Fans of the Avatar franchise may recognise the term, given it is one of two “common names” (so to speak) by which Ewya, the globally distributed consciousness of Pandora is known; the other being the All-Mother. As such, it should come as no surprise that this is something of a personal homage to the Avatar movies whilst also being entirely unique as a setting in its own right; a place of infinite beauty; one that is utterly immersive.
Dive into the deep primordial forest, an ongoing passion project for Benny Vortex. Discover a lush, bioluminescent dreamscape of sights and sounds nestled below breath-taking floating islands under the silent gaze of a gas giant. May the spirits guide you.
– The Great Mother’s Destination Guide description
The Great Mother, January 2026
Occupying a Full region called – appropriately enough – Eywa, the setting captivates from the start. But before getting into specifics, there are some recommendations for enjoying a visit:
Preferably, visit using a PBR-enabled viewer.
Make sure you enable the local music stream to enjoy a soundtrack fully in keeping with the setting.
Use the shared region environment settings.
The Great Mother, January 2026
Also, make sure you have local sounds enabled – this is an absolute must, as Benny has created an immersive soundscape, covering everything from the deep, echoing sounds of Pandora’s forests and creatures through to the sound of your own footsteps rustling the moss and grass. That said, don’t expect to encounter any of Pandora’s beasts – or ioang – whilst you may hear them in the distance, this is a place of sanctuary and spiritual awakening. However, if you opt to visit in a Na’vi avatar, that would be both appropriate and welcome.
Finally, do be aware that The Great Mother is very much a work in progress: whilst now open at the ground level, Benny has plans for vertical expansion and more. In fact, the Landing Point itself is in the air and presents the first of the setting’s unique elements.
The Great Mother, January 2026
Forming a small island, the landing Point is marked by a number of rope slides. Each of these bares a symbol scratched into its wooden frame, indicating the area of the biome below in which you will arrive. Pick the one you fancy and ride it down to a smaller floating island, where a dive mat awaits.
Sit on the dive mat, select your preferred dive (and style, if offered), and take the leap! Whichever area of the biome you selected, you will land in water. As you do so, a dialogue box will be displayed with a couple of options – one being a return to the diving mat and going again, if you wish.
The Great Mother, January 2026
However, to explore, ignore the dialogue – but do not stand up. You are still running an animation tied to the dive mat, and you can use it to swim through the water and / or to shore, where upon the animation will release you and allow you to walk.
Whichever rope slide you take, it likely won’t be the last, within the forest and waterways below are ropes to climb and rope traverses pass through the higher boughs, and trails over land and across water to be explored, together with discoveries to be made. Keep an eye out for seeds marking potential points of interest as you explore. Overhead, further off-region islands hang in the night sky whilst a massive Jupiter-like gas giant watches over the comings and goings of this living world.
The Great Mother, January 2026
Extensive use is made of Elicio Ember’s fabulous plants, their bioluminescent fronds and petals well suited to representing Pandora’s own rich mixture of plant life, and this further brings the setting to life. As with the ideals of Eywa as well, there is a balance of lands and water throughout the region, with water channels as much as dry land trails offering routes of exploration – indeed, as Benny noted to me, the entire region is navigable by canoe.
As to what drew him to create such an environment, ad his future plans for expansion, Benny had this to say:
I really love the concept of the film and as a biologist/mycologist RL I can’t get enough of bioluminescent organisms. The next mission will be above 1000m with floating islands and waterfalls, and as I’ve also put a deep channel running through the region, I will eventually make it mer-friendly, and such.
– Benny Vortex on developing The Great Mother
The Great Mother, January 2026
Merfolk per se might not be a formal part of the Pandora ecosystem – although the Na’vi clearly have a relationship with the seas of their world – providing such a merfolk environment within The Great Mother does, to me, fit, and further extends the inclusiveness of the setting as a whole.
While I could write far more on the region, the truth is, it doesn’t need explanation – it deserves exploration and time spent with in it. As such, I’m going to wrap this up with a thank you to Benny for the invitation and the chance to explore for myself, and to strongly urge all Second Life explorers to visit Eywa and The Great Mother.
Campwich Forest grounds: location for the Monthly Mobile User Group (MMUG)
The following notes were taken from the Thursday, January 29th 2026 Monthly Mobile User Group (MMUG) meeting. These notes should not be taken as a full transcript of the meeting, which was largely held in Voice, but rather a summary of the key topics discussed.
The meeting was recorded by Pantera, and her video is embedded at the end of this summary – my thanks, as always to her in providing it.
The Mobile User Group provides a platform to share insights on recent mobile updates and upcoming features, and to receive feedback directly from users.
These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
The last Thursday of every month at 12:00 noon SLT.
Meetings are open to anyone with a concern / interest in the above topics, and form one of a series of regular / semi-regular User Group meetings conducted by Linden Lab.
Dates and times of all current meetings can be found on the Second Life Public Calendar, and descriptions of meetings are defined on the SL wiki.
SL Mobile is seeing new users signing-up and joining SL, this led to the creation of a series of New Start Locations for those coming in via Mobile to be able to easily reach, and which have been put together by the location creators specifically to be Mobile-friendly.
SL Mobile New Starter Experiences front-and-centre.
