Multiple Choice: What writer’s name below is not found among the craters on Mercury named after famous writers?
A. Marlowe
B. Melville
C. Milton
D. Molière
Take a guess and then check your answer by going to the “Astronomy Question Answer Sheet” page.
Earlier this month Cool Worlds Labs posted a video titled “Why Technological Civilizations Might Be Insanely Rare” that discusses the idea of self-replicating space probes.
The video starts with the assumption that self-replicating space probes, which have been discussed over the past 50 years, are something we should be able to achieve in the next few decades. That sounds like great news for space exploration. But there is a problem.
With each advance you often find a flaw, and in this case the flaw is that space probes will inevitably mutate into something destructive that slowly destroys exoplanets, then our own galaxy, and quite possibly other galaxies. So Professor David Kipping basically posits that such a probe can never be sent out because it is sure to eventually destroy the universe. This is quite a claim as we follow him through his calculations.
So the next question is why we are even here on Earth today since plenty of time has passed for the probe from another distant civilization to destroy us. The very fact that we are still here seems to indicate that no other civilization has ever sent out a self-replicating probe. And what does that mean? Could it mean there are no other civilizations? Or maybe no civilization survived to the point of sending such probes.
It is quite a mind twister worthy of your time. At the end of it, the overall question will change from “Why are we alone?” to “Why are we even here?” Or maybe, “How much longer will we be here?”
Don’t expect to get much sleep after watching this video.
This week’s image is from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space telescope. It shows the center of the Milky Way Galaxy with its more than 60 million stars.
Here is more from ESA pertaining to what you are seeing above:
The galactic bulge – the central region of our galaxy – is a vast, tightly packed structure filled mainly with old, cooler stars, giving it its characteristic yellow colour. Seen from some 26 000 light-years away, Euclid observes the galaxy’s centre through a complex foreground of material along its line of sight.
This ultra-wide view towards the bulge reveals not only stars, but also seemingly empty dark regions. The dark patches are not devoid of stars: they mark dense, dust-rich molecular clouds that absorb and scatter light from the bulge behind them. As Euclid looks through two of the Milky Way’s spiral arms, it also encounters regions of active star formation, traced by newly formed, massive blue stars. Their intense ultraviolet radiation ionises surrounding hydrogen gas, producing the faint red glow clearly visible in one of the cutouts.
The image below provides more context about the location of the image shown above. Go to this link for more information on the Euclid’s survey.
First, let’s note the good news. NASA has more and more launches on its current launch pads (see figure above). Now, the bad news. NASA is running out of functioning launch pads.
That’s the story from NASA’s Office of Inspector General in its latest audit report, NASA’s Launch Infrastructure. The June 22nd audit report concludes that:
NASA’s launch infrastructure is dated and lacks the capacity to meet the growing demands of the Agency and government and commercial partners. The number of launches supported by Kennedy and Wallops has increased dramatically since 2020 and is projected to grow even further by 2030 due to a surge in commercial launches. The growing number of projected launches from Kennedy and Wallops could eventually outpace each site’s capacity to support the launches. Based on current launch projections, Kennedy and Wallops are expected to operate near capacity in the 2028 to 2029 time frame.
The report also notes that the Kennedy Space Center is in tough shape (see figure below). For example, the auditors stated:
Kennedy’s roadway and bridge infrastructure was largely constructed in the 1960s and was not designed to accommodate the volume, frequency, and weight of modern heavy transport operations. Roadways and bridges are in marginal to poor condition and are expected to receive further strain as launch rates increase and generate approximately 19,000 additional truck trips annually to transport flight hardware, propellants, and related materials.
Why is this the situation in a nation that seems to want a strong space program? The report highlights a number of causes, including budget cuts and NASA’s inability to seek sufficient reimbursement from commercial users. It seems we want the private sector to be involved, but we are subsidizing all of the infrastructure, thereby not showing the true cost of these missions. The auditors noted that Congress is aware of this problem, but still unable to pass legislation to correct this reimbursement issue.
The report has a number of recommendations addressed to NASA, which is the auditee. Yet a few recommendations are also needed for Congress. My first recommendation would be for Congress to get off its butt and put legislation in place to ensure the commercial sector is reimbursing the government for the services it is using. That seems easy enough with a serious Congress, and NASA certainly has enough bipartisan support to make this happen.
Note: Figure 4 shows that the vast majority of the launches from Florida are for commercial purposes and not government launches. For instance, 101 of the 109 launches in 2025 related to SpaceX, and most of those launches pertained to Starlink, a commercial enterprise. Maybe it is time to ask the world’s only trillionaire to kick in a litte more for space infrastructure.
Nature abstract of study findings:
Interstellar objects provide the only directly observable samples of icy planetesimals formed around other stars, and can therefore provide insight into the diversity of physical and chemical conditions occurring during exoplanet formation. Here we report isotopic measurements of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, which reveal an elemental composition unlike any Solar System body. The water in 3I/ATLAS is enriched in deuterium, at a level of D/H = (0.98 ± 0.06)%, which is more than an order of magnitude higher than in known comets, while its range of 12C/13C ratios (141–191 for CO2 and 123–172 for CO) exceeds typical values found in the Solar System, as well as nearby interstellar clouds and protoplanetary disks. Such extreme isotopic signatures indicate formation at temperatures ≲ 30 K in a relatively metal-poor environment. When interpreted with respect to models for Galactic chemical evolution, the carbon isotopic composition implies that 3I/ATLAS may have accreted as long ago as 12 billion years, following a period of intense, early star formation. 3I/ATLAS thus represents a preserved fragment of an ancient planetary system.
Citation: Cordiner, M., Roth, N.X., Micheli, M. et al. Isotopic evidence for a cold and distant origin of 3I/ATLAS. Nature (2026).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10771-6
Study-related stories:
Scientific American – “Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS is Almost as Old as the Universe Itself”
CBS News – “Interstellar Comet that Zoomed Past Earth Could Be Oldest and Coldest Object Ever Seen in Solar System, Astronomers Say”
Live Science – “’Interstellar Messenger’ 3I/ATLAS Could Be Nearly as Old as the Universe Itself, James Webb Telescope Observations Reveal”
Our Awesome Universe 