J. Brian Balta

Martian meteorite: Niger's anger that a piece of Mars ended up for auction The West African country investigates how a space rock found there was put up for sale in New York.

Another case of apparent meteorite smuggling:

www.bbc.com/news/article...

“Nobody came”: Hill Country flooding survivors recount anguish, neglect during emotional hearing Residents told state lawmakers about what they’ve lost and the hardships they’re experiencing almost a month after the July 4 disaster devastated the region.

The MAGA-led response to the Texas floods is going great - so great that locals are still finding rotting human body parts in the debris that no one in government appears to care about picking up:

Screenshot of current eruptive episode at Kilauea webcam

30th eruptive episode has started at Kilauea: www.youtube.com/live/fiyttmA... 🌋⚒️

Planetary Science MS/PhD Positions for Fall 2026 Crowd sourced list of people who are looking for MS/PhD students to help connect prospective students with advisors so we can do even more fabulous planetary science! (Submitting a response indicates ...

I am community sourcing a list of people who are actively in search of MS/PhD students in planetary science/astrobiology/exoplanets for Fall 2026. If you are such a person, please fill out the following google form:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Interestingly, the South Pole might be a really bad spot for this. Just as there are permanently shadowed areas, there are hills with almost permanent sunlight.

You also have to be concerned about debris from landings damaging facilities, so if South Pole is your refueling site, lots of landings.

Photograph of a tufa waterfall. A small cliff is covered in tufa, and water drips down it. Under the overhang of the cliff are strings of objects - soft toys, hats etc - and they are getting covered in the calcium carbonate.

The Petrifying Well at Mother Shiptons Cave, Knaresborough was recorded by the King's antiquary in 1538 and is the oldest tourist attraction in England, having opened in 1630. People leave items in the dripping waters to be 'turned into stone', taking about 3 months to petrify small objects.

Congrats Charlotte

Several days later, I am still confused at how boring a properly evacuated, planned, and prepared global tsunami turned out to be.

I know we want boring emergencies.

But humans usually fail.

This was not fail.

Kudos planet. You all did good. Humanity surprised me.

How on Earth did I miss this incredible shot of Phobos over the scarp on Olympus Mons from Mars Express earlier this month?

Sometimes Wikipedia is so pure — today I stumbled upon the page that is titled “List of individual rocks” and it is exactly as advertised.

#NASACuts

#Landsat, one of NASA's proudest achievements in Earth Sciences, is being "reformulated" but in practice it means it will be killed (see @nasawatch article).

Learn about its history and how much it has contributed to taxpayer, society and business.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landsat...

Small grey colored rocks

Close up of grey rock showing indentations. Possibly brachiopods

Black Rock with white colored pattern. Might be a trilobite....

Grey rock with bits of crinoids

Fossils from Lake Michigan near Petoskey. Lots of cool bits including corals, crinoids, and what I think are brachiopods and maybe a trilobite?

Footprints on the waterline of a Lake Michigan beach - mostly tan colored sand with some black streaks of magnetite.

As a little kid I thought the black streaks in the sand of Lake Michigan beaches was “oil” (proving that I grew up in a post Exxon Valdez world). Turns out it harmless magnetite, which makes up 2-3% of all Lk Michigan sand, most of which is quartz with a bit of felspar.

The remote California road hiding a global geological marvel You are, quite literally, driving through Earth’s mantle.

Josephine Ophiolite appreciation article in a popular free news site? Yes!
www.sfgate.com/northcoast/a...

Just wait until you all hear about the lack of funding for tsunami preparedness and mitigation in the U.S.

Until then: www.tsunami.gov

Bured in one of the NASA budget articles last week were some lines about how they had canceled projects specifically funded by Congress, it was illegal, but they anticipated it would eventually wind up before the Supreme Court. Either that precedent or a receission bill both work.

Clear examples of the degraded forecasts we face in this piece from @michaelrlowry.bsky.social

Here's Iona from yesterday, with a clear shot of its internal structure in the current state on top, and a useless green blob in the suggested replacement on bottom.

Working on a project and made this image of the Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption.

Never seen it from this perspective and it sort of blew my mind.

Allegheny observatory for me, was able to see 2 moon shadows on Jupiter.

Technically I think I've actually done this?

Yes, it is a wartime show so it will have some darker times. It has the best writing and characters of any series Trek has done. The first two seasons take some time to find their groove, and there’s the occasional stinker, but overall it’s the best TV show I’ve ever watched.

A lot of stuff on DS9 is in Picard and it would be spoilery of DS9 if you watched Picard S3 first.

On the bright side, DS9 is the best thing Star Trek ever produced so if you get to watch that for the first time, it’s its own reward.

I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to do this without specifying the movie. Under pain of broken thermocouples?

Well it mostly sounds like congratulations are in order!

Thanks!

Wait I’ve seen the hypothesis but not why it’s wrong, can you elaborate?

Implementing Trump's proposed NASA cuts illegal before Congress passes budget, Democrats say Top Democrats on a House committee overseeing NASA's budget assailed senior agency officials on Thursday for starting to implement sweeping program cuts in President Donald Trump's proposed 2026 budget agenda before Congress agrees on an official budget, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

Trump was willing to make small deals on priorities of key GOP legislators to pass funding bill.

But not for science. Despite Ted Cruz et al rejecting Trump's NASA meataxe, WH now pushing to cancel, unplug, RIF so fast that FY26 Congressional budget wont matter

www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Curved Fault Slip Captured on CCTV During Myanmar Earthquake | Seismological Society of America 18 July 2025—Dramatic CCTV video of fault slip during a recent large earthquake in Myanmar thrilled both scientists and casual observers when it was posted to YouTube. But it was on his fifth or…

🌟OPEN ACCESS🌟🔥PRESS RELEASE🔥In a new #TSR paper, scientists found direct visual evidence for curved fault slip. ⚒️

Press Release: www.seismosoc.org/news/curved-...

Paper: pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/tsr/arti...

Video: youtu.be/dbEYe65eDdw