Who is King Ghidorah? The cosmic connections of Godzilla Minus Zero's foe

space.com Nov 8, 2026

Who is King Ghidorah? The cosmic connections of Godzilla Minus Zero’s foe

Curated by Shubham · TechCapsules · Nov 8, 2026

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

In Godzilla Minus Zero, released November 6, the iconic kaiju King Ghidorah returns to challenge Godzilla, reaffirming its extraterrestrial origins. The film revisits Ghidorah’s storied history—from its 1964 debut as a meteor‑borne monster to its repeated subjugation by alien forces—while showcasing the creature’s three‑headed, twin‑tailed design. Parallel to the cinematic saga, astronomers named a vast 1.3‑billion‑light‑year supercluster after the beast, the King Ghidorah Supercluster, discovered in 2022 by the Subaru Telescope.

💡 Why It Matters

· The naming of a real cosmic structure after a fictional monster blurs fiction and science, illustrating how pop culture can influence scientific discourse and public engagement with astronomy.

Capsules Space

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SpaceX will perform Starship double catch attempt with Flight 15

SpaceX plans to launch Starship Flight 15 on November 13, 2026, aiming to catch both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage on the same mission. If successful, it would be the first time all components of an orbital rocket return intact, a milestone Musk says is essential for multiplanetary life. The flight will deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites, orbit for 22 hours, then execute a de‑orbit burn, belly‑flop reentry, flip, and final landing burn for a tower catch. The booster will return after 6 minutes 35 seconds, while the ship’s catch is scheduled at T+22 hours 32 minutes. Contingency splashdowns are planned in the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific.

💡 Achieving a dual‑catch would dramatically lower launch costs by enabling rapid refurbishment of both stages, directly accelerating Starlink’s expansion and future lunar and Mars missions.

space.com · Nov 8

Scientists simulate an Earth without life to help hunt for aliens and…

Planetary scientist Samantha Gilbert‑Janizek at UC Riverside has created a computer model that simulates the evolution of a rocky planet without any biological activity. Building on Rory Barnes’s interior‑planet code, the new simulation adds surface and atmospheric processes, tracking 19 non‑biotic properties such as stellar heat input, core‑to‑surface heat and chemical exchange, and volcanic gas release. Starting with Earth at its formation 4.5 billion years ago, the model runs forward to 500 million years in the future, producing a lifeless world that still retains oceans and an atmosphere. Researchers can input the bulk characteristics of any exoplanet, run the model, and compare the predicted atmosphere with spectra from JWST or upcoming large telescopes. A mismatch suggests possible biological alteration, guiding follow‑up observations.

💡 By establishing a robust abiotic baseline, the tool lets astronomers separate false biosignature signals from genuine ones, sharpening the search for life on distant worlds.

space.com · Nov 8

On this day in space! Nov. 8, 2005: Europe launches Venus Express,…

On 8 November 2005 the European Space Agency launched Venus Express aboard a Russian Soyuz from Kourou, marking Europe’s first dedicated probe to the hothouse planet. Designed to endure Venus’s crushing pressure and intense radiation, the orbiter survived more than nine years in orbit, far exceeding its expected lifespan. It mapped a persistent polar vortex over the south pole, detected possible active volcanism, and revealed that Venus generates its own auroras when solar particles interact with atmospheric ions. In the mission’s final phase, controllers deliberately lowered the spacecraft into the dense cloud deck, a maneuver it executed successfully before losing contact. Venus Express burned up in the atmosphere in January 2015, concluding a landmark planetary science mission for future exploration.

💡 Venus Express gave Europe a foothold in interplanetary exploration, proving it can operate in extreme environments and supply data that reshape models of planetary climate evolution.

space.com · Nov 7

On this day in space! Nov. 7, 1992: NASA launches Mars Global…

On 7 November 1996 NASA launched the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) aboard a Delta II, marking the agency’s first Mars mission in nearly two decades since Viking. The orbiter served both as a scientific platform and a communications relay for later rovers, transmitting data from Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity to Earth. MGS mapped the planet’s surface, discovering gullies that appear to have been carved by intermittent water flow and detecting hematite deposits—an iron oxide that forms in watery environments. Observations of the south polar region suggested possible climate change. Over its nine‑year operational span the spacecraft returned more than 240,000 images before a battery‑exposure mishap caused permanent loss of power in November 2006. Its longevity exceeded the mission’s five‑year design goal.

💡 By proving that a long‑duration orbiter could also act as a data highway, MGS enabled the rapid deployment of multiple rovers, accelerating the search for past water on Mars.

space.com · Nov 7

Send your name to Saturn’s moon Titan with NASA’s upcoming Dragonfly mission

NASA’s Dragonfly mission, a nuclear‑powered, SUV‑sized rotorcraft, is slated for launch in 2028 to explore Saturn’s moon Titan, with arrival expected in 2034. The agency has opened a public‑name‑submission portal, allowing anyone to have their name etched onto a chip aboard the craft if submitted by Jan. 15, 2027. Once on Titan, Dragonfly will hop between sites spaced miles apart, conducting up to one flight every 16 Earth days over a 3.3‑year surface campaign. It will investigate dunes, the Selk impact crater, and other geologic locales, sampling material to study pre‑biotic chemistry, past habitability, and potential biosignatures. Dragonfly follows the 2005 Huygens lander and builds on the legacy of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, marking the first multi‑site aerial exploration of an outer‑solar‑system world.

💡 By letting the public embed their names on an interplanetary probe, NASA turns a scientific venture into a shared cultural milestone, deepening public engagement with the search for life's building blocks beyond Earth.

space.com · Nov 7

‘I think we will prevail’: NASA chief Jared Isaacman on Artemis, China…

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told Space.com that the agency aims to launch “big rockets” at least once a year to sustain the Artemis program and keep pace with China’s accelerating lunar ambitions. He said the success of Artemis II in April 2026 proves the United States is on a more achievable path to the lunar surface, and that the next launch in 2027 will be Artemis III, a low‑Earth‑orbit test of Orion docking with private landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin. Isaacman emphasized that annual SLS flights are the minimum needed to maintain deep‑space human‑flight capability and to prepare for Artemis IV’s crewed moon landing targeted for 2028. He warned that falling behind China could have far‑reaching geopolitical and technological consequences.

💡 A yearly cadence of heavy‑lift launches will lock the U.S. into a sustained lunar presence, preventing China from gaining a decisive strategic edge in space.