An interstellar comet racing through our solar system released methanol, methane and cyanide, NASA says. Could these life linked molecules hint at how worlds across the cosmos are seeded?

NASA's SPHEREx space telescope detected methanol, cyanide and methane, key ingredients for life, in interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS during its December 2025 flyby.

Comet 3I/ATLAS is already racing back into deep space, but its surprise resurgence in December 2025 has turned a fading curiosity into a case that planetary scientists will be arguing over for years.

Interstellar visitors are rare enough that each one rewrites the playbook for how scientists study the space between stars. On July 1, 2025, the ATLAS survey spotted a new object, first tagged as ...

Hidden high in California’s White Mountains, a solitary bristlecone pine has survived nearly 5,000 years. Guarded in secrecy, ...