For millions of years, a fragment of ice and dust has drifted between the stars — a frozen message in a bottle from another world. This summer, that message reached our solar system as 3I/ATLAS, only the third known interstellar comet. Using NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, Auburn University scientists detected the comet’s faint ultraviolet signature of hydroxyl (OH) — a by-product of water vapor — revealing that this visitor from another star is actively releasing water into space. Swift’s unique vantage point above Earth’s atmosphere allowed the team to capture ultraviolet light invisible to ground-based telescopes, uncovering new clues about how icy bodies — and the ingredients for life — form in planetary systems beyond our own.

SAN ANTONIO — October 7, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has developed technology to stiffen deployable structures on spacecraft, enabling autonomous spacecraft docking operations. SwRI is currently integrating the Parallelogram Synchronized Truss Assembly (PaSTA) technology with solar arrays on the Astroscale U.S. Refueler spacecraft. The team is also designing two different deployable booms using PaSTA technology for another spacecraft SwRI is developing.

A breakthrough in analog computing promises complex parallel processing at the speed of light.

Sealed Apollo 17 samples analyzed with new techniques reveal that the Moon’s interior contains sulfur isotopes unlike those found on Earth, according to research led by a Brown University scientist.

40 years after flying aboard the Challenger, Professor Terry Hart is continuing his mission to make spaceflight safer and more efficient by training the next generation of aerospace and space systems engineers. At Lehigh University, he's been the driving force behind a new master’s degree program in Aerospace and Space Systems Engineering (MS-AERO). "The aerospace field is changing fast, and I want students to be ready for the challenges and opportunities ahead," Hart says.