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Interstellar Comet Likely Far Older Than Solar System

An interstellar comet that blazed past the Sun last year could be nearly three times older than our Solar System and is unlike anything ever before seen in our cosmic backyard, astronomers said Monday.The comet 3I/ATLAS is just the third visitor from beyond our Solar System that humanity has ever observed, its unusual brightness offering scientists an unprecedented opportunity to study something that came from elsewhere in the galaxy.After being spotted in July last year, the space rock prompted excitement online, with one prominent Harvard researcher speculating it could be an alien spacecraft -- a theory that NASA shot down.Now, observations by the world's most powerful telescopes are revealing more about the unique comet. According to a new study published in the journal Nature, 3I/ATLAS could be up to 12 billion years old. Our Solar System is believed to have formed around 4.5 billion years ago.Lead study author Martin Cordiner of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center told AFP that "maybe it's the oldest object to have been observed in our Solar System".However there could be "edge-case scenarios" that offer other explanations for the comet's unusual chemical composition, he added. The new research is based on the comet's ratio of chemical elements called isotopes detected by the James Webb space telescope and the ALMA observatory in Chile.These measurements "reveal an elemental composition unlike any Solar System body", the study said.Compared to comets in our Solar System, 3I/ATLAS had around 30 times more deuterium, a type of hydrogen commonly seen in heavy water, according to a NASA statement."That high abundance of heavy water can only really happen, according to our understanding of astrochemistry, in a very cold environment," Cordiner explained.This means the comet is also likely among the coldest objects ever seen in our Solar System, the isotopic evidence suggesting it formed in an environment that was minus 243 degrees Celsius.Exactly where this comet came from within the Milky Way remains a mystery.But these interstellar objects are thought to form in a similar way to the comets in our Solar System -- being flung out during the violent formation of a new planet. Untethered to any star, 3I/ATLAS likely spent billions of years on "vast unimaginable trajectories around our galaxy," Cordiner said.The scientists also detected a strange lack of chemical enrichment on the comet, which suggests it formed relatively close to stars being born. It could even be a "relic" from an era called "cosmic noon" when many stars were forming around 10 billion years ago, Cordiner said.The previous interstellar objects -- 1I/'Oumuamua, which was spotted in 2017, followed by 2I/Borisov in 2019 -- were not bright enough to gather isotopic evidence.Harvard professor Avi Loeb, who had previously sparked controversy by suggesting 'Oumuamua could be an alien spacecraft, made similar suggestions about 3I/ATLAS.However NASA has dismissed this possibility. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) said last month it had found "no evidence of extraterrestrial technology" on the comet.Steve Croft, an Oxford University researcher with SETI's Breakthrough Listen Initiative, told AFP that all observations of the comet "are consistent with it being a natural astrophysical object".Several astronomers who have studied 3I/ATLAS, but were not involved in the new research, hailed the "unprecedented" results."Until these measurements we could only really dream about" getting this kind of information for an interstellar object, Darryl Seligman of Michigan State University told AFP.He cautioned that the comet's age remained uncertain, adding it was "a safe bet that it's older than anything that formed in the Solar System".Astronomer Peter Veres, who was involved in identifying the comet at the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, called the research "exciting"."The comet is now leaving the Solar System and will never return, so future observations will become increasingly difficult," he told AFP.However astronomers expect to spot many more interstellar objects in the coming years, particularly via the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile."This is just the beginning of an exciting new field, we've got a lot more to learn about these things -- and what they can tell us about our galaxy," Cordiner concluded.

