Kenji Furuya

In the dark, cold clouds where stars are born, dust grains are covered with an icy crust. Across this crust, like on a winter road, individual atoms wander slowly. Calculations show that it is precisely these wandering oxygen and nitrogen atoms that kick off the assembly of the HNSO molecule — a compound of hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, and oxygen.

Comet 3I/ATLAS was spotted when it entered the Solar System from interstellar space. The James Webb Telescope split the light from its gas cloud into a rainbow, a spectrum, and in this pattern, the lines of rare molecules with deuterium (heavy hydrogen) appeared.

Around young stars, flat clouds of gas and dust swirl, like pizza dough from which planets will eventually be shaped. This cloud contains various chemical elements, and sulfur is one of the most elusive: it's hard to catch with telescopes because it hides in solid grains or escapes as gas.

A supernova is the final explosion of a massive star, scattering its material over light-years. Inside the expanding shell, a neutron star remains, and the shell itself continues to plow through interstellar gas for thousands of years.