The Vera C. Rubin Observatory starts an amazing project. The LSST is now underway! We've talked before about the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. This new telescope aims to image large parts of the southern sky every few nights in unprecedented detail.  After decades of planning and construction and years of testing and fine tuning, it has now started its main project. The largest survey of the southern sky, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), is now underway.  During this 10-year project,  Rubin will constantly observe the entire southern sky every few nights to create an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of our Universe.  When running at full tilt, the 8.4 metre Rubin telescope will take a 3,200 mega pixel image every 40 seconds, allowing astronomers to keep an eye out for night-to-night changes. We used to think of the Universe as hardly ever changing, simply moving above us on a clockwork-like schedule. We now know that there are constant changes and Rubin might see up to seven million of these changes, or transient phenomena, every night. “Today, we begin filming the greatest cosmic movie ever made,” says Brian Stone, performing the duties of the NSF Director. “This moment reflects decades of vision, innovation, and the power of federal investment in science through the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. Every night, NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory will expand the frontiers of knowledge and strengthen America's global leadership in science and innovation.” Rubin will not just scan for changes in our galaxy and beyond, it will find stunning numbers of yet-undiscovered objects in the Solar System, cataloguing millions of asteroids and comets.  Read more here. The Milky Way is even larger than we thought Does this mean there's even more of our galaxy to image? Sadly, no..... XMM-Newton & Chandra revise distance to the outer spiral arms Sometimes when you're living in the middle of something, it can be hard to work out exactly what surrounds you. This is even more so when you're orbiting one of maybe 100-400 billion stars in the Milky Way. (The exact number is still unknown and this is just an estimate.) Even more confusing is that we're embedded deep in one of the arms of the Milky Way and our view of the far side of the galaxy is blocked by gas, dust and billions of stars. In fact there is some debate about how many arms the Milky Way actually has! Estimates about the Milky Way have been based on observing the way stars move and how the galaxy rotates. However this leave a lot of room for error. Astronomers are trying to change this by studying data from the studying X-ray data from ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra observatories. They've noticed that explosions or gamma ray bursts (GRB) in other galaxies produce x-rays. “Instead, we did something new: we looked at the aftermath of three cosmic explosions that took place in far more distant galaxies. These explosions flung out X-rays that echoed through several of the Milky Way’s outer arms – and we measured the distances to these echoes directly.” said Beatrice Vaia of Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Italy, who led the research as part of her PhD. By studying how these ring-shaped echoes slowly expanded over time, Beatrice and colleagues were able to pinpoint the distance of the scattering dust grains. As these lie in clouds within the arms of our galaxy, the team could directly measure the distance of the arms. Besides confirming the known distance to the Perseus arm, the scientists found that two of the Milky Way galaxy’s arms – Outer Scutum-Centaurus Arm and Outer Arm – lie up to 10% further away than we thought. Can I photograph the Outer Scutum-Centaurus Arm and Outer Arm? No, not really. They're heavily blocked stars and dust and can't be seen in visible light. Read more about the new size of the Milky Way here. Even more signs of possible life found on Mars Another pointer to past life, but again we can't say for certain life once existed on the Red Planet   NASA's Perseverance Rover. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS There's been a number of major announcements that hint at past life on Mars. The Mars Perseverance Rover (or "Percy" to its friends) has been exploring the Jezero crater since 2021, and one of the major mission objectives has been to look for signs of past life.  Now researchers have announced that the most complex organic molecules even detected on Mars have been found in a rock outcrop dubbed "Blue Angel". Samples collected in 2024 have been found to contain macromolecular carbon (MMC). These are large networks of carbon atoms which are often found in Earth rocks containing fossilized biological carbon and meteorites.  