new study.

Karin Wulf (9/2026), "The Family History of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, and the Politics of Genealogy": "a team ... has been working with a strand of Thomas Jefferson's hair to compare recovered DNA with that contributed by descendants of Sally Hemings ... More problematic is the failure of most of the flurry of media attention ... to resist tired and tiresome framings ... History regularly skips or dismisses the essential history of family." Wulf's other posts on "Reading Family History" (2, 3, 4, 5, 6), her course on "Gender, Sexuality and Family in the Early Modern Atlantic World," and other posts / tidbits. Also this month, an interview with Marcia Biederman on a later family's history: "the true story of an Alaska Native woman" with "villainous relatives: the mother- and sister-in-law from hell, who welcomed Agnes by showing her to a stark, unheated attic room." Via.

Environmental DNA shows some frog species bouncing back from fungus. The species were hit hard by chytrid fungus in the 1980s and 1990s, but new research suggests two frogs have recovered to now expand to new territories, while one is still constrained.

Known for freewheeling fanfic, the self-publishing platform is turning into a content factory.

(slTheWalrus)

Giant Chain Whip vs Bulletproof Glass in which Derek Herron, Brett Stanford, Scott Gaunson and Rexy the stunt dinosaur use a giant supersonic chain whip and a square metre of five-layer bulletproof glass to create an unexpectedly beautiful abstract art piece (How Ridiculous, YouTube, 22m52s). Come for the slo-mo, stay for the exploding ballistic gel heads.