Sarah Chen squints at her computer screen at 2:47 AM, nursing her third cup of coffee. As a graduate astronomy student, she’s used to late nights analyzing data, but tonight feels different. The eight new images of interstellar comet 3I ATLAS have just finished processing, and what she’s seeing makes her lean back in her … Read more

Maria stared at her coffee mug, watching the steam curl up into the fluorescent lights of the observatory break room. It was 3:47 AM, and she’d been on shift for six hours when the alert came through. Her colleague Jake burst through the door, eyes wide, still clutching a printout of radio telescope data. “You … Read more

Dr. Sarah Chen was having her morning coffee when her phone buzzed with an alert that would change everything she thought she knew about comets. The message was simple: “New images available – priority review.” But when she opened her laptop and saw the first frame of interstellar comet 3I ATLAS, her coffee went cold. … Read more

Sarah Martinez stepped onto her apartment balcony in downtown Phoenix, coffee mug in hand, expecting another routine Tuesday morning. Instead, she found herself staring at her neighbor’s telescope pointed toward the pre-dawn sky. “You’ve got to see this,” he whispered, excitement barely contained in his voice. Through the eyepiece, a faint streak of light hung … Read more

Sarah Martinez was scrolling through her phone during lunch break when she saw the image. At first glance, it looked like a mistake—a streaky, ghostly smudge against black space that seemed more like a photography error than a real celestial object. But the caption made her pause: “Interstellar visitor captured by eight spacecraft.” She zoomed … Read more

Dr. Sarah Chen was scrolling through her morning coffee when she saw the notification. Another tagged post in the astronomy Facebook group, this one with 847 angry face reactions and counting. The image showed what looked like perfect geometric lines carved into a dark, alien surface. “WAKE UP SHEEPLE,” the caption screamed. “THIS IS NOT … Read more

Sarah Martinez was walking her dog on a quiet Tuesday evening when her neighbor, an amateur astronomer, called out from his driveway. “Hey, want to see something wild?” He pointed his telescope toward a seemingly empty patch of sky. “There’s a visitor up there right now—came from another star system.” She peered through the eyepiece, … Read more

Sarah Chen stared at her computer screen at 2 AM, rubbing her tired eyes. As a graduate astronomy student, she’d spent countless nights analyzing fuzzy dots that claimed to be distant comets. Most looked like smudges on a dirty window. But this morning, something different appeared in her inbox—crystal-clear images of an object that shouldn’t … Read more

Sarah rushed out of her apartment at 6:30 AM, already running late for her early meeting. She turned the key in her 2018 Honda Civic and heard nothing but a weak clicking sound. The temperature had dropped to 12 degrees overnight, and her gas gauge sat stubbornly near empty – a position it had held … Read more