We're not sure exactly how these molecules were formed. Billions of years ago, a river channel carried water and sediment into Jezero crater. Fine-grained sediment settled to the bottom before eventually hardening into the mudstone rocks the team analysed. "While the specific formation mechanism of the MMC detected in the Bright Angel mudstones remains unknown, this is still one of the most exciting findings to date," said Ashley Murphy, a Planetary Science Institute postdoctoral researcher. What's even more tantalizing is this discovery of organic molecules at Jezero is over 3000km from the organics found by the Curiosity Rover and found close to the surface too. This means that whatever the mechanism that caused them, could have been widespread across Mars. Again, this is not an announcement of the discovery of life on Mars. Organic materials can be formed by non-biological processes and the rovers on Mars don't have the ability to directly look at samples to detect life. For life to be fully confirmed either astronauts need land on Mars or the samples left on the surface by Percy are collected and returned to Earth for analysis in labs here. Cheers, Earl White BINTEL 4th July 2026   

Comet 3I/ATLAS is older than the Solar System  NASA confirms our most recent visitor is 10 to 12 billion years old.  We've chatted before about the most recent visitor to our Solar System, interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS.  It's now on the way back into deep-space with possible a rendezvous with another star system many millions of years in the future.  Earlier this week researchers announced results suggesting it was formed much earlier in the history of the Milky Way.  By interrupting the planned observing schedule of the Webb Space Telescope, a team of astronomers used its NIRSpec instrument to observe 3I/ATLAS. These observations revealed exceptionally high levels of deuterium, about 30 times more than seen in Solar System comets. Deuterium is an isotope or type of hydrogen that has an extra neutron along with the normal proton.  These high levels of deuterium found on 3I/ATLAS points towards it being formed in a much colder part of the Milky Way. In addition, the comet would have been exposed to plenty of radiation, but not any long-term warmth that would have reprocessed its “heavy water” ice, with deuterium, into the type of H2O ice we are familiar with on Earth. Researchers used the NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to map specific chemical contents of comet 3I/ATLAS as it moved away from the Sun. Image via NASA, ESA. “This was a unique opportunity to study an ancient object from the distant galaxy, probably pre-dating our Sun and solar system,” said astro-chemist Martin Cordiner of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead author of the study. “On the one hand, we get direct insight into that distant time and place, and on the other, we learn something about how unusual our own solar system may be.” How old is old? It's now estimated that 3I/ATLAS formed some 10 to 12 billion years ago during a period of rapid star formation in the Milky Way. This puts this visitor at over twice the age of Sun and the rest of the Milky Way. “For us as scientists, finding these rare isotopes is fascinating, but the bigger picture here is looking at the possibilities of prebiotic chemistry elsewhere in the galaxy,” said Stefanie Milam of NASA Goddard and co-author of the study with Cordiner. “So far, we know of only one place in the vast cosmos where chemical ingredients led to life – our solar system, our Earth. Analysis of these interstellar objects is a major step towards learning how common, or uncommon, the conditions for the evolution of life are in the universe.” Where else has Comet 3I/ATLAS been? We don't have enough information about this comet to establish its full history certainty, but astronomers have indicated likely swung around over 60 of other stars over billions of years.  Are we looking for other interstellar visitors? Yes. Astronomers constantly keep an eye out for new comets as well as other types of interstellar visitors such as 'Oumuamua. Interestingly the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile celebrated the first anniversary of its initial release of the wide field images. Even though this scans the entire southern night sky, it hasn't confirmed any new interstellar objects, although at least one candidate is under review. Read more about the age of Comet 3I/ATLAS at the NASA site here. The deepest ever images of the Milky Way's "Galactic Bulge" in visible light 60 Million Stars in this image which covers more than 20 times the area of the Full Moon   Astronomers with the European Space Agency (ESA) turned the Euclid Space Telescope to observe the centre of the Milky Way. Normally spending its time capturing wide field views of distant galaxies, the time spent photographing the heart of our home galaxy has produced a simply stunning image that shows some 60 million stars in a single frame. Euclid covered 4.8 square degrees of the sky with this image, corresponding to 22 times the area of the full Moon as seen from Earth. The image has been rotated counterclockwise compared to the celestial projection: north is to the left and east is down. It's of particular interest to Australian astronomers as this region is almost overhead during our winter months and many of our BINTEL customers have spent hours happily imaging the Milky Way using