Physicists uncork a message in a bottle from another star
NASA’s Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS during two visits in July and August 2025. The panels show visible-light (left) and ultraviolet (right) images, where the faint glow of hydroxyl (OH) traces water vapour escaping...
Water flowed on ancient asteroid
Ryugu is named after a magical underwater palace in a Japanese folktale — appropriately enough it seems to be a palace for water in the real world too. ©2025 Jaxa, UTokyo & collaborators CC-BY-ND. Liquid water flowing on ancient asteroids reshapes our...
Can Hayabusa2 touchdown on asteroid 1998 KY26?
An artist’s impression of Japan’s Hayabusa2 space mission touching down on the surface of the asteroid 1998 KY26. New observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed that 1998 KY26 is just 11m wide, almost three times smaller than previously...