Tag: Astronomy

Does the football-field-sized Kamo'oalewa hold a shocking secret about the moon?

China: Tianwen-2 Reaches Within 20-Kilometres & Photographs Quasi-Moon “Kamo’oalewa”! (9.7.2026)

This is also what makes the above photograph truly valuable and remarkable. It transformed a celestial body, previously only present in orbital calculations and distant (small) telescopic spots, for the first time into an object with a real shape, scale, and surface.

The Earth did not suddenly have a “new” real moon – but it does have a curious small rock beside it that has accompanied it in a tracking dance for nearly a century, and may continue to accompany the Earth for many more centuries to come.

Sometimes, human understanding creates all kinds of mysteries about the universe. This may not be a second moon – but it could be a long-lost fragment of the actual moon left to accompany the Earth – albeit at a distance.

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Timeline and reconstruction of summer solstice celebrations as they might have appeared at Bulford 5000 years ago © Wessex Archaeology

UK: Strange Stories from England – Proto-Stone Henge Dsicovered! (19.6.2026)

“The discovery at Bulford is fundamental because it’s the earliest example of people building things here that aim directly at the solstice. When we talk about the solstice, we’re talking about religion. About how prehistoric peoples understood the cosmos, the world, and their place in it. What we see at Bulford, and later at Stonehenge, is a way of celebrating and marking the passage of time, but it’s also about making sure the world keeps working as it should. It’s likely their way of saying to their deities, please keep us in mind, keep us warm and safe. It’s a religious event. That’s why it’s so important.”

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Moon Rock Made of Wood!

Basque Country: Scientists Baffled – Human Ballpoints on Mars? (18.4.2026)

This alteration creates a crust that complicates the determination of the original mineralogical composition of the meteorite. Removing this outer layer is essential, but as this study highlights, it is not always a straightforward process. The team used Raman spectroscopy, a technique commonly employed to study the chemical composition of objects, to identify various contaminants. Among these were copper compounds, synthetic organic molecules used in inks for ballpoint pens and gel pens, and blue polyester, likely from textiles. These contaminants raise a crucial question: how much of the Martian rock’s natural composition is truly represented in these samples? The presence of such human-made materials suggests that, despite rigorous efforts to prevent contamination, these meteorites are far from untouched by Earthly influence.

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Cover of the journal that published the study. (Photo courtesy of the Einstein Probe Science Center of the National Astronomical Observatories)

China: Chinese Scientists Report First Likely Sighting of Black-Hole Devouring White Dwarf! (12.2.2026)

Chinese astronomers said they have likely captured the first direct evidence of a mid-sized black hole ripping apart and consuming a white dwarf star, shedding new light on a long-theorized but rarely observed cosmic process.

The discovery is based on observations of a powerful high-energy space explosion known as EP250702a, detected by China’s Einstein Probe satellite, according to the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The findings were published this month in the journal Science Bulletin.

Mid-sized black holes, thought to bridge the gap between stellar-mass and supermassive black holes, are difficult to detect because they produce few observable signals unless actively feeding on nearby matter.

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Sutton (South London) - Full Monn - January 5th 2026!

Sutton: Full Moon – January! (5.1.2026)

Not quite the Arctic Tundra – but nevertheless -3 – and abit parky (brass monkeys) as we say in England. There has been a slight scattering of snow in the South – but up North it has been quite bad. There is talk of more snow in London – but talk is cheap! I went running with a 56 lbs pack today – wearing my old sturdy boots – and had tp tread carefully between the fluffy and charming snow and the nasty (hidden) black-ice. I do not fancy taking a tumble at 58-years old. Mind you – I find the cold air bracing and invigorating. Also, I wanted to set an example for Mei-An – my oldest daughter – who had to walk through the ice to school today, the first day back at school in our area.

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A figure illustrating the rotation of neutral hydrogen (right) in galaxies residing in an extended filament (middle), where the galaxies exhibit a coherent bulk rotational motion tracing the large-scale cosmic web (left). Credit: Lyla Jung

Oxford: Astronomers Spot One of the Largest Spinning Structures Ever Found in the Universe! (6.12.2025)

Professor Jarvis said: ‘This really demonstrates the power of combining data from different observatories to obtain greater insights into how large structures and galaxies form in the Universe. Such studies can only be achieved by large groups with diverse skillsets, and in this case, it was really made possible by winning an ERC Advanced Grant/UKIR Frontiers Research Grant, which funded the co-lead authors.’

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