Solar Storms, Grounded Missions, and the Planet That Survived Its Star

Astronomy Daily S05E131 — Friday, July 3, 2026 1. Swift Rescue Mission — Grounded Mid-Flight • Katalyst Space Technologies' LINK spacecraft was set to launch aboard a Pegasus XL rocket, air-launched from Northrop Grumman's Stargazer aircraft over Kwajalein Atoll. • Thursday's attempt (July 2) got airborne after two prior weather scrubs, but was aborted mid-flight when engineers spotted an unexplained warning. • No new launch date has been set. Swift faces uncontrolled reentry by October 2026 without a successful reboost. 2. Solar Storm Watch — G2 Geomagnetic Storm Active Today • X1.1 flare (June 30) plus 10 M-class flares in 24 hours from sunspot region AR4479. • NOAA SWPC G2 (moderate) geomagnetic storm watch in effect for July 3, easing July 4. • Aurora borealis potential as far south as Idaho/New York (US); aurora australis potential for Tasmania and southern NZ/VIC under clear, dark skies. 3. TESS's First Microlensing Exoplanet — Gaia23bra b • Super-Jupiter (~1.63 Jupiter masses) orbiting an orange dwarf ~40,000 light-years away, discovered via gravitational microlensing — a first for TESS. • Originally flagged by ESA's Gaia mission in 2023; confirmed using archival TESS data. • Published July 1, 2026 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, led by Mallory Harris (University of New Mexico). 4. GJ 3378b — Revised Habitable-Zone Super-Earth, 25 Light-Years Away • UC Irvine team revised the planet's mass down to 2.3 Earth masses (rocky super-Earth, not mini-Neptune) and orbital period to 21.45 days. • Receives ~90% of the stellar radiation Earth receives from the Sun — squarely in the habitable zone. • Atmosphere unknown; planet does not transit, so JWST transit spectroscopy isn't possible. Published in The Astrophysical Journal, led by Paul Robertson (UC Irvine). 5. ESO Study: 1.7 Million Planned Satellites 'Devastating' for Astronomy • Study led by ESO astronomer Olivier Hainaut, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. • Modelled impact of proposed constellations (SpaceX ~1M for space data centres, Reflect Orbital 50,000 mirror satellites) on ESO's VLT and the Vera Rubin Observatory. • Recommends a hard cap of 100,000 satellites, all fainter than naked-eye visibility. Decision pending from the US FCC. 6. JWST Solves the WD 1856b Mystery • Gas giant (4–11 Jupiter masses) orbits a white dwarf every 34 hours, blocking 56% of its star's light during transit. • New JWST atmospheric data shows the planet is ~240K hotter than expected — evidence it migrated inward 3–5.5 billion years after the star's death, rather than surviving the red giant phase in place. • Published July 1, 2026 in Nature, led by Ryan MacDonald with Northwestern's Christopher O'Connor.

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