Earth caught a tiny space rock in April, and it's riding along with us through the holidays. But for weeks astronomers weren't sure it was a rock at all. It might have been old rocket junk. Here's how sunlight cracked the case, and why it's not really a second moon.

A 1960 paper in the journal Science put today's date in its title: Doomsday, Friday, 13 November, A.D. 2026. The paper is real. The prophecy isn't. Here's what the math actually said, why the date was the author's birthday, and why we're all still here.

For seven years a giant planet 1,000 light-years away crossed its star on a wobbly schedule. Then in 2026 it stopped showing up. It didn't vanish: an unseen, tilted neighbor is rocking its orbit out of our view. It should be back in 30 to 50 years.