23-06-2026 11:30

Interstellar Comet Likely Far Older Than Solar System

An interstellar comet that blazed past the Sun last year could be nearly three times older than our Solar System and is unlike anything ever before seen in our cosmic backyard, astronomers said Monday.The comet 3I/ATLAS is just the third visitor from beyond our Solar System that humanity has ever observed, its unusual brightness offering scientists an unprecedented opportunity to study something that came from elsewhere in the galaxy.After being spotted in July last year, the space rock prompted excitement online, with one prominent Harvard researcher speculating it could be an alien spacecraft -- a theory that NASA shot down.Now, observations by the world's most powerful telescopes are revealing more about the unique comet. According to a new study published in the journal Nature, 3I/ATLAS could be up to 12 billion years old. Our Solar System is believed to have formed around 4.5 billion years ago.Lead study author Martin Cordiner of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center told AFP that "maybe it's the oldest object to have been observed in our Solar System".However there could be "edge-case scenarios" that offer other explanations for the comet's unusual chemical composition, he added. The new research is based on the comet's ratio of chemical elements called isotopes detected by the James Webb space telescope and the ALMA observatory in Chile.These measurements "reveal an elemental composition unlike any Solar System body", the study said.Compared to comets in our Solar System, 3I/ATLAS had around 30 times more deuterium, a type of hydrogen commonly seen in heavy water, according to a NASA statement."That high abundance of heavy water can only really happen, according to our understanding of astrochemistry, in a very cold environment," Cordiner explained.This means the comet is also likely among the coldest objects ever seen in our Solar System, the isotopic evidence suggesting it formed in an environment that was minus 243 degrees Celsius.Exactly where this comet came from within the Milky Way remains a mystery.But these interstellar objects are thought to form in a similar way to the comets in our Solar System -- being flung out during the violent formation of a new planet. Untethered to any star, 3I/ATLAS likely spent billions of years on "vast unimaginable trajectories around our galaxy," Cordiner said.The scientists also detected a strange lack of chemical enrichment on the comet, which suggests it formed relatively close to stars being born. It could even be a "relic" from an era called "cosmic noon" when many stars were forming around 10 billion years ago, Cordiner said.The previous interstellar objects -- 1I/'Oumuamua, which was spotted in 2017, followed by 2I/Borisov in 2019 -- were not bright enough to gather isotopic evidence.Harvard professor Avi Loeb, who had previously sparked controversy by suggesting 'Oumuamua could be an alien spacecraft, made similar suggestions about 3I/ATLAS.However NASA has dismissed this possibility. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) said last month it had found "no evidence of extraterrestrial technology" on the comet.Steve Croft, an Oxford University researcher with SETI's Breakthrough Listen Initiative, told AFP that all observations of the comet "are consistent with it being a natural astrophysical object".Several astronomers who have studied 3I/ATLAS, but were not involved in the new research, hailed the "unprecedented" results."Until these measurements we could only really dream about" getting this kind of information for an interstellar object, Darryl Seligman of Michigan State University told AFP.He cautioned that the comet's age remained uncertain, adding it was "a safe bet that it's older than anything that formed in the Solar System".Astronomer Peter Veres, who was involved in identifying the comet at the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, called the research "exciting"."The comet is now leaving the Solar System and will never return, so future observations will become increasingly difficult," he told AFP.However astronomers expect to spot many more interstellar objects in the coming years, particularly via the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile."This is just the beginning of an exciting new field, we've got a lot more to learn about these things -- and what they can tell us about our galaxy," Cordiner concluded.

