From humanity's return to lunar orbit after half a century to a newly discovered waste management system hidden inside your brain, today's science news spans the cosmic and the microscopic. We're also tracking a star that's breaking all the rules, earthquake sensors repurposed to detect falling space junk, and a promising treatment that could tackle two of humanity's biggest health challenges simultaneously.

More than five decades after Apollo 17 returned from the Moon, NASA is preparing to send astronauts back to lunar orbit. The upcoming Artemis II mission marks a historic milestone in space exploration, representing humanity's first crewed journey beyond Earth orbit since 1972.

This mission serves as a critical stepping stone for NASA's broader Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon. Unlike the Apollo missions that focused primarily on landing and returning, Artemis II will test systems and procedures necessary for longer-duration lunar operations.

The mission represents more than nostalgia - it's about building infrastructure for deep space exploration. The knowledge gained will inform plans for lunar bases and eventual missions to Mars, transforming the Moon into a proving ground for humanity's next giant leap into the solar system.

While we sleep, our brains are busy taking out the trash - and scientists have just discovered a previously unknown waste removal system that could revolutionize our understanding of neurological diseases. This newly identified "cleanup hub" appears to play a crucial role in clearing cellular debris and metabolic waste from brain tissue.

The discovery sheds new light on how the brain maintains its health and function. Unlike other organs, the brain lacks a traditional lymphatic system for waste removal, making this finding particularly significant. Researchers believe this cleanup mechanism operates alongside the previously discovered glymphatic system, working together to keep neural tissue functioning optimally.

Understanding how this system works could have profound implications for treating neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, where waste buildup is a hallmark feature. If scientists can enhance or restore this cleanup function, it might offer new therapeutic approaches for conditions that have long resisted treatment.

Scientists have uncovered a promising treatment approach that could simultaneously address both diabetes and heart disease - two conditions that frequently occur together and affect millions worldwide. This dual-action therapy could simplify treatment regimens while improving outcomes for patients struggling with both conditions.

The connection makes biological sense: diabetes significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, and many of the metabolic pathways involved in blood sugar regulation also affect heart function. This research identifies therapeutic targets that influence both systems, potentially offering a more efficient approach than treating each condition separately.

For patients, this could mean fewer medications, reduced side effects, and better adherence to treatment plans. The research represents a shift toward addressing interconnected health conditions holistically rather than in isolation, which could become a model for treating other co-occurring diseases.

In an unexpected crossover between seismology and space science, researchers have discovered that earthquake sensors can detect space debris re-entering Earth's atmosphere. This surprising finding opens up new possibilities for tracking the growing problem of orbital debris.

As defunct satellites and rocket stages plunge through the atmosphere, they create acoustic and seismic signatures that ground-based sensors can pick up. These same instruments, designed to monitor earthquakes and volcanic activity, are sensitive enough to capture the vibrations caused by large pieces of space junk burning up overhead.

With Earth's orbit becoming increasingly crowded - containing thousands of defunct satellites and millions of smaller debris pieces - better tracking methods are essential. This technique could complement existing radar and optical systems, providing additional data points to predict where and when space objects will re-enter, potentially improving public safety warnings for uncontrolled re-entries.

"Stars like the Sun don't just stop shining," astronomers thought - until they observed one doing exactly that. A Sun-like star has mysteriously gone dark in a way that challenges our understanding of stellar evolution and behavior.

The star's unexpected dimming defies conventional models of how middle-aged stars behave. Unlike variable stars that naturally fluctuate in brightness or stars nearing the end of their lives, this object seemed stable before its dramatic change. Astronomers are investigating whether the phenomenon results from an unprecedented stellar event or an enormous obscuring object blocking the star's light.

This discovery forces scientists to reconsider what we know about stellar physics and potentially introduces new categories of stellar behavior. Understanding why this star went dark could reveal hidden complexities in how stars evolve - knowledge that ultimately helps us predict the long-term fate of our own Sun.

Speaking of stellar endings, the James Webb Space Telescope has captured unprecedented details of what happens when Sun-like stars reach the end of their lives. These new observations provide our clearest view yet of the processes that will eventually transform our own star billions of years from now.

Webb's infrared capabilities allow it to peer through the clouds of gas and dust expelled by dying stars, revealing structures and chemical compositions invisible to previous telescopes. These observations show how stars shed their outer layers in their final phase, creating the beautiful planetary nebulae that mark stellar death.

Beyond their aesthetic beauty, these observations help astronomers understand the chemical enrichment of galaxies. When Sun-like stars die, they return processed elements to space - carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen that become building blocks for new stars, planets, and potentially life itself. We're literally made from the remnants of ancient stars that died in this exact way.

From the return of humans to lunar orbit to the discovery of hidden systems in our brains, science continues to expand our understanding in every direction. Each discovery builds on the last, creating a more complete picture of the universe and our place within it - one breakthrough at a time.