The range of available experiences is being expanded, with the latest being a Brazilian-based experience – the Brazilian Beach Hangout – offering Voice in both English and Portuguese.
As many are aware (and a part of ), there is an invite-only SL Mobile Alpha group providing early access to users to help test upcoming Mobile features and updates prior to them being made publicly available through the main Beta programme on Android and iOS.
The app for this programme is entirely separate to the app available via the Apple and Google stores.
The most recent releases to Alpha include Bubble Chat and single-taps.
Bubble Chat
This is is response to complaints about having to switch views / trying to remain in contact with the in-world scene when using chat.
Allows chat and incoming IM’s to be viewed over the in-world scene, and allow tap-to-reply.
In the initial iteration, tapping a message to reply will still take a user back to the menu to show the keyboard.
However, as the feature is expanded, it is hoped that it will enable the keyboard overlay to be displayed over the in-world scene to allow for faster responses without having to switch away.
Bubble Chat is also seen as a means of encouraging greater use of Mobile rather than just a quick “checking in” tool.
Interactions with SL Mobile can be “tedious” in terms of the number of taps, etc., required to initiate an action – such as chatting, finding a person’s name / profiles, etc., and even interacting with objects.
Single Tap to Interact replaces the current long press required to garner a response from objects in the world view (display the context menu). When tapping on an item, Single Tap will display the top items in the context menu as an overlay to the in-world view. So for example:
Tapping on an avatar will display the options to send an IM or Friend request or expand the menu to see more options – such as their Profile.
Tapping on an in-world object will similarly display the most common options in the context menu (e.g. “sit” if it is chair / seat), with an option to display the rest of the context menu.
Like Bubble Chat, Single Tap is seen as a means to increase on-going use of SL Mobile beyond being an adjunct to using the viewer, and allow greater opportunity for users to be active in SL when using Mobile.
Bubble Chat is seen as relatively “easy” to implement, outside of one or two quirks in how Unity handles uniformity of presentation of things like overlays, which does require a little additional work to solve.
Single Tap to Interact is a more complex subject, as it not only involves changes to the underlying touch functionality, it is also attempting to more accurately map on-screen taps to ensure the right focus and the the resultant correct menu is displayed.
On-screen interactions – touch, tap, etc., – can be seen as collisions, which require a degree of physics calculations. Generally in SL the vast majority of physics interactions and collisions are managed by the server – the viewer is essentially “dumb” to them.
With Mobile, this can lead to inaccuracies arising between where the screen is touched and where the simulator thinks it has been touched, simply because of the network latency involved in back-and-forth communications and calculations, resulting in the noted frustrations with long-touch, etc.
So as a part of the implementation of Single Tap, it was decided to incorporate some of the physics-related calculations into the app itself.
Incorporating physics calculations into the app has involved building a “mini physics simulator”, capable of loading all of the physics colliders into the app’s already constrained memory limits (so effectively pre-caching them), and providing a means for the colliders and calculations to be recognised by, and accurately passed between, two different physics engines – Havok on the simulator, Unity’s own in the app.
Whilst complex, this has resulted in a significant reduction in latency between touch and response and in ensuring the relevant menu appears, and with little to no added latency resulting from the device hardware having to do all the pre-caching and calculations. the only appreciable impact is on networking bandwidth during the pre-caching process.
A further help here is that the Unity physics engine can be switched off excepted for when actually required, thus removing a continuous overhead for the app.
This work will also help with other physics-related interactions down the road.
Stability: the Lab uses both their own internal metrics and those from the app stores to monitor SL Mobile’s overall stability.
There has been a steady decrease in Android crash rates, and a further fix is coming in the next production beta release of Mobile.
New work being initiated (no due dates / target release dates at present):
Persistent chat (i.e. chat histories persisting between Mobile and viewer, rather than being broken by using one or the other).
Chat logging.
More work on language localisation for Mobile.
Map and Search:
Search: Web search is already Mobile responsive, but hard to use. To overcome this, this preferred route at present is to take Web Search and put it into Mobile as an embedded view. This requires a certain amount of work, which is in progress in terms of how to best present Web Search within the app and ensure its performance, prior to actually embedding it into the the app.
Map support: starting to be looked at as a facet of Search, with the hope that the two will be fairly well integrated with each other in the future and where relevant (e.g. toggling between Search and the Map when searching for places). Once this is in place, the Mobile team will look to build further viewer World Map functionality into the Mobile Map.
General Q&A
What is SL Mobile’s maximum Draw Distance?
Up to 250 metres can be selected (but not recommended), but the app currently defaults to 40-50 metres to reduce the memory load.
As a rule of thumb, every additional 10 metres of draw distance can result in 30%+ of the app’s memory allocation (determined by the OS / hardware) to rendering alone.
Higher distances can be set at the user’s discretion via settings, but these can impact performance., and many of the higher settings (100m+) are not recommended for general use, as noted here and in the app.
A danger with exceeding memory limits in an app is that the OS will simply drop it without warning.
Concern was expressed about content being suitable for Mobile consumption – LODs, Land Impact, etc., – and on the need to encourage content creators to think Mobile in their work.
