The Artemis II astronauts are returning to life on Earth, but we’re not yet tired of hearing about their incredible journey. There’s a new PBS documentary streaming on YouTube which delves into the Artemis program and the latest efforts to send humans to the Moon again. Also this week, NASA shared stunning images of a comet flying toward the sun, the nonprofit American Rivers released its annual report on America’s Most Endangered Rivers, and the ESA released an image of Mars to highlight some interesting changes on the surface. Here are the science stories that caught our attention this week.
A comet brushes too close to the sun
Earlier this month, a newly discovered comet came close to the sun, but it couldn’t handle the heat. NASA shared incredible images of the encounter that took place on April 4, showing the comet exploding into dust as it orbits our star. As NASA notes in a social media post, this was “its first and last observed flyby of the Sun.”
Comet C/2026 A1 (also known as MAPS) was first spotted on January 13 of this year. As it approached the sun, it was observed by a multitude of instruments: NASA and ESA’s SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) spacecraft, NASA’s STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) and NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter for Unifying the Corona and Heliosphere). This made it possible to see his passage from several angles. Seen in a narrow-field coronagraphic view captured by SOHO, the comet appears to plunge directly into the sun. But NASA’s STEREO’s wide view shows it swinging tightly around the sun before breaking apart.
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This close-up coronagraph view taken by the NASA/ESA SOHO spacecraft shows comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) approaching the Sun on April 4.
After the comet passes behind the disk, only a cloud of dust emerges. pic.twitter.com/PbkzqPnZ5F
– NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) April 16, 2026
MAPS was part of a family of comets aptly called Kreutz grazing comets, and according to SOHO coronagraph principal investigator Karl Battams, its destruction likely occurred several hours before what would have been its closest approach.
Potomac named most endangered river in United States
The non-profit conservation organization American rivers has released its 2026 report on the nation’s most endangered rivers, and data centers play a major role in its top pick status. According to American Rivers, the Potomac River is most endangered in the United States due to both the threat of wastewater pollution from aging pipe systems and the “unprecedented boom in data center development” in its vicinity.
The Potomac River basin spans parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, DC. In January, the catastrophic failure of the Potomac Interceptor sewage pipeline in Montgomery County, Maryland, released hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the Potomac River and the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal, causing bacteria levels reaching more than 4,000 times the recreational safety limit at sites closest to the incident, according to the report. The Potomac interceptor is more than 60 years old and is just one of several aircraft in the region whose service life has reached or exceeded the 50-year service life, American Rivers notes.
Additionally, data center development in places like Virginia and Maryland has exploded, which could strain local businesses. water and energy sources. Data centers are also likely to further pollute the river.
“The region currently has more than 300 data centers and is on track to have a total of about 1,000 occupying approximately 200 million square feet of buildings – enough to cover 3,472 football fields – over an estimated 20,000 acres,” the report explains. “These facilities represent a significant and growing threat to both water quality and quantity, and yet they are approved without meaningful transparency, regulatory review, and assessment of cumulative impacts.”
The organization is calling on Congress to reauthorize infrastructure funding bills so that aging systems can be upgraded, and for regulators in those states to require transparency on the use of data center resources, as well as comprehensive environmental assessments before development plans are approved.
Ashes of Mars: yesterday and today
The European Space Agency this week shared a glimpse of how a region of Mars has changed since it was observed by NASA’s Viking orbiters in 1976. New images captured by ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft show how dark volcanic ash has encroached on a swath of land in an area known as the Utopia Planitia Basin. If you visit the blog postyou’ll find a side-by-side comparison of images from both periods.
This is a rare example of an observable change on the surface of the Red Planet occurring over such a short period, notes the ESA. The agency explains: “The spread of the ash over the past 50 years has two possible explanations: either it was picked up and moved by Martian winds, or the ocher dust that previously covered the dark ash was blown away by the wind.”
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This article was originally published on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/a-comet-gets-destroyed-by-the-sun-data-centers-endanger-the-potomac-river-and-more-science-news-160000714.html?src=rss
