In 2019, NASA’s New Horizons mission flew by Kuiper Belt object 486958 Arrokoth. Arrokoth has a snowman shape – or 2-lobed figure – that is common in our outer solar system. Why is this snowman shape so prevalent? Scientists at Michigan State University said the answer might be surprisingly simple. Image via NASA/ Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/ Southwest Research Institute/ National Optical Astronomy Observatory.
Why is the snowman shape so common in the outer solar system?
The outer region of the solar system is home to a slew of snowman-shaped objects. One famous example is Arrokoth, a member of the Kuiper Belt, which is a region beyond Neptune that contains Pluto and other icy objects such as planetesimals. In fact, one in 10 Kuiper Belt objects is snowman-shaped, or what astronomers call a contact binary. On February 19, 2026, researchers at Michigan State University said the reason for all these snowman-shaped objects might be surprisingly simple.
Lead author Jackson Barnes of Michigan State University (MSU) created computer simulations that show gravitational collapse can naturally produce these snowman-shaped objects. Barnes used MSU’s Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research’s High-Performance Computing Center to create simulations that show the formation of dual-lobed objects doesn’t rely on chance collisions or unusual encounters.
If we think 10% of planetesimal objects are contact binaries, the process that forms them can’t be rare. Gravitational collapse fits nicely with what we’ve observed.
Our first closeup look at a contact binary was Arrokoth. The New Horizons spacecraft flew past the rocky snowman on New Year’s Day in 2019.
The researchers published their peer-reviewed paper in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on February 19, 2026.
Modeling the collapse process
The simulations needed to find an explanation that allowed the contact binaries to happen fairly regularly. And they needed to assure that these objects could retain their shapes over the years. Other computer models ended up with something that eventually morphed into a single, blob-like shape. Barnes’ simulations allow the snowmen to retain their characteristic shape.
In the early solar system, the sun and planets formed out of a swirling disk of gas and dust. On the outer edges of our solar system were remnants of this disk that didn’t become incorporated into the larger bodies. These Kuiper Belt objects live placid lives in the spacious regions of the solar system’s outskirts. Scientists say few collisions occur here.
In Barnes’ simulations, planetesimals form out of the dusty disk into loose aggregations of material. Gravity can then cause the objects to collapse inward, which can rip the object into two parts that then orbit each other until they are once again pulled into a single snowman-shaped object. In a sparsely populated environment, there’s nothing to knock into the objects and separate them again. The scientists note:
Most binaries aren’t even pocked with craters.
The MSU scientists are now working to create even more accurate modeling of the collapse process.
Watch a simulation of a snowman-shaped object after its collapse into 2 and as it reconnects.
Bottom line: Scientists at MSU have modeled the process of gravitational collapse that they say creates the snowman shape that is so common in the outer solar system.
In 2019, NASA’s New Horizons mission flew by Kuiper Belt object 486958 Arrokoth. Arrokoth has a snowman shape – or 2-lobed figure – that is common in our outer solar system. Why is this snowman shape so prevalent? Scientists at Michigan State University said the answer might be surprisingly simple. Image via NASA/ Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/ Southwest Research Institute/ National Optical Astronomy Observatory.
Why is the snowman shape so common in the outer solar system?
The outer region of the solar system is home to a slew of snowman-shaped objects. One famous example is Arrokoth, a member of the Kuiper Belt, which is a region beyond Neptune that contains Pluto and other icy objects such as planetesimals. In fact, one in 10 Kuiper Belt objects is snowman-shaped, or what astronomers call a contact binary. On February 19, 2026, researchers at Michigan State University said the reason for all these snowman-shaped objects might be surprisingly simple.
Lead author Jackson Barnes of Michigan State University (MSU) created computer simulations that show gravitational collapse can naturally produce these snowman-shaped objects. Barnes used MSU’s Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research’s High-Performance Computing Center to create simulations that show the formation of dual-lobed objects doesn’t rely on chance collisions or unusual encounters.
If we think 10% of planetesimal objects are contact binaries, the process that forms them can’t be rare. Gravitational collapse fits nicely with what we’ve observed.
Our first closeup look at a contact binary was Arrokoth. The New Horizons spacecraft flew past the rocky snowman on New Year’s Day in 2019.
The researchers published their peer-reviewed paper in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on February 19, 2026.
Modeling the collapse process
The simulations needed to find an explanation that allowed the contact binaries to happen fairly regularly. And they needed to assure that these objects could retain their shapes over the years. Other computer models ended up with something that eventually morphed into a single, blob-like shape. Barnes’ simulations allow the snowmen to retain their characteristic shape.
In the early solar system, the sun and planets formed out of a swirling disk of gas and dust. On the outer edges of our solar system were remnants of this disk that didn’t become incorporated into the larger bodies. These Kuiper Belt objects live placid lives in the spacious regions of the solar system’s outskirts. Scientists say few collisions occur here.
In Barnes’ simulations, planetesimals form out of the dusty disk into loose aggregations of material. Gravity can then cause the objects to collapse inward, which can rip the object into two parts that then orbit each other until they are once again pulled into a single snowman-shaped object. In a sparsely populated environment, there’s nothing to knock into the objects and separate them again. The scientists note:
Most binaries aren’t even pocked with craters.
The MSU scientists are now working to create even more accurate modeling of the collapse process.
Watch a simulation of a snowman-shaped object after its collapse into 2 and as it reconnects.
Bottom line: Scientists at MSU have modeled the process of gravitational collapse that they say creates the snowman shape that is so common in the outer solar system.
Your latitude determines which stars are visible in the sky dome above. Here’s the sky dome view for February 2026. It shows stars above the horizon at mid-evening (about halfway between your local sunset and local midnight) for mid-northern latitudes. But what about the view from other latitudes? See charts below showing how the sky dome changes by latitude and the stars that are visible in the sky. The gray line is the celestial equator (an imaginary line above Earth’s equator). The blue line is the ecliptic or sun’s path. Image via Guy Ottewell’s 2026 Astronomical Calendar.
On many of EarthSky’s articles about the night sky, you’ll see a note suggesting “for a precise view from your location try Stellarium Online“. That’s because the sky encircles all of Earth. And your location on the globe – or more specifically your latitude – determines which part of this encircling sky you’re able to see. Meanwhile, your longitude doesn’t so much determine what you see as when you’ll see it.
Below are some charts showing the sky dome from different latitudes.
Sky view from the North Pole: 90 degrees N latitude
The sky dome view from the North Pole. From there, Polaris – the North Star – is overhead. The gray line – the celestial equator (an imaginary line above Earth’s equator) – lies flat around your horizon. The blue line is the ecliptic or sun’s path. Image via Guy Ottewell. Used with permission.
If you’re standing at the North Pole, you’ll see the entire northern half of the celestial sphere visible every single night, except in the season of the midnight sun. That’s because the celestial pole is at your zenith, or overhead point. In fact, the stars don’t rise or set, but instead move around your sky, parallel to each other and parallel to the horizon.
So in the language of astronomy, from Earth’s North Pole, all visible stars are circumpolar stars. Circumpolar stars never rise or set but instead circle endlessly around the pole star. Any star above the horizon will be visible all night (or all day and night if it’s winter, when the sun never rises).
A star trail photo taken from the North Pole shows all the stars tracing circles around the center point overhead.
Sky view from 30 degrees N latitude
The sky dome view from 30 degrees north latitude. The gray line is the celestial equator (an imaginary line above Earth’s equator). The blue line is the ecliptic or sun’s path. Image via Guy Ottewell. Used with permission.
At Earth’s northerly latitudes, the North Star, Polaris, lies somewhere between your zenith and your northern horizon. That’s because it lies at a height above your northern horizon that’s equal to your latitude. In other words, from 30 degrees north latitude, Polaris lies 30 degrees above due north.
So any star or constellation within 30 degrees of Polaris is circumpolar and visible all night.
Meanwhile, to the south, a part of the southern sky – the part below the celestial equator (indicated by the gray line on the charts on this page) – is now in view.
Sky view from the equator: 0 Latitude
The sky dome view from the equator. The gray line – the celestial equator (an imaginary line above Earth’s equator) – now arcs directly overhead. The blue line is the ecliptic or sun’s path. Image via Guy Ottewell. Used with permission.
If you are on the equator, you can see all stars visible from all parts of Earth over the course of a year. From there, the celestial equator sweeps overhead and goes through your zenith, or overhead point.
Consequently, all the stars make great arcs across your sky, parallel to the celestial equator and to each other. There are no circumpolar stars as seen from the equator. That’s because the north and south celestial poles can’t be seen. They’re on your northern and southern horizon.
A star trail photo taken from Ecuador shows about 90% of all stars. Looking toward the celestial equator, the star trails are almost a straight horizontal line through the center of the image. While the 2 celestial poles are hinted at by the more circular motions of the stars to the left and right.
Sky view from 30 degrees S latitude
The sky dome view from 30 degrees south latitude. The gray line is the celestial equator (an imaginary line above Earth’s equator). The blue line is the ecliptic or sun’s path. Image via Guy Ottewell. Used with permission.
There is no bright southern pole star. But, at Earth’s southerly latitudes, the south celestial pole – a point on the sky’s dome directly above Earth’s south pole – lies somewhere between your zenith and your southern horizon. It lies at a height above your southern horizon that’s equal to your latitude. In other words, from 30 degrees south latitude, the south celestial pole lies 30 degrees above due south.
So any star or constellation within 30 degrees of the south celestial pole is circumpolar and visible all night.
Meanwhile, to the north, a part of the north sky – the part above the celestial equator (indicated by the gray line on the charts on this page) – is now in view.
Sky view from the South Pole: 90 degrees S latitude
The sky dome view from the South Pole. The gray line – the celestial equator (an imaginary line above Earth’s equator) – lies flat around your horizon. The blue line is the ecliptic or sun’s path. Image via Guy Ottewell. Used with permission.
