Using ESO's Very Large Telescope and its ERIS instrument, astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics measured the 3D orbits of gas clouds around Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way about 27,000 light-years away. A third cloud, G2t, was found alongside the known clouds G1 and G2. Their orbits are nearly identical, which makes it unlikely that each cloud hides its own star. The team instead suggests all three came from IRS16SW, a pair of massive stars that shed large amounts of gas as they circle the black hole. The slightly different orbits come from the gas being ejected at different points.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.