Sunday, May 17, 2026

Bulgaria's Dara won the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna with her song "Bangaranga," scoring 516 points and becoming the first Bulgarian winner in the competition's history.^[1]

NASA's Psyche spacecraft completed a gravity assist flyby of Mars on May 15, passing just 2,800 miles from the planet's surface to gain speed and adjust its trajectory toward the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, with arrival expected in late 2029.^[2]

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope discovered one of the universe's first galaxies, observed as it was 13 billion years ago, containing possible evidence of the universe's earliest stars and representing one of the most chemically primitive galaxies ever found.^[3]

NASA's High Performance Spaceflight Computing processor is undergoing testing, with the palm-sized chip designed to survive deep space while delivering a massive leap in computational speed that could enable autonomous spacecraft for missions to the Moon and Mars.^[4]

Analysis of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS revealed it contains over 30 times more deuterated water than Solar System comets, indicating it formed in an environment far colder than our own solar system at temperatures below -243 degrees Celsius.^[5]

The northern lights will be visible across the northern United States and much of Canada this weekend, with NOAA forecasting enhanced aurora activity on Saturday and Sunday nights following recent solar activity.^[6]

SpaceX launched its CRS-34 Dragon cargo mission on May 15, successfully delivering approximately 6,500 pounds of supplies, hardware, and scientific experiments to the International Space Station.^[7]

NASA missions tracked a record-breaking solar radio burst from August 2025 that lasted 19 days, far exceeding the previous record of five days, with scientists tracing its origin to a helmet streamer in the Sun's atmosphere.^[8]

The Cannes Film Festival 2026 opened with Jane Fonda and Gong Li presenting the ceremony, while New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson received an Honorary Palme d'Or for his contributions to cinema including the Lord of the Rings trilogy.^[9]