The Mobile app does actually carry out a degree of object culling to lighten the load – small objects, for example, aren’t rendered unless directly focused upon.
There have been internal discussions at the Lab about Land impact and how it relates to Mobile, but no firm decisions have been taken.
The matter of LODs and content creation tools vis-à-vis Mobile has also been discussed, but again, no firm decisions have as yet been made. LOD models are a part of a wider discussion overall for SL, given they also impact lower-specification hardware running the viewer, and there are on-going talks (e.g. through the Content Creation User Group) on LODs, automatic LOD generation, decomposition tools, etc.
PBR, Shadows and EEP support:
PBR – not yet.
Shadows – yes, supported, but is device-dependent, as shadow rendering is expensive (e.g. can as much as triple the rendering complexity for a scene).
EEP – limited support, with two passes of integration carried out so far. More work is required on this (e.g. average scene lighting to bring Unity’s lighting more into line with how scenes appear on the viewer), but it is not an easy task in terms of future maintenance.
Will SL Mobile support:
In-scene dialogue menus (i.e. the blue menus displayed when touching scripted object in the viewer)? – Yes, possibly in the next couple of months.
A walk / run / fly toggle on the movement joystick? – This is something that LL would like to support down the road.
Alpha Texture support: there are two primary issues in managing alphas on Mobile:
Formats: the viewer uses JPEG2000 for textures, Mobile uses a variety of formats which are hardware-dependent, and so additional work such as switching out texture formats is required – which itself can be problematic (e.g. can invalidate texture caches and cause issues such as slow loading, etc.). However, Adam Sinewave (Mobile Lead Developer) does have a potential fix for this in the works.
Tiled-based GPUs: these are common on mobile hardware and do not like overdraw (rendering the same texture multiple times, required for alphas).
Both of these mean that Mobile uses a mix of dithered alpha rendering and temporal anti-aliasing to achieve the desired result. This actually simplifies alpha rendering on Mobile, but does produce unwanted artefacts on transparency, some of which will be hopefully resolved, others of which might continue to result in differences in how alphas appear on Mobile compared to the viewer.
Will SL Mobile be made available through other mechanisms than Google Play Store? Possibly, the idea of providing Android Package Kits (APKs) has been discussed, but brings with it a distribution problem. Also, the idea of using Google’s update mechanism for apps has also been discussed, which would bind SL Mobile more to the Google Play Store.
Minimum requirements for Mobile: these are somewhat hardware constrained (CPU / GPU pairing). As a broad rule of thumb, SL Mobile requires a device with at least 4Gb of RAM, and preferably a more recently SoC combination of CPU/GPU.
Isola Sirena, January 2026 – click any image for full size
I came across Isola Sirena whilst perusing the Destination Guide. Comprising a pair of Full private regions, each leveraging the Land Capacity bonus offered by Linden Lab for such regions, it is an expansive, multi-faceted, multi-level setting with a lot to see and do throughout.
The work of Angel Kavanagh-Taylor (AngelWaldencork) and SL partner Kina Finest-Taylor-Kavanagh (Kina Amour), the setting also possesses several secrets worth discovering. The main starting point for explorations is located in the more westward of the two region, Isola Sirena – Sunkissed Cove Beach.
A sun-drenched Mediterranean-inspired sim offering sweeping coastal views and dreamy escapes. Explore a hilltop restaurant, mini golf in the clouds, a charming winery and farmers market, and a stunning beach, with beautiful beachside and villa rentals.
– Isola Sirena About Land description.
Isola Sirena, January 2026
It is here, perched on a high mesa, is a complex of Landing and Information point, offering teleport boards to reach the majority of the setting’s major locations, several of which are located within the complex itself: the Game Room, La Vetta d’Oro, Mixology Bar, and outside, via the terrace, the Summit Infinity Pool and the Plaza. However, the best way to explore and discover most of the locations is on foot (with one exception!).
On the south side of the mesa lies a small village reached by one of two routes from the Landing Point complex. This, like the mesa’s summit, offers clear views out to the off-region surrounds which give the impression both regions are part of a broader Mediterranean location. However, to fully appreciate the extent of this, Draw Distance will likely have to be raised.
Isola Sirena, January 2026
Parts of the village appear to be for rent as businesses or homes. How extensive these rentals might be wasn’t clear to me: many were empty; and without rental boxes, others were furnished as homes and include rental boxes. The village and its footpaths step down toward the region’s beach, passing by way of La Tavola di Eleanora Café, which can also be reached via the main teleporter boards, as can the beach below.
The beach itself offers a mix of public spaces and rental beach cabins, together with the hackney carriage ride, a jet ski rezzer, a swim assist board and the beach bar. At the south-western end of the beach can be found the Meditation Point and Beach Club, both reached via the Teleporter boards, and the former also by the Beach boardwalk.
Isola Sirena, January 2026
A covered bridge provides access to the setting’s mid-point island, home to the stables and farmer’s market, and which also provides bridge access to an eat-point tongue of land extending out from the base of the mesa to connect with the second region of the setting. The appears to be largely given over to villas available for rent. However, it is also home to one of the setting’s secrets: the bathing cavern.
