Russia is quietly testing a new plasma propulsion system that, if it works as claimed, could dramatically change how long it takes to travel to Mars. Early results suggest a leap in speed and efficiency that has attracted attention precisely because it does not come from NASA or private American companies like SpaceX. The engine … Read more
The most sensational story of the year for astronomers was the discovery of comet 3I/ATLAS, which was first observed on July 1, 2025 by NASA’s Asteroid Earth Impact Warning System (ATLAS). Although comets regularly pass by Earth, the most famous being Halley’s Comet, there is something extra special about this new find. Halley’s and other … Read more
Comet 3I/ATLAS is the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system, a cosmic rock first discovered by the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Chile on July 1, 2025. mid-October — expanding that catalog with some of the clearest and most detailed look at the comet yet. The images … Read more
Tryptophan, the essential amino acid behind the Thanksgiving myth that eating turkey can make you sleepy, has been found to exist on Bennu, a small asteroid that swings by our planet about every six years. The discovery comes from an unprecedented sample collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which landed a spacecraft on the asteroid in … Read more