23-06-2026 11:30

Scientists Discover Hidden ‘Third Eye’ in Human Skull and Why It Exists

Did you know humans have a 'third eye'?Unlike the tuatara, a reptile from New Zealand with a visible functioning third eye located on the top of its head, the human third eye - called the pineal gland - isn't visible as it is located deep within the brain.The function of the pineal gland is directing how our body respond to light and dark.But the question is, where exactly did this gland come from?A new hypothesis published in the journal Current Biology seeks to answer this, and it appears our third eye is derived from some of our ancient ancestors and could hold the key to understanding how human sight has evolved.For context it's important to know that the eyes of vertebrates are built differently compared to the rest of the animal kingdom.Typically, for most animals on Earth the light-detecting cells in their lateral eyes are a part of an ancient family, called rhabdomeric photoreceptors. Then for the non-visual jobs like tracking day length and sensing overall light levels, this is carried out by a second family called ciliary photoreceptors, as per BBC's Science Focus.It's a different story for vertebrates - humans, fish, birds, and reptiles - as our eyes are built from ciliary photoreceptors at the input end, wired into neurons of rhabdomeric origin at the output end.And no one know how this happened.Prof Thomas Baden, a neuroscientist at the University of Sussex and co-author of the new study, questioned “What is the original solution to vision, and to what extent have different species just copied or modified it to make it their own?”He further pondered if there were any patterns, and what is the original eye.To get to the bottom of this, Baden and his researchers had to look back to 575 million years ago for a certain ancestor - a far cry from what we look like today (we're talking a small worm-like creature located on the seafloor).This creature would've have two lateral eyes for navigation, plus an eye on the top of its head to monitor the light levels, and to help with balance.From that point, Baden and his team's hypothesis is that some kind of change occurred where the ancestors that would evolved into vertebrates began to burrow down in sediment filter-feeding on particles floating past, they no longer needed to navigate.As a result, the lateral eyes were lost due to them no longer being useful and taking to much energy to sustain.What was left were sensors and photoreceptors can could still indicate direction and light level (difference between day and night).“The need to know what time of day it is, or where is up and down if you're in deep water. That doesn't go away,” says Baden. “So, we speculate that that's when we lost the original side eyes, but we kept the original median eye, because that's what it's good for.”Due to this burrowing, scientists reckon this explains why vertebrates have a different structure - many animals still have their lateral eyes, while ours were lost.Thanks to evolution, some of the ancestors didn't remain burrowed in sediment but instead reverted to the open water as free-swimming filter feeders.This meant they needed to be able to navigate, and so the new eyes included both ciliary and rhabdomeric cell types as only the photoreceptive organ was only available matter to be built from.So what does this mean?It means for the retina - the layer inside the back of your eye that detects light - an earlier precursor version were already made in the media eye, with us intermitting the intricate features that make up the eyes we have today.That being said, Baden is hesitant to call the median an an eyes - here's why.“The thing on top of the head originally is not one eye; it's more like a series of sensors, multiple patches of photoreceptors,” he explained Therefore, "the retina predates the eye, if that makes sense. I always thought that was a cute tagline."Elsewhere, a different study recently published in Nature suggests our ancestor had four eyes with lenses and retinas at one point in time.Given the sheer scale of evolution history (around half a billion years), it remains unclear if these scientific theories are correct - although Baden believes we'll soon get to the bottom of this.“The central testable bits that we've put forward – I think with some funding and a few years – you can get a yes-no answer,” he said.

30-05-2026 12:34

Concerning scenario: Earth’s population could decline for these reasons...

Scientists are warning of a possible major decline in the world’s population in the coming decades which in the “worst case scenarios” could reach a halving of the current population by 2064 due to multiple factors.The Earth’s population currently stands at about 8.3 billion people. However scientists from the University of Milan present hypothetical scenarios in a recent study that rely on mathematical models simulating the future of population growth under severe environmental and economic pressures.The researchers explain that their study is not intended to provide direct predictions of the future but rather to test how population growth would be affected if the Earth’s “carrying capacity” the maximum number of people that can be sustainably supported were to drop suddenly and sharply in one scenario to as low as about two billion people.According to the mathematical model used in the study published in Chaos Solitons and Fractals such a sharp decline in carrying capacity could lead to a rapid decrease in the global population potentially reaching nearly half within the coming decades.The research is based on an analysis of population data spanning more than 12,000 years aiming to understand patterns of human growth throughout history from the slow growth periods of ancient times to the rapid population surges of the modern era.The scientists note that the current overall population growth trend remains relatively stable and does not indicate an imminent collapse but they warn that sudden changes in environmental or health conditions could drastically reshape this trajectory.Experts caution that such a collapse could result from climate breakdown a global pandemic international conflict or severe resource shortages.In a related context the study also discusses what is known in demography as the “doomsday scenario” proposed since the 1960s which predicted population growth reaching unsustainable levels. However the global decline in fertility rates has so far helped avoid those projections.Nevertheless recent data shows that fertility rates in several countries have fallen below the population replacement level of about 2.1 children per woman. The rate is 1.41 in the United Kingdom and 1.62 in the United States raising concerns about future labor shortages and increasing pressures on elderly care systems.Some experts warn that continuing this trend could worsen economic and social challenges which business figures and analysts including Elon Musk interpret as one of the most serious long term threats to human civilization’s stability amid declining global birth rates.

