Three of a Kind

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Language: en

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Picture


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an asteroid. You're probably imagining a


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potato, one lump of rock tumbling


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through the dark. Now imagine three


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lumps joined at the neck like a cosmic


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string of pearls and a tiny moon keeping


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pace alongside.


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>> That's a real object out in the main


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belt. And until this week, nobody knew


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it looked like that. We'll take you


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there first,


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>> and then we'll chase a wind. one that


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lights up our own sky and the same kind


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of wind that's slowly stripping a planet


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bare.


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>> Good day and welcome to Astronomy Daily.


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It's Friday, the 31st of July, 2026. I'm


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Avery.


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>> And I'm Anna. Four stories today. A sky


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watch that spans both hemispheres and a


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thread running right through the back


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half of the show. Avery, where do we


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start? Where else with the three-faced


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asteroid?


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>> So, asteroid 44 Nissa, the number tells


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you it was one of the early finds


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discovered back in 1857.


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One of the brightest asteroids in the


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whole main belt, that broad river of


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rubble between Mars and Jupiter. It's


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about 75 km across at its widest. So a


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serious chunk of rock, one of the


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largest of its particular type. Its type


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matters here. Nissa is what astronomers


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call an E type. Its surface is rich in a


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pale mineral called instatite, which


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makes it unusually bright and


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reflective. There aren't many big E


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types, so Nissa has always been a bit of


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a favorite, but its shape has been a


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nagging mystery for years. Earlier


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observations hinted it might be what's


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called a contact binary. Two loes stuck


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together, a bit like a peanut or a


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snowman. We've seen plenty of those.


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Comet 67P that Rosetta visited. The


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little asteroid deorphice that the NASA


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dart mission crashed into last year.


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Donald Johansson that the Lucy


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spacecraft flew past last year. Two


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lobes is almost normal. Bisa isn't


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normal. A team led by Kate Minker at


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Lowel Observatory has just announced in


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a study with the wonderful title


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unmasking 44 Nissa that Nissa appears to


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have three loes, three joined by two


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narrow necks like a figure carved with


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two deep waists around it. If it holds


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up, it's the first triilobed asteroid


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ever seen.


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>> Three loes. How do you even see that?


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These things are tiny dots even in big


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telescopes.


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>> That's the clever part. They used two of


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the sharpest eyes on Earth. The large


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binocular telescope in Arizona, its main


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mirror is about 8 m, roughly three times


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the size of Hubble's, running an


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instrument called Shark Vis. Plus, the


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very large telescope down in Chile. And


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they used adaptive optics, a mirror that


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flexes hundreds of times a second,


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nearly 600 tiny actuators pushing on it


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to cancel out the blurring of our


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atmosphere in real time. The result is


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sharper than Hubble. They imaged Nissa


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on two nights, the 15th of February and


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the 21st of March this year, and both


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times the same strange threepart


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silhouette turned up. Which brings us to


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the second surprise. Nissa has a moon, a


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little one about a kilometer across,


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orbiting at least 170 km out. It's been


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given the placeholder name S/2026-441,


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and it was hiding in plain sight,


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drowned out by the glare of the much


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brighter asteroid next to it. To dig it


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out, the team borrowed a trick from a


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completely different corner of


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astronomy. High contrast imaging. The


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same family of techniques we used to


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pull a faint planet out of the glare of


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its star. As one of the shark viss


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scientists, Gian Luca Lee put it. They


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used that technique to catch a faint


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companion whose light was being swamped


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by the primary. And because they caught


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it moving across two separate observing


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runs, they know it's genuinely in orbit,


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not a background star photobombing the


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shot. And a moon is useful, right? Not


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just a bonus.


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>> It's enormously useful. This is the


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thing I love about it. Watch how fast


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the moon goes around and how far out it


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sits. And you can weigh the asteroid.