This is quite exquisitely done, the entrance offering something of a backstory to the cavern’s discovery. Offering, as its name suggests, a place to bathe in warm waters offering places to sit and cuddle around the edges of the pool all set within a location suggestive of great age. The main pool surrounded by tall statues, some of whom hold shells from which water falls to replenish the pool below. It is a place suggestive of a relaxed, hedonistic beauty.
Isola Sirena, January 2026
Set to one side of the main pool is a blank cave entrance, a sign indicating it is the way up to the sun-based caverns.
These are equally magical in their design, and also entirely otherworldly. The path through them is well signed, and there are places here to pass the time alone or in company. Exploring them is an absolute must, whether via the bathing cavern (recommended) or the main teleporter boards. Nor are these the only caves to be found within the setting – but all let you find the others, accessible as they are from the ground and (again) the Teleport boards.
Isola Sirena, January 2026
Eastwards, past the villa the land flows into Isola Sirena – Winery and Countryside. This again appears to be given over to villas available for rent, together with the Vetta Oro Vinicola wine bar and the Winery itself. The latter has its own secret located on the shoulder of the hill to one side of it. Guarded by a stone carving of a young (weeping?) woman, lies a stairway leading down to the wine cellar.
And there is still more to be found – from bumper boats to picnic areas and seating – and of course, the pair of small islands held aloft by balloons and home to mini golf, as mentioned in the setting’s description and which gives it a little twist of the surreal.
Isola Sirena, January 2026
I will confess to having some small niggles with Isola Sirena. The main caverns are at altitude, and so are ideal for their own dedicated EEP setting. Similarly, the cavern baths also look as if they could be placed in a parcel with its own EEP. This would avoid the need for sign posts asking people to change their setting locally, and make the experience of exploring more immersive with seamless transitions.
Another minor niggle is with the wine cellar – the stairs down / up could benefit with rotation. As it is, they are placed in such a position that the camera is placed of the wrong side f the walls surrounding it, which can make for difficult navigation when climbing. A final small point is that raising Draw Distance to view both regions can lead to texture discards – the first time I’ve encountered this since LL worked on refining texture provisioning and loading; but there is a lot going on in both regions , texture-wise.
Isola Sirena, January 2026
These niggles don’t spoil the overall impact of the regions or the setting as a whole. And it has to be said, that taken individually or together in a single visit, the regions of Isola Sirena make for an engaging visit, one worth eschewing the Teleporter boards in favour of exploration on foot.
The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, January 2th, 2026 Simulator User Group (SUG) off-week meeting (the “SUG Leviathan Hour”). These notes form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript. They were taken from my chat log of the meeting, and Pantera’s video is embedded at the end of this article – my thanks to her, as always, for recording and providing it.
Meeting Overview
The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas is held every other Tuesday at 12:00 noon, SLT (holidays, etc., allowing), per the Second Life Public Calendar.
The “SUG Leviathan Hour” meetings are held on the Tuesdays which do not have a formal SUG meeting, and are chaired by Leviathan Linden. They are more brainstorming / general discussion sessions.
Meetings are held in text in-world, at this location.
Simulator Deployments
There were no planned deployments for the SLS Main Channel.
Wednesday, January 28th might see the next simulator update 2026.01 (Kiwi) to one or more simulator RC channels. However, this is an assumption given the status of the release last week, and no confirmation was given at this meeting.
Game Control Update
Leviathan Linden has cut a pre-release of the new game-control viewer, thank to work by Rye of the Alchemy Viewer.
If anyone tests on Linux or MacOS, Leviathan would love to have direct feedback on success/failure, either via the SUG meetings or via IM in-world.
In this he noted that “MacOS does some silly proprietary checks and only supports a small set of officially sanctioned controllers” and LL are limited to whatever Apple support, as otherwise the viewer doesn’t even see see hardware detection events ton Mac OS.
He also noted that one feature of game-control is you can allow normal avatar control inputs (either from keyboard or the UI widgets) to be interpreted as game-control events that get sent to the server. But – that mode doesn’t provide access to all the possible buttons that a game controller has: just a few of the buttons, because the game-control feature is a work in progress (WIP) and he hasn’t as yet worked out how best to map everything.
General appreciation for the work Harold Linden has put into the project, and requests at LL keep him on for the future – although he has indicated he is happy working as a contractor.
No news on when the latest simulator-side updates to SLua will see the light of day, but they are not in the upcoming 2026.01 (“Kiwi”) release. They Might make the cut for the follow-on 202602 (“Loganberry”) update.
The SLua beta viewer is progressing, and will progress to release status in due course.
SLua Resources
The nine beta test regions are centred on SLua Beta Void (mind the water!).
It is not yet available on the VScode marketplace.
Issues and PRs for code submissions can be made here, and the plugin downloaded.
VSCode plugin + documentation (Wolfgang Senizen – likely be discontinued and contributions shifted to support the official documentation).
In Brief
Leviathan gave insight into some of his work remit, and those of other members of the simulator engineering team:
Some of his work is visible to residents, but he also work on internal problems: things that are causing headaches for other developers, the support team, etc.
Currently, he working on an issue whereby simulator states (simstates) sometimes fail to save. These appear to be related to LL’s use of a new compression scheme for simstates: zstd. This should offer faster compression/decompression and smaller packages. However, it is reporting failures every once in a while. These, Leviathan believes, appear to occur during simulator rolls. He’s still investigating this.
