Space & Physics: Helium-3 could spark a "gold rush" on the moon

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May 14— This week, our top stories include a deep dive into U.S. plans for a crewed moon base, the Pentagon’s release of more declassified UFO documents, a reappraisal of the debate over Pluto’s planetary status and much more. Enjoy! Thoughts? Questions? Let me know via e-mail (lbillings@sciam.com), X or Bluesky. —Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Physical Sciences

Top Stories

The next quantum revolution may require a helium ‘gold rush’ on the moon The rare isotope helium-3 is one of Earth’s most precious commodities—so precious, in fact, that it might prove profitable to mine from the moon Robin George Andrews

See the Pentagon’s new UFO image release The Pentagon has started releasing files related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), also called UFOs. Here are the images released so far Jeanna Bryner

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Inside NASA’s ‘very ambitious’ moon base plan NASA’s moon exploration plans call for nearly 80 launches, nearly 75 landers, 10 moon buggies and one nuclear reactor Dan Vergano

Pluto and the folly of planethood The problem with Pluto isn’t its planetary or nonplanetary status—it’s our insistence on declaring the world must be one or the other Phil Plait

Almost half of the objects in Earth’s orbit are junk—and that’s only the stuff we know about Debris is a growing threat to orbital infrastructure, and it’s only going to get worse as the number of launches increases Adam Kovac

Strange crystals found inside wreckage from the first nuclear bomb test The Trinity bomb test left behind a unique form of matter, and now, scientists have discovered a new chemical structure inside it Clara Moskowitz

See SpaceX Starship V3 megarocket on the launchpad as it gears up for its next test flight This test flight comes at a pivotal moment for Elon Musk’s SpaceX as the company pushes to go public this year and show it’s ready for NASA’s planned 2027 Artemis III mission Adam Kovac

Each atom in the universe might be unique Long-held assumptions tell us that atoms with the same number of protons, neutrons and electrons are indistinguishable, but one physicist wants to put this idea to the test K. R. Callaway

Rubies and opals on Mars? The real treasure in the planet’s gemstones may not be what you think NASA’s Mars rovers have found traces of minerals akin to those that make up precious gems on Earth. But their appearance and abundance on Mars is likely very different, experts say Adam Kovac

A massive neutrino experiment is taking shape in an abandoned gold mine The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment will study nature’s most mysterious particle a mile beneath South Dakota’s Black Hills and will potentially reveal the origins of matter Joseph Howlett

This sulfurous hell world might change the way we classify exoplanets An oddity among exoplanets, L 98-59 d is (so far) in a class all its own, but astronomers expect powerful new telescopes will eventually reveal more like it K. R. Callaway

What We're Reading

A new U.S. military wargame series began by simulating a nuclear weapon in orbit | Ars Technica Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ could cost $1.2 trillion and might not stop all-out missile attack. | BBC News What Causes Lightning? The Answer Keeps Getting More Interesting. | Quanta Magazine

From the Archive

Scientists Race to Map Dangerous Ultrasmall Space Junk An ambitious U.S. government program is working to detect and track millions of tiny space junk pieces—down to the size of a sand grain—throughout low-Earth orbit and beyond Sharmila Kuthunur

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