Fifty-six years after Apollo 11's historic moon landing, Pope Leo XIV spoke with astronaut Buzz Aldrin, reflecting on human achievement and creation, and blessed him and his family. Aldrin shared the blessing on social media, expressing gratitude. The Pope also visited the Vatican Observatory on the anniversary day.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab has visualized the scale of supermassive black holes, from the relatively small J1601+3133 to the largest ever discovered, TON 618, which is 66 billion times the mass of the sun. Saturn's innermost rings are slowly fading as they are pulled into the planet's upper atmosphere in the form of "ring rain," and a new project will monitor long-term fluctuations in the rings to provide a more accurate forecast of when they will be completely eroded. NASA electrical engineer Katya Echazarreta became the first Mexican-born person to travel in space. Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Buzz Aldrin, the second man to take a step on the moon, was awarded an honorary promotion to brigadier general.