SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " interstellar " 64 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Sign in to save shuffle history.
Could comet 3I/ATLAS teach us about life beyond Earth? Scientists say the story's not over yet.
No evidence has been found linking 3I/ATLAS to aliens. But the interstellar object, just the third of its kind to be found, shows that life's molecular precursors are abundant in the Milky Way.
If space data centers feel far-fetched, why not interstellar travel?
The team behind Starcloud's orbital data centers has a new high-risk space project: Sending a probe to Alpha Centauri.
How NASA Engineers Are Keeping the Voyagers Alive
A reworking of the spacecraft’s power systems could extend the nearly 50-year-old Voyagers’ exploration of interstellar space into the early 2030s.
A cosmic rule just broke—could this discovery rewrite how we count stars? - Futura-Sciences
Mechanics of the initial mass function Stars form when giant clouds of interstellar gas and dust collapse under their own gravity. To calculate the total mass of distant galaxies, scientists use the Initial Mass Function (IMF). Developed in part by astrophysicist Edwin Salpeter, this mathematical tool describes the initial distribution...
‘Interstellar,’ ‘Nope’ headline Great Lakes Science Center’s DOME Movies After Dark fall lineup
The series also includes "V for Vendetta." Films are presented in the science center's DOME theater, with a six-story-high screen and an 11,600-watt digital sound system.
Comet 3I/ATLAS is getting greener and brighter as it approaches Earth, new images reveal
New images taken with the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii confirm that the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has gotten brighter and greener since its close flyby of the sun in October.
The Monday Outlook: Project Hail Mary and the Science Behind Blockbuster Sci-Fi
Project Hail Mary is the latest sci-fi blockbuster to stretch the bounds of audience imagination and stir the curiosity of real scientists. But the science driving films like Project Hail Mary, Interstellar and The Martian isn’t all fictional: at UChicago, researchers exploring the cosmos and decoding the origins of life are making discoveries that would feel right at home on the big screen. This week's Monday Outlook features scientists from UChicago and Argonne National Laborat
Could aliens ever visit Earth? An aerospace scientist unpacks the challenges of interstellar spaceflight.
The universe is vast and teeming with stars – but if intelligent life exists, it may not be able to visit Earth.
Scientists spot sugar in interstellar space for the first time ever
Erythrulose—a sugar found in raspberries—is also prevalent in a giant molecular cloud close to our galaxy’s core, scientists have discovered
I watched scientists track interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS leaving the solar system in real-time: 'This is some prime-time science'
"These images are not just pretty."
Interstellar comet may be oldest object seen in our solar system, research finds
Observations suggest comet spent billions of years on ‘vast unimaginable trajectories’ around our galaxy
Comet 3I/ATLAS is older than the sun
At over 9 billion years old, the rare interstellar visitor is more than twice the sun's age.
Scientists Find The First True Sugar Ever Detected in Interstellar Space
The center of our galaxy is a little more like a raspberry donut than we realized.
Scientists discover sugar in interstellar space
The first detection of sugar in the interstellar medium could shed more light on how life began on Earth
Scientists trace latest interstellar comet’s home to a cold, isolated corner of the Milky Way
A new study suggests that the comet that rambled past us from another star last year likely originated in a cold, isolated corner of the galaxy that had yet to gel into its own solar system.
Natural sugar discovered in cloud of dust and gas near centre of Milky Way
Detection of erythrulose, also found in raspberries, shows that compounds key to life can form in interstellar space
Radio scans find no evidence of alien tech from interstellar comet 3I/Atlas
The SETI Institute said Wednesday that extensive radio scans by its telescope in Northern California found no signs of otherworldly technology from our solar system’s latest interstellar visitor.
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS contains strange water never seen in our solar system
A mysterious comet from beyond our solar system is giving astronomers a rare glimpse into alien worlds — and it may have formed in a place far colder and stranger than anything around our Sun. The interstellar visitor, called 3I/ATLAS, contains an astonishingly high amount of “heavy water,” far exceeding anything seen in our own solar system.
How Open NASA Data on Comet 3I/ATLAS Will Power Tomorrow’s Discoveries
Data collected by NASA's missions about interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will continue to reveal insights about the comet and interstellar objects at large.
Astronomical Aspirin And Interstellar Insulin: Are Space-Made Medicines The Future?
The long-anticipated manufacturing of medicines in microgravity has now been done twice at prototype scale, but is the cost and effort worth it?
Microscopic fragments of ancient alien tech may litter the moon — and scientists have a plan to find them
Researchers propose that tiny technological remnants left over from extinct alien civilizations could have landed on the moon after traveling through interstellar space. It may not take long to find them, the team claims.
