Cosmic Visitors, Climate Talks, and Ancient Mysteries

A new comet is making a close approach to Earth, but don't expect any alien visitors. Comet C/2025 V1 (Borisov) is not an interstellar object, despite some wild speculations. It was discovered by Gennadiy Borisov, who also found the second-ever interstellar object and another comet in 2019. The comet is interesting, but it's not an alien spacecraft, according to experts. Meanwhile, our universe is getting cooler. The Euclid and Herschel telescopes have found that star formation has peaked, and galaxies are growing slightly cooler over time. This means our universe is on a long, slow path to becoming totally quenched. Don't worry, though—it won't happen for an unimaginably long time. Comet 3I/ATLAS is still making headlines. It's the third-ever recorded interstellar visitor, and it's over 7 billion years old. Some people think it might be an alien probe, but scientists say that's unlikely. The real mystery is where it came from, and we may never know for sure. COP30 is underway in Brazil, but it's not as glamorous as the Olympics. The conference is focused on finding solutions to climate change, but many world leaders are missing. The goal is to limit global warming to below 1. 5 degrees Celsius, but we're still on track to overshoot that target. In other news, ancient holes in Peru may have been used as accountancy tools in barter markets. They're not as mysterious as they seem, but they're still interesting. And in Egypt, two voids found near the Pyramid of Menkaure could point to a second entrance to the ancient tomb. A powerful earthquake rattled Japan, but there were no reports of injuries or damage. Health officials are investigating cases of infant botulism linked to a recalled baby formula. And Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket launch has been delayed due to poor weather conditions.