If you’re standing at the South Pole, you’ll see the entire southern half of the celestial sphere visible every single night, except in the season of the midnight sun. That’s because the celestial pole is at your zenith, or overhead point. The stars don’t rise or set, but instead move around your sky, parallel to each other and parallel to the horizon.
In the language of astronomy, from Earth’s South Pole, all visible stars are circumpolar stars. Circumpolar stars never rise or set, but instead circle endlessly around the pole. Any star above the horizon will be visible all night (or all day and night if it’s winter, when the sun never rises).
A star trail photo taken from the South Pole will show all the stars tracing circles around the center point overhead.
Bottom line: See charts showing how the sky dome changes by latitude and the stars that are then visible in the sky.
Your latitude determines which stars are visible in the sky dome above. Here’s the sky dome view for February 2026. It shows stars above the horizon at mid-evening (about halfway between your local sunset and local midnight) for mid-northern latitudes. But what about the view from other latitudes? See charts below showing how the sky dome changes by latitude and the stars that are visible in the sky. The gray line is the celestial equator (an imaginary line above Earth’s equator). The blue line is the ecliptic or sun’s path. Image via Guy Ottewell’s 2026 Astronomical Calendar.
On many of EarthSky’s articles about the night sky, you’ll see a note suggesting “for a precise view from your location try Stellarium Online“. That’s because the sky encircles all of Earth. And your location on the globe – or more specifically your latitude – determines which part of this encircling sky you’re able to see. Meanwhile, your longitude doesn’t so much determine what you see as when you’ll see it.
Below are some charts showing the sky dome from different latitudes.
Sky view from the North Pole: 90 degrees N latitude
The sky dome view from the North Pole. From there, Polaris – the North Star – is overhead. The gray line – the celestial equator (an imaginary line above Earth’s equator) – lies flat around your horizon. The blue line is the ecliptic or sun’s path. Image via Guy Ottewell. Used with permission.
If you’re standing at the North Pole, you’ll see the entire northern half of the celestial sphere visible every single night, except in the season of the midnight sun. That’s because the celestial pole is at your zenith, or overhead point. In fact, the stars don’t rise or set, but instead move around your sky, parallel to each other and parallel to the horizon.
So in the language of astronomy, from Earth’s North Pole, all visible stars are circumpolar stars. Circumpolar stars never rise or set but instead circle endlessly around the pole star. Any star above the horizon will be visible all night (or all day and night if it’s winter, when the sun never rises).
A star trail photo taken from the North Pole shows all the stars tracing circles around the center point overhead.
Sky view from 30 degrees N latitude
The sky dome view from 30 degrees north latitude. The gray line is the celestial equator (an imaginary line above Earth’s equator). The blue line is the ecliptic or sun’s path. Image via Guy Ottewell. Used with permission.
At Earth’s northerly latitudes, the North Star, Polaris, lies somewhere between your zenith and your northern horizon. That’s because it lies at a height above your northern horizon that’s equal to your latitude. In other words, from 30 degrees north latitude, Polaris lies 30 degrees above due north.
So any star or constellation within 30 degrees of Polaris is circumpolar and visible all night.
Meanwhile, to the south, a part of the southern sky – the part below the celestial equator (indicated by the gray line on the charts on this page) – is now in view.
Sky view from the equator: 0 Latitude
The sky dome view from the equator. The gray line – the celestial equator (an imaginary line above Earth’s equator) – now arcs directly overhead. The blue line is the ecliptic or sun’s path. Image via Guy Ottewell. Used with permission.
If you are on the equator, you can see all stars visible from all parts of Earth over the course of a year. From there, the celestial equator sweeps overhead and goes through your zenith, or overhead point.
Consequently, all the stars make great arcs across your sky, parallel to the celestial equator and to each other. There are no circumpolar stars as seen from the equator. That’s because the north and south celestial poles can’t be seen. They’re on your northern and southern horizon.
A star trail photo taken from Ecuador shows about 90% of all stars. Looking toward the celestial equator, the star trails are almost a straight horizontal line through the center of the image. While the 2 celestial poles are hinted at by the more circular motions of the stars to the left and right.
Sky view from 30 degrees S latitude
The sky dome view from 30 degrees south latitude. The gray line is the celestial equator (an imaginary line above Earth’s equator). The blue line is the ecliptic or sun’s path. Image via Guy Ottewell. Used with permission.
There is no bright southern pole star. But, at Earth’s southerly latitudes, the south celestial pole – a point on the sky’s dome directly above Earth’s south pole – lies somewhere between your zenith and your southern horizon. It lies at a height above your southern horizon that’s equal to your latitude. In other words, from 30 degrees south latitude, the south celestial pole lies 30 degrees above due south.
So any star or constellation within 30 degrees of the south celestial pole is circumpolar and visible all night.
Meanwhile, to the north, a part of the north sky – the part above the celestial equator (indicated by the gray line on the charts on this page) – is now in view.
Sky view from the South Pole: 90 degrees S latitude
The sky dome view from the South Pole. The gray line – the celestial equator (an imaginary line above Earth’s equator) – lies flat around your horizon. The blue line is the ecliptic or sun’s path. Image via Guy Ottewell. Used with permission.
If you’re standing at the South Pole, you’ll see the entire southern half of the celestial sphere visible every single night, except in the season of the midnight sun. That’s because the celestial pole is at your zenith, or overhead point. The stars don’t rise or set, but instead move around your sky, parallel to each other and parallel to the horizon.
In the language of astronomy, from Earth’s South Pole, all visible stars are circumpolar stars. Circumpolar stars never rise or set, but instead circle endlessly around the pole. Any star above the horizon will be visible all night (or all day and night if it’s winter, when the sun never rises).
A star trail photo taken from the South Pole will show all the stars tracing circles around the center point overhead.
Bottom line: See charts showing how the sky dome changes by latitude and the stars that are then visible in the sky.
EarthSky’s Cristina Ortiz explains fascinating new research into elephant whiskers.
Elephant whiskers show nature’s design for touch
Scientists have made a discovery that might change how we understand animal touch. The research team, led by the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, said on February 12, 2026, that the secret behind the elephant’s extraordinary tactile abilities lies in the material structure of its trunk whiskers.
They found that these specialized hairs allow elephants to sense precise points of contact. This happens despite an elephant’s thick skin and relatively poor eyesight.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Science on February 12, 2026, shows that each whisker has a stiff base that gradually transitions into a soft, rubber-like tip. This change in stiffness along its length lets elephants feel precise contact with objects. As a result, elephants can manipulate delicate objects with astonishing precision. For example, they can grasp something as fragile as a tortilla chip without breaking it, or pick up a peanut with remarkable control.
How material intelligence enhances elephant whiskers
At first, the researchers expected elephant whiskers to resemble those of rodents, which stay uniformly stiff from base to tip. However, detailed imaging and mechanical testing revealed a different structure.
The team used advanced microscopy and nanoindentation (a test where a small probe presses on the whisker to measure stiffness). This allowed the team to examine the whiskers down to the nanometer scale (a billionth of a meter). They discovered the base behaves like rigid plastic, while the tip acts like resilient rubber that bends without breaking or losing its shape.
This gradual shift in stiffness creates what engineers call embodied intelligence. Instead of relying solely on brain signals, the whisker’s material properties themselves encode information about where contact occurs. In other words, the whisker’s structure helps the animal determine how close its trunk is to an object and how it should respond. Co-lead author Andrew K. Schulz expressed his excitement about the finding. He said:
It’s pretty amazing! The stiffness gradient provides a map to allow elephants to detect where contact occurs along each whisker.
Note the elephant whiskers on the top edge of the trunk. The whiskers are smart sensors that allow elephants to feel their surroundings and grab objects with precision. Image via MPI-IS / A. Posada and Heidelberg Zoo (used with permission).
The architecture of the whiskers
In addition, micro-CT scans (a type of 3D X-ray imaging) showed that elephant whiskers have a flattened, blade-like shape with a hollow base and internal channels. This porous architecture reduces weight and makes the whiskers more durable. Because these hairs never grow back and elephants eat large amounts of food every day, durability is essential. The structure prevents breakage while still allowing sensitive touch.
Microscopic view of an elephant whisker in cross-section. Image via MPI-IS/ D. Philip & H. David (used with permission).
A 3D-printed breakthrough moment
Although the team had discovered the stiffness gradient, they initially struggled to understand how it affected the sense of touch. To explore this in a tangible way, Schulz and his colleagues created a scaled-up 3D-printed whisker. The model had a dark, stiff base and a transparent, soft tip, mimicking the natural whisker.
The turning point came unexpectedly. Co-lead author Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, from the Haptic Intelligence Department at MPI-IS, carried the model through the institute’s hallways. She tapped it against railings and columns, immediately noticing that each section felt different. She explained:
I noticed that tapping the railing with different parts of the whisker wand felt distinct – soft and gentle at the tip, and sharp and strong at the base. I didn’t need to look to know where the contact was happening; I could just feel it.
This simple experiment clarified the concept. The stiffness gradient produces different signals depending on where contact occurs. Computational simulations confirmed this effect. They show the transition from stiff to soft helps elephants detect exactly where something touches the whisker, allowing careful and precise manipulation of objects.
Cats share the elephant whisker secret
Interestingly, elephants are not the only animals with this design. Cats also have whiskers with the same type of stiffness gradient. This similarity suggests that evolution favors this structure in animals that rely heavily on touch for exploring their environment.
Notably, not all elephant hairs follow this pattern. When the researchers compared the Asian elephant’s trunk whiskers to its body hair, they found that body hairs remain stiff from base to tip. This contrast highlights how specially adapted the trunk whiskers are for fine touch rather than general protection. Schulz reflected on the finding:
The hairs on the head, body and tail of Asian elephants are stiff from base to tip, which is what we were expecting when we found the surprising stiffness gradient of elephant trunk whiskers.