DSLR or mirrorless cameras and star tracker mounts. The location in the sky of this Euclid image “In 24 hours, Euclid has already captured the stars involved in all the future microlensing events that the Roman space telescope will detect, but before the stars and planets involved have aligned,” says Natalia Rektsini of the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris in France, who led the release of Euclid’s galactic bulge survey data for the scientific community. “This means that anyone who detects a microlensing event in the same region, for example with Roman, will be able from now on to use Euclid data as a time reference in the past and see how the stars looked before they overlapped,” Natalia explains. “Since Euclid can clearly separate individual stars, one can then measure how fast they move over time and use that information to confirm the existence of a planet and determine its mass. This would not be possible with data from one point in time.” Read the full article here and see some more full resolution images. World's oldest impact crater is in Australia When you look at the Moon through even a small telescope, you can see a vast number of craters. These are round depressions that have been caused by impacts of space rocks hitting the Moon's surface.  You can even see craters within other craters, plus some appear slightly oval in shape.  There's caters like Imbrium Basin at about 1,455 km wide or even the South Pole–Aitken Basin which is some 2,500 km and one of the largest in the entire Solar System, while others visible are only a few km across.   Most of these craters resulted from impacts that happened during the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB). This is a hypothesized period that saw a spike in asteroid and comet impacts that scarred the Moon and inner planets including Earth which was roughly 3.9 to 4.1 billion years ago. We sometimes have people ask us, "if the Moon is covered by craters, why don't we see them here on Earth?" The answer is yes, we have craters on Earth, and it was certainly hit by many objects just like the Moon. However, the Moon is basically a dead body, while the Earth constantly erases its craters through weathering, plate tectonics, and water coverage. Even so, some survive. The team from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) investigated rock formations at the North Pole Dome in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, By studying zircons, a mineral that "keeps time", they've now established them as being the results of an impact of approx. 3 billion years ago, making them the oldest crater formations found on Earth.  Lead author Professor Chris Kirkland, from the Timescales of Minerals Systems Group within Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the findings help resolve a longstanding question about the timing of the impact. “While the site had previously been identified as an ancient impact structure, its exact age remained uncertain,” Professor Kirkland said. “The impact left a ‘mineral clock’ behind. By dating minerals that were remade or newly grown in the damaged rocks, we can now pin down when this extraordinary event happened.   Read more at the Curtin University site here. Cheers, Earl White BINTEL 27th June 2026

Your eyes are probably not the same! Many people mightn't realise they have a slight difference in the focusing of their left and right eyes. It's something that's quite common and a diopter adjustment allows you to adjust for this variation between your eyes. It means that the binoculars have a different focus.  Binoculars usually have a small dial or ring that allows you to make a diopter adjustment.  How do I adjust the diopter? We tell people to close their right eye and look through your binoculars. (If this is tricky, put on just the right eyecup) then using just your left eye, focus your binoculars on something a little bit in the distance that has some crisp detail. This could be a tree branch, a rooftop or a traffic sign. Now, reverse the process. Shut your left eye or cover the left lens of your binoculars. This time don't touch the central focus wheel. Instead, adjust the diopter dial. This could be a dial around the outside of the right eyepiece such as the one on these Nikon Monarch M7 binoculars.  Depending on your binoculars, you just need to firmly twist them. On others, you might need to click up the right ring and then click it back down when you've finished the adjustment.  These Leica Trinovid binoculars at BINTEL use a click ring around the focuser to adjust the diopter. Twist the ring slowly from left to right to see if the image in your right eye comes more sharply into focus.  Hopefully it won't need much movement away from the central position at all! Next, switch eyes. Cover the left objective lens or close your left eye and now look only through the right side. This time do not touch the central focus wheel. Instead, turn the diopter ring until the same object is sharp for your right eye. Open both eyes or remove the left lens cap. You should notice that the view through your binoculars is a little sharper, especially if you need to twist the diopter dial more than a small amount.  