Our lightcurve of 2025 RL2 from last night shows that it is a fast rotator with a lightcurve amplitude of 0.7 mag. The asteroid is either tumbling with a main period of 4.36 minutes, or it has a complicated shape, resulting in a lightcurve with four peaks of different height and period 8.71 minutes.

A preliminary orbit for the satellite of dwarf planet (136472) Makemake. Daniel Bamberger https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.05880

Just did an interview with Frank Timmes for the AAS YouTube channel. I think it went really well! 🙂🧪🔭 We discussed our research note about resonances with Uranus (DOI 10.3847/2515-5172/aded08), and some future prospects. ✨ The video will come out in a few weeks at www.youtube.com/@AAStronomy/...

I am proud to announce that Northolt Branch Observatories have been awarded a 2025 Shoemaker NEO Grant by The Planetary Society! 🎉🔭🌠 www.planetary.org/articles/202...

I was reminded recently of some ideas a friend and I had for a paper, back in the days when 1I/'Oumuamua was discovered. There were already some interesting things floating around back then. Surely this stuff would get us into the New York Times nowadays. ⚗️💩🔭

@keelingcurve.bsky.social This has just been announced by the International Astronomical Union. 🔭🧪✨ www.wgsbn-iau.org/files/Bullet...

I did not expect that our research note would attract this much interest. Happy to see the result being shared around! www.universetoday.com/articles/sci...

"Update: The DeTeCt project has announced that the flash was not seen in additional data, so there was no impact on Saturn." www.newscientist.com/article/2487...

NEW VIDEO on an interstellar object hurtling through our solar system - youtu.be/VRHZUH0RcQ4

Marc Delcroix reports a potential impact in Saturn captured in a few frames in a video observation obtained by Mario Rana. The very short impact flash occurred on Saturn on July 5th 2025, between 09:00 and 09:15 UT. He's looking for other videos to confirm. See here: pvol2.ehu.eus/pvol2/news/v...

FACT THREAD on New Interstellar Object #A11pl3Z This story unfolded pretty fast yesterday for a few reasons. The object was discovered on July 1st UTC by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS team. A #NASA funded survey at the University of Hawaii. atlas.fallingstar.com 🔭🧪

Some early reports about the candidate interstellar object A11pl3Z wrongly indicate that the object was discovered at Deep Random Survey (that's @astrafoxen.bsky.social , Sam Deen, me, and others). I want to clarify that the object was found at ATLAS, Chile. I'm sorry for the unintended confusion.

Animation of the candidate interstellar object A11pl3Z passing through the inner Solar System. Close approaches to planets: Mars on 3 October 2025, at 0.187±0.003 au Jupiter on 16 March 2026, at 0.396±0.016 au Image credit: CSS, @asteroiddave.bsky.social 🔭 neofixer.arizona.edu/css-orbit-vi...

Precovery observations of the new interstellar object A11pl3Z from I41 show that its eccentricity is a bit lower than originally thought, only 6 instead of 10. It's still by far the highest we have ever seen. @astrafoxen.bsky.social @asteroiddave.bsky.social

Here's our images of interstellar object #A11pl3Z from Deep Random Survey's 0.43-meter scope @ Chile. The telescope was following A11pl3Z's motion, so stars appear smeared. Weather got worse by the end, so still hard to tell if it's a comet. 600-sec exposures, from 2025 Jul 2, 00:42-01:23 UT 🔭☄️

Hiya! Over the past few months I've been silently working on several astronomy projects. Here's what I've been up to lately! 🔭☄️🧪 1. I discovered a Kuiper belt object! (2013 CG269) 2. I'm coauthor of a brand new paper by @renerpho.bsky.social et al. on the rotation of asteroid Bradyharan! (1/11)

NEW: Astronomers have long predicted that the Andromeda Galaxy will one day crash into the Milky Way. Well, good news, future time travellers: scientists now think that the pull of a small, nearby galaxy might just save our galactic bacon. Me for NatGeo www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

Looking at what I said about the possible lunar impact of 2024 YR4 in 2032, I made some claims in early February about its potential brightness and visibility, which I no longer agree with in light of what we've learned about the asteroid.

Official statement alright... Does the new pope count?

On this day in 1945, US troops liberated Dachau concentration camp. My great-great-grandfather Hermann Willstumpf (1894-1958), a political prisoner since 1939, was being marched there from Straubing. The guards lost control around April 28, he escaped, and returned to his family weeks later.

Useless astronomy fact: When you convert the characters in the names of 14400 Baudot and 850 Altona into unicode, you get 66, 97, 117, 100, 111, 116 65, 108, 116, 111, 110, 97 These have the same sum (607) and product (964456178400). This is the only non-trivial pair of asteroids with that property.

A 4½-hour time lapse of asteroid (62701) Davidrankin @asteroiddave.bsky.social, recorded last night from Rio Hurtado, Chile. 🔭🌠 www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtTN...

Wikipedia's longest continuously featured article en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzanti... has just been demoted, after 23 years and 327 days. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...

This is glorious! Read the thread till the end for the full experience.

Premiere in 5 minutes! www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOb2...

A 4th known sednoid?! minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K25/K25...

Rest in peace Svetlana Gerasimenko (1945-2025)

Prediction: US will now overinvest in Planetary Defense (i.e. against asteroid impacts) relative to its actual threat compared to climate and enviro monitoring. Shooting thing at space rock = cool and manly Know Earth biogeochemical systems to make better policy = woke and lame

NEW: Have you ever wondered what lies beneath all of Antarctica's ice? Well, thanks to 70 years' worth of surveys, you can see! Take a look at this map: it reveals a hidden world of mountains and canyons not seen for 35 million years. Me @atlasobscura.com www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ant...

Mein Artikel "Die ältesten Kirchenbücher des Amtes Battenberg" erscheint in den nächsten Tagen in der Märzausgabe der Hinterländer Geschichtsblätter. Ich gebe darin einen Überblick über neueste Erkenntnisse zur Geschichte der Pfarreien Battenberg, Battenfeld und Laisa.

YouTuber asteroids All the asteroids that have been named after YouTubers, as of 17 March 2025 (including newly named Diannacowern, Tibees, and Timdodd). Image credit: Thumbnail: K. Ly Orbit animation created with CSSView (CSS, D. Rankin @asteroiddave.bsky.social ) www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIxE...

To my knowledge, the naming of (429733) Gilbertbaker, a large Amor-type Near Earth asteroid, marks the first -- even indirect -- representation of the LGBTQ community in space.

Jakob Kaup is best known as the discoverer of Deinotherium, a prehistoric giant elephant. In the 1830s, his friend August Klipstein purchased a quarry in Eppelsheim, near Darmstadt, and invited Kaup to excavate with him. In 1835, they unearthed the first-ever Deinotherium skull.

A friend took some images of "my" asteroid (128345) Danielbamberger in February, and sent me the raw data today. I turned it into a little animation. It's been a while since I've seen that rock! 😄🌠 Visible here at 21.3 mag. Images taken at Deep Random Survey, Chile (X09).

I am so incredibly proud of David and everything he has achieved throughout his career. It was an honor to watch him take part in this NASA panel at the Sundance Film Festival. I can not wait for the documentary to premiere on NASA+ this spring.