Astronomy & Astrophysics

And while certainly dramatic, This impact theory is not without its skeptics.

Some papers, such as the 2022 Astronomy and Astrophysics paper tilting Uranus via the migration of an ancient satellite, look at the fact that Uranus and Neptune are actually very similar as proof that Uranus' funny tilt must have some other explanation.

After all, would such a large impact have only wobbled the planet's axis without changing anything about its mass? size, atmospheric dynamics, or spin rate.

Those characteristics are all very similar between Neptune and Uranus.

with solid diamond bergs floating in it.

A captivating picture.

But is it right? Voyager 2 data initially said so, but new modelling published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics in 2025 suggests that it's perhaps not quite the whole story.

The researchers Luca Morf and Rawit Heled of the University of Zurich took an agnostic approach, generating random models of the interior contents of Uranus and its ice giant neighbour, Neptune.

That's exactly what Micah Wilhelm and Simon Porter G. Swart at Leighton Observatory with Alessandro Trani at the University of Concepción in Chile have proposed.

Their paper is in press at Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Leighton announced it on the 23rd of October.

She said the preprint first appeared in September, so this is published this month rather than brand new this week.

Their suggestion is that Theta 1 Orionis C1, the big star, wasn't always one star.

The observations finally reach the point where the planetary interpretation could withstand careful scrutiny.

On November 15, 2017, Xavier Bonfields and 14 co-authors announced their findings in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

The discovery immediately drew attention because the planet occupied an orbit where temperatures might permit conditions suitable for liquid water, depending heavily on its atmosphere.

Early estimates allowed a surprisingly broad range.

Next, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, IROSITA, and LOFAR, scientists observed a merging galaxy cluster nicknamed the Treble Clef due to its distinct music-note-shaped radio emission.

Researchers report in Astronomy and Astrophysics that it was likely generated and amplified by a violent collision between two galaxy clusters.

And finally, the Australian Space Agency and the Ruver Consortium unveiled the latest design model of Ruver, Australia's first lunar rover, at the Queensland University of Technology's Lunar Testbed and Space Lab during World Space Week on October 7, 2026.

Scheduled to land at the Lunar South Pole in 2030 aboard an Intuitive Machines lander under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, the semi-autonomous rover will collect and analyze regolith to support sustainable human exploration through the Artemis program.

Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, eRosita and LOFAR, scientists have observed a merging galaxy cluster nicknamed the Treble Cliff due to its distinct music note-shaped radio emission.

Researchers report in Astronomy and Astrophysics that it was likely generated and amplified by a violent collision between two galaxy clusters.

Meanwhile, scientists from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics and International Collaborators analysed joint observations of solar coronal mass ejections, captured by India's Aditya L1 and ESA's Proba 3 satellites.

By combining spectroscopic data from VELC aboard Aditya L1 with imaging from ASPEX on Proba 3, the cross-checked observations provided new insights into CME mass, density and thermal energy, and Early Stage Dynamics in the Low Solar Corona.

Okay.

If you'd like to read that story, it's at scitechdaily.com, or you can read the whole paper, which has been published in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters.

You're listening to Space Nuts, the podcast with Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson.

I'm going to step off the land now.