Emily Kwong and Regina Barber of NPR's Short Wave talk about a comet visiting from interstellar space, caterpillars that eat and break down plastic, and how animals' sense of smell varies by altitude.

Officially named 3I/ATLAS, the comet was confirmed as having originated outside of Earth's solar system on July 3, according to the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. It is believed to be about 20 kilometers, or over 12 miles wide, according to the ESA and traveling at about 60 kilometers, or 37 miles per second relative to the sun.

The third object known to have entered the Solar System from interstellar space has an origin unlike either of its predecessors.

The comet was identified as interstellar due to its highly eccentric hyperbolic orbit, which is unlike the elliptical orbits of native Solar System objects.

Perplexity AI launched its Comet web browser after Google Chrome rejected the startup's offer to become a default search engine option.