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You get nice mass. Combine the mass with


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the size and you get its density. And


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density is the whole ball game here


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because there are two competing stories


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for what NISA actually is. Story one,


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it's a genuine threepart body, maybe a


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contact trinary. Three chunks that


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drifted together and gently stuck. Story


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two, it's one solid, deeply dented lump


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that only looks threeloed from our


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angle. Density can help tell those


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apart. A loose rubble pile reads light


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and fluffy. A solid coherent rock reads


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dense. So that little moon is going to


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help settle what kind of world this is


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and how it got so weird.


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>> Any theories on the how?


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>> Nothing locked in. And that honesty is


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the fun of it. It could be a record of


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gentle slow motion collisions in the


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belt. bodies bumping and merging over


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billions of years. It could be the


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aftermath of a bigger smash that left a


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battered survivor. Or observations of


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that moon will narrow it down. For now,


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we've got a brand new kind of object, a


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triple lobed asteroid with its own


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satellite sitting in a part of the sky


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we thought we understood. And that's the


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quiet lesson of NISA. It was found in


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1857. It's one of the best studied


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bright asteroids we have. And in 2026,


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it still had two secrets left. A shape


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nobody expected and a moon nobody had


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seen. The solar system is not done


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surprising us. From a world we can


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nearly touch to one we may never reach,


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but might one day actually see, NASA has


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just backed a genuinely audacious idea.


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A plan to photograph the surface of a


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planet around another star. Not detect


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it, not measure it, see it. Continents,


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oceans, weather.


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>> Hang on. We can't do that. I feel like


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we have pictures of exoplanets.


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>> We have dots. Every exoplanet we've ever


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found is in a sense invisible. We infer


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it from a stars tiny wobble or a faint


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dip in brightness as a planet crosses in


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front. In the very best cases, we've


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captured a single pixel of light. Nobody


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has ever resolved a surface. The problem


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is brutal. A star can be around 10


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billion times brighter than the little


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Earth-sized planet beside it. And the


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two sit almost on top of each other in


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the sky. The new concept comes from


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physicist Paul Stanis at Brook Haven,


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and it's one of 18 early stage ideas


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NASA just funded through its innovative


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advanced concepts program, NYAK. These


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are seed grants. Small money, 9 months,


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permission to chase something wild. This


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is called mapping alien continents. It


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works in two moves. First, a new kind of


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light cancelling instrument, another


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that blotss out the stars glare while


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keeping the planet's light at a contrast


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of 10 billion to one or better. Then the


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really bold bit. You fly two of these on


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separate spacecraft about a 100 km apart


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and combine their beams so they act as


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one enormous telescope big enough in


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principle to resolve features on the


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planet's face.


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>> A telescope 100 km wide made of two


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spacecraft flying in formation.


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>> That's a dream. And I want to be honest


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about where this sits. It's a concept


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study, not a mission on a launchpad. It


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may never fly in this form, but this is


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exactly how the big leaps begin. Someone


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asks, "What if we could actually look?"


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And NASA hands him a little funding to


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find out whether the physics holds. If


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it ever came together, it would turn


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exoplanets from statistics into places.


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Now, Anna, speaking of things we can see


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from right here, we've got weather


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coming in. Space weather. Forecasters at


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Noah are tracking a couple of clouds of


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solar material heading our way. Coronal


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mass ejections. Big blobs of charged gas


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flung off the sun. These two are faint


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and they're only likely to give Earth a


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glancing blow over the next day or so.


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>> Glancing, but not nothing.


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>> Not nothing. Layer those CMEs on top of


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a fast stream already flowing from a


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coronal hole, a gap in the sun's outer


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atmosphere, and the models suggest we


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could tip into a G1 storm. That's the


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mildest rung on the scale. No drama for


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the power grid, but enough to nudge the


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aurora to slightly lower latitudes than


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usual. Though over the coming nights,


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it's worth a look if you're up high. And


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I'll give you the where and when in the


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sky watch. Here's the thread, though.


