Astronomy News 2 July 2025

Did a Space Rock Just Slam Into Saturn? Inside the Global Race to Confirm the 5 July 2025 Flash

On 5 July 2025 at 09:07 UT, amateur Mario Rana from Hampton, Virginia recorded a two-frame white flare on Saturn’s western limb lasting under 1 second, with PVOL releasing a frame showing a stellate spot just inside the edge. PVOL issued an international all-points bulletin within hours, asking observers to upload raw video stacks for independent processing; as of this report, no second detection had surfaced. The verification drive includes data mining and crowd-sourcing, with PVOL providing a template FITS header to standardize submissions. Amateur networks such as Cloudy Nights and regional Facebook groups are screening terabytes of July 5

9 July 2025

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS: Origin, Trajectory and Scientific Stakes In 2025’s Third‑Ever Extrasolar Visitor

<li ATLAS imaged the interstellar candidate on 1 July 2025, with precovery back to 14 June 2025, and it was designated C/2025 N1 (ATLAS) and later 3I/ATLAS as the third confirmed interstellar object after Oumuamua and Borisov. <li A JPL orbital solution yields eccentricity e = 6.1 ± 0.1 and hyperbolic excess velocity V∞ ≈ 58 km/s, indicating an extrasolar origin from Galactic longitude about 5° toward the Galactic Center. <li The object’s nucleus is estimated at 9–20 km in diameter, with a developing coma and tail already visible, including a compact coma at about 4.5 AU from the Sun.

8 July 2025

Astronomy · Astrophysics · Comets · Scientific Discoveries · Space Exploration

This Week in Space: Reusable Rockets, Interstellar Visitors, and the Future of Earth Observation / Updated: 2025, July 6th, 23:59 CET

Themis arrives at Esrange Space Center in Sweden, Europe’s first full-scale reusable rocket stage demonstrator by ArianeGroup for ESA’s reusability roadmap, after a 3,000-kilometer journey and hop-tests expected to begin in late 2025 under the EU SALTO project. 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1), the third known interstellar object to visit our solar system, is traveling at about 60 km/s with cometary activity and will be visible until September 2025. MethaneSAT, a $100 million climate mission launched in March 2024 to map global methane emissions, has suffered a power failure and is likely not recoverable, a major setback for climate monitoring. The UK

7 July 2025

Astronomy · Earth Observation · Future Tech · NYSE:BA · Rockets · Space

Space News Roundup: July 2025 / Updated: 2025, July 6th, 12:00 CET

MTG-S1, Europe’s first geostationary meteorological sounder, was launched with an Infrared Sounder and Copernicus Sentinel-4, enabling high-frequency atmospheric data collection over Europe and Africa. SpaceX planned the Starlink 10-28 mission for June 8 from Cape Canaveral on a Falcon 9, marking the 59th orbital launch of 2025, and won an $81.6 million USSF-178 contract. SpaceX’s Starship exploded over Florida during ascent, scattering debris before four mock satellites could be deployed. T-Mobile will launch T-Satellite with Starlink service on July 23, authorized for nearly all phones including the iPhone 13, with full satellite internet rolling out in October. MethaneSAT, an $88

6 July 2025

Astronomy · July 2025 · NASDAQ:TMUS · Science · Space · Space News · Technology

Space News Roundup: July 2025 / Updated: 2025, July 5th, 23:59 CET

On July 5, 2025, the unpiloted Progress 92 spacecraft docked with the ISS Poisk module, delivering about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies to Expedition 73 and remaining docked for six months before disposal. NASA’s New Horizons, now 9.1 billion kilometers from Earth, demonstrated the first interstellar navigation test using stellar parallax, achieving about 40 million kilometers of position uncertainty. Astronomers detected interstellar object 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1), the third such object observed, currently between the asteroid belt and Jupiter at about 130,000 mph with live online observations. NWA 16788, the largest Martian meteorite at 24.5 kilograms and representing 6.5%

5 July 2025

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Space News Digest: July 2025 / Updated: 2025, July 5th, 00:00 CET

Starlink has over 4.6 million users and a constellation of nearly 7,900 satellites in orbit as of mid-2025. The EU Space Act would unify space regulation with debris mitigation, cybersecurity, and environmental standards, with existing Starlink satellites exempt through 2030 but future deployments subject to the Act. France’s SNCF plans to deploy satellite internet on trains by combining terrestrial 4G/5G with LEO connectivity, with Starlink and Eutelsat as leading providers. Boeing won a 2.8 billion US Space Force contract to develop two ESS satellites, with options for two more, targeted for deployment between 2031 and 2033. MTG-S1, the Meteosat Third

