Space and Astronomy News for the 4th of October 2025

A new way to get space telescope like images here on Earth

Why do we put telescopes into space?

There are a few reasons that humans have launched a wide range of telescopes into space.

Major space observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the James Webb Space Telescope have changed our view of the cosmos. There's also many smaller and highly specialised instruments that have made major contributions to astronomy. 

First of all, putting a telescope into space doesn't really help it get any closer to the celestial objects it's trying to observe. What placing a telescope into space achieves it removing the distortions caused by Earth's atmosphere and allow astronomers to observe in the wavelengths of light it blocks.

By effectively blocking large parts of the spectrum of light the Sun sends our way, the Earth's atmosphere protects life and allowed critters such as humans to survive and thrive. The protection also stops light from a large part of the observable Universe from reaching our telescopes on the ground, so about the only thing we can do to get around this problem is head into space. 

The unsteady air above our heads also blocks and blurs the view we receive in visible light. There are various ways to help solve these distortions used by astronomers including adaptive optics fitted on large telescopes to the "lucky imaging" based techniques and software that have helped amateurs produce amazing planetary images using low-cost cameras from ZWO and others 

Now scientists from John Hopkins University have developed algorithms to strip away a large part of the interference caused by atmospheric disturbances to astronomical images, with the aim of images from ground based observatories to rival those from space telescopes. 

Comparison of an image from the Subaru Telescope (left), with an image produced by the new ImageMM algorithm (right). Image via John Hopkins U

"By sharpening our view of the sky, we can see farther, fainter targets and push the threshold of what's detectable," said Tamás Budavári, an astronomer and mathematician at Johns Hopkins University who led the research. "That will give us prettier pictures of the night sky, but not just for academic amusement. It will open new opportunities to improve cosmology research and revolutionize how we process and understand astronomical observations.

The new tool, ImageMM, works by modelling how light travels through the atmosphere and removing disturbances caused by the journey, rather than trying to "enhance" the image which can either produce grainy artefacts or blur its sharpness. There's no news on when ImageMM or similar tools will be widely employed by astronomers or if anything like this would be available to amateur astrophotographers. Even so, it's certainly an interesting development!

More here.

What's so super about a Supermoon?

There's going to be a stack of media reports about this week's "Supermoon", along with other similar events in the following few months. 

Are they worth getting excited over? I suppose the answer is "well, sort of."

What are Supermoons?

A Supermoon is when a Full Moon appears larger compared to other Full Moons during the year. The difference in size between Supermoon and a Micromoon (when the Moon appears at its smallest) is approx. 14%. It's not much as you can see from the two images above, however there's this 14% or so difference in size and the slight difference in distance results in about 30% more light hitting our eyes compared to when the Moon is at its smallest. 

There's also a curious phenomenon called the "Moon Illusion". You've no doubt experienced it. This is when the Moon first rises in the evening, and it appears quite large on the horizon.  For a common event that's been written about since ancient times, there's still some debate about what causes it! It might be part illusion when we compare the rising Moon to other objects near the ground which are not beside it as climbs further up in the sky, to actual atmospheric refractive effects. 

When you combine the fact that Supermoons are (slightly) larger and brighter than other Full Moons, add in the Moon Illusion and the expectations of a big event from what we've been told, seeing a Supermoon rise early in the evening can be exciting. 

Why do we experience Supermoons?

Celestial bodies don't orbit it each other in smooth, perfect circles. Rather, they rotate around an elongated, elliptical path. The distance between the Earth and the Moon varies just a smidgen due to the Moon also travelling around us on a slightly elliptical orbit. Supermoons are when the Moon is closest to Earth, which is called a perigee.

Strangely enough the term Supermoon wasn't used until 1979 even though the events themselves have long been known about.  They're not rare either. There are usually several a year, with the largest and most impressive being Wednesday 5th of October 2025, Sydney time.

Are they worth going outside and checking out? Absolutely! Any time spent observing the Moon is a wonderful experience, so why not simply enjoy the view?

Spotting interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS this weekend. From Mars!

Despite some mainstream media reports this week, Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS isn't going to get anywhere close to the Earth and the chance of it being some kind of spaceship sent here to check us out is also pretty much zilch. The closest it will get it to us is some 240 million km, however observers on Mars would have a much better view as it passes the red planet at distance of only 30 million km. 

