Free-floating, planetary-mass objects that are just drifting carefree through the galaxy, untethered and starless, appear to be able to generate their own systems of moons, like a planetary system on a miniature scale.

An analysis of new JWST observations on a number of rogue planets – each weighing between five and 10 Jupiters – has revealed the presence of disks with a significant proportion of crystalline silicate, just like those surrounding some baby stars right before their planets start to form.

“These studies show that objects with masses comparable to those of giant planets have the potential to form their own miniature planetary systems,” says observational astronomer Aleks Scholz of the University of St Andrews in the UK.

The object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, has caught the attention of Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who has a long track record of making controversial predictions about previous interstellar objects being relics from an extraterrestrial civilization.

While there’s been a growing consensus among astronomers that the latest object is a comet, Loeb has continued to entertain the idea that it may have been sent to us by an intelligent species from outside of the solar system — and he’s far from backing down.

In a blog post over the weekend, Loeb pointed to observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which showed a “glow of light, likely from a coma, ahead of the motion of 3I/ATLAS towards the Sun.”

We bring you an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at this iconic mission with Dr Linda Spilker, from her first job out of college to serving as the current Voyager Project Scientist.

Before it met the 30,000–50,000 kelvin wall at the edge of our Solar System, Voyager 1 took its final images.

More than 50 years after the last manned moon mission, the Apollo program is still making groundbreaking discoveries.

Lunar rock collected by Apollo 17 is revealing more about the Light Mantle, a distinctive bright streak across the moon’s surface. It’s believed to be the remains of an ancient landslide that happened in the distant past, but the exact cause is unknown.

Asteroid strikes, debris from a nearby mountain and seismic activity are all possibilities, but orbital photographs can only reveal so much. Scientists are now studying a rock core from Apollo 17 that was recently unsealed for the first time in 50 years, allowing new insights into the geology of the area.