5 July 2025

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Space News Roundup: Strategic Satellites, Interstellar Visitors, Quantum Networks, and More / Updated: 2025, July 4th, 12:00 CET

Boeing won a $2.8 billion U.S. Space Force contract to develop two Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications (ESS) satellites, with options for two more, for NC3 in geostationary orbit, with first delivery targeted for 2031. MethaneSAT, a $134 million satellite funded by the Environmental Defense Fund and Jeff Bezos’ Earth Fund, was lost after 15 months in orbit, ending methane-emission monitoring that had revealed some regions emit up to 10 times higher than prior estimates. ESA launched MTG-S1, the first geostationary meteorological sounder, alongside Copernicus Sentinel-4 to deliver real-time high-resolution atmospheric data for Europe. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, in operation since

4 July 2025

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Space Science in July 2025: Breakthroughs, Setbacks, and the Expanding Frontier / Updated: 2025, July 4th, 00:00 CET

Astronomers confirmed 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1) as the third confirmed interstellar object to visit our solar system, about 20 km wide, detected by NASA’s ATLAS survey, and it will pass inside Mars’ orbit in October 2025 at a minimum distance of 1.6 AU. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope directly imaged exoplanet TWA 7 b, a Saturn-mass world 34 light-years away, making it the lightest planet ever directly imaged and potentially habitable. MethaneSAT, an $88 million methane-emissions satellite backed by Jeff Bezos, Google, and the Environmental Defense Fund, launched in March 2024 and lost contact after just over a year, deemed unlikely

4 July 2025

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3I/ATLAS: The Fastest Interstellar Comet Ever—Here’s What Scientists Are Saying

3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1) is the third identified interstellar object, discovered on 1 July 2025 by the ATLAS telescope in Chile. It is on an extremely hyperbolic trajectory with a velocity of about 68 km/s and will reach perihelion on 29 October 2025 at 1.36 au, inside Mars’s orbit. It poses no threat to Earth. Early images show a faint coma and a short 3-arcsecond tail, confirming cometary activity. Detected at 4.5 au from the Sun months before perihelion, it offers an unprecedented window to study its composition, rotation, and size. The hyperbolic excess velocity v∞ is 57 km/s, making 3I/ATLAS

3 July 2025

2025 · Astronomy · Comets · Discoveries · Space Science

Space News Roundup: July 2025 / Updated: 2025, July 3rd, 12:00 CET

Europe launched its first geostationary atmospheric sounding satellite, MTG-S1, as part of the Meteosat Third Generation program, equipped with a hyperspectral infrared sounder and Copernicus Sentinel-4 for air-quality monitoring, with a 9–12 month commissioning phase. Russia’s Kosmos-2558 approached the U.S. reconnaissance satellite USA-326, with a sub-satellite ‘Object C’ displaying high maneuverability and potential anti-satellite capabilities. MethaneSAT, an $88 million climate satellite launched in March 2024 by EDF, Google, and SpaceX, lost contact after 15 months, creating a gap in global methane-emissions monitoring. SpaceX marked its 500th Falcon 9 launch, deploying Starlink satellites as the booster landed successfully and its overall

3 July 2025

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Space News Roundup: July 2025 / Updated: 2025, July 3rd, 00:00 CET

SpaceX marked its 500th Falcon 9 launch with the deployment of 27 Starlink satellites and the 29th booster reuse. MTG-S1, Europe’s first geostationary hyperspectral infrared atmospheric sounder, launched July 1, 2025 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 alongside the Sentinel-4 instrument for hourly air-quality data over Europe and North Africa. MethaneSAT, an $88 million climate satellite funded by Jeff Bezos and EDF and launched in March 2024, was declared lost after losing contact on June 20, 2025. James Webb Space Telescope directly imaged TWA 7b, a Saturn-mass exoplanet about 110 light-years away, with a surface temperature around 120°F. James Webb mapped

3 July 2025

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Space News Roundup: July 2025 / Updated: 2025, July 2nd, 12:01 CET

MTG-S1, launched July 1, 2025 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying Sentinel-4, will provide continuous 3D atmospheric profiles from geostationary orbit and hourly high‑resolution air‑quality data. MethaneSAT, funded by Jeff Bezos and the Environmental Defense Fund and launched in March 2024, stopped responding in June 2025 and is considered irrecoverable, despite revealing methane leaks up to ten times higher than official estimates in some regions. Starlink 10-25 mission from Cape Canaveral deployed 27 satellites, marking SpaceX’s 500th Falcon 9 mission and booster B1067’s 29th flight. ESA’s Biomass satellite, launched in April 2025, uses a P-band radar to penetrate forests and

2 July 2025

2025 · Astronomy · NASDAQ:AMZN · News · Science · Space

Astronomy News 2 July 2025 - 9 July 2025