Like other members of the simulator engineering team, he is on pager duty for the week. This occurs once every four weeks, and when on pager duty, the team member is typically working on maintenance issues: bugs and such.
In addition, Leviathan is continuing to investigate / fact-find about the whereby when sometimes rezzing an object on a mesh surface will fail and supply an incorrect or misleading message (e.g. not having parcel rez rights or something).
Leviathan suspects the problem has something to do with a failure of the viewer to supply info the server needs, so Leviathan is attempting to try to learn more and find out where it needs to be fixed.
No work has been started on addressing the wrong-number-of-faces-on-old-mesh-uploads problem yet. However, Leviathan hopes that if he can find time to start looking at this again.
The search for a new Senior Vice President of Engineering is on-going, and the Lab is “see great candidates”.
There is a reported workaround for avatars becoming stuck on a region crossings when riding a vehicle:
It appears possible to escape from the broken state after a failed region crossing by deleting the sit target, forcing the simulator to recompute what’s sitting on what, and seems to unjam left-behind avatars. If this works, they should be able to walk to the vehicle and re-sit (or RLV potentially used for a re-sit, if available.
The workaround is described as “a horrible hack”, but appears to be the best temporary “solution”.
Leviathan indicated he will look at it as well.
A general discussion on the missing SIT_FLAG_INVISIBLE, which also included llSetLinkSitFlags, a working SETMASS() flag – and its workaround and avatar bounding boxes. Please refer to the video for details.
The request for a working llSetMass() script method was being requested by some race bicycle creators who wanted to eliminate some variance in vehicle performance.
The above rolled into more general discussions and WIBNIs (“wouldn’t it be nice ifs”).
General discussions on the discrepancy between avatar height and prim height as reported on most viewers and avatar movement (e.g. introducing mousewalking to the official viewer) – again, please refer to the video.
From comments passed at the end of the meeting, it would appear that the work on implementing RLVa into the official viewer, initiated by Kitty Barnett and Vir Linden (prior to his departure from the Lab) may have been stalled.
It was suggested that LL carry out a limited survey of TPV users and request then list their top X TPV features that prevent them from using the official viewer. These could then be collated in terms of common requests and used as an initial starting point for possible prioritisation / integration.
Exactly how a good cross-section of TPV users could be found was an open debate.
Managing such a task might be problem for LL, as it would require input from all of the core engineering teams to offer their input – deflecting many of them (approx 45 LL employees) for core activities.
Contextual note: “approx 45” does not mean that this is the total number of developers work on SL – the Lab utilises contractors on and individual and company (ProductEngine) contractors, plus a lot of general operation on the server-side are now handled through AWS.
Date of Next Meetings
Formal SUG meeting: Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026.
Leviathan Linden: Tuesday, February 10th, 2026.
† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.
A true colour image of Europa, captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft during its 45th passage around Jupiter (Perijove 45), October 2023. Credit: NASA/JPL
One of the most fascinating places in the entire solar system is Europa, the second innermost of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter, and the smallest – although “smallest” here being a relative term, Europa (diameter around 3,100 km) being only very slightly smaller in size than our own Moon (diameter approx 3,475 km).
As I’ve explained in past Space Sunday pieces, Europa is subject to similar gravitational flexing as seen on Io, the innermost of the four Galilean moons. This flexing, caused by the unequal push-pull of Jupiter’s immense gravity on one side and the unequal yet effectively combined gravitational pull of the other three Galilean moons on the other, has marked Io as the most volcanically active body in the solar system with upwards of 400 active volcanoes marking its surface.
A rendering of Europa’s interior, as the modern consensus of opinion see it: a thin (10-30 km) outer crust with a water ocean approx 100 km deep, either fully liquid or a mix of liquid water and semi-frozen ice and slush, and a large rocky mantle heated by an iron core due to gravitational flexing. Credit: Kelvinsong
In Europa’s case, the common consensus has been that this flexing is sufficient to cause its core to stretch and contract, generating heat which keeps the waters trapped under the icy crust in a largely liquid state. It has also been hypothesised that this flexing could give rise to ocean floor hydrothermal vents and fumaroles, spewing heat, chemicals and minerals into the ocean; elements which might have kick-started life within Europa’s waters, much as we have seen around similar deep ocean hydrothermal vents here on Earth.
However, there are two stumbling blocks with these ideas. The first is whether or not there is sufficient energy being generated deep within Europa needed to drive a tectonic-like motion in the mantle and cause hydrothermal venting. The second is that, even with the minerals and chemicals blasted out of deep ocean fumaroles here on Earth, our oceans are rich in nutrients vital for life generated by things like the constant death and decay of marine life, the interaction of solar radiation with salts and other minerals within the upper reaches of our oceans, etc., and which are carried down to the depths by the natural cycles present within our oceans and help drive the life processes fund around deep water fumaroles.