A Bunch of Steelbooks Hit Their Lowest Prices Ever on Amazon
From Tommy Boy to Interstellar, these Steelbook deals cover just about every kind of movie night.
Our science predictions for 2026
Last year was full of unexpected science news, from the discovery of a new colour, to the interstellar visitor 3I/Atlas passing by our solar system, and a world-first treatment with a personalised gene editing therapy. So what will this year bring? Ian Sample and science correspondent Hannah Devlin discuss the big stories likely to hit the headlines and share their predictions for 2026
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is rapidly moving away from us. Can we 'intercept' it before it leaves us forever?
3I/ATLAS has passed its closest point to Earth, meaning we will soon lose sight of it for good. Some scientists want to send a spacecraft to chase down the alien comet — or the next interstellar object.
NASA telescope spots the building blocks for life spewing out of comet 3I/ATLAS
NASA's SPHEREx space telescope detected organic molecules coming off comet 3I/ATLAS as the interstellar visitor made its closest approach to Earth in December.
NASA’s Europa Clipper Observes Comet 3I/ATLAS
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission observed the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on Nov. 6 from a distance of about 102 million miles (164 million kilometers). Captured
IMAP opens a new era for heliosphere science and space weather
The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, a Princeton-led NASA mission to study the Sun and everything it touches, has officially begun its science mission. Princeton marked the occasion with a panel discussion of IMAP leaders, science talks and a reception hosted by the Center on Science and Technology.
Time, time, time; see what's become of me
While brilliant minds work to establish universal time, the universe seems to wish otherwise.
Comet 3I/ATLAS reaches its closest point to Earth tonight: How to see it in the sky and online
Comet 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object ever detected, will swing closest to Earth overnight from Thursday to Friday (Dec. 18 to 19). Here’s how to see it.
The year in science: From a tiny T. rex to interstellar visitors
Triumphs included advances in transplanting animal organs into people, but the growing measles crisis in the U.S. indicates danger.
Citizen science project recruits volunteers to search for undiscovered black holes
Cosmic detectives are being called on for an interstellar mission to hunt down thousands of invisible black holes lurking in our own backyard. Space scientists from the University of Southampton need ...
Life’s chemistry may begin in the cold darkness of space
New experiments reveal that protein precursors can form naturally in deep space under extreme cold and radiation. Scientists found that simple amino acids bond into peptides on interstellar dust, long before stars and planets exist. This challenges the idea that complex life chemistry only happens on planets. It also boosts the odds that life-friendly ingredients are widespread across the universe.
A Sweet Surprise: Scientists Find Sugar Deep in Our Galaxy
It’s the first time a sugar molecule has been detected in interstellar space. The discovery provides tantalizing new clues into how life may have arisen on Earth.
Radio telescopes help scientists map molecules in space and uncover where and how stars form
Interstellar maps can help scientists find patterns that tell them about fundamental chemical processes in the cosmos.
Scientists propose new plan to 'catch' comet 3I/ATLAS — but we have to act fast
A new study explores the challenges of catching interstellar comets like comet 3I/ATLAS
The Ten Most Significant Science Stories of 2025, From Medical Breakthroughs to an Interstellar Visitor
All year long, these moments captivated the public, demonstrated dangerous trends, and pushed research and innovation forward
Voyager 1 was launched in 1977 with a suite of 10 science instruments — as of 2026, only two remain switched on, and the spacecraft's nuclear power source loses roughly 4 watts every year, a slow drain that is now deciding what humanity still gets to learn from interstellar space
Voyager 1 is still doing science in interstellar space, but the mission has entered a stage where every watt has become a decision. The spacecraft left
Scientists Say They've Found Another Anomaly About 3I/ATLAS
A "detection of a wobbling high-altitude jet" in the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb intrigued.
NASA shuts off Voyager 1 instrument to save power 15B miles from Earth
NASA shut down Voyager 1's charged particles instrument to save dwindling power, as the interstellar spacecraft loses about 4 watts of energy per year.
Physicists Say It’s Possible to Send Messages Backward in Time
A team figured out the practical mechanics behind one of sci-fi epic film Interstellar’s most out-there ideas.
No Man's Sky's latest update is all about rubbish-flinging spacetrashpeople with gravity guns and interstellar trucks
No Man's Sky developers Hello Games have released the Remanant update, which adds a gravity gun and planetary cleanup trucks.
