By Will Dunham WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - In the far reaches of our solar system - beyond the outermost planet Neptune - resides a host of icy and desolate celestial bodies. Among these objects, only the dwarf planet Pluto was known to possess an atmosphere - until now.

The Subaru Telescope achieved first light in January 1999 and entered its 27th year of operation in 2026. In March 2025, ʻŌnohiʻula Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) began scientific observations. Development of Ultra-wide Laser Tomographic Imager and MOS with AO for Transcendent Exploration (ULTIMATE-Subaru) is also progressing.

Rubin Observatory finds 11,000 new asteroids in early data, including near-Earth and distant objects, before its main 10-year survey begins.

The interplanetary comet 3I/ATLAS is remarkably rich in a specific type of water that contains deuterium, meaning it came from somewhere colder and with lower levels of radiation than our early solar

Long before 3I/ATLAS slipped through the inner solar system, its water had already recorded the kind of place it came from. That record now looks extreme.

Scientists are grappling with a cosmic mystery: why does the Universe behave differently on massive scales compared to our own solar system? While distant galaxies reveal clear signs of something bending the rules of gravity—often attributed to dark energy or a hidden “fifth force”—everything nearby seems to follow Einstein’s playbook perfectly.