The slight difference in your eyes has been "dialled" into your binos.  It might be worth repeating the process a couple of times focussing on different objects in the distance to fine tune the process. It's probably a good idea to make note of the diopter setting in case it gets bumped or you need to share your binos with other people.  What about if I wear glasses for long distance viewing and I want to use them with binoculars? If you use glasses for distance viewing, your optometrist has already taken into account the difference between your eyes as part of your glasses prescription.  You should be able to use your glasses with binoculars without the need to adjust the diopter setting.  The only thing to make sure of is that your binoculars have a decent eye relief. Eye relief is the distance behind the eyepiece at which your eye still sees the full field of view. Because your glasses hold the binoculars further from your eyes, you need longer eye relief to still see the whole image. Generally speaking, 15mm or more is comfortable for glasses wearers. What about if I wear glasses for long distance viewing and I don't want to use them with binoculars? In this case, there's a good chance you'll be able to use the focus to account for the change in focus your glasses perform. If the differences in your left and right eyes are too large for the diopter adjustment in your binoculars to cater for, you will need to still use your glasses. There are also some conditions, such astigmatism, that will still require you to wear your glasses.  This is only a brief introduction, so have a chat to us at BINTEL for more information! Cheers, Earl White BINTEL 26th June 2026

Winter Solstice this weekend Sunday, June 21, at 6:25 pm Sydney time This weekend marks the Winter Solstice in Australia and is also the longest night of the year and the shortest day. Why do we have longer nights in winter? The reason for the seasons and the changes in the length of the days and nights is because the Earth orbits the Sun at a slight tilt of about 23 degrees.  During the southern hemisphere winter months, our parts of the world are pointed away from the Sun. The Sun will appear in the part of the sky north of the "ecliptic" which is the line drawn around the middle of the sky.  The Solstice marks the date when the Sun is as far north as it's going to get. From now on, it will move south until the Summer Solstice in December when (as you might have guessed) it reaches it furthest southern point and starts the journey north again. The Earth during the southern winter solstice While we see the Sun move from east to west during the course of the day, the actual part of the sky where it's located changes constantly.  These longer nights are a delight for astronomers and with the rich central core of our home galaxy during the winter months, "Milky Way Season" is an ideal time for wide field astrophotography.  If this is the shortest night, is it the coldest day of the year? No. The reason is the atmosphere, land and oceans retain a lot of heat from the warmer summer months. It takes them a while to cool down. The coldest month in Australia is usually July. It's not the start of winter, at least not in Australia Many parts of the world including much of the north hemisphere, mark their season changes with the solstices and equinoxes. In Australia we start winter on the first of June. The dates of the solstices changes by a couple of days from year and using the calendar method allow better record keeping for farming and graziers.  What if the Earth didn't have a tilt, would we still have seasons? What about the rest of the Solar System planets? No.  The reason why we have seasons are entirely due to our planet's tilt.  Other planets including Mars, Saturn and Neptune have tilts not too far away from Earth and they all experience seasons as well.  Jupiter and Venus only have a miniscule tilt and don't have seasons. (Some would suggest that Venus has close to a 180 degree "tilt" as it spins backwards compared to other planets and is in fact upside down!) Neptune's tilt is almost 98 degrees, and it effectively spins on its side, making its seasons decades long. Nancy Grace Roman Telescope countdown As large as Hubble, with a field of view 100 times wider, due to launch on the 30th of August 2026 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy The latest space telescope from NASA has a unique mission. Over the next five years, it's going to be tasked with surveying and capturing large chunks of the night sky in unprecedented detail. Hubble and more recently the Webb Space Telescope have enchanted us all with close up details of both the deep-sky and Solar System. Roman will continue these types of observations, while covering much larger regions of the sky.   It's named after NASA's first chief astronomer, Nancy Grace Roman, who's often been called the "mother of the Hubble Space Telescope". A NASA illustration of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope It has the roughly the same size optics the famous Hubble Space Telescope but with a vastly wider field of view. Astronomers hope it reveal more about dark matter and dark energy as well as expanding the number known exoplanets and getting a better understanding of the star systems where they've formed.  