27-05-2026 15:40

Starship Test Flight Marks Major Milestone for SpaceX

SpaceX completed a largely successful test flight of its next-generation Starship rocket on Friday, deploying a clutch of mock satellites and executing a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean in a high-stakes debut of the newly upgraded vehicle as Elon Musk's ​company prepares to go public.The latest uncrewed launch of Starship - designed to enable more frequent Starlink satellite launches and to send future NASA missions to the moon - achieved a key milestone for the vehicle following months of testing delays. ‌The outcome could also boost investor confidence ahead of SpaceX's initial public offering next month, expected to be the largest in history.Starship, which SpaceX has spent more than $15 billion developing as a fully reusable spacecraft, is critical to Musk's goals of cutting launch costs, expanding his Starlink business and pursuing ambitions ranging from deep-space exploration to orbital data centers - all factored into his targeted $1.75 trillion IPO valuation.Friday's launch marked SpaceX's 12th test flight of a Starship prototype since 2023 and the first of its V3 iteration, a major upgrade of both the cruise vessel and its Super Heavy booster, as well as the first blast-off from a launch pad specially designed for ​the new rocket.MEANINGFUL STEP FORWARDSpaceX was counting on a successful test flight to reinforce its case that the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown is nearing commercial readiness after years of explosive setbacks and development delays. Friday's test appeared to have ​achieved most of its major objectives.The towering vehicle, consisting of the upper-stage Starship astronaut vessel stacked atop a Super Heavy booster rocket, blasted off around 5:30 p.m. CT (2230 GMT) from SpaceX facilities in Starbase, Texas, ⁠on the Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville.Minutes later, the two stages cleanly separated, leaving the Starship vehicle to soar on to its cruise phase despite the loss of one of its six engines, then release its simulated satellite payload before surviving a fiery atmospheric re-entry and splashdown. ​Its flight lasted just over an hour in all.The lower-stage Super Heavy came down separately in the gulf about six minutes after blast-off, as expected, but the booster rocket failed to complete a planned boost-back burn of its engines after separating from Starship.Musk welcomed the outcome with a ​message posted to his X platform, congratulating his "SpaceX team on an epic first Starship V3 launch & landing!"Kathleen Curlee, a research analyst at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, hailed the flight as "another meaningful step forward in SpaceX’s broader strategy of building the launch capacity needed to support the company’s expanding ambitions in space."Although the flight encountered "some anomalies," Curlee said, "the test appears to have achieved several key objectives and will provide SpaceX with significant operational and engineering data moving forward."A live SpaceX webcast of the liftoff showed the rocketship, more than 40 stories tall, climbing from the launch tower as the Super Heavy's cluster of 33 Raptor engines ​thundered to life in a ball of flames and billowing clouds of vapor and exhaust.The test ended about 65 minutes later when the Starship vehicle blazed through Earth's atmosphere and landed in the Indian Ocean, nose up as planned, before keeling over in the sea and exploding ​in a fireball, to the raucous cheers of SpaceX employees who gathered to watch the flight webcast.SpaceX said before the launch it would not attempt a safe return landing or recovery of either the booster or the Starship upper stage, even if all else went as planned.During its suborbital cruise phase, Starship ‌successfully released its ⁠payload of 20 mock Starlink satellites one by one, plus two actual modified satellites that scanned the spacecraft's heat shield and transmitted data back to operators on the ground during the vehicle's descent.Given the failure of one of Starship's six engines early in the flight, mission controllers opted not to attempt a planned in-space engine re-ignition before re-entry.But the vehicle did execute a return-landing burn at the very end of its flight, along with several maneuvers deliberately intended to place the spacecraft under maximum stress. Starship completed those moves intact for its controlled final descent.

23-05-2026 12:15

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Concerning scenario: Earth’s population could decline for these reasons...