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That same solar wind, the constant


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outflow from the sun is gentle at Earth


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because we've got a strong magnetic


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field and a thick atmosphere shrugging


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it off. Auroras are the pretty side of


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that shrug. But not every world is so


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lucky. Some planets have been standing


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in that wind for billions of years with


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no shield at all.


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>> Which is the perfect cue for my next


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one. Meet Escapade. A pair of NASA's


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craft nicknamed blue and gold after the


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University of California Berkeley colors


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built by Rocket Lab and launched last


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November on a Blue Origin New Glenn.


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They're Marsbound, and right now they're


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loitering out near a spot called L2,


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about a million miles beyond Earth,


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waiting for the road to Mars to open.


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While they wait, one of them turned its


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cameras back toward home and snapped a


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family portrait. Earth and the moon


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together as two slim crescents. In


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ordinary visible light, they look


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exactly as you'd hope, two bright sunlit


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sickles against the black. But these


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cameras also see in thermal infrared


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heat, and that view is stranger and


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honestly a bit beautiful. The night side


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of Earth glows softly with its own


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warmth, while the moon's dark half sits


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far, far colder. A portrait in light and


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a portrait in heat of the same two


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worlds.


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>> Gorgeous. But that's not why they built


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it, is it?


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>> It's not. And here's where our thread


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lands. Escapade exists to study exactly


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what we were just talking about. Its


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whole job once it reaches Mars in 2027


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is to measure how the solar wind strips


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away the Martian atmosphere. Mars


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doesn't have a global magnetic shield


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like ours. So the same wind that just


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gives us auroras has over billions of


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years helped peel Mars from a warmer,


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wetter world into the thin, cold desert


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we see today. Two spacecraft taking


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readings from two vantage points at


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once, watching a planet lose its air in


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real time. That Earth and Moon portrait


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was really a calibration check, a chance


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to point the cameras at familiar targets


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before the main event, but it doubles as


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a quiet reminder. A shielded world and


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an unshielded one are separated by not


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very much at all. The wind that paints


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our sky and the wind that scour Mars.


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Same sun. Lovely thread, Avery. Right


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out under the sky. First, the moon.


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We've just come off the full buck moon


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on the 29th, so we're in a bright waning


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gibbous stretch. Beautiful to look at,


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but that glare will wash out anything


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faint for the next several nights. Worth


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knowing before you plan.


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The southern delta aquarids and the


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alpha Capricornids have just passed


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their peak on the 30th into the 31st.


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From here in the southern hemisphere,


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the Delta Aquar still favor us. But with


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the moon this bright, keep expectations


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modest and watch for the occasional


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slow, bright Capricorned fireball, which


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both hemispheres can catch. The better


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news is what's coming. The Perciads


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build to their peak on the night of the


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12th into the 13th of August. And this


00:12:55.279 --> 00:12:58.069
year, the moon is nearly new, so it's a


00:12:58.079 --> 00:13:01.110
genuinely dark, generous window for


00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:03.910
North America. That's prime. Find a dark


00:13:03.920 --> 00:13:06.310
spot, look up after midnight, and the


00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:08.790
northern sky can deliver a meteor a


00:13:08.800 --> 00:13:10.949
minute at its best. From the southern


00:13:10.959 --> 00:13:13.509
hemisphere, the Perciads sit low in the


00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:16.389
north, so you'll see fewer, but a clear


00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:19.110
northern horizon is worth a try. Mark


00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:22.069
the 12th. Also on the 12th of August, a


00:13:22.079 --> 00:13:24.790
total solar eclipse. The path of


00:13:24.800 --> 00:13:27.750
totality runs across Greenland, Iceland,


00:13:27.760 --> 00:13:30.710
and a slice of Spain with partial phases


00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:33.110
for parts of northern North America and


00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:35.670
Europe. If you're anywhere near it,