Whenever new, large cutting edge telescopes and observatories start exploring the Universe, it's the unexpected discoveries that are often the most exciting. We're all looking forward to what the Roman Space Telescope will reveal.  What's also amazing about this telescope is that it's being launched under budget and ahead of schedule.  NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said recently: "The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is in final preparation for launch, eight months AHEAD of schedule and UNDER budget.  This milestone is the result of more than a decade of dedication and millions of hours of work by NASA and our industry partners. Their commitment is what’s making this moment possible and helping drive Gold Standard Science.  Roman will help answer some of the biggest questions in science, investigating dark matter, dark energy, and the structure of the universe. Its images will be so large and detailed, there isn’t a screen in existence big enough to display them." Hitch a ride with Roman! Until the 12th of July 2026, if you visit this NASA site you'll be able to add your name to a special SD memory card that will fly with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and even score your own NASA boarding pass: You can part be of the mission and be connected with this very special astronomy project.  Cheers, Earl White BINTEL 20th June 2026      

NASA Announces the crew for the upcoming Artemis III mission Astronauts will test out multiple space systems in low Earth orbit We've all been thrilled with the return of astronauts to the Moon during the recent Artemis II mission, which swung around the Moon before heading back to Earth. It was the first time since 1972 that humans had travelled beyond Earth orbit and the furthest that astronauts had ever been away from our home planet. NASA announced the crew of Artemis III this week. They are: NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, commander ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, pilot NASA astronaut Andre Douglas, mission specialist NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, mission specialist The Artemis III crew. Unlike Artemis II, this mission scheduled to fly in 2027 will remain in low Earth orbit. There's been comparisons to the Apollo 9 mission in March 1969 which tested the Lunar Lander before it was sent to the Moon. Unlike the Apollo Lunar landing where each mission was a single launch of a Saturn V, Artemis missions from now on will a combination of two or more spacecraft from partners beyond NASA. It will test one or both commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin along with rendezvous and docking. These will be launched separately from the SLS (Space Launch System) which will carry the Artemis III crew.  "Artemis III will be unlike anything we’ve ever undertaken. A multi-launch campaign bringing together the most powerful rockets in the world to test rendezvous, docking, and interoperability across multiple systems close to Earth before we return astronauts to the lunar surface." said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman this week.  You can read more about Artemis III at the NASA page here. Celestron NexStar SE vs Evolution Telescopes The upgraded Evolutions series have a few handy features If you're looking for a reasonably large but portable, computerised telescope for both planetary and deep sky observation as well as astrophotography, there's two options from Celestron that are worth considering: Celestron NexStar 8SE Celestron Evolution 8 The Celestron NexStar 8SE includes a tripod and hand controller The NexStar 8SE is a development of the classic Celestron C8, which was a favourite among astronomers around the world for decades. The metallic colour is a tribute to the orange tubes of those early telescopes. (We still see some of these vintage Celestron telescopes still in regular use when they arrive in our BINTEL workshop for a clean and service.) The reasons they were so popular remain solid today. The 203mm (8") diameter main mirror collects considerably more light for better viewing compared to smaller telescopes. The SCT (Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope) design provide a long focal length while offering short and portable optics. An SCT of this size is "just right" and the perfect combination of size and power for many astronomers. The NexStar SE adds a fully computerised "GOTO" mount that will move the telescope to a planet or deep-sky object you select with the included hand controller and once it's found, will keep following it as the Earth turns during the night.  As more astronomers used the popular NexStar SE series telescopes, they of course had a few ideas about how they could be improved. Celestron listened and put three handy upgrades into their NexStar Evolution series.  