A rendering showing the tidal heating processes believed to be at work in Europa, allowing it to have a liquid water ocean and – possibly – hydrothermal vents. Credit: NASA/JPL
While it is known that Europa has interactions between the intense radiations given off by Jupiter and the salts and minerals in its surface ice (giving rise to the discolouration seen across much of the moon) which likely give rise to chemicals and nutrients, how these might get down through the ice into the ocean below remains a unclear – although one theory suggests subduction might be a suitable mechanism.
A recently published study by geophysicists at Washington State University and Virginia Tech offers a more novel idea: crustal delamination. This is a geological process long known on Earth whereby our planet’s tectonic movement gradually “squeezes” a zone of the planet’s crust, chemically densifying it until it detaches from the crust and sinks into the mantle.
Diagram illustrating the theorised model of a possible avenue toward a form of crustal delamination in a planetary ice shell like Europa’s. Credit: The Planetary Science Journal (2026). DOI: 10.3847/PSJ/ae2b6f
Europa’s icy crust is in a degree of motion thanks to the aforementioned flexing. As noted above, this gives rise to the potential of subduction pushing “plates” of ice under others. Whether or not this is strong enough to push nutrient-laden ice down to the level of the ocean is unclear. However WSU / Virginia Tech study suggests the flexing, breaking and reforming of Europa’s surface ice could result in a unique kind of “crustal delamination”, with their model suggesting it could allow pockets of mineral and nutrient rich ice to “burrow” down to the warm liquid ocean, melt and release their nutrients into Europa’s supposed thermal currents.
If correct, this could allow Europa to provide the kind of nutrients any life down on its ocean floor. What’s more, it’s a theory that works within the subduction model, allowing the two to work together in the supply of nutrients and chemicals into Europa’s waters.
The “crustal delamination” theory sits will with other theories for ice movement on Europa, such as subduction. Credit: NASA
All of which bodes well for the theory that Europa may be an abode for life. However, another study authored by a team of leading planetary science experts concludes that suggests that whilst the competing gravitational forces at work on Europa might be sufficient to cause the moon to flex, but are insufficient to cause any kind of hydrothermal venting on the moon’s ocean floor.
If we could explore that ocean with a remote-control submarine, we predict we wouldn’t see any new fractures, active volcanoes, or plumes of hot water on the seafloor. Geologically, there’s not a lot happening down there. Everything would be quiet.
– Paul Byrne, an associate professor of Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences
This conclusion was reached after taking data on Europa’s size, the likely make-up of its deep core and surrounding mantle, its orbit, and on the likely gravitational forces at work on the moon. In particular, the study also contrasted the orbit of Io with that of Europa, and the role it plays in Io’s extreme volcanism.
Io occupies something of an erratic orbit and this increases the amount of influence gravities of Jupiter and the other three Galilean Moons have on it. But Europa’s orbit is closer to circular, and less prone to gravitational extremes, thus reducing the overall amount of flexing the moon experiences, greatly reducing the likelihood of any internal heating driving the kind of “tectonic”-like shifts in Europa’s mantle needed for venting to occur.
Europa likely has some tidal heating, which is why it’s not completely frozen. And it may have had a lot more heating in the distant past. But we don’t see any volcanoes shooting out of the ice today like we see on Io, and our calculations suggest that the tides aren’t strong enough to drive any sort of significant geologic activity at the seafloor.
– Paul Byrne, an associate professor of Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences
The key point here is that whilst a form of crustal delamination may well be at work alongside subduction to deliver vital nutrients for life deep into the waters of Europa’s oceans, without the hydrothermal venting acting as a direct energy and chemical / mineral source required to give that life a kick-start, the chances are, those nutrients aren’t really helping anything.
All of which make the discoveries NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s Juice mission might make when they reach the Jovian system in the 2030s and start probing Europa’s secrets in great detail, all the more intriguing.
Blue Origin Confirm NG-3 Mission; Rocket Lab Suffer Neutron Setback
Two missions provisionally set for launch in the first quarter of 2026 received updates both good and bad (and a little curious in the case of one) this week.
The good / curious update came from Blue Origin with the confirmation of the next flight of their New Glenn heavy lift launch vehicle (HLLV). In it, the company indicated they are on course to launch New Glenn on its third flight towards the end of February 2026, and that it will utilise the core booster stage called Never Tell Me The Odds, used in the second flight of New Glenn – NG-2 – which set NASA’s twin ESCApades satellites on their way to Mars. Thus, the mission will be the first to see the re-use of a New Glenn core stage.
Never Tell Me The Odds, the New Glenn core stage used for the NG-2 launch in November 2025, sitting on the landing vessel Jacklyn following its flight in that mission. It is now set to be re-used in the NG-3 launch, currently targeted for late February 2026. Credit: Blue Origin
The curious element of the announcement lay in the payload for the mission – NG-3. Following NG-2, Blue Origin had indicated they would be looking to launch their Blue Moon Pathfinder mission to the Moon on NG-3, also reusing Never Tell Me The Odds in the process. However, this mission has now been moved back in the company’s launch manifest and, at the time of writing, has no indicated launch period other than “2026”. Instead, NG-3 will launch a 6.1 tonne Bluebird communications satellite to low Earth orbit (LEO) on behalf of AST SpaceMobile, helping to expand that company’s cellular broadband constellation.
