A personal highlight for me was of course the full-scale model of the #HubbleSpaceTelescope ❤️🔭

#Hubble #Smithsonian #HST #Ganymede #Spectroscopy #STIS #Aurora #Jupiter #Museum #SpacePhysics #PlasmaPhysics #Plasma #Space #Astronomy

I seem to be in a bit of a #space mood 🪐🔭 at the moment 😅, so I remembered that I once visited the #Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC and wrote a short blog post about it. I thought I would share it again here:

🌍 https://www.fabriziomusacchio.com/blog/2021-05-03-smithsonian/

#Museum #SpacePhysics #PlanetaryScience #Astronomy #Aviation #Spaceflight #WashingtonDC #Voyager #NewHorizons #Apollo #ApolloMission #Soyuz #Moon

✨🔭 Interesting news from outer space: #Cassini data plus global #MHD #simulations show that #Saturn’s cusp is not noon-centered like #Earth’s, but shifted toward the post-noon and even post-dusk sector. Xu, Yao, & Arridge et al. identify 67 cusp events and argue that rapid rotation plus internal #plasma sources fundamentally reshape Saturn’s global magnetic topology:

📝 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69666-9

#SpacePhysics #PlanetaryScience #Magnetosphere

🛰️ New paper by Knowles et al.: Using the #JWST, the authors observed rapid variability in the auroral footprints of #Jupiter’s #moons in Jupiter’s #atmosphere.

IR observations show that the footprints of moons like #Io can change on short timescales, highlighting the dynamic interaction between Jupiter’s #magnetosphere and its satellites. The moon–magnetosphere coupling driving Jupiter’s #aurora is more variable than previously assumed.

📄https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL118553

#SpacePhysics #PlanetaryScience

🛰️ New paper by Němec et al.: After analyzing ~10 years of #MAVEN wave data, the authors report a #lightning-like electromagnetic #whistler signal in the #Martian #ionosphere. Its frequency dispersion matches theoretical propagation through #Mars’ ionosphere and crustal magnetic fields, suggesting that electrical discharges may occur in the Martian #atmosphere.

🌍 https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeb4898

#PlanetaryScience #SpacePhysics

✨🔭 New observations of #Ganymede 🌖reveal a surprising similarity between the #auroras 🌌 on the #SolarSystem's largest #moon and those on #Earth 🌍. A team of space physicists has obtained new results suggesting that the fundamental physical processes that generate auroras are common to different celestial bodies.

🌍 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/400351529_Juno's_high-spatial-resolution_ultraviolet_observations_of_Ganymede's_auroral_patches_Constraints_on_the_magnetospheric_source_region

#auroq #SpacePhysics #Jupiter #PlasmaPhysics #Juno #JunoSpacecraft #magnetosphere

Thanks @Umbertogaetani for sharing 🙏 https://mastodon.uno/@Umbertogaetani/116113873863038999

Using joint observations from the #Tianwen-1 in the #solarwind and #MAVEN in the induced #magnetosphere, Lin et al. identified a magnetic barrier between #Mars’ #ionosphere and shocked solar wind under the radial #IMF for the first time.

📄 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xinn.2026.101312

#SpacePhysics #PlasmaPhysics #SolarSystem

#MachineLearning anlysis of 20 years of in situ measurements in the #Earth's #magnetosphere brings new insights on #MagneticReconnection processes:

📄 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025GL119118

#SpacePhysics #Plasma #PlasmaPhysics #SolarWind #Reconnection @irap https://social.numerique.gouv.fr/@irap/115966776951772619