Our Solar System is currently passing through the Local Interstellar Cloud, a region of highly diluted gas and dust between the stars. On its path, Earth continuously accumulates iron-60, a rare radioactive isotope of iron produced in stellar explosions. This has now been confirmed by an international research team led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) through the analysis of Antarctic ice tens of thousands of years old. From the steady but time-varying influx, the researchers conclude that the radioactive isotope has been stored within the cloud since a long-past stellar explosion. The results have been published in the journal Physical Review Letters (DOI:10.1103/nxjq-jwgp).

The Southwest Research Institute-led Ultraviolet Spectrographs (UVS) instruments aboard ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft and NASA’s Europa Clipper made unique observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS in late 2025. SwRI leads the UVS instruments on both spacecraft, simultaneously imaging both hemispheres of the comet and detecting the comet’s ultraviolet emissions.

The U.S. space agency used a device developed by a startup supported by FAPESP to monitor the sleep patterns, physical activity, and interactions of astronauts on the Artemis 2 mission.

A new method could enable physicists to spot signs of dark matter in gravitational waves that are detected on Earth. This could occur if two colliding black holes spiral through a dense region of dark matter and merge, leaving an imprint in gravitational waves that are rippling across space and time.

After nearly 10 years, three flight experiments and a flying rocket lab, scientists map out the chaotic forces of ultra-fast flight, redefining the future of aerospace travel.