A comet gets destroyed by the sun, data centers endanger the Potomac River, and more science news
Source: Engadget
A comet grazes too close to the Sun
Earlier this month, a recently discovered comet made a close approach to the Sun—only to be destroyed by the intense heat. NASA released incredible images of the encounter on April 4, showing the comet exploding into dust as it swung around our star. As NASA noted in a social‑media post, it was “its first and last observed flyby of the Sun.”
- Comet designation: C/2026 A1 (also known as MAPS)
- Discovery date: 13 January 2026
- Instruments that observed the event:
- NASA and ESA’s SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory)
- NASA’s STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory)
- NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere)
The narrow‑field coronagraph view from SOHO shows the comet plunging directly into the Sun, while the wide‑angle view from STEREO reveals it swinging closely around the Sun before breaking apart.
“This close‑up coronagraph view from NASA/ESA’s 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.” – @NASASolarSystem, 16 April 2026
MAPS belongs to the Kreutz sungrazing family of comets. According to Karl Battams, principal investigator for SOHO’s coronagraph, the comet’s destruction likely occurred several hours before its closest approach.
Potomac named most endangered river in the US
The nonprofit conservation organization American Rivers released its 2026 report on the most endangered rivers in the United States. The Potomac River topped the list, threatened by both aging sewage infrastructure and a rapid surge in data‑center development along its basin.
- Geographic scope: The Potomac River basin covers parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, DC.
- Recent incident: In January, the catastrophic failure of the Potomac Interceptor wastewater pipe in Montgomery County, Maryland released hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the river and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. Bacteria levels spiked to over 4,000 × the safe recreational limit at nearby sites.
- Infrastructure age: The Potomac Interceptor is over 60 years old; many pipes in the region are at or beyond a 50‑year service life.
Data‑center pressure
Data‑center construction in Virginia and Maryland has exploded:
“The region currently has over 300 data centers and is on track to have about 1,000 centers occupying roughly 200 million sq ft of buildings—enough to cover 3,472 football fields—on an estimated 20,000 acres of land.” – American Rivers report
These facilities pose a growing threat to both water quality (through potential pollution) and water quantity (by demanding large cooling supplies). The report calls on Congress to reauthorize infrastructure‑funding bills for pipe upgrades and urges state regulators to require transparency and comprehensive environmental assessments before approving new data‑center projects.
Mars ash: then vs. now
The European Space Agency (ESA) shared a comparison of a region on Mars that has changed noticeably since it was first imaged by NASA’s Viking orbiters in 1976. New images from ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft show dark volcanic ash spreading across the Utopia Planitia basin.
- Observation: Dark ash has encroached upon a swath of land that was previously covered by lighter ochre dust.
- Possible explanations (ESA):
- Martian winds have lifted and redistributed the ash.
- The lighter dust that once covered the ash has been blown away, exposing the darker material.
This side‑by‑side comparison provides a rare example of observable surface change on the Red Planet over a relatively short timescale (≈ 50 years).
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