Backup Blog for KaiYves

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems recently broke their own previously held solar panel efficiency record with a new solar panel design with 34.4% solar module efficiency.

When a star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole, it can be shredded in a process known as a tidal disruption event (seen here in an artist’s concept).

2026 July 14

Double Lobed Asteroid Torifune Image Credit & Copyright: JAXA, U. of Tokyo, Chiba Tech, Tokyo U. of Science, AIST, Paris Obs., IAC

Explanation: Why is this asteroid a double? Earlier this month the Japanese robotic spacecraft Hayabusa2 shot past asteroid 98943 Torifune and captured pictures. Although previous observations from distant Earth indicated that Torifune was oblong, Hayabusa2 found that Torifune actually has two joined lobes. With a length of about four soccer fields, this space rock frequently comes near the Earth as it orbits the Sun, although it is not a threat. Besides the two lobes, Torifune shows many large boulders, but, surprisingly, no obvious craters, likely because its surface is a pile of rubble. Like asteroid Arrokoth, it appears that each lobe formed separately before colliding and becoming stuck together. Hayabusa2 famously encountered asteroid Ryugu in 2018, and now heads for an encounter in 2031 with 1998 KY26, a smaller asteroid that rotates unusually fast and might have reservoirs of ice.