Elephants have stiff body hairs, but trunk whiskers bend and flex, turning touch into a finely tuned sense. Image via MPI-IS (used with permission).
From whiskers to robotics
This discovery could inspire a new generation of robots and sensors. By embedding “smart” features directly into materials, engineers could build devices that sense their environment more accurately, without needing complex computer systems. Schulz highlighted this potential:
Bio-inspired sensors that have an artificial elephant-like stiffness gradient could give precise information with little computational cost purely by intelligent material design.
Dr. Lena V. Kaufmann, a co-author of the study and a neuroscience expert at the Humboldt University of Berlin, explained the bigger picture:
Our findings contribute to our understanding of the tactile perception of these fascinating animals and open up exciting opportunities to further study the relation of whisker material properties and neuronal computation.
The collaboration also included materials scientists from the University of Stuttgart, showing how teamwork across disciplines drives innovation. Reflecting on the project, Kuchenbecker praised the collective effort:
Andrew pulled together an amazing team of engineers, materials scientists, and neuroscientists from five different research groups and led us on an exhilarating three-year-long journey to discover the secrets behind the powerful elephant’s gentle sense of touch.
This study was the collaboration of engineers, neuroscientists and materials scientists. They uncovered the sensing of elephant whisker, paving the way for a new generation of robots and materials that can sense and respond like living systems. Image via MPI-IS (used with permission).
Bottom line: Elephant whiskers reveal how giants with thick skin and poor eyesight can sense touch with astonishing delicacy, precision and subtle awareness.
EarthSky’s Cristina Ortiz explains fascinating new research into elephant whiskers.
Elephant whiskers show nature’s design for touch
Scientists have made a discovery that might change how we understand animal touch. The research team, led by the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, said on February 12, 2026, that the secret behind the elephant’s extraordinary tactile abilities lies in the material structure of its trunk whiskers.
They found that these specialized hairs allow elephants to sense precise points of contact. This happens despite an elephant’s thick skin and relatively poor eyesight.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Science on February 12, 2026, shows that each whisker has a stiff base that gradually transitions into a soft, rubber-like tip. This change in stiffness along its length lets elephants feel precise contact with objects. As a result, elephants can manipulate delicate objects with astonishing precision. For example, they can grasp something as fragile as a tortilla chip without breaking it, or pick up a peanut with remarkable control.
How material intelligence enhances elephant whiskers
At first, the researchers expected elephant whiskers to resemble those of rodents, which stay uniformly stiff from base to tip. However, detailed imaging and mechanical testing revealed a different structure.
The team used advanced microscopy and nanoindentation (a test where a small probe presses on the whisker to measure stiffness). This allowed the team to examine the whiskers down to the nanometer scale (a billionth of a meter). They discovered the base behaves like rigid plastic, while the tip acts like resilient rubber that bends without breaking or losing its shape.
This gradual shift in stiffness creates what engineers call embodied intelligence. Instead of relying solely on brain signals, the whisker’s material properties themselves encode information about where contact occurs. In other words, the whisker’s structure helps the animal determine how close its trunk is to an object and how it should respond. Co-lead author Andrew K. Schulz expressed his excitement about the finding. He said:
It’s pretty amazing! The stiffness gradient provides a map to allow elephants to detect where contact occurs along each whisker.
Note the elephant whiskers on the top edge of the trunk. The whiskers are smart sensors that allow elephants to feel their surroundings and grab objects with precision. Image via MPI-IS / A. Posada and Heidelberg Zoo (used with permission).
The architecture of the whiskers
In addition, micro-CT scans (a type of 3D X-ray imaging) showed that elephant whiskers have a flattened, blade-like shape with a hollow base and internal channels. This porous architecture reduces weight and makes the whiskers more durable. Because these hairs never grow back and elephants eat large amounts of food every day, durability is essential. The structure prevents breakage while still allowing sensitive touch.
Microscopic view of an elephant whisker in cross-section. Image via MPI-IS/ D. Philip & H. David (used with permission).
A 3D-printed breakthrough moment
Although the team had discovered the stiffness gradient, they initially struggled to understand how it affected the sense of touch. To explore this in a tangible way, Schulz and his colleagues created a scaled-up 3D-printed whisker. The model had a dark, stiff base and a transparent, soft tip, mimicking the natural whisker.
The turning point came unexpectedly. Co-lead author Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, from the Haptic Intelligence Department at MPI-IS, carried the model through the institute’s hallways. She tapped it against railings and columns, immediately noticing that each section felt different. She explained:
I noticed that tapping the railing with different parts of the whisker wand felt distinct – soft and gentle at the tip, and sharp and strong at the base. I didn’t need to look to know where the contact was happening; I could just feel it.
This simple experiment clarified the concept. The stiffness gradient produces different signals depending on where contact occurs. Computational simulations confirmed this effect. They show the transition from stiff to soft helps elephants detect exactly where something touches the whisker, allowing careful and precise manipulation of objects.
Cats share the elephant whisker secret
Interestingly, elephants are not the only animals with this design. Cats also have whiskers with the same type of stiffness gradient. This similarity suggests that evolution favors this structure in animals that rely heavily on touch for exploring their environment.
Notably, not all elephant hairs follow this pattern. When the researchers compared the Asian elephant’s trunk whiskers to its body hair, they found that body hairs remain stiff from base to tip. This contrast highlights how specially adapted the trunk whiskers are for fine touch rather than general protection. Schulz reflected on the finding:
The hairs on the head, body and tail of Asian elephants are stiff from base to tip, which is what we were expecting when we found the surprising stiffness gradient of elephant trunk whiskers.
Elephants have stiff body hairs, but trunk whiskers bend and flex, turning touch into a finely tuned sense. Image via MPI-IS (used with permission).
From whiskers to robotics
This discovery could inspire a new generation of robots and sensors. By embedding “smart” features directly into materials, engineers could build devices that sense their environment more accurately, without needing complex computer systems. Schulz highlighted this potential:
Bio-inspired sensors that have an artificial elephant-like stiffness gradient could give precise information with little computational cost purely by intelligent material design.
Dr. Lena V. Kaufmann, a co-author of the study and a neuroscience expert at the Humboldt University of Berlin, explained the bigger picture:
Our findings contribute to our understanding of the tactile perception of these fascinating animals and open up exciting opportunities to further study the relation of whisker material properties and neuronal computation.
The collaboration also included materials scientists from the University of Stuttgart, showing how teamwork across disciplines drives innovation. Reflecting on the project, Kuchenbecker praised the collective effort:
Andrew pulled together an amazing team of engineers, materials scientists, and neuroscientists from five different research groups and led us on an exhilarating three-year-long journey to discover the secrets behind the powerful elephant’s gentle sense of touch.
This study was the collaboration of engineers, neuroscientists and materials scientists. They uncovered the sensing of elephant whisker, paving the way for a new generation of robots and materials that can sense and respond like living systems. Image via MPI-IS (used with permission).
Bottom line: Elephant whiskers reveal how giants with thick skin and poor eyesight can sense touch with astonishing delicacy, precision and subtle awareness.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Rui Santos in Amor, Leiria, Portugal, shared this composite image of star trails on February 16, 2025, and wrote: “We can’t feel it, but everything is in motion. Everything moves, even when it seems still. And nature is never the same twice; it is constantly changing, in a vivid and silent way.” Thank you, Rui! Read more about circumpolar stars below.
The closer you are to either of Earth’s poles, the more circumpolar stars you see. Circumpolar stars neither rise nor set but stay above the horizon at all hours of the day, every day of the year. Even when you can’t see them – when the sun is out and it’s daytime – these stars are up there. They are circling endlessly around the sky’s north or south celestial pole.
The Big Dipper and the W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia circle around Polaris, the North Star, in a period of 23 hours and 56 minutes. The Dipper is circumpolar at 41 degrees north latitude, and all latitudes farther north. Image via Mjchael/ Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 2.5).
No circumpolar stars at Earth’s equator
How many circumpolar stars appear in your sky depends on where you are. For example, at Earth’s North and South Poles, every visible star is circumpolar. That is, at Earth’s North Pole, every star north of the celestial equator is circumpolar, while every star south of the celestial equator stays below the horizon. On the other hand, at the Earth’s South Pole, it’s the exact opposite. That’s where every star south of the celestial equator is circumpolar, whereas every star north of the celestial equator remains beneath the horizon.
Meanwhile at the Earth’s equator, no star is circumpolar because all the stars rise and set daily in that part of the world. You can (theoretically) see every star in the night sky over the course of one year. Of course, things like clouds and horizon haze get in the way.
Circumpolar stars and where you live
Places between the equator and poles have some stars that are circumpolar, some stars that rise and set daily (like the sun), and some stars that remain below the horizon all year round. In short, the closer you are to the North or South Pole, the greater the circle of circumpolar stars; the closer you are to the Earth’s equator, the smaller the circle of circumpolar stars.
Here is how to determine what is circumpolar from your location. Subtract your latitude from 90 and you get the declination of the objects that barely skim above your northern (or southern) horizon. For instance, from a latitude of 40 degrees north, everything north of a declination of +50° is circumpolar. From the Southern Hemisphere, at a latitude of 20° south, then everything south of -70° declination is circumpolar, above your southern horizon.
We in the Northern Hemisphere are lucky to have a moderately bright star, Polaris, nearly coinciding with the north celestial pole: the point in the sky that’s at zenith (straight overhead) at the Earth’s North Pole.
Polaris at the center of the circle
Draw an imaginary line straight down from Polaris, the North Star, to the horizon, and presto, you have what it takes to draw out the circle of circumpolar stars in your sky.
For people in the Northern Hemisphere, Polaris nearly pinpoints the center of the great big circle of circumpolar stars on the sky’s dome. And the imaginary vertical line from Polaris to the horizon depicts the radius measure. (See the chart below, which has this line drawn in for you.)
