Betelgeuse is haunted by a cosmic poltergeist tormenting the doomed star's atmosphere

space.com Oct 31, 2026

Betelgeuse is haunted by a cosmic poltergeist tormenting the doomed star’s atmosphere

Curated by Shubham · TechCapsules · Oct 31, 2026

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

Astronomers using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array and ALMA have confirmed that Betelgeuse’s faint companion, named Siwarha, repeatedly plunges through the red supergiant’s extended atmosphere. Data collected between 2021 and 2026 show the star’s outer envelope deforming into an egg shape when Siwarha is distant and becoming more spherical as the companion passes in front of or behind the star. The observations also indicate that Betelgeuse has largely recovered from the “Great Dimming” of 2020, a dramatic dimming event caused by a massive ejection of gas and dust. The study, published in The Astronomical Journal, marks the first direct evidence that a low‑mass companion can physically reshape a supergiant’s atmosphere and may influence its mass‑loss behavior as it approaches the end of its life.

💡 Why It Matters

· The finding provides a rare glimpse of how binary interactions can sculpt the late‑stage evolution of massive stars, offering a concrete mechanism for the irregular mass‑loss that precedes supernova explosions.

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Satlyt takes another step toward turning satellites into space data centers

Satlyt, a startup founded by former Google and SpaceX engineer Rama Afullo, demonstrated its orbital data‑center software in a NASA‑funded test earlier this month. The experiment, conducted with the University of Houston, used a single onboard computer to simulate a network of four hosts, four users and eight services, assigning tasks based on available compute and communication links. The software generated a processing plan and returned results to Earth, proving it can schedule workloads in orbit. Satlyt already has its code running on three satellites and aims to link multiple spacecraft so users only set permissions, priorities and limits. Further trials will examine inter‑satellite data transfer, security and fault recovery as the company pursues broader validation and eventual commercial missions.

💡 By enabling satellites to share processing power, Satlyt could cut down latency for time‑critical observations, turning space assets into real‑time analytics platforms rather than mere data relays.

spaceexplored.com · Oct 31

Apple Maps begins blurring NASA, Space Force, and Air Force bases

Apple Maps has begun obscuring imagery of several U.S. military and NASA facilities, removing visual detail from locations such as Wallops Flight Facility, Stennis Space Center, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Vandenberg Space Force Base, Whiteman Air Force Base and Ellsworth Air Force Base. The change appears to be a security‑driven decision, though Apple offered no public explanation and Google Maps continues to display the sites. Not all installations are affected; major Navy bases like Pearl Harbor and Norfolk remain visible, as do some Air National Guard sites. The blurred areas include launch pads, aircraft tarmacs and other sensitive infrastructure, while nearby civilian sites such as Kennedy Space Center stay unaltered. Analysts suspect Apple may expand the policy to additional government sites soon.

💡 Apple’s concealment of critical defense and space assets forces mapping platforms to weigh national security against public transparency, potentially reshaping industry standards.

space.com · Oct 31

On this day in space! Oct. 31, 2015: Creepy skull-shaped Halloween asteroid…

On 31 October 2015 a near‑Earth asteroid designated 2015 TB145 passed within 300,000 miles of Earth, about 1.3 lunar distances, and was nicknamed the “Great Pumpkin.” The object, discovered by the Pan‑STARRS survey in Hawaii only three weeks before its flyby, was imaged by the Arecibo radar facility the day before Halloween, revealing a skull‑like shape that captured public imagination. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory noted the encounter was the closest approach of an object of this size since the 1999 AN10 event, and the asteroid returned in 2018 at a far greater distance of 24 million miles. The event highlighted the capabilities of radar astronomy and the ongoing work of NASA’s Near‑Earth Object Observations program to track potentially hazardous asteroids for future planetary defense efforts.

💡 The asteroid’s skull‑like reveal just weeks after discovery underscores how quickly sizable near‑Earth objects can slip past detection, demanding faster observation and mitigation pipelines.

space.com · Oct 31

Happy Halloween! SpaceX launches 27 Starlink satellites to orbit from California

SpaceX launched 27 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Oct. 31 at 12:04 a.m. EDT aboard a Falcon 9. The booster, designated B1093, completed its 18th flight and successfully returned to the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” after an 8.5‑minute boost‑back, marking its latest recovery. The upper stage deployed the payload into low‑Earth orbit 62 minutes after liftoff, adding to the Starlink megaconstellation, which now exceeds 11,000 satellites. This mission was SpaceX’s 118th Falcon 9 launch of 2026, with more than 70 % of the year’s flights dedicated to expanding Starlink. The company also logged three Falcon Heavy and three Starship test flights this year and is preparing another Starship launch in November.

💡 The rapid reuse of booster B1093 underscores SpaceX’s ability to lower launch costs while scaling the world’s largest satellite network.

space.com · Oct 31

On this day in space! Oct. 30, 1964: NASA’s weird Lunar Landing…

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💡 The LLRV’s experiments validated the landing approach that would enable the first crewed moon landing, proving that Earth‑based simulations could reliably predict lunar operations. Its success laid the groundwork for modern lunar lander testing, ensuring safer missions today.

space.com · Oct 31

The rocket scientist who summoned demons: The true horror story of Jack…

In the winter of 1946, rocket pioneer Jack Parsons and aspiring sci‑fi writer L. Ron Hubbard met in California’s Mojave Desert to conduct the “Babalon Working,” a series of Thelemic rituals intended to summon the feminine deity Babalon and manifest an otherworldly entity. Parsons, a self‑taught chemist who helped found the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and laid groundwork for the later Space Race, had been leading the Agape Lodge of Aleister Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis since 1943. Hubbard, then unknown as the future founder of Scientology, lived in Parsons’s Pasadena home and was recruited for the occult experiments despite lacking formal magical training. The bizarre collaboration blended cutting‑edge rocketry with ceremonial magic, drawing scholarly interest for its rare intersection of early American space research and esoteric practice.

💡 The episode reveals how the personal mysticism of a key rocketry figure briefly intertwined with the nascent ideas of a future religious movement, offering a unique lens on the cultural currents that shaped mid‑century scientific ambition.