Voyager 1 is still crossing interstellar space with six computers holding about 68 kilobytes of memory between them — less storage than a single compressed photograph on a modern phone
Voyager 1 carries six flight-computer units designed in the early 1970s, and NASA’s own accounting puts their combined memory at about 68 kilobytes. That is
Can solar sails really send humans out into interstellar space?
"I think these are not far-out type of ideas; they are not really futuristic ideas that we are talking about."
Voyager 2 is nearly 50 years old, losing about 4 watts of power every year as its plutonium power source fades — and NASA just bought it at least another year of science with an all-at-once power-system swap engineers called the “Big Bang,” performed on a spacecraft with razor-thin power margins and no possibility of physical repair.
The Big Bang swap freed almost 10 watts while preserving Voyager 2's thermal balance, keeping its three remaining interstellar instruments on for at least another year.
NASA’s IMAP Mission Releases New Data From 7 Science Instruments
Science data from NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) mission is now available. After its successful launch on Sept. 24, 2025, IMAP’s
NASA’s Webb Detects Methane on Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has collected its first mid-infrared chemical fingerprint of an interstellar object during a recent revisit to comet 3I/ATLAS.
Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS May Be Far More Ancient Than We Thought
The team attempted to pin down the visitor's origins, finding it is "unlike any Solar System body" and came from a different part of our galaxy altogether.
Interstellar Arc wins “Best Location-Based Entertainment” at prestigious Auggie Awards
LAS VEGAS — Interstellar Arc at AREA15, the awe-inspiring, visionary experience from the Emmy®-winning creators at Felix & Paul Studios, announces it has been awarded “Best Location-Based Enter…
Sci-fi goes supersized at Great Lakes Science Center
"Interstellar," "Nope" and more are coming to the science center's DOME theater.
Breakthrough Listen Searched Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS For Technosignatures During Its Closest Approach To Earth
The team found nine "events" that they investigated further. Meanwhile, another team looked at the "non-gravitational" acceleration of the comet, finally pinning down a better estimate of its size.
They Froze a Brain to −196°C. Then Brought it ‘Back to Life’ in a Groundbreaking New Study.
Human hibernation seems like pure science fiction, but it could make interstellar travel a reality.
For the 2014 film Interstellar, director Christopher Nolan hired Caltech physicist Kip Thorne as his science consultant — and the visual simulations Thorne helped design for the film's black hole were so mathematically accurate that they generated two peer-reviewed scientific papers and became the model for how astrophysicists visualize black holes today
In late 2012, when the American film director Christopher Nolan formally took over the production of a Warner Brothers science-fiction project that had been drifting through Hollywood development since approximately 2005 (originally intended for Steven Spielberg, based on a screenplay concept the film producer Lynda Obst had developed jointly with the Caltech theoretical physicist Kip […]
Astronomers Detect the First True Sugar in Interstellar Space
The discovery hints that life’s ingredients may form before planets exist.
NASA’s IMAP Begins Primary Science Mission
NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) began its two-year primary science mission on Feb. 1 to explore and map the boundaries of our
Will Netflix’s Latest Horror Film Save Its Summer? And Introducing a New Data Source...
(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) All month, I’ve been polling you, my readers, on how we think the summer’s biggest blockbusters will do when they eventually land on streaming, and I wanted to share the results. First up, how readers think The Odyssey will perform when it comes to Peacock... People are pretty bullish that The Odyssey will smash it for Peacock. I don’t know that it will have as much rewatchability as Wicked did for kids, but we’ll see. It is now Universal’s highest-grossing film of all time. One note: almost half of Christopher Nolan’s films weren’t available for streaming the week The Odyssey came to theaters, including some of his biggest films like Inception, Dunkirk, Tenet, Oppenheimer and Insomnia. If you did want to watch the others, Prime Video had Memento and The Dark Knight trilogy, HBO Max only had The Dark Knight trilogy (even though Warner Bros. produced most of Nolan’s films), Hulu had The Prestige and Interstellar, and Paramount+ had Interstellar. So you needed at least two streaming subscriptions to catch the rest. Warner Bros. whiffed right here. I know they have long term licensing deals, but they should have tried to get as many Nolan films on HBO Max for launch as possible. Here are the results for Spider-Man: Brand New Day: The audience is a bit more mixed on this one, with everyone agreeing Spider-Man will swing to a big opening, but not necessarily elite or best all time. On to this week’s issue. Netflix continues searching for a hit straight-to-streaming summer film and Lioness and Ted Lasso allow me to look at the difference between a “hit” and a ‘hit for them”. All that, plus new YA/teen melodramas on Prime Video and Netflix, the House of the Dragon finale, USA Network claims a big opening, more big NFL ratings, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. But we start with a fun new data announcement. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of August 3rd to August 9th, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe A New Data Source: Reelgood’s Data on Content Libraries Here’s a fun new treat for you. Reelgood—an online service and app that lets users track where shows or films are streaming—is providing data every month for the Streaming Ratings Report on the size of each streamer’s catalogue, along with the new shows and films for each streamer. Yay! Previously, I had pulled “new shows on streamers premiering on the first of the month”: While I liked that data cut, it was a big wonky since it didn’t show all of the new shows or movies that came to a streamer each month. Instead, I would have preferred something like this from Reelgood’s annual report: And now we have it! I’m going to feature Reelgood’s data monthly, showing both total catalogue size and new shows and films appearing on the charts. That’s going to make these two cool new charts. First, here’s the size of various streamers’ film catalogues… (By the way, Reelgood offered to make the charts for me, but I like doing that task by hand to understand the data better.) They also provided data back to last year. Here’s the number of films timeline: And here are the new films on each streamer for the month prior to Aug: As I get used to this data, I plan to keep tinkering with how I display it, but I’m excited to feature it monthly. Today, I’m sharing the film charts; next issue, I’m going to feature TV shows by streamer. Now, in full disclosure, Reelgood is a sponsor of this little-newsletter-that-could. But in my constant quest to figure out what streamer various shows and films are on, I was already a Reelgood user before this sponsorship. I go to their website all the time, and their data is very accurate on where shows are (or have been). Plus, I’ve been sharing their weekly top ten lists for years now, pre-sponsorship. For me, this is a great win-win, since I get to amplify a service I love, and I get a cool new data source to play with. Now, normally folks don’t usually mention their sponsors directly, but as I wrote before, as I start featuring ads in my newsletter, I plan to be extremely open about who is sponsoring my writing so you can trust what I write. Television - Two Big Returning Shows Look Set to Take Over The Charts One key question when it comes to judging streaming shows is whether a show is a “hit” or a “hit for them”. To be clear, the former means a show that’s one of the top shows on streaming, no questions asked. The latter means a show is one of the biggest, for a given streamer. That distinction makes a big difference! It’s really good to be one of the biggest shows on a streamer; it’s much better to be the biggest on streaming, despite the size of a streamer. Because, as we’ve seen now, nearly every streamer—while lacking the number of subscribers or usage of Netflix—can make hit TV shows: Paramount released Landman, whose first and second seasons were among the top two TV shows the year they came out. HBO Max’s The Pitt’s second season is the biggest show of the year so far. Love Island USA was the top show in 2025 for Peacock. And, crucially for today’s discussion: Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back in 2023, Ted Lasso was actually the top streaming show of the year according to Nielsen! So even Apple TV (formerly +) can make hit shows. It just doesn’t make them that often. And looking at the Nielsen charts this week, we have two prime candidates for this discussion: That’s right: Ted Lasso returned to Apple TV for its fourth season. Did it return in all its expected glory? Sure, though right now it’s still just a “hit for Apple TV”, but we’ll see how long it lasts on the charts. Its ten episodes are coming out weekly. (Smart choice, Apple!) Ted Lasso started out strong, actually making the Nielsen charts the week before new episodes dropped, which is a rare feat. (Shows like Stranger Things or Bridgerton have pulled that off. That’s terrific company to join!) On Nielsen, it opened to 14.4 million hours in its first week, and 16.6 million the week of 10-Aug. Here’s how that compares to previous seasons: Apple put out that this is their biggest TV launch through two days ever, and looking at the chart and Apple TV’s viewership history, I’d believe it. Here’s Apple’s top shows for season two and beyond: Other data tells a (mostly) similar story. Ted Lasso made Samba TV and it has elite IMDb scores, an insane 8.7 on 465K reviews. The only outlier is Luminate, where the latest season only had 7.4 million hours, and no other seasons made the top ten. As you’ll see below, that’s well below some other solid, but not spectacular shows like Sterling Point, Ride or Die or Furious. I’d be surprised if Ted Lasso isn’t bigger than those other shows, but it’s fine for different data sources to occasionally disagree. And while it’s sucky to bring this up, given that Warner Bros. produced this show, I do wonder how the streaming wars may have been different if Ted Lasso landed on HBO Max initially instead of Apple. I don’t think one show can make or break a streamer, but given HBO’s brand, it could have helped bring people to that streamer much earlier in its lifespan. (Though yeah, I don’t love calling out executives for passing on hit shows, since that’s just the nature of the job. Even the absolute best execs will pass on lots of successful shows. The key is not greenlighting the under-performers/misses.) The other show I’m thinking about in the “hit or hit for them” category is Lioness