The path of Comet 3I/ATLAS through the inner Solar System

While there's no astronomers on Mars to catch this rare visitor from the depths of the Milky Way as it flies by, there is a small fleet of spacecraft that that will turn away from their regular gig of observing Mars to see what they can find on Comet 3I/ATLAS.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will be taking images as well as two spacecraft in orbit, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas orbiters. These two don't have cameras that can resolve the nucleus of Comet 3I/ATLAS but are hoping to capture some data on the comet's tail to help determine its composition. 

ESA is planning to release initial images this coming week and we're aiming to include them in next week's BINTEL newsletter. Due to the current federal government shutdown in the USA, NASA will be unable to release their own observations for a little while.

Complex chemistry found in the oceans of Saturn's moon, Enceladus

Sometimes spacecraft can deliver new discoveries, long after they've completed their missions. The Cassini probe spend years at Saturn, investigating the ringed planet and its many moons. Despite Cassini plunging into Saturn and wrapping up its assignment in 2017, scientists trawling through the large amount of data it sent back have only now uncovered further evidence of complex chemical processes under the icy crust the covers Enceladus, one of Saturn's Moons. 

An illustration of the interior of Enceladus. Image via: ESA

In 2005, Cassini found that there was an ocean under the icy surface of Enceladus and that there were water jetting out into space from cracks in the ice. Some of this water falls back onto Enceladus as minute grains of ice, while it also produces a "tail" that follows the moon as it orbits Saturn. By flying through Saturn's E Ring, it was able to sample the water from Enceladus. What it found was many organic molecules as well as those leading to amino acids. (Special note: organic molecules or "organics" are not themselves signs of life. Rather they're complex chemicals from which life is formed and are common throughout the Milky Way.)

Newly analysed data have revealed details of icy grains freshly released from Enceladus, as well as revealing even more promising as they're precursors to life as found on Earth.

Lead author Nozair Khawaja said "There are many possible pathways from the organic molecules we found in the Cassini data to potentially biologically relevant compounds, which enhances the likelihood that the moon is habitable."

“There is much more in the data that we are currently exploring, so we are looking forward to finding out more in the near future.”

Co-author Frank Postberg added: “These molecules we found in the freshly ejected material prove that the complex organic molecules Cassini detected in Saturn’s E ring are not just a product of long exposure to space but are readily available in Enceladus’s ocean.”

Results like these add to the impetus for another mission to Saturn that includes landing on Enceladus as it's clearly yet another place in the Solar System for a serious hunt for signs of life. 

You can read more about this fascinating discovery here.

NASA's Artemis II Mission might fly as early as February 2026

It will the first time since 1972 that humans have travelled beyond Earth's orbit.

Artemis II crew: Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist; Victor Glover, pilot; Reid Wiseman, commander; and Christina Hammock Koch, mission specialist. Image: NASA/Kim Shiflett

NASA has confirmed that their Artemis II mission will fly no later than April 2026, with aim for possibly a February 2026 lift-off. This will be a landmark space flight as it will be the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972 that humans have travelled beyond Earth to the Moon. 

Artemis II is a 4 person, 10 day mission that aims at testing out hardware in preparation for a permanent return to the Moon in coming years. The flight itself will not land on the Moon and won't even go into orbit for any length of time as did the Apollo 8 and Apollo 10 missions that also didn't land. Rather it will make a single loop around the farside of the Moon and commence the return to Earth. 

We'll have more on the Artemis program in future blogs. You can visit their NASA site here.

Next test flight for the SpaceX Starship mega rocket 

Launch planned for the 14th of October 2025 Sydney time

Starship 11 Static Test Fire

SpaceX have announced the next flight of the massive Starship will take place in mid October. You can watch the launch from 9.43am here. After several spectacular failures, the last Starship launch was overall a major success. This upcoming mission will stress test the Starship upper stages and mimic the load put in the spacecraft during a return to its base in Texas. Both parts of Starship 11 will splashdown in the ocean with no "chopsticks" catches back at the launch pad. 

Cheers,

Earl White

BINTEL 

4th October 2025