Scientists are warning of a possible major decline in the world’s population in the coming decades which in the “worst case scenarios” could reach a halving of the current population by 2064 due to multiple factors.The Earth’s population currently stands at about 8.3 billion people. However scientists from the University of Milan present hypothetical scenarios in a recent study that rely on mathematical models simulating the future of population growth under severe environmental and economic pressures.The researchers explain that their study is not intended to provide direct predictions of the future but rather to test how population growth would be affected if the Earth’s “carrying capacity” the maximum number of people that can be sustainably supported were to drop suddenly and sharply in one scenario to as low as about two billion people.According to the mathematical model used in the study published in Chaos Solitons and Fractals such a sharp decline in carrying capacity could lead to a rapid decrease in the global population potentially reaching nearly half within the coming decades.The research is based on an analysis of population data spanning more than 12,000 years aiming to understand patterns of human growth throughout history from the slow growth periods of ancient times to the rapid population surges of the modern era.The scientists note that the current overall population growth trend remains relatively stable and does not indicate an imminent collapse but they warn that sudden changes in environmental or health conditions could drastically reshape this trajectory.Experts caution that such a collapse could result from climate breakdown a global pandemic international conflict or severe resource shortages.In a related context the study also discusses what is known in demography as the “doomsday scenario” proposed since the 1960s which predicted population growth reaching unsustainable levels. However the global decline in fertility rates has so far helped avoid those projections.Nevertheless recent data shows that fertility rates in several countries have fallen below the population replacement level of about 2.1 children per woman. The rate is 1.41 in the United Kingdom and 1.62 in the United States raising concerns about future labor shortages and increasing pressures on elderly care systems.Some experts warn that continuing this trend could worsen economic and social challenges which business figures and analysts including Elon Musk interpret as one of the most serious long term threats to human civilization’s stability amid declining global birth rates.

27-05-2026 15:40

Interstellar Comet Likely Far Older Than Solar System

An interstellar comet that blazed past the Sun last year could be nearly three times older than our Solar System and is unlike anything ever before seen in our cosmic backyard, astronomers said Monday.The comet 3I/ATLAS is just the third visitor from beyond our Solar System that humanity has ever observed, its unusual brightness offering scientists an unprecedented opportunity to study something that came from elsewhere in the galaxy.After being spotted in July last year, the space rock prompted excitement online, with one prominent Harvard researcher speculating it could be an alien spacecraft -- a theory that NASA shot down.Now, observations by the world's most powerful telescopes are revealing more about the unique comet. According to a new study published in the journal Nature, 3I/ATLAS could be up to 12 billion years old. Our Solar System is believed to have formed around 4.5 billion years ago.Lead study author Martin Cordiner of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center told AFP that "maybe it's the oldest object to have been observed in our Solar System".However there could be "edge-case scenarios" that offer other explanations for the comet's unusual chemical composition, he added. The new research is based on the comet's ratio of chemical elements called isotopes detected by the James Webb space telescope and the ALMA observatory in Chile.These measurements "reveal an elemental composition unlike any Solar System body", the study said.Compared to comets in our Solar System, 3I/ATLAS had around 30 times more deuterium, a type of hydrogen commonly seen in heavy water, according to a NASA statement."That high abundance of heavy water can only really happen, according to our understanding of astrochemistry, in a very cold environment," Cordiner explained.This means the comet is also likely among the coldest objects ever seen in our Solar System, the isotopic evidence suggesting it formed in an environment that was minus 243 degrees Celsius.Exactly where this comet came from within the Milky Way remains a mystery.But these interstellar objects are thought to form in a similar way to the comets in our Solar System -- being flung out during the violent formation of a new planet. Untethered to any star, 3I/ATLAS likely spent billions of years on "vast unimaginable trajectories around our galaxy," Cordiner said.The scientists also detected a strange lack of chemical enrichment on the comet, which suggests it formed relatively close to stars being born. It could even be a "relic" from an era called "cosmic noon" when many stars were forming around 10 billion years ago, Cordiner said.The previous interstellar objects -- 1I/'Oumuamua, which was spotted in 2017, followed by 2I/Borisov in 2019 -- were not bright enough to gather isotopic evidence.Harvard professor Avi Loeb, who had previously sparked controversy by suggesting 'Oumuamua could be an alien spacecraft, made similar suggestions about 3I/ATLAS.However NASA has dismissed this possibility. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) said last month it had found "no evidence of extraterrestrial technology" on the comet.Steve Croft, an Oxford University researcher with SETI's Breakthrough Listen Initiative, told AFP that all observations of the comet "are consistent with it being a natural astrophysical object".Several astronomers who have studied 3I/ATLAS, but were not involved in the new research, hailed the "unprecedented" results."Until these measurements we could only really dream about" getting this kind of information for an interstellar object, Darryl Seligman of Michigan State University told AFP.He cautioned that the comet's age remained uncertain, adding it was "a safe bet that it's older than anything that formed in the Solar System".Astronomer Peter Veres, who was involved in identifying the comet at the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, called the research "exciting"."The comet is now leaving the Solar System and will never return, so future observations will become increasingly difficult," he told AFP.However astronomers expect to spot many more interstellar objects in the coming years, particularly via the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile."This is just the beginning of an exciting new field, we've got a lot more to learn about these things -- and what they can tell us about our galaxy," Cordiner concluded.

