6 things NASA wants you to know about the new Sentinel-6B sea-level satellite

Ever since interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS entered view in July, its strange behaviour, shifting colours, erratic motion, a puzzling 16.16-hour “heartbeat,”has fuelled both scientific curiosity and speculation. Now, NASA astrochemist Martin Cordiner’s team has detected unusually abundant methanol and hydrogen cyanide in its plume, chemicals linked to life’s origins. Harvard’s Avi Loeb says the new data only deepens the mystery.

Ever since interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS entered view in July, its strange behaviour, shifting colours, erratic motion, a puzzling 16.16-hour “heartbeat,”has fuelled both scientific curiosity and speculation. Now, NASA astrochemist Martin Cordiner’s team has detected unusually abundant methanol and hydrogen cyanide in its plume, chemicals linked to life’s origins. Harvard’s Avi Loeb says the new data only deepens the mystery.

Early airport body scanners were far more revealing than most travellers realised. In the early 2010s, Rapiscan X-ray machines produced highly detailed, near-nude images that sparked outrage and were ultimately removed over privacy concerns. Experts tell Reader’s Digest that today’s millimetre-wave scanners work very differently, generating only a generic avatar and flagging possible threats without exposing anyone’s actual body.

The discovery made by Chandrayaan-3's lander has revealed a vibrant plasma environment in the Moon's southern polar areas. Recent measurements indicate an unexpected surge in electron densities and energetic particles, surpassing earlier predictions. This dynamic, electrically charged layer is greatly influenced by solar wind and Earth’s magnetic forces, providing vital knowledge that could shape upcoming lunar explorations.

Mysterious red lights falling from space, initially thought to be alien signals, have been identified by scientists as red sprites. These rare upper-atmosphere lightning phenomena occur high above thunderstorms, appearing as upward-traveling pillars or jellyfish-shaped glows.Captured by citizen scientists and astronauts, these striking electrical events are triggered by powerful ground lightning strikes.

Comet 3I/ATLAS has already puzzled astronomers with its odd trajectory, twin tails and sudden bursts of activity. Now a rhythmic 16.16-hour “heartbeat” has become the latest mystery. Most researchers see a rotating, venting comet. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb argues the pulse points instead to jets driving the brightness “like a bloodstream”, keeping open, cautiously, the possibility of something more engineered.

A mysterious underwater noise recorded in 1997, the “Bloop,” fuelled years of speculation about megalodon and other undiscovered giants. But NOAA’s long-running investigation eventually traced the sound to Antarctic icequakes, not a living creature. The finding reveals less about ancient sharks and more about a warming planet, whose shifting ice now produces noises once mistaken for monsters.

Microsleep is a brief, involuntary shutdown of the brain lasting 1–30 seconds, often arriving with tiny dream-like flashes and no warning. Anaesthesiologist Dr Myro Figura describes it as the brain “blacking out” after severe sleep deprivation, a danger linked to thousands of road crashes. Sleep clinics warn that inconsistent sleep, long wakeful hours and late-night driving make these episodes far more likely.