Dr. Briony Horgan: “You need so much water that we think these could be evidence of an ancient warmer and wetter climate where there was rain falling for millions of years.”
What was Mars like billions of years ago? This is what a recent study published in Communications Earth & Environment hopes to address as an international team of scientists investigated intriguing evidence from the surface of Mars that could indicate heavy water activity existed long ago. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand ancient conditions on Mars and whether they were favorable for supporting life as we know it.
For the study, the researchers examined aluminum-rich rock fragments that were discovered by NASA’s Perseverance rover within Jezero Crater on Mars, and specifically the processes how they formed. This is because aluminum-rich clay minerals on Earth often form from heavy rainfall or other water-driven activities. Using the rover’s SuperCam and Mastcam-Z instruments, the researchers discovered the fragments—which were composed of aluminum and titanium with depleted traces of iron and magnesium—likely were analogs for heavy rainfall on Earth under greenhouse conditions. Therefore, the researchers concluded they potentially formed under intense wet conditions on Mars.
A rare satellite view captured a major Pacific tsunami in unprecedented detail, revealing wave behaviors scientists did not expect. A satellite designed to track the height of the ocean’s surface proved its capabilities when a powerful earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in late July, s
Rocks that stood out as light-colored dots on the reddish-orange surface of Mars now are the latest evidence that areas of the small planet may have once supported wet oases with humid climates and heavy rainfall comparable to tropical climates on Earth.
The rocks discovered by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover are white, aluminum-rich kaolinite clay, which forms on Earth after rocks and sediment are leached of all other minerals by millions of years of a wet, rainy climate.
These findings were published Monday (Dec. 1) in the journal Communications Earth & Environment by lead author Adrian Broz, a Purdue University postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Briony Horgan, a long-term planner on NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover mission and professor of planetary science in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences in Purdue’s College of Science.
By analyzing the data from the SuperCOSMOS Hα Survey (SHS) and from the Gaia satellite, astronomers have inspected a bipolar planetary nebula designated PHR J1724-3859. Results of the study, published Nov. 19 on the arXiv pre-print server, deliver crucial insights into the properties of this nebula.
Planetary nebulae (PNe) are the final stages of evolution of low-to-intermediate mass stars. They are expanding shells of gas and dust that have been ejected from a star during the process of its evolution from a main sequence star into a red giant or white dwarf. PNe are relatively rare, but important for astronomers studying the chemical evolution of stars and galaxies.
Nearly 4.5 million years ago, two large, hot stars brushed tantalizingly close to Earth’s sun. They left behind a trace in the clouds of gas and dust that swirl just beyond our solar system—almost like the scent of perfume after someone has left the room.
That’s one finding from new research led by Michael Shull, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado Boulder, and published Nov. 24 in The Astrophysical Journal.
The study sheds new light on the details of Earth’s neighborhood in space.
An international team of researchers has unveiled a spacecraft attitude control system that can guarantee precise stabilization and maneuvering within a predefined time, even under extreme and unpredictable space disturbances.
Published in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, the study titled “Predefined-Time Disturbance Observer-Based Attitude Tracking Control for Spacecraft: A Solution for Arbitrary Disturbances” was led by Dr. Nguyen Xuan-Mung of Sejong University (South Korea), alongside colleagues from China and Taiwan.
In a quiet control room in northern Chile, a dozen people held their breath at the same time.
The monitors glowed a cold blue, showing a disc of dust and gas 625 light-years away, circling a young star known as PDS 70. At first glance, it looked like so many other protoplanetary disks astronomers have seen before. But then the data sharpened, the patterns cleared, and something jumped out that nobody had *ever* seen so clearly: a place where moons are being born in real time.
The room didn’t erupt in shouts. It was slower than that. A whispered “no way”, a chair rolling back, someone rubbing their forehead like they’d been staring at the sun too long. On the screen, the “moon factory” came into focus: a ring of material around a newborn planet, turning raw space dust into future worlds. Everyone present knew they were staring at a first in human history.
Mosses thrive in the most extreme environments on Earth, from the peaks of the Himalayas to the sands of Death Valley, the Antarctic tundra to the lava fields of active volcanoes. Inspired by moss’s resilience, researchers sent moss sporophytes—reproductive structures that encase spores—to the most extreme environment yet: space.
Their results, published in the journal iScience on November 20, show that more than 80% of the spores survived nine months outside of the International Space Station (ISS) and made it back to Earth still capable of reproducing, demonstrating for the first time that an early land plant can survive long-term exposure to the elements of space.
“Most living organisms, including humans, cannot survive even briefly in the vacuum of space,” says lead author Tomomichi Fujita of Hokkaido University. “However, the moss spores retained their vitality after nine months of direct exposure. This provides striking evidence that the life that has evolved on Earth possesses, at the cellular level, intrinsic mechanisms to endure the conditions of space.”