Worlds in swirls

Hubble has spotted the interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS for the first time. On July 21, the Hubble Space Telescope captured its first images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS (pictured). The comet’s trajectory suggests it may come from a region of the Milky Way older than our Solar System, potentially making this the oldest comet ever observed. Image credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble.

A newly discovered object could make Planet 9 less likely. Astronomers have found a trans-Neptunian object with an unusual orbit that makes the existence of a distant ninth planet less likely. The researchers suggest that if Planet 9 does exist, it would have to be much farther away than previously thought, or already ejected from the Solar System.

Makenzie Lystrup, PhD, is stepping down as director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Lystrup was the first female director of Goddard and has held the position since April 2023. She is the second NASA center director to leave in two months.

JWST finds signs of recent activity beneath Europa’s icy shell. Chaotic terrain on Jupiter’s moon Europa appears to contain sodium chloride, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen peroxide — compounds that degrade quickly under radiation, meaning that they were likely recently churned up by geological activity. NASA’s Europa Clipper mission is currently en route to the moon, where it will further explore its potential habitability.

Why send people back to the Moon? With higher costs and greater risk, crewed missions are inherently more difficult than robotic ones. But The Planetary Society’s science editor, Asa Stahl, PhD, explains why astronauts can be better than robots at conducting the kind of science that we want to do on the Moon. Pictured: Apollo 15 Commander David Scott deploying experiments on the Moon in 1971. Image credit: NASA.

Catch up on Planetary Radio. On our weekly show, New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern celebrates the 10th anniversary of the mission’s flyby with Pluto, with updates from planetary scientist Adeene Denton and Planetary Society Director of Government Relations Jack Kiraly. And on the first episode of Planetary Radio: Book Club Edition, bestselling science fiction author Andy Weir joins us for a conversation about his #1 bestselling novel, “Project Hail Mary,” soon to be a major motion picture.

Catch Sarah Al-Ahmed on some other great shows. Planetary Radio’s host and producer recently shared her love and knowledge of space with new audiences. Sarah joined streamer Moohoodles on Twitch last week, raising over $1,000 for The Planetary Society while discussing New Horizons, Pluto, and the importance of advocacy. She also joined Griffith Observatory’s All Space Considered show to talk about the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the discoveries it’s already making about our Universe.

You can be Earth's first line of defense. Dangerous asteroid impacts are rare, but they do happen. And they will continue to happen unless we can prevent them. That’s where you come in! You can help advance the search for these near-Earth objects with a gift of any amount. Plus, when you give today, a generous Society member will match your gift dollar for dollar, up to a total of $25,000.

The Senate advanced legislation that would fully fund NASA and space science. On July 17, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to approve its version of NASA's 2026 funding legislation, which provides $24.9 billion for NASA and $7.3 billion for NASA science — both the same as in 2025. This is a critical first step: it represents a complete rejection of the White House's proposal for draconian cuts to NASA science. But it’s only a first step. The House and Senate funding bills must now be reconciled, voted on by their full chambers, and signed by the President. We don’t know when this will happen, and likely won’t know until later this year. In the meantime, we will not relent on our advocacy work.

Politicians and scientists are calling on the NASA administrator to halt cuts to the agency. A total of 63 Members of Congress from both parties signed a letter to acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy this week, urging him to cease implementation of President Trump’s proposed cuts to NASA. And in a separate letter to Duffy, nearly 300 current and former NASA employees expressed formal dissent to the unprecedented, unstrategic, and wasteful cuts to the agency.