So let your arm serve as a circle compass, enabling you to envision the circle of circumpolar stars with your mind’s eye. Closer to the equator, the circle of circumpolar stars grows smaller; nearer to the North Pole (or South Pole) the circle of circumpolar stars grows larger.
In the Northern Hemisphere, an imaginary vertical line from the north celestial pole to your horizon serves as a radius measure for the circle of circumpolar stars in your sky. The closer you are to the Earth’s North Pole, the closer the north celestial pole is to your zenith (overhead point). Chart via EarthSky.
Circumpolar stars in Southern Hemisphere
This technique for locating the circle of circumpolar stars works in the Southern Hemisphere, as well. However, it’s trickier to star-hop to the south celestial pole: the point on the sky’s dome that’s at zenith over the Earth’s South Pole. Thus, practiced stargazers in the Southern Hemisphere rely on the Southern Cross, and key stars, to star-hop to the south celestial pole.
By the way, Cassiopeia lies on the opposite side of Polaris from the Big Dipper. So, from mid-northern latitudes, the Big Dipper and Polaris help you to locate Cassiopeia.
If Cassiopeia is circumpolar in your sky, then the Southern Cross never climbs above your horizon. Conversely, if the Southern Cross is circumpolar in your sky, then the constellation Cassiopeia never climbs above the horizon.
As seen from the tropics (and a part of the subtropics), neither the Southern Cross nor Cassiopeia is circumpolar. From this part of the world, the Southern Cross rises over the southern horizon when Cassiopeia sinks below the northern horizon. Conversely, Cassiopeia rises over the northern horizon when the Southern Cross sinks below the southern horizon.
Circumpolar star trail gallery
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Eddie Little of North Carolina captured the stars circling around Polaris, the North Star, on January 2, 2025, and wrote: “I had a mostly cloudless, nearly moonless night on one of the longest nights of the year. Approximately 12 hours of shooting. 1667 individual 30 second exposures were merged with star trails.” Thank you, Eddie! Polaris, our North Star, is in the center of the star trails.View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Amrinderjit Singh captured these star trails from Pangong Lake, nestled 14,300 feet (4,350 meters) above sea level in the Himalayas. Amrinderjit wrote: “Behold the mesmerizing dance of stars. As the night falls, it transforms into a celestial canvas, painted with streaks of yellow, blue, and pink, courtesy of the star trails swirling above. Each streak represents the movement of Earth beneath the starlit sky, a silent yet profound reminder of our place in the cosmos. Capturing this moment was a blend of patience and wonder as I marveled at nature’s masterpiece unfolding before my eyes.” Thanks, Amrinderjit!
Steve Torrence made this video of circumpolar stars from near the equator on June 21, 2016. Video via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).
Bottom line: Circumpolar stars stay above the horizon all hours of the day, every day of the year. Although you can’t see them, they’re up even in the daytime.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Rui Santos in Amor, Leiria, Portugal, shared this composite image of star trails on February 16, 2025, and wrote: “We can’t feel it, but everything is in motion. Everything moves, even when it seems still. And nature is never the same twice; it is constantly changing, in a vivid and silent way.” Thank you, Rui! Read more about circumpolar stars below.
The closer you are to either of Earth’s poles, the more circumpolar stars you see. Circumpolar stars neither rise nor set but stay above the horizon at all hours of the day, every day of the year. Even when you can’t see them – when the sun is out and it’s daytime – these stars are up there. They are circling endlessly around the sky’s north or south celestial pole.
The Big Dipper and the W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia circle around Polaris, the North Star, in a period of 23 hours and 56 minutes. The Dipper is circumpolar at 41 degrees north latitude, and all latitudes farther north. Image via Mjchael/ Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 2.5).
No circumpolar stars at Earth’s equator
How many circumpolar stars appear in your sky depends on where you are. For example, at Earth’s North and South Poles, every visible star is circumpolar. That is, at Earth’s North Pole, every star north of the celestial equator is circumpolar, while every star south of the celestial equator stays below the horizon. On the other hand, at the Earth’s South Pole, it’s the exact opposite. That’s where every star south of the celestial equator is circumpolar, whereas every star north of the celestial equator remains beneath the horizon.
Meanwhile at the Earth’s equator, no star is circumpolar because all the stars rise and set daily in that part of the world. You can (theoretically) see every star in the night sky over the course of one year. Of course, things like clouds and horizon haze get in the way.
Circumpolar stars and where you live
Places between the equator and poles have some stars that are circumpolar, some stars that rise and set daily (like the sun), and some stars that remain below the horizon all year round. In short, the closer you are to the North or South Pole, the greater the circle of circumpolar stars; the closer you are to the Earth’s equator, the smaller the circle of circumpolar stars.
Here is how to determine what is circumpolar from your location. Subtract your latitude from 90 and you get the declination of the objects that barely skim above your northern (or southern) horizon. For instance, from a latitude of 40 degrees north, everything north of a declination of +50° is circumpolar. From the Southern Hemisphere, at a latitude of 20° south, then everything south of -70° declination is circumpolar, above your southern horizon.
We in the Northern Hemisphere are lucky to have a moderately bright star, Polaris, nearly coinciding with the north celestial pole: the point in the sky that’s at zenith (straight overhead) at the Earth’s North Pole.
Polaris at the center of the circle
Draw an imaginary line straight down from Polaris, the North Star, to the horizon, and presto, you have what it takes to draw out the circle of circumpolar stars in your sky.
For people in the Northern Hemisphere, Polaris nearly pinpoints the center of the great big circle of circumpolar stars on the sky’s dome. And the imaginary vertical line from Polaris to the horizon depicts the radius measure. (See the chart below, which has this line drawn in for you.)
So let your arm serve as a circle compass, enabling you to envision the circle of circumpolar stars with your mind’s eye. Closer to the equator, the circle of circumpolar stars grows smaller; nearer to the North Pole (or South Pole) the circle of circumpolar stars grows larger.
In the Northern Hemisphere, an imaginary vertical line from the north celestial pole to your horizon serves as a radius measure for the circle of circumpolar stars in your sky. The closer you are to the Earth’s North Pole, the closer the north celestial pole is to your zenith (overhead point). Chart via EarthSky.
Circumpolar stars in Southern Hemisphere
This technique for locating the circle of circumpolar stars works in the Southern Hemisphere, as well. However, it’s trickier to star-hop to the south celestial pole: the point on the sky’s dome that’s at zenith over the Earth’s South Pole. Thus, practiced stargazers in the Southern Hemisphere rely on the Southern Cross, and key stars, to star-hop to the south celestial pole.
By the way, Cassiopeia lies on the opposite side of Polaris from the Big Dipper. So, from mid-northern latitudes, the Big Dipper and Polaris help you to locate Cassiopeia.
If Cassiopeia is circumpolar in your sky, then the Southern Cross never climbs above your horizon. Conversely, if the Southern Cross is circumpolar in your sky, then the constellation Cassiopeia never climbs above the horizon.
As seen from the tropics (and a part of the subtropics), neither the Southern Cross nor Cassiopeia is circumpolar. From this part of the world, the Southern Cross rises over the southern horizon when Cassiopeia sinks below the northern horizon. Conversely, Cassiopeia rises over the northern horizon when the Southern Cross sinks below the southern horizon.
Circumpolar star trail gallery
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Eddie Little of North Carolina captured the stars circling around Polaris, the North Star, on January 2, 2025, and wrote: “I had a mostly cloudless, nearly moonless night on one of the longest nights of the year. Approximately 12 hours of shooting. 1667 individual 30 second exposures were merged with star trails.” Thank you, Eddie! Polaris, our North Star, is in the center of the star trails.View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Amrinderjit Singh captured these star trails from Pangong Lake, nestled 14,300 feet (4,350 meters) above sea level in the Himalayas. Amrinderjit wrote: “Behold the mesmerizing dance of stars. As the night falls, it transforms into a celestial canvas, painted with streaks of yellow, blue, and pink, courtesy of the star trails swirling above. Each streak represents the movement of Earth beneath the starlit sky, a silent yet profound reminder of our place in the cosmos. Capturing this moment was a blend of patience and wonder as I marveled at nature’s masterpiece unfolding before my eyes.” Thanks, Amrinderjit!
Steve Torrence made this video of circumpolar stars from near the equator on June 21, 2016. Video via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).
Bottom line: Circumpolar stars stay above the horizon all hours of the day, every day of the year. Although you can’t see them, they’re up even in the daytime.
Artemis 2 stands poised on the launchpad ahead of its possible March 6, 2026, launch. Soon, Artemis will become the first mission in more than half a century to carry people around the moon, before returning to Earth. Image via NASA/ Ben Smegelsky.
Artemis 2 astronauts quarantine ahead of March 6 launch
On February 20, 2026, NASA said the four Artemis 2 astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen – had entered quarantine in Houston in preparation for their upcoming moon launch. They’ll soon become the first humans to fly around the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. The launch opportunity will come on March 6. These two weeks of quarantine are meant to limit the exposure they have to germs, so they can be in good health during their expedition. The crew will fly to Kennedy Space Center five days before the launch.
Soon, possibly on March 6, Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen will embark on their 10-day journey. They’ll fly past the moon on a “free-return trajectory,” venturing further into space than any humans have traveled since the Apollo era.
On February 19, NASA completed a wet dress rehearsal for this momentous event. During this rehearsal, technicians oversaw the systems, paying particular attention to the liquid hydrogen fueling operations. NASA said that during the wet rehearsal:
Engineers loaded more than 700,000 gallons of liquid propellant into the rocket, sent a closeout crew to the launch pad to demonstrate closing the Orion spacecraft’s hatches, and completed two runs of terminal count — the final phase of the launch countdown. … Hydrogen gas concentrations remained under allowable limits, giving engineers confidence in new seals installed in an interface used to route fuel to the rocket.
