China expands its internet constellation & Rubin spots a backward world - Space News (Nov 9, 2026)

Support The Automated Daily directly: 15 free episodes a day, 5 editions, 3 languages, about $4 a day to produce. A coffee keeps it going: theautomateddaily.com/support Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Prezi: Create AI presentations fast - https://try.prezi.com/automated_daily - Lindy is your ultimate AI assistant that proactively manages your inbox - https://try.lindy.ai/tad - SurveyMonkey, Using AI to surface insights faster and reduce manual analysis time - https://get.surveymonkey.com/tad Today's topics: China expands its internet constellation - China launched its twenty-ninth group of low-Earth-orbit internet satellites aboard a Long March 12 rocket, continuing the rapid construction of its Guowang broadband constellation. Keywords: China, Long March 12, Guowang, satellite internet. [121] Rubin spots a backward world - The Vera C. Rubin Observatory discovered R631, a distant object traveling around the Sun in the opposite direction from most planets. Its unusual retrograde orbit could reveal how objects are scattered through the outer solar system. Keywords: Rubin Observatory, R631, Neptune, retrograde orbit. [77] Webb sets stellar-magnification record - The James Webb Space Telescope recorded 104 magnified stellar events in the distant Dragon galaxy, more than doubling the previous count. The observations offer a new way to study individual stars billions of light-years away. Keywords: JWST, Dragon galaxy, gravitational lensing, distant stars. [56] Asteroid defense requires precise aim - Simulations show that the effectiveness of a nuclear asteroid-deflection attempt could vary nearly fivefold depending on which side of an irregular asteroid is targeted. Keywords: planetary defense, asteroid deflection, nuclear burst, simulations. [151] Gravity may reconnect like magnetism - Physicists have described a theoretical process called gravitational reconnection, in which structures in a gravitational field could rearrange and transfer energy into matter. Keywords: Einstein equations, gravity, spacetime, gravitational reconnection. [166] NASA recruits new Moon explorers - NASA has opened applications for a new astronaut class as it prepares for more Artemis missions and longer-term activity around the Moon. Keywords: NASA astronauts, Artemis, Moon exploration, astronaut recruitment. [35] Episode Transcript China expands its internet constellation We begin in the outer solar system, where the Vera C. Rubin Observatory has identified an object provisionally labeled R631. It lies just beyond Neptune and follows a steeply tilted retrograde orbit, meaning it travels around the Sun in the opposite direction from most of the planets. Objects on paths like this are uncommon, and their orbits can preserve evidence of violent events in the solar system’s past. R631 may have been scattered by a planet, disturbed by a passing star, or pushed inward from a much more distant reservoir of icy bodies. Astronomers will need a longer series of observations before they can accurately trace its full journey. Even so, this is an early example of Rubin’s ability to uncover faint and unusual members of our cosmic neighborhood. The observatory is d