23-06-2026 11:30

Chester Zoo Celebrates Birth of World's Rarest Chimpanzee

The Independent Published this article:A critically endangered Western chimpanzee, which conservationists say is the "world's rarest chimpanzee", has been born at a zoo.Chester Zoo said the birth was a "small but vital boost" to the global population of the species which was "under huge threat" in the wild.The "baby boy" was in good health and had bonded well with its mother and the rest of the troop, it added.In line with the zoo's tradition, it will be named after a rock or pop star.Andrew Lenihan, from Chester Zoo, said: "We've previously welcomed Dylan (Bob), Alice (Cooper) and Annie (Lennox) - so watch this space."Mum ZeeZee and her new arrival instantly bonded and she's doing a great job of cradling him closely and caring for him."He said the apes were under huge threat in the wild as a result of hunting for the illegal bush meat trade, diseases spread by humans and extensive habitat loss and forest destruction across West Africa.The chimpanzee's arrival was a "small but vital boost to the global population of Western chimpanzees, at a time when it's most needed for this critically endangered species", he added.The zoo said just 18,000 Western chimpanzees remain across Africa and it is the first subspecies of chimpanzee to ever be declared critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).Western chimpanzees have become extinct in Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo.Mike Jordan, animal and plant director at the zoo, said: "In the last 25 years alone the world has lost 80% of its Western chimpanzee population, so the arrival of a healthy baby here at Chester offers us real hope that we can help turn things around for this species."He added the conservation zoo was "doing everything we possibly can to halt and reverse this".

14-01-2023 12:42

French City Asks Madonna to Lend It a Painting Lost in 1918

Marine Strauss wrote this article in Reuters:The mayor of Amiens, northern France, has asked Madonna to lend the city a 19th-century painting lost during World War One which it believes may be have been bought by the singer, to help its chances of becoming European Capital of Culture.The "Diana and Endymion" painting by Jerome-Martin Langlois, which depicts Roman goddess Diana looking lovingly at the handsome Endymion, was once on display in an Amiens museum but was lost after Germany bombed the city in 1918.French daily Le Figaro reported that the painting, or a nearly identical one, went on sale at an auction in New York in 1989 where Madonna paid $1.3 million for it.There was no immediate reply from a spokesperson for Madonna to an emailed request for comment.Amiens, where French President Emmanuel Macron was born, is a candidate to be European Capital of Culture in 2028."We do not dispute in any way the legal acquisition that you have made but we are candidates to be European Capital of Culture in 2028. So I would like that on this occasion, this year, you could lend us your painting," Amiens mayor Brigitte Foure said in a video posted on Facebook.The painting was commissioned by French King Louis XVIII for the Diane room in the Versailles palace and bought by the State in 1873.Foure said the painting was probably lent to the Amiens museum by the Louvre before World War One, after which Amiens lost trace of it.Madonna has just announced European dates for her "The Celebration Tour" where she will perform in Paris - less than two hours by train from Amiens - on Nov. 11-12, 2023.

18-01-2023 16:34

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