On 23 February 1987, a star exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud, about 168,000 light-years away. A few hours before its light was spotted, underground detectors caught a burst of roughly 25 neutrinos. These particles escape the star's core the moment it collapses, while light needs hours to fight through the outer layers. It was the first time neutrinos from beyond the Solar System had ever been detected.
A large share of Earth's water molecules formed in the interstellar cloud that existed before the Sun was even born, more than 4.6 billion years ago. You are literally drinking a cosmic fossil.
By day, the Martian sky looks butterscotch because of fine dust hanging in the air. But at dusk, those same grains scatter blue light forward, creating a bluish glow around the Sun. Rovers have photographed these blue sunsets: the exact reverse of what we see on Earth.