So U.S. spy agencies harrass astronomers running sky surveys like #PanSTARRS or #Rubin and try to censor their images to keep some #satellites and their orbits secret: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2024/12/vera-rubin-telescope-spy-satellite/680814/?gift=S4EwRLGNogt2Kqjs1lNdf98ZACLgHRoFPS8ghil08x0&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share or https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/when-a-telescope-is-a-national-security-risk/ar-AA1v7EwG - but doesn't the UN Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/registration-convention.html require anyone launching something into orbit (essentially humanity's commons) to publicly disclose the orbit and other details? Something doesn't compute here at all ...

in the #arxiv this morning: Splitting of Long-Period Comet C/2018 F4 (PANSTARRS), by Man-To Hui and co-authors. The comet has two components splitting at a relative speed of 3.00±0.18 m/s. Pre-split nucleus might have consisted of two lobes resembling the ones of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.03635