Let your kids play in the dirt.

Richard M: I agree that these results suggest more research should be done, but from my reporter’s perspective, they haven’t yet discovered anything worth reporting.

Well, I think it’s a rather shrewd little strategy they came up with — this thing is going to be very difficult to spot — but clearly this can only be a first step, if that. A “Eureka” cry is not justified at this juncture.

But I think the circumstantial evidence that this planet exists is fairly compelling, and it is worth investing the time to look for. — even if this attempt proves a washout. A Neptune sized planet lurking out in a wild irregular orbit in the Scattered Disc would be very big news.

Richard M: I saw that story and reviewed it plus the paper and was very unimpressed, which is why I did not link to it. Too many assumptions and uncertainties to take very seriously.

An interesting development in the hunt for “Planet 9” (apologies to Pluto fans), picked up now by a few media outlets. Some Taiwanese astronomers think they may have actually spotted it:

The possibility that an additional planet may be hidden far into the solar system was touted more than a century ago. But astronomers may have found new evidence that points to a celestial body that could be a possible candidate as “Planet Nine,” according to a new paper, which has been accepted for publication in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia but not yet peer-reviewed.

The hidden candidate is likely the size of Neptune and is so far away that it could take between 10,000 and 20,000 years to orbit the sun, according to the paper.

Two deep infrared surveys taken 23 years apart measured the object’s orbital motion. In 1983, the Infrared Astronomy Satellite surveyed the universe for a year. In 2006, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency launched the infrared satellite AKARI, which was active until 2011.

Researchers at the University in Taiwan compared objects that were observed in the IRAS database with the data obtained by AKARI to see if there were any movements within that time frame.

The candidate for Planet Nine displayed a tiny amount of movement, which could mean it advanced further in its orbit around the sun.

ABC News story here: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/milky-9-planets-after-astronomers-confirmed-existence/story?id=121395588
Paper here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2504.17288

There are caveats here, of course. It is not peer reviewed yet. And even if it passes muster, more observational data is needed to confirm it, and figure out its orbit. And I have yet to hear what Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin (the Caltech astronomers who have laid the groundwork for the hunt for Planet 9 by working out an impressive circumstantial case for it) have to say about it. But this is the first time someone has actually identified an observed candidate for this.

If this is confirmed, though….well, this would be some pretty big news.

The wikipedia page says “… In April 2025, the second Trump administration proposed to cut funding for Roman again as part of its FY2026 budget draft. …”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Grace_Roman_Space_Telescope

Such a cut is despicable, outrageous and uncalled for!! I favor an exception in the budget cutting process in this case. Please print the money needed to speed up the launch of what appears to be an increasingly important telescope.

When he & Pete Conrad flew Gemini V, Conrad ‘broke’ into a song one of the days during the flight. Walter Cronkite ended his nightly news with the following (roughly): “Conrad sang during their mission today. He & Cooper make a great team. Cooper can’t dance.”

Always brings a smile to me.

Agreed. I live in Georgia and we have extreme pollen seasons which trigger allergies. Doesn’t keep me from getting enjoying our beautiful North Georgia mountains. Just part of the deal.

You do what you can to mitigate, but your don’t let it stop you.

Gary: Based on the Russian’s experience on Mir (which had a mold issue that required constant effort to control), I would expect after a quarter century there are similar issues on ISS.

None of this precludes spaceflight or interplanetary travel. These stations are likely far more sanitary than a typical ocean-going sailing ship from 1492 to 1800. It simply means those who go will have to once again accept some real discomfit.

Last year a study by NASA reported that a lot of astronauts experience developing allergies they never had before by just being in space. Nobody knows why it happens, but apparently low gravity affects our immune system so much that it goes completely out of wack by reawakening ancient viruses and changing the immune response too much. So personally I don’t think I’m ready for outer space
References: https://humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/Risks/risk.aspx?i=85

Call Me Ishmael: You are right of course. I once again made the mistake of relying on my aging memory instead of checking. I have corrected the post.

Hardly. Schirra and Cooper both flew after him.