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    Category Astronomy/Space

    The asteroid that may be three worlds

    August 11, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Asteroid (44) Nysa imaged with the SHARK-VIS instrument on the Large Binocular Telescope. The tiny moon S/2026 (44) 1, arrowed, was pulled from the asteroid's glare using techniques borrowed from exoplanet hunting (Credit : SHARK-VIS/LBT Observatory)
    Asteroid (44) Nysa imaged with the SHARK-VIS instrument on the Large Binocular Telescope. The tiny moon S/2026 (44) 1, arrowed, was pulled from the asteroid’s glare using techniques borrowed from exoplanet hunting (Credit : SHARK-VIS/LBT Observatory)

    What shape is an asteroid? For (44) Nysa, the honest answer until now has been that nobody knew. It is one of the brightest and largest E-type asteroids in the main belt, a class with a surface rich in enstatite, and its oddness has made it a favorite target for well over a hundred years. Successive observations hinted that it was elongated, perhaps even two lumps stuck together, but the picture stayed frustratingly blurred.

    An international team led by Kate Minker at Lowell Observatory has now brought two of the world’s heaviest instru...

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    Rare ultra-magnetic star may be key to solving 90-year old quantum cold case

    August 9, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A Swinburne astronomer may have just confirmed one of the quirkiest aspects of quantum mechanics: that seemingly empty space can alter the behaviour of light. Image supplied via NASA.

    Astronomers may have just confirmed one of the quirkiest aspects of quantum mechanics: that seemingly empty space can alter the behavior of light. This phenomenon, called “vacuum birefringence,” was first predicted nearly 90 years ago by Werner Heisenberg, one of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics. He suggested that even a perfect vacuum should be teeming with “virtual particles” that rapidly pop in and out of existence.

    The astronomers, including Dr Marcus Lower from Swinburne University of Technology, used the properties of a magnetar—a rare type of neutron star with the strongest magnetic fie...

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    Diffuse interfilament gas is likely a key fuel source for massive star formation

    August 7, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Inter-filamentary diffuse gas: Key fuel source for massive star formation
    Illustration of the Monoceros R2 hub–filament system showing how the gas flows along the filaments (green arrows) and in the inter-filament regions (blue arrows) towards the central hub. The analysis showed that gas within dense filaments flows toward the hub much faster than gas in the surrounding inter-filament regions. At the same time, a fraction of the gas in the inter-filament regions moves sideways into nearby filaments, replenishing them with fresh material before continuing toward the hub, supporting star formation. Credit: Kyushu University

    Researchers from Kyushu University have discovered that diffuse gas surrounding dense filaments in a nearby stellar nursery plays a much larger role in star formation than previously recognized...

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    Homing in on the X-ray sky with eROSITA’s second data release

    August 2, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An X-ray image of galaxy cluster A3266
    An X-ray image of galaxy cluster A3266 – The massive galaxy cluster A3266 is shining brightly in the X-ray light and is connected to a nearby group of galaxies by a gaseous filament.© Jakob Dietl/Uni Bonn/eROSITA-DE

    The German eROSITA consortium (eROSITA-DE), which includes the University of Bonn and is led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), has released its second major public data set, the “eROSITA Data Release 2” (DR2).

    Built from the first three all-sky surveys conducted by the eROSITA telescope aboard the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) mission, DR2 provides the most sensitive and comprehensive catalog of the X-ray sky currently available to the public...

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