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Spacecraft Bound for Mercury Begins ‘Tricky’ Arrival

This composite image provided by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington on Oct. 22, 2013, shows Mercury as it appeared to the Messenger spacecraft following a flyby of the planet. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington via AP)
This composite image provided by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington on Oct. 22, 2013, shows Mercury as it appeared to the Messenger spacecraft following a flyby of the planet. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington via AP)
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Spacecraft Bound for Mercury Begins ‘Tricky’ Arrival

This composite image provided by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington on Oct. 22, 2013, shows Mercury as it appeared to the Messenger spacecraft following a flyby of the planet. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington via AP)
This composite image provided by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington on Oct. 22, 2013, shows Mercury as it appeared to the Messenger spacecraft following a flyby of the planet. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington via AP)

After an eight-year journey, a spacecraft carrying European and Japanese probes began the months-long, high-risk approach to Mercury on Thursday to study the Sun-scorched planet.

The BepiColombo mission set off from Earth in 2018 on a winding path to study the smallest and least understood planet in our Solar System with the aim of releasing the two probes into its orbit.

On Thursday it began its arrival phase, described by the European Space Agency (ESA) as its "most operationally challenging planetary arrival sequences ever attempted".

Mercury's relatively tiny mass -- it is only slightly bigger than the Moon -- means its gravitational pull is extremely weak compared to the Sun, making it complex for spacecraft to approach the planet without ending up incinerated or lost in space.

"It's a very ambitious mission," Santa Martinez, the mission manager at ESA, told a press conference ahead of its arrival.

The spacecraft had to travel more than 10 billion kilometers (miles), executing a series of nine flybys, to speed up, slow down and perfect its trajectory.

The two probes, which are attached to each other, finally separated on Thursday from the transfer module that has propelled them -- a crucial first step in the final approach.

It was the equivalent of "launching a new spacecraft. Only this spacecraft happens to be around a different planet," explained Ignacio Tanco, ESA's head of inner solar system mission operations, before the separation began.

- All went to plan -

On Thursday, Mercury was some 63 million km from the Sun and 200 million km from Earth.

"At these distances... any real-time operation becomes impossible," Tanco said, explaining there was about a 30-minute delay between checks being performed and commands being executed from the ground to the craft.

It means the spacecraft had to check and execute the separation autonomously -- a "tricky business," Tanco said.

But all went to plan.

The spacecraft autonomously cut the four mechanical struts connecting the orbiters to the module.

Spring mechanisms then gently pushed them away.

The separation took place at a speed of 40 centimeters (16 inches) per second, leaving the two entities relatively close given the vastness of space.

Due to the distance between the probes and Earth, the signal confirming the operation's success reached the control center in Darmstadt, Germany, nearly two hours later -- at 1353 GMT -- sparking rounds of applause and cheers.

"This is the best case scenario, that the telemetry comes exactly at the moment we expect it," said Elsa Montagnon, in charge of module operations at ESA.

"The spacecraft has completed its reconfiguration as expected," she said happily.

The probes are due to come into Mercury's orbit on November 21.

The next tricky phase will come on December 9 and 10, when the two probes separate into their respective orbits.

From April, the ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) will begin studying the planet closest to the Sun with unprecedented precision, passing just 480 km from its surface.

The Japanese Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio) will focus on its space environment and magnetic field, following an elliptical orbit that will carry it as far as 11,000 km away.

- New chapter -

Mercury is the least studied of the four rocky, innermost planets in our solar system, which include Venus, Earth and Mars.

NASA's Mariner 10 was the first probe to capture a close picture of its lunar-looking surface in 1974.

The MESSENGER probe then orbited the planet in 2011.

But many mysteries remain about its magnetic field, iron core and surface marked by hollows.

With its 16 instruments and 1.7-billion-euro ($2.0-billion) budget, BepiColombo "is going to bring to humanity and to the scientific community unprecedented views of Mercury... and it's going to open a new chapter in our understanding of the solar system", Martinez said.

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Varieties

Newly Identified Green Star Leaves Astronomers Amazed

An artist's impression of the cool white dwarf star WDJ1330+6435 in a handout image released on October 14, 2026. Mark A. Garlick/University of Warwick/Handout via REUTERS
An artist's impression of the cool white dwarf star WDJ1330+6435 in a handout image released on October 14, 2026. Mark A. Garlick/University of Warwick/Handout via REUTERS
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Newly Identified Green Star Leaves Astronomers Amazed

An artist's impression of the cool white dwarf star WDJ1330+6435 in a handout image released on October 14, 2026. Mark A. Garlick/University of Warwick/Handout via REUTERS
An artist's impression of the cool white dwarf star WDJ1330+6435 in a handout image released on October 14, 2026. Mark A. Garlick/University of Warwick/Handout via REUTERS

Astronomers for the first time have identified a green star, documenting a dense stellar remnant called a white dwarf that became a ghostly shade of chartreuse after ingesting rocky debris from planets that once had orbited it.