The wet rehearsal was not without its bumps. NASA indicated a “brief” loss of communications in the Launch Control Center early in the fueling operation. But engineers were able to isolate the issue to a specific piece of ground equipment in the Launch Control Center.
So the Artemis launch is still a “go,” with the first available date on March 6. And launchpad preparations are continuing.
Launch dates
For the possible March 2026 launch dates, see the calendar below:
NASA said the Artemis 2 launch would occur no earlier than these dates in March. Image via NASA.
NASA said on Tuesday, February 2, 2026, that the Artemis 2 mission – carrying four astronauts – will now make its historic journey around Earth’s moon no earlier than March, 2026. Previously, the launch had been slated for early February. The delay comes after issues arose during a critical test on Tuesday, February 2, of the huge rocket designed to boost the astronauts moonward. EarthSky’s Greg Diesel-Walck, who has been on the scene at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said the issue was “hydrogen leaks” during the testing phase. NBC News reported:
Mission managers were conducting an elaborate launch day walkthrough, known as a ‘wet dress rehearsal,’ at Kennedy Space Center in Florida when engineers detected leaking hydrogen at the base of the Space Launch System rocket. NASA was forced to end the test a little after midnight ET, with around 5 minutes and 15 seconds remaining in the simulated launch countdown.
Prior to the February 2 tests, the mission appeared to be delayed due to the cold weather at Kennedy Space Center, which many commented was “eerily similar” to the cold weather on the morning of the 1986 Space Shuttle explosion.
Reid Wiseman – one of the brave astronauts set to fly around the moon – shared this view of the Artemis 2 rocket on January 17, 2026, as it was rolling out to historic Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket still sits there, poised for blastoff. But its mission to send 4 astronauts around the moon and back has been delayed. Image via Reid Wiseman/ NASA.
January 17: Artemis 2 rocket rolls out to the launchpad
The Artemis 2 spacecraft is poised to go to the moon! NASA rolled out the Artemis 2 rocket on Saturday, January 17, 2026. So the final steps are underway for the first crewed moon mission in more than 50 years. Artemis 2 won’t land on the moon. But it will carry astronauts on a 10-day mission around the moon and back.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, the journey to historic Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida took some 12 hours. And, now that the rocket and spacecraft have reached the launchpad, testing will begin. NASA said that by the end of January, we can expect a wet dress rehearsal, when teams load the rocket fuel and perform a countdown without the astronauts present.
And then the mission will launch, with astronauts aboard. For this mission to the moon, Earth and the moon have to be in specific alignments at launch time. The earliest launch window is on February 6, 2026. So the possible dates of launch through April 2026 are as follows:
February 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11
March 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11
April 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
View larger. | We’re going back to the moon! And soon. This is the Artemis 2 planned figure-8 path through space, plus its mission goals. Image via NASA.
What is the Artemis 2 moon mission?
No nation has sent humans anywhere near the moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972. All crewed missions since then have remained in low Earth orbit, meaning humans haven’t traveled to the moon’s distance in more than 50 years. But that’s about to change.
The Artemis 2 mission – a crewed flight around the moon – could launch as early as February 2026. Boeing is the prime contractor for the mighty Space Launch System (SLS) that will propel the astronauts into Earth orbit. The astronauts will ride in Orion, NASA’s deep-space crew capsule, built by Lockheed. After reaching orbit, Orion will separate from the rocket’s upper stage, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS). And the Orion module will then fire its engine for the all-important Trans-Lunar Injection Burn, which will place the astronauts onto their figure-8 path around the moon and back.
Orion will follow a free-return trajectory, which is the same safety approach used during Apollo. Even without further engine firings, the spacecraft would loop around the moon and naturally return home.
But on its way to the moon and back, the Orion crew capsule will be able to make small burns. These will allow for more precision in the angle at which the craft encounters the moon, and returns to Earth for splashdown.
After a successful Artemis 2 mission, the following mission, Artemis 3, will be the first mission to return humans to the moon’s surface since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and ’70s. Artemis 3, originally slated for September 2026, has now been delayed until at least mid-2027.
Back in July 2024, the Artemis 2 moon rocket core (orange, lying horizontally), could be seen in front of NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Scientists and engineers had been at work inside the VAB through the late summer and fall, preparing for Artemis 2’s September 2025 launch (now delayed until as early as February 2026). Image via Greg Diesel Walck for EarthSky.
When will Artemis reach the moon?
The goal of Artemis is to return astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. The program is in some sense a stepping-stone mission. Ultimate goals include a lunar base and human missions to Mars.
Artemis 1 successfully completed its mission in 2022 with an uncrewed test flight that orbited the moon. Artemis 2 will send a crewed mission around the moon. And Artemis 3 will return humans to the lunar surface.
And Artemis 4, another mission to take humans to the moon, was supposed to follow no earlier than September 2028. Of the four missions, Artemis 4 is the most ambitious. Its goals include:
Multiple launches and spacecraft dockings in lunar orbit.
Delivering an International Habitation (I-Hab) module to the Gateway space station in lunar orbit.
Landing two astronauts on the moon, where they will spend a week collecting samples and conducting science experiments, rover operations, and moon walks.
Here’s NASA’s uncrewed Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft capturing a selfie as it flew near the moon in November 2022. Image via NASA.
The astronauts who will circle the moon with Artemis
The four Artemis 2 astronauts have already been chosen and were announced on April 3, 2023. They are Christina Hammock Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Canadian Jeremy Hansen. Learn more about them below.
Victor Glover is part of our 2013 class of @NASA_Astronauts and was the pilot for NASA’s @SpaceX Crew-1 mission. He’s logged 3,000 flight hours in more than 40 different aircraft, and will pilot @NASA_Orion around the Moon. pic.twitter.com/P0zJ8pwaeL
Reid Wiseman lived & worked aboard the @Space_Station as a flight engineer in 2014. He also commanded the undersea research mission NEEMO21, and most recently served as Chief of the @NASA_Astronauts. pic.twitter.com/AincR66wpf
Jeremy Hansen was a fighter pilot before joining CSA, and currently works with NASA on astronaut training and mission operations. This will be Hansen’s first mission in space. pic.twitter.com/zIVetAQeFE
Ultimately, the Artemis program aims to send the first humans back to the moon this decade. When they go, they’ll be aiming for the moon’s south pole, a place that scientists – as discovered in recent decades – has large amounts of water ice. Water contains oxygen, so processing it will make it possible for future astronauts to stay longer.
Someday, visionaries still hope, we will have a permanent presence on the moon, and we will go to Mars.
Indeed, such dreams are an integral part of humanity’s natural wanderlust in the 21st century. And so future historians might look back at our time – and at the Artemis missions – as the moment humanity took a true giant leap to space, maybe this time for good.
Are we going to BOTH the moon AND Mars? EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd spoke with Eric Berger – the senior space editor at Ars Technica – on March 24, 2025, about the Artemis mission, and about what we know so far about the plan to go to Mars. Watch the video in the player above or on YouTube.
Bottom line: On February 20, 2026, NASA said the 4 astronauts who will fly aboard Artemis 2 have entered quarantine ahead of the March 6 launch opportunity.
Artemis 2 stands poised on the launchpad ahead of its possible March 6, 2026, launch. Soon, Artemis will become the first mission in more than half a century to carry people around the moon, before returning to Earth. Image via NASA/ Ben Smegelsky.
Artemis 2 astronauts quarantine ahead of March 6 launch
On February 20, 2026, NASA said the four Artemis 2 astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen – had entered quarantine in Houston in preparation for their upcoming moon launch. They’ll soon become the first humans to fly around the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. The launch opportunity will come on March 6. These two weeks of quarantine are meant to limit the exposure they have to germs, so they can be in good health during their expedition. The crew will fly to Kennedy Space Center five days before the launch.
Soon, possibly on March 6, Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen will embark on their 10-day journey. They’ll fly past the moon on a “free-return trajectory,” venturing further into space than any humans have traveled since the Apollo era.
On February 19, NASA completed a wet dress rehearsal for this momentous event. During this rehearsal, technicians oversaw the systems, paying particular attention to the liquid hydrogen fueling operations. NASA said that during the wet rehearsal:
Engineers loaded more than 700,000 gallons of liquid propellant into the rocket, sent a closeout crew to the launch pad to demonstrate closing the Orion spacecraft’s hatches, and completed two runs of terminal count — the final phase of the launch countdown. … Hydrogen gas concentrations remained under allowable limits, giving engineers confidence in new seals installed in an interface used to route fuel to the rocket.
The wet rehearsal was not without its bumps. NASA indicated a “brief” loss of communications in the Launch Control Center early in the fueling operation. But engineers were able to isolate the issue to a specific piece of ground equipment in the Launch Control Center.
So the Artemis launch is still a “go,” with the first available date on March 6. And launchpad preparations are continuing.
Launch dates
For the possible March 2026 launch dates, see the calendar below:
NASA said the Artemis 2 launch would occur no earlier than these dates in March. Image via NASA.
NASA said on Tuesday, February 2, 2026, that the Artemis 2 mission – carrying four astronauts – will now make its historic journey around Earth’s moon no earlier than March, 2026. Previously, the launch had been slated for early February. The delay comes after issues arose during a critical test on Tuesday, February 2, of the huge rocket designed to boost the astronauts moonward. EarthSky’s Greg Diesel-Walck, who has been on the scene at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said the issue was “hydrogen leaks” during the testing phase. NBC News reported:
Mission managers were conducting an elaborate launch day walkthrough, known as a ‘wet dress rehearsal,’ at Kennedy Space Center in Florida when engineers detected leaking hydrogen at the base of the Space Launch System rocket. NASA was forced to end the test a little after midnight ET, with around 5 minutes and 15 seconds remaining in the simulated launch countdown.
