Tootfinder

A second #planetesimal collision in the #Fomalhaut system: #Hubble Sees Asteroids Colliding at Nearby Star for First Time / Zerstörerische Kollisionen in einem jungen Planetensystem: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Hubble_sees_asteroids_colliding_around_nearby_star / https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-sees-asteroids-colliding-at-nearby-star-for-first-time/ / https://www.mpg.de/24356362/fomalhaut-staubwolken-durch-kollisionen

The 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society #AAS247 is underway, coming with 8 press conferences - https://aas.org/meetings/aas247/press-kit#briefings - streaming on https://www.youtube.com/@AASPressOffice. There were already two yesterday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gAjRP1xLtQ about Galaxies Big and Small, covering e.g. https://public.nrao.edu/news/hidden-giants-of-the-early-universe/ / https://news.ucmerced.edu/news/2026/astronomers-reveal-hidden-activity-early-universe’s-most-massive-galaxies / https://keckobservatory.org/aas247-magaz3ne/ and https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae1584 (The First RELHIC? Cloud-9 is a Starless Gas Cloud) -> https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-examines-cloud-9-first-of-new-type-of-object/ / https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cloud-9_a_new_celestial_object_found_by_Hubble / https://public.nrao.edu/news/starless-dark-matter-failed-galaxy-near-m94/.
And https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvpDVq-7h6E about Stars and Their Behavior, covering e.g. https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.00470 (Betelgeuse: Detection of the Expanding Wake of the Companion Star) -> https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/cfa-scientists-detect-wake-betelgeuses-elusive-companion-star / https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasa-hubble-helps-detect-wake-of-betelgeuses-elusive-companion-star/ and https://aas.org/sites/default/files/2026-01/Steven and Tyler AAS Press Release.pdf and https://public.nrao.edu/news/alma-devours-cosmic-hamburger-reveals-potential-for-giant-planet-formation/

Finally an RGB image of comet #3IATLAS from images taken by #GeminiNorth during the 26 November #shadowTheScientists session: https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2532/ - the coma has become bluer due to more gas emission. Also published today: an X-ray image by XMM-Newton at https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2025/12/XMM-Newton_sees_comet_3I_ATLAS_in_X-ray_light with explanations in http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iau/cbet/005600/CBET005646.txt which also contains more 3I news.
Meanwhile the paper https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ae2915 claims an upper limit for 3I's nucleus diameter of only some 750 meters from the measured non-gravitational acceleration (NGA) parameters: that would be waaay more stringent than the 5.6 km upper limit from early Hubble observations reported in https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adf8d8 (where also a lower limit of 440 meters is stated).

First the nucleus of #comet SWAN split - https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/allgemeines-live-blog-ab-dem-2-november-2025/#Nov06 ("Der Kern des Kometen C/2025 R2 (SWAN) ist zerbrochen ...") - and now C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) has suffered the same fate: a 2-meter-telescope image from https://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=17487 ("Multiple Fragmentation Observed"), also https://groups.io/g/comets-ml/topic/116216567 (several amateur observations) and https://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=17488 (Hubble detections of more fragments, sadly no pictures included).

The final (8th) #AAS247 presser #Lazuli, described in detail the paper #ArgusArray to the astronomical community: https://carolinastories.unc.edu/developing-the-worlds-largest-sky-survey-telescope/ and https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/eric-schmidt-will-massively-invest-in-private-telescopes-including-hubble-replacement/ and https://www.astronomy.com/science/eric-and-wendy-schmidt-to-fund-space-telescope-three-ground-based-observatories/ and https://www.space.com/space-exploration/former-ceo-of-google-spearheads-4-next-gen-telescopes-3-on-earth-and-1-in-space and https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/schmidt-sciences-announces-plan-for-lazuli-a-private-space-telescope/

Simultaneously NASA and ESA have published new spacecraft images of #3IATLAS, https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/3iatlas/2025/12/04/nasas-hubble-space-telescope-revisits-interstellar-comet/ from the Hubble Space Telescope on 30 November (just the inner coma with a central condensation) and https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2025/12/Comet_3I_ATLAS_shows_activity_in_Juice_navigation_camera_teaser from Juice's NavCam on 2 November with an early sighting of the plasma tail - more contributions to understanding the behavior of the interstellar visitor.

Hubble Reveals Complex Multiscale Structure in the Edge-on #Protoplanetary Disk IRAS23077 6707: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae247f -> NASA’s Hubble Reveals Largest Found Chaotic Birthplace of Planets: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-reveals-largest-found-chaotic-birthplace-of-planets/

Bored 'between the years'? Then help yourself to the papers "Primordial black holes within Higgs hybrid metric-Palatini approach", "The Serendipitous Axiodilaton: A Self-Consistent Recombination-Era Solution to the Hubble Tension" and "Ω1Ω2–ΛCDM: A promising phenomenological extension of the standard model of cosmology" all out today - #Universe at an elevated level ... ;-)