from Paramount+. Like Ted Lasso, its first season missed the charts, but it’s grown its audience since then. Here’s how season three opened: We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… How Lioness did on streaming... Two new melodramas for Netflix and Prime Video... Whether Netflix’s latest horror film saved its summer... Hulu’s Furious and Prime Video’s Ride or Die continuing their strong runs... The latest high profile showrunner to flop on streaming... All the flops, bombs and misses... And a whole lot more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. Next week, we’ve got a double issue—since the week of 17-Aug had very few notable new shows or films—so I’ll look at HBO’s Lanterns, Prime Video’s Reacher, Netflix’s Tires, Outer Banks (which posted up huge numbers four years ago), an Aussie romance, and another baseball event (that didn’t resonate). And a bunch of movies like the latest dramedy from an Adam Sandler daughter, Don’t Say Good Luck, Camp Rock 3 on Disney Channel and Disney+, Michael on Starz, and more. Later this month, we’ve got a ton of shows and films to analyze! Movies will be the big story, featuring a box office bomb (Supergirl on HBO Max) and an “underperformer” (The Mandalorian and Grogu on Disney+) contending with a bunch of star-studded straight-to-streaming films like Netflix’s The Whisper Man (Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan and De Niro!), Mayday on Apple TV+ (Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh!), The Runner (Gal Gadot) and The Last Sunrise (Eva Longoria and Maia Reficco) on Prime Video. Plus, a ton of TV shows have sophomore seasons coming out. Will The Gentleman put up big numbers on Netflix or suffer from a sophomore slump? Leanne and Beauty in Black on Netflix seem small, but they both might be bigger than you think. Hulu has a bunch of shows: a new season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (the first after all the controversy last year) and the second season of Chad Powers (from Peyton Manning’s production company and starring Glen Powell). This one flopped last year; can it score a touchdown this year? Same goes for FX’s Adults, which I didn’t track last year; will it hit this year? Peacock’s The Office spinoff, The Paper and Apple TV’s Dark Matter also return for second seasons. And Netflix has more Untold specials featuring Vince Young, Raygun (that horrible breakdancer) and Mr. T. Long term, Paramount+ is rebooting yet another franchise, Clueless, and I’m somewhat bullish on this new show. The talent attached (Alicia Silverstone) and creative Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (of The O.C. and Gossip Girl) also feel solid...if they make it funny like the original.
Relationships Over Transactions: Interstellar.Plus Founder Matthew Hoag On Doing Business On A Different Value System
Pollstar speaks with Matthew Hoag, founder and CEO of Interstellar Plus — in his own words, “a growth consultancy company that partners up with projects that
Voyager 2’s three surviving instruments are part of humanity’s only direct scientific presence in interstellar space—and with no approved successor under development, engineers remotely reconfigured the 49-year-old probe’s power system in July 2026, completing a delicate operation across a 39-hour command-and-response delay that should preserve its science for at least another year.
Voyager 2's saved watts preserve magnetic-field, plasma-wave and cosmic-ray measurements from beyond the heliopause, where no approved replacement mission is yet on its way.
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is erupting in 'ice volcanoes', new images suggest
Scientists have observed cryovolcanoes erupting on comet 3I/ATLAS — giving us a new clue about what's inside it.
Interstellar's most-discussed scene is treated as exotic science fiction, but the family-separation problem it dramatises is one of the more actively studied subjects in long-duration mission planning.
The scene that has stayed with most viewers of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar is not the wave-planet, or the visualised black hole, or the climactic library of moments. It is the one in the middle of the film where Matthew McConaughey’s character, Cooper, watches twenty-three years of his children’s recorded video messages, having lost that span […]
Scientists trace latest interstellar comet's home to a cold, isolated corner of the Milky Way
A new study suggests that the comet that rambled past us from another star last year likely originated in a cold, isolated corner of the galaxy that had yet to gel into its own solar system.
Astronomers detect sugar in interstellar space for the first time
Astronomers have detected a natural sugar found in raspberries in clouds of interstellar dust and gas near the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Scientists discover molecule in space that hints at origin of life
A 13-atom molecule containing sulfur has been discovered in interstellar space for the first time, providing insight into the origins of the chemistry of life.
Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Is Now 1,770,000,000 Kilometers From Earth. What New Things Have We Learned From Its Visit?
Two new studies have tackled the question of where our interstellar visitor came from, and we are honing in on a consensus.
New images show an interstellar comet that will soon make its closest approach to Earth
New images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and a Jupiter-bound mission showcase interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS ahead of its close pass by Earth.