Blue Origin has not stated any reason for the payload swap or whether it is due to requiring more time to prepare the Blue Moon demonstrator lander or not. It might be that the company needs more time in preparing Blue Moon, or it might be because they’d rather launch that mission using a new core booster; or it might be because they want to gather more data on vehicle performance carrying heavier payloads. The first two launches carried around 2-3 tonnes and just over a ton respectively. Blue Moon masses almost 22 tonnes, a sizeable jump, whereas Bluebird is a more modest increment.
Meanwhile, Rocket Labs suffered a setback which spells the end of their hopes to debut their Neutron rocket in the first quarter of 2026 – and which might delay the vehicle’s maiden flight by as much as a year.
Neutron is intended to be a 2-stage, partially-reusable medium lift launch vehicle (MLLV) in roughly the same class as ULA’s Vulcan-Centaur and SpaceX’s Falcon 9. However, it is of a highly innovative design, the second stage of the vehicle and its payload being carried aloft inside the first stage, within a set of clamshell payload fairings the company calls the “hungry hippo”. These open once the rocket has cleared the Earth’s denser atmosphere so the payload and its motor stage can be released, the core stage then returning to land on a floating platform.
A video showing the 2025 ground testing of Neutron’s aerodynamic fins, which will be used in the core stage’s descent to a landing barge touchdown, and the “Hungry Hippo” payload fairing forming the nose of the stage
The first Neutron vehicle (sans its upper stage and payload) arrived on the pad at rocket Lab’s launch facilities at the Mid-Atlantic Region Spaceport (MARS) on the Virginia coast earlier in January. On January 21st, the vehicle was undergoing a hydrostatic pressure trial intended to validate structural integrity and safety margins so as to ensure a successful launch. However, during the test, the vehicle’s main propellant tank buckled and then ruptured, effectively writing off the rocket.
Rocket Lab will now need time to analyse precisely what went wrong, why the propellant tank gave way and whether any significant structural alterations need to be made to it prior to any launch attempt being made.
A rendering of Rocket Lab’s Neutron and how it will work. Credit: Tony Bella
Gazing into the “Eye of Sauron”
Our Sun will one day die. In doing so, its hydrogen depleted, it will swell in size as it struggles to consume progressively heavier elements within itself before it collapses once more, shedding its outer layers into what we call a planetary nebula. It’s not a unique end for a main sequence star such as the Sun, but it can be a beautiful one when viewed from afar and through the eyeglass of time.
One such planetary nebula is that of NGC 7293 / Caldwell 63, commonly referred to as the Helix Nebula. Located some 650 light years away within the constellation of Aquarius as seen from Earth, it is one of the closest bright planetary nebulae to our solar system.
A nine-orbit, true colour image of the Helix Nebula captured by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) revealing the structure of of nebula. Credit: NASA / ESA / STScl
Formed by an intermediate mass star thought to be similar to the Sun, the Nebula takes its name by the fact that the outer layers look – from our perspective, at least – like a helix. Some 2.9 light years across its widest axis, the nebula features the stellar core of the star which created it near its centre, a core so energetic as it collapses towards becoming a white dwarf it blew off, it causes the layers of gas and dust to brightly fluoresce.
This combination of shape and fluorescing colours has given the nebula two additional informal names: The Eye of God, and more latterly and partially in fun in the wake of the Lord of the Rings films, The Eye of Sauron. The nebula was perhaps first made famous by a nine-orbit campaign using the Hubble Space Telescope to capture true-colour images of it in 2004, resulting in a stunning (at the time) composite image of the nebula.
In 2007, the Spitzer Space Telescope captured the Helix Nebula in the infrared wavelengths, revealing much of the complex structure of the nebula’s gas and dust layering, with the core remnants of the star forming it clearly visible and blood red taking to the infrared, giving it the appearance of an eye.
An nfrared false-colour image of the Helix Nebula from the Spitzer Space Telescope. The white dwarf at the heart of the nebula appears red in this image, suggesting a malevolent eye. Image Credit: NASA/JPL
More recently, both the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) VISTA (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) wide-angle telescope located high in the Atacama Desert of Chile, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) 1.5 million km out in space, have caught the full majesty of the Helix Nebula in comparative detail.
In particular, the JWST images reveal much of the intricate nature of the layers of gas and dust within the nebula. These include clear signs of how the powerful pulses of stellar wind from the dying star are forcing most of the gases and dust in the layers to be pushed away from the core, with globular-like knots and strands of denser material resisting the push, forming what is called cometary knots, due to their resemblance to comets and their tails. However, these “comets” tend to be wider than the planetary core of our solar system!
Left: a true-colour, high-resolution of the Helix Nebula captured by ESO’s VISTA The image of the Helix Nebula on the left is from the ESO’s VISTA telescope in Chile. Right: an image from JWST offering detail on a portion of the Nebula. Credits: ESO/VISTA / NASA / ESA / STScI, J. Emerson (ESO)
JWST’s images also reveal the blue heat of stars beyond the nebula diffracted into beautiful star-like forms by the intervening (and invisible) gas and dust. VISTA, meanwhile helps put the JWST images into perspective within the Nebula as a whole. They also demonstrate how it was likely Helix was result of three different outbursts – or epochs – from the star.