Prior to the February 2 tests, the mission appeared to be delayed due to the cold weather at Kennedy Space Center, which many commented was “eerily similar” to the cold weather on the morning of the 1986 Space Shuttle explosion.
Reid Wiseman – one of the brave astronauts set to fly around the moon – shared this view of the Artemis 2 rocket on January 17, 2026, as it was rolling out to historic Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket still sits there, poised for blastoff. But its mission to send 4 astronauts around the moon and back has been delayed. Image via Reid Wiseman/ NASA.
January 17: Artemis 2 rocket rolls out to the launchpad
The Artemis 2 spacecraft is poised to go to the moon! NASA rolled out the Artemis 2 rocket on Saturday, January 17, 2026. So the final steps are underway for the first crewed moon mission in more than 50 years. Artemis 2 won’t land on the moon. But it will carry astronauts on a 10-day mission around the moon and back.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, the journey to historic Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida took some 12 hours. And, now that the rocket and spacecraft have reached the launchpad, testing will begin. NASA said that by the end of January, we can expect a wet dress rehearsal, when teams load the rocket fuel and perform a countdown without the astronauts present.
And then the mission will launch, with astronauts aboard. For this mission to the moon, Earth and the moon have to be in specific alignments at launch time. The earliest launch window is on February 6, 2026. So the possible dates of launch through April 2026 are as follows:
February 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11
March 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11
April 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
View larger. | We’re going back to the moon! And soon. This is the Artemis 2 planned figure-8 path through space, plus its mission goals. Image via NASA.
What is the Artemis 2 moon mission?
No nation has sent humans anywhere near the moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972. All crewed missions since then have remained in low Earth orbit, meaning humans haven’t traveled to the moon’s distance in more than 50 years. But that’s about to change.
The Artemis 2 mission – a crewed flight around the moon – could launch as early as February 2026. Boeing is the prime contractor for the mighty Space Launch System (SLS) that will propel the astronauts into Earth orbit. The astronauts will ride in Orion, NASA’s deep-space crew capsule, built by Lockheed. After reaching orbit, Orion will separate from the rocket’s upper stage, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS). And the Orion module will then fire its engine for the all-important Trans-Lunar Injection Burn, which will place the astronauts onto their figure-8 path around the moon and back.
Orion will follow a free-return trajectory, which is the same safety approach used during Apollo. Even without further engine firings, the spacecraft would loop around the moon and naturally return home.
But on its way to the moon and back, the Orion crew capsule will be able to make small burns. These will allow for more precision in the angle at which the craft encounters the moon, and returns to Earth for splashdown.
After a successful Artemis 2 mission, the following mission, Artemis 3, will be the first mission to return humans to the moon’s surface since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and ’70s. Artemis 3, originally slated for September 2026, has now been delayed until at least mid-2027.
Back in July 2024, the Artemis 2 moon rocket core (orange, lying horizontally), could be seen in front of NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Scientists and engineers had been at work inside the VAB through the late summer and fall, preparing for Artemis 2’s September 2025 launch (now delayed until as early as February 2026). Image via Greg Diesel Walck for EarthSky.
When will Artemis reach the moon?
The goal of Artemis is to return astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. The program is in some sense a stepping-stone mission. Ultimate goals include a lunar base and human missions to Mars.
Artemis 1 successfully completed its mission in 2022 with an uncrewed test flight that orbited the moon. Artemis 2 will send a crewed mission around the moon. And Artemis 3 will return humans to the lunar surface.
And Artemis 4, another mission to take humans to the moon, was supposed to follow no earlier than September 2028. Of the four missions, Artemis 4 is the most ambitious. Its goals include:
Multiple launches and spacecraft dockings in lunar orbit.
Delivering an International Habitation (I-Hab) module to the Gateway space station in lunar orbit.
Landing two astronauts on the moon, where they will spend a week collecting samples and conducting science experiments, rover operations, and moon walks.
Here’s NASA’s uncrewed Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft capturing a selfie as it flew near the moon in November 2022. Image via NASA.
The astronauts who will circle the moon with Artemis
The four Artemis 2 astronauts have already been chosen and were announced on April 3, 2023. They are Christina Hammock Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Canadian Jeremy Hansen. Learn more about them below.
Victor Glover is part of our 2013 class of @NASA_Astronauts and was the pilot for NASA’s @SpaceX Crew-1 mission. He’s logged 3,000 flight hours in more than 40 different aircraft, and will pilot @NASA_Orion around the Moon. pic.twitter.com/P0zJ8pwaeL
Reid Wiseman lived & worked aboard the @Space_Station as a flight engineer in 2014. He also commanded the undersea research mission NEEMO21, and most recently served as Chief of the @NASA_Astronauts. pic.twitter.com/AincR66wpf
Jeremy Hansen was a fighter pilot before joining CSA, and currently works with NASA on astronaut training and mission operations. This will be Hansen’s first mission in space. pic.twitter.com/zIVetAQeFE
Ultimately, the Artemis program aims to send the first humans back to the moon this decade. When they go, they’ll be aiming for the moon’s south pole, a place that scientists – as discovered in recent decades – has large amounts of water ice. Water contains oxygen, so processing it will make it possible for future astronauts to stay longer.
Someday, visionaries still hope, we will have a permanent presence on the moon, and we will go to Mars.
Indeed, such dreams are an integral part of humanity’s natural wanderlust in the 21st century. And so future historians might look back at our time – and at the Artemis missions – as the moment humanity took a true giant leap to space, maybe this time for good.
Are we going to BOTH the moon AND Mars? EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd spoke with Eric Berger – the senior space editor at Ars Technica – on March 24, 2025, about the Artemis mission, and about what we know so far about the plan to go to Mars. Watch the video in the player above or on YouTube.
Bottom line: On February 20, 2026, NASA said the 4 astronauts who will fly aboard Artemis 2 have entered quarantine ahead of the March 6 launch opportunity.
Artist’s concept of our planet during a period of widespread snow and ice, known as a Snowball Earth period. A new study says Snowball Earth wasn’t fully frozen. Instead, ice-free oases might have existed, providing safe havens for early complex life. Image via Oleg Kuznetsov/ Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Ice-free oases on Snowball Earth sheltered early life
To an astronaut today, the Earth looks like a vibrant blue marble from space. But 700 million years ago, it would have looked like a blinding white snowball. This seems an unlikely cradle for life. Yet new evidence suggests the frozen ocean featured ice-free oases, providing a lifeline for our earliest complex ancestors.
During the Cryogenian period, from 720 million to 635 million years ago, massive ice sheets covered Earth from the poles to the tropics. Surface temperatures were as low as -50° C (-58° F).
Because the bright white surface of the planet reflected (rather than absorbed) the sun’s energy – a phenomenon known as the albedo effect – the Earth remained locked in this extreme climate state, dubbed “Snowball Earth,” for tens of millions of years.
Scientists have long thought that when the ocean is sealed under a kilometer-thick (.6 mile) shell of ice, the usual connection between the atmosphere and oceans would be prevented, muting climate variability. That is, normal short-term variations in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns would be limited.
However, our new research, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, challenges this status quo. By forensically decoding ancient rocks, we’ve discovered that the climate became briefly more dynamic than normally expected on Snowball Earth. In fact, it even oscillated to a rhythm strikingly like our own today.
Decoding climate cycles on Snowball Earth
The breakthrough came from the Garvellach Islands off the west coast of Scotland. These rocks formed during the Sturtian glaciation (720–660 million years ago), the first of two Snowball Earth events. The second was the Marinoan (650–635 million years ago). The Scottish islands contain a unique, exquisitely preserved archive of Snowball Earth, locking in the secrets of this weird ancient world.
Specifically, laminated sedimentary rocks, or varves, act as natural data loggers. Picture a lake today: sediment settles quietly through the water column and on to the lake bed. Over time, these layers of sediment build up at the bottom of the lake. Thousands or millions of years later, geologists can use the physical, chemical and biological information trapped in the now ancient lake sediments to track how environmental conditions – including climatic ones – changed over time.
While modern sediments like this are easy to find, detailed climate archives from deep time are vanishingly rare. That has left us in the dark about how our planet’s climate behaved during Snowball Earth … until now.
The remote Garvellach Islands off the west coast of Scotland, where the researchers found their clues to Snowball Earth’s true nature. Image via Nick R/ Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 2.0).
The new study
We investigated a unique pile of rocks six meters (20 feet) thick, containing around 2,600 such varves, on the Garvellach Islands. What they revealed was, quite frankly, jaw-dropping. Microscopic and statistical analysis showed that these layers weren’t uniform, as you might expect locked in a Snowball state.
Instead, they conform to predictable cycles occurring over timescales of a few years to centuries. Perhaps yet more surprising is that almost the full suite of climate rhythms we know from today are preserved; from annual seasons to modern phenomena like El Niño (a climate pattern of warming sea surface temperatures in parts of the Pacific Ocean), and longer-term cycles linked to solar activity lasting decades to centuries.
We certainly wouldn’t have expected El Niño cycles, which happen every two to seven years today. This requires a seamless communication between the atmosphere and oceans, which is hard to envision on an ice-covered world.
Another artist’s concept of Snowball Earth. Image via NASA/ University of Washington.
A (partially) ice-free ocean?
The cycles in these ancient sediments do raise an intriguing possibility: could parts of the ocean have been ice-free during Snowball Earth?
To get to the bottom of this, we used computer climate simulations to test different climate scenarios. Put simply, that means seeing how changing the amount of ice on the oceans changes the patterns of surface temperature across the globe. We found that when the ocean was frozen completely solid, climate oscillations were largely suppressed.
Our simulations also showed that vast areas of open water weren’t needed to restart these oscillations; if just a small fraction of the ocean surface was ice free – say, 15% or so – atmosphere ocean interactions could have resumed.
Comparing the simulated climate records to the patterns we decoded in the rock record, we think these sediments most likely document a patch of open water in the tropics, sometimes called an oasis. Many scientists use such oases to reconcile the survival of life with the near-global glaciation.