The Celestron NexStar Evolution 8 has Wi-Fi connectivity The tubes of the NexStar SE and Evolution of the same size are identical with the same StarBright XLT optical coatings. The only real difference is a differently coloured coat of paint.  The upgraded features of the Evolution are all focused around the mount.  First up, the power to the mount now a rechargeable lithium-iron phosphate battery. This provides enough power for 10 hours of continuous observing. NexStar SE telescopes have internal AA-batteries or can be run off an external power supply.  The other handy feature addition is the ability to control the Celestron Evolution telescope over Wi-Fi using an app like Celestron's SkyPortal and others.  Finally, the mount itself is stronger and more stable. This makes for even steadier viewing and is especially useful when using a Celestron Evolution Wedge for extended photographic exposures.  To wrap it up; The Celestron NexStar SE series remains an evergreen range of telescopes for serious beginners and those upgrading from their first telescopes. The Celestron NexStar Evolution 8 and others in the series offer the same viewing with useful and well thought out upgrades to enhance your overall experience.  If you're unsure which Celestron NexStar is best for you, we're always happy to provide our tailored opinion.    Have you noticed the two bright "stars" this week?  This weekend is a chance to see three planets If you've had a chance to look into the westerly sky just as it was getting dark over the last week or so, you might have seen two stars that have outshone any other star in the sky. We have had quite a few people asking us exactly what they've seen.  What's been in the sky is a conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter and if you had a clear horizon, you might have been able to spot Mercury as well.  Of the two bright planets, Venus is the brighter and Jupiter is fainter and a little bit more yellow in colour. A conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and Mercury on the evening of the 13th of June 2026 at about 6.00pm as seen from Sydney. Image via Stellarium.  What's a conjunction? This is when objects line up in such a way that they appear quite close to each other in the sky but are in fact quite a long way apart. Their movements across the sky are a combination of our own orbit around the Sun each year and their own orbits.   This illustration will give you a very rough idea of where the planets are at the moment. Venus, Mercury and Jupiter are lined up away from the Sun compared to the Earth.  This image is not to scale in the slightest. The stars are pretty much fixed in the same positions, and any noticeable movements would only occur over the span of many, many human lifetimes. If you see a bright "star" either on its own or with others that you have only just noticed, it will be one of our Solar System planets putting on a show! Planetary conjunctionslike these might appear close to your eyes but are still too far apart to view with a telescope. Well worth checking out in any pair of binoculars however.   Cheers, Earl White BINTEL 13th June 2026

Blue Origin to rebuild launch facilities after a major New Glenn explosion and be flying before the end of the year Booster "Never Tell Me The Odds" and upper stages are safe after the explosion We posted an update to last week's blog about the massive explosion, or "anomaly" that engulfed the Blue Origin launch pad and New Glenn launch vehicle during a static fire test.   As this is the company's only launch facility there had been speculation that it might mean a delay of some years to rebuild before it could launch again, and this might put pressure on NASA's crewed return to the Moon by 2028. NASA had contracted Blue Origin to provide transport of key hardware to the Lunar surface, including rovers.  The Blue Origin CEO, David Limp, said that surprisingly key components such as "The propellant farm, oxygen, liquid hydrogen and LNG tanks are all in good shape."  It also means according to Limp that "We will fly again before the end of this year." Fingers crossed that this won't cause delays to the NASA Moon program! (BTW, there's no link between the Jeff Bezos owned Blue Origin pad rebuild and any incoming increases to your Amazon Prime subscriptions...)  You can read more at the Blue Origin site here. NASA says farewell to MAVEN  Expected to only last one year, MAVEN returned key information for more than 11 years On the 3rd of June 2026, NASA confirmed that their MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) mission was officially over, following loss of communication with the spacecraft in December 2025. Despite best efforts, contact was unable to be re-established.  MAVEN was the first mission entirely devoted to studying the atmosphere of Mars and its evolution.  One of the important findings of MAVEN was a deeper understanding of how much radiation is blocked by Mars' atmosphere and how it would impact future crewed missions.  “The science MAVEN has given us is key to informing what kind of radiation protection and safety measures we must take before sending humans to Mars,” said Louise Prockter, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The data collected from MAVEN will continue to provide valuable insight into Mars for decades to come.” Other discoveries of MAVEN included: How the Martian atmosphere is eroded by Solar storms Different types of aurorae are found not just at the poles like they are here on Earth The gradual leaking of Mars’ atmosphere into space A better understanding of Martian dust storms Even chasing Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS as it headed out in the far reaches of the Solar System Plus more As the Planetary Society commented on the spacecraft that was designed to last a year but worked for eleven, "That'll do, MAVEN, that'll do." Signs of a large planet in the early Solar System that disappeared The early Solar System was a chaotic place! A slice of NWA 12774 We already know the complex history of the Earth-Moon system and other large bodies might have merged into other planets through collisions.  Astronomers have now found evidence of a large world, maybe even the size of the Moon or Mars, that slammed into another body and completely shattered into dust and rubble. While this world has completely disappeared from the Solar System as we know it today, we've found evidence of its past through meteorites that have fallen to Earth that are very different to the local geology to put it mildly! “It’s incredible to think there was once a world this large,” said Aaron Bell, an assistant research professor in the Department of Earth Science at CU Boulder. “We only know it existed because a few fragments of it happened to land on Earth. These meteorites preserved evidence of a completely different pathway through which early planets developed.” One meteorite fragment that points to this different pathway is an angrite, in particular one called NWA 12774. Of the approx. 80,000 meteorites that have been found on Earth, only 68 are angrites.  Their chemistry is different from Earth's and were thought to have formed on asteroids of less than 400 km in diameter.  Studies showed that NWA 12774 was the result of pressures in a rocky body much, much bigger than that, of some 3,600km in diameter similar to the Moon or even 6,500km making it comparable to Mars.  We know that the Moon and Mars have different chemical ingredients from NWA 12774, and this leads to the question "What happened to it?" Scientists are unsure. It might have collided into another large rocky planet in the early days of the Solar System, and these fragments might have even contributed to the formation of other planets including Earth.   Even more tantalising is there might be other members of the Solar System family we don't know about.  “There are many meteorites sitting in drawers that haven’t been thoroughly studied, so there were likely more of these protoplanets we don’t know about,” Bell said.  Read more here. Aussie astronomers produce the largest map of the Universe's magnetic fields Mapping the twisted light reveals where magnetic fields are found throughout the skies One of the major advancements in recent decades is how astronomers use different light wavelengths, gravitational waves, neutrinos, and cosmic rays to form a more complete picture of the formation and development of galaxies and the large-scale structure of the Universe we live in. (This is often referred to as Multi-Messenger Astronomy.) There are also large magnetic fields spread throughout the Universe and these influence its evolution over billions of years.  Astronomers are unable to directly view these magnetic fields, but by working out indirect methods to map them on a wide scale, they are able to study the fine details of the matter between nearby stars and an enormous of  number distant galaxies.  A new map released this week will offer future researchers an even better view of this influence on of the Universe as it's five times larger than all other magnetic maps combined.  Produced by the CSIRO and the SKA Observatory (SKA), the map, called SPICE-RACS, is the result of observations with the CSIRO’s ASKAP radio telescope. It works by measuring how much light in radio wavelengths is twisted by magnetic fields as it travels vast distances.   “For the first time, we can investigate fine details of the material between nearby stars, and study a huge number of distant galaxies." Said lead researcher Dr Alec Thomson.  “We collected rotation measures from every galaxy detected in RACS – nearly four million galaxies – and reprocessed this original data from ASKAP to retrieve the full picture,” Dr Thomson continued.  “With the information we now have on magnetic fields throughout the Universe, we can study things like how magnetic fields affect the galactic-scale interaction of our own Milky Way and its neighbours, the Magellanic Clouds. We can even potentially find the answer to questions like when did magnetic fields first appear in the Universe? We had once thought it would be impossible to answer these questions. I’m excited to say that is no longer the case." said Professor Naomi McClure-Griffiths, SKAO’s Chief Scientist. You can read more about the release of SPICE-RACS here.  Cheers, Earl White BINTEL 6th June 2026