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“I have no problems flying,” says one expert about the FAA’s plan to reduce flights by 10 percent at 40 airports nationwide. “I would get on an airplane tomorrow”

Video: 00:03:39

The Copernicus Sentinel-1D satellite has joined the Sentinel-1 mission in orbit. Launch took place on 4 November 2025 at 22:02 CET (18:02 local time) on board an Ariane 6 launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

The Sentinel-1 mission delivers high-resolution radar images of Earth’s surface, performing in all weathers, day-and-night. This service is used by disaster response teams, environmental agencies, maritime authorities and climate scientists, who depend on frequent updates of critical data.

Sentinel-1D will work in tandem with Sentinel-1C, flying in the same orbit but 180° apart, to optimise global coverage and data delivery. Both satellites have a C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument on board, which captures high-resolution imagery of Earth’s surface. They are also equipped with Automatic Identification System (AIS) instruments to improve detection and tracking of ships. When Sentinel-1D is fully operational, it will enable more frequent AIS observations, including data on vessel identity, location and direction of passage, enabling precise tracking.

Sentinel-1D was launched on Europe’s heavy-lift rocket Ariane 6 on flight designated VA265. 

Read full story: Copernicus Sentinel-1D reaches orbit on Ariane 6

Access the related broadcast quality video material: Sentinel-1D launch on Ariane 6 - VA265 / Sentinel-1 mission animations

A dwarf galaxy 100 million light years away is being stripped of its crucial star-forming gas, and it seems that the cosmic web is siphoning off this gas as the galaxy passes through

A dwarf galaxy 100 million light years away is being stripped of its crucial star-forming gas, and it seems that the cosmic web is siphoning off this gas as the galaxy passes through

This finding is the first documented case of colonial behavior between two solitary species of spider

The surface of comet 3I/ATLAS may have been so radically altered by cosmic rays that deducing its home star system would be impossible

The surface of comet 3I/ATLAS may have been so radically altered by cosmic rays that deducing its home star system would be impossible

Week in images: 03-07 November 2025

Discover our week through the lens

Observations show the disk of our galaxy is not flat but warped and waving. Astronomers are still working out the reasons why

Migraine and cluster headaches affect millions—yet research remains surprisingly thin.

As the United Nations COP30 climate change conference convenes in Belém, Brazil, the world's attention will turn to the heart of the Amazon rainforest – a region that symbolises both hope and concern in the fight against climate change.

Once considered one of Earth's most vital carbon sinks, the Amazon is now showing troubling signs – satellite observations reveal that parts of this vast ecosystem are no longer absorbing carbon dioxide as they once did. In some areas, the forest has even become a net source of carbon emissions.

Conditions on Venus’ surface have largely remained a mystery for decades. Carl Sagan famously pointed out that people were quick to jump to conclusions, such as that there are dinosaurs living there, from scant little evidence collected from the planet. But just because we have little actual data doesn’t mean we can’t draw conclusions, and better yet models, from the data we do have. A new paper from Maxence Lefèvre of the Sorbonne and his colleagues takes what little data has been collected from Venus’ surface and uses it to valid a model of what the wind and dust conditions down there would be like - all for the sake of making the work of the next round of Venusian explorer easier.

The interstellar comet: Can you see it in your scope? Maybe you can, starting late this week as Comet 3I/ATLAS emerges from behind the Sun. If you have a large […]

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, November 7 – 16 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Image: Ahead of the 30th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP30) taking place in Belém, Brazil, from 10-21 November, this IRIDE image shows the Branco River and its surrounding forests in the Brazilian state of Roraima.

Long before humans reached orbit, insects had already shown they could handle the hurdles of spaceflight. Light, highly adaptable and nutritionally rich, these resilient animals present an attractive option for European researchers studying reliable food sources for long-duration missions.

New study reveals, for the first time, a tidal disruption event (TDE), where a black hole tears apart a star, occurring outside the center of a galaxy that produced exceptionally strong and rapidly evolving radio signals. This rare discovery shows that supermassive black holes can exist and remain active far from galactic cores, challenging current understanding of where such black holes reside and how they behave. The event’s delayed and powerful radio outbursts also suggest previously unknown processes in how black holes eject material over time.

Immunologist Zachary Rubin explains how, according to a recent study, living through a pandemic might accelerate brain aging.

There are no mini-Neptunes in our Solar System, yet they seem to be one of the most common types of exoplanets out there. Previous research shows that these planets are magma oceans. But new research based on JWST data shows that many of them may actually have solid surfaces.