Interestingly, several other lines of evidence suggest a partially ice-free ocean at roughly the same time. So, could our rocks provide evidence for temporary warming during Snowball Earth?
While they confirm temporary patches of warmth in the surface ocean, these rocks represent a snapshot of around 3,000 years in a multi-million-year glaciation; that is, likely a fleeting “Slushball” state within an otherwise frozen world. Another recent study even argues that liquid water could have persisted at 5° F (-15° C), but only if it were extremely salty.
Oases for life?
Crucially though, our new analysis shows that the climate system has an inherent tendency to oscillate, even under the most extreme conditions. Could these oases in the sea have been life-rafts for the earliest complex animals?
Perhaps the biggest paradox of Snowball Earth is that this hostile deep-freeze triggered a biological revolution. Around this time, the diversity and abundance of multicellular life exploded. Phosphorus-rich dust ground up by the very glaciers that threatened to extinguish it fuelled this event. Scientists think this happened during the warm interval between the two Snowball glaciations.
But for life to thrive after the ice, it first had to survive the second (Marinoan) glaciation. Our study offers a viable solution to this puzzle: if tropical oceans weren’t entirely frozen over, but held pockets of open water, these oases would have acted as habitable refuges.
Rather than a planet frozen solid, our work paints a picture of an “oscillating” world where thin cracks in the ice or more expansive patches of open water formed habitats that allowed – even encouraged – the colonization of life.
By maintaining biodiversity during Earth’s most extreme ice age, these oases ensured that when the ice finally melted away, life was ready to bloom into the complex ecosystems we see today, eventually leading to us.
Artist’s concept of our planet during a period of widespread snow and ice, known as a Snowball Earth period. A new study says Snowball Earth wasn’t fully frozen. Instead, ice-free oases might have existed, providing safe havens for early complex life. Image via Oleg Kuznetsov/ Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Ice-free oases on Snowball Earth sheltered early life
To an astronaut today, the Earth looks like a vibrant blue marble from space. But 700 million years ago, it would have looked like a blinding white snowball. This seems an unlikely cradle for life. Yet new evidence suggests the frozen ocean featured ice-free oases, providing a lifeline for our earliest complex ancestors.
During the Cryogenian period, from 720 million to 635 million years ago, massive ice sheets covered Earth from the poles to the tropics. Surface temperatures were as low as -50° C (-58° F).
Because the bright white surface of the planet reflected (rather than absorbed) the sun’s energy – a phenomenon known as the albedo effect – the Earth remained locked in this extreme climate state, dubbed “Snowball Earth,” for tens of millions of years.
Scientists have long thought that when the ocean is sealed under a kilometer-thick (.6 mile) shell of ice, the usual connection between the atmosphere and oceans would be prevented, muting climate variability. That is, normal short-term variations in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns would be limited.
However, our new research, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, challenges this status quo. By forensically decoding ancient rocks, we’ve discovered that the climate became briefly more dynamic than normally expected on Snowball Earth. In fact, it even oscillated to a rhythm strikingly like our own today.
Decoding climate cycles on Snowball Earth
The breakthrough came from the Garvellach Islands off the west coast of Scotland. These rocks formed during the Sturtian glaciation (720–660 million years ago), the first of two Snowball Earth events. The second was the Marinoan (650–635 million years ago). The Scottish islands contain a unique, exquisitely preserved archive of Snowball Earth, locking in the secrets of this weird ancient world.
Specifically, laminated sedimentary rocks, or varves, act as natural data loggers. Picture a lake today: sediment settles quietly through the water column and on to the lake bed. Over time, these layers of sediment build up at the bottom of the lake. Thousands or millions of years later, geologists can use the physical, chemical and biological information trapped in the now ancient lake sediments to track how environmental conditions – including climatic ones – changed over time.
While modern sediments like this are easy to find, detailed climate archives from deep time are vanishingly rare. That has left us in the dark about how our planet’s climate behaved during Snowball Earth … until now.
The remote Garvellach Islands off the west coast of Scotland, where the researchers found their clues to Snowball Earth’s true nature. Image via Nick R/ Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 2.0).
The new study
We investigated a unique pile of rocks six meters (20 feet) thick, containing around 2,600 such varves, on the Garvellach Islands. What they revealed was, quite frankly, jaw-dropping. Microscopic and statistical analysis showed that these layers weren’t uniform, as you might expect locked in a Snowball state.
Instead, they conform to predictable cycles occurring over timescales of a few years to centuries. Perhaps yet more surprising is that almost the full suite of climate rhythms we know from today are preserved; from annual seasons to modern phenomena like El Niño (a climate pattern of warming sea surface temperatures in parts of the Pacific Ocean), and longer-term cycles linked to solar activity lasting decades to centuries.
We certainly wouldn’t have expected El Niño cycles, which happen every two to seven years today. This requires a seamless communication between the atmosphere and oceans, which is hard to envision on an ice-covered world.
Another artist’s concept of Snowball Earth. Image via NASA/ University of Washington.
A (partially) ice-free ocean?
The cycles in these ancient sediments do raise an intriguing possibility: could parts of the ocean have been ice-free during Snowball Earth?
To get to the bottom of this, we used computer climate simulations to test different climate scenarios. Put simply, that means seeing how changing the amount of ice on the oceans changes the patterns of surface temperature across the globe. We found that when the ocean was frozen completely solid, climate oscillations were largely suppressed.
Our simulations also showed that vast areas of open water weren’t needed to restart these oscillations; if just a small fraction of the ocean surface was ice free – say, 15% or so – atmosphere ocean interactions could have resumed.
Comparing the simulated climate records to the patterns we decoded in the rock record, we think these sediments most likely document a patch of open water in the tropics, sometimes called an oasis. Many scientists use such oases to reconcile the survival of life with the near-global glaciation.
Interestingly, several other lines of evidence suggest a partially ice-free ocean at roughly the same time. So, could our rocks provide evidence for temporary warming during Snowball Earth?
While they confirm temporary patches of warmth in the surface ocean, these rocks represent a snapshot of around 3,000 years in a multi-million-year glaciation; that is, likely a fleeting “Slushball” state within an otherwise frozen world. Another recent study even argues that liquid water could have persisted at 5° F (-15° C), but only if it were extremely salty.
Oases for life?
Crucially though, our new analysis shows that the climate system has an inherent tendency to oscillate, even under the most extreme conditions. Could these oases in the sea have been life-rafts for the earliest complex animals?
Perhaps the biggest paradox of Snowball Earth is that this hostile deep-freeze triggered a biological revolution. Around this time, the diversity and abundance of multicellular life exploded. Phosphorus-rich dust ground up by the very glaciers that threatened to extinguish it fuelled this event. Scientists think this happened during the warm interval between the two Snowball glaciations.
But for life to thrive after the ice, it first had to survive the second (Marinoan) glaciation. Our study offers a viable solution to this puzzle: if tropical oceans weren’t entirely frozen over, but held pockets of open water, these oases would have acted as habitable refuges.
Rather than a planet frozen solid, our work paints a picture of an “oscillating” world where thin cracks in the ice or more expansive patches of open water formed habitats that allowed – even encouraged – the colonization of life.
By maintaining biodiversity during Earth’s most extreme ice age, these oases ensured that when the ice finally melted away, life was ready to bloom into the complex ecosystems we see today, eventually leading to us.
Here’s an astronomer’s view of a star obscured by streaks from Starlink satellites. Are there too many satellites in orbit around Earth? Image via Rafael Schmall/ NOIRLab.
The number of satellites is growing rapidly with tens of thousands active and potentially over a million proposed. This raises risks of orbital crowding, collisions, light pollution, environmental harm and long-term damage to the night sky.
Major cultural, environmental and cumulative impacts go largely unaddressed by current regulations. This is despite the rising risks, like debris cascades and atmospheric pollution from launches and reentries.
Catastrophe isn’t inevitable. Governments and industry could require broader dark skies impact assessments, better global coordination and design changes to limit satellite numbers and reduce harm.
On January 30, 2026, SpaceX filed an application with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a megaconstellation of up to one million satellites to power data centers in space.
The proposal envisions satellites operating between 300 and 1,200 miles (500 and 2,000 km) in low Earth orbit. Some of the orbits are designed for near-constant exposure to sunlight. The public can currently submit comments on this proposal to the FCC.
SpaceX’s filing is just the latest among exponentially growing satellite megaconstellation proposals. Such satellites operate with a single purpose and have short replacement life cycles of about five years.
As of February 2026, approximately 14,000 active satellites are in orbit. An additional 1.23 million proposed satellite projects are in various stages of development. The approval process for these satellites focuses almost entirely on the limited technical info companies have to submit to regulators.
Cultural, spiritual and most environmental impacts aren’t taken into account. Should they be? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
At this scale of growth, the night sky will change globally and for generations to come.
Satellites in low-Earth orbit reflect sunlight for about two hours after sunset and before sunrise. Despite engineering efforts to make them less bright, truck-sized satellites from many megaconstellations look like moving points in the night sky. Projections show future satellites will significantly increase this light pollution.
In 2021, astronomers estimated that in less than a decade, one in every 15 points of light in the night sky would be a moving satellite. That estimate only included the 65,000 megaconstellation satellites proposed at the time.
Once deployed at a scale of millions, the impacts on the night sky may not be easily reversed.
While the average satellite only lasts about five years, companies design these megaconstellations for nearly continuous replacement and expansion. This locks in a continuous, industrialized presence in the night sky.
This graph breaks down the satellite launches per year by country. Image via ESA/ The Conversation.
All this is causing a space-based shifting baseline syndrome, where each new generation accepts a progressively more degraded night sky. Criss-crossing satellites become the new normal.
And for the first time in human history, this shifting baseline means kids today won’t grow up with the same night sky every previous generation of humanity had access to.