The innermost of these epochs is obviously the youngest and more intact and more exposed to the outflow of stellar winds from the star’s remnants, whilst the outermost is interacting with the interstellar medium, with evidence of shockwaves, ripples, and a general “flattening” of the expanding clouds as it collides with the increasingly denser gas within the interstellar medium. This outermost layer was likely formed about 15,000-20,000 years ago, with the innermost about 10,000-12,000 years old.
A close-up image from JWST showing the “cometary knots”, the majority likely larger than the planetary core of our solar system, formed by dense clusters of gas resisting the outward push of solar winds from the dying star. A star is shown in blue, indicating its heat, the light from it undergoing diffraction by the non-visible dust and gas of the nebula. Credit: NASA / ESA / STScl
In time – around 30-50,000 years from now – the Helix Nebula will vanish as it merges into the interstellar medium and its star collapses into a quiescent white dwarf. But for now it continues to turn its eye upon us, gazing down as an entrancing ring of beauty, visible to professional and amateur astronomers alike.
Sable Hound Hollow – Romantic Reverie, January 2026 – click any image for full size
Sable Hound Hollow presents a sanctuary for dreamers and a haven for lovers. Here the first whispers of Spring and the enchantment of the Hollow invite you to linger awhile and let your heart rest and your worries fade. Be it alone or with that special someone, allow the quiet beauty of this place remind you the magic of love is real.
– Sable Hound Hollow About Land
So reads a description for Sable Hound Hollow – Romantic Reverie, a setting designed by Honey Heart (H0neyHeart) as a public space for people to visit and enjoy, and forming a part of the wider Sable Hound Hollow region.
Sable Hound Hollow – Romantic Reverie, January 2026
set as a pair of islands floating just over 500 metres in the sky, this is – as the description suggests – a romantic setting, one of considerable beauty and detail and offering much to appreciate and see. The Landing Point sits on the larger, western island, located on its highest level.
Here, within a large gazebo where visitors can join the local Group and – from now through until the end of February – join in a number of events centred on a celebration of Valentine’s Day. These include a hunt (group tag required), and the opportunity to obtain a daily gift when visiting from February 1st through 14th (again, Group membership required).
Sable Hound Hollow – Romantic Reverie, January 2026
Placed within a circular garden area, this upper reach of the setting offer two paths for visitors to follow as they explore. One of leads to a ladder draped over the edge of the plateau to offer a way down to a shoulder of rock arcing around the garden plateau. This forms another garden space with its own gazebo nicely separated form the rest of the setting to give a greater sense of intimacy / privacy, with treats and hot drinks available under its roof, exotic plants scattered among its flowers together with statutes, while trees provide shade and birds watch over the comings and goings of visitors.
The second path goes by way of steps to a larger garden space. this offers seating in the form of a bench floating under a cloud and a balloon holding aloft a seat for singles and couples (beware of the drop when standing up!), together with another table of treats and a Greco-Roman style gazebo where the 14 gifts for Valentine’s can be found, displaying the dates and times they will become available to Group members.
Sable Hound Hollow – Romantic Reverie, January 2026
Beyond this area, another ladder descends to the second half (so to speak) of the lower shoulder of rock, which again offers companionable seating in two locations (and an easily missed swing if you are not paying attention!), together with a bridge spanning the gap to the smaller of the two islands.
Here, the setting is again split into various levels. Just off to the left on crossing the bridge, the island offers a curve of grass richly coloured by wildflowers, as it arcs its way to where water forms a curtain and pool as it drops from a rocky archway. As it does so, the path passes a table set for a tea party, although no individuals in hats or mice or caterpillars are in evidence – just a pair of friendly rabbits :). Just before the waterfall and pool, a hint of magic is provided in the form of a bird perched on an upright post. Magical because if you wait just a few minutes, the bird will change its form and song.
Sable Hound Hollow – Romantic Reverie, January 2026
The waters of the fall drop from the rocks forming the upper tier of this island, reached easily enough by a set of stairs. Here visitors can take a pony ride and receive a gift of said pony at the end. A trail winds around the plateau, passing all the points of interest, including statues, a pair of swings to ride, together with the opportunity for a picnic under the boughs of twisted trees and in the company of white peacocks. This trail ends in steps running down to another path and gazebo set at one end of another sweeping curve of garden.
A third ladder has been cast down from the north-eastern side of this upper space to offer a way down to perhaps the most secluded part of the gardens. This is where water drops down from the pool mentioned above to join with the flow of additional waterfalls as they combine into a large pool before tumbling over the edge of the island to fall away into the clouds below. Marked again by a colourful array of flowers and trees, this area offers seating within another gazebo and a further swing suitable for solo sits.
Sable Hound Hollow – Romantic Reverie, January 2026
All of the above barely scratches the surface of all there is to be found here; Honey’s attention to detail means that everywhere are touches and details. These run from the mix of flower and plants – most conventional, some carrying a sci-fi or fantasy twist; the local wildlife, some of which might be easily missed (like the weasel peeping out of a hollow log); the floating lanterns, and more.
Both romantic and serene, the island of Sable Hound Hollow make for a relaxing and visually engaging visit.
Sable Hound Hollow – Romantic Reverie, January 2026
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 