00:13:35.680 --> 00:13:37.910
never look at the partial sun without


00:13:37.920 --> 00:13:40.470
certified eclipse glasses that meet the


00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:43.670
ISO12312-2


00:13:43.680 --> 00:13:46.629
standard. Ordinary sunglasses will not


00:13:46.639 --> 00:13:49.670
protect your eyes. Totality only is safe


00:13:49.680 --> 00:13:51.910
to view with the naked eye and only for


00:13:51.920 --> 00:13:54.870
those precious seconds it lasts. Planets


00:13:54.880 --> 00:13:57.670
quickly both hemispheres. The pre-dawn


00:13:57.680 --> 00:14:00.310
sky is the place to be with the brighter


00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:02.949
planets gathering low in the east before


00:14:02.959 --> 00:14:05.350
sunrise. From Sydney, look to the


00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:08.230
eastern horizon in the hour before dawn.


00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:10.870
From North America, the same window an


00:14:10.880 --> 00:14:13.990
hour or so before your local sunrise.


00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:16.550
One quick diary item, and this one's for


00:14:16.560 --> 00:14:19.030
our telescope owners. On the 5th of


00:14:19.040 --> 00:14:22.310
August, a dead SpaceX Falcon 9 upper


00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:24.710
stage, space junk we tracked since it


00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:27.110
launched Fireflyy's blue ghost lander


00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:29.590
back in January of last year, is


00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:32.230
expected to smack into the moon near


00:14:32.240 --> 00:14:35.590
Einstein Crater at about half 6


00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:37.990
universal time. For North America,


00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:40.470
that's the small hours of the 5th, and


00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:43.189
you're the best place to try for it. Aim


00:14:43.199 --> 00:14:45.670
for the faint dust plume near the moon's


00:14:45.680 --> 00:14:48.470
eastern edge, not a naked eye flash.


00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:50.870
You'll want a decent telescope. From


00:14:50.880 --> 00:14:53.590
Sydney, the moon isn't up at impact. So


00:14:53.600 --> 00:14:55.750
down here, we'll be leaning on the after


00:14:55.760 --> 00:14:58.550
images from orbiters like NASA's Lunar


00:14:58.560 --> 00:15:01.189
Reconnaissance Orbiter. And to close our


00:15:01.199 --> 00:15:03.910
thread, the aurora. If those solar


00:15:03.920 --> 00:15:06.790
storms land as forecast, watch the high


00:15:06.800 --> 00:15:09.350
latitudes over the coming nights across


00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:11.750
the northern tier of the United States


00:15:11.760 --> 00:15:14.550
and up into Canada in the north and down


00:15:14.560 --> 00:15:17.189
towards Tasmania, southern New Zealand,


00:15:17.199 --> 00:15:19.910
and southern Victoria in the south. Same


00:15:19.920 --> 00:15:22.870
sun, same wind, both ends of the Earth.


00:15:22.880 --> 00:15:25.030
And if you catch a glow, you'll know


00:15:25.040 --> 00:15:26.949
exactly what you're looking at.


00:15:26.959 --> 00:15:28.790
Everything we talked about today, the


00:15:28.800 --> 00:15:31.430
links, the images of NISA and that Earth


00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:35.189
and Moon portrait is at astronomyaily.io


00:15:35.199 --> 00:15:37.110
along with the daily news feed and the


00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:38.550
newsletter signup.


00:15:38.560 --> 00:15:40.949
>> And if you spotted an aurora or bagged a


00:15:40.959 --> 00:15:43.269
Percied, tell us. There's a listener


00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:45.430
contact form on the site and we love


00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:46.949
hearing what you've seen.


00:15:46.959 --> 00:15:48.949
>> That's Astronomy Daily for Friday the


00:15:48.959 --> 00:15:51.350
31st of July. I'm Avery


00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:53.670
>> and I'm Anna. Until next time, clear


00:15:53.680 --> 00:15:57.670
skies. Astronomy day.


00:15:57.680 --> 00:16:05.590
Stories be told.


00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:09.399
Stories told.