Concerns over the sheer volume of proposed satellites come from many sides.
Scientific concerns include bright reflections and radio emissions from satellites that will disrupt astronomy. Industry experts also note traffic management and logistical concerns. There’s currently no form of unified space traffic management in the same way that exists in aviation, for example.
Megaconstellations also increase the risk of Kessler syndrome, a runaway chain reaction of collisions. There are already 50,000 pieces of debris in orbit that are 4 inches (10 cm) or larger. If satellites stopped all collision avoidance maneuvers, the latest data shows we can expect a major collision in 3.8 days.
Major cultural concerns abound, too. Satellite light pollution will negatively impact Indigenous uses of the night sky for long-standing oral traditions, navigation, hunting and spiritual traditions.
Launching so many satellites uses up vast amounts of fossil fuels, damaging the ozone layer. After the satellites have served their purpose, the end-of-life plan is to burn them up in the atmosphere. This poses another environmental concern as it deposits vast quantities of metals into the stratosphere, causing ozone depletion and other potentially harmful chemical reactions.
All this feeds into legal concerns. Under international space law, countries – not companies – are liable for harm caused by their space objects. Space lawyers are increasingly trying to understand if international space law can actually hold corporations or private individuals accountable. This is especially important as the risk of damage, death or permanent environmental damage grows.
We can no longer ignore the gaps in regulation
Currently, the main regulations concerning satellite proposals are technical, such as deciding which radio frequencies they will use. At national levels, regulators focus on launch safety, lessening environmental impacts on Earth, and liability if something goes wrong.
What these regulations don’t capture is how hundreds of thousands of bright satellites change the night sky for scientific study, navigation, Indigenous teaching and ceremony, and cultural continuity. These are not traditional “environmental” harms, nor are they technical engineering concerns. They’re cultural impacts that fall into a regulatory blind spot.
This is why the world needs a Dark Skies Impact Assessment, as proposed by space lawyers Gregory Radisic and Natalie Gillespie. It’s a systematic way to identify, document, and meaningfully consider all the impacts of a proposed satellite constellation before it goes ahead.
How would a Dark Sky Impact Assessment work?
First, evidence must be gathered from all stakeholders. Astronomers (both amateur and professional), atmospheric scientists, environmental researchers, cultural scholars, affected communities and industry all bring their perspectives.
Second, it’s essential to model any cumulative effects of the satellites. Assessments should analyze how constellations will change night sky visibility and skyglow, orbital congestion and the risk of casualties on the ground.
Third, it will define clear criteria for when unobstructed sky visibility is critical for science, navigation, education, cultural practice and shared human heritage.
Fourth, it must include mitigation pathways such as brightness reduction, orbital design changes and deployment adjustments to lessen harm. This should include incentives for using as few satellites as possible for a given project.
Finally, the findings must be transparent, independently reviewable and directly tied to licensing and policy decisions.
Spaceflight expert Jonathan McDowell discusses the hazards and consequences of overcrowding Earth’s near space with too many satellites and not enough regulation.
Dark Sky Impact Assessment is not a veto tool
A Dark Skies Impact Assessment doesn’t prevent space development. It clarifies trade-offs and improves decision making. It can lead to design choices that reduce brightness and visual interference, orbital configurations that lessen cultural impact, earlier and more meaningful consultation, and cultural considerations where harm can’t be avoided.
Most importantly, it ensures that communities affected by satellite constellations aren’t finding out about them after approval has already been granted and bright lights crawl across their skies.
The question is not whether the night sky will change. It’s already changing. Now is the time for governments and international institutions to design fair processes before those changes become permanent.
Gregory Radisic, fellow at the Centre for Space, Cyberspace and Data Law; Senior Teaching Fellow, Faculty of Law, Bond University
Here’s an astronomer’s view of a star obscured by streaks from Starlink satellites. Are there too many satellites in orbit around Earth? Image via Rafael Schmall/ NOIRLab.
The number of satellites is growing rapidly with tens of thousands active and potentially over a million proposed. This raises risks of orbital crowding, collisions, light pollution, environmental harm and long-term damage to the night sky.
Major cultural, environmental and cumulative impacts go largely unaddressed by current regulations. This is despite the rising risks, like debris cascades and atmospheric pollution from launches and reentries.
Catastrophe isn’t inevitable. Governments and industry could require broader dark skies impact assessments, better global coordination and design changes to limit satellite numbers and reduce harm.
On January 30, 2026, SpaceX filed an application with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a megaconstellation of up to one million satellites to power data centers in space.
The proposal envisions satellites operating between 300 and 1,200 miles (500 and 2,000 km) in low Earth orbit. Some of the orbits are designed for near-constant exposure to sunlight. The public can currently submit comments on this proposal to the FCC.
SpaceX’s filing is just the latest among exponentially growing satellite megaconstellation proposals. Such satellites operate with a single purpose and have short replacement life cycles of about five years.
As of February 2026, approximately 14,000 active satellites are in orbit. An additional 1.23 million proposed satellite projects are in various stages of development. The approval process for these satellites focuses almost entirely on the limited technical info companies have to submit to regulators.
Cultural, spiritual and most environmental impacts aren’t taken into account. Should they be? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
At this scale of growth, the night sky will change globally and for generations to come.
Satellites in low-Earth orbit reflect sunlight for about two hours after sunset and before sunrise. Despite engineering efforts to make them less bright, truck-sized satellites from many megaconstellations look like moving points in the night sky. Projections show future satellites will significantly increase this light pollution.
In 2021, astronomers estimated that in less than a decade, one in every 15 points of light in the night sky would be a moving satellite. That estimate only included the 65,000 megaconstellation satellites proposed at the time.
Once deployed at a scale of millions, the impacts on the night sky may not be easily reversed.
While the average satellite only lasts about five years, companies design these megaconstellations for nearly continuous replacement and expansion. This locks in a continuous, industrialized presence in the night sky.
This graph breaks down the satellite launches per year by country. Image via ESA/ The Conversation.
All this is causing a space-based shifting baseline syndrome, where each new generation accepts a progressively more degraded night sky. Criss-crossing satellites become the new normal.
And for the first time in human history, this shifting baseline means kids today won’t grow up with the same night sky every previous generation of humanity had access to.
Concerns over the sheer volume of proposed satellites come from many sides.
Scientific concerns include bright reflections and radio emissions from satellites that will disrupt astronomy. Industry experts also note traffic management and logistical concerns. There’s currently no form of unified space traffic management in the same way that exists in aviation, for example.
Megaconstellations also increase the risk of Kessler syndrome, a runaway chain reaction of collisions. There are already 50,000 pieces of debris in orbit that are 4 inches (10 cm) or larger. If satellites stopped all collision avoidance maneuvers, the latest data shows we can expect a major collision in 3.8 days.
Major cultural concerns abound, too. Satellite light pollution will negatively impact Indigenous uses of the night sky for long-standing oral traditions, navigation, hunting and spiritual traditions.
Launching so many satellites uses up vast amounts of fossil fuels, damaging the ozone layer. After the satellites have served their purpose, the end-of-life plan is to burn them up in the atmosphere. This poses another environmental concern as it deposits vast quantities of metals into the stratosphere, causing ozone depletion and other potentially harmful chemical reactions.
All this feeds into legal concerns. Under international space law, countries – not companies – are liable for harm caused by their space objects. Space lawyers are increasingly trying to understand if international space law can actually hold corporations or private individuals accountable. This is especially important as the risk of damage, death or permanent environmental damage grows.
We can no longer ignore the gaps in regulation
Currently, the main regulations concerning satellite proposals are technical, such as deciding which radio frequencies they will use. At national levels, regulators focus on launch safety, lessening environmental impacts on Earth, and liability if something goes wrong.
What these regulations don’t capture is how hundreds of thousands of bright satellites change the night sky for scientific study, navigation, Indigenous teaching and ceremony, and cultural continuity. These are not traditional “environmental” harms, nor are they technical engineering concerns. They’re cultural impacts that fall into a regulatory blind spot.
This is why the world needs a Dark Skies Impact Assessment, as proposed by space lawyers Gregory Radisic and Natalie Gillespie. It’s a systematic way to identify, document, and meaningfully consider all the impacts of a proposed satellite constellation before it goes ahead.
How would a Dark Sky Impact Assessment work?
First, evidence must be gathered from all stakeholders. Astronomers (both amateur and professional), atmospheric scientists, environmental researchers, cultural scholars, affected communities and industry all bring their perspectives.
Second, it’s essential to model any cumulative effects of the satellites. Assessments should analyze how constellations will change night sky visibility and skyglow, orbital congestion and the risk of casualties on the ground.
Third, it will define clear criteria for when unobstructed sky visibility is critical for science, navigation, education, cultural practice and shared human heritage.
Fourth, it must include mitigation pathways such as brightness reduction, orbital design changes and deployment adjustments to lessen harm. This should include incentives for using as few satellites as possible for a given project.
Finally, the findings must be transparent, independently reviewable and directly tied to licensing and policy decisions.
Spaceflight expert Jonathan McDowell discusses the hazards and consequences of overcrowding Earth’s near space with too many satellites and not enough regulation.
Dark Sky Impact Assessment is not a veto tool
A Dark Skies Impact Assessment doesn’t prevent space development. It clarifies trade-offs and improves decision making. It can lead to design choices that reduce brightness and visual interference, orbital configurations that lessen cultural impact, earlier and more meaningful consultation, and cultural considerations where harm can’t be avoided.
Most importantly, it ensures that communities affected by satellite constellations aren’t finding out about them after approval has already been granted and bright lights crawl across their skies.
The question is not whether the night sky will change. It’s already changing. Now is the time for governments and international institutions to design fair processes before those changes become permanent.
Gregory Radisic, fellow at the Centre for Space, Cyberspace and Data Law; Senior Teaching Fellow, Faculty of Law, Bond University
