Space and Astronomy News 21st March 2026

Building blocks of life found on another asteroid

Just over a year ago we talked about the discovery of some of the building blocks for life being found in samples returned from the asteroid Bennu from the OSIRIS-REx mission. (This is the one where the  lid was "stuck" on the sample jar!)

Now researchers have found thymine, nucleobases adenine, guanine, cytosine, and uracil which are the foundations for both RNA and DNA and from which all life on Earth is formed. These were discovered in a sample of the asteroid Ryugu and returned to Earth by Japan's Hayabusa 2 in 2020.

Carbonaceous asteroids or "C-type" asteroids like Ryugu are common in the asteroid belt and are targets for exploration as they contain pristine organic materials from the earliest period of the Solar System. "Organics" are not signs of life, but they are what life is formed from. We observe them throughout the Solar System as well in vast quantities in interstellar space. Organic materials have also been collected from other sources, including the famous Murchison meteorite.

Did the foundations of life arrive from space?

Another finding of organic materials on an asteroid, this time from Ryugu, certainly boosts the certainty that this might be the case. It also points to organics being widespread throughout the Solar System. 

A detailed, although not too technical overview on these results can be found here at astrobiology.com

If you'd like to read the full scientific article at Nature, click here

Hubble captures the break up of Comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS)

You might remember we chatted about a number of comets that graced our skies in 2025, including when two were visible in the same camera frame! Several of our BINTEL customers managed to capture this and we featured their images in our blogs and newsletters. 

Image from Comet C/2025 R1 (SWAN) and Comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) captured near Mars by Glenn Pickford on the 21st of September and featured in my blog post a few days after. The smaller comet near the bottom left of the frame is the one that has broken up.

One of these comets, C/2025 K1 (ATLAS), has broken up into smaller pieces and in a amazing stroke of luck, was being observed by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) while it was happening!

The event happened in November 2025 and the strange thing is the comet wasn't the target of the observation by Hubble. 

“Sometimes the best science happens by accident,” said co-investigator John Noonan, a research professor in the Department of Physics at Auburn University in Alabama. “This comet got observed because our original comet was not viewable due to some new technical constraints after we won our proposal. We had to find a new target—and right when we observed it, it happened to break apart, which is the slimmest of slim chances.” 

Sequence showing the break up via NASA, ESA, Dennis Bodewits (AU)

It was also some time before the break up was discovered on the Hubble images.  It appears to have broken into at least four separate objects, each with their own coma and tail, with further fragmentation likely. 

While I was taking an initial look at the data, I saw that there were four comets in those images when we only proposed to look at one,” said Noonan. “So we knew this was something really, really special.”

One of the interesting things is that astronomers have been trying to catch detailed observations of cometary disintegrations but scheduling precious telescope time has always been an issue. Basically, there's no way to work out when it will happen. It's been tried before and has never been successful. 

The approx. location in the Solar System where the comet broke up

“The irony is now we're just studying a regular comet and it crumbles in front of our eyes,” said principal investigator Dennis Bodewits, also a professor in Auburn University’s Department of Physics. 

We always like to point out whether astro events like these could be seen with your own telescope. While the fragments of Comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) are now on the way out the Solar System and unlikely to return, they're beyond seeing in your own gear.

Read more at the NASA website here.

Eleven new moons for Saturn

Brings the total to 285

Astronomers using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope at Maunakea, Hawaii have discovered 11 new moon of the gas giant planet, Saturn.

Layout of some of Saturn's major moons. Image via NASA

Saturn already had the largest number of known moons of any planet in the Solar System and this discovery pushes the number even higher. 

Given the complex environment around Saturn this number is likely to continue to grow as more discoveries are made. Sadly, you won't be able to observe these newly found moons even with the telescopes we sell at BINTEL as they are too faint. They are also yet to receive any official names.

You can read the announcement made this week at the Minor Planet Center here.

Artemis II rolls out after leak fixes

Astronauts enter quarantine once again. 

It's been a long process, but this week NASA commenced what it hopes to be the final roll out of Artemis II ahead of the launch from the 1st of April onwards. 

NASA’s crawler-transporter 2 will carry the 11-million-pound stack, including the mobile launcher, at about 1 mph* along the four-mile route from Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad. The journey can take up to 12 hours.

Meanwhile the four astronauts have again gone into quarantine in preparation for the flight.  The entire "stack" will need to go through another round of full propellant loading and unloading, sometimes called a wet rehearsal, ahead of the launch and I think all space fans are crossing their fingers for successful flight to this Moon this Easter.

Memories of Halley’s Comet in 1986?

Finally for this week, we're coming up on the 40th anniversary of Halley's Comet being visible in 1986.  I'm sure many of our umm, mature, members of the BINTEL community might have some fond memories or even images they'd be happy to share around to mark the occasion.  Get in contact with us if you do.

Cheers,

Earl White

BINTEL

21st March 2026

*It's NASA, so sometimes they still use imperial measurements for general public announcements like this!