A star's color typically is governed by its temperature, with cooler stars appearing orange, the sun and stars similar to it appearing white, and the hottest ones appearing a pale blue.

But the formula is different for a white dwarf, which is the leftover core of a low- to medium-mass star that burned through its nuclear fuel and blew off its outer layers. Most white dwarfs have colors similar to other stars, and their average color is white. But changes in their chemistry over time can turn some of them into rarer colors.

The newly identified green one, named WD J1330+6435, is a white dwarf in the Milky Way galaxy that is located about 280 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).

"We first became interested ⁠in this white ⁠dwarf because bits of planetary material have fallen onto its surface, enriching its outer layers in elements including calcium, lithium and, in particular, sodium," said astrophysicist Mark Hollands of the University of Warwick in England, lead author of the study published in the journal RAS Techniques and Instruments.

In normal stars, sodium absorbs a very specific wavelength of orange — the same orange that gives sodium street lamps their characteristic color.

"In this particular white dwarf, however, the density is so high that the sodium atoms are constantly being bombarded by surrounding helium atoms, which alters the sodium atomic energy levels," Reuters quoted Hollands as saying.

"The end result is that the sodium atoms no longer absorb one very narrow ⁠wavelength of orange — they absorb the yellows, oranges and some of the red wavelengths. And what you're left with is a star that has a beautiful chartreuse green glow, something that wouldn't be possible for sun-like stars," Hollands said.

The discovery was part of a project assessing the color of white dwarfs as human eyes would see them. A white dwarf typically has half the mass of the sun compacted into the size of Earth.

"Because white dwarfs are super-dense stars — they are roughly the size of the Earth, but contain about 165,000 times its mass — even a small amount of sodium blocks out a large amount of the orange light coming out of the star," University of Warwick astrophysicist and study co-author Boris Gänsicke said.

"In the end, it's all very similar to the mixing of colors in the palette of a painter. They start with a few basic colors, then mix them together to form any color they need for their painting. Take away some of the color going into the mix, ⁠and the output will change," Gänsicke ⁠said.

The researchers studied 151 white dwarfs located within about 65 light-years of Earth, with white the average color.

One showed perhaps the reddest hue of any known star, a salmon pink. Named WD J1011+2845, it is located 48 light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo Minor. This time, it was not sodium that was changing the palette, but carbon.

"Rather than something hitting the star, in this case the carbon comes out from its deep interior," Gänsicke said.

Data used by the researchers included light spectrum observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey using a telescope in New Mexico, as well as white dwarf spectrum models they developed.

They found that white dwarf colors divide into distinct groups based on atmospheric composition. Carbon-rich white dwarfs usually were pink or purple. Those enriched with debris from shattered remnants of planetary systems leaned toward yellow. Lower-temperature white dwarfs with mixed hydrogen and helium atmospheres tended toward a cyan or pale blue hue.

In all, they spanned almost every color of the spectrum.

While WD J1330+6435 was the first documented example of a green star in the real world, green stars have existed in science fiction, including in the recent comic book movie "Supergirl."

"It does show that the universe is sometimes just as weird as anything science fiction can conjure up," Hollands said.

Varieties

Rare Family of Barn Owls Move into Manhattan's Upper West Side

An American Barn Owl sits perched on a water tower on the Upper West Side neighborhood, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
An American Barn Owl sits perched on a water tower on the Upper West Side neighborhood, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
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Rare Family of Barn Owls Move into Manhattan's Upper West Side

An American Barn Owl sits perched on a water tower on the Upper West Side neighborhood, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
An American Barn Owl sits perched on a water tower on the Upper West Side neighborhood, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Manhattan's Upper West Side has been reveling in the company of its latest celebrities: A family of barn owls nested in a water tower atop a building near Central Park.

This is the first documented instance of barn owls nesting in Manhattan in modern history, according to one expert, and the owls have attracted nightly crowds of people in the street eager to get a glimpse of the elusive birds.

“It was, like, totally shocking,” Andrew Farnsworth, a migration ecologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said of the barn owls. “To the best of our knowledge, like the collective birding knowledge, there hasn’t been a nest in, you know, in Manhattan, at least in recorded history.”

People look at American Barn Owls sit perched on a water tower on the Upper West Side neighborhood, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Word of the barn owl family didn't get around until last week, when Elisabeth Williams, an Upper West Side resident, notified a local news outlet on Oct. 6 that she and her husband saw multiple owls at the water tower atop a building on West 75th Street close to Central Park West.

The couple had previously seen a single owl on an apartment windowsill a few days earlier and were shocked even then, Williams recalled, according to The Associated Press.

“In a place like Manhattan, you normally really have to go out of your way to encounter nature,” she said. “And here it was, just sort of right outside our window.”

