astrafoxen

Some stuff I did for the first 3 days of @morgandenman.bsky.social's #SpacetoberChallenge! Been too busy with college so I can't do these on time blehhhh

(I'll post these individually later)

(update)
This teeny meter-wide asteroid C15KM95 was officially announced with the new name "2025 TF" today! minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K25/K25...

(and a neat photo of the asteroid by @filipp-romanov.bsky.social over at: bsky.app/profile/fili...)

Now to wait an hour until this gets on Wikipedia...

nyoooom

A moderate bright point-source in the middle and smaller sources around them, labeled with dates.

Dwarf Planet #Quaoar and its moon #Weywot with #Hubble WFC3/UVIS filter F350LP. Quaoar is located in the Kuiper Belt (beyond planet Neptune).

I combined different epochs and oriented them with north being up. I removed stars. The moon changed position during its orbit around the #DwarfPlanet.

Small preview of color photographic map of Pluto in Mollweide oblique projection. It contains one large global map with four small hemispheric maps and basic description. Full version of this map is available for download in links in the main post. Credit: NASA/JHU-APL/SwRI/Marc W. Buie/ESA/Daniel Machacek.

My new color photographic map of Pluto is now online.

Full resolution image version (~322Mpix) is available on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/10958...
PDF version (~73MB) is available here: drive.google.com/file/d/1EW-x...

🧵 1/5

More attention, views, & clicks = more ego and money (ad revenue i guess?)

I only look for astro news from places that I know are reliable (phys.org, arxiv, anton petrov, space.com, etc.), so idk what weird stuff ppl are saying elsewhere. From experience, reddit and tiktok are absolute garbage lmao

ooooo hypeeee!!

yeah... genuinely sad that there's actual fearmongering. Personally I find 3I/ATLAS super fricking awesome!

(tho not as weird as the nitrogen & carbon monoxide-rich blue comet C/2016 R2 and the explodey comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann... I've been hyperfixating on these two and THEYRE SO WEIRDDD)

As one of the people (who had been) actively updating the 3I/ATLAS Wikipedia article, thanks! :D

Mike Kelley describes spectra of the icy surface of comet Hale-Bopp, taken at a distance of 46 AU (!!) with JWST 🔭 : similar to Water-type TNOs but with organic features

heck yeah Makemake getting that makeover from JWST!
So now we have evidence of geochemical activity, a cryovolcanic hotspot, and a potential atmosphere.

I swear if Makemake turns out to also have rings or a second moon, it's gonna become my 4th favorite dwarf planet

Mimas science is serious business

Lucy image of asteroid Donaldjohanson, with features labeled with their formal names approved by the IAU

A screenshot of the IAU's announcement of 11 new names for Donaldjohanson's surface+shape features. The text reads: 11 Names Approved for (52246) Donaldjohanson: Afar Lobus, Olduvai Lobus, Hadar Regio, Minatogawa Regio, Luzia Dorsum, Boxgrove Saxum, Kennewick Saxum, Cashel Saxum, Mungo, Narmada, and Windover Collum 08/27/2025 The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved the names Afar Lobus, Olduvai Lobus, Hadar Regio, Minatogawa Regio, Luzia Dorsum, Boxgrove Saxum, Mungo, Narmada, Kennewick Saxum, Cashel Saxum, and Windover Collum for eleven features on the asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson. For more information, please see the Donaldjohanson nomenclature map in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.

The IAU announced official names for Donaldjohanson's surface & shape features 2 weeks ago, but nobody has mentioned the news. They're all named after archeological sites and hominin fossils, which is fun and awesome haha

(Afar Lobus = small lobe, Olduvai Lobus = big lobe, Windover Collum = neck)

Today on arXiv: The recent JWST TRAPPIST-1 e papers.

They are somehow not even the biggest news in the list. Today's arXiv day's absolutely stacked.

bwehh i haven't gotten to reading it yet lol

frickkkkkkkk

ikr holy crap, the Makemake papers are insane (though I already knew about the Makemake moon orbit beforehand, I've been talking with the author about this)

this is a continuation of this btw bsky.app/profile/astr...

(also how long will it take before someone makes a chimichanga joke lol)

(Name announcement in link)

There's an interesting pattern where the new name initials (except Chimini) match the letters of their designation (e.g. Rumina = RM43); IAU says it's intentional.

So this leaves 2017 OF201 and 2021 DR15 as the biggest unnamed Solar System objects at ~700 km diameter...

Size and color comparison of the largest trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) and dwarf planets of the Solar System. Newly named TNOs are highlighted in yellow. Starting from the top row, going from left to right: 1st row: Pluto & Charon, Eris & Dysnomia, Haumea & 2 moons, Makemake, Gonggong & Xiangliu 2nd row: Quaoar & Weywot, Orcus & Vanth, Sedna, Salacia, Mani, Aya 3rd row: Varda & Ilmare, Chiminigagua (formerly 2013 FY27), Achlys, Ixion 4th row: Varuna, Goibniu (formerly 2004 GV9), Ritona, Uni & Tinia (formerly 2002 UX25), Gǃkúnǁʼhòmdímà & Gǃòʼé ǃHú, Rumina (formerly 2005 RM43) 5th row: 2014 UZ224, 2010 JO179, 2005 QU182, Xewioso (formerly 2002 XW93). Saturn's moon Enceladus is shown for scale.

MORE DWARF PLANETS AND BIG TNOS NAMED BY THE IAU TODAY YEAHHHHH
2004 GV9 → Goibniu
2005 RM43 → Rumina
2002 UX25 & moon → Uni & Tinia
* Uni is weird because it's made of holey ice less dense than water
2002 XW93 → Xewioso
2013 FY27 → Chiminigagua (named 3 weeks ago, but nobody mentioned it on bsky)

Oh awesome! I look forward to it! :)

omg this is so me

weyWHAT

An unexpected occultation discovery of a potential 2nd moon or 3rd ring arc around dwarf planet Quaoar!

The new moon/ring is 30±2 km wide and seems to be 5757 km from Quaoar—suspiciously close to 7:2 orbital resonance with Quaoar's big moon Weywot!

iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3... ☄️

Two sources with equal brightness

I also did a #JWST image of the TNO #Altjira that I never posted. It might be a triple system.

My image processing from 18. August: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Al...

Yeah, that checks out. This is what I get when I do pixel mapping (image derotated this time):

Hm, to me I'm 100% sure there's an elongation. The angular separation is 30-40 milliarcseconds, which is consistent with reported values for Lempo-Hiisi. The PSF of Lempo-Hiisi doesn't look the same as Paha.

I have no clue which of the upper/lower components is Lempo or Hiisi however.

ooooh sweet!! I wonder if the inner Lempo-Hiisi binary is resolved here---is it actually elongated vertically here?

An image of two point-sources. The one on the left is brighter.

This is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) that is a triple system. TNOs orbit beyond planet Neptune. 🔭

The source on the left is actually two objects, called Lempo and Hiisi. The object on the right is called Paha.

My processing of this #JWST NIRCam image: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Le...