December 29, 2025 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay and reader Gary. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
- Oblique panorama of Pluto produced by images taken by New Horizons in 2015
A truly wonderful cool image, well worth viewing.
- Chinese scientists model how charged lunar dust grains stick to spacecraft
The research was published in August 2024, but highlighted this week at the link. The model is also a variation of many other comparable theories, including some that have already been harnessed in actual experiments, including one by Blue Ghost on the Moon.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay and reader Gary. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
- Oblique panorama of Pluto produced by images taken by New Horizons in 2015
A truly wonderful cool image, well worth viewing.
- Chinese scientists model how charged lunar dust grains stick to spacecraft
The research was published in August 2024, but highlighted this week at the link. The model is also a variation of many other comparable theories, including some that have already been harnessed in actual experiments, including one by Blue Ghost on the Moon.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News


Not exactly what Clifford D. Simak described…
The image of Pluto really is something, especially when one reflects on where/how far away it was recorded, and all the time and effort to do so.
Amazing.
It’s almost a dream.
Pluto is freaking awesome! I still remember when the New Horizons pictures were slowly rolling in, I don’t think anybody expected such a landscape. Charon’s no slouch either.
I understand it’s just one of many worlds in similar orbits. I get that everyone who discovers a pluto class object can’t be given the ‘planet discover’ title. I know Eris and others are bigger. Yeah, it has a high inclination to the ecliptic. But it will always be a planet to me. Fight me.
Wasn’t there some talk about a “global warming event” solar system wide?
The New Horizons guys were worried if the probe would get there before the atmosphere froze out.
Seeing windspeeds increase farther from the Sun at the “ice giants” floored me.
CO2 scrubber
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-efficient-reusable-compound-capturing-carbon.html
Here’s one for Ripley:
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-sugar-derived-crystals-stiffness-approaching.html
Wonka Aviation didn’t survive long after unionized Oompah Loompas began taking bites out of wing-boxes.
John: I’ve interviewed the planetary scientists who do this work, including New Horizons’ project scientist Alan Stern. They all refer to these planets as “planets”. They all think the IAU’s definition of a planet to be hogwash.
To the scientists who do this work, a planet is any object with a large enough mass that gravity forces it into a spherical shape. Very simple, and directly applicable to the data.
Vesta has always been a planet to me.