Barn owl sightings are rare in New York City It's not the first time that birds have captivated New Yorkers. Residents have fallen in love with American woodcocks, who are known to stop in Midtown Manhattan’s Bryant Park every year as they migrate north in early spring.

After Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl died in 2024, dozens of mournful fans gathered to say goodbye to the beloved creature who flew around Manhattan and became a joy to many after someone let him out of his zoo enclosure the previous year. Then there was Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk who nested above Fifth Avenue for three decades before dying in 2023.

But barn owl sightings in New York City parks are very rare, according to the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. New York is at the northern fringe of the barn owl's range and the barn owl population has declined “at an alarming rate” over time, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

“There’s lots of excitement among New Yorkers, both birders and non-birders alike, about these owls because owls really capture the attention,” said Jessica Wilson, executive director of NYC Bird Alliance. “They’re magical, they’re nocturnal, they are secretive, they’re not commonly seen, especially on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. And to have this chance to see these birds is really thrilling.”

Photographers and casual onlookers have gathered on the street on a nightly basis to spot the owls.

“I’ve only seen one barn owl ever, and that was in California,” said Val Coleman, a retired New York City resident who was on the Upper West Side earlier this week trying to spot the owls.

“At dusk, we hope they will come out to hunt. We hope they don’t eat poisoned rats with rodenticide in ’em.”

David Barrett, a Manhattan-based birder who runs the popular social media account, Manhattan Bird Alert, said he’s observed at least one adult barn owl and five fledglings at the water tower. He’s also seen an adult owl carrying rodents back to the water tower. There are believed to be two adult owls, and some photographers have claimed to have seen six fledglings, Barrett added.

“Having one barn owl is a rarity, but it’s not national news. Having a family, for the first time ever, breeding in Manhattan in recorded history, that’s special news,” Barrett said.

Screeching was heard by residents Before the recent barn owl sightings, Williams and her husband heard periodic screeching noises outside going back to early September. They initially assumed it was a bird of some kind but were skeptical when a phone app indicated the noise was from a barn owl.

Thomas Obersteiner said that he first heard bizarre screeching and wailing noises from outside one evening in mid-September. It sounded like someone was “being murdered outside,” he said.

“That lasted for two or three weeks, every night, sometimes more, sometimes less, coming from different directions,” Obersteiner added. “But I had no idea what that was.”

An American Barn Owl sits perched on a water tower on the Upper West Side neighborhood, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

On multiple occasions, Obersteiner or his wife ran into their children's bedroom after mistaking the owls' screech for a child in pain, he said. It wasn't until he saw a news report that he realized that owls were making the sounds.

Farnsworth said the screech is typical of barn owls, who use it to communicate with one another. The screech is like a “horror movie kind of experience,” he said.

Obersteiner, who said his roof deck is “probably the best location in town right now” to watch the owls, has been letting nature photographers access that perch to observe the owls “almost every night” since news of the barn owls spread. On one night last week, 20 people had gathered.

“We can’t say no because it’s so much fun and these people are so serious,” Obersteiner added. “It's beautiful.”

Williams and her husband were not bird watchers before the barn owl family moved in to the water tower. But that may change soon after their “delightful” experience.

“I think we’re about to become birders,” Williams said.

Varieties

Spain Sizzles in Hottest September on Record

The unprecedented heat in September came after Spain's hottest summer on record. Oscar DEL POZO / AFP
The unprecedented heat in September came after Spain's hottest summer on record. Oscar DEL POZO / AFP
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Spain Sizzles in Hottest September on Record

The unprecedented heat in September came after Spain's hottest summer on record. Oscar DEL POZO / AFP
The unprecedented heat in September came after Spain's hottest summer on record. Oscar DEL POZO / AFP

Mainland Spain sizzled in its warmest September since records began in 1961, with exceptional heat effectively making it another summer month, national weather agency AEMET said on Friday.

The announcement is the latest in a series of new temperature records this year across Europe, scorched by successive summer heatwaves that scientists say were turbo-charged by human-driven climate change.

The average temperature in September was 22.5C, 3.4C above the norm for the 1991-2020 reference period, said AEMET, with the unprecedented reading coming after Spain's hottest summer on record, said AFP.

It was the first time the figure for September exceeded the average summer temperature of 22.1C for the 1991-2020 period, AEMET added in a statement.

The country equaled its all-time heat record for the month when 45.7C was registered in the southwestern municipality of El Granado on September 3.

AEMET briefly issued the highest red alert for heat in small areas of the southern region of Andalusia in September, the first time such warnings had been sent in the month since they started in 2007.

Last month was also extremely dry, recording just 36 percent of the normal rainfall expected in September in mainland Spain based on the 1991-2020 reference period.

Extreme temperatures have been linked to tens of thousands of excess deaths across the continent, as well as disrupting daily life and the economy through drought and low river levels.